[Buddha-l] Vague Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Tuesday 15 August 2006 19:06, Bernie Simon wrote:
 
> "Suffice it to say that Buddhism is a major source for contemporary UU
> sermons, meditation manuals, and adult RE activities.

I have been attending Unitarian-Universalist churches off and on for more than 
forty years. The first Unitarian church I attended had a cordial relationship 
with the local BCA affiliate and with a reform synagogue. My reading of the 
situation was that this alliance consisted of three non-Christian outfits 
trying to look as much as possible like Christians so as not to draw too much 
attention to themselves in a conservative Christian cultural milieu.

The three ministers at the Unitarian Church that ma femme et moi now attend 
all draw heavily on Buddhism for their sermons, and the church has a regular 
Buddhist reading group and holds regular meditation retreats based on 
vipassana and metta-bhavana. Although I haven't done a scientific count, my 
impression is that in sermons at our church one hears more about the Buddha 
than anyone else, with various Jewish teachers and native American elders 
coming in a close second. About once every two or three months one hears a 
passing reference to a dissident Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth.

Just between you and me, I suspect that the most important ideas, attitudes 
and practices of Buddhism are much more likely to become part of American 
culture through the borrowings of Unitarians and Quakers than through any 
Asian-based Buddhist institutions.

Some have used the designation Buddhism Lite to refer to the phenomenon of 
Buddhist practice without the encumbrances of Buddhist dogma (rebirth, 
nirvana, enlightenment and all that sort of thing). I think the term Buddhism 
Lite is meant to be disparaging, but I think it works well as a descriptive 
term for a pretty interesting and sometimes even exciting synthesis of the 
best of two enlightenment traditions---the bodhi tradition of India and the 
European Enlightenment. Both of those enlightenment traditions have their 
flaws, but taken together I think each compensates for the excesses and 
insufficiencies of the other.

> The blind fool,
 
I have a lot of respect for fools, having been one myself for more than sixty 
years, but there's no damn excuse for being blind.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes
http://home.comcast.net/~dayamati