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Category Archives: Buddhism
The Impossibility of Universalism
Reverend Karen G. Johnston The Unitarian Society East Brunswick, NJ September 27, 2020 While Buddhism asserts that we all have Buddhanature – that at our core can be found a golden goodness – the roots of Unitarianism or Universalism does … Continue reading
Growing Equanimity: Via Rumi’s Guest House (sermon)
Do you know that old, and perhaps tired, and perhaps true, cartoon about Unitarian Universalists? There are two doors. Each has a sign over it. The first door says, “Heaven.” No one is going through that door. The second door … Continue reading
Befriending Death: An Excursion (sermon)
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ Our reading can be found here. Dylan Thomas’ most famous lines are these: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against … Continue reading
In the Thrall of Fallen Angels: Implicit Bias and A Hard Path Through (sermon)
The Unitarian Society East Brunswick NJ December 4, 2016 I am a story. So are you. So is everyone. So say the opening words from our Time For All Ages story this morning. I am, in fact, like you … Continue reading
Prayer for the 15th Anniversary of September 11
Our human story began long before this Shattering of glass, metal, and human lives known by its date: September 11, 2001. We do a deep disservice to those lost and those forever transformed by what they took into their bodies … Continue reading
Weeping & Walking & Welcoming My Inner Turtle
At dusk, an unscheduled detour and stop at the Peace Pagoda in Leverett, a place of calm for a very long time in my life. It is up a steep trail in a clearing in the woods on a hillside. … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, grief, Spiritual Practice
Tagged embodied spirituality, go slowly, gratitude, grief, inner turtle, Peace Pagoda, spiritual practice, surrender
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The Hope Question (Part I)
In the room full of mental health practitioners getting a classical primer on mindfulness and Buddhism from Andrew Olendzki, the final question of the day was what I call Given that my livelihood is ministry, I encounter this question from … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Hope, Justice
Tagged #BlackLivesMatter, Andrew Olendzki, bodhisattva, compassion, hope
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Missing Mudita: On Collegiality and Sympathetic Joy
I was looking for the missing brahmavihara. Walking around the beautiful grounds of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, where I was spending three days in a self-directed silent retreat, I happened upon the many outdoor benches offered. … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism
Tagged brahmavihara, Buddhism, CGUUS, collegiality, covenant, mudita, no separation, sympathetic joy
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On Keeping (Ig)Noble Silence
At the meditation center – the Mothership I like to call it – Noble Silence is observed, even if one goes on Self Retreat, which is what I just did for three days: time on my own at the center … Continue reading
Posted in Buddhism, Poems
Tagged Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, noble silence, Rilke, Wendell Berry
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Tonglen: Enough. For Now.
I met Doris* as she lay in a bed on the pulmonary unit to which I had been assigned as a hospital chaplain intern. At the moment when we met, she her breathing was “good enough” – not well enough … Continue reading