Part 1:
As a young adult I had terrible anxiety and stomach pains.
My doctor, knowing my driven nature,
prescribed something unusual: take a day off, go to the beach,
and learn to meditate."
I don’t want to jinx it, but with those three prescriptions,
which I continue to renew,
I have not had stomach problems since.
I have had a meditation practice for over 40 years now.
I have studied in the Buddhist traditions of Vipassana, Soto Zen, and most recently in the Plum Village Tradition of Mindfulness
of the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
I want to be clear that Mediation is a tool towards enlightenment, and is found in many religions in different ways.
I will be discussing in more detail the Buddhist Scriptures
in my upcoming Adult Religious Education Class.
The Buddhist tradition comes from the teachings of the Buddha.
The Buddha began as Prince Siddhartha in 6th century BCE India.
Sheltered from suffering,
he eventually ventured out and witnessed human pain.
This launched his spiritual journey.
He tried extreme asceticism,
but realized deprivation wasn't the answer.
Legend tells us that he saw a group of musicians playing lutes
and Siddhartha realized that when the strings of the instruments
are loose, its sound doesn’t carry.
When the strings are too tight, they break.
But when the strings are neither too loose nor too tight,
the music is beautiful.
He realized he could not find his way if his life was too luxurious (such as living in the palace)
or if his body was too weak thru denial.
It is why his Wisdom is often called “the Middle Way”
which is similar to another philosopher
who lived a couple of hundred years after Buddha Aristotle
and his “Golden means”, the mean between the Extremes. (PPT)
Not a compromise between the two extremes,
but a wiser course that holds what is necessary from each
based on the conditions that lead to the best outcome.
So Siddhartha vowed to sit in meditation
until he found the answers he sought.
And when he found the answers
he spent the rest of his life teaching it to others.
Those teachings were passed on through the oral tradition
and were first written down some three to four hundred years
after the Buddhas’s death.
Buddha means awakened one
Buddhism’s start was as a reform of
or departure of the Hindu religion depending on who you speak to.
As the teachings spread from India across Asia,
they were translated, interpreted, and adapted
by each culture that received them.
Over the last century or so it has expanded
to mix with Western Culture.
There actually is an over-abundance of Buddhist Writings.
There is no one canon of writings
as we see in Western Religious Traditions.
It has been said that Christians love God
but Buddhists love lists.
Probably one reason I am attracted to Buddhism.
Among the Buddhist Teachings are the following lists
The four noble truths,
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Three Dharma Seals,
The Three Doors of Liberation,
The three Jewels,
The Four Immeasurable minds
The Five Fears
The five Aggregates
The six Paramitas
The Seven factors of Awakening
The Twelve Links of Awareness
The Five Mindfulness Trainings and the
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings.
And as we heard earlier, the four Bodhisattva vows
Many of the writings are also included in what are called Sutras, which most often we see translated as scriptures
but a more accurate translation is thread,
such as in a thread that runs through everything,
Today Paul shared with you one of the shorter
but well beloved Sutras the Heart Sutra
that for me encompass many Buddhist ideas and teachings.
The one Paul read is a more modern translation.
In this translation,
they used the word boundlessness
replacing the word emptiness
which is found in most older translations.
So what is meant by emptiness/boundlessness.
The Korean Zen missionary master Seung Sahn
tries to explain what it means by way of an example.
“(H)ere is a wooden chair. It is brown. It is solid and heavy.
It looks like it could last a long time. You sit in the chair,
and it holds up your weight. You can place things on it.
But then you light the chair on fire and leave.
When you come back later, the chair is no longer there!
This thing that seemed so solid and strong and real
is now just a pile of cinder and ash, which the wind blows around. This example shows how the chair is empty:
it is not a permanent, abiding thing. It is always changing.
It has no independent existence.
(perhaps a discussion of what goes into making the chair)
Over a long or short time, the chair will eventually change
and become something other than what it once was
and what it appears to be now.
So this brown chair is complete emptiness or as I prefer boundless.
But though it always has the quality of emptiness,
this emptiness is form:
you can sit in the chair, and it will still hold you up.”
Boundlessness is not limited by form by feelings, perceptions inclinations or discernment.
And although we are not chairs, we too are impermanent.
This is a large part of the Buddhas teaching.
Everything is impermanent.
We become attached to people, things, and ideas,
imagining them as permanent.
Our suffering is caused by our craving,
our yearning for an outcome that may or may not happen
and a permanency that does not exist.
We all die in the end.
Perceiving this aspect of reality
therefore shows us it matters how we live.
The Buddha teaches us to live in the present moment.
The Zen Master Dogen said
“each breath we take is a great miracle”.
The risk of this attitude is one can fall into a sort of nihilism,
that is if nothing is permanent, we can do anything.
But if we can accept that all of us are in it together,
that we are not in some way any more special than the next person, and that we are of this world in the here and now,
I see that as calling us to a place of radical interdependence.
Think of all the things that went into making of the chair.
It could not have happened without the radical interdependence
of the all the multiple circumstances and actions
over the course of time to create it.
Our society sees singularism as exclusionary.
Most religions say there is only one way.
Unitarian Universalism says there are many ways
and that is the one way.
The Buddhist View of the world is also that of a unified whole transcending all individualistic phenomena.
So within a Unified whole, there is a pluralism.
It’s a little mind bending.
The Heart Sutra tells us we can be free of many things,
of anguish, confusion, and sufferring among others.
Roshi Kazuaki Tanahashi in his study of the Sutra says
“The word Freedom often suggests
that we can do anything we want
including being unethical and destructive.
But there is also another kind of freedom,
one that may prove to be more truly free.
If we fully follow rules and ethics,
we no longer need to think or worry about them.
Thus, we are completely free from rules and ethics.”
Similarly, in our Congregation,
we have certain policies, procedures and covenants.
If we fully follow those policies,
we no longer have to worry about them,
and that allows us to be even more creative
without it leading to chaos.
Freedom is not possible in chaos.
Freedom can be possible if we cultivate an intentional community that is grounded in acceptance, generosity and plurality.
Let us be boundless, and see where our freedom can lead us.
In the spirit of impermanence and boundlessness
even of money, we now take this mornings offering.
Part 2:
Now I want to explore what all this means for how we live—
for the commitments we make and the courage we need.
In Buddhism after someone reaches pure enlightenment
they experience Nirvana.
To be clear the word Nirvana means extinguishment.
That is the goal of enlightenment – for your soul upon death to be extinguished and returned to the cosmic universe.
A Bodhisattva is someone who attains the wisdom of Buddha, enlightenment but instead of experiencing Nirvana,
chooses to remain in human form
to help others discover their Buddha Nature.
When I attend a particular Zen Monastery
we would chant every night at the end of the sitting meditation
the chant I did earlier.
The first time, it took me a couple of days
to fully understand the words they were chanting.
Sometimes I find just the act of chanting
can help take me out of my head and into my heart.
Creations are numberless I vow to free them.
There is so much opportunity in our lives and in the world
for the creation of beauty and wonder.
But we have to be intentional
about awakening that within ourselves and others.
What is it that opens up the doorway to a full life for us?
What blocks our path to creation and freedom?
Perhaps, if we look closely,
we'll see that our deterrents are the path.
We often want to eliminate our obstacles,
but they're part of our nature—
they're what we have to work with,
the mirror we reflect into
Like the changing of the seasons — even here in Florida,
where I actually had to pull out winter clothes this last month.
Each of our lives has seasons through which
we have to or are forced to change and grow
and by recognizing it for what it is and embracing it,
is how we can build character.
Such a culling and re-creation
is how we can learn to perceive reality.
It is from the edges that we awake, not by playing it safe.
I have often chosen a life that takes me to the edge —
because I wanted to awaken.
Because I wanted to learn what my boundaries were.
To awake from and transform the delusions of life
that tell us things are more important than people,
I want to awake and transform the delusion
that tells us any individual’s chaotic freedom is more important than people’s freedom to live without being shot.
I want to awake and transform the delusion
that creates an image of self and self centeredness
over compassion for others
and a sense of interdependence with all that is.
And it is in religious community
that we come to learn how to develop and embody
a deep and compassionate heart for others.
And that is what the Heart Sutra means to me
when it says wisdom beyond wisdom.
That there is a certain knowing
within the depth of our souls of what reality is.
We need to be able to see beyond all cultural norms
and societal expectations of just our self as Individuals.
I found it interesting in my studies to learn that in some languages the word for mind and heart are the same.
Imagine if our thoughts were led by our heart,
what kind of world we could create.
Thicht Nhat Hanh in his famous poem Call me by true names, echoes this concept of transcending false dualities we create
based on our limited perceptions.
The poem indicates that
if we were in the other persons circumstances
we would do the same as them.
The Buddha encourages us to transcend mere perception
and see reality for what it is.
The key to that is in the first line of the Sutra
The beginning of the Sutra speaks of Avalokiteshvara
who helps all to awaken
moves in the deep course of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom.
Avalokiteshvara and similarly Quan An are Bodhisattvas
that are equated with loving kindness and compassion.
In Buddhism we are called on to create Bodichitta –
An awakened heart which leads us to an inner awareness
of compassion and interdependence.
It is a desire to have our lives be about ending suffering
for ourselves and others
Wisdom beyond Wisdom
is the realization of our innate desire for compassion.
Neuroscience shows that compassion improves our heath.
Studies have shown that people who volunteer to care for others
live longer lives.
(so please remember that when we ask for volunteers for the Congregation )
But it takes intention and it takes practice to cultivate Bodhichitta.
Western Buddhist Teacher Jack Kornfield says
“True practice is a revolutionary activity
and you cant do it in a comfortable way –
you have to challenge the identity of your life.”
We have to have the courage to remain open
to meet the truth of our experiences
and to face our fears.
One of those Buddhist lists were the five fears –
Fear of losing our life/illness
Fear of Losing our mind/dementia
Fear of Losing our livelihood
Fear of Losing our reputation and
Fear of speaking before a public assembly
We may not be able or should not eliminate our fear,
but let us recognize it for what it is.
Again we should recognize the middle way
Too little fear can be dangerous to us and leave us unprepared
Too much fear can prevent us from acting on
what we know we need to do.
The key is not to allow fear consume us.
Let us recognize that fear is not the only emotion within us.
Our journey to freedom requires us to have a warrior like courage,
to be present for fear without allowing it to stop our compassion.
Let us find that middle way between fear and courage.
And so, when the road grows hard and the way ahead is unclear, we return to the path of awakening
Gate, Gate, ParaGate, Prasamgate bodhi svhaha
Arriving, Arriving, Arriving all the way,
arriving all the way together with awakening Joy.
May it be so
