Buddhist Voices in Unitarian Universalism

by Wayne Arnason (editor), Sam Trumbore (Editor)

"When two distinctive and rich spiritual traditions become intimately interwoven, the unfolding dance deserves documentation. Buddhist Voices in Unitarian Universalism offers us an engaging mix of history, personal stories, reflections, and wisdom teachings. In reading this book, we can sense our evolutionary potential to embrace the sacred in its myriad creative expressions."
-Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

"Anyone interested in awakening the inner mind, opening the heart, and co-creating a better world today will be delighted to hear the unified voices in these pages. This highly positive, diverse, and thoughtfully interwoven collection of essays can help us to empower and embrace others and lift them up in their own eyes. It also provides original research and anecdotes about the very first historical intimations of East-West spirituality, as well as the earliest initiatives of Buddhists in America almost two hundred years ago.

I deeply appreciate lineage, traditional erudition, and vital, life-saving debate and discussion. They are the purling streams of any tradition's lifeblood. We find them here in these articles from Buddha-like meditating ministers, as well as an abundance of provocative ideas."
--from the Foreword by Lama Surya Das

"This book is more than a celebration of the diversity of Buddhism within Unitarian Universalism. It celebrates diverse and conflicting views of the roles that Buddhist practices can and should play in congregational life and worship. If you are thinking about where we might go, read this book."
--Robert Ertman, Editor, UU Sangha

Both the seven Principles and the six Sources of Unitarian Universalism affirm and encourage Unitarian Universalists in exploring world faith traditions while maintaining their UU identity. This book brings together for the first time the voices of UUs who have become Buddhists while not sacrificing that identity, and Buddhists who have found in Unitarian Universalism a spiritual home where they can sustain a practice and join in an activist religious community that accepts and encourages who they are. Also included is an exploration of how American Buddhism has been influenced by Unitarian Universalism and how UU congregations are being changed by Buddhist practice.

Table Of Contents:

Foreword by Lama Surya Das
Introduction

History and Context
Buddhism 101, Sam Trumbore
A Brief History of Unitarian Universalist Buddhism, Jeff Wilson
A Brief History of the UU Buddhist Fellowship, Wayne Arnason and Sam Trumbore

Encounters and Journeys
Standing on the Side of Metta, Meg Riley
"You're a UU Tibetan Buddhist?", Judith E. Wright
Fully Alive, Catherine Senghas
Zen and a Stitch of Awareness, Marni Harmony
Do Good, Good Comes, Ren Brumfield
Taming the Elephants in the Room, Alex Holt
Zen to UU and Back Again, David Dae An Rynick
Longing to Belong, Joyce Reeves

Reflections
Loving-Kindness, Kim K. Crawford Harvie
Four Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Wayne Arnason
From Deficit to Abundance, Sam Trumbore
Thriving In Difficult Times, Doug Kraft
The Knowledge Road to Nowhere, Meredith Garmon

Divergence and Influence
UU Buddhism Is Foreign to Me, Kat Liu
Diversity Within Buddhism, Jeff Wilson
An Egoless Dance for Our Congregational Life, Thandeka
Confessions of a Zen Teacher and UU Minister, James Ishmael Ford

Afterword
For Further Reading
Glossary

Genres: Religion, Buddhism, Spirituality

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2013

Reviews

[Stef Garvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of personal accounts on the long relationship between Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism. By reading the varied accounts, I found myself appreciating both practices more.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My stepson Andrew received a copy of this as a gift when he completed the Coming of Age program at our local UU church; I wanted to read it because I saw that one of the contributors was my former reverend from my time at First Unitarian in Providence, Reverend (and Zen Buddhist) James Ishmael Ford. Well, Reverend Ford only contributed one small article to this particular volume, but I enjoyed it very much regardless. It is more of a history of UU engagement with Buddhism (and, to a lesser extend, Buddhism's engagement with Unitarian Universalism). Interesting, if you're into that sort of thing (and I am!).

[Jylana Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been positively influenced by Buddhism and who is weighing membership in a Unitarian Universalist (UU) fellowship, the book was helpful and interesting. The book starts off on its left foot with a plodding section on UU's intertwining roots in American Buddhism over the past century. It was an interesting story but told in such colorless detail that it read like the tax code. The rest of the book was good. The writing was much better. So many different points of view are expressed that the reader is bound to like some essays better than others but each essay made me think. I learned a lot.