The Web of Life

Rev. Rali Weaver

First Church and Parish in Dedham

May 3, 2009

This week Buddhists around the world from Pakistan to Cambodia celebrate Vesak which is often referred to as Buddha’s birthday. Vesak is the annual celebration of the birth, enlightenment, Nirvana, and death of Siddartha Gautama Buddha (Siddhattha Gotama Buddha).

Although Buddhists worldwide have practiced festivals of this kind for centuries, the decision to agree to celebrate Vesak as the Buddha’s birthday by the many different Buddhist sects was first formalized at the founding Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists held in Sri Lanka in 1950.

On Vesak day, devout Buddhists assemble in their various temples before dawn for ceremonies, singing hymns in praise of the triple gem: The Buddha, The Dharma (his teachings), and The Sangha (his disciples). Symbolic offerings of flowers, candles and joss-sticks (or incense) are placed at the feet of the teacher to remind followers that just as flowers wither away and the candles and joss-sticks burn out, so too is life subject to decay and destruction.

According to the legend the Buddha himself instructed on how to pay him homage to him after his death. Just before he died, he saw one of his most faithful followers crying. The Buddha advised him not to weep, but to understand the universal truth that all things (including even his own body) must disintegrate and pass away. He encouraged his follower not to cry over the disintegration of the physical body but to consider the Dharma to be his teacher from then on, because only the Dharma truth is eternal and not subject to the law of change. He also stressed that the way to pay homage to him was not merely by offering flowers, incense, and candles to mark impermanence but to truly and sincerely strive to understand the way that impermanence librates us to live more fully. The Buddha instructed his adherents to use the opportunity to re-commit to the effort to lead noble lives, to develop their minds, to practice loving-kindness and to bring peace and harmony to all of humanity.

The central teaching of Buddhism focuses on the Four Nobel Truths and the eightfold path which represemt the basic concept of suffering and cessation of suffering as taught by the Buddha.

Simply put the first Noble Truth focuses on the basic fact that all life is suffering reminding us that all of life is impermanent. The second Nobel Truth reminds us that suffering is caused by desire such as the desire to live or to want more than what we have. The third Noble Truth points to the fact that detachment from desire can eliminate suffering and Fourth that following the eight fold path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration will liberate us from suffering.

As westerners I believe that often our understanding of Buddhist thought ends there. We tend to make sense of these Buddhist spiritual ideals in an intellectual way.

In honor of Buddha’s birthday I think it would behoove us as Unitarian Universalists to deepen our understanding of the Buddha’s view and strive to make sense not in an intellectual way but in spiritual way that impermanence librates us to live life more fully.

What might it mean to truly make sense of this first noble truth? How might we live our lives if we could accept our impermanence? To know in our bones that nothing lasts?

The common Buddhist Parable of the mustard seed points to the liberation that comes in understanding that all life suffers and is suffering. The story begins:

A young boy fell off a cliff to his death his mother was grief stricken with the death of her beloved son. Distraught, she came to the Buddha begging him to restore life to her precious boy. The Buddha agreed to help her only if she could bring him a mustard seed from a home that had never suffered death and grief. The mother searched franticly, going from door to door, but every door she knocked on the family had suffered some loss. Before she knew it everywhere she went she found herself helping in her small way to alleviate some suffering. At one house she sat with the grandmother and read to her because she had lost her eyesight. In another home she helped to bathe an old man who had lost his legs in the war in still another she cared for the children for a single mother who had no family to help. No matter how hard she tried she was never able to find a home free from suffering. Slowly, she came to realize that her loss was not special or unique. All souls suffer. When the Buddha returned he found her at the well washing clothes that were not her own. He asked if she had found a mustard seed and her reply was “I have been too busy”. Her grief was healed when she found compassion for others through her own grief.

Compassion is considered one of the divine abodes. The places our spirits can go to be liberated from suffering. When the woman in the story shifted her focus from her own suffering to the suffering of those around her she was free.

From the Buddhist Perspective not simply recognizing but embodying our own connection to all other beings is an essential part of liberating ourselves from our own suffering.

As we make sense of our own life and our own times, it is clear that our attachments are a source of suffering. It could be the attachment to the way things are or were. Or the attachment to the way we wish things would be.

For example last week I was forwarded several emails that were sent to various parishioners all of which recounted some bit of gossip overheard at a meeting- that our church is a dying church.

My first reaction to this news was pain. “Why did I need to hear this? “

My second response was defensiveness: “We are not a dying church we are a growing church!”

But as I have reflected this week through the teachings of the Dharma I have begun to realize that it is my own attachment to the way I want things to be that causes me pain and the liberation from that pain comes in recognizing even our impermanence as a church.

When I detach from my expectations and hopes for our community I can recognize that over the last 370 years this church as seen an ebb and flow to both its finances and its membership. In taking the long view I can feel the connection to our ancestors who also strove to care for these buildings, to balance the budget and to welcome new members. When I open my eyes to the truth of the situation I realize that the ebb and flow of the life of this church has been a part of its story since it’s founding. This church has survived war, it has survived drought, it has survived ministers who were in conflict with the parish, it has survived the loss of dear members, and the Great Depression. There has been an ebb and flow to the membership of this church since its founding. Many deaths and many rebirths and still this church is here. When I recognize the impermanence in all things I realize there is no need to worry, the ebb and flow of tides is natural and so is the ebb and flow of this membership and of our finances.

Have you ever pondered how miraculous it is that you gather here Sunday morning to worship together? It really is a miraculous thing, not one of us but all of us together leave our restful beds and Sunday relaxation and come and worship together. No matter what our differences we have this place in common and this church community we care for.

Looking at this through the lens of the life of the Buddha we know that it is our common plight that makes us one. It is not any one of us that cares for our spiritual community or our grounds alone, but all of us working and striving together that makes us a living breathing community.

From a Buddhist standpoint what is required of each of us is that we embody our own connection to all other beings. What I offer as one member of this church is but a fraction of what the whole body of the church is and yet still I must do my part if I want everyone else to do their part.

As you know our stewardship campaign is coming up a bit short. And today we may have to think creatively about how to make ends meet in the coming year. This economy has been difficult for many. But what I realized in writing this sermon is not that I need to go to each of you and ask why you aren’t pledging more but instead embody my own connection to all of you when I fill out my own pledge card.

What I can afford as the your minister isn’t much and I can only contribute what I can afford. But I take seriously my responsibility to this institution and I contribute what I can.

Embarrassingly I realized as I was writing this sermon that I had not yet made my FY 10 pledge.

I am thinking this would be a good opportunity to embody my commitment to this parish.

And I have my pledge card right here.

And I am going to fill it out.

Now while I am filling this out, I want you to know that as much as I love the Children of this Parish I am not pledging to support the Church School. And Choir I love you, I think you are the greatest, but you know what, I am not pledging my financial support to you either.

I am not writing a very big amount on this card, but I am not pledging any less because I am concerned about what someone else is or isn’t giving.

I am writing what I can afford to give no more and no less.

I am filling out this pledge card to support the institution of First Church and Parish, this place that is my sanctuary and my home.

As a member of this Parish I pledge because I take seriously my connection to the whole body that is our Church. Not one part but all of the parts together.

As we meet for a budget hearing today to discuss the finances of our community I hope we will look upon our economic times with a Buddhist eye. From the Buddhist perspective all that is required is that each of us takes responsibility for our own small part and hold on to the truth of our interconnectedness. Not one of us is in this alone but it is all of us together. It is in letting our expectations die and seeing outside our own individual needs and embracing all beings as our kin that we will awaken the compassion necessary to approach all of the challenges of our time with generosity and love.

May it be so.