I changed the title of this sermon from ‘Becoming a Buddhist’ to ‘Becoming the Buddha,’ in response to the quote I found:  “When I’m a Buddhist my family hates me; when I’m the Buddha they love me.” I don’t want you to hate me—of course. In the introduction to his collected poems Carl Sandburg writes: […]

You know the story.  It’s an old story–the long freedom march from bondage to the Promised Land.  It’s about the people of Israel held captive in Egypt for 430 years under the rule of tyrants.  It’s pure mythology—that’s why it’s our story—because it’s the human story, and it’s happening right now. We humans have a […]

  Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, said of the teachings of Jesus as found in the four Gospels:  “…the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” In a letter to a friend he added, “A more beautiful or more precious morsel of ethics I have never […]

Opening Words, by Rev. Richard Gilbert Be gentle with one another— It is a cry from the lives of people battered By thoughtless words and brutal deeds… Who of us can look inside another and know what is there Of hope and hurt, or promise and pain? Who can know from what far places each […]

 Psalm 23. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters; He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear […]

I’d like to invite you on a journey—a journey of heroic dimensions—a journey inward where you will be required to tap into your True Self–a journey where you cannot get off easily, by saying you ‘agree or disagree’ with this or that statement or dismiss something out of hand as someone else’s opinion. This is […]

Last week’s Dear Friends letter was written in preparation for today’s annual meeting—to encourage you to attend, but also to simply say something about the implications of having an annual meeting—beyond a sense of duty.  I wrote: “During the cold spell, a week ago last Saturday, I was sitting alone in the kitchen reading the […]

Shakespeare said, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” (Troilus and Cressida, IIIiii) Andy Goldsworthy is an artist who touches nature in that way—he befriends the things he touches.  He’s like a little boy going out to play, he forms a close kinship with the world around him. “There was a child went […]

“Now understand me well:  it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success comes forth something to make even greater struggle necessary.” Walt Whitman To struggle is ‘To progress with difficulty.’  None of us knows if we’ll face greater struggle in the future than we’ve faced already, but Whitman’s poetic […]

  One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind […]