UU Buddhist Fellowship

Welcome to our UUBF Website, where we provide spiritual and practical resources to all who are interested in Unitarian Universalist Buddhism.

You might be a Buddhist exploring Unitarian Universalism or a UU interested in learning more about Buddhist practice within our faith tradition.  For those who have a clear commitment to Buddhist practice within Unitarian Universalism,  you can find connections to practice groups in UU congregations, to the biennial Convocation sponsored by UUBF, sermons about UU Buddhism, and links to our newsletter, Facebook group,  and other resources. Explore, Enjoy, and Contact us if we can help with your questions about UUBF or UU Buddhist practice.

Since the introduction of the first Buddhist texts to America in the mid-nineteenth century, Buddhism has been an extremely influential force among Unitarians and, over the last thirty years, Unitarian Universalists. Early Unitarians, such as Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson responded with great enthusiasm to Buddhism’s emphasis on individual experience, rather than appeal to scriptures or belief in miraculous events, as the basis for authority in spiritual matters.In recent years, Unitarian Universalists have increasingly been drawn to explore Buddhist religious practices, especially seated meditation, in order to ground the “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” that is one of the guiding principles of the UU tradition. Meditation invites a direct and immediate experience of reality and provides a balance to purely intellectual inquiry.