UU
Sangha
Volume: VII,
Number: 1 Journal of the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship Winter 2003
Obituary:
Dorothy Senghas
Compiled
from various sources
Dorothy
(Dorrie) Senghas, 72, a resident of Burlington, died at home on Tuesday,
December 10, of pancreatic cancer. She
was a founding member of the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship and
served in many leadership roles, including as President and Vice-President, and
as a contributor to UU
Sangha.
Dorrie began Zen practice in
1983. In 1985 she became a non-resident
student of John Daido Loori, Sensei, at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt
Tremper, NY, taking jukai vows (five precepts, the ceremony of formal
refuge-taking in Zen) the following year. She was a founding member of the Zen
Affiliate of Burlington.
Dorrie loved hiking and
climbed all the Presidential mountains in New Hampshire. Until her illness
intervened she was attempting to complete hiking the Long Trail in Vermont. She
was also a gourmet cook and an expert gardener.
She was born on March 7, 1930, in
Concord, Massachusetts. In 1952 she graduated
from Harvard (Radcliffe). She received a M.A. in History from the University of
California at Davis in 1969 and a M.L.S. from Simmons College in 1974.
In September, 1952 she married Rev.
Robert Senghas, another founding member of the UUBF and former President. They
lived in California and Massachusetts before moving to Burlington in 1979.
Dorrie taught high school for
several years in California and worked at the UC Davis library. In
Massachusetts she became Director of the Simmons College Library. In Burlington
she worked at the University of Vermont’s Bailey-Howe Library and then at the
Dana Medical Library until she retired in 1992.
Dorrie is survived by her
husband and three sons: Frederick (Fritz) and his children Matthew and Sarah;
Edward (Ned) and his wife Maureen Cotter; and Stuart and his children Nathan
and Lydia. She is also survived by a sister Rosalie Sargent and her husband
Robert Sargent, Massachusetts, a brother-in-law, the Rev. Richard Senghas, and
many nieces and nephews.
She was active in her church,
the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Burlington, and served it in many
positions, including Vice President and co-founder of the church archives. She
was also active in her Unitarian Universalist denominational work, including
serving as the chair of the UU Fund for Social Responsibility of the UU Funding Program. At the
time of her death she was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mountain
Retreat and Learning Centers near Highlands, North Carolina. She also served as
President of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.
A memorial service was held
at noon on Saturday, December 21, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in
Burlington.
An excerpt
from
“The
UU Buddhist
Connection
in My Life”, UU Sangha, Fall 1998
By Dorrie
Senghas
Nothing in my strong
and active adherence to UUism is precluded by my Zen practice. However, Zen has
brought to me some important aspects of life that Unitarian Universalism does not
emphasize. Especially important to me is the hard and good discipline of
meditation. The centrality of mindfulness is a strong part of my life. No
longer is cooking or cleaning or pulling weeds something to be done, to be rid
of, but things to be done with thoughtfulness, concentration, and mindfulness
for every moment of every task. The Evening Gatha is of special importance to
me:
”Let me respectfully remind you—
Life and death are of supreme importance,
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken, awaken!
Take heed. Do not squander your life.”
Editorial
Insights
As this issue is being
compiled in January 2003, it appears virtually certain that the new year will
bring the promise of a new war—new bloodshed, new suffering, new enemies. Speaking only for myself, I am unhappy to see
a nation with as much potential to do good in the world as the USA working
instead only to further its own short-term interests. Quoting authoritative texts always runs the
risk of oversimplification of complex issues; but for me, the Buddha’s maxim
from the Dhammapada is nonetheless a key insight that informs my
attitude toward the standoff over Iraq:
“Hatred is never overcome by hatred, but only by lovingkindness. This is an eternal truth.”
For now, President Bush has not convinced me that
aggression in Iraq is justified, urgent, or moral; on the other hand, Iraq
itself is hardly a paragon of morality or even rational behavior. It is times of struggle and uncertainty that
always test our spiritual convictions and determine whether our practice bears
fruit or rots on the vine. Whatever your
perspective on the issues of the day, I hope that your connection to UUism and
Buddhism is bringing you strength, clarity, and peace—on all sides of the
issues, we’ll need these qualities in the days ahead.
This issue brings the sad
news of Dorrie Senghas’s passing. It’s
fair to say that the Unitarian-Universalist Buddhist Fellowship would not be
what it is today without her foundational and continual work, performed even in
the face of an ultimately terminal disease.
Our hearts and prayers go out to Robert Senghas and the rest of Dorrie’s
family and friends. Namu Amida Butsu.
On a less downbeat note,
we’re pleased to include several interesting items of poetry, liturgy, and
quotations. We also present Rev. Tom
Owen-Towles’s take on the bond between the ancient wisdom of Buddhism and the
post-modern virtues of UUism.
The next issue of UU Sangha will be published in April 2003. Submissions are open: if you have an essay, poem, story,
artwork, or other appropriate material to share with us, please feel free to
submit or query to jwilson403@hotmail.com.
The deadline for the Spring issue will be April 13.
Dukkha
By Jay
Alagia
What is it that stirred in me
the bubbly feelings-
the toast and coffee,
sitting by your side
on this September
morn?
Was it the food? Was
it the Sun? Was it your smile?
It did not last.
Too much toast, too
much coffee,
sun too hot, unkindly
word from you,
- nothing was the same.
Or everything was the
same
as before.
Seems as if I have
run this race before
a million times.
Hairs turned gray,
the veins in feet now
swollen hurt.
Last night you woke
me crying in my sleep.
Worst of it, I wasn’t
even dreaming.
Seductive call of
happiness keeps pushing my legs
at bottom of the
moving round rat cage.
The objects of
desire, too many to count-
you and others, house
and cars, bank accounts
so lovely and so
slick, all are
tied with rainbow ropes to my sore skin.
They crowd on sides
of cage.
There is a child size
door
behind them,
smaller than my
inflated head
but big enough for
real me.
Is there a way
to shrink my head,
cut the cords,
jump and shoot right
out
to everlasting
happiness?
Jay
is a retired structural Engineer who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is a
member of UU Congregation of Phoenix. He is a Hindu-Buddhist-UU from India. He
teaches Eastern Religions and meditation.
Becoming
Fully Present
In the last two issues of UU Sangha we called for an examination of Buddhist
elements in UU services. Rev. Mike Young
has contributed this reading which is used frequently as a liturgical element
in the Sunday Morning service of his UU church in Honolulu:
Every time we try to grab and hang on
We tear something loose.
So long as we continue to crave,
To grasp and hoard,
Just so long shall suffering continue
And healing elude us.
Every time we try to pull away
And withhold ourselves from one another,
We break our own connectedness to life.
So long as we submit to fear
And volunteer for anger,
Just so log shall violence continue
And peace be absent from our hearth.
Whenever our mind strays from the moment,
Leaking into a past of if-only,
Of resentment and guilt and nostalgia;
Into a future of striving and pretense,
Of anticipation and anxiety;
Into re-run and preview;
We come unplugged from who we are
And cut ourselves off from life.
Every time we start to grab
And each time we withhold,
We will notice, let go, and return
To be centered again in the awakened now.
Every time we start to grab
And each time we withhold, we will let go,
Opening the folded fist of striving,
And return once more to the moment.
Fully present to this moment,
Permitting it to flow through us
And slip away; here,
Possessing nothing at all,
All is ours.
Grandmother’s
Zen
By Jeanne
Desy
On this retreat, Grandmother has collected
a leathery brown
leaf, one corner green,
and a black leaf
bitten to lace –
without intending to,
she invents a koan:
When is a leaf no longer a leaf?
○
She tells the teacher in dokusan, He asks,
What is the leaf’s original face before it was
born?
Grandmother spirals
down branch and bark,
seed and blossom, and
recalls the bouquet
in a juice glass on
her windowsill –
a wild morning glory, still furled;
Chicory flowers,
where did their blue go?
honeysuckle turning from white to yellow.
The crabgrass in the
lawn forms green stars . . .
Everything’s perfect
here, event he weather.
So what am I seeking? Grandmother wonders,
And thinks, That should be a
koan.
○
Grandmother sits at the window in her room
watching soundless
lightning on the horizon.
The breeze freshens.
A weatherman
could probably tell
you when a breeze
becomes a wind. Some
scientist
or other would know
when a leaf is not a leaf,
Not that it really
matters.
○
Back in the zendo at dawn, Grandmother sits
on a sore pelvis, she
is made of meat
with heat lightning
playing in the hips . . .
her grandson was so
pale when he was born,
she called him
“luminous baby.” Secretly,
she thinks him a
saint. She remembers
holding his hand in
the park, teaching him
how to walk on stones
to cross the creek.
Being a baby, he
tried to walk on water.
Return to the breath.
Grandmother’s right leg is sound asleep,
she can’t get up for
walking meditation.
In Zen they tell you
to sit with every pain,
then turn around and
lecture on compassion.
Orange! A glowing sun is rising from the hills.
The teacher draws the
shade. Grandmother
sits with irritation.
All at once she fills
with longing for her
big old house,
her own kitchen,
anything soup on the stove,
the cat watching from
the table,
an old cat who knows
better but won’t listen,
husband whistling the
way he does.
This is the moment
she loves best of all,
The quiet space about
to fill with family.
Grandmother feels
like neon, love hums
so in her bones she
is tipping over.
She rights herself
Zen is a container, the teacher has said,
but Grandmother
spills over, drifts away
like an empty boat. Must remember
to make lemonade when
I get home, they use
the powdered stuff
here, return to my koan.
She is getting nowhere at all.
When is a leaf no longer a leaf?
With sudden profound
longing she imagines
smoothing fabric, she
loves to fold laundry.
Here, you hold your hands
still no matter what.
Return to the breath. One good breath
with full attention,
that’s all you ever manage.
They tell you to surrender to the moment,
but what is left of
this old woman to give up?
Grandmother peeks at
the teacher, motionless
In his saffron robe.
He has studied a thousand
koans, they say, and
she is stuck on one!
When will I no longer be a leaf
and what trace will be left of me then?
○
The bell. Can’t help but notice, getting up
from the floor is
harder this year for everyone.
Even holy men get
Uncle Arthur in their bones.
Walking barefoot around the hall,
the teacher seems to
float.
Grandmother’s heart
is washed with love
blue as Niagara
starch. He is so thin.
She’d love to take
him home and fatten him up.
Jeanne Desy
has received numerous awards for our fiction and poetry, which has appeared in
many publications, such as Ghost and Cat! The Animal
that Hides in Your Heart. She founded and facilitates
a Buddhist meditation group and is a folksinger. She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State.
The Bond
Between
Buddhism
and UUism
By Rev. Tom
Owen-Towle
AsUnitarian
Universalists we are never beholden to the pristine version of any faith be it
Paganism or Taoism, Judaism or Buddhism. If honorably and compassionately done,
we feel free to learn from and practice the lessons of any tradition. We are
devoted to conversation with (not conversion by) Lao-Tzu or Jesus, Gandhi or
Mother Teresa, Moses or Confucius. They are our teachers not our gurus. We
would agree with the Buddha who said upon his death-bed: “Put no head above
your own—not even mine!”
On the one hand Buddha was a person
of deep human sympathy and good will. On the other hand, he was a thinker whose
intellect cut through the miseries of life and shaped clear, compelling
solutions. As J. B. Pratt put it: “The most striking thing about Gotama was his
combination of a cool head and a warm heart, a blend that shielded him from
sentimentality on the one hand and indifference on the other.” Buddha always
said he was just a human teacher not a savior or guru. By naming no successor
save his teachings, Buddha never even set himself up as the head of a religious
order.
Buddha preached a religion devoid of
speculation. He wasn’t enamored of discussions but deeds, not cogitation but
compassion. Questions such as whether the world is eternal or not, whether life
exists after death or not, whether there is a god or not...simply did not
occupy his soul. Gotama boldly declared that fourteen such questions “tended
not to edification.” Hence, the Buddha simply offered no answer to the riddles
of creation, deity, or death. Frankly, much of his appeal to millions around
the world for 2500 years, and certainly to practical Unitarian Universalists
theologians, has come from his common sense refusal to try to answer
unanswerable questions. He maintained a noble silence.
Buddha was not focused, as so many
are today, upon altered states of consciousness but upon altered states of
character. He considered rituals and theology to be interesting, but ultimately
inconsequential, sideshows. The only thing that really counted was the good
life. And what constituted the good life? In his famous first sermon to a few disciples
Buddha taught one thing: suffering and the end of suffering. His central
message—simply stated yet enduringly profound—consisted of Four Noble Truths:
1) Existence is unhappiness. 2) Our unhappiness is aggravated by selfish
desire, the craving of our egos for our own satisfaction at the expense of all
other forms of life. 3) Release
from unhappiness comes through our recognition that as living entities we are
all here together for a brief time. 4) Such liberation arrives by following the
physical, moral, and spiritual training known as the Noble Eightfold path whose
steps are right view, resolve, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort,
mindfulness, and concentration.
The cultivation of ethics and
meditative awareness reconditions our delusory ideas and addictive drives. It
moves us ever toward greater freedom from our unhappiness. Clearly, Buddha’s
path is a course of treatment for our unhappiness. It’s not treatment by pills
or cult or grace. It’s treatment by training, deep discipline, constant
attentiveness.
Remember Buddhism isn’t a
belief system, it’s a practice. As with Unitarian Universalism: deeds not
creeds. Buddha has teachings to be sure, but he always said not to believe them
on his say-so. He simply said to try them out yourself and see if they prove to
be true.
Many have called these eight
challenges of “right relations” the Middle Path, because there are two extremes
to be avoided throughout. Gotama discovered that extremes bring unhappiness.
Over-indulgence has the same effect on a person as has the release of all
tension on the strings of a violin. Conversely, extreme self-denial has the
effect of tightening the strings on a violin until they are at the breaking
point. In neither case is there right attunement. It is this lack of attunement
that aggravates our suffering. The Eightfold Path assists us in finding harmony
within ourselves and with the universe.
Following the Middle Path
produces understanding that leads to peace, insight, to Nirvana, which is the
highest destiny of the human spirit. Nirvana literally means extinction, that
is, the extinction of all craving, resentment, arrogance, and covetousness.
Buddha called Nirvana “incomprehensible and unutterable.” When pressed he would
venture only one affirmative description: “Bliss, yes bliss, my friends is
Nirvana,” and it can be won here and now.
In short, Buddha says that
unhappiness or suffering comes from overweening desires and uncontrollable
passions. When we are greedy we come to grief! Therefore, some Westerners have
felt that the devoted Buddhist must unequivocally let go of every desire. But
that’s clearly foolish, because to let go of every desire would be to die, and
to die is not to solve the problems of living. That’s not what Buddha meant at
all.
There are clearly some
desires that he deliberately advocated—for example, the desire for liberation
and the desire for the welfare of other beings. His philosophy of the Middle
Way strongly encourages us to enjoy life and its many pleasures and
possibilities while not growing overly dependent upon or attached to any of
them. When we repeatedly and possessively proclaim: “My house, my job, my
church, my partner, my reputation, my needs, my future...” the Buddha would
remind us that most of the suffering we experience in life is the result of our
clinging too ferociously to precisely such things, however precious...all of
which are transitory and fleeting.
Buddha teaches us that
possession can become obsession. We yearn for permanence, but we cannot get it.
Permanence is not attainable. The heart of Buddha’s wisdom says:
Desire
for what will not be attained ends in frustration, therefore to avoid
frustration, avoid desiring what will not be attained.
Life is characterized by
constant becoming. Therefore, let things, people, experiences, relationships,
life be. Learn the art of both sensitive engagement and healthy detachment.
Gentle holding and timely letting go. Desperately attaching ourselves to
certain parts of existence, we grow alienated from the whole of life. We are
summoned by Buddha to travel through life with a caring yet light touch.
There’s a fundamental paradox
here. The less we’re attached to life, the more alive we can become. The less
we have fixed preferences and obsessions, the more deeply we can experience the
flow of life.
Of all the religions of the
world Buddhism alone makes suffering central and explains the cause of it –
neither some supernatural god nor fate nor the devil but the grasping greed of
human beings ourselves. Buddhism demands no blind faith from us, pushes no
dogmatic creeds, demands no rites or rituals, sacraments or secrets. The Middle
Way is available and open to every person.
In a time when the multitudes
were passively relying on the Brahmins to tell them what to do, Buddha
radically challenged each individual to do his or her own religious seeking.
Buddha eschewed fatalism and advocated self-reliance. Each person has inherent
worth, and needs to be encouraged on a free and responsible search for truth and
meaning. On this score, the kinship between Buddha and Unitarian Universalism
is unmistakable.
Related is Buddha’s
insistence that wisdom can not be taught. It’s only arrived at through
experience. Never has a religion set out its case with so complete an appeal to
empirical judgment. On every question, direct, personal experience was the
final test for truth. A true Buddhist disciple must “know” for him and herself.
In his later years, when
India had become electric with his message, people came to Buddha even as they
were to come to Jesus asking what he was. When people carried their puzzlement
to the Buddha, the answer he gave provided a handle for his entire message.
“Are you a god?” they asked. “No.” “An angel?” “No.” “A saint?” “No.” “Then
what are you?” Buddha answered, “I am awake.”
That’s what the name Buddha
means—”an awakened one.” Buddhism begins with a person who shook off the daze
of ordinary awareness and convention and status quoism. It tells the story of a
person who dared to wake up and wake others up in return. Indeed, the radical
reality is that we can each become buddhas; so the quest is not to become a
Buddhist but a buddha in your own fashion. Wow, that’s some religious
invitation!
That’s the challenge of our
Unitarian Universalist faith as well: to be awake, stay awake—awake to sorrow
and to joy, new truth and ancient wisdom, to self-fulfillment and universal
compassion, to be awake, awake, awake, to be Buddha-like during our earthly
journey.
Reverend Tom
Owen-Towles is Minister Emeritus of First UU Church of San Diego.
Quotes From
the Buddhist Spectrum
When we wish to teach and enlighten all things by ourselves we are
deluded. When all things teach and
enlighten us we are enlightened.
—Genjokoan, Dogen
When the True Law is
not totally attained, both physically and mentally, there is a tendency to
think that we posses the complete Law and our work is finished. If the Dharma
is completely present, there is a realization of one’s insufficiencies.
—Genjokoan, Dogen
To study the way is
to study oneself. To study oneself is to
forget oneself. To forget oneself is to
be awakened by all things. To be awakened
by all things is to let body and mind of self and others fall away. Even the traces of awakening come to an end,
and this traceless awakening is continued endlessly.
—Genjokoan, Dogen
Because of
consideration for others on the part of the Buddhas and Ancestors, we are enabled
to see the Buddha even now and hear his Teachings: had the Buddhas and
Ancestors not transmitted the Truth it could never have been heard at this particular time: even so much as a
short phrase or section of teaching should be greatly appreciated. What alternative have we to be utterly
grateful for the great compassion exhibited in this highest of all teachings
which is the ye and treasury of the Truth?—Shushogi, Dogen
Do not sit with a
mind fixed on emptiness. If you do, you
will fall into a neutral kind of emptiness.
Emptiness includes the sun, moon, stars, and planets, the great earth,
mountains and rivers, all trees and grasses, bad men and good men, bad things
and good things, heaven and hell; they are all in the midst of emptiness. —The Platform
Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-Neng
Life is no different
from nirvana,
Nirvana is no different from
life.
Life’s horizons are
nirvana’s:
The two are exactly the same.
It is all at ease,
Unfixatable by fixations,
Incommunicable,
Inconceivable,
Indivisible.
Buddhanature
Is the nature of this world.
Buddhanature has no nature,
Nor does this world.
Everything contingent
Is naturally at ease.
—Mulamadhyamikakarika, Nagarjuna
Suffering gives rise to faith, faith gives rise to delight, delight gives
rise to rapture, rapture gives rise to calm, calm gives rise to bliss, bliss
gives rise to concentration, concentration gives rise to knowing and seeing
phenomena as they are, knowing and seeing phenomena as they are gives rise to
disenchantment, disenchantment gives rise to the fading of passion, and the
fading of passion gives rise to liberation.
—Nidana-vagga, Gautama Buddha
Great love and great compassion are called Buddha-nature. Why?
Because great love and great compassion always accompany the
bodhisattva, just as shadows accompany things.
All sentient beings will without fail ultimately realize great love and
great compassion. Therefore it is
taught, “All sentient beings are possessed of Buddha-nature.” Great love and great compassion are
Buddha-nature.
—Mahaparinirvana
Sutra,
Shakyamuni Buddha
It is regrettable indeed that sentient beings doubt what should not be doubted;
The Pure Land is right before us and never out of harmony with us.
Do not ponder whether Amida will take you in or not;
The question is whether or not you wholeheartedly turn about at heart.
—Commentary of
the Contemplation Sutra, Shan-tao
This mind attains Buddhahood. This
mind is itself Buddha. There is no
Buddha apart from this mind.
—Commentary of
the Contemplation Sutra, Shan-tao
Of all sentient beings there is not a single one who has not been your own
father or mother. So as a way of repaying
the kindness of all sentient beings, set out to work for their well-being.
Cultivate loving-kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. Constantly train yourself in bodhicitta. Train yourself to benefit sentient beings
through all your actions. Train yourself
in cherishing others as more important than yourself.
—Dakini Teachings, Padmasambhava
Think on the Buddha’s virtue! The
Buddha’s regard for each sentient being with eyes of compassion is equal, as
though each were the Buddha’s only child; hence, I take refuge in and worship
the unsurpassed mother of great compassion.
—Ojoyoshu, Genshin
How joyous I am, my heart and mind being rooted in the Buddha-ground of the
universal Vow, and my thoughts and feelings flowing deeply within the Dharma-ocean,
which is beyond comprehension!
—Kyogyoshinsho, Shinran