Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Solitary Bodhisattva

I have been what might be termed a "Solitary Bodhisattva."

AfterEarly in my practice with SGI, I and several other senior leaders were "officially" ostracized by the HQ in Philadelphia for four years, until Pres. Ikeda intervened and made them publicly apologize at a HQ meeting and reinstate our positions.

AfterDuring that time, I learned a great deal about myself and about having only my twice-daily practice and my innate Buddha nature as my guide.

AfterAfter finally disaffiliating with SGI, I was fortunate, in that dear friends moved to Sacramento and happened to rent a home next door to a member of Rissho Kosei-Kai. At the time it was definitely to be considered within the sphere of "Nichiren" Buddhism, although that is not so much the case today.

AfterWhile living in Sacramento, I had a car and was able to drive the 100 miles to Pacifica to attend the RKK Church there. The two different ministers I met there were extremely supportive of the English-speaking members and our group numbered about 25 people.

Thus, when I moved to Long Beach, CA I also drove to the RKK Church in East Los Angeles (dubbed by its members as "Tokyo East") There were two ministers there, one for us English-speaking members and one for the Japanese-speaking.

AfterWe "Americans" (about 20 of us) were relegated to a third-floor room in an out-building and I was even referred to (behind my back) as a "gaijin" by the Japanese minister. She was nonplussed when I actually understood her insult and confronted her.

After a year, I moved back north, this time to San Francisco and, before I had to sell my car to come up with the $5,200 needed to move into an apartment here, I visited the RKK church was told by the new Japanese minister (who's English was not very good) that there was no longer an English-speaking group.

That was when I found Nichiren Shu, and was fortunate to find someone in the city who drove the 60 miles to San Jose to the temple there. Unfortunately, after a few years, that ride was no longer feasible so, I decided to rent a car once a month to drive to RKK (only 25 miles away) and much cheaper than driving to S.J. Although I was not able to attend Nichiren Shu services, I never lost contact with my friends in NS.

The RKK minister at that time, although born in Japan, had been in the U.S. since he was 18 studying in L.A., and was thoroughly "Americanized," although he did suffer criticism from the Japanese-speaking members because he could no longer read Kanji and had to read speeches in Japanese phonetically.Our English-speaking group throve, until he was transferred away and a new minister from Japan, whose English was very good, was assigned to the church.

It is my opinion that the man was clearly a xenophobe. He moved us English speakers out of the main sanctuary into a conference room in the basement. And, after a number of us had spent two years of intense study to become a "certified" Dharma Teachers with RKK, he announced at our first (and my last) RKK Convention in Las Vegas, that unless we English-speaking people came to Japan and learned to read and speak Japanese, we were not qualified to teach "Buddhism." Further, despite the efforts of English-speaking member having worked on our "Kyoden" daily practice book, he refused to release it to us because he didn't like the translation.

The fact that the RKK organization allowed that man to remain at that church, despite his xenophobic discrimination against the English-speaking group, simply spoke to the "Eastern" attitude of never bringing disapprobation (or loss of face) against a leader and ultimately led to the destruction of what had been a vibrant English-speaking group.

Probably, the most unfortunate aspect of all this is the fact that the San Francisco Bay Area lacks a vibrant Nichiren Shu group. San Jose is 60 miles away and Sacramento is 90 miles away. Neither the RKK members from the south bay nor the Nichiren Shu members from San Jose will (want to) come to San Francisco to support the establishment of a practice center here. "Oh, it's so far!" "Oh, you can't find parking." Oh, the traffic is awful!"

When I approached the Nichiren Hokke Buddhist Church here in Japantown, the young minister said we all chant the same O'Daimoku and that we few NS members would be welcome there but then he was transferred back to Japan and their headquarters in Japan let me know that we were NOT welcome, because they believed that Nichiren Shu would try to "take over" their temple.

I must ask where is the spirit of Nichiren Shonin, or for that matter Shakyamuni Buddha himself, in these lazy, defeatist and/or obstructionist attitudes?

The Nichiren Order of North America is developing as an "American" organization, staying true to the spirit of Nichiren Shonin and propagating Buddhism and many of the ranking priests in Japan are very, very supportive of our efforts. The recently elected Bishop of North America is a woman of half Japanese, half African-American heritage and we have more and more U.S. born young(ish) men and women coming into the priesthood.

Many of our temples now have both live-streamed and YouTube services available for viewing (and participating in). I myself am a member of the Houston Temple where our Bishop, Myokei-shonin is the chief priest. Check out the services of the New England and Seattle temples as well. They are vibrant, growing, and dare I say "democratic."

I speak only for myself but, in my opinion, the (not only) Japanese system of primogeniture in both its priesthood and lay organizations has no place in our religious institutions here in the west and I am very heartened by the use of congregational polity in specifically American religious organizations.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Five Butterflies Fluttered Bye

I remember as a child the awesome sight of millions of Monarch butterflies migrating up the east coast in the Spring.

One year that orange cloud, pushed by strong winds, had strayed over the Atlantic shore as I was sitting on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. Thousands of the poor butterflies fell in the ocean and we children ran into the water to rescue them; bringing them to our blankets and beach chairs, in hopes their wings would dry and they could continue their journeys.

A child's dreaming fantasy.

A few moments ago, while standing in my kitchen, five small, orange butterflies fluttered by my window on some unknown journey, chasing each other in a springtime procession.

How does one distinguish between tears of joy and tears of sadness? Somewhere an 8-year old may see those five flying flowers and feel the same joy I felt at seeing the millions as their numbers cast a shadow over the beach.

Will we ever see an orange cloud again and marvel at the millions of wings that create it? I hope so, I truly hope so.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM

Forgiveness & Reconciliation

I'm going through a difficult time being in my current UU congregation.

Once our previous co-ministers resigned, one to another congregation and one to retirement, the question of naming the retiring minister as an "emerita" came up.

(FYI - We're now in search mode for a new minister.)

As a prelude to the ministers resigning, the board chose to ignore its agreement to use the Carver procedures in dealing with a dicey budget question that was brought before the congregation for a vote. This minister indicated that she felt that balancing the budget at the expense of the lowest paid staff, our Sextons, would be a violation of our
Seven Principles as she interpreted them. And she could not continue as our minister under those circumstances.

As I interpret what ensued, the end result was that some members saw her as being principled while others saw her as holding "their" congregation hostage.

Thus, the last few months of this person's 10-year ministry at our church was marred by controversy and ill feelings.

When she refused to sign marriage licenses till she could do so for LGBT couples as well, she was hailed as a principled minister. Yet when she stood up for her principles on a financial matter, she was reviled as obstructionist, mean, and unfeeling.

One of the first thing our current interim minister did when he came to our church was to have the history of our church posted on large boards so that people could write comments and some of the things anonymously written about this minister were, to me at least, truly shameful, meanspirited and libelous.

I spent half a month in South Africa with her and saw a side of her that many in the congregation, including some of her harshest critics, have not. While I spent that time with a compassionate woman, those who are angry at her have accused her of caring more about people in Africa than her own congregation! As if being white, comfortable and upper-middle class is somehow worse than being an African orphan with AIDS!

Now, nearly two years later, during an open forum to discuss bringing up having a congregational vote on making her emerita, the negative feelings are still deeply held. One person, who was on the board during that time, expressed her deep anger with this minister while another said she would stand at the door to prevent this minister from even trying to enter our sanctuary to worship!

I've been a member of this congregation since September of 1997 and within a year had already had my earful from some of the longtime members about previous ministers and how horrible they were and how they could never be forgiven for "what they did." These people are hanging on to their resentments and vengefulness going back 20 years and more!!!

My question to the group during our "healing" meeting was this:


Where is "forgiveness" and "reconciliation" in our 7 Principles? We tell folks how wonderful our religion is, yet we don't model it within our own congregation. If the people of South Africa can work towards forgiveness and reconciliation, why can't we?

I, and most of my friends, do not identify as christian and more and more of them have stopped going to church. Our current interim minister is more "traditional" than our previous ministers, and that ministry style has left me and many of my friends feeling excluded rather than included in Sunday worship. That, coupled with this negative undercurrent of anger, is driving many of us away. I'm encouraging folks to keep contact with the church through Small Group Ministry, yet that isn't going to last forever.

My feeling is that if we, as a congregation, don't learn how to model forgiveness by going about the business of learning how to forgive and then actually putting it into practice, then I believe that our congregation will end up as just a bunch of spiritually stunted, self-righteous activists who will never understand why we aren't growing.

This year is my fourth as a SGM facilitator and I really want to be a force for exploring the issues of Forgiveness and Reconciliation within my congregation and would like to start with this topic as part of my Small Group Ministry group.

To those of you who end up reading this, please feel free to comment and / or offer recommendations.

Thanks in advance,

© Stephen Schwichow
Bearing With-ness

In making the decision to go to South Africa, I also made the decision that it was to be a spiritual journey as much as a physical journey to a new place.

Margot Campbell-Gross is one of the two resident parish ministers at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco and it is her earlier connection with the *Thabong Community of Dominican Nuns that is the reason this trip was opened to me.

Two years ago Sister Sheila Flynn, who created and mentors the **Kopanang Women's Group, and two of the women, Jabalele and Ivona, came to our Society to introduce us to the embroideries that they hand-make, as a means of earning money and becoming independent.

I was at that service and had the opportunity to meet Jabulile and Ivona afterwards. It happened that I had brought with me some of my mothers jewelry to donate to the annual rummage sale and I gave a piece to each of them, saying that I would like to visit the Kopanang Group in South Africa someday.

Last year, Rev. Campbell-Gross mentioned from the pulpit that she planned on going back to visit the Thabong Community and wanted to know if anyone in the congregation was interested in accompanying her.

Even though I had no idea how I would manage it financially, my roommate being grossly underemployed and unable to pay his full share of living expenses, I said that I wanted to go.

The doubt and fear "devils" beset me with everything from my fear of flying to worries about whether or not the Internet company from whom I purchased my tickets was a real travel agency.

Prior to leaving, Margot requested that we read "Bearing Witness," by Bernie Glassman, a 45-year Zen practitioner and founder of the Order of the Peace Makers. As I read about his extraordinary experiences meeting, getting to know, and finally witnessing to those who suffer and rise above suffering around us, I realized that I would not be able to "bear witness" unless and until I could "share withness" with the very people who's stories must be told.

Finally, my newly purchased, heavy-duty suitcase was fully loaded and precariously balanced on my newly purchased bathroom scale, desperately trying to stay under 65 lbs. and not fall over.

Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 16:00, I will leave San Francisco on Virgin Atlantic for London, and after a brief layover, via Swiss International through Zurich to Johannesburg.


* Zulu, "Place of Joy"

** Zulu, "Gathering Together"

uNkulunkulu makawubusise uMzansi Afrika
© Stephen Schwichow

REFLECTIONS OF A UU WORSHIP ASSOCIATE

Love is the spirit of this church
And Service is its prayer

Since we’ve just finished saying that together, my question is: How is “service” the prayer of this church?

I remember the first prayer I ever learned, kneeling by my bed, with my elbows propped up and hands held in supplication before me.  My grandmother was on her knees right next to me teaching me: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord by soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

At 5 years old I didn’t have a clue what God was. (And truth be told I still don’t 60 years later.) Nor did I understand about a soul or dying.  But I felt the unshakable conviction of my grandmother which told me that everything would be alright if I said this prayer before getting into bed each night and I would be able to go to sleep safe and secure.

I’m sure some of you are familiar with the joke that Unitarian Universalists’ hymn singing can be somewhat disjointed because we are always reading a few lines ahead to see whether we agree with the words.  And many of us do an inner translation when we get to the “G” word.

I remember distinctly the last time I ever prayed. It was in December of 1969.  40 years ago, in fact.   And 40 years ago this coming February I began practicing Buddhism and learned to meditate.

When I hear from the pulpit “Let us now enter a time of prayer and meditation,” I too feel included and a part of our faith community.

Sister Sheila has titled her homily “The Body as a Vehicle for Prayer” and, if it’s alright, I’ll do my Unitarian Universalist mental substitution and try it as “The Body as a Vehicle for Meditation.”

For nearly forty years, twice daily I have done a sutra recitation and meditation practice. With every recitation, I am reminded that all beings experience dissatisfaction and suffering in their lives, some more than others, and also that all beings have the potential to experience joy and realize enlightenment; that is, to free themselves from their dissatisfactions and sufferings.

The Buddha taught that we all can be Bodhisattvas.  We can be those who work to help others be relieved of their suffering and to achieve their enlightenment even when it means postponing our own.

I end every meditation practice period with the Bodhisattva Vow, one made by Buddhists all over the world:

Sentient beings are inn umerable
I vow to save them all
My defilements are inexhaustible
I vow to quench them all
The Buddha’s teachings are immeasurable
I vow to learn them all
The Way of the Buddha is unexcelled
I vow to attain the path sublime

To me Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, all were Bodhisattvas.  Certainly their service to humanity was significant when they lived and worked to save human beings and the ripples of their efforts move through time to this very day.

Most of us will never be great world leaders, sitting on the forefront of society-changing movements.  But I do firmly believe that we all have the capacity to make a difference, in some small way, in the lives of those around us who are suffering.

A couple of other important things my grandmother taught me were that when I leave this world, I have an obligation to have made a difference by having been here.  And she also showed me through her own life that it is better to give than to receive. How very wise she was.

In 2003, I had the honor of accompanying the Rev. Margot Campbell Gross, Nan Parks McCarthy and my friend Colette Simmons to stay with Sister Sheila and the other nuns of the Thabong Community outside Johannesburg, South Africa. I bore witness to the suffering and privations caused by HIV/AIDS among the people of the surrounding communities.  I would like to believe that perhaps my being present made a difference.  But I do know that the love I received from so many wonderful people made a huge difference in my life.

Trying to make a difference is an integral part of who I am.  And I have no doubt that it is an outgrowth of my meditation practice.  Wanting to help is as natural to me as breathing. And I find great happiness is helping others.

When I greet passers-by on the way to work in the morning, I smile and usually receive smiles in return. When I reach out in kindness it always comes back 10-fold.  When I can give of myself, joy grows in my own heart. And I know that this is not unique to me.

We are currently living in difficult and uncertain economic times.  Many of us are apprehensive about the future, as am I myself.  But I can tell you that there is one sure fire remedy for taking one’s mind off worrying and fretting about things over which we may not have any control – a way to put our own lives in perspective.

We can free our inner Bodhisattvas by reaching out to those around us who are hurting, physically, mentally, financially, spiritually. We can be of service to life. 

This is what my meditation has taught me. Perhaps this can be our prayer.
And remember:
Love is the spirit of the church
And Service …

Blessed be, Amen and Namaste …


Half Empty / Half Full

My mother used to say that my brother tended to see the glass half empty while I tended to see the glass half full.  But by this past Thursday, I was only focusing on those four ounces of empty air in that 8 ounce glass, vacillating between anger and despair.
After all, a little more than half of those voting supported taking my rights away. The same rights that the Supreme Court of the State of California said were my due, under the California Constitution. A little more than half of those voting believe that I am not worthy of the same rights, privileges and responsibilities that heterosexual Californians have, simply by virtue of their being born heterosexual. A little more than half of those voting have said quite clearly that the love I may feel for someone of my own sex is not as real, not as precious, and not as special as the love that exists between heterosexuals.
I had really thought that a heavy turnout in support of Barack Obama would have helped to tip the balance to the side of justice. It wasn’t to be. I’d like to blame the supporters of the candidate I did not vote for but the passage of Proposition 8 really came down to all those who voted both for our first African-American President and, simultaneously, voted to take away my civil right to equal treatment under the laws of the State of California. Yes, large numbers of California’s Democrats voted in support of Proposition 8. They voted to enshrine discrimination into the California Constitution. Have Californians forgotten that it was the tyranny of the majority that made the love between people of different races illegal in this State until 1962?  Have we forgotten that it was the tyranny of the majority that sent our Japanese-American brothers and sisters to relocation camps for no other reason than the accident of their birth and their cultural heritage?
In my post election confusion, joy over our new president and sadness over the passage of Prop 8, I wondered to myself, what kind of a religion would teach homophobia and prejudice as the core of its beliefs?  The Mormons and Knights of Columbus alone donated more that $25 million in support of Proposition 8.
As the No on 8 Campaign has said: “Never before in California's history has a group, who currently enjoys a basic right, been singled out and then had those rights ripped from them by a vote of their fellow citizens.”
So - what you’ve just heard is what happens when I see the glass half empty. However, I don’t want to drag the past behind me because it will only impede my journey into the future.  I am by nature an optimist.
And when I reflect on the 4 ounces of water in the glass, rather than the 4 ounces of empty space, I remember this. The vast majority of my friends, from every possible ethnicity and heritage, are straight. And to a person, they voted against Proposition 8. I remember that many among my friends consider themselves Christians or people of faith and they voted against Proposition 8. Faith can as easily cause one to rejoice in the diversity of humanity as to cause one to be threatened by the differences among us.
On election eve, the Young Adults group here at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, put together a candle-light vigil service that was incredibly moving. In order to take some pressure off our City Hall, already swamped with couples wanting to marry, from 8:00 PM on November 3rd, through the close of the polls on November 4th, our ministers were available to marry any loving couples who presented a marriage license and requested to be wed. Free of charge, I might add.
It’s important for me to remember the encouragement of our senior minister, Rev. Greg Stewart, who pointed out that in this great effort to defeat Proposition 8 we Unitarian Universalists “have once again helped to bend the moral arc of the Universe toward justice.”
In his *Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this: “More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. …. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of … [those] willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
For me, having seen the reality of prejudice as a child, the treatment that I am now subjected to feels no differently to me than the pain, anger, humiliation and frustration that other minority groups in this country must have felt as they realized that the land in which they lived and were citizens, did not see them as worthy of equality before the law. In the issue of GLBT persons, that equality, affirmed by our Supreme Court, has been taken away and discrimination has been written into our Constitution.
I celebrate all those of our heterosexual allies who had no basic rights at stake, and yet you gave so much of your time and money, in support of my rights.
I am so proud to be a Unitarian Universalist, which denomination is “Standing on the Side of Love.” I’m honored to be a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, where the loves and lives of same sex couples have been celebrated and conjoined for more than 50 years.
In a sermon delivered by the Rev. Forrest Church prior to the 1992 presidential election, he said: “Hate is not the opposite of love, fear is. … We are good at fear.  That’s why politicians play on our fears. Fear gives power to others, and inspires us to try to take power away from them.”
This time, my friends, we LGBT citizens were the targets of the fear mongers.
Rev. Church went on to say that “Faith is confidence, a basic trust in being. Faith should never be sacrificed to belief.  Faith says yes to mystery, wonder, possibility, change.”  But Rev. Church goes on to warn that the opposite of Faith is Belief and “Belief is a set propositions that true-believers say make it possible for one to have faith.”
I’ve been a gay activist since the early 1970’s, when the very idea of marriage equality was not even a dream.  This past Friday night I participated in the march up Market Street. Among those thousands of marchers, I didn’t feel anger around me, but rather energy.  I didn’t sense depression, but rather determination. The Japanese Buddhists have a term: “Zen San, Go Ichi.” “Three steps forward, one step back.”  Last Tuesday night was but a step back; a step back in order to gather strength for the next steps forward towards justice.
My friends, we may have lost a battle, but the Culture War is not over by a long shot.  I have faith, whether I live to see it or not, that we will have justice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people, not just in California, but in these United States.
The very fact of the election of Barack Obama gives me hope, and I have faith in our ability to touch and change the hearts of those who are currently closed to us. I have faith that the day will come when I will be judged not by my sexual orientation, but by the content of my character.
I have faith that there will be justice, and that, in the words of the Prophet Amos, that “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
In the words of our next President: “Yes We Can!”

How Prayer Made Me an Atheist 
(Expanded Reflection)

Did you know that the word “pray” can be traced back to the Sanskrit: prasna meaning “to question?”

Did you know that the word “precarious” comes from the Vulgate Latin meaning “obtained by prayer?”

When I asked Google, “What is Prayer?” It yielded the following definitions:

Princeton University: 

Reverent petition to a deity; the act of communicating with a deity (especially as a petition or in adoration or contrition or thanksgiving); 

The act of attempting to verbally communicate with the supernatural; It is found in almost all the religions of the world. It is sometimes communal, as during a church service; it is sometimes done in private. Its purpose within Christianity is to assess the will of God for one's life, to praise God, to give thanks to God, to repent of sinful behavior, to ask forgiveness, to seek a favor from God, and (occasionally) to ask God to curse an opponent. Prayer is found in almost all religions. 

Glossary of the Gov’t of Australia:

A request at the end of a petition, usually that a certain course of action be taken or not taken.

Truth4Life.tripod.com:

Prayer is talking with God. Click here to learn more.

I suppose the quick and easy answer as to whether I pray or not is – No! Although I clearly remember the first and the last time I prayed.

When I was six I had the special treat one time of being able to stay the weekend with my grandmother, my Nana, without the always noisy and demanding presence of my 3-year old brother. He was too much of a handful for my grandmother.

Prior to going to bed, my (to me) ancient grandmother, who was probably younger than I am now, got down on her knees next to the daybed I was going to sleep on and showed me how to pray.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the lord my soul to take.


Thereafter, every night I faithfully recited those words with complete assurance that “God,” whatever that was, was watching over me and I had nothing to worry about – so long as I was a good boy. I was also convinced that God tipped my mother off when I was naughty. As soon as she’d look at me, I knew she had that “God already told me” look and I’d confess straight-away!

I remember coming back from church one time when I was 8 years old and my grandmother asking me to stay in the car with her, after my mom brought us home. I sensed a set-up.

There is no Santa Clause. Nan broke the news to me gently, as only a grandmother could and I had to admit that I’d had my suspicions. She explained to me that, now that I was older, I could join my mom and dad and her and the other grown ups and older kids, knowing that there wasn’t a Santa Clause, but pretending so that little children, like my brother, could still believe it. 

Santa Clause was about the joy of giving and that was what was real. 

So that means the Easter Bunny is only pretend too?

Yes. It’s true.

I’d pretty much stopped worrying about the tooth fairy since I didn’t have many reasons left to look forward to her visits anyway.

All the things that were sources of security and anticipation for me weren’t real. They were all just part of the adult conspiracy to make children have happy childhoods; to believe in magic. Since I’d been invited to join in the “Adult Conspiracy,” it was time to put away “Now I lay me down to sleep” and I began invoking the grown up: “Our father, who art in heaven …”

I remember that first time I prayed and I remember the last time I prayed.

December of 1969, I was 24 years old, living in Toronto. After five months, the only job I could find was working in the toy department of Eaton’s Department Store – at Christmas time. 

I had a 3rd floor walk-up rented room near the Maple Leaf Gardens. I’d lost nearly 50 pound in five months, due to lack of food. My coworkers used to give me the crackers they got with their tea. I was miserable – then I got sick. 

I was so sick and weak that I had to crawl down the hall to the bathroom. I remember, lying on the floor, crawling to the bed and propping myself up, and just like my grandmother had taught me that first time – I put my hands together in prayer. The room seemed dark, even though it was the middle of the day. I cried, I despaired, I pleaded, I prayed... - all this while looking at the wall, against which my bed was pushed. 

I seemed to almost step outside my self and observed that I was praying to some dingy, dirty, faded and peeling wallpaper, crumpled over a crack in the bedroom wall. I was praying to a crack in a wall. That was God. And I suddenly realized; I’m an atheist.

In that moment, my slate was wiped clean. In the next few days I returned to Philadelphia, to my parents’ home, to the bedroom I’d left when I went off to college. I’d lost everything – most importantly, I’d lost belief. There was no God, no Easter Bunny, no Tooth Fairy and no Santa Clause – it was all stuff for children. In the process of coming to those conclusions, I’d somehow lost me as well – my sense of self. 

Less than a month after returning from Canada, feeling totally defeated, I began practicing Buddhism, purely out of curiosity, and it turned out to be just the “Skillful Means” that I needed to find myself again. 

I tell people that I meditate. I sit silently, going within where all the answers lie for me. I recite from Sutras, I chant a Mantra – the Sacred Title of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Sutra. The “Focus of my Practice” is the Unborn and Deathless Buddha-Dharma that was recounted at a phantasmagoric event in the Lotus Sutra, where the Buddha revealed that his teaching and his life and his Dharma were no different from my life and that it was timeless, immanent and always manifesting as infinite potential. 

37 years later, I can still say that I don’t pray. Or at least I don’t pray to anything or any one, even though it may look like that to the casual observer. When I sit before my shrine and recite from the Sutras, you might say I’m continuing to program this biological computer that is my life.

I recite passages that remind me of the infinite possibilities open to me and to all living beings. I am reminded twice a day that all non-living and living things, including human beings, are manifestations of the great life-force of the universe, the Buddha-Dharma. Some people might call that God and pray to it. For me it’s enough to know that I am simply a part of it.

I rather like the idea that precarious means obtained by prayer. I look around at all the beauty in the world and realize that it truly is precarious. All is change, nothing is permanent.

Seeing a baby smile can bring tears unbidden to my eyes, just realizing how precious, ephemeral and temporary both my tears and its smile really are. Yet, in that smile is the infinite potential of the universe.

Do I pray? No! I tell people that I meditate.

Here now is my prayer:

Close your eyes for a moment, while we experience silence; go inside yourself and breath, don’t be afraid of the silence. Hear the breathing of your neighbors, realizing that there isn’t a molecule of air in this sanctuary that hasn’t been in the lungs of everyone else in here. We are breathing each other, we are that connected to each other.

What we have just done with our silence is the true miracle of this holy place. And what a precarious miracle it is.

Amen, Namaste and Blessed Be.

© Stephen Schwichow

Spirituality Con Carné

A year ago I had the pleasure of being up here to support Rev. Gibson’s service entitled “Beyond Tepid Tolerance,” in which I derided okra and expressed my intolerance for it. - More about that in a moment.
I’ve been looking forward to Rev. Gibson and Judy coming back again this year, and when I saw his Sunday’s sermon topic, “Spirituality con carné,” this long-time vegetarian couldn’t resist.

Really, Gordon … con carné? With flesh? I would have gone with “Spirituality con Chutzpah” or even “Spirituality con okra”, but “with meat”?!?!?!

So the issue for today, as I understand it, is being able to wrap something substantive around one’s personal spirituality, so that it has a life that goes out into the world.

I began suffering from “SPS” that’s Serious Person Syndrome quite early in my life. I was always the smallest and youngest looking among my peers. My mom even took me to the doctor to find out why I was so far behind all the others boys my age. The doctor just said I was a late bloomer. What it meant for me was that I was always the last one chosen to play on a team and was never a part of the kids in my own age group. My brother, three years younger than I, was always at least even with me in height. It was no fun being me and I spent a lot of time alone, serious time alone, reading and trying to figure out the “Why Me” of it all.

I remember a driving trip with my family from Philadelphia to Indianapolis when I was seven, when I saw a cat run over by an oncoming car. It was terribly traumatic for me and despite my parents’ assurances that the cat had died instantly and its writhing was simply the nerves continuing to fire, their telling me that even a chicken keeps running around after its head has been cut off somehow didn’t make me feel better. Seriously folks, is there any wonder why I’m a vegetarian?

My dad was Roman Catholic and my mother Presbyterian. My brother and I were raised protestant. When I was 15, my paternal grandmother, who up to that point hadn’t even recognized my brother and me as legitimate children, asked my parents if she could take me to a movie. Both my parents were happy about this and gladly drove me to the next town over to spend the afternoon with grandmom.

However, after taking me to a movie, she then took me to her Catholic church and then told me to not tell my parents, which, of course, I did – simply because I had found it really fascinating. Later that night, after I was already supposed to be asleep, I came down the stairs and overheard my parents having, what for me was the first and only disagreement I had ever heard them have. And the subject of that serious conversation was about my brother and I being raised Presbyterian instead of Catholic.

Again, my SPS (Serious Person Syndrome) took over and the next day I went to my high school library and got out the “Life Magazine Book of World Religions,” which I then read cover to cover. I wanted to understand, since my parents were both Christians, why it divided our family rather than uniting it? I now know that what I really wanted to understand was: What is the underlying message that unites us all? In other words, what really is the elephant whose extremities we, the visually impaired, are all clinging to, believing that our chosen extremity is the true elephant?

In 1970, the Vietnam War was fully engaged, the economy was in the toilet, unemployment was up and I, with my Master’s Degree in Slavic Linguistics, found myself just out of college, unemployed, and once again living with my parents, and feeling seriously sorry for myself.

By chance I saw an article in the January 1970 issue of Life Magazine about a new Buddhist sect that was rapidly growing out in southern California and which coincidentally had some members in the Philadelphia area. Out of sheer curiosity, I went to one of their discussion meetings and began to try the practice, not because I expected anything out of doing it, but simply because I wanted to learn Chinese, which is what the recitations were done in. What fun! A new language to learn!

What I didn’t realize was that I was embarking on a journey towards that source that unites us all, when we’re open to it.

Coincidental with beginning my Buddhist practice I became involved in the Gay Rights Movement. I never thought of it in terms of “social justice” but simply as the right thing to do.  And I involved myself with grim, serious determination.

Truman Capote was purported to have said that there are two kinds of people: the Gays and the Grims. Well I was a grim gay, or a gay grim – depending on your perspective. I took myself and what I was doing as an activist very seriously. Don’t forget, I was severely suffering from SPS (Serious Person Syndrome).

But somewhere along the way, my practice taught me to not get attached to outcomes, to not get attached to my own rightness. And in that letting go, the journey itself has become far more important than destination.
My friends, I actually do stop to smell the roses, and the jasmine and the lilies and, especially, the honeysuckle.

My problem with SPS (Serious Person Syndrome) has been inversely proportional to my “practiced” engagement in the world. And my engagement in the world has been a requital for the advice I was given as a child; that it was my responsibility to leave the world a better place for my having been in it. Thus, my Buddhist practice has taught me to listen and to laugh and also that shared laughter is the music of the gods, besides being the best medicine.

Emma Goldman, an early 20th century anarchist and political activist was enjoying herself at a dance once, when an earnest young man, no doubt suffering from SPS (Serious Person Syndrome), scolded her by saying that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. She was furious at his impudent interference and her response to him has been distilled down to this: “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!”

My friends please take out your bibles. Our New Testament reading for today is from the Gospel of Luke 18:15-17, “15 People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. 16 But Jesus called for them and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 17 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’”

I would like to invite you all to look up to your right. “The Kingdom of God is within You.” Keeping in mind that I am an atheist, I believe that the underlying meaning of that phrase is the real elephant.

The older I get, the more I believe that I understand what Jesus, the Buddha, Rumi and all the other great Sages were talking about. You see, my personal spirituality is one of underlying joy; joy, humor and fun. That is the meat on the bones of my spirituality. Or may I say the bark on the tree of my spirit.

Thanks to our Small Group Ministry program, which I cannot recommend highly enough, I have many, many friends in this congregation. And among them are those who have allowed me to play. I play Dungeons and Dragons, and my half-elf Sorcerer, Aramek, would like me to introduce you to his familiar: Snoop. Snoop is a North American ferret. Say “hello” Snoop.

And I enjoy going to the Golden Gate Renaissance Faire each summer. Please come with me next year. Truly, the longer I’m a Unitarian Universalist, the younger I get!

In closing, I would like to make a public confession. During the past year, Gordon and Judy have sent me a newspaper clipping about a famous “Okra Festival” and even some recipes. Well, Gordon, please pass on to your niece, Erica, that I have tried her recipe, “Indian Okra with Yogurt,” and it was delicious!

Yes, I will say it here in front of you all: “Okra is now welcome in my kitchen.” But now, speaking as someone who is in recovery from SPS (Serious Person Syndrome), I must also leave you all with a serious question: “What, in heaven’s name, is Rhubarb all about?”

Hope Is Fleeting

Greg’s lead-in to this sermon topic, that “Hope is Fleeting,” states that “many of us embrace faith to increase a sense of hope.” I became Unitarian Universalist because I was “hopeful,” - hoping to find an inclusive community with a vision of a better world where each individual had worth. And guess what? I found it here, among you, and it is here that I maintain my sense of hope.

In that well-known class called: Buddhism 101, one of the basics is that any authentic teaching must conform to three criteria, which I will render here in Unitarian Universalist terminology:

Non-self – reflects our Interconnected Web of Life, of which we are all a part; Nirvana – is about replacing Anger with Compassion, Greed with Generosity and Ignorance with Knowledge so that there can be room for Freedom and the Ability to perceive and understand reality as it is, not as we would like it to be and, lastly, Impermanence – which is the recognition of the fleeting nature of everything.

From a purely philosophical perspective, the idea that everything is changeable and transient, including Hope, might be seen as a: “DUH!!!” but the reality of that principle is quite another thing.

I thought the misery I called high school would never end. And I thought my nana would always be there at Christmas. It’s just a reality of life, from the microcosm to the macrocosm, that things are always changing, whether I accept the changes or not. Things change.

When I was a child, every day was filled with hope. Every day brought me memorable experiences. Every new food, every movie, every book, every trip to the shore (that’s the New Jersey seashore for the west coast natives among us) - all was filled with the hope and anticipation of new experiences. In other words, I lived with a sense of wonder and every new day began with hope for what was to come.

The dictionary defines the word Habit as an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Life, for me, is constantly in danger of becoming a habit. Of course, I’m not quite ready to break that particular habit. But there are days when I feel as if I wake up, simply because I’m in the habit of doing so, but what gets me out of bed is hope. Hope that something unpleasant will change for the better, or that something pleasant will continue, maybe for just one more day. If my Life were a loaf of bread, Hope would be the gluten that holds it together.

My mom used to say that I always seemed to see the glass half full and, perhaps that’s really the best way for me to view the place of hope in my life. If it’s a “given” that no matter what, everything changes – then – how I choose to view my life is truly up to me. Revel in the good times while I have them and keep in mind that the bad times won’t last forever and most importantly, remember that I won’t have to go through those bad times alone.

Consider our Small Group Ministry program. As I look around this sanctuary, I see so many of you here whom I consider my friends and it’s either because I met you directly through small group ministry or because you were a friend of one of my Small Group Ministry friends.

Lest I ever be accused of being a Pollyanna or, for that matter, a cock-eyed optimist – I need only look at our world today if I truly want to develop not only a sense of hopelessness but the habit of feeling hopeless. Global warming, bio-diversity in decline, a dwindling middle class, profit trumping the welfare of the people, a government that seems based on anger, greed and ignorance, with my tax dollars being used to kill children in Iraq rather than to educate children in America. I need say no more.
In a few moments, Greg is going to talk about how to cope with hope when life feels hopeless. Well, here’s what I do.

I remind myself that nothing is forever. But what I do have in my life, I will cherish while I have it. I don’t just try to see the wonders around me, I seek them out. After all, a stranger is just a friend I haven’t met and a friend is a book of miracles, just waiting to be opened. And I do stop to smell the roses, the honeysuckle and the jasmine.
When my friends, whom I’d met through our Small Group Ministry program, asked me whether or not I would be interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons with them, I jumped at the chance. I’ve wanted to learn that since my college days. Thanks to their friendship, wonderful new friends have come into my life and a whole new area of fun and community has been opened to me.

I’ve often said: If I am destined to have a second childhood, I’ll decide when, where and how! 

I believe that if there really is any habit worth cultivating, it’s hope. And when I look around this sanctuary, I see a room filled with reasons for hope.
And I thank you all for that.

Blessed be …
Wishin’ & Hopin’

I wonder, how many folks here remember the name Stephanie McIntosh? While you may not recognize her name, you will probably recognize her lyrics:

Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying
Planning, and dreaming, each night, of his charms.
That won’t get you into his arms …. Ah Ooooo

The subject of our most recent service, during the season of Advent, has been hope. And in considering the issues facing us today, I have to admit that this has been one of the most difficult Credo’s for me to put together.

In my opinion, Stephanie got the order right, first comes the wishin’ and then comes the hopin’. We have lots of sayings about wishes: “A goal without a plan is just a wish. (Larry Elder)” “Wishes won’t wash dishes.” And a cute one from my Scottish ancestors, “If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride.”

When I was growing up I spent a lot of time alone, because I lived in a neighborhood where all the other kids were either 3-4 years younger or more than 5 years older than I. I had wished so much to have friends my own age to play with. And because I was always the smallest in my class and always looked 3 or 4 years younger than my chronological age, I used to wish I were bigger and looked older. My mom used to tell me that someday I wouldn’t see that as a curse. When I graduated high school, I was actually the second shortest boy in the class – what a thrill.

I’ve found that throughout my life wishing is what I do when the realities of life needn’t intrude. How many times have I wished that I hadn’t said something, or done something, or eaten something for which I later felt regret? And, oh, how I wish my dad hadn’t died at 59 and mom at 64.

And as for the future, I have wishes aplenty: I wish I weighed 160 lbs again; I wish I could win the lottery; I wish there were no such thing as AIDS or Cancer, poverty or war … I wish.

Now hope, on the other hand, hope springs eternal. And we have plenty of quotations and proverbs about hope as well. “Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” (Tertullian) “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” And, from my Irish ancestors: “Hope is the physician of each misery.”

My mother used to say that my brother always seemed to see the glass half empty and I that always saw it half full. Every summer during my childhood and before the days of super highways, my family would drive the 70 miles from Philadelphia, PA to Ocean City, NJ, down the three-lane, Black Horse pike. And every time my dad got into the center passing lane, known as the suicide lane, my brother would start screaming from the back seat that we were all going to be killed and never make it to the shore. Meanwhile, my head was out the window, already “smelling” the ocean, even though it was still 50 miles away.

I suppose I’ve always been a basically optimistic person and I believe the foundation of my optimism is hope. In the dictionary, words used in defining hope include: possibility, expectation, trust, confidence, faith.

Today I’m not the shortest kid in the class; I have lots of friends to play with; and my mother was right – I don’t mind looking a little younger than my chronological age.
As for hope – well – I’m not counting on the lottery but I am hoping that the Zone Diet my doctor recommended will work for me. I’m hoping that I still have some good years ahead of me, because there’s still a lot left to do, and I want to be able to do my small part.

And in the “grander scheme of things,” I believe I have real reason to hope that the daily advances in science and technology will bring treatments and cures for Cancer and AIDS and all the other scourges that beset humanity.

And finally, moving from hope to belief, I believe that the salvific message of Unitarian Universalism will move beyond the walls of our fellowships, societies and churches and bring new hope to people who’ve given it up in the face of the daunting challenges before us today.

If we are to confront poverty, war and human misery, I believe we must begin in our own hearts and instill hope there, where it will do the most good.

I’ve been knocked down a lot of times in my life and it’s been hope and trust in the future that has always enabled me to stand back up again. Celene Dion sings that “love can move mountains” and Nat King Cole sang “faith can move mountains.” But I believe it’s hope that gives us the strength to even try.

If I were to choose a theme song that bespeaks what hope is for me, and maybe Unitarian Universalism in general, it would probably be the opening lyrics of “Tubthumper”, by that well known group Chumbawamba.

I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never gonna keep me down.
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You’re never gonna keep me down.

And all the people say: AMEN

Beyond Tepid Tolerance 
Let me ask for a show of hands. How many people here like okra?

Now, just to clarify, I’m talking about the vegetable – oKra, not the TV celebrity, Oprah.


As a Buddhist, I’m convinced that okra is the hell-realm reincarnation for garden slugs that have done something truly evil during their all-too-brief lives. They come back as okra - all the slime but none of the mobility.

I bring up okra for a reason. Please note: I’m a stellar conversationalist and I hate to cook for myself. So, should you ever invite me to dinner and serve okra, I’ll smile and eat it with appreciation for the kindness you’ve shown me in inviting me to share a meal with you. However, on a more personal note, I won’t tolerate okra in my own kitchen. It has the big “ick” factor for me.

Toleration is an interesting concept. We hear the word bandied about more and more these days. We must be a tolerant society; we must show tolerance, the Museum of Tolerance - &c, &c., &c

The first time I walked into a Unitarian Universalist church to attend a service, I did so at the invitation of a member who, knowing that I practiced Buddhism, thought I might be interested in hearing Rev. Beaudreault’s sermon on Buddhism.

I was, in fact, very interested and found his sermon accurate, for the most part, though skewed to an understanding of silent meditation as the quintessential Buddhist practice, a mistake often made, to this day, by many of my fellow Unitarian Universalists.

I specifically remember at the beginning of the service, the “official” greeter welcoming us guests by telling us that the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento was a place of tolerance regarding peoples’ differences. That statement left me with a lingering question. But as I continued to attend the services I found that, as one of the few gay members, I was more than tolerated. My partner and I were “accepted” as just another couple who came to services and participated in the life of the congregation.

It was this sense of being accepted that lead to my “signing the book” in 1990. And when it came my time to stand up front, I did a bit of editing and welcomed our guests by telling them that our church was not a place where they would find tolerance in spite of their differences but rather a place where they would find acceptance because of their differences and because of what they could bring to our ongoing dialogue and encouragement to mutual growth and understanding.

My minister in Sacramento, Rev. John Young, once told me that the job of ministry, whether professional or lay, is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” It is through working and learning to accept each other that we challenge each other and grow together. It is through finding our commonalities rather than in highlighting our differences that true dialogue and mutual understanding can grow.

I tend to view tolerance and acceptance as two components on a larger continuum. At one end is the emotion of hate and the violence that ensues from it and at the other end of the continuum I see love and its ensuing compassionate action. In between, I place intolerance, tolerance and acceptance. Somehow I find life easier when I can neatly categorize things.

I won’t dwell on Hate and Violence or Intolerance because they speak loudly and clearly for themselves. One only needs to watch the television news or TV programming, read a newspaper, or even do a Google search.

Did you know that there are 2,280,000 pages on “How to become a Nazi”, and 332,000 pages on “How to start a White Supremacist Group?” To my mind, even one such page is one page too many.

Let’s move up the continuum to Tolerance, Acceptance and, to what I see as the ideal for society, Love and Compassionate Action.

For those of us who have been raised around intolerance, to be tolerant takes some effort. It takes work. It means that despite our individual comfort levels, we are willing to put up with a particular behavior, belief or person, all for the sake of public or, in our case, congregational harmony.

Did you know, there are Unitarian Universalists who don’t feel completely comfortable with our denomination’s outspokenness on the issue of same-sex Marriage Equality? After all, many places now permit “domestic partnerships.” That’s good, isn’t it?

And why is our denomination suddenly speaking out for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act with transgender inclusion and protection?

It is my belief that many of these same people may consider themselves very “tolerant,” while for the sake of congregational peace, they will keep their opinions to themselves in church.

Speaking as a recovered Presbyterian, I didn’t find tolerance in the church in which I grew up. Because of that I have come to realize that if toleration is the best that one can manage, then I’m willing accept that. I will accept the tolerance of those around me, but I accept it only as long as I can also issue a challenge; a challenge borne of my Unitarian Universalist beliefs. That challenge is our shared 7 Principles.

We are here to help each other in our free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We are here to challenge each other to acceptance of one another and to encourage ourselves to support the spiritual growth of this, our congregation. If we truly do covenant among ourselves to affirm the worth and dignity of every person, then for us, “tolerance” must become the place from which we start; not the place where we finish up.

Tolerance in the easy part; learning to be “accepting” of others because they are different is the part that takes real effort. It means that we must actually break through stereotypes and learn about and get to know our neighbors, whether they are in the house next door or in the pew sitting next to us.

In my world, wanting to create a society, or even a congregation, based on love and compassionate action is “thinking globally,” while getting to know and accept my neighbors is very much “acting locally.”

In our world today, I don’t believe that tolerance is enough anymore, especially among those of us who share a progressive, liberal and liberating faith like Unitarian Universalism. While some of us might feel that being tolerant does take some effort, I believe that we Unitarian Universalists need to be taking the lead in acting on our principles, which principles are really about acceptance, not just tolerance.

And finally, may I say that I’m always open to trying something new? So, if you have what you consider to be an outstanding recipe for okra, I’m ready to give it a try.

© Stephen Schwichow
Creating Meaning

When Brian (Ferguson) asked me to reflect on the topic of “Finding Meaning in the Mundane, my mind, as it is wont to do, went off in several different directions.

Of course, the first thing I did was look up the meaning of the word “mundane:“ secular (as opposed to spiritual or heavenly), worldly, pedestrian, commonplace, trite, or ordinary.

The word comes from Middle English, which got it from the French mondain, the descendant of the Latin mundanus, meaning a citizen of the world.

Perhaps we might consider substituting the word “mundane” for the ubiquitous “blah.” One would at least sound intelligent in one’s negativity.

In the TV series “Babylon 5” the telepaths had great disdain for the “Mundanes,” those with no telepathic ability. I suppose it was less charitable an opinion than Harry Potter’s world, filled with Muggles.

Being a language purist, I’ve just considered the word as simply meaning “pertaining to the world.” So I find it interesting that we have tended to cast negative connotations on the meaning of “mundane.”

The first verse and chorus of Mac Davis’ song, “Stop And Smell The Roses,” speaks to another approach to the mundane:

Hey Mister
Where you going in such a hurry
Don't you think it's time you realized
There's a whole lot more to life than work and worry
The sweetest things in life are free
And there right before your eyes
You got to Stop and Smell the roses
You've got to count your many blessings everyday
You're gonna find your way to heaven is a rough and rocky road
If you don't Stop and Smell the roses along the way

The Zen Buddhist practice of “mindfulness” is, I suppose, another way to find “meaning in the mundane.”

When I get up in the morning, while I’m waiting for my coffee to brew, I “mindfully” wash the dishes. I’m no where other than in my kitchen, in my bathrobe, focused on one dish, one spoon, one plate. Each in its turn. I’m not worrying about what faces me at the office, nor am I replaying what I “should have said” when so-and-so said such-and-such to me. I’m just washing dishes.

And when I walk down the hill to the Castro MUNI station, I always stop at a 15’ long stretch of jasmine, hanging over a retaining wall at the sidewalk. I just put my face into the flowers and take in the incredible aroma. Then, 20’ on, I run my fingers through a wondrous rosemary plant that cascades over another retaining wall, hanging over the sidewalk. I can walk the last little way to the Metro with the essence of rosemary on my fingers, held up to my nose.

Were someone to follow me, they would see this little ceremony of mine every morning.

Of course, even mindfulness practice can be perverted. Dogen, the founder of the Soto Zen Buddhist School, shook the dust from his sandals and went into the mountains when he saw the Japanese military government, the Shogunate, perverting mindfulness practice into the simplicity of:

When you sit, just sit.
When you eat, just eat.
When you kill, just kill.

Is it any wonder that Zen practice became the school of choice among the Samurai?

I think, when it comes down to it, I’m not really interested in finding any meaning in the mundane. The mundane simply is the way the world is. Mundanity is the water in which we fishes swim. So how, really, can we find meaning in it?

I’d rather pose the question as: How does one create meaning in the mundane?

Take something as mundane as a knife lying in the gutter. A thief could use it to threaten and hurt an unwary stranger, while a doctor could use it to perform an emergency tracheotomy and save a life.

Everything about being a Unitarian Universalist is about action, creating value, giving meaning, informing that which is to be more than it was and we do this with our own, mundane lives and the lives of those around us.

© Stephen Schwichow
What is Prayer?

The general consensus on the Internet is summed up by Truth4Life.tripod.com: “Prayer is talking with God. Click here to learn more.”

Do I pray? No! I tell people that I meditate.

I sit silently, going within where all the answers lie for me. I recite from Sutras; I chant a Mantra. The “Focus of my Practice” is the Timeless and Immanent Buddha-Dharma that was recounted in the Lotus Sutra, when the Buddha revealed that his life, his Dharma and all of us, were timeless, immanent and always manifesting as infinite potential.

After 36 years of practice, I can still say that I don’t pray. Or at least I don’t pray to anything or any one, even though it may look like that to the casual observer. When I sit before my shrine and recite from the Sutras, you might say I’m continuing to program this biological computer that is my life.

The Sutra passages that I recite remind me of the infinite possibilities open to me and to all living beings. I am reminded twice a day that all non-living and living things, including human beings, are manifestations of the great life-energy of the universe, the Buddha-Dharma. Some people might call that God and pray to it. For me it’s enough to know that I am simply a part of it.

I look around at all the beauty in the world and realize that it truly is all so miraculous, and so precarious. All is change, all is transient, and nothing is permanent.

Seeing a baby smile can bring tears unbidden to my eyes, just realizing how precious, ephemeral and temporary both my tears and its smile really are. Yet, in that smile is the infinite potential of the universe.

Did you know that the word “precarious” comes from the Vulgate Latin meaning “obtained by prayer?”

Here now is my prayer:

Close your eyes for a moment, while we experience silence; go inside yourself and breath, don’t be afraid of the silence. Hear the breathing of your neighbors, realizing that there isn’t a molecule of air in this sanctuary that hasn’t been in the lungs of everyone else in here. We are breathing each other, we are that connected to each other.

Bell

(SILENCE)

Bell

What we have just done with our silence is the true miracle of this holy place. And what a precarious miracle it is.

Amen, Namaste and Blessed Be.

© Stephen Schwichow

What I Love about America – July 4, 2004

I love living in this country. True, I’m not happy about the current administration in Washington, but I celebrate the fact that I can work in a democratic society to change that situation.

I love living in a potato washer! Now, hold that thought.

When I go to work in the morning, the first person to great me is Atanasy, one of the guards at the front desk in my building. He’s from Rumania, having escaped to America during the time of Caucescu. He has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bucharest. Worthless here, but we talk philosophy and he teaches me to say “Bună dimineaça. Ce mai fac’? Good morning. How are you?

Once I’ve settled in, I come downstairs for my coffee and stop at “City Kinetics” for my favorite breakfast burrito. The best in the city! Stella cooks it up and Elena puts it together. They’re sisters-in-law and both from Mexico.

The deli is owned by Sam and Waffa, both Palestinian Muslims. I always enter with the greeting, “As salaam aleikam” and Waffa always answers, “Aleikam wa salaam.” Sam is disgusted with Yassar Arrafat. Angry that he won’t step down and let people make peace. Waffa just prays that the fighting will stop and that our country will be protected from the craziness.

Next door to the deli is the cleaner, owned by a family from Hong Kong and around the corner is “Working Girl’s” Deli, owned by an Israeli couple. They’re disgusted with Sharon and want him voted out so the people can make peace. They pray that our country will be protected from the craziness.

On my way home from work, I might stop to pick up coffee at the “Castro Cheeserie,” owned by Palestinian Christians and then take the 33 bus. My driver might be Al, a white guy, or Danny, who’s Philipino, or Manuel from Mexico, or Jerry, an African American. Every single one of them knows my name and would pick me up in the middle of the block if they should see me running for the bus.

In rural Japan they had a very interesting way of cleaning batches of potatoes. A bunch would be put into a special barrel, filled with water and then the barrel was manually spun with a hand crank. As the potatoes inside spun and turned, falling over each other and bumping and rubbing against each other, after a while all the skins were brushed off them and out came clean potatoes, ready for cooking.

This metaphor is often used to describe how we develop as people, continually bumping into one another, rubbing against each other, learning how to be with each other, learning from each other and learning to respect each other.

I suppose one could say, we learn from this, our Great American Potato Washer, how to clean up our individual acts through interacting with each other.

This is what I love about America. So, for today at least, you can just call me “Spud.”

© Stephen Schwichow

WAR

My grandmother used to say that violence, like profanity, was a small mind expressing itself. I was taught that I should walk away from a fight and only raise my fists in self-defense.

In 1969, when I was out of graduate school I was drafted. I had been a language major and that meant my future would be to go to the Army's Monterrey Language School to learn Vietnamese. I had no desire to shoot at or kill anyone. My own father had joined the Merchant Marines during the Second World War because he was more willing to brave the gauntlet of axis submarines than to carry a weapon and kill or be killed.

Being raised a Presbyterian, I didn't have available the “Quaker” option of declaring myself a conscientious objector. I suppose Presbyterians don't conscientiously object. So, the night before I was to go for my induction physical my mother called me downstairs and said that she had heard on television that if I told the military that I was a homosexual, they would give me a 1-Y deferment, which meant I could only be called up if war were declared.

My first reaction to her words was fear: “Oh, my God! She knows,” which was followed immediately by a sense of relief that finally I could talk about my personal anguish and confusion, my sense of living a lie, and how deep was the spiritual and emotional pain, which had led to my attempted suicide, unbeknownst to my parents, while at university.

No doubt because of the look on my face, she immediately followed up with, "Of course, we know you're not." And on that note I went to my induction physical the next morning, prepared to tell a truth to the military but also with the burden of knowing that I would have to continue living a lie for my family.

Thus, at the end of the induction physical when filling out the paperwork, I "checked the box" conveniently provided by the military that asked whether I was currently or had ever engaged in homosexual activities. I was promptly pulled out of line and sent to a military shrink who told me I was “no more queer than the man in the moon” but that if I insisted on lying then the military didn't want me or my kind, unless of course we declared war, in which case I could get killed just like everybody else.

I've never really come to terms with the fact that while the world's major religions teach an injunction against killing, those same traditions, based on dualistic thinking, then go on to include rationalizations and circumstances where killing is justifiable.

In "Buddhism and War," Ken and Visakha Kawasaki explain that, "According to Buddha's teaching, there is no such thing as righteous anger, let alone a just war. The three defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion are the reasons the world goes round and round. Wars begin because the people of one country--or, at least, their rulers--have unfulfilled desires. They are greedy for advantages, benefits, wealth, or power; they are angry, jealous, or filled with rage. Either their desires have been thwarted, or their pride and their sense of self have been offended. Often conflicts involve racial or national arrogance. Leaders wrongly feel that the solution to problems, which are essentially within their own minds, can be found externally, through the use of force. Those in power are deluded into thinking that the violence of war will bring real and lasting benefit to themselves and to their group."

The Buddha said: "There is no greater happiness than peace." It's very easy for me to both practice Buddhism and hold our 7 Principles as my rudder on a troubled sea. I find such a wonderful convergence between the Three Treasures of Buddhism and our 7 Principles:

The Treasure of the Timeless & Immanent Buddha-nature is for me that inherent worth and dignity of every person while living my life with respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are all a part.

The Treasure of the Timeless & Immanent Dharma, for me is expressed through justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, thus facilitating a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

And

The Treasure of the Timeless & Immanent Sangha (or Community of Faith) enables me to manifest the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all through our acceptance of one another and through our mutual encouragement to individual spiritual growth and to our right of conscience and the use of the democratic process in society at large.

In the Dhammapada, stanza 165, the Buddha is quoted as saying:

By ourselves is evil done.
By ourselves we pain endure.
By ourselves we cease from wrong and
By ourselves become then pure.

© Stephen Schwichow

Tennebrae Service - April 9, 2004

I had spent such a lovely evening with my friends. I'd always considered myself so lucky to be always surrounded by friends, even though some might have considered my politics and spirituality a bit out of the mainstream. Yet, little did I realize on that pleasant April evening that I would be enjoying my last supper before my life would be changed forever.

After leaving my friends, I found myself on the road, when I heard the screams, "Let's get him!" and was seized from behind. I screamed for help but there was no escape for me, I fell under their weight several times, struggling as I might; calling for help. They scourged me, beat and punched me, screamed names at me and said I deserved it.

To this very moment, standing here before you, I vividly remember it all as if in a slow-motion replay; the fist coming at my face; my head jerking back as the blood gushed from my nose, flying slowly off to the left; the sound as my septum cracked; the roundhouse blow to my left temple that literally left me seeing stars while they dragged me across the road. Then I was thrown on my back, spread-eagle across the hood of a car to better facilitate the further punishment, they were yelling, that Anita Bryant had apparently said this is what I deserved. And as I landed on the car's antenna, I heard my ribs snap.

While two of the teenaged boys held my arms, a lucky kick temporarily disabled the one standing in front of me, and this enabled me to escape onto a nearby, lighted porch, while they went to his aid. I banged on the door, begging for help and, like Pontius Pilot washing his hands; the man who looked out from the doorway closed the curtains, turned off the porch light and left me to the mob. Not one person in that neighborhood called the police that evening to notify them about the attack against me or the attacks against anyone else.

Luckily for me, two people who were leaving a local gay disco came to my aid and carried me back to the club. When I was carried into the club's front office, someone yelled, "Here comes another one."

Even before the police arrived, 45 minutes later, another man was brought into the club, having been severely beaten with a tree branch. I might add that when the police finally arrived, they were responding to a call made an hour before my attack, when another club patron had been beaten with a baseball bat and a pipe. He consequently ended up in a coma.

The police, with seeming disinterest, took down my name, asked me if I'd gotten the names of my attackers or could identify them and then suggested I find someone to get me to a hospital, which I did, thanks to my friend, Dexter, who rushed over to the club in his car to pick me up.

The three, white, middle class youths who attacked me on that Sunday evening in Houston, 1978, did not consider me to be a human being. According to the sermon they had heard that morning, God did not suffer homosexuals to live! Thus, to them I was a thing; in their words, a faggot. And they were out that night to have fun bashing fags while doing their God's work. You see, the disco was in a predominantly gay area of the city, and my very presence in that neighborhood automatically meant that I must be a queer, and therefore deserving of punishment.

I will never be allowed to forget what happened to me on that pleasant April evening because the dull ache under my left arm when it gets cold and the consequential loss of hearing that I suffered as a result of that beating are an ever present reminder that violence is naught but hate made manifest, and, to me, that hate is born of fear and ignorance.

Addendum

As a result of that attack, it took me years to overcome my discomfort at being around anyone who self-identified as a Christian – but I have. Most importantly, I have had to learn to look past the self-imposed labels people give themselves and to see their actions as the truth of their lives. As a result of that attack, it has spurred me on to deep self-examination as well as spiritual and social activism.

My firsthand experience with such violence has only served to strengthen my resolve to do what ever I can to counter ignorance with information, fear with compassion, and most importantly, to counter hate with the truth of my own life. I deeply believe that the truth of who I am can serve to free those who hold onto false stereotypes out of fear and ignorance.

So may it be!

© Stephen Schwichow

World AIDS Day - December 1, 2003
Service at the First UU Society of San Francisco


I'd like to ask you all to close your eyes for a moment and allow me to take you on a voyage of the imagination. It will become clear where I'm taking you.

Imagine living in a country whose President will not even admit that the AIDS epidemic exists. The word "AIDS" won't even come out of his mouth! He and his cronies don't have anything to worry about. Besides, the people getting sick are not the kind of people he associates with. And he's found all the right doctors who confirm that there is no connection between the HIV virus and AIDS.

Imagine taking a stroll along the north side of Golden GatePark on a sunny Saturday morning.

There in what used to be a beautiful meadow, last night the backhoes came in to dig the graves that will be necessary to bury the 1350 to 2250 people who will have died of aids this week – just this week! And next Friday evening, the backhoes will come in again to dig more graves. And the next Friday after that and the next …and the next.

Can you even imagine, of the 8700 births in San Francisco last year, that 70% of the babies could have been born HIV+? That's 6,100 babies. Can you imagine a population of orphan children under the age of 18 numbering 800,000? The population of San Francisco, as of October 2003 was only 791,000. These children — half of them between the ages of 10 and 14 — are left without critical guidance, protection and support. They are also at risk of malnutrition, physical and sexual abuse, and exposure to HIV infection.

When I started speaking, you may have thought I was talking about Ronald Reagan and the early days of the AIDS pandemic. By now you must know that I'm talking about … Thailand? Russia? Actually I'm talking about one country - South Africa.

Is October of 2003, thanks to the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, I was able to accompany one of our ministers, the Rev. Margot Campbell-Gross, to stay at the Thabong Community of Dominican Nuns for 2 ½ weeks, in a little town, Geluksdal, 50 kilometers outside of Johannesburg. Geluksdal, an Afrikaaner word meaning "Happy Dale" is anything but. With a population of 7,000, they bury between 12 and 20 people every Saturday. Cause of death - AIDS. Each Saturday morning, when we drove past the cemetery, there were buses lined up, waiting their turn.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan thinks many political leaders still simply do not care enough to fight the disease, which has killed 28 million people since it was first reported among gay men in the United States in 1981. In an interview he said: "I feel angry, I feel distressed, I feel helpless...to live in a world where we have the means...to be able to help all these patients, what is lacking is the political will."

The township of Soweto, outside Johannesburg, has a population of 4.2 million. I was there. I saw the square where, in 1976, 15,000 school children had gathered peacefully to protest a law mandating that they must study in the Afrikaans language. The white police opened fire and in 15 minutes 600 children between the ages of 7 and 18 lay dead. Today, South Africa's children are dying again. And again, it's preventable. 17% of the children under 18 are living with HIV.

I saw Soweto's "Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital," the largest hospital in the world. 70% of the babies born there are HIV+. Often the mothers simply leave without ever even looking at their newborns.

November 17, 2003 will go down in history as the day the South African Cabinet at last announced its firm decision to add an antiretroviral treatment program to the country's response to HIV/Aids. Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa finally buckled under the huge domestic and international pressure to roll out anti-retroviral drugs, despite his previous backing for scientists who have questioned the link between AIDS and HIV.

Additionally, during my visit there in October, a landmark announcement was made by the Clinton Presidential Foundation indicating that the developing countries, so devastated by AIDS, will see the cost of Aids drugs drastically reduced from a per-patient cost of $11,000 a year to $140 a year. That's an incredible reduction in price!

In all my years of traveling, this is the first time that I have ever felt ashamed to say that I was an American. When one sees a cost reduction of that magnitude, is it any wonder that the people who are dying themselves or have buried their loved ones might feel that the West, America, and western businesses and pharmaceutical interests have been more interested in making money than in saving lives.

I can only hope that my presence there, at least, showed some people that not all Americans are willing to sacrifice the lives of children for the sake of the "almighty" dollar. But I'm only one person, and this scandal, this shame is one my country must ultimately answer for.

Is there hope in all this? Yes, I believe there is. I can't live without believing there's hope.

As a Unitarian Universalist, I refer back to the words of one of our ministers, Forrest Church, who wrote in his book "A Chosen Faith:"

"Though far from exclusive to Unitarian Universalists, the principal sin besetting many of us today is the sin of sophisticated resignation. This sin is particularly insidious because it comes with its own veil. That is, it appears respectable. It allows us to feel strongly about injustices without prompting us to do anything about them. This sin is tailor-made for many of us because it is fed by knowledge. We know so much about the world's problems, and their enormity, that however much we want to do about them, we feel impotent. What could we do to affect hunger, homelessness, AIDS, or the threat of nuclear annihilation? How much easier it is to watch our diets and tone our bodies. For many of us, self-improvement (both physical and spiritual) has displaced the transformation of society as our principal moral concern."

Our heritage reminds us that we are a faith of deeds not creeds. According to the second of our faith's… [six] sources, "words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love."

I am continually challenged in this religious institution that is my spiritual home. That challenge is the reason I went to South Africa. I believe we can all do something, what we need, quite simply, is the will to do it.

[What followed was the story of Cynthia Mahlangu]

May the Spirit of Spirits Bless South Africa.

© Stephen Schwichow

An Unforgettable Visit

Cynthia Mahlangu - Rest in Peace

Sister Irene, a German nun who has lived in South Africa for 40 years, took us to St. Francis Care Centre in Fonteinriet, outside Johannesburg. This place is a hospice, orphanage and final stop for too many.

The first place we visited was the children's recreation and activity area, which was a large room, 20' by 40,' with one side all glass, overlooking the grounds and an adjacent play area.

All the children at St. Francis are either abandoned or orphaned and all have AIDS. On that weekday the older children were off-site at school and the younger ones were at the Crèche, a sort of on-site day-care facility.

Even so there were some toddlers and Sister Irene starter playing kickball with 5 year old bundle of energy named Sipho when she noticed that a pile of clothing on the pillows against the wall was actually a little girl, curled up in a fetal position.

The little girl didn't want to join in but sweet Irene prevailed and, holding her up by the elbows, got her to kick at the ball a couple of times. Cynthia Mahlangu is 8 years old, scarred on her face and match stick arms and legs from AIDS-related lesions. She was not in school that day because she wasn't feeling well.Collette Simmons, the artist in our group, brought out her colored pencils and blank paper, and suddenly the kids were drawing. I can't even do a good stick figure but Collette got me sitting with Cynthia, who wouldn't pick up any pencils so I did and tried to draw the shape of a girl. When I began to color the figure's top red, like Cynthia's sweater, she stopped me, saying, "No me, no me."

So I said that she should pick the colors she wanted me to use. The final result was a white man with multicolored clothing and, coincidentally, trousers with zippers across the knees that let them become shorts. Just like what I was wearing!

Cynthia then immediately turned the paper over and said, "Now draw girl." So I drew a female figure with long-sleeved blouse and skirt. She asked me to give the person black curly hair, with a brown face and hands and legs. I drew designs on the skirt – a horse, a couple of flowers, and Cynthia asked me specially to draw the shape of a heart.

We were then called away for a tour of the grounds and her disappointment was such that I asked her to continue coloring in the picture and I promised I would come back to see it.

After an hour I returned to an empty room. I was disappointed and called out for Cynthia, believing she had left when she suddenly leapt up from the pillows where she had been resting and ran to show me her beautiful completed picture. Well, naturally this called for a "Picture Taking Ceremony!" So we took pictures with my digital camera of Cynthia and her artwork; Cynthia and me and her artwork; Cynthia and some of the staff and other children and her artwork. She was absolutely enchanted by actually seeing the pictures on the LED screen.

Then I had an idea and picked her up in my arms, supporting her under her chest and stomach, and as I done countless times with my nephews and niece when they were little, I starting trotting around the room saying that this was like flying.

Cynthia had never done anything like that before but she seemed to enjoy it. As soon as I put Cynthia down 6 year old Brendan Radebe came running over: Me fly! Me fly!" he shouted.

How could I resist? So, off we went, with Brendan flapping his arms like a chicken pursued by a fox, shrieking with joy. At that, Cynthia asked to go again.

I picked her up, this weightless little girl and we started off along the length of the wall. All I said was, "Fly Cynthia; flap your arms like a bird." And fly she did. She began to move her arms like the wings of a swan. There was such a delicacy and beauty in the smooth, rhythmic movement of her arms that any prima ballerina would have envied.

And as we rounded the room and were moving along the window I said "Look, Cynthia. You're flying!" And she looked at her reflection and she glowed with joy. And I understood the words of the sage, Nichiren, who said: "To live even one day as a human being is worth all the galactic treasures of the universe."

As we finished her flight the children were called to lunch, which was probably for the best, since the 6,500' altitude was severely taxing my flying abilities. I told the kids I'd say goodbye after their lunch.

When we came back down stairs, the kids had already been taken to the room where they had their naps. There was Cynthia, sound asleep, curled up in a crib. I couldn't bring myself to wake her, so I just offered her a little prayer and a promise that I would tell people that there once lived a little girl in Africa, named Cynthia, who was an artist and who could fly like a swan.

(In Memory of Cynthia Mahlangu - 1994-2005)

© Stephen Schwichow

Forgiveness Meditation

“Breathe in the Life” of all those who share this space with you … then “Breathe out Forgiveness” …

There are so many things I’ve said and done, for which I feel guilt, embarrassment and shame. I forgive myself for those things are long gone. I was a different person then and the person I am now forgives the one that I was. Forgiveness fills me and envelopes me with a sense of warmth and ease.

How many times have I blamed who I am on the things my parents said and did? They too are different now. Let the forgiveness that is filling me also surround them, as they exist in my mind and my heart. What a wonderful way for us to be together.
Isn’t it strange how the people I feel closest to sometimes hurt my feelings the most? Right now, I forgive them for anything that I feel they have done wrong or are doing wrong. I fill them with my forgiveness just as I accept them for who they are. In this way I express my love.

It’s amazing how much some of the habits and idiosyncrasies of my friends can get on my nerves. I forgive them for the silly things that I have disliked about them. I let my forgiveness reach out to them, so that they can be filled with it and embraced by it.

When I think of all the many people I know, I also know that I must forgive them all for whatever it is that I have blamed them for, that I have judged them for, that I have used as an excuse to look down on them. I let my forgiveness fill their hearts, surrounding and enveloping them. This is the expression of my love for them.

Now I remind myself of that one particular person I really need to forgive. I still, even now, feel resentment for this person. I still want to reject them. I just don’t like them. I forgive this person completely, because I know that neither one of us is free from illusions, attachments and vexations. I send this forgiveness from deep in my heart as I reach out to this person.

Enmity, condemnation, condescension and the blame game come too easily to me. Especially when I think of certain people or groups or the terrible situations that I believe they create. I must forgive them, completely. Only this can fully express unconditional love. I recognize that they may not be doing what I believe to be the right things, but I also recognize that we are all human and prone to attachments, especially to being “right.” My heart is just as needful of forgiveness as theirs; in order to have the purity of love.

Let me look again to see whether there's still anyone or anything, any where in the world, that has been on the receiving end of my blame or condemnation. I send my forgiveness so that my heart can heal and be whole.

And now I come back to myself. I’m a basically a good person; it’s just that sometimes I forget that. I need to cut myself a break and recognize that right now I am making a conscious effort to forgive. And as always, I begin and end in my own heart – where even now I feel the warmth and ease that comes from forgiveness.

May all beings have forgiveness in their hearts!

(adaptation)