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Excerpt from MANY VOICES: ONE CONGREGATION

My Beliefs – in 3 Minutes

by David A. Baker


I call myself a Buddhist-leaning Unitarian.  What I’d like to do is refer to some of the waypoints on my journey here and then explain what I mean by Buddhist-leaning Unitarian.


Until my early teens, most of my family members were what I call wedding and funeral Anglicans.  We did have a brief stint at First Church Christ Scientist in Detroit.    However, our standing in this community never really took hold, because I was thrown out of Sunday school for my vigorous arguments about what I saw as inconsistencies in Mary Baker Eddy’s metaphysical doctrines.


Having had this prior metaphysics exposure, I spent quite a bit of time in my later teens delving into Alan Watts’ book, “Mysticism East and West”, and as many of the Vedantist writings of Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda as I could afford to buy.


In my early twenties I was stationed at a very isolated army post in the middle of the Great Salt Lake desert and for want of intelligent conversation, began taking catechism with a Jesuit chaplain.  We met once a week.  One day my Catholic friend announced, “You know, David, tonight is our anniversary and you will recognize that what I am about to say is, to me, a mortal sin, but I am convinced that you are a hopeless pagan and not accessible to salvation.”  He did add that he wanted to continue our meetings, because he found our conversations stimulating.  I agreed and we did.


I was an avowed atheist for many years until someone rationally pointed out that it took the same act of faith to be an a-theist as it did to be a theist.


During a period of deep depression in my 50’s I began practicing Transcendental Meditation.  And later, in my 60’s I began reading a book by an American Buddhist, Jack Kornfield, called “A Path with Heart”, a title inspired by Carlos Castaneda’s conversation with the shaman, Don Juan, about the purpose of life.  In 2006, I was fortunate to have Jack Kornfield as my teacher at a ten-day silent Vipassana retreat north of San Francisco.


So, here’s what I believe at this point in my life:
I believe there is a universal consciousness of some sort, some kind of transcendent reality of which we are an undifferentiated part.  I believe there is no intrinsic ‘purpose’ to life, or that things happen in any more than a random fashion.


While I believe that there is no purpose to life, this does not mean that I think that life is meaningless.
What strikes me is that despite what I believe to be life’s randomness and utter purposelessness in of itself, I find that there is inherent beauty in our attempt to draw meaning from it.  To some of us, our lives have meaning when we are able to help others feel joy, whether it is by helping them live with more choices, or simply bringing joyful experiences to them.


We derive joy from an artist’s rendering of his or her reality, from a musician’s attempt to bring beauty in sound to others.  There are joys we experience within ourselves and joys we share with others.  Our lives are made meaningful when we feel that we are communicating with others through our words and works, or when we are able to be still enough to see and hear the beauty that is around us and to get a glimpse of our true nature.


Now, why am I a Buddhist-leaning Unitarian, and not a Buddhist Unitarian?  Like many of you, I have difficulty with dogma.  It’s not that dogma is necessarily bad.  Take the Buddhist concept of karma, for instance.  Karma is a healthy, social tool.  When people believe that they can reap what they sow, society stands to be a safer place for all.  It rationalizes good citizenship.  It is a simple and effective way to encourage us to get along better with each other.  The trouble is, I believe that a Karma-like law of just rewards and just punishments, just doesn’t exist.  On top that, I find that it conflicts in a fundamental way with my Buddhist beliefs.   …but that discussion will take longer than 3 minutes.

 

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by Kitty Meyers 

Early Years

 

I grew up Catholic in the SE corner of Georgia (Brunswick and St. Simons Island), where Catholics and Jews were in a tiny minority and considered odd. In a large Catholic family, with devout parents. Catholic grade school, catechism classes, confirmation, masses in Latin, priests and nuns. I never questioned any aspect of it or gave it any thought.

 

But as a college freshman in Ann Arbor, MI, far from my family, after dutifully registering at the campus Catholic chapel, and right about the time Vatican II began drastically changing Catholic services – I suddenly realized this faith held no meaning for me.

 

With Vatican II, gone were the only things I had responded to – the music of Latin high masses. The ritual of flowing priestly robes, processions, incense. Now masses were said in English and the hymns were new, bland and repetitive – all poetic beauty in language and sound was gone.

 

So I dropped out and didn’t join another church for more than 20 years. I was the first of seven children in my family to leave the Catholic Church – my parents were dismayed but said little.

 

I didn’t miss a religious affiliation. And although I gave it no real thought, if someone had asked me if I believed in a “God” or life after death, I would have said no.

 

Phase 2

 

Flash forward 20+ years later, here in Atlanta. I was lonely and lost from a recent divorce, and a friend suggested I go with her to her Unitarian church one Sunday, so I did. I’d never heard of Unitarians, but I quickly joined that church. My friend’s suggestion was the most important gift anyone has ever given me.

 

When I became a UU, I already knew I was a liberal Democrat and opposed to war through my personal growth experience of living in New York City for several years, particularly during the Vietnam War protests. And here in this Atlanta UU congregation was a large group of people who thought much like I did. I was ecstatic.

 

I soon realized that the UU Principles pretty much say it all for me.

 

The first UU Principle I began working toward at my new UU church was #7 “Reverence for the interdependent web of existence.” I joined the church’s environmental hiking group. This group was working hard to protect our Georgia and Atlanta natural resources, and they were also concerned about a wide range of other environmental issues. I realized how much all of this mattered to me and I joined in. It still matters as much if not more.

 

I could go through each of our Principles in terms of what they mean to me, but I’ll spare you. I really do like the part of Rev. Jim’s elevator speech that says, “UUs are less concerned with getting people into heaven and more concerned with getting heaven into people.” I’m concerned with getting more heaven into me.

 

I don’t know why I’m in this world, I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I do believe that since I’m here, I’ll try to make my best of the life I have – work to do good in the world, be the best person I can be, and live one day at a time with attention to the beauty in nature, art, theater, music, and literature. Not always easy, but I keep trying.

 

And these days, my devout 91-year-old Catholic mother, who I’m sure doesn’t know what a Unitarian is, is just pleased I go to church.

 
  Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation
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