From Your Minister
It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community—a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth. —Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist teacher
I have been turning these words over in my mind for a number of months now, turning them over the way I would a small stone in my hand, to feel the planes and the smooth places. I feel as if the words describe what our collective lives are supposed to be about, even as each day’s news points out that approaching collective Buddahood is not what most of us appear to actually spend our time doing. But Thich Nhat Hanh’s language expresses my heart’s desire for life-giving connection, and I dare to hope that, in some way, it’s what the CLF strives to do as well.
It’s not that I have delusions of grandeur, or imagine that the rest of you do. I know I don’t dwell anywhere in the ‘hood of Buddha. But if I’m on a journey, I like to have a bold destination, and Buddhahood definitely qualifies. Why aim to go halfway to where you want to be?
Some of you are old enough to remember Ken Kesey’s bus, where in that spot up over the driver’s head that usually says something like, “Cedar Avenue,” it said simply, “Further.” When Tom Wolfe wrote about Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in his book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, he reported that they had a slogan—“You’re either on the bus or off the bus.” On a daily basis, going “further” is about all any of us can hope for. Still, if the CLF were a bus, I’d want the words up over the driver’s wheel to read, “Beloved Community” or maybe “Buddha ‘Hood.” And I’d hope that hundreds of thousands of people, ultimately, would want to be on the bus!
Maybe it’s because I’m an extrovert, and tend to wake up more in the presence of other people than when alone on a zafu cushion. But I’m particularly interested in that amazing journey we can only undertake together, the kind of bus only a community of faith could board together—the kind that lags when any one person believes that he or she is controlling the route, but picks up momentum through creative collaboration and co-creative ministry.
When I muse about this metaphorical CLF bus, I realize I’m not just thinking programmatically, about what might engage members and seekers to participate in activities. Though that’s definitely fun, my bigger interest is in where we can go together spiritually as a large, diverse community of people on a fragile planet in this perilous time. What might the CLF contribute to healing the world? What would be compelling enough to cause people to look up from their own journeys and commit to a collective one?
Early each morning I speak on the phone with a friend, and we each state our desired intentions for the places we serve; we’re the bus drivers, cranking through possible destinations to put the right words up overhead in that visible spot. For me, the words which declare our destination would be something along the lines of, “CLF is a global spiritual community which is alive, connective, transformational and fun. We are learning, through creative engagement, to love and care for ourselves, each other, and the planet.”
As the CLF moves towards the launch of our new online sanctuary, new opportunities beckon that we could not have imagined even a decade ago.
We see more roads on which the CLF bus can travel. I know not all of you are online, and certainly we are keeping your needs in mind all the time. But more people are on Facebook than live in the United States! How many of them might want to get on our bus if it drove right by their house?
We are trying to create something new, and I am sure there will be times when it feels as if we are stumbling. Heck, it won’t be a feeling—it will be a fact. The only way we can learn how to do something new is to be willing to fail. We will build in feedback loops and communication systems to “fail forward,” so that each failure teaches us something new as we move ahead. The path of our journey together might have some switchbacks and side trips, but winding paths are often the most interesting.
I can’t wait to see what we’ll create together and where we might go!
Are you on the bus?
- From Your Minister - July 1, 2020
- From Your Minister - June 1, 2020
- From Your Minister - May 1, 2020
