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Impermanence: A Buddhist Perspective
Impermanence is the underlying reality of all existence. Given that all that appears will disappear, how might we live our lives? A Buddhist-influenced ethic both arises and is influenced by a deep understanding that in the end we will lose everything.
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Buddhism’s “Heavenly Abodes:” Friendliness, Compassion, Sympathetic joy, Equanimity
Buddhism gives us some tools to make us more compassionate and useful to ourselves and others. Among these are the “heavenly abodes” in which the mind can find ease and clarity. The four abodes are friendliness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. A mind which can rest in any or all of these states will find satisfaction,…
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Gratitude: A Buddhist Perspective
Buddhism recognizes that life is filled with dissatisfactions and ultimately, all is impermanent. We can wallow in our misery or we can stop and see how much joy there really is and feel gratitude.
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Impatience and Helplessness
Buddhism gives us tools to look at and manage our all-too-human feelings of impatience and helplessness.
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The Can’t and The Won’t
We all want to believe we won’t rather than we can’t. Buddhism gives us the tools to see what the reality of the situation is.
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Humility and Gratitude
Buddhism recognizes the interdependent web of all existence. Understanding our true place in the cosmos fosters both humility and gratitude.
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Religion in Early America
Our national mythology suggests that our religious history was the simple story of a band of brave Englishfolk (mainly men), who came to New England in search of religious freedom. What that meant in the context of Early America and the Reformation is this Sunday’s exploration.
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Buddhism’s Three Refuges: The Buddha, The Dharma and the Sangha
Buddhism is a worldview and an attitude toward life. It rests on three foundations: Our ability to know the truth, the reality of truth, and the community which supports our journey toward the truth. Select the Play button for an audio version of this sermon.
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The Eight Worldly Conditions
The Buddha’s Eight Worldly Conditions are: gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. Each can be a vehicle for us to examine our dissatisfactions.
In-Person Services, Columbia, SC Sundays 11AM
Speaker: Dr. Jessica Kross
Jessica Kross is a retired history professor who taught at USC for thirty-three years. She joined the UUCC in 1975 and sat on many Boards and Committees. She has spoken here many times. Jessica began a Buddhist practice in 1984 and has sat many silent retreats. She was a lay teacher in the Insight Community of Columbia Sangha for many years and now participates in it through zoom.