Category: general
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Shramadana
We build the road and the road builds us. Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement Slogan I’m dedicated to Buddhist mindfulness meditation and social justice work to address the ills of society. I’d like to be happy and peaceful and I want others to be happy and peaceful too. Sometimes people think of Buddhists, however, as navel gazers…
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Taking a Stand
Call to Celebration What does it mean to be courageous and what are the challenges? Theodore Roosevelt (not Franklin) spoke some wise words on the subject in a speech he gave at the Sorbonne in Paris over a hundred years ago. It is sometimes referred to as “The Man in the Arena” speech. This passage…
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The Courage … To Be Wrong
I didn’t discover the courage to be wrong until I was married. Oh, I’m sure I was wrong lots of times before that. My parents corrected me many times. My sister pointed out my wrongness without timidity. But I fought off being wrong rather aggressively. After all, I had my father as a model. He…
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Higher Purpose
Readings No fear Shakespeare version of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy. The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nastiness that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once…
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Unifying Purpose
Call to Celebration I begin this morning with the words of the Rev. Dr. George Kimmell Beach, Unitarian Universalist theologian and deep thinker on the future of our faith. These words come from an essay he presented to the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s Convocation in 1995 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I was in the audience…
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Living With Purpose
I grew up surrounded by people driven by inner purpose. Barbara wanted to be an excellent flute player so she practiced, tried out for the orchestra at Newark High and got picked as first chair. My friend Nick with a beautiful baritone voice auditioned to be one of our high school madrigals. Matt had a…
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Welcoming All Free Seekers
Our theme this month is hospitality. Here is what I had to say on the subject today. Call to Celebration We will be considering the theme of hospitality this morning, so I looked for a suitable nineteenth century etiquette guide for advice on just how we should be hospitable. Fortunately I was able to find…
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Warm Welcome Home
The separation between summer and the second Sunday of September as our congregation’s “homecoming Sunday” is fast eroding. This summer, as in previous years, we have had summer services that are not led by me (though initially organized by the Religious Services Committee with my help). I attended many of them after leading the mindfulness…
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Introducing Mostly Mindful Minister
While this site isn’t completely ready for prime time, I thought I’d put a first post up so at least the world can begin to link to it. I’m moving away from my HTML 1.0 web site I started way back in 1994 as a way to distribute my writing called Sam’s Bookshelf and Cafe…
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