More Than One Root

An American Buddhist Service
 
 
 
 
 

Kansho Bell

Opening:
May this gathering inspire us to create a spirit of awakening and understanding, and live a life of peace and harmony together with all living creatures.

Silence

Reading:
Religious Life is Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
—from Living Buddha, Living Christ; pages 1-2

Reading: The Golden Rule
A universal teaching

Brahmanism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. (Mahabharata 5:1517)

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (UdanaVarga 5:18)

Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that man should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15:23)

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. (Sunnah)

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

Taoism: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)

Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadistan-I-dinik 94:5)

Bell

Rice Offering
Spirit of Community,
in which we share and find strength and common purpose,
we turn our minds and hearts toward one another
seeking to bring into our circle of concern
all who need our love and support: those who are ill,
those who are in pain, either in body or in spirit,
those who are lonely, those who have been wronged.
We are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity, one with the universe.
We are grateful for the miracle of consciousness that we share, the consciousness that gives us the power to remember, to love, to care.
—Frederick E. Gillis

Meditation:  Hearing the Bell Meditation
     Listen, listen,
          this wonderful sound
               brings me back
                    to my true self.
 
Bell
 
Silence
 
Bell
 
 
 
Dharma talk  by Rev. Robert Thompson
  More Than One Root
 
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Presentation of Rice Offering
 With humble awareness we give this gift of life, from the  earth’s plentiful bounty, to nourish our community in the Way of Oneness.
 
 
 
Christian Buddha
One of master Gasan’s monks visited the university in Tokyo. When he returned, he asked the master if he had ever read the Christian Bible. “No,” Gasan replied, “please read some of it to me.”
 
The monk opened the Bible to the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew, and began reading. After reading Christ’s words about the lilies in the field, he paused. Master Gasan was silent for a long time. “Yes,” he finally said, “whoever uttered these words is an enlightened being. What you have read me is the essence of everything I have been trying to teach you here.”

                    Consider the lilies of the field,
                    how they grow;
                    They toil not, neither do they spin;
                    And yet I say unto you,
                    that even Solomon in all his glory
                    was not arrayed like one of these. 
 
 

Bell

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