The Ancients, Part 2: Buddha Wisdom
Past Figures/Present Realities
A sermon for Sunday, July 6, 2025
Let me tell you about Sarah. She’s successful — great job, loving family, nice apartment. Adorable dog. But every morning she wakes up with this persistent whisper: “Is this all there is?”
She renovates her kitchen. And for a few months, she’s happy. Then the feeling returns. She plans an amazing vacation. She goes. It’s incredible, but on the plane ride home, the feeling returns.
Sarah’s struggle isn’t unique to our modern world. Ancient teachers understood this restlessness too. They all saw the same ache in the human heart, the same restless hunger that drives us from one thing to the next.
Today, as we continue our study, “The Ancients,” I want to talk about some insights from the Buddhist religion that have deepened my own Christian faith. I’m not suggesting all religions are the same, but rather that truth has a way of emerging across cultures when humans honestly examine the human condition. Not to compare, but rather to see the bigness of the divine at work, everywhere and anywhere.
Two insights from Buddhism I want to share with you are Sanskrit words: dukkha and anicca.
The word dukkha means something like “dissatisfaction.” Others translate it as “suffering,” but both miss something crucial. Dukkha isn’t just tragedy or pain. It’s the persistent sense that there’s never enough. In the biggest things. In the smallest things. The constant restlessness. Whatever you have. You just want a little more.
It’s finishing a great meal and immediately thinking about dessert. It’s achieving a goal and feeling empty. It’s refreshing social media hoping for something interesting and feeling let down. It’s getting a promotion and immediately wondering about the next one. It’s buying something you’ve wanted for months and feeling disappointed when it arrives. It’s having endless streaming options but spending twenty minutes scrolling through them, dissatisfied with every choice.
The Buddha observed that it consumes human existence. The most rotten sinner to the holiest saint. Dukkha is universal. Each of us, moving mindlessly from one thing to another, always reaching for the next thing that will finally make it all right.
When Jesus said,“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matthew 6:34) He’s diagnosing the same condition — our minds living everywhere except where we actually are, always grasping for control we don’t have.
Both teachers saw the same truth: We experience dukkha when we seek lasting peace in temporary things.
The second insight is the word anicca. It means impermanence. Everything is changing, all the time. Forever. Nothing is exempt.
Take a moment to let that sink in. Look around you. This sanctuary where we gather? One day it will be dust. The job you love or hate? It won’t last forever. Even this moment — as I’m speaking these words — it’s already gone.
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This might sound depressing, but it’s actually liberating. When we understand everything changes, we stop trying to squeeze permanent satisfaction from temporary things.
Jesus said it like this: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21)
He wasn’t being negative — he was being realistic. Everything here is temporary. If we stake our peace on things that don’t last, we’ll lose our peace when they change.
I think about parents watching their children grow up. There’s this bittersweet ache, isn’t there?
That’s anicca — the truth that everything beautiful is also temporary.
We have a condition: We’re never quite satisfied (dukkha) and we seek permanent satisfaction in impermanent things (anicca).
What is the lesson?
The life you’re looking for can’t be found in the things you’re chasing.
Whatever you’re chasing, right now, here, today. That’s not it. It’s about becoming more present. More aware. More anchored in what actually lasts.
When we experience moments of dissatisfaction brought about by impermanence, we can stop and ask ourselves better questions.
What am I wanting right now that I don’t have?
What am I trying to hold onto that’s actually temporary?
Questions like these can transform our spiritual life. They move us from the exhausting work of seeking permanent satisfaction from temporary things, to places of rest.
Here’s a simple practice you might try this week: Each morning, before reaching for your phone, take three deep breaths and ask yourself: “What am I seeking today that I think will finally be enough?” Don’t judge the answer. Just notice it. It will change the day that unfolds before you.
God is showing us something through these converging wisdoms. A life beyond stuff.
2,500 years ago, Siddhartha sat under a tree and saw the truth of human dissatisfaction and impermanence. 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked among us teaching the same truth — calling us to find rest for our weary souls.
Their call still echoes. The restless ache you feel isn’t your enemy — it’s your compass.
The life you’re looking for isn’t in the next thing you achieve. It’s in the love holding you right now, even in your dissatisfaction. It’s in the peace available even when everything else changes.
So this week, when you feel that familiar whisper — “Is this all there is?” — let it be an invitation. Not to find the next thing, but to find the eternal thing. Not to escape the moment, but to sink deeper into it. Not to solve the mystery of your restlessness, but to let it guide you home.
Amen.
