[Friends of Los Alamos Pride accept the Proclamation of Los Alamos County LGBTQ+ Pride Week from the County Council]

Pride Week Events at the Unitarian Church

We were thrilled to be a part of the drafting and adoption last month of the County Council’s proclamation declaring the second week of June as annual LGBTQ+ Pride Week. This year’s Pride week is June 11-17. Los Alamos Pride will host a family festival at Fuller Lodge on Friday, June 15th, from 4-7 PM before the “Red Elvises” concert at Ashley Pond, and they invite us all to come join the fun. Here at the church, we’ll be hosting two events in celebration of Pride.

Saturday, June 16th at 6:30 PM: Movie Night: Love, Simon

Love, Simon is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film centered on Simon Spier, a closeted gay teenage boy in high school who is forced to balance his friends, his family, and the blackmailer threatening to out him to the entire school, while simultaneously attempting to discover the identity of the anonymous classmate with whom he has fallen in love online. The movie is rated PG-13 for for thematic elements, sexual references, language and teen partying. Common Sense Media deems it appropriate for ages 13 and up. Admission is free, and the movie is open to the community.

Sunday, June 17th at 10:00 AM: “Love Is Love Is Love” – Pride Week worship service

Our service this week is dedicated to Pride Week and to the LGBTQ+ members of our Los Alamos community, and their friends, family, and allies. Join us for special guest speakers, music, and more!

Last Sunday, I talked about the responsibilities that I believe go along with our rights. I even went so far as to suggest a “Bill of Obligations” that we might consider living by as part of being a good citizen (and how this looked an awful lot like a covenant we might live by). My list looked like this:

• I shall at all times consider the rights of others as well as my own.
• I shall work to ensure that the exercise of my rights does not impede upon the rights of another, especially their right to exist.
• I shall work to ensure that the exercise of my rights does not cause harm to another.
• I shall not grant my personal preferences more value than that of another’s fundamental rights.
• I shall participate in the civic life of my community in an informed manner, and not hinder another’s right to participate.

After the service, I heard from a few of you about what you’d add to such a bill. Still more of you went home with quite a bit to think about. This week, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic. If we had to enumerate our responsibilities to one another as citizens (or as members of a church community), what would you include? What should a covenant among free individuals gathered in community look like?

Drop a comment below.

Dear Elected Official,

I read today that once again you have offered thoughts and prayers in the wake of another mass shooting tragedy in our country. I’ve also read the responses of my family and friends taking you to task for this response, and asking you to stop praying and start doing something.

I am angered by your response as well. Once again, I’m scraping wax off the floor of my church from all the candles we’ve burned, mourning the loss of life and the fact that your “thoughts and prayers” have failed to prevent another tragedy. But, unlike others, I’m not going to ask you to stop praying. Because I don’t believe you ever really started.

You see, I pray for a living. As a pastor, I’m called to live as a public example of what it looks like to live a prayerful life in all its beauty and struggle and messiness. I pray with my congregation each Sunday. I pray for them daily, and for myself and for the rest of the world while I’m at it. Not everyone gets it. Not everyone necessarily wants it. It’s a Unitarian Universalist congregation with its fair share of atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and dissenters. Prayer befuddles some of my flock, but I do it anyway. Every once in a while, they ask me what the point of it is, what I’m expecting as a result.

I tell them: I don’t pray with any expectation of outcome. I don’t pray so that I can put in an order from my “wish list” with some all-powerful deity. And I especially don’t pray to shift any of my responsibility to myself and others in this world off onto that same deity.

I pray to remember who I am and who I’m supposed to be and what I’m called to do in the world. I pray so that I can get over myself and stop thinking that I’m the center of the universe. I pray so that I can name my struggles with hard choices and seemingly impossible situations. I pray to shut out the white noise of the all-encompassing hopelessness of the world. I pray so that once that noise is cancelled out, I can see the heart of my struggles with more clarity. I pray so that with that clarity there comes an openness to the person who was already offering their help, to the answer that was already staring me in the face. I pray so that I can focus on what it is within my ability to do in the face of the seemingly impossible – and maybe muster up the courage to act accordingly.

THAT is the real power of prayer.

And this is why when another episode of mass gun violence shakes this country to its core, and you tell us that your prayers are with the people, that I have such a hard time believing you. There are countless examples, home and abroad, for what a government can do to curb the rise of gun violence – of what is within your ability as an elected official to do. There are common sense ideas that millions of Americans agree are worth putting into practice. There are the examples of how other civilized nations have addressed the epidemic with striking success. There are examples of state legislation in place that has been achieved through compromise between gun control advocates and gun owners. The answers are out there.

If you were truly praying, you’d have seen these answers staring you in the face by now. If you were truly praying, you’d have mustered up the courage to act on behalf of the safety of your constituents instead of the safety of your campaign war chest. Instead we get the bloody-minded Pavlovian response of “thoughts and prayers” with no evidence of sincerity or the action that should follow.

It is the emptiness of the sentiment that angers so many people I know. I don’t blame them. I’m angry, too. But while others might ask you to stop praying and start doing, I suggest the opposite course.

Start praying. Start doing it for real. Do it for all the reasons I list above. Then show us you’ve seen the answer. Prove to us that you’ve actually done it. And do it now. Time is brief and we’ve lost too many.

Attached media: https://web.archive.org/web/20211108093605/https://www.questformeaning.org/podcasts/17_06/03.mp3

#BLM-inspired work is on display at First Unitarian Universalist Church until March 24th. See it here: http://bit.ly/2n2quBE  via @theCTpic.twitter.com/BcImHRi7Rd

#BLM-inspired work is on display at First Unitarian Universalist Church until March 24th. See it here: http://bit.ly/2n2quBE  via @theCTpic.twitter.com/BcImHRi7Rd

John Hoover and The Mighty Qu... has a show on 03/04/2017 at 03:30 PM @ Peninsula Unitarian Universalist... http://fb.me/91c2p2vyq 

John Hoover and The Mighty Qu... has a show on 03/04/2017 at 03:30 PM @ Peninsula Unitarian Universalist... http://fb.me/91c2p2vyq 

John Hoover and The Mighty Qu... has a show on 03/04/2017 at 03:30 PM @ Peninsula Unitarian Universalist... http://fb.me/7XTzuxsJG 

John Hoover and The Mighty Qu... has a show on 03/04/2017 at 03:30 PM @ Peninsula Unitarian Universalist... http://fb.me/7XTzuxsJG 

The Unitarian Universalist Church is interviewing for the office position: http://fb.me/SfoXsu3Z 

The Unitarian Universalist Church is interviewing for the office position: http://fb.me/SfoXsu3Z 

This is one of my favorite moments in Mexico a few weeks back. Here’s Lynn, our most fluent Spanish speaker, making a new friend. She’s a juggler by hobby, and brought balls and clubs along on our mission trip in hopes of some cultural exchange. The gentleman juggling with her was the brother of one the folks we were building a new house for. He made his living juggling on the beaches in the tourist area. Before the day I took this picture, he’d never juggled with a partner. Despite Lynn’s fluency, she didn’t have a juggling vocabulary in Spanish. And yet, somehow with the language and the skills they did have in common, the two of them were passing clubs together like they’d been doing this act forever. As you can see, he started to get pretty tricky (later in the week, he’d give us a demo of juggling fire on a unicycle — while my camera was packed away, of course).

This bridging of seemingly insurmountable barriers is just one of the many reasons that I’m thrilled our youth get to take part in these building trips, and why I’m excited to go with them when I get the chance.

This Sunday at 10:30, the youth and adults who participated in this year’s Mexico Mission trip present reflections on their experiences. This is a multi-generational service, and all ages are welcome to remain in the sanctuary. See you in church!

This is one of my favorite moments in Mexico a few weeks back. Here’s Lynn, our most fluent Spanish speaker, making a new friend. She’s a juggler by hobby, and brought balls and clubs along on our mission trip in hopes of some cultural exchange. The gentleman juggling with her was the brother of one the folks we were building a new house for. He made his living juggling on the beaches in the tourist area. Before the day I took this picture, he’d never juggled with a partner. Despite Lynn’s fluency, she didn’t have a juggling vocabulary in Spanish. And yet, somehow with the language and the skills they did have in common, the two of them were passing clubs together like they’d been doing this act forever. As you can see, he started to get pretty tricky (later in the week, he’d give us a demo of juggling fire on a unicycle — while my camera was packed away, of course).

This bridging of seemingly insurmountable barriers is just one of the many reasons that I’m thrilled our youth get to take part in these building trips, and why I’m excited to go with them when I get the chance.

This Sunday at 10:30, the youth and adults who participated in this year’s Mexico Mission trip present reflections on their experiences. This is a multi-generational service, and all ages are welcome to remain in the sanctuary. See you in church!

Go out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men [and women]. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.
~John Murray

“If you were accused of being a Unitarian Universalist, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” It’s an old chestnut of a question (and not original to us — Christians have been asking the same question of themselves for decades), but it makes an excellent point. For years, I’ve described our faith tradition to newcomer classes as the church that asks not “What should we believe?” but “How should we live?” To bring a 25¢ seminary word into the discussion, our tradition values orthopraxy (right action) over orthodoxy (right belief). We are, rightly, a religion of doers. The question I’ve posed this year is this: What shall we do together as a community of faith?

This Sunday at 10:30, “Get Out!” — the Unitarian Universalist imperative to live our religion into being outside the sanctuary doors. [And stick around for a yummy lunch and the annual meeting after the service.]

Go out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men [and women]. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.
~John Murray

“If you were accused of being a Unitarian Universalist, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” It’s an old chestnut of a question (and not original to us — Christians have been asking the same question of themselves for decades), but it makes an excellent point. For years, I’ve described our faith tradition to newcomer classes as the church that asks not “What should we believe?” but “How should we live?” To bring a 25¢ seminary word into the discussion, our tradition values orthopraxy (right action) over orthodoxy (right belief). We are, rightly, a religion of doers. The question I’ve posed this year is this: What shall we do together as a community of faith?

This Sunday at 10:30, “Get Out!” — the Unitarian Universalist imperative to live our religion into being outside the sanctuary doors. [And stick around for a yummy lunch and the annual meeting after the service.]

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

We are a beacon of hope.
― from the vision statement of the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos

But aren’t we living in hopeless times?

Isn’t naive to talk about hope?

How could we possibly live up to our vision when times feel so hopeless? Where do we even begin?

This Sunday at 10:30, “A Unitarian Universalist’s Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.”

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

We are a beacon of hope.
― from the vision statement of the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos

But aren’t we living in hopeless times?

Isn’t naive to talk about hope?

How could we possibly live up to our vision when times feel so hopeless? Where do we even begin?

This Sunday at 10:30, “A Unitarian Universalist’s Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.”

My spirituality is most active, not in meditation, but in the moments when: I realize God may have gotten something beautiful done through me despite the fact that I am an @**hole, and when I am confronted by the mercy of the gospel so much that I cannot hate my enemies, and when I am unable to judge the sin of someone else (which, let’s be honest, I love to do) because my own crap is too much in the way, and when I have to bear witness to another human being’s suffering despite my desire to be left alone, and when I am forgiven by someone even though I don’t deserve it and my forgiver does this because he, too, is trapped by the gospel, and when traumatic things happen in the world and I have nowhere to place them or make sense of them but what I do have is a group of people who gather with me every week, people who will mourn and pray with me over the devastation of something like a school shooting, and when I end up changed by loving someone I’d never choose out of a catalog but whom God sends my way to teach me about God’s love.
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor in Denver. The quote above comes from her most recent book, Accidental Saints, which was the common read for my annual reading retreat/reunion with my seminary friends. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak last May at the Festival of Homiletics in Denver. The church she began in Denver (while still in seminary!) is named House for All Sinners and Saints, which is at once an aspirational name and quite the mission statement, and it ministers to many in Denver who might be considered to be living on the fringes of the community. The congregation lovingly shortens the name to “House for All.” It’s a church name that reminds me of our own UU aspirations for community ‑ there are so many of our congregations that bear the name “All Souls.” To those who are unfamiliar with Universalist theology, that might seem like a name dedicated to the reverence of people who have passed, of people who are in the past. I’ll admit, my own lingering Catholic schoolboy heart has often taken that phrase to mean just that, despite my own Universalism. It only takes a little imagination to tack Rev. Nadia’s “House for” onto that “All Souls” to begin to grasp the true meaning of the aspiration in the name ‑ and, given the challenges in her quote above ‑ to glimpse the real discipline it might take to build that “house for all.”

This Sunday at 10:30, “A Room for Every Soul” — one final exploration of what the community we dream of building might require of us. 

My spirituality is most active, not in meditation, but in the moments when: I realize God may have gotten something beautiful done through me despite the fact that I am an @**hole, and when I am confronted by the mercy of the gospel so much that I cannot hate my enemies, and when I am unable to judge the sin of someone else (which, let’s be honest, I love to do) because my own crap is too much in the way, and when I have to bear witness to another human being’s suffering despite my desire to be left alone, and when I am forgiven by someone even though I don’t deserve it and my forgiver does this because he, too, is trapped by the gospel, and when traumatic things happen in the world and I have nowhere to place them or make sense of them but what I do have is a group of people who gather with me every week, people who will mourn and pray with me over the devastation of something like a school shooting, and when I end up changed by loving someone I’d never choose out of a catalog but whom God sends my way to teach me about God’s love.
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor in Denver. The quote above comes from her most recent book, Accidental Saints, which was the common read for my annual reading retreat/reunion with my seminary friends. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak last May at the Festival of Homiletics in Denver. The church she began in Denver (while still in seminary!) is named House for All Sinners and Saints, which is at once an aspirational name and quite the mission statement, and it ministers to many in Denver who might be considered to be living on the fringes of the community. The congregation lovingly shortens the name to “House for All.” It’s a church name that reminds me of our own UU aspirations for community ‑ there are so many of our congregations that bear the name “All Souls.” To those who are unfamiliar with Universalist theology, that might seem like a name dedicated to the reverence of people who have passed, of people who are in the past. I’ll admit, my own lingering Catholic schoolboy heart has often taken that phrase to mean just that, despite my own Universalism. It only takes a little imagination to tack Rev. Nadia’s “House for” onto that “All Souls” to begin to grasp the true meaning of the aspiration in the name ‑ and, given the challenges in her quote above ‑ to glimpse the real discipline it might take to build that “house for all.”

This Sunday at 10:30, “A Room for Every Soul” — one final exploration of what the community we dream of building might require of us. 

The weekly Wednesday vespers service at seminary was a true family affair: students and faculty, along with respective partners and spouses and children of varying ages. It was a new experience for Jess and me. We’d grown used to our UU congregation where there was nursery care and RE during the service — kids downstairs and grownups up above in the sanctuary. We needn’t have worried. Once we explained to Brandon and Nora (who were 6 and 3 at the time) what it meant to sit in church with the grownups, they took to weekly worship as if it were a natural thing. They grew to know many of the songs by heart, they knew when to sit and stand, and they could always snuggle in one of our laps if the sermon made them fidgety. Vespers was for them as much as it was for the grownups. They belonged to the community and it belonged to them.

That sense of ownership was on full display especially once the service was over and the fellowship hour had begun. Snacks were laid out, juice and wine were poured, and everyone milled about in conversation — including my kids, who flitted about having brief checkins with my classmates and teachers, often with that “little kid serious” look on their faces that is at once adorable and gives a parent pause. And then, conversations finished, they would climb up onto the chancel and sit in the pulpit chairs with their snack plates in their laps and just watch the community as it did its thing. The first time that happened, I knew that they had arrived at a place where they felt comfortable and safe in a community. There they were, week after week (and in the years to come, shepherding the new kids who arrived into that same space), embodying what it meant to feel like one truly belonged to community and felt some sense of ownership of and responsibility toward it.

This Sunday, we take a look at why a real multi-generational community is so vital to the future of church. Join us at 10:30 a.m. for “A Time and Place for All Ages.”

The weekly Wednesday vespers service at seminary was a true family affair: students and faculty, along with respective partners and spouses and children of varying ages. It was a new experience for Jess and me. We’d grown used to our UU congregation where there was nursery care and RE during the service — kids downstairs and grownups up above in the sanctuary. We needn’t have worried. Once we explained to Brandon and Nora (who were 6 and 3 at the time) what it meant to sit in church with the grownups, they took to weekly worship as if it were a natural thing. They grew to know many of the songs by heart, they knew when to sit and stand, and they could always snuggle in one of our laps if the sermon made them fidgety. Vespers was for them as much as it was for the grownups. They belonged to the community and it belonged to them.

That sense of ownership was on full display especially once the service was over and the fellowship hour had begun. Snacks were laid out, juice and wine were poured, and everyone milled about in conversation — including my kids, who flitted about having brief checkins with my classmates and teachers, often with that “little kid serious” look on their faces that is at once adorable and gives a parent pause. And then, conversations finished, they would climb up onto the chancel and sit in the pulpit chairs with their snack plates in their laps and just watch the community as it did its thing. The first time that happened, I knew that they had arrived at a place where they felt comfortable and safe in a community. There they were, week after week (and in the years to come, shepherding the new kids who arrived into that same space), embodying what it meant to feel like one truly belonged to community and felt some sense of ownership of and responsibility toward it.

This Sunday, we take a look at why a real multi-generational community is so vital to the future of church. Join us at 10:30 a.m. for “A Time and Place for All Ages.”

What I really resent most about people sticking labels on you is that it cuts off all the other elements of what you are because it can only deal with black and white; the cartoon.
~Siouxsie Sioux

I’ve been on something of an 80s music nostalgia kick the last few weeks, so I was amused when I found the above quote while reading up for this month’s sermons. Siouxsie’s probably not the best known, or most influential philosopher out there — unless, like me, you’re a child of the 80s, a member of Generation X, maybe more nerd than jock, possibly the tiniest bit weird . . . and more new wave than metalhead.

And there I go, labeling myself. They’re old labels. Some I placed on myself way back when. Others were placed upon me. And while they’re handy shorthand for signaling one’s identity, they’re also rather limiting and, like Siouxsie intimates, somewhat cartoonish. None of them were, or are, wholly me.

The theme for the month of March is “Balance.” Each of my sermons during the month will touch on some aspect of promoting the wholeness of self or the wholeness of community. This Sunday at 10:30, we’ll talk about (you guessed it!) labels — both their usefulness, and the perils they present to the care of the whole person.

See you in church!

What I really resent most about people sticking labels on you is that it cuts off all the other elements of what you are because it can only deal with black and white; the cartoon.
~Siouxsie Sioux

I’ve been on something of an 80s music nostalgia kick the last few weeks, so I was amused when I found the above quote while reading up for this month’s sermons. Siouxsie’s probably not the best known, or most influential philosopher out there — unless, like me, you’re a child of the 80s, a member of Generation X, maybe more nerd than jock, possibly the tiniest bit weird . . . and more new wave than metalhead.

And there I go, labeling myself. They’re old labels. Some I placed on myself way back when. Others were placed upon me. And while they’re handy shorthand for signaling one’s identity, they’re also rather limiting and, like Siouxsie intimates, somewhat cartoonish. None of them were, or are, wholly me.

The theme for the month of March is “Balance.” Each of my sermons during the month will touch on some aspect of promoting the wholeness of self or the wholeness of community. This Sunday at 10:30, we’ll talk about (you guessed it!) labels — both their usefulness, and the perils they present to the care of the whole person.

See you in church!

I just returned from my annual retreat/reunion with a small group of seminary classmates. Each year, we gather to discuss one book we’ve read in common (more on that later) and share the things we’ve read/watched/done in the last year that have fueled our various ministries. And we cook for each other. And drink too much coffee. And — this is the most important part — we remember how good it is to be connected and to belong to one another. It’s been over a decade since we all first met, and I can still remember the first time we all sat down in the same room together, a much more nervous and wary bunch. We were prompted to talk about our biggest fears about the journey we were embarking on.

“What if,” I asked, “I only really have one sermon in me?” Everyone laughed — not a mocking laugh but that nervous laugh that’s almost a scream, the kind of laugh where you recognize your own fear in another’s. And in that laugh, I knew I’d found my people and I’d come to the right place at the right time.

It’s a blessing to find a place like that and know you’ve come home.

This Sunday, the topic is welcoming — not just how we say “hello” at the front door, but how we create an atmosphere of true welcome, where a stranger can feel like they’ve come home. 

With this in mind, I have a little thought assignment for you all. Think back to the first time you walked in the doors of this church  (wherever it may have been located at the time). How did you know you arrived at the right place? Who made you feel welcome and comfortable, and how did they do it? How might you pass that on to the next newcomer?

Join me on Sunday at 10:30 for more on this subject. Nylea leads our ever-growing choir in a traditional spiritual, a Spanish hymn, and a song from our own Bonnie Kellogg.

I just returned from my annual retreat/reunion with a small group of seminary classmates. Each year, we gather to discuss one book we’ve read in common (more on that later) and share the things we’ve read/watched/done in the last year that have fueled our various ministries. And we cook for each other. And drink too much coffee. And — this is the most important part — we remember how good it is to be connected and to belong to one another. It’s been over a decade since we all first met, and I can still remember the first time we all sat down in the same room together, a much more nervous and wary bunch. We were prompted to talk about our biggest fears about the journey we were embarking on.

“What if,” I asked, “I only really have one sermon in me?” Everyone laughed — not a mocking laugh but that nervous laugh that’s almost a scream, the kind of laugh where you recognize your own fear in another’s. And in that laugh, I knew I’d found my people and I’d come to the right place at the right time.

It’s a blessing to find a place like that and know you’ve come home.

This Sunday, the topic is welcoming — not just how we say “hello” at the front door, but how we create an atmosphere of true welcome, where a stranger can feel like they’ve come home. 

With this in mind, I have a little thought assignment for you all. Think back to the first time you walked in the doors of this church  (wherever it may have been located at the time). How did you know you arrived at the right place? Who made you feel welcome and comfortable, and how did they do it? How might you pass that on to the next newcomer?

Join me on Sunday at 10:30 for more on this subject. Nylea leads our ever-growing choir in a traditional spiritual, a Spanish hymn, and a song from our own Bonnie Kellogg.

Ancient Greek scientists and philosophers looked at the world and decided to classify all universal elements as; earth, water, air and fire. That was around 450 BC.

When Aristotle came onto the scene he added a fifth element, which he called aether. His reasoned that aether was what filled the universe above the terrestrial sphere, and was the pure quintessence of the heavens; what the immortal Gods breathed (just as humans breathe air).

For us earth dwellers, the element FIRE is the most important of all for spiritual growth. It is the BRIDGE between our physical bodies and our nonphysical bodies, leading to pure unmanifest being.

Earth, water and air are physical substances. They are constructed from the basic building blocks (elementary particles) of our universe. Adding fire (heat) to their constituency causes then to change form – from solid to liquid to gas.

For example, the element lead (Pb) changes from a hard solid substance to a liquid form when heated to (327.46 °C, 621.43 °F). Apply even more heat and at 3,180 °F it boils and becomes a gas.

The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869 was the first scientist to categorize atomic elements into the understandable and logical sequence of a periodic table. As of today 118 elements have been identified. They are distinguished by each having a unique atomic number; the number of protons (positive charge) in the nucleus.

Fire is energy in all its forms.

As electricity it sparks between human brain cell synapses giving us the ability to think, remember, and thru the nervous system – cognize and experience the outer physical world.

Because of fire, all knowledge that has value can be known.

Because of the destructive value of fire, we can change and grow as human beings. That’s because the dissolution of one state (current condition) is a necessary precursor for the creation of the next.

Our vital life force, sometimes referred to as prana, is fire. This fire causes your heart to beat, your food to digest, your organs to operate, and your body to function. In this capacity it is sometimes called the five vital body forces (Prana vayu, Apana vayu, Samana vayu, Udana vayu and Vyana vayu).

Fire is the energy/impulse that causes the human nervous system to function.
When cells in the body need to send a message from one point to another, they open a membrane gate. Then sodium and potassium ions move freely into and out of the cell. Negatively charged potassium ions leave the cell, and positively charged sodium ions enter it. This switch from negative charge to positive charge generates an electrical impulse. The impulse then moves from the nerve thru the spinal column into the brain. The brain then provides an interpretation (pleasure or pain) of the impulse.

Fire causes your body muscle fibers to contract, thereby allowing you as an individual to move.
When you desire to stand up or change position, electrical impulses travel from the brain, down through the spinal cord, and are transmitted through the motor nerves to the muscles. At the junction between the nerve ending and the muscle (the motor end plate), chemical signals are released. A complex form of chemistry then takes place which causes the muscle to contract and then relax. Without this fire, we could not move.

A moving electric current (Fire) creates a magnetic field. The human heart is a source of electro-magnetism that, even at a few meters away, is detectable by modern scientific instruments.

Our Kundalini Shakti energy is a form of subtle fire.

The Chakra centers are found in the etheric body. Auras emanate from our non-physical emotional or astral body. There is a relationship between aura color, wavelength/frequency, and amount of energy (Fire).

Fire is the life force that animates our physical, etheric, astral and mental bodies. As life energy it permeates all. It is the bridge between the physical and non physical universe.

In the Hindu Vedic tradition, Agni is the god of fire and sacrifice, of divine knowledge. 218 out of 1,028 hymns of the Rig Veda are dedicated to him. The Agni Purana has 15,400 verses.

As we grow and consciousness expands, our desires become more mature. What we used to want is now replaced by higher goals that benefit not only ourselves, but humanity as a whole.

Renunciation is not the process of denial and forcefully giving up what we want in life. Instead, with increasing spiritual maturing we see that some of those things that we thought were necessary are no longer needed and relevant to our life.

Living with a few items is not living in poverty. If you want something and you can’t have it that is poverty. When you have few things but want nothing else that is affluence.

The term Advaita means non-duality, or not two. Everything in all its forms, both manifest and unmanifest, is part of the One.

We need to meditate every day to dissolve the blockages (samskaras) in your nervous system. That is what prevents us from experiencing enlightenment and eternal bliss. It’s like we are observing the Sun through a cloudy and dirty filter. We don’t see the Sun as it truly is. The filter needs to be cleaned. As such, as stress and strain leaves our nervous system thru meditation it functions more efficiently and we experience greater love and bliss in our lives.

Kind regards

The human race has blossomed into a multitude of diversity.

If in that diversity we exercise a tendency to judge people, that indicates that our ego is locked in a cycle of prejudice and misunderstanding – we are not free.

Within the recognizable borders of our 257 nations, there are now 7.3 billion (people) different egoic views of the one same Earth based reality that we all share.

The rules that govern our Universe are the natural laws of attraction, and free will. Within those parameters, all of creation exists and continues to grow.

As human beings we have many things in common. Our survival needs include nutrients (food), oxygen, water, a safe place to sleep, and shelter from the vicissitudes of atmospheric climate. Living organisms need to reproduce. The human body must be able to get rid of waste and nonessential items. A skeletal and muscular system is needed so that our bodies can move from one place to another. Blood transports nourishment to every cell in our body. Our five senses feed us information about our environment and allow us to respond back accordingly.

The manner in which we respond to others in life is referred to as our personal behavior and world view.

How is our behavior built, and what determines it attributes?

Every human being is a complexity born of multiple factors, which are….

1. Pure spirit, timeless and eternal, unmanifest conscious Being which exists at the seat of every individual.

2. Available information:
In our physical material manifested form, using our five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), we collect knowledge about the world that we find ourselves living in. Factors such as race, religion, culture, degree of literacy, place of birth and where we currently live, limit what information is available or given to us.

3. Decision-Making Process:
This cognitive process takes place in the human mind & intellect, and are influenced by each individual’s available information and…
– level of consciousness and clarity of intellect
– the external pressure of parents and society
– personal values, expectations and past experiences
– life lessons learned
– individual differences
– and a host of other factors

4. Human Behavior:
Each individual’s behavior is based upon the quality of their decision-making process which, in turn, is based upon the quality of their available information.

5. Ego – Individual Manifested Reality (your world view):
Everyone views the world differently.
That causes us to be loving, hateful, passive, aggressive, introverted, extroverted, deceitful, etc.
The quality of the condition which manifests in any society is based upon the aggregate quality of behavior within that society.

With the birth of the human ego also comes the birth of the human attribute of judgment.

More specifically, why do we judge other people?

For one, we see ourselves as different from them. We have our own behavioral traits and so do they. Sometimes we see traits in another person that we won’t tolerate for ourselves.

The world is a mirror of confusion. What you see is what you constructed for yourself based on your level of consciousness. What you witness and experience in the outer objective world, is simply a reflection of your own subjective inner world. The world returns back to you (like a mirror) what you give to it.
– If you are hateful, you will predominantly see hate in the world.
– If you are distrustful, you will support conspiracy theories.
– If you are loving, you will see the good and divinity in all people
how true it is, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We may view a young mother seemly neglecting her child and judge her as unfit. But we don’t see her pain and struggle with stress, the pressures of no money, and how overwhelmed by it all she feels.

We may view a homeless man wondering the streets and looking in the garbage for food. But don’t judge him as unfit and lazy for not having a job.
We don’t see his PTSD from fighting in the Iraq war, or from losing his job and house, or for living between a rock and a hard place. Maybe he has developed mental issues and has fallen into alcohol and drug addiction. As he battles his personal demons we should instead extend a hand of love and compassion.

We may view a couple quarreling with each other, but don’t judge them for being a public spectacle.
Often nasty personal explosions start with minor digs. Hidden feelings and insecurities come bubbling into the open. We don’t know the history of how hurt and pain planted itself into their hearts. Longing for help is now an act of their desperation. We don’t see the long journey to lasting love that they are on, so do not judge.

We may view some young boys taunted an old lady caring packages of bread home for her family. She was waking up a long and steep hill. “Why did she not just pay the 25-cents and take the bus home,” the boys chided.
The boys did not know that this woman is a recent immigrant to the country, has virtually no money, and is struggling to make every penny count. She walks to the thrift bread store twice every week to get day old bread for less money. She balances her financial insecurity with providing for her family. We need to respect all people and not judge their actions.

We may view Ms Success on the TV hawking her newest product guaranteed to save you time in the kitchen. “How much money does this gal need,” you may think to yourself as you focus on how “stuck up” she appears to be. But don’t judge her unkindly, because she really is not on top of the world as it may appear.
Ms Success has always been driven by the fear of never being good enough. That started when she was young and could never get the respect of her father no matter what she accomplished. She has trapped herself in a never ending cycle of good, better and best. Nothing short of perfection haunts her every day. Judge not her personal struggle trying to liberate her wounded inner child.

We may view a coworker agonizing over an upcoming yearly performance evaluation. The evaluation is management’s view of how well a person has performed – meets or does not meet expectations. Don’t judge this worker as being inept and a loser just because you aced your evaluation. We don’t know the steep hill and fears faced that they had to climb, just to reach this spot.

Remember that all daily life struggles are self-created. We are responsible and have created the dream world that we find ourselves living in – even though sometimes it seems we have little control and few options.

We can certainly practice to judge less and that’s admirable, but by approaching the problem on the level of the problem only limited success, if any will be achieved.

Self-awareness is a first step toward personal evolution and empowerment. But when we talk about self development we often refer to refinement of thinking and intellect. Unfortunately, that still keeps us bound to the field of mind (time/space/causality) which is what we want to transcend.

What we really need is self reorganization. That means changing the very cognition, state of consciousness that we have.

Growth of heart, compassion and consciousness is a good way to “outgrow” the tendency to judge.

We will be judgmental as long as our ego and world view primarily remains individualized and self centered. We are imprisoned by your own mind and that in turn leads us to engage in destructive and further binding human activity.

But now it’s time to break free from our chains, continue self reorganization, develop consciousness thru meditation, and thereby enjoy greater empathy with the entire world.

The shackles of the ego are loosened and eventually broken thru spiritual pursuit and the regular practice of meditation. Meditate every day. Seek to become enlightened. Free yourself from the bondage of judgment and enjoy unlimited freedom.

Create

Inspire

Do what you love

Follow your heart

Love now

Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswati

Born in Gana India, Rajaram left behind his family’s householder life style at the age of nine to seek spiritual wisdom and enlightenment. He renounced worldly pleasures and left in search of a more permanent peace.

After visiting many spiritual masters and living with some for short periods of time, he became a disciple of Swami Krishnananda at age 14. He finally had found a living example of absolute bliss consciousness in human form.

As part of his training he lived in caves nearby his master’s ashram, coming out only to visit with Swami Krishnananda on occasion. He spent his time in deep meditation.

At the age twenty five it was time to leave the caves behind and move into the ashram to be with his guru 24/7.

At the Kumbh Mela festival in 1906 Rajaram was formally ordained by Swami Krishnananda, and bestowed the title Sri Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj. He was 36 years old at the time.

After the passing of Swami Krishnananda in 1936, Brahmananda Saraswati spent years in the forest enveloped in silence and bliss.

1,200 years ago renowned spiritual luminary Adi Shankara (788 – 820) established four principle seats (monasteries) of learning in India, to maintain his revived reinterpretation of Hindu scriptures.

Shankara established one in India’s north, south, east and west …

The North seat, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, is the principal of the four maths (monasteries). The seat was unoccupied for 108 years because a qualified Acharya was not to be found.

Brahmananda Saraswati was approached on several occasions to occupy the empty spiritual seat of Jyotirmath. At age 70 he finally relented and told a committee he would accept the position. On the day that the installation ceremony was to take place, he was nowhere to be found. He left two days earlier in the hope that perhaps all that commotion about the seat would go away.

But shortly thereafter he was installed as the Shankaracharya Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, and remained there seeing visitors and attending to disciples, until his passing in 1953.

Among the many disciples that Brahmananda Saraswati had was Mahesh Prasad Varma, later known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Moments before Brahmananda Saraswati passed away, he told Mahesh, “What I have taught you also contains the knowledge of the technique for the householder.” That inspired Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (http://meditationandspiritualgrowth.com/?p=964) to bring that meditation to the world in 1959 as TM (Transcendental Meditation).

Swami Brahmananda Saraswati

Here are the words of Brahmananda Saraswati …

“There is no distance or separation with Paramatma (God).

Learn to make full use of the human body. One should not waste this chance.

When the mind realizes God, it is permanently established there and does not desire other things.

The aim of life is to stop the mind from involvement with this world.

The dawn comes to dispel the darkness of night, allowing us to enjoy the light of the sun (which is self-illuminating). Spiritual teachings destroy ignorance and therefore remove darkness, but they cannot throw light on the inner Self, for the Self is Light.

The people struggle hard to gain valueless baubles of daily living, day in and day out. It is said: Gain one thing to gain everything – try to gain everything and you will gain nothing.

If you want to catch the shadow, catch the real thing and automatically the shadow will be in your hands. Leaving the real, if you run after the shadow, the faster you run, the faster it will run away from you. That is why, to run after shadowy wealth and fame is foolhardy. Catch hold of the real – Paramatman – and all these will come by itself to be under your command. Remember, that remembering Paramatman is always highly profitable. Whatever time you put into this, you will get back with multifold interest.

As long as one has to live, live peacefully. It is certain; the work here can never be completed. So do not make much out of doing. Work as it is, is a waste. Lead this life with a peaceful mind, doing your duty and always remembering Paramatman.

Nobody wants your mind in this world, and the mind is not satisfied with anything of the world. The mind is not fit for the world, or the world for the mind. When the mind realizes God, it is permanently established there and does not desire other things. From this we can understand that God alone is fit for the mind and nothing else.

Do good works without hesitation. The Jiva has been experiencing samsara for many, many births. It is only natural, therefore, that its tendencies have become worldly. To turn its tendencies toward Paramatman and away from samsara requires some effort. In reality, the aim of life is to stop the mind from involvement with this world. If one engages in spiritual practice and in thinking and speaking about God, the mind will start dwelling on Him and after some time it will withdraw from the world on its own.

In our daily affairs we should adopt a strategy of quickly attending to good works and things related to the Divine. Should any wrong thought arise, on the other hand, we should try to postpone it to another time by saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow, or the day after next.” In this way, wrong action can be continuously postponed.

To be born a human is more fortunate than to be born a deva (angel or Divine being).  Taking birth as a deva is considered comparable to taking birth as any other life form. Birth as a deva is attained by those who perform certain sacrifices and karma, etc. associated with divinity, with the intention to enjoy divine pleasures. The minds of the devas wander incessantly because of the abundance of enjoyable things in the heavenly realms, and hence they cannot perform purushartha (Divine action – action in accord with the cosmic evolution and individual destiny). For this reason, the human birth is considered superior, because here, by doing as much purushartha as possible, one can eventually merge with God.

A human being is like a lump of pure gold, whereas devas are like pieces of fine jewelry. Having been perfected as jewelry, their progress is complete, and they cannot be further improved. On the other hand, gold which has not yet been crafted by the jeweler, has unlimited potential. Hence the birth of a human being is said to be the very best birth for action.

To get a human body is a rare thing—make full use of it. There are four million kinds of births which a soul can gather. After that one gets a human body. Therefore, one should not waste this opportunity. Every second in human life is very valuable. If you don’t value this, then you will have nothing in hand and you will weep in the end.

Because you’re human, God has given you power to think and decide what is good and bad. Therefore, you can do the best possible kind of action. You should never consider yourself weak or a fallen creature. Whatever may have happened up to now may be because you didn’t know, but now be careful.

After getting a human body, if you don’t reach God, then you have sold a diamond at the price of spinach.

For this reason, the human birth is considered superior, because here, by doing as much purushartha as possible, one can eventually become one with God.

Having attained this birth, one should not act carelessly, but should conscientiously perform the best purushartha. Fulfilling one’s own dharma while keeping faith in Paramatma is the greatest purushartha. Strive to become one with God in this lifetime. Have firm faith in the Vedas and shastras and keep the company of those wise people who also have faith in them. Only then will the purpose of your life be fulfilled.”

The difference is the same as the difference between rice and paddy. Remove the skin of the paddy and it is rice. Similarly, remove the covering of Maya, and the Jiva will become Brahman.’

The one who has come, has to go. Nobody can stay here. Every moment keep your luggage packed. Nobody knows when death will call. The warrant of death is like the arrest warrant.

If you are not cautious, you cannot escape from falling. It is the nature of samsara-river (worldliness); it will always try to take you downwards. Involvement with the senses makes man multifaceted. Being multifaceted and with involvement with vasana makes it very difficult to have the ability [kshamata] to discern. So it is essential to be cautious always.

It is a waste to make much of your activity, so try to live quietly as long as you have to live.

The Creator is Vishvambhara. He shoulders the duty to sustain and protect us. And so, he will make arrangements. Without having faith in His support, if you depend on your intellect and cleverness, deceit and craftiness, you will lead a life of turbulence and the future path will also be darkened.

As is the cloth, so is the price. For carrying on the short-lived activities of the work, employ your short-lived body and wealth. Mind is a permanent thing, which remains with you always. Even in the other world it will continue to stay with you. Therefore connect it with a permanent thing, God, being the eternal existence in animate and inanimate things, is the only permanent thing of the highest order. Therefore connect your mind with Him. If the mind is satisfied with wealth, wife or children, why does it go elsewhere? Because if cannot stick onto anything. From this it is clear that it is not satisfied with anything of the mundane world. It runs after things, taking them to be good and desirable, but after a short while it leaves them.

Do good works without hesitation.

There are three types of protection and service: The highest is like a tortoise; the middle is like fishes; and the lower is like birds.
The turtle does not keep his eggs near. The fish does not go near its eggs. The bird protects its eggs by covering them always, sitting on them.
In the manner of the tortoise, the Great Spiritual Guru helps, protects and guides his sincere disciple by concentration and observation of the behavior of his disciples. By the blessing of the Guru the life of disciple become purposeful and develops faster on the (path of) Spiritual Progress. [Abr. Brahmananda]

Divine union can be realized by the practice of Yoga.

Every moment is the power of the Supreme to be realized and remembered.

Paramatma is one, and is present everywhere and in every time. Absolute bliss consciousness (Satchidanada) cannot be broken and is Knowledge Incarnate.

Real victory is that, after which there can never be a reverse. Nobody can call himself a victor forever merely by crushing an external foe, because such foes can spring up again. A real victory is achieved by bringing under control the internal foes. A check over the internal enemies is therefore the only way of conquering the external enemies forever, because we should bear in mind that it is our own internal enemies which create the external enemies.

These inner enemies are ambition, anger, greed, false attachment, vanity and jealousy. It is this hexagon sitting inside us which makes a cat’s paw of anything in the outer world in order to create enemies for us. Therefore if anybody wants to enjoy peace and happiness through victory over all enemies, then he should raid the very source of all physical enemies – the subtle hexagon living in us. Destruction of enemies by root is not possible without breaking up this hexagon (ambition, anger, greed, false attachment, vanity and jealously). This is axiomatic.

It is not too difficult to win over the hexagon. But people take it to be impossible without giving thought. Most of them hold the belied that only a perfect saint who has renounced all worldly concerns can break up the inner hexagon. This belief is based on complete ignorance. A renouncer renounces the very cause of the hexagon, so in his case the question of conquering the hexagon does not arise at all. A victor over the hexagon is one who maintains his worldly attitudes but does not allow himself to be subordinated by them. Let the enemy have an occasion to strike, but let him find that he cannot do so because he finds you too strong for it. Only then can he be treated as defeated. Mere engagement in bonafide worldly activities is no hindrance in keeping the inner hexagon in a state of subjugation.

One can become a mahatma wherever one lives. No one becomes a mahatma by simply wearing ochre clothing or by applying some marks to the forehead. Dress and other externals will not lead to the ultimate good, whereas faith will certainly lead to it. The state of a mahatma is determined by the state of mind. So stay wherever you are, but change the direction of your mind. Think less about samsara and think more about Paramatma.

Nowadays people think a great deal about things they should not waste their time on. One should primarily contemplate Paramatma; instead people contemplate worldly objects. That is why they are unable to experience peace and happiness. If you apply your vital breath to worldly activities and enjoyment of the senses, then your lungs are like the bellows of a blacksmith. Hence take care of your vital breath and apply yourself to Paramatma. First generate faith. You already have sufficient faith in money. That is why you are able to think about it. When you have faith in Paramatma, then you will start contemplating Him.

You must realize that money and all the objects of samsara will remain here, while you have to carry out your future journey alone. Prepare for that future journey at this very moment. Increase your faith in higher goals, and increase your love for that ever-blissful Paramatma. Show superficial interest in the things of the world, which will always remain here, and place primary faith in the ultimate goal, which will remain with you. Once you discover that a tantalizing heap of money was actually created by a magician, the temptation to take it will wither, and you will no longer covet it. Like the magician’s money, all the objects and relationships of samsara are transient. Therefore, carry out all daily affairs according to social expectations, but do not reserve a place for these things in your mind. Keep your mind free for the imperishable Paramatma, whose very essence is bliss. Always keep Bhagavan in your mind and never transgress the bounds of propriety – this is what is means to be a mahatma.

§§

Close your eyes and meditate. Know the timeless reality.

Some spiritual teachers claim that the path to enlightenment is long, arduous, and challenging. It requires great personal sacrifice.

Others claim that no path is necessary at all. That’s because you are already there. They reiterate that only a slight shift in awareness to the “ever present now” is all that is needed.

So which viewpoint is correct? Does enlightenment require years of meditation practice and tapas (penance, physical austerities), or none at all?

Let’s explore this a bit further …

§§

Minutes after I was born my father gave me the name Nizhoni, which means beautiful. It is an appropriate name for a young Navajo girl like me.

Although outsiders know us as the Navajo, we refer to ourselves as the Dine, or Children of the Holy People. Other Indian tribes consider our home in this rocky desert to be too demanding, but we have flourished here for hundreds of years. When I look at the surrounding majestic rock canyons, the mountains and buttes, I’m in awe at the grandeur of this landscape and give thanks to the Great Spirit.

At a young age I worked with my Mother on daily chores to help keep the family feed and clothed. Our major staple is corn (naadaa) but we supplement that with wild plants and game. When the Spanish explores arrived here 100 summers ago they introduced us to sheep; so mutton is now also a part of our diet.

I grew up like most girls in our village, except for the fact that my grandfather was the tribe Shaman. He often wanted to teach me such things but I was never interested. Instead, I prefer the wind in my hair and the warm sun on my face in this real world.

At age 18 I was married to Toh Yah. He is a strong man with a good hunting eye for game. He learned tracking skills at an early age and often accompanied the elders on extended period hunts. When I was near him he smelled masculine. He always made me feel safe. Later when we had children he took keen interest in our three sons and always gave due notice to our daughter.

I love a gentle caress from my husband, and seeing my children at play.

In this harsh desert climate it’s hard to keep your hair looking good, but I try my best. I often spend time making nice clothes and gathering eucalyptus to use as a perfume. Although my ancestors wore deerskin, hip-leggings and moccasins, today we also wear woven cloth and colorful small blankets laced together – but leaving room for our hands (i.e., like a poncho).

As the years passed I watched my children grow and have families of their own. We didn’t stray very far from the canyon lands where I lived. We traded with other tribes and the Mexicans from the South. After Toh Yah passed I am ready to follow.

§§

In 1850 my family moved from Ireland to Chicago to escape the great famine. For some unknown reason one of our main food staples, the potato, was savaged by the blight. People were starving to death by the hundreds of thousands.

I was born in the Windy City in 1870, and joined my clan of four other brothers and three sisters. My name is Jason. My parents raised us as Protestant, and following that strict work ethic I found my first job at the mill when I was but 14 years old.

When I was eighteen I placed our King James Version of the bible on the kitchen table, along with two other versions. I read the same verse in all three. The words conveyed somewhat different meanings.

Is this why people point to the Bible in support of their own personal opinion? Do we interpret verses to suit our own needs and justifications?

After comparing many other verses I started to question the authenticity of the Protestant text. Was this truly the word of God, or a human manuscripted interpretation?

Is there such a thing as “the word of God?”

I did some research at the library and learned that the Bible as we know it today was largely put together at the Council of Nicea, in 325 AD. Books such as the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene were left out. Many other stories about Jesus were omitted. Some say that during his missing years (age 12 – 30) Jesus traveled in the East. I guess that today’s Christianity was sculptured more by the apostle Paul, than anyone else.

In 553 AD the Roman Emperor Justinian convened the Second Synod to remove the many references to reincarnation espoused in the Bible. That’s because his wife was an ex-prostitute and concerned that if reincarnation were true, she would have to atone for her actions in many future lifetimes.

So I was a Protestant by birth, but left the religion when I reached the age of reason.

In September of 1893, when I was 23 years old, my true spiritual education and quest began. That month spiritual luminaries from around the world gathered in Chicago for the World’s Parliament of Religions.

Worlds Parliament of Religions - Chicago 1893

I heard many speakers but the words of Swami Vivekananda struck a resounding chord in my soul (http://meditationandspiritualgrowth.com/?p=1529). By some stroke of luck (or was it my karma) I heard that the Swami was staying with a family near the outskirts of town. I went to the house and was invited in. The Swami was in the living room speaking to other people. I sat down to listen and asked some questions. His eyes were alive and a heightened sense of serenity pervaded the room. That evening he initiated me into meditation. I have been practicing meditation ever since.

The following year I visited the Swami in New York City, around the time that he established the Vedanta Society. In June of 1895 I sat at his feet as a disciple for two months, at the Thousand Island Park in New York. When he traveled back to Sri Lanka in 1897 I was but one of many followers who accompanied him. When I learned of his passing in July 1902, my heart was broken, but I vowed to continue on in my quest.

In all, I was able to practice meditation for over 40-years before lying on my death bed. I was disappointed that I had not reached the exalted state of enlightenment, but looking back I marveled at the progress I had made. My mind was now blissfully silent and no longer mired in random thoughts. Peace and serenity was upon my face.

§§

My name is Isabella and I remember taking lovely summer vacation trips with my family to Playa de Las Canteras, and the other Spanish beaches. As a young girl I also enjoyed the sun, sand, and my friends.

I am the first child of four, and therefore my parents had high expectations for me. At the very young age of five I was enrolled in Suzuki violin school. I studied hard and gave several performances, but I was not going to be a virtuoso. That was not part of my DNA.

When I was eight years old my elementary school teacher called my parents for a conference. Mrs. Pérez told them that I was an extremely bright student, kind, and loved by my fellow classmates, but that I seemed to be engaged excessively in day dreaming during class. Mrs. Pérez said this was a problem that needed to be addressed. So she gave my father the name of a psychiatrist for me to visit.

I told them all that I would get lost, while spontaneously experiencing inner silence. It was as if my senses had shut down and there was no input from the outer world. My mind was awake inside and I felt that time was suspended. Then I would snap out of it and hear Mrs. Pérez talking at the front of the class.

The doctors didn’t know what to do. They told my parents not to worry because I would outgrow it.

At the age of twelve I started playing soccer with our middle school team. My father was an avid player himself when he was younger, so he accompanied me to all my games. He liked to also serve as an assistant coach, always eager to give me pointers to help my game. Since all four of us kids turned out to be daughters, I guess that I was the son he never had. Although I didn’t like the idea that there had to be a winner and a looser, rough and tumble sports were OK with me.

During the summer of 1961 we traveled overseas for the very first time to the Big Apple, New York City. We visited Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Radio City Music Hall. When we took a walk at the Thousand Island Park, I suddenly felt very strange. While strolling down Garden Avenue I realized that I had been here before. A left turn on Rainbow Street, all the way down to the end where it intersects the junction between Prospect Avenue, Sunset and Coast; and then forward to Grenell. Later on Eden Street I found the house of silence and peace.

My parents were not avid Church goers, but we made our rounds during the Christmas holiday anyway. They did not believe in that kind of stuff, but they showed up more as an insurance policy. Just in case there was some truth to it, they wanted to be certain that they had good credentials to get thru the pearly gates. As for me, I don’t know if the Good Book and its stories are true or not, but in any event I believe in helping everyone out and sharing love whenever possible. We are all connected to each other. The words “conflict” and “hate” were never in my vocabulary.

At night during sleep I seemed to dream a lot more that my sisters. They could hardly remember anything. But for me, I seemed to remember dreaming most every night.

I often dreamt about flying like a bird over the majestic countryside. Below me were rolling hills covered in lush verdure and tall trees. Small cities and large cities would past under my sight. And occasionally I would fly up high and see the Moon under my wings.

Once I was a soldier fighting the Moors who invaded my country. Once I lived in England and was an attendant to a Duke and Dutchess. I was a farmer, and a mountain man. I was a blacksmith’s daughters, and a gypsy girl. I was an Indian girl named Nizhoni living with my family in the American Southwest. I often dreamt of different people and different places. It was all soothing and peaceful.

I quickly learned that life often gives you the exam before the training lesson. We may call that learning by trial and error, or just gaining experience and becoming wiser over time. But either way, it seemed to me that a better way was needed. We do need to stand up after we fall down. But is this the school of hard knocks, or is there a better way?

I graduated from college and started my newfound career in marketing. It was exciting to work in the big city and I made many new friends at the office.

For lunch I often went outside to site on the bench in the sun. But something startling happened one day. I was lost again in that inner silence, but when I came out of it the world was unlike anything I had experienced before. Although my eyes were open and I saw people walking and I heard the sounds of car traffic, that inner silence did not go away. Now I was that silence, looking out at the world, at my own body and mind, as a spectator.

The experience is oh so blissful. I’m wide awake and witnessing activity along with silence. What is this? How did this happen? What does this all mean?

I spent the next few months enjoying my newfound freedom and trying to understand what had happened. I went to the library and found some interesting books by someone call Swami Vivekananda. I liked his books so I read everything that I could. So this is what enlightenment is, I thought.

Well here I am now sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Pretoria, South Africa. I left my marketing job and I’m working for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Once in Pretoria I’ll meet up with the Foundation’s HIV team and spend my days working to prevent the spread of aids.

§§

Conclusion …

Although everyone is searching for happiness and the meaning of life, virtually no one recognizes that the pursuit of enlightenment is germane to that end. Clouded by the enslavement of the five senses, deluded by cravings and wants, we live life after life is search of riches; as cattle remaining in their stalls.

The story of Nizhoni is one of spiritual awakening, taking place in the year 1620, in the American Southwest.

The story of Jason is one of purpose driven spiritual development; meditation, sacrifice, and a life of virtuous progress toward enlightenment.

The story of Isabella is one of innocents and goodness, spontaneously wakening into the timeless reality of enlightenment.

For Jason the path to enlightenment is long, arduous, and challenging. For Isabella it is a pathless path. Both prescriptions for attaining enlightenment (path or pathless) are correct. What you are faced with depends upon your viewpoint of life, and your current state of consciousness.

There is nothing to be acquired or gained. Referring to enlightenment as “self realization” highlights that only the fog of ignorance (not knowing) needs to be dispelled.

It’s not the divine that must be found, but rather that which deludes you that must be released.

I am neither created nor uncreated, for I have always been here.
I am neither deluded nor undeluded, for I have always been here.
I am neither of light nor of darkness, for I have always been here.
I am the Bliss, I am the Truth, I am the Boundless Sky.
(Avadhuta Gita)

The eternal absolute bliss consciousness is not in the realm of what can be acquired, or not acquired. IT is not in the jurisdiction of time, space, or causation. IT is beyond the arena of mind, concept and thought.

We are all connected to the universe which celebrates life. Today was given to you as a gift. Happiness is inherent to man. Retrace your steps and return to yourself. Slay the false notion of I and mine (ego) and awaken.

On this warm summer day in Northern Quebec, crystals of faux amphibolites (cummingtonite-plagioclase-biotite-garnet) lay exposed on the ground and bathe in the bright sunlight. Considered to be among the oldest rocks on Earth (4.28 billion years old) and possibly part of our planets original first crust, these ancient sentinels of time – have no ego.

Of course everyone would say that a rock has no ego. That seems to be just common sense. Such a notion is quite preposterous and borderlines on insanity.

But why is that, and how do we know?

A rock displays no visible sign that it is aware of itself, or its surroundings. Yet the ability to be aware is not the sole criteria for confirming the existence, or non existence, of an ego.

The term ego is often defined as a human trait. It’s how we see ourselves as separate and distinct from all other people in the world. It gives us the sense of I and mine; a unique identity in our world of multiplicity.

Yet just having an individual body, with both inner and outer awareness, is also not the sole criteria for confirming the existence of an ego.

There is much more to the ego than that. We need to explore deeper.

Most religious and philosophical systems categorize the different levels of creation. Some speak in terms of different bodies, while others speak in terms of unmanifest and manifest principles. In the mainstream Buddhist tradition there are three sheaths (Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya), subdivided into 31 levels. In Hinduism there are five Koshas (Anandamayi, Vigyanamayi, Manomayi, Pranamayi, and Annamayi).

Let us explore where the ego resides, and where it does not, based on the Theosophical system of seven divisions:

• Adi – Spirit, the first, original, and primordial element.
• Anupadaka – The unmanifest logos, self born and spontaneously generated.
• Atman – The highest part of a human being, pure consciousness. It is the realization and knowledge of “I am the absolute SELF, eternal and unbounded.”
• Buddhi – The spiritual soul, the faculty of discriminating, the channel through which streams divine inspiration.
• Mental – Manas, the Causal and Mental realm.
• Astral – The emotional realm.
• Physical – The dense physical world composed of material, liquid, gas and etheric levels.

The crystals of faux amphibolites are composed of hard physical substances. It can be seen, tasted, smelled, touched, and even heard when the forces of nature (erosion and heat) act upon it. These minerals have a physical body, a basic consciousness, and nothing more.

Plants and flowers first appeared on the earth’s surface about 700 million years ago. These delicate and beautifully life structures have a material as well as an Etheric body. We have learned in previous posts that having an Etheric (life force) body is characteristic of all living beings.

Plants are conscious of their environment. When the sun rises in the morning many species turn in that direction to bathe in the warm precious rays. When the sun sets many close their petals and rest. They respond to heat and cold, drought and rain, and thrive when conditions for growth are present. Scientists now believe that somehow plants communicate with each other. When a pest (i.e., aphids, beetles, caterpillars, etc.) or disease is present and threatens a plant community, plants in the area take a defensive posture.

Because of the presence of plants on the Earth we have a life sustaining oxygen-enriched atmosphere. This happens thru a process called Photosynthesis …

6CO₂ + 6H₂O + sun light = C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂

(carbon dioxide + water + sun light = glucose (sugar) + oxygen)

We owe our lives to plants. Plants are the bottom line basis of the food chain. Without plants there is no food.

When we as human beings fall asleep, dreaming takes place when our awareness is centered in the Etheric body. So it is said that because the highest body a plant has is Etheric, a plant’s consciousness is likened to that of a dream state.

With only a Physical and Etheric presence plants are incapable of emotion or reasoning. They have no ego, or sense of I or mine, since that is a more highly developed life trait.

Animals have a Physical, Etheric, and Astral body. Nothing more, nothing less.

On the physical level, animals are acutely aware of their environment. In fact they are more attuned then we are. They can see, taste, hear, smell and feel. Depending upon the species of animal, their five senses are more developed and function beyond the normal range of human perception.

The Astral body (linga sarira) is also known as the feeling and emotional body. Because animals have an Astral body they can experience; anger, fear, happiness and sadness.

In order to function more efficiently and express greater awareness in our diversified time/space world, life forms have developed more complex brain and nervous system structures.

As you can see from the picture below, greater expression of life’s intelligence depends upon more refined physical organs.

Animals rely on instinct to guide and protect them in the world. Through instinct, or feeling what is right, they know what to eat, where dangers are, and how to act. It’s a collective consciousness that they share. They do not have the ability to reason, which is a higher trait.

They have no ego, or sense of I or mine. That feature does not develop in the Astral body, which is the highest attainable for animals.

Men, women and children stand shoulders above all other living creatures on the Earth. That’s because humans have a Mental, Buddhi, and Atman body. Our sense of Ego, or identity, lay within all three of these levels.

For the most part, the Atman body is but a seed within modern man. It lies dormant and undeveloped.

Although the Buddhic body is somewhat more utilized in man, it still remains an untapped reservoir of potential. Today intuition and the higher values of mind function at minimal levels.

Our true individuality is referred to as the Monad, whose presence resides in Atman and Buddhi.

The Mental level consists of the Causal and Mental body, sometimes called Manas.

The practice of meditation develops all human bodies.

If you believe in reincarnation it’s the ego consisting of Atman Buddhi Manas that come to regeneration, again and again.

The birth and development of ego is a major milestone in the spiritual development of human beings. It’s one of the foremost characteristic traits that separates and makes us unique, among all other Earthly creatures.

Only people and higher beings have an individual ego, one per life-form.

On the evolutionary ladder one rung below us, animals have a collective or group identity that resides on the Astral level. When an animal dies their life experiences and lessons learned are incorporated back into the Astral group identity. That is where animals get their instinctive nature from.

For man, the full development of ego takes place in our material time-spatial world.

When one is faced with choice, preference, and a multifarious environment in which to act, human distinctiveness becomes sharper and more pronounced. It is said that no two people are exactly the same.

Human beings have control over their Buddhi, Mental, Astral and Ethric bodies. Even though these inner bodies can bring to bear great influence on our physical body, it’s the external physical laws of nature that holds sway and actually govern it.

Try not drinking or eating for a period of time, and see what happens.

When our inner life force withdraws from the physical body at death, then the corporeal forces of nature take over and decay promptly sets in. So from the standpoint of material existence, we can honestly say that our physical bodies are more in tune with the laws of nature; than our Etheric, Astral, Mental and Buddhic bodies.

Exposed to the field of space/causality over time, human beings have diversified thru the development of different races, languages, and cultures. All of these activities strengthen and make for more pronounced human ego.

People are also different from each other based on their sexual identity (male & female), sexual orientation, how happy (or sad) they are, and whether they consider their lives to be a success or failure.

Modern Psychology identifies personality and intelligence as the two root factors that distinguish one ego from another.

• Personality – Your style of dealing with other people and the world
• Intelligence – Your abstract reasoning, problem solving, and capacity to acquire knowledge

Both personality and intelligence are somewhat stable over time, but they can change. Meditation serves as an accelerant to elevate both of these characteristics to the highest possible levels of life.

Human heredity and personal experience account for why people are different.

Behavioral Genetics has found that our basic inclinations in life are contained in our DNA; passed down to us from our parents and their family lineage. Our basic view of life is also molded by experience in our shared (family) and non-shared environments.

Here is an interesting tale about two identical twins …

“Lulin and Yanfei discovered they had been separated at birth. The two were put up for adoption as infants because of China’s one-child policy. The girls share a number of things in common: They were both married in 2007, their husbands have the same name (Bin), they share some of the same hobbies and favorite foods, and their sons could pass for twins. Here’s something that’s really uncanny — they each have a scar on their fingers resulting from similar accidents that happened when they were 6 years old.”

This story clearly demonstrates that there is high heritability for almost everything; intelligence, personality, how happy you are, how religious you are, your political orientation, your sexual orientation, et cetera, et cetera.

Now with regard to the influence of environment, here is another story …

Spring has arrived so Chinese farmer Shaozu sets out to plough his fields and plant his crops. This past winter was financially difficult so he had to sell off some of their dairy herd to make ends meet. Because of that he only has enough cow manure to fertilize half of his fields. After fertilizing half, and waiting the required time for proper soil assimilation, he planted his corn seed. There was plenty of rain and sunshine over the next weeks. But as expected, the corn that grew on the fertilized soil was larger and more robust than the corn that was not fertilized.

This story clearly demonstrates that the same corn (identical genetic makeup) grew differently based upon the environment that it grew up in.

Over time the various climatic and environmental differences on our planet shape and influence how people develop and mature. Live by the sea, and your world revolves around water, adventure, and seafaring. Live in the mountains, and your physiology adapts to the thinner air and harsh climate. Live in the desert as nomads, and you are more likely to be thin and tall in body structure.

If you live where there are four distinct seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) your outlook on life gets molded differently than someone who lives at the equator, where the climate is similar all year round.

Our various human cultures and religious systems create egos that are vastly different. Because of these two strong influences on a persons life, philosophies and world interpretations vividly contrast. Some people believe that the “here and now” is all that is important and all that really exists, while others believed that their current life is but a test and preparation for a next one.

Systems that treat women as unequal to men have a detrimental effect on ego development.

We eat different foods, wear different clothes, and live in different places. Some people are outgoing in nature, while others are shy. Some are smarter than others, and some have better memories. Some are resilient, and some are dependent. And what we learn from our parents greatly influences how we interact with the world.

As we dive deeper into the world of materiality and continue to study its endless differing aspects, the human intellect develops further and becomes more refined.

Thinking in terms of language rather than in pictures, is a sign of greater discriminative skill.

Intellectual human development is on the rise. As noted, the “Flynn effect “is the substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

§§

The ability to remember is intimately linked to the structure of ego, and what we sometimes call the soul. Our Causal body retains the essence (memory impression) of all personal experiences.

The birth of ego is a blessing and part of the natural unfoldment of human life. But now that the ego is born, our spiritual mission is to bring it to maturity. That means overcoming and outgrowing the negative attributes of a young, totally self centered ego.

After having fully embraced the physical world we should now set our sights on learning loftier lessons. Human beings are now on the upward (spiritual) swing of evolution.

Through concerted effort, growth, greater knowledge, and meditation; negative ego attributes (selfishness, greed and violence) will give way to peace, harmony, and enlightenment for all.

Great people have said …

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.
Alan Watts

More the knowledge lesser the Ego,
lesser the knowledge, more the Ego
Albert Einstein

The Ego is a veil between humans and God.
In prayer all are equal.
Rumi

When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But, if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish.
Bhagavad Gita

When the body is filled with ego and selfishness, the cycle of birth and death does not end.
Sri Guru Granth Sahib

The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.
Tenzin Gyatso

I add …

A mature ego is one that imbibes all the noble truths of life. Having attained enlightenment through daily meditation, functioning now fully in the Atman body, every action promotes peace and well being for all.

If you are a rock basking in the sunlight and gazing out at the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean, you wouldn’t really notice the presence of Prana. And chances are, you wouldn’t care about it either. But if you are a plant, an animal, or a human being – your very survival and existence here depends upon it.

So what is Prana, and what roll does it play in life?

The Buddha taught his disciples that the body of all that is, and is not, consists of three sheaths (trikaya); Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya.

Dharmakaya is the absolute, the essential constituent of all constituents, the unity of all things and beings. It is beyond space and time, concept and thought, and the field of all that is. Buddhist meditation masters refer to Dharmakaya as, “the basis of the original unbornness.”

The absolute is not the relative world taken to an extreme. It is not the farthest distance that one could travel. It is not the longest time that our universe could exist. It is not forever, because that to has a beginning and an ultimate end. It is not infinitesimal, or infinite. Instead, it is completely outside, separate, and distinct from all causal and relative realms.

Sambhogakaya is known as the body of bliss. It’s there you experience the result of good Earthly deeds, and enjoy the benefit of all the time you spent practicing Buddhism. In this body your relative-individuality experiences the bliss associated with the realization of the absolute.

Nirmanakaya is the Earthly sheath where your physical body is present today. In this body you experience birth, pain, happiness, sickness, health, old age and death. But you are manifested here to have the opportunity to practice your dharma, and reach for enlightenment.

When you see terms like “absolute,” and “beyond time and space,” Prana does not reside there. Instead, Prana exists and functions within mind, in the relative field of shape, time, space and causation.

Prana plays a pivotal role in all mind/time/space environments; the Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya sheaths.

Energy is needed to move around and function in our world. Whether we travel up or down, or straight along the highway, force is expended to keep us moving. If we are walking, we burn calories to power our leg muscles that make the journey. If we are driving or traveling by train, a fuel source is needed to move the vehicle’s wheels and keep us rolling on our journey. The Earth rotates around the sun, and Galaxies spin in the farthest reaches of the universe.

There is One main source of energy for all that is. But in our world of multiplicity we call it by different names, depending upon how and where it brings to bear its influence. We have labeled one force “gravity,” to describe that aspect of the One that works thru the presence of matter. We have labeled another force “electricity,” to describe that aspect of the One that works by shifting atomic electrons around to create a potential for work.

… and so there are cosmic and solar energies, Prana, Kundalini, and a plethora of other aspects yet to be identified.

We commonly refer to the term “Prana” as that aspect which enters the etheric human body through cosmic and solar currents, and enters the physical human body thought the breath.

Prana is the basic life force that animates living beings in our time/space world.

The Sparrowhawk

Prana is present in all that moves and does not move, but is especially powerful in living things – from microbes, plants, fish, birds, mammals to man.

All living Earthly creatures, whether large or small, need three essential functions to sustain life:

• breathing, for Pranic energy
• eating, for food (input)
• excretion (output)

An Elephant Family

In human beings Prana is responsible for the breath, sensory perception, thinking, digestion of food, and body waste elimination.

Here is how Prana provides the energy that is the basis of our metabolic processes:

Inhalation entails the reaction of the Hemoglobin (H_b) in our red blood cells with Oxygen gas (O₂) from the air, to form Oxyhemoglobin (H_b-O₂).

H_b +  O₂ = H_bO₂

The red blood cells then travel the body to deliver its oxygen. Glucose and other sugars react with the oxygen to produce energy:

Glucose + Oxygen = Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy

C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ =  6CO₂ + H₂O + Energy

The practice of Meditation releases stress from the human nervous system, thereby enhancing our more efficient use of Prana. The breathing discipline that seeks to culture and enhance the breath (Pranayama) is a science onto itself, and worthy or your further inquiry.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has said, “Breathe less and live longer.”

Mind is the stage or platform from which Prana and any other form of energy has existence. In our physical world, that energy takes on various forms:

Types of Physical energy:
• Chemical
• Elastic
• Electrical
• Electrochemical
• Electromagnetic Radiant Energy (light)
• Gravitational
• Kinetic – by virtue of the fact that it’s in motion relative to the ground
• Magnetic
• Mass (E=MC²)
• Mechanical
• Nuclear
• Potential – based upon it state or relationship
• Solar energy
• Sound
• Thermal, or heat

Energy is the latent potential that has the ability to perform work.

Work = Force * Distance

Dolphins at play

Now let’s be more specific about what Prana does for us …

Prana acts within every human body to sustain and promote healthy living conditions. The five major currents of Prana acting and circulating through the body follow nature’s path, to address different functions of the cosmic life force.

The five fold natures of Prana are …

Prana: upward energy
Apana: downward energy
Samana: inward energy
Udana: outward energy
Vyana: expansion in all directions, all-encompassing.

Although these five Pranas are different from each other, they are more commonly known as Mahaprana (great prana).

“Just as an emperor posts his officials in different parts of his realm, similarly the chief Prana allots functions to the lower Pranas.” Prashanopanishad

“Pranam Brahmethivya jaanath” – says the ‘Taithriya Upanishad.’
“Know that Prana (vital energy) is one of the representations of Brahman (Almighty)”

Let’s look a bit closer at the five subdivisions of Pranas …

1. Prana
This Prana is centered in the region between the larynx and the upper diaphragm.

Although closely associated with our respiratory organs, it also plays a vital role in enabling speech via the mouth and nose. It powers our body’s use of water, and the production of sweat and urine. Prana enlivens our sensory organs (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing) and couples with the mind to interpret and make “apparently real” what we are experiencing.

When Prana gets out of balance harmful desires and insatiable craving may develop.

2. Apana is centered below the navel.

It provides the energy for the large intestines, kidneys, anus, and reproductive organs to function properly. From a physical standpoint, Apana rids the body of what cannot be digested and what has accumulated as toxins.

From a psychological standpoint, Apana helps to eliminate poisonous ideas and harmful emotions. When Apana gets out of balance mental depression may set in and the body is weakened.

3. Samana is centered in the region between the heart and the navel.

Samana is involved in the functioning of the pancreas, liver, and digestive system. Residing in the stomach, food is converted into refined nutrients and energy so the body has strength and can function.

If the natural flow of Samana is hindered in the body, excessive mental attachment and greed may develop.

4. Udana is centered in the body above the larynx. Responsible for building and maintaining body muscle, this prana also plays a key role in the functioning of our sensory organs; namely the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin receptors.

The uninhibited flow of Udana promotes a positive mental and physical enthusiasm. It enlivens your creative and spiritual potential. When out of balance, personal pride and arrogance may develop.

5. Vyana is the prana that encompasses the whole body. It helps with governance of the other fundamental energies, regulates the balance between the upward (Prana) and downward (Apana) forces. As a master controller, Vyana coordinates overall body health and activity.

When functioning properly this prana supports our free movement in the environment and enhances self confidence and independent thinking. When the flow of Vyana is restricted individuals feel isolation, hatred and alienation for others.

Upon entering our bodies (etheric and physical) Prana flows through conduits or channels more commonly known as “Nadis”. Ancient literature states that the total number of nadis in the human body is 72,000. Of these 72,000 there are 12 primary flows which Traditional Chinese Medicine has termed “meridians.”

The 12 major meridians in the body:
• Lung
• Large intestine
• Spleen
• Stomach
• Heart
• Small intestine
• Bladder
• Kidney
• Pericardium (Circulation/Sex)
• Warmer
• Liver
• Gallbladder

There are 3 other primary flows that run the entire length of the body, up and down, and these have been termed Ida, the Pingala and the Sushumna by adherents of Yoga and Hindu philosophy.

… now this is where the science of Kundalini comes into play.

Our life experience is made possible by the presence of Prana. Through these channels, the glorious life force Prana flows in all men, women and children.

§§

Jumping for Joy

According to the Tao Te Ching,
“Because the eye gazes and catches no glimpse of it, it is called elusive; Because the ear cannot hear it, it’s called rarified; because the hand cannot feel it, it is called infinitesimal; it’s rising brings no heat, it’s sinking no darkness. It is called CHI.”

As we practice meditation the 5-fold Pranas become more enlivened and begin to function more efficiently. They work better together as a group and instill health and a positive mental outlook. As such, Prana is a catalyst for promoting spiritual development and our conscious well being.

Prana vitalizes the entire human system, while Apana grounds us and enhances personal stability. Samana bring joy and a peaceful outlook, while Udana adds lightless to all of our activities.

Continued spiritual development for human beings depends upon integrating absolute bliss consciousness within our relative world. By animating our etheric and physical existence, Prana thereby maintains the platform for continued human evolution.

By meditating every day, you move several steps closer toward realization of your full potential. The world needs your gentle fearless spirit, harmony and wisdom.

Dr. Pierre Paul Broca

Many great and wonderful things come in pairs. Two halves of a cupcake is great for sharing. Investors want their stock to split. Computer bits alternate between a zero, and a one. There is Yin and Yang, Ladies and Gentlemen, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Milk and Cookies, and the famous Holiday half price sale.

And with that, one of the most striking discoveries of modern medicine is that the human brain has two hemispheres.

In 1840 the French doctor and anthropologist Pierre Paul Broca was presented with a medical mystery…

A young patient named Louis Victor Leborgne was admitted to Bicêtre Hospital where Broca was working at the time. Louis Leborgne seemed to be healthy in most respects other than he could not speak clearly. When he tried to talk only garbled sounds came from his mouth. He was classified as having “aphasia,” which literally means “incapacity to speak.”

Not only could he not speak, but he also couldn’t write. He was right handed. Leborgne seemed to be intelligent, still exhibiting full use of mental and physical capabilities, and yet, he had this inexplicable deficiency.

In 1861 Leborgne passed on, and so Pierre Broca decided to perform an autopsy. Pierre found a lesion in the left posterior frontal gyrus area of the brain. After careful study Boca concluded that was the part of the human physical brain that controlled speech. If damaged, physical speech is rendered unintelligible. Any destruction to a nearby part, later termed “Wernicke’s area,” was found to inhibit a person’s dispensation and understanding of language.

Over succeeding years doctors and scientist have been able to pinpoint areas of the brain that control other life functions. For example, it was found that the Medulla regulates unconscious activities such as breathing and blood circulation. The Hypothalamus is concerned with hunger, thirst, moods, sexual maturation, and the regulation of body temperature. The Thalamus handles traveling nerve signals, and the Cerebral Cortex facilitates thinking, learning, emotions, and voluntary muscle movement. The often misunderstood Pineal gland mostly sits and waits for your spiritual awakening.

The brain also has a left and a right hemisphere. The Corpus Callosum is the bridge between the two halves of the brain. Although both hemispheres have different purposes and functions, they need to learn to work better together.

The left hemisphere is your anchor in this time/space causal world. The right hemisphere is your divine spirit, which transcends all that is, and is not.

Each hemisphere addresses a different set of functions, behaviors, and controls. Here is what scientists have found:

Left brain functions:
• Controls right motor and sensory activities
• Is the center for reaction, language, and writing skills
• Linear processing of information, from part to whole
• Sees details, and not the big picture
• Makes lists and does daily planning
• Completes a task one step at a time
• Uses symbols, letters, words, and mathematics
• Makes decisions based on logic
• Sees cause and effect
• Looks at differences
• Deals with things as they are
• Is the center for individual, ego based activity and identity (the small self)

Right brain functions:
• Control left motor and sensory activities
• Is the center for relationships, artistic and music expression, visualization, and intuition.
• Holistic parallel processing of information, from whole to part.
• Sees the “big picture” and not the detail
• Reads words in context, and understands formulas
• Makes decisions based on intuition
• Like to draw and manipulate objects
• Likes open ended questions
• Sees patterns and resemblances
• Is creative
• Thinks in terms of visualization and images
• Is the center for transcendent, absolute based identity (the large SELF)

Many EEG (Electroencephalogram) studies over the past fifty years have clearly demonstrated that meditation enhances and improves the cooperative functioning of both brain hemispheres.

The fact that you have both a left and right brain hemisphere show that your nature is truly two-fold, individual and universal.

For the Enlightened person, both hemispheres operate at full capacity and interact as a seamless whole.

The physical brain functions because consciousness and life energy “Prana” permeates it, through and through. Often called Chi, its five aspects (Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana and Yyana) animate all human ethric and physical activity.

“From prana indeed all living forms are born and, having been born, they remain alive by prana. At the end they merge into prana once more.” Taittiriya Upanishad

Mind and Prana live in a sort of symbiosis with each other. Where you find Mind, you also find Prana. But Mind is more subtle than Prana.

Fluctuations of Prana rise as thought. Identification with thought is the display and property of your ego.

Your left brain hemisphere allows you to understand language, cause and effect, and examine detail. When that part of the brain is damaged the ability to speak is also impacted. It is the scientist within you.

Your right brain hemisphere nurtures your creativity and allows you to see the forest from the trees. When that part of the brain is damaged the appreciation of music and the spiritual quality of life escapes you.

Through meditation as your consciousness rises above the barrier of time, both brain hemispheres function more and more as one. The right hemisphere leads the way to the transcendent, while the left hemisphere stabilizes that experience in our time/space world to make it permanent and real.

A fully enlightened person stands on the Earth and yet functions from the spiritual heights of Satchidanada (eternal being, knowledge, and bliss).

Beyond the influence of pain and suffering, heat and cold, light and dark, right and wrong, life and death – lies your true identity. When the human ego dissolves into the universal reality you take your rightful place as the crown of creation. Thou art That, eternal, unbounded and free.

The Earth was born so that humanity could manifest on the physical plane and thereby complete the evolutionary process of perfection (Self realization).

Meditate every day to reclaim your eternal freedom.

Atheism Symbol

The sun was shining and the warm autumn breeze blew across the Mediterranean shore. The leaves of the Cypress trees danced about while the onlookers at Café Portofino sipped their coffee, chatted with their friends, and nibble on Cannolis. Both locals and tourists could be seen walking the cobble streets, entering shops, cafés and restaurants, and walking out with wide smiles.

Brown Castle stood upon the hilltop as a sentinel gracefully watching over the Italian seaside. All is beautiful, just as it was meant to be.

My name is Angelina and I am writing a midterm paper for my college social studies class. My professor handed out many topics from which we could choose to research and compose.

I briefly thought about one of the choices, how the influx of immigrants was changing the fabric of Italian society. Writing about the effects of global warming, a second choice, was also attractive. But instead I decided to venture into the world of atheism, to better understand how people come to pick that path. For me, a devout member of the Catholic Church, not believing in God seemed irrational and heartless. What human viewpoint could bring a person to such a conclusion – as atheism?

Georgio is my fellow classmate, who volunteered to be interviewed for today’s assignment. I did not know that he is an atheist. As we enjoyed our coffee and pastries, sitting outside in view of the ocean, the morning conversation slowly turned to the topic at hand.

Portofino Italy

Angelina:
Georgio, what is atheism, and what if anything do you believe in?

Georgio:
Well, to start out with, we are just regular folks. We eat, sleep, and work hard at our jobs to make a living for our families. We love, dream, and meet misfortune just like anyone else. We wear the same clothes, eat the same foods, and breathe the same air. I like to exercise, stay fit, and do my daily meditation. My heart beats just like yours.

But the defining difference is that we atheists do not believe in God. If you are Monotheistic (belief in one deity) or a Polytheistic (belief in multiple deities); we do not share that sentiment.

Angelina:
So does that mean you would not attend a Christian Church or Hindu Temple service?

Georgio:
Yes. I don’t attend religious services or subscribe to any philosophy/system that promotes deity recognition or worship. We believe that there are no deities of any kind.

I do believe in the basic goodness of people. I cherish love and life. I live by the Golden Rule and respect nature and most aspects of this world.

But there are some churches and spiritual traditions that emphasize the search for truth and meaning, in a non-sectarian way. Those are places that I can attend a service, if I wish.

Angelina:
Well, if you don’t believe in God what do you think happens when we die?

Georgio:
I have always felt that when I die, I am dead and finished, and my conscious life will simply come to an end. I’ll be gone. I don’t know what generates consciousness or awareness, but I expect that it will end. Maybe I will live on as memories in my surviving loved ones, in those who carry me on in their hearts. But for myself, I will cease to exist.

Angelina:
Do you hold any family, political or ethical views?

Georgio:
Just because I’m an atheist that doesn’t mean I hold radical views. Quite to the contrary, we are fairly main stream.

I support the rights of married and divorced couples, gay or straight. Opposition to gay marriage is based more upon traditional religious beliefs, which atheists simply don’t share.

I rely on science to determine when life starts. If a newborn baby can survive outside the womb due to an early premature birth (after 37 weeks), then that’s when human life starts. Although abortion is not a pressing issue for me, I tend to be more pro-choice. I respect the rights of women.

I strongly believe that our country got it right with separation between of church and state. Far too many wars have been waged in the name of religion. Millions have died for their cause. And when I look around the world I see daily occurrences of beheading and forced religious conversion. It’s a misguide ego thing.

Religious States and Theocracies are so yesterday. They belong to the medieval 12th century, not to modern man. I hope that mankind will outgrow those dark features of human unconsciousness.

Here in modern Italy, reborn as a secular state in the 19th century by liberals, church and state are separate. Gone are the days of the Reformation. But even so, the Vatican still exercises a huge influence over Italian politics and society.

The World simply is. Born with a Big Bang, it’s operating in accordance to physical laws. And now scientists are saying that there could be as many as 17 billion Earth like planets just in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. How will the Church deal with that?

Angelina:
Speaking about different types of governments, are there some places in the world that are better for atheists than others?

Georgio:
Yes, definitely.

While most government constitutions in the world have nice language that supports freedom of speech and religion, very few nations actually abide by it.

Check out the Freedom House 2013 assessment for yourself. Of all the areas on the Earth, Western Europe governments are the most free (96%).

Western Europe – 96%
The Americas – 69%
Central and Eastern Europe – 45%
Asia Pacific – 43%
Sub-Sahara Africa – 22%
Middle East and North Africa – 1%, (Israel is the only free country in that region)

http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FIW%202013%20Booklet.pdf

Freedom is essential to life and human growth. It provides a safe platform for the search for truth and meaning.

Atheists and humanists suffer persecution worldwide. For example, an atheist would be sentenced to death in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, the Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. In other countries, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait and Jordan, “blasphemy” laws prohibit its discussion.

According to the Pew Forum, as of 2011, 47% of the world’s countries and territories have laws or policies that penalize blasphemy, apostasy (abandoning one’s faith), or defamation (disparagement or criticism of particular religions, or religion in general).

Angelina:
What are your views on war?

Georgio:
Think beyond your own personality. Then there will be no wars.

But as a group we sometimes discuss if there ever is justification for going to war. Some atheists believe yes, and others believe no.

Angelina:
Is health care a right or a privilege?

Georgio:
Just as in your question about war, us atheists have a wide variety of opinions on this topic. Should end-of-life treatment be provided, and should governments be responsible for providing universal coverage to everyone? Some atheists believe yes, while some others believe no.

Angelina:
You mentioned staying fit and healthy. I thought that meditation was more of a religious practice and that as an atheist you would never get near it.

Georgio:
I practice meditation to reduce stress and strengthen my individuality. I found that a calm mind better helps me to concentrate on the task at hand, and enjoy life’s experiences more. Peace of mind helps to free me from worry.

Here are some additional benefits of meditation:
• physical relaxation becomes deeper with continued practice
• studies have shown increased blood flow and a slower heart rate
• decrease of the aging process
• better social behavior
• it’s easier to get rid of bad habits; they just fall away
• personality becomes more balanced
• phobias & fears become less
• satisfaction at work increases
• has been shown to lower high blood pressure
• there is less restless thinking and wandering of the mind
• less anxiety attacks
• will power becomes stronger
• with a clearer head, it’s easier to make better judgments
• enhances the immune system
• helps to build self confidence
• contributes to greater creativity and brain wave coherence
• leads to better grades at school, and an improved memory
• helps to quit smoking and alcohol addiction
• emotions become more stable
• relationships with just about everyone gets better
• petty issues no longer have any sway over you
• more self actualization
• more acceptance of oneself

Angelina:
Do you pay your taxes like most people?

Georgio:
I suppose we share the biases of just about everyone in society. Lower taxes and limited government, or higher taxes and more government, are in question.  Take your pick, because there are valid arguments on both sides of the equation.

Angelina:
Do you believe in Global warming?

Georgio:
Based on climatologically records that have been kept over the past few hundred years, and geological research into climate over past millennia, it does seem that average temperatures are increasing.

Now whether that is due to manmade pollutants, or other human activity; or natural causes beyond our control, that question is still up for grabs. Some of my scientific friends say that there is undeniable evidence that the current 7-billion people of this planet cause significant carbon dioxide emissions. We certainly pollute the waterways with pesticides and a multitude of other chemicals. The coral reefs in the world’s oceans are dying. Species are disappearing from the face of the earth.

But my one geologist friend states that the current warming is all part of a natural cycle that the Earth goes through; from ice age – to warming – to the next ice age. The continents will all be rearranged again over the next 250-million years. Due to continental drift they will once again come together to form one big super land mass.

But I do believe that we need to limit human created contaminates in the oceans, land and atmosphere, to keep the earth as pristine as possible.

Be as friendly to this beautiful planet as you can.

Angelina:
What type of world government is best?

Georgio:
Any country that separates Church and State is preferable. Religious theocracies and religious republics are horrible, since they regularly prey on atheists and other minorities.

Angelina:
I’m curious as to what events and experiences in your life brought you to embrace atheism. Were you raised that way by your parents, or did you choose atheism for yourself?

Georgio:
As with me, many atheists grew up in families that were religious. My parents are Catholic and go to church every week. They consider themselves to be god fearing, charitable good Christians.

When I was young I went to Church with my parents, but somehow what I learned there did not resonate with me. I didn’t know if there really is a God, because I never saw, heard, or touched him. Yes, there a plenty of status of Jesus and Mother Mary and the other Saints in Churches, but I never actually saw God with my own eyes.

Some people say that they talk to God every day. But what is that all about? God is certainly not appearing and standing in front of them so that they could have a real face to face conversation. It seemed to me that just as children have invisible friends to play with, so to, that adult relationship with God is nothing other than imagination. It’s one sided, and then people look for events in their lives to “justify” or “prove” that God answered them.

Faith is good for some things. Speaking for myself, just because I don’t know something first hand, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. In fact, our five senses perceived just a tiny fraction of what is happening in our environment at any one time. And the curtain of death is hidden from us all. The afterlife, if there is such a thing, must be wonderful because everyone who goes there doesn’t see fit to return.

And yet for me, faith must build upon actual verification to be trusted. If my science professor tells me that electricity in the flow of electrons from negative to positive charge, and he shows me that in a laboratory experience, I start to have faith in his teaching. If later he tells me that space-time is all relative and depends upon the speed of the observer and the observed, although I don’t understand Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, and the mathematics are way beyond me, my faith leads me to believe that what he has said is true. So faith builds upon concrete and verifiable truths, not something that is just taught in the Church, and you just must believe it or else.

Religions seem to have done a lot of harm in the world. All too often it stops people thinking in a rational and objective way. It divides people, and is a cause of conflict and war. Religion doesn’t give equal treatment to women and gay people, and thus offends basic human rights. Religion obstructs scientific research and evidence, and is a political tool for the social control of people.

But it’s also possible to be both an atheist, and spiritual.  Virtually all Buddhists manage it, as do some adherents of other religions.

That’s why I practice several forms of Buddhist meditation. I do Vipassana Mindfulness Breathing Meditation and Walking Meditation as I can. But I make sure that I do their Mantra Meditation twice each day, morning and evening. It’s very relaxing.

Epicurus, that ancient Greek philosopher (341 – 270 BC), was one of the first atheists. He presented the theory of “materialism.” It states that the only things that exist are bodies and the space in between them. Epicurus taught that the soul is also made of material objects, and so when the body dies the soul dies with it. There is no afterlife.

It seems to me than some atheists are much more “spiritual” than most solid church goers, simply because they question everything and want to find out the truth – not just blindly accept something because a Religion, or Priest, or Imam, or Rabi says so.

So my religion is the search for truth and social justice. I’m a humanist. No deities are involved.

Angelina:
Well, thank you Georgio for meeting with me today and helping in this college assignment. I have certainly learned a lot.

Georgio:
Sweet Angelina, enjoy the rest of your day.

§§

Monotheistic Religions:
Bahia, Christianity, Hinduism, Deism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism.

Polytheistic Religions:
Hinduism, Shintoism, Chinese folk religion, Wicca, and Taoism.

God, religion, and atheism are concepts that only exist within the realm of mind. All of that occurs in thought; bound by time and space, past, present and future.

To He/She who has transcended the sphere of mind and relativity, immersed in timeless eternal absolute being, those concepts which may have once guided the seeker upon the path are now cast aside. Unfettered by limitation of any kind, the enlightened person serves as nature’s gift.

No matter what meditation practice you prefer, or how you came to meditation, spend some time with it every day. Your reward will be immeasurable.

Om - Vedanta Symbol

From an academic standpoint the discipline of Philosophy is often described as – any study or interpretation of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.

Whether you adhere to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, David Hume, Lao Tzu, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato, Baruch Spinoza, or another, your curiosity and drive to understand the world that we live in; propels your spiritual search.

Complementary, shaped by years of experience with parents, siblings, teachers, co-workers, environment, culture and religion – we all see and interpret the world slightly differently.  Every person’s viewpoint of life can be considered to be their own personal philosophy.

Vedanta philosophy is a Hindu interpretation based partly upon Vedic text and on the teachings as expounded by the Upanishads.  They are not considered to be revealed truths, but instead consist of over 200 commentaries elucidating various aspects of Vedanta.

The principal Upanishads texts are:

Aitareya Upanishad
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Chandogya Upanishad
Isavasya Upanishad
Katha Upanishad
Kaushitaki Upanishad
Kena Upanishad
Maitri Upanishad
Mandukya Upanishad
Mundaka Upanishad
Prasna Upanishad
Svetasvatara Upanishad
Taittiriya Upanishad

As with most teachings, there are different interpretations and categories of Vedanta Philosophy.  The major schools are …

Advaita Vedanta:
The teachings of Shri Shankara which describe all as Brahman; the absolute timeless Being, which appears as our activity based transitory field of space, time and causation thru the process/power of illusion (Maya).

Dvaita:
As taught by Madhwacharya; Brahman, individual souls, and existence (physical, etheric, mental, spiritual time/space) are eternally separate, yet communal units.

Dvaitadvaita:
Formulated from the teachings of Bhaskara; the individual spirit (Jiva) is both the same and one with Brahman.

Lakshmi Visishtadvaita:
Presented by Sri Srinivasa Deekshitulu; this branch of philosophy considers all things to be sakala (manifested/form) and nishkala (unmanifested/the formless absolute).

Shuddhadvaita:
As initiated by Vallabha; enlightenment is only possible through the practice of Bhakti (devotion).

Vishishtadvaita:
As qualified by Ramanuja; individual souls are unique and distinct while inseparable from Brahman.

Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) maintained that, “The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue, as the human spirit longs to define itself and better understand the world of existence/nonexistence.”

Vedanta philosophy:
Inquiry into the nature of our world; what is eternal and what is the transitory ephemeral  (fleeting world).

Let’s now discuss the central themes of Vedanta.

1. The Non-dual nature of the Ultimate Reality.

Once we find ourselves awake in a human body we begin to perceive various things around us.

As a newborn child we feel the warmth and gentle caress of our mother.  We hear her laughter and can feel the beat of her heart.  The sweet taste of milk satisfies our thirst, as we see her ever loving face. Exposed to the five Tanmatras and aided by our sensory organs, we begin our life’s journey.

Five Tanmatras:
Sabda (sound), Sparsa (touch), Rupa (form), Rasa (taste) and Gandha (smell).

Five Jnana-Indriyas:
Srotra (ear), Tvak (skin), Chakshus (eye), Jihva (tongue), Ghrana (nose).

Five gross elements:
Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether.

Sensations and perceptions are transferred to the human brain via nerve impulses, which in turn, employ the mind to generate an experience.  Cognition consists of integrating the sensory input and all the attributes (smell, form, texture, color, and taste) to project an image in the mind.

We can consider the physical brain to be hardware, while the mind is software.

Kathopanishad gives us a very nice analogy that describes the various characteristics of human life:

Chariot

Know the soul as lord of a chariot,
the body as the chariot.
Know the intuition as the chariot driver,
and the mind as the reins.
The senses, they say, are the horses;
the objects of sense the paths.
This associated with the body, the senses and the mind,
the wise call ‘the enjoyer.’

Beyond the senses are the objects of sense.
Beyond the objects of sense is the mind.
Beyond the mind is the intuition.
Beyond the intuition is the great soul.
Beyond the great is the unmanifest.
Beyond the unmanifest is Spirit.
Beyond the Spirit there is nothing at all.
That is the end; that is the final goal.

Are the objects of our world real, or simply an illusion?  If there were no awareness, would they even exist?

Space Time Continium

An object exists only if we have knowledge of it.  That implies that there is a knower (Rishi, the inner self), the process of knowing (Devata), and the object of knowing (Chandas).  Objects exist only in the field of space/time.  There is no individuality or distinctiveness anywhere else.  The conveyance of space/time is the mind.  Beyond mind is absolute-bliss-consciousness, Brahman.

We all experience the solidity and apparent reality of our world.  As we meditate over a period of time we experience deeper levels of thought and consciousness.  As that happens the hardness of the world experience softens.

For example, while walking on the beach and enjoying the sun we can take a stick and drag it through the sand. That creates a line or furrow. The harder we press the deeper the channel we create. That line remains in the sand and will stay there until the wind or surf eventually covers it back up. Now take that same stick and swipe it through water. You will notice that it also creates a line, with emanating ripples, but that will not last long. The impression in the water quickly disappears. Now take that same stick and swipe it through air. That also creates a line, we can feel the resulting wind, but that disappears even faster.

As consciousness expands the imprint of experience on the mind becomes less and less. The winds of time and change and their resulting vicissitudes fall more softly on our psyche. Less indelible become their influence. Just as dragging a stick in the sand makes a deep furrow not easily covered up, swiping the stick through the air makes much less of an impression. So to, as our individual consciousness grows the impact of experience softens.

As we continue our meditation practice individual consciousness expands along with personal strength and stability.

But during meditation we can transcend the mind, leave it at the doorstep so to speak, and walk thru the entrance; as the individual self is transformed into the grand eternal reality (Self).  Beyond thought, perception and the three gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas), lay the everlasting absolute timeless Brahman.  Thou art That.

The three Gunas:
Sattva (light, bliss, goodness), Rajas (passion, motion) and Tamas (inertia, darkness)

But, the superimposition error (Adhyasa) occurs when we take ourselves to be the body-mind-intellect complex, and not the timeless reality.

We depend on our senses, but all too often believe something is real only if we can; hear, touch, see, taste, or smell it.  Science has shown us that  we see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum (gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infra-red, microwaves, and radio waves) and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum (radio & TV, 1000 MHz – 50 MHz ).

The universe is an expression of the one Spiritual Reality.

Movement in space creates time, and movement in time creates space.

The absolute (Purusha) and relative universe (Prakriti) is the non-dual nature of existence/nonexistence.  Purusha is the clock maker, while Prakriti is the ticking clock (space/time continuum). Purusha is non material, yet by sleight of hand allows Prakriti (matter) to appear.  The one allows itself to appear as the many.  Thus, the drama of life is begun.

2. The Divinity of each Soul.

Within each person resides the divine essence, found at the core of your innermost being.

Human life offers the opportunity to unfold the unbounded reality, found within every man, women and child.  The goal of life is to manifest this purity into all aspects of empirical activity.  The divine soul aspect (One) is silence, while the expressed world (individuality) is activity.

Because we are a reflection of the absolute, timeless and without borders, we have the strength and urge to pursuit freedom and bliss.  That drive is embedded in everyone’s heart.

Vedanta acknowledges six valid means of knowledge:

The Pramanas are:
Pratyaksha (perception), Anumana (inference), Upamana (comparison), Agama (scripture), Arthapatti (presumption), Anupalabdhi (non-apprehension).

According to the “Uthara Memamsa” of Vyasa Maharshi, we all share similar traits.

•  Thru the deception of Maya we take on individual form, name, and action. The unmanifest seemingly projects itself as the material space/time continuum.

•  The individual soul (Jiva) remains in ignorance (not knowing, Avidya) of its true nature.

•  The cause of bondage and suffering is due to Nescience, which is lack of knowledge and awareness.

•  Liberation is the experience of supreme bliss, identification with the absolute, and the cessation of all suffering due to Nescience.  Direct knowledge (experiential) of the Supreme Self reveals the Non-duality of silence, thought and experience.

Karma literally means “action.”  We can also describe its broader implication that elicits “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  In the West, this is often referred to as the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

From the standpoint of the science, Sir Isaac Newton stated in his 3^rd Law of Motion, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Vedanta philosophy embraces a broader concept of Karma, and uses it to explain the inequalities and fortunes/misfortunes of human life.  Why is one person born blind or with an affliction, while another person is not?  By coupling karma with reincarnation it is rationalize that blindness at birth is a consequence of negative behavior in a prior lifetime.

From the standpoint of the non-dual absolute reality, there is no positive or negative, only what is and what comes next.  A volcanic eruption or earthquake is the result of natural plate tectonic motion.  If we don’t get in the way, we don’t assign significance to the event.

The moon Io which orbits the planet Jupiter is the most volcanically active place in our Solar System.  And yet, since these eruptions and the resulting outcropping of poisonous gasses do not affect human life, we remain indifferent.

We assign attributes (good, bad, etc.) based upon whether the event is perceived to be beneficial or not, for human survival and the search for happiness.

When we throw a stone into a lake, circular ripples emanate for the point of impact and travel outward.  As the wave moves its intensity diminishes by the square of the distance.  At twice the distance from impact, the intensity is 1/4^th of the original amount.  At four times the distance from impact, the intensity is 1/16^th of the original amount. The influence of human action albeit reaches to the ends of the Universe. The affects of Karma are unfathomable.

We act in this world by way of bodies (spiritual, causal, emotional, etheric and physical), animated by the forces of nature:

The five Pancha Karmendriyas, Organs of Action:
Upastha (creative), Paayu (elimination), Paada (foot), Paani (hand), Vaak (speech).

The five Pancha Jnaanendriyas, Organs of Cognition:
Ghraana (nose, organ of smelling), Rasanaa (tongue, organ of tasting), Cakshu (eye, organ of seeing), Tvak (skin, organ of touching), Shrotra (ear, organ of hearing)

This world is but the play and display of consciousness.

I-ness and mine-ness bind you to the wheel of Samsara. Destroy these notions and identify yourself with the Atman, the non-doer.

Upon reaching Enlightenment, these forces still continue to act and karma returns as it must.  However, established in Satchidanada (being, awareness and bliss), you are now beyond the binding influences of karma.  Sitting as the silent witness, the world of play takes place as a movie on a screen.  You remain untouched and beyond any sphere of influence.  Unborn, eternal, everlasting, you are one with the non-dual reality.

3. The Oneness of Existence.

Swami Sivananda states in his Moksha Gita, “That which is neither subtle nor dense, which has neither caste nor name, which is immutable, immortal and bodiless, which is beyond the reach of mind and speech, that should be understood as Brahman.”

This is also an essential teaching of the Upanishad texts.

And yet we all verify that the multi-universe that we live in seems not to be that at all.  We are bound by time and space, live individual lives fraught with suffering and momentary happiness.

How does the One seemingly become the many?

The term Maya is used to describe the projecting aspect/power of the One to simulate the appearance of the many.  Thru Maya the unreal appears to be real.  As such Prakriti projects itself into movable entities.  Under the cloak of Maya we are in bondage to forms, objects, ideas, and actions.

Maya consists of Avarana-Sakti (the veiling power) and Vikshepa-Sakti (the projecting power).

Commenting on the principle of Maya, Shankara has said,  “Like the appearance of silver in mother of pearl, the world seems real until the Self, the underlying reality, is realized.”

The great poet Mevlana Rumi (1207 – 1273) has said, “Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!  For beyond these colors and these perfumes, there are other colors in the heart and the soul.”

Thru the work of Prakriti individuation flourishes and continues to expand into ever more multifarious forms.

From Maya are born …

Two apparent realities from the One:
Purusha (consciousness) and Prakriti (matter).

The distinction between the Self and the self:
Atman (the Self) and Jiva (individual self).

The five Pranas, vital forces:
Prana (respiration), Apana (elimination of body waste), Vyana (circulation of blood and support of the nervous system), Udana (supports standing tall and production of sounds; speech), Samana (digestion and assimilation).

The six Sat Kancukas, coverings:
Niyati (limitation of place), Kaala (limitation of time), Raaga (limitation of attachment), Vidyaa (limitation of knowledge), Kalaa (limitation of creativity), and Maayaa (limitation of individuality).

The three Antahkaranas, inner instruments:
Manas (emotional mind), Buddhi (intellect), and Ahamkaara (ego connected with objectivity).

The six Bhava-Vikaras, modifications of the body:
Asti (existence), Jayate (birth), Vardhate (growth), Viparinamate (change), Apa­kshiyate (decay), Vinasyati (death).

The six Vairies, enemies:
Kama (passion), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (infatuation or delusion), Mada (pride), Matsarya (jealousy).

The four human conflicts:
Individual (conflict within one’s own self between reason and feeling, emotions and understanding), Social (conflict with human society), Environment (conflict with nature), and Cosmic (how and why is all of this here).

From and intellectual and logic standpoint, we can also make an argument that existence is One:

•  The knower of change is changeless; otherwise there could be no awareness or knowledge of change.

•  Awareness of individuality and distinction is possible only if consciousness itself is not divided, and does not change with change.

… thus we can say that changeless consciousness, which is the unaffected and undivided witness of all change, is the ultimate Reality.

Greater exposure and assimilation of pure consciousness thru meditation breaks the bonds of Maya and incorrect self identification.

The veil of Maya is lifted when liberation (moksha, enlightenment) is gained.  Thru the continued practice of meditation you can pierce the cloud of illusion and see for yourself that Maya is not a fanciful concept, but does indeed obscure that fact that existence is one.

4. The Harmony of the higher Religions.

World Religions

Religions are the concept of mankind.  To the extent that they point to and guide people toward correct understanding and experience, they may be valid.

Rules, creeds, ceremonies, symbols, doctrines, faith and holy books, can be the outer trappings of a universal message tailored to suit specific peoples at different times.

Religions are often centered around a Proponent, Book and Building. The leader of a new religion may expound wisdom, grace and divinity from their level of consciousness, but over time the message is diluted and becomes ineffectual. That’s because followers are not at the same level of consciousness as the leader; so the full wisdom of the teaching is perceived and interpreted in a distorted manner.

Some religious leaders are more divine than others.  Some preach compassion and universal brotherhood, while others preach obedience to their God thru submission and the sword.  Some leaders turn the other cheek and forgive all, while others lead armies of conquest and subjugation, beheading all those who stand in the way.

All those who believe that their God is the one and only true God, have deluded themselves due to ego and culture identification.

A true religion is one that proclaims the universal message of peace, and displays unconditional love toward all people.  If non-judgmental and accepting of all that is, it may deem worthy of your study.

§§

Having gained Enlightenment the knower of reality has transcended the teaching of Vedanta Philosophy.  It has served as a valuable bridge to cross the gap and shed the prior life of unknowing.

Close your eyes and meditate every day.  Expand your conscious awareness and loving heart.  Contribute to society and help pave the way toward a peaceful world.

Every newborn welcomed into the human family holds the promise of a full and joyful life.

As we make our way from childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age and retirement, every culture celebrates personal and community milestones.

What does it take to become a man in Papua New Guinea? How is coming of age marked in the Australian Outback, or in the Christian Church? Why pierce the skin in ceremony, have a Sweet Sixteen Party, or stand before your elders and read from the Jewish Torah?

Rite of passage is celebration of life events that mark a turning point. They are each based around three central themes:

Separation – an individual is no longer identified by their prior life status.

Transition – during this period an individual undergoes tests and challenges to prove that they are indeed worthy of the newer upcoming status.

Re-incorporation – having passed the necessary trials and proved their worth in the eyes of the community, the individual is reintroduced to the society with new honors and status.

As we recognize stages of human growth and development, we should also recognize attainment of spiritual milestones.

———————————————————————————————————————
Celebration of birth

Mother and child

Every culture since time immemorial welcomes the newborn into society …

For Native Americans, the celebration of a child’s birth starts while the mother-to-be is pregnant. At the time of first moon, the clan’s grandmother prays for the successful entry of the new member. The Mother goes into the woods and collects special herbs for their spiritual leader to use in ceremony. Female relatives and the clan Grandmother assist in the birth. Only rarely are fathers allowed to attend. Thirteen days after birth the Spiritual leader introduces the new child to the tribe.

In India, Hindu ceremonies are performed during pregnancy, to facilitate and promote good health for mother and child. Among the religious orthodoxy, at the time of birth and before the umbilical cord is severed, the father will place a golden spoon or ring dipped in honey, on the babies lips. The word vak (speech) is whispered three times into the child’s right ear, and special mantras for long life are recited.

The Okuyi transit of childhood is celebrated by many Bantu ethnic groups living in Western Africa. When an infant reaches four months of age, or when a child becomes an adolescent. Mother and child are placed in the center of a group surrounded by singing and dancing Okuyi performers. Dressed in costumes resembling the spirit of past clan ancestors, the performers recount the tale of a panther taking the baby. Pointing a spear toward the child, blessings are bestowed. The Okuyi then continues the dance around mother and child.

Most Christian denominations practice Baptism. Parents present their newborn child to the community and priest. This usually takes place during the main Sunday morning service. Parents publically proclaim on behalf of their child that they believe in God and that they will bring the child up to follow Jesus.

The ceremony culminates with the child being sprinkled (poured or immersed) in water. This signifies purity, cleansing from sin, and devotion to God.

The priest will recite, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (according to Matthew 28:19).

From a spiritual standpoint, the anointing with oil on the child’s forehead – is meant to open the brow chakra to religious visions, clairvoyance, observation of auras, and precognition.

In Judaism, a newborn baby boy is presented to the community during the circumcision ceremony, called a “bris.” The Bris Milah usually completes this in about 30-seconds. The event also signifies the child’s entry into the covenant with Abraham.

Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some, or all, of the foreskin (prepuce) from the penis. This practice is not restricted to any particular religion or culture. About 1/6 to 1/3 of all males worldwide are circumcised. Depictions of circumcision have been found in Ancient Egyptian tombs.

According to the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA), circumcision may have positive health benefits, which include:

• Easier hygiene
• Decreased risk of urinary tract infections
• Prevention of penile problems
• Decreased risk of penile cancer
• Decreased risk of sexually transmitted infections

In Islam, young women often undergo female circumcision.

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes this as “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.

The Islamic Hadith text indicates that circumcision is better for a woman’s health and it enhances her conjugal relation with her husband, the Prophet’s saying “do not exceed the limit” means do not totally remove the clitoris.”

According to Wikipedia …

“The procedures known as Female genital mutilation (FGM) were referred to as female circumcision until the early 1980s, when the term “female genital mutilation” came into use. The term was adopted at the third conference of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and in 1991 the WHO recommended its use to the United Nations. It has since become the dominant term within the international community and in medical literature.

FGM is typically carried out on girls from a few days old to puberty. It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed, without anesthesia, by a traditional circumciser using a knife, razor, or scissors. According to the WHO, it is practiced in 28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America, and Australasia. The WHO estimates that 100–140 million women and girls around the world have experienced the procedure, including 92 million in Africa”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation)

Depending on the degree of mutilation, FGM can have a number of short-term health implications:

• severe pain and shock
• infection
• urine retention
• injury to adjacent tissues
• immediate fatal hemorrhaging

Long-term implications can entail:

• extensive damage of the external reproductive system
• uterus, vaginal and pelvic infections
• cysts and neuromas
• increased risk of Vesico Vaginal Fistula
• complications in pregnancy and child birth
• psychological damage
• sexual dysfunction
• difficulties in menstruation

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Entry in to Manhood

The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania prepare their young men by having them participate in the ritual Maasai Lion Hunt. Participants deliberately seek out the more robust, mature, aggressive, and active lions for pursuit. Armed only with the tribes traditional spear, the young men come face to face with this “king of beasts” to prove their fearlessness. Some never make it back home, but the overwhelming majority do.

The young men are eager to become recognized warriors. Once the Hunt is completed they can take their place in society as men, and actively participate in the security and protection of their tribe’s territory.

The Thread Ceremony (Upanayana) is widely practiced in India by members of orthodox Hindu religious groups. For young boys between the ages of six and twelve this observance is used to highlight the transition to awareness and adult religious responsibilities.

Upanayana

When young Burmese boys approach the age of ten, some participate in the Poy Sang Long Buddhist ceremony. Dressed up like the Buddha, they spend three days ridding around on the shoulder of grown men, imitating the Buddha’s walk toward enlightenment. Those that wish to become monks are then ordained, while the other boys return home.

In Judaism coming of age for a 13-year old boy means having your Bar Mitzvah. After reading from the Torah at a Saturday morning service and completing various requirements, they are now considered to be an adult.

Going forward the Bar Mitzvah candidate now bears their own responsibility for Jewish ritual, law, tradition, and ethics, and is able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life.

The evening is usually followed up with celebration and festivities.

From the mid 16th century all the way to the twentieth, young boys in the Western World wore gowns or dresses until the age of eight. A gown was more convenient for potty training and for covering up a fast growing child, especially when clothes were expensive. Then, in celebration, they are given their first pair of pants (breeches). After “breeching” a young boy’s father becomes more actively involved in their upbringing.

The tribe elders pierce the young man’s chest, shoulders, and back muscles with wooden splints. He is then hoisted up into the air. Additional splints are then inserted into his arms and legs. The skulls of his dead grandfather and other ancestors are then placed on the ends of the splints. Because of the skin stabbings, there is some bleeding. All the while the boy is in agony, almost delirious, but yet he is determined to bear the pain in silence. After all, this is his test of manhood as a member of the Mandan Tribe.

Teenage boys often participate in the First Holy Communion ceremony. The word “communion” is derived from the Latin “communion,” and is often interpret to mean fellowship. By taking part in this, their first Holy Eucharist Sacrament (symbolic of Christ’s last supper), they are recognized as adults, and full members of the Christian community.

Young boys of the Native American Cherokee Tribe are blind folded and led into the forest by their fathers. After finding a suitable spot, the boys sit and are left to endure the night without ever removing the blind fold. They are to remain quiet and composed. When the morning sun rises and its first rays strike the boys, they can remove the blind fold and return home as men.

Other Native American rites of passage include confronting various wild animals, hunting and fishing, cultivating combat skills to become a warrior, honoring the Earth and the Great Spirit, and a host of other ceremonies.

Participation in a Vision Quest often serves as a stepping stone toward manhood. It’s a time for wilderness solitude and personal reflection. Contact with animal spirits raises the young man’s awareness to the interconnectedness of all life.

In Australia the Aboriginal tribes send their adolescent boys out on a Walkabout. This is a test to see if they have the survival skills necessary to live on their own in the outback (desert, marsh, mountains, etc.), for a period of up to 6-months.

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Entry into Womanhood

Shanghai International Debutante Ball

The Débutante Ball has long been the celebration of a young ladies entry into formal society. Although started as a French tradition by aristocratic and upper class families, this gala event is now celebrated all over the world.

Debutante (from the French débutante, “female beginner”).

On December 28, 2012, the International Débutante Ball will be held at the New York City , Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Sweet Sixteen is a coming of age party celebrating a girl’s sixteenth birthday, primarily in the United States and Canada.

In the Jewish Tradition a 12 year old girl will have a Bat Mitzvah. It is similar to the Bar Mitzvah as practiced by young men. It denotes that the young girl is now a woman, and as such gladly takes on the responsibilities of her Jewish Heritage.

Bat Mitzvah

It’s interesting to note that the Bat Mitzvah is a relatively new phenomenon. Traditional and Orthodox Judaism still does not recognize the participation of women in religious services. But the more liberal Reformed and Conservative branches do. Those communities started to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is growing steadily as more and more communities have accepted the practice.

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Adolescence

Members of the Unitarian Universalism congregations celebrate Coming of Age (COA). This is for both boys and girls.

Coming of Age

Starting around 12 years old, the congregation’s youth pair up with a mentor, and attend special COA program classes.

They prepare a “faith statement,” which signifies what they believe in and the type of civic and spiritual life they would like to lead. They learn about other world religions, and what their Church’s covenant of faith affirms:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

When the class is complete the COA participants are presented at a Sunday morning service. They each read their “faith statement,” and the Unitarian Universalism congregation members pledge to stand with them, side by side, in loving support, for their journey into Adulthood.

Many Christian denominations offer the sacrament of Confirmation to their 13-14 year old, boys and girls. Confirmation is one of the seven sacraments that commemorate the life of Christians. At this service the Gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed.

In the American Amish heartland of Pennsylvania the young folk at about age 16 enter into Rumspringa. They then have a choice before themselves; to either choose baptism within the Amish church, or instead leave the community. They have a period of time with which to make that decision.

Come what may, the vast majority choose baptism and remain in the church.

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Adulthood

In Ancient Greece the term “dokimasia” referred to the process whereby young citizens gain the skills necessary to partake in public rights and duties.

Other milestones that signify entry into adulthood are:

• High School Graduation
• The first drivers license
• First legal drinking age
• Gaining the right to vote
• College Fraternity Pledging

In Burma members of the Theravada Buddhism tradition may send their son’s onto the Shinbyu celebration. This gives them a chance to more closely study the teachings of the Buddha, and to follow their Dharma path. If it is right for them they can choose upasampada ordination into the rank of monk.

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Other milestones that all cultures celebrate are:

Marriage
Motherhood
Fatherhood

At our 40th birthday we can say, “I am a free and willing, independent, self responsible human being.”

At our 80th birthday we can say “I have achieved my goals and aspirations. The present is rich, and life is beautiful.”

… and

Death, a transition to another path.

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Your Spiritual Life

Meditation

The first time that you ask the question, “Who am I, what is world all about, how did I get here, and what is my purpose in life,” you have taken the first steps on the Spiritual path.

When you recognize and take note of the beauty, delicacy, strength, and wonder of life, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you stand in awe under the starry night sky and feel amazement, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you hold your newborn child and feel your heart overflowing with joy and love, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you help your neighbor bring in their groceries, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you strive to do your best on the upcoming school exam, and in whatever you do, you are on the Spiritual path

When you read a book and your mind entertains new ideas and possibilities, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you wash your clothes but it’s done with purpose and joy, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you say a prayer before eating, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you treat every day of your life as if the last, and enjoy that day as a bonus, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you care for all men, women and children, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you sit in silence, you are on the Spiritual path.

When you close your eyes to meditate, you are on the Spiritual path.

… and a million and one other ways, you are on the Spiritual path.

Our spiritual journey consists of all that we do, as movement away from identification with our individual body, mind and ego – toward expansion of universal absolute awareness and bliss.

The realization that “I am not body,” “I am not mind,” “I am eternal unbounded Being,” completes the circle of life.

When you start meditation some traditions offer an “initiation” ceremony, while others do not. Your first meditation is a rite of passage.

When you sit in Sat sang with other like minded spiritual people, that is a milestone.

When you take Shaktipat with a spiritual teacher, that is a milestone.

When you rise above the binding influence of culture and religion, that is a milestone.

When your mind transcends in meditation to finer levels of thought, that is a milestone.

When your mind is silent and bliss consciousness dawns, that is the milestone of milestones, your grand rite of passage.

This by Cynthia B. Johnson:

Comes the day when life stops.

Sometimes abruptly. Unscheduled. Unplanned.

The calendar full of appointments for tomorrows not to be.

Large things, like tickets bought but not used.

Like dinner parties for which invitations have been mailed, responses received.

Like speeches scheduled and project deadlines agreed to.

Small things, like clothes at the dry cleaners.

Like a small stack of phone messages to be returned.

Like two lamb chops thawing for tonight’s dinner.

No one’s daytimer lists “Death –

all day Wednesday” as the final appointment.

[“Sudden Death and the To Do List” from A Theophany, Please]

**

Again and again it defeats me—

This reliance on others for bliss.

—John Weldwood

We celebrate the right of all people to marry this day closest to Valentine’s and as we proudly host our GLBTQ friends here at the Interweave Convocation. But we remember that we face new assaults on Love here in California and elsewhere. Thursday was Freedom to Marry Day here in California, a reminder of the legal right once had but hoped to be regained. March 5^th the California Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the constitutionality of Prop Hate…er,…8. Of course, assaults on the freedom to love are all the more powerful when the end of life faces us. St. Valentine died in jail, himself in love with the Jailer’s daughter, because he performed weddings of two people in love in spite of family customs of the time.

Love is always more poignant in the face of death. Death brings a certain urgency to love. Dana Lawrence and her partner of many years came to me three years ago to be married. Dana was dying of cancer and she wanted to know that feeling of being recognized by a church in the eyes of love. She joined PUC and was married right here two years ago by yours truly. What none of us realized is how soon the dark angel would come for her. Dana was gone within two months. So few of you knew her. She was quiet but we were here for her. Before she died she told me how happy she was to find such good friends who could love her as she was

Friends and Lovers are each affected by mortality. We often parse friends as different than lovers, but we forget that the best relationships start as friendships, indeed the love of a friend can withstand even death.

In fact, I propose the following distinction: Friends are stout lovers, broad at the base if not always capable of making sharper points –such as sexual love allows. As Cicero (who himself died for his friendship with Pompeii, and not Caesar) noted, “Friendship is the greater love because it involves a constant choice….Friends are another self.” (paraphrased from On Friendship) God gives us friends to fulfill the imperfect love we need even as we seek a more perfect love than there is. How many of us, especially in the face of death, have found lovers abandoning us, but friends at our sides? Think of the end of Jesus’ life; his male followers, lovers of his logos, abandon him at death, while his female friends (who are, ironically, not his lovers) are there beyond the end.

John Weldwood, a Buddhist teacher writes: “While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain such love where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. This creates a strange gap between absolute love—the perfect love we can know in our heart—and relative love, the imperfect ways it is embodied in our relationships. Why, if love is so great and powerful, are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully?

“What lies at the root of every relationship problem is a core “wound of the heart” that affects not only our personal relations, but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This wounding shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove, a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. We experience ourselves as separated from love, and this shuts down our capacity to trust. So even though we may hunger for love or believe in love, we still have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us…..Similarly, when a friend … is dying, all your quibbles with that person fall away. You simply appreciate the other for who he or she is, just for having been here with you in this world for a little while. Pure, unconditional love shines through when people put themselves—their own demands and agendas—aside and completely open to one another.

“Absolute love is not something that we can… fabricate. It is what comes through us naturally when we fully open up—to another person, to ourselves, or to life. In relation to another, it manifests as selfless caring. In relation to ourselves, it shows up as inner confidence and self-acceptance that warms us from within. And in relation to life, it manifests as a sense of well-being, appreciation, and joie de vivre.

….“ What feels most affirming is not just to feel loved but to feel loved as we are. Absolute love is the love of being. …..

“However—and this is an essential point—the human personality is not the source of absolute love. Rather, its light shines through us, from what lies altogether beyond us, the ultimate source of all. We are the channels through which this radiance flows. Yet in flowing through us, it also finds a home within us, taking up residence in our heart…” (Weldwood in Shambala Sun, Jan. 2006)

All of us have experienced this absolute love. But not for long. In time, the blemishes of life mask the ecstatic nature. I tell those getting married to call me in a year. A year seems to be just about the time it takes for love’s sharp light, her absolute brilliance to settle down. And then? Well, then we go about falling in love all over again but for different reasons. Because she still makes me laugh, even as she drives me mad. Because he remembers to put the toilet seat down even if he forgets the flowers. It’s the daily love between lovers that has to be re-invented over and over again. But that love is there, perhaps more so in friends than lovers…. Who do you call in the middle of night when you have lost your way? The love between friends, while perhaps not as bright, is sometimes much more forgiving. When a betrayal happens between lovers it is very hard to come back from, especially if sex or its emotional equivalent has happened, but friends betray friends all the time, and somehow we forgive them more easily. Imagine the love of a lover, the Eros of the gods, to be vertical; and the love of friends, the logos, to be horizontal… the heights of erotic love are addictive, but the breadth of friends often more sustaining. What Walt Whitman, gay and a Unitarian, once called the “adhesiveness” of a love between friends, such as he had with his own lover Peter Doyle. (See Leaves of Grass, 1860) I have come to believe that we are created with both capacities and it is our spiritual makeup to love both deeply and broadly. The most lasting love I know is if the lover is also your friend. One does not negate the other; despite that my teenage girlfriends told me they only wanted to be friends, as if sex were somehow the next level (which of course to my hormonal mind it was!). Sex is another dimension to love, a deeper one, but it does not make the love between friends second rate. As Antoine Saint d’Expurey put it “Lovers gaze into each other’s eyes but friends stand side by side and gaze into the distance.”

As Weldwood put it “Our ability to feel a wholehearted yes toward another person fluctuates with the changing circumstances of each moment. It depends on how much each of us is capable of giving and receiving, the chemistry between us, our limitations and conditioned patterns, how far along we are in our personal development, how much awareness and flexibility we each have, how well we communicate, the situation we find ourselves in, and even how well we have each slept the night before. Relative means dependent on time and circumstance. ..Ordinary human love is always relative, never consistently absolute. Like the weather, relative love is in continual dynamic flux. It is forever rising and subsiding, waxing and waning, changing shape and intensity. …So far all of this may seem totally obvious. Yet here’s the rub: We imagine that others—surely someone out there!—should be a source of perfect love by consistently loving us in just the right way. Since our first experiences of love usually happen in relation to other people, we naturally come to regard relationship as its main source. Then when relationships fail to deliver the ideal love we dream of, we imagine something has gone seriously wrong. And this disappointed hope keeps reactivating the wound of the heart and generating grievance against others. This is why the first step in healing the wound and freeing ourselves from grievance is to appreciate the important difference between absolute and relative love.” (Ibid, Weldwood)

What is so great about the love of friends, and why I think they should be the baseline to any personal relationship, is that they recover so quickly from life’s mishaps. “Relationships continually oscillate between two people finding common ground and then having that ground slip out from under them as their differences pull them in different directions. This is a problem only when we expect it to be otherwise, when we imagine that love should manifest as a steady state. That kind of expectation prevents us from appreciating the special gift that relative love does have to offer: personal intimacy.” (Ibid, Weldwood) What friends teach us and we as lovers should learn is that love is only possible when two people accept each other simply as they are, not as you would have them be. Frances is never going to make me less bookish and she fiercely defends my time to read, even though she would much rather have me in the yard building a deck. I am never going to make Frances plan out a trip, even though I will do all I can to provide enough empty time to let us explore as the spirit moves us. We are each other’s best friend first, lovers second. Yes, we are disappointed at love. All of us are. So what?

“Love can fail us and it does one of the most fundamental of all human illusions: that the source of happiness and well-being lies outside us, in other people’s acceptance, approval, or caring. As a child, this was indeed the case, since we were at first so entirely dependent on others for our very life. But even if at the deepest level our parents did love us unconditionally, it was impossible for them to express this consistently, given their human limitations. This was not their fault. It doesn’t mean they were bad parents or bad people. Like everyone, they had their share of fears, worries, cares, and burdens, as well as their own wounding around love. Like all of us, they were imperfect vessels for perfect love. ….When children experience love as conditional or unreliable or manipulative, this causes a knot of fear to form in the heart, for they can only conclude, “I am not truly loved.” …..As Emily Dickenson describes this universal wound in one of her poems: ‘There is a pain so utter, it swallows Being up.’” (Ibid, Weldwood).

The point is to remember that to love is human, but to be free from pain is perhaps divine, but ultimately impossible. Whether it is the stouter love of friends, or the vertical love of Eros, what we do know is love is only a means to our humanity. And that humanity is full of ecstasy, comfort and pain. I always counsel those in search for love to stop pursuing it, lest you lose her as Apollo lost his Daphne. “Those who go on a search for love,” D. H. Lawrence writes, “find only their own lovelessness.” Start with friends and let love happen last.

Weldwood writes that “As earthly creatures continually subject to relative disappointment, pain, and loss, we cannot avoid feeling vulnerable. Yet as an open channel through which great love enters this world, the human heart remains invincible. Being wholly and genuinely human means standing firmly planted in both dimensions, celebrating that we are both vulnerable and indestructible at the same time….at this crossroads where yes and no, limitless love and human limitation intersect, we discover the essential human calling: progressively unveiling the sun in our heart, that it may embrace the whole of ourselves and the whole of creation within the sphere of its radiant warmth. This love is not the least bit separate from true power. For, as the great Sufi poet Rumi sings:

When we have surrendered totally to that beauty,

Then we shall be a mighty kindness.

So may it be. Amen.

How will the world change in the next ten years? It’s not easy to know. But consider this: In 2000 gas cost $1.50, there were no iPods, no YouTube, no Facebook, 9-11 hadn’t been seared into our memories, leading us into trillions of dollars of debt and two wars. No Hurricane Katrina. (From Willamette University promotion brochure, 2009) We have no way of knowing what the New World will look like. It may be very different than today, resources and wealth made scarce, but love and compassion on the rise or… it may just stay the same. Trying to imagine what our world will look like next week is hard enough, beyond that it’s as about reliable as last year’s economic forecast.

I come from a long line of worriers. My mother was a real pro, bless her soul. She would be at the airport the day before we had to leave. My dad on the other hand lived by the motto, “there is always another plane”. Coming out of this bi-polarity, I find myself mostly non-anxious unless fear really has me in its grip. . It used to be worse. So much so that my friends bought me a copy of “Mr. Worry”, the story of a little man who worried too much. I had always thought of myself as cautious, a realist, but certainly not a worrier. Naturally, when I received the book I worried about what they thought of me. I was the Boy Scouts’ boy scout, prepared for almost anything. I had not one, but two pocketknives. It was a real ego death to realize I was seen as a worried man. It took me twenty years, but here I am, not worried about almost anything, much to the chagrin of some of you and the amusement of my family.

With the current economic climate we have good reasons to worry. As I mentioned last week, some of us are facing real hardship. What we need to remember is that we are here to help. And since last Sunday, several of us have found help. So with that worrisome sermon behind us let me turn to understanding just how we can tell the difference between what we really need to worry about and what we don’t. That is the more hopeful side of the equation. Discerning the difference is a spiritual practice.

It turns out, according to an article published in the journal Science, that there is a gene for worry. It seems that people who are fretful, crabby, neurotic – what in New York we call Kvetches – tend to have a shorter version of a certain gene. (gene number slc6a4 on chromosome number 17q12, if you must know). If you are worrier (and I know some of you are) it’s not necessarily because you have a lot in life to worry about, but because you are genetically inclined to worry. Feel better? Well, of course you don’t. You can’t feel better; that’s the point. (As published in the New Yorker 1997)

The discovery of the worry gene follows directly on the discovery of the “throw it all to the wind” gene. The bungee jumping, spice of life, novelty and excitement gene. Turns out that many of the people who have this gene are also impatient. The lucky ones become cab drivers and for the rest of us, these foot-tapping people just drive us crazy. (Ibid, New Yorker)

I have my doubts about determining our personality through genes; it’s akin to the defense some criminals in the 1970s used claiming that they had an extra Y chromosome, which made them genetically more aggressive. Perhaps this ascription to genetics is really the reemergence of polytheism. A long time ago, our little quirks and life’s mishaps were blamed quite conveniently on unseen gods; the struggle among the gods and goddesses of war, love, wisdom and so forth. How silly and primitive that was! Now we have a little science to describe the same thing but instead of gods we have our own genes to blame. The gods aren’t angry; it’s in the genes. Of course, in between blaming it on the gods and blaming it on our genes there are many other explanations (God must have his reasons, or Freud’s Oedipus complex, or bad diet and so on). (Ibid. New Yorker)

But whether you call it determined or not, the fact remains that some people worry more than others. Under it all, I find a deeper spiritual message to worrying in our lives. Sometimes it is good to worry, such as when your life depends on you being cautious but most of the time worrying doesn’t change a thing. I can remember one woman who prayed for an entire flight from New York to Chicago. When I asked her if she was all right; she said she would be fine once we were on the ground. “Don’t worry,” I told her, but she worried anyway. And when we got on the ground I said, “see nothing to worry about.” To which she replied, “Only because I prayed the plane down safely.” Reminds me of a Gary Larson cartoon I saw once wherein the co-pilot says “Frank, oh my God, Frank, the fuel lights on! We’re going to die!” And then he takes it back, saying, “Whoops, my mistake. That was only the intercom light.”

The spiritual underpinnings to worry have more to do with how we see our world that in what causes our world to falter. It’s like a fight with the ones you love. If you look hard enough you can always find a fault. So it is with worry. If we see the world as half empty we will never be able to appreciate it the half that is full. I am convinced that our ability to transcend the world and live a more joyful life is inextricably tied up with our degree of anxiety about what might happen.

All genes and gods aside, the ability of any one of us to see the glass of our lives as half full has much more to do with how we were raised. Susan Vaughn, a psychiatrist living in New York, (now that is something to worry about) does a wonderful job in laying out a convincing argument and resolution on how we might learn to worry less and laugh at life more. (Half Empty, Half Full: Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism Harcourt and Brace, 2000)

Vaughn begins with the premise that reality is highly overrated. Now this may come as shock to a few of you who pride yourselves on being “realistic,” but studies have shown that people who consider themselves realists are in fact more worried than those who create another reality for themselves as to what they want live to be. Reality is simply not what it’s cracked up to be. In fact, says Vaughn, people who worry less are more likely to achieve more and live longer. Illusion, while not real, may be psychologically healthier. When studies were done on the levels of anxiety compared to recovery from disease there was a direct inverse correlation: the more anxious you are the greater your susceptibility to illness. Not always, and certainly not forever, but often enough. In fact, those cancer patients whose prognosis was terminal found that the quality of life was enhanced by their ability to find that life was still worth living.

What does all of this mean if you are worrier? Well, for starters, don’t worry about it because you can change. What Vaughn and so many others figured out is that we are taught to worry, not consciously, but subtly. And it all has to do with control. If as an infant for instance, you were left crying in your crib because that was what some expert told your parents to do, you soon realized that your crying had little effect or control over the actions of your parents. Chances are you stopped crying, but chances also are that you began to believe that your actions didn’t change your world. Now crying alone does not a worrier make. It takes time and emotional distance. Worriers tend, as a group, to come from homes in which emotions were not well expressed, meaning that we tended to internalize our feelings rather than testing them out in the world to see what we could change.

People like me began to believe that my actions had little effect on the world. This is not to blame anybody; it’s just the way we put two and two together. “Why bother?” translates into “the world is out to get me.” So what is a worrier to do? How do we transform ourselves from a pessimistic Eeyore to an optimistic Tigger?

Well, the mystics tell us that we begin when we create a better world in our minds. I have been urging our leadership to take a new look at our vision for the future as a church. Some might argue with the worry of the economy that this is a bad time; I argue it is the perfect time. Let’s fill the void of anxiety with positive possibility — not wait around for the worst to come. Imagination. Its God’s second greatest gift, the first being life itself. We dream and we see where it is we want to go. We begin with an end in mind. I dream of this church home, wherein songs are sung, art is shown, children play and people laugh. I still dream of a refurbished hall and a new building at the end of our campus for classes and chapel. I turned the chairs this to use this glass wall as a canvass for our imagination.

Now that is all well and good but what does that mean to some of you who might like to imagine being happy again, surviving your disease, or finding a job? You start with imagination and then you create your reality by gaining control of your world in some way. I have come to believe that love is most possible when we use the most positive language we can find. As our first African American President refrained “Yes We Can.” You have to teach yourself to feel empowered. In other words, as AA says, “You fake it to make it.” I have lived my whole adult life faking it to make it. I have my dark nights of doubt, just like you, but never on Sunday morning. The prescription for worry and the health of your spirit depends on gaining control, as Jean Cocteau once put it, “to massage the organs no masseuse can reach.” Optimism is a learned behavior and it starts by putting reality in its place. “Get real,” one treasurer yelled at me years ago, “we can’t afford that now.” “I know,” I said, “but now only lasts for a moment.”

We gain control over our lives by naming our emotions. Fear is the first great enemy of life and love. Fear is, in many ways, what is running this recession. We can’t possibly know the future, why are we permitting our imagination to see the worst. In our meditation I asked you to name what you were feeling. If we name it, just like Jacob wrestling the angel, we have some power over it. It’s the “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”. When I am angry I try to shut my mouth and say, “hello anger.” You can disarm another that way as well. Next time you are in an argument try telling someone, “I see that you are angry,” and watch the temperature fall. Begin by verbalizing your emotions and then letting them go. Studies have shown that abused children who grow up to be adults have almost no vocabulary for anger or sadness. In fact, they can’t cry. It leads to a silent cycle of abuse that can last for generations.

Next, remember that failure is a perspective. There is always a lesson to what didn’t work. Always. Look for it. There is a treasure in each sinking ship of our lives. Find it. Be careful to not equate fault with a person, including yourself, but with their actions. Right being, taught the Buddha, follows from right action. First act, then become. Not the other way around.

Watch what you say. Words like can’t, shouldn’t, wrong, need to be used carefully. My favorite is, “we tried that before.” So what? Try it again, but pay attention to what didn’t work. Anxiety is caused in large part by our own language, verbalizing what we don’t have control over. Verbalize what you do have control over. When any one of you is facing disease or even death I ask you to find out a little more about your disease and your plan of treatment everyday and then to verbalize it, write it down. Knowledge is power.

Learn to be your own judge. We taught our children to judge for themselves. Even if you received a bad grade, evaluate what you missed, but don’t evaluate your worth by what others say. It’s worrisome to turn over our worth to someone else. Maybe they are having a bad day. Remember you are not the victim, you are the actor. Act like you are in control and you will be.

Limit the domain of your troubles. I used to yell at inanimate objects. “Stupid computers, they never work.” Learn to not extend your anxiety to all of life. Try instead “Today is a bad day for me and this computer.” Recognizing our limitations is not the same thing as giving up in despair. Despair is the greatest disease of the soul, a cancer of negative energy. All of your life is not lost. And even when it seems lost, your reaction to it is still yours. When the musicians played music as the Titanic was sinking they were not mad, or even hopeful, they realized the domain of their troubles: they were going to die. But they played on because the music soothed the last moments of life for hundreds of people. They took control of the smallest part of their life.

Finally, my friends recognize that your mind is your most powerful muscle; all the way from how we look at the world to what constitutes sex, our mind is the spirit incarnate within us. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

But in order to change to a more positive self-image we must first change how we view our reality. Dominique Bauby was a successful editor at Vogue magazine in Paris. While driving one day to pick up his son from school he got into a terrible accident. When he awoke he realized that he was completely paralyzed; no movement in his body, no voice, only one eyelid that he had control over. The horror of his loss was immense, more than any of us could imagine. To be trapped without expression fully cognizant and feeling everything happening to him. Worst yet, he had become a ghost. Even his family talked over him as if he was already dead. He knew first hand what Jean Paul Sartre called ‘the anatomy of despair.’ His greatest anguish and worry was the loss of his voice. (I too have imagined what it would be like) until he remembered what the French philosopher Voltaire once wrote, “your voice is your mind.” Suddenly life changed for Bauby. One nurse, knowing full well that he was alive in that shell of a body, devised a system of yes and no answers using his eyelids. Two blinks for yes, one blink for no. With this the nurse could identify each letter Bauby meant to use, and although painstaking, he could spell words. Bauby went on to write a beautiful book in this way: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, describing the paradox of living life strapped to a diving bell in the ocean of stillness while outstretching the wings of his mind like a butterfly. One day, a physician came in to sew shut his bad eye as the lack of control of it was damaging his cornea. Like some Kafkaesque nightmare he wanted to yell at the doctor to not sew his good eye as well. Bauby blinked away madly. Finally, as a way of meditation he imagined himself returning to the womb, going back into the stillness from which he had come like some journey in reverse. That small imagination kept him from going mad. The doctor did not sew his good eye shut, but Bauby died several months later.

Why worry? Worry, yes, to escape danger and keep yourself and your loved ones safe, but beyond that work towards freeing yourself from worry’s hold. Our imagination, like our memory, is what we make it; and by so being we are free to choose so much more about what our life will become in the short time we have. I believe we are destined, each one of you in this room, to be a great person. A person who laughs loudly, sings fully, loves completely and hopes for something more than we now see. I believe that each one of us in this room is moving not towards death but towards a life if only we could imagine the journey in a different way. Imagine a different world, after the correction, ah, er, recession. Imagine yourself getting younger. Imagine that and you will find little to be worried about.

Blessings Be

I want to thank Joanna and the choir for taking my adapted words to this old time spiritual and putting it to music so beautifully! What a treat. The original song was written by Alda Haberson, concerning the death, funeral, and mourning of her mother. (Wikipedia, 2008) The song was meant to be a question of faith: would we be prepared to meet our loved ones in heaven through our atonement with Jesus or to hell because of our lack of faith. Of course, I have a different take on the relationship between the here and now and the thereafter. As I mentioned last week, I believe the real work of making heaven is in front of us right here on earth.

So let me give away the store right up front. I believe the circle is by nature broken, but we have the chance to make it whole. Let me re-tell an old story from the Hebrew Bible, the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob and his twin brother Esau are the children of Rebecca and Isaac, the son of Abraham. Jacob, whose name means “to trip up,” is literally holding on to his slightly older brother Esau’s heel. Although Esau is the older and stronger brother, he is rather dim-witted, and while Esau is the favorite of his father, his mother Rebecca favors the more cunning and smoother Jacob. Through his young life Jacob gets his way by wile and tricks, and with the help of his mother, even cheats his older brother out of his inheritance by dressing up in sheep skins and presenting himself as Esau to his blind father for the blessing. Well, as the saying goes, what comes around goes around, and in time, his cheating ways catch up with him and he is finally forced to move away from Canaan. As time went on he was indentured to his father-in-law Laban twice, after having been cheated into marrying his first daughter, Leah, when he thought he was marrying the younger one, Rachel, whom he finally did marry after another term in servitude. Finally, wiser and humbled, Jacob leaves Laban and decides to return to Canaan to face his brother whom he had cheated out of the family estate. The night before he is to cross the Jordan back into his homeland Jacob is attacked by a mysterious being, an angel, and they fight until dawn. Jacob, wounded, is renamed Israel, he who struggles with God. The next day, anxious and worried for his life, Jacob, aka Israel, meets his brother Esau who, rather than striking him, embraces him. The circle is made whole.

What is it that helps us see the hell of our making and turn it around towards heaven? Sadly, we must first suffer our own sins. As a young man I was incredibly angry at the world. Not that I had much reason to be; I had graduated near the top of my class, married, was even given a beautiful home on the shores of a lake by my in-laws at the time. But something in me was raging. I would slam doors, break dishes, scare away customers. Eventually I scared away my first wife and lost my business as well. Then came the drugs and the booze. This was my time to wander in the wilderness, as Jacob had done. It wouldn’t be until much later, long after I had married Frances that I would find my way home and make peace with myself. I can’t say I have found heaven yet, but the circle is not nearly as broken as it once was.

What would it take for you to mend your own circles? How can we be bring healing and holiness to our lives, this long pause between the bookends of birth and death? For me it begins, much as it did with Jacob, with a wrestling of what we believe into what we do. We say we believe in the inherent worth of each individual, but can we really say that human worth doesn’t depend on what we do with it? I don’t think so. In fact, how we live our lives is, for me, the first and most important step to closing the circle of strife and creating a bit of heaven on earth. Here, I hold to a sort of modified version of the ancient Hindu concept of karma, you reap what you sow, so start sowing the better seed.

Specifically, listen to our friends and family as if they were vital to your life. Be sure you are putting into your body what your body needs, remember the mantra of our last Thanksgiving from Michael Pollan, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” and avoid, as I have resolved to do this year, drugs of all kinds. Beyond that, ask yourself is what we are doing is in line with your values, both in livelihood and spare time. “Right thinking follows right livelihood,” preached the Buddha. Is this the year, in midst of turmoil to change your vocation? (I always have to be careful about this: one middle-aged man in a congregation I served wanted to quit his high six-figure advertising exec job to go into consulting, which I urged him to do –his wife didn’t speak to me for a year).

The point is not to shame you into living an integrated life, but to point out to you that our religious understanding of heaven here on earth require us to walk the talk; so that when the shadow of death passes over us and calls us on, we will die as we lived. In fact, Teri tells me, this is a truism of hospice, we die as we lived. If we lived at least attempting to be fair, compassionate and most of all brave, chances are we will die that way as well.

Of course, there is much we can’t change. My heart is breaking over the carnage we are seeing in Gaza this week. This past week during the UU minister’s meeting up here on the Hill, of which I am the convener, I offered a prayer for peace, asking the Spirit to infuse a sense of responsibility into the leaders of both sides that they might remember who they really serve; not ideologies but people, and call for a cease fire. Like the story of Jacob and Esau we are witnessing the struggle between two brothers for the fate of a blessing. May at least one have grown up enough since.

Will the circle be unbroken? Not if we can come to grips generations hence, with the reality that we are all in this together. That the world we have, this broken and wounded world, is still the home of Eden. I don’t believe in Armageddon as a theological necessity, but I do believe that like human worth, we have the potential to destroy what we have created. The question is whether we, here, right now can make that heaven on earth a possibility.

Before I die I want finish the work of integration. I want to live a balanced life, eating right, sleeping well, loving you the people I serve. Before I die, I want to have lived my faith, built up churches that have the potential to save the world, love my family with all my heart, die depleted of wealth (that won’t be hard), knowing I gave it to who needed it most. Before I die, I want to know that I did what I could to make the world a better place, and though I will die incomplete (we all do, I guarantee it), I want to have cried at loss, laughed at misfortune, and stared down adversity with a smile. I want what I do to fully fill what I believe. I want my circle to be complete as it can be. As my colleague Forrest Church preached just before he went in to hospice to die:

“For us to be here in the first place, for us to earn the privilege of dying, more than a billion billion accidents took place. Even the one in a million sperm’s connections with the equally unique egg is nothing compared to everything else that happened from the beginning of time until now to make it possible for us to be here….

“What a luxury we enjoy wondering what will happen after we die, even what will happen before we die…..We see little of the road ahead or the sky above. And the dust we raise clouds our eyes, leaving only brief interludes to contemplate the stars. All we can do, every now and again, is to stop for a moment and look….Morning has broken and we are here…breathing the air…admiring the slant sun as refracts through…windows and dances…calling us to attention, calling us homeward. (“Love and Death” adapted from a sermon delivered at All Souls Unitarian Church, New York, Feb. 3, 2008. Printed in The World, Summer 2008)

Calling us to attention. That work of paying attention to the world and our actions in this world has another name: What the ancients called Atonement. At-one-ment with creation, with the creator if you will, with the spirit, heaven on earth. My colleague Susan Lamar, and our own Diane Hayden’s cousin wrote:

“Atonement is some of the hardest work there is. It happens exactly at the intersection of individual and community. The liturgical act of placing sins (before God, reminds us of how fragile and human we are) …. And yet because it is a liturgical act—part of the work of all the people, collectively—it also, like all good liturgical acts, is a reminder that we are not alone in our need. We all make mistakes. We all fall down.

“We all bear responsibility for creating a community, nation and world that listens and hears and looks and sees. It is an act of visioning, first, an act of seeing in our mind’s eyes a promised land, a beloved community, a world made whole.

And then it is an act of the will—the will to keep trying, even when we stumble and fall, and when it seems just too hard to get back up again. It is an act of the will to see through another’s eyes. …. Communities have to do it collectively. But the work can only really happen collectively if it first happens in the hearts of individuals. In my heart, and your heart.” (From QUEST 2008).

Will the circle be unbroken? The question is rather will the circle be mended? Behind me on the memorial wall outside is a slightly broken circle that represents the on-going work before us. I believe we will heal the wounds of our time, and meet our ancestors in the spirit of love and reconciliation, long after we have been gone, our whole lives, will bring a heaven to earth, by and by Lord, by and by. Amen.

It’s a lesson in geography really. I might have just as easily titled this “Where in Space Is Heaven?” But something was pulling at me to ask the question this way instead. Because if we can’t find it around here in this first place, then it wasn’t very useful.

Where is heaven – indeed, what is heaven? It depends a great deal on where you look for it. Heaven is clearly not a physical space despite the National Enquirer’s claim that astronomers have located heaven about seven billion light years from here, which, if you think about it, makes the concept of heaven pretty dated at best! I think we can do better than that. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that heaven was a paradise, set aside but very much on Earth. Eden, from which we get our biblical Eden, was always to the East, near the “navel of the world” from which all waters flowed. In fact, the Garden of Eden story in the Hebrew Scriptures is a re-telling of the ancient myth. Heaven was not yet a place where our souls came to rest, but to which we yearned to return. Heaven for the ancients was a place of abundance, an idea which stretches down to Islamic ideas of heaven today. In the European Middle Ages, Heaven was a place wherein you could eat until you burst, a fitting image in a time of plagues and starvation.

Regardless of the myth, heaven, at least in Western mythology, is a place of rest, abundance and light. And, since the Christian church adopted the Zoroastrian idea, heaven was the complete opposite of hell. Of course, there has been much more written about hell (see Dante’s Divine Comedy or Milton’s Paradise Lost to see how heaven is a boring second to the hot place). But there are other views as well: in Hinduism, heaven is the state of unity with the divine, Brahma, which also happens to be the same as the entire universe. According to Hindu thought, you are already sitting in heaven and you didn’t even notice it! Buddhists don’t believe in heaven as a place –in fact, given that all life is energy in motion amid a series of casual events, they don’t really even believe that earth is real – but the closest they do come is the concept of Nirvana, or cessation from all being. Indeed, many of my generation, impaired as my teenagers think I am, could never understand how the rock group “Nirvana,” who sang of despair and end the malaise of life, could be so close to the truth. It’s a long way from the nirvana of the 60s and its drug-induced idea of bliss.

The Tibetan Buddhists went into yet another direction in search of heaven, developing a complicated cosmology of heavens that our souls pass through after the many lives of the waking world. Seven heavens in fact, which is the reason seven is such a mystical number in mythology, from Judaism to New Age religion. When we say we are in seventh heaven, we really are at the top. There are still other views of heaven’s place. Up seems to be the predominant direction. (From Paradise: A History) It has only been in the last few thousand years that heaven has moved off the earth and up into the sky. But since it is uncertain to many of us what happens after we die, I decided to focus my exploration today on earth. A bit like the man who lost his keys on the street and while on his hands and knees looking for them a passerby asked, “did you lose them around here?” To which he replied, “No, but the light is better here.”

The reason I asked where on earth was heaven is because, I believe, heaven is not a place, but a state of being which humanity is a part. There are many views on heaven. One of the most important articles of faith for a fundamentalist is that this world, this stained, broken, hurricane and war ravaged world is worth nothing. It is only the afterlife that really matters. We here at PUC, dedicated to creating a compassionate community, believe this world is what matters most.

In the West, up until the renaissance, our view of heaven was quite literal. Heaven is the home of God and his angels, and far above this earth; an earth separated into threes by creation: up, middle and down. We believed that our earth was the center of the universe, a primordial battleground between the good above us and the evil below. There are no fewer than 113 references to the place of heaven in Hebrew and Christian bibles.

With Copernicus’s discovery of elliptical orbits, we not only learned we were not the center of anything, but that the gods don’t live there anymore. Just as science has made hell less of a burning issue, so too did it deflate our lofty expectations of heaven above us.

Still, most of us expect something happens to us when we die. I have seen enough evidence, a great deal first hand, to be convinced that there is an afterlife. But rather than speculate on that, let me explore instead how heaven can be made in us. As my colleague John Corrado put it in our opening reading, we UUs are less concerned with how to get into heaven, than how to get a bit of heaven into us. (see John Corrado, QUEST, 1995)

To ask where heaven is might be to look through the wrong lens. In a rational, physical sense, heaven doesn’t exist. You simply can’t take a myth like heaven and make it physically real. You see, by even asking, “Where is heaven?”, we buy into a dualistic view of the universe which I believe is a trap to keep us arguing with each other about reality. Many of us were taught in organized religion that God is apart from us; distant, powerful, and all knowing. We were taught that we are human down here, and God is up there. And, if God is not us, we reason, God can only be seen as out there away from us. But what if God, or whatever you name the ultimate in life, is not out there, but in here; in each of us? Where then would the abode of the divine be?

What we need is not a telescope, but a spiritual microscope. Every love song ever written is about heaven on earth. That feeling, that joy, that ecstasy that is heaven. And that is why I am suggesting we start looking and working towards a heaven on earth and not just waiting for the rest of the story when we die. That is why I am suggesting that we here are about building a church that is a model of what the world could be. It was Emmanuel Kant, the great German philosopher, who suggested that without a heaven there is little reason to have a morality. I think he meant it as more of goal to reach than a reward to withhold. But nothing is to stop us from trying to create heaven on earth. And with just two weeks until the inauguration of President Obama, we have a lot to look forward to. We have a world still to build. Yes we can!

To find heaven, to make heaven, is a story of completion for what is already in all of us. And you know what? It is as story as old as time. Let me pick it up from what we do know. Starting with the story of Adam and Eve. We all know it. Adam –which means earthling- is completed on one side by Eve – which means completion – in the Garden of Eden, that is, heaven on earth. (A little aside here: according to some Mesopotamian myths, Adam was married before to the Goddess of Life, Lillith, “stiff necked”, feminist that she was; Adam, in effect, divorced her and asked God to send him a new mate, someone more compliant. Since then fundamentalists speak of the myth of Lillith as demonic, while feminists hail her as the original woman) Anyway, back to Eden: You will all remember from your Bible study (what? No bible study? We’ll have to do something about that) that there are two trees in the garden which they are forbidden by the God to eat from. One is the tree of life and the other the tree of knowledge. The serpent, representing eternal life and that most unlike humanity, tempts them into eating the fruit on the tree of knowledge.

Religion has only pulled heaven and earth farther apart. Christianity has made this story about disobedience. But is it? Did we want to live like children, always obedient to God, never conscious of our diversity or free to make our own choices? What kind of heaven would that be? Western religion has demonized the entire earth, and women as the feminine beings of that earth with this fairyland kind of heaven. If that is what we have to look forward to when we die? I say ‘no thanks’.

Our task is to reclaim the rightful union of heaven and earth as the Hebrews once promised. To bring together the respect of one another as all part of creation. Heaven is on earth in how we make it so. How do we make it so?

We listen. We listen for what is the same between us, not just what is different. When the Zen master asked the student to listen during meditation, the student replied that all he heard was silence. “No,” said the master, “silence only holds us, heaven is in what the silence holds.” And with that the student heard more than silence alone, chickens, and children and bells and laughter and crying. “This then is what we are” said the master.

We believe. I am asking you to believe that you are the stuff of stars, the children of an unknown god, the beings of the same quilt. We believe that in our commonality we are divine. “We don’t see angels,” proclaimed Wordsworth, “we see them in what we do.”

And finally we do. By pledging our selves to one another and to our children, we make a heaven on earth. It’s no small thing to do but it can be done. This church exists as a little bit of heaven on earth. Right here and right now. You might think that it’s about you and what you need, but it is much more than that. Every week someone amongst us reaches out to someone in need here. Every week a card is sent and a phone call is made. Our groups help us to see how we matter to one another and in caring we affirm that we are more the same as we are different. Did you know that there is absolutely no genetic difference between so called human races? Did you know that calling them races is in fact scientifically inaccurate? There really is only one race. The human race. We call it race, our population differences; but deep down we are all created from the same stuff. Literally.

Three and half years ago I answered your call to lead you into a bold future. We have accomplished much in our ministry together. We are responsive to the needs of our people, we are widely known in the community for our good work, and we are example to other UU congregations. This year we will catch our breath and deepen our community together, taking to heart the work of making a “little heaven on earth” right here at PUC. This year I want our community to appreciate our gifts and strengths, heal the broken and create an even more compassionate community, so that when this economic downturn is over, we are ready to move to the next phase of our dream together.

Your Board of Trustees, on the recommendation of our UUA consultant Dave Rickard, will be chartering a “Strategic Planning Group” to help appreciate our gifts, clarify our vision and set our goals for the coming five years. This is an ideal year to do this important work. If you are interested in being part of this group please talk to a Board Member or our Nominating and Recruitment Committee. In the months and years ahead I dream you here will make this church a bit of that heaven on earth. A bit of a place where our free will is exercised to recognize and celebrate what is the same. And in that making become a little more like God every day. Creator and created. Ultimately we are all on earth together. And that is the kind of heaven I want to be in now.

May our blessings endure and our struggles

What a tremendous moment to be an American! Indeed to be alive. With Obama’s election so much is possible; exuberance has come over the country, if not the world, about the prospect of seeing our values come full circle into the public square. It seemed to me, as I listened to Obama’s victory speech from Grant Park late Tuesday night, that we were in the midst of spiritual shift in our consciousness as a people. Not all of us to be certain, but most of us could sense a sea change, moving out of the dark and stagnant eddies of past years, into the fresh current blowing across our waters. If prayers were answered, this would be one: abolishing torture, caring for the poor, ending this war, saving the planet. It was and still is, at least for me deeply profound and therefore spiritual. By like all matters of the spirit, this one was tempered by a shadow. For while we felt that shift into clean open water, a part of us was snagged on the sharp rocks of bigotry. Prop. 8’s narrow passage by those who misunderstood the civil rights they were denying of our GLBTQ people, was as sour as Obama’s victory was sweet. Honestly, I am still coming to grips with it; the loss, the heartache, the personal affront and insecurity I felt for those who have been married by me, and those who plan to be. I am still coming to grips with the fear and hatred that infected the whole campaign. I admire our direct propositional system of democracy here in California, but find it maddening as well. This tragic loss was also a spiritual moment.

Our Third Principle as Unitarian Universalists is “the acceptance of one another and the encouragement of spiritual growth in our congregations.” Our acceptance of those of different backgrounds is built into the very stones of this church; we welcome you as you are, whatever your color, your background, your economic background, your sex, your orientation, your politics and yes, your theology. I will not claim we always live up to that mandate, but it is clearly our mission here. What really sets us apart as a religion though, is not our openness, but our encouragement of open spiritual growth, without any creed or dogma; we are here to move. Our religion is more a process that a product, more a means than an end, a verb rather than a noun. So it’s entirely fitting that on this sweet and bitter moment in our political life, I consider just what it means to be spiritual and how we can all grow from it.

The election was a spiritual moment because it achieved, as Bill Schulz coined it, an “experience of the profound – not our beliefs about meaning death, hope, suffering, the Nature of God…but our experiences of those realities.” (From Finding Time and Other Delicacies, Skinner House Books, 1992) Not beliefs, but experiences of those beliefs. I belief in democracy and hope; but on election night I experienced democracy and hope. I believe in marriage rights for all people, but this week I experienced the tragic loss of those rights. Spirituality then is the experience of what we believe, the moving of us from one moment to the next. And if we are open, then we will, necessarily grow from that. When I first came here in 2005 we invited Larissa Stowe and her band to lead us in a service of Sanskrit Chanting. I told her to go easy on you, since I knew such chanting could go on for hours. I explained that we worship for an hour. Well, it was quite a Service: music, singing chanting and it went on for an hour and half before it wound down. Admittedly, some of you just walked out exhausted, others were dancing on air. The point is you were open to it and many of us grew from understanding religion, in this case Hinduism, not cerebrally, but through song and movement. It brought life to our belief in being truly open.

How does the Spirit move you? Sometimes it is brilliant preaching, but a wise preacher knows that she is only as good as her last sermon. We also need music, we need ritual, we need action in the world, we need to move. Last week’s Service on the Day of the Dead, was most moving when you all came forward to place your ancestors memories on the altar while Joanna played Somewhere Over the Rainbow. That was a spiritual moment.

How do we recognize a spiritual moment? How can we encourage each other to grow spiritually? Well, I like these five steps to responsible spirituality, adapted from Bill Schulz.

1. Can everyone join in the fun? Everybody has to have access to the profound. Some forms of spirituality are limited to those who conform to preconceptions of the universe; IF you believe this way, you can play. Or only some can have access to the divine. That is why we believe in a free pulpit here; the prophethood of all believers.

2. Does your spirituality have a sense of humor? I am not sure there are many Catholic priests who tell jokes from the pulpit such as, “How many UUs does it take to screw in a light bulb?”

“We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, you are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, 3-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.”

3. What are the implications for the world? Too many spiritual practices only serve the interests of the adherents. What you practice of your religion should make a difference in the world. What good is enjoying the bounty of life if you are not using it to help others? “Religion which shuns politics is inconsistent with the Unitarian Universalist tradition,” writes Schulz. That is certainly true here at PUC. We are moved by our beliefs to vote, stand up for the rights of all people and even provide a polling place here.

4. Does it pay homage to the tragic? Our spirituality moves us to deal with loss. As I have dealt with the denial of marriage rights passed by our electorate this last week, I am moved to remember that we, as UUs will continue to recognize those unions in our Church. I am saddened by this loss, but remain hopeful that time and effort will move us ultimately towards the good.

5. Where does it locate the most precious? In or out of the world? In movement, in song, in music, in words, in silence, in action helping those who are in need? It should have a place in our hearts. I believe that we are placed on this planet to achieve a mission to be discerned and acted upon. I place my spirituality in the stories of those who have made a difference in the world or even survived the tragic. I place my spirituality in laughter and tears. I place it in power of a community to choose the right course in difficult times. (Ibid, Schulz)

How does the Spirit move you? The beauty and mystery of our lives as UUs is that we have the power to find meaning in our lives. For some that meaning may be that there are many paths to the Holy, that beneath our diversity there is a unity that makes us one, in spite of time and death and the space between the stars. For many of us we are moved by the knowledge that there is no wrong way to love, and no wrong way to discover what is holy in your life, like so many spokes on a wheel. The point I remind you of here today is that the beauty of our faith tradition is that it doesn’t really much matter which path you take as long as you are not hurting another. I remind any of us today, different as we are in political sentiment, sexual orientation, even class, that we are here to be moved towards that unity that makes us one. Hate and exclusion have no place in these walls.

I have been an atheist, a Buddhist, a Christian, a mystic, an enchanted agnostic, and as I moved from one perspective in my faith journey to the next I realized that they are really all pretty much the same. The Spirit moves me to be compassionate, just and honest. I have left behind the worry I am going to Hell, life is hell enough. I have left behind the worry I am going to Heaven, life can be heaven enough as well. Gone, really for me, is the need to argue about the existence of God or even the validity of the Trinity. I have decided that at the end of the day what matters most, is love and other people. That is where the Spirit moves me. For too long now I believe we have wasted our time in mental gymnastics as Unitarian Universalists with questions like “Was Jesus God or human?” “Is the bible fact or fiction?” “Is prayer useful or illusory?” (Ibid Schulz) Instead, I believe we need to be asking, “How are we going to get along?” “What can we do about poverty and injustice?” “How can survive through a struggle and celebrate life?” In short, the Spirit moves me towards a unity that binds us all. The principle we live by that all life is interconnected. That is what matters most to me. All the rest is just the means to an end. I know that prayer moves many to a place of solace and peace. I know that for many the personal relationship with Jesus as a Son of God makes the divine accessible in their lives. I know the Bible contains both wonderful truths and horrible prescriptions. The kind of beliefs we have are really only useful if they move you to becoming a whole person, capable of loving and being loved. We “live every day in an intimate acquaintance with (our) own fragility and the fragility of those whose lives (we) touch…”(Ibid Schulz)

How does the Spirit move you? What matters most to you? My family matters most to me, so the Sprit moves me to do all I can to love them and provide for them. For some of you, what matters most is this Church. But a church is only the people in it, so the Spirit might best move you to care for one another, as we say, in loving transformation and trusting hope. For some of you, what matters most is saving the planet from pollution, so for you the Spirit moves you to advocate and live a greener life. For some the Spirit moves you to care for those who cannot care for themselves, so the Spirit moves you to take action. For some the Spirit moves you to care for all our children, our future, so the Spirit moves you to come to our RE visioning after the Service. For some, the Spirit moves you to just survive another day and so you are here, just to know you are part of a community that accepts you as you are.

“The (Spirit) yearns to be felt and it begs to be lived. This is the supreme paradox of spirituality: it can almost never be captured but it can always be seen.” (Ibid, Shultz)

I would ask you to ponder again as we say those closing words each week, “there is a unity that binds us together”, a unity that binds us and yet moves each of us slightly differently. The paradox of being one and many. Above all else, may the Spirit move us to stay together, in this Church, to use it as a launching pad out into the world, to where the Spirit needs us most. Blessed be!

In his correspondence, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, that, “I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.,” going on to profess it as the most natural and reasonable religious stance one could have.  Jefferson, despite our claims to him otherwise, was not a Unitarian.  He was, rather, a deist — that brand of faith held in such high common esteem by almost all of our founders and characteristic of the high enlightenment from which our nation was born.  Deists believed not in the personal God of the Bible, but in the impersonal deity of ‘natural law’.  A God who had set in motion the wheels of the universe but left it up to human endeavor to complete.  Far from the endorsement we might want to claim of Jefferson, his statement was more a reflection of what he and all the founding fathers believed to be the natural conclusion of the grand experiment of the American Republic: That of a people endowed with certain inalienable rights, as all people everywhere should be everywhere.  The Unitarian faith in a God for all people, subject to the dictate of reason, seemed a natural conclusion for Jefferson and many others.

Thomas Jefferson is a good place to begin my thoughts on “Civil Religion” because, like our religion, Jefferson is a study in paradox.  The author of our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson spoke boldly of the need for free discourse in the service of liberty.  The freedom of speech, assembly and religion is at the heart of our nation.  But Jefferson had a shadow side as well.  He was a racist despite his hopes for “eventual” emancipation, a keeper of slaves, even those his own offspring born to his slave Sally Hemmings.  Apparently his claim that all men are created equal had a footnote.

So it is also with our freedoms.  We are both free and enslaved.  Free to speak out for what we believe, but limited in what we say.  This week is the anniversary of the so-called USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act of 2001, a knee-jerk reaction to limit the civil liberties of many in hopes of catching terrorists.  It exists as a shadow to our national identity.  Likewise, we are free to practice religion – a freedom earned through such brave men as Roger Williams, who, in the early days of our colonial expansion, broke away from the theocratic Puritanism of New England and founded the colony of Rhode Island, the first free religious community in America.  But our freedom to practice religion is limited in fact by the overwhelming Judeo-Christian character of our country.  We here, who celebrate the freedom of belief, have to be circumspect about our promotion of freedom.  The fact that we welcome theists as much as pagans is not well known, nor, perhaps, should it be – yet.

I don’t defend our faith, because it is defended by our principles as a nation.  I remind our detractors that we are all bound by our “civil religion”, by which I mean not only the principles (deist that they are) which we live by, but also by the fact that we are all religious.  America, observed the Frenchman, Alex de Tocqueville, is the most religious nation in the world.  The forgotten premise to that is that we are religious in different ways and that is the very foundation of our democracy.

As a religious nation we are bound together by what Forrest Church and others have called the American Creed.  While each of us has our own “religion” it is not the same religion.  “America is faithful just not of the same faith,” wrote Forrest Church.  Our creed, based as it is in the rights of all to basic necessities (what Jefferson called ‘the pursuit of happiness’) and the freedom to believe and act on that belief, are the true heart of this great country, not Christian values.  The mistake that the “religious right” makes here is assuming that our core American values are necessarily Christian.  Our values are informed by Judeo-Christianity, we are a majority Christian nation, but that does not make the American Creed or our Civil Religion Christian.  Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, all agreed on this point.  A natural law, even a higher law, but not a Christian law, binds America. The same higher law that informed Martin Luther King, Jr. to civilly disobey the laws of the land.

Just what is that law?  In short it is the belief that in order to be faithful to our belief in the goodness of all, the extension of compassion and the pursuit of happiness that is our Republic we must have the freedom to follow the faith we hold most dear.  Echoing Roger Williams a century before, Jefferson proclaimed the paradox that in order to live up to the principles of good that the creator has endowed us with we must have the freedom to choose the good.  In other words, any faith, whether it is in the principles of our nation or a faith in Jesus, must be freely chosen to be real.  A coerced faith is no faith at all.

This then is the heart of our civil religion.  We are bound together, each with our own beliefs under One God, E Pluribus Unum, not because there is one true faith but because there is a freedom to have a faith.

This is why such legislation as the “Patriot” Act flies in the face of our civil foundations.  By limiting our expression of belief in the fear of finding “terrorists” we are undermining the very faith in freedom that makes us great. In many ways, this is a sort of “official terrorism”.  We have become afraid ourselves to speak out against the government and in so doing we are being terrorized by our government.

Walt Whitman, the great American poet and Unitarian once wrote, “religion in America, knows not the bibles of the old way but in new ways, the soul freed.”  Why is our civil religion so vital to life?  Because, my dear people, without the very faith in freedom, there would be no freedom of faith.  Without the freedom of expression, there would be no freedom of service.  What makes our nation, just like this church, so spiritually possible is that we couple our freedom of expression with a call to serve.  Look at any totalitarian regime of history and what do you notice?  They don’t last.  Why?  Because without the rights of freedom, there is no responsibility to serve.  And you can only pay or coerce people to serve a dictator for only so long.  True service, the very civility that makes our country, indeed this Church, run from day to day, is the result of the freedom accorded those of us who do serve.  Without it America would fall.  No one to serve the food to the hungry, to drive the sick to doctors, to clean up the cities.  Our freedom of expression naturally entails a freedom to serve, and volunteers make this and any democracy possible.  This is what Whitman meant, by not the old ways of bibles, important as they are to some of us, but the power of the freed soul.  In the freed soul rests the possibility of change.

Jefferson believed that democracy could instill greatness, not because it was rooted in religion, but because its freedom allowed us to choose the possibility of religion as one among many guiding forces in our lives.  Freedom gives us the potential to choose greatness.  And even when we fail – and we have failed often, witness our destruction of Native Americans, slavery and the subjugation of minorities – we are at least called to higher principles by the very fact that we can choose.

This is the heart of how we do religion here as well.  People ask me what we believe, and, when I tell them that we believe in the freedom to believe, they shake their heads and say, “why, that is no belief at all”.  But I say, “look again”.

The very process of democracy keeps us true to a moral pathway.  In choosing to do good over evil, we help to define what is possible.  Is this not Holy?  Is not the power to choose at the heart of every religion?  Choose we must, for without that we already slaves to another truth.  As long as there is a spark of life within us, implied Jefferson, there will be a God calling us to choose and in the choosing we grow.  Amen.

Sources used and recommended:

“The American Creed” by Dr. Forrest Church, 2003

“The American Soul” by Jacob Needleman, 2001

The United States Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights.

Today I begin an occasional yearlong series on our Seven UU Principles. The principles, voted on by successive General Assemblies of our denomination in the 1980s, will be reviewed over the next several years. These were never meant to be a creed or a testament of faith, but were, in fact, agreements about what our congregations agree on. Still, over time, they have become touchstones to our faith. Dozens of books and courses have been produced, and our own Julie Hernandez and our Addiction and Recovery Ministry have designed and taught a course linking these seven principles and the twelve steps of the recovery movement. These seven principles, broad and barely religious though they are, are at the heart of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist. The first of these, “the inherent worth and dignity of every person” is foundational to our own vision of building an inclusive community. It is also the principle most at odds with the existence of evil in the world. After all, how can you believe in the inherent worth of a mass murderer or a child abuser? It’s a legitimate challenge. Let me start with a story.

“You stupid good for nothing idiot. Why, a flea has more brains than you. What do you think you are, smart? You won’t be nothing.” I winced, as this 300-pound man yelled his teenaged son. “I can’t see why you were even born. What a waste of time.”

The old man waddled off. The boy stood there blank faced. I was witnessing a terrible family fight. But the saddest part was that it wasn’t out of the ordinary. In fact, the old man yelled at his son daily this way, taking a little bit of his humanity away each time he did it. The boy who had learned to shut out most of the abuse wasn’t able to shut it all out.

When someone tells you that you are good for nothing for 20 years you begin to believe it, and lo’ and behold, most abused children become much less than they could be, or even worse, they pass on that abuse.

And lest you think that this is just some underclass phenomenon, let me assure you, this sort of deprivation occurs in many guises. Children of high achievers who think they are less than worthy if they don’t come home with straight A’s. The man that amassed three fortunes to gain the love of his father who had been dead 20 years, but to whom he was sacrificing his marriage. Athletes who die from strokes, not because their bodies weren’t in shape, but because their sense of self-worthlessness put such a strain on them they snapped. Beauty queens who suddenly end up in the hospital with an eating disorder because their own mothers never felt beautiful enough for their father, who ran off with a younger woman anyway.

I could go on and on. I am talking about some of you, aren’t I? And it hurts doesn’t it. It hurts a lot. Today I want to talk about guilt and forgiveness. I want to talk about the journey from worthlessness and worthiness. I want to talk about reclaiming worthiness.

The belief in inherent worth is actually deeply ingrained in the bible. Jesus proclaims that the “kingdom of God is within” in the Gospel of Thomas, and Isaiah proclaims, “my whole being shall exalt in God.” In fact, up until the Middle Ages, the early Church defined its saving message not in Jesus dying for our sins, but fulfilling the promise of an earthly heaven, “…the creating wisdom and power of life dwelling in human beings” (Parker and Brock, Saving Paradise, 2008). In fact, it could be argued that the inherent worthiness of all people is deeply imbedded in the coming of age story in Genesis.

It’s an old story. In the Hebrew myth of Adam and Eve, Adam (which literally means earthling in Hebrew) is given a mate, his other side, literally taken from his other side. And the two of them are given a life of luxury in the Garden of Eden. God has placed two trees in this garden that are important. The first one is the tree of life, from which they may eat and retain everlasting life. The other tree is the tree of good and evil. “From this you may not eat” says God “for when you do you shall surely die”. Now, of course, this is a set-up, like putting a plate of cookies in front of three year old and saying “Don’t touch those.” Eve (which literally means “New Life”) is tempted or drawn to the tree by the snake. A word about the snake: We associate snakes with evil, but in the ancient Near Eastern myth, a snake is actually a sacred sign of divine power. It often represents infinity. The snake offers the apple to Eve; she takes a bite and offers the apple to Adam.

Now the traditional interpretation of this scene is that of original sin. We are just too weak to obey God. But hold that thought for just a minute. Because what happens next is very important. They eat the apple and see that they are apart from their creator, that they are indeed separate beings. As separate, they “hide themselves,” both from each other and God. When God comes strolling through the garden he calls out for them. When they finally come out God asks, “Why are you hiding?” They tell him about the apple. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the snake and the snake doesn’t have a leg to stand on. No, seriously. But blaming now becomes the second act of independence, deciding to eat the apple was the first. For this, God sends them out of the garden and condemns them to toil, work and bear children.

There are two ways to read this story. The first and the more traditional is the crime and punishment model. One little mistake and wham! You unworthy, disobedient and depraved human beings. God throws him out. What does this sound like? Who here has made one mistake in their life for which they are forever regretful? Who here after making that mistake felt like they could never make it up? Who here remembers the hurt and the shame? This, my dear friends, is the basis for much of what we perpetuate in our families and our society. We are flawed beings, that is true, but it seems we cannot forgive our flaws. Like Adam and Eve, we are forever cursed because we couldn’t live up to the expectations of the One God.

But that is only one way to read the story. There is another. What if Adam and Eve were exercising their free will, which God gave them in the first place? How could they have known, ask some, what bad was until they had eaten the apple? In fact, isn’t this the point? Aren’t Adam and Eve compelled to eat the apple because of that very power which God gives all of us in her image: the freedom to choose? Adam and Eve were framed. If they hadn’t eaten the apple they would have never been imago dei, in God’s image. When they ate the apple they became truly human. In exercising their freedom, they were reclaiming their worthiness.

While they disobeyed this direct order from God, they obeyed their humanity by showing some independence. This then is the mythical beginning not so much of right and wrong, but of guilt and shame. Guilt is feeling wrong about something we did. We don’t do a lot of guilt around here, but some is not all bad. I’ve done some pretty terrible things in my life and I still feel guilty about doing them. I’ve had to work at changing myself so that I wouldn’t do them again. I’ve had to earn the love and respect of those I have hurt. But shame is something else entirely. Shame is the feeling that we ARE bad human beings. Adam and Eve aren’t shameful, they’re human. Perhaps what they did was wrong, but it doesn’t make them any less as people. This is why we as Unitarian Universalists do not believe in original sin; original sin says we are evil by our very nature. We say no. We say we are flawed by our very nature, capable of doing incredible evil, but we are also born with a natural light which while flawed and flickering still burns brightly. Doing something wrong is not the same as being wrong by our very nature. This is another way of proclaiming this first principle of ours, we may do terrible things, but we are, by nature of being, free thinking actors worthy of consideration.

It is not always easy to defend this inherent worth. To be fair, there are some real challenges to this belief. William Schultz, past president of the UUA and past Executive Director of Amnesty International, calls inherent worth into question. In his 2006 Berry Street Lecture “What Torture Has Taught Me,” Schultz can no longer accept that every one has inherent worth; having seen the pleasure torturers, even seemingly normal good people such as those at Abu Gahrib prison, took in hurting others. Evil incarnated in human actions makes it very difficult to accept inherent worth. Schultz asks, “So is the worth and dignity of every person inherent? No, inherency is a political construct—perhaps a very useful myth but a myth nonetheless–designed to cover up the fact that we all are sinners and that we are not always certain which sins (and hence, which sinners) are worse than others. Each of us has to be assigned worth — it does not come automatically — and taught to behave with dignity because, as Sartre once said, “If it were not for the petty rules of bourgeois society, we humans would destroy each other in an instant.”

I accept his challenge that inherent worth is hard to accept as innate, but I still consider it innate because the alternative is much worse. If human beings are not inherently worthy and worth is “assigned” by virtuous deeds in a society, who then is to decide what virtue is? The clergy, politicians? We saw this relative assignment of worth in the torture by Americans in Guantanamo, were the designation “enemy combatant” (a designation of relative worth based on actions) led to a stripping of basic human rights, not the least of which is the right to legal defense. No, I cannot accept that inherency is relative. I have to separate the action from the worth of the doer, or we have nothing to rely on in assigning basic human rights.

Which is not to say it isn’t hard to do. Torture is one instance, but so is abuse, especially of children. How do we uphold inherent worth for abusers?

One of the most difficult topics in this debate are the very painful cases of sexual child abuse committed by several Catholic priests many years ago. Father Rob Jascot is a Roman Catholic priest I knew many years ago. We served together on a local cable talk show I hosted on Faith issues in our community. We talked openly about this problem on the show. I have to say here, I admire Father Jascot a great deal. It takes courage to face this question squarely and talk about it. In our discussion, we brought out the very basic fact that pedophilia, in fact any form of abuse, is an evil and heinous act. It feels all the more evil when it is done by a clergy person because of the sacred trust that is violated, and even more so by a Catholic priest because of the hypocrisy associated with vows of celibacy. Father Jascot responded bravely: Yes, sexual abuse, like alcoholism before it, was the church’s secret for years. But as we break any cycle of abuse we had to bring it into the light. Priests are now required to undergo psychological testing, sexuality awareness training and criminal background checks (all of which Unitarians were doing 20 years ago). The Catholic Church, like our own Congregation, has a zero tolerance policy for abuse.

“It is a tragedy,” said Father Jascot, “for the children, for their parents, for the priest, for the Church and for America, which sees this as one more reason why they shouldn’t trust religion.”

We did, of course, talk about how far we have come and how the vast majority of churches are safe and healthy places to learn and grow and how the vast majority of clergy are kind, safe and helpful people. But the hurt is real. I commented on the fact that most abusers are themselves abused, and abuse others as a way of validating their own lack of worth. Pedophilia is the worst form of shame. Preying on innocent children is the end point of what can happen when we feel we are truly worthless.

In my last church we had a pedophile amongst us. While we are certain that no harm came to any of our children, in large part because of the safety policies we had in place, our course of action was clear and unequivocal. We asked him to leave. For some, that was not enough. For others it reminded them of their own exclusion and fears of being not worthy enough even for a church. We did this not because he was evil as a person, but because his actions (which he has since repeated) were evil and we are not a therapy center here. Any church is a community. And even as respectful as we are, we are forced to protect our community from hurt first and foremost.

Of course, very few of us have done something as wrong as that, and yet we feel that sense of shame. Whether it is abuse of others or ourselves, through substance or behavior, that sense of not being ever quite good enough. We long for acceptance, but feel trapped in our own being. “The prison of the soul is far more darker than any dungeon,” wrote John Donne. This is one reason why I feel so strongly that our first principle is so foundational to who we are as free church. If we can’t separate harmful actions from human worth then who will.

This week we began a course on the 19th century Transcendentalists: Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickenson. What they all shared was this sense of an inner light, a divine worthiness in spite of what we do. We may spend the rest of our life in prison, but we are still of worth, connected, as Emerson would write, in an Over soul.

We do matter. We can and should reclaim our worth. But how? How can we move beyond a sense of shame to self-acceptance; how do we even move beyond guilt towards forgiveness.

The greatest irony of the story of Adam and Eve is that they were condemned by a Creator who supposedly made them in love. Or were they condemned? Let us look again: And God said “…in work shall you till the ground, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth and you shall eat the plants of the field and woman shall in pain bring forth children…” Our free will made us human and mortal and then left us with a challenge: to bring forth life. Isn’t this the very nature of human creation? If it was all given to you, well then so what? But if we can overcome adversity and create something from “thorns and thistles” and “in pain bring forth” new life, isn’t that what living is all about? Perhaps, as Rabbi Harold Kushner observes, we didn’t so much get thrown out of paradise but outgrew paradise. Didn’t we move beyond having it given to us and feeling ourselves dependent on God, to finding what we valued ourselves and depending on each other? We can claim our worthiness, my friends, precisely because we suffer. We matter because we must find a way to make more out of less; we matter because we have the power to create. Our ability to create is our salvation. Free will, sexual passion, hard work, love and mortality. These are the gifts we take from the Garden of Eden and these are the gifts that make us human. These are the gifts to moving beyond feeling bad about being human, to feeling bad about what we did, and then onto forgiveness. (Harold Kushner How Good Do We Have to Be? Little, Brown and Co., 1996)

Think back to that one act that still lurks in the dark corner of your soul. Or if you are clueless about that, think of some obsession you have, because chances are your obsessions are clues to some old shame. I used to be obsessed about having my day all in order. Five kids and ministry cured me of that, but anyway, that was my obsession. I thought I could never have it together enough. Who knows where this came from? That really isn’t as important as what I was going to do about it. Over time, I realized that this was my prison. I would blow up if plans changed, people didn’t follow through, or even if it rained!

The way out of this shameful cycle was to be creative. Creative is doing something new. A couple struggling with age-old pains takes piano lessons together. A parent and child read to one another every night (with all the voices). Another couple listens to each other’s dreams each morning over coffee. Creativity, wherever you can find it, cracks the door on helping any of us towards feeling worthy. But creativity alone is not enough, because shame and guilt require forgiveness. And forgiveness is often hard to find. Not forgiving another, as Rabbi Kushner observes, “gives us a kind of power over another”. (ibid, Kushner) But it also eats away at your soul. It keeps you from being human. It makes any of us feel like we don’t matter. There is no magic pill for forgiveness. Adam and Eve probably didn’t forgive God. I know those who have been abused who haven’t forgiven their abusers. But consider this: How much power do you still ascribe to your abusers by not forgiving the? When I ask someone to forgive another I am not saying we should forget what they did, or even accept what they did, but I am saying that forgiveness frees us to get on with our lives.

Twenty-five years ago, Sally was abused by her father. She managed to survive all of that, even get married, but when her own daughter was born she started to criticize her constantly. By the age of ten, her daughter was buying beauty magazines, by the 13 she was in the hospital for an eating disorder. The sins of the mother had been visited upon the daughter, generation to generation. It was at the hospital bed where I had the privilege to watch a miracle. Sally looked down at her daughter and whispered “Why?” And that little girl, thin as a rail, managed to say, bless her soul, “Because I was never good enough, Mom.” Never good enough. Sally got it. She started to cry, her daughter cried, I cried. Sally went home that night and wrote a letter of anger and forgiveness to her father. But she never sent it. Her father had died two years before. Her daughter came home and so did Sally.

Churches like this should never be places that tell you that you are not good enough. We should strive to be places of acceptance for who you are. Sanctuaries where God’s light heals and doesn’t condemn. Places which, while we cannot accept behavior that is harmful, can accept those of us who have harmed and been harmed. We are not perfect; we weren’t made to be. I don’t believe in the God that condemned Adam and Eve. My God knows our suffering and wants us to help one another become whole again.

Churches like this one are full of losers. People who have lost loved ones, lost love, lost acceptance, lost their way. But they are also full of people who have also lost their fear to join together with others, many of whom are not at all alike, in the common hope that we shall break out of our soulful prisons. People like you and I know why we matter. We matter because we are not alone. Amen.

“So you’re a preacher,” he said. It was late, about 9:30, in Chicago and it was cold, the January wind tearing at my jacket. I was standing on a train platform waiting for my two-hour commute back to northern Indiana where I lived. I told him that I was a seminary student and yes, I was a “preacher”. “How about that,” he said, “a man of God.” I didn’t have the heart to clarify just what kind of God he thought I might be a man of. But then again, it didn’t matter. “Just great, just great,” he said, “I’ve always admired a man of the cloth.” He continued, “Just found Jesus myself,” he said. I shifted, not sure if my discomfort was with the wind or where this conversation was going. My new found friend went on in great detail: he was a bricklayer, was on this third wife, had six children and was finally in AA. As he explained his conversion I couldn’t help but notice the sound of contentment in his voice, it was almost contagious. That was a difficult year for me: I was struggling over my new identity, with the death of a close friend and with this expansive faith of ours which required such a broad knowledge. I yearned, I admit, for a simple faith, perhaps the comfort of Jesus.

As we boarded the train together, he naturally sat down right next to me He pulled out a well worn copy of the bible and recited his favorite passage from the Gospel of John, “No one shall come onto the father but through me.” I knew that for him this meant that he was already in the arms of a loving God. That in the end, with all his troubles, he would be all right. I have come in the many years since this encounter to feel and know what it is about a simple faith in Jesus that is so refreshing and comforting: If you believe you are saved than there is nothing this world can do to you to hurt you more than for a moment. This kind of faith is not about reason, it’s about feelings. Many of us don’t understand this allure.

But this man understood. He was quite sure of his own salvation. And equally worried about his sister’s soul. She was a Muslim. “What about you, Reverend? What church do you belong to?” he asked. “I’m a Unitarian Universalist,” I replied, trying to let the 10 syllables fall out of my mouth slowly. He was quiet for a moment trying to recall where he had heard that before. Then the gleam of recognition, “Oh yeah, I got a friend who is into the Unity stuff – real spiritual.” Alas, we fall again to the arrows of misrecognition. I started to explain the difference, but his stop had arrived and he thanked me and got off.

Perhaps just as well. I would rather have him leave with that warmth. Many days have passed since that cold night. Many more sermons, deaths, births and doubts and I am still before you, a humble servant of the spirit, searching as you are for that faith which will sustain us; the faith of a community like ours with so many different beliefs. I thought often of his description of us as “real spiritual”. For most of our 500-year history, we wouldn’t be accused of that. Although all of that is changing, and changing fast.

Unitarian Universalism is actually the merging of two streams of faith. The Unitarians and the Universalists. The Unitarians have historically believed that God is one; in all people and that the concept of the trinity, that is the father, son and the Holy Ghost, has no basis in reason. This Unity of Experience based on a reason was proposed as early as 325 C.E. by a Bishop named Arius who was condemned for heresy. Our reasonable approach to religion laid dormant for almost 1,000 years until the idea of only One God resurfaced in Eastern Europe, Transylvania to be exact. Francis David, under the emerging protestant reformation and a lenient monarchy, established the first Unitarian churches in the world which stand, despite centuries of persecution, to this day. Their altars proclaim “God is One” and in all people, their teachings proclaim that Jesus came to love us all. Many of our American churches have partner relationships with these poorer and ancient churches in Eastern Europe. Unitarianism traveled across Europe to Britain and then to the United States and found a welcome home in the Congregationalist churches of New England because the congregation could decide on its own beliefs. This is the basis for our fierce congregational polity: the people, that is, all of you, decide the future of our course. As the most recent issue of our denominational magazine The World (Fall 2008) explains, ours is a “covenantal theology”, we are united not so much by common belief as by caring of one another. Protecting our freedom of belief. And with our relational approach to religion came another very unique institution: The free pulpit. We have a free pulpit meaning that I am free to speak the truth in love as I see it. Our flame in this chalice burns for that truth which we seek openly and together.

We are by our nature a faith of heretics. Heresy only means those who disagree with the orthodox. Unitarian’s bedrock lies in three beliefs: One, that religion needs to make some sense; this is why for instance our beliefs cannot deny the truths of science. Two, our beliefs have to fit our experience of the world. And three, we are open to hearing and exploring other religions and ways to the spirit.

What this means is that we have amongst us people who have a strong faith in God, some who would consider themselves Christians, others who would consider themselves Buddhists, some who don’t believe in God, many of us have doubts about God, pagans, earth worshipers and the just plain curious. We are unique on the religious landscape in that as Unitarian Universalists we do not require you to subscribe to any doctrine or creed – just to come, and in reason and experience, explore the possible Unity of the Divine.

If our Unitarian heritage appeals more to our minds, then our Universalist heritage appeals more to our hearts. Historically, Universalists have believed that we are all saved by a loving God. While the Unitarians cry “God is One” Universalists altars, some even to this day, in the firelands of Ohio declare, “God is Love”. Since the time of Origien in the 4th century, we have had a strong belief in the gnosis – or knowledge of God’s love. Early Universalists said that if Jesus died for our sins, he did so for all of us, for all time. Hell was just not the burning issue that it is for many other orthodox religions. All go to heaven; why would a loving Abba, Aramaic for Daddy, as Jesus claimed in his saying, condemn any of us to everlasting hell. This idea also had its roots in Eastern Europe and traveled through an underground church founded by Jon Hus using a simple chalice, the communion of God, which he gave to each person, before it was reserved only for the priests. The common chalice, God’s love available to all, is the bottom part of this symbol we light each Sunday. The chalice for God’s loving embrace is our Universalist heritage; the flame for the search for God’s spirit is the flame of truth within it. Universalists have been historically much more emotionally charged than their Unitarian cousins. With that emotion, came a love for music, dancing and heartfelt preaching. Your minister, stands before you as a fourth generation Unitarian but a strong Universalist. I believe with all my heart that we have some good and openly freeing news for the world…The Spirit is ours to find, hold and celebrate, even if we can’t all agree on what it means.

The Unitarians and the Universalists came together in 1961 to form the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations of which this one is a part. It’s a proud and wonderful heritage. Like hubs to a wheel we gather to search for that way to inner meaning using both heart and mind. Our way of religion is open and free and it is not for everybody. Some misunderstand our open spirit as meaning we can belief whatever we want. This is not true. Our WAY of discovery is open, our END of discovery is personal, but the COMMUNITY of searchers that we are is united by principles and practices that provide for open exchange and safety. Not everything goes in a UU church like ours: there are limits. We do not permit hurtful behavior; we put a limit on the espousal of abuse, hatred and exclusion. We are not, as I am fond of saying, the ACLU. We are a religion and while we are an open religion we stand for something.

What do we believe as Unitarian Universalists? What is this one faith that unites our different beliefs? Throughout this church year, starting in two weeks, I will speak on each of these seven Principles. In our new Family service, which begins in three weeks, Renée and I will be engaging our young people in these Principles. What are they?

We believe in the free and responsible search for meaning. We tend to the free part openly but we sometimes have a little trouble with the responsible part. Being responsible means that we say what we believe but in love. The truth can sometimes hurt when we are not sensitive to others. I can remember a congregational meeting that we had many years ago in which someone said that if this congregation has anything to do with Christians they were leaving. Ouch! What about those of us who still find meaning in the Christian story? I thought Barack Obama modeled this brilliantly on Thursday evening in his acceptance speech. “…..one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and each other’s patriotism.” In other words we can disagree with each other without challenging our character or our faith.

We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We do matter as being on this Earth in our potential and our worth. However, while we are all worthy – even those who commit terrible atrocities – our actions may not be worthy of being here. As I have said hurtful behavior cannot be permitted. But we also belief in redemption and grace. Throughout the month of September we will be exploring this theme of redemption and recovery. Many of us have been victimized, our religion needs to help us overcome that hurt and grow.

We believe in justice, equity and compassion in human relations. Our Social Action Committee works hard on our behalf to join with others in our community to stand up for the poor and the disenfranchised. I have spent many years in community action. Unitarian Universalists work around the world through our own UU Service Committee and our office at the United Nations to secure justice.

We believe in the right of conscience and the use of democratic process. We can and should speak our minds in love and we have a right to our opinion. We also have the right to choose our direction as a Congregation. Our newest members join the heart of this Congregation and have both the right and the responsibility to serve on our committees and vote in our meetings. We do not take orders from high. Being a part of this democracy – and you are all a part in some way – also means we support our mission financially. We are completely self-supporting. We want and need your help in however much you can afford to continue to spread this good news. That is just a fact of life.

We believe in the goal of world peace and justice. Unlike many other religions that focus on the hereafter, we focus on the here and now. Part of our mission is to change the world for the better. WE can do this. It will take generations to do, but every little act of kindness does change the world in some way. Our services throughout the month of August have been devoted to peace, starting with ourselves.

We believe in a respect for the interdependent web of all existence. We do believe in the unity of the divine in all existence. We do believe that we are all connected in a great circle of life. And we do believe that what affects one affects all. Each breath we take has the same molecule of a Cleopatra, Caesar, Socrates, Jesus, Buddha or a Mother Theresa. This same breath extends to our own rich prophets: Emerson, Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Darwin, Mary Wright Edelman. WE are connected in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.

Finally, and I saved this for last on purpose, we believe in the acceptance and encouragement of spiritual growth. “Real Spiritual” describes us more and more. Some may not like that description, but first and foremost what we are about here is a spiritual journey. Your spiritual journey. By spirit I do not mean so mushy gushy idea of something out there, but rather a call to “in here.” I believe that most of us are called to discover that abiding truth in us. I believe we are put on this planet for a reason, even if we don’t know what that reason is. I believe that our search is mystical in that we may have moments of revelation but we will be hard pressed to find “the answer;” and when we do, we will realize along with Lao Tzu, that “that which can be named is not the true name”. But the point is that my wayfaring friend on the train was not so different than any of us. WE too seek answers and while perhaps this tradition says it will be hard to find THE answer, we will be able to journey together and find more meaning to life than we would without each other. More meaning. More understanding. More strength to carry on.

This is why we join together as a community of seekers: to learn from each other, to sense and perhaps live out a destiny. To comfort one another when there are no answers to life’s tragedies and to know that in the final analysis we are not alone. Either with a God or just each other we are not alone. Einstein once said, “that no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it”. It’s a perplexing statement until you realize that it is both mystical and profoundly scientific. This is how Einstein figured out his theory of relativity. To use a sixties parlance, “he got out of his own head”. You can’t always see the forest for the trees. You can’t always see what is Holy when you are a part of that holiness. But when you break it out and share with others and listen and consider with reason and experience another consciousness whether through words, prayer, music or meditation THEN you can see what you didn’t see before. That, my friends, are why we are here. That is the one faith that is ours.

Our open spirit allows us to consider new ways, new ideas, a new path to meaning in our lives. And we can do that together better than we can do it apart. WE are the process religion. More process than product.

Next Sunday during our “Homecoming Service” we will recognize some of our newest members. If you have been coming over the summer and consider this your spiritual home, this would be a good Sunday to sign the membership book and enter the center of our circle. Let me be the first to say welcome to the next stage of our open spiritual journey. In my study I have a quote from a little known feminist – and a great Unitarian – that has sustained many a long night when I have grappled to what to say to you who are searching or to someone who is hurting. Edith Hunter, a pioneer in religious education recognized that as open spirits we had no firm, easy or pat answers. We needed something more realistic to deal with a complex and hurting

“Perhaps we should realize that our need is not to find “something to believe in” but rather to discover what we believe in right now. This is the place to start.”

This is the place to start. Let’s get started. Blessings Be!

“Arise then, women of this day!  Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of tears.  Say firmly ‘We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies’.  Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and applause.  Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.  We women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.  From the bosom of a devastated faith a voice goes up with our own, it says ‘Disarm! Disarm!’  The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.  Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor does violence indicate possession.”

These powerful words were penned and spoken by Julia Ward Howe, a Unitarian and a Quaker who wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” ten years earlier at the start of the Civil War.  This proclamation, written after that most bloody civil war as a response to the growing bloodshed she had seen in her own lifetime, was translated around the world into many languages.  It was the beginning of Mother’s Day.

Originally promoted as a festival to promote a Mother’s Day of Peace, the holiday envisioned by Howe and other women always began with this proclamation.  Until her death, Howe continued to insist that Mother’s Day should be a call to peace, but it was never made as such by our government.  Finally, in 1914, by popular demand but without reference to its pacifist origins, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day; a day when we rightly honor mothers — but a far cry from its strident origins. (Source: Quaker.org/motherdy.htm)

In honor of its truly noble and glorious beginnings, we celebrate Mother’s Day today.  Honoring our mothers, yes, but honoring them with the power of the divine feminine power envisioned by Julia Ward Howe.

There are many books written on the power of the feminine in our lives, but today I want to share with you the lessons I have learned from the women in my life, mothers all: my own mother Cynthia, my wife Frances, and my daughters Fiona and Portia — all mothers who have embodied the power of the divine in their role as women and as mothers. Some might find it odd for a man to talk about this today but, in fact, it makes most sense for me, a white middle-aged male, to share with you my lessons.

There is a saying in my house: “Watch out for the goddess.” By which I understand to mean the power of strong women saying what they will, feeling their way to the right answer. The greatest lesson I have learned is that I need to trust my intuition. I have become a very intuitive thinker – not at the loss of my reasoning abilities, which I depend on others for – which means I am prepared to feel my way to the right answer. Now, of course, that has its drawbacks to be sure. But it is the way I operate and it is a divinely feminine trait. Meaning deeply felt and fulfilling.

But the second great lesson I learned from the divine feminine in these mothers is the power of love and dedication. Those who know me know that I am fiercely dedicated to my family, my congregation, and my staff; in fact those who know me closest know that it can even be a fault. But I don’t apologize for it. It makes for a certain order to the world, concentric circles of concern. A love and dedication to the families who raise these children in difficult times.  A love and dedication to this Church, which is the home for our spirits.  And a love and dedication to our community and the world which we serve. With these two divinely feminine powers, intuition and dedication, I call on us to inspire others.

One of the other great heroines in my life is a little known Unitarian woman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who lived and worshipped here at First UU Church Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1891 she was one of the first to break the stigma of domestic violence by writing about in a powerful little book The Yellow Paper. In 1923 she wrote another book entitled His Religion and Hers. Let me quote from this because this mother herself, who finally divorced her abusive husband and began writing, encapsulates the divinely feminine nature to our call as UUs.

“Birth-based religion would steadily hold before our eyes the vision of a splendid race…the duty of up building it. To the mother comes the apprehension of God as something coming; she see his work, the newborn child, as visibly unfinished and calling for continuous service…As the thought of God slowly unfolded in the mind of woman, the great power would have been apprehended as the Life giver, the teacher, the provider, the protector, not the proud, angry and jealous deity men have imagined.”

It is in this spirit, this Divine power which calls us to finish children and the world in dedication, that I call on us to rededicate our lives to those lofty values we hold so dear.  To reject the rhetoric and values which in Julia Ward Howe’s own words “reek of carnage and revenge”.  And to embrace those principles which we hold so dear: the inherent worth and dignity of all people, the goal of world justice and peace, the respect for the interdependent web of life and the use of democratic process.

Many who come here feel both relief and bewilderment.  Relief at finally having found a place to call home; a place that accepts us as we are and encourages us to find that spiritual center which must be a personal choice.  But we are bewildered as well; searching for that definition which so many other religions are all too happy to provide.  What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist?  Just what is it that I am asking you to dedicate your life and the life of our children to?

Across this country, I ask our young people “what is it that we stand for?”  I often get the blank look followed by a response something like “here is where you can believe in whatever you want.”  I cringe a bit every time.  No wonder other religions claim we have no spiritual center when the center seems to reach no farther than our individual preferences.  I am often asked, “What’s next, ‘We can do whatever we want’?”

In one sense our young people are quite right.  This is the place where you can believe what you hold to be true about why we are here and where we are going.  But that is only the door to the deeper life we ask you dedicate yourselves to.

This Mother’s Day, permit me to provide you with what I think we are about here and why we need to dedicate our lives to this church, our children, and the world.  “Arise then, women of this day!…say firmly we will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies’”.  What were these ‘irrelevant agencies to which Julia Ward Howe referred?  Irrelevant agencies are those bodies of governments, religions and pundits who tell us that our faith in the future must be based on the prevailing norm of our time.  In our day, this would be the same thing as an acceptance that war is right, obedience is moral and that questioning is wrong and unpatriotic.  All of which run counter to what our faith teaches us.  Arise then, and speak a new truth.  This is the dedication we are truly about today my friends, a new truth.  We do not believe that revelation is sealed but open (our principle of the responsible search for truth and meaning).  We do believe that all people have the right to self determination (our principle of inherent worth) and that we will speak out against those irrelevant agencies that tell us otherwise (our principle of the democratic process).

Specifically, we are dedicated to the proposition that, on this Mother’s Day: war is not the answer and that we will lobby our elected officials and partner with other faith groups – even in this community – to do something about it.  We will do this because we believe in the essential goodness of people even if they do terrible things; the American people, the Afghan people, the Arab people, the African people, the Asian people, the people who, when we get up close and personal, are still just people.  That essential affirmation is our spiritual truth:  that people are still just people.  It is the original foundation of our Western society and is a deep a humanistic faith as one can have.  And the spirit of those people is greater than any one God, person or agency.  We dedicate our lives, this church and our children to this proposition.  And we take it as a statement of faith:  that we are, as my colleague John Corrado puts it, “more interested in getting heaven into people than people into heaven.” (From John Corrado, Quest, 2005). Amen.

We are, as Unitarian Universalists, dedicated to the proposition that there is a human spirit which is worthy of our regard and our effort and that all people have the right to live in freedom.  That is a faith stance as great as any other.  It is worldly, to be sure, but who said religion should only be about what happens after we die?  Religion is about connecting with each other and with meaning while we are alive; heaven into people, not people into heaven.

As Jim Wallis, an evangelical Christian on one hand, but a social progressive on the other, puts it in his wonderful new book God Politics: Why the Right has it Wrong and Why the Left Doesn’t Get It: “Who says faith is something that belongs to one party or another?  What are we progressives so afraid of?  Politics is about power, and faith is about meaning, why wouldn’t we try to use our faith politically.”  Or as Joe Lieberman put it so well in the 2000 campaign:  ‘A freedom of religion is not a freedom from religion’

We Unitarian Universalist have been so afraid to take a stand in our efforts not to ‘offend’ anyone that we have nothing left to stand on!  I say we do have something to stand on!  Five hundred years of speaking about the worth of the human spirit as the first and most important aspect of life; far greater than some unseen God someone else tells us about.  We stand on the tradition of great people, many of them powerful foremothers who dedicated their lives to the proposition that people should be our first concern; women like Julia Ward Howe, or Elizabeth Pinckney the first women in America to own her own business, or Abigail Adams, the conscience and the reason behind our second President, or the suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, or Olympia Brown, the first woman to be ordained in America, or Marianne Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, and many, many more ALL Unitarians and Universalists.  Women and men who, like you, had a faith in the essential goodness of humanity.  That is our faith.  Cut away all that complicated verbiage about diversity and searching for truth.  We believe in people, even if they do bad things.  We believe and our dedicated to promoting that belief.

And lest you doubt such a simplistic faith has having meaning let me suggest to you an example: eBay.  How many eBay customers out here?  Do you know the story of this online auction company?  Started by a couple of people who believe in a simple premise “people are good”.  That is their advertising slogan: “People Are Good.”  And it works.  People put things up for bids.  The winning bidder sends payment, cash, check, whatever and the seller sends out the item.  If the item doesn’t arrive or is faulty the seller is ‘reported’ and no other bidders will buy from him.  Likewise if the buyer doesn’t pay or tries to scam the seller, they get reported and no one sells to them.  It is based entirely on trust.  And it works.  We have bought most of what we use from other people this way.  We even bought a car on eBay.

Political winds come and go. As Jim Wallis says, “Protest is good, options are better.”  We will need to dedicate ourselves to this faith to join together with our time and our money and other people of faith in this community: the UCC, the Methodists, the Jews and the Muslims.  We will need to join together to bring our faith into the public square to change our world for our children and ourselves.

I want us to dedicate our lives to the Divine Feminine, that has inspired mothers everywhere, that divinity of life giving, intuitive, completion of our world. I want you to dedicate your lives to this Church and our mission to make the world a better place.  I want you to dedicate yourselves to our children, like mothers and fathers all to a new world.  I want you to dedicate yourselves to the action that proclaims that people are basically good.  Be clear about our faith: we believe in each other and the world.  We stand against acts of evil and oppression, but we stand for people.  I believe in each of you.  I am asking each of you to believe in one another.  With love and dedication we will change our world.  Blessed be!

It is rare that a Unitarian Universalist minister begins his or her sermon with a biblical quotation. My subtitle for today’s sermon, “Let Justice Flow,” deserves a citation. The line which has been made famous by Martin Luther King, Jr. comes from the wild and wholly Hebrew prophet Amos. It was Amos, not famous first for cookies, but for telling the Kings of Israel and Judah that they had turned to greed, who put it this way:

“I despise your greed and I take no delight in your assemblies even though you have offered up the burnt offerings. God will not hear the noise of your songs or the melody of your harps but let instead justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream (Amos 5:22-24)”

As I thought about this passage I could imagine the world he was railing against. Long gone were the glory days of Saul, David and Solomon. Israel had split into its own version of the red and blue states: a civil war had divided the land into to two states; Israel to the North and Judah to the South, with the power resting in the Southern half of the land. The Jewish empire was faltering under its own weight, made sleepy by its wealth and arrogant by its belligerence. Amos, as all good prophets should, was telling the haughty leaders that false piety wasn’t enough. That prayer in schools wasn’t going to save them, that flag waving, scroll thumping sacrilege was a lost cause. Only justice and righteousness will save them; in fact that is the only offering God really wants from his people.

Sound familiar? It ought to. How different is our arrogance as the only remaining superpower, the openly proclaimed Empire of the World from this fallen age of Israel? Some even suggest the new Star Wars film by George Lucas is a commentary on George W. Bush and the encroaching agenda of fear and the attendant loss of civil rights around us. Part of our effort today is to name the true costs of this war. The facts you can see for yourselves, a billion dollars a week, 4,000 American lives, half a million Iraqis dead or displaced, and our neutering as a voice of compassion and change in the world. As Linda Bilmes who lectures at Harvard wrote in a recent LA Times Op-ed (3/16/08), Californians, because of our disproportionate size in the military industrial complex, are going to bear the greatest brunt for this war. And then there are the personal costs such as this from Jim Wallis’ blog about his newest book The Great Awakening, “My Son’s Grave (by Celeste Zappala) ‘The Cost of War’. The sorrowful convergence of the fifth anniversary of the war and the observation of the 4,000th fallen U.S. soldier in Iraq (has sadly past). Soon candles will be lit and vigils held, arguments will ensue as to who was right, and the meaning and value of sacrifice and the chorus of whispers, wails, and anger will be carried on wind sweeping across this country and all the gravestones of war. The stones are silent witnesses to the failure of humans to follow the commands of the Lord of Love. The stones are places where U.S. families gather, as far as can be from the bombs and desert fears. It is in that cold silence that my grandson and I visit his father’s grave. He throws chunks of snow around the fully decorated gravesite. “My dad loves to have snowball fights” he tells me in present tense. “My dad and me always team up against my mom; she doesn’t like snow.” He laughs; and in this moment of transcendent playfulness I look at him with great love and will not speak of horror and lost hopes. Head bowed, snow tears on my face, I let the chill of the day overtake me – but I do not want my grandson to see my thoughts. In spite of all my protests, I could not protect him from losing his playful, tender father. I can only hope now to be a witness to the good life lost – to all the good lives lost. I will add my voice to the wind of remembrance and faithfulness. And I know for the rest of my life I will come to this country cemetery and visit my son who will never be older than 30. And I, like so many mothers and grandsons in this cold season, will stand amidst the stones of this country to listen in the snow for the laughter and forgiveness of our lost’. Celeste Zappala is the mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, who was killed in action on April 26, 2004. Sherwood was killed while protecting the Iraq Survey group as they searched for the weapons of mass destruction in Baghdad. He was the first Pennsylvania National Guard solider killed in Iraq. But where are the Amos’ of our time? Who shall proclaim the truth to let justice flow again?

In the tradition of the ancient Hebrew Prophets, I see our third smooth stone of liberalism as in Adams words “the moral obligation to direct our effort… towards a justice loving community.” Distinctly different than those religions that retreat from the world, our religion must, by its very nature, help justice flow into the world. We, and others, are here to proclaim that prophecy in the old testament way, not only of the future but of what in the present needs to be changed. Prophets, as Adams put it, “foretell” if this continues this will happen, not forth tell, as if they had some crystal ball. As a free church we come from an ancient tradition of foretelling: “The Radical Reformation of the 16^th century, the heralds of the Renaissance, the mystical and radically democratic sects of the 17^th century, (from which many of our religious forebears hail), the democratic revolutionists of the 18^th century (including the founders of our own nation, many Unitarian), the religious liberals….the evolutionists and scientists of the Social Gospel in the 19^th century – all were prophet bards foretelling and struggling for a new epoch.” (From The Prophethood of All Believers by Adams). We are right here part of that same prophethood of all believers, the prophethood that brought us Theodore Parker, Thomas Jefferson, Lydia Maria Child (the abolitionist and women’s rights advocate) , Elizabeth Cady Stanton, our own Hope Foye, all Unitarians and Universalists, who foretold and acted upon that prophecy.

The prophets are here and they are more than us. But their voices are not being heard because of the control our government has over the media that allows those voices to prophesize. I think of Jim Wallis, the evangelical Christian who is challenging the powers that be. I think of Barbara Boxer, our senator from California, I think of the past President of the UUA and past director of Amnesty International, Dr. Bill Schultz, whose report naming our country one of the worst in human rights abusers in the world has met with a firestorm of protest from the President on down. As Dr. Schultz said on NPR, “I think the President doth protest too much, perhaps there is more truth here than they admit”.

To help justice flow and stem the costs of this war we must begin by unblocking the dams upstream. Its one thing to rescue the victims of our arrogance it’s another to unblock that which holds justice back. Or as William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, put it over a century ago “We can’t just keep picking people up at the bottom of the cliff without climbing up the mountain to see who is throwing them off.” (As quoted in, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis). What are these dams that are holding justice back, not only in the freedoms of our own country, but the very right to life in the world’s poorest countries?

First among them is our failing as a moral country. We have to replace platitudes about religion with the real religion of life. You know we heard all about how the religious right had voted Bush into office on “moral values.” Well we have moral values too! UUs and UCC and most other mainline churches have the moral values which hold that 30,000 children a day dying of hunger is just plain wrong. We have the moral values that say that debt cancellation to the lowest 10% of the world is not only possible but necessary. We have the moral values that hunger and abuse and poverty here or anywhere else for that matter is wrong. We have moral values that say torture – any torture – is wrong. That there is no such thing as just a little bit of torture.

We can begin to live up to our prophetic imperative by proclaiming those moral values in the public square. Not only in good-minded churches binding together, but in YOU speaking out at work and in your community about YOUR moral values. When someone tells you homosexuality is wrong, tell them love is right and then tell them what is really wrong: allowing homelessness to continue, denying aid to Darfur, reforming a tax code that rewards only the wealthy. Whenever we hear a story glorifying this war speak out about its cost. We are the people we have been waiting for.

And when people tell you that this is a time of war and we have to make hard choices, ask them ‘whose war?’ Because the question is not guns or butter, as the commentator Mark Shields put it, but rather caviar and missiles (quoted on Shield and Brooks, Jan. 2003, PBS). Budgets, whether it is the federal government or this church’s budget, are moral documents. It is time to put up a fight for what we truly believe in. It is time to let justice flow with our money.

Only our money will break down the damns beyond our own little worlds. Only money buys us the voice we need to be heard. I would like to believe that citizens alone could turn our world around and they can help but our money will also be necessary. We are always stretching. We are stretching to break through the dams to a new world. The question is why? We are here, as someone a few weeks ago put is so well, to “save lives” — not only the lives of the people who come here but the people who we will never meet who have no Amos in their corner. We and our money have the power to let justice flow again.

Specially, I am asking you to join the UUSC today. Fill out that form, drop a check in it and drop it in the collection basket. I am asking you to help us help justice flow again, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. But I am also asking you this month to make your financial contribution to our annual budget by way of a pledge.

To be of any use to this hurting world – to save the world which is our home – we must broaden our meaning making beyond just what we need. In the words of my colleague, the Rev. Roberta Finkelstein, may we be a place “… whose inward focus is on worship and spiritual development and whose outward focus is on bringing the good news of UUism to the larger community through words and deeds.” (UU Congregation of Frederick newsletter, 2005). We can be the deed doers, the makers of a new world, right here and now.

Some would disparage over the world we live in, but take hope and have courage. I always remember the words of Theodore Parker, our great prophet, ‘the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice’. It is our task to create a better world, even just a little bit of it, to remove those impediments towards the flow of justice again, person to person, hand to hand, arm in arm, help does arrive despite the politicians. Our social action committee, these brave souls are here to help you let justice flow again. Our imperative is to shout it out from the mountain tops and the valleys: “stop this war” and change the world! As Jim Wallis puts it, we must stop being the thermometer that measures the temperature of the world and begin to be the thermostat that turns the heat up and melts the dams of injustice, breaking through with the free flow of justice (in Great Awakening by Jim Wallis).

Join us as we change the world. Give generously to the causes we support. As Wallis said, “Imagine politics being unable to co-opt the (religion) but being held accountable to its moral imperatives. Imagine social movements arising out of spiritual revivals and actually changing the wind of both our culture and politics. Imagine a fulfillment in our time of the words of the prophet Amos’ ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.’ Just imagine.” (ibid, Wallis)

I was getting somewhat exasperated. It seemed so obvious to me that I couldn’t understand why he held his position. “Look,” I said, “here’s the deal: carbon dating puts Earth at 4 billion years old. That gives us a long time to change, you can just look at certain mammals and see how they got to be that way. How can you say, with a straight face, that God just plopped the whole shebang down in one fell swoop; seven days.” “Six days” he smiled, which made me even crazier, “because that is what The Book says He did”.. “For crying out loud Rick,” my voice raised, “what about the fossils? How did they get there?” “God planted them there to test our faith — if we believed in the Bible over the fossils then we were worthy.” Oy!

Admittedly this was the worst kind of conversation to have with someone of faith. My science was not even in his frame of reference so no one was convincing the other of anything. Intelligent design is actually a complicated and varied field of study. It’s really not so simple as science on one side and biblical creationist (such as Rick believed on the other). Actually creationism, the belief that God created the whole world in 6 days 4,000 years ago is at the far end of a spectrum of possibilities and the one that most of us who believe in evolution think of when we think of Intelligent Design. I really am not going to talk about that extreme position today but the more intriguing middle ground that even some scientists grapple with: Is it possible that there is some intelligence to the progress of evolution or is our place here the result, as Darwin contended, of random selection? I hope my answer will surprise at least of few of you and give you something to think about this summer.

What is evolution? As my colleague Stephen Nodvin writes: “Evolution, or as Darwin called it “descent with modification” is a change in the characteristics of living organisms over generations, including the emergence of new species. The modern theory of evolution includes two critical parts: first, natural genetic variation in offspring and, second, natural selection. Evolution is not magical but rather the outcome of natural processes. Its workings are as logical as gravity.” (Stephen Nodvin, Sermon preached at UU Church of Nassau, NJ, Jan. 2006)

Evolution is technically a theory, but it is a very well supported theory. The part that gets us into trouble is that the universe appears to be so well fine tuned as to suggest a design. Life on planet Earth is even more remarkable given the very limited tolerances we breathing creatures have for temperature and air. While we now know of hundreds of existing planets, it is something short of miracle that ours is the one that supports life. This belief in the uniqueness of earthly life, especially human life, is known as the anthropic principle: the earth and its current conditions were designed for our survival. The only problem with this principle is that it rests on two huge assumptions. The first is that there are only a few hundred planets in our galaxy. There are only a few hundred known planets, the odds of other planets some of them life bearing rise almost daily. And the second assumption is that life can only exist in the narrow carbon form we know. Life at the bottom of the ocean in hot sea vents is proof that even that is too parochial. The anthropic principle is the center part of the theory of Intelligent Design, more broadly, as Stephen Nodvin writes:

“Intelligent design, according to its main proponents, is the concept that “certain features of the universe and of living things exhibit the characteristics of a product resulting from an intelligent cause or agent, as opposed to an unguided process such as natural selection.” These proponents say that intelligent design is a scientific theory that stands on equal footing with, or is superior to, current scientific theories regarding the origin of life.

“Let me give you an example of the thinking of this concept. If I showed you a watch you would almost certainly agree that it did not come into being by chance. Upon inspection, you would see that the parts and pieces of the watch were clearly designed so that when they were put together the hands would move pointing the hours, minutes, and seconds of the day. You would surely agree that the watch, whose parts have such obvious purpose, was designed by someone. That someone, the creator of the watch, would be human. As William Paley said in 1802:

“the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker – that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use.”

“The quote is at the heart of the Intelligent Design debate. It is the image of the watchmaker, the metaphor being that the watch is so complicated that it is difficult for us to imagine its existence without an “artificer” or “designer.” For creationists like Paley the same argument applied to the human eye, a heart, or a complete organism. Like a watch or telescope, these living things are very complex. So complex that it was hard to imagine their existence without the presence of a “designer.”

“While Intelligent Design proponents insist that their “findings” are new, in fact the argument that the complexity of nature indicates the existence of a purposeful natural or supernatural designer has been debated by philosophers for millennia. The first recorded arguments come from Greek philosophy around 500 years B.C. This teleological argument for the existence of God or a Designer was subsequently dealt with by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Thomas Aquinas.” (ibid, Nodvin)

The greatest problem with this debate is that both sides rest on tremendous assumptions. While Intelligent Design assumes creation must have a creator, there is much we assume about the evolutionary record as well, such as why so much of what we call life took place in the mere 500,000 years of the Cambrian Explosion. The problem with assuming a specified complexity is that it rests on our need to have a creator because we are ourselves are creative beings. The sheer genius of Darwin’s theory is that changes to life forms can be explained without a first cause, that is without a designer in mind. Evolution, life itself, just happens, it unfolds through environment and random mutations naturally selecting for survival. No designer need apply. That, at least is the official party line. But as Stephan Nodvin writes:

“Darwin’s theory of evolution provides detail on how biological diversity and new species are generated. But it does not tell us the why? Why is it that the physical laws of the universe are such that this wondrous thing called life emerged? Why is it that this amazing process called evolution worked so well to have produced the complex structures, organisms, and diversity that we see on Earth today? What we are talking about is a the mystery of creation that is not testable and therefore does not lie within the realm of science but rather within the realm of faith and philosophy.” (ibid, Nodvin)

As Darwin himself wrote: “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic.”

Like Darwin, I am an agnostic about such things. I can clearly reject a grand designer in the universe but can I reject a design?

Not so quickly. I have long believed that we are part of some grander scheme of life. It is not a verifiable belief, but rather an informed intuition. I know that I am here at PUC for a purpose not of my own design, even if I can’t tell you yet what that is. One of you asked me why I was the minister here. My answer, only slightly in jest, “I am on a mission from God.” I just don’t know what the mission is yet, or who the God is that sent me.

Lack of material proof of a designer does not deny the possibility of a design. Is it intelligent? I can’t say. But we are moving, it seems in a direction of greater consciousness; slowly, but we are moving. We know more and appreciate the commonality of being human now more than we did a thousand years ago. We know now that we really are all inter-connected in life with all other living creatures; reclaiming that wonderful wisdom from Native peoples before us.

So while I reject Intelligent Design, I believe that there is a design embedded in our evolution that is becoming intelligent to us. I reject intelligent design as a certainty, but likewise remain skeptical of a random, rudderless evolution as manifest destiny. There are far too many coincidences leading to life and its balance to dismiss out of hand an innate design to the universe. Not necessarily “directed” but encouraged to move forward in a way that is still mysterious to us. This is why, while I believe in evolution, I also believe evolution is taking us somewhere for the betterment of all life and knowledge.

Enchanted randomness perhaps, much like an enchanted agnosticism, begins with the radical premise, I am radical agnostic, I don’t know and you don’t either; but it expands to the possibility, the potential, that we are here to grow into something other than we are. Theology has shifted from a devolution from God to an evolution to God.

There is a name for this theology, process theology. The belief that God, the Holy, the Great Mother, is co-creating with us the universe we dream of. In this sense, I am both a believer in evolution and intelligent design. Evolution as the means to that mysterious potential. It’s theology, not science, that takes the theory of evolution to its intelligent end. Kenneth Miller, a respected and renowned cell biologist at Brown University, and a believer in God put it this way:

“It is often said that a Darwinian universe is one in which the random collisions of particles govern all events and therefore the world is without meaning. I disagree. A world without meaning would be one in which a Deity pulled the string of every human puppet and every material particle as well….All things would move towards the Creator’s clear, distinct and established goals….The common view that religion must tiptoe around the findings of evolutionary biology is simply and plainly wrong”. (Kenneth Miller Finding Darwin’s God, 1999).

Evolution does not exclude meaning or even a design, if we look for those meanings and that sense of design as unfolding in the evolving world around us. As Darwin himself concluded in the Origin of Species: “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most wonderful and most beautiful have been and are being evolved.”

Something to think about.

Like so many of you, this has been a difficult week. I returned to town last weekend to hear of the terrible shooting at our church in Knoxville, TN. For those of you don’t know, Jim Adkisson, a unemployed truck driver, walked into the church sanctuary, took out a semi-automatic shot gun, and, while a children’s performance of Annie, Jr. was in progress, opened fire. Greg McKendry, a longtime member of the church, threw himself into the path of the shot and deflected two other shots before other members of the church wrestled the shooter to the ground and held him there until the police arrived. Beside Mr. McKendry, Linda Kraeger of the nearby Westshore UU Church also died later; 7 other adults were injured. No children were physically harmed but the psychological trauma of watching death and terror before their eyes will be long lasting. Two church communities have been torn open by this attack. The reasons for the shooting are murky at best. Mr. Adkinsson was a confused and angry man. He was a fan of the “hate media” and blamed the liberals for his problems with employment and food stamps. Ironically, as many have observed, our church in Knoxville was were he could have come for help, as we would have been for any other person marginalized by our society; but instead he chose to blame us instead. As he himself said, he couldn’t get to the liberal leaders who denied him his rights (curious in and of itself), so he would take aim at the liberals who put them there.

I really don’t think there is a ready answer to the why of this. As so many of you shared at our midweek service of prayer and healing, hatred continues to haunt humanity. Mr. Adkisson was both the perpetrator of a heinous crime and a victim of a society, buffeted by the winds of vitriolic rhetoric and readymade cultural wars. Most of all he was a man at war with himself. Perhaps there is no better sermon to preach in the aftermath of this tragedy than a sermon on the beginnings of peace.

Let peace begin. Let peace begin with us. Let us not feel the necessity of placing blame, but, rather, let us reaffirm our commitment to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And in the midst of all of this, our personal and collective lives did go on. Someone has died, people came to be married, babies need love and our children need our assurance. Someone asked me this week whether we would turn the chairs around in our sanctuary, or post guards, or at least be more suspicious. My answer was no to all that. The opposite of love is not hate as much as fear. The opposite of war is peace born out of love. If we were to become institutionally suspicious of the strangers in our midst what would that say about our values of radical inclusiveness? How could we be only caring but not sharing, and certainly not daring?

Universally, this week our brothers and sisters from around the world have responded to this tragedy not with anger (although there is some of that at right wing fundamentalism) but with a renewed call for peace, mostly and importantly, among ourselves first. Reclaiming our sanctuaries as places of welcome and justice. A place where the Jim Adkissons of the world are understood as marginalized by a society grown indifferent and affluent, to the determent of caring for its people. This week the community, faith leaders and government came into the Knoxville church and, at public and private expense, cleaned the church for re-dedication even as I speak. That is the power of love.

And it is that power that I commend to us as our beginning. Let peace begin with each of us. Thicht Naht Hahn, the Vietnamese Buddhist Monk so influential in my own spiritual work and that of our Peacemaking team, writes, “Every day we do things, we are things that have to do with peace. If we are aware of our life… our way of looking at things, we will know how to make peace right in the moment, we are alive.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

We are “things” that have to do with peace. I have found myself this week, in the midst of my worries and fears, trying to smile and be more courteous almost as if I were a thing, “an instrument of thy peace,” as St. Francis Assisi once wrote. Holding doors longer for anyone, letting some one in a rush go around. Let Peace Begin With Me, as our closing hymn says. A thousand cranes on the water.

After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people folded cranes as we are doing today and put them on the troubled waters of those bombed out cities. In peace, simple witnesses for peace. You would be surprised how powerful this can be. If not for others, then most of all for yourself. Calm the anger and the fear of Knoxville, which is really only a symbol of our own daily vulnerability to life. Let peace begin.

Let peace begin with this Church. I commend to you the work of our peacemaking team, founded first to study the resolution for peacemaking before our Association next June. But their work, started first by reading Thich Nhat Hanh, is expanding to discuss how we can be a peaceful sanctuary, much like the green sanctuary we are becoming. How can we better deal with disagreements among ourselves? How can we teach peace skills to our children? These and many more issues will be before a panel discussion on August 24^th after church. We so often think of peace as something needed out there, but it is more often needed in here.

Let peace begin with our religion. I have not always agreed with our UUA president, but on peace and justice we are of the same mind. There is so much more we can do together than apart, as Bill Sinkford says. I was pleased to see that our denominational response to the violence in Knoxville was not to lash out at the hate media (although this is an issue we hope to address), but to convey love and even forgiveness with courage. And that peace spread to other religions; the outpouring of support from the Knoxville community has been incredible. Members of the community have been inside the church all week long cleaning and repainting it in preparation for a service today. The whole community! My sisters and brothers in faith here in the South Bay have sent me letters and emails expressing their heartfelt prayers for us as we, even here so far away in California, deal with this loss. We are not alone. There is always a possibility for any religious community to atone for its wrongs. Indeed that word, atonement, means to be made whole again with the Holy, at-one-ment. Sadly, as Rebecca Parker, the President of Starr King (our UU seminary in Berkeley), has observed in her work Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now, “War became a force that gave life meaning and strength… the “peace” among Christians at the expense of those who would be required to fulfill the role of the enemy: Jew, Muslims and heretics.” Fortunately, we are making progress at bringing peace to some of faith, but not to all. Jim Adkisson was not motivated by a religious group, but by the culture of hate in our society. Our own interfaith group, the South Coast Interfaith Council, on whose Board I serve, is working to dismantle this subtle division that leads to war between people, communities and nations. I am pleased to announce that Mileea Islam-Majeed, an American born, Bangladeshi Muslim woman, has been appointed at the new Executive Director of the Council, replacing the wonderful Rev. Ginny Wagener. I served on her search committee and we purposely sought a non-Christian who was bright and committed to inter-faith understanding. You will meet her soon.

Let peace begin with our communities. On August 17^th from 2-5 pm we will co-host, along with the Hindus, an interfaith café here at PUC. A wonderful opportunity to meet people of all faiths. But even beyond that, we partner now with Neighbors for Peace and Justice in San Pedro and Random Lengths News to bring Social Justice Films. We are hoping to build out from here. In fact it was none other than Dwight Eisenhower, a general, a Republican president who once said:

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

Let peace begin in our nation. Call me naïve but I feel a new day coming in this election. We are weary of war and cultural divisions. We sense almost a new holiness, the resurgence of something greater than ourselves. Not universally, but I do believe it is here. Get involved in this time my friends. Days like this will not be long with us. We will end this ugly war; we will close Guantanamo; we will begin to know peace in our time.

Let peace begin in the World. From ourselves to the Church, to our communities, to our nation, to the world. My meditation faces squarely in the psalmist’s words the reality of death and sorrow. But surrendering ourselves to hope we can build again a new world. Death will be with us always, violence, I suppose, as well; but so will love and peace — and peace is not an end but a going, a being, something new. After the Service today I urge you pick up a copy of the proposed “peace pledge” we as a church are asked to sign. It asks us to covenant – that deep and abiding promise so much a part of our heritage – with each other and other groups to work for peace from the inside out: To create a Center for Peacemaking. I urge you to read it and come to the forum before next Sunday’s service where we will talk about this. Many years ago we became a nuclear free zone and planted peace poles in our sacred land here. Nuclear weapons are still a very great threat but perhaps older now we also recognize that people with warring hearts are also a threat.

The answer does not lie in hiding under a desk and hoping it will get better. The answer lies in making the pledge and the promise to work for peace, for change, for action, in courage, even in the face of great danger.

Let me close with one of the many moving stories to come out of the horror of Knoxville last Sunday. One of the men in the church, Jamie Parkey, initially heard some one shout “he has a gun, get down”. As he pushed his mother and daughter under the pew he thought to himself, “Get down? What good is that going to do? He will just keep shooting!” So he stood up and ran for the shooter joining others who tackled him to ground. Stand up! We do face danger everyday. But stand up! Let peace begin with you. Don’t dive under the pew and hope they stop hating. Stand up and with compassion and say, “I am here. It cannot be otherwise. Peace begins with me and spreads outward like an even unsteady ray of light.” And we will change the world. We will.

Amen.

These are the words of Robert Kennedy on the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed:

“My favorite poet was Aeschylus (who wrote) ‘in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God’ What we need in these United States is not division; what we need in these United States is not hatred; what we need in these United States is not violence; but love and wisdom and compassion towards one another…We can do well in this country. We will have difficult time; we’ve had difficult times in the past, we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence, it is not the end of lawlessness, it is not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of people in this country want to live together, want to improve their lives, and want justice for all human beings…Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago ‘to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world’. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our people.”

By Rev. John Morehouse

I don’t know if any of you saw the New York Times this morning but there on page was a full-page ad by the UUA proclaiming our door and our hearts are still open. After the tragic events of two weeks ago in Knoxville, TN, where two people were shot to death and six others wounded during a Sunday morning Service, our collective response has not been one of fear and reprisal but one of compassion and recommitment to our values of inclusion and justice. Our doors and our hearts are still open and will remain so for all those seeking comfort and help.

So it is no less fitting today that we speak of the necessity to see our Church, indeed our planet, as a temple whose doors are still open. Because we stand for life and love. We stand ready, still, in spite of it all, to promote the fair use of our resources – be they material or human. We have work to do, but it is good work. And there is a connection between the care of the planet – our greening temple – and creating a world that helps all the marginalized find peace.

First, I want to speak to the theological reasons of why it is so important for us to take a stand on the environment. I want to invite us into the dream of what a greening temple our Earth could become again. Our conquest and subjugation of this land and its peoples was fueled not only by our European greed but by a mis-reading of the Bible. We were influenced by the duality of how we look at the world, going all the way back to ancient Greeks; there is an essential difference between us as thinking beings and the material world we act on. Even our bodies are something we own to abuse or fix. Our white immigrant ancestors laid plunder to the land based on the line in Genesis 1:28 “fill the Earth and subdue it” that one word “subdue” implies a freedom to do as we will, but other translations imply a different injunction: many Catholic versions order humanity to “work the Earth,” “steward the Earth,” “bring creation to the Earth.” Running rough shod over the Earth was not the idea. No, we are asked to steward the Earth and in order to do so I ask you to consider the following: In 1979 a chemist by the name of James Lovelock and a microbiologist by the name of Lynn Marulis came up with something they called the ‘Gaia Hypothesis’ which claims that all the Earth taken together, ‘her atmosphere, her soil, plants, animals and people form one complex and interconnected life system.’ Sound familiar? It should, it’s our 7^th principle as a Unitarian Universalists: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”

If the Gaia hypothesis is correct, then we haven’t been treating ourselves very well at all. In fact, humanity is like a cancer on the body of the Earth. And like cancer cells in our own body we will either fight back or be destroyed. What I am suggesting is that, like our 7^th principle, we actually may be living in the body of a divine organism in which we are only one part. In a daily sense we are conditioned to believe that the Earth is something apart from us, but ponder how small minded that might be. Looking out over the ocean the world looks flat until you see a ship coming over the horizon and realize we are on a very large blue globe.

Centuries of patriarchy – believing our role was to subdue the Earth and own it – has led to not only the demonization of the Earth (ever wonder why Hell is down there) but has led to more destructive trends such as the demonization of women, who like the Earth, bear life. Mother Earth, up until the last 4,000 years was the goddess of life and worship. The sky god of Genesis subdued her and her chaos, and made the male ascendant in theology and culture. In the book of Genesis, Eve is portrayed as temptation, sin, the fallen siren of evil who takes the fruit of the Earth from that most Earthly of creatures, the snake, and forever dooms humanity. Even for us, as religious liberals, the Earth is really not holy. Think of land ownership. Here in Southern California we think about it a lot. That little piece of Earth you “own” is part of a substantial worth to our heirs. This church property which we believe we “own” is worth, what, $8 million? But what do we own? Perhaps we really don’t own anything in life. At least nothing you take with you. Eminent domain, earthquakes, mudslides, nuclear bombs; what of the Earth do you really own?

And isn’t that the point? We were, even in the biblical account, appointed stewards of the land, not owners. We were asked to take care of it for the future of life. And when we stop sentimentalizing nature and realize that we are the ones who are owned by the Earth, we can truly enter the greening temple. Nature takes life as well much as she gives it to us, she has no pretense of consciousness, no attachment to any of us, and yet we are partners. This temple not only shelters us but inspire us to change. What Yeats called, “the sublime movement of all that we see”.

And it is change that is calling to us. That is what global warming is waking us up to. It is up to us, as thinking and creating beings on Mother Earth, to change. As Aristotle observed, “reason is creative” (not just if “a” then “b,” but if “a” then create “c”).

Until recently I used to think that the environmental movement was somehow disconnected with the larger issues of justice. That the environmental movement was a culture of exclusion that wanted to protect the planet at the cost of others using it, or perhaps even, as in the logging states, at the cost of jobs. Now I see that line of argument as brain washing by those who seek to divide and conquer us. We need to throw open the doors of our greening temple for all. Taking care of the planet is what is going to help bring justice, living wages and real security to those who need. As Van Jones, an activist in Oakland who spoke to our General Assembly in June said, “one good thing about green collar jobs is they can’t be outsourced. If you want to weatherize your building, you can’t ship it to India, if you want to build wind farms, it’s wind blowing in the U.S. that is harvested.” (Quoted in The Sun, interview with Van Jones, March 2008) So working for justice requires making our energy more sustainable, perhaps in ways that we wouldn’t think of. Van Jones challenges the mostly white environmental movement: “A lot of wealthy educated people wanted to take action after Al Gore’s movie (An Inconvenient Truth), but most low income people of color I know had no interest in seeing (the movie) in the first place. They already have enough problems. They don’t need a new crisis to worry about….poor people need to hear about opportunities (ibid, Jones).

They need to hear about opportunities. Talking about saving the planet is not going to save the planet. Becoming white allies of people of color and creating opportunities in green ways will necessarily connect the two and open our green doors to everyone. Our Board president, Ed Slizewski, and I have been talking about a fascinating idea from General Assembly. What if PUC were to become a micro lender, for business projects that gave green jobs to poor people? What if we used our significant investments to invest right here in the businesses focused on Green outcomes in the South Bay? Small loans would necessarily be geared to people in need. What if?

How are we to live up to the promise of that ad in the New York Times? Our doors and our hearts are still open. The doors and hearts to our greening temple of change.

We are working towards becoming a Green Sanctuary church and we are going to the trouble of fitting our values to our actions. We can enter and live within this greening temple, starting right here at PUC. We can remember, as Chief Seattle once said, ‘that the Earth does not belong to us we belong to the Earth”. And once we recognize that even an inner city garden plot is part of this greening temple, our minds will be open to seeing the connection between honoring the Earth and honoring those of us who live within its embrace. The anthropologist Peggy Reeves studied 186 cultures that exist in warm and beautiful climates and found that, with the exception of Southern California, all of them have matriarchal values of nurturance and acceptance. The harsher the climate the more competitive the culture. The lower the latitude the better the attitude. We would do well to see the connection between the Earth and our culture. Are we only standing on the roof of this greening temple trying to get inside? The door actually may be our humility; the belief that we are only, as the 7^th principle reminds us, a part of the web. Humility, humbling, humus. It’s more than recycling. Recycling won’t save the planet. But an ethic of care to what we do with our waste and how we treat other people, humility that we are only visitors here might actually save the world.