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The poem
written by Archibald Macleish on first seeing the photograph of planet
Earth taken from Apollo 3:
“To see the
Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal
silence where it floats is to see ourselves as riders of the Earth
together, brothers and sisters on that bright loveliness, brothers
and sisters who know now they are truly brothers and sisters.
Dona nobis pacem."
(Grant us
Peace)
 e
are in this world as humans living on this beautiful blue planet, in our
circling solar system, on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, in an
expanding universe, trying to find meaning in our lives. Who are we?
What are we doing here? How did we get here in the first place? What is
our true purpose in life? What happens to us when we die? How can we
love each other, find meaning in our daily lives in relationship with
each other, see our true nature reflected in the other? How can we
manage to be authentic and kind, living with understanding and
compassion? And finally, how do we solve the ultimate question of, is
there a God? A Creator who set the universe in motion, then retired. Or
a loving God who continues to play an active role in our daily lives. Is
there any kind of God, or no God at all? And finally, how do we live in
peace?
These are the
questions that are addressed by the world’s religions. Though some would
say that the answers are, essentially, all the same (Read, One River,
Many Wells by Matthew Fox), the proponents of each religion would say
that there are solid, authentic answers that are contained in their
religion. Thus the great religious dilemma of our world. As Unitarian
Universalists, we would certainly come down on the side of there being
sweeping channels of truth that flow to all of us, that are not the
property of one religion or another. We are humans all.
An aboriginal
religious writer has classified the world’s religions into two groups.
The universal religions, the ones whose members believe theirs is a
religion that applies universally, to all people. And the primal
religions, the original religions practiced by indigenous inhabitants of
ancient Earth to the present day. These religions are practiced only
within the tribe or group from whom it originated. And, for the most
part, they want to keep it that way. The universal religions include
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, Islam, Judaism, the Bahai
faith, and Christianity. Others like Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Sikh, and
Unitarian Universalism occupy smaller but important rungs on the ladder.
What shall we
say first about these religions? They are spread across the earth. There
is wide variation in the practices and beliefs found within each
religious group. In Islam, for instance, we hear daily of the fanaticism
of the fundamentalist Shiites but know little of the mystical Sufis who
see spirit and life from a radically different inner position than many
of their Islamic brethren. Founded by Rumi in the 1200s in Turkey, they
are the group which includes the whirling dervishes. It is his poem that
I shared in my last sermon. I would like to repeat a part of it here to
illustrate those vast differences within religious groups. In an age
when others saw only their immediate needs, Rumi saw beyond, to a truth
we still seek today.
ONE SONG
“What is praised is one, so the praise is one too, many jugs being
poured into a huge basin. All religions, all this singing, one song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity. Sunlight looks
slightly different on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot
different on this other one, but it is still one light.”
In Christianity
today, there is a wide gulf between the most liberal churches, the
United Church of Christ, for example, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Or
even between liberal and conservative Catholics. The Theravada Buddhists
are what we would title humanists, they do not believe in the divine
aspect of life, while the Mahayana Buddhists pray to divine powers and
believe Buddha to be a savior.
We also might
look at the belief structure. Judaism talks of one God, Yahweh. Hinduism
believes in multiple aspects of God, as well in Brahmin, the ground of
being. Many in Buddhism do not believe in a God, some do. Confucianism
and Taoism believe in the constant flow of the nature of life which is
non dual, that is it is gray rather than black and white. And the black
is part of the white and the white is a part of the black. The Bahai’s
and Unitarian Universalists believe in the universal nature of
humankind.
So what is the
essence, the core of these religions? What do we all share in common,
and what is not held in common?
One of the first
questions we must address, in order to keep it from distracting us,
is……which one is superior? Which religion is the best? Arnold Toynbee
said, “There is no one alive today who knows enough to say with
confidence whether one religion has been greater than all others.” Most
Unitarian Universalists would certainly agree with Toynbee. Much
violence, many, many wars, and ruinous divisions among human communities
and cultures have been the outcome of trying to assert each religions’
superior answer to that question. Obviously many Christians and Muslims,
especially, believe they have the answer. MINE. Mine is the only way.
This dark side of religion has poisoned many from ever entering the
doors of a church or mosque or temple.
Those of us of
liberal mind and spirit point out that there are common themes that bind
us all together in the human family. We all must eat and love. We all
must keep our children safe as we educate and prepare them for adult
life. We all must face the ultimate questions of life and death. Only
the details vary. It is a perspective shared by Apollo 9 astronaut
Russell Schweikart as he orbited the Earth:
“Up there
you go around the earth every hour and a half, time after time after
time. You look down; you can’t imagine how many borders and
boundaries you cross, and you don’t even see them. The earth is a
whole ----so beautiful, so small, and so fragile. You realize that
on that small spot is everything that means anything to you: all
history, all poetry, all music, all art, death , birth, love, tears,
all games, all joy….all on that small spot. And there’s not a
sound------only a silence the depth of which you’ve never known.”
As we see
through Schweikart’s eyes, it seems so simple, so organic, so filled
with common sense to see how we should all be joined as one on this dear
earth.
But, according
to Huston Smith, the renowned author of “The World’s Religions,” that is
too simplistic a way of seeing if we are to truly bridge the many gaps
into creating and sharing one world religion. “It founders on the fact
that the religions differ in what they consider essential and what
negotiable.” He continues that Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam,
and Judaism split over this issue at one time or another in history.
Many, including the Bahai’s and Unitarians worked to create a world
religion to little avail. Smith also points out that the human equation
is important in this story. “There are people who want to have their own
followers. They would prefer to lead their own flock, however small,
than be second in command in the largest congregation. This suggests
that if we were to find ourselves with a single religion tomorrow, it is
likely that there would be two the day after.”
Matthew Fox in
“One River, Many Wells” suggests that it is possible to unite under the
common sense assertion of the universality of all people’s deepest
needs. As we say, “there are many paths to the mountain top, but only
one mountain.” The Koran addresses this by saying, in Surah 14:4, “We
never sent a messenger except with the language of his people, so that
he might make the message clear for them.”
What are the
values on which we could all agree, whether Hindu, Jew, Muslim or the
rest? What cross-cultural values do we all hold, in other words?
Certainly that we should avoid murder, thieving, lying, and adultery as
an ethical base. And that we strive to be virtuous. The wisdom of these
gathered religions would assert three basic virtues, namely, humility,
charity (compassion) and veracity. To quote Huston Smith again,
“Humility is
the capacity to regard oneself in the company of others as one, but
not more than one. Charity shifts that shoe to the other foot; it is
to regard one’s neighbor as likewise one, as fully one as oneself.
As for veracity, it extends beyond the minimum of truth-telling to
sublime objectivity, the capacity to see things exactly as they are.
To conform one’s life to the way things are is to live
authentically.”
Each religious
group has variations in language that articulate these values. The
Buddhists speak of the poisons that are obstacles to living these
virtues (greed, hatred, and delusion). Many Hindus meditate on these
virtues in order to embody them in this life, and the next.
All of us are
also caught in the inescapable trap of being able to see life only from
within our own framework, loaded with bias and fearful of reaching
beyond.
To quote Paul in
his letters to the fledgling Christian church in Corinth, when we humans
try to see life as a whole, we see as “through a glass darkly.” The role
of religion is to “re-bind” us, re-connect us to true reality so that we
can see clearly the vastness, the crucial meaningfulness of life. This
is the great mystery. The Tao says,
We must
“blunt the sharpness, untangle the knot, soften the glare, merge
with dust.” The mystery is “hidden deep but ever present.”
We are born in
mystery, we live in mystery, and we die in mystery. Mystery for which
there is NO ANSWER. This mystery is the foundation of awe.
Within the way
that the world’s religious traditions grapple with these great questions
of wholeness and meaning and mystery is an exuberance not found
elsewhere in the cultures of the world. Politicians and lawyers and
contractors and business leaders do not usually do exuberance. It is a
distinguishing feature of true religion and those who practice it. To
the believer, the world is held as being better than it seems and we far
more exalted than we feel. Smith again, “The sheer immensity of the
human spirit as envisioned by the world’s religions is awesome. The
Hindu Atman and Buddha-nature come to mind. And we remember the rabbis
angels who precede human beings crying, “make way for the image of God.”
And finally, if
we are ever to be at peace with each other and have any chance of
creating an effective, peaceful religion of the world, we must listen to
one another. Respect one another. Seek to understand and ultimately love
one another. Love is “the only power that can quench the flames of fear,
suspicion, and prejudice, and provide the means by which the people of
this small but precious Earth can become one to one another.” (Smith
again.)
Now let’s turn
to the primal religions, the ancient, powerful religions of the
indigenous peoples of the Earth. They have much to teach us that the
universal religions cannot. Unlike the “major” religions, the indigenous
religions do not have sacred texts. What they believe and practice and
experience is not, for the most part, written down. That has made it
harder for us in the “civilized world” to learn from them, but easier
for them to keep their own religions pure, including preserving the
languages from which they sprang. There are some generalizations that I
will allow myself to make with apology and respect to the people’s from
whom this wisdom flows.
These “primal”
religions have at their core a great respect and kinship with the Earth
and all life that dwells upon it. They truly see the web of life as
intricately related. And this web is not limited to humans, but includes
the trees and rocks, the grasses and herbs, and all the creatures that
walk, fly, or swim upon the Earth. As well as us humans.
When an animal
is killed for its meat so that the people may live, it is thanked with
great love and respect for giving its life. When rituals are practiced,
they are always focused, at some point, on gratitude for life and the
gifts given, even in times of scarcity. There is clearly a great kinship
felt between indigenous peoples and all life. There is also a theology,
a philosophy as “sophisticated” as our own…..it is just not written down
in a book. Here is a quote from Chief Luther Standing Bear of the
Lakota:
“I am going
to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi
meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the
kinship of all
creatures, and acknowledging unity with the
universe of things, was
infusing into his being the true essence of
civilization."
Another quote,
this one from the Aborigines in Australia:
“We are all
visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our
purpose here is to learn, to grow, to love……and then we return
home.”
I find myself
more drawn to the primal religions than to the ones in which I am, as a
white westerner, supposed to believe or experience truth. As we
discussed two weeks ago in the service on Creation Spirituality, these
ancient ways speak to what we have lost. Our connection to nature. Our
loss of the sacred relationship between ourselves and all living things.
Our loss of childlike wonder and awe at the glories of the universe in
which we live, the Earth on which we dwell. We have also lost the love
of our Mother, the Earth. Gaia. The living organism that supports all
life. Frankly, I care more about cultivating these sacred relationships
within this context than I do about deciding which sacred text from
which of the world’s mainstream religious traditions presents THE TRUTH.
I am tired of
these battles over the great religious myths. It seems wasteful and
degrading to the best of human nature. Yet, there are truths embedded in
those myths that can guide our lives deeply and well.
Jesus’
admonition to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
One of the
Buddha’s many insights, “Regard this phantom world as a star at dawn, a
bubble in a stream, a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering
lamp, a phantom, and a dream.” Or “Life is a journey. Death is a return
to the earth. The universe is like an inn. The passing years are like
dust.”
The Hindu
assertion of karma, “worn out garments are shed by the body. Worn out
bodies are shed by the dweller.”
The beauty of
passages like that of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, “The Lord called me
from before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.”
The florid,
lovely language of Islam, “in the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the
Compassionate: Praise be to Allah, Creator of the worlds. Thee do we
worship and thee do we ask for aid.”
These are
reminders of the best, the inspirational, the thoughtful ways that all
the religions of the world may potentially speak to us. It is wise that
we study and learn and apply the best of what each has to offer. As
Universalists, that part of our movement more relevant to this
discussion, we open our arms to the prospect that we are all related.
That all humans are brothers and sisters, together, making meaning out
of our lives while walking the universal or primal holy path to our end.
Which may be our
beginning.
There are
seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm
and promote:
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.
Unitarian
Universalism (UU) draws from many sources:
Direct
experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all
cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness
to the forces which create and uphold life;
Words and
deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront
powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the
transforming power of love;
Wisdom from
the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual
life;
Jewish and
Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving
our neighbors as ourselves;
Humanist
teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the
results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and
spirit.
Spiritual
teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred
circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms
of nature.
These principles
and sources of faith are the backbone of our religious community.
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