Something eerie happened at our last Wesley Distribution Day. Lisa and I have attended enough of them by now to know what’s a typical turnout for community members coming to receive needed items that we are privileged to share.
On that day, that February Saturday when the wintertime needs of people are as extensive as ever, a much fewer than ever number of people came through.
Among the ranks – volunteers such as the Fox Anvicks, Lisa, and numerous others – speculations arose about why that would be.
Maybe the weather (It was a dry, not that cold day). Maybe people got the wrong Saturday (Doubtful. It’s pretty easy to count 3 Saturdays on a calendar, especially when you’re in need).
Or maybe it was due to many of our recipients being afraid to be in a place where immigrants are known to gather (Yes, now we’re getting down to it).
That day, Feb. 15th, seems like months ago by now, given that seemingly every day there are new reasons to be dismayed, disappointed, and disavowing of what’s happening around us.
Feb. 15th was also Nirvana Day in the Buddhist tradition when the Buddha attained enlightenment. How far away from that things feel these days.
As these days keep passing and the assault on what we know to be good and righteousness persists, it becomes increasingly imperative to mindfully reach toward enlightenment
Reach out, externally by taking action –
working at the Distribution to feel human connection firsthand, working for the election of people whose values mirror your own.
And reaching inward too – to that soulful place where enlightenment awaits.
You might be asking yourself, “How do I access that when the path to enlightenment, from where we stand now, seems nowhere in sight?”
I’m convinced that at least a part of that answer is through our faith.
Check out these moving words that have an enlightening effect on the sometimes flat-sounding term ‘faith.’
My faith brings me to the Mystery that moves me to awe at the center of my being and is in all creation – a powerful love that my logic can’t define, and my spirit can’t deny. Through this faith I become a minister to others, and even to my world, and thus become connected to people of other faiths, being inspired by them spiritually.
All of these words were pulled from our Belief and Value Statement. Beautiful, aren’t they?
Even if I didn’t know you personally, just the spirit of this statement would assure me that you’re a group that would embrace the song “I Love You and Buddha Too” which we heard at the end of our worship a couple of weeks ago.
If you’ll remember, Mason Jennings sings, “Oh Jesus, I love you, and I love Buddha too. Rama Krishna, Guru Dev, Tao Te Ching and Mohammed.
This sweet song inspired me to share with you some of the beauty of those people and traditions, each contributing to a system of pathways like you see on your bulletin, leading to the same destination of enlightenment and hope that we need so badly today.
Last week we referenced Buffalo Springfield’s song about paying attention…stop, hey, what’s that sound, everyone look what’s going down.
There is another line in that prophetic For What It’s Worth song (turns out it’s worth a lot) …
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, “Hooray for our side”
Thousands, millions saying, Hooray for our side. Hooray for my way, the one true way.
If there’s one passage in the bible that fosters the Hooray for our side mentality, it’s when Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one goes to God except through me.”
Isn’t it fascinating how the same collection of words can mean such vastly different things to intelligent people?
We Progressives read it as… This way of being that I am modeling for you is the road to holiness.
What he didn’t say was, I’m the guy. I’m God, so build a new religion centralizing me. Figure out the details by having a debate conference, then take some votes, and whichever side wins gets to dictate the beliefs.
That is, however, what happened, and here we are a couple of thousand years later, with millions still saying Hooray for our side!
I can’t even fathom the bloodshed and division throughout time and to this very day that has occurred because of it.
We’re talking theoretically about the uplifting of other spiritual paths. Let’s look more specifically at how one dovetails into another.
Suffering is a central part of our human experience, and therefore is woven into all religious traditions, including and especially Buddhism.
Here is Buddhist theology in a nutshell:
We all suffer. There’s a reason for it (mostly our free will and desires which often has a derailing effect). Suffering can be overcome, and it’s done through mindfulness.
The message of the Tao Te Ching speaks to desire and free will too, saying that when we act “unnaturally”, our balance is upset and we suffer.
The Tao Te Ching leads people to “return” to their natural balanced state after the derailing from desire, but not through conventional wisdom. Let’s see how in this writing.
Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep the original oneness? Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child’s? Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light? Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will? Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and trying not to control: this is the supreme virtue.
We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
Does any of this especially speak to you as you find yourself in the world, in this country, today? It sure does to me.
Can you coax your mind away from its agenda and remember oneness instead of division? Oneness these day feels a million miles away.
Can you unclench your grip on what you know to be right long enough to become supple in mind, body and spirit? I feel rigid as a board often these days. No supple-ness in sight at times. It should be a red flag to my functioning.
Can your love others, and in doing so, leave your will/your ideas for rightness, at the door? It’s been such a barrage, I would feel almost naked at times, vulnerable, without my ideas. My righteous ideas.
The next one is the kicker for me… Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Things that are occurring daily here and having their rippling global effects feel/seem/are vitally important.
So how am I doing at letting events take their course of late? Not as good as I’d like.
I feel in my bones, I soulfully know, that these ironies and unconventional wisdoms are calling to me, just as the big become small, the weak become strong biblical ironies contain truth.
We’re so busy shaping pots and hammering houses with these things in the world that we forget the purpose, the real meaning behind it all.
We do this not only with the pragmatics of shaping and building our families, our careers, our homes, our future, but also sometimes with how we approach our religious lives.
Sufi poet Rumi shares wisdom about this in his poem entitled “No Religion”… Tonight I see the realm of joy and pleasure. I have lost myself in it and it has lost itself in me. No religion, no dogma, no conformity, no guilt. No shame, no fear, no conviction, no uncertainty remains. In the middle of my heart a star appears, and the seven heavens are lost in its brilliance How does it rest with you to open up the gates of your garden and let the seeds of other faiths float in and perhaps blossom and even beautify your spiritual path?
What do you think about Hindu’s Rig Veda writings that state: Truth is one, and sages call it by various names?
Does the thought of embracing that potentially diminish your devotion to Christianity, and more specifically, to Jesus?
What aspects of our experience today spoke to your spirit most… bringing balm to your beleaguered heart, swinging the doors of awe and wonder wider open?
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