[ Absence ] [ Abundance ] [ Amazing Grace ] [ Compassionate Negotiation ] [ Earth in the Balance ] [ Engaged Buddhism ] [ Friendship ] [ Hopeful and Realistic ] [ Embracing the Millenium ] [ Humanists ] [ Leadership ] [ Liberated People ] [ Loneliness ] [ Love ] [ Powerful Beyond Measure ] [ Punishment ] [ Sharing ] [ Spiritual ]
Sermon: SPIRITUAL UNIVERSALISM November 7, 1999, Rev. Dr. John L. Young
Do you remember the ancient Hindu story of the blind men with the elephant?
One man felt the elephant's tail and said, "this is a rope." Another
felt his head and said, "this is a battering ram." Another felt his
ear and said, "this is a large fan." Another man felt one of the
elephant's tusks and said, "this a beautiful marble arm-rest."
Another felt one of the legs and said, "this is a tree trunk." Each
man had a genuine encounter with a large reality, but the limitations of their
experiences, both because of their blindness and because of the limits of what
each touched, left them confused about what the reality was as a whole.
The realities of the spirit leave humanity, generally, in a similar
quandary to that of the blind Hindus with the elephant. Each of us have some
experiences that seem important, even central to our lives. These experiences
give most of us the sense of a large, awesome, and complex reality. However,
we are limited by what we can and cannot see and by what we can and cannot
understand. Most of us are, or have been, thoroughly caught in a cultural
niche, a niche which has taught us to look at everything in certain ways.
Therefore, we are blind to other possibilities, or we find it very difficult
to make any sense of the other possibilities we see. Like the blind men with
the elephant, we are limited both by who we are, and what we can sense and can
understand, by where we are standing, and by what our perspectives are and can
be.
This is true to such an extreme degree that most people can identify only a
few of the many manifestations of the spirit as spiritual and can only
recognize and accept a small percentage of all human religious behaviors and
actions as truly religious. Most people say, "This and this only is
God or the holy or the ultimately real," Most people say, "my faith
alone is true religion or genuine humaneness, all else is diabolical or
meaningless." This is true whether these people are primitives or modern
orthodox religionists, communists, or atheists. All of them have felt a part
of the great reality. Like the blind man who felt the elephant's side or the
elephant's ear, they have an often vivid impression from their experiences.
For instance, the devout Christian's sense that God is the transforming light
of Jesus' love, or the Marxist radical's sense that reality is the inevitable
conflict of the oppressed masses with the established elites. If they are
fanatic, they refuse to hear what the other blind men are saying about their
experiences. If they are dogmatic, whether out of ignorance or out of strident
belief in their own faith or ideology, they refuse to give any credence to
what they hear from others, to consider it worthy of their attention or
understanding, and consider it irrelevant for their own lives or practices, If
they are modern and world1y but still true believers, they seek out elements
in the wide world that reflect and reinforce their true beliefs, and they only
tolerate those visions and programs of others. However, they still believe
that they are right and the rest of the world is, ultimately, wrong,
misled. and destined for disappointment, failure and/or perdition.
There is a growing minority of human beings, however, who are neither
fanatics, dogmatists, nor even tolerant pietists. These people are spiritual
universalists, and most of us are among them, Like other human beings,
spiritual universalists have limits to their vision, We, too, touch only a
part of the reality at a tine, and we, too, have our own cultural ignorances
and blind spots. However, we think that we more completely come to understand
the whole by listening to what other human beings have to share with us.
Diligently, we try to understand their experiences and visions. We carefully
and experimentally practice the elements of their experiences and visions
which we can relate to and appreciate. We recognize that one perspective
seldom can give us a very helpful picture of the whole. We reject the
fanatic's sense that contact with others' perspectives will make us impure. We
reject the dogmatist's sense that paying attention to other's stories and
experiments will waste our time. We reject the modern pietist's sense that
differences are simply to be tolerated and made use of to buttress our own
original beliefs. Spiritual universalists, then, recognize that they are only
in touch with part of reality and know that their culture's perspective is
reflecting only part of the truth. We consider truth, goodness, and beauty
multi-faced. We want to be open to the truths in every culture and history of
the world. We wish to learn from other peoples' different perspectives even to
understand how to build upon and to grow from view-points that seem,
initially, alien. We seek foreign contacts. We cherish fresh perspectives and
new celebrations. We do not try to shake down human differences into a
familiar common denominator, but rather to build a world-faith foundation for
our individual quests.
What spiritual universalists do with their special way of seeing varies.
I want to make a case for practicing a particular kind of spiritual
universalism which I feel fulfills the tenets of this progressive faith most
fully. I believe it helps human beings to move beyond their blindnesses and to
work at transcending the inevitable limitations of their individual
perspectives.
I believe, passionately, in each of us as spiritual being. I recognize the
spiritual importance of each person, the potential religious vitality
of every individual. I think that the universal and the eternal, the creative
and magnificent, the good, the true, and the beautiful reside in each of us. I
further believe that portions of this spirit are unique, special and
irreplaceable within each of us and in all human beings. If each of us does
not express and live by it, it is lost, at least temporarily and in part. This
loss is, for me, not simply a loss of human potential or cultural progress; it
is, in part at least, a loss of ultimate value, a death of part of God or of
genuine creativity. This faith of mine is a universal spiritual individualism.
I see each person as a child of God. However, I do not think we are each the
same child nor reflect the same elements of the infinite or the ultimately
creative. I think we each add our unique elements to the eternal flame.
Whatever God is, it is less if we do not express and use the best
potentials and insights in ourselves. Something is lost and not just to us and
our friends, but to the world, perhaps even to the infinite. Therefore,
helping individuals to discover what they really believe, who they really are,
and what is of ultimate importance to them is a central part of my religious
quest. I think that it should be so for you, too, as a spiritual universalist.
I think we are embarked on a cooperative enterprise to help individuals have
their own original religious experiences, to discover, fathom, learn how to
express, share and use their personal religious visions, their unique
spiritual insights.
I also believe we are not simply born with this spirit. Elements of the
spirit may be present from birth, but much of an individual's spirit must be
created by growth and learning, by our thoughts and by our actions. Elements
of our spiritual nature are probably there like seeds, even in the infant,
waiting to be unlocked and nurtured into a lovely garden. Other elements of
the spirit seem to be created. They are drawn into us from the outside, built
out of our struggles, triumphs and failures, turned from childish dreams into
mature realities through persistent individual efforts, discipline, and
courage. Our spiritual natures are created, almost always, with a great deal
of help from many other people and most often from vital and supportive
communities. I see no way of finally separating what arises internally as
something, to be simply discovered and nurtured, and what arises by creative
efforts of ourselves and our intimates and communities. I see no reason to try
to makes these divisions. For, the means to help both elements of the spirit
are the same.
I agree with the Hindu Nobel Prize winning novelist, Rabindranath Tagore's
brand of transcendentalism, and I think most of us, as spiritual universalists,
share his vision. His is a transcendentalism that does not hold religion to be
ultimate but rather to be a means to a further end. This end consists in the
perfect liberation of the individual in the universal spirit across the
furthest limits of humanity itself [Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of
Man]. As Tagore suggested, this liberation is very far from a mere
isolation of self and far from a concentration upon possessions, whether of
wealth, academic degrees, or activities. It is, rather, a liberation based on
a universal understanding, a comprehending of the individual within all people
and of the universal person within each of us. Ralph Waldo Emerson called it
Unitarian transcendentalism, and Rabindranath Tagore identified it as Hindu
transcendentalism, and both of them argued their position by quoting from the
scriptures of the other's ancestral faith. We, too, begin by groping in the
dark, but we come to see a wider light, and then we no longer need to cling to
our cultural limitations. We can celebrate ourselves as members of a universal
being and search its depths without fear of drowning or fear of flying.
So, one element of my spiritual universalism is my faith that each of us
contains and creates elements of the universal light, elements which, to be
real, need to be shared and used. These elements deserve to be discovered and
articulated, both by us as individuals and by us as people who need to be
fulfilled and uplifted by each other.
The other element of my spiritual universalism is my belief that each
religion has some truth but that no religion has all the truth. This implies
that we must learn from each other if we are going to be fulfilled. This means
that we must look at other religions besides our own, if we are going to
understand the real truths and limitations of our ancestral traditions, our
personal visions, our own experiences and experiments. I believe this because
it has been my experience. I also see this perspective getting effective
results in the people I know around me. The powers of human self-satisfaction,
mental laziness, and spiritual inertia are so strong that I think people need
the shock of the new and strange in order to break through toward the truth,
to see themselves realistically.
Most of us Unitarian Universalists, are aware of some of the myopias of the
Christians or the Jews, of the fundamentalists or the primitives. But, too
often we pietistically accept the myopias of many scientists, radicals, and
cynical skeptics, who are ready to eliminate traditional religion. Yes, there
is much untruth in traditional religion; genuine horrors have been perpetrated
by centuries of religious domination. But why are we afraid to admit that in
traditional religion there is also truth, value and beauty, as well as worthy
symbols and enduring rituals. Some of our central values may be at the heart
of ageless faiths, ancient scriptures, and oft-repeated rites.
I would like you to approach all religion critically but not cynically,
thoughtfully, but not so sceptically. I would like you to go back and see what
you can re-appropriate from your own ancestral religious roots. Look also at
the other great religious traditions of the world and see what you can gain
from them. Examine how you can grow in dialogue with them.
Hinduism is a very individualistic religion. It has vast and ageless paths
of silence, personal discipline, and meditation. However, each Hindu temple
has at least one bell that everyone in the temple may ring. Hindus do not find
this individual exuberance intrusive on the thoughtful silence of the others
there. They may, indeed, see that ringing as a crucial reminder that our
individual, often solitary, and even lonely religious journeys must connect
with other people, other traditions, other spirits, if we are to find
wholeness and fulfillment.
So, if we Unitarian-Universalists are to be genuine spiritual universalists,
we must both nurture and draw out the special individual religious spirits of
each person who comes to us. We must also seek together the eternal truths in
each of the world's religious traditions. We should ring our world religions
bell to remind us both of the unique spiritual potential within us and of the
worthy elements in the religious traditions around us--even those presently
foreign to us. Consider several of the world's great religions.
Islam's uncompromising monotheism, that is its strictly unitarian sense of
God, connects with our tradition. Islam's clear, simple practices of its faith
provide a model from which each of us can learn. I saw once, years ago, in the
London airport, two Islamic believers from different countries meet for the
first time. They recognized together that it was time for one of the daily
prayers, found a modest space in a corner in which to put down their tiny
rectangles of prayer carpet and took a few moments, together, to pray. They
prayed as individuals, and, yet, also as a community of two, reflecting a
worldwide tradition. What are our daily rituals, our acts of celebration,
meditation, and concern? Are our rituals worthy of our ideals?
Many of us, or our parents, grew up as Christians. Many of us may be more
sure about what we do not believe about Christianity than about what elements
of Christianity are still important and vital for our lives. Evil and bad
things have happened under the sign of the cross, Jesus' crucifixion being one
of the tragedies. The cross is a powerful symbol. Life is potent with
crossroads, and crosses to bear, decision-making and conflicts, love and
sacrifice. Many Unitarian Universalists feel that they are trying to be true
inheritors of the liberated religious life and demanding ethical and moral
life that Jesus symbolizes for them.
Buddhism demands clear understanding and patient compassion. Its emphasis
on saving oneself through personal experience and discipline is quite similar
to our own views about salvation. Its recognition of human suffering and the
part peoples' own exaggerations play in the suffering can teach us much.
Buddhism's denial of outworn dogmatism and magic theologies resonate with our
thinking and practice.
Most of us are nature mystics like the Taoists. We recognize, with them,
the enigmas of both human life and of nature, with their seeming opposites,
yins and yangs, which must be blended together in each of us. Applying this
nature mysticism in human life is both a fond memory and still an embryonic
practice among us.
Some of us grew up as Jews. We all identify with the courageous quest of
Judaism through the ages to cooperate with God in history, to dialogue with
the Infinite in our religious practice, and to put eternal justice to work in
our social and political lives.
Hinduism has much to teach us, from its mystic sounds to its
sophisticated philosophical doctrines, from its yogic disciples to its
recognition that each life has different, equally respectable stages. These
are representative of lessons our culture needs to learn.
Symbols from the world's religions can remind us that we are spiritual
universalists. We are drawing from these and other great world faiths. We are
reaching back to the very beginnings of world history and applying the
wisdoms we find, whatever their source, to our lives in this day and tomorrow.
Today, spiritual universalism is both possible and necessary. Almost
everyone has heard that we really are one planet, a single species, and,
increasingly, an interdependent and interrelated world culture. Isn't it
amazing how so many people, from preachers to presidential candidates, can
keep on acting like it just isn't true? It almost appears that fanaticism,
dogmatism, and modern pietism are increasing in popularity, as some sort of
understandable, but suicidal rear-guard actions in the face of modern
realities. Yet, humane common sense, curiosity, and ingenuity will probably
overcome these traditional armors and inhibitions on the human spirit and on
the organized religious impulse. As individuals and members of a religious
movement, with a grand heritage of dedication to spiritual universalism, we
can continue to play an important role in humanity's liberation from an
outworn religious past. We can do our parts in over-coming fanaticism,
dogmatism, and modern pietism and help to create a more hopeful and
progressive religious future.
As we do so, I hope you will consider my specific suggestions for putting
spiritual universalism into practice. Recognize yourself and every other
person as a true child of the spiritual; in fact, as containing unique and
irreplaceable intuitions and actions which you must learn to share and
to live if they are going to come into being and to survive as portions of the
light and goodness and beauty of the world. I have suggested that the
organized religions of the world hold keys to your satisfactorily fulfilling your
individual religious mission. In these rich traditions, along with
ignorance, evil and nonsense, there exists much of wisdom and of value. Seek
those glimpses of the eternal lights and the infinite wisdoms. Wrestle with
their questions, experiment with their disciplines and doctrines, look at
their symbols, meditate on the ho1y sounds and final words. Do not be
satisfied with your ancestral traditions alone. We need the lure and the shock
of the new and the different. Each religion has some truth; no religion has
all the truth. We must solve the confusion of our own minds so that we see the
whole universe.
The Zen Master said that it was like stilling our boat on the lake of our
lives so that we could, then, see the whole moon in the lake, or even in a
dewdrop or a tear. (Hashida in Mircea Eliade's From Primitives to Zen,
N.Y: Harper and Row, 1967.) As spiritual universalists, we can go beyond our
individual blind-spots and come to understand the whole elephant, to
participate with the infinite in creating the future.