There is a guy. He is driving in his car one night and he is so unhappy. He hates his life. He is not a religious person, but while he’s driving he says “God I’m miserable. I hate my life. Give me a new life!
And wouldn’t you know it? God responds to him and says “You want a new life. I have a new life for you.”
The guy says “Great Give it to me!
God says “Hold on! It’s for a price.”
The guy says: “How much?
God says: “How much do you have?”
Tg says: “On me, I have 20 bucks.”
G: “Perfect, the price today for your new life is 20 bucks.
Tg: G*D, if I give you 20 bucks, you will clean me out. You see the car I’m driving is almost out of gas. If I give you my $20 I won’t be able to refuel the car.
G: “You have a good point. You own a car. The price just went up. The cost of your new life will be $20 and your car.
Tg: G*d, if I give you my car, how am I going to get to work in the morning?
G: You make a good point. You have a job. The price just went up. The cost of your new life will be $20, your car and your job.
Tg: G*d, if I don’t have my job, how am I going to pay the mortgage?
G: “You make a great point. You are a homeowner. The price just went up. The cost of your new life will be $20, your car, your job and your house.
Tg: G*d!!! If I give you my house, where are my wife and children going to stay?
G: You make an excellent point! You have a wife and children. The price just went up again. The cost of your new life will be $20, your car, your job, your house, your wife and your children.
The guy gulps and at this point is about to cry. He finally figures out if he keeps talking the price will keep going up. He remains silent.
G: I’m about to give you your new life. But first, can you do something for me?
Tg: Mmm Hmm. He is afraid to open his mouth. So he just says Mmm Hmm
G: Great! You see this $20? Its not your $20 anymore. It’s my $20. It used to be yours but now it’s mine. God says “I would like you to spend it for me. But because its my $20 not your $20, you can only buy things that I want. Can you do that?
Tg: Mmm Hmm
G: You see this car? It used to be your car. It’s not your car anymore. It’s my car now. (God says) I want you to drive it for me. But because its my car now, you can only take it to places that I want to go. Can you do that?
Tg: Mmm Hmm
G: You see this job? Its not your job anymore. Its my job now. But I want you to show up for me. And I want you do business the way I want business to be done. Can you do that?
Tg: Mmm Hmmm
G: See this house? It’s not your house anymore. It’s my house. Now I want you to live it in for me? But because it’s my house, you have do things in that house that are appropriate for G*d’s house. Can you do that?
Tg: Mmm Hmm
G: You see this wife and children. They don’t belong to you anymore. They belong to me. Now I want you to live there with them, and I want you to treat them the way I want them treated. Can you do that?
Tg: Mmm Hmm
G: Great! Then here’s your $20. Here’s your car. Here’s your job, here’s your house. Here’s your wife and your kids, and here’s your new life!
Now I know what some of you are thinking? That was some start for a UU sermon, awfully conventional with a whole lot of talk of God!
You make an excellent point! You have a concept of G*d. The price of this sermon just went up. And equanimity will cost you too! It will cost you your G*d, your concept of G*d, or your concept of how things work in this world.
Now seriously, I’m not G*d, and you are welcome to question me. I promised to give you one UU Minister’s perspective on the Buddhist concept of equanimity. If this had been an actual Buddhist dharma talk, the opening story would have been Godless!
In this story told by Rabbi Shai Taub, it seems that G*d is a character that provides reason for living. He provides a new orientation and attitude for doing things like driving a car, going to a job, paying bills, and providing for our family.
One of the things I love about our UU tradition is the value we place upon questioning. We encourage each other to wonder and to explore our beliefs, what we tell ourselves, the reasons we give ourselves to do what we do.
One of the things I enjoy about giving sermons, I have faith that there are topics that when raised, when reflected up tend to contribute to the quality of our lives. When we put values in our sites, in our consciousness, and these values or qualities speak to us, we will begin to move towards them. We will naturally try to fulfill our need for these things. We will begin to try to think of ways to bring these qualities to ourselves and others. Additionally, we can examine our consciousness and discover aspects that deter us, distract and even squelch our inclination to move towards fulfillment of the qualities that make lie wonderful.
BTW, in addition to sharing some thoughts on the subject of equanimity, I like to be transparent about how I approach sermons. I do this in hope that some of you will consider giving this a try. You don’t have to go to seminary. You don’t need to be an expert on UU tradition. You are an expert on your experience of UU. If you have had been with us a while, even a short time, you have already been experiencing our tradition. If you share how you have been inspired, nurtured or challenged it would be a gift to all of us.
Being UU means reflecting on what we have been learning together while participating in this living tradition. We engage in an ongoing conversation about the application of UU principles and values. We are a learning community that expects revelation to be continuous.
New people engage UU tradition in exciting ways. You remind us why we chose to be part of this faith tradition. I believe that this tradition, including the living body of people practicing and sharing it, offer many treasures, life experiences, unique perspectives and ways that challenge and encourage us to spiritual growth as UUists.
If you want to consider being part of creating a worship service, or giving a talk, I’ll be happy to coach, challenge or assist you. There are also many others here who y to talk to you for hours telling you their experience and thoughts.
I associate today’s topic Equinimity with Buddhist tradition. When we wade in here, we bring our worldviews with us. UU tradition grows from the Protestant Reformation. Especially in the USA we have been pretty solidly in Western thought and culture. The dominant narrative in Western culture is the exodus story. It is a story of a people, their leaders, and unseen force that causes them to journey to a land of promised prosperity. The story is embedded in our psyches. Westerners endure travails with faith, hope or expectation of arriving to a promised land, a future kingdom, or an eternal paradise.
My experience of Buddhism and Eastern thought has caused me to question our assumption that paradise is something up ahead that we must strive to reach. My study of Buddhism led me to conclude that I have been oriented and am well habituated to seek escape from whatever ails me. I also seek to be the hero in my journey by overcoming my trials and be able to provide for my family, tribe or community.
Zen tradition helped me to become aware of my aversion to unpleasant experience, my training to defer gratification, to flea from perceived threat, and orientation to seek future redemption. There was always greener grass somewhere else, and it was my duty to go get it.
I began to see the cost of the perpetual pursuit of the future. I began noticing too my frequent urge to take flight. I became curios as to what I might find if I resist the regular urge to flea. I started new behaviors. Sometimes instead of taking flight, I would buckle up or dive deeply into the substance of my experience. I started to pretend that I had nailed my shoes to the floor. This image has helped me to stay put and stick with it.
We can decide to hang in there when things are tough. We can develop faith that good will emerge from our efforts. We may discover aspects of reality that we have ignored. Awakening to a greater reality, we discover new choices.
We may find that some of the things we have done to protect ourselves have caused us to miss out on some wonderful experiences. Challenging our knee jerk reactions, we can develop greater trust in our ability to harvest the fullness of life. We may find a richness that has been lost to us because we have been quick to judge or assume that things will fit into our predetermined categories.
The aim of Buddhist practices is to grow our capacity to see things as they really are. Meditation teaches us to observe our thoughts, discover how often we get lost in our own stories, how often we believe what we tell ourselves about what is happening.
Buddhist teacher Bhikkuh Bodhi speaks of equanimity: “It is evenness of mind, unshakeable freedom of mind, a state of inner equipoise that cannot be upset by gain or loss, honor and dishonor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. Upekkha (the word translated as equanimity) is freedom from all points of self reference; it is indifference only to the demands of the ego self with its craving for pleasure and position, not to the well-being of one’s fellow human beings.”
As Uus we respect and do not denigrate nature. This has or will bring us to an appreciation of the importance of emotion. UU’s value the life force and the beauty of its colorful expressions. Equanimity doesn’t mean denial or supression of feelings. It may require us to admit to ourselves that sometimes our passion leads to further suffering and entanglement. Learning from Buddhists, we can discipline ourselves to avoid the snares of the ego. We can accept our desire for preservation, and cultivate concern for all sentient beings. In seeking to cultivate compassion for all that is, we can include ourselves as also worthy of compassion.
Our UU tradition gives us a wonderful position from which to cultivate equanimity. It calls us to a universal perspective, care for all of humanity and for the entire web of existence. I think it an excellent extrapolation or application of UU tradition to acknowledge the dangers of getting trapped in our belief systems, our stories, the limitations of our individual perspective. Our gospel challenges us to remember that we do not have possession of absolute truth. It urges us to respect the stranger and remember the possibility of their offering us a great contribution of revelation.
Our music and our readings today remind us that as UUs we don’t aspire to the peace of the grave. We don’t aspire to bliss detached from the suffering of our fellows. We don’t seek a peace that would remove our responsibility to do our part to move toward the beloved community.
We seek equanimity, the capacity to recenter and reground ourselves to those qualities that make life wonderful especially when the world around us abounds in chaos, when tyrants seek to divide us so they can siphon the commonwealth into their own hands.
Can we draw from a well with an infinite source? With the many ways we name that well, that source, can we see and enjoy it and our common humanity? Can we take rest in the beauty of our vision, find strength in the truth of our oneness and interdependence?
You tell me! (a reference to “Congregational Response” that follows)
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