Last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamed I was in an accident and regained consciousness in the ICU.
The Doctors were trying to convince me that I’m actually a Swedish Guy who has forgotten his identity…
But I wasn’t buying it. I said “hey I wasn’t Bjorn yesterday!
Wife: I’m going shopping, do you need anything?
Husband: I’m looking for inner-peace and happiness, an answer to my doubts, a sense of fulfilment, a medium through which I can transcend consciousness, take in a good spirit, calmness and…
Wife: Be specific; Smirnoff or Absolut?
Consciousness, what is it good for? Preparing for this service has been rich, many thanks to the Worship Input group. I was touched and excited by the variety of responses you sent me. Ann Gallad wrote: When asking the universe ‘Who Am I?” and” why am I here”, we open ourselves up to answers cloaked in mystery, and it is up to us as human beings to figure out the answers, though sometimes language is baffling.” At the end of her words, she said: “Don’t know how all this will help your sermon, but thank you for helping me remember important things in life.”
Ann, I can relate to “don’t know how this will help. I am delighted to hear that your participation reminded you of what’s important in life!I That how UU works!
Consciousness, is a mind blowing subject. Are you familiar with the word mantra? A mantra is a sacred utterance, word, sound, syllable or group of words repeated or chanted and sometimes believed to have magical or spiritual powers.
I fear that I just lost all of the Neil De Grasse fans. Many of us avoid anything we call superstitious. Here’s where I ask you to check yourself for contempt prior to investigation. I invite us to see if we can find a liberal or generous interpretation that we might find treasure even when things don’t sit quite right for us.
Dion Fortune defines magic as ‘The science and art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with will.’
Is there any doubt that words affect our minds and behaviors? In a very real sense, phrases and beliefs often cast a spell upon us. When we change our consciousness, we change our attitudes, our behaviors, and our experience. If we wanted to pause, I bet we could get a testimonial.
A mantra is a word, sound or phrase used to extricate ourselves from the snares of our own mind. In Western culture, we assume that it’s a bad thing to lose your mind. However, our minds, our belief systems, our worldviews can be traps. Instead of experiencing what is happening directly or mindfully, we filter life experiences through beliefs acquired in times of distress or nurture. Limiting beliefs buffer us from feeling the pain of unresolved or unhealed losses. Our religious path asks us to examine and become aware of our programing, and to choose beliefs that serve life.
Our culture suggests to us that an intellectual approach is always the best way to effect change. Not true. I do appreciate the role that intellect and reason can have in promoting human advancement. However, we often discount other ways of knowing. We get stuck in our heads, assuming that we must figure out our problems before we can make a change. Deliberation and forethought can have great value. Sometimes, though, we just need to act. Instead of trying to think our way into better behavior, we can behave our way into better thinking. Sometimes we need experience to shift our consciousness. Experience can be a powerful teacher!
When it seems that I can’t turn off my thoughts, I know that I’m trapped in my mind. It’s unhealed pain that causes us to get stuck in mental loops. I’ve learned many ways to extricate myself from mental chaos. Exercise, meditation, breath work, manual labor, chanting, and mantras are just some of the effective ways we can change our neurochemistry!
A few weeks back, I led the congregation in a short chant of Om. The word Om represents and expresses the four states of consciousness: the waking state, sleep state, deep sleep state, and pure consciousness. It also represents and expresses the inhale, exhale and the rest in between. But you don’t have to believe in the magical power of the word. You could just see for yourself what sensations or effect a little chanting has for you. BTW if you have it troubles you to chant a foreign language, you can substitute English phrases found helpful to enable stress relief, gain consciousness or mental clarity.
In just a moment I’ll lead a very brief period of chanting the word Om. Remember you are free to decline invitations. If you are willing, you can bring some curiosity to see what sensations or effects it stimulates. Call it an experiment. Or if you prefer, call it play.
I hope this very small sample will be pleasant. I’ll ring the chime. I’ll begin chanting and you are invited to chant with me.
OM…. Om… Om…..
Many of us have had a difficult time understanding how the words faith and religion apply to what we do in UU congregations. IMO that is because we are trapped in a definition or concept of religion that has been propagated by fundamentalist groups. Many of us had traumatic experiences with religious people and groups. It’s taken many years for some of us to extricate ourselves from the prejudicial effects of previous experience of religion.
Our UU religious tradition encourages us to value whatever moves people toward liberation. Yes, there is great freedom here. There is also great challenge. Our tradition asks us to challenge all that oppresses human minds and bodies. That’s where we seek learning, where we expand our consciousness. South African leader Stephen Biko, subject of the book and movie “Cry Freedom,” said that the greatest tool in the hands of the oppressor is the minds of the oppressed!
1901 William James presented his study of the human condition called “Varieties of Spiritual Experience. He detailed how spiritual awakening happens most often bit by bit, slowly over time. I’ve heard these referred to as the garden variety of spiritual experiences.
However, rapid transformation can be caused by religious and spiritual experiences. There are volumes of documented accounts of people experiencing something that suddenly caused a permanent change in outlook, attitude and experience of being alive. Trauma certainly does this. Our culture assumes that trauma always goes in a deleterious direction. You have heard me speak of experiencing post traumatic spiritual gifts.
Trauma is not the only stimulus for transformation, thank goodness! Many people experience epiphanies, sudden awakening as a result of love, joy, care, play, ecstasy and goodness knows what else.
Barry Neil Kaufman popularized the Option Method created by psychologist Bruce De Marsico. Option is a dialogic method of exploring our beliefs through appreciative inquiry. In “Happiness is a Choice” and his other books, Kaufman suggests that changing beliefs can be easy and it can happen in an instant. He gives hundreds of examples of clients that have enjoyed changes of mind and heart.
I spent the summer of 1998 at Kaufman’s Option Institute, and the experience was profound for me! I saw for myself that inside each of us is the power to make and remake our beliefs, to decide what story we are telling ourselves. Most of you have heard that I survived a near fatal truck and bicycle collision. This was a time I intentionally exercised my power to choose beliefs and attitudes conducive to recovery from numerous and profound injuries.
Our religious tradition is similarly fertile soil for people willing to explore beliefs; theirs and others.
Many of us seem to think that a religious tradition is only real if it tells us what to believe. Our UU tradition works differently. We rely heavily on the power of the question. One question I like is “how’s that working for you?” When I explore diverse religious tradition, I want to know how it works for them.
Belief affects our consciousness, but consciousness is more than just beliefs. UU tradition asks us to find and share a “love beyond belief*.”
Consciousness can be shaped by love and other qualities and values. Our tradition tries to get us to become aware of what values are implied in our words, deeds, attitudes, behaviors, policies and practices.
A core UU value is Oneness. The Unitarian church was formed in 1563 around the idea that “God is One.” This asserted a unity in the order of existence.
The Universalists rejected the nightmare fantasy of eternal damnation asserting infinitely powerful love as the nature of our Source which they referred to as God. Universalists believed that all of humanity would find salvation, wholeness. A contemporary expression of these values says that “we all come from the same source and we share a common destiny.*” We are in this together. We are one.
To this day, UU religious tradition directs us to work for healing, wholeness, salvation, peace and justice, not just for our tribe, not just for those who believe the same as we do, but for all humanity and all life. We see as holy the interdependent web of inexistence of which we are part.
Science has revealed to us the fact of our interdependence. However, society is structured in such a way as to allow greed to trump the needs of humanity. The illusion of separation and myopic views have led to mass species extinction and threats to the planet’s capacity to sustain us.
The phrase “we are one” is powerful religious sentiment as well as scientific fact. We will need both and more. We will need examples and experiences that enable deep awareness of our oneness.
In recent sermons, I asked us to have compassion for ourselves given our inherited biology. Our bodies are structures that evolved in a world of predators and prey. Can consciousness of our oneness help us overcome our proclivity to see and create enemies?
Rev. Susan Smith calls it our “UU gospel that people with different theological beliefs can come together to create the beloved community. “ Thing is, we can’t get there by preaching alone. We need to prove to the people, we need to prove to ourselves that we can do this.
Because we are one, because we are made of the same stuff, because we are all struggling and failing to cooperate and create peace, empathy and vulnerable honesty are what we need to make our gospel reality. I have found the following perspective to be instrumental for growing my capacity for empathy and honesty:
In every situation, in every moment, each person is doing the very best that they can do with the consciousness they possess. Without this awareness, we may be doomed to continue to find our security by trying to get rid of the enemy and the evil we see outside of ourselves. We cannot give away what we do not have. We cannot transmit love or consciousness without love and consciousness.
As loosey goosey as we seem, Unitarian Universalist faith asks us to be willing to expand our consciousness by living in covenant. It is a given that every one of us will fall short of our covenant. We will act out values of our capitalist society, our sexist, racist domination society. We will not change the world or grow spiritually by playing the same old game- trying to dominate the evil enemy with our misperceived superiority.
We will change the world by being willing to learn and grow ourselves, by removing the beam from our eyes, and having the courage to face and heal the conflicts inside of us, by willingness to love people enough to be honest with them about our needs and vulnerability in relation to their behaviors. We will affect change leading by example, and making specific requests based on what we guess will help us ALL. We will discover our humanity by practicing it, by breaking our vows a thousand times and having the courage to learn from our mistakes.
In the words of Admiral Jean Luc Picard, “Make it so!”
Notes*
“love beyond belief” Thandeaka
“same source/ common destiny” Rev. Forest Church
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