Call
to Celebration
Good
morning.And how are you doing on
your New Year’s resolutions?
Sometimes
our resolutions get off to a bad start like they did for a minister I’ve
read about.His New Years didn’t
begin well at all.On New Year’s
day he had vowed to himself to be a more organized, kind, patient, attentive
and understanding example for his Unitarian Universalist congregation.He
wanted to show them what following our principles would do for them.
Unfortunately,
the next morning his alarm didn’t go off on time so he got up late.He
cut himself while shaving and burnt his toast.His
car battery was dead so he had to jump it to get it started.By
this time he was late for work.Rather
than just accepting the inevitable, he rushed.Then
he got pulled over for speeding.
He
jumped out of the car, slammed the door and snarled at the officer: “Go
ahead and write me a ticket! Everything else has gone wrong so far today.”
“I
know how you feel,” the officer said. “I
used to have days like that before I became a Unitarian Universalist.”
Attending
here every Sunday is not guaranteed to help you avoid speeding tickets
or bad days.What it will offer
you is the kind of inspiration, support and community to try again tomorrow.
Come
let us join together in the celebration of life.
Spoken
Meditation
From
Faith in Mindby Seng Ts’an third
patriarch of Ch’an
The
Supreme Way is not difficult
If only you do not pick and choose.
Neither love nor hate,
And you will clearly understand.
Be off by a hair,
And you are as far apart as heaven from earth.
IF you want it to appear,
Be neither for or against.
For and against opposing each other –
This is the mind’s disease.
Without recognizing the mysterious principle
It is useless to practice quietude.
The Way is perfect like great space,
Without lack, without excess.
Be cause of grasping and rejecting,
You cannot attain it.
Do not pursue conditioned existence;
Do not abide in acceptance of emptiness.
In oneness and equality,
Confusion vanishes of itself.
Stop activity and return to stillness,
And that stillness will be even more active.
Readings
Jim
Clatfelter’s whimsical interpretative translation of the first chapter
of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu:
Words
and names are not the way
Look within and look out too
Look within with wonder
The space within is always there
http://www.geocities.com/~jimclatfelter/jimztao.html
They can't define the absolute
It's better that you look within
Hold your tongue and just be mute
You will not find a separation
Out there you see appearance
Within you see origination
At emptiness and bliss
For wonder names totality
Where nothing is amiss
If you can moderate desire
A place of utter emptiness
And possibility entire
The
Tao says look within.The Buddha
suggests how to do it.
Uttiya:
It would be good, Venerable Sir, if the Blessed One would teach me the
Dhamma in brief so that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One,
I might dwell alone, secluded, heedful, ardent, and resolute.
The
Buddha: In that case, Uttiya, you should purify what is most basic with
regard to skillful mental qualities. And what is the basis of skillful
mental qualities? Well-purified virtue and views made straight. Then, when
your virtue is well-purified and your views made straight, in dependence
on virtue, established in virtue, you should develop the four frames of
reference.
Now,
what are the frames of reference? There is the case where a monk remains
focused on the body in and of itself--ardent, alert, and mindful--putting
aside greed and distress with reference to the world. He remains focused
on feelings...on mind...and on mental qualities in and of themselves--ardent,
alert, and mindful--putting aside greed and distress with reference to
the world. These are called the frames of reference.
...Then,
when in dependence on virtue, relying on virtue, you develop the four frames
of reference, you will go beyond the realm of Death.
(from
The
Wings to Awakening by Ven. Than-is-sar-o, Bhikkhu ( a.k.a. Geoffrey
DeGraff) (http://www.buddhanet.net/wingscon.htm)
From
the beginning of William Ellery Channing’s lecture in 1838 titled Self-culture:
Lectures
have their use. They stir up many, who, but for such outward appeals, might
have slumbered to the end of life. But let it be remembered, that little
is to be gained simply by coming to this place once a-week, and giving
up the mind for an hour to be wrought upon by a teacher. Unless we are
roused to act upon ourselves, unless we engage in the work of self-improvement,
unless we purpose strenuously to form and elevate our own minds, unless
what we hear is made a part of ourselves by conscientious reflection, very
little permanent good is received.
Sermon
Perfectionists
like me love the New Year.The arrival
of January signals a wonderful time to take stock of my life and reenergize
my self-improvement efforts.Those
routines and habits that tend to degenerate in the flurry of activity cruising
into the December holidays are ripe for review.The
numbers on the digital bathroom scale tell a story of excess and indulgence.The
softness around the middle suggests a neglect of disciplined exercise.Memories
of impatience and irritation with family and friends stimulate remorse
and vows to be more kind, loving, and compassionate in the coming year.
Unfortunately,
we perfectionists get a lot of grief this time of year.We
must endure appeals to loosen up, relax and go with the flow.We
must read those yearly warnings in the media that most resolutions fail.
I
beg to differ with these discouraging messages. If I wished to remain a
brute thoughtlessly absorbed with the impulses of the moment, sure, I’ll
resolve to do nothing more than indulge myself in the coming year.But
we are called to more than wallowing in our animal nature.Our
human nature has within it an urge to growth and development.Religion
is one expression of that urge.All
religions entreat their adherents to moral and ethical growth and development.I
identify with William Ellery Channing, the founding theologian of American
Unitarianism, who saw the purpose of religious life as moving ourselves
“from
instincts into principles, from natural into spiritual attachments.” (Self-culture)And
there is no time like the present moment to decide to make a change.
2004
is young and fresh, only a few days old.The
field is open--anything is possible.By
careful attention to diet, I can trim my waistline and support my health.By
regular exercise, I can build my muscles and stamina.
But
what can I do to become more kind, loving and compassionate?
My
answer for you this morning is developing your percipiency.
I
came across this word while studying a wonderful Buddhist anthology titled
The Wings to Awakening by Bhikkhu Ven.
Than-is-sar-o ( a.k.a. Geoffrey DeGraff).(This
is where the reading I quoted earlier came from)It
is one of the finest, and most accessible, in depth analyses of the Pali
Canon, the oldest record of Buddha’s teaching.The
Pali Suttas are the foundation of the Buddhist meditation practice I have
done for the last twenty years.
Percipiency
means the
faculty, act or power of perceiving.Perception
is the sense door interface between mind and matter.The
sound of the chime that begins our service, the sight of the beautiful
jade trees that line our windows, the smell of the beautiful flowers next
to me, the heaviness of the hymn book, this constant stream of physical
sensations originating in this room orient us and help create the experience
of worshipping together.Through
the medium of the senses my message is transmitted and received.
The
power of my perception is central to my ability to relate to people.Interpersonal
relationships require careful moment to moment attention.As
I stand in front of someone, I’m inundated with information.The
subtle expressions of the face and changes of the tone in the voice communicate
the emotional texture of her words and gestures. The movement of the eyes
can reveal the intention behind his words.Changes
in posture can signal a sense of discomfort.Developing
my percipiency will greatly aid me in becoming more kind, loving and compassionate
because it will increase my sensitivity to all this information.
Unfortunately
more information doesn’t always translate directly into better comprehension.The
magician produces a rabbit from a hat or a coin from thin air as I watch
with extreme sensitivity and interest.I
saw it, but I don’t understand how he did it.The
magician takes full advantage of the gap between what we sense and what
is real.
Here
I have a pencil.It is an ordinary
pencil.By looking at it, I would
say it is straight, wouldn’t you as well?That
is what perceive with my eyes and hands too.But
if I put it in a glass of water, as so, does it still appear straight?No
it doesn’t.Scientists in the congregation
will recognize that the refraction of light by water is different than
air creating a discontinuity at the surface of water in the glass.
Acoustics
can play tricks on us too.Sitting
in Stott lounge with my eyes closed, I’ve had an odd experience listening
to the sound of a car driving down West Street.West
Street, as most of you know, is a one-way street.I
was disturbed because the car sounded like it was going the wrong way.I
was stunned at how convincing the sound was.Only
my visual confirmation by opening my eyes convinced me the car was actually
going the correct direction. The reflective properties of the concrete
block walls created the illusion that tricked my mind.
Of
course it is no surprise to us that our senses can be fooled.But
this creates an enormous problem for philosophers.How,
then, do we know if our senses correspond with reality?Some
have taken the stance that what we perceive is a representation of the
real world.Thus seeing this pencil
in a glass of water represents a straight pencil even though it appears
to be bent.The sense-data must integrate
with all we already know about pencils, water, light and air to correctly
convey the pencil’s reality.
Another
problem to be dealt with is the subjective dimensions of perception.Philomena
and I will be sitting in our family room enjoying a television program
together.Suddenly she will be stripping
off her sweater and complaining how hot it is in the room.A
few minutes later, on the sweater will go again as she begins to feel cold.I
will have detected no change in the room temperature as sweat pours forth
from her brow or when a chill will have her beginning to shiver.Is
it warm?Is it cold?I
can look at the thermometer but that will only tell me how much a column
of mercury has expanded or contracted.Thankfully,
I think we can all agree that ice is cold and boiling water is hot since
they are life-threatening substances.But
the in between quality of hotness and coldness can be difficult to quantify.
This
fuzziness of perception has led some philosophers to decide that we are
fooling ourselves if we think our senses can tell us what is real.The
idealists following Plato of course would say everything we perceive is
but a shadow of a form.What is real
is not this pencil but my idea of pencilness of which this is but one example.What
is really real can only be found in the mind.
The
skeptics questioned if even ideal forms could be trusted and demanded proof.Of
course this is pretty hard to offer given the limitations of the senses.How
shall I prove to you this podium is solid when a close inspection of it
will reveal it is mostly empty space?How
shall I prove to the blind woman my eyes are blue?I’ve
always loved the story of the Zen teacher who holds up a glass and says,
“For me, this glass is already broken.”
Kant
took this a little further with a very simple thought experiment.Try
to think of something that does not exist in space and time.We
can’t.This is part of the problem
of understanding quantum physics where our understanding of time and space
seem to be violated, electrons that sometimes behave like a particle and
at other times like a wave.Kant
showed we need that innate idea of space and time to organize the mass
of sense data constantly bombarding us.Basically,
we are forever stopped from purely reasoning from our sense data and fully
comprehending what is really real.
All
this philosophical mind bending can be maddening for most of us.I
bring it up here only to highlight the challenge and dangers of developing
one’s perception.We can be confused
by increasing our sensitivity leading us to make misjudgments and even
be deceived.
But—whether
or not what we perceive corresponds to reality—the actual process of perceiving
itself can be perceived.Perception
also happens proprioceptively.
Are
you aware, right now, of the position of your head, where your arms and
legs are and the fullness or emptiness of your stomach?That
internal body awareness is called proprioceptive awareness.It
is the difference between touching a soft kitten and being aware of the
sensation of touching softness as it happens.Dancers
and athletes need a finely tuned proprioceptive sense of their bodies to
optimize their performances.
The
great insight of the Buddha was using this proprioceptive ability to allow
the mind to watch itself.It is the
difference between feeling a sensation on the surface of the back of my
hand and having an itch.It is the
difference between being angry and noticing a change in my rate of breathing
and pulse and a sharpened focus of my attention.It
is the difference between thinking about a chocolate doughnut and being
aware of the presence of that image arising in the brain and noticing the
succession of thoughts, feelings and sensations that follow the arising
of that chocolate image.This is
a dangerously distracting example!
The
Buddha taught that careful attention to the process of perception as experienced
in what he called the four frames of reference will lead you to witness
directly profound laws of the universe.By
watching the process of perception in the body, by watching the electro
chemical process of the feelings, by watching the processes of the mind,
by watching mental qualities such as kindness, love, compassion, and equanimity
in relationship to the body, feelings and mind, great wisdom and insight
develops.It doesn’t matter if the
eye is seeing an orange, or if the nose is smelling an orange, we don’t
even care if it really is an orange or a ball scented to smell like an
orange, what matters is noticing the event of seeing and smelling as it
arises and passes away.
As
the watching of the perceiving process gets sharper and more refined, some
startling things become obvious.Sensations
in the body, feelings, and thoughts come and go even though at any moment
in time they can seem endless.(Think
of resisting scratching an itch.)Steadily
watching over time reveals they have no enduring presence.Trying
to control the feelings so that we only experience what is pleasant and
avoid all unpleasant perceptions is revealed as a hopeless waste of time.If
you think you’ve got controlling your feelings mastered, just wait a few
moments, or months, or years.Even
more intriguing and disturbing are the gaps that can open up between perceptions
with extremely fine attention.Those
gaps reveal the composite nature of all phenomena, including the individual
self.Everything I call Sam, is
but a conglomerate of idiosyncratic memories, attitudes and convictions
that are insubstantial.Who I really
am is not whom I’ve thought I was.Who
I really am extends beyond just this body.
So
this process of developing one’s percipiency can have some amazing results
that can convince us of some intriguing qualities of being.Paradoxically,
this intense inward focus watching one’s own mind actually opens our hearts.As
one honestly witnesses the body-mind process, one recognizes their universal
features.I’m not the only one who
struggles with pain in my joints, feelings of loneliness and rejection,
feelings of restlessness and lethargy, busy mind and confusion.The
more intimately I experience my humanity, the easier it is for me to connect
with others.The cultivation of percipiency
yields the fruit of wisdom and compassion.
There
is something wonderfully Taoist about this practice of developing one’s
power of perception.There is no
place to go and nothing to do.The
goal is not to continually sharpen the edge of the mind like a razor so
it can cut through any mental Gordian Knot.There
is not some grand collection of thoughts and feelings to accumulate. What
is out there is also within.What
is absolute out there is also absolute in here.Words
and names cannot reveal this truth because it is almost too obvious to
be seen.The disorder is in us, not
in the universe.
People
can and do stumble upon all this without the Buddha’s help.All
this is not dependent on the Buddha’s having discovered it, just as Einstein
didn’t fix the speed of light by discovering it was independent of the
speed of the observer.In fact, the
Buddha didn’t say to everyone, believe me, I have the one path to the truth.He
felt we could best persuade ourselves by perceiving these truths for ourselves.He
came up with one form of meditation that develops percipiency which reveals
these truths, truths that are always here staring us in the face but we
do not see them, partly because they are features of reality that transcend
space and time.
If
my words have stimulated your interest, I invite you join me this coming
weekend to learn how these principles of perception training can be developed.And,
you can experiment with these methods right now or later today.All
one needs to do is to tune in to what is happening right now and become
aware of the process of perceiving moment by moment, not trying to achieve
anything or avoid anything, just being with what is.
We
have everything we need to awaken right now.We
just don’t perceive it.
Let
me respectfully remind you --
Life and death are of supreme importance,
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
This moment is an opportunity to awaken.
Take heed. Do not squander this moment.
Go
in peace.Make peace.Be
at Peace.
Copyright
© 2004 by Samuel A. Trumbore.All
rights reserved.