Welcome to the Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation

TRANSCENDENT MYSTERY AND WONDER
September 19, 2004

The purposes and principles to which we turn for understanding and guidance are the covenant between the member congregations and the Unitarian Universalist Association. We often explore the meaning of the seven principles. However, the six sources do not receive as much attention.

This sermon is third in a series exploring the six sources. It is the first source listed and it speaks to us of direct experience. We are a community that honors each person's direct experience with life in its widest sense.

This first source also honors the mystic's experience in all cultures. Mystics seek a direct experience with the divine, or with something larger than themselves. The famous poet, Rumi, founded the Sufi sect known as the Whirling Dervishes. They sought union with Allah through their whirling dance.

Many of we rational liberal religionists seek union with the divine through experiencing nature. We gaze upon the wide waters of Lake Michigan, or examine the intricate construction of an iris or dahlia and we sense ourselves connected to a larger whole. Others find a similar union while meditating or praying.

Transcending mystery and wonder--present all around us, and often unseen.

"The living tradition we share draws from many sources: Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and sustain life……" (Purposes and Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association)

These are the words in our covenant that express our recognition that one of the sources of religious truth comes from a direct experience of connection to some-thing larger than ourselves. This somewhat mystical experience may not be one of your own personal sources, but it is one that other liberal religionists claim.

We liberal religionists have always honored the truth found by each person as they search for the meaning that informs their life. Direct experience is critical in that search. If your life experience refutes the claim of truth preached by a certain religion, you will be uncomfortable in that faith community. If your religious home negates the truth of your life experience, it does not serve you well. We acknowledge that each person's life experience is important.

In our reading this morning Mary Oliver uses her experience of walking "down to the ponds and through the pinewoods" to point us toward a consideration of death and resurrection. She tells us that "Mushrooms, even, have a brief hour/before the slug creeps to the feast."

When Oliver walks in the woods she does more than just view the landscape. She sees, and she sees below the surface of the wonders of life. She is open to the forces that create and sustain life. And she crafts her words to challenge her readers to look beyond the wonder of the world to the mystery of how it came to be, and how it continues. (Oliver, Mary, Why I Wake Early, Beacon Press, Boston, 2004, p. 66.)

She is amazed at the variety of life forms--"How many, how many, how many/ make up a world." And then she thinks of the unity of all things, "One cup, in which everything is swirled/back to the color of the sea and the sky." Here she touches on the mystery and wonder that is part of every deep relationship. We can sense this mystery in our relationships with other humans, but it is also present in our relationships with other animals, if we but open ourselves to them. This is also true of our relationship to the plant kingdom in which we live, and upon which we all ultimately depend. Transcendence requires relationship, for it means being a part of something larger than oneself. (Ibid.)

The "transcending mystery and wonder" in our first source goes unnamed. We will talk more about the mystics of antiquity who sought and achieved a relationship with the divine personage they worshipped later. Let us here note that the source does not name such a personage. Many of the religious liberals who come to our congregations experience transcendence in the natural world, as does Mary Oliver. We will explore this idea more fully later.

The language of our Purposes and Principles also affirms that this experience of transcending mystery and wonder is affirmed in all cultures. Often our instinctive reaction when faced with a claim of all or every is one of great caution. "Wait a minute," we often say. "All cultures? Surely there is one that does not fit this description?" I tried to think of an example and failed. If you think of a specific culture that does not experience mystery and wonder, please let me know.

I think it is a universal. Different tribes and clans and societies and religions name that experience in different ways. However all those of which I have read have this sense of wonder and mystery.

And we are told this sense leads to a renewal of the spirit. Don't we need that? Don't we need a way, a system, an experience that feeds our deepest being? We are engaged in living on a beautiful planet that has many problems. We must provide for our material survival, and we strive for something deeper. We struggle for justice, we want to be compassionate, we must teach our children, and we want to make a positive difference in our lives. We grow weary with our work, and we need renewal.

This last week I heard the phrase, "It's a beautiful day!" more times than I can count. Even yesterday, a Saturday in September, when it might have been gray and cloudy, even rainy, we had a beautiful day.

Because it was, we could go outside and enjoy the surroundings. Because it was, we could go down to the lake and watch and listen to the waves. We could transplant perennials and dream of next year's enhanced garden. We could picnic and play sports and watch the squirrels gather the innumerable acorns that drop from the many oak trees that dot our neighborhoods. We could connect with the natural world in a very direct way.

It restores our spirits to do such things. It is more than just getting exercise or cleaning up the yard. It is more than just playing or watching a good game of soccer. It connects us to something larger than ourselves. It is more difficult to find this connection in front of a television set or a computer screen. "It's a beautiful day," we say. And our spirits are renewed.

This mystery and wonder that we experience also moves us to an openness to the forces that create and sustain life. Again, these forces are not named. For some they will be encapsulated in the word God. For others, that word is not meaningful. For some, evolution is the answer. For others it is inadequate. It does not matter to what we give credit for the cosmos in which we live. What does matter is to be open to the power of the forces that create and sustain life.

I wish I knew more about astrophysics. It seems to me that every time I read National Geographic another new planet or star has been discovered. And, because of Einstein's theory of relativity, which I do NOT understand, the farther away the body located in the cosmos, the farther back in time the event observed happened. Now, we have cosmic scientists speculating that they may be observing events that happened less than a second after the Big Bang. I find this awe-inspiring. I find it filled with mystery. And I find it filled with power. I can only experience it second-hand, through pictures and words, but it is an experience of mystery and wonder.

One of the scientists who studies the far reaches of the universe is quoted as saying, "The universe is not only queerer than we thought, it is queerer than any one could have imagined!" I hope I live long enough to see further results of such exciting work.

We looked at the particulars of the first source and explored their meaning. Now, I want to turn to some examples of people who have found meaning in direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder.

This source has its roots in the transcendentalist movement of the middle 19th Century, whose great leader was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although many other members of the New England Renaissance were critical to its contributions, Emerson was its primary spokesperson.

One of our responsive readings in our hymnbook contains the essence of his theory of The Oversoul. "As there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where we, the effect, cease, and God, the cause begins," he says. And, "Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought, that the Highest dwells within us, that the sources of nature are in our own minds."

These are words that deeply challenged the orthodox religion of the 19th Century, AND the nascent Unitarian churches of that era. Emerson was saying not only that everyone could directly experience God, (which is the only language for The Divine that was available to him) but also that God is within us all! "The Highest dwells within us," he says. Each of us has this divine essence. And, "the sources of nature are in our own minds."

The movement became known as Transcendentalism because Emerson held that each person could transcend, or go beyond the limits of their own skin. Each person could experience nature or the divine in a way that drew them into relationship. He said, "There is a deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is accessible to us. Every moment when the individual feels invaded by it is memorable."

It is Emerson's work that laid the groundwork for later study that developed into process theology. He believed that nature was an avenue to the divine, AND that there was a "deep power in which we exist." Process thought says that this "deep power" is that which creates good, and is often named God. However, since humans participate in creating good, they are part of the divine. Process theology attempts to unite the work of scientists and mystics and is proving satisfactory to many people.

The mystics of many faiths provide the most dramatic examples of transcending mystery and wonder being affirmed in all cultures. I will give you two examples, from the Islamic and Christian faiths.

I mentioned the first earlier--Rumi the Sufi poet who has been embraced by many western people. His biography is fascinating, his poetry beautiful and often challenging. The Sufis are the mystics of Islam. Although Sunni Islam does not encourage monasteries, Sufis often lived in such enclaves.

Rumi founded the Mevlevi dervishes, whom we know as the Whirling Dervishes. Coleman Barks is the great contemporary translator of Rumi. In the introduction to his poem, "The Turn" Barks explains its origin.

The story goes that he (Rumi) was walking in the goldsmithing section of Konya when he heard a beautiful music in their hammering. He began turning in harmony with it, an ecstatic dance of surrender and yet with great centered discipline. He arrived at a place where ego dissolves and a resonance with universal soul comes in. Dervish literally means "doorway." When what is communicated moves from presence to presence, darshan occurs, with language inside the seeing. When the gravitational pull gets even stronger, the two become one turning that is molecular and galactic and a spiritual remembering of the presence at the center of the universe. (Barks, Coleman, The Essential Rumi, Harper/SanFrancisco, 1995, p. 113)

Thus, the dance of the Whirling Dervishes brought them into a transcendent relationship with mystery and wonder, which they name Allah. Here is a selection of Rumi's poem series, "The Turn."

Inside water, a waterwheel turns.
A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean wondering,
What are these lights?
***

You have said what you are.
I am what I am.
Your actions in my head,
my head here in my hands
with something circling inside.
I have no name
for what circles
so perfectly.
***

A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.
***

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.
Walk to the well.
Turn as the earth and the moon turn,
circling what they love.
Whatever circles comes from the center.
***

Now, before we dismiss this turning meditation as something so totally outside our experience as to be irrelevant, let us examine some aspects of our lives. I wonder how different the effect of repetitive turning is from the effect of run-ning that we know as "runners high." I have not experienced either, so I am only speculating. Or, how is the effect different from sitting zazen, fairly com-mon in our culture today. The method is entirely different--incessant, repetitive motion, opposed to interminable non-motion. However, the practice of both includes controlling the body and freeing the mind in order to achieve a connection with a Higher Power.

However we answer these questions, Rumi gives us an example from a very different culture and faith of transcendence.

Let us now look at an example from the Christian tradition, but closer in Rumi's time than our own. Teresa of Avila was a nun from an upper class family in Italy who experienced visions of Jesus in great detail. Her superiors in the Catholic hierarchy tested her by telling her the visions were "from the devil," and discouraged her from extensive meditation. However she persisted, and with the help of her family founded an order centered on meditation.

She wrote of her experiences and explored their impact on the spiritual life. The website of the Province of the Teresian Carmel in Austria gives this review of her last book, The Interior Castle.

The Interior Castle is the principal source of mature Teresian thought on the spiritual life in its integrity. Chief emphasis is laid on the life of prayer, but other elements … are also treated. The interior castle is the soul, in the center of which dwells the Trinity. Growth in prayer enables the individual to enter into deeper intimacy with God--signified by a progressive journey through the apartments (or mansions) of the castle from the outermost to the luminous center. When a man (sic) has attained union with God in the degree permitted to him (sic) in this world, he (sic) is "at the center" of himself; (sic) in other words, he (sic) has integrity as a child of God and as a human being. Each of the apartments of the castle is distinguished by a different stage in the evolution of prayer, with its consequent effects upon every other phase of the life of the individual.
This page is maintained by the Province of the Teresian Carmel in Austria, Europe (webmaster@karmel.at).

Teresa's route to transcendence was prayer. This was the traditional understanding of how one obtains union with the divine in Christianity. Many Christian churches still counsel that this is the only way to achieve transcendence, be-cause they can only conceive of a transcendent relationship with the Christian God. Our language reflects this narrow understanding.

However, mystery and wonder abound! They await us every time we walk out the door and gaze into the night sky. Or they are present when we light a candle, read a poem and meditate. Or any of the myriad ways in which we feel connected to an entity larger than our individual selves.

Let us think of some everyday experiences of transcendence, of connection to mystery and wonder. When we join in singing, blending our voices to "Find a Stillness," or in a shout of joy such as "Over My Head" we become part of a larger group, we transcend our oneness. The same is true of chanting and dancing. Giving oneself to music frees one to be open and renews the spirit.

Perhaps the deepest experience of transcendence available to humans is found in expressing erotic love. The physical and spiritual union of two committed lovers is an illustration of transcendence through relationship. The two become one, and as they do, reach even further beyond into the mystery and wonder of being.

And, one can feel union with the natural world in many ways. It happened to me at the zoo. I was escorting my children through the large cat exhibit. There were three children in the middle grades. Zoos were just moving to housing their exhibits in natural habitats, which I thought was a great improvement. In one such habitat there was an extended family of cheetahs. I always admired these large cats for their beauty and grace. In one fairly accessible corner lay a cheetah mother, enduring the lively hungry presence of twin cubs. As I paused by the tableau she gave a great sigh, turned her head and looked directly at me. At once I felt a connection. My world of children met her world of cubs and recognized a relationship. "Bless you, honey," I thought. "I know exactly how you feel." She chirped a small cat chirp in reply.

Such small but significant moments are available to all of us. I certainly have no proof that the lovely cheetah actually felt a connection to me, but I shall always think that she did. I'm not at all convinced that Luna the redwood saved from a sawmill by Julia Butterfield felt a relationship or gratitude. However, I am not willing to say that it is impossible. Some relationships may be only one way. Nevertheless they may be sources of everyday transcendence.

Deeper experiences of transcendence are also available. One that is claimed by many Christians is a relationship with Jesus. I'm sure that some of you have had an earnest Christian asking you if you have a relationship with Jesus. I'm sure that this experience of transcendence is life-changing for many Christians. I am in no way discounting such an experience. I am saying that experiencing mystery and wonder is not limited to a Christian context.

Some of you remember Fred Campbell, who preached here a few times. Fred is a sailor who keeps his boat in Muskegon. He kindly invites me to share an afternoon on Lake Michigan occasionally. On one such afternoon he told me his theory of how Emerson came to experience and develop his ideas on transcendence.

Emerson's first beloved wife, Ellen, died of tuberculosis when they had been married only two years. He was deeply grieved, and started a long process of withdrawal from Unitarian ministry. He suffered from depression and his family decided a European trip, the Grand Tour, would be helpful. Shortly before his boat departed, and approximately two years after Ellen's death, he went to the mausoleum in which she was interred. He opened the vault, opened the lid of the coffin, and gazed upon the once-beautiful face of his beloved. He never spoke of what he saw there to anyone.

He left America then on the only transportation available for such a trip, a sailing ship. He traveled alone for the month it took to cross the Atlantic. He had little to do but pace the deck, gaze upon the infinite waves and into the infinite sky.

While in Europe he met and mingled with the great minds of the continent. He saw the remains of great civilizations, the great art work in the great museums. He returned to the United States about nine months later, taking ship once more.

And he started writing. The great essays, Nature, Self Reliance, and so forth poured from his pen. Fred thinks, and I agree that Emerson experienced transcendence on his ocean voyages. He was exposed to ideas he had not met before. He met infinity in a way not possible before.

I do not think we all have to suffer great losses to experience transcending mystery and wonder. However, I do think that being unafraid of mystery, of being willing to admit wonder can inform our faith. It can be a source of strength and wisdom not available in other ways.

Practice transcendence. It is good to feel connected to others, and the larger world. It is good to be open to the forces of creation. It is good to help sustain the world.

Amen.
Blessed Be.
Shalom.
Saalat.