Wisdom from the Worlds Religions©  
January 19, 2003
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland
Jane Thickstun, Celebrant

Sermon

            Once there was a certain King who gave this order to his servant: "Go, young man, and gather together in one place all the men in the town who were born blind."

            When the blind men had all come together, the King said to his servant: "Now bring me an elephant."

            When the elephant had been brought, the King said to the Blind men: "Standing before you now is what we call an elephant. Each one of you may touch this elephant, and when you have done so I want you to tell me what an elephant is like."

            So the servant led the blind men one by one close to the elephant. He let the first blind man feel the elephant’s head. He let the second blind man feel the elephant’s ears. He let the third blind man feel the elephant’s tusks. He let the fourth man feel the elephant’s trunk. He let the fifth man feel the elephant’s legs. . . He let the sixth man feel the elephant’s back. And he let the last blind man feel the elephant’s tail.

            When each blind man had felt the elephant, the King asked them: "Now tell me, one by one, what an elephant is like."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’’s head said: "Your majesty, an elephant is like a large waterpot."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’s ears said: "Your Majesty, ‘‘he is wrong.’’ An elephant is like a flat basket."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’s tusk said: "Your Majesty, they are both wrong. An elephant is like the sharp end of a plow."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’s trunk said: "Your Majesty, they are all wrong. An elephant is like a thick rope."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’s back and body said: "Your Majesty, that man is also wrong. An elephant is like four pillars."

            The blind man who had felt the elephant’s tail said: "Your Majesty, I am the only one who knows. An elephant is like a fan."

            When they had all finished telling what they thought an elephant was like, they began to argue. One shouted: "An elephant is like a crib full of wheat!" Another shouted: "No, I tell you, an elephant is like the sharp point of a plow!" And so they argued on and on until the King had to command them to be quiet.

(Sophia Fahs, From Long Ago and Many Lands)

            This is a Buddhist story from the Unitarian Universalist book for children, Long Ago and Many Lands by Sophia Fahs.  It shows how easy it is for us to assume we have the whole truth, when in fact, reality is so large, and our senses so limited, we can never comprehend the whole.  We always see only from our own perspective.  Religion offers a perspective, a way to view that aspect of Reality that is beyond our sense perceptions.  We can get closer to understanding the whole by listening to other perspectives.  On the other hand, our search for truth and meaning is stifled if we decide that we have the whole picture, the complete truth, and are not open to learning from those who believe differently.  So our Unitarian Universalist statement of Principles and Purposes lists as the third source of our living tradition, “Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.”

            From the early days of Unitarianism’s existence as a distinct denomination, Unitarians have looked to other religions for wisdom and inspiration.  The Transcendentalists were a group of Unitarian men and women from the Boston area, including Emerson and Thoreau, who carried the religious rebellion against traditional Trinitarianism to new extremes.  Many of them studied the religions of Asia, which were just becoming known to the western world.  According to an article on the web, “the scriptures of non-Western cultures were discovered in the West, translated, and published so that they were more widely available. The Harvard-educated Emerson and others began to read Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, and examine their own religious assumptions against these scriptures. In their perspective, a loving God would not have led so much of humanity astray; there must be truth in these scriptures, too. Truth, if it agreed with an individual's intuition of truth, must be indeed truth.” (From the website, “What is Transcendentalism, by Jone Johnson Lewis)

            Christianity traditionally doesn’t encourage the study of other religions, and in particular borrowing from other religions.  Syncretism is what they call the mixing of religions and it’s a bad word to those who believe that there is one and only one truth or one way to the truth.  But when you replace tradition or scripture with individual conscience as primary religious authority, syncretism is no longer a problem. Unitarian Universalists since the time of Emerson have been open to accepting truth and meaning wherever it may found. 

            Today this means that we have a whole list of sources of our faith. We even teach World Religions to our children.  I have heard that some of our kids go through our religious education program and come out thinking now they need to pick a religion!  When you’re open to so many influences, it’s hard to keep a common identity.  Then we have the so-called “hyphenated UU’s” – people who say they are UU-Buddhists or UU-Pagans or UU-Christians.  These folks feel that one other religion calls to them so strongly that they identify as that in addition to their Unitarian Universalist identity.  The rest of us find value in other religions more equally.  We’ll pay attention to the wisdom or adopt a practice without becoming immersed in another religion.

            How are we to approach the plurality of religions?  World religions scholar, Huston Smith, suggests there are three ways: the first holds that one religion is better than the others.  This is a common approach.  Conservative Christians believe that anyone who doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior is going to burn in hell.  Fundamentalism appears in every religion, even in humanism.  UU minister Linda Hoddy points out some more: “In Israel, the ultra-orthodox call for a theocracy where only Jews may hold public office; and everyone must observe the Sabbath in the same way. In the U.S. the Christian right calls for prayer in school, but only if it comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the Middle East, fundamentalist Muslims call for holy war against the infidels.” (May 7, 2000 sermon)

            The second way to understand the plurality of religions is the opposite of the first - it holds that all religions are basically alike.  The differences are trivial compared with the truths they hold in common.  For instance, every religion has some version of the Golden Rule, and many of the virtues seem universal.  But this is tough to maintain, Smith says, because the religions differ on what is essential.

            The third way “likens religions to stained glass windows that refract sunlight in different shapes and colors.  This analogy allows for significant differences between the religions without pronouncing on their relative worth.” (Huston Smith, The Illustrated Worlds Religions, p. 245)

            This analogy was developed further by UU minister, Forrest Church.  Church imagines the world as a vast cathedral with many windows.  There is one light, but it is seen through many windows.  In fact, it is only seen through the windows.  We can’t look at it directly.  The same light shines through all our windows, but each window is different.  “Truth emerges only indirectly, as refracted through the windows of tradition and experience.” (UU World, Nov-Dec 2001, p. 25)  Church also points out that “not only the world’s religions, but every ideology, every scientific worldview, every aesthetic school, has its windows in the cathedral of the world.  In each the light and darkness mingle in ways that suggest meaning for those whose angle of vision is tilted in that particular direction.”  (Our Chosen Faith, p. 86)

            I like this analogy.  It is very much like the story of the elephant.  We each see the light, like the elephant, through our own perspective.  But the more we can understand of the perspectives of others, the more complete is our picture of reality.  Of course, we can never see the whole elephant, or see the light directly; our view will always be imperfect.  But the more we can see, the more we can understand.

            So let’s take a look at some of the wisdom from the world’s religions, and see if it might serve as inspiration for our ethical and spiritual life.  The best way to experience the wisdom of various traditions is through their stories.  Here are some examples, taken mostly from the book, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart.  The stories pretty much speak for themselves.

            First, one from Buddhism that points to our tendency to approach even spiritual matters through the intellect -- a common malady among Unitarian Universalists:

            During his first visit to England, a great Master from Thailand, Achaan Chah spoke to many Buddhist groups.  One evening after a talk he received a question from a dignified English lady who had spent many years studying the complex cybernetics of the mind according to the eighty-nine classes of consciousness in the Buddhist abhidharma psychology texts.  Would he please explain certain of the more difficult aspects of this system of psychology to her so she could continue her study?

            Buddhism teaches us to let go.  But at first, we naturally cling to the principles of Buddhism.  The wise person takes these principles and uses them as tools to discover the essence of our life.

            Sensing how caught up she was in intellectual concepts rather than benefitting from practice in her own heart, Achaan Chah answered her quite directly, “You, madam, are like one who keeps hens in her yard,” he told her, “and goes around picking up the chicken droppings instead of the eggs.”

(Buddhist, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart p. 254-255)

            And from the Zen tradition of Buddhism, a story that points out an essential difference between two religions:    

A Zen master was invited to a great Catholic monastery to give instructions in Zen practice.  He exhorted the monks there to meditate and try to solve their koan or Zen question with great energy and zeal.  He told them that if they could practice with full-hearted effort, true understanding would come to them.  One old monk raised his hand.  “Master,” he said, “our way of prayer is different than this.  We have been meditating and praying in the simplest fashion without effort, waiting instead to be illuminated by the grace of God.  In Zen is there anything like this illuminating grace that comes to one uninvited?” he asked.  The Zen master looked back and laughed.  “In Zen,” he said, “we believe that God has already done his share.”

(Zen, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, p. 57)

            Here’s one from the Sufi tradition of Islam:

Nasrudin was eating a poor man’s diet of chickpeas and bread.  His neighbor, who also claimed to be a wise man was living in a grand house and dining on sumptuous meals provided by the emperor himself.

            His neighbor told Nasrudin, “if only you would learn to flatter the emperor and be subservient like I do, you would not have to live on chickpeas and bread.”

            Nasrudin replied, “and if only you would learn to live on chickpeas and bread, like I do, you would not have to flatter and live subservient to the emperor.”

(Sufi, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, p. 296)

            A Taoist story; this one is from Folktales of the World by Jane Yolen:

            There once was a Chinese Farmer.  One day the gate to the corral is left open and his horse runs away.  The neighbors come to comfort him.  "How terrible that your horse has run away..."  The farmer replies:  "Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad; it is too soon to tell yet."

            A few days later the hose returns to the corral bringing a whole herd of wild horses with him.  The neighbors come to celebrate.  "How wonderful that now you have an entire herd of horses!"  The farmer replies:  "Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad; it is too soon to tell yet."

            A few days later the farmer's son begins training one of the new wild horses.  He is thrown from the horse and breaks both his legs.  The neighbors come to comfort the farmer.

"How terrible that your son has been injured this way, now he won't be able to help you in the fields."  The farmer replies:  "Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad; it is too soon to tell yet."

            A few days later the Emperors troops march through the village conscripting all the able young men in the village to go to war.  The farmer's son is left behind because his legs are not healed.  The neighbors come to celebrate and the farmer replies ...

            And here’s a story from Judaism:

            In the last century, a tourist from the states visited the famous Polish Rabbi Hafez Hayyim.  He was astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books.  The only furniture was a table and a bench.

            “Rabbi, where is you furniture?” asked the tourist.

            “Where is yours?” replied Hafez.

            “Mine?  But I’m only a visitor here.”

            “So am I,” said the rabbi.

(Chassid, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, p. 296)

            And finally another Sufi story:

            Nasrudin was now an old man looking back on his life.  He sat with his friends in the tea shop telling his story. 

            “When I was young I was fiery – I wanted to awaken everyone.  I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change the world.

            In mid-life I awoke one day and realized my life was half over and I had changed no one.  So I prayed to Allah to give me strength to change those close around me who so much needed it.

            Alas, now I am old and my prayer is simpler.  ‘Allah,’ I ask, ‘please give me the strength to at least change myself.’”

(Sufi, from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart p. 212)

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