Everything is Holy

May 12, 2009

Tonight, I went to the first of five classes that my minister is putting on. As a Unitarian Universalist, I have the option to choose pretty much any path I want and it will be respected by my church community. That's what I love about it. Of course, we believe in treating people with respect and dignity and a lot of other common things too. But, within reason, the sky is the limit. And yet, there are certain ways that having such freedom can make us feel that much more lost.

Where do we go when we want to go home if we don't know what home is? Once we figure out where, then the next question is how do we get there?

I love my minister. He is smart and heartfelt and makes a lot of sense to me. He says that the world puts a lot of pressure on every one of us to be fantastically superficial all of the time. It is good to have a place where you can go deeper and be more real with yourself and with each other. That is what coming home is all about as far as I'm concerned.

He has this great analogy, taken from Jonathan Haidt's book, The Happiness Hypothesis: we have evolved from forest creatures and so a large portion of our brains are made up in the same way that other forest creature's brains are. They are very emotional. They are sensitive to things in their environment and they choose quickly whether to fight or fly away.

We have a very small and relatively new part of our brain in the front that allows us to have a sense of ourselves. That's where a lot of our distinctly human characteristics come from. We could look at the big part of our brain as being like an elephant and the little part in front as a rider or elephant trainer. If the elephant decides it wants to run away or fight, the rider goes with it. But, if we can learn to be good elephant trainers, we can have a lot more peace in our lives rather than being at the mercy of the elephant.

The three main methods my minister suggested we try were meditation, affirmations, and prayer. I won't go into the details about what these all entail. But, as Charlotte Kasl says in If the Buddha Dated, "Whatever practices you utilize, ultimately it is your dedication that will make a difference. You can intone a chant or prayer absentmindedly, dissociate when you meditate, or spout teachings to impress people. Or you can meet each moment of your life with awareness and compassion."

I will leave you with these questions to ponder, taken from my minister's class, which were taken from James A. Fowler:

1. What are you spending and being spent for?
2. What commands and receives your best time, your best energy?
3. What causes, dreams, goals, and institutions are you pouring out your life for?
4. As you live your life, what powers do you fear or dread?
5. As you live your life, what powers do you rely on and trust?
6. To what are you committed in life or in death?
7. With whom do you share your most sacred and private hopes and fears?
8. What are your hopes, goals, and purposes in life?