“Inspiration”
Morgan McLean, Intern Minister
April 10, 2011


Note: The sermon is an oral event. This manuscript may not reflect the exact spoken words. If you want to hear what was actually said, you can listen to the sermon on our website at www.uurockford.org. © Morgan McLean, 2011.

Human beings are religious folks. Much of human history can be told through religious growth, conflict, and progress. It is nearly impossible to determine, or maybe even imagine, how many distinct religious traditions exist around the globe. Recently one scholar found over 30, 000 unique structures within the Christian tradition! Of course we group them together into about 25 major distinct religions or religious groups around the world.

Different groups have different needs and find unique ways of making meaning of their lives. Some people, including 19th century Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist, Theodore Parker, argue there is an “Absolute Religion.” Parker believed there were Universal spiritual laws and by becoming more moral and loving, people would take on these qualities of God, and become ever more divinely inspired. The ethic of right relationships is central in most religions, often simplified in the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you will have done to you. And the path to accomplishing that is often through a spiritual life.

In this church we sometimes describe this idea as “Many windows, one light.” What that light is or where it comes from is, at least to most Unitarian Universalists, not as important as looking through the many windows. Today let’s look through just a few windows, and even those just briefly. One of the sources of our tradition is the “wisdom from the World’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.” I realize about each sentence I’m about to share could start its own sermon, but there are many windows to peak through, so I will apologize for giving only a hint of four religions, and I hope it might inspire you to learn more about each one.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world, behind Christianity and Islam. The name actually comes from a geographic distinction that foreigners made, and is often instead called Sanātana Dharma, Sanskrit for eternal law or religion.

The sacred symbol of Hinduism is Om. It is the primordial creative sound; the first vibration as creation began, as universal consciousness came into being. This consciousness is divine; it is the self from our responsive reading: “The self that dwells in the heart of every mortal creature… the beginning, the life span, and the end of all.”

That consciousness has always existed. That is the sacred truth of the universe to Hindus, and each individual is part of it. Hinduism is an ancient religious tradition, and they date its emergence around 8000 BCE, although the civilization in the Indus Valley emerged around 2500 BCE.

Their major texts are the Vedas, which are the oldest texts, and hold instructions for spiritual and ceremonial life; the Upanishads, which draw conclusions from the Vedas; and the Mahabharata, which is a collection of legends, including the Bhagavad Gita often thought of as manual for humankind as taught by Lord Krishna. These texts and others, coupled with millennia of tradition and a legend of 330 million deities, inform a religious tradition practiced very differently even from neighbor to neighbor. Some people are monotheists, others are polytheists, and everywhere in between.

A unifying principle is the belief in a natural moral and spiritual law, which they call Dharma, and is the foundation of life. It is what connects people and creation, the ultimate law of right relationship – it ultimately connects the individual to the Supreme reality, that consciousness of the whole of creation. There is an attempt through stories, traditions, and most notably –especially in the past- the caste system to organize the system of religion.

Siddhartha Gautama, known to us as The Buddha, grew up in the Hindu tradition around 500 BCE, and moved away from the rituals to begin what is now the 5th largest religion in the world. Siddhartha was the son in a wealthy family, high in the caste system, and had been sheltered from the world. As a young man, he witnessed aging, illness, death, and devout religious life, and was inspired to understand and overcome those. The foundation of the Buddhist teachings are the Four Noble Truths:
1. Life involves suffering
2. Suffering comes from our desires
3. Suffering ends if desires end
4. There is path to end suffering: the Eight-fold Path

Each spoke on the Dharma Wheel symbolizes the eight parts of the path. The wheel image has many interpretations, including one tradition that the Buddha is a Wheel-Turner, one who has sets a new cycle of teachings in motion, a cycle with cause and effect. Buddhism is a way of life.

There are many religious texts in Buddhism. There are several texts, including the Sutras, that are believed to be the words and teaching of the Buddha. Subsequent texts are commentaries on those teachings and instructions on the Eight-Fold Path. As we heard in the reading from the Louts Sutra, all people possess the potential to realize the four noble truths, and become a Buddha, or enlightened one, themselves. It is the goal of a spiritual life to reach the state of Nirvana – which is liberation from suffering. The Eight-Fold Path provides the guide, including right understanding, right actions, and right speech.

A contemporary of the Buddha was Mahavira, and like the Buddha he renounced his wealth to become a spiritual seeker. He is the 24th Tirthankara, something like prophet or saint in the Jain tradition. He is sometimes incorrectly called the founder of Jainism, and is better understood as a reformer. Jainism is 13th largest religion in the world, and also born out of Hinduism.

Before we see the symbol, some of you may know, that the Nazis adopted a symbol they believed came from the original Aryan race. In fact, the swastika was an ancient symbol of the cycle of life, of stability, and humanity. Hindus, Buddhist, and Jains still use it as that sacred symbol.

Above it you will see three dots. Those are the three jewels of Jainism, with which one can achieve liberation from karma. Karma to Jains is a collection of minute particles that accumulate as we act and think through our lives, and eventually souls must be free of it. The crescent and the dot at the top symbolize the liberated soul in the highest most region of the universe; a soul that has been liberated by following the three jewels: Right Faith, Right Knowledge, and Right Conduct.

The raised hand means “stop” and the word in the center of the hand is "Ahimsa." Ahimsa means non-violence. The hand and Ahimsa remind Jains to stop before doing anything to allow time to consider if our actions hurt another living being through words, thoughts, or deeds.

Ahimsa is possibly the most well-known aspect of Jainism. Jains are strict vegetarians, and are careful when walking to avoid even stepping on bugs. Many Jains don’t eat after dark to avoid consuming an insect by accident, and some monks even sleep with a cloth over their mouth. They believe to kill another living being gains negative karma – those particles that accumulate around you. And while humans are understood as a higher life form, they have no supreme right in the universe.

What at first seems like a contradictory symbol is the Khanda, a common symbol of Sikhism.
Sikhs are the 6th largest religious group, and are primary found in the North Indian Punjab territory. It is a religious tradition that emerged in the 1400’s, with influences from both Hinduism and Islam, but is quite unique.

“The Khanda, contains a ring of steel representing the Unity of God, a two edged sword symbolizing God's concern for truth and justice, and two crossed swords curved around the outside to signify God's spiritual power.”

In Sikhism spirituality is universal and relevant to everyday life. There is one God, which is formless and has many names, and is a truth that pervades the world. The purpose of life is to realize that God is everywhere in the Cosmos, and the way to that life can be found in the teachings of the Gurus. Nanuk was the first of now 9 Gurus who formed the teaching of Sikhism. His hope was for each person to build a close relationship with God, which begins through his three central teachings:
1. Work hard and earn a living,
2. Sharing those earning with the needy,
3. Remember God at all times as the only doer and giver.

Sikhs pray multiple times a day, and strict Sikhs follow clothing practices, which includes not cutting one’s hair – which is why we see Sikh men in turbans. One interesting note is that all Sikhs share a last name. Males share the name: "Singh" which means "lion." Women share the name of "Kaur" which means "princess." This was in reaction to the Hindu Caste system, and Sikhs are completely committed to equality. “The god-conscious being looks upon all alike, like the win, which blows equally upon the king and the poor beggar.”

There is a lot from these traditions that can inspire our own ethical and spiritual lives. The Hindu sense of the eternal and shared consciousness of creation, with a right way of being, connects us with all people throughout history and those to come in the future. The Buddhist teachings encourage us to understand suffering in life, and that we might overcome it. In Jainism we understand a reverent non-violence with the whole of creation which begs us to be more thoughtful and intentional. The Sikhs demonstrate not only a sacred relationship with each other, but also with the holy – a formless God that seeks truth and justice.

Whether or not there is one light, one absolute religion, there are many ways throughout history and around the world that people make meaning and understand themselves in connection to each other and to the larger whole of creation. Unitarian Universalism has room for them all, and asks each of us to peak through the windows, to consider the ways each of us might connect more deeply. We hold the hope for inspiration, and I pray that each of us might be moved as we learn together.