Three Steps Towards the Light

Know, Love, Serve

sermon by Ted Tollefson
December 16, 2018

Roots: Do you remember the Old Baltimore Catechism?

1. What is our purpose here on earth?
   To know, love and serve G-d while on earth and be with G-d in the next life.

2. What stuck with me is those 3 muscular verbs:
   know, love, serve.

   That resonated with what I learned in my 20’s by the study, practice of yoga. I learned that the Hindus provided 3 or more different spiritual paths: a yoga of knowledge, a yoga of devotion, a yoga of action.

   As a UU minister who also teaches world religions I noticed how “Yoga” and “Unitarian” both focus on what leads us to unity and I began to wonder what a “Unitarian Yoga” would be like.

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“Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.”

Carl Jung

First Step: Know Thyself

1. Jung’s story about the distinguished minister’s challenge to spend some time alone.

2. Which self?
   - The ordinary self (ego) which is both our gift to the world and a source of affliction for ourselves and others

   - The transcendent self (soul) which we glimpse in “peak experiences,” “flow experiences,” timeless moments of effortless excellence, natural goodness, abiding compassion.

3. How can we know these two selves and the connections between?

   a. disciplined introspection: meditation, journaling, dreamwork

   b. insightful conversations: casual, therapy, intentional

   c. self-score inventories: MMPI, MBTI, Enneagram

4. Direct Experience:
   Who am I? Who are you? (solo and dyads)

Second Step: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Reading: Golden Rule Reading

1. Two distortions:
   - Love self to exclusion of others
   Californication: religious narcissism
   - Love other but hate self
   Mea Culpa: religious masochism

2. Key word = “AS” our gateway to a network of mutuality
   - Dr. ML Kings “Network of mutuality”
   - UU 7th principle: Interdependent Web of All Life
   - Buddhism “emptiness as interbeing” (TNH)
   see: A Summary of Buddhadharma page 15

3. From moral law (resistance) to teachable method (learning)

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Exercise

Imagine a difficult transaction from the other side

Prayer for All Beings

Active Listening with an open heart and mind

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Third Step: Serve Something Larger
Than Self & Neighbor

1. Serving is an action:
   We focus on doing before thinking and feeling

   Deeds not creeds

2. Serving is humble:
   We are not in charge, there is a larger reality of which we are part.
   We are not “self-serving” like Individual #10

3. Serving is a natural tendency with MANY choices

   1. Honor an Entity, a Being larger than self & others and serve it:

      I. God or “Great Mystery” as Creator, Source of Life, Common Ground:
      - Expressions of gratitude and praise: thanks!
      see: How to Start a Gratitude Practice to Change Your Life
      - Experiences of Awe, Mystery and Wonder when we are glad just to be alive.

      II. Humankind: as the largest community of our species
      - Stand up for human rights wherever they are endangered
      - Stand up for Peace and against Wars

      III. Nature, Planet Earth, the Universe - including Us!
      - Shift loyalty from “whats good for America” to “whats good for the world”
      - Think ahead to include the next seven generations
      - Keep speaking up for the worth and dignity of ALL BEINGS

   2. Honor a Creative Process that sustains your life & the life of all beings:
      I. Honor the Creative Process by musing the creativity around you and within you.
      see: 50 Ways to Find Inspriation

      II. Eat lower on the food chain and save energy: more veggies, more grain, less raised and processed meat.
      see: The Beginners Guide to Clean Eating

      III. Practice Living with an emphasis on Mutuality and Reciprocity

   3. Vividly imagine, care for and nourish the many networks in which you are nested:
      I. Prayer for all beings with particulars

      II. Blessing your networks at the beginning or end of your day

      III. Draw the networks in which you live and move and have your being that you might remember them and their well being.
      IV. “Lift up to the Light” those you love and those you don’t love

      V. Keep an active altar with names of those you know who need extra attention
      
      

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Exercise

Draw your networks of people, places and things
which you care for and then offer a word of thanks to each.

Turn the question inward:
whom or what do you serve?

Visualize, thank and take council with your Mentors

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