Sermon 10/05/08
Ecclesiastes 9:1-10
Hospitality can reveal the divine in the unknown.
A welcoming yes reveals and alerts us
to the spiritual world.
To say yes to reality is to host eternity.
To say yes to the finite and limited
is to host the infinite and the limitless.
- David Richo
Loss and gain - not about the current economic crisis
About Paul, but Paul's not particularly helpful here ( too much rhetoric).
We are living in a time of change (Aren't we always? Is there any other kind of living?)
How are you feeling about what's happening in the world today?
How do we stay grounded/centered?
1) Connection with God, self, others and creation/nature.
Life debunks the illusion that we are separate. In truth, nothing is separate.
2) Inherent nature: we were created for love.
Life debunks the illusion that we were created to control. In truth, we were created to love.
Julian of Norwich writes;
If there be anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.
Kornfield, AFTER THE ECSTASY, THE LAUNDRY, p. 123
That's a sermon all by itself!
Jack Kornfield writes;
Only to the extent that we let go into change can we live in harmony with those around us and with our own true nature. No matter what the situation, awakening requires trust: trust in the greater cycles of life, trust that something new will eventually be born, trust that whatever is, is perfect. Wise letting go is not a detached removal from life. It is the heart's embrace of life itself, a willing opening to the full reality of the present.
Kornfield, AFTER THE ECSTASY, THE LAUNDRY, p. 136f
I don't know about you, but for me this is easier to say than to do. I tend to become rather attached to my particular view of reality, or to some part of it. We may not be able to let go completely right away, but we can at least loosen our grip a little bit!
3) Treating each other and ourselves with respect and compassion.
Jack Kornfield wrote;
The community is created, not when people come together in the name of religion, but when they come together bringing honesty, respect, and kindness to support an awakening of the sacred. True community arises when we can speak in accord with truth and compassion. This sense of spiritual community is a wondrous part of what heals and transforms us on our path.
Ibid.
4) Accepting the impermanence of life, its constant changes, its uncontrollable twists and turns, all the while delighting in life's fleeting ecstasies. (Eccles)
There are natural rhythms in life, and epic shifts in human society. We flow through ever expanding cycles of awakening.
Nature deals with deal by renewal.
Loss is fleeting, too. It will change.
5) Awaken to freedom and trust.
Jack Kornfield says that
All spiritual life exists in an alternation of gain and loss, pleasure and pain. For each of us, even the Buddha, it is only by letting go into this truth that we awaken to that which is timeless, the reality of freedom.
Kornfield, AFTER THE ECSTASY, THE LAUNDRY, p. 124
Accepting the impermanence of life is the way to find freedom. There is power in this kind of freedom. There is also power in paying attention (beginner's mind).
All spiritual life is preparation for transition, from one state to another, from one circumstance to another. The ability to make wise transitions is the ability to keep a beginner's mind. Change is not the enemy. . . . it returns to ask the heart to be present and trust at deeper and deeper levels.
Kornfield, AFTER THE ECSTASY, THE LAUNDRY, p. 126
Exercise:
Holding our fears and needs in one hand, and our power to say yes in the other hand.
From THE FIVE THINGS WE CANNOT CHANGE, by David Richo, pages15-16
In one hand In the other hand
Our predicament Our power to work on it
Our feelings/fear Our commitment
Yes to what is Yes to change for the better
"Nothing will turn my life so upside down that I will collapse under it."
The last word: Jack Kornfield:
We are not trying to get somewhere better next year or in twenty years, or even the next lifetime. We are learning to open to the timeless unfolding of our lives, being in greater and greater harmony with what is, with a greater inclusiveness of our hearts to all the seasons of our life.
In the entire ten directions
Of the Buddha's universe
There is only one way.
When we see clearly, there is no
Difference in the teachings.
What is there to lose? What is there to gain?
If we gain something, it was there from
The beginning.
If we lose anything, it is hidden nearby.
- Ryokan
Kornfield, A PATH WITH HEART, p. 182
Ecclesiastes 9:1-10
All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who make vows are like those who shun an oath. This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of impermanence; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go down to the dead. But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.
Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the one whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Copyright © 2008, the Reverend Rick Yramategui, All Rights Reserved