http:\/\/gnhuu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/GNH-April-30-2017.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n <\/p>\n
Eight months after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan and killed over ten-thousand people, the Dalai Lama travelled to one of the most ravaged towns.\u00a0 <\/span>He visited one temple that had miraculously been spared ruin.\u00a0 <\/span>Hundreds of people gathered to see him.\u00a0 <\/span>He was greeted at the Temple gates by three children who were orphaned by the disaster.\u00a0 <\/span>Lined up in the Temple were hundreds of boxes of victim\u2019s cremation ashes.\u00a0 <\/span>The town had brought them to be blessed by the Dalai Lama.<\/span><\/p>\n When he personally greeted those in the assembled crowd, many of them sobbed uncontrollably.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cBless these victims, bless us\u201d they cried.\u00a0 <\/span>The Dalai Lama was deeply moved.\u00a0 <\/span>All around him was human tragedy on a massive scale.\u00a0 <\/span>As he often does, he held the faces of many in his hands while he looked into their eyes.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cPlease,\u201d he asked, \u201chelp everyone else and work hard.\u00a0 <\/span>That is the best offering you can make to the dead.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>As he turned to walk back to the altar, tears were in his eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n This great man of peace and wisdom was himself struggling with grief.\u00a0 <\/span>It is likely he related to their pain.\u00a0 <\/span>At age 23, only days after ascending to be spiritual and civil leader of six-million Tibetans, the Dalai Lama was forced into exile to stop the killing of his people by mainland Chinese invaders.\u00a0 <\/span>He left behind close friends and even his small dog – one he cherished.\u00a0 <\/span>Two days later, he heard they had all been killed.\u00a0 <\/span>In the fifty-nine years since, he\u2019s never been able to return to his beloved Tibet.<\/span><\/p>\n In times of suffering, the Japanese often turn to one of their most revered poets – Issa – who lived and wrote in the 18th century.\u00a0 <\/span>Issa\u2019s life story is almost mythic in the extent of suffering.\u00a0 <\/span>His mother died when he was two.\u00a0 <\/span>Later in life, his first son, a daughter and then his father all died in a typhoid epidemic.\u00a0 <\/span>Still later, his one-year old daughter died, he became partially paralyzed and then his wife died in childbirth.\u00a0 <\/span>He remarried but his house was destroyed in a fire.\u00a0 <\/span>That wife soon became pregnant and all signs pointed to a healthy birth – but Issa died a month before his last child was born.<\/span><\/p>\n Issa\u2019s most famous haiku poems compare life to droplets of dew.\u00a0 <\/span>Appearing as sparkling jewels that dot a morning landscape, dew drops nevertheless quickly vanish with a rising sun.\u00a0 <\/span>Life is like that, he implies.\u00a0 <\/span>There are great bursts of beauty and happiness, but then all is over.\u00a0 <\/span>We disappear into vapor.\u00a0 <\/span>In a poem entitled \u201cOn the Death of a Child\u201d, Issa wrote, \u201cDew Evaporates, And all our world is dew…so dear, so fresh, so fleeting.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Issa captured a common Japanese mindset toward pain.\u00a0 <\/span>Outwardly stoic, many Japanese bottle up their grief until it is too much and they pour it out.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of finding ways to understand and be at peace with what befalls them, the Japanese suffer like all people.\u00a0 <\/span>We perceive tragedies all around us, we realize we are not immune, and we spend life working to avoid hurt or putting bandaids on our fears.\u00a0 <\/span>In the end, we die without ever understanding what brings lasting joy.<\/span><\/p>\n As many of you know, Buddhism identifies four noble truths which are its foundational beliefs and designed to address the pattern of human existence.\u00a0 <\/span>The first of Buddhist noble truths is that tragedy is a fact of life.\u00a0 <\/span>Whether it be physical or emotional injury from acts of nature, or the hurt caused by other people, nobody can escape the unfortunate circumstances of life.\u00a0 <\/span>They happen to everyone and we are fools if we think otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n The second noble truth is that humans <\/span>suffer<\/b><\/span> because, in an effort to avoid the inevitability of tragedy, they put their trust in things that do not last.\u00a0 <\/span>We desire houses that will protect us or make us happy because they are large and well decorated.\u00a0 <\/span>We seek foods that please our palates and offer momentary pleasure.\u00a0 <\/span>We do the same with alcohol, drugs, cars, clothing, cell phones and romantic relationships.\u00a0 <\/span>We somehow think we can acquire happiness and thus inoculate ourselves from the inevitability of the first noble truth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But this second noble truth is what causes us to truly suffer.\u00a0 <\/span>It’s our minds and not our circumstances that makes us feel sad, anxious or fearful.\u00a0 <\/span>Consuming a good meal or glass of wine may grant us momentary happiness, but their pleasurable effects are fleeting.\u00a0 <\/span>The same with a big house, expensive car or sex.\u00a0 <\/span>As soon as we get it, we usually want something better or we find the toll such things cause in terms of anxiety – we have to maintain a house and worry about whether it will be broken into, cars break down and need repair, they get scratches and are even destroyed.\u00a0 <\/span>We eat food, have a drink or engage in sex – the pleasures of life – but we soon want more only to find what we once desired brings us instead frustration, worry and more desire.\u00a0 <\/span>We want, we get, but then we want even more.\u00a0 <\/span>We embark on an endless cycle of pursuing happiness because we never discover the keys to satisfaction with life itself.<\/span><\/p>\n Our desire for things that don’t last is thus the cause of most suffering, Buddhists believe. \u00a0 <\/span>The third noble truth of Buddhism, however, offers us those keys to finding contentment. We can eliminate our desires by meditating on and practicing what is permanent and universally good – peace, compassion and generosity.\u00a0 <\/span>This third truth logically follows from the first two.\u00a0 <\/span>Most importantly, it is the way to find lasting, soul deep satisfaction.\u00a0 <\/span>Pleasing our physical selves is the way to instant gratification – but long term misery.\u00a0 <\/span>Pleasing our essential humanity, our inner selves, offers us the possibility of infinite joy.<\/span><\/p>\n And that concept, finding lasting joy, is the theme for this message and my next two.\u00a0 <\/span>As I\u2019ve announced over the past month, I\u2019ll use as the touchstone for these messages <\/span>The Book of Joy<\/span> by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.\u00a0 <\/span>If you have not read the book, that\u2019s perfectly fine.\u00a0 <\/span>I hope there will be insights you gain and thoughts you can share.\u00a0 <\/span>If you did read the book, I trust you will offer your own interpretation of its primary points.<\/span><\/p>\n While it might seem odd that a Buddhist monk and a Christian Archbishop could agree on something as significant as lasting joy, they do.\u00a0 <\/span>And that speaks to the broad agreements most forms of spirituality have.\u00a0 <\/span>It also speaks to our Unitarian Universalist belief that people take different paths to find ultimate Truth – be that nirvana, Allah, Yahweh, Christ, Brahmin, the unifying scientific theory of the universe, or whatever.\u00a0 <\/span>Many paths, as we say, all heading toward the same One goal.<\/span><\/p>\n What I related earlier about the beliefs of Buddhism are remarkably similar to those of Christianity and, for that matter, to Judaism and Islam.\u00a0 <\/span>Dysfunction in the world, these religions believe, comes from selfishness.\u00a0 <\/span>Our inclinations often lead us to think only of our wants.\u00a0 <\/span>But when we focus on that which is greater than ourselves – on the essentials of good in the world like love, compassion, peace and gratitude – we approach the ultimate Truth we all seek.\u00a0 <\/span>For Christians, that is understanding the heart of God and the example of Jesus; for Buddhists its nirvana, for Pantheists and Pagans, it\u2019s oneness with all creation.<\/span><\/p>\n As Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama relate in their book, focusing on things that last is how we can find lasting joy.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s not found in the material things of this world but in the mystical satisfaction of letting go of self and experiencing communion with other people, with nature, and with a deep love for all.<\/span><\/p>\n In the first section of the <\/span>Book of Joy<\/span>, one that is labeled \u201cthe Nature of Joy\u201d, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama quickly find common ground about the definition of joy.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s not being happy they agree, which is fleeting.\u00a0 <\/span>Joy is a kind of contentment, satisfaction and peaceful way of life that exists whether we are happy or in pain.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s an overarching demeanor that continually defines how we talk and act.\u00a0 <\/span>Desmond Tutu compared it to the kind of deep joy mothers often find after childbirth.\u00a0 <\/span>Emerging from a cloud of suffering comes a deep wellspring of love for the newborn and satisfaction in nurture and compassion for the child.\u00a0 <\/span>In some ironic way, suffering is the springboard to real joy – not the momentary happiness at first seeing and holding the infant, but in the contented moments of caring for and serving another human being.\u00a0 <\/span>If we think about it, raising a child is one of the great sacrifices a human makes.\u00a0 <\/span>Parents discover lasting treasure in the act of pouring their lives into another.\u00a0 <\/span>Others discover it in similar ways through serving family, friend or stranger.<\/span><\/p>\n The Dalai Lama agreed with the Archbishop on that essential truth.\u00a0 <\/span>Throughout life we experience pain, but real joy comes in making sense of it through compassion, service and letting go of self.\u00a0 <\/span>The Dalai Lama dismissed the trials of his own life because, he said, he realized people around the world hurt too.\u00a0 <\/span>Such knowledge that others are in pain is the means by which we move past it.\u00a0 <\/span>We become united with all human pain.\u00a0 <\/span>Our hearts open wide with compassion for others.\u00a0 <\/span>We are driven to love, serve and give.\u00a0 <\/span>No longer is life about me, my small pains and the pitiful plans I lay to prevent them.\u00a0 <\/span>Life is about the well-being of all humanity.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s about you, my love for you, and the ways you hurt that I might help alleviate.\u00a0 <\/span>Life is about meeting the purpose for which I was born – to make the world better because I exist.\u00a0 <\/span>And when I do that, as the Archbishop says, God smiles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>We should ponder that a moment.\u00a0 <\/span>Whatever we believe God to be, she smiles at our goodness and compassion toward others. <\/i><\/b> And we smile too.\u00a0 <\/span>Joy is found in that simple but profound experience.<\/span><\/p>\n This universal truth about the sacrificial pathway to joy does not mean, both men agree, on total self-denial.\u00a0 <\/span>We must, the Dalai Lama says, take care of ourselves without doing so selfishly<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>Compassion, he relates, will not fill his stomach.\u00a0 <\/span>But when we do eat, we must do so without attachment and selfish desire.\u00a0 <\/span>Christians believe much the same.\u00a0 <\/span>We are incapable of serving others if our basic needs are not first met.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s a small symbolic needle to thread but it\u2019s a task we each must practice.\u00a0 <\/span>When do I have enough?\u00a0 <\/span>When should my attentions turn away from me and toward another?\u00a0 <\/span>When I\u2019m offended or hurt by another, how can that incident become not about my hurt feelings, but about empathy and compassion for the offender?\u00a0 <\/span>As the Dalai Lama says on page 47 in the book, \u201cToo much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering.\u00a0 <\/span>A compassionate concern for others\u2019 well-being is the source of happiness.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n To enable compassionate thinking and a reduced focus on the self, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop agree we must train our minds.\u00a0 <\/span>Joy is a state of being that we learn to achieve.\u00a0 <\/span>We can undertake mediation,\u00a0 <\/span>reflection or prayer to turn our minds to thoughts of gratitude – for being loved, finding our life purpose, or for having opportunities to give and serve.\u00a0 <\/span>We consciously humble ourselves so that in any of our thinking, we do not think of the self – such as: Why am I in pain? \u00a0 <\/span>Why have my feelings been hurt by another?\u00a0 <\/span>What pleasures can I find?\u00a0 <\/span>How much money can I earn?\u00a0 <\/span>Etc. etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, through letting go of our egos, through thinking about others and ways that they hurt, we train our attitude to be outwardly focused.\u00a0 <\/span>We don\u2019t, to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, ask what the world can give us.\u00a0 <\/span>We ask instead what we can give the world.\u00a0 <\/span>We simplify our lives and our needs as much as possible.\u00a0 <\/span>We encounter a stranger on the street and we wish them a good day.\u00a0 <\/span>We don\u2019t judge and try to improve someone and their flaws.\u00a0 <\/span>We don\u2019t think we are better then they, or that they unfairly have more than us.\u00a0 <\/span>We empathize with them, try to understand the why behind their flaws, and then we simply love them.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe it is a coincidence that the Book of Joy was written by two men of color.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, the Dali Lama and Desmond Tutu have personally suffered extreme oppression because of their skin color.\u00a0 <\/span>They have also responded with what Desmond Tutu calls righteous anger – the kind that does not focus on the self but is angered in behalf of others.\u00a0 <\/span>Their call to us is that real joy is found not in a cocoon of indifference, or focus on the self, but in advancing compassion and service to others.\u00a0 <\/span>This congregation and the UUA in general can live out that teaching in how we respond to inequality and discrimination against all people – especial those of color.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s a way to build a lasting legacy and in the process create inner satisfaction in the knowledge we served the interests of others.\u00a0 <\/span>To do that will require deep introspection on how you and I are not only part of the problem but can be part of the solution – through humility, listening and kindness.<\/span><\/p>\n Quite simply, joy comes from how we exist in quiet, humble simplicity, in generous gratitude, and in sacrificial serving.\u00a0 <\/span>Only by pouring out ourselves into others do we ironically pour into ourselves – and thereby find the source of all truth, goodness and joyful well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved Eight months after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan and killed over ten-thousand people, the Dalai Lama travelled to one of the most ravaged towns.\u00a0 He visited one temple that had miraculously been spared ruin.\u00a0 Hundreds of people gathered to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}