What Do You Expect?
November 6, 2022
Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
Rev. Craig M. Nowak
It was well past 8:00am and the group was concerned. Our colleague was usually the first to arrive since she’d lived the closest of all of us. But this day she was late and no one had heard from her. Finally, she walked into the small hospital chapel looking frazzled. She apologized for being late and without further comment sat down. The question all of us were thinking, one among us finally asked aloud, “What happened?”
Now, I don’t remember why she said she was late, but I do remember that in the process of answering the question she described to us a practice that she had newly adopted when driving during rush hour. It was a meditation on breathing, which one can speak or, as with our colleague, sing. Indeed many Unitarian Universalist’s know it as hymn # 1009 “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones in Singing the Journey (The teal hymnal),
When I breathe in, I’ll breathe in peace.
When I breathe out, I’ll breathe out love.
So here’s our friend and colleague driving down the busy highway during the morning rush, singing these lovely words. One can imagine if the animators of old were to illustrate this scene, there would be birds resting on her shoulder whistling along, a squirrel or chipmunk blissfully inhaling and exhaling on the dashboard, and maybe a doe with long eyelashes in the back seat for good measure. Such a delightful image, so serene. And indeed it had been so until another driver, presumably not engaged in meditative practice zipped up alongside our colleague and cut her off.
Now, as I see it there are at least three things that could have happened next.
One, an accident, which thankfully didn’t happen.
Two, our colleague continued her practice unfazed by the other driver’s recklessness, which, by the way also didn’t happen.
And three; the one that did happen. Our colleague snapped out of her meditative bliss, promptly sounded her horn, shouted an expletive, and, just to make her point, added a gesture I can’t demonstrate from the pulpit.
Naturally, we all laughed. We laughed because we get it. We’ve all been there in one way or another. Only the most sanctimonious fraudster would claim never to have fallen short in their efforts at personal or spiritual growth and depth.
Still, while laughing is good, too often we leave it there and chalk up our shortfall to the catch all of just being human. And so the next time, we blow the horn, swear, gesture, and laugh again, and the next time same thing, and the next time same thing again until that cycle, rather than the original practice becomes our habit.
And the cycle will continue so long as it remains either unexamined or misunderstood.
Religions have long sought to help people examine and understand undesirable or unhelpful habits and establish or replace them with more beneficial ones.
Consider our first reading on peace this morning from the Daoist philosopher Lao Tse. Peace, Lao Tse reminds us cannot exist in the world until it is established in one’s heart. Yet how many among those who bemoan the sorry state of the world, who clamor for or claim peace as their cause, how many have cultivated it within themselves first?
“Maybe they’re trying.”, you might say.
And that’s certainly a possibility. I think my colleague was trying as she sang that meditation on breathing. If only that other driver hadn’t cut her off.
If only, indeed.
Of course, it was bound to happen.
I mean, What do you expect?
Expectations are curious things.
How often do we act without awareness of our expectations, to say nothing of what informs them?
Expectation features prominently in our second reading, The Four Spouses. As I hinted in my introduction to the reading, the Buddha reminded his followers all people have four spouses. Indeed in listening to the reading you have realized the four wives don’t refer to people at all. Instead, they represent what we all have: a body, material and social assets, relationships with others, and our mind or consciousness. The first three, though loved, hard won, and desirable, indeed so much so that we often obsess, covet, or cling to them as the story suggests…these three do not, in the end, accompany the dying man as expected. Nor will they accompany us. To these three, the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.”, applies.
Only the fourth spouse, representing the mind, that is, all that we’ve nurtured and held in our consciousness can and will follow wherever we go…right to the end and even beyond in ways we cannot predict.
The story is a reminder…indeed a warning, to pay attention to what we fill our minds with, lest we find ourselves unexpectedly wed to insufferable anger, hatred, cruelty, dissatisfaction, resentment, and the like.
Paying attention is another way of describing mindfulness. Nowadays we hear a lot about mindfulness and how important it is to spiritual, emotional, even physical health. Indeed mindfulness clears away illusions and shows us what is. Equally important however is that mindfulness shows us where we have a choice in the moment. The moment which is itself not a fixed thing, but an ongoing process, a process driven by the choices we make.
And this brings us to another traditional function of religion and religious teaching, which is to provide a basis for the choices we make. Values may first come to mind as a basis, but another common basis, especially when seeking to break a cycle and/or instill new, more beneficial habits, is intention. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
The spirit of that verse from 2 Corinthians (9:6) in the Christian New Testament is not unlike the Buddhist concept of karma. Karma, in Buddhism is actually quite a challenging concept and one that is far beyond the scope of a single sermon. Suffice it to say, contrary to popular belief and misunderstanding, karma, in Buddhism, is not synonymous with fate or cosmic justice nor does it seek to explain or justify the circumstances of our lives and what happens to us. For the Buddha karma concerns intention or intentionality and the effect our motivations or intentions have on our lives and by extension, the world.
As the Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal explains it, “To be somewhat simplistic about Buddhist karmic theory, it might go something like this: in whatever fuels an action, the fuel of an action produces more of itself….The karma theory of the Buddha”, then, as Fronsdal notes, “has to do with the causal chain, the causal conditions that are set in motion directly by our intentions.”
We see a similar causal connection at work in Lao Tse’s assertion that, if there is to be peace in the world, nations, cities, between neighbors, and in the home, there must first be peace in the heart. The intention behind our actions shape the conditions in which we live and experience the world. Not exclusively of course, we are subject after all to things like the laws of physics, inherited illness or health, and sometimes just plain luck, good or bad.
But consider the person, as Fronsdal suggests, who is regularly motivated by fear and an intent to protect oneself from the world. Unexamined this can become a pattern, a habitual way of life marked by a suspicious or hostile attitude toward others and difference. And which can make itself known in the body as well, through headaches, muscle tension, or seemingly mysterious ailments. All consequences that impact a person’s quality of life and relationships and which follows them everywhere they go and colors every interaction in the world.
The far reaching impact of intention has been front of mind for me as Tuesday’s election approaches. A lot of us, most of us, even, are concerned about the imperiled state of our democracy. The past several years have seen the erosion of respect for democratic norms, trust in democratic institutions fall to alarming lows, and a disregard for and overturning of legal precedents upon which people rely and plan their lives. Further those who hold political views different than one’s own are seen less as members of a loyal opposition than as mortal enemies worthy of ridicule, humiliation, and in the minds of the most extreme, annihilation.
Who could be blamed then for feeling fearful in such times?
Surely, no one.
Still, if it is true that peace in the world begins with peace in the heart and if it is true “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously,” that “causal conditions are set in motion directly by our intentions,”and, as the seventh principle of Unitarian Universalism asserts, we are part of an interdependent web of existence, a reality we covenant to affirm and promote…If these be true, what then do you expect if the basis of our actions is fear, hatred, or revenge?
If the wisdom of the ages is true, and I believe it is, we can expect more of the same…more fear, more hatred, more dreams of settling scores. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to add more of any of these to the world. But we can’t just passively hope for something different to magically emerge.
We must expect a different reality. A reality shaped and grounded internally, not conditioned on external events. But for our expectations of that reality to be met, we must examine, understand, then change the intention behind our actions.
In terms of the election this may not involve changing who we vote for but instead why and how we understand our vote. What difference might it make, for instance, if our vote is based in our intention to affirm the democratic process or promote the good of all versus being based in the intention of sticking it to the other side or an unexamined attachment to vagaries of “winning”? On a grand scale maybe not a lot that we can see this time around. It takes a while to fill a glass one drop at a time, after all. But there’ll come a time when suddenly we realize, the glass is starting to fill. And we will start to inhabit a different world.
While pollsters, pundits, and political operatives vie for attention by telling us what to expect, let us turn our attention to something more impactful.
What intention will you bring to this election?
In the end, I don’t know what the intention behind my colleagues’s meditative practice was that blew up when another driver cut her off all those years ago. But I’m pretty sure if it was generous and she kept at it, then she sounds her horn, shouts expletives, and gestures less often than she once did even if she gets cut off just as much today. If so, I know she’s all the better for it. And, in a way, so are we.
May it be so.
Amen and Blessed Be
November 6, 2022
Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
Rev. Craig M. Nowak
It was well past 8:00am and the group was concerned. Our colleague was usually the first to arrive since she’d lived the closest of all of us. But this day she was late and no one had heard from her. Finally, she walked into the small hospital chapel looking frazzled. She apologized for being late and without further comment sat down. The question all of us were thinking, one among us finally asked aloud, “What happened?”
Now, I don’t remember why she said she was late, but I do remember that in the process of answering the question she described to us a practice that she had newly adopted when driving during rush hour. It was a meditation on breathing, which one can speak or, as with our colleague, sing. Indeed many Unitarian Universalist’s know it as hymn # 1009 “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones in Singing the Journey (The teal hymnal),
When I breathe in, I’ll breathe in peace.
When I breathe out, I’ll breathe out love.
So here’s our friend and colleague driving down the busy highway during the morning rush, singing these lovely words. One can imagine if the animators of old were to illustrate this scene, there would be birds resting on her shoulder whistling along, a squirrel or chipmunk blissfully inhaling and exhaling on the dashboard, and maybe a doe with long eyelashes in the back seat for good measure. Such a delightful image, so serene. And indeed it had been so until another driver, presumably not engaged in meditative practice zipped up alongside our colleague and cut her off.
Now, as I see it there are at least three things that could have happened next.
One, an accident, which thankfully didn’t happen.
Two, our colleague continued her practice unfazed by the other driver’s recklessness, which, by the way also didn’t happen.
And three; the one that did happen. Our colleague snapped out of her meditative bliss, promptly sounded her horn, shouted an expletive, and, just to make her point, added a gesture I can’t demonstrate from the pulpit.
Naturally, we all laughed. We laughed because we get it. We’ve all been there in one way or another. Only the most sanctimonious fraudster would claim never to have fallen short in their efforts at personal or spiritual growth and depth.
Still, while laughing is good, too often we leave it there and chalk up our shortfall to the catch all of just being human. And so the next time, we blow the horn, swear, gesture, and laugh again, and the next time same thing, and the next time same thing again until that cycle, rather than the original practice becomes our habit.
And the cycle will continue so long as it remains either unexamined or misunderstood.
Religions have long sought to help people examine and understand undesirable or unhelpful habits and establish or replace them with more beneficial ones.
Consider our first reading on peace this morning from the Daoist philosopher Lao Tse. Peace, Lao Tse reminds us cannot exist in the world until it is established in one’s heart. Yet how many among those who bemoan the sorry state of the world, who clamor for or claim peace as their cause, how many have cultivated it within themselves first?
“Maybe they’re trying.”, you might say.
And that’s certainly a possibility. I think my colleague was trying as she sang that meditation on breathing. If only that other driver hadn’t cut her off.
If only, indeed.
Of course, it was bound to happen.
I mean, What do you expect?
Expectations are curious things.
How often do we act without awareness of our expectations, to say nothing of what informs them?
Expectation features prominently in our second reading, The Four Spouses. As I hinted in my introduction to the reading, the Buddha reminded his followers all people have four spouses. Indeed in listening to the reading you have realized the four wives don’t refer to people at all. Instead, they represent what we all have: a body, material and social assets, relationships with others, and our mind or consciousness. The first three, though loved, hard won, and desirable, indeed so much so that we often obsess, covet, or cling to them as the story suggests…these three do not, in the end, accompany the dying man as expected. Nor will they accompany us. To these three, the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.”, applies.
Only the fourth spouse, representing the mind, that is, all that we’ve nurtured and held in our consciousness can and will follow wherever we go…right to the end and even beyond in ways we cannot predict.
The story is a reminder…indeed a warning, to pay attention to what we fill our minds with, lest we find ourselves unexpectedly wed to insufferable anger, hatred, cruelty, dissatisfaction, resentment, and the like.
Paying attention is another way of describing mindfulness. Nowadays we hear a lot about mindfulness and how important it is to spiritual, emotional, even physical health. Indeed mindfulness clears away illusions and shows us what is. Equally important however is that mindfulness shows us where we have a choice in the moment. The moment which is itself not a fixed thing, but an ongoing process, a process driven by the choices we make.
And this brings us to another traditional function of religion and religious teaching, which is to provide a basis for the choices we make. Values may first come to mind as a basis, but another common basis, especially when seeking to break a cycle and/or instill new, more beneficial habits, is intention. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
The spirit of that verse from 2 Corinthians (9:6) in the Christian New Testament is not unlike the Buddhist concept of karma. Karma, in Buddhism is actually quite a challenging concept and one that is far beyond the scope of a single sermon. Suffice it to say, contrary to popular belief and misunderstanding, karma, in Buddhism, is not synonymous with fate or cosmic justice nor does it seek to explain or justify the circumstances of our lives and what happens to us. For the Buddha karma concerns intention or intentionality and the effect our motivations or intentions have on our lives and by extension, the world.
As the Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal explains it, “To be somewhat simplistic about Buddhist karmic theory, it might go something like this: in whatever fuels an action, the fuel of an action produces more of itself….The karma theory of the Buddha”, then, as Fronsdal notes, “has to do with the causal chain, the causal conditions that are set in motion directly by our intentions.”
We see a similar causal connection at work in Lao Tse’s assertion that, if there is to be peace in the world, nations, cities, between neighbors, and in the home, there must first be peace in the heart. The intention behind our actions shape the conditions in which we live and experience the world. Not exclusively of course, we are subject after all to things like the laws of physics, inherited illness or health, and sometimes just plain luck, good or bad.
But consider the person, as Fronsdal suggests, who is regularly motivated by fear and an intent to protect oneself from the world. Unexamined this can become a pattern, a habitual way of life marked by a suspicious or hostile attitude toward others and difference. And which can make itself known in the body as well, through headaches, muscle tension, or seemingly mysterious ailments. All consequences that impact a person’s quality of life and relationships and which follows them everywhere they go and colors every interaction in the world.
The far reaching impact of intention has been front of mind for me as Tuesday’s election approaches. A lot of us, most of us, even, are concerned about the imperiled state of our democracy. The past several years have seen the erosion of respect for democratic norms, trust in democratic institutions fall to alarming lows, and a disregard for and overturning of legal precedents upon which people rely and plan their lives. Further those who hold political views different than one’s own are seen less as members of a loyal opposition than as mortal enemies worthy of ridicule, humiliation, and in the minds of the most extreme, annihilation.
Who could be blamed then for feeling fearful in such times?
Surely, no one.
Still, if it is true that peace in the world begins with peace in the heart and if it is true “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously,” that “causal conditions are set in motion directly by our intentions,”and, as the seventh principle of Unitarian Universalism asserts, we are part of an interdependent web of existence, a reality we covenant to affirm and promote…If these be true, what then do you expect if the basis of our actions is fear, hatred, or revenge?
If the wisdom of the ages is true, and I believe it is, we can expect more of the same…more fear, more hatred, more dreams of settling scores. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to add more of any of these to the world. But we can’t just passively hope for something different to magically emerge.
We must expect a different reality. A reality shaped and grounded internally, not conditioned on external events. But for our expectations of that reality to be met, we must examine, understand, then change the intention behind our actions.
In terms of the election this may not involve changing who we vote for but instead why and how we understand our vote. What difference might it make, for instance, if our vote is based in our intention to affirm the democratic process or promote the good of all versus being based in the intention of sticking it to the other side or an unexamined attachment to vagaries of “winning”? On a grand scale maybe not a lot that we can see this time around. It takes a while to fill a glass one drop at a time, after all. But there’ll come a time when suddenly we realize, the glass is starting to fill. And we will start to inhabit a different world.
While pollsters, pundits, and political operatives vie for attention by telling us what to expect, let us turn our attention to something more impactful.
What intention will you bring to this election?
In the end, I don’t know what the intention behind my colleagues’s meditative practice was that blew up when another driver cut her off all those years ago. But I’m pretty sure if it was generous and she kept at it, then she sounds her horn, shouts expletives, and gestures less often than she once did even if she gets cut off just as much today. If so, I know she’s all the better for it. And, in a way, so are we.
May it be so.
Amen and Blessed Be