January meeting for reverence

This month saw the end of our second year of meeting as Unitarians, friends, visitors and explorers in Ringwood.  To mark this, the theme of our gathering on Sunday 10th January was “Community – out of the many, one”.  It was therefore lovely to be able to welcome some new faces and voices to the meeting.

As is our normal practice, the chalice flame was lit, and the words of the day came from the Maitri Upanishad (translated by Eknath Easwaran), “One becomes like that which is in one’s mind – this is the everlasting secret.”

As usual our gathering included a chance to silently recite one’s own credo; also some hymns from our hymnbook Hymns for Living.  We included a sustained period of silence for meditation, prayer or reflection, and we made space for each other to voice any joys or concerns, accompanied by candle lighting.

The two readings for the day were taken from the oriental philosophy Taoism and a commentary on the Hindu Upanishad scriptures, both focusing on unity.

The Hindu ideas included Mohandas Gandhi’s view that there should be a movement of the heart towards unity with others.  And that, before getting to complete unity as humankind, we must use as stepping stones the intermediate social groupings that arise from natural differences between persons: “... groupings are a sort of bridge between the unity – toward which all must be allowed to work – and the individuality – from which we each start.” (Eknath Easwaran)

The Taoist reading was a legend of a time before history, when people lived in harmony and union with all creation, without making distinctions, without making relative judgements, and without leaving any trace of their existence.  The legend speaks of a time when there was no division into good/bad, just/unjust, wise/naive, competent/incompetent; a time when there was natural good conduct and benevolence, merely because no one had imagined there to be anything else.

Also during the gathering, the president for the day took up the challenge that is beginning to circulate round Unitarian circles in our district, which is to speak frankly about one’s own beliefs, experiences and outlook, rather than to tiptoe around the subject.  This is what she said.

“I have not so far found any test for being a Christian that I pass.  I do not call myself a Christian.  Primarily I combine a somewhat Taoist approach with some Hindu ideas.  Like Taoists, I find my source and inspiration in my observation of what goes on around me, in the natural world – and I find myself using the epithets “All That Is”, or “What Is Everywhere”.  This leads to the idea of oneness.  In contrast, in Hinduism there is a lot of talk of being a self (small s) in relation to Self (capital S); in other words, there is relatedness as a result of twoness.  At heart it is often twoness or relatedness, with its possibility of exchange and grace, that atheists reject. The Buddha was silent on the matter.  Whereas, I feel this idea of relatedness very deeply. It occurs in Paganism; and also in Judaism, from whence Christianity, Islam and hence Sikhism have inherited it.   But when Christianity talks about relatedness, it uses the formula of the Trinity to express it; and I cannot accept that traditional formula.  Therefore my personal witness is that there is, at one at the same time, both oneness and relatedness, which is a mystery I cannot explain, only experience.  So you see, I love the Hindu proverb that says,

You think you understand two, because you understand one, and one and one are two.

But first you must understand ‘and’.

I accept that all the lasting faiths and belief systems recognise the requirement to live well together, if humans are to survive.  But of all the faiths, it is Christianity that deals a lot with living with others – some of the other faiths are much less vivid about it – which is why, when I think about community, I tend to read stuff from Christianity.”