Don't believe everything you think

Today is the last day of September, 2014, and we are finishing up the theme of the month which has been on the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. In October, 2014, the theme of the month is the fifth principle which is the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large,

The fourth principle is a huge topic covered by the philosophical field of epistomology, how do we know what we know if we know anything at all? One frame of reference teaches that there are four ways of acquiring knowledge about the world: perception, language, reason, and emotion. In the last two hundred years science has contributed a great deal to the advance on the evolutionary trajectory of homo sapiens by providing practices of perception, language, and reason. Science looks primarily at the external world. Religion has focused on the internal world. Jesus told us that the kingdom is within us, not out there.

Perhaps the key concept is awareness and consciousness, what Osho calls intelligence. The world is populated with "educated idiots" who know a lot about the phenomena of the world, but their values are perverted and so we wind up with Hirsohima, environmental degradation contributing to the extinction of species, etc.

People look to religion for a value system which will facilitate wise decision making about what we do with our knowledge and skills. Unitarian Universalism, relying on its six sources, has come up with seven principles, or what I think of as values, to guide our decision making about how to create the "good life" for ourselves and others.

My favoritie bumper sticker reads, "Don't believe everything you think." Indeed. May it be so.

Does Santa exist?

Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner speaking at the UN Climate Leaders Summit in 2014

People's climate change march

http://democracynow.org - New York City is set to host what could be the largest climate change protest in history. Organizers expect more than 100,000 people to converge for a People's Climate March on Sunday. Some 2,000 solidarity events are scheduled around the world this weekend ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations climate summit. We spend the hour with four participants representing the labor, indigenous, faith and climate justice communities: Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is the president of Union Theological Seminary, which recently voted to divest from fossil fuels; Lidy Nacpil is a member of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice; Clayton Thomas-Muller is co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign in Canada and a member of the Idle No More campaign; and Estela Vázquez is executive vice president of 1199 SEIU, which is expected to bring thousands of union members to the march.



 I'd love to hear from any UUs who were at the march.

Interesting comments from Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President of the Union Theological Seminary.

People's march in Manhatten for positive world changes in climate change policy on 09/21/14

Is weeping a spiritual practice?

Linda McCullough Moore tells a poignant story in her book of short stories, This Road Will Take Us Closer To The Moon, entitled, "Freeing Spirits". This is a story about attending a rememberance ceremony at the college in the narrator's town where they are freeing the souls, after sixty years, of the people we killed at Hiroshima by making floating laterns which they launch out on the water.

Moore writes, "I'm thinking that if it's that simple, why didn't they do it sixty years ago?"

I'm thinking, why did America do this to begin with?

And I am reminded once again of our Unitarian Universalist second principle of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations and weep.

Weeping. My spiritual practice for today.

Can you find the truth trying to teach pigs to sing?

Bob was called into his supervisor's office and asked, "Have you stopped stealing from the company yet. Just answer me 'yes' or 'no'. I don't need to hear justifications, explanations, rationalizations!"

Bob said, "I can't answer 'yes' or 'no' the way you have asked the question. If I say 'yes' it implies I have stolen from the company in the past and have stopped, and if I say 'no' it implies that I have stolen in the past and continue to do so."

"I don't want any of your smart mouth and double talking," said the supervisor. "I just want to get to the bottom of this situation where things are missing and our accounts are short every month."

"I can't help you," said Bob.

"You're a liar and a thief!" shouted the supervisor. "You're fired."

And Bob being a Unitarian Universalist believed in the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, but this was not the way to go about the search. Bob said to his supervisor, "You can never find the right answers if you don't ask the right questions. With the kind of leadership you are providing to this company, it will go down the drain eventually. It can't survive with its current managerial mind set and practice."

"That's right, college boy, you're the smart one who's got all the answers. We'll be better off when you're gone," said the supervisor.

What's the moral of the story? As Jesus said, "Don't throw pearls before swine." As a wise friend of mine said, "Did you hear the joke about the farmer who tried to teach his pig to sing?"

"No, I haven't," I said.

"Frustrated the heck out of the farmer and annoyed the heck out of the pig."

We both laughed vigorously. I think they call it  "guffawing."