Two new labels have been added to UUAWOL: most popular and most important in the previous month. The most popular is the post with the most clicks, and the most important is one of the posts that best contributes to the achievement of the goals of this site.
The most important goal of UUAWOL is to create a frame of reference, a model, a cognitive map of how one can pursue a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The search is an inward search into our own being and not an external search into the world of perception fraught with illusions. The post below, first published on 11/11/17, describes a world of experience not one of data measurement. It highlights the desire to see beyond the ego world of perception to a vision of oneness and wholeness, what UUs call the "interdependent web of all existence." This is a vision of the transcendent. This is a vision of something far bigger of which we are a part than just our individual egos to which we become attached in such desperate ways. Sometimes circumstances in our lives pry us lose from this attachment and we get a glimpse beyond. It is this in which we put our faith and wish to dwell.
Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search will lead us to vision which excludes judgment. The vision is not about information, validation, accuracy. It is about love and peace. It is about heaven on earth which cannot be empirically validated. It is not of this world. The vision of standing on the side of love cannot be measured. It is beyond measurement. In the last analysis it is experienced as a matter of faith.
Every now and then we get a glimpse that there must be something more to life. There is a faint memory of a time and place of comfort, peace, security, and well being. People in distress sometimes say, "I can't stand this any more. I can't go on. There are times when I wish I wasn't here."
"Do you have suicidal ideas, " I ask?
"Yeah, I do sometimes," is the answer.
"What keeps you from acting on your ideas," I ask?
"My kids, my dog, my ___________."
"Well, it's a wonder, given how miserable you are, that you haven't killed yourself by now," I say.
"I just can't bring myself to do it. I guess things aren't really that bad. I keep hoping that things will get better."
And it is this hope that keeps the person from ending their earthly life. And what does this hope consist of and where does it come from and how does it work?
"What is it that you are hoping will be different if you go on living," I ask?
"I just want things to be okay."
"Things are okay already if you could see beyond the drama in your life," I say.
"I guess," is the reply.
And there is a glimpse of a vision of heaven and peace on earth which has been blocked out by the workings of the ego. We have to admit that we are not in charge, not in control, not the agent of cure. We have to recognize, acknowledge, and surrender to a power far greater than our own and let go. In the letting go, we paradoxically experience peace.
