How does a person awaken?

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of another and encouragement to spiritual growth. What is this "spiritual growth" to which the principle refers? In the perennial psychology the epitome of spiritual growth is called enlightnement or awakening.

How does a person achieve enlightenment or awaken? According to Steve Taylor in his book, The Leap, there are three ways: a small number of people are born awake (They have been called "old souls"), some awaken gradually, and some awake in a miraculous moment often induced in a crisis.

The greatest number of people reaching enlightenment are probably in category two, the gradual awakeners. These are people who engage in spiritual practices such as prayer, fasting, meditation, community service in mindful ways, spiritual reading, etc.

Awakening has several associations in psychology such as emotional intelligence and Murray Bowen's concept of "differentiation." Both EQ and differentiation require self knowledge, self control, motivation, empathy, and social skills (interpersonal connections called in religious language agape or love).

The first two aspects of EQ: self knowledge and self control get the biggest focus in religious practices. Shedding the ego, undoing social conditioning, leaving the path of the ego to enter onto the path of the spirit, is the road to enlightenment.

UUAWOL minstries - ethical judgment and decision making - ethical judgment and pleasing authority

Today we begin a new column on UUAWOL which is part of our UUAWOL ministries. One of the programs of UUAWOL ministries is ethical discernment and decision making training. Here is our first component on ethical judgment and pleasing authority figures.

 

Is the time ripe for Unitarian Universalist renewal?

The time is ripe for Unitarian Universalist renewal. Unitarian Universalism has been stagnant if not slightly declining over the last couple of decades. More and more UUs have left the faith having become disenchanted with a lack of clarity of its teachings, and a sense of mission and vision.

In American society there are increasing numbers of "nones," people, who on survey, say that they have no religious affiliation. In this sense, America is becoming less religious and yet there is a spiritual poverty in the nation with increases in suicide rates, depression, anxiety, inequality, and pessimism that one's children and grandchildren will not have better lives than the one that parents and grandparents have lived and are living.

The quality of life and sense of well being is stagnant and in spite of social media, the experience of human connection and bonding has deteriorated with an increasing sense of division and polarization in our social lives. The idea of truth, itself, is being questioned with the idea of individual opinion and celebrity pronouncements being the "news" of the day, and the President of the United States tells the nation that the "news" is all fake and journalists, whose job it is is to report the facts, are the "enemy of the American people."

Into this moral vacuum and nihilism steps Unitarian Universalism with its covenantal idea of bonding together to affirm and promote seven principles of uplift and the understanding of existence. Why hasn't Unitarian Universalism attracted more participants and spread its good news about how to create and enjoy the good life? There are many reasons, but perhaps the biggest, is its failure to create a viable institutional structure to support the activities necessary to carry out the mission to sanctify the world and facilitate the growth and holiness of its members.

And so a renewal is called for at all levels of the church. This renewal will consist of:

1. Review, revision, and re-commitment to the mission of the church.
2. Thickening of imagination and enthusiasm for the vision of the church.
3. Development of new activities of education, worship, and service implemented with focus, patience, and persistence to achieve the goals articulated in service of the mission to sanctify the world and promote the realization of holiness of its members.
4. Delegation of responsibilities and authority to lead, coordinate, implement, evaluate, and adjust activities in goal achievement.
5. Celebration of efforts and achievements of individuals, churches, regions, and institutional bodies.

The time for renewal is now. The time is ripe. It starts wherever you find yourself. Ask the kindred spirits in your covenantal community to help. Pick your project. Get started.

UUAWOL ministries - First principle, values component

Values component of first principle

The UUAWOL ministry aspires to enhance the UU covenant to affirm and promote its seven principles. We are working on the principles one at a time and considering how to affirm and promote them by enhancing knowledge, skills, and values so as to enhance our individual holiness and sanctify the world. Below is the value component of the first principle - the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

The value component of the first principle, inherent worth and dignity of every person, requires the member to be consciously aware of their choice to value the encompassing worth of each and every human being because they are part of the divine creation. This valuing in the first principle is very much based on the seventh principle which is the respect and love for the interdependent web of existence.

This value component also asks us to be aware of any biases we may unconsciously harbor against “the other.” To clarify our values we must be honest with ourselves and purify ourselves from our egos. Values clarification involves four steps: awareness, acknowledgement, choice, behavior. Here are some questions to help clarify your values about the first principle.

1.      What kind of people do I like best and like least? Why?

2.      Have I ever admitted to myself or others my biases? When? Who?

3.      How have I taken steps to rise above my biases?

4.      How has becoming aware of my biases influenced my behavior?

The requirement for the successful completion of this component is that you tell someone the results of this inventory.

Is the UUA a Tower Of Babel?

To what extent do the UU pastors consult with and support the UUA? It seems that UU pastors operate independently of the UUA and have no significant role in supporting it and governing it. What would happen if the UU Ministerial Association were to be the sole electors of the UUA president?

The UUA functions as a grass roots organization.  Its structure and function hampers the growth and extension of the covenant. The church  has no clearly defined structure within which to promulgate its teachings, values, and practices. This function is left to the individual congregations. The UUA seems to see itself as consulting and a resource but not governing. Without an overarching structure Unitarian Univeralism is doomed to fail. Unitarian Universalism is a good example of the modern day Tower of Babel.

UUAWOL ministries - First principle, skill component

The UUAWOL ministries aspires to enhance the UU covenant to affirm and promote its seven principles. We are working on the principles one at a time and considering how to affirm and promote them by enhancing knowledge, skills, and values so as to enhance our individual holiness and sanctify the world. Below is the skill component of the first principle - the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Implementing the first principle through skill training takes actions. To implement this principle in action you are being asked to extend yourself to the other. Here are some ideas: visit a temple, synagogue, stake, church of a denomination or religion that you are unfamiliar with. Meet the people and ask about their religious practices. Write a brief report or tell someone about the differences you learned about between your own people and other,  and the things that are held in common.

Another idea would be to visit an ethnic festival in your area of a nationality or ethnicity you are not familiar with. Notice the difference in language, music, art, clothing, food, manners and etiquette, religion, family life, etc. Tell someone about your experience, preferably back at church.

At the very least you can read a novel, watch a movie, visit a restaurant that is different from your own upbringing and culture. Report what you have learned.

We all are familiar with the Golden rule, but consider and enact the Platinum rule which is “Do under to others as they would have you do unto them.” To enact the Platinum rule it is presumed that you understand the preferences of the other.

The purpose of this skill training is to enhance the common bonds of humanity. Every person, no matter how foreign or different, has inherent worth and dignity. Overcoming our fears of the different and unfamiliar is the key to this first principle. It is scary and challenging but the benefits for our journey to holiness and the sanctification of the world are enormous.

Do you know how to get to the promised land?

One of the problems with Unitarian Univeralism which hinders its growth and acceptance in a society to which it hopes to sanctify is a misunderstanding of the fourth principle which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This is often interpreted as meaning that Unitarian Universalism is a creedless religion, that there is no doctrine, and that the seeker can seek whatever he/she wants. Not really. This is anarchy and nihilism which does not contribute to the creation of a cohesive covenant.

Francis David, the Unitarian pioneer in the sixteenth century famously said that we need not think alike to love alike and in his famous, and often quoted maxim, Francis David reframes the spiritual search from a cognitive activity to an experiential one.

As human beings we have a head and a heart. A well integrated personality uses both in alignment. The head and heart are working together in harmonious cooperation. There is no imbalance. Some people spend too much time in their head and not enough in their heart, and some people spend too much time in their heart and not enough in their head. Spiritual and psychological peace is realized when head and heart are in balance, what psychologists call "congruence."

In our search for sainthood, holiness, awakening, enlightenment, buddahood we are mis-served by the idea that anything goes and its every person for him/her self. The Unitarian Universalist church asks us to covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles. It is this covenant and these principles that provide the path to sainthood. The belief that this covenant and these principles will facilitate our spiritual growth is the basis of our faith. It is of concern that this faith in the covenant and principles is so often out of focus, disregarded, marginalized, ignored in our Sunday morning worship. The covenant and principles are rarely the topic of sermons and other elements of UU liturgies and therefore the people are mystified, oblivious to the key to the teachings of their purported faith.

If Unitarian Univeralism is to survive and grow it needs to be rejuvenated and revived. It has been on death support now for some time. It is time to uplift the path for the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is the covenant  to affirm and promote the seven principles. This path is journeyed with both our heads and hearts and it is a path that will take us to the promised land. As W. Edwards Deming said, "If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there."