Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, July 13, 2003

by Ron Sebring

Lateral Spirituality

The founder of Buddhism, Prince Siddhartha, was born around 560 B.C.E.  Some scholars see him as one of the characters in what they call the Axial Age.

• Taoism and Confucianism were taking root in China during this age.

• This includes the era when the Hebrews were coming back from Exile to put together an understanding of their history – what we now have as the Hebrew Bible or as we sometimes call it, the "Old Testament."

Thinking at this time became the foundation for Rabbinical Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which were to develop generations later. All over the globe, independent of one another and yet collectively, the whole consciousness of humanity changed. It moved from a diffuse sense of community (and the human and animal sacrifices thought to be necessary to maintain community) to a strong sense of Divine-Human individuality within community.  This change of consciousness included a new sense of how the individual, and a collective community of individuals, might grow toward holiness and spiritual perfection.

Each major religion in our world today (excepting the indigenous religions) has its roots in this span of two or three centuries that we call the Axial Age.  Each major religion contributes something unique to this new line of growth.  And so it was with Prince Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, born somewhere around 560 B.C.E. He founded Buddhism by showing up in Deer Park and preaching a sermon in which he outlined the Four Noble Truths.

1) All life is suffering ( Dukkha). No matter how rich or poor we are, young or old, strong or frail … eventually, we all come to grief, or disappointment, or despair. And we do so because nothing in life is permanent.  Nothing is smooth … somewhere, at some time, there’s a struggle.  And eventually, all things come to an end.  Life, ultimately, is a loosing battle.

2) The cause of suffering is attachment, or identification (Tanha).  This is of central importance to Buddhism, and is often misunderstood.  This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get attached; life would be cold if we walked around unattached. Tanha is the simple recognition and acceptance that attachment is the underlying cause of all suffering.

3) The release from suffering is not about getting rid of our attachments.  The release from suffering comes as we learn to accept them, and embrace them, and hold them in the context of a deeper perspective.  The affirmation of Buddhism is that this is possible with a fundamental change of consciousness -- realizing something deeper, Nirvana.

4) There is an eightfold path for doing this, and the various explorations of these eight principles form the differing practices of Buddhism.  Please know that Buddhism is not unique in facing the reality of suffering.  Everything in Judaism (from slavery in Egypt, through Job, to the Holocaust) emerges from claiming dignity and taking a creative relationship to suffering.  One of the fundamental symbols of Christianity is the cross.  There is a profound consilience among the world’s religions in how they face this fundamental truth – the inevitability of suffering.                                                                                                   [TOP]

The gift of Prince Siddhartha is not just these four truths.  What makes him a torchbearer in our windows is the path he followed to find these truths.  For if we look closely at his path, we may find in ourselves what fundamentally motivates anyone to make a spiritual quest.  Prince Siddhartha was born into wealth and power. He was in line to be king.  His father wanted to prepare him to be king, so he set out to give Siddhartha everything he would need for that role.  • He studied mathematics, and languages.  • He was trained with physical prowess -- archery, wrestling, horsemanship.  • He was exposed to the arts -- fine music, and the study of paintings and form.  He had every luxury and opportunity he could want, all locked up in the walls of the palace.  His father left orders that he was not to see the suffering in the world.  But one day, as curious little boys do, he slipped out of the palace to look upon what he was not supposed to.  He saw old age … how it destroys memory and strength.  He saw sickness and disease … where once healthy bodies don’t work like they are designed.  On his third adventure from the palace, he saw death for the first time.  He saw poverty, and injustice, and the suffering of humanity.  In short, he experienced in a profound way, the impermanence of everything.

Nothing lasts. How can we have peace, when we know where it all goes?  The parallel story in the Bible is the writer of Ecclesiastes.  It was Siddhartha's profound sense of impermanence that drove him to search for the key to inner peace and human happiness.  He found it in perfecting consciousness, which enables us NOT to purge life of grief, put to embrace it at a deeper level.  Spirituality is in the perfection of consciousness, for it is ONLY the flow of consciousness itself that has continuity, even beyond death, and is in any sense, permanent.  In other words, the underlying key to spirituality is not in anything vertical, like believing in certain creeds in order to reach the heights of heaven or doing certain practices to eventually realize the depths of nirvana.  Spirituality is lateral. It is in coming to the flow itself, the process in the moment. It is in the verbs, and has nothing to do with a plethora of nouns.                            [TOP]

Why is George Washington Carver in our Windows, down the row?  He was born in1864 and died in1943 … which would have made him alive and coming into his own during the time of Dr. Cross and the formation of Northbrae.  I believe he was one of the key inspirations for the formation of Northbrae.  An African American man born in the state of Missouri during the time of slavery, he lost his father to an accident and  his mother, kidnapped by night raiders. His slave owners raised him until slavery was abolished.  After that, he was pretty much on his own.  He taught himself to read and write, and developed a love for education.  He became a famous agriculture researcher at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and responsible for over 300 products developed from peanuts, including peanut butter, milk substitutes, printer’s ink, and soap. And too, over 100 products from sweet potatoes including shoe polish, flower and candy.  His significance is far more than exemplifying the faith and courage to make something from nothing.  He changed the economic base of the South by making it more profitable for farmers to grow peanuts and sweet potatoes than cotton.  He erased the economic foundation that had made slavery possible, thus becoming both a hero in black history and paving the way of integration and improved race relations.  Like Pastor Robinson, I don’t believe doing all this was in pursuit of a foreseen result.  All this came about by doing the very best with what he had, in each moment.                                                               [TOP]

Years ago, as a young minister, I served as a counselor at a youth camp.  My co-counselor was a woman from a nearby town, a teacher in the public schools.  I had a background with the Boy Scouts, and enjoyed the great outdoors.  For her, the outdoors was not so great … and seemed to loom over her like a formidable presence.  One night, everyone stayed late at the mess hall for vespers, and our group had to make a quarter mile trek back to the cabins, along a narrow wooded trail.  It was a rich starry night, but under a new moon we had little moonlight.  She brought a flashlight for the trip. I did not.  I teased her about that flashlight, and suggested we could actually see more without it.  The flashlight lit up a six-foot circle in front of our group, and made the surrounded woods seem ominous.  Night sounds, like a twig snapping at a change of temperature.  Some little animal scampered across the trail behind us. She screamed. Then everyone else in the group screamed.  At that, I insisted we turn off that flashlight … just for an experiment.  In a few moments, our eyes acclimated to the darkness, and the whole world opened up, before us.  Deep, rich shadows in sharp relief with branches and bushes.  The whole world around us lit up under the starlight.  Harsh darkness turned to soft darkness -- she and the whole group were amazed.  Sounds turned from threatening to friendly.  A different world!  So much of the time, we think about how to get back to life’s cabin.  We live life for the goal and not the journey.  And we take along whatever convenience we think will make our journey easier.  But life is never about reaching the goal, but rather about making the journey.  It’s almost as if the goal is little more than an excuse for being here.  The only thing that is real, is the moment.  The past lives only in our memories, and the future, in our imagination.  The only thing that is real, is the moment.  The only thing that constitutes destiny, … is the sum of our moments.  So critical, this key to happiness: learning how to celebrate the temporary.  For when the temporary is gone … the spirit of celebration continues.

© Ron Sebring                                                                                         [TOP]