Sunday, June 4, 2000
Rev. Annie Holmes

Most of the great religious traditions of our world have within them the idea of a vision quest.  The concept in a quest is that a person needs to travel to a place, sometimes a place that is away from home, a place that may even be strange and dangerous in order to --- in order to learn something about themselves and their place upon the earth. Often this journey is spiritual.

Spirituality is about connection.  Spirituality is about energy. If you have trouble with the word spirituality, then do the UU thing and translate. For me this spirituality word, and most religious language has to do with connection; my connection to myself, my connection to others and of course, my connection to the earth. I personally don't care what others mean by religious words, I know what I mean, and after being a UU for the last 12 years, I have learned to translate. I don't miss the power and the strength of the words or concepts that way, I simply take it upon myself to do the work of my own growth and learning, and I translate, spirituality = connection and energy.  We lose so much if we simply complain that the world's religions do not speak our language. We sacrifice the moment if we fail to grab the intent of our life and simply in awe and wonder learn from other traditions as we are creating our own. 

No one, I repeat, no one but you is going to do the hard work of translating and envisioning your life of wholeness, happiness and peace.  So, at this time and place let us never again say, that word or that phrase, or that idea doesn't mean anything to me, or I don't know what that means, take the religious bull by the horns and make the connection in your own life, for your own needs. Decide where it is that you want to put your energy and, translate, translate, translate. This translation is what a vision quest is all about. What we have in every religious belief, custom or doctrine  is someone's interpretation of the world, an event, an experience.  Hence, each of us needs, in some way, to quest for the vision that will enable us to live out our connections to ourselves, each other and the earth.

A vision quest is done for the purpose of self-improvement.  We could design it so it would give us a deeper insight into the why of our being here. Take an hour, take an afternoon, a day, a week this summer and assess your connections. It is said in many religious traditions that there is a veil, a scrim, even a layer of scum that lays between us and truth, us and a deeper understanding, us and a clear vision.  We live in the midst of so many toxins.  If there are poisons in our air and our food and water, in our blood and our lungs, why would there not be contagion's in our spirits too? 

It's not too late, Erma Bombeck tells us from her grave. It's not too late as Unitarian Universalists to quest for either a new vision, or a deep understanding of ourselves and our place upon this earth.  The quest can be a special opportunity to observe yourself and your loved ones and nature in a different way.

In many religious traditions the person who is about to quest, is trained by the elders. They are taught how to live and where to go, how to fast or diet, what to eat or drink, or not, and how far to take yourself even in a physically challenging way.  As UUs we may feel bereft of leaders, elders or pathfinders, but we are not.  They are here among us. There are those from other traditions and there is us!  Our fourth principle reminds us, with the help from all the sources we have been given, we can become our own best teachers, elders and examples.  The trick is to listen, learn and translate.

About two years ago, after years of changing and my life moving at the speed of light, I hit a wall, a plateau, a comfort zone and there I have happily stayed until now. But once again, as when I started on this path of change,  I'm greedy, I'm searching, I want it all. I want deep, lasting true happiness. I want peace in my life. I want the growling bear of desire for more goods and more pay and more and more and more to be silent! But plateaus, comfort zones are ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so nice. You can just get in there and ease yourself down and be.c-o-m-f-o-r-t-a-b-l-e. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!  But comfortable is often afraid of change. Comfortable wants to promote itself, more comfort. Comfort can be lazy, fearful, only wanting to isolate and repeat more of its own existence. 

Think of it - experts tell us, we use only a portion of our brain power, a piece of our talents, a smidgen of our abilities.  Think of it, we only flirt at being connected, we hear only whispers of what it would mean to be in tune with ourselves, our lives, the earth.  We are like the person standing before a large painting in a museum and it is covered with canvass with only a small corner of it showing. There's no one around to give the person permission to see the whole picture.  We are that person glimpsing only a tiny fraction of the possibilities of our lives.  We have only a impression of how beautiful it truly is, and do we have the permission to pull the canvass away and see it in its entirety?  Well, I have asked myself that very question for years.and this summer I have decided to take my spirituality, my power, my energy and open myself up to a vision quest and get off this plateau, walk away from the wall, stand back from my life for a period of time, however long it takes and translate what I have learned from other faith systems and quest for a deeper vision.

I have certainly gone on trips without being properly prepared.  I'm old enough now to know I want to be prepared, I want the most out of my time. I want a vision for this next phase of my life, and by golly I am going to take the time and do what I need to do to move gracefully and with eyes wide open into this next phase of my religious, spiritual growth. Do I know what it will look like?  No, of course not.  Do I know where I am going or what I am supposed to do?  No, of course not. But, can I be prepared?  Of course.  And you better bet I am going to take the wisdom and insight of other faith traditions with me.

Maybe because I am UU, and a unique person who has not passed this way before,  I will translate what I have learned from other traditions and use their centuries of wisdom and knowledge to equip me for my vision quest.  Why should I go this alone and simply throw away all the insight and understandings of thousands of years of grappling with life's toughest questions by millions of people, simply because they don't express their truths in my language?  No, I will take them on my journey.

 I believe that all people in all times and in all places are looking for one thing, happiness.  In my studies I have found that seven of the world's religions stand out for me in their genuineness and truth in their search for happiness.  So,  symbolically here is what I will take from these seven religions - seven roads of happiness have been given me as gifts of survival, on my quest for a vision.

A reading from Buddhism. Sidhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, approached the problem of life in his Four Nobel Truths as a therapist would help a patient.  First there are the symptoms, next is the diagnosis and, lastly, the eightfold path was the course of treatment.
The Four Noble Truths
1.  Everyone and everything in existence suffers.
2.  Suffering is caused by selfishness, greed and desire.
3.  Selfishness greed and desire can be stopped.
4.  They can be stopped by following these eight steps.
1. Believe only what is true -  or right belief
2.  Live in a loving, nonviolent way, or right purpose
3.  Learn to speak well of others, or right speech
4.  Treat yourself well, but no not overindulge, or right conduct
5.  Choose a good occupation, or right vocation
6.  Be alert and sensitive about life, or right effort.
7.  Train your mind to think clearly, or right thought
8.  Meditate regularly on the meaning of life, or right meditation

From the Buddhist tradition I take a compass. Buddhism has its beginnings with the life of Siddhartha Gautama in about 570 BCE, Siddhartha later became the Buddha, or the one who woke up.  He lived for a while in the palace of India, as the son of the King. But after believing that suffering was the root of all evil in the world, he joined an aesthetic band of monks for seven years. Asceticism did not work for Siddhartha. Rather by following what he called the middle path, he reformed his native Hinduism of India. He is quoted as saying, "Pull the rope too tight and it will break leave it slack and it will not play. To learn is to change. The path to enlightenment is the middle way, it is the line between all opposites extremes." The compass will remind me to continually look for the middle way.

Judeo-Christian ~ Reading
 Joshua 1:6-9
Be strong and stand firm, for you, Joshua,  are the man to give this people possession of the land that I swore to their fathers I should give to them.  Only be strong and stand firm and be careful to keep all the Law which my servant Moses laid on you.  Never swerve from this to right or left, and then you will be happy in all you do.  Have the book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may carefully keep everything that is written in it. Then you will prosper in your dealings, then you will have success.  Have I not told you: Be strong and stand firm?  Be fearless then, be confident, for go where you will, Yahweh your God is with you.

From this tradition I take on my vision quest, a book.  For the Jews there is no authority to equal the book. You can understand a bit why there is this reverence for the book when you understand that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed for the 3rd and final time in 70 CE and has never been built again. So the Jews have traveled the globe over looking for a home, and what holds them together is the word. So too for the Christians. The words and deeds of Jesus hold them together and they know they are part of a family of believers wherever they travel. I take books, all kinds of books with me on the journey knowing the challenge, the power they hold of new truths, new ideas, new ways of looking at things, of helping me release old belief patterns and try on new ones. I thank the Judeo-Christian tradition for the belief of the power of the word.

Taoism ~ Reading
from the Tao te Ching
Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.

The more you know,
the less you understand.

The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.

If Taoism gives me nothing else, it gives me a sense of the importance of humor. So as a symbol of this tradition, I take bubbles. As I blow the bubbles on my journey I will remember to let go, go with the flow, not to take myself or life too seriously, and a reminder to don't worry, be happy. The bubbles are symbols of remembering all work and no play makes me a very dull person.

Hindu ~ Reading
from the Upanishads.   The word is a sanskrit verb meaning to sit, or in this case, sitting at the feet of the master. The Upanishads are a collection of philosophical writings from the classical teachers of Hinduism. "He is becoming one, he does not see, they say;/ he is becoming one, he does not smell, they say;/ he is becoming one, he does not taste, they say;/ he is becoming one, he does not think, they say;/ he is becoming one, he does not touch, they say;/ he is becoming one, he does not know they say.  The point his heart becomes lighted up and by the light the self departs either through the eye or through the head or through the apertures of the body.  And when he thus departs, life departs after him."

It is often important on the vision quest to see into the distance to be ready for what is coming, so from the Hindu tradition I take binoculars. This is truly an ancient religion of tolerance and a desire to learn from all others. Hence they have 330,000,000 gods and goddesses!  I too want to learn from others and see far into the distance. Thanks to my Hindu brothers and sisters for the gift of sight.

Islam ~ Reading
from the Quran
It is not piety, that you turn your faces to the East and to the West.
True piety is this; to believe in God and the Last Day,
the angels, the Book, the Prophets,
to give of substance, however cherished,
to kinsmen, and orphans,
the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to ransom the slave,
to perform the prayer, to pay the alms.
And they who fulfill their covenant
when they have engaged in a covenant,
and endure with fortitude
misfortune, hardship and peril
these are they who are true in their faith,
these are the truly godfearing.

Sometimes on the road of the quest, you need to cut your way through the garbage and what is holding you back from the vision. So, from the Islamic tradition I bring a knife.  Because all Muslims consider themselves revolutionaries who champion the cause of human freedom against human masters everywhere, I will learn from their bravery, their courage, their fearlessness and with my knife travel places that may be dangerous and do it with the heroism of a vision quester.

Native American ~ Reading
from the Sioux Legend of the Buffalo Maiden

"Now my dear brothers and sisters, in giving you this pipe, you are expected to use it for nothing but good purposes.  The tribe as a whole shall depend upon it for their necessary needs. You realize that all your necessities of life come from the earth below, the sky above, and the four winds.  Whenever you do anything wrong against these elements, they will always take some revenge upon you.  You should reverence them and offer sacrifices through this pipe.

A religion as old as humanity here in North America, I take from the Native Americans along with me on my journey, seeds. The ultimate goal of the Indians is to live in harmony with the earth and each other. Arrows fly to heaven as a symbol of prayer, beads link the tribes together, and I will plant seeds on my journey trying to honor the earth wherever my feet touch.

Unitarian Universalism ~ Reading
from "A Chosen Faith" a reading by Ed Schemp

Unitarian Universalism is cooperation with a universe that created us; it is celebration of life; it is being in love with goodness and justice; it is a sense of humor about absolutes.  Unitarian Universalism is faith in people, hope for tomorrow's child, confidence in a continuity that spans all time. It looks not to a perfect heaven, but toward a good earth.  It is respectful of the past, but not limited to it.  It is trust in growing and conspiracy with change. It is spiritual responsibility for a moral tomorrow.

As a symbol of my UU faith I bring a hat. My chosen faith system is like a hat covers me, shields me and protects me. I wear my UU hat to remind me to always look clearly, not to be blinded by any one tradition, or any one teaching, or any one person.  The more clearly I see, the more ready I will be ~ when a vision does come.  Oh, and I certainly expect a vision.  I expect a whole new awakening.  Because what I have learned and mostly from my time in this religious tradition of Unitarian Universalism is that, if you seek you will find. If you knock it will be opened to you. If you ask it will be given.

So, I'm ready for the journey.  I don't know where the journey will take me, but I have my guides and I have my tools. Oh the quest, oh the joy, oh the thrill of putting one foot in front of the other in an adventure of the soul and the spirit. Expect to hear the second half of this sermon this Fall, as I share what I do find on my quest for a vision this summer.care to join me?