A zen master visiting New York City goes up to a hot dog vendor and says, “Make me one with everything,” The hot dog vendor fixes a hot dog and hands it to the zen master, who pays with a 20 dollar bill. The vendor puts the bill in the cash box and closes it.
“Excuse me, but where’s my change?” Asked the zen master?
The vendor replied: “Change must come from within.”
There are four areas to each of our lives: our physical bodies, our intellectual minds, our social/emotional side and our spiritual self. Part of our life’s work is to understand and grow and change in each of those areas.
We spend significant time developing our intellectual minds in school and further education, in our careers, training and creativity. We often pay attention to the physical aspect of our lives by trying to get exercise, sleeping and eating well. Most of us try to keep our bodies in a healthy state. We are probably a little less comfortable at times with the emotional part of our lives. Some of us are not as comfortable feeling our feelings or talking about our feelings. And finally Inmost of us are a bit uncertain about our spiritual self. Outside of church, we don’t get much information or guidance about our spiritual self.
Our spiritual self is our most beautiful and powerful form. It is the authentic self, the unconditioned part. Throughout the world, in all of the great spiritual traditions, there is a teaching about “Divinity” within us. From Native American, Hindu and Buddhist traditions to Christianity, all the way to great mystics and scientists.
“From traditions that subscribe to the idea of “God,” to traditions that honor the earth or the light within humanity. We all seem to agree that we are more than a body and a mind. There is a light/God/Divine consciousness within us.” — The Hoffman Institute
Albert Einstein has written:
“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.” — Albert Einstein
One of you once said to me — “you always tell us that Entry Point encourages us to find out what we believe. I don’t know what I believe, and I don’t even know how to find out what I believe.” That statement inspired today’s service.
How do we figure out what we believe? How do we get in touch with the spiritual part of our lives?
Spirituality is a path that is often traveled by many people to find answers to the big questions in life. There is no one right way to find your spiritual path, and everyone’s journey is unique. There are as many paths to enlightenment as there are people on earth. Some people find their spiritual path early in life, while others may take a longer time to figure things out.
I have some suggestions for some general steps that we can take that might help us to figure this all out. One of the best ways to begin finding our spiritual path is to take some time for self-reflection. This can be done through meditation, journaling, or simply spending time alone in nature. Whichever method we choose, we should be using this time to clear our minds of all the clutter and noise in our lives, and focus on our inner thoughts and feelings. We need to listen to what our heart is telling us. This allows us to connect with our true self. What we feel. Not what others think we should feel.
When we are quiet and focused we can pay attention to what our heart is telling us. What are we thinking and feeling about God? What parts of what others have said about God sounds right to us? What kind of person do we want to be? How do we want to help others?
The next thing we need to do is to explore different belief systems and practices. There are many different religions and spiritual traditions in the world, and it is important to explore as many of them as possible to find the one that feels right.
We need to read about different belief systems, attend religious services or speak with people who practice different faiths. In our video clips today, we watched the young man investigate several different world religions. As we examine different religions, it is important for us to pay attention to how God is explained, and what the major expectations are for those who practice that religion.
We also might wish to read more about the Christian faith in order to become clearer about what we think of God, and how we think God wants us to behave and relate to other people. Like I did last week, when I talked about old testament and new testament churches, I will be sharing more in the weeks ahead, about the variations within the Christian religion.
Finally, we need to be open to change. Our spiritual path might take us to unexpected places.
Now, I am not looking forward to you leaving Entry Point, but I am interested in making sure that you are comfortable with your spiritual path. I think about Steve Roberts, who used to attend our faith community, but left to study Buddhism and to attend a Buddhist temple. He had found a better match for his soul.
Above all, trusting ourselves is key. Each one of us is the master of our soul. It is not for anyone else to tell us what is right for us. We have to feel it and find peace about it.
20 years ago, author Anne Lamott — one of our founding Pastor, Linda McCoy’s favorite writers — gave the undergraduate commencement address at UC Berkeley. In the speech, Anne talked about finding our spiritual self. She began by telling the assembled graduates that the spirit within us is crucially important, because spirit actually has a way of feeding itself.
She said, “The holy thing inside you really is that which causes you to seek it. You can’t buy it, lease it, rent it, date it or apply for it.” — Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott went on to say these words about our spiritual identity 20 years ago:
Spirit isn’t what you do. I know you feel spirit best when you’re not doing much — when you’re in nature, when you’re very quiet, or paradoxically, listening to music.
I know you can feel it and hear it in the music you love, in the bass line, in the harmonies, in the silence between notes. You can close your eyes and feel the divine spark, concentrated in you, like a little Dr. Seuss firefly. It flickers with aliveness and relief, like an American in a different country who suddenly hears someone speaking in English. In the Christian tradition, they say that the soul rejoices in hearing what it already knows.
We can see spirit made visible in people being kind to each other, especially when it’s a really busy person, taking care of a needy annoying person. Or when someone takes care of you — in fact I think that’s often when we see spirit most brightly.
It’s magic to see spirit. Mostly because it’s so rare. And Anne Lamott closed her speech with these words: “You are spirit, you are love, and you are free. You are here to love and be loved, freely.”—Anne Lamott
My friends, almost everyone has some view of spirituality. More often than not, it is unspoken and held silently. The question of faith is an intensely personal one. Each one of us decides in our own heart if we will believe in God, or if we will reach to other forms of spirituality. Each one of us on our own make the final choice as to where to place our faith.
However, I urge each of us to give this task some time and attention.
In the Christian Bible — in the New Testament, we are encouraged to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” — Matthew 7:7
Amen.
Theologian Pierre de Chardin has written: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” — Pierre de Chardin
Let’s remember that we are all on a spiritual journey, whether we want to admit it or not, so we may as well acknowledge it, and become more familiar with what we believe, and how we view God.
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