Sunday Service April 1, 2007

Many years ago when I first started studying Buddhism, I read that All is Mind. I have also read this in the Hermetic teachings as well as in the Egyptian and other traditions. This was a very difficult concept for me to grasp and I can’t say that intellectually I grasp it to this day. In fact, quite frankly, I think that is the point, because - at least from a Western perspective - the way that our mind evaluates things is that it categorizes and it separates. So the very nature of our thinking process would ask how can all be mind? And yet there is deep intuitive understanding that if we truly know, from that place of all heart, that all is One, then how can it be that all is not mind?

When we go into meditation we speak metaphorically and say that we are moving into a different state of consciousness, that we are moving between the worlds, or that we are moving multi-dimensionally. In truth what is happening is that we are simply moving our state of perception. It is a movement of the perception of consciousness. It is a transmutation of our perception of reality, a transmutation of what the Buddhist would say are the obscurations of our perception that have been created by lifetimes of karma and our attachment to our limited sense of self. It is a transmutation that allows for the shifting of perception that opens to the reality that all is One, that all is Mind.

Today we are working with that aspect of mind that is known as Kwan Yin. Kwan Yin is known by other names, Tara being one. Tara is the aspect of Kwan Yin that is recognized and celebrated in Tibet, or what was Tibet, and in Mongolia. Kwan Yin’s emergence in a feminine form came sometime between the 7^th and 12^th centuries. Prior to that she was known as Avolokita, but that was the aspect of Kwan Yin that was in male form, and while that is still used, the expression of that energy in the feminine form of Kwan Yin has pretty much taken over. The manifestation of this energy comes from the Buddhic aspect of consciousness called the Amitabha Buddha. So let us briefly talk about this so that from a point of understanding we can deepen in our relationship with these concepts.

When we think of Kwan Yin, most of us, particularly from a Western perspective, would think of her as a Goddess. In the deepest, truest sense she is actually not a Goddess for she is considered to be a Celestial Bodhisattva. Now what is the difference between a Goddess and a Celestial Bodhisattva? Perhaps the best way to describe it is that Kwan Yin is a part of us. She is an expression, literally, of a state of mind that is within us. She is not something that is outside of us, although in the way this works, she can express herself as outside of us. She comes from that aspect of mind, the Buddhic stream of consciousness from the Divine, which is the urge to enlighten. Now that is a pretty important stream of consciousness to have, because if we are ever going to get off the wheel of death and rebirth, we might want to have the urge to do that, otherwise it probably is not going to happen. And that desire, that latent inherent urge to seek enlightenment, burns perhaps very dimly like the light hidden beneath the bush, but it eventually lights the fire of that bush into a burning blaze that yearns for enlightenment. That is the Buddhic consciousness that seeks union with the Divine. It is that which is latent and its expression comes through the Celestial Bodhisattva.

One of the ways that Kwan Yin is described is that this is an expression of the manifested energy where enlightenment has been achieved in full form, and it chooses to stay in form until all have achieved freedom, the liberation of enlightenment. One of the descriptions that I read, which is perhaps a very earthy description but one that most of us can relate to, is that it is like you are with a group of people who get lost in a desert and you wander off trying to find your way in order to secure help. And you’re tired and you’re thirsty, and finally you make your way to the walls of a city and there is water inside and there are people who can help. But instead of going in and taking care of your own needs, although it is available right there, you go back to find your companions who are still lost in the desert.

Now my immediate thought was that I think I would go and have a little water and a few peanut butter crackers because I’m going to need my energy, my protein, before going back out into the desert to find my friends. It is like there is an incredible dryness, but instead of partaking of the waters of Nirvana, even though you know what that nectar would be, you consciously and fully choose to stay with the suffering. No negotiation. No bargaining. You choose to stay until all are free, until none are suffering. That is Kwan Yin, a consciousness that is within us and yet simultaneously it is without.

And you may ask – and this is a sort of paradox that we find ourselves in - if all is mind and it is a part of us, then how can it appear outside of us? That is one of the beauties of Eastern thought, that it embraces all of the paradoxes. It is something we find difficult to open our mind to and yet it is all mind, so it is all there.

I loved these definitions of Wisdom and Compassion, because I think, at least for some of us, there is a great struggle, especially with compassion. We struggle with the difference between sentimentality and compassion; we struggle with the difference between co-dependency, enabling, and compassion.

The definition that I read of Wisdom was that it is the full and direct knowingness and perception that we are ego-less and there is nothing that is other than “me”. That is wisdom. I repeat: the full and direct perception that that which we identify as our sense of self, is not real. It is no longer there. There is no longer an “I” versus a “you”. There is no longer a definition of what I am. That is Wisdom. It is no longer possible to see something or someone as other than. Wisdom is to embody and know that all is Divine and all is One.

Compassion is the urge for Wisdom. It is the urge for liberation. It is the urge for enlightenment. In other words compassion has nothing to do with us placating our stories, nothing to do with us enabling others to placate their story. That is not compassion. We call it compassion, but it is not.

The truth of the matter is that in order to achieve liberation you must have both Wisdom and Compassion. You must know yourself as selfless, as you must know yourself and all life as Divine, and your urge must be towards that.

I speak for myself when I say that I might have a ways to go, and I would invite you to consider perhaps that we all have a ways to go. But it occurs to me that this is why we are here, this is why we gather, this is why we meditate, because there is a deep level of Light that has awakened in our consciousness, that has always been there but has seemingly come out from underneath the bush, and is shining brightly and is saying to us that it is time for liberation. And it is those like Kwan Yin who urge us with their Compassion to this enlightenment, and who offer their Wisdom to assist with the obscuration of that which keeps us bound to our ego.

There is a form of Buddhism that is called Pure Land Buddhism. Amitabha[i] Buddha recognized that it was becoming more and more difficult for sentient life to obtain liberation, enlightenment, because we have so much karma from all our past lifetimes that we are enmeshed. And so this Lord of Compassion came forward and said, “I will not leave until all are free”, and He created a space in mind, in consciousness, which is already within, and yet in Pure Land Buddhism is described as being without simultaneously. And this is an area of consciousness that you may be reborn into, through the focus, discipline and commitment of a lifetime, and it is called the Pure Land. This is a rebirth, and so you are not completely off the wheel of death and rebirth. It is a state of consciousness, if you don’t want to see it as a physical place or another dimension, which allows for a quicker release from obscurations. In other words it is the promise of liberation. This is Pure Land Buddhism.

Don’t you find yourself thinking that on any given day, through your thoughts and actions, that you have created karma and how can you clear that, much less lifetime upon lifetime in which you have created a mess? That can become so oppressive that there are those of us who might say, “Well, what the heck, this spiritual stuff is too hard. I'm not getting anywhere and I give up.” And when we do that, there is an urge inside of us that keeps bringing us back. That is compassion. That is the urge for liberation. Using a different language, it is what Christians call the promise of resurrection. It is the commitment to renewal and to liberation and it is done through the intent, the desire. In Pure Land Buddhism it would be named the Remembrance of the Buddha. It is where you recite the name of Buddha or Kwan Yin, over and over, throughout the whole day. And those of us of a Western mind might say that it is just going to become rote, and there is no meaning to it. Well guess what? How do we think? We think in a rote way. In fact there are two forms of thinking. One of them is called oblivion thinking and the Buddhists would say that this is habitual thinking. It just is a constant, habitual part where, in essence, you are in oblivion. And then there is scattered thinking. So if we’re not in oblivion, we’re scattered and we’re running hither and thither, chasing every desire, every whim, every random thought.

So maybe we would do okay with a little Remembrance of the Buddha. In other words, in our tradition we would call it using your words of power, where you strive to become One, to create a point of focus. And in the Remembrance of the Buddha, it is repeating the name, as in a different way we repeat our mantras, our words of power, but it is the name that in its own right and by its vibration carries with it such an energy, a focus, and a point of light, that in saying the name, even if you find yourself saying it in a rote way, there is still a thread of light; there is still the focus and there is still the intent. And Pure Land Buddhism would also say that there is the commitment and the desire that says, “In this lifetime I am committed to being lifting up out of this obscuration and I know that I am going to be reborn into a state of mind, a state of consciousness, that is blissful. I am not off my karmic wheel yet, but I am committed, and I know this will bring liberation.”

It is a tradition of faith, and as I have said before, faith is an active process. It is not passive. Faith is that commitment that says, “For the last five minutes I have been thinking, ‘Oh what the heck’, but I’m catching myself now, and I'm going back to my mantra, I'm going back to my point of focus, I’m going back to my commitment.”

I think it is of interest that in our popular culture we are being called to observe how our consciousness sits through discussions of “The Secret”, which is being reviewed on Oprah and on Larry King Live. It is a teaching that says that what we think, we create. So where is our mind, our consciousness? What is it that we think?

The road of liberation is the release from suffering, the suffering that is inherent in life and the suffering that is inherent in truth. This is really the suffering that you experience because of your perception that there is a “you” and there is the “Divine”. We just express it in many different ways. And Dharma, which is the teachings of the Buddha, is not about not suffering. It is stepping beyond the suffering. And suffering is a state of perception.

I’ve shared with you before my admiration for Sister Frangelica, the great Mother Superior in the Roman Catholic tradition. I was watching a recording of her the other night, and this was from an airing in 2001, during Easter week. She was speaking of suffering, and the suffering of the Christ, and she was talking about our choices around our suffering. At that time she was 78 years old and she was talking to a woman and she asked, “How are you today?” And the woman said, “I’m old”, and as I said, Mother Frangelica is not exactly a spring chicken herself and she said, “You’re what?” and the woman replied, “I’m old. That just says it all. It’s bad. I’m old, with all the ailments that go along with being old.” In other words she was saying, “I’m suffering.” And Mother Frangelica said, “You know, I’m old too. I creak when I walk.” In essence what she was saying was that it is not that you’re not suffering, but what is your perception of your suffering? Where do you place it? And in her tradition she was saying that you place your suffering in relationship to the suffering of the Christ, who made that choice willingly. In other words, from the Bodhisattva’s perspective, He left that oasis without getting any “water or crackers”, to go back out and save everybody else. And He willingly made the choice to participate in the suffering of this world.

So it is a shift of perception concerning suffering, whether it is illness, a financial situation, or anything else. This is a difficult place for us to stand, because you could say, “Well what do I do? Should I just be cold and indifferent to other people’s suffering or the horrible things that are happening in the world?” The challenge isn’t about not being available to those who are suffering. It is like the classic story of somebody who is drowning. Do you jump in there with them or do you hold out a stick to them from the side?

For most of us, when we see someone suffering, particularly someone we have an emotional attachment to, our concept of compassion is to jump in that pool and thrash around with them, and we call it compassion. Or we hear the story, we say we are so sorry, and then we pretend that we’re not participating in it because we aren’t giving any advice. But we participate in the energy of the story. This is where you should call to Kwan Yin so that you can stand with that person in that pure Light.

There is a story about a little boy who was four years old, and the elderly neighbor next door had lost his wife and he was sitting on the porch crying. The little boy went over and crawled in his lap. Later his mother asked him what he was doing and he said, “I was helping him cry.” Sometimes it is just being in the space with someone, not trying to fix them. The little boy was in the space, with love, not with a desire to create more drama.

Pathworking

For Kwan Yin, she is the hearer of cries. And she turns not away, in her mercy, her compassion, and her wisdom. Go to that area of mind in which she resides, and know simultaneously that she is everywhere, both within and without. Call to her, Seekers of Liberation, that our obscurations would be cleared. Share your heart with her. Ask for what you need. And have the faith to know that it will come in the way that is best for you. Let Her bring you comfort and strength, and let Her stretch you across the starry skies, that you would know yourselves as the vastness that you are, and let the fire of devotion burn, the fire of such love that it transcends all worries or concerns. And as you breathe, your breath is cleansing, it is the breath of life, and as the blood moves through your veins, your perception is transmuted. You no longer see from your self, but you see from the infinite vastness of your Buddhic consciousness. And all is Mind and all is One, and so as one is liberated, all are liberated; as one loves, all love.

And I am being asked to share this with you, for none are unworthy, and there are none that are not known, loved, and held in the heart. There are those of you here who hold concerns or fears for loved ones, who you see as somehow beyond the touch of mercy, or unavailable for healing. All is mind. Hold in your heart those whom you hold this fear for, this suffering for; hold them in your heart now, and any situation or concern, and then hand them to the Great Liberator. For as there is no other, there is no separation, and love is boundless and endless, love is infinite, and there is no place that love is not.

Closing Prayer

And I would like to close our service this morning by reading a prayer, called “Nourishing Happiness”:

[i] Amitabha, a Sanskrit word, literally means boundless light and boundless life. He is the Buddha in the Land of Ultimate Bliss (Pure Land), in which all beings enjoy unbounded happiness.