The Rev. Alice Blair Wesley has served several Unitarian Universalist congregations, and she has written a number of books and pamphlets on our covenantal tradition. In 2001, she gave a series of six lectures on “The Lay and Liberal Doctrine of the Church.” Our first reading this morning is taken from the second of those lectures:

“More than any other single reality,

what redeems and enhances human life

is the spirit of mutual love.

The good news is: We can learn from experience—

our own and others’—

what the spirit of mutual love feels like

and when it is present among us.

And we can, in response to that learning,

organize ourselves into a free church:

a group religiously dedicated to giving the spirit of love

a fine chance of working among us,

for our own sakes

and also for the sake of the world around us.”

 

The Grateful Dead learned the song “Me & Bobby McGee” from the man who wrote it, Kris Kristofferson, and from the woman who made it famous, Janis Joplin, as they all traveled across Canada together in 1970. This is Kristofferson’s original version:

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, headin’ for the trains,
Feelin’ nearly faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,
Took us all the way to New Orleans.
Took my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana
And was blowin’ sad while Bobby sang the blues,
With them windshield wipers slappin’ time and
Bobby clappin’ hands we finally sang up every song
That driver knew.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,
And nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free,
Feelin’ good was easy, lord, when Bobby sang the blues,
And buddy, that was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

From the coalmines of Kentucky to the California sun,
Bobby shared the secrets of my soul,
Standin’ right beside me through everythin’ I done,
And every night she kept me from the cold.
The somewhere near Salinas, lord, I let her slip away,
She was lookin’ for the love I hope she’ll find,
Well I’d trade all my tomorrows for a single yesterday,
Holdin’ Bobby’s body close to mine.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,
And nothin’ left was all she left to me,
Feelin’ good was easy, lord, when Bobby sang the blues,
And buddy, that was good enough for me.
Good enough for me and Bobby McGee.

 

How many of you have ever watched a movie where the lead character—a cowboy, or a secret agent, or a lawyer—saves the town, or the world, all by him- or herself? How many of you have ever compared yourself to such a hero? How many, while making that comparison, recognized that the movie hero had a loyal sidekick, and a source of information, and a whole department to create new weapons, or at least make sure his horse got fed and watered, or her children got off to school on time?

It is a part of our “American” myth, the power of the strong, virtuous, solitary hero. Even that description, “American” shows how we lift up one single country, the United States of America, at the expense of the two other North American countries, and the many Central and South American nations. Our culture tends to glamorize the individual.

In that way, at least, the rock-and-roll band, the Grateful Dead mirrors its culture. We’ve talked a lot, the last two weeks, about how the members of the Grateful Dead sang about personal freedom. In their song,

Truckin’, they sang:

What in the world ever became of Sweet Jane

They truly believed in the right of the individual to choose how to live her or his life—even to the point of allowing a friend to die from drug addiction. As long as our friend is not harming anyone else, we have to honor our friend’s choices, and remain silent.

This is similar to a tenet embraced by many of my Pagan friends, called the Wiccan Rede: “an it harm none, do what ye will.”

As many Wiccans, and the members of the Grateful Dead, have discovered, “harming none” is rather more difficult to define than we might have initially thought. As long as band member, Jerry Garcia, spent only his own money, and time and energy, on his addiction, he did not think he was harming his friends. But if they suffer while watching him, does he have an obligation to ease their suffering? That is a hard question to answer. When his addiction finally began to affect his playing, and therefore the band, then they could—and did—confront him. And he did get into rehab.

He and the band learned that the line between harming “self” and “other” is not easily defined. The band continued to sing the song Truckin’, but they added a word:

What in the world ever became of Sweet Jane

It was one of the few places that they used profanity in their lyrics, and that demonstrates the depth of their dismay. They were still, and always, committed to personal freedom, but they wanted their fans to realize how messy that concept is.

They sang about that tension in some other songs. Lost Sailor includes the chorus,

You're a lost sailor.

That sounds like Kristofferson’s lyrics, that “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” If we are so free that our friends cannot challenge our choices, then do we have any real friends at all?

How many of you have ever become frustrated by your partner, or your kids or your family of origin? Without a show of hands, how many of you have ever thought it would be a lot easier to get through life without the aggravation of that partner, child, parent or sibling? And yet, how many of us have lost someone and wished later for one more aggravating interaction? We are not free to love differently than we do.

We cannot choose to love others, or to stop loving those who sometimes frustrate us. I submit that most of us would not choose to be that free, even if we were offered the possibility.

We cherish our freedoms, and rightly so, but we cherish them within the larger context of a network of relationships which provide us meaning and purpose. That network of relationships goes far beyond our own family or friends. It quickly extends to all life on this planet, as we are part of the interdependent web of life. Most of us now realize that we cannot pollute one part of our world, and not have it affect others all across the globe.

The Grateful Dead realized it, too. Their song Throwing Stones includes the lyrics:

We are still free to make our own choices, but those choices must be informed by all the facts we have available. As the band sang that song throughout the 1980’s, they began to practice what they preached. In 1983, they created the Rex Foundation through which to donate money to charitable causes. To date, they have given away millions of dollars to hundreds of recipients.

A few years later, three of the band members held a press conference in the United Nations and urged the world to stop destroying the rainforest. At that conference, Jerry Garcia said, “…We’ve never really called on our fans…to align themselves one way or another as far as any particular cause is concerned, because of a basic paranoia about leading someone. We don’t want to be the leaders, and we don’t want to serve unconscious fascism…But this is, we feel, an issue that is strong enough and life-threatening enough [that we had to.]”

They readily admitted that they were the last people you’d expect to try and save the world. But they understood that the decisions made about the rainforest really were going to affect all of us and so they acted, as best they knew how. The members of the Grateful Dead followed the same path of development as do most of us human beings. As infants, we really cannot distinguish ourselves from our surroundings. As we get older, we learn that the world is in fact different from us, and that it is there to serve us. That stage can last anywhere from a few months to 75 years. Many of us eventually grow out of that stage, as we realize that we are interdependent with our environment. I have heard it called “enlightened self-interest,” to do good in the world because our surroundings have to be able to support our own well-being.

You may have heard the proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child;” it also takes a village to support an adult. Very few of us grow all of our own food anymore, nor do we make our own clothing or provide the electricity that runs our appliances. Even some of our most wealthy citizens point out that they rely on public roads to transport their goods, and that they received a public education in their youth. There is no such thing as a “self-made” person in this world.

Even the young heroes of Horatio Alger’s books, “Ragged Dick,” “Ben, the Luggage Boy,” and others, succeed not only because of their own pluck and perseverance, but also due to the aid they receive from kindly adults.

It takes everyone in the village to sustain everyone in the village.

The “interdependent web” is not just a poetic image describing an ecological necessity; it is also a neurological fact. Our brains are hard-wired to assume the presence of other humans. Our healthy growth and development depends upon our interactions with other people.

This is more easily seen in languages like Inuit and Japanese, where there are more than one first-person singular pronoun. Instead of a single, monolithic, objective “I” moving through the world, these languages use different words depending upon the context. Just as we act and speak differently, depending upon whether we are in the presence of our family, or of strangers; with people we love or those whom we fear and need to impress; these languages reflect that dependence upon circumstance.

In a very real way, who we are depends upon whom we are among.

Which is why, once we have awakened to the spirit of love, working in the world, we seek to be among others who also perceive that spirit. Love—unsentimental love, not the sticky-sweet love of greeting cards, but the real-world love that brings both comfort and difficult choices—love can redeem and enhance our lives. We gather together as congregations to offer that spirit of love a place to exist and thrive in this world.

Then, because we recognize that we *do* have many blessings which we do not wish to lose, we give up a little of our freedom and promise to walk together, to support each other, and to work together to bring those blessings to others.

There is another sense in which “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” If you accept the assertion that we are all part of the same deeper reality, that we are all part of a universal whole, then there is nothing to lose because we are all part of the same unity. We cannot lose anything, because we are one with everything. And we are free to act out of that mystic understanding. In the time we have remaining, I would like to explore that sense of freedom. I invite you to participate in a guided meditation, adapted from Ken Wilber. If you’d like, close your eyes and get comfortable in your seat. This is written to be read by one person, so there are lots of places where a name is used. I will use the word “congregant” instead of a name. When I say “congregant,” please know that I am speaking directly to you. If something does not make sense, don’t worry about it, let it go and relax into the next sentence.

What you have been seeking is literally and exactly

That which is hearing this right now. 

That Self cannot be found because it was never lost:

you have always known you were you. 

That I AMness is a constant condition of all that arises,

is the space in which it all arises,

has nothing outside of it and thus is complete Peace,

and radiates its own beauty in all directions. 

Congregant arises in the space of that I AMness,

Congregant arises in this vast spaciousness,

this pure openness. 

Congregant is an object, just like a tree or a cloud

that arises in the space of the Self that you are.  

I am not talking to Congregant right now,

I am talking to you. 

That which is aware of Congregant is this ever-present Self. 

This Self is aware of Congregant arising right now. 

This Self is God. 

God is hearing this meditation. 

Congregant is not listening,

God is listening. 

The Self is aware of Congregant and aware of listening. 

You are not Congregant. 

You are what is aware of Congregant. 

What is aware of Congregant

is an I AMness that itself cannot be seen but only felt,

felt as an absolute certainty,

unshakeable is-ness,

I AM that I AM eternally, timelessly, unendingly. 

There is only this I AMness in all directions. 

Everything arises spontaneously

in the space of this great perfection that is the Self,

which is listening to this meditation right now. 

And you, Congregant, are that Self. 

You have always known that you are this Self. 

There was never a time that you did not know that you are you.  

You can never remember a time when you were not you. 

The only thing you can ever remember is something that this Self did. 

There is only this Self. 

You cannot reach out for it

because it is that which is doing the reaching. 

You cannot see it because it is doing the seeing right now,

which means, everything simply arises in its awareness:

the entire world arises in your awareness right now. 

You are that space in which it is all spontaneously and effortlessly arising. 

You are that One. 

You have always been that One. 

There is only that One.  

Do not pretend you are finding that One. 

Do not pretend you have forgotten that One. 

The only thing you have ever known,

the only thing you can ever remember,

the only thing you are actually feeling right now is that One:

the is-ness, now-ness, suchness of everything, just as it is,

and as it is arising within your Self—

the simple feeling of Being, which is all you ever feel always.

 

Look at the clouds:

they are arising in your awareness:

they are arising in you. 

The clouds are outside of Congregant but inside of your Self.  

Look at your body and this room.  

Your body is in this room,

but both the body and the room arise IN your awareness. 

You are literally holding them in your consciousness lovingly. 

The mountains are arising in your awareness:

they are arising in you,

and you are lovingly holding the mountains within your consciousness,

holding the arising world within your embrace as the dearly radiant beloved. 

The mountains are arising outside of Congregant but inside of your Self. 

The clouds, the mountains, and Congregant

are all simultaneously and effortlessly arising in this Self,

the hearer of these words.

All that is arising is arising in this unshakeable I AMness,

which is not a thing or an object or a person,

but the openness or clearing

in which all things and all objects and all persons are arising.

This emptiness, this openness, this vast spaciousness is your Self,

is what you have always been,

is what you are before your parents were born,

is what you are before the Big Bang happened. 

Before Abraham was, I AM. 

There is no before and no after for this now-ness that is the Self. 

There is only this now-ness of the Self that is hearing this in this very moment. 

There is no past and no future in this never-ending now.  

All befores and all afters arise in this awareness. 

There is only this ever-present, never-starting, never-ending, unborn, undying,

radiant beauty that is aware of listening to this,

that is aware of this universe,

and that finds all of them IN the space that it is,

and therefore all things arise in the unshakeable Peace

that holds them all easily in its caring within. 

Congregant is in the universe;

the universe is in your Self. 

Therefore, be this ever-present Self who is listening to this meditation. 

I am not talking to Congregant,

I am talking to you. 

Let Congregant arise and fall like all objects.

Let Congregant come into being, remain a bit, and pass:

what has this to do with your Self? 

All objects arise, remain, and pass

in the spaciousness and emptiness that is aware of this moment,

and this moment, and this moment, and this moment.  

Yet this moment has no end,

you have never actually felt the present come to an end

because it never does:

it is the only thing that is real:

this now-ness, this simple feeling of being,

the very same feeling-awareness in which Congregant floats,

and in which the clouds float. 

When you feel this present now-ness,

there is nothing outside of it—

you cannot see on the outside of this timeless now because there is nothing outside of it.  Now and now and now is all you ever know,

and this now-ness is simply another name

for the spacious Self in which the entire kosmos arises

as a radiant, joyful, ecstatic swoon of bliss

and a desire to share this infinite Joy with somebody else. 

Because this meditation and the mountains and the clouds all arise in your awareness, there is nothing outside your Self. 

That there is literally nothing outside your Self

means there is literally nothing that can threaten it.  

Since you know this Self,

you know Peace.  

Because you are already, directly, immediately, and intimately

one and identical with That which is listening to me right now,

you know God right now,

directly and immediately and unmistakably and undeniably. 

And because you know God right now,

as the very Self hearing these words,

you know you are finally, truly, deeply home,

a home that you have always directly known and always pretended you didn't.

Therefore, pretend no more. 

Confess that you are God. 

Confess that you are Beauty. 

Confess that you are the very Truth the sages have sought for centuries. 

Confess that you are Peace beyond understanding. 

Confess that you are so ecstatically happy

that you had to manifest this entire world

just to bear witness to a radiant beauty

you could no longer contain only in and for yourself. 

Confess that the Witness of these words, 

the Self of this and all the worlds,

is the one and only true Spirit that looks through all eyes and hears with all ears

and reaches out in love and compassion

to embrace the very beings that it created itself

in an eternal ecstatic dance that is the secret of all secrets. 

And confess that you are Alone,

that you are literally the only One in the entire universe:

there are no others to this One. 

There are indeed others to Congregant,

but both Congregant and the others arise in the awareness that is hearing these words,

and this awareness, this Self,

has no other because all others arise in it. 

One without a second is what is listening now. 

Therefore, be that One. 

And also give my love to Congregant.     

P.S.  Do you realize, deeply, deeply, deeply, that the one who is hearing these words is the one who spoke them?  Congregant, and Chip, and this room, all arise in the Witness of this moment, yes?  The Self is not hard to find, but impossible to escape.  So drop all this fuss about finding and losing, and simply be the One in whom all worlds are now arising. So go outside and look at the beautiful world arising within your very own feeling-awareness, arising within your very own Being, and [rejoice].”

So may we be.