Legend has it that high up on a snow-covered mountain is the home of the great god Indra, king of the heavens. In his beautiful home hangs a vast, wondrous net, like a spider’s web in delicacy and beauty. This magnificent net stretches out indefinitely in all directions. At each node, or crossing point of the net’s fine fibers hangs a single glittering jewel. Because the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. The sparkling jewels are supported by the net, glittering like stars in the vastness of space.
If we were to zoom in to look closely at one jewel in the net, we would see that the polished surface of the gem reflects all the other jewels in the net. Since the jewels are infinite, the process of reflection is itself infinite.
We are all sparkling jewels in the net, connected to each other by thin strands delicate in their beauty. Each of us has an independent place in the net, and we reflect and influence each other. A change in one of us, produces a change in every other. We cannot damage one strand of the web without injuring the entire web; but just as destructive acts affect the entire net, so do loving and compassionate acts. A simple act of kindness can send positive ripples across the infinite net, touching every being.
This ancient Buddhist/Hindu teaching illustrates the complex connection between the individual and the community. This same idea is expressed in our Unitarian Universalist tradition by the bookends of our seven principles. In our first principle, we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all humans; individuals. In our seventh principle, we affirm and promote the interconnected web of all existence of which we are a part; the community. The glittering jewels supported by the net.
One of the long-standing tensions in our liberal religious history has been the push and pull between the individual and the community. Our religious history teaches us that in pre-modern times in the West the community was the center of authority and provided the definition of who an individual was. The external authority of the community might sit with the church, the state, or with a sacred text like the Bible or Koran.
It was the Enlightenment in the 18th century that moved the center of authority from the external, the community, to the internal, the individual. “Me” became more important than “we.” Over several centuries of theological reflection and experience, we came to frame the individual and the community as a polarity, opposites that existed in tension. Some philosophers and theologians asserted that rampant individualism leads to loss of community and others argued that strict communalism leads to loss of the individual.
We see this polarity used in the debates in our political system about health care, for example: those in favor of health care reform argue that the common good of health care for all is most important, while opponents argue that “socialized” medicine will rob individuals of choices and freedom. This polarity of individualism and communalism contributes to the polarization of our national political landscape today.
One strategy has been to strike a balance between individualism and communalism; finding a middle way or compromise. The balance that a nation or people finds is determined by our beliefs about human nature and our relationship to the divine.
Religious liberals, like Unitarians and Universalists, have historically tended to fall on the side of the individual. Typically, we believe that humans are essentially good, and that we can be trusted to make decisions arising out of that goodness. We value autonomy and personal freedom, especially when it comes to our beliefs about the divine. For example, many of you were able to participate in the survey last week in the Buchan Atrium from our 5th/6th graders who were studying beliefs about God. Our young people listed about a dozen or so beliefs about God and asked us to vote with sticky dots for ones we believed. There was quite a variety of beliefs on that list and at least a few dots on each and every one of them.
White people of European decent have tended to value reason, self-awareness, and personal experience as the basis for our beliefs and values. We may see religion as an opportunity for individual spirituality, and not necessarily as part of a larger religious movement. This is reflected in the many polls about religion where people identify as “spiritual but not religious.” We long for community, yet we may not be able to fulfill that longing because of our belief about individuality and fear of losing our personhood.
Today many liberal theologians suggest that the view of the individual is primary as outdated, theologically and otherwise. In his book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, theologian Parker Palmer gives us this definition of citizenship:
Citizenship is a way of being in the world rooted in the knowledge that I am a member of a vast community of human and nonhuman beings that I depend on for essentials I could never provide for myself.
Palmer tells the story of how he came to this realization over many years of reflection and experience, finally coming to realize that “whatever is in the common good is, in the long run, good for me and mine.”
In indigenous and communities of color, the ethic of “we” instead of “me” has been and continues to be a defining principle. Juana Bordas, author of Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age teaches that “we” cultures, like Latinex, African American and Native peoples, have a strong sense of belonging and sticking together, value sharing, and work together so everyone benefits. Bordas tells us that our multicultural age requires a new kind of leadership that is a collective process linked to social change with the purpose of enhancing the well-being of all human existence. Those of us seeking to overcome the damaging effects of white supremacy culture to create a new future can learn from this ancient teaching in our modern world.
Another teaching tells of a conversation between the Buddha and his cousin, Ananda. One day Ananda was feeling very inspired by his fellow-disciples. He commented to the Buddha that admirable friendship, companionship, and camaraderie must be at least half of what the path or holy life, is all about. The Buddha responded, “I don’t say that, Ananda, it’s not half; admirable friendship, companionship and camaraderie is the whole of the path.” Our religious traditions tell us that we need one other.
Science is telling us that framing the individual and the community as a polarity not only serves us poorly in these times, it doesn’t fit our current scientific knowledge. Biology, psychology and evolution show us that the individual and the community and social environment, work together to form a person or a being. We used to argue about “nature or nurture?” Were humans a product of their genes or of their environment? Now we know that it is both nature AND nurture. Humans (and all other organisms, for that matter) develop in a mutual relationship with their environment. We now know that we have genes that may or may not “turn on” depending on what we experience in our environment and in our relationships. It is in relationship with others that we discover who we are and who we are not. This is a paradox of being human: it is in relationship that we become individuals. The science tells us that we need one other.
In addition to being connected to each other now, we are connected to our past, our ancestors, and our history. In a way, human experience is like a stream, or rather many streams, flowing together into one great river. We have a personal history. We have a global history. We have a religious history. Our history tells us that we need one other.
The tension between wanting to be separate and wanting to be close is inherent in us—we want and need both. Our individual health and well-being, and the contributions we make to the community, are determined by how well we balance those competing needs. Being too distant from others can cause us to be aloof and uncaring; being too close to others can cause us to be fused and lose ourselves. We want to be connected individuals. We want to know that we are jewels in a vast and wondrous net, shining our inner light and reflecting the light of others.
Once a month, I enter the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, an inpatient psychiatric hospital, to offer Buddhist services to the patients and staff. Most of the patients in the hospital are part of the criminal justice system, there either to be stabilized so they can return to jail to face charges or there to serve out a sentence for a crime that they committed when they were judged “guilty except for insanity.” Like the Oregon State Penitentiary just down the street from the hospital, it is one of the places where people are “put away.” It is easy for the people there, patients and staff, to forget that they are connected to an outside world, just as it is easy for us to forget that we are connected to them. The thing is, if we truly believe that we are all connected, there is no “away.” “We” is everyone, even those who we would rather not see, who we’d rather forget are part of the web; those who are put “away.” This monthly spiritual practice is an invitation for all of us to remember our connection.
This new paradigm of interconnectedness, both individual and community, gives us the opportunity to expand our ability to be socially aware and re-balance this tension between “me” and “we.” By expanding our vision to see both as necessary and healthy, we can develop a different notion of what it means to be an individual and we can better understand our responsibility for justice. How we view this tension and decide the “balance” will inform how we see our obligation to and responsibility for each other. This paradigm shift invites us into accountable relationships with ourselves, each other and with all beings in this world. We need new interconnectedness perspective if we are to have any hope of bridging the divide we experience now in our society and in our world.
It is also a truth that our connection to others doesn’t always inspire in us feelings of admirable friendship, companionship and camaraderie. Sometimes our feelings are quite the opposite and relationships seem impossible. Recent events in our nation and world show us that there are forces working to ignore, devalue and destroy the thin strands that connect us. These forces show up as shootings fueled by antisemitism, bomb threats stoked by partisan rhetoric, the murder of a journalist by those seeking to silence the truth.
Parker Palmer notes that it is a romantic fantasy to think that everyone agrees that there is a common good, let alone what the common good is. For that we need to find ways to come together with all of our differences and to explore how the differences can serve us in life-giving ways. We need to find peaceful ways to have conversations about how we want to be together, recognizing that we are all connected, whether we want to be or not.
Today, as we celebrate United Nations Sunday, we remember that the UN was founded in the aftermath of war by nations longing for peace. It is a body of governments who come together to find areas of agreement and solve problems. The UN is an institution that reflects the reality of the web: individual nations joined together in global community. In the arena of global politics, with natural and human-created events that have world-wide impacts, the idea of this institution is sorely needed. It is not perfect, and it our spiritual practice to hold a vision of the ideal as we sort out the details of reality. Our world teaches us that we need one another.
One way to make sense of this tension of “me” and “we”, individual freedom and justice, is to understand the values and principles of our religious tradition. We affirm and promote both the individual and the interconnected web. We can see this as a creative tension that invites us into sacred conversation about how we balance our obligations to individuals and communities. It is in religious community that we can learn who we are, what we believe, and how we are in the world. It is in religious community that we can hold each other accountable and keep each other honest. In the company of others, we can find ourselves and work for justice, both.
When I am in the State Hospital I hear many stories. They are stories of struggle and pain, tragedy and injustice. When I was a student chaplain there several years ago, the stories weighed heavy on my heart. One day I asked my supervisor, “How do you hold all of the pain in this building?” He quickly replied, “I can’t. We can’t hold it all ourselves. You have to look for a bigger container.” So I did. I looked for a bigger container. It took me a few days to realize that it was right there in front of me in our 7th principle—the web. The magnificent, infinite net full of sparkling jewels.
It holds us all and it is big enough to hold all of our pain. Just as important, I realized that there are many others in the net working for justice for the same patients that I was listening to; people working for affordable housing, community based mental health and addiction treatment, and criminal justice reform. We are all connected and we need one other.
While some jewels in the net reflect pain, others reflect joy. Some reflect loss and others, love. Some reflect struggle, others reflect justice. It’s all there. We’re all there. We need one other to hold all that we are and all that we experience.
As we close out this month of reflection on the theme of mutuality, let us remember that we are each a jewel in a vast and wondrous net. We are individuals in relationship and we need one another.
May we find in ourselves the vision to see our connection and in one other renewed strength to work for justice.
May this be so. Amen.
I invite you to join me in a time of reflection and prayer.
Infinite Web of Life, Sweet Spirit of Love, Great Mystery,
In this moment, we sit in silence to notice who we are;
in the midst of this community, we notice those around us; we hear each other, smell each other, sense each other’s presence.
In this moment, we notice that we are connected to one other, and that we are connected to all that is beyond us. We are jewels in an infinite web of life.
May we take this moment to recognize that we are connected–
to the caravan of people making their way north in search of safety and a better life. May we remember that we are connected to the children in Yemen who are suffering from famine and other the effects of war. May we remember that we are connected to those who sleep in the rain right outside our doors.
May we also remember that we are connected to those who are joyous on this day: celebrating lives well lived, celebrating births and sacred unions, celebrating yet one more precious day of life.
Help us to remember that we are all connected. Help us to remember we need one another. Help us to live in a constant state of “we.”
In gratitude for all that is and all that can be, we pray.
Amen and Blessed Be.
Please rise in body or in spirit and join together in singing
“This is My Song.”
Topics: Mutuality