In Search of The Sacred

Meditation

          Self-discovery is an ongoing process of revelation made possible through a developing awareness of our relationships to the ideas, individuals, and institutions we encounter in our daily lives.  

The Search

          Have you ever noticed that we all seem to be constantly searching for something?  It could be as simple as our misplaced keys when we’re late for an appointment or as profound as the meaning of life.  All of us are searching…but for what?
          When I was a little girl I can remember a constant longing, which would hit me right here in my solar plexus region, night or day, no matter where I was.   I had no idea how to articulate this longing, but the words that always surfaced were, “I want to go home….I want to go home.” 
          This would be understandable, if I were away at summer camp or, even, spending the night with a friend.  But the odd thing was I would find myself repeating this phrase in my own bed at night or at the dinner table or, even, at church.
          As I grew older I began to think deeply about this tendency and wonder about its origin.  It just didn’t make sense that I would want to go home, when I was already in the place my experience and conditioning called “home.”  Eventually, it began to dawn on me that perhaps there was another “home” for which my heart longed.  And with this growing realization, I began to recall what I have come to know as the “Sacred.”

The Sacred

          By the word “Sacred” I’m not referring to the idea of a deity that exists as an image or idea in the mind or of an old white man floating around in the clouds somewhere.  What I’m talking about is more like a space or a vessel—a kind of container—filled with all that is holy, untainted, and pure.  It’s the state of being the Romantic poet William Butler Yeats referred to as “radical innocence” in this stanza from “A Prayer for My Daughter:”

"Considering that, all hatred driven hence,

The soul recovers radical innocence

And learns at last that it is self-delighting,

Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,

And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;

She can, though every face should scowl

And every windy quarter howl

Or every bellows burst, be happy still."

          Do you know this place?  I think we all know this place that transcends the boundaries of age, race, religion, and culture.  All of us entered the world as innocents, and it is my fervent wish that we will all depart this world in the same state of grace.
          It is this “radical innocence” that makes me want to throw down these notes I prepared for this talk, slide down off of this stage, toss my shoes off and grab the hands of as many of you as I can to go out on this beautiful day to play. 

Relationships

          You see, the Sacred can’t be found in isolation.  It can only be found through and within the heart of our relationships, because you are here to show me the truth of myself and to reflect back to me all that is false within me, so it can be dropped.   The Sacred doesn’t have any preconceived ideas of what and who you are.  It meets you with pure spontaneity, laughter, tears, happiness, and pain.  There is no pretence in what is Sacred.  There are no secrets, and there’s nothing to hide.  There is only freedom to meet the conditions of life as they unfold from moment to moment.  Don’t you want to live in this space?  Isn’t this what we all long for?  If so, then how and where do we find it?

Never-ending Search

          How many of you consider yourself a spiritual seeker?  Let me tell you something.  You wouldn’t be here, if you weren’t aspirants to the Higher Life.  In fact, the entire foundation of the Unity Church, as I understand it, was built on a search for universal truth among various religious traditions in order to develop a form of “practical Christianity.”
          And how many of you have found what you’ve been searching for?  In other words, how many of you have ended your search for the Sacred here at Unity Church?  If any of you raised your hands, perhaps you should be up here speaking instead of me, because I have come to see that the search never ends.  The search is the whole point of life.  It is in the search that the Sacred is found and lost again and again and again.
          Perhaps an unlikely source for spiritual truth, the popular 1977 movie Urban Cowboy gave us a #1 hit song from the soundtrack called “Lookin’ for Love.” Do you remember it?  This song provides an excellent insight into our elusive relationship with the Sacred.  Do you remember the lyrics sung by Johnny Lee?  I promised my husband and children I wouldn’t embarrass them, so I won’t try to sing it, but here are some of the lyrics.
"I’ve spent a lifetime looking for you
Single bars and good time lovers, never true
Playing a fools game, hoping to win
Telling those sweet lies and losing again.
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of what…I’m dreaming of…
Hopin’ to find a friend and a lover
God bless the day I discover
Another heart, lookin’ for love."
          All love songs, whether we know it are not, are attempting to describe the human condition and man’s universal longing for union with the Sacred—this Divine Nature—within.  So, what is this song telling us loud and clear?  We’ve been looking in all the wrong places!  We’ve been trying to find it in bars, lovers, friends, and strangers, and they always fail to give us that which our heart longs for.  Why?  Because they’re looking for the same thing in our eyes, and we’re not able to give it to them! 
          Relationships are no more and no less than a mirror; and you will always draw to you the ideas, individuals, and institutions that are a reflection of your current level of consciousness or understanding.  Think about this.  Think deeply and let the emotion behind these words sink in and try not to go into resistance.  You will always draw to you the ideas, individuals and institutions that are a reflection of your current level of consciousness.   I should probably start running for cover about now!
But, before you kill the messenger, just think of the positive implications of this statement.  This means if I wish to discover the Sacred—living in a space of Love, spontaneity, and radical innocence—I must become or embody the Sacred.  How can I “become” the Sacred?  I must learn to “see” and “surrender” what is not Sacred within my current nature.

Awareness

          This brings us to an essential tool on the spiritual journey:  the practice of self-observation, which leads to the development of self-awareness or self-realization.  In order to find the love for which my heart longs—that precious “home” of my dreams—I must stop looking in all the wrong places.  I must stop judging, projecting, and possessing or otherwise identifying with ideas, beliefs, family, friends, enemies, my job, school, or church—an idea, individual, or institution.   
         My “home” is not to be found in these exterior “places.”  My true “home” is within.  This means my soul/sole task is to stay present, fully grounded in the Presence Moment, so I may watch without judgment all of my thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that are triggered by the conditions I meet in my life.  This, my friends, is the only way for me to begin to see what it is that is keeping me from “radical innocence,” from living in the Sacred.  And I must commit to an interior life of complete honesty and total disclosure. 
           Nothing can remain hidden, especially those things I don’t want to see.  When I finally see the truth of how I’m holding on to some limiting negative belief about an individual or institution, I can give myself the gift of freedom by releasing this belief and simply returning to the present moment, where no “beliefs” are necessary.  Receptivity is all that Life is asking of me—just to be here now and experience you, this sunlight, the baby’s cry, the feel of my breath as it rises and falls in my chest.  Just to be here now. 
          You have heard this before.  It’s no secret, and I am not here as some sage on a stage trying to convince you of my Truth.  But I am here, and you are here. We are in relationship in this moment, and if I look with clear eyes (free from thought), I can see me in you and you in me.  That’s all there is to it!

Exercise: The Gift of Relationship

This week be aware of all the relationships in your life to ideas (beliefs, opinions, dogma), individuals (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers), and institutions (work, church, school, corporations, non-profits).  Notice when you feel an emotional contraction stimulated by one of these relationships.  Immediately turn it around and look within to see the “gift” of what this incident has revealed to you about yourself.