This I Believe

I grew up in Southern small towns, attending Methodist churches. As an adolescent I began to see the religious beliefs of my upbringing as accidental, something that happened to me because I was born to a certain family in a certain place and time.

In the early 1950s I discovered Aldous Huxley’s book “The Perennial Philosophy.” It confirmed my guess that the great religions have important beliefs in common. This was a powerful opening for me.

In the mid 1950s I fell in love with the beauty of the “Book of Common Prayer” and became an Episcopalian. But as I continued in this faith I began to feel, regretfully, that its emphasis on sin was not healthy for me. I married my husband in St. Paul’s Episcopalian Cathedral in Rochester, NY, but our first child was dedicated in Rochester’s First Unitarian Church.

In 1985 I was initiated as a disciple of a guru from India. I benefited greatly from my connection with the guru and the remarkable people who had chosen to be his disciples.

In 1994 George and I moved to Asheville and joined a congregation of remarkable Unitarian Universalists. We are thankful for our fellow congregants, the Seven UU Principles, the Six Sources of Our Living Tradition, our UUCA Covenant, and our having no creed to limit the “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” announced in the fourth principle.

 As of February fifth, 2006, the following beliefs are most meaningful to me:

--I believe it is part of human nature to seek truth and meaning, sometimes consciously, more often unconsciously.

--I believe we guide our lives—we make the many choices we must make every day--by the answers we come up with as we keep asking ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, the fundamental philosophical and religious questions:

     --Where did I come from before I was born?

     --Why am I here? How should I conduct my life?

     --What will become of me when my body can no longer support life?

              And, most fundamental of all,

     --Why does anything exist? Why is there something instead of nothing?

--I believe there are no factual answers to these questions. All over the planet there are people with widely divergent, purportedly “factual” answers. I believe they are deluded. Since it is part of human nature to seek  answers, we must accept, or invent, beliefs--in full recognition that they are not necessarily factual.

--I believe that for the wellbeing of ourselves and those with whom we interact, it is incumbent on us—it is our responsibility and our joy—to choose our beliefs for the effects that they will have on our lives.

--I choose to believe that the universe is caused by, and operates in the service of love. When I align myself with love I align myself with the power of the universe. When I align myself with fear I am unable to access both love and courage.

--I choose to believe we are immortal spirits having a human experience in a training school. The goal of our training is that we shall have the courage to love perfectly. Perfect love includes helping ourselves and other spirits, as best we can, to get the knack of courage and loving.

--I choose to believe that one lifetime is not enough to complete our training; therefore we have all been incarnated, disincarnated, and reincarnated.

--I choose to believe most heartily in something a Buddhist teacher recently said in one of our services: “The surest mark of love is joy.” When I have the experience of deep-reaching, long-lasting joy, it is because I am thinking from, acting from, love.

--Finally, I choose to believe, as the Quakers say, “there is that of God in every person.” When I was a disciple of the guru we all greeted one another in this way:  [gesture] “Jai bhagwan.” This can be translated as “The light in me greets the light in you.”

[Gesture] Jai bhagwan.