Practical Mysticism

A service titled ‘Practical Mysticism’, led by Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall, with readings from David Brewerton, Jasmine Cooray, and Antony Bunsee, and music from Andrew Robinson, Lucy Elston-Panter, Margaret Marshall, Benjie del Rosario and Nick Beever.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 3:53

We have chosen to bring ourselves here now to this sanctuary to gather as a community of faith. We join together in solidarity as people of deep commitment. People who are drawn together by the promise of connection and the mysterious pull of the unanswerable. We draw on experiences of love and wonder to lift our hearts and move us beyond the mundane. As seekers, wanderers, appreciators of nature, connoisseurs of curiosity, and creators of connection. Our paths have converged today so that we might become present to the spirit that is worship. And so on this precious morning that we've set apart to make it sacred, let us worship together again. Welcome to those of you who are here in person at Essex Church. Welcome to everyone joining us from far and wide via Zoom, and indeed anyone tuning in at a later date. If anyone doesn't know me, my name is Jane Blackhall and I am minister with Kensington Unitarian. The title of this morning's service is Practical Mysticism, a title nicked from the famous book by Evelyn Underhill. When we think of mysticism, we might be tempted to fall back on the old stereotype of the mystic as someone who's a bit detached from reality, a bit away with the fairies. But clearly there's a whole other school of thought which paints the mystic as the one who sees reality most clearly of all. Scholar of the mystics, William McNamara, has this to say. The mystic is the one person surely, most surely in touch with this world of flesh and blood, of hard facts and concrete realities. The spiritual world, if we must use those terms, is this world and a spiritual experience is what we're experiencing at this moment if we look at it the right way. So this morning, through readings and hymns and prayer and reflection, I'm going to invite you to ponder this mystical way of seeing and being and to consider the possibility that there is a practical mystic lying within you just waiting to be discovered. But before we go any further, let's do what we always do and light our chalice flame. It's a moment for us to pause and arrive to settle ourselves and set aside anything we don't need to be worrying about for the next hour. And this ritual connects us with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists the world over. It reminds us of that proudly progressive religious tradition of which this gathering is part. The possibility that we are more than the sum of our parts, that the world is more than a problem to solve. That illumination is more than simple flame. We light this chalice and open to possibility. Time to sing. Our first hymn this morning is on your little hymn sheet if you're in the building. God Speaks Today. For those joining on Zoom, the words will be up on screen, as for all our hymns. This hymn really sets out our stall in terms of this subject we're exploring today. This idea of connecting the divine with our everyday reality and the practical part that we can play in embodying God in this world. Feel free to stand or sit as you prefer as we sing. God Speaks Today. There might be a posture that helps you feel more prayerful and centred. Whatever helps you get into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together now and be fully present to ourselves, each other, and that which lies within us and beyond us. We turn our full attention to you, the light within and without as we tune into the depths of this life, and the greater wisdom to which and through which we are all intimately connected. Be with us now as we allow ourselves to drop into the silence and the stillness at the very centre of our being. Help us to see the miracle in the mundane, to see the crystal stars, the shape-shifting clouds, the patient trees, to see each other through fresh eyes. For it's so easy to forget what we truly are and what we've been given. As we move through our lives, let us remember to see through the mundane to the miracle beneath, and to perceive that common substance that gives birth to our myriad forms. That mystery that spans beyond the edges of the universe and yet infuses our next breath. And let this foundational awareness of this holy mystery guide us on our path as we work towards peace and fight for justice. And in a few minutes of shared quietness now, let us seek a higher perspective, a longer view. Starting right where we are, let us shift our awareness ever outward in circles of concern. Let us bring to mind all those we know to be struggling this day, and that might include ourselves. It might include our friends and family, those we hold dear, our neighbors and community, and other souls all around the world. Perhaps we might only have heard about them on the news. Perhaps in our own heart in those difficulties. We may be all too aware of mistakes that we've made, opportunities we've made. Times this week when things didn't turn out how we intended or how we hoped. All the way easy, which I was helped to encourage this all the goodness and the beauty of eight nine, even in the midst of the thing to get a thing. As this time of prayer draws to a close, we offer up our joys and our concerns, our hopes and our fears, our beauty and our brokenness. And we call on you for insight, healing, and renewal. As we look forward now to the coming week, help us to live well each day and be our best selves, using our unique gifts in the service of love, justice, and peace.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

This is the story of the mystic and the scientist as told Eric Walker Wigstrong. One day, a religious man approached a mystic and asked, Does a God exist? Allow me to go within for an answer, the mystic replied. After meditating for quite some time, expanding her heart consciousness to embrace the spirit of life and the interconnected web of all existence, she answered, I do not know what you mean by the word God, but I do know that this world is more mysterious and more wonderful than I could ever imagine. I know that you and I are part of something so much larger than our own lives. Then the religious man approached a scientist. He asked. Let me think, the scientist replied. And so she thought. She thought about the vastness of the universe one hundred and fifty-six billion light years, or something like nine hundred and thirty-six billion trillion miles in diameter and the almost immeasurable smallness of a quark. She thought of how the energy of the Big Bang fuels the beating of her own heart. And then she answered I do not know what you mean by the word God, but I do know that this world is more mysterious and more wonderful than I could ever imagine. I know that you and I are part of something so much larger than our own lives that perhaps this something larger is what you seek. The religious man then thought to himself he thought of what he knows and what he does not know. He thought about how he knows what he knows and how he knows he doesn't know what he doesn't know. He thought about his experience of the world and how it is but one tiny infinitesimal fraction of all experience. He thought about his dependence on forces larger than himself. And he thought about the interdependence of all existence. He experienced wonder and pondered mystery. And then he knew he knew in his soul the truth of what the mystic and the scientist said that he is part of something so much larger than his own life. And then only then did he think about what he'd call it.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Thank you, David. I it's almost as if someone planned this service. Our next hymn is number two hundred and thirty-three in your green hymn books. Others call it God. Hymn two, three, three.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Ordinary Mysticism by Miraby Star. Welcome to the temple of your regular life. The garden of your days, the harbour where you catch your breath, the theatre of your relationships. This is the terrain where you wake up and transform the sometimes chaotic, frequently fraught, unexpectedly beautiful domain of the everyday. You don't need to trek to a remote shrine in the Himalayas, enroll in expensive seminars, or convert to a new religion to connect with spirit. Your life is holy ground. And you are a mystic. I know you are, because all it means to be a mystic is to have a direct experience of the de of the sacred. You have had zillions of those. You may be having one right now. Some resonance in your bones that whispers, Yes, I belong. I am intertwined with all that is. Meaning someone who experiences the divine as an intimate encounter rather than an article of faith. A mystical experience may or may not be connected to established spiritual traditions, theological structures, or faith communities. Mysticism is not about concepts. It's about communion with ultimate reality. And ultimate reality is not some faraway pride we claim we have proved ourselves worthy of to perceive. Ultimate reality blooms at the heart of regular life. It shines through the cracks of our daily struggles and sings from the core of our deepest desires. Mysticism is a way of seeing beyond the turmoil, the rights and wrongs, the good guys and villains to the radiant heart of things. The mystical gaze reveals the miracle in the summer thunderstorm and the bowl of ramen. It glimpses the face of the holy in the withered dahlias and blesses the sound of the siren in the middle of the night. It quickens the heart with yearning and soothes the soul with the felt presence of the sublime. A mystic gazes through the eyes of love, and love reveals itself as the only true thing. For most of us, mystical seeing does not happen all the time, but for all of us it happens some of the time. And for more and more of us, it is happening more and more of the time. In proportion to current challenges of systemic inequity and climate catastrophe, the flowering of grassroots activism and the uncovering of ancestral trauma in our own family systems, old filters are burning away. And we are granted renewed access to the numinous nature of reality. When you decide to walk the path of the mystic, the mundane shows up as miraculous. The boring becomes fascinating, and your own shortcomings turn out to be your greatest gifts. My friend James Finley, a living mystic, if ever there was one, puts it like this If we are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing, even as it sustains us in all things, then we can face all things with courage and tenderness and touch the hurting places in others and ourselves with love.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

So we're moving into a time of meditation now, and to take us into the stillness, I'm gonna share a few words of our Unitarian Universalist Minister Gordon McKeeman, reflecting on the question, how does one address a mystery? After that we'll hold a few minutes of shared silence, which will end with the sound of a bell, and then we'll hear some more mystical music and meditation. So let's do what we need to do to get comfortable. You might want to uh put your feet flat on the floor if that helps you to feel grounded and steadied. You might want to close your eyes. And these words are just an offering. Feel free to use this time to meditate in your own way. How does one address a mystery? Cautiously. Let us go cautiously then to the end of our certainty, to the boundary of all we know, to the rim of uncertainty, to the perimeter of the unknown which surrounds us. Reverently. Let us go with a sense of awe, a feeling of approaching the powerful holy whose lightning splashes the sky, whose persistence splits concrete with green sprouts, whose miracles are present in every place and moment. Hopefully, out of our need of a wholeness in our own lives, the reconciliation of mind and heart, the conjunction of reason and passion, the intersection of the timeless with time. For no words will explain the inarticulate or summon the presence that is always present even in our absence. But what shall we say? Anything any anger, any hope, any fear, any joy, any request, any word that comes from the depth of being addressed to being itself or perhaps nothing. No complaint, no request, no entreaty, no thanksgiving, no praise, no blame, no pretense of knowing or not knowing. Simply be in the intimate presence of mystery, unashamed, unadorned, unafraid. And at the end we will say Amen.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

This reading on The Mystical Vocation was written forty-five years ago by Carmelite priest William McNamara, and it emphasizes the engagement of the mystic with the world as it is. It's a product of its time and uses male pronouns when speaking of the mystic. Slightly too difficult to edit them out in an elegant way. So please just make the mental adjustment that mystics come in all genders. McNamara, right. The mystic is not a special kind of person, but everyone is, or ought to be, a special kind of mystic. Mysticism is nothing esoteric. It is not the privilege of a few, but an experience every one of us should know firsthand. When man becomes as human as he can become, then he is properly and thoroughly divinized, so that he thinks and loves like God, and mystical life is inevitable. Mysticism is not what drug enthusiasts call tripping out. It's more like standing in, alert and alive, with the highest possible focus of human attention on the present moment. It is standing willfully and deliberately in awe and wonder before the unrivaled mystery of reality. Mysticism is not a painkiller. It provides no escape from the world, but puts us in touch with the world. The mystic is not a rigid, unbending, unworldly man. He is in love with God, with life, and therefore supple, tolerant, and flexible. Mysticism is not a way out of anguish, conflict, and doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude of the mystical experience awakens a tragic anguish and opens many questions in the depths of the heart. Mystics often suffer more than anyone else because they are so sympathetic and compassionate. The true mystic does not merely explore his own consciousness but savors the real. Mysticism is man's long loving walk. Mysticism is man's long loving look at reality, to which he is united by love.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Thanks, Anthony. Let's sing again now. Our next hymn is number forty-five in your green hymn books, an old favorite. Come down, O Love Divine, hymn forty-five. I have a question for you to ponder. Are you a mystic? Murabi Star says that you are. We heard that in the reading from Jasmine. And it's a view that turns up quite frequently in writings on mysticism. Mysticism is not just the preserve of some spiritual elite. It's a way of being that is available for all of us. We don't have to go and live in a cave, or stand on one leg for forty years, or take a vow of silence, or spin like a dervish in order to follow the mystical path. Yes, there are all sorts of esoteric practices out there, but there are also mundane ways of being a mystic. And as we heard in the story of the mystic and the scientist, being a mystic doesn't even depend on you being on board with God language. Though if you do feel able to use God language or at least grapple with the mystical writings of others who do, it will enable you to engage more deeply with the mystical writings of sorry, with a long lineage of other people who have engaged with these same fundamental questions of life and death and meaning and purpose for centuries, if not millennia. But it doesn't really rest on God language. Mysticism is more about a way of seeing the world, a model of perception, which puts you in touch with this sense of something more, perhaps a sense of oneness and connection, a sense of the underlying nature of reality. John C. Robinson has written about this in this little book, very intriguing book, Mystical Activism. And he said this. The mystics tell us that the cosmos is completely saturated and infused with divine consciousness, including us. They say the divine is closer than our own breath, nearer than thought, always present, and ultimately our truest self. In other words, we're literally made of God, for the divine is everything. Mysticism is about perception, a direct and transformational perception of ultimate reality. And although it may lead us to confirm religious or spiritual beliefs, mystical experience in itself requires neither, and it can occur in the absence of a belief or to those with atheist convictions. In this way, mystery is a category by itself free from any particular dogma or theology, making it available and useful to activists across the religious and non-religious spectrum. Mystical experience is the heart and soul of mystical activism. It is the key to transforming self and world and the power we each possess to change humanity's course in this apocalyptic time. So, like I said at the top of the service, I want us to get away from this assumption that mystics are disinterested in the real world or that they're trying to escape from it somehow. Maybe that's true for some who would call themselves mystics or who are labelled that way. But there's also a significant strand who combine contemplation with practical action. Beatrice Brutaux, the contemplative pioneer of interspirituality, she wrote this. Better worlds have to be built on sure foundations. They must be able to withstand deep impediments to their development. Rearranging energy from within is what mysticism does. How does mysticism do this? I need more power, more possessions, more respect and admiration. It's never enough. The fear always remains. But fortunately, everyone is a mystic. At some deep level, we know that we are not mutually alienated from each other. We do have sufficient being. We are helping each other know that we are deeply related, we are all precious and deserving, that the universe is our home, and that we can feel safe at the deepest level of our being. This sense of oneness that is the hallmark of the mystic is increasing. And this oneness, this freedom from alienation and insecurity, this is the sure foundation for a better world. For it means that we will try to help each other rather than hurt each other. Mystical activism subtitled Transforming a World in Crisis. He really speaks to this and runs with that premise. The premise that adopting a mystical way of seeing and being will transform us and ultimately transform the world in very practical ways. The book opens with these very words. Mystical activism is an invitation to transform your personality, life, work, spirituality, religion, even the world itself. To become a divine human in a divine world, and a mystical activist in a time of apocalyptic cultural, political, and climate disruption. We are in trouble. And the signs are everywhere. Extreme political division, xenophobic violence, wealth inequity, poverty and homelessness, persistent racism, sexism and ageism, cruelty towards indigenous peoples, armed buildups and unending wars, and the most threatening of all, terrifying climate disruption. Whenever humanity teeters on a terrifying cliff edge, mystics can offer hope. And it always begins with our own personal transformation. This apocalyptic time in history represents a profound evolutionary challenge, urgently calling us to the next level of spiritual awakening. And we are all mystics. To be attuned to the something more, whatever you choose to name that deeper dimension of reality. And to interpret your everyday experiences in a way that keeps you in touch with the presence of God or the good all around you. Reach out in prayer to the one that connects us all, the oneness that connects us all, in whom we live and move and have our being. Reach out for the strength that you need to keep on doing good in this world. And in that spirit, I'm going to close with some brief words of prayer for God doing well. Spirit of life, the God of all life, the source of hope and courage. We turn our minds and hearts again towards thee. Awaken us again to the mysteries that humble us, the realities that orient us, the truths that judge and guide us, the beauty that informs and ravishes us, the love that nurtures us, the fellowship that sustains us, the creativity that heightens and deepens and reorders our living, that we may give ourselves in honesty and openness to the larger life before us. May it be so for the greater good of all. Amen. Time for one last hymn, number two hundred and thirty-five in your green books, a melody of love. Thanks to Ramona for tech hosting, thanks to Aisha for co-hosting, and if you're online, do stay behind for a chat with Aisha. I see there's a lot of you on board today. Thanks so much to Andrew, Lucy, Margaret, Benjamin, Nick for just gorgeous music today. I really, really appreciate it. Thanks to David, Jasmine, and Anthony for reading, uh, David for making the tea, and Patricia for doing the greeting. Uh if you're here in person, we have Victoria Sponge by special request and pear and ginger loaf. So come and help us eat it. That'll be in the room next door. Tonight on Friday at 7, we've got our heart and soul online contemplative spiritual gathering. This week the theme is choices. Sign up with me if you want the link for that, or have chat if you want to know more. On Wednesday, we have the poetry group in person with Brian. Have a word with Brian if you want to know more. If you want to come along, let him know what poem you're going to bring. This month's Better World Book Club is on the book Upstream. I think it's called the pub's subtitle is Solving Problems Before They Happen. That's an intriguing subtitle. We'll be talking about that on Sunday, the 30th of August, on Zoom. We may still have one or two copies at the back to loan out, so let me know if you want to borrow one. Next Sunday, me and Patricia are co-leading the service and it will be titled Sort of the Air. I also want to remind you that the online programme for summer school is still open. Uh, if you want to go along to that, it's six consecutive days online. It's in the mornings. It costs uh £100, and there's a talk and an engagement group each day. Uh, there may be some funding available to help with that if you're a member of the congregation. Get in touch with me as soon as possible if you want to know more. All these in details are on the back of your order of service. Uh they're on the Friday email if you've signed up for that. There's very much life beyond Sunday mornings. Do what you can to look out for each other and nurture those supportive connections. So just time for our closing words and closing music now. With what benediction shall I leave you? This in your life, may you know the holy meaning of the mystery that breaks into it every moment. May you live at peace with your world and at peace with yourself and may the love of truth guide you in your everyday. Amen.

unknown 57:21

Um, um, I'm um, it's all the numbers.