A sermon delivered by The Rev. Kathy Schmitz on November 18, 2007
At Pathways Church, A Unitarian Universalist Community in Southlake, Texas
As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Reading before the sermon:
from a sermon titled, “The Visitors,” by Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Dr. Daniel Connell
Lord Krishna wanted to test the wisdom of his kings. One day he summoned a king called Duryodana. Duryodana was well known throughout the land for his cruelty and miserliness, and his subjects lived in terror.
Lord Krishna said to King Duryodana, "I want you to go and travel the world over and find for me one truly good person."
Duryodana replied, "Yes, Lord," and obediently began his search.
He met and spoke with many people, and after much time had passed he returned to Lord Krishna saying, "Lord, I have done as you have asked and searched the world over for one truly good person. Such a one is not to be found. All of them are selfish and wicked. Nowhere is there to be found this good person you seek!"
Lord Krishna sent him away and called another king called Dhammaraja. He was a king well known for his generosity and benevolence and well loved by all his people.
Krishna said to him, "King Dhammaraja, I wish for you to travel the world over and bring to me one truly wicked person." Dhammaraja also obeyed, and on his travels met and spoke with many people.
After much time had passed he returned to Krishna saying, "Lord, I have failed you. There are people who are misguided, people who are misled, people who act in blindness but nowhere could I find one truly evil person. They are all good at heart despite their failings!"
(A story from the Hindu tradition as re-told in Soul Food, by Jack cornfield and Christina Feldman, page 245, gender neutralized)
How often the condition of our own heart determines how we experience the world.
Which is easier for you to find?
Are you like King Duryodana, so focused on people’s flaws that you find it hard to find their good side?
Or
Are you like King Dhammaraja who sees people’s weakness but ultimately finds them good at heart.
And in this season of Thanksgiving, which do you find it easier to bring into focus… life’s blessings or life’s challenges?
How often the condition of our own heart determines how we experience the world.
I do not for a moment want to suggest that we should ignore life’s challenges. For life has many challenges and they are very real.
And yet, the reality of life’s challenges does not negate the reality of life’s blessings.
It is through the very act of noticing our blessings that we can be strengthened and given courage for the journey.
Another story, variously attributed, tells of a farmer who was out in his field by the side of the road.
A traveler passing by, headed toward the nearby village,
stopped to speak to him. "I am thinking of moving to this area; could you
tell me what kind of people live in this village?"
The farmer said, "What kind of people live in the village that you come
from?"
"Oh, they are terrible!" the traveler answered. "They lie, cheat
and steal from one another. That is why I want to get out of there."
The farmer exclaimed, "Why, that's exactly how the people are
here! You'd better not move here; you won’t be happy here. You will need to
continue your journey."
Several days later, another traveler passed by. The traveler asked, "I would
like to see and learn more about other parts of the country, and maybe to live
here, but first could you tell me what kind of people live here?"
The farmer asked this traveler, too, about the people back home. "Oh, they
are good people, kind and courteous, and they usually help each other."
"It is the same here, “replied the farmer.” Go on up to the village and
visit. I’m sure you will be very happy here."
Now, on first reading, I thought that farmer had intentionally misdirected the first traveler to keep that sort of crankiness out of his village. But then I realized that he spoke the truth to both of the travelers. He told them both that the people of his village shared the characteristics they had listed with the people of the places from which they had some.
Like people everywhere, some people in the farmer’s village probably lie, cheat and steal from one another.
Like people everywhere most people in the farmer’s village
are probably good people, kind and courteous, and usually help each other.
The farmer’s prediction of what each traveler would find was based on what they had revealed about themselves, on what each had found in the past.
What advice would the farmer have for you?
What would he predict about your happiness were you to visit his village?
How often the condition of our own heart determines how we experience the world.
It was interesting to me that when I started thinking about blessings this Thanksgiving season, I found myself turning not to images of Pilgrims and American Indians, as tradition might have it, but rather to the Indians on the other side of the world. I found myself repeatedly returning to images from Hinduism.
The story of King Duryodana and King Dhammaraja is from the Hindu tradition.
The other image I was drawn to, in a consideration of blessings, is the Hindu god Ganesh. I’d like to introduce you to Ganesh.
(slide of Ganesh – Classic)
Ganesh is the popular elephant-headed God of Hinduism. He is a god of good fortune – a remover of obstacles. He is found watching over the doorways of homes and public places. Even in temples to other gods, worshippers often stop first to pay their respects to Ganesh.
(slide looking up at hill top)
My close encounter with Ganesh was at a temple in Ranthambore National Park in North India.
Within the park and high on a protected hill is a fort built 1000 years ago.
(slide looking up steps)
We were at the park to look for tigers but took a side trip and walked the steep stone steps to visit the fort.
At the top were many ruins, but also, an active temple to Lord Ganesh.
(slide of pink building)
Nearby a small market sold the things one might need to make offerings at the temple.
In particular, it sold fabulous garlands. These, if not used in worship, were appreciated as snacks by the resident apes who loitered outside the temple.
(slide of Charlie and monkey)
Along the path to the temple, we noticed many little stone structures and even saw some family groups stopping to put some together.
(slide of little stone structure)
These were built by people who had visited the temple to pray for a house. This was custom at this temple. To request that Ganesh remove the obstacles to home ownership. To ask Ganesh to grant the good fortune of a house.
This picture shows a rather elaborate 2-story affair. Most people’s prayers were more modest.
I was charmed by Ganesh and before I left India, I bought a little Ganesh statue. He has, since then, guarded our doorway.
After returning home, I read some about Ganesh. Although, like all Hindu gods, he is worshipped differently from region to region, I did not find evidence that he is generally considered a provider of housing. So perhaps that tendency was unique to the location we visited. Still, because of our experience, it is probably not surprising that I associate Ganesh with good fortune with regard to houses.
(slide of stone Ganesh)
This took an interesting twist when it came time to put our house on the market last spring. In the days leading up to it going on the market we received lots of advice. Much of it I had heard before – things to make the house more salable or to increase its curb appeal. But there was one piece of advice that was new to me. We were told to bury a statue of St. Joseph upside down in our yard. Has anyone here ever actually heard of this? We received this advice from a surprising number of people. I have since done some research and discovered that this has been quite the rage at times. The origins are a bit unclear and clouded in folklore but what I can tell you is that there are a number of places on-line where you can by St. Joseph real estate kits for just this purpose.
In our case, sometimes the St. Joseph advice was given so earnestly that I felt compelled to respond – to either say I would do it or explain why not. So I took to telling people, referencing the little statue in our hallway, “That’s OK, we have Ganesh on the job.” Which gave me a chance to introduce my neighbors to the charming elephant-headed god.
Last April 1, when our house went on the market, we were prepared for it to take 6 months to a year to sell. It went on the market with an open house at noon. We had the offer we would eventually accept at 5:10 that afternoon. Ganesh gained some status in the neighborhood that day.
Whenever I think of that story, I feel blessed that the house is not on the market today, nearly 8 months later, a possibility for which we were prepared.
Do I think that Ganesh made our house sell? (shrug) Hard to say.
I do know that he makes me happy and reminds me to be grateful when I see him guarding the door of our new abode.
And so I associate him with blessings.
I also associate him with blessings because of something I noticed after we returned from India.
A month after returning from India, I still wore on my wrist the red thread that I had received when we visited the Ganesh Temple and I wrote the following entry in my journal. It titled the entry…
The Red String
The faded and frayed red string has been around my wrist for over a month. It is the outward sign of the blessing received after making offerings at the Ganesh temple that we visited in the fort on the hill at Ranthambore National Park. Ganesh is the elephant-headed god, the son of Shiva and Parvati. He is the remover of obstacles. This popular Hindu god is the first to be acknowledged when worshipers enter a temple and he appears above the doorway of many homes and buildings.
It was the only temple where we made offerings. With the help of our guide, we each obtained a flower garland which we presented to the priest at the altar. Our foreheads were marked with a red dot and in our up-turned palms were placed small mounds of sweets and seeds. Some looked for an appropriate place, other than their mouths, to deposit the gift. Tempting digestive distress, I popped mine in my mouth as the locals seemed to do.
Then, by the exit, another priest. Watching those before us, we gave a small cash offering. Another forehead mark. A string, not much more than a thread, wrapped multiple times around the wrist. A sign, a remembrance of our visit. How long should we keep in on, we asked. Until it falls off, we were told.
Now we are back in the states. The string remains. No one, no one except Indians, asks us about the string. I think the others do not see it. It has no meaning for them. But for the Indians we know, it has meaning. And they ask. Where did you get this? Where is it from? For them it has meaning. And we tell them. They say little but seem pleased.
And I am left wondering. What signs of blessing do I miss? How much do I simply not see because it has no meaning for me? What is there, right before my eyes, that has meaning to the people around me, but about which I don’t even think to ask, because I don’t even know it is there?
(bank to sermon slide)
Learning to look for blessings, to notice blessings, to accept blessings, to be thankful for blessings is an important practice.
When I use the word blessings, I am talking about those good things that happen that are not necessarily the result of anything we have done.
I suspect that people in this room have different ideas about where blessings come from. What do you think? Are they gifts from a god or goddess? Do we create them? Do we earn them? Are they a result of our own hard work? Our prayers? Pure luck?
Regardless of their source, I am inclined to think that there are far more blessings around us then we tend to notice.
We are quick to ask why bad things happen to good people.
We are less quick to ask why good things happen to complicated and often confused people just trying to get through the day.
Of course there is no one right answer. But often, I believe, that good things happen to people who look for them, notice them, accept them, and are thankful for them.
It is an important practice.
A corollary to my belief that unnoticed blessings surround us, is my belief that blessings must be universal. That the good in the world is best when it is shared by all.
So I tend to not see blessings as personal. I don’t think that there is a source of blessings that would, for example, intentionally keep one person from boarding a plane that will crash – while callously ignoring the plight of the other 200 passengers.
I do not believe that god is on anyone’s side… in sporting events or wars.
I do not believe that my god is stronger than your god, or that Ganesh is any more likely to sell a house than St. Joseph.
I do believe that blessings abound… universally.
I do believe that all our gods and goddesses, our positive thoughts, and mindfulness, and awareness, and prayers… all these, help us to tap into the great pool of blessings that surround us always.
I think it is a fine thing to seek blessings for ourselves and for those we love.
But ultimately, the blessings that will flow into our lives, will do so more abundantly, when our hearts are open – when our wish, translated to the theology of your choice might be…
… God bless the whole world.... No exceptions.