The preacher in Ecclesiastes & Jesus are challenging us to ask ourselves: Is life about possessing? The vanity, and yes the frustration of trying to possess life is, as the preacher writes & as Jesus says, foolish! But that doesn’t prevent us from trying to possess life rather than simply live life in the present. Maybe you live with a Godly indifference to possessing, grasping, or seizing life? I don’t do that hence these scriptures are a real gift! They so richly contrast our foolish desire to possess life instead of being rich toward God….Jesus’ words of challenge which ended our hearing of the Gospel today.
In order to define what it may mean to be ‘rich toward God,’ I want to first meander through our foolishness. Thich Nhat Hahn, in his book ‘No Mud, No Lotus’ told a story about how one day the Buddha was sitting with some of his monks in the woods. They had just come back from an alms-round and were ready to share a mindful lunch together. A farmer passed by, looking distraught. He asked the Buddha, ‘Monks, have you seen some cows going by here?’ ‘What cows?’ the Buddha responded. ‘Well’ the man said, ‘I have four cows & I don’t why but this morning they all ran away. I also have two acres of sesame but this year the insects ate the entire crop. I have lost everything: my harvest & my cows. I feel (terrible)!’ The Buddha responded: ‘Dear Friend, we haven’t seen any cows passing by. Maybe you should look in the other direction.’ When the farmer was gone, the Buddha looked at his friends and smiled knowingly. ‘Dear friends,’ he said, ‘you are very lucky you don’t have any cows to lose.’ Thich Nhat Hahn ends with this question: ‘What is the cow you need to lose so you can be more joyful & happy?’ If we’re trying to possess life by basing happiness on our ‘cows,’ that’s foolish right?
But we still try! About a month & a half ago we had the glorious music to accompany the dedication of the fine, refurbished piano here in the assembly room. I wasn’t going to miss hearing Sherry & Grace, Patrick & George, and Bill & Steve at that concert. I came to Sunday Assembly that morning but didn’t want to drive all the way back to Sun Prairie & then come back to the monastery. I hung around. I was prepared to stay so I ate the lunch I’d brought with me in my car parked behind the guest & retreat house which is where I normally park so I can plug-in to the vehicle charger & refill the Prius’ battery…it takes about 2 KW which costs about 28 cents. It was an overcast day & the air was pleasant. After I ate my lunch, I put the seat back, got comfy with my car pillow in place & intended to take a nap. I had the windows slightly open, the birds were singing, a gentle breeze was coming in the windows when suddenly I heard someone yelling. I didn’t know where the voice was coming from but looked out the window and saw a guy stopped in his car nearby on the road. I couldn’t understand what he was yelling so I got out of the car. I thought maybe he was lost and needed directions. He repeated his question: ‘Do you want to sell your car?’ he asked. I was so surprised by that question that instead of simply saying no, I said, “I love my car! I don’t want to sell it!’ He drove off. I’m not nearly as befuddled by who he was or by his question as I am with my answer.
Do I really ‘love my car’? Is my car one of those cows Thich Nhat Hahn warned about? Do I yearn for a bigger barn to hold more grain to feed more cows to buy more zippy cars to live happily ever after? The answer is yes, yes, & yes… God-spirit in me & in you, responds fool, fool, fool!
The most amazing Joan Chittister, a Bendictine sister who’s known & loved by many here at Holy Wisdom, offers some wise guidance to this predicament. In her book, ‘In My Own Words,’ she wrote: “(God) calls us to recognize that life is full of gifts that come and go, come and go as we ourselves come and go through the many stages of life. Detachment from the idea there is only one way for me to go through life joyfully is its key. The pain of loss is a real & present thing. It manacles my soul & breaks my heart, yes. But holy indifference (is a better way!)” (Pause) Holy indifference to those things which we are eventually going to lose, and yet we want to possess (which may end up possessing us,) is a way to be rich toward God. That attitude of holy indifference toward the elements of the material world which add to our quality of life is manifested by living gratefully; traveling lightly; generously sharing our energy for justice; joyfully giving our money to amazing people and organizations who are literally saving the lives of children, people young and old who are ravaged by starvation and war; and finally, filling the universe with good, caring, healing thoughts for those people we love, those people we don’t know, and those people we can’t stand! Holy indifference moves us away from a dualistic understanding of bad & good to an open space of availability where holy energy can flow through us. (When I talked about this ‘holy indifference’ with Phyllis Lobdell when she was ‘portering’ on Wednesday, she said she was reminded of her qigong teacher’s advice to adopt an attitude of ‘cheerful indifference’ while practicing qigong. ‘Don’t hold on too tightly to anything,’ they told her, ‘bad for health!’… holy indifference, cheerful indifference…allowing Godly energy to flow through us … good for health!!)
Meister Eckhart, the 13th century monk, would agree. He wrote ‘God is an ever-present energy that wants to flow into and through us but is blocked because we are too full of ourselves.’ And I would add maybe we have too many ‘cows’ blocking that flow of enriching, Godly energy. Want to be rich toward God? Empty yourself …. (‘Christ emptied himself taking the form of a servant.’ Philippians 2:7) … and be filled with that ever-present energy. We then fully live life instead of being possessed by those things which do not give life.
I’ll end with a story which I think Jesus could have told…it seems to fit what Jesus and the preacher in Ecclesiastes are so powerfully saying:
Once upon a time there was a fisherwoman sitting with her husband on the beach on a late afternoon watching their children play in the sand. A man approached them and asked: ‘Why are you not out fishing? It seems you’re wasting a good opportunity?’ She replied, ‘Oh, I was out fishing this morning. I caught enough fish to sell and enough to feed my family. So now I’m just enjoying the day with my family.’ The man said, ‘But if you’d go out now, you could catch more fish.’ She replied, ‘And then what?’ He said, ‘Then you could make more money to buy bigger boat.’ ‘And then what?’ she asked. Then you’d get enough fish to sell so you could buy another boat.” ‘And then what?’ asked the fisherwoman. ‘Then you’d make enough to buy a whole fleet of boats.’ ‘And then what?’ He paused, ‘Then you could spend the afternoons relaxing with your husband watching your children play in the sand.’
Vanity of vanities … when we set our spirits to possess more cows, cash, cars, boats, barns, or brilliance … that’s foolish! So, as we in holy indifference, disentangle ourselves from all of that, we may be able to live into the question which the 13th Century Persian poet Rumi once asked: ‘Why not join your spirit to the one who sits inside your heart?’ To do that is to truly be rich toward God. It’s out of that richness we joyfully love and serve our world so desperately in need of this holy energy which flows through us. Amen.
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Joan Chittister, a Bendictine sister who’s known & loved by many here at Holy Wisdom, offers some wise guidance to this predicament. In her book, ‘In My Own Words,’ she wrote: “(God) calls us to recognize that life is full of gifts that come and go, come and go as we ourselves come and go through the many stages of life. Detachment from the idea there is only one way for me to go through life joyfully is its key. The pain of loss is a real & present thing. It manacles my soul & breaks my heart, yes. But holy indifference (is a better way!)” (Pause) Holy indifference to those things which we are eventually going to lose, and yet we want to possess (which may end up possessing us,) is a way to be rich toward God. That attitude of holy indifference toward the elements of the material world which add to our quality of life is manifested by living gratefully; traveling lightly; generously sharing our energy for justice; joyfully giving our money to amazing people and organizations who are literally saving the lives of children, people young and old who are ravaged by starvation and war; and finally, filling the universe with good, caring, healing thoughts for those people we love, those people we don’t know, and those people we can’t stand! Holy indifference moves us away from a dualistic understanding of bad & good to an open space of availability where holy energy can flow through us. (When I talked about this ‘holy indifference’ with Phyllis Lobdell when she was ‘portering’ on Wednesday, she said she was reminded of her qigong teacher’s advice to adopt an attitude of ‘cheerful indifference’ while practicing qigong. ‘Don’t hold on too tightly to anything,’ they told her, ‘bad for health!’… holy indifference, cheerful indifference…allowing Godly energy to flow through us … good for health!!)
Meister Eckhart, the 13th century monk, would agree. He wrote ‘God is an ever-present energy that wants to flow into and through us but is blocked because we are too full of ourselves.’ And I would add maybe we have too many ‘cows’ blocking that flow of enriching, Godly energy. Want to be rich toward God? Empty yourself …. (‘Christ emptied himself taking the form of a servant.’ Philippians 2:7) … and be filled with that ever-present energy. We then fully live life instead of being possessed by those things which do not give life.
I’ll end with a story which I think Jesus could have told…it seems to fit what Jesus and the preacher in Ecclesiastes are so powerfully saying:
Once upon a time there was a fisherwoman sitting with her husband on the beach on a late afternoon watching their children play in the sand. A man approached them and asked: ‘Why are you not out fishing? It seems you’re wasting a good opportunity?’ She replied, ‘Oh, I was out fishing this morning. I caught enough fish to sell and enough to feed my family. So now I’m just enjoying the day with my family.’ The man said, ‘But if you’d go out now, you could catch more fish.’ She replied, ‘And then what?’ He said, ‘Then you could make more money to buy bigger boat.’ ‘And then what?’ she asked. Then you’d get enough fish to sell so you could buy another boat.” ‘And then what?’ asked the fisherwoman. ‘Then you’d make enough to buy a whole fleet of boats.’ ‘And then what?’ He paused, ‘Then you could spend the afternoons relaxing with your husband watching your children play in the sand.’
Vanity of vanities … when we set our spirits to possess more cows, cash, cars, boats, barns, or brilliance … that’s foolish! So, as we in holy indifference, disentangle ourselves from all of that, we may be able to live into the question which the 13th Century Persian poet Rumi once asked: ‘Why not join your spirit to the one who sits inside your heart?’ To do that is to truly be rich toward God. It’s out of that richness we joyfully love and serve our world so desperately in need of this holy energy which flows through us. Amen.