Heretics Faith: Prayer, Meditation, Contemplation
Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr.
December 4, 2020
I have chosen a vibe or vibration for this service that is contemplative. That was purposeful. I want to talk to you about prayer, meditation, contemplation and stillness as being one in the same (pathways to love). There are subtle differences but the essence of each is the same; they each lead us back to love and unity.
I want to break through the words and get to the heart of the matter. For too long Unitarian Universalists have wrestled with religious language. We’ve run from it. Unitarian Universalism is a religion. We are a spiritual and secular faith, yes, but we are an institution with a sacred system of beliefs.
And what is it that we seek? To run away from religion and Christianity? I don’t think so… I think in our evolution of consciousness, ultimately what we seek is transcendence. A way of seeing life that goes beyond the literal and tribal. In fact, the deeper I go, spiritually, the more I find that my goal is oneness—not separation. Interestingly, I’ve found, often, that when people are stuck in separation they seem polarized. People and religions get stuck in dichotomizing people, places and things. But as a heretical faith, as a living tradition, Unitarian Universalism should not be stuck. Never. Our spiritual growth must keep expanding beyond the dichotomies. Indeed, that defines a religious liberal. As Rev. Fred Muir so beautifully wrote in his book “Heretics Faith”: Vocabulary for Religious Liberals, “…like the word heretic, liberal has a special meaning for UUs: its root means ‘to be generous and open.’ As religious liberals, we seek deeper and wider understanding, greater tolerance, broader definition, more inclusive language; we want to stretch our minds and souls pushing the limits of thought and spirit, redefining the boundaries of tradition and orthodoxy.”
Today that’s exactly what I wish to do—seek deeper understanding—broader definition and more inclusive language to stretch our minds…
Prayer, meditation and contemplation, as stated are the same to me. We can get into the nuanced differences but at the core they fundamentally have the same goal: Oneness, tranquility, calm, community, unity, healing, and love.
I think of a storm. In the eye of that powerful storm there is stillness (our theme this month). That’s the zero point. When you look at mandalas you are told to focus on the center of the image. The same holds true with the 231 gates of initiation in mysticism. Focus on the center point to find your true self—where you know that you are “made by love for love”, as it is said.
Prayer, meditation, contemplation, stillness, sitting in silence, all of these help us to go there. Therefore, we all pray, meditate and contemplate in quiet and sometimes not so quiet moments. We all do because it is what we do as humans when happy or sad, joyful or alone, courageous or afraid—we go inside ourselves.
Now the subtleties… Prayer as we have learned in traditional church is formulaic. In this sense it is not the same as meditation or contemplation… Prayer can be for special occasions, dinners, blessings, a community event. This type of prayer is communal and about bringing people together and consecrating or making sacred a specific space. Most of these kinds of prayers are formulaic. They follow a pattern consisting of several elements.
- praise or thanksgiving,
- repentance or confession
- intercession (for family or others in general)
- blessings and ending
There are other formulas for organizing prayer, but this basically covers it. Rev. Fred Muir wrote in his book quoting the author, Greta Crosby, that “There are four types of prayers: conflict, sorrow, peace and joy.” In a traditional setting, they are all used with the same script or pattern, as mentioned. It is an old formula. Some say the Nubians and Egyptians used it. The Hindus as well (they still do). It is an old and proven way of harnessing the powers of the people, heavens and earth no matter the religion. Why does it persist? It has been used for a long time because, well, it works!
When I “pray” publicly here at UUCA, I use this basic formula… Here are three short examples: one is Christian; and the other is from the ancient religious wisdom tradition; and the last one would be quintessentially UU.
Christian: God, our Father, we thank you for this day. We praise your holy name. We are grateful for the life you’ve given us. Forgive us where we have sinned and fallen short of your glory; or where we have used your name in vain. We pray for the sick and those in pain and ask that you heal them physically and spiritually through the power of your Holy Spirit. Continue to bless us. Let your will be done and your kingdom come. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
And now the same prayer using ancient religious wisdom (more earth-centered) language…
WISDOM or EARTH-BASED TRADITION: Spirit of Life, we give thanks for this day. We give thanks for the earth, sea and sky. We are grateful and fortunate for the life and love that we have. Might we be reminded of where we have not been our best selves—where we’ve missed the mark. We ask for those healing energies to be with us and those in need. We pray for the sick and those in pain and hope for their swift recovery. May we all find inner and outer peace in our quest for beloved community. Blessings on this community. In the name of all that is holy. Amen.
UU: And one last time, here is the prayer as a secular Unitarian Universalist. You may not be a theist or nature-based.
We give thanks for this day. Thanks for life, love, health. We are grateful and fortunate for what we have. Let us try our best to do and be our best every day; and not to be so hard on ourselves. We remember and send healing thoughts to those who are sick and in pain and we hope for their speedy recovery. Might we be reminded of our highest aspirations in our quest for beloved community. Blessings on this community. May it be so.
All are different but they each use the same pattern which is tried and true over thousands of years of experimentation. But as I said, this type of prayer is different (more public or corporate) than meditation and contemplation… And I will say more on this in just a second…
Rev. Muir writes in his book: “Prayer is an opportunity in conflict, sorrow, peace, or joy to see life in a larger way, to see life as a vision, living in connection instead of separation, gaining a sense of being tied to something other than what we can see and feel in our immediate circle of people and things.”
Prayer in this sense is a way to go deeper. To look under that iceberg where there’s so much more wisdom, knowledge and understanding; where we can experience joy; or it’s a place to take our burdens and sorrows.
Prayer can also be non-formulaic. And that is when it is more aligned with meditation and contemplation—when I say that they are one in the same.
This takes me back to the New Testament in the Bible where it says, “Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.” Or other passages that say he “prayed all night” or was “tempted for 40 days and nights” in the desert. These are of course allegories but within them are the deeper mysteries…Truth is, most don’t pray in the formulaic way for hours or days—mostly its minutes. Therefore, Jesus was MEDITATING. The deeper message is that Jesus was like the Buddha and other sages. He meditated often. To pray means we “call on, beseech, plead, entreat, petition. But it can also mean “to invoke”. To invoke means we can summon the spirits or energetic powers of the elements. When Jesus went to pray he didn’t talk to himself or his god out loud for hours. No. He sat in silence harnessing his inner power. He sat with his thoughts. He MEDITATED. And his temptation story is akin to the Old Testament story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. That too was not a literal story. There’s deeper meaning… We all sit and struggle with our thoughts. We are all tormented by ideas and concepts that try to pull us off our path; we wrestle with decisions that will bring chaos or peace. But in the end, after that long night… there is release and surrender and we find our center. The tempter (or our negative thoughts) flee. We win the wrestling match. In the case of Jesus, he began his ministry after the temptation narrative. As for Jacob he was given a new name: Israel signifying his rebirth.
We sit with our thoughts until we find release…until we find answers. When we are physically sick, we may go to sleep in pain—but we awaken we feel rejuvenated—this is like what prayer, contemplation, and meditation do for us. If we get pass the words and learn to reframe and re-translate religious and spiritual language, then we find the gems.
And, everything has levels or stages of development. There are many aspects to prayer and many aspects to meditation. With meditation and stillness, it’s all about going deeper into those brain states until we experience detachment from that which constrains and pains us. At each level of letting go there’s a new kind of awareness that is tapped. Which is why I believe the great sages were able to tap deeper levels of consciousness which awakened them. Waking up is connecting the conscious with the superconscious. To do that you must have an intentional spiritual practice. The great teachers went to the garden or tree or cave and sat in the silence until the monkey mind surrendered; until the temptation(s) passed. Then they entered the realm of the ALL. Where all the big stuff became the small stuff; including their willingness to give their lives for love and unity instead of material and spiritual pleasure.
For those who practice meditation, prayer, contemplation regularly and intentionally, you know about that calm in the storm; that zero-point where healing takes place—where answers come—whether meditating or sleeping. That’s the theta brain state which is associated with calm and relaxation. We let go and let life…let go and let the god within—the god of our understanding to emerge. Which is why sleep is so important in regulating anxiety and stress and tapping into the creative possibilities.
There are brain states where it is said we can tap into past, present and future lives. Some hypnotherapists say they can talk to people about life after death or life beyond the physical, if you believe in that.
For me, as I see it, we are a part of a giant brain that connects to the Source of ALL—where all thoughts exist and perhaps has ever existed. Call it the collective unconscious (like Jung) or the super consciousness. The group mind—the hive mind…Inventors and writers and others will tell you that at a state of rest and non-thought, out of nowhere, they came up with a new idea(s). I can tell you that many messages come to me right after a nap or during meditation when I finally let go of all the chatter in my head. It’s all there for us—the answers—the questions—the breakthroughs, the “peace that surpasses understanding”.
And that’s what the ancients knew and what our secularized culture has lost—but thankfully is starting to find again by re-storying our religious and spiritual past.
Meditating, contemplating while walking, taking some quiet time; a nap, conscious pausing and stillness is where we find the best version of ourselves. And, btw, we all do it. BUT—there’s always a but…BUT when we’re not intentional with our practice we get seduced into the realms of randomness or victimhood. Or get forced by life to slow down because we are moving too fast—when we’re too caught up in the illusion. We become chasers of our peace instead of being that peace. We spend our time giving our power away instead of being that power! Without being intentional about our spiritual practice, taking time to be still, we are subject to the Greek “fates”. Now we are all going to have stuff happen to us—but what I mean here is that a spiritual practice gives you that 3rd eye of understanding. You mostly see things coming an even when you don’t you are okay because intentional prayer and contemplation and meditation teach you to live in the middle pillar (in fact to become it); where you know you will be okay, come what may, no matter what happens. Your practice has taught you not to rock your boat too hard left or right because a steady ship gets where it’s going. Even when the seas around your ship are choppy (from all the other traffic on the sea) if you stay the course—the waves—the weather will change for the better and you will move toward your goal. How do I know? I’ve watched my past ships and others’ wreck, time and time again, from going too fast—trying to do too much. I’ve learned that “peace be still”.
The good part is that even when there’s a wreck from carelessness, if you pause and reflect and forgive you can get back on course with a rebuilt vessel. Amen!
And this is precisely why Rudyard Kipling is correct when he said, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you” (in his poem IF). That’s you being the calm in the storm. You can speak peace and be peace because you have a practice—and you know that a disturbance is temporary. The turbulent will pass.
Rev. Muir said this regarding prayer: “Life can be a prayer; but only if you maintain a sense of awareness of what’s going on. If you blindly walk through your days and weeks, your relationships and private moments without giving them any thought, context or grounding—any centering—then there won’t be any sense of prayer to life. When you look at your life as a prayer; all of its events and people, when you hold these up for reflection and comment in a deliberate and focused kind of way, so that you’re aware of what you’re doing, then you’re praying.” I add: then you are living intentionally, living beyond randomness because stillness, contemplation, prayer, and meditation all take us to the ALL. These practices plug us in to get recharged. They recontextualize our world and give us a calm perspective.
My prayer for you today is that this peace, this tranquility be yours; that you experience the ‘peace that surpasses understanding’. May this love, calm, peace and wholeness be yours today and always. Amen.