The
Liberating Power of Human Goodness
Reverend Ted Tollefson
© 2006
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us...
We are born to make manifest the glory of god which is within us.
It is not in just some of us, it is in all of us.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears,
our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Nelson Mandela (1994 Inaugural Speech)
originally from Return
to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles
by Marianne Williamson.
What is the "Good News"
of Unitarian Universalism?
It begins with Human Goodness: the affirmation that there is something
good, decent and trustworthy in human nature. There is
"health in us",
despite dreary centuries of sin-centered readings of Biblical religion.
I. THEOLOGY:
The affirmation of human goodness comes from many sources. It
is upheld by Biblical theologies which begin with "Original Blessing"
rather than "Original Sin". It is grounded in the First
Creation Story (Genesis 1) and amplified by the Incarnation and teachings
of Jesus. It finds kindred texts in the Hindu Upanishads which
proclaim "That Thou Art":
that the Powerhouse of the Gods (Brahman) is fully present in the Lighthouse
of the Soul (Atman). It finds clear expression in Buddhist texts which
claim: This very
Body, Your Original Mind is the Buddha. It is amplified by
the Confucian ideal of Jen/Ren:
humankind, humanity at its best, is an interactive process in which the
cultivation of individual virtues becomes a social project.
The doctrine of Human Goodness also finds many sources among American
Unitarians and Universalists. Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men (read persons) are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness." Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Within us is the Soul of the
Whole, the Wise Silence, the Universal Beauty to which every part and
particle is equally related, the Eternal One."
Thomas Starr King's famous jest that "while Universalists believed
that God was too good to damn them, Unitarians believed that they were
too good to be damned" points in the same direction: a
common faith in the essential goodness of humankind.
These
separate texts are like cells; the traditions from which they
come are organ systems; the larger body is Humankind: body of
Christ, body of Buddha. In Humankind there is no north or
south,
Gentile or Jew, gay or straight, red or blue. Humankind is
one body
indivisible. The separate cells, tribes and nations----wired
with
networks of Original Grace---are streaming this Good News to the
universe: there is Light with in a person of Light, and that Unbroken
Light illumines our whole world. Our liberal faith moves by
affirmation
and unification, not negation and division.
II. ETHICS:
Translating our beliefs into embodied action and social organizations.
Many people who excel at almost any trade, profession or calling act
out of a belief in human goodness. Why? Because it tends to be a
self-fulfilling prophecy. We have several generations of
research and countless anecdotes which suggest that behaviors
re-inforced with more attention tend to be repeated. When we
presume that our students, colleagues, clients, partners, neighbors or
family members are good, capable and healthy they tend to act that way.
Our culture is filled
with 6.5 days per week UU's (who affirm Human Goodness) and Sunday
morning Calvinists (who confess Human depravity). Spreading
the Gospel of Human Goodness can begin by calling attention to this
wide-spread
contradiction.
Human Goodness can be encouraged in many ways. Doing the
right thing even when it's not in our short-term self interest.
Encouraging values centered education which gives students
practice in the difficulty art of making decisions in a world of moral
dilemmas and shades of grey. Supporting organizations which
hold their members and leaders accountable to a common code of conduct
or covenant.
What are the working covenants at First Universalist Church?
What principles can we count on in crisis or controversy?
To what principles
are we willing to be held accountable?
III. SPIRITUAL PRACTICES:
what we do regularly and repeatedly to nourish the Invisible Ground
which gives rise to beliefs and values.
There are many spiritual practices which can help us become Gardeners
of Human Goodness. Re-membering someone who loved us
unconditionally and calling upon that image as a doorway to
Unconditional Love or Original Grace. Calling upon our Moral
Guides by putting their picture where we can see it every day:
looking them in the face, asking for their guidance.
Thanking ordinary people who do the right thing even when it
hurts: telling the truth, acting kindly, keeping the peace,
sharing their resources.
What
shall we do with our Light?
Cultivate
Human Goodness.
What
shall we do with our Light?
Celebrate
the Goodness of others.
What
shall we do with our Light?
Co-create
institutions
that
are transparent to the Light of Human Goodness.
And that's (some of) the Good News from Unitarian Universalism:
where all the women are strong,
all the men have gentle hearts
and all persons shine with the Undivided Light of
Human Goodness
Amen!
IV. RESOURCES for Further
Study
Wendell Berry, Standing
By Words,
essays which articulate a hands-on rural humanism.
Perle Besserman & Manfred Steger, Crazy Clouds: Zen Radicals,
Rebels & Reformers,
reflections on Zen masters who embody the "original person of
no rank" (Rinzai).
Martin Buber, I and Thou,
deep reflections by a Jewish theologian who
envisions humankind as inter-active processes.
Joseph Campbell, The
Philosophies of India,
a master storyteller's introduction to the mystical humanism
of the Upanisads and early Buddhism.
John Dewey, A Common
Faith,
a short introduction to a pragmatic religious humanism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The
Over-Soul,
a homegrown Yankee version of the Hindu Upanisads.
Herbert Fingarette, Confucius---The
Secular as Sacred,
vivid and original reflections on Jen/Humanity, the social self of
Chinese humanism.
Matthew Fox, Original
Blessing: A Primer on Creation Based Spirituality,
a brilliant and original book by a formerly Catholic theologian.
St. Paul, Galatians 3.28,
("In Christ there is no east or west, no Gentile or Jew") finds an
almost exact parallel in the biography of Zen Master Hui-Neng, often
appended to The Platform Sutra ("In Buddha-Nature, no north, no
south").
A global religious humanism begins here.
Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala:
The Sacred Path of the Warrior,
a very original synthesis of Buddhist and Confucian methods for
realizing our "Basic Goodness".
Ted Tollefson
mythos9@earthlink.net
'blessed are the peace-makers'