Wisdom, Compassion and Justice: Three Touchstones for our Liberal Faith
Rev. Ted Tollefson

My mission today is to speak clearly about three values that have been part of Unitarian Universalism and this UU Society for many years.  They are reflected in our shared history, our theological roots, in the mission statement of this Society and in our journey towards a new vision statement. None of these core values stand alone.  All need the corrective influence of  their sibling values.  Together they offer one way to clarify our identity and introduce our Society to its neighbors.  These values are also central to my guidance system; without them I would not be here as your minister.

1. Wisdom
Wisdom has deep roots in Greek philosophy and also the religious philosophers of India, China, Japan.  To be a "philosopher" means in Greek to be a "friend" or "lover" (from "philia") of wisdom ("sophia").  Wisdom is not blind obedient faith.  It is not belief in things unseen, unproved, or belief without evidence.  That approach has never worked very well in my life.  When a political or religious leader asks me to "take it on faith", I want to know where my wallet is and who's going to pay for the mistakes that will follow.  Wisdom is also not knowledge.  Knowledge can tell us everything know about a city like Madison, Wisconsin.  Wisdom allows us to use that knowledge to travel safely to Madison, to find  good lodging and food.  Wisdom helps us make good choices about which cultural resources to sample.  Wisdom is the apt use, the effective  use of what we know, feel and want.  When we are wise, we live well.  We live a good life.

Another path to wisdom comes from lively conversations, pastoral care or counseling.  Time and again, I've been reminded how powerful it is when heart and mind come into a state of agreement.  Wisdom begins when heart and mind come together.  Bertrand Russell, the English philosopher and peace-activist, said we are a 'parliament of selves".  If you would seek Wisdom, seek  a consensus between heart and mind.  One way to do this is through dialogue: an internal dialogue among the different parts of our selves or an external dialogue with a friend or ally.  It's probably not  accidental that Wisdom literature is often expressed in dialogues.

A third path to Wisdom is Excellence.  The Greeks called it "arete"; the Hindus  "Rta"; we call it  excellence, virtue or quality.  If you find someone who does something well, stop, look, listen.  Open your eyes, your heart, your mind.  It doesn't matter so much what they do, but how they do it.  Socrates was a stone-mason.  Chuang Tzu learned about Te (virtue, effortless power) by watching an impeccable butcher.  Zen teachers manifest their wisdom in how they hold a tea-cup, a sword or a paint-brush.  Sometimes  wisdom is encoded in gestures, in non-verbal knack.  Sometimes it is manifest in proverbs: "Measure twice, cut once" has been known to save  time, trouble and wasted materials.  If only more of our politicians knew something about carpentry.  

In sum, Wisdom is the effective use of what we know, feel or want
            Wisdom is an agreement between heart and mind
            Wisdom leads us towards excellence, virtue, humanity at its best.

2. Compassion
Compassion means both to "feel with" and  to "suffer with".  While Wisdom is usually associated with a Goddess, Compassion can be male, female or both.  Compassion is not pity, charity or condescension.  Before we think about being anybody's "keeper" we must first learn to be a good brother/sister/friend.  Compassion is one root of ethics.   Sometimes we treat others kindly not because of a rule, but because we choose to open our hearts and feel what they feel.  Compassion is "emotional intelligence".  It allows us to navigate the troubled, turbulent and rapidly changing waters of human relationships and not harm ourselves or others. 

Compassion is universal.  Most religions affirm the value of love, compassion, the "Golden Rule".  Compassion builds bridges across time-lines, party-lines sometimes enemy-lines.  I think of Senator John McCain's lovely story of a Christmas as a prisoner of war.  His Vietnamese guard entered his cell on Christmas morning and loosened the ropes that bound him. He then made the sign of the cross in the dirt floor of the prison cell.  For Evangelical Christians, that cross is the turning point of this story and of human history.  But there's another option: the cross is a symbol for the ever-present, life-changing possibility of compassion between two human beings.  However you read the story, it leads towards an inevitable conclusion: torture is always wrong.  It denies and divides our common humanity.  And whatever we do to others, will be done to us or our children even unto the 7th generation. 

Sometimes connected as Dr. King reminded us, in a seamless "garment of destiny".  Compassion calls us to be kind to our kin; to become human-kind.

 3. Justice
Justice aspires to be more than vengeance.  As Gandhi observed 60 years ago, "an eye  for eye soon makes the whole world blind."  If you doubt that, look at the Middle East where Shiah and Sunnis,  Israel and the Palestineans trapped in cycles of blame, violence and counter-violence.  As if they were swatting moquitos or honets with a hammer.

Justice for us needs to be more than punitive, it needs to be restorative.  Restorative justice does not seek to punish or condemn, it seeks to restore 'right relationships' between victims, aggressors and the communities in which they live.  Restorative justice aims to restore the "Golden Rule" of mutual respect and accountability.

For Unitarian Universalists,  justice  begins with our first UU Principle: the inherent worth and dignity of every person.  We want every prison of war, even a 'war on terror' to be granted the basic human rights outlined in the Geneva Conventions: interrogation without torture, acess to legal counsel, the right to a fair trial on specific charges. Justice defends the inherent worth and dignity of every person, no exceptions.  It led previous generations of Unitarian Universalists to establish the rights of women and minorities, to abolish slavery, and demand humane treatment for the mentally ill.  I hope this same passion for justice will lead us to establish and protect equal rights and responsibilities for all loving couples.

4. Coming Together: Wisdom, Compassion and Justice
I've been suggesting that Wisdom, Compassion and Justice are part of an integrated system of values that is close to the center of Unitarian Universalism.  Let me spell out some of that inter-dependence.  Wisdom and Justice need Compassion.  Compassion keeps Justice from degrading into Vengeance.  Compassion keeps Wisdom connected to embodied life---the pain and difficulty of it.  Wisdom keeps Justice from being blind and keeps Compassion from becoming sentimental.  Wisdom provides a trustworthy map and guiding values for the complex, changing world in which
we find ourselves.  Justice keeps both Wisdom and Compassion connected to what's not working and the people who aren't working.  Without Justice Wisdom can hide out in caves of bliss and Compassion can fail to see the systemic social causes of suffering.

You could also say that Wisdom, Compassion and Justice
are different ways of interpreting the same experience:
the indivisible and lovely unity of life---
         here, now, always
                   everything that lives
                              is holy, connected, one!

Wisdom sees the whole of life.
Compassion feels a heart-felt connection to life.
Justice works to restore right relationships
between all of us traveling together
in the 'small blue boat'
we call planet earth, gaia, our home.

In the months and years ahead
May Wisdom open our minds
May Compassion open our hearts
May Justice guide our hands to serve.

Open minds, open hearts, open hands
   ---Wisdom, Compassion, Justice---
that's my kind of Unitarian Universalism!

Amen and Blessed Me.

5. Resources for Further Study

Wisdom
                Philosophy: 
Therapeia: Plato's Concept of Philosophy, Robert Cushman and Michael Henry
Principieum Sapientiae: A Study of the Origins of Greek Philosophical Thought, F. M. Cornford
The Philosophies of India, Heinrich Zimmer (and Joseph Campbell)

               Excellence/Arete/Quality: 
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
The Inner Chapters, Chuang Tzu "The Butcher"
The Heart of Confucius, Archie Bahm
Cheng Hsin: Principles of Effortless Power, Peter Ralston

Compassion
A Spirituality Called Compassion, Matthew Fox
A General Theory of Love,  Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
The Compasionate Brain, Gerald Huther
Loving Kindndess: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Sharon Salzburg and Jon Kabat-Zin 

Justice
"Restorative Justice"    http://www.restorativejustice.org/intro
The Republic, Plato
My Experiment with Truth, Mahatma Gandhi
Letters from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
.