Like Slow-Growing Trees in a Ruined Place

Rev. Meg Barnhouse
June 30, 2013

Another sermon in the series on the Buddhist Eightfold Path. Right livelihood means doing something with your life that helps the world, “enriching it, if we will make our seasons welcome here, asking not too much of earth or heaven, then a long time after we are dead, the lives our lives prepare will live here…,” – Wendell Berry.

Reading:

A VISION
by Wendell Berry

If we will have the wisdom to survive, to stand like slow-growing trees on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it, if we will make our seasons welcome here, asking not too much of earth or heaven, then a long time after we are dead the lives our lives prepare will live here, their houses strongly placed upon the valley sides, fields and gardens rich in the windows. The river will run clear, as we will never know it, and over it, birdsong like a canopy …. Families will be singing in the fields. In their voices they will hear a music risen out of the ground. They will take nothing from the ground they will not return, whatever the grief at parting. Memory, native to this valley, will spread over it like a grove, and memory will grow into legend, legend into song, song into sacrament. The abundance of this place, the songs of its people and its birds, will be health and wisdom and indwelling light. This is no paradisal dream. Its hardship is its possibility.

Sermon:

I heard a man in the hospital say “I had a wasted life.” There was such sorrow and resignation in his voice. What would make a person say that, as he lay, old and running out of road, in a hospital bed? It’s an essential part of a spirited life to do some work that feels meaningful, that engages who you are.

Many people, if they had the choice, would not do most of the work they do. We do it to feed our families, to pay our rent or the mortgage, take care of our children, change the diapers, fix meals, buy socks and medicine and gasoline. Working is a sacrifice. You spend the coin of your life’s time and energy to receive the things you and your family need.

Work for pay is only a part of a balanced work life. We work at home raising our children or caring for elderly parents. We work on volunteer projects, to make our community a better place to live. Our lives are slowly paid out, traded, sacrificed. If we do it right, we will feel that we got good things in trade for our time and energy. If we see our work as the trade of our energy for security, for freedom, for family life, pleasure, rich experiences, the betterment of others, then at the end of our lives we will look back on life well spent. Our sacrifice will have been a meaningful one -what the Buddhists call “right livelihood,” the slow, necessary paying out of our lives’ coin for a good life, and that in itself can become a spiritual path.

Many among us spend more time in work than in any other aspect of our lives, except for sleeping. We pour a lot of our vital energy into it, and so it is important what work we choose. It is important to be clear about why we do it, what values and principles guide us as we work. It becomes important to explore how to be there at work in a way that can be a spiritual path.

If we practice, we can see how our stance within our work can transform us and others. This is a story that Buddhist teacher Eric Kolvig tells: “I was late for a meeting, and I was quite stressed. I got off the turnpike and drove up to the toll booth feeling quite stressed, and the woman in the toll booth took my money and gave me the most extraordinary smile — it was just amazing. It was like having the Dalai Lama take your money at the toll booth. It was an extraordinary experience. It was the highest quality contact that I had that day, or that week, with someone who was obviously a bodhisattva — someone who basically took their work and, because they transformed it, there was a very deep, human connection, even though it only lasted for seconds.”

Most of us have to work for the money. An important question to ask ourselves is “How much money do we need?” What is enough? Maybe we work from a sense of responsibility – is there ever “enough” responsibility? If you grew up in a Presbyterian family like mine, even the question doesn’t make sense. There is no end to your responsibility! My grandfather, a hard working radio evangelist, a traveling preacher and writer, asked, on his death bed, with his last words, “Have I done enough?” I do not want to end up like that. So I work on relaxing. Yes, you heard me. Presbyterianborn, firstborn UUs have to WORK on RELAXING. Right Livelihood means making time for our families, our bodies, our community. How can we be there in a way that gives us a sense of meaning in our day, that makes the workplace a better place?

Many workplaces are toxic with disharmony, with all kinds of politics and struggles over power, and sometimes we can make a difference in that by refraining from participating in the toxicity, by being a centered and compassionate presence there. Most jobs encourage overwork, which is one of the main harms that our jobs do.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk and a writer, says: The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes her work for peace. It destroys his inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of her own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

Over-activity is a form of violence that actually does harm our beings and to our families, and we live in the most hyperactive society in the history of the world. I think most of us are challenged by that. How do we find balance in our activities?

If I’m too busy, then there might be no time for the children, for a partner or spouse. It’s really important to ask, “How much do I need? How much activity do I need to do to stay balanced? How much income do I need in order to live a balanced life? Can I live with less, and work less?” Thoreau says, “How much of my life willi give to possess this thing?” It’s good to be able to understand, if you look at a car that you1re about to buy, and you divide that by what you make per hour, and you can figure out how many hours of your life you will actually spend paying for that car.

Right Livelihood asks us to love our world through our work, to be “slowgrowing trees in a ruined place,” to quote our reading from Wendell Berry, “asking not too much of earth or heaven” (or ourselves and our families) to think of the lives our lives prepare. Work provides a daily opportunity to put our beliefs into action, to bring an intention to work together in a friendly way, treat people fairly and pleasantly, bring out the best in our coworkers, rein in our egos, and see what freedom and harmony can come our way. It’s a worthy experiment.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776