Many of us, I'm sure, have had the experience of wondering if someone is going to call, and then the telephone rings, and it is them, or experiences similar to this. We might write off the call to knowing that our mothers always call on such and such a day or that we had told someone when we would be home, but if this happens to you often, as it does to me, it has a little bit of an eerie quality to it. It's as if our minds were thinking the same thought as someone else at the same time but from very different places.

This is exactly the description of how the theory of quantum non-locality works in physics: two electrons, one at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle and another at the Art Institute in Chicago, for example, can communicate with one another with no visible links – something beyond time and matter, a kind of consciousness. This process is described by Catholic lay monk and theologian Wayne Teasdale in his book The Mystic Heart. Teasdale believes that it's possible that the uncertainty within the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which helps explain the fact that we cannot predict precisely where a light particle will be, is the uncertainty of the interaction of consciousness, our consciousness, or the consciousness of the universe, into the process. Physicists are still trying to understand these phenomena, but to a mystic, the answer is that consciousness, itself, may be the answer: that our individual consciousness is part of a greater consciousness, something that contains everything, including us, and makes us part of everything and everything part of us. Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth century mystic, saw all of this in viewing a hazelnut – in one nut could be seen the whole tree, all the roots, the earth, the sky, life itself, and without the simple nut, none of this would exist – at least as we know it.

This super conscious vision of life is one in which life is not stagnate nor precisely definable, life and living are filled with qualities to be known and experienced, rather than objects to be defined. I start with the kind of serendipitous weird experience of the thought of a phone call that suddenly comes because I believe such experiences are fairly common, and for me, they are a small sign, that much more connection might be possible – this is, after all, the purpose of meditation and prayer, ositive thoughts, something which some have been able to document as being literally beneficial to the ill. Seeking a unifying understanding of life or harmony or god through conscious thought – study and contemplation; spiritual experience or practice – prayer, meditation or yoga; or devoted action is the nature of the mystical path.

Can our consciousness touch a greater consciousness? Even if it is simply the energy that binds our earth and the universe together? A consciousness that is called god in some traditions, or Buddha mind in Buddhism, for example, or Brahman and Atman in Hinduism.

Within Christianity, mysticism has always been seen as something fluffy, or woo-woo, as someone on our board recently said. (He's not here today, but he knows who he is.) Always taken more seriously are the great scholastic theologians, like Anselm, writers who use philosophical reason to penetrate the meaning of life and religion. Visionaries and mystics, such as Hildegarde of Bingen or Julian of Norwich, or St. John of the Cross, are interesting, maybe, but not taken too seriously – some would say because there are so many women in the ranks, and others would say that mystic writings and thoughts are based upon intuitive knowledge, rather than logic.
These mystics, especially the Medieval ones, saw visions, sometimes heard voices, sometimes
were self-mutilating. And sometimes they would contemplate for hours and hours, days, even years, the meaning of symbols or words. Their writing is often poetical and visual, but sometimes highly philosophical and sparked by a new, creative view. Also, over the centuries, the mystic tradition has been characterized by some as selfish and grandiose, because it seems absurd to imagine being at one with god, or believing that such a unity is possible – that asceticism is often a part of the life of those we recognize as mystics, begs a different sort of interpretation, I believe, for at the heart of a mystic, is almost always a near soul touching humbleness. Mystics do not write about themselves, nor brag about their experiences – they write about the experience itself, god itself, joy and life itself, the living light, as Hildegarde said in our meditative reading this morning ... all in a hope for greater understanding or because they are simply compelled to write.

For those of you struggling with the "realness"of mystic experience this morning, I would like to offer you a thought and a challenge. I believe our particularly western mind-set against mysticism is grounded in our dualistic philosophies which separate mind and body, god and humanity, earth and god, spirit and reason. Part of this split includes a negative view of humanity, the sinfulness of humankind, as is said in the core Christian doctrine, which relies largely upon Augustine's description of original sin, a fallen-ness that makes it impossible that we would reconcile with something like god in this life on earth.

This dualism creates a kind of love-hate relationship with god, for those who believe in god.
God is to be loved and adored, but god also reviles and judges us for our debased natures – we are not worthy of that which we love. I challenge you to think deeply about from where your aversion,
if you have it, to mysticism comes. Is your thinking simply that it doesn't make logical sense? That you only believe in reason and tangible realities, such as they are? Or, do you possess in this unwillingness, a split between mind and spirit? Something inherited, after all, from western thinking. Can you imagine with me that this is a product of centuries of thinking that splits what we can literally see from the unknown, and values only the literally known physical while devaluing the unknowable, intuitive mystery? I beg to differ with David Hume, one of the primary philosophers who gave us our literal, physical modern world of the senses, believing in only those things we can hear, see, touch, taste and smell. There is something more we know about life and love and beauty, and I don't think it's just a mechanical, chemical reaction. There is a palpable connection between our hearts and minds, something that holds us in tension. But our dualistic way of thinking has cut off this creative, intuitive sense of spirit as something unworthy because it does not fit into scientific reason, unless you take seriously now the wonder and less knowable world which physics has discovered.

As a Unitarian Universalist, I also challenge you to wrestle with this because, part of our whole philosophy of religion is to embrace the positive aspects of life, that living and life are good; that it is possible that we can do and be good; that we do have the free will to choose; that we do not, by and large – but only as a subtle remnant of our culture – believe in original sin, the separation of humanity and god; that we can imagine a spark of divinity or the holy within each of us. This is all that the mystic tradition asks of us – to believe that through our minds and hearts that we can imagine that we possess a piece of the larger consciousness.
The practices to understand or experience this include the yoga's of Hinduism, the meditations of Buddhism and the prayer traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This mystic understanding of life is in almost all religious traditions, including the earth-centered religions which see the mysterious consciousness as part of life on earth and in nature, of which we also are a part.

In the mystic tradition, which is so difficult for some of us to grasp, by and large, humanity is not always seen as evil or fallen, even in the Christian mystic tradition, another reason, perhaps the real reason, mysticism has not been more generally embraced. Julian of Norwich had serious trouble accepting hell: her knowledge of the goodness of universal life was god infused, so much so that hell did not make sense. This is how we think today – this life is our chance to know all that we can know,
this is our chance to do what is right and good, as I said, and our vision of god also is one of infinite love, not judgment.

We have been blessed with life and hope; we may choose evil, and, unfortunately, evil may befall us, but we are not inherently evil, but inherently life affirming.
I don't believe it is egotistical to claim our positive natures – it is the only way, instead, that I believe we can truly learn to love one another, all our brothers and sisters and all life. By affirming our humanity, the beauty of one another, the beauty of the earth and nature, the beauty of spirit, the gifts of hope and love (gifts from who knows where) we are not self-absorbed, but life-absorbed. In this way, the mystic path becomes one that you can explore with the hope of bringing good will to others.
There is no particular correct way to go down this path. What's important, I believe, is a deep sense of your own connection to others, to life, to the earth and, perhaps, to god or spirit or universal consciousness. The reason to take the mystic path seriously is that it can offer us a guide as to how
to live our life the best we can and the fullest that we can. We may be able to feel our connection
with the larger movement of life, and so find ourselves inspired. We can, through practice, also let go of our own egos and learn to be more fully present, fully present to ourselves and more present to others. We may be able to feel another's heart or mind, know when someone we love is troubled, or know, intuitively, how to help a friend in trouble.

We can learn what it means to follow our own inner hearts, hear our internal bliss, and do what our hearts call us to do. We can learn to appreciate the beauty in each simple moment of living and to see, actually see and not miss, the beauty in the smiles of those we love, see the sadness and pain of those we love, and see and feel the sadness and pain of our world – see, actually see, within all humans the same spark of divinity, a light within every human face, within every living creature, and within all the world. If we could stand still within this knowledge, and grasp it, we would come closer to seeing that life and love are one with death and, even evil – and that we move from one to the other
as we possess our moment in living.

The ability to be fully present, however you may accomplish it, is the essence of living life fully, of knowing that you lived, really lived and felt life. In his book, Teasdale says that to genuinely walk the mystic or spiritual path, one must have the capacity to, first, live a moral life, to know and practice, to the best of your ability, the difference between right and wrong, which means thinking morally and ethically about all actions and thoughts and feelings. As we recognize our failings and learn how to live better, we will slowly relinquish our egos, our belief that we can control things, and we can become more truly humble.

We cannot enter the realm of Buddha mind or deep consciousness or god with grandiose hearts, but only through letting go of self. Teasdale, and many others, doesn't believe this is possible without a great deal of self reflection and examination, a search that begins with an honest attempt at an ethical life.

A tangible moment of oneness with something outside ourselves, the spirit of life, or with creativity, can bring us closer to our most present self, and for that moment our hearts may be flooded ith compassion for ourselves, for others and for our world. This is the real purpose of religion, why as societies we have kept religions as containers for our moral and ethical journeys. Anthropologist Clifford Goertz believes that we would have been lumbering, formless, thoughtless brutes without religion. Religions of all kinds hold our human codes for how to live life well. Our religions have shaped our cultures and our minds, literally the way we think and feel. We haven't completely discarded them because we can't – they bind us together, even when they are abused in the march of history and in the misuse of power.

Within the religious traditions are many practices and pieces of wisdom to guide us. The purpose of the mystical path is to lead us within so that we can be better, more present, to our life without, however we choose to live that life.

In our particular way of religion, we are free to search outside the boxes, as I called them last week, of the religions which have defined us. We are freer to find a path that works for us, and I encourage you to consider your life a spiritual search, one that may lead you down your own particular mystical path. AMEN

BENEDICTION
May our steps be light
and our hearts gentle
in each minute and hour
of the week ahead.
May we find glimpses of our best selves
and offer that kindness and compassion
to all that we meet on our journey,
until our paths bring us back again
to one another. AMEN