"When East Met West"

Religious pluralism in America may well have begun 

        in Mary Moody Emerson's parlor in Concord, Massachusetts.

This smart woman lacked a formal education –

        as did all women in the early 1800's –

                but she was persistent and fearless

                        in her quest for knowledge.

Like other self-taught spinsters of her day,

        she contributed far more to the intellectual life of her time

                than we will ever know.

She was the one who first introduced Ralph Waldo Emerson

        to the sacred scriptures of the East.

And she remained throughout her life

        her acclaimed nephew's spiritual director and support.

 

Emerson’s engagement with Hinduism began early in his life.

According to Diana Eck, 

        he was reading and writing about India under Aunt Mary's tutelage

                while still a very young man.

Later on he picked up a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita,

        an ambitious Hindu poetic epic 

                and philosophical treatise.

From it he acquired the insight

        that religious faith can take different forms,

                through ethical works,

                        contemplation   

                                and ritual devotion,

                                        and that all forms have merit.

Emerson’s friend, Henry David Thoreau,

        took his copy of the Bhagavad-Gita with him

                when he went to live in his cabin in the woods.

He even took up the practice of yoga there.

Though in his writings he compared the shores of Walden Pond

        to the banks of the Ganges River,

                he never adopted Hinduism,

                        or any tradition, 

                                as his own.

"I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another,"

        he wrote.

"I pray to be delivered from narrowness,

        partiality,

                exaggeration – bigotry."

 

Hinduism offered Emerson and Thoreau 

        a vision of religion

                in its intensely colorful and varied possibilities,

                        with all its gods and rituals

                                and ways of practicing the faith.

In its diversity of religious images

        they still found a unity of spirit.

And they welcomed these fresh expressions 

        as a much needed alternative

                to the Christian evangelicalism of the Great Awakening

                        that still held sway

                                over much of this country.

 

In the encounter with the Bhagavad-Gita,

        an original and challenging new approach to religion

                began to take shape.

Emerson began writing about it 

        in his Transcendentalist journal, the Dial.

He published a column titled "Ethical Scriptures."

The title itself was a bold statement.

Most readers would have assumed 

        that there was one holy scripture, the bible.

But in Emerson's "view, 

        scripture now needed to be seen in the plural."

And out of this simple shift,

        religious pluralism –

                the idea that there can be more than one path to meaning,

                        that truth appears in different forms

                                and wisdom comes from many texts –

                                        began.

 

Emerson and Thoreau were both Unitarians,

        and the conversations they held –

                in the Dial and in church –

                        delivered significant impact on their world.

By the end of the nineteenth century,

        Unitarians had sponsored the first Hindu holy man –

                Swami Vivekenanda –

                        to speak at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

He came out from India a month early and visited Boston,

        where he ran out of money.

There another far-sighted woman, Kate Sanborn,

        offered him her home 

                and introductions to her circle of Unitarian friends.

He finished out his sojourn in Boston

        by delivering his first public lecture 

                at the Unitarian church on the North Shore.

Swami Vivekenanda offered a practice of Hinduism

        that made sense to the Western mind.

He stressed psychological and spiritual discipline,

        in the form of concentration and meditation,

                as the basis of a rich inner life.

Neatly merging the scientific and the mystical paths into one,

        he built an American religious community, 

                the Vedanta Society,

                        which still thrives today.

 

Unitarian Universalists played a pivotal role

        in bringing eastern religion to this country,

                and not just in New England.            

When Vivekenanda visited the Bay Area

        during one of his trips to the west,

                only one church – 

                        the First Unitarian Church of Oakland –

                                offered him a place to speak.

The Vedanta Society named that church a holy shrine 

        because of its hospitality.

 

These momentous meetings between east and west

        changed Unitarianism forever.

What started in Mary Moody Emerson's parlor 

        with her young nephew

                grew to become a new world view.

Those who embraced it

        could no longer claim an exclusive loyalty to one faith.

The world of religion opened up to them,

        displaying the infinite breadth of the religious imagination.

To ignore it would be to refuse to learn or to grow.

Today we understand and practice our faith 

        in the context of religious pluralism.

And that means that we have some choices to make.

Some of us identify primarily with one religious tradition

        or spiritual practice

                and stay with it throughout our lives.

Diana Eck, a practicing Christian, 

        is a good example of someone 

                whose personal faith has deepened

                        in her encounter with Hinduism.

She keeps her faith

        and explores others at the same time.

 

Perhaps the Indian children’s story "The Mouse Bride,"

        which I read earlier in the service,

                captures this approach.

An Indian holy man catches a mouse.

He turns her into a child

        and brings her home to his wife to raise.

When it comes time for her to marry,

        her parents arrange for her to meet

                a wide variety of eligible suitors:

                        the sun, a cloud, the wind, and a mountain.

But only when the girl realizes 

        that she yearns to be with another mouse

                does she find her true partner.

And then she becomes her true self –

        a mouse – again.

 

To study and experience other religious traditions

        can lead us back to our own.

But it can also lead us away

        from all of them.

Henry David Thoreau's declaration,

        "I do not prefer one religion or philosophy to another.

I pray to be delivered from narrowness,

        partiality,

                exaggeration – bigotry"

                        states another approach to religious pluralism.

Many Unitarian Universalists share Thoreau’s attitude

        that an open mind

                is a religious attitude.

What it lacks in detail

        it makes up in rigor.

Looking at individual religions 

        one sees the inconsistencies, omissions and flaws;

                only by looking at everything

                        and choosing nothing

                                can we still see the whole.

                         

Thoreau argued that there is more than one path to religious truth.

"This is the only way, we say;"

        he wrote in protest.

"But there are as many ways 

        as there can be drawn radii from one centre."

And in the end, 

        Thoreau was generous and accepting 

                in his philosophy of life:

                        "I think we may safely trust 

                                a good deal more than we do,"

                                        he wrote in "Walden."

That's a very good place to come down.

The Unitarian encounter with Hinduism was pivotal –

        for our country as well as our faith.

                It opened the West to interfaith dialogue

                        and it added new dimensions to our own faith.

As Emerson discovered in his reading of the Bhagavad-Gita,

        that there is more than one way to practice Hinduism,

                so he also learned that there is more than one way

                        to practice Unitarian Universalism.

 

Emerson's understanding of eastern religion evolved slowly,

        from a teenage fascination with all that is alien and strange,

                to a sophisticated appreciation for its subtleties and wisdom.

Over time he demonstrated the sturdy Unitarian value

        that learning new things

                helps you to grow and become a better person.

Eventually his study of Hinduism

        changed his theology:

                and he began to develop 

                        some new and different ideas about God.

 

In Emerson's time, Unitarians were Christians.

They may have practiced a weak form of Christianity,    

        but they still believed in the traditional, father-like, 

                personal God of their faith heritage.

Emerson, however, 

        had long departed from this image of God.

Shedding stale forms and searching for new ones,

        he developed the concept of the "Over-Soul."

 

According to Diana Eck,

        Emerson took his inspiration from Hinduism.

She wrote,

        "He perceived that the ‘highest object of their religion’

                is to restore the bond linking the soul …

                        to the Eternal …

                                which Emerson referred to as the ‘Over-Soul.’

While he speaks of it as ‘their religion,’" Eck continued,

        "in one sense experiencing the unity of this Over-Soul

                became his own.

In Emerson himself the perspectives of the ancient Indian Upanishads

        and the nineteenth-century Transcendentalists

                came together,

                        directing our human vision 

                                towards the oneness of spirit

                                        underlying the whole universe."

 

The encounter of east and west 

        that took place in the minds of Emerson and Thoreau

                gives us a faith for today.

From Thoreau's affirmation that "we can safely trust

        a good deal more than we do"

                to Emerson’s vision of the "oneness of spirit 

                        underlying the whole universe,"

                                we come away with something 

                                        we can really use.

Those of us who no longer fit comfortably

        in any one faith tradition,

                but still want a spiritual life 

                        can take heart in their words.

I know I can.

I like the idea that faith is an attitude of trust –

        whether we know the particulars or not.

It helps me to think about God as a connection:

        in Emerson's view, 

                between the soul and the eternal,

                        and in my view, 

                                also between one person and another.

When I look around our world 

        and see the vast array of religions

                and the claims they make

                        and the good and the bad they do,

                                I'm ready to stand with Thoreau:

an open mind can be our religion too

        and so long as we can learn

                we continue to grow

                        and our faith will not let us down.

References used to prepare this sermon include A New Religious America, by DianaEck (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001); The Unitarians and the Universalists, by DavidRobinson (Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1985); Sources of IndianTradition, edited by William Theodore De Bary (New York and London: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1958).