{"id":911,"date":"2016-09-11T09:17:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T13:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/?p=911"},"modified":"2023-10-24T14:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T18:47:21","slug":"peace-in-our-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/?p=911","title":{"rendered":"Peace in Our Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sermon below was preached by Rev. Dan Harper at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, California, at the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services. The sermon text below is a reading text; the actual sermon contained improvisation and extemporaneous remarks. Sermon copyright (c) 2016 Daniel Harper.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sermon:<\/strong> Peace in Our Time<\/p>\n

In last week\u2019s sermon I gave you a heavy dose of the Bible, but this week is going to be completely different. If you\u2019d like to follow along, you can find this sermon online: go to danielharper.org and click on \u201cSermons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day when four jetliners were hijacked; two of those jetliners were then flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the third jetliner was crash-landed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth jetliner, after being retaken from the hijackers by passengers and crew, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. In less than a month after those attacks, the United States and a coalition of other countries decided to invade Afghanistan, where the group coordinating the attacks was based. And the United States has been at war in Afghanistan ever since, so that most people under that age of 18 cannot remember a time when the United States was not at war.<\/p>\n

You may remember, if you\u2019re old enough, that in the months immediately following the terrorist attacks, it was not a good time to be an Arab. The popular perception of \u201cArab\u201d was somewhat unclear, and we saw a number of assaults against persons who were perceived to look like Arabs. Which meant that in least a couple of cases, Sikhs who had roots in India were attacked because they wore turbans. I think we could safely say that these assaults were not entirely rational.<\/p>\n

With all this in mind, here\u2019s a question to consider: Is it possible to have peace in our time? Given that we\u2019re still at war overseas, is it possible to have peace in our time? Given that we see plenty of irrational violence here at home, is it possible to have peace in our time? Or maybe we should really be asking: How is it possible to attain peace in our time?<\/p>\n

To begin our consideration of these questions, I\u2019d like to begin by telling you the story of Ox Mountain, traditionally attributed to the Chinese religious philosopher known in the West as Mencius. [1]<\/p>\n

[The Wise Sage Mencius told this story:] Once upon a time, there was a mountain covered with beautiful trees; it was called Ox Mountain.<\/p>\n

Now Ox Mountain stood on the borders of a large and prosperous nation. The people of this nation, needing wood to build houses, and wood for fires, went onto the mountain with axes and saws to cut wood. Before long, many trees were cut down, others were mangled, and the forest was no longer beautiful.<\/p>\n

The tree roots and stumps remained vigorous, the rain and dew nourished the earth, and the trees and put forth new buds and shoots. But the people of that great nation let their cattle and goats graze on Ox Mountain, and soon all the green buds and shoots were gone.<\/p>\n

So today the mountain is bare and stripped, and when people look at it, they can\u2019t believe it was ever covered with a lush and beautiful forest.<\/p>\n

[Having told this parable, the Wise Sage then asked:] Now, what is the true nature of Ox Mountain? Is it in its true nature to be covered with a lush and beautiful forest? Or is it in its true nature to be stripped bare of vegetation?<\/p>\n

[The Wise Sage continued:] We might ask the same question of human beings. Think about your mind-heart, that metaphorical place where you both think and feel. Some would say that benevolence and righteousness make up the true nature of the mind-heart. But you can lose the \u201cproper goodness\u201d of your mind-heart in much the same way that Ox Mountain was stripped of trees by axes and saws. If the \u201cproper goodness\u201d is cut down, day after day after day, how can your mind-heart stay beautiful?<\/p>\n

But an interesting thing sometimes happens with your mind-heart [the Wise Sage continued] \u201cin the calm air of the morning, just between night and day.\u201d In those quiet hours, no matter how badly your mind-heart has been cut down by axes and saws, you can still feel your proper desires and dislikes; you recover a faint feeling of what it is to be fully human. (This is like when the rain and dew fell on Ox Mountain, and the trees could recover a little bit.) Unfortunately, that feeling isn\u2019t strong. You wake up, your kids are screaming, you get into a fight with your spouse, the boss yells at you at work, and before you know it you\u2019ve lost the sense of being fully human.<\/p>\n

Well [said the Wise Sage], this happens again and again, day after day. In your waking hours, things happen that hack away at the proper goodness of your mind-heart. You go to sleep, and some of that goodness comes back. But often it may be that not enough comes back to fully restore you. That happens to a great many people, and when it does, slowly you become like an irrational animal. And then when others see you, and see how you behave, they think that the your mind-heart never had any benevolence and righteousness. \u201cBut does this condition represent the feelings proper to humanity?\u201d Of course not!<\/p>\n

And so [concluded the Wise Sage], if your mind-heart receives its proper nourishment, then benevolence and righteousness will grow like a lush and beautiful forest. But if it loses its proper nourishment, then your mind-heart will be filled with decay. And the Wise Sage ended the story with a quotation from Confucius: \u201cHold it fast, and it remains with you. Let it go, and you lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So ends the parable of Ox Mountain.<\/p>\n

According to tradition, Mencius, the Wise Sage of the story, lived during the Warring States era of Chinese history. This was an era of constant warfare. The parable of Ox Mountain is (in part) a cautionary tale for political leaders: the Wise Sage is telling political leaders that in order to rule with true humanity, they must cultivate their mind-heart; if they do not cultivate their mind-heart, then they will lose their benevolence and righteousness, and they will sink to the level of irrational animals.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I see this happening in the current presidential election cycle. I am not impressed with the mind-heart of either of the major presidential candidates. I\u2019ll pick on Donald Trump first: his pronouncement that he will vastly increase the United States military makes him sound pretty much like the ancient Chinese warlords of the Warring States era. It appears that his mind-heart is mostly bare of benevolence and righteousness, which means he acts like an irrational animal that must either fight or flee; and he categorically refuses to flee.<\/p>\n

Nor do I find Hillary Clinton\u2019s stance on the use of military power to be much better. On September 1, she gave a speech in which she said, in part, that \u201cwe cannot impose arbitrary [spending] limits on something as important as our military.\u201d [2] Clinton\u2019s statement may be more nuanced than Trump\u2019s, but I do not get a sense of benevolence and righteousness from her words. She, too, is acting irrationally.<\/p>\n

You may reply that this is not problem that lies within Clinton and Trump themselves. The two of them are only saying what voters want to hear: Trump needed to regain momentum in the polls so he played the military-might card; Clinton was speaking to the American Legion so she said she\u2019d strengthen the military. If you say that, I agree with you, and that makes this an even more troubling prospect. Because this implies that a great many potential voters lack benevolence and righteousness. Or, as the Wise Sage put it, a great many voters are behaving like irrational animals. The mind-heart of the candidates matches the mind-heart of the majority of the electorate.<\/p>\n

And I daresay most of us in this room have fallen prey, to a greater or lesser degree, to the same violent emotions. We too sometimes behave like irrational animals. If you have ever reviled either of the major presidential candidates, you have behaved in a manner lacking benevolence and righteousness. If you have ever read with pleasure one of those social media diatribes against either major presidential candidate, again you have behaved in a manner lacking in benevolence and righteousness. Let us not, therefore, be smug!<\/p>\n

What would the Wise Sage tell us to do? The Wise Sage might quote \u201cThe Great Learning,\u201d another ancient Chinese wisdom text, where it says: \u201cFrom the [rulers] down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything.\u201d And why should we cultivate our persons, why should we cultivate the benevolence and righteousness of our mind-hearts? \u201cIt cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n

When the root is neglected, what springs from it will not be well ordered. The rough-and-tumble of day-to-day life hacks away like axes and saws at the beautiful forests of our mind-hearts. We need to cultivate the roots that are left behind so that benevolence and righteousness can grow once more within our mind-hearts. We do this by recalling ourselves to that which is best within us; we do this by striving always to become more fully human.<\/p>\n

Which sounds very abstract and maybe even impossible, doesn\u2019t it? I\u2019m a pragmatic guy, I want to know the specifics of what I can do. Well, hundreds of years after Mencius and Confucius lived, their followers developed a spiritual practice called \u201cquiet-sitting.\u201d You sit in a chair with your back straight and your hands on your knees. As you sit there quietly, you examine your mind-heart. Now, there\u2019s an ancient Chinese metaphor that equates the mind-heart with a lively monkey which likes to run around and never sits still. When you do quiet-sitting, though, your goal is to get the lively monkey of the mind-heart to sit quietly, so you can reflect on \u201cren\u201d or humaneness. You reflect on how human you are.<\/p>\n

This quiet-sitting technique may sound a lot like Buddhist meditation, but the followers of Mencius and Confucius believed it was quite different. The goal of quiet-sitting is not to achieve a kind \u201cquasi-independent mental state\u201d as the Buddhists do. The goal of quiet-sitting is to cultivate your mind-heart so that you better understand yourself, and the goal of better understanding yourself is to be able to act ethically. [4]<\/p>\n

I see a parallel between quiet-sitting and what we do in Unitarian Universalist worship services. When you watch children learning how to behave in our worship services, you will see that the first skill they have to learn is how to sit quietly. Because sitting quietly requires stilling the mind-heart, the next thing children learn is how to still their mind. And then as you get older, once you have learned how to sit quietly, once you have learned how to still your mind-heart, you next learn how to reflect on yourself, and understand yourself.<\/p>\n

When I was in my twenties, I was in sales, and I used to attend Unitarian Universalist worship services nearly every week. I felt as though it was a time when I was restored to my best self. Selling building materials for fifty-five or sixty hours a week would take its toll, then I\u2019d go sit quietly in a Unitarian Universalist worship service — and my mind and heart would revive again. Interestingly, this didn\u2019t have much to do with the sermons; it was more a function of sitting quietly and reflecting on what is most important in life. <\/p>\n

Something happens when you spend an hour sitting quietly here. If you can sit quietly — which is not something that I can manage in every worship service — if you can sit quietly, this can help your mind and heart to revive, then you may find yourself feeling more fully human. You can recover from a week at work, or a week of unemployment, or a week of mourning the death of someone you love, or any week that leaves you feeling less than whole. You can leave behind your irrational animal self, leave behind your fight-or-flee instinct. You may then find that you have the energy to cook dinner for Hotel de Zink, the homeless shelter that houses guests here on our campus every September. You may find that you are motivated to take part in the multifaith Peace Walk this afternoon, joining Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and other faith communities in a public demonstration that we can all get along. You may find yourself acting more humanely to family and friends and co-workers.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s circle back and consider the question of whether peace is possible in our time. In many ways, I am not at all hopeful that we can achieve peace. We have two major presidential candidates who are acting like what Mencius calls \u201cirrational animals,\u201d less-than-human beings that only know how to fight or flee. What makes it more worrisome is that these two presidential candidates are simply reflecting the mental state of the electorate.<\/p>\n

From the presidential candidates down to the mass of the electorate, the root of the problem is the cultivation of our essential humanity. Cultivating our humanity takes effort — constant effort. There axes and saws everywhere, ready to hack away at our benevolence, our humaneness; ready to make us a little less human. And so again and again we must take the time to sit quietly and nourish our best selves.<\/p>\n

If we can do this, our thoughts become sincere, and our hearts are restored. As our hearts are restored, we become more fully human. As we ourselves become more fully human, so too do our families become more human, more humane. When our families are well-regulated, we have time to reach out to others; and when we reach out to others, we will find that our leaders at the county and state level govern rightly. And when that happens, then we may have hope that the nation, and indeed the whole world, will be \u201cmade tranquil and happy.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n

This is how we may achieve peace in our time. Peace begins with the cultivation of our inner selves. From there, peace grows outwards, into our immediate families, out into wider communities. So you see, peace requires of us active participation \u201cin a spiritual joint venture.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n

You may think that such a spiritual joint venture is going to take a long time. Even if everyone in this room manages to cultivate their own persons, thus stabilizing their families, it\u2019s going to take a while for that influence to spread out into the wider world. <\/p>\n

There is an old story about the king who wanted a line of majestic oak trees growing along the road leading to his castle. Upon hearing this, the gardener said, \u201cBut king, it will take a hundred years for the trees to grow big enough to be majestic!\u201d To which the king replied, \u201cThen perhaps you had better start planting them today.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we are going to have peace in our time — if we are going to replant Ox Mountain with a lush and beautiful forest — then we had better start planting today.<\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/p>\n

[1] I retold the story of Ox Mountain from James Legge\u2019s English translation of Mencius (Mencius 6A.8). Here is Legge\u2019s translation:<\/p>\n

“Mencius said, ‘The trees of the Niu mountain were once beautiful. Being situated, however, in the borders of a large State, they were hewn down with axes and bills — and could they retain their beauty? Still through the activity of the vegetative life day and night, and the nourishing influence of the rain and dew, they were not without buds and sprouts springing forth, but then came the cattle and goats and browsed upon them. To these things is owing the bare and stripped appearance of the mountain, and when people now see it, they think it was never finely wooded. But is this the nature of the mountain? And so also of what properly belongs to man; shall it be said that the mind of any man was without benevolence and righteousness? The way in which a man loses his proper goodness of mind is like the way in which the trees are denuded by axes and bills. Hewn down day after day, can it — the mind — retain its beauty? But there is a development of its life day and night, and in the calm air of the morning, just between night and day, the mind feels in a degree those desires and aversions which are proper to humanity, but the feeling is not strong, and it is fettered and destroyed by what takes place during the day. This fettering taking place again and again, the restorative influence of the night is not sufficient to preserve the proper goodness of the mind; and when this proves insufficient for that purpose, the nature becomes not much different from that of the irrational animals, and when people now see it, they think that it never had those powers which I assert. But does this condition represent the feelings proper to humanity? Therefore, if it receive its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not grow. If it lose its proper nourishment, there is nothing which will not decay away. Confucius said, “Hold it fast, and it remains with you. Let it go, and you lose it. Its outgoing and incoming cannot be defined as to time or place.” It is the mind of which this is said!'”<\/p>\n

Not everyone likes Legge\u2019s translation, e.g., some have translated the key word “mind” as “mind-heart” — and later in the sermon, I\u2019ll use “mind-heart.” So for those who do speak Chinese, here is the parable in the original:<\/p>\n

\u5b5f\u5b50\u66f0\uff1a\u300c\u725b\u5c71\u4e4b\u6728\u5617\u7f8e\u77e3\uff0c\u4ee5\u5176\u90ca\u65bc\u5927\u570b\u4e5f\uff0c\u65a7\u65a4\u4f10\u4e4b\uff0c\u53ef\u4ee5\u70ba\u7f8e\u4e4e\uff1f\u662f\u5176\u65e5\u591c\u4e4b\u6240\u606f\uff0c\u96e8\u9732\u4e4b\u6240\u6f64\uff0c\u975e\u7121\u840c\u6af1\u4e4b\u751f\u7109\uff0c\u725b\u7f8a\u53c8\u5f9e\u800c\u7267\u4e4b\uff0c\u662f\u4ee5\u82e5\u5f7c\u6fef\u6fef\u4e5f\u3002\u4eba\u898b \u5176\u6fef\u6fef\u4e5f\uff0c\u4ee5\u70ba\u672a\u5617\u6709\u6750\u7109\uff0c\u6b64\u8c48\u5c71\u4e4b\u6027\u4e5f\u54c9\uff1f\u96d6\u5b58\u4e4e\u4eba\u8005\uff0c\u8c48\u7121\u4ec1\u7fa9\u4e4b\u5fc3\u54c9\uff1f\u5176\u6240\u4ee5\u653e\u5176\u826f\u5fc3\u8005\uff0c\u4ea6\u7336\u65a7\u65a4\u4e4b\u65bc\u6728\u4e5f\uff0c\u65e6\u65e6\u800c\u4f10\u4e4b\uff0c\u53ef\u4ee5\u70ba\u7f8e\u4e4e\uff1f\u5176\u65e5\u591c\u4e4b\u6240\u606f\uff0c \u5e73\u65e6\u4e4b\u6c23\uff0c\u5176\u597d\u60e1\u8207\u4eba\u76f8\u8fd1\u4e5f\u8005\u5e7e\u5e0c\uff0c\u5247\u5176\u65e6\u665d\u4e4b\u6240\u70ba\uff0c\u6709\u688f\u4ea1\u4e4b\u77e3\u3002\u688f\u4e4b\u53cd\u8986\uff0c\u5247\u5176\u591c\u6c23\u4e0d\u8db3\u4ee5\u5b58\uff1b\u591c\u6c23\u4e0d\u8db3\u4ee5\u5b58\uff0c\u5247\u5176\u9055\u79bd\u7378\u4e0d\u9060\u77e3\u3002\u4eba\u898b\u5176\u79bd\u7378\u4e5f\uff0c\u800c\u4ee5\u70ba\u672a \u5617\u6709\u624d\u7109\u8005\uff0c\u662f\u8c48\u4eba\u4e4b\u60c5\u4e5f\u54c9\uff1f\u6545\u82df\u5f97\u5176\u990a\uff0c\u7121\u7269\u4e0d\u9577\uff1b\u82df\u5931\u5176\u990a\uff0c\u7121\u7269\u4e0d\u6d88\u3002\u5b54\u5b50\u66f0\uff1a\u300e\u64cd\u5247\u5b58\uff0c\u820d\u5247\u4ea1\uff1b\u51fa\u5165\u7121\u6642\uff0c\u83ab\u77e5\u5176\u9109\u3002\u300f\u60df\u5fc3\u4e4b\u8b02\u8207\uff1f\u300d <\/p>\n

[2] The text of this speech to the American Legion was reported by the Time Magazine Web site, http:\/\/time.com\/4474619\/read-hillary-clinton-american-legion-speech\/ <\/p>\n

[3] The quotation from The Great Learning is from the translation by James Legge; where Legge has \u201cthe Son of Heaven,\u201d i.e., the king, I substituted \u201cthe rulers.\u201d Here is the full quotation in English and Chinese:<\/p>\n

“From the [rulers] down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.<\/p>\n

“It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered. It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.”<\/p>\n

\u81ea\u5929\u5b50\u4ee5\u81f3\u65bc\u5eb6\u4eba\u3001\u58f9\u662f\u7686\u4ee5\u8129\u8eab\u7232\u672c\u3002
\n\u5176\u672c\u4e82\u800c\u672b\u6cbb\u8005\u3001\u5426\u77e3\u3002\u5176\u6240\u539a\u8005\u8584\u3001\u800c\u5176\u6240\u8584\u8005\u539a\u3001\u672a\u4e4b\u6709\u4e5f\u3002\u6b64\u8b02\u77e5\u672c\u3001\u6b64\u8b02\u77e5\u4e4b\u81f3\u4e5f\u3002 <\/p>\n

[4] The description of quiet-sitting is adapted from John H. and Evelyn Nagai Berthrong, \u201cConfucianism: A Short Introduction\u201d (Oxford: Oneworld, 2000), p. 34.<\/p>\n

[5] This paragraph adapted from \u201cThe Great Learning,\u201d trans. and notes by James Legge, in \u201cConfucius: Confucian Analects, The Great learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean\u201d (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893; rpt. 1971), pp. 357-359. I am indebted to Legge\u2019s interpretation of this passage in the note on par. 4, pp. 357-358.<\/p>\n

[6] This phrase comes from Tu Wei-ming, \u201cBeyond the Enlightenment Mentality,\u201d in Mary Evelyn Tucker and john Berthrong, eds., \u201cConfucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans\u201d (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 1998), p. 4. In this passage, Tu is specifically addressing how the West might deal with ecological crisis, but the same principle applies to how we might achieve world peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sermon below was preached by Rev. Dan Harper at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, California, at the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services. The sermon text below is a reading text; the actual sermon contained improvisation and extemporaneous remarks. Sermon copyright (c) 2016 Daniel Harper. Sermon: Peace in Our Time In last week\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61,69,104,70],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-western-religious-traditions","tag-confucius","tag-mencius","tag-peace","tag-september-11-2001"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}