Doug Muder
First Parish Unitarian-Universalist in Bedford,
Massachusetts
Sunday, January 21, 2001
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Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden shall become clear to you. -- The Gospel of Thomas
You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas. -- Glinda the Good
Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie
Come into this place of peace and let its silence heal your
spirit;
Come into this place of
memory and let its history warm your soul;
Come into this place of
prophecy and power and let its vision change your heart. -- William
F. Schulz
Our readings today are from two Romans. The first is from the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who had one of history’s most difficult and thankless jobs: He was supposed to teach moderation and self-control to the young Emperor Nero. A couple of things about this piece surprised me. The first is how contemporary it sounds. Reading Seneca is more like getting advice from your uncle than like studying an ancient philosopher. The second surprising thing was that the practice he describes here is very similar to something that my wife and I had been doing for years anyway, without realizing that it was a couple thousand years old.
The second reading is from the Skeptic philosopher Sextus Empiricus. In this piece the he describes the typical experience of a student in a Skeptic school. One of the things I want to point out to those of you who know something about Buddhism is how easy it would be to turn this into a Zen story.
Diogenes the Cynic was famous for living a simple life and having as few material possessions as possible. According to legend, he once came to a stream, pulled his trusty old clay cup out of his pack, scooped up some water to drink. While he was there, a boy came up to the stream and began drinking water out of his hands.
Seeing this, Diogenes threw his cup away and said, “What a fool I’ve been all these years, lugging around that useless object.”
Some of you may have noticed that you’ve been lugging around some useless pieces of green paper. We’re going to pass a basket around now so you can throw them away.
Epicurus taught that stories are like drugs: It’s important to your mental health to take the right ones in the right dosages. And so I prescribe The Wizard of Oz, which teaches us that the most important leg of a journey of discovery is the trip home. And so, our closing words: [three heel clicks]: “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”