Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, wrote in the beginning of his book: "If we take the world's enduring religions at their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race."

Smith talks about how world religions relate to each other. Are they too different to compare? Or do they all share some common elements... like the Golden Rule... and can some day be reduced to one world religion? He proposes a third, different view:

"A third conception of the way the religions are related likens them to a stained glass window whose sections divide the light of the sun into different colors. This analogy allows for significant differences between the religions without pronouncing on their relative worth. If the peoples of the world differ from one another temperamentally, these differences could well affect the way Spirit appears to them; it could be seen from different angels, so to speak. Stated in the language of revelation, for God to be heard and understood, divine revelations would have had to be couched in the idioms of its respective hearers. The Koran comes close to saying just this in Surah 14:4 "We never sent a messenger except with the language of his people, so that he might make (the message) clear for them."

Dear Friends, I hope you've all had a good week. Undoubtedly, many of you watched the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday night. I must refrain from making any endorsements. The debate, I can say, was something that brought my family together as we sat in the living room to cheer and boo and make comments out loud. As my husband David said with some humor, it was potentially more important than a Red Sox game! Despite differences in age and outlook, my husband, our daughter, her partner and I share a common language and perspective. Yet I am reminded that we must not be arrogant and unkind in our judgments, even when we think the other side "just doesn't get it." I hate it when meanness takes the place of real political discourse. It is a key element in what has divided us. That's as much as I have to say about that!

My sermon this morning is part of my series about the sources of our ever-evolving faith, the "faith of the larger liberty" which expands beyond boundaries of time and place. The third source of our Unitarian Universalist Living Tradition is "Wisdom from the world's religions, which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life." Although our UU faith sprang two centuries ago from the liberal wing of the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, it is certainly not bound by its past.

As one UU minister explained, "... although there may be Christians in this congregation, we cannot be said to be united in Christ. ... We're not united in Christ. We're united in quest." We are free to explore everywhere for value and meaning... and, in fact, are encouraged to do so. A bedrock UU principle is "Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations".

You may think that our exploration of world religions is something very recent. Maybe it's just some New Age trend that's in or hip. But that isn't so. In the late 18th and early 19th Century, the Hindu scriptures the Upanishads were translated into English by the Asian scholar Sir Charles Wilkins. When his translations came to America, it greatly influenced the development of American Transcendentalism. This, in turn, is an important development in Unitarianism. Here is what one professor on the East-West connection wrote:

"The transcendentalists' basic message that life was not limited to the five senses and that the individual ego was to be transcended for knowing truth, ultimately went back to the Upanishads. Emerson, the first prominent American to embrace Indian thought, received the gift of a copy of the Bhagavad-gita (the English translation of Charles Wilkins) ... and made this most inspiring book his lifelong companion."

Listen to these words of Emerson (from responsive reading #531 in our hymnal). It is so clearly inspired by Hindu philosophy:

"As there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where we, the effect, cease, and God, the cause, begins... Within us is the soul of the whole; the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One. When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius, when it breathes through our will, it is virtue; when it flows through our affections, it is love."

What religious pioneers Emerson, Thoreau and others in their Transcendentalist circle were! Back in the mid 19th Century, just think how isolated our country was from the rest of the world, except for some Christian missionaries and the very wealthy Americans who ventured abroad. This study of a so-called "exotic" religion and culture on the other side of the globe was new and revolutionary. But in the 20th Century, our isolation ended. Immigration from all the continents and two world wars changed all that. America and Americans have become, at least to a relative degree, more educated. more worldly, more open.

Perhaps not to the degree that many of us would hope for. Perhaps not to the degree that would help make war less likely. Perhaps not to the degree that leads to a truly deeper understanding of others. But by comparison to the 19th Century, we've moved forward. The majority of Americans at least tolerate, if not celebrate religious and cultural diversity. And many Americans embrace... in part or in whole ... Islam, Buddhism and Taoism. Many of us are re-discovering indigenous European and American religions... the spirituality of European Celtics and the different religions of Native Americans.

There are real, obvious practical reasons to study world religions from a heritage different than our own. We hope to reduce international misunderstandings; to promote global peace and cooperation. And we hope to promote peace within our own society... among an increasingly diverse population. It's not even a choice, really, since we're drawn together by this modern world... this global economy and modern forms of transportation and communication. As Huston Smith wrote, "We are catapulted from town and country onto a world stage." So why not do it with greater understanding?

Yet there are other reasons to explore world religions. As Smith observed, "If we take the world's enduring religions at their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race." And this distilled wisdom can help us find greater meaning and value in our lives.

What does that mean: The distilled wisdom of the human race? Wisdom is not knowledge. It's not facts, not physics or chemistry or economics. It's not something which can be discovered through pure reason... or the scientific method. It's not a product of the Enlightenment. Although wisdom is constantly evolving, its roots are more ancient than that. Wisdom that has been written down goes back at least a couple of thousand years before Jesus' birth.

Wisdom is simply this: It is what gives our life value and meaning. It's the greater Truth rather than the smaller truths. It's what we're all searching for as human beings... the things that matter most: help in times of trouble. greater joy and happiness, finding purpose and fulfillment, making connections to something greater than ourselves. And discovering, perhaps through the discipline of prayer and meditation, the true and ultimate nature of things.

Can all these world religions be distilled or reduced to some common denominator? Some optimists have argued that One World Religion would eventually grow out of all these separate religions. And peace and harmony would naturally follow. Kenneth Patton, a popular, yet controversial Universalist minister, believed and preached this view in the Charles Street Meetinghouse in Boston.

But most religious scholars today would say "No, that's totally naïve." They agree with the analogy that religions are like "a stained glass window whose sections divide the light of the sun into different colors." Each color is a different religious perspective, rooted in a particular language and culture. To try to blend these colors together to make one white light is to lose the essence of each one. And it would destroy the beauty (or wisdom) of each stained glass window. Each can instruct us in a different and important aspect of the true nature of things. Each has its own strengths and its own blind spots. Religions of the East, Huston Smith says, can counterbalance the Western over focus on science and reason. Our culture largely ignores the wisdom of intuition, the wisdom of the human body and spirit. Eastern religion seeks to balance our lives and "reconnect [us] with the primary awe and mystery of existence."

On the other hand, Smith notes that he is careful to leave out of his book some of those less appealing parts of world religions: the parts that are intolerant, the cruel, or downright bizarre. This book, he said, "takes religion seriously. It is not a tourist guide. There [is] no pandering to curiosity seeker, no rifling through peoples' faiths to light on what has shock value..." It focuses instead on each one's core philosophy and what we may gain by comparing another view to our own.

If we respect and take religion seriously, we gain new insight... and inspiration in our ethical and spiritual lives. One great example is the yoga paths of Hinduism. According to the yoga tradition, there are many paths to God, whose manifestations are also many. We should choose our path according to our own nature. What works for you may not work for me. But these paths to God boil down to four basic types. The four paths are love (or devotion), knowledge, work and psychophysical (or mind-body) exercises. I won't take the time to explain these, since it would take far too long and be much too complex for a sermon.

I can say this, however. Hindu yoga philosophy was studied by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung in his wide exploration of Eastern philosophies. He refined the yoga tradition through a modern and Western lens and turned it into the 12 archetypes (or personality types) of the human psyche. This is a central part of Jungian psychology. His work has been made popular most recently by Carol Pearson in her book The Hero Within, Six Archetypes We Live By.

I need to pause here with a note of caution. I'm not saying that we should or can accept other religions wholesale. Not everything in every religion is equally valid. To say so would be absurd. We must use our own judgment and our own cultural lens. We are aware, in these post-modern times, that each of us looks at the white light of the holy through different stained glass windows.

Neither should we borrow carelessly, without understanding the source from which a religious thought or practice came. It requires deep and careful study... and introduction to ritual practice by someone who is a practitioner and can explain its meaning. Yet the effort is worth the reward: "to enjoy the wider angle the vision affords" in Huston Smith's words.

Sri Ramakrishna, an early modern teacher of Eastern religions, wrote:

"You see many stars at night in the sky, but find them not when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars in the heaven of day? So, O man! Because you behold not God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no god.

"As one and the same material, water is called by different names by different peoples, one calling it water, another eau, a third aqua, and another pani. So the one Sat-chit-ananda, the everlasting-intelligent-bliss, is invoked by some as God, by some as Allah, by some as Jehovah, by some as Hari, and by others as Brahman.

"As one can ascend to the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope, so diverse are the ways and means to approach God, and every religion in the world shows one of these ways."

-- Source: Many Paths to the One God, from the Works of Sri Ramakrisha in The Portable World Bible, page 80.

Amen. May it be so.