A man goes to a friend's house [for a dinner party] … [has too many drinks], and falls asleep. Meanwhile his friend, having to go forth on official duty, ties a priceless jewel within the man's garment as a present, and then departs. The man, being asleep, knows nothing of this. On arising he travels onwards till he reaches some other country where, striving for food and clothing, he labors diligently, undergoes exceeding great hardship, and is content even if he can obtain but a little. Later, his friend happens to meet him and says, "… Sir! How is it you have come down to this, merely for the sake of food and clothing? Wishing you to be in comfort and able to satisfy your five senses, I… tied a priceless jewel within your garment. … [I believe it is still there], yet you in ignorance are … [working] and worrying to keep yourself alive. How very stupid! Go you now and exchange that jewel for what you need, and forever hereafter as you will, [be] free from poverty ...” Adapted from the Buddhist Lotus Sutra 8
Isn’t that just like us human beings? We struggle so hard with everything. We struggle with questions about life, relationships, jobs, religion, values. We work so hard at being perfect, or wise, or helpful, or good, or just. We want to be loved, so we work hard at that; we want to love, so we work hard at that; we want to be good parents, so we work hard at being good parents, and so on and so on. Often we feel like no matter what we do, serenity is just beyond our grasp.
Serenity, security, sense of wholeness, we already have, they are like the priceless jewel tied within the garment. The challenge is untying the garment that hides the jewel.
I want to explore one singular concept from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. The words he wrote, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Before we get there, though, we need to diverge, just a little, three thousand years or so.
Humankind has always questioned its miraculous existence.
always wondered “how” to live in our world
anguished over our values and our morals.
The great mysteries of life have provided the motivation for the great religious and philosophical thinkers of humankind’s story.
Karl Jaspers, German philosopher, theologian, and psychiatrist wrote in the early twentieth century that simultaneously and independently, in China, India, and the Occident, innovative thinkers laid the foundation for our spiritual, religious, and philosophical thinking. Jaspers coined the term “axial age” for this period of great spiritual thought which was three thousand to two thousand years ago.
Karen Armstrong, British theologian, wrote in The Great Transformation that these sages developed the ideas that would lead to Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece.
What all these religions and philosophies have in common is the “enlightenment” of the individual. Armstrong wrote, all the great sages of the axial period had one thing in common, they lived in violent societies. And what they did, in each one, was create a spiritual method “…that utilized natural human energies to counter this aggression.” [The Great Transformation, Chapter 10 “The Way Forward”]
Armstrong wrote, “In one way or another, their programs were designed to eradicate the egotism that is largely responsible for our violence, and promoted the empathic spirituality of the Golden Rule. This, they found, introduced people to a different dimension of human experience. It gave them ekstasis, a ‘stepping out’ from … habitual self-bound consciousness … to apprehend a reality … called ‘God,’ nibbana, Brahman, atman, or the Way.”
End quote.
Enlightenment.
It is through enlightenment that we discover the answers to the great questions and the mysteries of our existence. It is not coincidental that enlightenment means “having light within.”
The World Scripture tells us that humankind can achieve enlightenment through
an intuitive knowing, or
by a direct apprehension of a transcendent reality, or
through study.
Intuitive knowing is the knowing beyond knowledge. It is how many individuals come to Universalist thought. We “know” within that there is a truth beyond what we have been told.
Direct apprehension of a transcendent reality is what Julian of Norwich or other mystics have experienced.
And, enlightenment through study can be seen in an individual who has developed a character and a way of life that is based on empathy and virtue. Plato was a key writer on these thoughts.
One finds enlightenment through – Intuitive knowing, or direct apprehension, or by study.
What I want us to keep in mind here is the imagery of “light.” Fire, light, the sun; light is, and always has been an archetypal image for humanity. It is a metaphor or symbol for origin, or order, or even comfort.
We find light in the Hindu Upanishads “He is the one light that gives light to all.” Svetavatara Upanishad 6.14
In the Buddhist Udana 49 we read “It is wonderful Lord! It is wonderful Lord! It is as if, Lord, one might set upright that which had been upturned, or might reveal what was hidden, … or might bring an oil lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes might see …”
In the Quran 24.35 “God is the Light of the heavens and the earth… the parable of His Light is as if … a Lamp … enclosed in Glass: The Glass as it were a brilliant star...”
In the Hebrew Scriptures Psalm 119 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Enlightenment is rooted in ancient humankind’s desire for knowledge. Why did Eve and Adam eat of the fruit of knowledge?
Christianity developed or broke away from the axial religion Judaism. It, too, uses the imagery and symbolism of light. Throughout the New Testament we find that Jesus and Paul talk a lot about “light.”
Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” And in Luke 1:34-36 Jesus said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light…”
Enlightenment is a serious pursuit to discover for ourselves what our relationship is with the Transcendent Reality of Life. We can name that Great Mystery God, or Allah, or Atman, or Yahweh, or any name. What is crucial is our intentional pursuit of that relationship. In out reading today from Paul,
For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
There IS something more than our ego, something more than our day-to-day struggle, there is within all of us, each of us, that jewel of knowledge of the glory of God. There is within each of us serenity, security, and a sense of wholeness. The challenge is untying the garment that hides the jewel.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.