| During
these past two days much has been accomplished to advance the
cause of peace by our discussions and simply by our being with
each other. We learn to trust and admire each other and to
share with each other the traditions we represent.
This evening I suggest that
we continue this presence to each other by looking beyond
ourselves to the larger universe we live in. If it were
convenient I would suggest that we go outside this building,
that we go beyond all the light and noise of the city and look
up at the sky overarching the Earth. At this time in the
evening we would see the stars begin to appear as the sun
disappears over the horizon. The light of day gives way to the
darkness of night. A stillness, a healing quiet, comes over
the landscape.
It's a moment when some other
world makes itself known, some numinous presence beyond human
understanding. We experience the wonder of things as the vast
realms of space overwhelm the limitations of our human minds.
This moment, as the sky turns golden and the clouds reflect
the blazing colors of evening, we participate for a moment in
the forgiveness, the peace, the intimacy of all things with
each other.
Parents hold their children
more closely and tell stories to the children as they go off
into dreamland, wonderful stories of times gone by, stories of
the animals, of the good fairies, adventure stories of heroic
wanderings through the wilderness, stories of dragons
threatening to devour the people and of courageous persons who
saved our world in perilous times.
These final thoughts of the
day are continued in the minds of children as even in their
sleep they begin to dream of their own future, dreams of the
noble deeds that would give meaning to their lives. Whether
awake or asleep, the world of wonder fills their minds, the
world of beauty fills their imagination, the world of intimacy
fills their emotions.
When we look back over our
own lives we realize that whatever of significance we have
achieved in our own personal lives and in the larger domain of
the cultural context of our lives has been the fulfillment of
thoughts and dreams that we had early in our lives, dreams
that sustained us when we encountered difficulties through the
years.
Beyond the dreams of our
personal future, there are the shared dreams that give shape
and form to each of our cultural traditions. Because this
other world cannot be explained by any technical or scientific
language, we present this other world by analogy and myth and
story. Even beyond childhood this is the world of the human
mind.
So tonight as we look up at
the evening sky with the stars emerging faintly against the
fading background of the sunset, we think of the mythic
foundations of our future. We need to engage in a shared dream
experience.
The experiences that we have
spoken of as we look up at the starry sky at night and in the
morning see the landscape revealed as the sun dawns over the
Earth, these reveal a physical world but also a more profound
world that cannot be bought with money, cannot be manufactured
with technology, cannot be listed on the stock market, cannot
be made in the chemical laboratory, cannot be reproduced with
all our genetic engineering, cannot be sent by email. These
experiences require only that we follow the deepest feelings
of the human soul.
What we look for is no longer
the Pax Romana, the peace of imperial Rome, nor is it simply
the Pax Humana, the peace among humans, but the Pax Gaia, the
peace of Earth and every being on the Earth. This is the
original and the final peace, the peace granted by whatever
power it is that brings our world into being. Within the
universe the planet Earth with all its wonder is the place for
the meeting of the divine and the human.
As humans we are born of the
Earth, nourished by the Earth, healed by the Earth. The
natural world tells us: I will feed you, I will clothe you, I
will shelter you, I will heal you. Only do not so devour me or
use me that you destroy my capacity to mediate the divine and
the human. For I offer you a communion with the divine. I
offer you gifts that you can exchange with each other. I offer
you flowers whereby you may express your reverence for the
divine and your love for each other.
In the vastness of the sea,
in the snow-covered mountains, in the rivers flowing through
the valleys, in the serenity of the landscape and in the
foreboding of the great storms that sweep over the land, in
all these experiences I offer you inspiration for your music,
for your art, your dance.
All these benefits the Earth
gives to us individually, in our communities and throughout
the entire Earth. Yet we cannot be fully nourished in the
depths of our being if we try to isolate ourselves
individually or if we seek to deprive others of their share by
increasing our own; for the food that we eat nourishes us in
both our souls and our bodies. To eat alone is to be starved
in some part of our being.
We need to reflect that our
individual delight in the song of the birds or the sound of
the crickets and cicadas in the evening is enhanced not
diminished when we listen together in the evening with our
families and our friends. We experience an easing of the
tensions that develop between us, for the songs that we hear
draw us into the intimacy of the same psychic space. So with
music‹our folk music, as well as the symphonies of Mozart or
Beethoven, draws an unlimited number of persons into the same
soul space.
Perhaps our greatest resource
for peace is in an awareness that we enrich ourselves when we
share our possessions with other. We discover peace when we
learn to esteem those goods whereby we benefit ourselves in
proportion as we give them to others. The very structure and
functioning of the universe and of the planet Earth reveal an
indescribable diversity bound in an all-embracing unity. The
heavens themselves are curved over the Earth in an
encompassing embrace.
Here I would recall the
experience of Henry Thoreau, an American naturalist of the
mid-19th century who lived a very simple life with few
personal possessions. At one time he was attracted to purchase
an especially beautiful bit of land with a pasture and a
wooded area. He even made a deposit. But then he realized that
it was not necessary to purchase the land because, he
reasoned, he already possessed the land in its wonder and its
beauty as he passed by each day. This intimacy with the land
could not be taken away from him no matter who owned the land
in its physical reality. So indeed that same bit of land could
be owned in its wonder and beauty by an unlimited number of
persons, even though in its physical reality it might be owned
by a single person.
Such was the argument of
Mencius the Chinese writer who taught the emperor that he
should open up the royal park for others, since it would be an
even greater joy to have others present with him, as at a
musical concert each person enjoys the music without
diminishing but increasing our own joy as we share it with
others. So too for those in the Bodhisattva tradition of India
there were those such as Shanti Deva, in the fifth century of
our Era, who took a vow to refuse beatitude itself until all
living creatures were saved. For only when they participated
in his joy could he be fully caught up in the delight of
paradise.
It has taken these many
centuries for us to meet with each other in the comprehensive
manner that is now possible. While for the many long centuries
we had fragments of information concerning each other, we can
now come together, speak with each other, dine with each
other. Above all we can tell our stories to each other.
Tonight we might recall the
ancient law of hospitality, whereby the wanderer was welcomed.
So it was with Ulysses in his long voyage home after the
Trojan war. When exhausted and driven ashore on occasion and
surrounded by a people that he had never met before, he was
consistently rested, invited to dine with the people of the
place, and then in the quiet moment afterward was invited to
tell his story. So it has been I trust with each of us in
these past few days. To some extent we have been able to tell
our stories to each other. Now a new phase in all our stories
has begun as we begin to shape the Great Story of all peoples
as we move into the future.
As a final reflection I would
suggest that we see these early years of the 21st century as
the period when we discover the great community of the earth,
a comprehensive community of all the living and nonliving
components of the planet. We are just discovering that the
human project is itself a component of the Earth project; that
our intimacy with the Earth is our way to intimacy with each
other. Such are the foundations of our journey into the
future.
|