Transcript for May 31, 2009 by Ian Lawton

To be or not to be is NOT the question. Becoming is the issue. Life that is always becoming, unfolding, evolving in me greets the same in you. If you pay attention, you may hear in this moment the wise silence, the immense beauty, the universal intelligence, the awesome grandeur to which every one and everything is related. You are Life becoming more alive, God becoming more divine, Spirit itself in action. You tippy toe from moment to wonder filled moment, stride from discovery to breathtaking discovery, leap from realization to earth shattering realization. Life evolves from cell to organism, question to deeper mystery, ever more complex, connected and conscious, sourced by a great unknown, and bound by the elastic string called time.

What is your relationship with time? Do you relate well to the past, or is it like a set of shackles around your ankles, preventing you from greeting the present moment with open acceptance? Do you think optimistically about the future, or is it like a dark cloud looming over your present experience of life?

Maybe you feel the futility of time like Pink Floyd- “You run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking, And racing around to come up behind you again.”

Some witty person once said that time is what prevents everything from happening all at once.

We all have roughly the same life cycle. Although some have suggested that the whole life cycle is backwards, and in fact it would be better if you started off dying. Just get it out of the way right from the get go. Then you could move straight into an old age home where every day you would feel healthier and healthier. Eventually you would get so healthy that they would boot you out of the retirement home, and you would go get a job. On the first day of your job you would be given a gold watch, work for 40 years and then be young enough to enjoy retirement. You would party hard and have a great time in high school. Then you would become a child, and have no responsibilities at all; just play and frolic in the woods. Finally you would spend the last nine months of your life in an ever-expanding, climate controlled, all you can eat spa.

Now some of you know that there is another ending to the story, you might call it a climax, but I’m not going to go there now.

All Time Is Related

Ah, time. As J K Rowland said, “Time is making fools of us once again.”

Have you seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Benjamin grows up backwards; beginning his life as an old man and ending up as a baby. He grows younger with each passing moment. The woman in his life transitions from being his lover to his mother, cradling him to his death as a tiny baby. There is a joke that if it won best picture, the award would be given out at the very beginning of the night. The last award handed out would be for some obscure technical accomplishment, best foreign short film sound editing or something like that.

My favorite scene in the movie is when his daughter reads a letter Benjamin wrote to her, having never met her father.

For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

That gets close to my message this morning. Heal your relationship with time, and the world is your oyster. Past, present and future. Each of them is related, and each of them has treasures to reveal to you. Do your best in each moment. Change or stay the same. Either way, life will continue to move forward. If you need to miss a step, just pick up with the next beat. Get in tune with your past, but don’t be held captive to the past. Plan your future, but don’t be held prisoner by your plans.

Above all else, no matter what has happened, you can always, always start over again. Spiritual evolution suggests that there is no beginning, and there is no end. Everything is always becoming.

Spiritual evolution relates to personal development and also to the evolution of the universe. I approach spiritual evolution from a holistic perspective, meaning that all aspects within the universe are related and all aspects within the individual are related. As individuals and as a universe, we evolve towards greater complexity, greater connection and greater consciousness. The wisdom traditions often speak of this as evolving nearer to God. German philosopher Friedrich Schelling described it like this, “History as a whole is a progressive, gradually self-disclosing revelation of the Absolute.”

This is an exciting message. Think about it. You can come nearer to God, or close to fine, or nearer spiritual awakening, whatever language you prefer, by healing your relationship with time.

As I explore past, present and future evolution in turn, I want to point to a subtlety of theology. The Hebrew name for God is also known as the Tetragrammaton. That means 4 letters; yud, hey, vav and hey, or Y, H, V and H making up the unpronounceable name “Yahweh”. Yahweh is a blending of the past, present and future tenses of the Hebrew being verb “to be”. So, if you take, “I was”, “I am” and “I will be” and merge them together, cross out all of the extra letters, you have the Four Lettered Name of God. I was, I am, and I will be. God is the eternal present that exists simultaneously as past and future, always becoming.

The Past- “Things are as they are because they were as they were”

I believe it was Rupert Sheldrake who coined the phrase “things are as they are because they were as they were.” You are as you are because you were as you were. You are who you are now, at least partially because of what happened in the past. This is a profoundly evolutionary perspective.

After spending years beating yourself up for your limitations and after spending years being bludgeoned by church teaching for your original sin and depraved nature, this is very liberating. The evolutionary perspective says that you have inherited at least part of your nature. You don’t need a supernatural being to come to earth to die for your sins, because forgiveness and second chances are built into the evolutionary nature of life.

So in this context of grace, consider the role of the past in the evolution of the universe. I recently learnt that HIV/Aids may be predominantly a result of 5000 year old genetic mutations relating to Malaria. The reason this discovery is important is because it guides the treatment of HIV/Aids today. Understanding where we came from helps us to create a healthier present.

Now relate the same point to your own life journey. Have you ever noticed how past situations keep reappearing until you get them right. This is a little like what Nietzsche called “eternal recurrence”. A missed life lesson keeps reappearing in alternate forms until you finally get the message. There are some life lessons I’m still trying learn after 40 years.

Your spiritual evolution happens partly as you heal your relationship with the past; learn its lessons, glean its wisdom, just don’t let the ego fool you into lingering too long. Learn from the past and move forward. Learn about strength and move on. Grow in power rather than shrinking in blame. Choose to learn from the past and use this new wisdom to create the life you want for yourself now.

The Present- I am that I am

An old Jewish story tells of the time a student knocked at the door of his teacher. The teacher said, “Who is it?’ The student replied, “Its me!” The teacher said, ‘Me who?” The student replied, “Me me.” The teacher rebuked the student, saying that no one but God can claim the name “I am me”.

Moses experienced God barefoot on holy ground. Moses didn’t know how to describe the experience to the people. God said, tell them that “I am sent you”. It was a transformative point in the story. The divine is experienced not as transcendence but as presence; the beyond in the midst of life. When the moment is stripped of pretence, and the delusion of impermanence, all that is left is I am in all its wondrous connections.

In terms of the evolution of the universe, I like the way Thich Nhat Hanh says it-

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, 
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.

The universe experiences evolution as becoming and interrelationship.

You come nearer God by paying attention. When you pay attention you realize that you are always standing on holy ground. When someone enters your personal space, you are so engaged with the person and the moment that they have just entered onto holy ground. When you are fully curious, fully awake, fully alive, you have realized that which is greater than all and present in each.

Every place is holy, every person is filled with divine sparks and every moment is packed full of treasures and beauty.

Offer the world the gift of your presence today. When you look, open your eyes. When you listen, hear with fresh ears. When you move, feel the ground breathing beneath your feet. Allow your presence to pre-sense your life’s next steps.

Future- I will Be What Tomorrow Demands

I was very excited to come across a Hebrew commentary that suggested an alternate translation of Yahweh. “I will be what tomorrow demands.”

No sooner does something arise in your awareness and already it is becoming something else.

In terms of the evolution of the universe, think about the adaptation of wild species. Wild animals are being forced to adapt to the onslaught of human hunting. Nature is adapting by selecting for smaller, less spectacular, less conspicuous, less tasty, species. The survivors of human greed are breeding earlier and having fewer and smaller offspring. This downsizing of wild magnificence is one example of becoming what tomorrow demands. In this case, it is human behavior that is accelerating the evolution of wild species 300 times the rate it would have been. Even in the face of this human onslaught, life finds a way of becoming what tomorrow demands.

Now think about the future in terms of personal evolution. In this moment you are becoming what tomorrow demands. Its human nature to wonder what will happen in the future, and how you will handle situations that you see in your future. The you that you are now is preparing by being fully alive in this moment. The you that you are becoming will be just what tomorrow demands. As you find the joy of acceptance, the you that you are becoming will unfold effortlessly like a rising sun.

Don’t you find as you get older that life becomes more exciting? You aren’t looking just for new experiences, but to really make a difference, to be what tomorrow demands. You want to make sure that you create a future for your children and their children that is healthy, just and sustainable. When you heal your attitude towards the future, and release your grip just a little on your plans and ideas, you find yourself compelled by the future and not dreading it.

Coming Nearer to God

Now that we have spent time reflecting on past, present and future, bring it all together with an awareness of the eternal present.

It seems strange for me to tell you to be aware of the eternal present. You might have heard of the phrase, “carrying coals to Newcastle.” Newcastle is a centre for coal in both England. Carrying coals to Newcastle is unnecessary because there is more coal in Newcastle than anywhere else.

For me to tell you to come to an awareness of God or the eternal present is unnecessary because there is an incredible awareness of God within you already. You just have to pay attention. It’s a little like turning on sprinklers in the middle of a Spring shower; unnecessary and fruitless.

I don’t want to say anything more about an awareness of God within, as if it can be spoken of adequately. Rather, let me end with an exercise you can do right now to remind yourself that the eternal present resides within you, with a resolved sense of the past and compelling to create the future of your deepest desires, always becoming.

Calm your mind, relax your body and say to yourself-

I am what I am because I was what I was
I am what I am because I was
I am what I am
I am

Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still
Be

I am becoming what tomorrow demands
I am becoming
I am

Namaste.