Inspiration:
Children I implore you
get out of the burning house now
three carts wait outside
to save you from a homeless life
relax in the village square
before the sky everything’s empty
no direction is better or worse
east is just as good as west
those who know the meaning of this
are free to go where they want
― Han-shan
The God Beyond
In my office sits a statue of Quan Yin, a representation of the Buddhist image of compassion. For months now, when my daughter Neva walks into my office, she stops, looks at the religious artifacts, goes to the coffee table, takes a tissue from the box, climbs onto the chair next to Quan Yin and wipes the statue’s nose, and then wipes her own.
Her first instinct is not to ask What is this? or Who is it? or even What does it mean? Her first instinct is to reach out, as if born with an intuition that the sacred question is not What do I believe? but rather Who is in need?
I think all of us are born with this instinct. And my hope in watching her is that the future will hold a world united in the effort to reach out to one another rather than one divided into tribes based on beliefs.
May we, my friends, help to carry this intuitive question forward, so that the generations that follow us are helping address the needs of the world as they live out their religious calling, no matter what they believe.
BY KAAREN ANDERSON, PARISH CO-MINISTER, FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, TO READ MORE