Today is the feast of Seraphim of Sarov, a Russian Orthodox mystic and saint. As is the tradition within Christian churches, one’s feast day marks one’s death, in Searaphim’s case on this day in 1833. It set me to thinking a little about how the universal is really ever only known within the particular. And the many traps thrown along that way, snares laid out both by the devil and by God…
In the nineteen sixties I stumbled upon the Way of a Pilgrim, and found the wisdom of the Christian Orthodox church thrown open wide. For me Orthodoxy contains all the complexities and contradictions of religion, including what I find repulsive elements together with some of the most sublime expressions of faith I’ve ever witnessed, often so close, cheek by jowl.
While the Orthodox themselves are for the most part repulsed by the assertion, the similarities between their organized mystical tradition called Hesychasm and many Eastern spiritual disciplines is indeed striking. For me it is additional evidence of the universality of that primary practice of sitting down, shutting up and paying attention, the details of which this tradition has given considerable attention.
I believe the quotes in the following video all come from St Seraphim.
Sounds like genuine wisdom to me…
My observation has been that the shadow of aggressively universalist spiritualities such as are found within Unitarian Universalism is that they are inclined to grow vague, to dissipate into the aethers. Falling deeply into universalism it becomes hard, sometimes, to make necessary judgments about what is actually useful and what is in fact a spiritual dead end.
The shadow of particularist spiritualities is xenophobia of astonishing variety. I’ve seen this manifest as misogyny, homophobia, antisemitism. Just name the other, it’s on someone’s list. Falling deeply into a way of the particular can cut one off from the wisdom of the other, and lose one the possibility of that turning moment which genuinely opens the heart.
For me the way through is found within the Heart Sutra and its summation: the particular is the universal and the universal is the particular.
As a matter of practice we need to recall that the corollary to the guidance of the statement “the universal is only known within the particular” is that the “particular contains the universal.”
What follows seems obvious. We miss one side and we are in danger of falling into hell. We recall both, and the gate of heaven is thrown open. I believe this is true.
But, it’s in fact a tad more complicated. And this is why this actually turns out to be a reflection on grace.
I look at the Orthodox and I see lots of wisdom, often in spite of what seems to me an amazing list of xenophobias. And, I’ve met many Unitarian Universalists who have grown wise in their relentless open heartedness which to me rushes past the point of ridiculousness.
Gives me pause.
My take away is that while we can be counseled by observing the shadows and dangers in any given tradition, there is some mark of grace, as well, that throws the gate of heaven open. Always. Constantly.
The bottom line is we need to open our hearts one way or another. And sometimes it turns out we don’t do that opening at all…
Ah grace…
It is grace, I suspect, that squares the circle, that reconciles the particular and the universal, and which ushers us into the ways of paradise.
Thank goodness…
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