Buddhist<\/a> teacher Shinran Shonin, and very much, very much the Christian teacher Dame Julian of Norwich.<\/p>\nJulian. And her visions. And, I think, ours. But, first Julian.<\/p>\n
There are few certain details about her life. She was an Englishwoman born in 1342 and believed to have died around 1416. Even her name is uncertain. Some suggest Julian, generally considered a masculine name, came from the church where she lived as an anchoress, a type of hermit. She probably came from wealth. Perhaps she had been married and widowed, maybe twice. In her middle years during a life-threatening illness she had a series of sixteen visions regarding the person of Christ. She spent the rest of her life trying to understand what they meant.<\/p>\n
At some point she had herself walled in behind the altar of the church of St Julian in Norwich, during a mass celebrated for the dead. While walled in for the rest of her life she nonetheless communicated with the outside world becoming a well-known spiritual director. The fruit of her teachings were contained in two versions of her Sixteen Showings (or Revelations) of Divine Love.<\/p>\n
As alien as she is, as far away as she is, she actually does teach us, can guide us. If we are, I believe, a little humble about it, and at the same time a little critical. If we\u2019re willing to throw our own hearts and minds open for the exercise; there is a lot here for us.<\/p>\n
I was wandering the web searching for materials about Julian when I stumbled upon a site maintained by Irish Dominicans. I thought they showed us the how of open heart and mind. They quoted a passage from Julian\u2019s writings.<\/p>\n
Outwardly, [Adam] was clad humbly as a workman who was used to hard labour, and he stood very near the lord\u2026. His clothing was a white tunic, thin, old and all soiled, stained with sweat of his body, tight fitting for him and short, as it were but a hand\u2019s width below the knee, undecorated, seeming as if it would soon be worn out, about to be turned to rags\u2026. But inwardly in the servant was shown a foundation of love which he had for the lord which was equal to the love that the lord had for him\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\nThe white tunic is [Jesus\u2019s] flesh; its thinness is that there was absolutely nothing separating the Godhead and humanity; the tightness of the tunic is poverty; the age is from Adam\u2019s wearing it; the staining of sweat, from Adam\u2019s toil; the shortness shows the servant\u2019s work.<\/span> And thus I saw the Son standing, saying in his meaning, \u201cBehold, my dear Father, I stand before you in Adam\u2019s tunic all ready to jump up and to run. I am willing to be on the earth to do your honour when it is your will to send me\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBy the fact that his tunic was at the point of being turned to rags and torn is understood the stripes and the scourges, the thorns and the nails, the pulling and the dragging, his tender flesh tearing\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\nThe body was in the grave until Easter morning, and from that time on he lay down never more. Then was rightfully ended the wallowing and the writhing, the groaning and the moaning; and our mortal flesh that God\u2019s Son took upon himself (which was Adam\u2019s old tunic, tight, bare and short) then by our Saviour was made fair, new, white and bright, and of endless purity, wide and long\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\nNo longer stands the Son before the Father as a servant fearfully, plainly clad, in part naked, but now he stands before the Father directly, richly clad in blessed ampleness, with a crown upon his head of precious richness (for it was shown that we are his crown, which crown is the Father\u2019s joy, the Son\u2019s honour, the Holy Spirit\u2019s pleasure, and endless marvellous bliss to all that are in heaven.<\/span><\/p>\nNot the easiest text.<\/p>\n
However I recommend sitting with it, sometime. It contains a lot to reflect on. But, it\u2019s the Dominican\u2019s midrash, their commentary that most caught me, and what I really want to share today. It\u2019s unsigned, but it seems certain to have been composed by these Irish friars. Some one of their number writes how Julian \u201cspeaks of \u2018Adam\u2019s tunic,\u2019 by which she means human nature. It is worn by Adam, which means all of us (\u201cin the sight of God all humankind is Adam and Adam is all humankind\u201d), and of course by Jesus. Jesus wears our tunic, our human nature. This phrase of Julian\u2019s is a vivid image of our \u2018incorporation in Christ\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday,\u201d the friar observes, \u201cwe are inclined to think of the individual as the ultimate repository of meaning, a position that entails many bizarre as well as tragic consequences. The Christian sense of the Body of Christ (or the Mystical Body, as it has been called) is the real alternative. We could also speak of \u2018the Christ-mind\u2019, or \u2018the Christ-nature\u2019, as Buddhists speak of the Buddha-mind or the Buddha-nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the Domincans.<\/p>\n
I suggest the universal theme they\u2019re naming variously Christ nature, the Body of Christ, Buddha-mind and Buddha-nature is the source, is what as it moves in the world is called love. Its expressed by Julian in her singular voice, informed by the traditions of her early fifteenth century life; but understood, best, I suggest, by us when we hear it informed by the many traditions, with the ears of Universalism. So, using \u201cBuddha nature\u201d helps us to break free and hear with new ears, to see with new eyes the once and future truth of our larger liberty. Doing this we tumble into a deep not knowing where that still small voice can finally be heard.<\/p>\n
This is how Universalism begins to find expression. Here the signposts are placed for you and for me to follow our path home. Happily, it is a path well trodden before us by people who have laid out markers. All we need do is notice and walk.<\/p>\n
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