![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/81\/2011\/12\/sitting-on-a-flagpole.jpg\" "\\"sitting")
<\/a>I\u2019m running up on a very busy weekend at the church.<\/p>\nThis Saturday we are joining with our sisters and brothers at Beneficent Congregational Church in downtown Providence to put on a feast and party for the homeless and those at risk for hunger. Just too much food and entertainment. A couple of speeches, but not much. This will be the second time we\u2019ve done this. The last time we provided a spread for a couple of hundred folk. Coordination is a big deal. And a lot of good hands are on it\u2026<\/p>\n
A tiny subtext is how Beneficent was founded as a schism from our church, which while at the time (early eighteenth century) we were still officially Congregational, we were from the get go at the radical end of the spectrum. The leader of the schism denounced our minister as preaching the \u201cdamnable doctrine of good works,\u201d and led the walk out. Turned out the gang that left were too liberal, as well, and he went on to found a third congregation, which has long since dissolved. In the years that have followed we have vied with each other for being in the forefront of the call for justice. And, I\u2019m really proud that on my watch we\u2019ve started working together on projects of mercy and justice.<\/p>\n
This event is in some ways a lead on for the following Saturday for a march on the statehouse calling on our legislators to remember those who have been most hurt in these turbulent times.<\/p>\n
Sunday, after preaching a sermon reflecting on the ministry of the great Unitarian divine William Ellery Channing, and the theology he called \u201csalvation by character,\u201d between one and five we will be throwing our church\u2019s doors open for our annual Amnesty International Write-a-thon. We usually get several hundred people passing through writing a letter or a dozen. There are other events built around it. This time we have a speaker in the afternoon, a political refuge escaped from Iran\u2019s torture chambers, in part, thanks to Amnesty\u2019s program\u2026<\/p>\n
It all sets me to mind about the rush of things, our choices of how to live in this world, and why we might make such decisions.<\/p>\n
This all reminds me of case 46 in the koan anthology the Wumenguan, the Gateless Gate.<\/p>\n
In the Sutherland\/Tarrant translation the text goes:<\/p>\n
The priest Shishuang said, \u201cHow do you step from the top of a hundred-foot pole?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Another eminent master of former times said:<\/p>\n You who sit on the top of a hundred-foot pole, People who like Zen literature, are often taken with that image of stepping away from the top of the pole. They often think it is an invitation to experience the great emptiness, what Wumen commenting on another case called \u201cthe vast all-encompassing crater.\u201d <\/p>\n No doubt much of the work of the Zen way is about finding our true home in the great empty, the vastness, the one, the open, the boundless.<\/p>\n But, in fact, this case, is not pointing to the experience of emptiness.<\/p>\n And those who give that response in the room meeting the teacher, are sent away to reflect some more.<\/p>\n For those who care, here\u2019s a secret.<\/p>\n The koan, that little telegram from the heart of the universe, assumes we\u2019ve had that taste.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve noticed how we\u2019re woven out of it all, the great empty is our mother, and how each of us, each and every precious one of us share that secret truth.<\/p>\n The question here is what next?<\/p>\n The question is how do we act in this world of hurt knowing we are totally, completely a part of it?<\/p>\n The step, the step away from the top of the pole is found in that phrase, I suggest, form another sage on the great way, \u201csalvation by character.\u201d<\/p>\n Not just who you are, but what you are\u2026<\/p>\n Not just what you find, but what you do\u2026<\/p>\n So\u2026<\/p>\n What are your choices in this world of freedom and constraint?<\/p>\n What will you do with that one life?<\/p>\n Precious.<\/p>\n Passing.<\/p>\n Woven out of this world.<\/p>\n Well, if you\u2019re in Providence, this weekend, I have a couple of suggestions\u2026<\/p>\n
\nalthough you have entered the Way, it is not yet genuine.
\nTake a step from the top of the pole
\nand worlds of the Ten Directions are your total body.<\/p>\n