“At One With the Universal Soul”
the Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne, November 11,2007

Readings

The Transcendentalist, excerpt
Nature – Chapter 1, excerpt
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first reading this morning is a short excerpt from “The Transcendentalist” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, part of a series of eight lectures delivered at the Masonic Temple in Boston in the winter of 1841-42.
“What is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism; Idealism as it appears in 1842. As thinkers, mankind have ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final, and say, The senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves, they cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances and the animal wants of man; the idealist on the power of Thought and of Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual culture. These two modes of thinking are both natural, but the idealist contends that his way of thinking is in higher nature. … His thought—that is the Universe. His experience inclines him to behold the procession of facts you call the world, as flowing perpetually outward from an invisible, unsounded centre in himself… From the transfer of the world into the consciousness, this beholding of all things in the mind, follow easily his whole ethics…”

The second reading is an excerpt from another of Emerson’s essays, Nature, which contains his notorious transparent eyeball reference, which could be taken as a metaphor for Transcendentalism.
“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature…At least they have a very superficial seeing. .. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man... Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight… Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God... I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty.”

Sermon At One With the Universal Soul Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne

“I dreamed that I floated at will in the great Ether, and I saw this world floating also not far off, but diminished to the size of an apple. Then an angel took it in his hand and brought it to me and said, “This must thou eat.” And I ate the world.” Thus spake Ralph Waldo Emerson, Transcendentalist mystic, and I might add, a person with a very strong ego. Emerson, recognized as the father of American Literature, was the primary articulator of the philosophy of individualism he called Self-Reliance. He is categorized as a romantic and an idealist, but he was a proponent of pragmatic democracy. His critique of the Unitarian church as he left the ministry began a reformation in American religion. We could talk about his influence in so many areas of American life. Many philosophers, poets, writers and activists start with and build on Emerson – his writings are truly a cornerstone of American thought. For example, you’ve all heard and loved and rolled your eyes at this Emerson quote. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.” The Reverend Gary James said, “Emerson’s focus on the individual and his prescription for a courageous self-reliance by means of non-conformity and inconsistency gave rise to self-empowerment and creative innovation as the principle vehicle for establishing our creative democracy.” Today we will focus on the spiritual Emerson.

Although Emerson left the Unitarian ministry for the lecture circuit, we still claim him as the major figure in our church history. I dare say there is a picture of him in every UU church and likely a room named after him as indeed there is here at NHF. He is credited with formulating many of the ideas which we now embrace in our UU Principles and Purposes. It is daunting for me to stand here in his shadow and make my feeble attempt to interpret him to you. But every UU minister reads Emerson and must explore Transcendentalism if she or he is to know from where we have come. So today, we will look at just a little piece of Emerson’s philosophy but a very important piece – the core spiritual concept of Transcendentalism. This sermon is another installment in my series on different spiritual paths, different ways Unitarian Universalists approach the ultimate realities of life, different ways of knowing.
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Emerson’s quest for a genuine spirituality was set in motion by personal tragedy and a sense of alienation. Shortly after the death of his young wife to tuberculosis left him bereft, he resigned his pulpit at Second Church in Boston largely because he couldn’t in good conscience continue serving the Lord’s Supper. Brokenhearted, there was much soul-searching in the dismal months that followed. From within his limbo, he began to anticipate relief, sensing the world contained enormous potential just waiting for him to comprehend. He wrote in his journal, “We stand on the edge of all that is great, yet restrained in inactivity and unconscious of our powers. We are always on the brink of an ocean of thought into which we do not yet swim.” Much preparation, little fruit,” he continued. “But suddenly in any place, in the street, in the chamber, will the heavens open and the regions of wisdom be uncovered, as if to show how thin the veil…Then, he wrote these words which became the core of his philosophy: “What a benefit if a rule could be given whereby the mind, dreaming amid the gross fogs of matter, could at any moment east itself and find the sun!”

Emerson’s work from this point on involved looking for, practicing, discussing and writing about the quest for an authentic spiritual life. He described himself as “an endless seeker.” Many people today hunger for something more fulfilling than can be found in our materialistic culture and are searching for a deeper spirituality. Studying religious trends Robert Wuthnow observes that “Americans have adopted “a new spirituality of seeking,” as a means of acquiring spiritual knowledge and practical wisdom.” If you are one of the people who are skeptical of formal religious doctrines, you might be interested in Emerson’s spiritual system. The philosophy of self-discovery he developed for the emerging American democracy of the 1840s continues to hold promise in our generation. He called it a quest for self-culture; we might call it cultivation of our inner wisdom or the spiritual practices which form our soul.
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Young adult Unitarians established Transcendentalism in reaction to 1830s conservative, aristocratic, Unitarian worship and beliefs. The Unitarians of that time were the upper class, the Boston Brahmins, who built and ran the civic institutions, such as Harvard in the most important city in America. The children of this privileged class felt their parents’ religion was cold and dead with too much emphasis on social conformity and duty, and exhortations to study and work, and with too little social action and no joy or delight. They were disturbed about the lack of an effective Unitarian response to the social maladies of slavery and limited suffrage. They felt it essential to foster a direct relationship with Divinity. Stodgy Unitarianism provided them no such opportunity.

As a side note: It may come as a revelation to some of you that Unitarians and Universalists have not always acted in accordance with our current principles. One such example was the Unitarians dragging their feet on ending slavery. Our history includes both things to be proud of and things from which we should learn to do better. UU history is fascinating, and I encourage you to study it.

“Transcendentalism was a movement for religious renewal, literary innovation, and social transformation. Its ideas were grounded in the claim that divine truth could be known intuitively.” “Harvard-Unitarian culture found spiritual and intellectual confirmation in empirical proof, scientific progress, and material success. Emerson acknowledged understanding derived from observation of external phenomena, but believed that the more important truths are eternal and intuitive, emerging from within.” Emerson’s meditations had taught him we have the ability to perceive or to access the realm of the spirit without conscious reasoning, that is, intuitively. It is a bit confusing when you read him unless you know he uses the word “Reason” for what we would now term “Intuition,” so I am going to use the word Intuition when I quote him. He said, “Intuition is the highest faculty of the soul, what we mean by soul itself; it never reasons, never proves; it simply perceives, it is vision.”
Transcendentalism took its name from a theory of German idealist philosopher Immanuel Kant who argued the mind organized data it received from the senses according to what he called ‘transcendental’ categories. Kant claimed all people’s minds automatically processed information using categories such as Space, Time, and Cause and Effect. They were universal, fixed in our minds without our having to put them there. The categories were transcendental because using them allowed people to experience the material world in a distinctly human, logical and intuitive manner. All people were capable of discerning truth using their minds. Transcendentalists liked Kant’s approach because it gave mind, not matter ultimate control over human experience. How a person interpreted an event mattered more than the observed physical reality. It put people in charge of making meaning from the events of their lives.

To the Transcendentalists it was common sense which told people what was good and true. Because the mind had built–in abilities to parse information, truth could be known naturally. People didn’t need someone else to interpret data for them. This led to the concept of Self-Reliance; Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance is probably his most popular and still widely read today. If intuition, the ability to perceive and properly interpret information for ourselves, was the highest faculty of the mind, people should rely on it as much as possible. Emerson criticized those who didn’t trust their own minds to guide them. “Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the view which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books. Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.”

In Emerson as Spiritual Guide Barry Andrews points out how important Emerson thought it was for each of us to plumb our own depths. “Emerson declares. ‘Imitation is suicide,’ and ‘The power that resides’ in each of us ‘is new in nature,’ and again, ‘Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.’” Andrews continues, “Society conspires against uniqueness and originality, prompting Emerson to proclaim that ‘whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist….Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.’ There are those who consider self-reliance too subjective as the basis of authority, but as Emerson says, ‘no law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.’”
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Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance is often misunderstood to be calling for unrestrained individualism with everyone pursuing their own selfish goals. This is not where the Transcendentalists were heading. They were not calling for people to isolate themselves from society. They believed that by getting in touch with their inner nature, by trusting their true selves, people would be more grounded, and society would work better. We could argue whether the Transcendentalist emphasis on Self-Reliance has led to a breakdown in civil society or not, and this argument has gone on almost ever since Emerson’s day, but that breakdown was not their intention.

But how could people each following their own muse not end up at cross purposes or in chaos? What did Transcendentalists believe was supposed to bring all the individual thinkers together and form community? Let’s go back to Emerson’s comment, “no law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.” He believed there was something sacred about human nature. Emerson writes in his journal about spiritual experiences he has had, “A certain wandering light comes to me which I instantly perceive to be the Cause of Causes. It transcends all proving. It is itself the ground of being; and I see that it is not one and I another, but this is the life of my life…. In certain moments I have known that I existed directly from God, and am, as it were, God’s organ. And in my ultimate consciousness Am God.”

Unitarians broke with Calvinism over the divinity of Jesus, and they didn’t agree with the Calvinist doctrine which saw human nature as depraved. Remember the old saw, “Universalists didn’t believe in hell, and Unitarians thought people were too good to go there.” Emerson takes human nature to a considerably higher plane, declaring there is divinity in each of us. With such a source of goodness inside us, life should be good if we just make the effort to listen to it. Is this Emerson’s ego gone wild? Well, maybe, but he was giving creative credit to God. All the Transcendentalists were intellectuals who produced a treasury of important literature, and who influenced American social structures in significant ways. They all believed the inspiration for their works came from the soul wherein the divine light resided.
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Transcendentalists believed each of us could know divine truth naturally. Emerson said divinity resided in our soul. He described the soul this way, “The soul in man is not an organ,…not a function like the power of memory…not a faculty, but a light; it is not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our being, in which we lie…When it breaths through [our] intellect, it is genius, when it breathes through [our] will it is virtue, when it breathes through [our] affection it is love.” To Emerson, genius was not superior intellect but was the intellect acting at the prompting of the soul. By responding to the soul, people were connected to divinity, divinity which was in each and common to all.

The divinity common to all Emerson called the “Over-Soul.” Over-Soul could be a name for God; I understand the concept as a Universal Soul from which everyone can draw inspiration. Emerson said that “we are not separate, isolated individuals, but that we ‘share the life by which all things exist,’ and that we “lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity.” In his essay entitled “The Over-Soul” he says this connection with divinity: “agitates men with awe and delight.” Experiences of a direct connection with divinity can be ecstatic and quite memorable.

This sounds like having a pretty good time to me. Back in our hippy days, many of us looked for something like this through psychedelic experiences. But I can tell you the highs experienced from mushrooms and light shows do not often come up to the level of an experience of divinity. In any event, Transcendentalists were not simply looking for a brief personal, intoxicating experience; they wanted something more substantial that would fuel their creative endeavors. Mystical encounters with divinity, feelings of unity with the entire interdependent web are usually short lived, tending to pass away or fade from sight like mist or smoke. The trick is to hold on to the inspiration one feels at moments like these and to make something from it later.

The transcendentalists were, mystics and idealists, and they used their connection to the Universal Soul to inspire them to act for social justice. “Transcendentalists tried to live out their faith. Their goal was to produce a new, more beautiful and civil society. They believed that only by nurturing a direct relationship with the divine would a person find the inspiration and confidence to deal with the tough social problems of the times. The Transcendentalist belief that everyone has divinity within led them to see all humans as deserving respect. Unitarian minister Theodore Parker became a strong abolitionist. He said: ‘Transcendentalism affirms that man has moral faculties which lead him to justice and right, and by his own nature can find out what is right and just, and can know it and be certain of it. Right is to be done come what will come.”

An insert in your Order of Service shows how strongly our Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes have been influenced by Transcendentalism and some of the ways we have changed since its time. In Tom Owen-Towle’s recent book titled Free-Thinking Mystics with Hands he says rational, mystical and activist traditions are the heart of Unitarian Universalism. We thank the Transcendentalists for showing us we are capable of transcending the mundane material world by paying attention to the spiritual life, and we honor them for teaching us to trust our living souls as we promote the constant evolution of truth. .

James, Gary S. From Puritanism to Prophetic Pragmatism: Revisioning Transcendentalism’s Culture of Creative Democracy For a 21st Century Postmodern America or The Howling Jeremiad of a Neo-Transcendentalist Prophet, Prairie Group (Deerfield, Illinois: 2003) 5-6.
Andrews, Barry M. Emerson as Spiritual Guide: A Companion to Emerson’s Essays for Personal Reflection and Group Discussion, Skinner House Books (Boston: 2003) 2.
Andrews, 6.
O Connell, Daniel. Transcendentalism: From Exhortation to Experience, Prairie Group (St. Louis: 2003) 3-5.
Grodzins, Dean. “Dictionary of American History,” Transcendentalism, 1.
Sacks, Kenneth S. Understanding Emerson: ‘The American Scholar’ and His Struggle for Self-Reliance. Princeton University Press (2003) quoted by John Updike, “Big Dead White Male: Ralph Waldo Emerson turns two hundred,” New Yorker, August 4, 2003.
Grodzins, 3.
Andrews, 42-43.
O Connell, 11.
George Ripley in O Connell, 11