Quantum Christianity: "Your Will Is Done"
Mark 11:22-26
Sermon preached Sunday, April 24, 2005
By Rev. Patricia Pearce
Well, today we are picking up from where we left off last week. Last week, we looked at the opening passage of Genesis and looked at the phrase that appears there, "Let there be". We considered how it was that out of this primordial chaos this thought, this idea broke through that began to bring forth a creation. And the principles that we have been looking at so far in quantum physics have been essentially two at this point. The first week, when we talked about "In the beginning there was the relationship", we talked about how quantum physics is discovering that at some fundamental level of reality there is no such thing as separation, and there is a way in which time and space and the classical laws of physics do not apply. So there! There is no such thing as separation. All things, the entire universe, is in some way one thing. Physicist, David Bohm referred to it as the implicate order, that there is, within the explicate order -- in other words those things that we can see and observe with our senses -- there is something beneath that, some implicate order that is enfolded into reality in which all things are indeed interconnected and influence and interact with one another. So, there is no such thing as separateness.
Then we looked at another aspect of quantum physics and quantum theory which is that when scientists get down to the subatomic level they can't predict anything completely. There is nothing that is predetermined. They can only talk in probabilities. They can only talk about how probable something might be and they can not predict precisely what will happen. They can not predict precisely where any particle will show up. So in that sense it is different from what we experience in our world where -- if we know where something is headed and how fast it is going and all that -- we can predict where it is going to be. But that's not in fact always the case and at the quantum level that is not the case at all. So we are looking at how it is that at this fundamental level of reality there is a way in which the universe is literally teeming with possibilities. It is one big possibility that is emerging and is not yet predetermined, or at least it is not in our capacity to predetermine it.
So today I would like us to think of both of these things and sort of bring them together now: there is no such thing as separateness, and at the most fundamental level of reality exist infinite possibilities. And I have also suggested that when we move into that realm that is literally teeming with possibilities we are entering into the realm that Yeshua was depicting when he spoke of the realm of God, that in God all things are possible, and that in fact at this level all things are possible.
So prayer. I think in western culture, at least in the last couple of centuries it's been difficult to know what to make of prayer. What is prayer? How can we possibly effect anything through prayer? I think that wondering of ours, or that skepticism comes from the notion that first of all we're separate. If there is no such thing as separation then anything that we think or do is part of the whole and has an effect on the whole. So there is no way in which we cannot have an effect on the world. We in our society, I think, often times feel fairly powerless because we look at these big systems and the injustices and all that and we think, well what can we do? Well, the reality is that there is no way that we can't have an effect because we are part of it. So the question then becomes, What kind of a part of it do we want to be? How do we want to exert our power, because we have power. How do we want to use the power we have been given in order to bring about change?
So, I am speaking now to a congregation that has been fairly socially active and demonstrations and those things are very important. They are operating at the level of the explicate order. Are you with me? The things we do at the explicate order have an effect because they in turn affect other people's imaginations. We talked last week about the Arts and Spirituality Center and how that ministry is helping to put forth a vision of peace. The more people that can see that kind of vision, the more they begin to change internally and when we change internally then we begin to operate at the implicate order. So, prayer in fact is a form of activism but it is an activism that is operating at implicate order. It is an activism that is operating in the realm of God and the realm of possibilities.
So how do we pray? How do we get maximum benefit from this gift that we have been given to participate in this amazing world and universe? How do we do that? It's right there in Mark's gospel. Now, it's become a New Age kind of thing, you know, the power of intention and affirmations and blah, blah, blah. Well, it's hardly New Age. It's in our gospels. Unless Yeshua was New Age. Maybe he was. It's sort of what he was accused of being at the time. A little too New… Age. When we pray, we pray believing that what we are praying for has already happened, and as we looked at quantum physics they are discovering there is a way in fact in which time collapses. There is no such thing as time in the way that we perceive it, and so that each moment contains all possibilities and all futures and all pasts. So in fact it already does exist. The thing that we are praying for already in fact does exist at this level, at the level of the realm of God, at the level of the implicate order it already is there. It's already there! We already have a world at peace. It already exists and what we do when we pray is we imagine what that world is that already exists at some level. We imagine it, and we believe that in fact it does exist and then we call it forth.
Now, Katie and I really did not rehearse this. I mentioned last week in the sermon that we would be looking at prayer and afterwards she said "Can I do the children's sermon? I've had this idea for a long time about prayer" and I said, "Sure". I had no idea what she was going to do, but I am really glad that she brought in the fact that we are embodied beings. We are here in flesh and blood and bone and we pray as embodied beings. So that our bodies and our physicality becomes part of our prayer. And so when we envision these things that we are praying into being we don't just do it with our imaginations, but we let our imaginations take us there in a very physical way. We imagine not only visually "What would that look like for the world to be at peace?" but in our beings, in the depths of our beings enter into the world of peace and then we feel what it feels like. We feel what it feels like and our feelings in fact become the power at the core of the prayer. Are you still with me? Okay.
I've heard this type of prayer referred to as the lost mode of prayer, a prayer that was practiced by the ancients and is still practiced in Tibet. This understanding that it is more than just our mental capacity when we pray, it is more that just thought. It is also bringing our bodies and our feelings into it. The Native Americans have practiced this kind of prayer as well, and I read an interesting account of this Native American who, during a time of drought, went to pray RAIN, and he made a very clear distinction that he was not praying for rain. He was praying RAIN. So he went to this ancient site where he had been instructed by his ancestors to go. He was told how to do this, where to go, where the rocks were placed and he circled around these rocks and he allowed himself to enter into the experience of rain. He allowed himself to feel what rain feels like when it is falling on his face and hands and what the earth smells like when it is raining, and what it is to see the rain droplets falling on the dust. So he entered into the experience in his totality, not just visually but in the totality of his being he allowed himself to go into that reality of rain. It so happens that the next day this huge rainstorm came through, and of course you cannot prove anything. But a huge rainstorm came through such that there was flooding, and this person asked him, "Well, look what you've done." He said, "Well that is the part of prayer I haven't figured out yet"... If only we knew how much power we have as pray-ers. What would happen if millions and millions of people started entering in their minds and their imaginations and feelings into the experience of peace? What would happen?
Now you know there is this question, "Well, what does this mean? Does this mean that we create our reality? Do we have the ability to create our reality?" Yes and no. To some degree in our personal reality we have a part to play in that, but if we think that we as individuals can change the entire earth, the entire world, then we are still caught in the illusion of separateness. We are still caught in a notion of ego, that I -- I a one, a separate one -- can determine the reality on the earth. You see we are still living in that illusion of separateness. We collectively we create our reality, but we are going to talk more in a couple of weeks about this whole ego thing and how this interacts and plays out.
Now I know a lot of you have heard me say over the last few years "Be peace" and Gandhi said "We must be the change we wish to see." And I think that is what he was getting at, that once we become peace within ourselves then we have an effect that we can't even comprehend on the whole because we are not separate. In fact many spiritual teachers tell us that until we find peace within we cannot have peace without. So as we think about being activists, where it all begins is within us. The work of reconciliation, the work of peacemaking all happens within. The work of compassion, the work of forgiveness all starts within ourselves. We find peace within ourselves. We learn to forgive ourselves. We learn to practice compassion with ourselves. We learn what it is to love by coming to love ourselves, and then we become that change that we wish to see.
So I am going to have us practice this mode of prayer and during our silent time now I am going to ask that each of us think of something in our lives that -- we are not going to pray for --but we are actually going to PRAY. We are going to allow ourselves to enter into the experience of it, and we are going to feel what it feels like to be in that reality knowing that it already exists.
But before we do that... When I was coming over to the church I was listening to Marion McPartland on the radio. Marion McPartland who is a jazz pianist has her Piano Jazz show on every Sunday morning and it just so happens to be on when I am driving to the church. And I love it because she has these guests on the show and they improvise together and you never really know what is going to happen with Marion McPartland. She is just ready to launch in and Let's just see what happens! Today she had her guest on and it was time for them to do a duet and the guest said, "How about we do, Someday My Prince Will Come?" So she plays the melody and he comes in really upbeat... Someday, My Prince Will Come... So that is wishful thinking, that is not prayer. If we continue to be in an attitude that someday my prince will come we are always pushing it into the future. Someday, someday, someday … it couldn't be today. Someday peace will come, someday peace will come... someday… No! We bring it into now.
I was looking at some translations of the Lord's Prayer and some scholars are looking at what the Aramaic would be, which is of course the language that Yeshua spoke. He spoke Aramaic, not Greek which is what the New Testament is written in. But the Aramaic verbs are very interesting and our chant this morning depicted that 'Your realm is come. Your will is done'. So what are we so worked up about? If it is already here? What kind of crazy dream are we in? Think about that. So when we pray we enter into that reality and that knowing that God's will is done and we allow that will to be enfleshed in us and to feel itself into being in us.
Ready to practice? Okay. So we will have a time of silence and I want us each of us to hold within us something that we desire-Oh wait! I am sorry, I am just remembering all the other things I want to say. You just never know. It's like MaryMcPartland, oh just one more thing.
Here is another interesting thing. They have been doing all of these little studies and experiments with prayer, and you know for every one they do someone else is trying to debunk it, but whatever. There is a community that says, Okay we are going to try this out. We are going to pray, not for people because how are you going to control prayers for people, cause you don't know who else might be praying for them when they are supposed to be in the control group and not get any prayer. So they said, none of that. There is also this placebo effect which is an interesting thing. The placebo effect. What is that all about? It's about somebody taking some gelatin whatever and thinking that they're well, and you know what? They get well. Their health is come. So anyway, they say they are not going to try and do this study with people because there are too many variables. So they go with seeds, so they planted seeds and they took their little plastic trays and whatever, like these little things Kip has for his germination stuff. They planted these, I think they were rye seeds. So they planted these rye seeds, rows and rows of little rye seeds, and they took a string and divided this whole thing in half, and this was section A and this was section B. So then this community prayed for section A but they didn't pray for section B. And you know what? Section A did quite a lot better than section B. So, okay well, what happens if we add stress factors? So they started putting some salt into the water that they were using to water the seeds with. They started over with new seeds. Well you know what? Section A did even better when there were stressful factors at play. Wow... is that weird? So then they said, Well let's try this. Let's see if we can do it again and with section A we will just hold them in the light, just in general 'May you be well, may you thrive.' And with section B let's say we are going to pray that section B germinates twice as fast as section A. So we are going to get really specific here about what we want, really specific. We want it twice as fast. Well you know what? Section A did much better than section B. So there is a way in which we don't always know best what the specifics need to be. The Tao talks about this when it talks about someone who tries to control the future is like one who takes up the master carpenter's tools. Watch out because you might get cut. We don't always know what's best. We don't always know what the ideal specific outcome ought to be. We're in fact better off leaving these things up to wiser forces than ourselves. So in that sense we leave our prayers open. We hold section A's seeds within the energy and the experience and the reality of thriving and of wholeness and they thrive and we leave the details up to a greater wisdom. Are you still with me? Okay, because we don't always know what the specifics of healing might look like. Healing might be something other than our notion of healing. We have a very narrow definition sometimes of what it is to be healed and to be whole. So we leave some of those nitty gritty specifics open.
So I really think I do mean it, we are going to do this. We are going to enter into a time of quiet and hold something in an attitude of prayer and allow ourselves to enter into that reality of that into the peace, the joy and the gratitude of knowing that it already exists. And we will allow ourselves in the fullness of our being and the fullness of our bodies and our feelings to know what that experience is and to know that we have already received it. Let us be in prayer.
Resources:
David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order
Gregg Braden, The Isaiah Effect
© 2005 by Patricia Pearce. All rights reserved. Please consult the author at tabernacle@tabunited.org if you wish to use the text of this sermon, in whole or in part.
