Sunday Sermon - Awareness is the supreme spiritual virtue

As a counselor people often say to me, "If I only knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it." I often say this to myself. And I wonder about this observation. How could we have been so foolish, this stupid, this blind, this much in denial, this unaware.

The corollary complaint is "Why do these things always happen to me?!" Good question.

And in counseling, we explore these questions together. Where are the blind spots; why the lack of awareness?

Awareness comes with self knowledge, with mastering one's own emotions, with being less reactive, impulsive, and more deliberate, purposeful, thoughtful.

How does one become more aware? By lowering one's anxiety, by taking emotional distance, so one can develop more perspective and be more objective.

Unitarian Universalists have a value/principle, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."

How does one develop this respect, this awareness?

It is through meditation, through reflection, through, studying one's self - motivations, intentions, thoughts, feelings, behaviors- and making conscious decisions about what one's values, beliefs, and practices will be rather than driver by unconscious emotional forces of which we are not aware.
Developing this awareness of the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part takes discipline, thoughtfulness, mastery of one's own emotions, thoughts, and behavior.

As the bumper sticker says, "Be a lert, America needs more lerts."