Daydreams and Visions

This week's quotation is by Edgar Allen Poe. It reads, "Die am Tag träumen, kennen viele Dinge, die den Menschen entgehen, die nur nachts träumen."

Which being translated, means: "Those who dream during the day know many things that escape the people who only dream at night."

I think that what Poe is getting at, is that there is a certain quality to the daydreaming mind, which allows the brain to make connections which it would not otherwise make. An article on Wikipedia explains "Daydreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction."

It goes on to summarise an article about the five potential functions of daydreaming, from the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, by Benjamin Mooneyham and Jonathan Schooler, the first two of which are future thinking and creative thinking:

"Future thinking, also known as autobiographical thinking, serves as a way to speculate and anticipate future events. Though it's costly for current external activities performances, the benefit will be paid off later, since future thinking allows better plan and preparation of the future goals.

Creative thinking is another function of daydreaming associated with increased creativity. When tackling unsolved problems, the most productive incubation periods in terms of creative solutions are those in undemanding conditions. ... Thus, it's reasonable to hypothesise that daydreaming plays an important role in generating creative problem-solving process."

So daydreaming can allow us to gently integrate our thoughts about future events, and to be more creative in our thinking. I'm sure that many of us are familiar with the process of worrying away at a problem, only for the solution to present itself when we  give up and turn to something else. Barbara O'Brien describes this process beautifully in her book about her experience of schizophrenia, Operators and Things:

"The unconscious... when it is presented with a problem, does more than search its files with lightning fingers. It appears to search and also to consider, evaluate, weigh. First, it must understand the problem. And this it can also do. It can grasp an intricate concept. The conscious mind broods over its problem, and the unconscious, listening to the brooding, grasps the problem.
It searches its files, evaluates, and sends up an answer. The answer is rejected by the conscious mind. The conscious mind broods on the reason for the rejection and the unconscious listens, understands, gets to work again with the new concept and comes up with another answer. Still not good enough? Why? The conscious mind broods again and the unconscious gets to work again, and works until it finds an answer acceptable to the conscious mind. The conscious mind stops brooding and celebrates and the unconscious rests. For the time being, the organism is out of danger."

It is as though daydreaming allows people to think on a different level, and come up with creative responses to what our rational, conscious minds are thinking about. So yes, daydreaming can be beneficial, because it allows us to use more of our brains, to think more creatively, to dream of possibilities which might be rejected by our conscious minds, at least at first.

A Travelling Companion

This week's photo is of three wheeled huts, parked on a beach. The text, by Margaret Lee Runbeck, says, "Glück ist keine Station, bei der man ankommt, sondern eine Art zu reisen."

Which being translated, means "Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a way to travel."

The American Declaration of Independence speaks of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as "certain unalienable rights" with which all of humankind is endowed. I agree that all humankind has the right to life and the right to liberty, but I'm not so sure about "the pursuit of happiness".

Because I believe that happiness should not be not the goal of our lives, but a way of being in the world, which makes our journey through life easier. I think that pursuing happiness might actually lead to not being happy, where we are at the present moment. If we fall into the "if only" trap, we can actually be postponing the possibility of happiness.

For example, "I'll be happy, if only I could lose ten pounds." "I'll be happy, if I get a promotion at work." "I'll be happy, if only ... [fill in the blanks yourself]".

The knack is to find ways of being happy where we are, right now. Stanley A. Mellor, Unitarian minister at Hope Street Church in Liverpool during World War One, delivered a series of addresses which were published under the title The Last Victory: Studies in Religious Optimism. I was given this book as a gift a few years ago, and it touched me profoundly.

Mellor explains: "Their purpose was... to remind people again of the conditions under which glowing faith must always furnish its warmth in a finite world, to face certain fundamental perplexities in the light of faith, and to provide encouragement and hope. The responsibility of surviving into the world of peace after war... must press heavily on every sensitive spirit, and the need for radiant constructive faith in the ultimate goodness and worth of life is very great, and will become greater."

The whole book is a paean of hope, of "radiant constructive faith in the ultimate goodness and worth of life." I have blogged about it here and would like to repeat one further quote from that post:

"The part of The Last Victory which has brought the most enlightenment is where Mellors insists that 'Optimism is not a scientific certainty, no true optimist ever said it was. It is an affirmation of the spirit, a risk accepted by the soul... Call it what you will, belief in the unseen world, belief in the reality of the Ideal, faith in the solidarity and eternal value of goodness... the certainty remains that without it Humanity cannot go forward, and without we ourselves can do no good and worthy work in the world.'

Happiness is a way to travel, not a distant goal to be pursued.

Living in the Moment

This week's quote is by Friedrich Schiller, "Nicht in die ferne Zeit verliere dich! Den Augenblick ergreife, der ist dein." Which being translated, means, "Do not lose yourself in the distant time! Take the moment, that's yours."

Over the past few years, I have come to believe that God’s presence is everywhere, in our ordinary, everyday lives, if we had but eyes to see, and ears to hear. I believe that through sacred living - weaving moments of attention into our everyday lives, and recognising the sacred there, we will find that which gives our lives purpose and meaning. Sacred living is about living with a new level of awareness. It is about going through each normal day paying attention to what is happening in each passing moment. It is about noticing the presence of the divine, the numinous, everywhere, in the natural world, in other people, in ourselves, and in things that happen to us. Then, as Mary Jean Irion wrote, “Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

Because today is all we have. Today is the only place in which time touches eternity. I love the Sanskrit affirmation: “Look to this day - For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence: the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendour of beauty. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day.”

Yet how often do we spend our days (or one day or even part of a day) totally present? Appreciating every moment, every interaction, every person or object or things our senses come into contact with? I know I don’t!

So how do we spend our days? Many of us, especially as we grow older, spend them living in the past, looking back with either pleasure or regret (or a mixture of both). And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being nostalgic about our past lives, so long as the past is a place we visit, rather than the place we live. As the Sanskrit wise one said: “yesterday is but a dream.” It is no longer real.

Others of us spend our days in the future, always heading towards the next goal, the next hill to climb. Our diaries are full for weeks to come, and there always seems to be a long to-do list on the go. I write a new one, every Monday morning, to make sure that all the things I need to get done in the forthcoming week, somehow get done. And yes, forward planning is important, as we try to juggle home life, work life, looking after children, looking after parents, some sort of social life. If we didn’t plan, everything would fall down crash.

There is a beautiful prayer, quoted by Rachel Naomi Remen, in her book, My Grandfather's Blessings, which sums all this up, much more beautifully than I can:

“Days pass, and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles.

Lord, fill our eyes with seeing, and our minds with knowing.

Let there be moments when your Presence,

like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk.

Help us to see, wherever we gaze,

that the bush burns, unconsumed.

And we, clay touched by God,

will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder:

‘How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it.’”

Amen

Running out of mojo

This week's quotation is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Aller Anfang ist leicht, und die letzten Stufen werden am schwersten und seltesten erstiegen."

Which being translated, means, "The beginning is easy and the final stages are the most difficult and rarest to climb (reach)."

Jury's out on this one, for me. Yes, I agree that we often start new projects with great enthusiasm, and then, once we get down into the nitty gritty and hard grind, our enthusiasm can peter out and we have to call on all our reserves to finish the job properly. It takes great determination and dedication to do this, as I have blogged before here.

BUT, sometimes beginning something is the hardest step - not easy at all. Especially if we believe that the task ahead of us is going to be difficult, or complicated. It is only too easy to put off beginning, to do other things to distract ourselves from what we ought to be getting on with.

I'm usually quite good at getting things done, but creative writing is the one exception to this rule. Faced with a blank page, is is only too tempting to fool around on Facebook, or on Wikipedia, or make another coffee, go for a walk, even do some housework!... almost anything except get some words down onto that terrifying blankness.

And then, if we do manage to make a start on the task, it is easy (but fatal) to listen to the voices of self-doubt in our heads. "This is no good." "You can't do this." "X is so much better / cleverer / more artistic than I am - what's the point of even trying?"

We have to get over this self-doubt by telling ourselves: "I'm doing this. It may not be the best [whatever] in the world, but it's my task, and I'm going to finish it, because it has to be done."

Where do you fall? Do you find beginnings easy and completions hard, like Goethe? Or are beginnings the hardest thing of all?

The power of dreams

This week's quotation is by Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, above a beautiful photo of Neuschwanstein Castle. It reads "Wenn wir von unseren Träumen leiten lassen, wird der Erfolg all unsere Erwartungen übertreffen."

Which being translated, means: "If we let our dreams guide us, success will surpass all our expectations."

I have a dream.

At the 2015 General Assembly meetings, all ldelegates were given a 48-page document entitled Vision for Our Future produced by the Executive Committee, which also went out to all congregations. It was followed by another, entitled The Next Steps.

In the Vision for Our Future document, there were a series of headings, the first of which read, "We want to be a faith that matters." Well, our faith does matter - it matters enormously, both to current Unitarians, and to potential Unitarians, who are out there, desperately seeking somewhere they can call home, somewhere they can find like-hearted (not necessarily like-minded) folk to accompany them on their own spiritual / religious journeys.

BUT, unless those seekers (and current Unitarians) clearly understand who we are and what we're about, we aren't going to attract new people through our doors.

We Unitarians have always been so hot and strong about being the "faith without a creed" and about the pre-eminence of freedom of belief. And that is right and good. BUT I'm afraid it is now becoming a disadvantage in some ways, as only too often we find it difficult to articulate our faith, except in negative terms. For example, there was a photo of a particular congregation's noticeboard on Facebook a while back - five sheets of paper with statements that started "We don't".

We need to find easy-to-articulate, POSITIVE answers to "What do Unitarians believe?" and "What are Unitarians?" Which is why I carried out my survey in 2017, which resulted in the book Unitarians: Together in Diversity. Which is chock-full of positive statements about what Unitarians believe, and how we come together in community.

But I have come to believe that the statement the Executive Committee made in Vision for Our Future, about needing to "re-establish an identity, a unique spiritual position" is key to our future as a denomination, as a movement. As James Barry so acutely pointed out in his contribution, "We don't have the advantage of the UUA, who have their seven principles defined."

I believe that the most vital task for British Unitarians today is to adopt a widely agreed statement such as the UUA's Seven Principles (or why not just adopt them wholesale? - they work for me!). I believe that one of the main reasons why the Quakers are so much more successful than we are, is that other people understand what they believe in and stand for.

We could even produce our own versions of Advices and Queries, the Quaker touchstones, and of Quaker Faith and Practice, their comprehensive book about Quaker beliefs and practices. Why not?