Welcome  
Prelude
Lighting the chalice    (Denise Levertov  political activist, poet, essayist)
The bare trees have made up their seed bundles.
They are ready now. The warm brown light pauses briefly, shrugs and moves on. 
They are ready now to play dead for a while. I, human, have not as yet devised how to obtain such privilege.
Their spring will find them rested. I and my kind battle a wakeful way to ours.    
Unison words 
Not for Children Only  
Song #395  (traditional)

Happy New Year! 2009 has gone and a new decade has begun. Time fascinates me. On the one hand, January 1, 2010 is a human construct and on some level really means very little besides our way of measuring something. There’s a saying on the kitchen door here in the sanctuary, attributed to John Lennon: “Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.” On the other hand, this “time” has a reality and as we pass through it, or it passes through us, we live, we age and we die. Why? How? On a greater than human scale, what is time? (Where is Albert Einstein when we need him?)

New Year is an event which carries many of our wonderings and feelings about time and this particular demarcation of it. The symbols and rituals of new year: the little baby who portrays new beginnings, the actions we take to ensure prosperity and good luck, such as eating certain foods, opening the doors, making noises, and cleaning the house, all to clear out evil spirits, burning what we want to get ride of. It’s a time of new beginnings and we express our resolves for the future. What are some of the New Year traditions you observe? I imagine that lots of us make New Year resolutions. Even though I resist this, knowing that I won’t keep them, I find myself thinking, well, now that the new year has come, I will go the gym more regularly. I will eat better and take more time to cook. Another part of me smirks and thinks, “We’ll see.” My mother and father used to eat herring in cream sauce for good luck. (I’d rather take my chances with that one.) All over the world people celebrate new year traditions. They do not all occur on January first; different peoples identify different new years. However, our actions all address this wish to embrace new beginnings, based upon how we measure time.

Today, as part of our holidays and holy days series, I want to look at Oshogatsu, the Japanese New Year festival with roots in Shinto, a particularly Japanese religion. We do this a part of our Unitarian Universalist practice to seek meaning in all religions. We try to understand a religion within its own context, and then to find the universal meaning in its holidays and holy days. So, a few words about Shinto and this most important of festivals, Oshogatsu.

“Shinto (or kami no michi, "way of the kami," . . . ) is a prehistoric religious tradition indigenous to Japan, which has been influenced by Buddhism and Chinese religions and provides a worldview that has become central to Japanese culture and national identity.” It has about four million adherents, mostly in Japan, but also wherever Japanese people have settled. Shinto has no recognized founder and no all-powerful, transcendent, monotheistic deity or scripture. It does have stories about the kami, of whom there is perhaps an infinite number, who are deities, and/or natural forces associated with animals, trees, mountains, springs, boulders, the sun, and so forth, and/or spirits of ancestors. Shinto has stories about the role of the kami in creating Japan, as we heard in the tale of Amaterasu, the ancestress of the Japanese emperor, (which is why the Japanese flag has a sun on it).

Shinto “is a diverse set of traditional rituals and ceremonies, rather than a system of dogmatic beliefs or ethics. . . . that seek to ensure continued order in the cosmos.” (www.beliefnet.com) The Reverend Abhi Janamanchi, who spent some time at the world famous Tsubaki Shinto shrine in Japan, notes that “Shinto assumes a world in which the sacred can be experienced. What is experienced is not a symbol or sign that points to something supernatural but rather something that has the sacred residing within it. The object in which the sacred is experienced is called kami. . . . .The key to all rituals performed in Shinto is the harmony between heaven and earth. The rituals create the space and process whereby you can return to the fullness of the inborn kami that is in you.” Shinto is the expression of the Japanese understanding of the spirituality to be experienced in the natural world. George Williams, (Religions of the World: Shinto) points out, "Shinto discovers the sacred in the landscape of Japan, in the ancestors of Japanese families, and in the heroes associated with one nation.”

While Shinto is particularly Japanese, with articular rituals and ceremonies, some of us might resonate with the experiential nature of it and the belief that the kami, the sacred, is everywhere. Some of us have had some small encounter with it through Reiki. “The healing practice (of Reiki) has roots in Shinto. Rei in Japanese means "spirit," and ki means "life-force energy." Together, they can be read as "spirit led life force energy." Reiki has also been described as a form of Shinto/Buddhist Quijong. . . . The ki energy flows through the practitioner and is drawn in by the recipient. Deep relaxation and relief of pain often follow. (www.beliefnet.com) Oshogatsu, the New Year celebration, is one of the most, if not the most, important celebrations in Japan and its roots are Shinto. The BBC (www.bbc.co.uk) reports that “It's traditional at New Year to visit a shrine. People go to thank the kami, ask the kami to give them good fortune in the coming year, and make their new year resolutions in the presence of the kami.” Literally millions of Japanese visit shrines during the Oshogatsu festival.

The Japanese American Museum (www.janmstore.com) tells us about the various rituals and practices of this time. “Observed during the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, osoji (“cleaning”) is part of the Oshogatsu ritual—a Japanese equivalent of “spring cleaning.” This is observed near the end of the year because the Japanese believe this is a good time to “purify” one’s environment—allowing for a fresh start for the coming twelve months.” Purification, and especially water as a purifying element, plays an important role in Shinto rituals. “Once the house is clean, a lot of cooking begins in preparation for the traditional New Year’s meals. On New Year’s Eve, soba noodles are served in houses and temples across Japan just before midnight and eaten as the New Year arrives.” They symbolize long life and health and their name, Toshikoshi, means “year-crossing” or “year-bridging.” Decorations of auspiciousness, such as arrangements of certain plants and flowers like pine and bamboo, appear everywhere. People decorate houses with origami cranes for peace and turtles for longevity. Signs of the zodiac, particularly of the animal whose year is upcoming, appear. 2010 will be the Year of the Tiger. “Brave and courageous, the Tiger is ready for any challenge. Nothing can tame their adventurous & rebellious spirit. A supreme optimist, they pursue their goals with fierce intensity. Tigers are admired for their vibrant and playful personality.” (Japanese American Museum)

Oshogatsu customs are about purifying, or the creative process for getting rid of the bad and getting ready for the new, actions and symbols designed to bring good luck for the coming year, making resolutions, and connecting with kami through shrine visits. Human beings demarcate special times for endings and beginnings and many of us observe similar customs of getting ready, of cleansing and purifying, ritualized actions and symbols for good luck, and resolved purpose for the coming year. What is this need we have for new year, for beginning again, expressed in ways similar and particular in so many religions and in different cultures? What new beginnings are you in need of in this, the beginning of 2010?

Meditation

Joys and Sorrows 
Offering and Offertory 


Oshogatsu, pt 2  
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. . . . .   (T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding,  #4 of the Four Quartets)

What new beginnings are you in need of in this, the beginning of 2010? As T.S. Eliot says, our beginnings begin with our endings. 2010 begins with 2009. And 2009 began with 2008, and in a way, there are no beginnings or endings at all. There are only continuations. January 1, 2010 is a pause in a long continuation. It is a pause that we call a beginning. A pause that allows us, is designed for us, to take stock. To experience gratitude, to let go of what would harm us and resolve to bring in what will help us. The rituals for purifying, whether they involve burning what we would let go of, cleansing with water, or anything else, the symbols and actions for good luck, even the resolutions designed to bring this about, all reflect the human need to pause. And in our naming such pause “beginning” we connect with the human need to believe that we can indeed begin again, we can indeed make changes in our lives and in the world in which we live. In the cyclical nature of time, endings and beginnings are particular, but they exist in a circular pattern, for which there appears no end or beginning.

Thinking in terms of continuations helps me because when I think in terms of new beginnings and endings, I tend to expect everything to change, miraculously, and I’m invariably disappointed. Thus my problem with New Year resolutions. If I resolve to go to the gym more regularly, somewhere inside me I’m expecting that all my old resistance to the gym will evaporate of its own accord and I’ll become some version of Ms Universe. And then it doesn’t happen. If I resolve to take more time to cook and eat well, then somewhere inside me I’m expecting that the demands on my time and all of the things I do in a day will rearrange themselves, of their own accord, and I’ll become Meryl Streep channeling Julia Child. And then it doesn’t happen. So no absolute endings and no absolute beginnings. Only continuations. And if I want to alter the path of my continuations, it starts with my choice and my intention to make a change. Expressing a chosen intention, rather than a firm resolution for instance, turns my thoughts and actions toward a particular goal, and at the same time focuses them upon the process of getting there rather than demanding I already be there. So in order to get to the gym regularly it’s not enough for me to say I resolve to do it. It is enough for me to say I intend to do it because my intention will lead me to figure out why I resist and how to overcome that resistance. Same with cooking. If I intend to cook more, rather than resolve to, it will lead me to examine the priorities and choices I make regarding how I spend my time. Do you see what I mean about the difference between intention and resolution? The word resolution might seem the stronger, more active one, but for me, the intention is the stronger, more enduring catalyst.

At dawn on January 1, a good number of us gathered for peace prayers. We sat facing east to greet the first day of the new year and we sang, listened to music, read poetry, did a walking peace meditation and a modified sun salutation. We experienced the dawn with our senses and our bodies and with the intention of peace in ourselves and peace in the world. Today I began with Shinto-ism and the festival of Oshogatsu. Shinto involves a number of rituals and ceremonies that aid people in experiencing the meanings and spirituality in life. The practices we shared on New Year’s day did that for me, with a focus on peace.

The rituals of New Year, then, to call good luck to us and chase the bad luck away, the symbols and actions, do not in themselves alone contain the power to do that. Rather they serve as ceremonies for, and symbols of, our intentions. They provide for us invaluable, concrete signs and ways for expressing the changes we intend as we continue on the path. On December 31 I stay up until midnight; I watch the ball drop in Times Square; I hug the people I care about. Not because any of those things in themselves will bring about change, but rather because they place December 31-January 1 as a time for the spiritual practices of pause, of reflection, of intention. Just as dawn on January 1 is a time for pause, reflection and intention for peace. It is the mindfulness practice of pausing, of reflecting, of making choices and intentions which will bring about change. In other words, it may not be enough to eat herring for prosperity. We must also be mindful of what we can to influence our prosperity. The herring is the representation that puts us in touch with the possibility of the reality. New Year rituals are mindfulness practices and mindfulness helps us to see more clearly the changes we want and need to make on our life paths. The changes we choose and intend to make as we continue.

What new beginnings do you wish for this 2010? Or, more accurately, what intentions for change will you make at new year as you continue on your journey? When you came in you received an index card. Will you write on it, first an intention for the year and second a choice you must make to help the intention along? Put the card in your wallet and carry it with you to strengthen the intention. Take it out every now and then. Let this be our ritual for the new year.

People write on their cards in silence.

We are here to welcome the New Year in peace. May this time, marked for pause, reflection and intention, lead us to touch the deeper longings within us and connect with the larger meanings of our lives. May our ceremonies open a door to greater awareness. May our intentions take us toward real change.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning . . .   (T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding,  #4 of the Four Quartets)


Song #57  (English melody with words by Unitarian Francis Whitmarsh Wile)


Closing words #544 (UU minister Kathleen McTigue