Recent Sermon
Title
Stoic Sailing:
Sailing in a Sea of Troubles
by Rev. Ken Langer
First Church of Barre, Universalist
Date
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Sermon
When I was a graduate student, I worked in a music library at a large university. The music library was a small area separated from the main library because it was dedicated to music scores and recordings. The director of that small library was an avid sailor who we affectionately called Captain Jack. I must have done a good job at the library because Captain Jack took me under his wing and taught me how to run the library. He also started teaching me to sail when the weather was nice. He took me to a nearby lake where we would motor out his 25 foot sailboat, raise the sail, and cruise up and down the lake until it was time to lower the sails and motor back into the dock.
Later when I moved to the Boston area and began teaching, I missed those days of carefree sailing in an idyllic setting so I joined the Boston Sailing Club where I could sail small dinghies on the Charles River. One beautiful afternoon I took out one of those small boats and headed out to the water confident that I had the requisite skills to handle it. Things went well until the wind picked up and the seas started rolling. I headed toward the dock but I soon realized I was in trouble. Despite all my efforts, my superior sailing skills consisted of screaming at the people on the dock and wildly waving my arms as my little boat went crashing into a line of other docked boats and I was sent into the water.
I want to talk to you today about one of many philosophies that fascinate me and that I have learned much from. It is an ancient Greek view of life and I have found it to have many similarities to sailing. It is called Stoicism and it was one of many popular schools of ancient thought that may still have lessons for modern life. So, let me take you on a journey of Stoic Sailing and I will try not to send you crashing into the rocks.
I want to first mention, however, what Stoicism is not. There are a lot of stereotypes of the philosophy that trivialize and diminish it. Stoicism is not about putting your head in the sand and becoming an unfeeling automaton. It is a way of looking at life in a realistic and adaptable way.
Stoicism was popular for more than five hundred years in Greece and the ancient Hellenic world which covered much of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and the lands stretching from Egypt to modern day Iran. It was popular even after the Romans conquered most of this area. It began in Athens, Greece in a portico filled with painted columns and gets its name from the Greek word for columns - Stoa.
Contemporary books about Stoicism tend to present the movement as strictly an interesting philosophy that can be helpful for the modern person. That may be true but I think that such simplification does not fully explain it. The psychological theory known as cognitive behavioral therapy is based upon stoic principles but Stoicism was not considered to be a self-help philosophy to those ancient Greeks. To them it was a religion and to truly understand it, we need to see it in that light.
The Stoics believed that God was an immanent presence in the world. In modern terms, we might label them pantheists. To them, God was not a separate being beyond our grasp but was a presence that permeated the entire universe. The laws of God were written in nature and the power of God was experienced in the creative energy that was present everywhere. Humans, like all living beings, were considered to possess a spark of that divine presence and it was their purpose to live in accordance with that holy gift. Doing so, they argued, is what makes us happy and fulfilled. They recommended three goals that a person should pursue to be happy by living in accordance with the divine: resilience, responsibility, and virtues.
Possibly the most important lesson of the Stoics is that we need to separate those things with which we have control from those which we do not and to let go of our concern for those situations that are beyond our power to change. This is called resilience. Handing over power to things beyond our purview through our emotions, our thoughts, or our concern is what causes undue turmoil and suffering in our lives. Most often our greatest degree of control is found in the process of achieving something but is rarely found in its outcome. In the same spirit as the Buddha-nature, the principle of Taoist no-action, the Atman in Hinduism, or even Christ consciousness, the Stoics believed our higher selves are found when we stay focused on the present moment and when we accept things solely as they are and without judgment.
The goal of responsibility requires that we own up to the actions we take and the consequences those actions may have on others. More than that, responsibility should be extended beyond the self so that we act toward the welfare of all beings. The Stoics believed we had a social duty to fulfill and asked us to consider in what way any action taken might affect the well being of others.
The way that we can accomplish these goals, according to the Stoics, was through an adherence to Virtue. In their view, we experience virtue when we are in alignment with our higher self or our inner spark - our living connection to the divine. Specifically, they held that four virtues in particular were necessary. Through the application of prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice, humans can live closer to the harmony of nature. Or, in other words, (and this is really the core ethical teaching of Stoicism) virtue is the ability to discern what actions create the greatest harmony and the least harm for the self and all beings while remaining detached. (repeat)
But what does any of this have to do with sailing? First you need to understand a basic principle of sailing which is that a sailboat can sail in any direction except directly into the wind. Because winds change often during any given day, you cannot simply point a boat toward any specific destination and just go. You have to weave back and forth through the water. A sailboat moves best when it is at a particular angle to the oncoming wind which is determined by the length and angle of the sails. To reach a desired speed and general direction you must constantly adjust those sails and the direction of the boat’s movement. At the same time, you also have to be fully aware of all the other ships, the land, and the sea around you so you do not find yourself crashing into any number of moving obstacles. In short, you must be willing to remain focused on the present moment and constantly refine your course in order to move forward.
Do you see the connection? Rarely do any of us end up exactly where we thought we were going in life. Many times we have to change course or alter our plans to engage the prevailing winds of fate and time. We need to be aware of all that is going on around us and reach out to others when needed. We need to not withdraw from the world but engage with it in ways that we can without causing damage and when a storm does come along we can learn to pull in our sails and point our bow directly into the waves to ride it out.
We cannot control fate and tragedy. We cannot control the hate and anger that may come our way. We cannot control the ravages of time or the dispositions of cruelty but we can lower our sails, be true to ourselves, and hold on to the wheel as we ride out the storm. When we do this we are practicing resilience. When we reach out to others to help them handle their own storms, we are practicing responsibility. When we make those kinds of wise decisions, when we stay focused and keep moving ourselves forward, when we align ourselves with nature rather than against it, we are living through virtue.
The reason my little boat went smashing into a whole dock full of tied-up boats in front of an audience of other sailors and passers-by on the Boston Esplanade was because I had neglected to take down the mainsail. I tried to maintain control when I should have let go and let the boat glide in gently on its own. Instead, I was ejected from my seat of control and thrown into a sea of sudden realization and bitter emotions.
There’s a good reason why the ancient Greeks were great philosophers and ALSO a mighty sea-faring nation.
In the name of that which you hold in your heart to be sacred, may it be so.
Copyright 2024, K. Langer - All rights reserved
Do not copy or use without permission.
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