Foreword—I spent more than half of 2013 at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, PA, and fell in love with many things about it. My latest passion is with their pamphlets. Here I have, after reading them, set down the most impressive excerpts of each, with rare paraphrasing and additions of my own [in brackets]. Most of all I am impressed with the timelessness of these pamphlets, the oldest of which go back more than 80 years.
181. The Quaker Message: A Personal Affirmation (by L. Hugh
Doncaster; 1972)
182. On speaking out of the silence; vocal ministry in unpro-
About the Author—L. Hugh Doncaster was born into a Quaker family in
1914. He was educated in Sidcot and Leighton Park Friends Schools Cambridge South Wales , and
from 1942 to 1954 he worked full- time at Woodbrooke College Birmingham , England
1. The Universal Light of Christ—The central affirmation in the Quaker message is that
God is continuously revealing God’s self to every person, that “every man is
enlightened by the divine light of Christ.” By “God” I mean the Ultimate
Reality behind & in existence. Jesus is supremely significant for Friends,
[with different Friends giving different emphasis to his “divinity” & his
“humanity,” an indication of what God is like,
and what humans can be like]. God is known to every person, whether or not
one would express faith in Christian terms. All have within them powerful
drives [both towards and] away from God.
The central affirmation that the Light of the
Christ-like God shines in every person, implies that our knowledge of God is
both subjective and objec- tive. “Inner
Light [is not] an invitation to
individualism and anarchy. The in- ner
experience must be checked by accordance with the mind of Christ. And we must seek carefully and prayerfully
through the insights of others, past and present. The heart of the Quaker message does not lie
in a doctrine expressed in abstract terms, but in an experience of power and
grace, known in our hearts. It is from a
double emphasis on [the universal Light of Christ] that the Quaker message
starts.
2. Belief and Creed—“The Friend
had a life within him to wait on & to obey, not chiefly a creed to believe (William C. Braithwaite). Experience of God evokes
response from the whole person in which one’s mind, feeling & will are all
involved. It is a response in a life of commitment obedience &
discipleship. William Penn said that Friends “placed religion in a clean
conscience, not in a full head; in walking with God more than talking of God.” To
suggest that Friends don't stress the importance of belief is a
misunderstanding of Quaker- ism. Because we do not all subscribe to a single
creed, we need all the more to formulate for ourselves our own “creed.”
I wrote in 1963: “The refusal to set up a standard of
belief for all leaves room for untrue thinking, muddled thinking, & no
thinking at all. It may hinder communication … [produce contradictions] …
[& cause confusion & lack of clarity] … Each one, each group has
responsibility to seek where the Light is leading, to find what God’s life
means in human life, to wrestle with facts & [divine] mysteries, & to
know what we believe about them.”
3 & 4. The Bible/ Worship—The Bible is fundamentally important to Friends, and
at the same time it is not their final authority. It is important as a unique record of
religious experience. It tells us of the
way in which the 1st 2 generations of his followers understood and
misunderstood him, and how they organized the group life. [The Bible’s]
Christ-like Spirit is] frequently mixed up and distorted by the limited
humanity of the writers of scriptures.
The Bible must be understood in the Spirit which lies behind &
inspired it. [Note: There are extremes represented in Friends of fundamentalism and indifference to the Bible].
Friends’ central experience of Christian worship is a
gathering of ordi- nary people met together for silent prayer from any of whom
spoken ministry may arise. Friends came to this way of worship through the
experience of utter dependence on God. Its evolution is probably through the
“time of pro- phesying” at the conclusion of Puritan services. In our corporate
worship, we are led into a depth of communion with God & with one another.
The unpro- grammed nature of Friends’ worship demands discipline.
(Note: To
the author, unprogrammed worship is the essentially Quaker pattern. This is true
of Europe , New Zealand Australia Southern
Africa , Japan Eastern US . In most of the US Americas East
Africa , Mada- gascar
5 & 6. Sacraments/ Decision-Making—With the development of an entirely lay society it
followed that any kind of “administration” by priest or minister was abandoned.
No ceremony could add more to what they already knew. Friends have sought to know the reality
behind each of the sacraments in their normal day-to-day living.
Matters concerning the whole body should be the
concern of the whole body, [acted on in a meeting by as many of the members as
were present]. We are met together not to press our own point of view, but to
seek what we be- lieve to be the will of God. Belief in the revelation of God
through each one encourages listening to & weighing each contribution with
care and respect, from whatever quarter it may come. The time comes when “the
sense of the meeting” is evident, and the clerk can write a minute which
expresses this without a vote being taken.
7 & 8. Women & Men/ Personal Integrity and
Political Action—In the 17th
century, Friends affirmed that the Light shines in every human heart. It shines
as much in women as in men, so there should be equal opportunity &
responsibility for each sex. It meant providing as good an education for girls
as for boys at a time when this was uncommon. Friends have been active in earli- generations in women’s rights movements.
A very far-reaching affirmation is that if God is
revealing God’s self to every human person, there can be no parts of life which
are “secular” in con- trast to other parts which are sacred. Every human
encounter can fan or quench the divine spark in another. This attitude affects our general attitude to people, which gradually becomes more positive, more considerate, more caring. The essential Quaker testimony is that we should allow the fruits of the spirit to
grow unhindered by the cramping inadequacies of conventional mora- lity. John Woolman said: “Whatever a man does in
the spirit of charity, to him it not a sin; while he lives and acts in this
spirit, he learns all things essential to his happiness. Yet others, who live in the spirit of charity may [find it] binding on them to desist from conduct which good men have been in.”
From this approach comes an attitude which seeks to
make every human encounter in commerce & industry affairs standards based on
aware- ness of God, rather than maximizing profit; God is to be known and obeyed
in the world of business. As political doors opened to Quakers, there were
found Friends pressing the essential Quaker insight that there is no area from
which God abdicates; they saw that abdication was irresponsible. In 1880 there were 10 Friends M. P.’s; in
1945 there were 9. Numbers of Friends in industry and politics have recently
declined.
9.
Social Testimonies—The faith that
God reveals God’s self to every- one means that human personality is sacred.
Friends corporately have been concerned not only with children, wrongdoers, &
slaves, but the healthy func- tioning (or abolition in slavery’s case) of the
institutions of which they are a part. So Friends have developed a series of
“testimonies” which have begun in the hearts of individuals, & have been
adopted by groups of Friends.
The
Society has long been concern with the evils in betting and gam- bling, and
concern about lotteries goes back to the 17th century. Friends be- lieve that the appeal to
selfishness and covetousness is a denial of our con- viction that the spirit of
God dwells in every heart. The social
testimonies of Friends are many and are changing quickly as new circumstances
call forth new response. In London YM 4
independent bodies [& social concerns] were united in 1970-71 into Friends
Social Responsibility Council. Friends
have refused to take judicial oaths as being contrary to the teaching of Jesus
& as setting up a double standard of truthfulness. They are against capital punish- ment and for
undertaking relief work in areas of distress arising from natural disaster or
war.
10.
The Peace Testimony—The peace
testimony has 2 deep roots [and convictions]: God is Christ-like and in every
one. It in the way that Jesus met and overcame evil we see how God meets and
overcomes evil, [and if we kill “that of God in our enemy], then the way of
organized violence is out. It is only incidentally an anti war testimony. Beginning with an affirmation about the
peaceable nature of God’s kingdom on earth, [it grew into]: refusal to use
carnal weapons; promoting conciliation; educating public opinion; arbitration
in international disputes; encouraging disarmament; opposing military
conscrip- tion; promoting institutions that build peace.
What should be our attitude to UN
peace-keeping “forces”? How can Friends’ peace testimony be applied where
majorities are being held down by a violent repressive minority? What about
[our appa- rent] acceptance of the hidden violence of the status quo? There are no simple answers to some of our time's fiercely
divisive dilemmas. Our busi- ness as Christian disciples is to be
loyal to what we can see of God’s will even if we can’t see complete solutions.
This involves us in both the renuncia- tion of violence and the pursuit of
justice.
11.
The Meaning of Membership/Epilogue—[All
attributes of the] Quaker Message I have mentioned are natural outcomes of the
basic faith, organic parts of the whole & not appendages which can be
regarded as op- tional extrasto be accepted or rejected. What is implied by membership [in the Society of Friends? If we are
sure that we are together at a deep level of faith, & that there is a
difference of judgment on the implication of that faith, then what? Then Friends warmly reassure the person
concerned that membership is right for them, that we welcome variety of opinion
as this helps us to grow; as we “walk in the Light,” more Light is given.
Membership
involves loyalty to the wholeness of Quakerism. In the interaction between
Friends in “business meeting,” gathered to seek corporate insight, there is
opportunity for new understanding & new commitment. John was not in step with Friends on the
issue of slavery. Within a decade or 2, the Society had caught up with him, &
a new testimony had been born. Member- ship involves commitment not only to an
indefinable inward Spirit, but to a living unity. It involves loyalty to the Society’s insights
as well as personal integrity.
The Lord’s Power is Over All. This is one of the dominant notes in 17th century Quaker writing, & is sadly lacking in our tentative present. During WWII, an imprisoned Norwegian Friend wrote: “Nothing can keep a star from shining.” After the war, a German Friend wrote: “Loudly clang the ways of men; silently grows God’s way.”
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The Lord’s Power is Over All. This is one of the dominant notes in 17th century Quaker writing, & is sadly lacking in our tentative present. During WWII, an imprisoned Norwegian Friend wrote: “Nothing can keep a star from shining.” After the war, a German Friend wrote: “Loudly clang the ways of men; silently grows God’s way.”
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182. On speaking out of the silence; vocal ministry in unpro-
grammed meeting for worship
(by Douglas V. Steere; 1972)
About the Author—Douglas Steere joined the Religious Society of Friends
by convincement in 1932, after a religious quest. Having worshiped with friends in nearly
every part of the world, he had occasion be ministered to by many sorts of
messages. The present pamphlet is from a
paper given at his Radnor Meeting.
[I]—We are
now conscious of the fact that there are many ministries [besides vocal
ministry], ministries of: works; [solving]
social & institutional problems; writing; counseling. There are others
besides Quakers who are interested in the 3 centuries of corporate experience
of unprogrammed meetings & the prophetic ministry that may emerge from a lay
group. [Among Quakers] there is a faith that something is going on in our
silent waiting, some- thing beyond our surface mind’s capacity; there is a
yearning communication that is continually operative.
What is this
yearning communication that was promised us and that we have from time to time experienced
in our meetings? Dorothy Sayers
suggests [of the Trinity] that the creative unplumbable abyss of the Godhead
yearns itself forth as God the Father [creator]; as the message of redeeming
love in the Son; and in the Holy Spirit’s continuous communication within the
unfathomable depths of men. All 3 of these movements of the God- head are in
continuous communication now and when we give or receive vocal ministry. We
come to our meetings for worship because we suspect that this communication may
help us discern what action is being asked of us, and may strengthen us [enough]
to carry this out. We come, too, for
healing and forgiveness and renewal.
We do not come alone to meeting. Others sit down with us: in those actually in
the room with us; in those wretched and poor of the earth, both in
spirit and in body; a new sense of unity with them may be opened at that
sit- ting. Some hope for complete silence
in meeting, but consistently silent meetings wither away. The Advices say, “Let none of us assume that
vocal ministry is never to be our part.” Neither should someone come to
unpro- grammed meeting certain that they will
minister.
John William Graham says, “It comes in waiting. When I
sit down in meeting I recall whatever may have struck me freshly during the
past week... Often two or three of the thoughts that have struck home during
the week are woven together in unexpected ways.
When the fire is kindled, the blaze is not long… The sermon is made, but I the slow compiler
did not make it.” No mention is made of
his fellow worshippers, but ministry that is lastingly helpful is always deeply
aware of the people who are gathered together in meeting. In a meeting for worship in a redemptive
community which the Society of Friends is meant to be, the human situation of
the community is a real factor in the communication.
Most ministry is given in some connection with the
ministry [that has preceded it]. I think that learning to move in the exercise
of the meeting so that one is a part of it, yet taken beyond it and brought to
see some new light is most important in creative ministry. A cluster of
messages that goes on down, with each message deepening & intensifying and
helping to light up a further facet of the communication can be most effective.
If there is One who gathers the meeting inwardly and who is commu- nicating and
drawing at our lives, it should not surprise us if several persons in the
meeting were moved to minister on the same theme. [There are frequent instances
of one feeling] drawn to share a message, only to find another rising &
ministering on almost the same theme. The vocal ministry’s workshop when we are
drawn into its inner chamber is alert with power and wonder.
The great freedom of the unprogrammed Quaker meeting
may be taken as an invitation to press some personal cause. Often the silence
and its subsequent ministry can transform this speaking into something very
helpful. When in the life, Friends have
spoken to man’s deepest needs and have never been content to confine ministry
to moral preachments. For the one often torn by inward struggles who has been
drawn to speak, there may be only a broken burst, or a prayer, or a snatch of a
question [to share in vocal ministry].
William Dewsbury wrote: “And thou, faithful babe, though thou stutter
for a few words in the dread of the Lord, they are accepted.” For me, drop- ping of surplus illustrations
or peripheral considerations frequently takes place, sometimes willingly and
sometimes with pain. Constantly the restraining influ- ence of the Guide stops my
saying all that I meant, or half meant to say; rarely have I regretted the
omissions; it may well be that we can’t finish, but we can always stop.
There is such a thing as ministry that can be so
finished & rounded off that members may hesitate to attach other messages to
it. How
should con- troversial issues be brought into the ministry of the meeting? Howard Brinton said: “A solemn reverent appeal for greater
sensitivity of conscience in economic matters might deepen the meeting.” It is possible for Friends to outrun their Guide,
and to be misled into identifying their own current resolution of social issues
with Divine truth. To wait for the Guide
and to be content to have the melting-down process that can take place in a
gathered meeting do its work; this can only strengthen worship.
To receive a message in meeting is not the same as to
receive the call to give it. It may not
have been matured, nor shaken down as yet.
[It may yet be put to use in some as yet undisclosed way. There are also instances where a Friend
returns to a meeting for 3 weeks in a row and is not feeling released from his
obligation to repeat the identical message.
No message is likely to be meant for every one of the worshippers. What may not affect me, may open out life for
another. [Simple gestures may be more
effective than outright verbal encouragement after a helpful vocal
ministry]. There is no standard
preparation for vocal ministry.
Quakers have never made the Bible their only
authority, but have always insisted that it is only as we are brought into the
same spirit that gave forth the Bible that we can begin to understand it.
Learning can strengthen what one has to give when it was put at the disposal of
a deeper guiding; it is no substitute for the authentic tendering that takes
place in a gathered mee- ting’s heart. Henry T. Hodgkin’s daily preparation in
private was connected to and crucial for his public life. Whatever gifts or sufferings or prayer-life
or trai- ning or insights or learning Jesus takes, he mercifully transforms them
and draws them into his service in another state than he found them.
My own experience is that the gathered meeting
provides a nurturing ground for effective ministry. [I have recommended corporate gathered
silence to other denominations, & a longer time in pastoral Quaker meetings
for open “communion” (when anyone from the congregation may pray or minister)].
[Vocal prayer can be helpful & open a meeting to the Guide, so long as it
does not become a mere formality]. If we are true to [corporate waiting &
vocal ministry], it will bless our lives, make our community more redemptive,
and be something we can offer to the ecumenical Christian treasury that may be
seen as a gift whose usefulness is beyond measure.
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183. Art and the changing world: uncommonsense in the 20th cen-
tury (by Dorothea Blom; 1972)
O Lord of
Life, help us know what we do. Guide us
away from adding to the dangers, and give us the wisdom to serve the promise—in
this present. Lend us the power to
differentiate between custom and convention on the one hand, and real value on
the other. Give us the fantastic
imagination to recog- nize the “Narrow Gate” between anger and despair, that we
may enter into it and participate in the Continuing Creation . . .
About the Author—Dorothea Blom, is teacher, writer, and lecturer, on
leave from the Pleasantville [NY] Adult School
New Ways of
Seeing—Nothing happens in the great
wide world outside us which does not affect the inner world and nothing happens
within our beings which does not affect the world we live in. As an art student around 1930 I found myself
part of 2 worlds sealed off from each other.
[I was part of] the commuting village, and part of a subculture. While dedicated to art, it had intense
awareness of social injustice; religion had been discredited.
The first honored traditional values; the second lived
an exploratory life, aware of the gap between ideals and the reality of the
world, and refusing to accept convention as necessarily having real value. The art which that subcul- ture focused on
decades ago has filtered through the whole environment of the later 20th
century, into architecture, textile design, magazine illustration, [and visual
media]. It was both a shock and a strain
to be confronted suddenly with several unfamiliar visual languages
representing different ways of seeing and relating to life.
Cubism influenced John Marin, Paul Klee, Jacques
Lipchitz, and Mon- drian. Matisse
represented an aspect of reality very different from Cubism. One of the most
exciting happenings of my art student days was the birth of the Museum of Modern Art New York
[I was friends with a physicist and his psychologist
wife. He was a “survivor” of sessions
with] the un-American Activities Committee, and wanted nothing to do with
religion. He met Howard Brinton, a
former physicist and the Director of Pendle Hill and was eventually influenced
to seek out a Quaker meeting. It was not
until I met this physicist as a seeker that I saw the con- nection between new
physics and the new ways of seeing.
Science, art, and religion surely contained a growing edge in common,
forming one fabric.
This intuition stayed at the back of my mind for
several years. I began looking for books by scientists who saw reality organically
instead of mecha- nistically. I gave a series on “The Religious Significance of
Art and Science in the 20th Century.” Both the death of the Post
Renaissance era & the birth of the Electronic Age or the Age of Aquarius need
to happen in each of us. We find a number of great minds recognizing the
intense specialization [and pro- ductivity that was part of the Post Renaissance
Era] as a necessary [and dan- gerous] phase of human development.
Common Sense
in the 20th Century—The
Common Sense of the 20th Century consists of the culmination of a
vast process of nearly a 1000 years.
Looking back into history from the 20th Century, we find that
art before 1000 A.D. huddled inside churches. After 1000 A.D., new life begins flowering on
the outside of churches. The Romanesque style begins in Southern France and Northern
Spain , and reached full
ripeness before 1100 A.D. Gothic
sculpture reached a Classic poise around 1200.
The same influences sifted down into Italy
In 15th century Florence Florence Newton US
Common Sense in the 20th century assumed
that reason and logic must triumph over feeling, intuition, & instinct. The
educational system built into the Western consciousness an inordinate faith in
“the scientific method.” At this time I
feel compassion toward Western Man, for the price he paid and still pays for an
intense outward focus. His inner reality has shrunk to a narrow safety zone of
the familiar. Having lost with his own
nature, he lost his capacity to de- light in the nourishing interplay of inner
and outer world; he no longer found life Holy.
Uncommon
Sense in the 20th Century—[This
century’s] artists wrought new visual languages to equate new relationships to
reality. Process is essential reality. Energy is central to process. Many Point
Perspective expres- ses our relation to reality as a many-faceted happening.
Walking around Henry Moore’s sculptures can be a vitalizing relation to many
point perspective. His- Family Group
(1948-49) of a mother, father & child on a bench is one of many human
images of classic poise and serenity. Transformation and transmutation as a
happening inherent in the very nature of life, physical, psychological, spiritual, are the basic assumptions of alchemists, who were a very positive influence on modern science. Imagination, rather than reason, is the crowning
glory of man’s potential.
The difference between the reality of the mechanistic
view of life & one based on reality as process and organic relationship is
not a matter of opinion but of contrasting ways of experiencing life. Applied
to life as a whole, this focus on the present invites a transformation of it
into an infinitely expansive globe held in place by past and future. Human
nature looks different. Many now see humans as gentle and humble creatures who
survived because of tremendous energy, intelligence, and imagination.
The
phrase ties us to nature. We may be in a race to see if the gulf within humans and in our relation to the planet can be bridged in time for
sur- vival. The new sensibility of Uncommon Sense has a strong impulse toward
integration of all the human functions. We find increasing numbers of people
who value both sides of the opposites: reason/emotion; body/soul; inner life/ outer life.
New religious life surges, but many religious
institutions are unable to accept it or contain it. It is the religion of presentness affecting
one’s being and seeking to find life whole. Are Common Sense & Uncommon Sense irre- concilable opposites? Common sense fits with Martin Buber’s “I
& it” con- nection with life. Uncommon Sense suggests “I & Thou.” When
trusted this connection with the world leavens & renews, opens up meaning
& significance. It is the focus we need now if we are to know how to use all these tools and all this
knowledge.
The Image
Educates where Reason Never Reaches—We
have accu- mulated, in the century since Manet, a heritage of art that would woo
us into fresh responses to life. Paul
Tillich said new religious feeling came through the visual arts, not the
churches. My own seeing is punctuated
with new vision awakening new life in me.
Sometimes after an exhibit or an unusual moving picture, the world looks
new as if I’d never seen it before. As
time moves on, I find it becomes increasingly “natural” to see in terms of qualities rather than objects. [All the art I have seen leads to seeing] a
world of changing relation- ships, forms, and shapes swinging in kinetic harmony.
The cities and urban worlds have their own
revelation. Looking down a city
street/canyon, instead of single-point perspective I see the energy of plunge,
as John Marin used perspective. In Lower
Manhattan ,1920—John Marin’s visual language shows assimilation of non-European art traditions. There is a sense of Cubism, Chinese “splashed
ink” painting, & Japanese Sumi brushwork. He used converging lines of
linear perspective as energy ra- ther than to create a 3 dimensional illusion in
a 2 dimensional space. I see [not
objects but] energy & delight, & my heart dances in answer. As long as human beings get trapped in
cities, we need to learn to love these concrete & steel monsters, hopefully
to make them more loveable & therefore more livable.
Recent generation of art also help us recognize all
that it means to be human. De Chirico’s
labyrinth-like cities can be the visual equivalent of lone- liness. In Disturbing
Journey (1913), Giorgio de Chirico paints a deserted, la- byrinthine city;
Roman arches and a train seems to echo the rational mecha- nistic world. This picture demands your involvement in the
present, & re- presents perplexed loneliness.
Works like this are referred to as “high parti- cipation” art.
Some of Picasso’s graphics reveal the inward
drama of many aspects of ourselves trying to find relation to one another. His Minotauromachy
(1935) has the Minotaur, a
horse’s legs with a woman’s naked breast on top, an inno- cent child with her
bouquet of flowers and a candle, a man on a ladder; it is an inward drama of opposites interacting. Inventor of many styles, Picasso has also
created a vast mythology. The 20th
century is rich in images to give form to the formless in ourselves. When trusted they engage us in evolving relation- ship
with all that we are and with others; art is a contemplative event.
We discover that the best “abstract” art of our time abstracts qualities from the world around
us to help us see nature and the world, ourselves, and others in a new way, so
that we may be able to respond freshly and imagina- tively to a changing world.
The intensity of fresh seeing and fresh responding tends to become
self-perpetuating, generating new life as long as a person lives. New impressions become for the mind, heart,
and spirit what food is to the body: nourishment for new life. New technology serves as readily for
contemplative art as paint or bronze.
Summary of
Tomorrow—Looking at young adults in
general I see a mobile flux of young people moving in and through life
styles. Some simply need time out to
find their own reality and discover how to function effectively in a world of
abounding absurdities. The world looks
very different [to each of us] from our different vantage points. Yet we are all primitives in an unfamiliar
world, and we need desperately to see with each other’s eyes as well as with
our own, [as we deal with rapid change].
[Perhaps, rather than proceeding gradually, evolution has made a leap
forward, as some scientists believe].
The change going on in us [because of rapid change outside] is more than
we can grasp without fantastic imagination.
Teilhard senses in man in preparation for this
evolutionary leap, “an upsurge of unused powers.” It cause his inner equilibrium to become
upset” & brings about “the inner terrors of metamorphosis.” Man, truly beset from behind and before,
becomes in vastly increasing numbers both groping and malleable—susceptible to
evolutionary leap. For Teilhard,
Planetization is the psychic interpenetration of cultures which has gone on for
eons; now, with electronic technology and instant global communication, it
happens with explosive rapidity. When
Western individual good and Communist
communal good relate as equals, we
have an example of Convergence.
[The artists of the early 20th century drew
on non-Western styles in the process of evolving cubism. Traditional Western art has been called “low
participation” art: you merely look at it.
Most of the world’s art aimed to involve you, activating the whole
gathered person and affecting your relation to life. [A painting is only truly finished] when each
person truly communicates with it.
The Participation Explosion may be said to have begun
with the Ameri- can Revolution and to have accelerated ever since. [The poor have an in- creased awareness of
those better off]. People everywhere
awaken with a new awareness of their indigenous roots, their cultural richness,
and seek to recover the values salvageable at those roots. Convergence and the Partici- pation Explosion
in combination move toward a unified world where the indige- nous mingles with
psychic inter-penetration: unity and
diversity.
One danger is idealizing the past or the future. Another lies in a paraly- zing fear of the
future instead of realizing that the best interest of the future depends upon
what each of us does in the present. I
have been accused of being an optimist, but for me neither pessimism nor
optimism is realistic. Per- haps we will
destroy ourselves or our planet before the new era is safely born. I choose to participate in the world being
born, whether or not it arrives safely.
For me being alive at this crucial moment of time is very exciting, and
there is no other time I would rather have lived.
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184 The Valley of the Shadow (by Carol R. Murphy; 1972)
About the Author—This is Carol Murphy’s 10th Pendle Hill
Pamphlet. The present study looks at the ultimate problem of death and what we,
the living, make of it. “The creative
mysterious ‘I’ that stands above the battle is ‘no thing,’ & so seems to
stand on the randomized chaos side of existence; out of this ‘no thing’ come
the choices and creations of the developed self.”
1. We belong to the fellowship of the mortal; beyond all
petty divisions and estrangements we share a common destiny: we are born; we
suffer; and we shall die. The witnessing
of death, which used to be part of everyone’s death, has receded into the hush
of the intensive care unit & the mortician’s “slumber room.” [With the
extending of life], we may well have to assert both our right to live, and our
inalienable right to die.
Death does not seem so romantic to those no longer young.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross tells us that dying patients are aware of the seriousness
of their illness, resent being treated like children, are tired of bogus
reassurances with those closest to them & welcome the breakthrough in their
defenses. The 1st reaction to approaching death is denial &
disbelief; then there is anger, followed by bargaining, then depression.
Finally there is grief & acceptance.
For a human being, mortality must be accepted
& transcended. One symbolic continuity is found through one’s descendants,
tribe, or nation. Another symbol is found in creating works of art or other
enduring achieve- ments. Somehow we feel the need to make our mark. Another hope
of continuity is sought in myths—attempts to picture the unpicturable & speak of the ultimate in finite terms—of an afterlife or rebirth and
reincarnation. It is the prospect of
annihilation of loved ones that lends its poignancy to the hope that we shall
one day, in Newman’s words see “those angel faces smile, which I have loved long
since, and lost awhile.”
The next 2 forms of transcendence could be called
“mystical”—a mer- ging of the temporal and the eternal. The 1st is a
sense of unity with the on- going of nature; the 2nd is through a
peak experience which transforms our symbolic world and fills us with “bright
shoots of everlastingness” (Henry Vaughn). The mystical experience may be all
we have left to rely on now. The apocalyptic mass-destruction symbolized by the
H-bomb [now makes us] capable of destroying our own posterity and blasting our
works into oblivion. Simone Weil writes: “Once the experience of war makes
visible the possibility of death that lies locked up in each moment, our
thoughts cannot travel from one day to the next without meeting death’s face.”
Science has been so successful & materialism so
plausible that it is exceedingly difficult to pull ourselves out of its
presuppositions. Florida Scott- Maxwell writes: “Age can be dreaded more than
death …Death feels a friend because it will release us from the deterioration
of which we cannot see the end. It is
waiting for death that wears us down, & the distaste of what we might
become.” The half-faith of most people isn’t enough to relieve the dying of
conflict and fear.
2. If we reach the point where we no longer worry about
the fate of the body, what do we hope
to preserve? What is the real you or me?
Aubrey Menen, an Anglo-Indian, secluded himself for a lonely
self-exploration along the lines of the Upanishads’ negative way [to answer
this question]. [To each self-imposed or world-imposed self-definition, he
responded Neti—not this]. When he had
freed himself somewhat from the compulsion to be what he had always considered
he had to be, he seemed to reach an interior void, the “space within the
heart,” which he called the Tranquil Eye [I].
There is a “no thing” which is the reservoir of
potentiality from which any thing comes. Florida Scott-Maxwell says: Age can
seem a debacle, a rout of all one most needs, but that is not the whole truth …
Part of [us] which is outside age has been created by age, so there is gain as
well as loss … There is that in us which is above the battle [of life], and
that which is added to when out- ward strength is diminished.”
“Matter” is that process which is subject to
entropy—loss, running down, decay, randomization. “Mind” or “spirit” is that
process which is not subject to
entropy, which grows the more it is given away. The creative & mysterious
“I” that stands above the battle is “no thing.” Out of this “no thing” come the
choi- ces & the developed self’s creations, & the patterns of existence.
What [re- mains unchanged] through growth must be beyond both form and
dissolution, and use both.
ESP [events
that transcend time & distance] are not “proof” of survival of death, yet
they shake us loose from our prevailing “common sense.” Without a theory in
which they can find a home, these facts can never be treated as evidence, so
they are outlaws, stealing tidbits of reluctant belief. These un- canny facts share some general
characteristics: a direct communicability be- tween minds attuned to each other,
an apparent power of “mind” over “matter,” and a disregard for space or
time.
3. We cannot build up from the facts as the physical
scientist does, but we are entitled to suggest a view that will expect,
discover and welcome new facts that the smaller dogmas now outlaw. If it proves
a faithful guide in this world we can venture to trust it beyond the
grave. Early Friends were not sur- prised
at their ability to speak directly to someone’s private condition, to fol- low
leadings, to sense the safety or peril of proposed voyages.
Let us postulate that we are nodes in a field of many
kinds of forces, senders & receivers of energy. [Many kinds &
dimensions of communication, some of which are of human manufacture, &
likely some unknown forms run through us that we aren’t conscious of. It has
been found that the basic brain waves called alpha waves of people who are
working well together get into phase.
“Brain” & “mind” aren’t the same
thing. The mind is the interaction of energy from more than one direction; it
has escaped from the skull. The mind isn’t the prisoner of space or time. Space
curves in the presence of celestial bodies, and time slows down in any system
approaching the speed of light. The mind is already a multi-dimensional
hyperspace. We are looking for a dynamic relationship between the perishable
& the imperishable such that the latter is the active & controlling
partner.
Through a medium, an intelligence calling itself Seth
stated that the physical world as we know it is a creation of our senses, that
our senses show only one 3-dimensional reality out of an infinite number. The human race is a stage through which forms
of consciousness travel, where we learn to handle energy and see the concrete
material result of thought and emotion. It said: “In many respects, you are in
a dream … You have focused so strongly upon physical reality that it becomes
the only reality that you know.” The dreamer is enmeshed in the symbols, the
waking man must either work their meaning through or dream similar dreams when
next he sleeps.
Mary Baker Eddy in her Christian Science said that
death is connected with the deluded state of the “mortal mind,” and must be
overcome, not sub- mitted to, before immortality appears. She said: “Error brings its own self- destruction both
here and hereafter, for mortal mind creates its own physical conditions. Death
will occur until the spiritual understanding of life is reached.” There are many dimensions, of which our small
glimmer of consciousness is but one, a faint reflection of the self-renewing
creativity of the Mind of God. Death is the only human predicament where
knowledge can never replace faith. Only
the life lived by faith can carry us over the threshold.
Jesus himself discouraged speculation about what lies
beyond death; God is the God of the living. Attempts to carry our cultural and
earthly preoccu- pations into the next stage of being [are foolish]. Perhaps the proper response of the person of
faith is to let the supreme experience [of the Resurrection] judge and
restructure all the other experiences of life or death. The Christian is to accept as his own inner
principle of life Christ’s own spiritual life.
Christ, the expression of self-renewing Spirit is available to be for
the Christian the Tranquil Eye of Aubrey Menen’s meditations. Our lives can be
united with the eternal life of God through our self-giving love mirroring
God’s exhaustless self-giving. Our life will be a healing one, and our physical
death a conflict- free culmination of a life wholly lived as a wholly full of
God.
Christian or not, we all have this final journey ahead
of us, & we should all have opportunity to prepare for it with such courage
as we can gain from enlarging our horizons beyond the material. The value of the book, The Wheel of Death lies in its facing death unafraid as a natural
and spiritual process, & offering guidance for the [important] last thoughts
of the dying. Those who meet life and death unafraid are capable of dying like
the Buddhist sages, who died at the time of their choosing, with dignity and
without struggle. Can you use and enjoy the qualities that make up the “me” without
clinging to them? What and where is your Tranquil Eye?
Perhaps healing [an unbearable life] or having a
peaceful death de- pends in such cases on wholly
choosing either life or death. Will you
be ready for a larger dimension that may await? [If “life is but a dream,” from
what might you awaken at death, & to what? What might your life mean in a
higher plane of reality? What kind of growth or contempla- tion would make worthwhile the final testing we all willy-nilly must undergo?
Kapleau, Philip (ed.); The Wheel of Death; Harper & Row, 1971.
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185. Meeting House & Farm House (by Howard Haines Brinton;
1972)
About the Author—Only those of us who have seen Howard chop wood would envisage him as
at home on a farm. He grew up in the
rolling countryside of Pennsylvania Chester County Guilford Mills College California
Introduction—My ancestors for 8 generations have been country Friends, so I have a
special interest in them. Because of the
nature of life in the country, they were able to examine each other’s conduct
more minutely. In Part II of this
pamphlet I have included quotes from the monthly business meeting minutes. These minutes give us a detailed account of
how Friends took care of each other.
Country Friends were more individualistic and
unconventional than city Friends. [The countryside population] within 50 miles
of Philadelphia Birmingham
Part I: [Early Advices; Meetings;
Ministers & Elders}—Though
the real lags behind the ideal in terms of early Quaker theology &
philosophy, in the early rural Quaker communities the ideal & real were close together. [Quakers believed in making efforts towards literally
following Jesus’ commandments]. The code of behavior for 18th
century Quakers was A Collection of Christian & Brotherly Advices…by the
New Jersey & Pennsylvania Yearly Meetings (YM). [The word “rules”
would indicate a standard] so rigid that the Holy Spirit couldn’t reveal new
truth [by which] advices might be revised.
Queries regarding Negroes [evolved
beginning in 1743 from question- ing importation & buying imported slaves,
through buying any slaves, to hol- ding any slaves & seeing to the needs of
those set free in 1776. Subsequent advices concerned Negro education]. This
book of 395 pages contained Advices on 48 subjects in alphabetical order,
beginning with Arbitrations, & ending with Wills.
Meetings met for worship both morning & afternoon
on 1st Day (Sunday) & once in the middle of the week. The monthly meeting (MM)— [made up of 10 or 20
families]—met for business to consider & carry out the advices of the
yearly meeting. Meetings in Penn’s Chester Philadelphia Bucks Counties New England ; New York Philadelphia Maryland Virginia North
Carolina
In the Quaker business meeting the only official was a
clerk appointed to decide what business should come before the meeting & to
record its decisions. Men & women were equal in Quaker meetings for
business, though the mee- ting was for many years divided into a man’s meeting &
a women’s meeting. All decisions were
reached unanimously. The objection of a
single, suffici- ently respected member could prevent a decision from being made.
John
Fiske wrote: “The ideal of the Quakers
was flatly antagonistic to that of the [Puritan] settlers of Massachusetts.
[They differed on matters of Judaism, separation of Church and State, and
tolerance of difference in doc- trine.] For these reasons the arrival of a few
Quakers in Boston
If after 2 years, members of a meeting should speak &
the messages were approved, the meeting would make a minute acknowledging them as an approved minister, [able to sit in a ministers & elders meeting].
Such ministers could visit other meetings, & could be accompanied by other
Friends. Nearly all Quaker journals, the spiritual autobiographies of Friends,
were written by ministers. “Solid” or “weighty” Friends chosen to advise ministers
were called elders.
Persons were appointed to ensure proper behavior & to show
special concern for members’ economic welfare; these were overseers. Meetings
kept no membership lists except when a monthly meeting divided. In its 1st
years the Society had no officials of any kind; many Friends felt that each
person should follow one’s own light. After Fox’s death, appointing ministers &
elders was meant to introduce some organization.
[Separation, Queries, American Beginnings]—Just as in the early Christian Church elders &
presbyters became priests & suppressed prophets, the Quaker elders’
increasing power to regulate the ministers’ theology [led to a rebellion which
brought the Separation of 1827]. Designation of ministers elders declined
by the 20th century. Philadelphia YM now has directed MM to appoint
committees on Worship & Ministry whose special concern is the reli- gious
life of the meeting, doing the work of ministers & elders, without the authority. Minutes of monthly meeting no
longer contain items regarding the daily & family life of the members.
Although the MM is not the interdependent community it
used to be, the yearly meeting brings together more attenders then was formerly
possible, because of ease of travel. YM’s still issue advices for the guidance
of monthly meetings. Answers return to YM through quarterly meetings. The 1st
queries to be answered systematically in this way were inserted in the book of
Advices (a.k.a. Book of Discipline) in 1755.
[The subject of these 1st queries were:
attendance and behavior at meeting for worship; maintenance of love &
unity; quick resolution of differ- ences; plainness of speech, behavior, apparel,
reading of Scripture; excessive use of liquor, frequenting of taverns;
necessities of poor Friends; proper pro- posals of marriage; marriage contrary to
our Discipline; rights of children by former marriages; faithful testimony
against oaths, priest’s wages, military service, not paying taxes, &
lotteries; timely making of wills; importing or buy- ing, fairly treating
negroes; living within circumstances & wise business prac- tices; meeting
transfers by certificate; judging of offending members in the Authority of
Truth.
Offenders could appeal MM decisions to QM & YM. Those who violated
the advices of disciplines might be disowned by the meeting; that was put off
as long as possible. Penn’s Holy Experiment can be observed most intimately in
the Book of Advices. The Book grew gradually & reached its most complete
form in 1762. The Quakers stressed obedience to God’s authority, benevo- lence, &
sensitivity to other’s needs.
William Brinton sailed up the Delaware Brandywine . They lived in a cave the 1st
winter & were fed by Indians. It wasn’t easy to farm, & there was no
time to build a house of worship; they took turns holding meeting in their
homes. Not all who fled from England
Part II: [Simplicity; Anger & Tale-bearing]—The following quotations from minute books of the
monthly meetings are contemporary with the actions they describe. Simplicity
(1734) “Friends, if truth be kept
to, none will need to be at a loss what to Wear [or what Fashion], but Truth
will teach all. Truth will also lead
those who obey it, out of all Excess, Superfluities, & Worldly
Super- fluities. [Any] liberty which the
World Spirit leads into is a false Liberty
Anger &
Tale-bearing (1737) By all means
discourage them from Evil & Extravagant Speaking, Slandering, &
Tale-bearing, which lead to sow strife… [Harsh & foolish words spoken to
people in general & to a particular person were acknowledged & a
“desire through divine assistance to live in unity” is stated. Sometimes the meeting’s
best efforts aren’t sufficient to “bring one to a sight & sense of one’s
condition,” one is at odds & contentious to the mee- ting. Sometimes Friends
will realize the falsehood of things repeated & con- fess it in meeting
minutes].
Temperance;
Magic and Science—Temperance (1706)
Advised … that none accustom themselves to vain & idle Company, Sipping, Tipping of Drams, & Strong Drink in Inns or Elsewhere. Such as use that Evil Practice, [but not to
great excess], yet they often inflame themselves thereby, so as to become like
Ground fitted for the Seeds of the greatest Transgressions. Ste- phen Beakes is charged with being
“disguised” by strong drink. “[If one is wil- ling fully to condemn his demeanor, the meeting [will] defer testifying against him.”
Magic and Science (1723) It is sense and judgment, that if any
profes- sing Truth, shall apply to such person or persons who shall pretend
Knowledge to discover things hiddenly transacted, or tell where things are lost, we do hereby, in a just Abhorence
of such Doings, direct that the Offenders be Spee- dily dealt with, and brought
under Censure. Those who profess the art
of Astrology, tend to the dishonor of God and the reproach of Truth, and the
great hurt both of themselves and those who come to inquire of them.
Whether we have much of this world or not;
whether we get of it or not: whether we lose or not, everyone being in his
place, using his or her honest and Christian endeavors; we shall be content
with the success of our labors without such unlawful looking of what the event
of this or that may be. The Quakers from
the first accepted science along with religion. Quaker far- mers had scientific hobbies—botany,
astronomy, geology, ornithology. Many farmers were well-educated, & necessarily self-educated, since the mee- ting schools taught only the 3 “R”s.
Acknowledgment;
Arbitration—Acknowledgment (1743) It is the sense of this Meeting, that in such
cases the Offenders do attend the Monthly Meeting together with their Papers of
Condemnation in such cases, where it is practicable. The acknowledgement of an offense was read to
the meeting by the offender. “Dear
Friends, I have disregarded the teaching of grace and good counsel of my
exercised parents & have given way to undue liberty which is a great sin
against my maker. I entreat Friends to
pass by my offenses as far as in them lieth, desiring to be continued in some
degree under their care…” (Sarah Colvert, Goshen
Arbitration It was contrary
to the discipline for Friends to resort to a court and to appeal to the law in
order to settle differences. (1724)
Advise that Differences be Ended with Speed, by prudent and just
Arbitration. [Friends were chosen to
hear and determine the said differences.
“It was agreed that T.B. and J. H. … do speak with John Gibbons and his
wife … and work upon them to come again to meetings endeavoring also to make
them sensible of the love and care of Friends towards them.” (Concord
Marriages;
Help for Those in Need—Marriage The monthly meeting had oversight of
marriages, giving its consent & seeing to it that the consent of parents
was obtained. The prospective bride & groom appeared twice before the
monthly meeting to express their intention. Sometimes the parent wouldn’t give
their consent but the meeting would. Trafficking in slaves prevented the
meeting from having “freedom to suffer his proposal to pass.” The meeting had concern for a remarrying
widow’s children, [requiring specific provisions be made for them].
Help for Those in Need [Hardships
caused by Indians were ad- dressed by different meetings in 1697 & 1725. Poor & destitute non-Quakers were helped by
Friends. Bradford , Falls, Goshen
Silcock; 1972)
About the Author—Born in Chengtu, West China in 1910, Thomas Silcock received his doctorate at Oxford SE Asia , and a poet. The present essay
was given as the Carey Memorial of Baltimore YM in August, 1971.
The Use of Testimonies/Preserving Group Structure—Friends are known by what they stand for, not by what
they believe: by testimonies not by creeds.
Communication of testimonies includes action as well as words. A testimony is a form of special ethic. There is much anxiety among Friends about an
apparently increasing disunity on testimonies.
Friends agree on alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, [just not on] which of
them to emphasize. As for peace, this is
the only topic in which I have sometimes seen real, blazing hatred of one
another in the eyes of Friends [disagreeing] on methods and objectives.
Perhaps the most characteristic principles are those
which further what the group stands for and improve its position in the
world. If a special ethic is to maintain
itself in a world which does not share it, it needs both internal and external
structure. In a religion selection and
training will be in terms of the whole way of life that the religion is
promoting. There needs to be an external system of partial insulation.
The insulation may work to ensure that
contacts within the group are much more frequent that those outside it. Aristocracies commonly control the content of
communication by special languages that virtually assure respect for the
leadership. Another restriction on
communication is a set of rules about secrecy, which is an important source of
power for bureaucrats and priests; too many layers of secrecy tends to lead to
destructive behavior.
Language Shapes the Image—[Within its structure], language & logic tend to
generalize the original ideas & elaborate them as applied to group
experience. We generalize things we
admire & apply them in new situations. When we call an act “right” or
“good,” we aren’t describing or defining a quality of that act. “Right” has to
do with enforcement through duty & obligation; “good” is praise &
appreciation, preferably for innate virtue.
Sometimes the reason for calling an act right or good
when some indi- viduals cannot do them is that exceptions are too complicated,
& hard cases make bad law. Sometimes a
rule is made because trying to keep it as much as one can is useful; the
conditioning which rules give has some influence. When we are enjoined to “speak the truth in
love,” we still may be forced either to lie or to hurt a friend severely. In families, we try to create a pattern of
love & understanding in which the inconsistencies [between equality, respect & fair rewards] will be borne. Love is what we need to face both our uncompro- mising children and our compromised politicians.
Quaker Techniques of Support/Morals: Public or
Private?—Ethical principles can
be reinforced by internal contacts, or weakened by generalized contacts among
those without the commitment. Everything worthwhile in life depends on how
seriously we take life, whether we see it as basically [real, virtuous &
truthful], or as an error with some pleasurable illusions. If we opt for
reality, effort won’t assure success, but it may sometimes achieve it.
I believe that we Friends have inherited a flexible
method of supporting one another’s highest endeavors, and that it is important
that we should try to preserve our techniques in an age when there is a great
need for moral inno- vation and leadership.
There are still important insights that Quaker tradition could provide;
it is in some danger of being swamped in a permissive society. This permissiveness can be summed up in 3
propositions which should be challenged: in democracy, all opinions are of
absolutely equal value; all value judgments are purely private matters and
above questioning; truth emerges from a completely unstructured commerce of
ideas,
Friends believe that there is that of God in each of
us, but it needs to be tended if it is to grow; moral insight grows by more
effort. Quaker clerks of meeting are
instructed to not give way to either numbers or persistence. The important thing in any purposeful meeting
of people of different backgrounds is to get them to communicate and try to
agree. A good clerk responds to those
who are genuinely following the discussion, trying to share, respond and
communicate; when well done it produces better participation. We differ in the extent to which we have
anything that we want to assert, or can usefully assert, on any particular
topic.
I regard morals as public matters not because people
all agree, [but be- cause only confusion of morals with their strictly sexual
aspect makes priva- tizing them plausible, and because Madison Avenue profits
when it] attacks that feature of self-control that restricts sales of a
product. [This] creates a moral climate
in which moral values are equated to individual values. [Thus, it is in the interest of those who
equate morals strictly with sex, and those who profit from lax morals in buying
decisions to have all morals be private mat- ters]. Sometimes we need to walk
fearlessly into the forest of doubt holding only on to the hand of our own
experience. As George Fox asks: What canst thou say? Thomas H. Silcock
Free Speech & Truth—There is no doubt that competition is some pro- tection
against believing the claims that are made, but only at the cost of in- creasing
cynicism. We don’t expect to reach the truth by aimless chatter, but by
structured communication, designed to assure reliability, & a climate of
courteous, frank interaction. [In
medieval times there was “argument by attack (of a person’s character),” &
“argument by threat” (of censure)].
Scholarship needs detachment, and it is only in an
atmosphere of rela- tive calm and objectivity that knowledge can grow; academic
freedom is all about the pursuit of knowledge.
There is room for conflict between freedom to express one’s own opinions
without fear of coercion by the state, and free- dom to belong to disciplined
groups. Sometimes the state must protect
the group, sometimes the individual; we must all be watchful and fair-minded.
The Shifting Boundaries of Quakerism/Leadership and
Authority— Truth and virtue do not
spring from free speech but rather from communicating groups of people who
discipline themselves and work hard at achieving truth and virtue. Our society developed through the insulating
effects of habits of dress and speech into an odd and isolated group, more like
a religious order. A glimpse of the
contingent element in our testimonies, derived from external & internal
structure, will help us understand our present difficulties. We have become a respected group. We are more and more reluctant to refuse mem- bership. Exclusion now would not
involve elders and their judgment, but would more likely be political, a
majority excluding a minority.
[The full-time committee Friends of our own day have
joined the line of authority figures stretching from fearless, independent,
preachers to strict meticulous Quakers of the 18th century, to
deeply concerned, inbred old Quaker families of the 19th century, to
today]. The modern committee form of leadership hasn’t helped us to a uniform
standard. Indeed it has tended to turn each Meeting into a group of different
kinds of Friends, [“specializing” in certain committee work].
I think we should make membership a serious business
in which people would feel they were taking on a real responsibility. The
important thing is to stress the shared responsibility for finding the right
way. Quarterly or Yearly Meetings must be constantly responding to the moral
effort & experience of Friends. Do
we have any method by which we could respond & by which we could act on the moral effort &
experience of individuals?
The New Moral Horizon—We must first adhere firmly to the view that the right
way is there to be found. By knowing
that we are better than we are able to be we have something by which to
grow. There are always new chal- lenges,
new perspectives, a wider range of contacts, new possibilities of virtu- ous and
diabolic action. If we are to freely
discuss moral issues in a rapidly changing world it will be necessary for us to
discuss things to which we have deep moral hostility, while making clear that discussing
these things is not the same as condoning them.
The new medical possibilities of manipulation of personality that seem
just around the corner are certainly going to set us tough moral problems about
what it means to be human.
The Planetary Challenge—I believe we need to attend to the boun- daries &
structure of our group, making ourselves all over the world a more disciplined,
serious communicating organization, so that we can play our small role in creating a planetary society.
Friends have traditionally been con- cerned about situations of conflict in which
violence breaks outs. Some try to alleviate suffering, some to understand both
sides & to mediate, some to in- fluence policy away from violent
solutions. We must remember that the
world is now much smaller than it used to be.
Moral condemnation of one partici- pant or another seems unhelpful to the
process of achieving solutions.
Part of our duty is to keep violence out of our hearts
and actions, part to contribute compassion and understanding, and part to
arouse in all our fellow human beings a sense that their land is the earth and
that it is threatened by violence and hatred.
Politically our loyalty is to the planet, the home of those we know as
our brothers. Its realization is
thwarted by our worship of gods that magnify the supposed differences between
Australians and Americans into something different from the differences among
Americans or Australians.
Beyond our loyalty to the planet is our loyalty to
God. I believe that this is an act of faith. I try to love with the conviction
that there is that of God in each person, no more fully perfect than that in
me, alive with the excitement of all human imperfection & striving. When we
speak of a loving Father who created the universe, we are using a metaphor of a
family relationship to describe what we usually consider a spiritual presence,
and a metaphor of a spiritual presence to describe that which (like truth) is
more properly described [as a process].
Sometimes we need to walk fearlessly into the forest
of doubt holding only on to the hand of our own experience. As George Fox
asks: What canst thou say? We need
discipline in trying to follow the moral insights we have, in our own life. Out
of these arise our testimonies, expressed in our advices & queries. The
testimonies will change as science changes our neighbors and their needs, or
changes us in respect to what we know & what we can do. The obligation to
keep love alive in the heart, even through the death of God, will always be
with us.
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187. The Divine Witness of John Woolman (by Phillips P. Moulton;
1973)
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188. Hunger for Community: Experiential Education for Inter-
About
the Author—Phillips Moulton’s
scholarly work on Woolman ex- emplifies his vocation to apply intellectual
endeavors to the service of religion. [He taught at 2 seminaries, and] his
special interest is ethics. The author
has long been a member of the Wider Quaker Fellowship. The essay is one result of an abiding
interest in Woolman; he edited The
Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman.
I & II—John Woolman deserves to be ranked among the great spiritual
leaders of humankind. He is comparable to Albert Schweitzer and Mahatma Gandhi. Woolman lived in colonial New Jersey America England
Woolman’s Journal is a literary classic, & the perennial source of inspi- ration
& ammunition to those [working for] social change. [His opposition to slavery
was expressed in the belief that] we should love our neighbors as ourselves &
guarantee “civil & religious liberties” for all. “[Older slaves’] misery hath
felt to me like the misery of my parents.” Slaveholders were also objects of Woolman’s
solicitude, caught in a system they didn’t create and from which they also
suffered. He believed that treating others as slaves dimmed the ow- ners’ vision and
depraved the mind. Their children’s hearts [were becoming] accustomed to this way
of life; they were likewise affected.
Woolman’s
concern with the evils of slavery was part of his larger desire that all should
do the will of God in every aspect of life. “How are the sufferings our Blessed
Redeemer set at nought … through the unrighteous proceedings of his professed
followers!” People did not have sufficient
wisdom and goodness to warrant being entrusted with absolute power over others.
“Free
men whose minds were properly on their business found a satis- faction in
improving, cultivating, & providing for their families. Negroes, labou- ring
to support others who claim them as their property, & expecting nothing
but slavery … hadn’t the like inducement.”
“While we manifest by our conduct that our views in purchasing them are
to advance ourselves, while our buying captives taken in war [provides
incentive] to push on that war and increase desolations amongst them, to say
that they live unhappy in Africa is far from being an argument in our favor.”
“I was troubled to perceive the darkness of their
imaginations, and … said: “The love of
ease and gain are the motives in general of keeping slaves, and men are wont to
take hold of weak arguments [from Scripture] to support a cause which is
unreasonable.” Woolman traced slavery to luxurious living, whereby God’s intended
harmony among men and between man and nature was seriously disturbed. It was Woolman’s clear and steady voice that
woke the conscience of the Quakers and through them of the Western world to this
moral evil.
The
ethics of participation in war also claimed much of Woolman’s at- tention. The responses
to the draft of that time were strikingly similar to those made during the US
Vietnam war, [with some “tarrying abroad,” some serving, and some with “a real
tender scruple in their minds against joining in wars.” Woolman’s most distinctive contribution to
the Friends’ peace testimony was refusing to pay war taxes. “I all along
believed that there were some upright- hearted men who paid such taxes, but
couldn't see that example was a suffi- cient reason for me to do so.” It became
evident to him that paying war taxes was contrary to friends’ pacifist
principles.
Disturbed
about the harmful effects of moral compromise, Woolman re- alized that the right
example could be powerful influence for good. “When [we] in the spirit of meekness suffer distress to be made on our
goods rather than to pay actively, this joined with an upright uniform life may
tend to put man athin- king about their own conduct.” In PA, a petition was presented to the Assem- bly
by Friends asking that no law might be passed to enjoin the payment of money “for
such uses as a peaceable people could not pay for conscience’s sake.”
A 3rd
major area of concern for Woolman, closely related to the issues of slavery and
war had to do with economics. “[God] hath provided that so much labor shall be
necessary for men’s support in this world as would, being rightly divided, be a
suitable employment of their time … we cannot … grasp after wealth in a way
contrary to [God’s] wisdom without having a connection with some degree of
oppression.” The victims of oppression exploited others in turn, as when settlers,
driven to the wilderness by high rents, overcharged the In- dians for rum and underpaid
them for furs, resulting in bitterness and the seeds of war.
Woolman always identified himself with the oppressed.
In a vision he saw the world’s misery, & he saw “People getting silver to
set off their tables … I should take heed how I fed myself from out of silver
vessels.” “There was a care in my mind so to pass my time as to things outward
that nothing might hinder me from the most steady attention to the True
Shepherd’s voice.” He sought to live on the lowest economic level consonant
with fulfil- ling the life & mission to which he was called by God.
It freed him
“to taste & relish not only those blessings which are spiritual, but also
feel a sweetness & satisfaction in the right use of God's good gifts in a visible creation.” Woolman’s
teachings imply social criticism of an economic system that intensifies the
profit motive. That motive often operates to disrupt divinely ordained harmony.
[Many who exploit others in this system] aren't hi- deous monsters, but are
caught up in a system which exalts the wrong values.
III—Basic to both Woolman's character and his methods of social
action was the depth of his experience of God, leading to a sense of divine guidance,
of providence, and of God’s love. Adolescence
was a time of turbulence before his direction became clear. In later life his sense of God’s presence was
sub- ject to interruption by barren periods. His life's basic orientation was to the divine will. “I saw [prayer and] this [inner] habitation to be safe,
to be inwardly quiet, when there was great stirrings and commotions in the
world.” Often he sought divine strength,
as when he began a major journey into the south and prayed that he might “attend
with singleness of heart to the voice of the True Shepherd.”
As he grew older, Woolman’s
faith in God became increasingly strong & gave him the security needed for ethical
living. His faith provided a base for social service and his trust in God freed
him for social action. [Sometimes] a sense
of urgency distinguished his life as he pressed hard for social change. [Other times he would recognize a toned down
query on slavery as less than he hoped for, but still a step forward for the people
in question, and “[feel] easy to leave all to him who alone is able to turn the
hearts of the mighty & make way for the spreading of Truth in the earth.”
Woolman had a strong belief in “The Almighty's care
& providence over his creatures in general & over man as
the most noble” among them. He responded with a deep affection & “tenderness
towards God & all living crea- tures, urging that “Friends in all their conduct
may be kindly affectioned one toward another.” [Towards those who] couldn’t free
their slaves without drasti- cally changing lifestyle [he recognized that] the Lord
“begat a spirit of sympathy & tenderness in me toward some who were
grievously entangled in the spirit of this world.” He spoke forthrightly
against every form of evil; he felt only mercy & love towards the
evil-doer.
Quite evident was his humility & diffidence
in approaching older, respec- table pillars of Quakerdom, to whom he genuinely
felt inferior. Woolman’s attitude toward others was derived from his humility before
God as he realized his own imperfections. Woolman passed judgment on others as sharing
insight available by divine wisdom. A humble approach was more conducive to con- tacting
the divine element in the soul of the other person. Woolman set his own house in
order in respect to the evil under discussion.
His meekness and gentleness precluded any threat to his fellow man. Benjamin
Franklin, while granting his lack of real humility, observed that the appearance
of it made peo- ple more receptive to his ideas than dogmatic contradiction.
He had remarkable empathy. He welcomed
& sometimes sought expe- riences that would increase his sympathy with those
who suffered. [He en- dured wilderness hardships to visit Indians. He
insisted on going steerage to avoid contributing to the luxurious appointments of
the cabins, & to get direct exposure to the miserable conditions in which
sailors, including small boys, lived. There he penned his desire “to embrace
every opportunity of being in- wardly acquainted with the hardships &
difficulties of my fellow creatures and to labor in love for the spreading of
pure universal righteousness in the earth.
Woolman took the next step of assuming personal
responsibility in re- lations to the evils he encountered; his alert conscious led
directly to action. Instances of his trying to “keep clear” of oppression were
avoiding the English stagecoach system [because of brutal conditions for young boys
and horses], and his refusal to use sugar and molasses because of ill-treated
slave labor. “I was led into a close, laborious inquiry whether I kept clear from
all things which tended to stir up or were connected with wars here or in Africa .”
Large scale social action is readily appreciated, but the purity of one’s own soul
is likely to be considered too trivial to warrant serious attention; Woolman thought
other- wise. He felt [an imperative call from God to live on as high a level as possible.
He believed that one’s insight into moral
and spiritual reality was directly proportionate to the quality of one’s ethical
life. He realized the connection be- tween
the quality of one’s personal life and effective influence upon others. As he
set his personal house in order he was clear that basic changes were nee- ded in
society. This involved influencing groups as well as individuals and led him to engage in positive social action. He wrote 2 essays on Some Con- sideration on the Keeping of Negroes and 1 essay on A Plea for the Poor.
Woolman’s practice of [quiet, private &]
personal confrontation had several good effects. [It brought up implications behavior]; it clarified the issues; it led to deeper fellowship; it laid the
basis for group action. He worked through political channels, Quaker meetings, &
smaller groups where policies were thrashed out. He wrote letters to particular
meetings, or composed letters which leading meetings throughout the colonies
adopted. The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of 1776 prohibited the owning of
slaves 4 years after his death.
Woolman didn't rationalize by asking” What can one man do? Nor did he ask what others were doing, or transfer his
personal responsibility to another person or group. A striking quality of
Woolman which has current relevance was his capacity to see the long-range
effects and implications of an act that were overlooked by many. He was especially
aware of the far-reaching influ- ence of precedent and example, [such as “humane”
slave owners being seen as reason enough to allow it to continue].
He even noted the long-range & often
obscure relation of one thing to another [e.g. the effect of the demand for
luxury items on overseas trade, society, and conflicts]. A striking testimonial
to his integrity, is his insistence that the medicine for his final illness must
not be from slave labor or other unjust conditions. His tolerance extended throughout
Christianity & beyond. “Sincere upright-hearted
people who loved God were accepted of him.” He recognized that God had not appointed
the same task to all people, [for instance traveling Quaker ministers who ignored
slavery].
IV—Woolman’s way was one of nonviolence. He believed neither in submission to injustice
nor in opposing it by violence. “A time is coming wherein persevering in the meek
spirit & abiding firm in the cause of Truth, without complying with oppression,
will so spread & prevail that ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation
…” Woolman also provides a much needed antidote
to the hedonism & narcissism that saturates our society today. [Far from this
de- structive self-focus], Woolman’s turning self-ward was to increase sensitivity to spiritual reality.
He considered himself a steward of the capacities
he had, “to consider every day as … lent to me and … to devote my time, and all
I had to him who gave it.” He felt a
divine call to share “that which lieth heavy on my mind” regarding slavery and war;
“a labor attends me to open that love in which the harmony of society standeth,
& the growth of the seeds of war to others.
[As to one’s place in the world], Woolman said: “A linking was wanting between
2 craving parts of nature, and one is hurled into being as the bridge over that
yawning need.” Woolman provides one of
the clearest examples of one who found direction and deep meaning—a character realizing
the eternal values of truth, beauty, goodness, and love.
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188. Hunger for Community: Experiential Education for Inter-
personal Living (by J. Diedrick Snoek; 1973)
About the Author—Jaap Diedrick Snoek was born & raised in the Ne- therlands US Smith College
We expect a
[God sighting] of which we know nothing but the place, & the place is called
community… There is no single God’s
word that can be clearly known & advocated.
The words are clarified for us in our human situ- ation of being turned to
one another. Martin Buber
Man wishes to be confirmed in his being by man, & wishes to have a presence in the being of the other… He watches for a YES which allows him to be & which can come only from one human person to another Martin Buber
Hunger of Community—Everywhere I go I meet people who suffer from a sense
of loneliness, of the insufficiency of their relationships. Young people express it in thoroughgoing
disengagement from society. Psycholo- gy
today produces knowledge that threatens to become a tool in the control of men
instead of enhancing man’s dignity and freedom. People need each other. We wish to know and be known to
others in our fullness. The direction of movement is towards [intentional communities] and increased [& deeper] sharing of our lives.
Howard Brinton writes: “[For] the suburban commuter
who has his busi- ness in the city, one’s community is really the wide world,
full of people with whom he has no intimate contact. As a
result he is an unnatural human being, because one’s body and mind have
been created and conditioned to function in small local communities. One tries
through frantic, ceaseless activity to fill the vacuum created by the absence
of the kind of life one was created to lead.”
Brinton argues that “to strengthen Meeting so as to make it in reality
an ideal community, is really more productive than some of the more com- mon ways
of seeking community involvement and action.
Experiencing Pendle Hill helped to make me more aware
of the obsta- cles that ordinary life puts in the way [of relationships], such as
the isolation of one-family houses. Martin Buber writes: “In no case does
membership in a group necessarily involve an existential relation between one
member & another.” We need to understand more about our propensities for
failure in human relationships in order to make any proposed living
arrangements work.
From Acquaintance to Mutuality—I have come to find it useful to think of a common
dimension that characterizes all relationships: the degree of involvement that
2 persons have with each other. 1st, there is a stage which 2 people
are aware of each other’s existence as acquaintances.
It appears we feel comfortable, or at least safer, with persons who promise by
their background & appearance to reinforce our beliefs, & uphold our
values.
2nd, is the stage entering into a role relationship
of surface-contact. Over time, a surface contact relationship
accumulates a history of more or less gratifying outcomes, producing feelings
of satisfaction with the relationship & liking the other person. Because interaction in surface-contact
relation is mainly of this role-bound variety, it often carries remarkably
little information about the person enacting the role. “Slips” in performance reveal our true selves
to others, and give them greater confidence that they are beginning to know us
as persons.
[The drive for] efficiency,
predictability, and smooth transactions, has led to an ever greater intolerance
for humanness in the performance of our daily duties. To be caught up for the major part of one’s
day-to-day existence in relationships at this level is an important source of
feelings of dis-ease, aliena- tion, and eventually a kind of spiritual death.
We occasionally attain another, more satisfying level
of relationship that may sustain us through many a period of sterility. Sharing
some knowledge about each other as persons leads to the level of
mutuality which includes an underlying attitude of affection. If we have said
“Thou” to another once, the memory of mutuality endures & tends to transform
a relationship in the direc- tions I have here tried to describe. Shared knowledge of another is decidedly
different from the knowledge about him.
They do not have to reveal themselves to each other in
words; they can also act so as to
express clearly and unambiguously their conception of
you- and-me-at-this-moment. [When you and
another are faced with a less-than- ideal situation, you may find yourself
acting in concert with the other to improve the situation, sometimes without
planning it before hand]. Shared
knowledge is usually a source of affection between people. The memory of such moments of mutual
understanding endures as a positive feeling that transcends mere liking or
satisfaction. People sharing mutuality often
show a lot of resourcefulness in caring for each other and interact with regard
for the effect of their behavior upon the other person and upon the relationship.
Difficulties in Developing Mutuality—Relationships that develop at the level of
acquaintance or surface-contacts are far more likely to remain at that level
or to be abandoned altogether than they are to be deepened. Time and opportunity are 2 important
prerequisites for forming relationships of any sort. Who we
meet, when we meet them, & how much leisure we have are all
soci- ally structured. We must take time, invent opportunities, pursue freedom
to be ourselves and act as if nothing
could be more important than persons.
When one in a relationship conceives a desire to
deepen the relation- ship, one says or does something not required by one’s role or situation; it is an invitation. [The risk of invitations
being rejected is minimized] by making it into something more like a way to
avoid hurting the inviters feelings; dissembling is also used. These are ways
of dealing with unacknowledged fear of
rejection. [Honesty and directness is best in invitations, including
admitting a fear of rejection].
[Even with someone whom we feel dislike and hostility],
when we can speak directly and confront the other specifically with the actions
or words that aroused our discomfort, we clear the path for a deeper
approach. [A defensive approach would be
to show righteous anger [at the 1st sign of a mistake]; it reduces
the possibility of counter-attack. [Also],
it is possible to make people feel pretty terrible by forgiving them, [&
leaves them unable to be angry back].
For some, fears of being engulfed or totally absorbed in another
person’s existence raise doubts about how much closeness can be tolerated; fear
needs to be replaced by trust.
Educating for Community—John MacMurray argued that we could learn to bring our feelings into greater
correspondence with the reality of our present situation. The intensive small group experience is the
new “school” for re-educating people’s capacity to experience themselves and
each other more fully. I have come to
look upon “the group” as a contrived community in which participants try to
create conditions under which each can grow into greater awareness of one’s self
and greater freedom and spontaneity in one’s relations with others.
One of the basic elements of a skillfully conducted
experiential learning group is that participants are confronted with dilemmas that cannot be ade- quately
resolved by relying on old habits. [There must be openness]. If our awareness
is limited, if our messages are censored, and our image of reality distorted,
both individual and group efforts at relationships will be impaired. Groups need to establish trust, so that I can risk being vulnerable to potential rejection,
& instead meet with others’ willingness
to let me be and an honest response.
[It is necessary] to inhibit our natural impulses to
control other people’s expression of their
awareness, & to respond with what I
am feeling or thinking rather than with what the other person wants to
hear. John O. Stevens writes: “Trust & love are my feeling responses towards another person; these re- sponses can’t be
manufactured … Honesty, however, is a behavior & some- thing I can choose or not
choose… Trust is my response to a person
I know I can believe.” True honesty pertains to what I am experiencing here
& now in what is going on between us.
Enhancing Community Experiences—How will
sharing my inner life with a group of strangers [over] 1 or 2 weeks of
encounter help me to live a more fulfilling life with friends, family, and
coworkers? At their best, our meetings are indeed communities of precisely the kind we
need so deeply, and laboring with each other, and extending a ministry of love
are precisely the sort of exercises needed to enhance community life. [Sharing uninterrupted, undis- cussed answers
to the question], “To what groups or
persons have you be- longed in your life? [can lead to a better understanding
of one’s feelings of belonging or not belonging]. Why do I hesitate to share of myself, to culti- vate my memberships
today?
A Religious Perspective—At its best, the intensive small group creates for
itself a community in which each person stands in authentic relation to all
others, aware not only of who one is but also of interdependence on others.
Martin Buber writes: “Man wishes to be confirmed in his being by man, and wishes to have a presence in the being of the other… He watches for a YES which allows him to be & which can come only from one human person to another.”
Perhaps it is only an inter-personal
experience like an encounter group that permits us to re-discover how true it
is that we must be “priests to one another.”
What we customarily take to be our “self” is largely a residue of past experiences and relationships. We do not discover who we are except by continually recreating our Self in response to
the present. My experience gives me
faith that I can act so as to free you to be who-you-are, and that you can do
the same for me. Martin Buber said: “One who know how our generation has lost
true freedom, must practice directness and not depart from it until scoffers
are struck with fear, and hear in one’s
voice the voice of their own suppressed longing.”
APPENDIX: Evaluating Intensive Group Methods—The intensive small group experience is the latest
fashion in psychology. Educators view them as textless, subjectless,
teacherless courses; others view them as conspiracy, revolution, new
[humanist] faith, on par with unlicensed psychological quacke- ry. Study findings support the general conclusion
that the encounter group ex- perience is not without its dangers, nor is it as
potent an instrument for perso- nal change as it is usually depicted.
In the growth-centers [that use these groups], claims
are overstated, leaders cannot be easily evaluated, and the contract between
leaders and clients provide for little or no accountability. Leaders should be
able to present credentials, attesting to their competence in the dynamics of
human behavior, training experiences, and reputation as competent
facilitators. The contract should be
explicit. Any manipulation,
exploitation, or attacking without chal- lenge should be discussed. If one does not feel comfortable in a group
and does not get clarification from discussing [their discomfort], chances are
one is better of leaving that particular group.
In the absence of at least the begin- nings of trust and group cohesion,
little educational benefit can be expected.
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189. Simplicity: A Rich Quaker’s View (by George Terhune Peck;
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189. Simplicity: A Rich Quaker’s View (by George Terhune Peck;
1973)
190. Memories and Meditations of a Workcamper (by David S.
About
the Author—George Peck was trained
as a historian and re- ceived his doctorate in Italian history at the University of Chicago
I. THE QUERY/ II. THE SOURCE—A testimony is carrying out in every- day life a fundamental
belief of the Society. Our [definition] of the simplicity testimony was
antiquarian &/or vague. NY YM asks: Do
we keep moderation & simplicity in our living standards? Do our vocations
provide construc- tive, beneficial service?
NY YM advises: Be mindful of your conduct
& conversation. Be respon- sible for using and disposing of possessions. Have integrity in living & inspect your
temporal affairs. We really had not given the testimony much attention. Anyone who
presumes to advise [about simplicity] on the basis of his own experience falls into
spiritual pride & can cause great damage. [In this es- say], I run the risk of
falling into such error.
The
source of the simplicity testimony is the light. Revelation or religious experience
is continuous, universal and individual. When we realize that God is [and have some
idea what God is], we have the urge to
spread the good news and add attributes to God from our experience. Joel Goldsmith says: “This you will experience
for yourself, not by believing me and not by accepting my word … Spiritual experience
can come only through your own
realization.” I have become
convinced that the realization of the presence of God is one of the most common universal of human experiences from [ancient times to now]. Blaming the
complexities and pressures of our civilization for our problems is a blind alley
and an escape.
The
1st step in the simple life is to turn to God. I do it for short times every day. I start
with a Biblical phrase. The Christian tradition is very dear to me. It does not
bother me that Christians are often hypocrites and sinners (am I not one too?). Nor does it bother me that the word “Christian”
for some [is only a word referring] to a type of country club or boys’ camp. These
friends must [look elsewhere for inspiration].
So far
in my morning meditation, I'm only in the willful human stage. So, that is that,
and I turn to the usual activities, not with guilt but in dryness. Ever more frequently,
the willful human stage of meditation is replaced by a suffu- sion of divinity. I
hear the music of the spheres. I understand Fox’s “wait in the Light for Power to
remove the earthly part … that with the Light your minds may be kept up to God,
who is pure, and in it you may all have unity in the Light.”
[I have rediscovered
the guardian angel of my childhood]. He
improves my dream life no end; in my dreams I have seen God. [I have had dreams
of jails vanishing and flying free after a feeling of power, and dreams of the
cry of an anguished creature modulating to a thin and lovely, gentle and
sensitive melody]. One really knows God only when one begins to dream of God. Other- wise,
it is still a willful experience.
Freud
did not realize the presence of God; [it was all superego]. In the 1890’s most religious
expression was full of talk of duty, conscience, guilt, and the like. Freud rightly
condemned it, [for pure] duty doesn't work. Duty rests on the force of domination
and not on the power of love. Bullying one’s psyche about in the name of what one
thinks is right is only useless but dangerous.
[The idea of the] “duty” of serving God is [born of the image of the God
of wrath, a sort of deification of fear.
The value of nightly prayers is that they
bring the conscious & uncon- scious life closer together in God’s love. On some
nights and in meeting for worship, I am assisted by the group of Friends there.
The experience of spiri- tual unity with the group has become almost a weekly occurrence.
The spirit is abroad in our meeting, and in others I have visited in America Britain
III. GOD’S WILL/ IV. TIME—What is God’s will for me? Who, me? If
anyone presumes that they are acting out God’s will, we shy away; it smacks of
fanaticism. Few people are struck by the bolt from the blue [like the apostle Paul].
To me, turning to God is gradual, accompanied by gradual growth in spiritual power.
Much of the dryness & frustration of middle age seems to result from achieved
goals that were too limited & limiting, & for which adequate
replacements haven’t been found. When we
turn to God in worship, are our goals consonant with what we know of the
Light? The best starting point is our present behavior, for these express
our true beliefs, no matter what is claimed. For me how I go is as important as
where I go, & I believe I must be led by love and not by force.
How do we use the time of this life? When we say “I just don’t have the time,” we are kidding
ourselves. If we are really led to do something, we find time for it. The last
50 years has been different from other periods in its at- titude toward time. My life
is too full of external stimuli, of mere busyness. If conversation is to be
more than regurgitated newsprint, external stimuli have to be absorbed into
one’s own experience. Reducing the stimuli from the outside world doesn't imply
retiring from social concern, but rather placing it in the con- text of worship.
Most
of our days are spent at work, and it is primarily in this area that we contribute
to [others’] lives. Christianity saw the
complete equality of all oc- cupations in God's eyes. The early Quakers accepted this & demonstrated it by keeping their hats on in the presence of the mighty. Do we accept the equality of occupations as fully now as did early
Quakers? Do we still respect or disrespect people just for what they do?
The
common quality of all occupations is that they provide a service to men and a
living for the performer of the service. Sometimes Quakers have been highly rewarded;
sometimes they have not been rewarded at all. What seems important to me is
not what a person does, but how one does it. [Is one passionate or passing the time? Is one working for the betterment of their clients or their bank
accounts? Am I building something lasting and not building frustration and
resentment?]
We may find that our work doesn’t fully
express our desire to be of ser- vice to be of service to others. [We may do service
connected to our worship community]. We may find that with all of this, we haven’t
kept enough time for our families. We are brought up sharp when we realize some
family members have been neglected. Would
we have troubles with our children if we played with them more? Have we saved
time for our friends? [Rather than competitive sports], I imagine Jesus camping,
climbing, fishing, hoeing a garden, or observing birds. These activities are contemplative
& enjoyable, & in keeping with my experience of worship. It isn’t easy to
be present where you are and to turn with spontaneous joy to each new activity. But it is the es- sence of the simple life.
V. MONEY—How we spend our money is nearly as important as how we
spend our time; the 2 are related. 18th century Quaker overseers did
very frank probes of how Friends made & spent their money. Quaker bankers
of that period were patronized because they could be trusted. Simple business
honesty was apparently that rare. We wouldn’t submit to inquiries into our economic
activities today. How do our economic
activities square with what we know of God’s will? The tool of money has been
elevated to the position of being a good in itself.
Then,
there is the prudery connected with our views of money; we don’t talk about how
much we make. [We have numerous euphemisms or weasel words to avoid admitting
we are rich]. Euphemism has a firm & largely
unre- cognized grasp on economics, whether we are talking about richness or poverty. [Those of us who grew up during the Depression]
and have the fear of poverty burnt into our souls, spent the next 30 years in exorcizing
the devil of poverty by creating the affluent society. Young people laugh at our
fear of poverty.
The
fact is that we are affluent. We can afford
to address poverty and the environment. Though
we have made little progress in these areas as yet, we do envision them as goals.
When we explore our personal spending, we find that they are all tainted.
People buy locks, guns, police departments, armies out of fear. People buy
useless things, and “replace” things that do not yet need to be replaced. I
look to Woolman as a good economic guide. I respect his refusal to pay for the
products of cruelty and brutal exploitation. I do not share his belief in lack. He assumed that production was either so limi- ted
or so demanding of time and energy that consumption must be confined to the essentials. If we look at production without guilt or fear,
we see abun- dance on all sides.
VI. FOOD,
SHELTER AND CLOTHING—In my life it is
my choice, my economic vote that is my responsibility. Food, clothing & shelter
make up the largest single group of expenditures in the family budget. For me
the claims of beauty are as great as the claims of utility. We all have to eat,
but we don’t have to make eating unpleasant. When my family sits down to dinner,
we use a mo- ment to be grateful for: the gifts given us; togetherness &
health; food lovingly prepared; & fruits of the garden. Sometimes while working
in the garden I feel like Antaeus, who gained strength every time he touched the ground his mo- ther Earth. I can accept that others enjoy raising & killing animals
… that God made us hunters, herders, & fisherman.
I
don’t think that the use of alcohol or tobacco is detrimental to the body or
mind—only the misuse. The Puritan dichotomy of total abstinence or immo- derate abuse
has done a great deal of harm in this country. Moderation, not abstinence is the
answer. The Chinese, the ancient Jewish & the Italian have solved the problem
of alcoholism. These people enjoyed the God-given fruits of the earth in moderation
& by social pressure severely condemned excess.
As for tobacco, not even the
Surgeon General condemns the Indian pipe of peace. And I have as little use for
aspirin as for heroin. I feel that Fox and I are close together in our
attitudes toward clothing. Many Friends today dress in a modern counterpart of
his simple durable clothes of good quality, in the long run the cheapest way. Fortunately
our highly developed clothing industry permits individual expression at bargain
rates.
My home
& other homes of Friends are beautiful places, with symmetry, interplay of color,
views of nature, marks of use, welcoming openness. Most Friends have outgrown
that bane which is the collection of things. I find myself being very careful about
purchasing tools & machines [to avoid buying things that aren’t really needed].
I think of our house as a lovely, but temporary, expression of the family’s way
of life. Jesus didn’t want us to be improvident when he told us to consider the
lilies of the field. But he didn’t want us
to be tyrannized by things.
VII. EDUCATION AND OTHER ITEMS—Education is an expense I would like to see grow, for
to provide for ourselves & our children with an exci- ting and joyful education
is truly to lay up a treasure in heaven. [Learning a language, cultivating a passion
for] biology, music, expression, literature, histo- ry, or numbers—these gifts we
carry through life, in prison poverty & lone- liness. Yet how niggardly is our society
with its expenditures for education. It is not that we do not know the needs of education. The education of 2 children takes up about 1/5 of our family budget, and I wish it were more.
Travel
is the next significant expense down the line. I look forward to this one
coming down as I grow. As the inhumanity
of air travel increases, perhaps we will be more content to quietly cultivate
our gardens among old friends and companions. [As far as taxes are concerned],
I wish I could pay more to our financially starved cities and states, [and much
less to federal taxes for war]. Our doctors’ bills are not much more than the medical
insurance, that tax levied by the most effective trade union in all history. [Charity
is all too small a portion of total expenses]. A Contingency fund is important,
as is not to have to plan closely down to the last dollar. I look forward to
the time when I will be less and less dependent on things. Like most people, I have far to go.
VIII. SPEECH—Honest and clear speech has always been a Quaker ideal; avoiding inflation is a basic need. Dante placed the flatterers deep down
in hell, deeper than the carnal, the violent, the seducers. Using status symbols in speech was and is one
of the most insidious forms of flattery.
The custom of avoiding titles has survived among almost all Quakers. [It
is important that plain direct speech not be used as an aggressive weapon. It rarely
helps to have our illusions insensitively publicized. When we are exchanging ideas
and feelings, we have to be inspired by love, respect others genuinely, &
have faith in their ability to face truth.
Euphemism
reigns happily in many areas. It takes courage to face old age and death,
especially one’s own, but we make fools of ourselves when we try to hide from
it. [Military action, prisons and truth in advertising are buried under an
avalanche of euphemism]. Close to
euphemism is the use of lan- guage as a smoke screen for our true thoughts, [especially
in the use of tech- nical language]. In the presence of God one gradually outgrows
the need for pretense; it is just too silly. It is easy for me to visualize a
truly Godly person who is also [lovingly] funny in delivering unexpected
insights from being in God’s presence.
IX. THE FULLNESS OF TIME—The conclusions which I am trying to reach are good mainly
for me. Would it not be useful for each Friend to have one’s own idea of simplicity? How
do I stand in the Light? What is God’s will for me? How did I spend my time in
this [pick period]? Do I do my job in a Godly way? What extra service can I [do
I] do? How do I find re-creation? Do I spend money to get what I really need? What are my favorite ways of avoiding truth in speech? When the full- ness of my time comes, I pray that my mind & life may be so clarified & sim- plified that I easily step over the life/death boundary in the presence of
God.
Richie; 1973)
About the Author—David Richie may be [one of] the last Americans to retire in the house where his life began, in 1908 in Moorestown, New Jersey. In 1934 the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) sponsored the 1st American workcamp. David Richie & his soon-wife, Mary Wright of Norristown worked there. After directing camps in several later summers, David Richie invented weekend workcamp. In weekend workcamps, the leadership & com- munity relations were ongoing; the personnel constantly changes. It has been David’s great gift to be able to center the whole experience in a very practical & dauntless love. MILDRED BINNS YOUNG
You can count the seeds in an apple,
but you cannot count the apples in a seed.”
I. HOW IT ALL BEGAN—[If the thoughts that follow] carry any meaning &
challenge to others, I can only be glad. A loving father & mother got me star- ted,
& 3 lively brothers with whom I rubbed off some of the rough spots. At Christmas
we stuffed stockings, & went to the Bedford Street Mission North Philadelphia breadlines. We Quakers were asked to arbitrate a dis- pute over distribution, which we listened to, and then offered a
compromise at 2 am .
There
had been volunteer workcamps in Europe since 1921, inspired by Pierre Ceresole. The AFSC, in
1934, sought to provide educational opportunity for pacifist & non-pacifists
students to better understand economic & social injustices which cause violence,
& the plight of human beings trapped by in- justice. Hard & healthy physical
work & joyous, though rugged camp living made a great impact. That & a
spirited, black-haired, bright-eyed young woman. On the camp’s last night, I
asked her to be my wife, which she became on a rainy June 8th, 1935 .
Mary
& I were called from our honeymoon to help cope with the crisis that resulted
when the Hosiery Workers Union realized the workcamp group was inter-racial & we
had to renovate & stay at the Stephen Decatur Man- sion Bedford Street Center Kater Street Tunesassa Friends Indian Boarding
School
In
1937, we visited Wilmer & Mildred Young at the Delta Cooperative Farm near Clarksdale , MS Reading , PA
In 1942, one of the hosiery
workers invited us to bring a work-camp to help build a coop at Twin Pines
Homestead Community. I told the Draft Board that I felt “called” to continue the
weekend workcamps, and would refuse any other service, no matter how constructive.
I felt that accepting even alternative service would be accepting conscriptive
service. The testimony of a returned war veteran as to my sincerity moved the Board
to stretch the law and classify me as a minister, which I was not.
A meditation
came to Mary & I about how Simon of Cyrene reacted to having to carry Jesus’
cross. For the most part it was no big deal, until: “I sud- denly saw something else.
I’d made his journey easier, but it was a journey to his death. By doing the soldier’s
command, I had helped to crucify him.”
[Later I performed a service for an arrested Lutheran minister that led to the head- lines]: “Quaker Bails Out Draft Dodger with Defense Bonds.”
II. WEEKEND WORKCAMPING—In 1940, after the 1st Reading camp, my
once-in-a-lifetime idea dawned—weekend workcamp, organized to attract less
socially conscious young people and helping them to grow in awareness and
commitment to social justice and brotherhood through work that is “love made
visible,” crowded into a weekend. [Wilmer Young was very impressed with the
idea]. Miss Claudia Grant, director of Wharton Settlement in North Philadelphia welcomed the 1st weekend workcamp to the nursery school;
the 1st campers were veteran summer volunteers. The stream of volinteers ebbed and flowed but never stopped.
It later
led one former Dutch volunteer to move in with a mentally chal- lenged mother of 5
in Australia Friends College
[We
would work in the homes of difficult children with amazing results; we would help
a sober alcoholic fix up his house. I invited a big, menacing teen ager to break
up wooden boxes for his own firewood, & turned his sullen dis- belief into
pride when the wood was delivered to his house. He eagerly did the same work
for the next 4 weeks. We worked with a] family whose 2 boys were going to be
taken away for burning down a nearby house after a beating from their drunken
father.
I doubt if that family was ever happier than those weekends we worked
together fixing their home. Once we struggled to lay 100 yards of pipe for running
water all in 1 weekend. The supervising plumber said, “I couldn’t get anyone to
work that hard for love nor money.” A camper
digging the ditch replied: “Most likely you never tried love.” OUR WEEKEND WORK PRAYER: May the Will of God
be done by us./ May the Love of God be shared by us./ May the sons of God be
served by us./ May this be our honest prayer each day./ To work in love is our
way to pray.
III. QUOTES FROM MY POLISH LOG—In February, 1946, I was sud- denly asked by AFSC to go
overseas to organize workcamps in Poland
I wrote:
“I must really test out preaching about loving and helping others to see if I
can still believe in it, even when the going gets tough … All about are
evidences of man’s search in the darkness for the secrets of physical life and
laws … The results have been astounding to anyone with even half a mind to be
grateful. Have we tried as hard to bring our purposes and practices into harmony with the
universe’s spiritual laws [as we have with its physical laws]? When will we clarify our purpose, discipline our
selfishness, and wholeheartedly love the Good … and obey the law of love?”
“Rad
Kossowski, a Polish refugee returning from 7 years of exile in Ca- nada poured
out a most moving account of years in Russian prison camps, and the ordeal
during the German occupation … I must never blame anyone for whatever reaction
they make to such brutality, or for their infliction of bru- tality on others when manipulated by the coercion and propaganda of warped minds.” [We arrived
in Gdansk
“Instead
of workcamps, I was assigned instead to truck-driving, delive- ring relief
supplies. At the end of each day’s run, the children too old to get relief
rations planted and cultivated a garden with me. They were rewarded by all the Quaker
cocoa they could drink and bread covered with peanut butter; I was rewarded with
their friendship. The identification bracelet my wife had given me on
departure said on the visible side “Bóg
Jest Milość,” “God is love.” It helped disarm hostility, bring cordial welcome,
and make young friends.” [Could a group of young idealists, some disillusioned,
some skeptical about God, some deeply religious], make a significant dent? “There
was hardly any crisis to challenge my basic faith. I long for the day when my work is such an eloquent
act of worship that those lives I touch are really touched.
IV. FINLAND Finland
[How
do I evaluate the past 3 months in Finland
It was
a far cry from the American “Rubbing their faces in the dirt” ap- proach of our workcamps.
I persuaded one group of workcampers to experi- ment with the value of an early
morning “quiet time.” At least a beautiful and holy love has been aroused and
where that will lead I guess we can trust to the Source of that love. In their silent searching and the love of God
they will be rightly led. A Finnish friend lovingly criticized me, saying, “David,
your camps have been too much David-centered and not enough Christ-centered.”
There
is nothing more significant I can contribute to the peace of Europe
than what I contributed to the strengthening of the [intra-European] workcamp movement.
It in turn contributed: a witness against war and for social justice & brotherhood
economics; an incarnation of the democratic spirit; affirmation of the religious
hypothesis as the only hypothesis [that addresses the other con- tributions].
Sampa
Tolsa wrote an interpretation of work-camping the following Christmas: “Our comradeship in the workcamps has brought
the ultimate melody of our existence to come near to me … Each of us has been given
the unique talent to make God live, by our every deed and doing which we perform
unconditioned and without reservation as a natural act of our heart ... Do not
keep your candle covered. Do not be shy to love. You have been given the
potential to shine as a Christmas candle all the way through.”
V. LUCIMIA AND THE POISON OF HATRED—“More than a year after I had left home, the Polish workcamp
I had hoped to set up on arrival, became a reality on the Vistula riverbanks south
of Warszawa in July 1947. [I man- aged to] produce a collection of 19 volunteers from
Polish universities, to be joined later by Swiss and English campers. We were located
near the com- pletely destroyed village of Lucimia
“We
had crisis involving Polish Communists and Germans. One of our campers and
“co-leaders-in-training” [persuaded & charmed] the Polish Com- munist officer
to provide us with supplies for our outdoor school. I suggested that they invite
a German Catholic to visit the camp, but feeling in the camp against Germans was
still too bitter. One camper did meet with
the priest months later and had “a lot to tell.”
“When
I stopped at the Freundschaftsheim of the German pacifist, Wilhelm Mensching, his
daughter Hanna asked me for the name of a possible Polish pen pal. [She received
an understandably bitter reply from the person I suggested. That same person, Wanda, became the 1st Polish
staff member in the Freundschaftsheim family. At a German workcamp I met Anneke
from Holland
[As
I was riding in a car] down a quiet rural road, we caught up with a young boy on a boy’s sized bicycle. I was
gripped by a powerful urge … to jump out & strangle that boy. I shook
physically for seconds afterward. I had been conditioned, poisoned, by the Poles’ agonies that I had only “witnessed” 2nd-hand.
[I later protested that no one seemed to care what had happened in Poland
VI. THE
WORLD A FRIENDLY HOME—The AFSC asked me
to return to Europe for the summer of 1948 to provide leadership “from alongside”
in Poland Finland Germany West Germany Poland Finland Vietnam Germany
My German
interpreter said: “You don't know how long I have prayed for an American who believes as you do.” In 1957, I was asked to serve as co- leader of
a Finnish camp in Lapland helping isolated refugee families clearing land and building
barns. In the fall of 1957 I was given the opportunity to fly to India
“We can find a basis for peace and fellowship
with the Russian people. This does not mean we must trust people we know we cannot
trust. It does mean that we must try to
love people whom we think we cannot trust
and trust God. “Our hope for a better future is not based on our doing, or not doing,
this or that. It is based on the revelation of God’s Eternal Love in the life and
crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Christ loved
like that because God loves like that.
God’s love in Christ, Christ’s love in us—here is our ultimate hope.”
VII. AFRICA / VIII. THE SPIRIT IN THE GARDEN--—The 1st of 6 won- der-filled tours of Africa
came in 1960, promoting and participating in multi- racial work-camps, even in South Africa
[In
South Africa
Just
about the only way that we in America South Africa America
In
poverty-stricken Lesotho Southern
Africa toward the King- dom of God
The
suffering that Jesus took upon himself was suffering that resulted from man’s animalistic
selfishness, his callous exploitation of his fellows, his ruthless violence.
Jesus could rightly pray, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do.” This suffering continues today and much more needlessly. We should know
better. Regardless of what others do,
each of us can be stripped and purified of at least a fraction of our animal
selfishness by exposing ourselves to God’s love as revealed in Jesus. Thus we
can become usable, thus we can each have a share in building the city that has lain
too long a dream … this I have come to know in workcamp.http://www.pendlehill.org/product-category/pamphlets
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191. Feminine aspects of divinity (by Erminie Huntress Lantero;
1973)
“In Divine Science we have not as much
authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him
feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity” (Mary Baker Eddy)
“I am thy bride [Wisdom tells him] &
thy longing after my power is my drawing to myself. I sit on my throne, but
thou knowest me not. I am in thee, but
thy body is not in me . . . I am the light of the mind” (Jacob Boehme).
For she is a
reflection of eternal light/, a spotless mirror of the working of God/, and an
image of his goodness./ Though she is but one, she can do all things/ and while
remaining in herself, she renews all things/ In every gene- ration she passes
into holy souls/ and makes them friends of God and pro- phets… (Wisdom of
Solomon).
About the Author—Ermine Huntress Lantero spent 4 years at Pendle Hill
(1938-1942) as librarian & 1st editor of Inward Light. She taught Bible and religion at Wellesley and Sweet
Briar. She is preparing books: Space,
Time, and Deity: A Pilgrimage through Science Fiction and …Fantasy; & The Femi- nine Aspects of Divinity.
The Divine
Image—In recent years there has been
growing recognition that religious language of the Judeo-Christian tradition is
over-weighted with masculine symbolism, a [result of] patriarchal
domination. “He” is at least better than
“it.” Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) and
Mary Baker Eddy were early signs of feminine rebellion. Mary Baker Eddy said: “In Divine Science we have not as much authority
for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for
Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.”
We find her ba- lanced view of a Father-Mother God right and
valuable.
Masculine symbols are dominant & male theologians
have frozen them into patterns of abstraction; but the feminine images are also
there, awaiting fuller appreciation which we were not ready for till now. In
the Genesis 1:27 verse about creating “man” in God’s image, “male &
female” is parallelism, not a change of subject. While individuals belong to
one sex or the other, we are androgynous in the sense of having both male and
female hormones, as well as potential character traits traditionally
associated with both sexes. That a
solitary male God should claim to be a Father who begot a Son, strikes the primitives and Far-Eastern cultures as nonsense.
Quakers were in a position to know that God was
Spirit. In the Friends lifestyle, a rare degree of equality between men &
women was insured by their realistic acknowledgment of “that of God” in every
human. The Inward Light, a reality present to their individual & collective
experience, was no more mascu- line than feminine.
The
Contra-sexual Balance—Archaeology
shows that from the Medi- terranean lands to the Indus Valley
Moses and the Hebrews carried on a heroic struggle to
depose the god Baal and the goddess Astarte in all forms. But they acknowledged a polarity of gender or
“contra-sexuality” on the transcendental level in other ways. In the Genesis creation story, sexuality and
fertility are not His attributes but his inventions. Nature is separated off from God and made
available for man’s use according to Divine command, even for man’s
dominion. Some Old Testament (OT)
scholars see this story as a radical secularization of the earth; reduced to a
mere creature, deprived of holiness. [It
has been misinterpreted this way, ignoring] passages that instill reverence and
a sense of stewardship; the earth is holy,
though in a way that is entirely new.
Sometimes God commands; at other times God’s creation
by word and earth’s bringing forth seem to constitute a joint creative act. In the tragedy of Adam and Eve, is the serpent really the devil, or
something less sinister? [Does God] feel
Himself threatened by their
curiosity and lèse-majesté (violating royal rights)? The prophets speak of Israel Israel Israel Israel Jerusalem
Sophia, the
friend of Man—Wisdom books, [both
biblical and apocry- phal], are as a rule ascribed to Solomon, but they are
collections from many sources over many centuries. Job and Ecclesiastes are also wisdom
literature, protests against the complacent optimism of more orthodox teachers. “Wisdom” in Proverbs covers: folk wisdom;
skill or cunning; prudent maxims; moral maxims; wise rule; of insight and
understanding. According to Proverbs
8:22, Wisdom is a created entity, first of God’s creatures, who assisted in the
rest of creation. [Was Wisdom a master workman, advising God, and delighting i n the
results of Creation? Or was she a daughter, laughing and playing before God
like a child? Proverb 8:30 can be read either way.
She is a teacher & counselor, with affectionate
concern for humankind, the tireless instructor who teaches man how to live.
“The fear [reverent awe] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10 ). In Greek, Wisdom becomes Sophia. The Torah was personified by later writers as
God’s feminine consul- tant at the Creation.
In the New Testament (NT), she is equated with the Logos, which is
Christ and loses her feminine identity.
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) was both mystic and
philosopher. In his reconstruction of
the inner evolution of God-universe-man, the heavenly Virgin Sophia plays many
different roles: empty mirror of the
abyss; Mother of God; Divine Imagination; model of the universe; Eternal
Nature; man’s heavenly genius, bride of the soul, mother of the reborn. She knocks inwardly at the door of man’s
soul, or “hovers outwardly before him” in the beautiful or awe-in- spiring
aspects of the natural world, awaiting his acceptance of her as both Bride and
Mother.
[The Shaker Mother Ann Lee was seen as
manifesting God] “as the Eternal Mother & Wisdom.” Vladimir Soloviev
(1853-1900) was perhaps Russia
“At last I
realized that the Holy Spirit is the Mother Heart of the Holy Trinity. . . For
every yearning, God has made provision for its satisfaction. . . Every Christian should have the mother love
of the Holy Comforter” (Gene- vieve Parkhurst).
The Holy
Spirit as Mother—The OT Spirit of God
is grammatically but not noticeably feminine.
It has been Wisdom that unifies the world. [Using Spirit of God in the creation story]
is justifiable whatever the original writer meant, since it was understood
throughout our era as meaning that Spirit which was involved in the creation
and could be taken poetically as feminine. The Hebrew verb translated as “was moving” [could be translated
“hovered” or “brooded” [like a] mother bird over her cosmic egg. In the NT, the Spirit uses the form of a dove, which had long been the bird of the Mother-Goddess.
[Over the years] the Spirit is transmuted by the
alchemy of a unique series of historic experiences from a broad cosmic principle
to a specific dyna- mic associated with Christ.
Christ promised to send a Counselor or Spirit of Truth. In the NT the Spirit is masculine where it is
personal at all. Only in fringe sects
whose writings are mostly lost was the Spirit still thought of as
feminine. In any case the all-masculine
Trinity became dogma. Genevieve
Parkhurst said: “At last I realized that
the Holy Spirit is the Mother Heart of the Holy Trinity. . . Every Christian should have the mother love
of the Holy Comforter.”
Mary as
Mediator—The most obvious &
effective way in which Chris- tendom reinstated the Divine Mother was in the
veneration of the Virgin Mary. The exaltation of Mary did not get under way
immediately. Both Mary & the Church were seen as the 2nd Eve,
who by their obedience undid the disobe- dience of the 1st Eve. The
belief in her perpetual virginity, her bodily Assump- tion into heaven, & her
exaltation all began in the 5th century.
When theologians removed Christ from the
sphere of human feeling, whatever understanding, compassion, maternal
tenderness, etc. the common folk once found in Jesus of Nazareth, they now had
to find in Mary. She was seen as
[devoted to those who were devoted to her].
Around the 15th century, Mary’s Immaculate Conception was
introduced; i.e. she was miraculously freed from the otherwise universal taint
of original sin by the retroactive grace of her Son. [New doctrines like this] were gradually made
explicit as the Spirit led the Church into all truth.
In the last 150 years there have been a number of
“apparitions” of Mary, leading to forms of devotion that Rome
The Shekinah
as Presence in Exile—In the first few
centuries A.D., Aramaic versions of the OT introduced the word “Shekinah”
(literally “indwel- ling), as the feminine mediating principle between God and
man. The Jeru- salem Israel
Shekinah is God's 10th attribute in Kabbalism’s Zohar: the Kingdom, the mystical Community, the Bride. Due to a primordial Fall long before Adam,
the Shekinah is in exile while the world lasts.
The exile of the Shekinah is a genuine symbol of the “broken” state of
things in the realm of divine potenti- alities.”
Any true marriage, according to the Kabbalah, becomes a symbolic
realization of the love between the King and His Shekinah; it helps to heal the
wounded heart of God.
Comfort,
Life, And Fire of Love—Sophia, Spirit
and Shekinah may be seen as somewhat different but overlapping bands of the
total spectrum of Divinity as immanent in the universe and in man; all three
are closely related to the Quaker Inward Light.
[As one opens one’s self to a dialogue with one’s dream symbols, what
were once highly personal figures may allow universal symbols to break through
with a sensing of divinity; fantasy may be intensified into genuine vision.
Athena is the Greek equivalent of Sophia; being better
known to our culture and portrayed in art, she is more available to pictorial
imagination. “Comforter,” in the Latin
is literally Strengthener; it can suggest anything from a soft maternal bed
quilt to Luther’s ruggedly masculine “mighty fortress.” God is One in all the aspects [I have used
here]. God has been & is as much a matter of vivid first-hand experience as any encounter with a specific
aspect. The Inward Lights leading into
unity would make no sense whatever unless God were a unity. God graciously expresses Himself in whatever
aspects are necessary to enable us to apprehend Him, through all our ages of
cultural change. There is an element of
paradox here, but no contradiction.
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192. Dialogue with the Other: Martin Buber & the Quaker Experience
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192. Dialogue with the Other: Martin Buber & the Quaker Experience
(by Janet E. Schroeder; 1973)
About the Author—Janet Schroeder believes that "religion is all of life." The immediacy & warmth of her pamphlet is an expression of this. She & her husband have been part of Bryn Gweled Homestead, an intentional, inter-racial community in Bucks County. She continues to study whenever courses speak to a "Way of Life"; she took Maurice Friedman's courses on Martin Buber. A class in Inter-religious Dialog sparked the present pamphlet.
About the Author—Janet Schroeder believes that "religion is all of life." The immediacy & warmth of her pamphlet is an expression of this. She & her husband have been part of Bryn Gweled Homestead, an intentional, inter-racial community in Bucks County. She continues to study whenever courses speak to a "Way of Life"; she took Maurice Friedman's courses on Martin Buber. A class in Inter-religious Dialog sparked the present pamphlet.
I—While the the new synagogue was being built in Bucks County, the Jewish congregation shared Southhampton Friends Meetinghouse with Friends. On a particular Sunday after the synagogue had been completed, the meeting room was well filled with both Jews and Christians. The rabbi quo- ted the Sermon on the Mount from memory, and said how these words lived for him in his everyday experiences. I said, "I am coming to know the Living God through the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. When a Friend said to him "I want to know how to live the life of spirit," Martin responded, "You Quakers believe that God speaks to you in the silence. I believe God speaks in everything we say & everything we do. What had been said recognized and accepted our differences and still found unity possible.
II—I only know God as God has spoken to me in the experiences of the everyday. I would like to share with you some of the various methods for corporate as well as individual worship experiences. What is the relation- ship to the dialogue between man and man, and between God and man? I believe the understanding of the dialog has been greatly influenced by Martin Buber & that he has made an great contribution to Friends. What is my own in religious experience, as over against what some have found to be that which is in common? In the kind of worship [mentioned earlier] there is a kind of conversation that takes place between God and humans, & between human and human when God is present.
Worship seems to contain a demand for the truth about one's self, as well as one's relationship with others. Williard L. Sperry calls the service for worship, "deliberate and disciplined adventure in reality." There are many ways in which the basic experience of communion with and love of, God can be [explained and acted out]. Much formal worship has followed a conventional pattern of praise, penitence, forgiveness. All have an element of similarity as they express the contrast that is felt between God as God is experienced by people, and the people themselves; the attempt is made in worship to reconcile this contrast. Humankind is always aware of the gap between what is and what ought to be, and that human striving to close that gap is a symp- tom of the love of God.
III—Friends described their worship to World Council of Churches dele- gates in 1948 as follows: "Worship ... is entirely without human direction, su- pervision, [or pre-arrangement] ... Each seeks ... divine leading and to know at 1st hand the presence of the Living Christ. The meeting is held on the basis of "Holy Obedience," [rather than Silence] ... The only way in which a Worshiper can help such a meeting is by an advanced determination to be responsive ... to the still small voice & doing whatever may be commanded, [whether silence or speech]." The good Lord may ask: Who is doing this speaking, you or me? A recognition of our corporate guilt and shortcomings is sometimes re- vealed to us through what is said. A Jewish child answered Why are we not doing more to stop it? with "We are all afraid."
Martin Buber describes genuine dialog as: "What I have to say at any one time already has in me the character of something that wishes to be ut- tered, and I must not keep it back ... [all of] it belongs to the common life of the word ... [Sometimes] the word arises in a substantial way between men who have been seized in their depths & opened out by the dynamic of an elemental togetherness. With the child's response, we are pointed towards re- cognizing & facing the fears that are often at the base of our reluctance to take action. The Jewish child brought honesty and simplicity to a Friends worship service.
IV—The "great acts of conscience" Martin Buber describes can never be reduced to a method. He writes: "The action [of conscience] commences within the relation between the guilty one & one's God & remains there-in. It is consummated in confession of sin, repentance, & penance. [The one spea- king to the guilty must] represent the transcendence believed in by the guilty one ... The action fulfills itself in self-illumination, perseverance, & reconcilia- tion ... A wholly personal, [courageous] ... conscience is possessed by every simple person who gathers one's self into one's self in order to venture the breakthrough out of the entanglement in guilt."
There are everyday events that we would like to have responded to differently. I find that the guilt is often resolved by a general knowledge of the way, which points towards: accepting one's share of responsibility; doing all possible repairs of the situation; using the mistake for growth & avoiding ano- ther; dismissing further thought on what happened & moving on. What hap- pens when we worship?: awareness of a Power beyond ourselves; ready to receive insights with open heart & mind; plan to act. True worship is a living, everyday Reality.
There are occasions, while sitting in the quiet of the meeting, when an idea, or a personal experience of my own, or of someone I know, will keep presenting itself to me. I may decide to dismiss it from my mind. Then comes a feeling of being "pushed" to share what is on my mind. When I speak without this sense of urgency, what I have had to say seemed to me to be not for real and fall lifeless. With the "urge," there is something that needs to be said, and I am here to serve as a channel. It is like being spoken through.
V—I find that Martin Buber's thinking has helped me to see ever more clearly the evidence of God's presence in life's daily experiences. There are many stories in Quaker lore that point out that when the response is made in the light of a belief that there is "that of God in each of us," the resulting actions can be most unpredictable. Stolen furniture has been returned in exchange for other usable but unwanted furniture. Martin Buber & Friends both use stories to show that great things happen in the everyday [e.g.] Tales of the Hasidim (2 volumes, by M. B.) & Friendly Caravan & Candles in the Dark. Martin Buber has a story similar to the Quaker one about stolen furniture. Buber, as an ele- mental story teller has spoken to me in my own stories describing God's pre- sence in everyday situations, instances in which God makes the demand & we are called upon to respond.
V—I find that Martin Buber's thinking has helped me to see ever more clearly the evidence of God's presence in life's daily experiences. There are many stories in Quaker lore that point out that when the response is made in the light of a belief that there is "that of God in each of us," the resulting actions can be most unpredictable. Stolen furniture has been returned in exchange for other usable but unwanted furniture. Martin Buber & Friends both use stories to show that great things happen in the everyday [e.g.] Tales of the Hasidim (2 volumes, by M. B.) & Friendly Caravan & Candles in the Dark. Martin Buber has a story similar to the Quaker one about stolen furniture. Buber, as an ele- mental story teller has spoken to me in my own stories describing God's pre- sence in everyday situations, instances in which God makes the demand & we are called upon to respond.
VI—Method of worship could be described as human response to God through awareness, humility, enlighten and movement toward what one is called to be. We need then to ask themselves, in moving from method to content, what do we mean by the word "God"? Buber speaks of God as "the Thou that I meet in the everyday." Quakers say: "Those who have experienced the 'Inner Light' or achieved awareness of God within, have moved from symbol to reality."
Maurice Friedman tells us that, after a friend's question and some re- flection, Buber decided: "If to believe in God means to be able to talk about God in the 3rd person, I do not. "But if to believe in God means to say 'Thou' to God, then I do." One of the outstanding aspects about Buber's lectures was his refusal to answer any questions about God. He felt that such questions were turning God into an object. How does God address man? Buber's answer, I believe, would be, through the dialogue. God's voice of address is heard again and again, and Buber speaks of it as a voice to which one either does or does not listen and respond. He looks upon it as "a terrible thing when one does not hear or listen."
VII—We now find ourselves in a religious crisis. It may be that faith has taken a new direction—one more centered in everyday experience & less in religious institutions. There is a need to be part of a community that lends sup- port to us when we are able to respond with our lives bravely to what God is demanding of us. A young homemaker who trusted a hungry young stranger with her keys & the contents of her 'fridge was rewarded with a note when she got home: "You have given me new reason to live by trusting me. Now I can really try. Thanks." A meeting Friend wrote about how she was strongly led to speak & how someone was deeply moved by the her message's authentic nature, even though he could not hear what she was saying; [he confirmed the Spirit in her].
Confirmation does not have to be a corporate experience. [I was able to confirm a little East Indian granddaughter's beauty and belonging; she was confirmed that she] belongs somewhere in order to know she belongs every- where. The sacraments, for the Quakers happen in the "events of the every- day." "[I brought an 8 year-old concentration camp survivor into my home]; Susan needed a great deal of loving, as did my own little girl. [I baked some bread. Susan sniffed at the sweet aroma]. I cut off 2 end slices, giving one to Susan, the other to Carol. [Susan ate] & we danced around the kitchen; she yelled, "I love you! ... " The loaf of bread had become a staff of Life. To a child who has known starvation, a loaf of bread can become the most precious gift of love.
Confirmation does not have to be a corporate experience. [I was able to confirm a little East Indian granddaughter's beauty and belonging; she was confirmed that she] belongs somewhere in order to know she belongs every- where. The sacraments, for the Quakers happen in the "events of the every- day." "[I brought an 8 year-old concentration camp survivor into my home]; Susan needed a great deal of loving, as did my own little girl. [I baked some bread. Susan sniffed at the sweet aroma]. I cut off 2 end slices, giving one to Susan, the other to Carol. [Susan ate] & we danced around the kitchen; she yelled, "I love you! ... " The loaf of bread had become a staff of Life. To a child who has known starvation, a loaf of bread can become the most precious gift of love.
VIII—Jesus points the way when one looks into the depths of one's be- ing, with all its high as well as its low possibilities, and sees the Ideal, one's Image of Human. Buber looked upon the Bible as a mixture of "divine under- standing and human misunderstanding." Our need is to open ourselves to the Jesus' voice—to hear and to respond. Elton Trueblood writes: "[In] early Qua- kerism ... the revolutionary change ... was George Fox's recognition of the live possibility of immediate contact with Christ, who is alive. He heard within: 'There is one Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.' He said: 'I took men to Jesus Christ and left them there.' If contemporary Quakers can adopt this strategy, our future is full of hope."
George Fox also said: "that the Inner Light was synonymous with Christ, the light enlightens every man." To many Quakers the voice of Jesus has be- come lost in effort to be "open." There is need that the voice be heard again. Martin Buber is pointing the way. Quakers believe there is "that of God in every man," but in actual practice [there is resistance in fully acting that out]. We cannot say "Yes" to God, unless we can say "Yes" to our [co-humans]. We need to accept one, love one, as one is, and see also from that one's side. What characterizes the I-Thou, as Buber explains it, is a readiness to meet the other, & accept one just as that one is. The accepting, Buber believes, isn't "identifying" with, [becoming] the other, but "imagining the real" in the other.
Friends seeking unity entails presenting honestly and openly the oppo- sing points of views, and then trying to find a "between" which sometimes proves to be a better way than that presented by either side. Each situation has the possibility of allowing God to speak in it; it is a new creation to be grasped as such. [Buber]: "This is the ultimate purpose: to let God in. But we can let God in only where we really stand, where we live, where we live a true life. If we maintain holy intercourse with the little world entrusted to us, if we help the holy spiritual substance to accomplish it self in that section of Crea- tion in which we are living, then we are establishing, in this our place, a dwelling for the Divine Presence."
Friends seeking unity entails presenting honestly and openly the oppo- sing points of views, and then trying to find a "between" which sometimes proves to be a better way than that presented by either side. Each situation has the possibility of allowing God to speak in it; it is a new creation to be grasped as such. [Buber]: "This is the ultimate purpose: to let God in. But we can let God in only where we really stand, where we live, where we live a true life. If we maintain holy intercourse with the little world entrusted to us, if we help the holy spiritual substance to accomplish it self in that section of Crea- tion in which we are living, then we are establishing, in this our place, a dwelling for the Divine Presence."
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193. The available mind (by Carol R. Murphy; 1974)
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193. The available mind (by Carol R. Murphy; 1974)
The Great method of prayer is to have
none. If in going to prayer one can form
in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suf- fice for all method. Prayer should be
accomplished by grace & not by artifice.
St. Jeanne De Chantal
About the
Author—This the 11th
pamphlet from Carol R. Murphy's pen, who has been exploring the roles of
reason, revelation, and mystical experi- ence in the mature religious faith. In the present essay she surveys some of the
new thinking about meditation and
suggests that even those who haven't yet become adepts in contemplation can
live in a greater state of awareness with minds available to the Holy Spirit.
While walking
in the woods one day, I realized how
little under disci- pline my thoughts were.
My mind, like an untrained puppy, was galloping off to roll in a mire of
self-pity, yap angrily at some unwelcome idea, or sniff at an ap- proaching
chore. [Efforts at] prayer cause only acute fits of
self-conscious ef- fort in those whose faith is precarious at best. The mind has tides of its own, and cannot be
forced to think about what it is not ready [for].
[Busy minds do not] naturally turn to pleasant
thoughts. Thinking is both the vice and
virtue of the active mind. I begin to
classify preoccupations in [TV terms:
commercials (self-justification); public service messages (warnings of
duties); coming attractions (expected events). The peak experiences we trea- sure come, if at all, from a hard-to-attain
heightened awareness of the present.
[Anything which brings a fresh perspective, like travel or seasonal
change, or a different focus for our attention like exertion] can bring a minor
ecstasy. What does all this awareness of Now have to do with the search for
God? If we are to be ready for God’s
presence, we must be able to shut up and listen.
Inner
Silence—If a mystical sort of experience is made the basis of religion, how can
we know if it tells the truth about reality?
Most of us have to find some
sort of religious belief without any blissful certainty of union with the
Ultimate. If the mind expands its scope,
it is expanding its view of reality or discovering an alternative view of
reality. The meditator can: [focus on one symbol of his religious faith];
become [through his mind a non-distor- ting mirror which accepts & relinquishes
every event that flows through his awareness; or he can enter the shaman’s or
visionary’s perilous world of dreams and vision.
[One type of meditator] uses his ability to become
habituated to a con- stant sight or sound until it vanishes from awareness
leaving a void. He is trying to break up [or “stop”] a customary way of
organizing his consciousness so that a new vision or revelation of reality
becomes possible. If you learn to “stop” your [inner] world you may be able to
enter an alternative world. The brain’s right hemisphere is the
gestalt-perceiving, image-making, artistic, simultan- eous-thinking half;
scientists need this part of the brain for inventive leaps & new
discoveries.
The Mystical
Alternative—One vision is not “hallucination”
& another “objective reality. What we call “reality” includes the
interpreting mind. The more
complementary interpretations there are to enrich each other, the better. A
Believer may say that all is perfect divine harmony; I must be true to my ex- perience of an imperfect, tragic, absurd world. We must be open to this alter- native reality even when we cannot enter it ourselves.
Arnold Koestler offers the theory that in weaving
together temporal events, there is along with the warp of causality, the weft of
[non-logical chance events that nonetheless] weave the threads of temporal
events together in patterns of coincidental encounters. We can begin to realize that, however distinct
in logic, spirit and matter actually do interpenetrate. The alternative world is a restructuring of
our everyday world so that it can intersect with real power. We participate in creating the world we live in
from moment to moment; so does God, of course.
If we create in harmony with God, we live in God’s world.
The
Ambiguity of Power—Before the saint,
there was the shaman. His magical use of power can be called pre-moral, rather
than amoral or diabolic. [A shaman knows] places of power, wrestles with power,
[trusts in] the “walk of power,” Our Establishment religion has many ways of
dealing with a lack of spiritual power: [shrewd politics]; pietism;
salesmanship; private hypocrisy. How
many Friends Meetings are the powerhouses of shared contemplation they were
meant to be?
Jesus was ambivalent about his use of power for a good
reason. The divine can become demonic if there is the least bit of love of
power instead of love of people. True contemplative spirituality is enlargement
of consciousness, attainment of power, [and]
conquest of self. Living [gradually & unconsciously into] a life of
commitment, beginning unawares and proceeding step by step is a more genuine
way than a conscious resolve to be a self-sacrificing Christian. The mind and body together [need to be] an outward
expression of the life of meditation.
The
Non-violent Life/Expectancy—Which comes first—meditation or way of life? [Meditation
without knowing how to live is a near-empty si- lence]. Life without meditation becomes dead
conformity. W. D. Norwood writes: “[A master of judo’s] willingness to be
struck in order to help is al- most a definition of love. [This attitude] can be extended to every
circum- stance of life, a continuously aware, non-calculating, non-antagonistic
“grooving” with the movement of events. In traditional Catholic spirituality, this is known as abandonment to the will of God in every moment. If I can't fight my endless chains of thought, I must flow with them.
Expectancy I think is a very fruitful quality in
the available mind. A hea- ler finds the expected healing; the healer helps to
create it. It is probably ne- cessary for
it to be present in both healed & healer.
Is skepticism necessa- rily the
villain of [circumstances calling for expectancy? When does expectancy become gullibility?
In consulting the Chinese I Ching the student must be open to the pos- sibility that
psychokinesis or the synchronous weft of life will [make the sticks or coins
fall so as to] direct one to the proper part of the book. In the Chinese
view reality has a complementary dualism. The Chinese encoded this in 64
hexagrams showing all combination of yang
and yin elements in earth, man and
the heavens, and each ready to slide into the other configurations.
I will liken
3 basic Chinese concepts to the Trinity.
T’ai Chi is the Uni- versal
Principle, the Ground of Being (Godhead). The Tao or Way to be fol- lowed in seeking harmony with the Ultimate;
this is the Logos, though not in- carnated. Tao
enters our own minds to guide us as Teh,
and can be likened to the Holy Spirit.
Probably all religious descriptions must have ultimate reality, its
expression in creation, and the response of the created.
Guidance/Humility—The I Ching,
provides no magic protection, but a series of cosmic “traffic signs,” leaving
you the adult responsibility to read and heed the “signs of the times” in order
to flow with the traffic. I Ching does not minimize hazards, but
displays optimism that all things can work together for good to the superior man. [The use of this ancient work gives] no
direct com- mand or prediction, but a mirror for the subconscious mind so that
the resul- tant augury comes from a creative interaction between the prophetic
state- ment and oneself.
[While liberals are concerned with and national
issues, others are con- cerned with personal financial & family issues] And there is no escape from the ambiguity of
inspiration & our obligation to interpret & to test it. Obeying God requires the investment of our
own responsibility and creativity. If indi- vidual inspiration can go astray,
what shall we say of testing by the con- sensus of a group? There is the danger of group-think & majority pressure to continue a wrong action.
What is needed is a “broken and contrite heart,” i.e. the ability to
admit error, to be able to change course 180 degrees if ne- cessary, out of faith
that the truth is larger than anyone’s ego.
The meditator must be open to enlarging the vision of one’s world.
The Leaven
in the World—Meditators will need
faith [in the relevance of their inward search] when they go out into the world
of social action. Be- cause unenlightened
and desperate action is wrong. Those who
can “stop the world” or attune themselves to the Tao, will go out from that
central experi- ence with spiritual power and do things with a difference. The “superior man” can show us how the judo
spirit of living agonistic encounters is more salutary to the commonweal than
hostilities to the point of annihilation. Ideally, neither party wins or loses; both are brought to tame their
opposed forces to the discipline of a shared pattern of coexistence.
We do have to use nature; but the meditator can help
us to do so, with the sense of kinship and wonder felt by the American Indians
toward animals & “our little vegetable redeemers.” In providing us with this leaven of
contem- plation, the meditator will meet with opposition and
[misunderstanding]. We who can't follow
all the way must be able to discern genuine meditators when they come among us
teaching and healing.
We must be open to the glimpse of the vision they try to make
real to us. I am still walking through
the woods, a meditator who never quite got star- ted, but at least we have
followed the argument. We need: inner
quiet; to flow with the conflicting/cooperating forces of life; expectancy,
enlarged aware- ness; humility, self-correction, rebirth. Abraham Heschel said: “The meaning of life is to build a life as if
it were a work of art.” And so the
available mind must become the available life.
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194. Quakerism of the Future: Mystical, Prophetic & Evangelical (by
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John Yungblut; 1974)
About the Author—After serving the Episcopal Church for 20 years, he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends in 1960. He was direc- tor of Quaker House, a civil rights & peace program in Atlanta, from 1960-1968. From 1968-1972 he was International Student House's director of the in Wa- shington, D.C. He and his wife taught at Pendle Hill. This essay is from the Henry J. Cadbury Lecture on March 27, 1974.
About the Author—After serving the Episcopal Church for 20 years, he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends in 1960. He was direc- tor of Quaker House, a civil rights & peace program in Atlanta, from 1960-1968. From 1968-1972 he was International Student House's director of the in Wa- shington, D.C. He and his wife taught at Pendle Hill. This essay is from the Henry J. Cadbury Lecture on March 27, 1974.
Beneath the currents which have shaped Christian thought there sounds like the fabled sunken bell, the strains of Mysticism. The mystic note floats up from the depths—now muffled, now clear. (E. Herman)
Introduction—I am saying here that the only Quakerism that can sur- vive in the future will have to mystical, prophetic, and evangelical. These are the very best elements in our tradition. It is the vital energy for which our insti- tutions have provided reasonably effective conductors that is most precious to us.
The mystical is most crucial, because it provides sustained motivation both for the prophetic involvement and the evangelical spirit. Rufus Jones saw Quakerism as a spiritual movement “showing deep affinities with Mysticism” and [sought] to interpret it in this light. Within the Society of Friends, a growing group would have us disclaim this heritage. [They do not see as] mystical the life-affirming religion of Jesus, Paul, and John in the New Testament (NT). It is true that no word has had such varying and conflicting connotations, or been more abused than “mysticism.” But there is no other word that will do ade- quate service. It is hard to describe the characteristic mystical experience. Eastern sages say: “He who says what it is doesn’t know, and he who knows, doesn’t say.”
Dean Inge defines it as: “The attempt to realize, in thought and feeling, the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the tem- poral.” George Fox said: “I knew experimentally that Jesus Christ enlightens” & “I now knew God by [personal] revelation.” William Penn wrote: “Wherefore stand still in thy mind, wait to feel something divine to prepare & dispose thee to worship God truly and acceptably. The Almighty’s power will break in, his spirit will work & prepare the heart, that it may offer up acceptable sacrifice.”
Robert Barclay’s thinking had aspects of the mystical, [but it was mixed with a low opinion of man; the Light within us] has nothing to with man’s own nature [and is separate from man’s soul]. Fox, Penn and Penington [disa- greed with the Light’s separateness from man], & believed that man was cap- able of moving toward perfection through obedience. Rufus Jones has con- vincingly traced the devastating passiveness of the 200-year Quietistic peri- od in Quaker history, at least in part, to Barclay’s despair of the natural man.
Insofar that Fox experienced the mystical, he did not need to have learned this from anyone else. The mystical faculty resides in all men and women by virtue of our shared humanity; it is the evolving edge in man. The mystical experience comes by grace. We can at least engage in purging. We can, by an effort of the will resolve to move toward the simple life in which we are not encumbered with possessions nor driven by an over-scheduled daily program. We can examine ourselves to see if moral duplicity in any of its many forms currently precludes the movement of the spirit in mystical experience. We can trust that when the wind of the Spirit does blow we will not be without an unfailing inward mariner who can keep us on course. [Such a] movement of the Spirit in our midst [is] the mark of a gathered or covered meeting.
The Prophetic—[When we consider all the mystical opportunities given us, all the calls to obedience, all that that early Quakers had to say, it comes down to] “but what canst thou say?” We must hold that Jesus was a mystic & a prophet because of his mystical consciousness of the Kingdom as a pre- sent reality. Lewis Benson says: “Fox identifies himself and the Quaker move- ment with the prophetic tradition & his oppressors as standing in the priestly tradition.” The mystical consciousness of Jesus’ presence and prophetic utter- ance through a meeting member lays at the heart of Quaker prophetic testimo- nies. Quietism conditioned Friends against genuine mystical experience and its prophetic demands.
It is no accident that the prophetic emphasis was recovered largely through men like Rufus Jones and Clarence Pickett. Prophetic action issuing from mystical identification gave birth to the American Friends Service Com- mittee. The want of a genuinely mystical theology tended to reduce the inci- dence of mystical experience & the passion for social protest among Friends.
It is no accident that the prophetic emphasis was recovered largely through men like Rufus Jones and Clarence Pickett. Prophetic action issuing from mystical identification gave birth to the American Friends Service Com- mittee. The want of a genuinely mystical theology tended to reduce the inci- dence of mystical experience & the passion for social protest among Friends.
[And now] when one looked in vain for movements reflecting the same idealism that earlier had motivated the civil rights and peace efforts, suddenly there began to spring up communal experiments. The true community to which they are committed is produced as much by grace as by dedicated effort, and must be recovered afresh every day. These [communal] life centers are poten- tial training cells which do at least insulate individuals for a season from much in our contemporary society that conditions them against seeking mystical consciousness.
The Evangelical—When I say that the Quakerism of the future must [include the] evangelical, [I think first of the fact that Early Friends attached to the Scriptures an importance second only to the revelation imparted by their mystical experience of Jesus as the Christ. Only a recognized organic connec- tion with our [gospel] tap root can prevent our withering. To have survival value I believe the Society of Friends must be evangelical in the sense of preser- ving a faith that is demonstrably and organically related to the gospels in the New Testament.
The Evangelical—When I say that the Quakerism of the future must [include the] evangelical, [I think first of the fact that Early Friends attached to the Scriptures an importance second only to the revelation imparted by their mystical experience of Jesus as the Christ. Only a recognized organic connec- tion with our [gospel] tap root can prevent our withering. To have survival value I believe the Society of Friends must be evangelical in the sense of preser- ving a faith that is demonstrably and organically related to the gospels in the New Testament.
The 2nd meaning assigned to the word “evangelical” is “those Protes- tant churches that emphasize salvation by faith in the atonement of Jesus.” A committee of evangelical Friends invited Friends of all groupings and called for “a national conference, guided by the Holy Spirit to seek a workable, chal- lenging and cooperative means for the Friends Church to be an active, enthu- siastic, Christ-centered, and Spirit-directed force in this day of revolution.” A spirit of gracious listening and hearing prevailed on that occasion. I do not look for consensus or organic unity in the foreseeable future. I understand my personal salvation in terms of being made whole. This kind of at-one-ment was realized in Jesus’ life. He became at one with himself and with God. I want to be disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, & to learn of him to live & to die.
Because of important continuing revelation I need to distinguish be- tween the Jesus of history and the evolving Christ myth. Myth is the only lan- guage religion can use to speak of the ultimate truths it perceives. Christ for me is God in man, the Son of man in the new sense of man’s successor. Though this Christ was revealed most fully in Jesus, we must not think any longer of Jesus and the Christ as identical. Jesus did not have 2 separate and distinct natures, one human and one divine. He had one nature, human, the very core of which is divine. Evangelical’s 3rd meaning is feeling the passion to spread the good news. The time has come to preach the faith we have resolved to practice.
We are the inheritors of a mystical faith; we are, all of us born mystics. In proportion as the mystical faculty is nourished and given scope in our lives we shall be driven to prophetic action. Our growing mystical consciousness shall transform us in evangelical Christians, bursting to share what we have learned about living in the Kingdom from Jesus of Nazareth. Fox revised “the truth of his day” in significant ways, in keeping with his world view and his per- sonal revelation. We are being more true to the spirit that was in Fox by adapting the myth to meet the demands of the [currently] revealed truths than by trying to return to his theology in all details. It is not Quakerism that must survive, but a Christian faith with the characteristics we described. I shall con- tinue to hope that the Society of Friends will become increasingly mystical, prophetic, and evangelical.
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195. Quaker Worship and Techniques of Meditation (by Scott Crom;
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195. Quaker Worship and Techniques of Meditation (by Scott Crom;
1974)
About the Author—Since 1960 Scott Crom and his family have resided or sojourned at Pendle Hill in a variety of capacities. He is currently on the Board of Managers. He and Nancy Crom are members of Rock Valley MM, held in their living room. The present pamphlet has its roots in a long standing interest in comparative philosophy and religion. “The immediate impetus came from: the general growing interest in techniques of meditation; [per- sonal contact with] Yoga; personal contact with Transcendental Meditation.
About the Author—Since 1960 Scott Crom and his family have resided or sojourned at Pendle Hill in a variety of capacities. He is currently on the Board of Managers. He and Nancy Crom are members of Rock Valley MM, held in their living room. The present pamphlet has its roots in a long standing interest in comparative philosophy and religion. “The immediate impetus came from: the general growing interest in techniques of meditation; [per- sonal contact with] Yoga; personal contact with Transcendental Meditation.
[Introduction]—There is a considerable range of opinion on the subject of Quaker worship in relation to techniques of meditation. [For some], Quaker worship and silence is a form of meditation, and some Quakers adopt symbolic positions in worship and [have simple rituals before or after worship]. I have heard people privately express uneasiness about such forms. I offer the fol- lowing considerations to show the advantages as well as the dangers which lie both in sheer innovation and in tradition for tradition’s sake.
Objections to Meditative Techniques—1st, meditation involves a pur- poseful activity; Quaker worship consists in “waiting upon the Lord.” There's no gimmick [which] coerces God to reveal God’s self, or by which we can assure that the Divine Source will speak to or through us during worship or any other time. In “dry spells” we can only believe and trust that the heavenly dew will come again and refresh our souls. Our fundamental duty and privilege is to worship God for what God is and does, regardless of any benefit that might accrue to us.
2nd, meditative techniques are for self-benefit. [Quaker] seeking for God by going into our inmost heart does not mean that our approach is for our own benefit. Most would say that we worship God because God is God, & the ap- propriate recipient of worship. [Other objections include]: the use of structured forms; the idea of a superior teacher or “guru”; exclusiveness or secrecy; me- ditation as thinking; methods based on philosophy/ religion very different from Christianity.
Objections to Meditative Techniques—1st, meditation involves a pur- poseful activity; Quaker worship consists in “waiting upon the Lord.” There's no gimmick [which] coerces God to reveal God’s self, or by which we can assure that the Divine Source will speak to or through us during worship or any other time. In “dry spells” we can only believe and trust that the heavenly dew will come again and refresh our souls. Our fundamental duty and privilege is to worship God for what God is and does, regardless of any benefit that might accrue to us.
2nd, meditative techniques are for self-benefit. [Quaker] seeking for God by going into our inmost heart does not mean that our approach is for our own benefit. Most would say that we worship God because God is God, & the ap- propriate recipient of worship. [Other objections include]: the use of structured forms; the idea of a superior teacher or “guru”; exclusiveness or secrecy; me- ditation as thinking; methods based on philosophy/ religion very different from Christianity.
Yoga, Hindu, and Buddhism [do not agree with] the spiritual pluralism of Christianity, with God as a different order of being, or that the world is a real and good place. Is it possible to take over a meditative technique for the sake of its psychological helpfulness, and to discard its philosophy? [Advocates and objectors] should listen carefully to what the other is really trying to say & see [what can be used to strengthen our traditional manner and what will not fit in our worship].
Historical Precedents—Quakerism has long used aspects which might be called “techniques,” and Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. He also taught that we should not make much in public of our religiosity, and that if we have anything against our brother, we should make things right with him before approaching the altar. [Newcomers may be attracted by the freedom of ritual, but later wonder how to “use” the silence; Friends they ask may not know either How do I center down?
Generations ago the situation was different. Then, children regularly attended meeting for worship along with their parents. The contemporary be- ginner does not have the benefit of this long period of exposure. Children of not many generations ago also had a more solid back ground in religious literature than most meetings give their young people today. A mind well- stocked with religious material would find it much easier to avoid the free- associated wandering that many of us experience. [As a result], there is a deeply felt need for something to take the place of the knowledge and skills our forefathers had, and whose lack many Friends now feel.
Historical Precedents—Quakerism has long used aspects which might be called “techniques,” and Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. He also taught that we should not make much in public of our religiosity, and that if we have anything against our brother, we should make things right with him before approaching the altar. [Newcomers may be attracted by the freedom of ritual, but later wonder how to “use” the silence; Friends they ask may not know either How do I center down?
Generations ago the situation was different. Then, children regularly attended meeting for worship along with their parents. The contemporary be- ginner does not have the benefit of this long period of exposure. Children of not many generations ago also had a more solid back ground in religious literature than most meetings give their young people today. A mind well- stocked with religious material would find it much easier to avoid the free- associated wandering that many of us experience. [As a result], there is a deeply felt need for something to take the place of the knowledge and skills our forefathers had, and whose lack many Friends now feel.
General Features of Meditative Techniques: [Fully Present Medita- tion & Body-Mind Link]—In the Eastern sense, meditation isn’t intellectual activity, but an increase in the quality & depth of our total awareness. Medita- tive insight seeks to encompass full & concrete immediacy, the unique pre- sence of an experience. [Reviewing knowledge of objects similar to the one before you] fails to be fully present to this [object] here. Meditative insight is full, concrete, trying to rise above subjective & objective to become fully per- sonal or even suprapersonal.
For Western Christianity, increasing awareness of reality would in fact be an increasing awareness of God. One feature of Oriental meditation is their awareness of the closeness of between body and mind. [In the West,] Plato sees the body as a virtual tomb for the soul. St. Paul makes a sharp distinction between spirit & flesh. The vast majority of us regard the body as of a differ- ent order from the mind or the soul.
In Yoga, purusha is pure consciousness without any content. The pre- valent Western view identifies consciousness with its stream of contents. In both Vedanta and Sankyhya, the ordinary mind is not a different kind of being from the body, our emotions, or our senses. In Vedanta the individual self dis- appears because it is identical with the Self, the Brahman behind the world, whereas in Zen the individual self disappears with the insight into the abso- lute transiency of all existences and experiences. By a different route the mind or the soul is removed from the pedestal on which Plato put it.
In Yoga, purusha is pure consciousness without any content. The pre- valent Western view identifies consciousness with its stream of contents. In both Vedanta and Sankyhya, the ordinary mind is not a different kind of being from the body, our emotions, or our senses. In Vedanta the individual self dis- appears because it is identical with the Self, the Brahman behind the world, whereas in Zen the individual self disappears with the insight into the abso- lute transiency of all existences and experiences. By a different route the mind or the soul is removed from the pedestal on which Plato put it.
General Features of Meditative Techniques: [Posture, Breathing, and Imagery]—Most Eastern forms of meditation insist that the posture of the body has a definite effect on the state of one’s mind or attention. Over thou- sands of years of experience Easterners have found that the lotus posture, once one has learned to assume it easily, requires the least attention to main- tain. In Yoga, kundalini, or universal energy lies coiled at the base of the spine like a serpent; with proper meditative practices, it gradually awakens and moves upward through the chakras until we achieve full enlightenment.
[For breathing], it's important to note that breathing can be either volun- tary or involuntary. By the right kind of attention, and the right exercises and habits, we can begin to cross that interface between the 2 realms of consci- ousness, and become aware of major aspects of our personal reality which [used to be] inaccessible. Hatha Yoga can teach control of other aspects of the nervous system which we have usually thought to be independent, such as heart beat, body temperature, and certain muscles.
Another feature of meditative techniques is the use of imagination, par- ticularly visual and auditory. [Short prayers are repeated inwardly. In the case of Quakers,] the inward repetition is supposed to sink so deeply into the soul as to change permanently its orientation. Visual imagery is also used, some- times having great complexity. It is interesting to note that most Western languages are strongly oriented toward the visual. [There are] “closed eyes” Friends & “open eyes” Friends. [The main argument of “closed eyes” Friends is that they] make their visual sweep early in the meeting, and then close their eyes and use the internal eye for holding in the light. [The main argument of “open eyes” Friends is that] it is important to be aware of other worshippers, often gazing briefly at and “holding in the Light” those other worshippers.
[For breathing], it's important to note that breathing can be either volun- tary or involuntary. By the right kind of attention, and the right exercises and habits, we can begin to cross that interface between the 2 realms of consci- ousness, and become aware of major aspects of our personal reality which [used to be] inaccessible. Hatha Yoga can teach control of other aspects of the nervous system which we have usually thought to be independent, such as heart beat, body temperature, and certain muscles.
Another feature of meditative techniques is the use of imagination, par- ticularly visual and auditory. [Short prayers are repeated inwardly. In the case of Quakers,] the inward repetition is supposed to sink so deeply into the soul as to change permanently its orientation. Visual imagery is also used, some- times having great complexity. It is interesting to note that most Western languages are strongly oriented toward the visual. [There are] “closed eyes” Friends & “open eyes” Friends. [The main argument of “closed eyes” Friends is that they] make their visual sweep early in the meeting, and then close their eyes and use the internal eye for holding in the light. [The main argument of “open eyes” Friends is that] it is important to be aware of other worshippers, often gazing briefly at and “holding in the Light” those other worshippers.
Differences in Meditative Techniques—Our concern here is with forms of meditation which one might wish to incorporate into Friends’ meeting for worship. Concentration consists in focusing on one item, & closing out all others. A fully concentrated person actually withdraws his senses & becomes blind & deaf to everything except object of his inward attention.
[Awareness in meditation] moves in exactly the opposite direction. One tries to be as open as possible to all forms of input, both external & internal. The practitioner is cautioned not to cling, not to follow a thought or analyze an idea. One’s mind should be a clear mirror, which does nothing but reflect. In the beginning stages, one is sometimes advised to pay particular attention to a specific kind of input.
Concentration and awareness seem absolutely opposed in method, yet they appear to lead to becoming more aware of the operations of our attention, [either] the tendency to be wayward, or the tendency toward habits that en- slave. We learn our own mind, self, or ego, together with its mental processes.
The Way of Awareness—[There is a method of meditation called] “The Way of Awareness.” This method proceeds in 3 stages within each period of meditation: focusing; awareness; “closing off” or “closing down. In focusing, one can either choose one’s personal symbol of goodness, or let it by “given” to one. There came before my mind’s eye a symbol of considerable power, & over several weeks of practice that symbol underwent various changes, entirely of its own accord.
[In the awareness phase], one sits with hands open and facing up, and no longer focuses on the symbol of goodness which was used primarily to set the stages and pull oneself together. One lets anything and everything pass through the mind and the senses, not clinging to or following any particular train of thought or sensation. In “closing off,” one turns the hands over to a closed-fist facing downwards position. [This stage] is likened to staying tuned in, but turning down the volume. [I have had experiences pointing to the effec- tiveness of this stage].
Meditative Techniques & Friends Worship—I regard the method de- scribed above as that most compatible with Quakerism. Its 1st phase corre- sponds with “centering down.” The 2nd phase of receptive waiting is easily translatable as waiting upon the Light. [The 3rd “closing off” stage doesn’t have a corresponding stage in a Friends meeting]. The body is more impor- tant than most of us realize. [The body’s posture can be] conducive to day- dream & mind-wandering, [or at the other extreme] a barrier to awareness.
[Also], if our attention is occupied with maintaining a visual or auditory symbol, then we are cut off from any leadings which the Spirit might see fit to give us. Although God is infinitely powerful, God has so arranged things that it is very easy to shut God out. When the Spirit stirs & the rough outline of an in- sight or message comes & is meant to be shared, should we take a few mo- ments to arrange it in articulate order, or deliver a semi-articulate, in- spired message?
Friends can learn some important lessons from meditative techniques. One lesson is that it is possible to train our faculties by methods which increase openness, sensitivity, & ability to listen. We can make things easier for God & for us. [If we don’t train ourselves to “get on the right frequency” & stay there, we are rather] like a radio where someone is twisting the dial back & forth; only occasionally do we hear a brief snatch of intelligibility.
Friends can learn some important lessons from meditative techniques. One lesson is that it is possible to train our faculties by methods which increase openness, sensitivity, & ability to listen. We can make things easier for God & for us. [If we don’t train ourselves to “get on the right frequency” & stay there, we are rather] like a radio where someone is twisting the dial back & forth; only occasionally do we hear a brief snatch of intelligibility.
I happen to believe that the former “old time” background and context of a Friends meeting for worship is preferable to today’s. If we cannot return to conditions prevailing a century ago, then let us at least learn what we can from contemporary movements and interests, always being careful not to lose sight of the values and assets of the past which have helped to make us what we are.
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196. Women and Quakerism (by Hope Elizabeth Luder; 1974)
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196. Women and Quakerism (by Hope Elizabeth Luder; 1974)
About the Author—Hope Luder has been teaching high school history for
several years and some college teaching.
She stayed several months with a Mexican family, who like her simply for
being a Quaker. The current issues of
the women’s movement, including the problems of sex roles have sparked her
interest in “Women and U.S. History.”
She found that her oral report aroused much interest in her non-Quaker class.
Early Quaker Beliefs—The number of socially active women in the Society of
Friends has been out of proportion to its size. Lucretia Mott & Susan B.
Anthony came from Quaker backgrounds. [Others mentioned here include:] Mary
Dyer; Mary Fisher; Elizabeth Fry; & the Grimké sisters. Why did Qua- kerism produce so many
outstanding women? From its beginnings [in the mid-17th
century], Quakerism asserted that women were equal to men [spiritu- ally]. The
valuable support George Fox received from Margaret Fell & Elizabeth Hooten
must have made him conscious of the potential contribution of women to the
movement. This and other “peculiar” customs led to persecution of Quakers.
They survived due to a spirit of equality combined with effective organization.
George Fox’s “that of God in every man,” implies the
spiritual equality of all people. He
believed there could be new insights beyond what was in the Bible; that the same spirit which was in Jesus continued
to reveal itself and was to be emphasized more than the letter of the law.
[Where] Eve’s part in the fall was used to justify women’s inferior status, Fox
claimed that now is the time of the spirit, not the time of the Fall. [Eve’s
status should be that exi- sting before the
Fall].
[When confronted with a verse calling for women’s silence, Margaret
pointed to another verse referring to women praying and prophesying & being
generally helpful. Fox also comments
that the men need not fear anyone [women] getting over them; for the power and
spirit of God gives liberty to all. For
over 200 years the Quakers seem to have been virtually alone in disregar- ding
Paul’s directive.
Quaker Opportunities for Women—Every position in the organization of Quakerism was
open to women. A local meeting might
have several mini- sters. [All could speak in meeting,] but recognized ministers
tended to do more of the speaking. Outside of Friends, women’s preaching was
considered to be shockingly immodest & unnatural. Women’s activity as traveling ministers was
particularly shocking. A Meeting would often consult the spouse before granting
permission & might put pressure on a reluctant husband. A Woman elder might
seem as offensive as preaching, but it drew less attention. An elder was
“recognized” & had considerable moral authority.
Business meetings were held separately for men and
women; the Women’s Meeting were clerked by a woman. Old meeting houses had movable partitions used
for business meeting and removed for [silent worship]. George Fox believed that women would feel
freer to play a constructive part in the meeting if they met separately. A request for marriage had to be read first
before the Women’s meeting. The
authority of women’s meetings generally was not equal to that the men’s
meetings. The men of one Rhode Island
Meeting protested that giving men the final decision on some matters set up a
preemi- nence “where the truth admits of none.”
Quaker women were subject to the same unequal laws, [but more Quaker
women were educated than Non-Quaker women].
Quaker marriage ceremonies never included a vow of
obedience or “giving away the bride.” Despite the partial & ambiguous
nature of the Quaker woman’s equality, the difference between her position
& that of other women must have had great effect on the scope of her
interests & on her confidence in herself. The dignity, self-assurance, and
seriousness of many Quaker women must have been a strong example to be set [for
any woman].
Quaker Women of the Early Period—The numbers, enthusiasm, and energy of early women
converts to Quakerism give an impression of an explo- sion of released energy in
people who have a long-needed outlet for their con- viction and talents. The women often aroused more hatred from mobs
and magistrates, & were more severely punished than the men. Foremost among George Fox’s converts was
Margaret Fell, who helped early Friends in the North of England.
In Fox’s later ministry she became his wife
[and wholehearted] “help- meet.” She
shared the hazards of the faith, including a 4-year prison term. George and Margaret Fell spent only about 6
of their 20 years of marriage together.
Toward the end of her long life, Margaret Fell Fox wrote some epistles
directed against the quietist tendencies.
[Her opinion of plain dress was]: “This is a silly poor gospel.”
Elizabeth Hooten was a middle-aged married woman
living comfortably when she was converted.
At the age of 70 she was severely punished for appearing at the
Massachusetts Colony a 2nd time.
[She made several more trips after this, dying during one of them]. The most noted traveler of all the early
Quakers was a pretty ex-servant girl named Mary Fisher. She traveled to, was punished and ejected
from Massachusetts South
Carolina
The intolerant policies of Massachusetts Bay resulted in the death of 4 Quakers, who were hanged
in Boston Common. One of the 4 was Mary Dyer, who refused to leave the colony a
2nd time. Elizabeth Harris traveled in the Maryland America
18th Century Quietism and 19th
Century Reform—Many people were
“disowned” by meetings [for what now seem like petty reasons] during the
qui- etistic period of the 18th century. One of the best known of this period’s
tra- veling ministers was Rebecca Jones.
With the development of reform move- ments, women began to find
opportunities to contribute to society.
The quie- tistic phase came gradually to an end during the 19th
century.
Many women contributed in a
variety of ways to the changes going on within Quakerism. [When Hannah Barnard questioned some of what
was in the Bible, she became the subject of bitter persecution and
intense partisan debate]. Probably the
most outstanding of the women involved in the Awake- ning was Elizabeth Comstock;
she was involved in prison reform, the Under- ground Railroad and relief for
Negro refugees. She effectively appealed
to young Quakers to become active in the issues of the day.
Both England America England Europe . She was
criti- cized even by other Quakers for neglecting her large family. Her achieve- ments were held up as proof of
women’s potential, & as showing that women could do some things better than
men. A Scottish Duke wrote: “She was . . . a majestic woman . . . Over the whole countenance was an ineffable
ex- pression of sweetness, dignity and power.”
The Emancipation of Negroes—More American Quaker women be- came famous for the
service in reforms than in England New World . Most American women reformers were involved in the
emancipation of Negroes, the Wo- men’s Rights Movement, or both. Quakers had been the 1st
religious group in the English colonies to show a corporate concern over
slavery. John Woolman is well known among Friend for raising this issue; Sarah
Harrison was also successful in getting many Quakers to free their slaves.
Many Qua- kers were involved in the Underground Railroad, sometimes whole
families.
Laura Haviland of Michigan US Mt. Pleasant , lina
Prudence Crandall tried for 1½ years to educate black
girls in Canter- bury , Connecticut Aiken ,
South Carolina
Lucretia Mott—She was a connecting link between the Anti-Slavery & the Women’s
Rights Movement. Lucretia’s serene &
ladylike looks & behavior, devotion to principle, & utter respectability,
made it difficult to subject her to the criticism & ridicule that were
then heaped on reformers and feminists. She founded the Philadelphia Female
Anti-Slavery Society. With calm presence of mind Lucretia faced ugly mobs in
dangerous situations.
The Seneca Falls Convention called by Lucretia Mott &
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Lucretia Mott’s ideas appeared in an influential
pamphlet called A Dis- course on
Women. She points out that lack of
educational and other oppor- tunities for growth and development are paralyzing
to a woman’s mind, and make many women “hug their chains.” [She also said:] “Were women the ab- ject thing
the law considers her to be when married, she would not be worthy the companionship
of man.” She once said of herself, “I am
a much overrated woman—it is humiliating.”
The Women’s Rights Movement—The Quaker contribution to the Women’s Rights Movement
is remarkable. The interest of Friends
in women’s rights predates the Movement.
3 Quaker colleges—Guilford , North Carolina
The
sisters were condemned by many, especially the clergy, & under- went much
agonized soul-searching over their defiance of convention. Per- haps the most controversial occasion of
their careers was a public debate on slavery between the Grimkés and 2 Massachusetts
As can be seen in the lives of the Grimkés & Abby
Kelley, the anti- slavery movement helped begin the Women’s Rights Movement. [Working
for the rights of others pointed out how rights were being denied women]. Maria Mitchell served as President of the
Association for the Advancement of Women, which she helped found. She commanded respect from those who
applau- ded her dignity, logic, & clear thinking. Her personality was blunt &
humorous, with a lot of outspoken individualism; she left Friends because their
disown- ment policy.
For close to half a century the team of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton & Susan B. Anthony headed the Women’s Rights Movement. Susan B.
Anthony said, “In this country everyone may vote save idiots, lunatics,
convicts, & women, & I don’t like the class I’m in.” Susan B. Anthony
identified strongly with Qua- kerism, & relied on her Quaker father’s sympathy &
support. Susan’s indomi- table determination held firm through many discouraging
years. She herself, after being despised & derided, became famous in old age,
recognized as a person of great
ability. At the turn of the 20th century, the Women’s Rights Movement still had Quaker participants.
Alice Paul was a Quaker social worker who co-authored the Equal Rights
Amendment, 1st introduced to Con- gress in 1923.
Conclusion—Historians
have often pointed out that Quakerism has had an influence out of proportion to
its numbers. The contribution of Quaker women provides a striking example of
the importance of environment in encou- raging or discouraging individual achievement.
For over 2 centuries the Society of Friends was the only well-known religious
group to give women a chance to speak in public. Quaker girls grew up in an
atmosphere in which women role models encouraged them to become
capable and self-confident adults. What is the history of women’s bearing on the future? Surely the Society of Friends’ historic & continuing tendency to treat people as individuals, rather than in male or female roles, still has a contribution to make in today's world. http://www.pendlehill.org/product-category/pamphlets
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197. Art responds to the Bible (by Dorothea Johnson Blom; 1974)
I am Abraham,
Jacob, and Esau/ I am Joseph and his brothers./
I am Peter who denies,/ Thomas who doubts,/ And Judas who betrays. I am also the nameless, faceless, [beloved]
disciple.
About the Author—Dorothea Blom has been teacher, writer, artist, and
wife of a master craftsman. Presently at
Pendle Hill, she presented to Wood- brooke in England
Art as a
Language of Spirit—Not having
art in Quaker Meeting Houses has kept bad “religious” art out of their worship
experience. I suspect that Qua- kers found nothing in visual art to equal their
deep religious experience. From various prints, I have acquired evolving images
of Job that have prompted my meditation in many Friends meetings.
Art has for most of history been a handmaiden
to religion: testifying, verifying, lending concreteness in terms credible to a
given time and culture; this still happens today. 20th century artists can open the
possibility of beco- ming present in a way that can call us into the
Presence. The works of El Greco, Georges
de la Tour, and Blake, among others reflect mystical pre- sent-ness rather than
the illusion of familiar reality. Picasso
once said a work of art is half-finished and each person who truly communicates
with it re- finishes it.
What applies to art also applies to the Bible. Each artist who shares his life in terms of
[a Bible scene or theme] offers us a new relation to it. We may “refinish” it &
find a new relation to the Bible. It takes practice to trust the process of
“being chosen” by a work of art or a passage in the Bible—holding to it,
allowing new life to come in its own way. We need art to help us relate to the
Bible. Rembrandt’s painting of Simeon and the Christ Child [made the story]
come alive for me. The function of artists [past and present] is to open up for
us new ways of seeing and responding.
When I taught art & the Bible in ecumenical classes,
each group insis- ted that their religious backgrounds had failed to teach them
the Bible. The eager interest in the
Bible by many of the young attenders was marked by a transcendence of the
theological differences. Artists don’t
share their theo- logy. One shares one’s
experience, seeing meaning, significance, transcen- ding the verbal
explanations. [Most of the] “religious
art” of my childhood never connected with the sense of mystical awe I sometimes
had as a child. I have made of art
history a hunting ground for discovering a relation to the Bible. It is my conviction that the 20th
century is producing more experiential religious art than any century of the
Post-Renaissance West.
Genesis
Experientially—Bits and pieces,
[“seeds”] of Genesis are a part of all of us.
If one of them has germinated & become vital, it may be be- cause of a
work of art that left its image within. I
began using [Genesis' myth] for meditation. The third time through it was sheer
revelation. I began to see the whole of
Genesis as my own life pattern; I had dreams about Bible drama. [Genesis repeatedly] unifies, diversifies,
shatters and scatters. Each time the shattering and scattering takes place, there is room again for the God-made center to be reborn on a more aware base.
Genesis reveals to me my many- selves, always in a state of flux.
The Creation and the Fall—The Genesis art that affects me most is by
Michelangelo and Rembrandt. There is an over-richness in the big expanse of
teeming images on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, [painted from 1508-12]. God
creating Adam presents more than the mythic beginning of the race: it is the
new beginning inherently always in us. God’s left arm encompasses Eve, while
the right one extends toward Adam’s limp reach; [it is] just before the spark
of life leaps across the gap. The frescoes are much easier to relate to in
repro- ductions than in the originals.
The Garden of Eden & the Fall calls up a sense of an
original innocence that has been lost.
Before the Sistine Chapel, Giovanni di Paolo’s (1403-82) Expulsion from
Paradise in his ANNUNCIATION painting shows Adam and Eve looking as bewildered
children as they're ushered out of Eden. Michelangelo’s “beings” are Gods of
Olympus, monumental and heroic. In the best images of the Fall nudity becomes a
language of vulnerability.
More About Genesis—Some of Rembrandt’s most profound works center on
Genesis, especially his Abraham Serves
Veal & Curds to his Divine Visitors and The Angel Stops Abraham from Slaying Isaac. Salvador Dali in- cludes the theme of
giving up & letting go of what we value most in his semi- abstract set for the
Jerusalem Bible. During Rembrandt’s most successful years in Amsterdam
Commissioned to do windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah- Hebrew University Medical Center
Jacob and Esau—Each one of us, with repeated and sustained focus comes to recognize
some few mythic themes which especially awaken our own processes of God &
life relationship; both we & it undergo an evolution. Spirit must at some point rob the initiative,
but equally, the spirit needs its good earth base—and earth turns out to be
spirit finding its form in matter. Jacob
and the ladder and Jacob wrestling the angel affect me the most of the images
in this sequence.
That which we reject
& cheat of our own natures becomes “the enemy within,” and gets projected on
persons or groups outside ourselves. In
recent years Jacob’s ladder has become for me the seven Beatitudes climaxing
with the peacemakers. It is important for me to climb up and down that ladder
freely, and be at home on every rung.
Gauguin, Klee, Lipschitz, and Fitzgerald [have painted on this
theme]. I’ve made sketches of both
ladder & wrestling themes alongside new insights they bring.
Transformation
Images from the Gospels—One of the
Bible’s strong messages is that transformation isn't only possible, but is
very much the point of human existence; transformations are our
birthright. My favorite responders to
the life of Christ are Giotto, El Greco, Rembrandt, & Rouault. Giotto (fused a new visual experience of his
world into the deeply symbolic & inward Byzan- tine tradition. If there is one word revealing Giotto it
might be recognition [of the central
event, emotion, nature, or identity in a given picture]. In CHRIST AT THE SEA OF GALILEE, Jacopo
Tintoretto (1518-1594) shows a mythic quality of Christ walking on water that
suggests an event that is always hap- pening rather than something which happened
long ago. His vision impressed [and
influenced] El Greco when the latter studied in Venice
The Christmas sequence has become an important part of
my year. The Christmas tree (Tree of
Life; Life Celebrating Tree) is a part of it. In 2 pic- tures [of the “Radiant
Child” (a nativity by Geertgen (1460-1495), and the Nati- vity by Rembrandt in 1646)], the light which illumines the
immediate environ- ment comes from the Child himself. Another moving “Divine Child” is Georges de
la Tour’s New Born, with the light
coming from a candle. There is a
beautiful simplicity in Sassetta’s daylight Journey
of the Magi. Leonardo’s St. Anne with Virgin & Child [leads me
to respond to] an Earth Mother, a human mother, a Divine Child & an animal
touching one another as a com- plete cycle, rather than Leonardo’s description of
the subject].
Wise as a Serpent, Harmless as a Dove—The dove has been honored by the West. In the 20th
century it becomes a symbol for the peace our hearts & souls long for. The
command to be wise as a serpent & harmless as a dove is the Yin and Yang of
the NT. Wisdom without innocence can be crafty & sinister; innocence
without wisdom tends to be naïveté, an invitation to evil forces. In Joseph Turner’s Morning After the Deluge, a serpent is lifted high on a pole.
For
me the serpent on the pole is another one of the great transfor- mation images of
the Bible. That which is a curse, when lifted up, becomes a blessing. The
Western tendency to feel revolted by snakes may be a male repudiation of the
female [& Earth Goddess] aspects of human nature. As we seek a new relation to earth, we need a
new mythic relation to serpents, who feel the pulse of life in the earth with
its whole being.
The Cross & Beyond—The cross is one of the most universal trans- formation
symbols. The Plains Indians [see] a
cross as 3-dimensional: one line North-South; one line East-West; one line
vertical. I like to think that wherever
these 3 lines cross, a person is. The
Egyptian ankh indicates life which contains life and death. One of my favorite crosses is in the Basilica
of Saint Apollinaire in Classe at Ravenna Ireland
There are 3 types of crucifixion images: decorative-symbolic; expres- sionistic; and the
classic, with the serene and relaxed Christ.
Very few cruci- fixions have been growing points for me. The one in the Perpignan Cathe- dral in Southern
France was photographed from
many angles; the views [for me] took the form of many aspects of Christ
[throughout his life]. Within recent
years, in styles expressive of energy, the Christ figure seems to leap from the
cross, sometimes as if to embrace you.
Picasso & Chagall of the “old masters of the 20th
century” gave us cru- cifixion images.
Chagall often wove Jewish & Christian symbols into a single image,
such as Rabbi & scroll along with Mother & Child. Rouault’s crucifixi- ons also are symbolic. More
than any other “old master” of our century, Geor- ges Roualt (1871-1958) focused
on the New Testament. His CRUCIFIXION, 1918,with its blocks of color, thick
lines, & simply-drawn faces, responds as part of a new visual idiom for a
new age. El Greco’s crucifixions have contem- plative serenity. A prolific,
[Byzantine-style] painter of the NT, El Greco has one of the most mystical of
visual languages.
The City of God America
What means most to me are the bird’s eye view patterns
we get of the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the Bible, and the City of God
at the end; in both we find the Tree of Life.
Did the Church Fathers of long
ago, who arranged the Bible, intentionally open & close their work with this
Tree? [The Garden’s Tree seems to
belong to our original innocence], whereas the City’s Tree reflects the
rediscovered innocence of those who come to it from a diverse and complicated
world. What transformation!
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198. Re-conciliation:
the hidden hyphen (by Mary Chase Morrison;
1974)
About the Author—Teacher of the Gospels course at Pendle Hill
1957- 1974, Mary Morrison describes herself as 49% Quaker, 51% Episcopalian. A
Contributing Editor of The Episcopalian, she
has written many articles & one book, Jesus:
Man & Master; 1968. She also
wrote Pendle Hill Pamphlet #120, William
Law: Selections on the Inner Life.
The present pamphlet went from a 200-word journal to dialog & public
conversation, to this form.
“Reconciliation”
is an easy word to say, smooth and flowing, speaking itself almost gracefully as a dance. The word is much sharper than it seems, for
there is a hyphen hidden in it. Re-Conciliation. [Conciliation] again has to be done in the face of some
kind of relationship disaster. That hidden hyphen is a razor’s edge. If we stop
& think, we see ourselves to be living on top of that invisible hyphen,
[separated from the earth, society, our tradition, our children, even
ourselves].
Perhaps this hyphen time in
which we live is a good time, because the voices [calling us back] can be
heard. Those Paradises that we used to
walk toward are so many! And so hard to
leave. There is also the Paradise of what one might call the Pax Europa, the sheltered state of the British Empire . [Jesus
predicted conflict in Mark 13:8, but we disregard it for our Paradises]. Our Paradises are really Fools’
Paradises. We must [stop walking away],
turn & take our fingers out of our ears, and listen, standing here on the
razor edge of that hyphen that marks our separation. Will
we turn? And if so, how?
The Earth—We have separated
ourselves from her by our comfort, luxury, ease. Our style of life is making
the earth groan; for we have con- sumption. In Jesus’ teachings, riches &
power are always a hindrance to God’s Kingdom, [which may be] finding our own
place of freedom on earth in nature’s workings. We will never know [how
homeless & out of place we are] if some of us insist on being rich &
consumptive. Will we turn? If so, how?
Many changes have come about in the past century as a
result of the “conquest” of nature. We are softer—but perhaps we are more
sensitive. Perhaps we can put this sensitivity & desire for relationship to
work. We can begin where we are by being modest: own a modest car; keep a
modest household; [use a modest amount of power]. We can be local in our
buying. As we are modest before her, perhaps nature can show us her fresh face
again.
Riches are not only possessions & freedom from earthbound
necessi- ties; riches are also power. Riches are also stupidity, blinding,
fettering, & hampering the person who has them in ways they can't even begin
to suspect. When we immigrants came here we separated ourselves from the people
we found here, & made no attempt to understand their land/property concepts.
Fortunately there were 2 large groups who couldn’t become like us; the Native
Americans didn’t even want to try. The Blacks tried, but failed the White
Euro- pean part. Now they show us how we have separated ourselves from the human
race. They are calling to us. Will we
turn? And if so, how?
[Between Jesus and the centurion], neither of them
pretends that the chasm does not exist. After
showing friendship, the centurion sends and asks; [he recognizes and is
sensitive to the cultural differences].
He builds, not a staircase down from his conquering culture to a
conquered one, but a bridge on level ground from one to the other. Jesus finds in this direct, simple ap- proach an opening for his power such that he says, “Not even in Israel
Our
Children—They have uprooted
themselves from the familiar soil, & are far off, searching for a “lost and
legendary treasure.” And they are
cal- ling to us to search for it with them. Will we turn? If so, how? There
is no need to feel guilty about cutting ourselves off from their search. In a sense we didn’t do it. It happened to us. The scientific revolution [caused us to seek]
objectivity, investigation, and proof [on the one hand, and to take us] away from the wisdom of our long tradition [on the other].
One bit of ancient wisdom has managed to sneak
under our guard; we still know how to take a joke. [We don’t analyze it according to True-False,
moral standards, or verifying known facts].
We wait for it to gather its strength, exploding like a delightful bomb with its unexpectedness and aptness; we
laugh. That is how wisdom can and should
come to us.
[Impervious
Wisdom]—Wisdom has a way of being impervious to the impervious. She will always present a blank
meaninglessness to all but the most patient and penetrating scrutiny. For most of us nothing has come to us in the
first place, so we do not know what we are missing. Is
wisdom silent, or are we deaf? We
should take to silence and meditation and wait quietly for what may seem like
nothing. We need to approach our reading
& listening differently, allowing them to feed us.
But we are still in the middle of modern error if we
expect her to tell us things; answers
acquire meaning through our response. Myths are the ever- lasting oracles of
life. They have to be consulted anew, with every age ap- proaching them with its
own ignorance and understanding. [There is] Hea- venly Wisdom [to be found in the
Bible]. And there is the long human
process of coming to know oneself and the world; being real. By the time you are Real, most of your hair
has been loved off, your eyes [break down, and you get very shabby]. If we were like this our children would not
go away from us. If we were like this
our great mythic truths would come and speak freshly to us about the height and
breadth and depth of what it means to be human beings together in our world.
Friends &
Enemies—If there is disagreement with
friends [or house- hold], we know it—we feel it—we can't escape it. How
are real clearness & ease and freshness and grace to come again? We know all the dead end roads that are
available: the road into destructive, inappropriate action; the [freezing out,
making the other or ourselves no longer a person]. And there is “forgiveness,” Elizabeth Howes asks, “Who has not experienced that deadly kind of noble ‘forgiveness’ that
leaves one permanently one- down, in the wrong forever?
The only way out is through, [& through
reconciliation]. We must learn how angry & hurt we really are. In that
moment, in hell & knowing it, we feel “a sense of Presence.” We are ready
to leave at the altar the gift of anger, & go & be reconciled to our
brother, who may be coming from the altar too. We may be able to ask creative
questions that lets one speak openly to one’s self & to us of one’s anger,
hurt, or fear. We may even be able to speak our own anger. If not reconciled,
our situation may make us reconcilers for others even if not ourselves. We now
know how to move along the cutting hyphen of separation, [perhaps even making
of it a bridge].
Ourselves—the self calling to the self across that hyphen; now
it is not merely a call, but a great shout, a desperate cry. [At one time,
our] preoc- cupations with the external have silenced the voice by calling upon
us to assemble and use relatively simple, efficient selves. Now we face the
frontier, wilderness, & fear of what is inside one. We are finding
ourselves far more complex than we knew.
[That complexity is calling to us.] Will
we turn?
We can sit in the middle of [modern society’s] network
of protections, [but we pay for it in irritability at trifles]. William Law said: “Sufficient indica- tions are these to every
one that there is a dark guest within him, concealed under the cover of flesh
and blood, often lulled to sleep by worldly lights and amusements; [still, it
may] show itself. If it has not its proper
relief in this life, it must be one’s torment in the next.”
Our “good,” [simple] selves occupy us like a conquered
land, dictating the form that life will take in us. [Our complex selves, full
of “fire and life & ad- venture” revolts against rigid controls. How did we come to be so impri- soned in
“goodness?” How did we lock ourselves into so limited a con- cept of what
goodness is? Here is Jesus’ concern for us. We have taken the “good” part
we want to play in the world, & made it our whole. But it is only our
actor’s mask, our persona, not the
whole of us.
[What most take from “be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect,” [is a call to be full-grown, complete, mature]. What does this mean for human beings? We
need to: listen to what is actually going on inside us; speak it forth in the
presence, but otherwise hold it until this wild, untamed, unknown part of us
can come forward & let us know what it is good for; use discipline and
coordination of what goes on inside of us; living with our many selves until in
some sense they become one.
So let us be reconciled to ourselves in affection,
toward life; and to other individuals, other groups, other races, and the earth
herself, in the same way. What is reconciliation when it is
done? It is hard to realize when you
look at reconciliation that anything is happening. [In art’s portrayal those reconciled] seem as
if they could hardly believe their good fortune—as if they knew they were
taking part in a miracle. [In any case,
these meetings in art, in Shake- speare’s plays, in life itself] are all after
the long grief and pain of separation.
And they are full of unbelievable joy—the joy of meeting again, of
reconci- liation.
William
Law said: For the goodness of a living creature must be its own life. We must all
be born again from a principle above nature, or no goodness can be living in
us. . . And from this birth alone it is,
that the free genuine works of goodness flow forth with divine life's freedom, wherewith God's Spirit has made us free.
199. Contemplation and Leisure (by Douglas V. Steere; 1975)
All the
nobler instincts of our race are born in solitude and suckled by silence. This solitude need be no far away wilderness;
this silence need be no Himalayan peak.
You stop for a second as you cross your city square and glance at the
belt of Orion.” John Cowper Powys
Foreword—Douglas Steere once wrote a pamphlet called Work and Contemplation that saw a lot of
use in Quaker Work Camps. In this &
another exploration, he concluded that work tends to become meaningless &
destruc- tive unless meaning is restored by contemplation. Contemplation should be searched and tested
by work; only in action can thought be ripened into truth. In this essay he convinces us that the inner
core of leisure is essentially a [contemplative] mood which pervades all we
do, not an empty space or block of time.
Douglas taught philosophy at Haverford College
Contemplation and Leisure—On the
interior level, the matter of dis- cerning where, if at all, leisure leaves off
& contemplation beings is instantly before us. I will try to focus on contemplation’s basic
root in man. [When one seeks an answer
or to fulfill a purpose, one may sometimes go far afield when the essential
answer or purpose is close at hand].
Each of us has a philoso- pher, a contemplater if you like, within us; it
is built-in equipment. [And it has a
long list of queries meant to influence the direction and “flavor” of your
life].
There is a strange power in buried deep in one that
enables one to carry on an inward dialogue between layers of one’s own
being. This power is the rudimentary
stub of what might be called contemplation.
We might find some help in defining contemplation if we put it in terms
of a sustained scrutiny for meaning.
Many people tend to identify contemplation with its most exalted
forms. The French Quaker Marius Grout, in
referring to special men & women of radiant life, said: “If there is a wish we should wish today, it
is that we might see in ourselves the beginnings of such contemplation.” [When someone, ac- tive or at rest, chooses a
subject or object of contemplation, and enters into its deeper meaning, that
is contemplation].
The common use of contemplation can take place
anywhere, at any time, in any circumstance, and its naturalness is the
neglected factor. Mark Gibbard, a
British Anglican monk believes that any form of behavior can be contemplative. Professor Whitehead used to speak about a
possible inward dimension to all experience as “an offensive against the
repetitive mecha- nism of the universe.”
[Contemplation:
Where and When]—The worst disservice
we could do would be to identify contemplation with a block of empty time or
space, or to limit it to a certain peculiarly endowed class of persons. John Cowper Powys said [the quote at the
beginning of this piece]. [If contemplation be- came a] central concern for our
society, [times & places could be found and/ or created] for its direct
nurture and cultivation. E. I. Watkins
says, “Only the man who sees nothing beyond his nose, who lives in routine &
unintelligent obedience, or who drifts aimlessly through life, can't or won't contemplate.” Evelyn Underhill
The disappearance of the porch & the lack of any
room for meditation in the modern house [reflects society’s current attitude
toward contemplation]. [In the activities of travel & communication], we
have heaped experiences on top of one another in such profusion that we have
never got around to inquiring what they mean for us. The ebb of compassion & the jostling of
images in the breast of modern man produces a kind of inner numbness, an
incapacity for deep feeling.
[It is
important to support & preserve communities & traditions in which
inward awareness is of central importance; the ones the author mentions in this
pamphlet are villages in India
[Indian Time
vs. Western Planning]—My wife and I 1st
visited India Douglas , you are in India Philadel- phia
We traveled north to Bolpur; a friend of the artist
was going to introduce us to a philosopher there. The fascinating meeting started at 8 in the
morning and went past noon ;
the philosopher wanted me to stay a month.
I began to realize that Philadelphia
The “spiritual substance” of India India
[Is all planning guilty of
blocking life’s flow, or is it certain kinds and amounts of planning? May Sarton wrote: “Routine is not a prison, but the way into
freedom from time. . . I began to
understand that for me ‘waste’ had not come from idleness, but perhaps from
pushing myself too hard, from not being idle enough, from listening to the
demon that says make haste. . . [I
learned] to let the day shape the work.”
The Quaker movement throughout their history have been
in continuous protest against all that is over-planned in church: programs;
rituals; physical plants; creedal requirements; and authority. George Fox wrote: “There is the danger and temptation to you,
of drawing your minds into your own business, and clogging them with it; so
that ye can hardly do any thing to the service of God . . . your minds will go
into things and not over things.” Max
Picard’s The World of Silence warns
that our noise-packed, contemporary world was pocked with Zusammen-lsösigkeit, [loss of togetherness,]
discontinuousness. How else than by a
process of almost schizophrenic discontinuity can you explain [the
discontinuity] in the workplace, in race relations, in international
relations.
A contemplation that will seek a principle of order
that will challenge these anarchies and these dissonances must be a genuine
penetration that goes so deep that it reaches through to a principle of order
that will draw these conflicting areas into a common responsibility. Ruskin declared: “The greatest thing the human soul ever does
in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. . . To see clearly is poetry and prophecy and
religion in one.” Bernard of Clairvaux
counsels Eugenius III “not to give yourself up altogether nor at all times to
the active life, but to set aside some time for consideration [contemplation].
. . Consideration purifies the very fountain that is the mind from which it springs. . . It is consideration which in prosperity feels the sting of adversity; in adversity it is as though it felt it not.”
[Features of Contemplation]—Contemplation is self-justifying. It is good in itself. The
Cloud of Unknowing says: “The
condition of the active life is such that it is both begun and ended in this
life. The contemplative life is begun
in this life and it shall last forever & ever.” Plotinus saw 2 great move- ments taking
place: the movement by which the One,
the ground of all Be- ing, donated to all things their being; the process of
contemplation by which the created being come awake, & by reflecting on their
source, move back again to the One from which they came.
[This would restore Zusammenheit, togetherness, which] sees science, economics,
politics, and art all as connected, all as responsible to help man in this
return movement. It is one major
movement of genuine contemplation. “A steep and unaccountable transition,”
Thoreau has described it, from what is called a common sense view of things, to
an infinitely expanding and liberating one, from seeing things as men describe
them, to seeing them as men cannot describe them.
Always the gift of contemplation returns this capacity
to see things as they are & to insist that any attempt at grasping an
ultimate unity in things must be achieved only after there is the deepest
reverence given to the untamable mystery in all things. The fruits of
contemplation have been expressed very differently but they seem, each in its
own way, to be rimmed with this gift of pointing [to where we cannot
describe]. Anker Larsen points to the
deeper ranges of contemplation when he says:
“This deep tenderness which I felt, first with myself and then even
stronger around and above me . . . drew me into the Eternal Now. That was my first actual meeting with Reality
because such is the real life; a Now that is and a Now which happens . . . I sat in my garden but
there was no place in the world where I was not.”
Of leisure Joseph Pieper says: “Leisure implies an attitude of non- activity,
of inward calm of silence; it means not
being ‘busy’ . . . Leisure is a form of silence, and silence as is it used in
this context means that the soul’s power to ‘answer’ to the reality of the
world is left undisturbed.” [This
restores] in us the interior space that is meant to be there, of giving us a
wider margin around the page. When
Joseph Pieper moves on to define what these prep aratory states should lead to
and speaks of their clearing of the way, he has left the empty spaces and now
is speaking of the deep, intuitive action of the human spirit which I have
tried to describe as contemplation. It becomes clear that he is defining true leisure as a form of contemplation.
[After the truest leisure and the deepest
contemplation], activity is an answering of the soul to both the disclosure and
to the unfathomable mystery of that to which it is exposed, and this may cover
the whole spectrum of our rela- tion with nature, with each other, and with that
which undergirds them both. Thomas
Merton said: “There is in all things an
inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence, that is the fountain of action
and joy. It rises as if in a word- less
gentleness and flows out to me from unseen roots in all created being.”
This “fountain of action and joy” and this “hidden
wholeness is in all things, and therefore is accessible to all. It is a quality of approach to any situation,
an inwardly spacious way of being present and open to where we are. Henri Bergson said that only contemplation
& a greater soul could pierce the temptation of those who presently control
the technological apparatus to fail the deprived peoples of the earth, and to
go on sequestering the vast new increments of wealth for themselves alone. True leisure and true con- templation on all
its levels is a condition of the human spirit that needs no social
justification for its practice. Yet it
is hard to see how one could exagge- rate the human stakes that are involved in
its return to strength in our time.
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200. Born Remembering (by Elise Boulding; 1975)
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200. Born Remembering (by Elise Boulding; 1975)
About the Author—Elise Boulding is professor of sociology at the Univ. of CO
[Remembering
Childhood]—Every one has had
experience of early childhood remembering [being aware of] an otherness not to
be explained by family experiences, stories heard, events witnessed. Why is it that we are born remembering,
[aware], & live forgetting? [In my life I have remem- bered, forgotten &
remembered again]. I grew up in a tiny [unchurched] immi- grant Scandinavian
community of 12 families outside Newark
Mother & Father never talked about God, never used
petitionary prayer, & only read the Bible on Christmas Eve; yet God was
present. On Christmas Eve the family Bible came to the supper table, &
father read Luke’s Christmas story by candlelight. Afterwards we danced around
the candle-lit tree & sang carols & dancing songs. God was also present
every evening, for grace, & [while I prayed & mother sat by my side].
Listening to God was one of my clearest childhood
memories. There was always a quiet inner space I could go into, a listening
place. I wasn’t liste- ning for voices. [I found myself a church so I could study
more about the Bible; it was 2 miles away]. Long before I was in high school,
the pastor’s wife took me aside & asked if I would like to come into her
high school class. To this day going into any church fills me with joyful
anticipation.
The fact that I have been able in some way to reach
back to the early rememberings, to the freshness of the feeling of God’s
presence as I knew it when small, has been very important in keeping what
wholeness there has been in my life. I grew
into the Lord’s Prayer, & I’m still growing into it. Because Bibles
have sometimes been used as straitjackets by adults who didn't under- stand,
doesn’t mean that they are straitjackets. [I compared God’s over sight &
being with Jesus’ teaching, speaking & doing]. Giving Jesus his “right”
place has never been easy for me, perhaps because I loved God first. I came to
love Jesus as a teacher. Many years
later, I came to experience him inwardly as a teaching Presence; I felt taught
without words; he comes in times of spiritual barrenness.
When did I discover Mary? I am not sure how old I was, but standing one
day before her statue, I felt her presence, [as] Mother, sister, holy
lady. She was with me beginning with the
turbulent high school days, atheistic col- lege days and ever since. In dark times I find a Catholic church and
kneel before Mary. I accept my childlike
spirituality when I need her strength.
Having won a college scholarship, I would now have to redouble my efforts to justify that original migration. I
suddenly saw my love of God as a sign of weakness.
[College;
Marriage; Children; India
While religion had not been verbally articulated very
much in my home, pacifism had; my mother was an ardent pacifist [who] never
connected with a peace movement. [The day I visited] the Baroness’ store-front
center [for a Catholic hospitality house] was a turning point for me. The
Baroness was a Russian émigré who saw social reality as at core a spiritual
reality. Another lovely place the Lord led me to was the church of John Haynes
Holmes
The impact that these person made on my life was out
of all proportion to my contact with them; I stayed in New York
Kenneth & I took the founding of our little Quaker
“Colony of Heaven” both seriously and joyfully, [endeavoring] to make our home
a center of tran- quility & peace. Before our 3rd child I wrote Friends Testimonies in the Home. It seemed
to me that it was in the mundane tasks that God’s love shone most clearly. A
Quaker meeting is a fine place to raise children up when families do many
things together. A group of about 6 families [pretty much] raised each other’s
children. We were all equally active in the peace movement, & in local
community projects. There was undue busyness. God was never absent, but often
ignored; I did a lot of forgetting in those years.
At 51, I traded an emptying nest at home for a
professorship at the Uni- versity of Colorado India Gandhi Museum
[When migrant workers built a school next door] I lived a triple
life: partly back home in Colorado
[Frog in a Well]—Part II of the remembering involved in my “conversion”
came a few months later when a teenager, damaged by drugs & suffering a
major emotional crisis, stayed with us. Watching his suffering, I suddenly saw
myself as a small frog in the bottom of a deep well, trying to get out. The
spirit had to break through [occasionally], but how tiny the eruptions, how
heavy- handed our daily behavior.
The tension of the preceding years uncoiled
like a giant spring in the crouched figure at the well bottom. It was met by
God’s grace & I sprang up free. [Feeling like a newborn, I would whisper
phrases like those at the begin- ning of this piece. I tried not to do anything I
could not put God into. Early mor- ning rising and prayer also helped me stay
centered. Increased sensitivity to others who were in an intense state of
seeking brought new fellowship in unexpected places.
At this time I felt distant from the Friends
immediately around me, with whom I could not share what was happening, but very
close to the “Quaker saints” that had been part of my religious formation in
the Society. 2 authors that gave me a
vivid understanding of the incredible process of remaking, re- forming the human material were Evelyn Underhill St. John
It seemed to be my task to explore that question, &
I didn't know how to go about it. It was only at the end of that summer that I
came to the compre- hension that God is always at work in us even though there
are times when we are too numbed by pain to realize it. By fall I had a certain
feeling of resignation about the difficult path before me. Friends found a
small Benedictine monastery at Cold Spring , NY
For me the rhythm of monastic life—matins, lauds,
breakfast, reading, praying, lunch, chores, walking, reading, vespers, conversation,
supper, com- pline, and prayer—was the long sought, long-lost rhythm of my own
deepest inner spaces. “Jesus, I am one
of your kind! You are what we are to become.
Unbearable stretching of spirit—torn upwards, rooted below. Was
that your crucifixion? [Brother
Victor wrote out] a weekly rotation of Psalms for Lauds and Vespers, and the
pattern for Compline; I have used them ever since.
I have been back to the Monastery many times since
that October. There is a small community of the Brothers, 2 Sisters, &
myself. Our spiritual bond is strong & we feel like a community, even though we will never live in the same
community. I have also come to find community with the very ten- der Catholics,
including the Brothers of the Christ in the Desert Monastery. [Brother Victor
had a gift for making] tasty meals out of unpromising scraps. From that I got
the idea for a cookbook called From a
Monastery Kitchen; it was
intended to be much more than a cookbook]. We have all thought a lot about what
of monastic life can be shared in families.
There is food for spiritual nurture in the church year
seasons. Yet the outer garments of
celebration when taken over by the secular society prevent recognition of the
underlying spiritual reality. In my own
religious tradition of Quakerism the fear of participating in artificial
reconstruction led to a witness against all sacraments and all
celebrations. [While Quakers may have
lost the sense of the sacramental, they have made the valid point that] the
inward cycles of our souls do not correspond to the great cycles of the church.
[Hermitage]—During my summer of intense spiritual struggle I began
to plan what was to be a hermitage in the woods behind our family cabin in the Rockies ’ foothills. It was built with
the help of a young friend, his builder bro- ther, and a great deal of love. The hermitage was ready on Thanksgiving
Day. I came up that weekend to the first
solitude I had ever known in my life. That very first day that I climbed the steps and entered alone, uncertainty
fell away & joy rushed in; a lifetime of longing had been fulfilled.
[During a disorienting 2 days following ear surgery] I
was given commu- nion by a Catholic priest and good friend, even though I was not
a professed Catholic. Having felt the Presence
so totally in the eucharist at the monastery, I felt the need very acutely in
this crisis of the anchoring in Christ which com- munion gives. Although I expected to be called to profess
Catholicism, I learned that my obedience consists in remaining a Quaker.
Johannes Tauler wrote: “Spiritually good
people, pure in heart, who long for the Blessed Sacrament but cannot go to
Communion at that time . . . may even receive Communion's grace more than
those who receive sacramen- tally.” Adolphe Tanquerey writes that given one’s talents, one’s situation in life & its responsibilities, there are certain things one must do and other things one may not be able to do.
If there was ever to be reintegration of my life
around my new under- standings, it would take nothing less drastic than a year of
solitude for this to happen. [I
approached my year of solitude in the spirit of] “O Lord, my heart is not
proud/ nor haughty my eyes./ I have not
gone after things too great nor marvels beyond me.
The wisdom of solitude is not easy to translate into
the world. It is my task this year to
learn to be present both to God and to the world, and yet stay shielded. I attend Meeting, and spend the day at
home. Periodically I stop at the office
to discuss work with my administrative assistant and friend, Dorothy
Carson. A spiritual revolutionary has a
hard time in our society. Structures of
violence and habits of oppression must be destroyed, but by means that we do
not yet understand very well.
If much of my work in the future is done from the
hermitage, that will not be a denial of society, but an affirmation of what it
can become. Solitude is the most
beautiful condition of the human spirit.
It is in solitude that I am learning to truly remember what I have lived
forgetting. I hope to learn how to weave
the golden threads of solitude into the warp and woof of family and community
living. I know of no other way for us to
become what we are created to be.
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