Written by Paul Buckley
Comments by John Cowan
Paul Buckley’s grasp of Quakerism is broad. His presentation is clear and concise. No pages go to waste.
Paul’s purpose is to draw others into a movement to reform Quakerism. Not necessarily to return to the Seventeenth Century, but “Are we willing and able to reproduce the fervor and changed heart of the early Quakers by returning to the practice of the Inward Light, with its demands on our attention and time?” To do that, he walks us through the beginnings of Quakerism to the now. I have never seen a better description of our spiritual history.
Paul makes the case that we have wandered far from our beginnings. For instance, we now tend to organize our efforts around six testimonies. The SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Sustainability. This list is only seventy years old. It does not resemble in any way the Primitive Quaker mindset. Some years ago, while typing up the list for a meeting, an elder from Pendle Hill added “Community.” Seemed good so it stuck. “Sustainability” just appeared as a substitute for “Stewardship.” Nobody asked me.
Once upon a time we thought we were called together by God, for worship, for listening to God, for personal change, probably not for lunch. And not because of our affection for one another. The population was selected by how far you could drive your buggy. The rationale was personal change. Everything either led to or resulted from that change. Fox did not eschew a call to join the army because he hated war. The change he had experienced jettisoned all motivation for him to fight. The inner change is our focus, all good acts follow of necessity.
Back in the founders’ day, Quakers referred to the “Inward Light.“ That light scoured their very being, shook them to the point of groaning and tears as they faced the enormity of their failures to be what Christ called them to be. Today we refer to the “Inner light” which makes us glow. And then we hold people “in the light” which may mean we pray for them, or at least hold them in our awareness. Not a bad pain-free idea.
The teacher Adyashanti, in True Meditation, taught me that what I call my person is a construct. Over my lifetime I and the forces around me have put the construct “person” together as the “who” I am. It is comforting to know who you are. It is also a prison. Lengthy silence dissolves the construction of person and allows the light in. The ugly when seen as ugly is rejected and new flowers pop up where the weeds have been eliminated. Realization and letting go hurt but the change is wonderful.
This seems to me an adequate, provable, and therefore scientific explanation for the groaning and joy of the early Quakers whose silent meetings for two and three hours occurred at least twice a week. Our meetings are an hour long, occur once a week and very few come to all of them.
In avoiding lengthy silence we reduce our time in the inward light. I have introduced something new here for many a reader. The inward light was always there but it bounced off of the shell we call “Person.” Removing the shell results in being flooded with the light.
Paul’s final effort is “12 Simple Queries.” For instance: “Is my life rooted in Integrity? Does my community help me to be truthful in all ways?”
Although his queries are fine, I am not confident that asking them will get us home. We have wandered so far from our beginnings that our beginnings are foreign and strange to us. Even Paul’s reach back takes us back to a Spice, Integrity, and not back to the new creation foreseen by Fox.
Sri Nisargatta Maharaj, the teacher in I am That, in four hundred pages or so, stops from time to time to remind the reader, “You must be earnest!”
That is a good question, “Are we earnest?” or
even, “Do we want to be earnest?” “Do we have time to be earnest?”
Perhaps it all boils down to what are we trying to do with the Worship time? Become nice people? What was it that the early Quakers were doing? Whatever their intent, the silence they entered dissolved the old person and made room for the new.” This statement besides representing modern psychology rather well, is also scriptural. As a young Catholic the message I received was to set aside the old person and become new. That is what Baptism was about. That is what the silence does. No matter what your intention.
Are a substantial number of present day Quakers willing to put the time into allowing the silence to dissolve their present person and open the way for the inward light? George did it. Isaac did it. Margaret did it. Jesus did it. (In the times he went aside, and the times he sat in the desert.)
To what extent is this central thread of Quakerism already alive in our meeting? What are the obstacles to deepening it? What should we do? What should we not do?
I do not know how many would really care to attempt this. My fledgling attempts to give it a try by arranging long official meetings for worship failed. Nearly everybody felt they had no time and silent time is not an add on. It is the active agent.
The reasons for becoming a Quaker are myriad. “You want to do what?” would be the response to this challenge of many (most) Quakers. Their will or lack of it would prevail. I doubt that they could be pushed out of the way nor should they be. Many, (most) are already a credit to Quakerism. Just not similar to George, Isaac, Margaret or Jesus. But what does it take to change the world?
And to what have you and I been called?