The Life of the Spirit
And Friends meet together, and know one another in that which is eternal, which was before the world was.
George Fox, Epistle 149
In one sentence George Fox illuminates the core of Quakerism, which informs our life in the Spirit, both for each individual and for the Quaker Meeting as a whole. This one simple phrase sets forth the spiritual tasks of Quakers: we are to meet together; we are to know one another in that which is eternal.
Certainly each of us is encouraged to follow our individual spiritual path, our inward search for the Light, our deep listening to God within. But we are equally encouraged to bring that Light we have found back to the community, and as a community we are eager to listen to the glimmers of hope, the discoveries of love, the struggles and the acceptance found in those journeys. The community is enriched through this sharing; indeed the Quaker Meeting can be transformed by the words of even the most simple message.
Other religions, other traditions, have emphasized the inward search and the power of discovery. An important component of our practice is the realization that we are a community of seekers: we are not alone. The practice of Quakers is to bring the treasures that we find on our journeys back to the Meeting, and for the Meeting to listen with the tender recognition of a shared experience.
Seekers
The principal characteristic of the human condition may well be that each of us is on a spiritual path, each of us is searching for meaning in our lives, each of us is seeking the essence of Truth. A principal tenet of Quakers everywhere is that seekers who ground their search in love are welcome to our Meetings, to worship with us, to speak their Truth, to share their experiences, and to listen carefully to the movement of the Spirit among us.
Even before George Fox’s vision of Quakerism was broadcast throughout the land, groups of seekers sat together in silent worship in expectant waiting on new revelations.
Shunning creeds, rejecting the authority of the established Church, and self-organized without clergy, this community of seekers was ripe for the evangelical messages of George Fox and his growing following of the convinced. Today we are still a community of seekers; many of the traditions established over the centuries still form the heart of our practice.
Each of us has a unique approach to the Truth and our own understanding of the way to the Light, an understanding tempered by our origins, our experiences, and our path through the kaleidoscope of family and culture we have encountered.
Each of us learns from the storms and calms of our lives an understanding of the world – an appreciation of our place in the varied culture which forms us. And that understanding forms the foundation of our ability to see the world, to see each other, to hear new words, and to discern how those words impact our own lives.
The desire of Friends is not in limiting or directing seekers to a particular Truth, a common path. The desire of Friends is in gathering in community to seek Truth, all of us humbly listening for the promptings of the Spirit. In the silence and in the words and actions of each other we discern the full measure of the Light within us and around us. We are not each alone in a world of our own Truth but united in the common light of the same Spirit. Friends celebrate the variety of paths that we encounter; we rejoice to find kindred souls fully committed to the unique way that they have found. The desire of Friends lies in embracing the diversity of paths, accepting the variety of religious experience which enriches our own understanding of the life of the Spirit. Your Truth informs my own. I am not constrained to accept your Truth as my own, but I am encouraged to listen to your testimony, to discern the value of your approach and how it affects my own path.
And oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers, everyone learning their own lesson, performing their own peculiar service, and knowing, owning and loving one another in several places.… For this is the true ground of love and unity, not that such a man walks and does just as I do, but because I feel the same Spirit and life in him…and this is far more pleasing than if he walked in just that track wherein I walk.
Isaac Penington, 1660
The Spiritual Journey
Spiritual paths are as varied as are individuals in community. We each have a unique history, a complex of experiences and events in our lives which undeniably form our worldview. We each carry within us a heartful of questions – a yearning to make sense of the world and our place in it. There are powerful questions of the heart, queries which cannot be answered intellectually, answers which can only be found in our inward search for Truth, for Light, for meaning.
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903
We live the questions, as we continue our spiritual journey; we are coaxed by the Spirit from each question to the next. At each step, we “live up to that Light we have,” dwell in the truth that we have been given, and test our leadings with Friends.
Over and over again George Fox exhorted us to go inward, to find the inward Christ, to “wait upon the Lord, that all of you may grow up in the inward man, and be comforted and cherished there, in the things that are eternal” (Epistle 79). Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
That the inward search is solitary, sometimes lonely, is nearly a guarantee. There is no guide until you find the Inward Christ, the Light Within, the Spirit that awaits your questions, anticipates your next dawn, and may lead you to unexpected places.
Elise Boulding reminded us that central to the Quaker way is the experience of discovery, a journey which is lifelong. She emphasized that what is discovered is not a unique property of Quakerism: “What is unique to the Religious Society of Friends is its insistence that the discovery must be made by each of us individually. No one is allowed to get it secondhand by accepting a ready-made creed. Furthermore, the discovery points to a path and demands a journey, and gives you the power to make the journey.”
Sharing
Quakerism thus has a threefold role for each of us:
- To be intentional about following a spiritual path grounded in love, going deep within to find the ground of our being;
- To bring those findings back to our community, to share our experiences, to tell what has been revealed;
- To be a member of an intentional community of careful listeners, to hear without judgment what is being shared, to suspend our disbelief and allow the witness of our Friends to change our lives.
We are said to have abolished the laity; we are, each of us, ministers of the Truth. We are each of us encouraged to speak of our journey, where our search has led, whom we have met on the way, what has opened our eyes. For change is inevitable: none of us lingers over-long at the same spot. Our spiritual journey can lead to surprising places, unexpected encounters, startling revelations.
Others have observed that it is pointless to praise the practice of Quakerism and preach it if nobody is listening. It is much more needful to teach people the art of paying attention – and how better to teach this art than to practice it? George Fox advised that we should all “be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come.” Quakers are called to set a pattern of deep listening, and thereby enrich the life of the Spirit for all.
We have acquired a much greater understanding of non-Christian religions … and this has increased the sympathy and respect of many Friends for these faiths. This broader approach to religion has led to an affirmation by ‘universalist’ Friends that no one faith can claim to be a final revelation or to have a monopoly of the truth and to the rejection of any exclusive religious fundamentalism whether based in Christianity or any other religion.
Alastair Heron, Ralph Hetherington and Joseph Pickvance, 1994
Many religions emphasize the importance of engaging the Spirit, of entering on a spiritual path, of considering questions of the heart. How is Quakerism different? How does Quakerism put a unique stamp on that experience?
The Quaker Way
Friends see the Life of the Spirit as not only a personal search for the Light, but also a corporate one. Each enhances the other. Quaker practice offers many windows that enlighten the spiritual life of the community. Each window presents an opportunity for Friends to get to know God and each other.
The expression of the Life of the Spirit is seen not only in the meeting community, but in the daily lives of the members of the community.
Meeting for Worship
The first opportunity in our unprogrammed Meetings is our Meeting for Worship, where Friends settle into the silence in expectant waiting, to see what is now revealed by the Light, to listen for the Word which lies at the heart of our ground of being. While this is a very individualistic search, we recognize that each of us, gathered in this Meeting, is engaged in a similar quest, safe in a trusted environment where Friends all around us are freely worshiping. When thus seeking the Inner Light together we can, especially in this place, sense the eternal which is behind the succession of ordinary events.
At times we realize that some part of our spiritual journey calls to be shared among Friends, and we are unable to refuse the demand to speak. Stimulated by our own personal experience, the message grows beyond our individual concerns and takes on a wider, more universal meaning. We ask, is this a leading? Is it for me or the Meeting? Is now the time? Is it ripe for sharing? We rise, sometimes with difficulty, and speak what is in our hearts, with loving attention to the community and a faithfulness to the message.
We ourselves come to Meeting neither prepared to speak nor prepared not to speak, but always prepared to listen. As listeners we recognize that not all messages are meant for us, that our own spiritual journey may not resonate with the path being revealed to us by another. In reflection we might hold the messenger in the Light, recognizing the courage it took to rise, the strength of commitment expressed, and the struggle being revealed in those few words. Sometimes, however, the words another person speaks will seem exactly what we need to hear and will be the voice of God for us at the moment.
Worship-sharing
Another window Quakers use to open their spiritual journeys is when we gather for worship-sharing. Worship-sharing is a form of worship that helps us listen to each other in a deeply spiritual, loving, and prayerful way. Worship-sharing may focus on a particular query, a topic, a special quotation, an important parable or Biblical verse. It helps us to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation. It offers a safe and loving environment where Friends are encouraged to give voice to their inner search. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses, and encounter each other in vital ways.
Simple principles which have evolved over the years make worship-sharing a deeply successful practice among Friends:
- Reach as deeply as you can into the sacred center of your life.
- Speak out of the silence, and leave a period of silence between speakers.
- Speak from your own experience, about your own experience.
- Concentrate on feelings and meaning rather than on thoughts or theories.
- Do not respond to what anyone else has said, either to praise or to refute.
- Listen carefully and deeply to what is spoken.
- Expect to speak only once, until everyone has had a chance to speak.
- Use as few words as possible but as many as are necessary.
- Remember that you always have the option to pass.
- Respect the confidentiality of what is shared.
Friends are encouraged to come to worship-sharing with an intent to open their spiritual path to the Meeting, to share what has occurred in their experience, to reflect on the direction of their lives, to give witness to the meaning that has been found. But while we are asked to speak once, we are also asked to listen deeply to many intimate testimonies. When that listening is deeply grounded, when your spiritual ear is attuned to the struggles, the openings, the new revelations of Friends, your life can be changed.
Clearness Committees
A more formal practice that is particularly identified with Quakerism is the Clearness Committee: a group of Friends to hear your concerns, to listen to the difficulties confronting you, to help you venture deeper within in your search for clearness.
Ordinarily a Clearness Committee is appointed when a person in the Meeting seeks to reach clarity on how to respond to a concern or dilemma. Clearness Committees have been used when a person applies for membership and when a couple seeks marriage under the care of the Meeting.
But beyond these traditional events it can be helpful for you to bring your leadings, your questions, your discoveries to the wider community for testing.
As Parker Palmer remarked, “Behind the Clearness Committee is a simple but crucial conviction: each of us has an inner teacher, a voice of truth, that offers the guidance and power we need to deal with our problems. But that inner voice is often garbled by various kinds of inward and outward interference.
The function of the Clearness Committee is not to give advice or ‘fix’ people from the outside in but rather to help people remove the interference so that they can discover their own wisdom from the inside out.” We are taught to abandon the pretense that we know what is best for another person. We are taught instead to ask honest and open questions to help that person come to spiritual clarity. We are taught that our task is not to “fix” a problem, but through simple listening to create the conditions that allow a person to find his or her wholeness within. We are taught a way, a Quaker way, to renew community, a way to free people from their isolation without threatening their integrity, a way to create space for the Spirit to move among us with healing and with power.
It is a powerful discipline for the listener to be present without agenda, without the compulsion to help, abandoning the need or desire to appear knowledgeable, wise, or comforting.
There may be no more tellingly difficult spiritual practice than the effort to receive what is being said by someone else hospitably, without editing, without correction, without unsolicited advice.
Life in Community
Quaker life offers many opportunities to connect deeply with others, within and beyond the Meeting. When we approach workshops, committees, fellowship, Meetings for Business, and other events with a ready and open heart, we give and receive priceless gifts. On Support Committees we help Friends get through difficult times or follow leadings. Even in a simple conversation after Meeting we may sense the powerful presence of the Spirit and feel ourselves blessed. Whether the events that draw us together are oriented to work or fellowship, carefully planned or unfolded in unexpected opportunities, Friends seek to remain attentive to the guidance of the Light and the rhythms of each other’s spiritual lives.
In many Meetings Friends and attenders are offered the opportunity to join a “listening group”, “friendly eights”, or form an intentional “spiritual friendship.” In these gatherings we hear each other’s spiritual concerns, leadings, stops, and encounters with the Light, giving each our full attention.
Listening Groups often model a worship-sharing environment focused on the experiences of a single individual at a time. These are intimate gatherings of Friends committed to a confidential inquiry into the spiritual aspect of our lives.
Rather than giving advice, rather than responding with similar experiences, rather than joining a search for a solution, this practice employs simple but deep listening to help each speaker give voice to a more profound appreciation of the Life of the Spirit. Friends in Listening Groups work together to develop their mutual understanding of the enduring spiritual principles that lie behind our Quaker practices.
Imagine having a small group of deep listeners at your service. Imagine being able to share not only your concerns, your spiritual trials, your questions of faith, but also your discoveries, your leadings, your promptings of the Light. And imagine that you will be asked to serve regularly as a deep listener to others on their spiritual journey, to be present to a Friend in times of trial, in times of critical questioning, and in times of joy and celebration.
Listening
Quakers wait in expectant silence to hear the voice of God. Whether in study, in meditation, in prayer, or in the silences between spoken messages in Meeting for Worship, we practice patient attention to the spiritual ground around us. Often by creating a safe space, by listening attentively, we are able to hear the voice of God in the authentic words of others.
At the same time that we are encouraged to listen deeply, we bear the weighty responsibility to actively translate the words of others, their metaphors, their experiences into expressions that speak to our condition. All speech is metaphor, all words are packed with nuance, loaded with meaning, connotations, implications and overtones. To hear a person’s message is easy, but to listen deeply, to do the work of interpretation, is the Quaker task.
As Gene Hoffman remarks: “I am not talking about listening with the human ear. I am talking about ‘discernment,’ which means to perceive something hidden and obscure. We must listen with our spiritual ear, the one inside, and this is very different from deciding in advance what is right and what is wrong and then seeking to promote our own agenda. We must literally suspend our disbelief and then listen to learn whether what we hear expands or diminishes our sense of Truth.” Words must not become barriers between us, for no one of us can ever adequately understand or express the truth about God, the depth of our personal spiritual journey, or the essence of what has been revealed to us. Yet words are our tools and we must not be afraid to express the truth we know in the best words we can. We must trust that our faith is robust, and compassionate, and that the Spirit which gives the words is communicated through them.
As we listen to each other’s spiritual journey we are encouraged to translate one another’s words much as we would a foreign language. Although we may never adopt others’ language as our own, we are enriched and brought closer to each other by the experience of listening outside the comfort of our own religious vocabulary. We rejoice in the variety of religious experience, a diversity that leads us to a deepened understanding of our own path.
The skill of the listener who can go beyond words, who can even go beyond the conscious meanings behind words and who can listen with the “third ear” for what is unconsciously being meant by the speaker, furnishes a climate where the most unexpected disclosures occur, where miracles happen.
Marcel Proust declaims, “The voyage of discovery lies not in encountering new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.” And listening with new ears. Friends are, if nothing else, seekers, searchers of the Truth and open to the wisdom of others regardless of the source. Listening is an essential art in this search; truly paying attention to the witness of Friends is central to our search.
Indeed truly paying attention is not only the key to deep listening, but also lies at the core of a common Quaker form of prayer. When Friends ask others to “Hold in the Light” a person or concern, we place our attention wholly with that individual or concern. While Friends may do this differently – for example, with or without images, or with or without words – what lies at the ground of those acts of prayer, those offerings of praise, those appeals for understanding, is each Quaker’s complete attention.
The work of “Holding in the Light” can be healing and helpful to others; even simply knowing that this is happening in a difficult time may be a profound blessing. Almost certainly, our own lives will be changed as well. As our awareness embraces the relationship between the Divine and the individual, our own relationship to the eternal is touched. The life of the Meeting will also be changed: the Meeting as a body becomes a community of concern with a common focus, a shared vision, and a gathered sense of loving care.
All this might appear to new Friends as a process that could take a lot of time. Devoting time to listen to the spiritual efforts of others in your community, spending time in reflecting on your own spiritual path, working together to seek God’s will, not only in matters of the heart, but also in the many decisions which face us, all this takes time. As Thomas Kelly puts it: “It is simple. It is serene. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.” It becomes a way of life: the Life of the Spirit. How else can we expect to know one another in that which is eternal?
[Proposed Revisions, Second Reading 2013 Faith & Practice, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, unapproved]
