Be still and know
Ann Banks shares insights she has learned from ‘Experiment with Light’
Experiment with Light is a simple but powerful meditation. It is the foundation of our Quaker way and was the means by which George Fox introduced others to the experience of the ‘inward light’. Over the eighteen months since I was introduced to it, it has transformed the way I think and feel about myself and my relationship with others, the wider world and the light itself. If you want 2010 to be different, more spacious, more peaceful, more meaningful, you might like to try it for yourself. There are five steps:
Be Still. This is the first step, perhaps the most difficult: always something to be doing, something to be thinking, something to be feeling and that insistent running commentary on every thought, action and emotion, making judgments. It can be useful to focus on the breath to still the mind.
Mind the Light. This means looking beyond the chatter and flak of the inner commentary, noticing that there’s another place inside that‘s quieter, slower, where the thoughts can be observed and not engaged with. Pay attention to this other dimension, allow it to become the focus. Let every thought or feeling that might arise float away without getting caught up in it.
Open your Heart to the Truth. What can we learn from this other dimension? Fox says: ‘Your teacher is within, look not forth’. What does it want to show us? Do we want to ask it about anything? Are we willing to be really open? How does the insight come? In images? In words? In a felt sense? Some other way? Reach out towards it, meet it half way.
Wait in the Light. Don’t run away from anything that might be presented, stay open. This is not a judgment, it’s for information so that changes can be made, and we can get to know ourselves better. Of course there’s a problem with shining a light on things – it shows up the bits we’d rather not look at but even if it seems difficult, stay with it. Most reactive behaviour comes from old hurts that are still tender when touched – seeing them for what they are gives us the opportunity for choices of response in the future. Our lives are driven by the stuff we habitually avoid looking at. If we don’t understand what is being experienced it’s useful to ask about it, but wait for insight, don’t try to second guess or think about it with the logical mind.
Accept what the Light Reveals. So we may have seen things about ourselves that are surprising – shocking even; a pattern in relationships that has been destructive; a glimpse of a way forward on a difficulty which had seemed intractable; whatever has been offered say yes to it, give it a try and see what happens – this is an experiment after all!
Returning to our usual level of consciousness it’s really useful to spend some time allowing the experience to register in the conscious mind. Make a record of what’s happened, insights, images, concepts otherwise, like a dream, it can easily bypass the storage facility in the brain. What we have learned can then be integrated into daily life.
Experiment with Light is still revolutionary, 350 years after it was first practised. Really knowing ourselves is the key to peace.
Visit www.experiment-with-light.org.uk for more information.
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