Beyond walls
John Bond recommends a new book on personal discovery
It is always fascinating to hear a person tell of finding a new and more satisfying direction in life. One delight of Beyond Walls, complied by Suresh Khatri, is that you can dip into it anywhere, and read a profound experience, told in a couple of pages.
In this book people share their personal discoveries resulting from an encounter with Initiatives of Change. One of these is a British Quaker, Howard Grace.
Suresh Khatri, a Fijian Indian, has collected first-hand accounts from ninety people from twenty-six countries on five continents. The respondents are of differing religions, spiritual or belief persuasions: twenty-seven Christians, seventeen Hindus, thirteen Muslims, seven Buddhists, six Orthodox Christians, four Jews, three Jains, four Taoists, three Zoroastrians, one Sikh, one Shinto, one Tenrikyo adherent, one Quaker, one Bramo Samaji and one agnostic secularist. Their ages range from a 100-year-old down to twenty-two.
The thread that unites these stories is the challenge at the heart of Initiatives of Change – to ‘be the change we want to see in the world’. Many writers tell of the transformation they found through taking some quiet time to shine the light of absolute moral standards onto their own lives, see where they fall short, and take remedial action.
The first story is by a Muslim from Kabul in Afghanistan. A young extremist, he writes: ‘Taking time out for “inner listening” became one of the most important things I experienced with Initiatives of Change.’ This time of silence is clearly a practice that is valued and shared by Initiatives of Change and Quakers. Change in the lives of the book’s contributors has opened their eyes to the possibility of change around them, and their stories tell of healing disputes in families and workplaces, of reaching out across divided communities, and of helping resolve conflict within and between nations.
Howard Grace finishes his contribution by writing:
‘Experiences and close friendships of decades with people from a wide variety of beliefs and cultures leads me to conclude that we are all reaching out to a spiritual dimension which is far beyond our present human capacity to grasp. For over thirty years my wife and I were members of a mainstream church. We have many friends there and respond to the caring spirit. But in recent times we became increasingly uneasy with the emphasis on “correct doctrinal belief” as being the deciding factor as to whether you are a Christian or not.
‘So, we looked around for a Christian fellowship, which had an ethos more inclusive of diversity. We have found this with the Quakers. Much in their ways resonates with our Initiatives of Change convictions, especially the commitment to social change and the emphasis on silent reflection, inspiration and direction. Quaker faith holds that it is spiritual experience that is central, not the use of a particular form of words (whether that be “God” or anything else).
‘I respect my friends who find sustenance in their orthodox religious beliefs. But personally I experience that I can be more wholehearted as part of the Quaker fellowship which sees faith more as a “trust” response to something deep within our hearts, irrespective of what we believe to be the source of that.
‘Although influenced by religious beliefs, I have come to suspect that values such as integrity and care come from something more basic. We have compassion primarily because we are human beings. This understanding resonates well with my Initiatives of Change aspiration to build a more caring, loving world and to live the life of integrity necessary to further that end.’
Beyond Walls, offers evidence that those values and insights can bring us together in working for a just and harmonious world.
John was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his work as secretary of the Australian campaign for an official apology to the Aboriginal ‘Stolen Generations’.
Beyond Walls is available for £6 from the Initiatives of Change website: http://shop.iofc.org
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