'Be, Open, Wait, and Accept.' Photo: Reyk Schiering / flicrk CC.
BOWA
Angela Greenwood reflects on Experiment with Light
At an Experiment with Light weekend that I attended I was reminded of the acronym MOWS (Mind, Open, Wait, Submit). It refers to a structure that Rex Ambler, a founder of the project and author of books such as Light to Live By: An exploration in Quaker Spirituality and The Quaker Way: a rediscovery, highlighted from the early Quaker practice of waiting, sometimes for long hours, in the Light.
This prompted the words ‘Be, Open, Wait, and Accept’ to come strongly to my mind. That was yesterday. Today they came again, and some helpful inspiration flowed around them. Over the weeks these words have become more and more fruitful.
Be and Being
Being, for me, is a state of presence, a state where we are awake to ‘Beingness’ – a state of heightened awareness: the Being part of our Human Being-ness. We are, perhaps, all ‘Being’ (or Spirit) in human form. Being is like the eternal dimension where we are all one; where we are all part of life – not just separate entities, as our humanness displays and needs, of course, to act out in the world.
Moving into Being is the first step in my meditation. Be Still.
Open
This is the same as ‘Open’ in the Experiment with Light’s ‘Opening to the Light’. In the ‘Experiment’ it often refers to opening to what the Light reveals within us – to shadow aspects, perhaps. I saw it as ‘Opening to the Light within’. I was reminded of Jesus saying: ‘The Kingdom of God is within’.
The Light is, of course, within and without and not part of the duality at all; opening to emptiness, perhaps. ‘O’ also encloses an empty space – a ‘pregnant void’ perhaps. Opening to emptiness is like opening to nothingness, or to possibilities. All creativity is born out of opening to not knowing and then – Wow!
Observe
There are so many ways of understanding the Light, but Opening in this situation is about opening to whatever wants to come into our awareness without any expectations. I saw it as opening our minds, our hearts and our bodies – opening our third eye, our heart and, perhaps, our lower chakras.
More recently it occurred to me that ‘O’ is for Observe. Just ‘Observe’ whatever comes – without getting entangled. I sometimes find myself chanting ‘Oooooomm’ as in Om Shanti, which is, of course, a meditation mantra.
Wait
The words ‘wait without words’ came strongly through. I know this is the case for me, as I find letting go of words and thinking very difficult, even though I know how important it is – but it may also be useful for others.
Someone talked at the weekend of the different quality the words or phrases that come to us in the meditation ‘from a deeper place’ have from our normal thoughts and reflections. The phrase ‘wait without words’ had this quality.
This phrase came up strongly again today, and suddenly ‘www’ came into my mind – and made me smile! I was reminded, also, that in the ‘mindfulness in schools training’ the . (dot) indicates STOP. Stop thinking. The programme is called ‘.Be’!
I was also reminded of the phrase ‘watch, wait and wonder’, a therapeutic intervention for mothers and toddlers, but the words ‘watch, wait and wonder’ felt helpful as an internal and meditative guide – ‘wonder’-ing both as curiosity and as awe!
Accept
Accept: Submit (a George Fox word, I think) in the early Experiment with Light meditation version has often been difficult for people to take, as in our modern world it can have connotations of giving in to pressure. In the Experiment with Light meditation it is usually ‘translated’ or interpreted as Accept, which I find particularly helpful.
In my meditations I was reminded of a rather challenging but, for me, inspiring sentence from Eckhart Tolle, which I read before Meeting for Worship two weeks ago: ‘acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world’. The sentence is from his book Stillness Speaks and is very relevant to the more uncomfortable insights the Light sometimes reveals to us.
It is also challengingly relevant to the modern world situation and that of the seventeenth century too. It seems to speak of love and not judgement: ‘Grace comes in the Light’.
Allow
More recently I have added the word ‘Allow’ to this part: ‘Accept and Allow’ – reminding me to allow Life to just flow through me as it will. I have found the word ‘Align’ very helpful, like tuning in to the ‘flow’ and going with it without thought or judgement – almost a visceral experience.
Finally, in my meditation BOWA seemed to become a bow. I saw bow as expressing humility – the opposite of ego wants, attachments and fears, and ‘a’ as in AAAAHHHH – a sort of bodily letting go perhaps – or maybe hinting at ‘aaaoum’, the (Indian?) mantra often used in meditation, moving the meditator towards openness to the Godhead.
I liked it.
