Light, power and action together
Richard Thompson reflects on a quotation from George Fox
In December 2008, nearly ten years ago, I came across a remarkable sentence of George Fox and copied it into my inner diary: ‘You have the light to see all evil and the power to withstand it.’ Early Quakers lived that message and in spite of – or, perhaps, because of – the animosity and persecution meted out to them, experienced amazing strength and creativity. Now we are in the twenty-first century and this insight is still precious. I can see different levels to which it applies. For each one I have modified the words ‘evil’, ‘power’ and ‘withstand’, replacing them by more appropriate words with respect to the different levels of experience.
First of all, my perspective is to look at the level of national and international politics. I see the harm we are doing to each other and to the planet. I put George Fox’s insight into the first person with these words: ‘I have the light to see all the exploitation and manipulation and I also have the courage to resist them.’ Action together is the way forward. Each one of us can find other people and take action together. For myself, I am supporting the work of Stop Fuelling War, a group based in the Quaker building in Paris, raising awareness in France of the obscenity of Eurosatory, the armaments ‘fair’ to be held at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre from 11-15 June in Paris.
I look now at a different level, our personal relationships; in my case, the behaviour of acquaintance, friends and family towards me in ways that I may consider negative or difficult. Some, or rather much, of this behaviour may be because of my own ‘closedness’. My phrase is now: ‘I have the light to see difficult and what I consider to be negative behaviour and I also have the resilience to respond and not to react.’ Action is, however, difficult. The problem is the speed of response required. When I receive a word of criticism, I try, immediately, to be conscious of my breathing in order to avoid rapid reaction. It’s a tall order.
My third level is even more difficult. It is the level of my own negativity, my self-centred and self-righteous way of living. Seeing one’s own negativity can be frightening. George Fox’s approach looks daunting: ‘Now you must die in the silence, die from the wisdom, die from the knowledge, die from the reason, and die from the understanding.’ I softened this in my inner diary to: ‘To die is to turn back from the misleading reactions that we usually mistake for “life”.’
An article in the Friend (5 September 2017) going back to when I was pondering George Fox nearly ten years ago helped my phrase change. It was about focusing: ‘From focusing I learned how to relate to those places in myself, rather than being in them or overwhelmed by them.’ My phrase is now, therefore: ‘I have the light to see my own lack and the confidence to relate to it in creative ways rather than being stuck in it and overwhelmed by it.’
I think it is important here to avoid heaviness. So, I conclude with the upbeat tone of Isaac Pennington: ‘And from this measure of life, the capacity increaseth, the senses grow stronger; it sees more, feels more, tastes more, hears more, smells more. Now when when the senses are grown up to strength… doubtings and disputes in the mind fly away and the soul lives in the certain demonstration, and fresh sense, and power of life’ (To Friends of Both the Chalfonts).
Is there any action that we can take which helps us in all three levels? It’s closer than we think. Quaker Voluntary Action is our homegrown way of combining practical work with free time, reflection, fellowship and fun.
