Living in the Light

Tony D’Souza writes about answering ‘that of God’ in everyone

I remember a conversation between two Friends back in the 1970s. The two old men were reminiscing about their youth before the second world war. The thing that struck me about their conversation was not only that they had an experience of the Inner Light which I was expecting, but also that they believed the Light in one person could communicate with the Light in someone else.

This idea of wordless communication between people was a revelation to me at the time. Now, many years later, I have begun to understand what they meant. I have experienced in the depth of a gathered Meeting a deeper unity between all those present. This unity can be experienced by all who search for it. Put simply, there is a ‘unity of being’ between us all that is deeper than thought, and this unity is the basis of wordless communication between people.

George Fox preached that the Kingdom of God was within every man and could be experienced:

…as people come into subjection to the spirit of God, and grow up in the image and power of the Almighty, they may receive the word of wisdom that opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being.

This is why the silent worship of the early Quakers is among the greatest discoveries of mankind. By sitting still and waiting in silence it is possible to experience the presence of God. This presence is experienced within us and between us. It is shared by everyone in a common unity and is ever present, ever ‘now,’ and therefore spans and contains all that belongs to time.

Our spiritual maturity is not a matter of prophesying or ministering in the Spirit. It is a matter of where our consciousness is from moment to moment. It is a matter of ‘living in that reality’ during our daily lives. The level of our consciousness dictates the quality of our lives, our usefulness to God and to our fellow human beings. Fox is clear about living in that reality:

And so, all to live in that which is the same to-day, as was yesterday… no new thing, but that which was and is to all eternity: let your fellowship be in that, and your unity and communion be in that; for by the spiritual eye the eternal unity with the eternal God is seen. So, hear his voice every where…

The unity is the basis of our ability to communicate without words. We do it by living in and through the unity or the Light itself. The ‘spiritual eye’ Fox is talking about is the same spiritual eye Christ refers to in Matthew’s Gospel (6:20-23):

…lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil; thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee is in darkness, how great is that darkness!

The ‘single eye’ is a way of seeing. As William Blake said:

This life’s dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.

This is a way of seeing the ever-present Unity all the time, and Fox is referring to the same ‘eye.’ The choice is ours: either we serve God or Mammon, because we cannot serve both.

Either we live in the truth or we live in an illusion of our own making. There is no compromise. We can live our lives according to the perceptions and judgements of our rational mind or we can live according to the Spirit, which sees past physical appearances and sees the world as it is, Eternal and forever One.

In one of his earliest ‘openings’ Fox says: ‘I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.’

The ocean of light and love overcomes the ocean of darkness and it is only by living in the Light that we can overcome the darkness. The consciousness of the Light and of the Unity triumphs over darkness and death:

Wait in the measure of the spirit of God to guide you up to God and keep you in all peace and unity.

The Light within us purifies us and makes us like itself. The way to practice this is to stand still in the Light and observe the thoughts as they appear. Then ask the Light to tell you what you need to know.

Only you can do this, nobody can do it for you. The next step is to try to live in the Light in each moment. It is essential to guard the mind at all times and try to keep your consciousness in the Light. In this way, the Light begins to work through you:

Take heed of being hurried with many thoughts but live in that which goes over them all.

Keep atop of that which will cumber the mind.

We can experience all of this for ourselves; it only takes a little effort. Start by experiencing the Unity at Meeting for Worship, by resting your mind in the silence. As thoughts arise, observe them and let them go. Outside of the Meeting you can explore and deepen the experience. This is best done in a ‘quiet time’ in the morning or last thing at night or both.

If you are serious, you will find a way that best suits you. For example, you could withdraw your mind from time and relax in the living moment or keep your attention in the moment by concentrating on your breath. You can enjoy the stillness of nature by walking in it or you can sit and look at a flower. It does not matter how you do it. It only matters that you do it, because only by doing it will you find the stillness and the Light and the Life.

This is how to communicate wordlessly between people. If there is ‘that of God’ in everyone we can communicate with it not by reason or by logical argument but by keeping ourselves inwardly still in the Light and the Life. This is what Fox meant by:

…keep in the Life, that ye may answer that of God in every man upon the earth.

Finally, the Unity is also the basis of our Peace Testimony. If all things are One, when we hurt another we are just as surely doing it to ourselves. If we are moved to kill another human being we are moved by something that is evil. This is the what Fox meant when he said: ‘…the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons.’

Why would we want to do that? If you bite your tongue do you smash out your teeth?

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