Quakers consider links between meditation and worship
‘Quaker Worship is centred in waiting in the light whereas in meditation it is the practice of Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight.'
Friends have been sharing thoughts on the links between Quaker worship and meditation.
Gathering for a ‘creative conversation’ on 4 January, Trevor Bending and John Senior shared meditation prompts to encourage contemplation for a nontheist Friends’ session titled ‘Exploring Stillness: Nontheist Quakers and meditation’. The two then shared their own thoughts together in a creative dialogue.
Discussing questions such as whether meditation is distinguishable from worship, and whether meditation is an acceptable practice for worship, John Senior considered writings from Quaker faith & practice, William Penn, and James Naylor. These included Geoffrey Hubbard’s words from Quaker faith & practice 26.12 in 1974: ‘So one approaches, by efforts which call for the deepest resources of one’s being, to the condition of true silence; not just of sitting still, not just of not speaking, but of a wide awake, fully aware non-thinking. It is in this condition, found and held for a brief instant only, that I have experienced the existence of something other than “myself”. The thinking me has vanished, and with it vanishes the sense of separation, of unique identity. One is not left naked and defenceless, as one is, for example, by the operations of the mind in self-analysis. One becomes instead aware, one is conscious of being a participant in the whole of existence, not limited to the body or the moment… It is in this condition that one understands the nature of the divine power, its essential identity with love, in the widest sense of that much misused word.’
Friend Jenny Morse also reflects on Quaker and Buddhist practices on the Discovering Quaker website. Writing about the ‘deep spiritual and practical links between Quakers and Plum Village’, she describes how co-belonging enriches her life. ‘Quaker Worship is centred in waiting in the light whereas in meditation it is the practice of Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight. I have found that both paths enhance each other and deepen my spiritual life.’
Plum Village was founded by Thich Nhat Hanh along the principles of the school of Buddhism called ‘Engaged Buddhism’.
Comments
The beauty of Quaker meeting lies in the personal freedom to go within the privacy of one’s own physical frame, and seek, enjoy, ponder on, whatever can be found there, without the intervention of the trappings of “spiritual” practice dictated by religion or denial of such. By that token, to attempt to establish protocols that could impose constraint of any kind is not only an offence to the basic tenets of quakerism, but futile. When I go to Meeting, what happens within myself is not subject to analysis or discussion. Of course anyone may try to do so, but given the waste of time and energy involved in such trespass, I would suggest that we each look to ourselves and enjoy the privacy of going within, and the freedom to express such experience or hold it to one’s private self, as one may wish.
By berwil on 18th January 2024 - 9:25
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