Pages tagged "Group Mysticism"

Dear Editor: Thank-you for publishing Jim Humphrey’s “Here Sleep Dragons” in the March/April 2017 issue of Western Friend. I’ve long regarded the Quaker faith as both timeless and prescient, and a most fitting expression of 21st Century Christianity in which science, mysticism and justice advocacy meet and affirm each other. I admire Mr. Humphrey’s intimate and transcendent account of our human condition, which relates the evolution of scientific breakthroughs and worldviews, and considers conscious agency within an incomprehensibly complex and co-creative world. His is a deeply inspired rendering of contemporary pragmatic Quaker mysticism, describing a participatory universe of which we are each and all an expression, and a faith “that resides both in action and belief.”

And thus have we learned of the Lord: to wit, not by the high striving, aspiring mind; but by lying low, and being contented with little. If but a crumb of bread, (yet if bread,) if but a drop of water, (yet if water,) we have been contented with it, and also thankful to the Lord for it: [for it is not] by thoughtfulness, and wise searching, and deep considering with our own wisdom and reason have we obtained it; but in the still, meek, and humble waiting have we found . . . the mysteries of God’s kingdom . . .

If we were coming together to worship individually, each to enter into his or her own private meditation, then it wouldn’t much matter whether all arrived at the appointed time. In private meditation, the worshippers could each “settle” separately, training themselves not to be disturbed by latecomers. But . . . our goal is to achieve a group mystical experience, deepening and enriching our individual experience; we need to start the process at the same time.  ~~~

My first encounter with Friends occurred thirty years ago in my hometown of Princeton, New Jersey. I was going through a tumultuous time, and I found the Princeton Meeting to be a place of peace and comfort. Later, as I became more involved with Quakerism, I learned about the history of Princeton Meeting and the hidden history of local Quakers, who were the original settlers there. I learned that the Quakers didn’t take sides during the Revolutionary War; that they cared for the American and British wounded equally; and that as a result, they fell out of favor politically.