Embedded Files
Across religious traditions, seekers have described remarkably similar movements of spiritual transformation: awakening, turning inward, surrendering the separate will, discovering a deeper Reality, and allowing that realization to transform one's life through love and compassion. Friends understand this journey through the language of the Inward Light and the living Christ, though not all people first encounter the Light of Awareness in these terms. The diversity of the world's religions may itself be understood as an expression of God's far-reaching grace. Like a shepherd seeking lost sheep across a vast and varied landscape, God reaches people in places and circumstances where a single religious tradition could never fully reach them. The emergence of different religious communities, as well as the reforming influence of smaller communities upon larger ones, may all serve God's work in the world.
No religious community need imagine itself the whole of God's work, nor must a smaller community consider itself less significant than a larger one. Each may serve as an extension of divine love, reaching people whom others cannot reach and offering insights that others may need. As the fringes of a garment belong to the same garment, so the varied expressions of humanity's spiritual life may participate in the work of the same Divine Reality. God is not absent from one place because God is present in another. Wherever the Light is received and followed, there the work of grace may be found. The many paths and communities of humanity need not be understood as rivals competing for God's attention, but as different means through which people may be awakened, transformed, and drawn toward their Source.
Thus grace reaches ever farther, across the boundaries of nations, cultures, and religions, until all are gathered into the fullness of divine Love. The Light that Friends know through the living Christ is not confined by the boundaries of the Society of Friends, or even by the boundaries of Christianity. Its work extends to the ends of the earth, calling every soul toward the Truth and the compassionate life that flows from it.
No religious community need imagine itself the whole of God's work, nor must a smaller community consider itself less significant than a larger one. Each may serve as an extension of divine love, reaching people whom others cannot reach and offering insights that others may need. As the fringes of a garment belong to the same garment, so the varied expressions of humanity's spiritual life may participate in the work of the same Divine Reality. God is not absent from one place because God is present in another. Wherever the Light is received and followed, there the work of grace may be found. The many paths and communities of humanity need not be understood as rivals competing for God's attention, but as different means through which people may be awakened, transformed, and drawn toward their Source.
Thus grace reaches ever farther, across the boundaries of nations, cultures, and religions, until all are gathered into the fullness of divine Love. The Light that Friends know through the living Christ is not confined by the boundaries of the Society of Friends, or even by the boundaries of Christianity. Its work extends to the ends of the earth, calling every soul toward the Truth and the compassionate life that flows from it.
Mysticism and the Quaker Way
Mysticism and the Quaker Way
The Inward Experience of God
The Inward Experience of God
Mysticism is the direct experience of spiritual Reality: the inward awakening to the presence of God, the stilling of the separate will, and the discovery of a deeper Life from which all things arise and through which all things are sustained. Across the world's religious traditions, mystics have described experiences of profound stillness, surrender, illumination, love, and union with a Reality that exceeds the limits of ordinary thought and perception. These experiences have been understood in many ways, but they share a recognition that the deepest truth of existence cannot be fully grasped through intellectual knowledge alone. It must also be lived, encountered, and known inwardly.For Friends, this inward encounter has traditionally been understood through the Light of Christ, the Inward Teacher, and the living presence of the Holy Spirit. Quakerism arose from the conviction that God is not distant from humanity, nor accessible only through priests, institutions, scriptures, or religious ceremonies. God can be known directly within the heart, where the Spirit reveals Truth, exposes what is false, and leads us into a life transformed by Love.
Mysticism is therefore not peripheral to the Quaker faith. It lies near its very heart. The silence of Quaker worship, the testimony of the Inward Light, the rejection of outward religion when separated from inward reality, and the conviction that Christ can teach His people directly all arise from the recognition that authentic religion begins with the living experience of God. This experience is not the possession of a privileged few. The Light is present within everyone, and every person may be drawn toward a deeper awareness of the Divine. The purpose of the Quaker way is to become quiet enough to receive this Light, humble enough to follow it, and faithful enough to allow it to transform our lives.
The Mystical Foundations of Quakerism
The Mystical Foundations of Quakerism
The Religious Society of Friends emerged in seventeenth-century England through a movement of people who sought a faith grounded not merely in outward religious observance, but in the immediate guidance and power of the Spirit. Early Friends testified that the same Christ who had taught and transformed people in the days of the apostles was present to teach people in their own time. George Fox's defining spiritual discovery came when he had exhausted his hopes in human teachers and authorities. He recounted hearing the inward assurance: “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.” In this discovery, Fox found not merely a doctrine about Christ, but the living presence of Christ Himself, able to reach the soul where no outward authority could. This was the beginning of a radical religious conviction: God can speak to each person directly. Scripture, religious teaching, and the wisdom of others may illuminate the way, but none can replace the inward knowledge of God. The Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles remains present and active, leading people into Truth in the present moment.
Early Friends therefore emphasized the supremacy of inward spiritual experience over mere religious profession. They challenged the assumption that belonging to the correct institution, accepting the correct propositions, or performing the correct ceremonies could substitute for knowing God. Their faith was not a rejection of Scripture or Christian tradition, but a conviction that these must lead us toward the living Reality to which they bear witness. This inward foundation also transformed the meaning of ministry. If the Spirit of Christ can speak within every person, then no individual possesses an exclusive claim to divine guidance. Every person may be called to listen, discern, minister, and respond. The community of Friends exists not to replace the Inward Teacher, but to help one another become more faithful to that Teacher. The Quaker way is thus deeply mystical in its origins and continues to be so wherever Friends gather in expectant silence, open themselves to the Light, and allow the Spirit to guide their lives.
The Light Within and the Reality Beyond the Self
The Light Within and the Reality Beyond the Self
Friends have used many names for the inward presence of God: the Light, the Seed, the Word, the Spirit, the Life, the Inward Teacher, and Christ. These expressions need not be understood as separate spiritual realities. They point toward different aspects of the Divine presence encountered within the heart. The Light illuminates and reveals Truth. The Seed speaks of the living presence of God planted within us, which may be received and nurtured until it bears fruit. The Word is the creative and revealing expression of Divine Reality. The Spirit is God's living activity within and among us. Christ is the eternal Word and Light of God, fully manifested in Jesus of Nazareth and inwardly present to teach, transform, and reconcile humanity to God. The inward Light is not simply our ordinary thinking, our personal desires, or the voice of the ego. Nor is it an autonomous fragment of divinity belonging to the individual. It is God's own living presence and activity within us, calling us beyond the limitations of self-will toward Truth, Wisdom, and Love.
To turn inward is therefore not merely to become absorbed in our own thoughts and feelings. It is to become receptive to what transcends our ordinary understanding of ourselves. We discover that the deepest ground of our lives is not exhausted by our personalities, our fears, our ambitions, or our sense of being separate individuals. There is a depth to the soul that opens onto a Reality greater than the finite self. The mystical journey begins when we become willing to listen. In silence, prayer, contemplation, and the circumstances of daily life, we may encounter a Presence that reveals our shortcomings while simultaneously drawing us toward wholeness. We discover that the God we seek is already nearer to us than our own attempts to find Him, and that the inward movement toward God is itself sustained by Divine Grace. As Friend Rufus Jones wrote:“We have learned that the Divine Other whom we seek is also seeking us.” The movement toward God is never solely our own achievement. The Light that draws us inward is already at work within us, awakening the desire for Truth and giving us the grace to follow it.
Silence, Stillness, and Waiting Upon the Spirit
Silence, Stillness, and Waiting Upon the Spirit
Quaker silent worship is one of the clearest expressions of this mystical understanding. Friends gather without a predetermined sermon or prescribed liturgy, sitting together in stillness and waiting upon the Spirit. We seek to quiet our preoccupations, lay aside our habitual striving, and become receptive to the inward movement of God.This silence is not merely the absence of speech. It is an inward quietness in which we cease trying to manufacture spiritual experience or compel God to answer our demands. We wait without insisting that the Divine conform to our expectations. We become willing to receive what is given, even when it challenges our assumptions or leads us somewhere we had not intended to go. Caroline Stephen expressed this understanding in the following words: “The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of all preoccupation with passing things — yes, even with the workings of our own minds; a resolute fixing of the heart upon that which is unchangeable and eternal.”
In this stillness, we may become aware of the Light in ways that ordinary activity obscures. Thoughts may settle. The sense of separation between ourselves and others may soften. We may experience an unexpected clarity, a profound peace, a conviction that calls us to change, or a love that seems to exceed our ordinary capacities. Such experiences cannot be demanded, and their outward forms may differ greatly. Some Friends experience a distinct inward prompting; others discover a gradual transformation of their understanding, character, and conduct. The absence of dramatic experiences does not mean the absence of God. Faithfulness consists not in pursuing extraordinary states of consciousness, but in becoming available to the Spirit and responding to the Truth we are given. The silence of Quaker worship is also communal. We do not withdraw into isolated private spirituality, but wait together. As Friend Thomas Kelly described it, there are moments in gathered worship when the boundaries of individual isolation seem to give way before a Presence that nourishes and unites the worshippers. Our separate lives become more deeply understood within a Life that holds us all. In this way, silence becomes both a personal and a shared encounter with the Divine: a return to the inward sanctuary of the heart and a discovery of the fellowship that becomes possible when we turn together toward God.
Surrender, Grace, and the Transformation of the Will
Surrender, Grace, and the Transformation of the Will
Mystical experience is not simply an enlargement of knowledge or the attainment of unusual states of consciousness. It is a transformation of the way we live. To know God inwardly is to become increasingly willing to let God's Wisdom, rather than fear and self-interest, govern our lives. The obstacle is not our individuality in itself, but our attachment to the separate, self-willed identity that seeks to control everything, secure its own importance, and impose its desires upon the world. We become preoccupied with defending ourselves, pursuing our ambitions, and maintaining the illusion that we stand apart from the Life upon which we depend. The inward Light exposes these patterns. It shows us where fear has become our guide, where pride has concealed itself as righteousness, and where our desire for control has displaced trust. Yet this revelation is not merely condemnation. It is an invitation to freedom. To surrender to God is to relinquish the demand that life conform to the ego's plans. It is to become willing to follow Truth even when it costs us something, to accept correction when we are wrong, and to act in Love without requiring that every outcome be favorable to us. Such surrender does not mean abandoning discernment, neglecting our responsibilities, or passively accepting injustice. It means allowing our choices to be governed by something deeper than self-protection.
Friend Thomas Kelly described the inward life as one in which “Love is at the helm.” When we live from the Divine Center, our lives may become simpler, more peaceful, and more effective, not because difficulties disappear, but because we no longer need to meet every difficulty through fear and frantic self-assertion. This is the paradox of the mystical way: we become more truly ourselves as we cease to make the separate self the center of existence. We discover freedom not through the absolute fulfillment of our personal will, but through its transformation in the presence of God. The deepest surrender is therefore not a heroic achievement of the ego. Even our desire to seek God may itself be awakened by Grace. The Light calls; we respond. The Spirit leads; we learn to follow. As Kelly wrote of the inward life, the Living Christ is the initiator, and we are the responders. In this recognition, spiritual life becomes less a project of self-improvement and more a continual yielding to the Love already at work within us.
The Mystical Meaning of Christ
The Mystical Meaning of Christ
For Friends who understand the inward Light through Christ, mysticism is not an escape from Christianity but a deeper entry into its spiritual heart.Christ is not merely an historical figure about whom we hold beliefs. He is the living Word and Light of God, who was uniquely and fully manifested in Jesus of Nazareth and who continues to teach, awaken, and transform us inwardly. Jesus reveals what a human life wholly surrendered to the Father looks like: a life of humility, compassion, forgiveness, courage, and unconditional Love. The purpose of inward religion is to know this Life for ourselves. We are not called merely to admire Jesus from a distance, but to follow His Way, to receive the Spirit that animated Him, and to allow His Love to become active in our own lives. The early Friends insisted that Christ must be known inwardly, not merely through outward profession. The eternal Word who spoke through Jesus is not confined to the past. Christ continues to address the human heart, revealing the Truth, exposing what separates us from Love, and leading us toward reconciliation with God.
This inward encounter can be understood as a movement from separation toward union. As the self-willed ego yields to the Spirit, we come to recognize our lives as grounded in God rather than existing independently of Him. We discover that the Divine Life we seek is already sustaining us, calling us, and drawing us toward wholeness.Some Friends describe this as sanctification, perfection in Love, or participation in the divine nature. Others speak of spiritual awakening or union with God. The language varies, but the essential concern is the same: that we should become inwardly transformed and outwardly manifest the Love we encounter. Such union does not require us to claim that our finite personalities are identical with the infinite God. It is a recognition that our true spiritual life depends upon God, that we are continually held within Divine Love, and that we become most fully alive when we surrender ourselves to that Love. As Jesus taught, the tree is known by its fruits. The authenticity of mystical experience is therefore not established by the intensity of a vision, the strangeness of an experience, or the certainty with which someone describes it. Its deeper significance is revealed in the life that follows: whether we become more truthful, humble, compassionate, forgiving, peaceful, and faithful. The proof of the inward Light is the Love it brings forth.
One Light, Many Mystical Traditions
One Light, Many Mystical Traditions
Mystical experience is not confined to Christianity or to the Religious Society of Friends. Throughout history, people from many religious traditions have sought the deepest ground of existence through silence, prayer, meditation, contemplation, self-surrender, and compassionate service. They have described encounters with the Absolute, the Beloved, the Void, the Ground of Being, the divine Presence, or a profound unity underlying the apparent divisions of the world. The language and interpretation of these experiences differ. Buddhist accounts of awakening, Hindu teachings concerning the divine ground of existence, Daoist reflections on the Way, Islamic traditions of remembrance and love of God, and Christian contemplative prayer cannot simply be treated as identical teachings. Each has its own history, disciplines, and understanding of spiritual truth. Nevertheless, Friends may recognize genuine wisdom and authentic spiritual insight across these differences. For universalist Friends, this recognition follows naturally from the conviction that God's presence is not restricted to a particular institution, culture, or historical period. The Light may awaken a person who has never encountered Christianity, and the movement toward Truth may begin within a tradition whose vocabulary differs entirely from that of Friends. Within the Quaker understanding, the universal presence of the Light may be understood through the eternal Christ, the Word through whom all things are created and sustained. Christ is not made smaller by being present beyond the boundaries of Christianity. Rather, the universality of the Light testifies to the inexhaustible reach of Divine Grace.
This does not require us to declare that all religions are interchangeable or that every spiritual claim is true. We can remain rooted in the Christian revelation of Christ Jesus while listening humbly to the wisdom of others. We can recognize Truth wherever it appears, test it through the fruits of Love, and remain open to learning from those whose paths differ from our own. Mysticism thus invites both conviction and humility: conviction that the Divine can be known, and humility about the limitations of our own concepts and descriptions of that Reality. The multiplicity of religious traditions need not be understood only as a source of division. It may also be seen as evidence of the many ways in which human beings have sought, encountered, and responded to the sacred. God may reach people through the forms of faith they inherit, the questions they cannot answer, the silence they discover, and the love they learn to embody. The Light is not divided merely because human beings understand it differently.
The Fruits of the Mystical Life
The Fruits of the Mystical Life
Mysticism is not an end in itself. Its purpose is not to withdraw permanently from the world, accumulate extraordinary experiences, or become preoccupied with private spiritual attainment. The inward encounter with God is meant to transform our lives and our relationships with all living beings. When we become more deeply aware of our dependence upon Divine Love, we are called to embody that Love in the world. We learn to meet others with compassion, to forgive rather than retaliate, to seek peace rather than domination, and to care for the vulnerable rather than treat them as strangers to our own lives. The inward Light may lead each person along a distinctive path, but it does not excuse us from responsibility toward others. On the contrary, the more deeply we encounter the Divine, the more seriously we must take the suffering, dignity, and freedom of our neighbors. Spiritual insight that leaves us cruel, dishonest, arrogant, or indifferent has not yet borne its proper fruit.
This is why the Quaker testimonies of peace, equality, integrity, community, simplicity, and stewardship belong so naturally alongside the mystical tradition. They express in practical life the conviction that all people are worthy of love, that no person possesses an exclusive claim to God, and that our inward faith must become visible through our outward conduct. The mystical life is not measured by how far we imagine ourselves to have advanced beyond ordinary humanity. It is measured by the depth with which Love takes root in us and the faithfulness with which we respond to the needs of the world. We do not become less attentive to creation by turning toward God. We begin to see creation differently: as a reality sustained by Divine generosity, deserving of care rather than exploitation, and filled with opportunities to serve the Life that sustains us all.The inward journey and the outward life of service are therefore inseparable. We return to the Center so that we may live more faithfully in the world. We receive Love so that we may give Love. We listen for the Spirit so that we may follow where it leads.
The Way of the Inward Teacher
The Way of the Inward Teacher
The mystical path does not require a single method or a uniform sequence of experiences. For some, it begins in silent worship; for others, in prayer, suffering, service, study, contemplation, or an unexpected encounter with beauty. Some experience a sudden awakening, while others come to know God through a gradual deepening of trust and understanding. What matters is not that every person experience the Divine in the same way, but that we become willing to follow the Truth we are given. Friends seek to remain attentive to the Inward Teacher, testing inward promptings through prayer, reflection, the fruits of the Spirit, and the wisdom of the community. We recognize that our own desires and assumptions can be mistaken, and that genuine discernment requires humility and patience.
We need not force an experience, manufacture certainty, or insist upon a particular description of what God must be. We can become still, attend to the Light, and allow our understanding to deepen through faithful practice. The way forward is not always revealed in advance. Often we are given only enough light to take the next step.Mysticism, in this sense, is not a specialized pursuit reserved for spiritual experts. It is the deepening of the ordinary life of faith: listening, surrendering, loving, discerning, and responding. It is the discovery that the Divine is not merely an object of thought, but a living Presence to whom we may entrust ourselves.The invitation is simple, though its implications reach into every part of our lives: become still, turn toward the Light, and follow where it leads.
The Living Mystery
The Living Mystery
The Divine Reality exceeds every concept through which we seek to understand it. Our words, doctrines, symbols, and traditions may point toward the Truth, but none can exhaust its fullness. Even our most profound experiences remain encounters with a Mystery greater than our capacity to explain it. Yet this mystery is not necessarily distant or inaccessible. It may be encountered in the stillness of the heart, in the gathered silence of Friends, in the inward call to repentance, in the love that overcomes resentment, and in the quiet conviction that we are held within a Life greater than our separate selves. The mystical way teaches us to hold our understanding with humility while remaining faithful to what we have inwardly recognized. We need not know everything about God to love God. We need not resolve every theological question before we can respond to the Light. We need not possess the Truth as an idea when we can seek to live in accordance with it.
For Friends, the purpose of silence is not silence itself, nor is the purpose of mystical experience the experience itself. The purpose is to become receptive to the living God, to be transformed by the Inward Teacher, and to allow Divine Love to guide our lives. We gather in silence because we believe that God can teach us directly. We turn inward because the Light is already present. We surrender because Love is more trustworthy than fear. We serve because the Life we encounter within ourselves is not ours alone.The mystical journey is a continual return to the Source from which our lives arise, a continual awakening to the Light that sustains us, and a continual response to the Love that calls us toward wholeness. One Light, one Life, one Divine Love: inwardly encountered, faithfully followed, and outwardly made manifest.
Some Quotations on Mystical Union
Some Quotations on Mystical Union
“I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” “Must not all the Children of the New Covenant witness their bodies the Temples of God, and him to dwell in them, and walk in them by his Spirit?” But God and Christ is in the Saints, and dwell in them, and walk in them... God is a spirit, and he dwells in his saints, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; In him we live, and move, and have our being, who is in all, and through all, and over all, God blessed for ever. And the spirit of the Father speaks in the Saints, and he makes his abode with them; And the Saints have fellowship with the Father, and the Son, so not distinct; so these keep people from unity with God, and out of his knowledge..."God's Christ is not distinct from his Saints, nor his bodies, for he is within them: nor distinct from their spirits, for their spirits witness him, And doth not the Scripture say, Christ in you, and God will dwell in you, and walk in you? And are not the Saints of his flesh and of his bone? And are they not partakers of the divine nature? ... How then are they of his flesh and of his bone, and eat his flesh, and drink his blood? And how have the Saints his mind and spirit, and he with them, and they with him... Ye poor Apostates from him, who feels not Christ with you, but he is with the Saints, and they feel him... The Saints are the Temples of God, and God dwells in them, and walks in them; and they come to witness the flesh of Christ, and they glorify him in their souls and bodies..." - Friend George Fox
"Throughout the entire discussion on the problem of authority and the nature of revelation the Quaker arguments usually resolve themselves into a single theme: the Quaker position constantly proclaims the 'withinness' of religion. Divine revelation must be received and appropriated by the believer, it must be recognized as being 'within' revelation, or the Divine Presence in any form, must ultimately find a dwelling place in the inner man, else religion is dead and lifeless. This dominant motif has several variations, as we have seen. The Quakers can speak of the anointing within, the teaching of God within, the Word within, the Light of Christ within, the indwelling Spirit. All of these phrases could be concluded under such a term as the Divine Presence within, and all point to some kind of a union between God and the individual believer. Thus far in the discussion, however, this union of the believer with God has been expressed rather indirectly by the Quakers: the teaching of God, the word of God, the the Light of Christ, the Spirit of God, We now come to the explicit affirmation of immediate unity with God and Christ Himself. The theme of 'withinness' will now express itself in terms of the key phrase, 'Christ within'." - Ralph Paul Bohn
"To seek our divinity merely in books and writings is to seek the living among the dead: we do but in vain seek God many times in these, where his Truth too often is not so much enshrined, as entombed: no; intra te quære Deum, seek for God within thine own soul…. That is not the best and truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the brain, but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our hearts." — Friend John Smith
"Children are fully spiritual beings. They often see and sense the sacred in everyday life more readily than adults do! If we listen to them carefully and bring this awareness to their art projects and other forms of expression, we may detect a transcendent quality to their experiences." — Friend Beth Collea
"The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of all preoccupation with passing things — yes, even with the workings of our own minds; a resolute fixing of the heart upon that which is unchangeable and eternal." — Friend Caroline Stephen
"In worship we have our neighbours to right and left, before and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all one life, within whom we live and move and have our being." Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is serene and radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time, making our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. Love is at the helm. And when our little day is done, we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well. The Oneness of each to all through God is real, objective, existential. It is an eternal relationship which is shared in by every stick and stone and bird and beast and saint and sinner of the universe. On all, the wooing love of God falls urgently, persuadingly. - KellyDeep within us all, there ís an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn líves, warming us wíth intimatíons of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humanity. "... the Living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to His secret presence and working within us.""The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration and of self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace, if our minds be stayed on Him who had found us in the inward springs of our life ... In the Center of Creation all things are ours, and we are Christ's and Christ is God's." “Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center. Each one of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and simplified multiplicity, on one condition — that is, if we really want to. There is a divine Abyss within us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world. We have all heard this holy Whisper at times. At times we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of life, amazing effectiveness of living set in. But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times.” In the Quaker practice of group worship on the basis of silence come special times when an electric hush and solemnity and depth of power steals over the worshippers. A blanket of divine covering comes over the room, and a quickening Presence pervades us, breaking down some part of the special privacy and isolation of our individual lives and bonding our spirits within a super-individual Life and Power—an objective, dynamic Presence which enfolds us all, nourishes our souls, speaks glad, unutterable comfort within us, and quickens in us depths that had before been slumbering. The Burning Bush has been kindled in our midst, and we stand together on holy ground. - Friend Thomas Kelly
"Throughout the entire discussion on the problem of authority and the nature of revelation the Quaker arguments usually resolve themselves into a single theme: the Quaker position constantly proclaims the 'withinness' of religion. Divine revelation must be received and appropriated by the believer, it must be recognized as being 'within' revelation, or the Divine Presence in any form, must ultimately find a dwelling place in the inner man, else religion is dead and lifeless. This dominant motif has several variations, as we have seen. The Quakers can speak of the anointing within, the teaching of God within, the Word within, the Light of Christ within, the indwelling Spirit. All of these phrases could be concluded under such a term as the Divine Presence within, and all point to some kind of a union between God and the individual believer. Thus far in the discussion, however, this union of the believer with God has been expressed rather indirectly by the Quakers: the teaching of God, the word of God, the the Light of Christ, the Spirit of God, We now come to the explicit affirmation of immediate unity with God and Christ Himself. The theme of 'withinness' will now express itself in terms of the key phrase, 'Christ within'." - Ralph Paul Bohn
"To seek our divinity merely in books and writings is to seek the living among the dead: we do but in vain seek God many times in these, where his Truth too often is not so much enshrined, as entombed: no; intra te quære Deum, seek for God within thine own soul…. That is not the best and truest knowledge of God which is wrought out by the labour and sweat of the brain, but that which is kindled within us by an heavenly warmth in our hearts." — Friend John Smith
"Children are fully spiritual beings. They often see and sense the sacred in everyday life more readily than adults do! If we listen to them carefully and bring this awareness to their art projects and other forms of expression, we may detect a transcendent quality to their experiences." — Friend Beth Collea
"The silence we value is not the mere outward silence of the lips. It is a deep quietness of heart and mind, a laying aside of all preoccupation with passing things — yes, even with the workings of our own minds; a resolute fixing of the heart upon that which is unchangeable and eternal." — Friend Caroline Stephen
"In worship we have our neighbours to right and left, before and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all one life, within whom we live and move and have our being." Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is serene and radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time, making our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. Love is at the helm. And when our little day is done, we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well. The Oneness of each to all through God is real, objective, existential. It is an eternal relationship which is shared in by every stick and stone and bird and beast and saint and sinner of the universe. On all, the wooing love of God falls urgently, persuadingly. - KellyDeep within us all, there ís an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn líves, warming us wíth intimatíons of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humanity. "... the Living Christ within us is the initiator and we are the responders. God the Lover, the accuser, the revealer of light and darkness presses within us. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.' And all our apparent initiative is already a response, a testimonial to His secret presence and working within us.""The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening. The secret places of the heart cease to be our noisy workshop. They become a holy sanctuary of adoration and of self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace, if our minds be stayed on Him who had found us in the inward springs of our life ... In the Center of Creation all things are ours, and we are Christ's and Christ is God's." “Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center. Each one of us can live such a life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and simplified multiplicity, on one condition — that is, if we really want to. There is a divine Abyss within us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world. We have all heard this holy Whisper at times. At times we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of life, amazing effectiveness of living set in. But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times.” In the Quaker practice of group worship on the basis of silence come special times when an electric hush and solemnity and depth of power steals over the worshippers. A blanket of divine covering comes over the room, and a quickening Presence pervades us, breaking down some part of the special privacy and isolation of our individual lives and bonding our spirits within a super-individual Life and Power—an objective, dynamic Presence which enfolds us all, nourishes our souls, speaks glad, unutterable comfort within us, and quickens in us depths that had before been slumbering. The Burning Bush has been kindled in our midst, and we stand together on holy ground. - Friend Thomas Kelly
"...that entire pragmatic attitude Christ has left forever behind. His inner way, His interior insight, passes on to a new level of life, to a totally different type of religious aspiration and to another method of valuation. For Him the beyond is always within. The only good thing is a life that is intrinsically good; the only blessedness worth talking about is a kind of blessedness which attaches by a law of inner necessity to the character of the life itself. It makes no difference what world one may eventually be in—if only it is still a world of spiritual issues—goodness, holiness, likeness to God, will still constitute blessedness as they do in this world. When once this insight is reached, it affects all the pursuits and all the valuations of the soul.""Sacrifice, surrender, negation, are inherently involved in any great onward-marching life. They go with any choice that can be made of a rich and intense life. It is impossible to find without losing, to get without giving, to live without dying. But sacrifice, surrender, negation, are never for their own sake; they are never ends in themselves. They are involved in life itself.""One great spiritual law comes to light and becomes operative, as soon as the interior insight is won, as soon as the inner way is found: The law that the soul can have what it wants. This law of the interior life, of the inner way, Christ affirms again and again in varying phrase. The inner attitude, the settled trend of desire, the persistent swing of the will, are the very things that make life. The person who cherishes hate in his soul forms a disposition of hatred and must live in the atmosphere which that spirit forms. The person who longs for deeds that are wrong, and allows desire to play with free scope is inwardly as though he did the deed. He is what he wants to be. And so, too, on the other hand, the rightly fashioned will is its own reward and has its own peculiar blessedness. The person who hungers and thirsts for goodness will get what he wants. He who seeks, with undivided aspiration, will always find.[ He who knocks with persistent desire for the gates of life to open will see them swing apart for him to go through to his goal. He who asks, with the ground swell of his whole inner being, for the things which minister to life and feed its deepest roots, will get what he asks for." “New dispensations may await us; the Kingdom may come in ways we never dreamed of; the beyond may be more momentous than we have ever expected, but always and everywhere ‘the within’ determines ‘the beyond,’ and character is destiny.” - Jones“God may be thought of in some similar fashion in relation to the persons who make up the world of human society and human history. He may be in as immediate relation to our finite spirits as our own rational self is in relation to the particular lower functions of our complex nature. Instead of looking for God, then, behind the vast mechanism of matter, or beyond the starry spaces, we should look for Him very much closer home, as the God in whom we live and move and are; the immanent, and, at the same time, transcending, Spirit in immediate junction with our own souls." "No type of consciousness carries the implication of self-transcendence, or finite-transcendence, more coercively than does genuine mystical experience. The central aspect of it is the fusion of the self into a larger undifferentiated whole. It is thus much more the type of æsthetic experience than it is the type of knowledge-experience. In both types—the æsthetic and the mystical—consciousness is fused into union with its object, that is to say, the usual dualistic character of consciousness is transcended, though of course not wholly obliterated. A new level of consciousness is gained in which the division of self and other is minimal. But it is by no means, in either case, an empty or a negative state." "We lie open on one side of our nature to God, who is the Oversoul of our souls, the Overmind of our minds, the Overperson of our personal selves. There are deeps in our consciousness which no private plumb line of our own can sound; there are heights in our moral conscience which no ladder of our human intelligence can scale; there are spiritual hungers, longings, yearnings, passions, which find no explanation in terms of our physical inheritance or of our outside world. We touch upon the coasts of a deeper universe, not yet explored or mapped, but no less real and certain than this one in which our mortal senses are at home. We cannot explain our normal selves or account for the best things we know—or even for our condemnation of our poorer, lower self—without an appeal to and acknowledgment of a divine Guest and Companion who is the real presence of our central being. How shall we best come into conscious fellowship with God and turn this environing presence into a positive source of inner power, and of energy for the practical tasks and duties of daily life? It is never easy to tell in plain words what prepares the soul for intercourse with God; what it is that produces the consciousness of divine tides, the joyous certainty that our central life is being flooded and bathed by celestial currents. No person ever quite understands how his tongue utters its loftiest words, how his pen writes its noblest phrases, how his clearest insights came to him, how his most heroic deeds got done, or how the finest strands of his character were woven. Here is a mystery which we never quite uncover—a background which we never wholly explore lies along the fringes of the most illumined part of our lives. This mystery surrounds all the supreme acts of religion. They cannot be reduced to a cold and naked rational analysis. The intellect possesses no master key which unlocks all the secrets of the soul." "The technical logical formulation of arguments to prove the existence of God as objectively real—arguments from causality, ontological arguments, and arguments from design—all of which assume a "chasm" between the knower and the object known, seem to us perhaps on critical analysis thin and insufficient. The bridge of formal logic seems too weak to carry us safely over from a finite here to an infinite yonder, from a contingent fact to an Absolute Reality, from something given in consciousness to Something existent outside and beyond it; but it is an impressive and significant fact that all finite experience, both of inner and outer events, involves a More yet, that we cannot think finite and contingent things without rational appeal to Something infinite and necessary, that human experience cannot be rationally conceived except as a fragment of a vastly more inclusive Experience, always recognized within the finite spirit, that unifies and binds together into one self-explanatory whole all that is absolutely Real and True, and this is Reason's conviction of God.""The evolution of life—if it is evolving as we believe it is, and if it is to be viewed with rational insight as an upward process—irresistibly involves and implies some sort of fundamental intelligence and conscious purpose, some Logos steering the mighty movement. We have outgrown crude arguments from "design," and we cannot think of God as a foreign and external Creator, working as a Potter on his clay; but it is irrational to "explain" a steadily unfolding movement, an ever-heightening procession of life, by "fortuitous variations," by "accidental" shifts of level, or even by a blind élan vital. If there is an increasing purpose and a clearly culminating drama unfolding in this moving flood of life, then there is some Mind that sees the way, and some Will that directs the march of Life. And this confidence of ours in some divine Event to which the whole creation moves, {xxxviii} this insight that there must be a significant and adequate explanation for the immanent teleology and beauty with which our universe is crammed, is, once more, Reason's postulate of God. There is something in us, indissoluble from Reason itself—a Light, a Word, a Witness as these Spiritual Reformers insisted—which links us in all the deeper processes of self-consciousness with That Which Is and without which "knowledge" would be a mere flux of seemings, a flight of seriatim items." "Some reference to the permanent is necessary in judging even the fleetingness of the "now," some confidence in the eternally true is essential for any pronouncement upon the false, some assurance of the infinite is presupposed in the endless dissatisfaction with the finite, some appeal to a total whole of Reality is implicated in any assertion that this fact here and now is known as real. Any one who feels the full significance of what is involved in knowing the truth has a coercive feeling that Eternity has been set within us, that our finite life is deeply rooted in the all-pervading Infinite." "We have learned that the Divine Other whom we seek is also seeking us... [T]he finite and the Infinite, the soul and its Father. May they not once have been in union? May not our birth in time be a drawing away into individuality from the Divine whole? And then may not the goal of the entire drama of personal life be the restoration of that union on a higher spiritual level? May it not be, that we are never again to fuse the skirts of self and merge into a union of oblivion, but rather that we are to rise to a love-union in which His will becomes our will—a union of conscious co-operation? So at any rate I believe." - Jones“Human experience cannot be rationally conceived except as a fragment of a vastly more inclusive Experience, always recognized within the finite spirit, that unifies and binds together into one self-explanatory whole all that is absolutely Real and True.” - Friend Rufus Jones
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