We continued our contemplation of the meaning of simplicity in life and went even deeper into our meditations, dialogue, and understanding through the writings of one of our Quaker friends, Don Kovacs.
Here is a very meaningful quote from the evening and you will find the full transcript shared below.
"A life that seeks and nourishes and provides opportunities for such moments of mindful awareness is what our testimony for simplicity is all about."
Quakers and Simplicity
I want to start with a quote from John Woolman, a Quaker who lived in the mid-1700s in colonial New Jersey.
My mind, through the power of truth, was in a good degree weaned from the desire of outward greatness, and I was learning to be content with real conveniences, that were not costly, so that a way of life free from much entanglement appeared best for me, though the income might be small. I had several offers of business that appeared profitable, but I did not see my way clear to accept them, believing they would be attended with more outward care and cumber than was required of me to engage in. I saw that a humble man, with the blessing of the Lord, might live on a little, and that where the heart was set on greatness, success in business did not satisfy the craving; but that commonly with an increase of wealth the desire of wealth increased. There was a care on my mind so to pass my time that nothing might hinder me from the most steady attention to the voice of the true Shepherd.
Woolman says so much in these few words spoken from the authenticity of his own personal experience. I want to focus now on his last phrase, "steady attention to the voice of the true Shepherd."
How do we give steady attention to that voice amidst the cacophony of so many other voices, both inward and outward? The inward voices of the distortions and prejudices of our upbringing, our conscious and subconscious motives; and the outward voices of advertising, propaganda, fashion and culture. We live in such a noisy and over-stimulated society.
Such steady attention requires inward silence, mindfulness—creating a place of openness and emptiness, a place of spiritual longing and desire, a place of humility in our brokenness, where healing and forgiveness can happen. Pay attention to your life. Moments of mindfulness can happen anytime, anywhere: sitting in solitude by a stream on a summer afternoon (one of my favorites), visiting a dying patient or friend in her home, seeing each other in all our humanity, spending a night at the homeless shelter, being here together now listening to and hearing each other
Essential to Simplicity is Presence, being who you are here and now. Seeing what you see, tasting what you eat, hearing where words come from. Not doing two things at the same time, or being two persons, instead of one
Observe your own inner dialog with detachment. Your thoughts are not the full reality of who you are. There is something deeper than your thoughts. There is something deeper than all your damned faults, deeper than all that you may rightly or wrongly think is wrong with your life.
George Fox, one of the founders of the Quaker movement, called it the Inner Light; John Woolman the voice of the true Shepherd. The experience is more important than the name, especially when words tend to become idols, symbols, creeds.
Many paths lead us away from the simple state of pure attention, which we seek in private contemplation and prayer or group worship in silence. Our compulsions run our lives so much of the time.
True Simplicity, when "our eye is single" is at the heart of silent Quaker worship, and through the practice of silence we learn that we can go deeper in any moment of our lives: really seeing the beauty of a flower, experiencing the exuberant joy of a young child, sharing moments of compassion and charity, and moments of honest self-examination and confession. Such moments come by grace through faith. "Tis a gift to be simple."
A life that seeks and nourishes and provides opportunities for such moments of mindful awareness is what our testimony for simplicity is all about.
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I'd like to begin this second meditation with another John Woolman quote, this one from his essay, "A Plea for the Poor."
O that we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the light, and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions.
Woolman saw connections all around him between the way we live our lives and what happens on the planet: the dye used for clothing produced by slave labor in the Caribbean islands, the relative comfort of travelling by stagecoach, and the mistreatment of the horses who pulled it, and the Quaker-owned estates run at greater profit by the use of slaves. Woolman saw the common connection between having more material wealth and living less for God. For him simplicity is letting go of all that leads us away from God and his kingdom. Simplicity is already living in the kingdom of God, where modest labor is sufficient to meet the modest needs of all.
If we buy into the culture of "more for me," and wealth as the measure of success, we buy into a culture of never-ending war and oppression.
Living in the spirit and truth of simplicity will be counter-cultural. It won't be the normal, affluent American life style. It may be prophetic if we are truly spirit-led. And that's not often an easy road, Friends.
Woolman's quote continues, "Holding treasures in the self-pleasing spirit is a strong plant, the fruit whereof ripens fast." Do we live in the self-pleasing spirit, or do we hunger and thirst for God, and mourn for his kingdom? Are we living to take less and give back more to this planet? To our neighbors? To the poor of the earth?
There's a bumper sticker I've seen that goes, "Live simply, that others may simply live." Even though we know that the economy is not a zero-sum game, where more for me necessarily means less for you, we daily see how greed destroys—our own lives, the lives of others, and our fragile planet.
About thirty years ago the Mennonites put out a book, Living More With Less. We could all probably live with less. But outward simplicity is not about what we do without.
It is about the spirit that we live in.
Our possessions, our motives, our treasures, the furniture of our houses, our garments. Are we buying into a culture that is dying of consumption? Do we really need the latest and greatest electronic gadget? A thoughtful gift need not be expensive; the love is more important than the label.
Returning to the connection between the way we live our lives and what happens on the planet. Are our lives simple enough and attentive and mindful enough to see the suffering all around us, and to respond, not with guilt, but with love?
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