To: soc.religion.quaker
From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva)
Subject: Re: reading, meditating, at worship (9409.qakrzen.tn)
Date: 49940907
Quoting: |dr8192@albnyvms.bitnet 

|i just want to clarify that i never suggested meditation
|or reading was "inappropriate" at worship.

I'm glad to hear this.  Shades of fascism! :>


|as the friend who posted the start of the thread i was 
|reacting to something we all see frequently.  that is
|attenders [or members] who don't *get it* concerning
|the realm of corporate worship.  

This is a very important point - one that I have seen and
I've only attended a few Friends Meetings.


|it is incumbent on all who know the gathered experience
|to make it known, that attenders not cut themselves off 
|from that gathering by being ignorant of this essential
|phenominon of quakerism.  many really do think that we
|"meditate" shoulder to shoulder and are unified in that 
|experience only via occasional outbursts of vocal minstry.

I'm not sure I understand what this means, but I want to say
that I have noticed a number of Buddhists in the Meetings 
near where I live, and they appear to value something in the
Meeting that does not always occur for them when sitting in
the zendo.  

I've sat in traditional zazen posture while in Meeting and
closed my eyes,  at times half to an hour before the Meeting
began.  I kept my eyes closed at first, even when new people
entered, though I later felt that this prevented some of the
very important group connection from occurring.

What I noticed later was that when someone eventually *did*
stand and speak with the Spirit, I was jarred, as if a fish
had suddenly !jumped! out of the water of the silence.  I
think that this occurred because I was not well-enough
attuned to the energy of the room.  At other times, when I'd
sat with eyes open, I was less startled, and their motion
felt more fluid, an uprising wave during a brief eclipse of
the calmness.


|...one is not reading in the
|quiet of a bucolic spiritual "park" where souls idley
|sit, one under each tree.  one needs to be aware that one
|is wandering about, nose in a book, through a great hurley 
|burley of a spiritual carnival or grand central station at
|rush hour.  it makes a difference.  to meditate in a monk's
|cell is one thing, and one the busy banks of the ganges is
|another.  folks should know which they have chosen.

I really like this.  I don't of course agree with the verbiage,
since I think people come to Meeting with different needs and
needed approaches, yet I agree that the situation is important
to consider, and that this is a GROUP affair, a melding of
souls during communion.  It *is* the Communion over which many
Christian sects have made such a symoblic and ritual fuss, and
that the Quakers have brought to a very personal and social
fusion this Mass in Silent Meeting has inspired me greatly.

I have felt nourished by the experience and hope to contribute
to it when I attend Meeting (which I have not done in some time).

        
|         between us may there be only light,     

The darkness makes the light possible.

tyagi
nagasiva@yronwode.com