Page 12 - News and Views Spring 2023

In her book “In the Stillness” Elizabeth Mills writes ………

In all things and at all times

Allow Love in to the centre of your Being
So that Love may do it’s work
From the inside out .

But Who Do You Say That I Am? Doug Gwyn £3.00 Quaker Bookshop
In he Stillness Elizabth Mills £10,00 Quaker Bookshop

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Universal Mysticism Rosemary Brown Bournemouth Meeting

A talk given to Yearly Meeting in May, 2022

Universal Mysticism is to me the very heart of any true religion, including our own Quaker faith.
Quakers have been called practical mystics. Mysticism embraces many forms from Buddhism to
Zoroastrianism, and some either unknown or now forgotten. It is not a mental study, but is felt in the
heart and shared in the breath.

What is mysticism? We could say that it is the divine reality underlying every authentic religion:
beyond names and forms, ceremonies and rituals, beyond words; the perfect truth, known in our
essential being, our spirit, our soul.

Sufism is the name of one mystical tradition which has developed in the Islamic faith, but of course
there are mystics in the other spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and others.
Julian of Norwich, for example, was a Christian mystic. Another well-known Christian mystic was
Meister Eckhart, who said the path is beautiful and pleasant and joyful and familiar. There have also
been mystics among those who practised what we call the earth traditions, like Native Americans.
Here is what William Penn said:

The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and
when death has taken off the mask they will know one another, though the divers liveries they
wear here makes them strangers. QF&P 19.28

When we resort to words we face a problem. If God, the divine, the Light, the Spirit is infinite, words,
which exist to provide definitions, are inadequate and even very misleading. The more definite we
try to be, the more likely we are to be limited and inaccurate. As the Dalai Lama likes to say:
Wider Picture
Mysticism is naturally universal because it is an experience of the divine, and the universe is a
divine manifestation.

As we all know, George Fox asked: What canst thou say? He realised that though the scriptures
contain valuable lessons, it is the direct personal spiritual experience which is what truly matters.

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