Page 14 - News and Views Spring 2023

In the words of an Indian mystic, Hazrat Inayat Khan: A Sufi maintains from first to last the freedom
of the soul. This, in my belief, would apply to virtually all mystics.

Quaker Friends, as we know, have discarded virtually all set practices and wording during MfW.
Each of us sits in the gathered silence and listens. As we are reminded in QF&P 11.01 : When early
Friends affirmed the priesthood of all believers it was seen as an abolition of the clergy; in fact it is
an abolition of the laity.

Let’s return to the universal aspect of mysticism. What can knowledge, or better, experience of
other religions offer us? For instance, Christianity asks us to love everyone, even our enemies. That
can be very hard. Buddhism asks us to look at everyone with compassion, and that can be a way to
start. As has been said: To understand all is to forgive all. Meister Eckhart, the thirteenth century
Christian mystic, wrote:

I have told you this time and time again
If a person were in a rapture
As great as St. Paul once experienced

And learned that her neighbour were in need of a cup of soup
It would be best
To withdraw from the rapture
And give the person

The soup she needs.

When we are aware, the way to love is open. One may see this as faith in action.

Love is the fundamental ideal. Writers like Rumi call God ‘The Beloved’. A Sufi mantra is: Ish’q
Allah mahboud lillah. This means God is all aspects of love: the one who loves, the one who is
loved and the love which flows between them. Love, lover and beloved.

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A 17 century Spanish Christian Mystic, St. John of the Cross, wrote: ‘Always be loving the
beloved’. Estarse Amando Al Amado. This is a chant which is used in the Dances of Universal
Peace.. ‘Why use music?’ a Quaker might ask. Here is what Elizabeth Fry wrote: ‘.it frequently
leads me to regret that we as a Society so wholly give up delighting the ear by sound. Surely He
who formed the ear and the heart would not have given these tastes and powers without some
purpose for them. QF&P21.30

Here is a chant from the Buddhist tradition. The words are: Om Mani Peme Hung. (That is the
Tibetan version of Om Mani Padme Hum). One could translate this as Hail to the jewel in the lotus.
Again this is metaphorical. The actual sounds of the syllables are important as the chanting causes
reverberations in the being. If you chant and put your hand on your heart, you can feel the
vibrations, especially with the deeper sounds.

Universal Sufi mysticism has an Invocation which begins:

Toward the One
The perfection of love, harmony and beauty

The Only Being

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