2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

I did find a new faith: I am a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) who also has a Buddhist practice. Buddhism sits easy on top of any other spiritual practice/tradition.

I am also a "second tier" panelist at the conference that Friend Thurman is in town to attend this weekend.

I began to attend Quaker meeting because my spouse wanted our children to grow up in a spiritual community. Sitting in waiting worship week after week, however, I began to feel I was changing as a person. That led me to Quaker literature where I discovered the transformation I was seeing in myself was the same "perfection" (maturity, completeness) described by Friends since 1659.

It's not about propositional belief regarding things one can never know (what is the nature of God? Where does God come from? Where is God going?). It's about a path that is plain, clear and obvious to every person ever born.

The one-celled animal on the forest floor has no concept of its place in the ecosystem happening all around it--it only knows: "eat the leaves, eat the leaves."

Love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. You know that's what you're supposed to do. You don't need to know why or where that's going to know it's what you're supposed to do. You don't need to know the name of Jesus or hold a Bible to know that. Quakers have known for 300 years:

"There's a Light that was shining when the world began,
There's a Light that shines in every woman and man,
There's a Light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew,
And a Light that is shining, Friend, in me and in you."

Simplicity, Peace/harmony, Integrity, Community, Equality--manifestations of change wrought by heeding the spirit--not "core values" that seem to "make sense"--just what we are turned into by heeding the Light, how we are conformed to it.

It's about change, about transformation.

Eight fold path/fruits of the spirit.

It's about change, about transformation.

Not of someone else, of me.

Timothy Travis
onequakertake.blogspot.com

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
view in context