Quiet Mysticism
by Oliver A. Ryder
     Mysticism is fundamental to us as Friends. The implicit contract for experience of the divine that is represented by our form of worship, eschewing clergy, and our conviction for direct revelation; all these things were once our heresies as a society of mystics and, really, it is better to focus on our outward actions, better to be called the Society of Friends. No longer heretical, these tenets are still central to our practice, a practice that leads us, as a religious society, to our quiet mysticism and experience of the divine spirit.
Mystical experience sometimes reaches me now along paths that seem familiar; but wait, I am still struck, powerfully altered, by insights that I cannot anticipate and which upset my equanimity. Long ago I relinquished consideration of these experiences as weird or strange. Rather, I think of them as Grace, as part of what humans may experience, the presence in our lives of the spirit. 1 try to discern this spirit from my knowledge, but, with patience and experience that egocentricity is subsumed by the stillness, the calm that orders, even if briefly, my resolve and action. When we come together for meeting for worship it is available without fanfare. The spirit that transcends our understanding but manifests itself all the same is undeniably present. "Walking in the Light," like George Fox, we find our strength and conviction come from a divine center. It is our personal experience of and relationship with the spirit that enables us, more than any worldly creed or contract, to fathom and follow our leading.
     This continuing revelation is a source, a force that points the compass and plumbs the line that Friends seek to utilize in the navigation and construction of their endeavors. Our experience is that such revelation is available, especially through corporate worship.
     When water comes in contact with a hot surface it becomes vapor. If the surface is so hot and large in comparison to the measure of water, a gaseous cushion forms and propels the water so that dancing droplets scoot over the heated surface. We may similarly be propelled by the power of the spirit, so startling its contact may be. But, as with the evaporation of water, the event need not be turbulent. In fact, the most dramatic transformation is the quietest. Solid water, ice, may become immediately gaseous; vapor emanates from the surfaces of the crystalline solid. One may quake, literally, but one may also sublime, disperse and quietly permeate into the universe. I believe Friends do something like this in meeting for worship all the time. Coming back together, they find themselves healed, reoriented, rededicated and resolved.
     Mystical experience is fundamental to my understanding of life and is most regularly revealed to me in reflecting upon the natural world. The human penchant for reflection begins the journey, I think. We soon encounter the unknown and its vastness. We may show avoidance, be afraid or filled with wonderment and awe. But look wonder in the face, ponder beyond where reason reaches and the world of the spirit prevails. Yet, it is not distant, it is close at hand, no farther than meeting on First Day.
 

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