Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom » Spirituality

The Quaker spiritual path

jonathan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:01:13 +0000

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If you are searching for something, feel a spiritual need; there is a way that can speak to your conditon. It is simple, honest, holistic and with a liberal outlook. It doesn’t have to take you off to a new age movement but it can help usher in that new age, it doesn’t have to point you in the direction of the east but it will help you meet that direction. In the quiet of a Quaker Meeting you can find true meaning.

The Friend – New website

jonathan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:32:43 +0000

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The Friend has a new website, if you are looking for social, spiritual and stimulating topics, to read, discuss and comment then look no further than the new radical Quaker website. Designed by MILO, it looks good and the content reflects all the Journal has to offer and more, check it out here:

www.thefriend.org

Quaker Week – Discover the Quaker way

jonathan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:55:00 +0000

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As a Quaker i thought it might be a good idea to tell you about Quaker week.. and direct you to this superb page of the Quaker website, with 9 people telling their spiritual story, the page is beautifully designed.

You can find the page here

“THINK IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU MAY BE MISTAKEN.” ….MORE ON THIS QUAKER STATEMENT

jonathan — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:03:00 +0000

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I have said before how empowering i have found this sentence….however I think often this is how it works: There should be no war…am I mistaken (thinks for 2 seconds) nah, I am right. How hard is it to really think deeply that all you have believed and held dear, perhaps even used as the building blocks of your life may be wrong? Many of us have tennets we use as the structure and constructs for our lives, they determine who we are, who we relate to and the jobs and lives we live…what if in all that,you were mistaken.? Are you willing to encompass that thought…?

The Closest we get to this is when we are forced to it, those (and their families) who are diagnosed with terminal illness, when there is a death of someone close to you, or you marriage or family breaks up.

These kinds of life events and the change in thinking and feeling they bring can often uplift and strengthen a family or in some cases destroy it completely, perhaps this is what we fear, that destruction.

Because of this fear we are unwilling to approach those important subjects surrounded by a kind of invincible ignorance, with our doubts….there is only one God, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and so on.

Perhaps doubting Thomas is in the story of Jesus for a reason, in some apocryphal books it is suggested he was Jesus Twin, so that with every act of faith and empowerment comes one of doubt and questioning. Remember also the true meaning of Jihad is “inner struggle”

Perhaps real faith is one that lacks conviction and certainty, one that is racked by doubts and fears, one that is willing to question its own validity and look at its foundations as well as its highest towers….but continues anyway.

Could you think you might be mistaken?

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos (hermes the thrice great)

jonathan — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:53:00 +0000

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Corpus Hermeticum

This is part of one of the great esoteric texts, and is a statement of positive existence The Tablet probably first appeared in the West in editions of the psuedo-Aristotlean Secretum Secretorum which was actually a translation of the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar, a book of advice to kings which was translated into latin by Johannes Hispalensis c. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c.1243. Other translations of the Tablet may have been made during the same period by Plato of Tivoli and Hugh of Santalla, perhaps from different sources.

When I entered into the cave, I received the tablet zaradi, which was inscribed, from between the hands of Hermes, in which I discovered these words:
1) True, without falsehood, certain, most certain.
2) What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing.
3) And as all things were made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation.
4) Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon.
5) The wind carried it in its womb, the earth breast fed it.
6) It is the father of all ‘works of wonder’ (Telesmi) in the world.
6a) Its power is complete (integra).
7) If cast to (turned towards- versa fuerit) earth,
7a) it will separate earth from fire, the subtile from the gross.
With great capacity it ascends from earth to heaven. Again it descends to earth, and takes back the power of the above and the below.
9) Thus you will receive the glory of the distinctiveness of the world. All obscurity will flee from you.
10) This is the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.
11a) Thus was the world created.
12) From this comes marvelous adaptions of which this is the proceedure.
13) Therefore I am called Hermes, because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole world.
14) And complete is what I had to say about the work of the Sun, from the book of Galieni Alfachimi.

further from Hermes Trismegistos…

If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God: for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grow to a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond all measure; rise up above all time and become eternal; then you will apprehend God.

Think that for you too nothing is impossible;deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and science; find yourself home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights, and lower than all depths; bring together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave: grasp in your thought all this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God.

But if you shut up your soul in your body and abase yourself and say, ‘I know nothing, I can do nothing, I am afraid of earth and sea, I cannot mount to heaven; I do no know what I was, nor what I shall be’; then what have you to do with God?
Your thought can grasp nothing beautiful or good, if you cleave to the body, and are evil. For it is the height of evil not to know God; but to be capable of knowing God, and to wish and hope to know God, is the road which leads straight to the Good and it is an easy road to travel.

Everywhere God will come to meet you, everywhere God will appear to you, at places and times which you look not for it, in your waking hours and in your sleep, when you are journeying by water and land, in the night time and in the day time, when you are speaking and when you are silent: for there is nothing which is not God. And do you say “God is invisible’? Speak not so. Who is more manifest than God.

What is Jonathan Spencer’s Ordinary wisdom

jonathan — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:10:00 +0000

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I was wondering the other day what this weblog was all about, besides being my opinion on things, originally it was going to be called the thing they don’t tell you, but that wasn’t right. I thought of it in terms of a recipe book, mainly because I was looking for a recipe in a book I only ever use for that recipe, and no other…do you ever find that the one thing you like padded out with crap. I was tired of buying an album for the one song and then they invented iTunes (well Napster really) and I am tired of wanting certain information only found muddled with a whole load of other stuff. You can find a whole load of Christmas recipes but I only want the basics,(mince pies, christmas pudding, how to cook the turkey… you can find a mountain on divorce and separation but I want to know someone’s experience not a personal development theory. I have a child with a disability where do i start, I get eczema but what about all these alternative medicines, should I get my child vaccinated and so on. Some things are informative…the article on what not to eat during pregnancy has been very popular, some challenging and some helpful, thats the way its meant to be. If you buy in to it it may be only for my comments on English Football, however you may then use my flapjack recipe….its a blog for all seasons

“Prestige Smartplus Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker 6lt” (Prestige)

And in case you were going to use my Christmas pudding recipe this year, you will need a pressure cooker, stainless steel is best and I recommend the one above.

Technorati Tags: Jonathan, Ordinary, Wisdom, Spencer

How do I find out about Quakers

jonathan — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:10:00 +0000

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As a Quaker I am often asked about what it means and the course of Quaker spirituality, some time ago I seeded a group with Yahoo groups as a means to this end, so if you have questions about Quakers, join the Quaker Friends Yahoo group…I called it QuakerFriends, because The full name of Quakers Is Religious society of Friends(Quakers). I often found on other Religious Discussion boards a level of vitriol and invincible ignorance I didnt like and even on some Quaker discussions a direction that was all intellect and lacked personal revelation of the spirit….anyhow questions on quakers….spirit to discuss apply here:

So click on the Yahoo link on your right

Technorati Tags: Quaker, Religious Society of Friends, Spirituality

Best place for Books on Mind Body and Spirit

jonathan — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:03:00 +0000

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Last Christmas I found this site by accident and bought some books from them to send to my god daughter, Ia m just about to put in another order, in the mean time I have had their free “Cygnus Review”, a free magazine sent out to everyone buying from them or joining them.

I cannot say enough about Cygnus, the review is informative, interesting and has a number of books highlighted across different areas of interest. However it is the personal touch, the real spirit that reaches out from the pages and obviously imbues their work that is the biggest draw. They have started up a business with love and keep it going and I know recently they had a tough time of it, but according to the latest review have turned things around with donations and business…good luck to them

Now if you buy from amazon, I get a tiny percentage, with Cygnus I am telling you about them because I like the service, and i get only goodwill in return, so this is for you, not for money. They also have some excellent prices!!

So I am off to http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/index.htm to put in my order, why don’t you take a look and give them a try.

Information and questions on Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

jonathan — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 08:02:00 +0000

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Actually its The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Although there are many Quaker groups around i started a new one at Yahoo, as a place to ask questions and find out more if you want.
If you click the read more you will see a button and a link to this site and can join the yahoo group

Group name: QuakerFriends
Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuakerFriends
Group email address: QuakerFriends@yahoogroups.com

Click to join QuakerFriends

The idea being to generate a bit of Quaker discussion in good faith across the internet.

Your Destiny or Your Destination?

jonathan — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:02:00 +0000

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What exactly is it you want from God?

This has been inspired by Steve’s article on Which part of Jesus do we want? which i turn was inspired by this Guardian article by Giles Frazer. Having been ill or below par for over a month now and writing this because my nose is blocked and I can’t sleep…when I lie down it feels lie I am being suffocated…I want the healing power . Giles Frazer, seems to be saying that what most people want from religion is the icons, they want the sustenance and not the challenges, the want the baby Jesus and the dead Jesus because they don’t challenge you to change who you are. They can make you emote in celebration or pity and pain, but they have become so much iconography and cliché. I mean easter, these days…its about chocolate.

It reminds me of the Quaker Meeting for worship, I am a member of, where another member about to be married to someone who was not a Quaker, asked them to come to meeting to experience the joy and sustenance she had gained, only to have him put off becuase he arrived at a very challenging meeting for worship, luckily not put off the marriage though.

I want to be healed, and I can hear God tell me…get more sleep, eat less sugar and fat, give up wheat, and I am replying couldn’t I just have a laying on of hands…oh and get me a big mac and frys on the way please.

Real spirituality, healing, religion, belief, understanding, challenges you to be changed by your experience and to change the world, Although Giles Frazer, uses the story of Jesus to underpin his argument, it doesn’t really worrk for me..the whole point of the story of jesus is it contains contradictions and has been overlayed on other beliefs (mithras is one), so the Apollo/Osiris story/Sun God style part of the story is very important.

My feeling is that we no longer link the two, like Quaker rejection of the lottery, which many do and see as harmless fun, we are stuck in the past. It is a pity that we cannot learn from that past, the plethora of ‘bootfairs’ on a Sunday in the UK, should have been set up in Church yards and church car parks, as soon as they could be, just as in medieval times markets were often set up as people left church.

The story of Jesus is a great blend, the icons of birth and death, and then the challenges, of healing the sick, giving to the poor, forgiving debt are also combined, with rather a lot of eating and drinking…loaves and fishes, wedding feasts, last suppers, water into wine and so on, oh and then as well as the political and the material there is the weirdly spiritual…walking on water, raising the dead, withering a tree, talking to the devil, casting out demons.

Which bit do you want…and God who Jesus is meant o embody on earth, Father Son and Holy spirit, which part of all that, or Buddha, Zoroaster, Mohammed, or another do you wish to follow as your path to the enlightenment and Godhead.

I like to say to myself something similar to what Jesse Duplantis said the other week, you may know your destiny, but do you know your destination, or as Rumi said God is found nowhere but in the human heart. I think to truly recognise God you have to know your own heart.

Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom » Spirituality

The Quaker spiritual path

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