The query itself seems simple. Never forget:
"How can we strengthen the inner life, the light which brings us love and truth?"
But a full explanation would call for a whole book, an important book which humanity may need.
1. First, the context. Many years ago, Steve Morse, an active member of Langley Hill Quaker Meeting, led an
open-ended in-person "drop in" discussion on Sunday mornings, starting from a wide variety of readings from around the world.
One morning, someone started discussing the book "God is my co-pilot." I then felt moved to say "For me, it is more like 'God is my psychiatrist." (And yes, every one of us could use some help.) We had OTHER discussions of what this word 'God' means to us, and of how to improve our discernment, but for me...
1A. My understanding of the science which makes higher intelligence possible has grown and evolved since then, but more and more on a typical good morning, I enter a kind of meditative and attuned state, roughly between 5Am and 8AM, still in bed, when my intelligence is demonstrably better than what it is later in the day, letting my thoughts range very far and very deep, with the kind of clarity demanded by the highest levels of scientific thinking. The words "truth," "love", "LIFE" AND "LIGHT" all can be gateways to very deep, integrated and serious thinking, fully consistent with languages like mathematics, images and music, not limited to English or Sanskrit or whatever. The query calls us never to neglect those gateways.
1B. Why a "query"? Three years ago, I would often simply say "I am a Quaker Universalist, which Rufus Jones expounded years ago. We are part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, whose most official book is called 'faith and practice' -- but practice is what really defines us. The practice is one of regular meditation, including a group meditation, and use of the 'queries' printed in that book, updated every decade or so." I especially liked the query which asked us to consider whether we are making full use of the great literature of all of humanity, including not only the Bible but also the best of Vedas and sutras and indigenous cultures. This year, I am not as fully connected to that tradition, for many reasons; I still support those ideas, but feel ever more need to try to build community beyond that, and not get entangled with narrow political or economic movements from what Jung called "The Spirit of the Times." MANY human groups lose their spiritual foundations when they get caught up in that way; I think of Southern lynch mobs, killing blacks in the name of Jesus and love (!!!), or of Hamas, the "Axis of Resistance" and its supporters.
1.C. The morning messages and dialogue vary a LOT from day to day, in the many many details and operational suggestions.
On most days, it is more than a book worth of information, on different subjects. BUT "God" fully understands the limits of human brains, and the limits of what MY brain might really remember even later in the morning, let alone the mammalian state which starts about 3PM-5PM on most days for me. And so "he" often tries to create a focused sentence or image or such, to try to etch into my memory, as a kind of mnemonic connected as clearly as possible to a much larger set of deeper and integrated concepts and visions.
I am very, very grateful to have the unique kind of physical circumstances which let me do this, almost every day.
When I rise mentally from the morgens state, I can see out a bright large window into the huge forest behind our house
(sold to us at a low price by Dr. Sohini Patel, inheritor of the aryuveda practice which served the Gandhi family), and bookshelves with paintings and interesting objects above them. I especially like the wooden Garuda from the village in Nepal on the way to a great temple (for which we have photos) which reminds me a lot of a scene in the Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness movie.
Today was even better -- one of the many (one in three?) "perfect days." On those days, I get to converse with my wife,
who wants me NOT to discuss her unique credentials, but serves in many ways as a gateway to 'God," a kind of "second eye giving me parallax". And then, a shower.
Entering the shower, I always remember a book by H. Spencer Lewis, "Unto Thee I Grant," a guide to practical life in service of spiritual growth. I am so lucky to have a flexible shower arm (thanks to my wife and Costco), and to have the many years of science and physical exercise (from good physical therapy to tai qi and medical science) which allow me to get maximum benefits with efficiency, unifying science and spiritual traditions and even control theory. (LONG ago I saw how Norbert Wiener's ideas about thermostat control apply, and can be modernized.) Because lower body cancer runs in my family, I naturally use the shower head to do the equivalent of a Sitz bath, and kill any possibility of athlete's foot (which was a real problem for me when I was younger).
Actually, even before I enter the shower stall, as the water warms up, I now do a brief but effective form of qi gong, which it took me many years to FULLY perceive and fully use, connecting body and soul and noosphere ever better. And qi continues in the shower, full sensitivity.
Best of luck. Happy lunar New Year!
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P.S. Some of you will see that the love and truth in this query refer to the level next to the top in the Tree of Life. My friend Yeshua and I once joked that he will take care of love while I take care of truth -- even as we all support both, and try to strengthen those connections as well.
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