Coventry
I wanted
to see how my sense of unity could be used to help the world, so I used the
Meditation for the World from “Experiment with Light.” (1) One of the
prompts asks us to allow to emerge from within anything that makes us
uneasy:
"In this receptive state of mind, let the real issues of the world emerge.
Ask yourself: 'What is really going on in the world? What is happening in the world as I know it, as I experience it?'
And be specific: '...in the world of work, of commerce, politics'. Is there anything there that makes you feel uncomfortable?
Don't try to answer yourself. Let the answer come. Let the light show you what is happening".
Greatly to my surprise, I found that there was nothing that made me feel uncomfortable. I realised that others have expressed discomfort, and that I had had many concerns myself, but there it was - not. Then I realised that from the perspective of the Light, this is exactly how it would be. The world is now seen as complete and perfect. And my perception of this is precisely the way in which I can best express the unity. As it says in Desiderata:
“Whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should”.
This must also be the basis of healing, where the affected part is visualised as whole. It is not a technique, not a manipulation of the truth, but a simple expression of reality.
And this is how the power is exercised. It is not power to do this or that in particular. It is spiritual power, and concerns the entirety. This is the meaning of Psalm 62:11: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work”.
So since the world is now complete and perfect, how am I to visualise the tyrants who come and go? As angry babies, kicking and screaming as hard as they can.
St Michaels, Coventry was a large and beautiful church in Late Gothic style. It was destroyed in a single night in 1940, in an air raid, "apart, fortunately from the noble tower and spire, one of the finest in England” (2) but its very excellence takes on an ironic aspect as the crown of a building that no longer exists. There is an aching space where once there were arcades of four centred arches surmounted by tabernacle work linking them to a noble clerestory, the whole closed with a mediaeval wooden roof. Moreover it was a place where prayer had been made for hundreds of years. What a triumph of tyrrany! How constructive!
So is this what perfection looks like, an empty shell? Irremediable loss. The beauty which this great church once embodied, it embodies no longer, nor will it. It has gone. But the beauty itself has not gone anywhere. You look for it in vain in the ruins at Coventry, but not at all in vain where it resides, in the Form. It is there in full. It has not gone anywhere, nor will it.
1. Rex Ambler: Light to Live By: Quaker Books 2002.
2. Sir Alec Clifton-Taylor: The Cathedrals of England: T&H 1967, 1974
"In this receptive state of mind, let the real issues of the world emerge.
Ask yourself: 'What is really going on in the world? What is happening in the world as I know it, as I experience it?'
And be specific: '...in the world of work, of commerce, politics'. Is there anything there that makes you feel uncomfortable?
Don't try to answer yourself. Let the answer come. Let the light show you what is happening".
Greatly to my surprise, I found that there was nothing that made me feel uncomfortable. I realised that others have expressed discomfort, and that I had had many concerns myself, but there it was - not. Then I realised that from the perspective of the Light, this is exactly how it would be. The world is now seen as complete and perfect. And my perception of this is precisely the way in which I can best express the unity. As it says in Desiderata:
“Whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should”.
This must also be the basis of healing, where the affected part is visualised as whole. It is not a technique, not a manipulation of the truth, but a simple expression of reality.
And this is how the power is exercised. It is not power to do this or that in particular. It is spiritual power, and concerns the entirety. This is the meaning of Psalm 62:11: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work”.
So since the world is now complete and perfect, how am I to visualise the tyrants who come and go? As angry babies, kicking and screaming as hard as they can.
St Michaels, Coventry was a large and beautiful church in Late Gothic style. It was destroyed in a single night in 1940, in an air raid, "apart, fortunately from the noble tower and spire, one of the finest in England” (2) but its very excellence takes on an ironic aspect as the crown of a building that no longer exists. There is an aching space where once there were arcades of four centred arches surmounted by tabernacle work linking them to a noble clerestory, the whole closed with a mediaeval wooden roof. Moreover it was a place where prayer had been made for hundreds of years. What a triumph of tyrrany! How constructive!
So is this what perfection looks like, an empty shell? Irremediable loss. The beauty which this great church once embodied, it embodies no longer, nor will it. It has gone. But the beauty itself has not gone anywhere. You look for it in vain in the ruins at Coventry, but not at all in vain where it resides, in the Form. It is there in full. It has not gone anywhere, nor will it.
1. Rex Ambler: Light to Live By: Quaker Books 2002.
2. Sir Alec Clifton-Taylor: The Cathedrals of England: T&H 1967, 1974