Simplicity
Jun. 28th, 2023 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free...
Simplicity is the last of the four Quaker "testimonies". That is to say, the values Quakers attempt/hope/aspire to embody. The other four are Peace, Equality and Truth. In a moment of expansion I said I'd give a talk about it.
What follows is an outline sketch of that talk....
Our clerk waved all four testimonies under my nose (in the form of four little pamphlets) and asked me to pick. I chose simplicity because it's the one I'm least happy to sign up for. Peace: no problem. Equality; no problem either. Truth: well, I struggle with being truthful which isn't to say I disagree with the principle...
But Simplicity: Isn't it more like a lifestyle choice? I like simple things, but I like complex things too. A Quaker Meeting House with its bare white walls has beauty, but so does a gothic cathedral. I prefer the meditative silence of Quaker worship but there's nothing wrong with lacy cottas and silver monstrances and Bach chorales. I like bright colours. I'm not averse to a slap-up meal. Margaret Fell, Quaker matrirach- as early as 1700- saw how making a fetish of simplicity could result in a spirituality that was all about externals. She called the rejection of bright colours "a silly Poor Gospel."
Simplicity- interpreted as cutting things out of one's life- is a hangover from the Puritan culture from which Quakerism grew. It's an atavism not an eternal verity. Simplicity for the early Quakers involved a rejection of music, dancing, art and play-going. It denied human creativity. Later generations have moved on from this- and you could compile a longish list of Quakers who have excelled in one or other of the arts- from the 19th century poet James Greenleaf Whittier to Judy Dench, but...but the walls of our meeting Houses are still bare and there are no niches for statues. The shadow of self-denial still lingers...
So how do you practice Simplicity in a meaningful way? It'can't be the same thing as Holy Poverty because Quakers- thanks in part to their truthfulness in business matters (see above)- have often prospered- and not felt bad about it. My mother's people, the Allens, were- like the Cadburys and Rowntrees- a wealthy Quaker dynasty. They may not have flaunted what they had- but they had a lot- and exercised the power and influence that came with it. Your average Quaker today- from my observation- is privileged, educated, middle-class, comparatively well to do. Nothing wrong with any of these things.
Does simplicity entail frugality, responsible stewardship of the earth's resources, ecological awareness etc...etc...? Yes, certainly. These are positive choices, but one can recycle all one's plastic and still be a Blue Meanie. We're back with Margaret Fell's "silly Poor Gospel" and in danger of mistaking superficial gestures for the true exercise of virtue.
What I'm going to argue is that Simplicity, in its deepest sense means Non-Attachment. Non-attachment is a verbal formula unavailable to our 17th century ancestors- who hadn't bumped into many Buddhists- but I think it's what they had in mind. "Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free." Simplicity and freedom go hand in hand. To live simply is to live free of needs and fears. Don't worry about the past, don't worry about the future. Live in the present. Be spontaneous. Love without wanting to possess. Take what comes, make the most of it- then let it go...
Simplicity is the last of the four Quaker "testimonies". That is to say, the values Quakers attempt/hope/aspire to embody. The other four are Peace, Equality and Truth. In a moment of expansion I said I'd give a talk about it.
What follows is an outline sketch of that talk....
Our clerk waved all four testimonies under my nose (in the form of four little pamphlets) and asked me to pick. I chose simplicity because it's the one I'm least happy to sign up for. Peace: no problem. Equality; no problem either. Truth: well, I struggle with being truthful which isn't to say I disagree with the principle...
But Simplicity: Isn't it more like a lifestyle choice? I like simple things, but I like complex things too. A Quaker Meeting House with its bare white walls has beauty, but so does a gothic cathedral. I prefer the meditative silence of Quaker worship but there's nothing wrong with lacy cottas and silver monstrances and Bach chorales. I like bright colours. I'm not averse to a slap-up meal. Margaret Fell, Quaker matrirach- as early as 1700- saw how making a fetish of simplicity could result in a spirituality that was all about externals. She called the rejection of bright colours "a silly Poor Gospel."
Simplicity- interpreted as cutting things out of one's life- is a hangover from the Puritan culture from which Quakerism grew. It's an atavism not an eternal verity. Simplicity for the early Quakers involved a rejection of music, dancing, art and play-going. It denied human creativity. Later generations have moved on from this- and you could compile a longish list of Quakers who have excelled in one or other of the arts- from the 19th century poet James Greenleaf Whittier to Judy Dench, but...but the walls of our meeting Houses are still bare and there are no niches for statues. The shadow of self-denial still lingers...
So how do you practice Simplicity in a meaningful way? It'can't be the same thing as Holy Poverty because Quakers- thanks in part to their truthfulness in business matters (see above)- have often prospered- and not felt bad about it. My mother's people, the Allens, were- like the Cadburys and Rowntrees- a wealthy Quaker dynasty. They may not have flaunted what they had- but they had a lot- and exercised the power and influence that came with it. Your average Quaker today- from my observation- is privileged, educated, middle-class, comparatively well to do. Nothing wrong with any of these things.
Does simplicity entail frugality, responsible stewardship of the earth's resources, ecological awareness etc...etc...? Yes, certainly. These are positive choices, but one can recycle all one's plastic and still be a Blue Meanie. We're back with Margaret Fell's "silly Poor Gospel" and in danger of mistaking superficial gestures for the true exercise of virtue.
What I'm going to argue is that Simplicity, in its deepest sense means Non-Attachment. Non-attachment is a verbal formula unavailable to our 17th century ancestors- who hadn't bumped into many Buddhists- but I think it's what they had in mind. "Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free." Simplicity and freedom go hand in hand. To live simply is to live free of needs and fears. Don't worry about the past, don't worry about the future. Live in the present. Be spontaneous. Love without wanting to possess. Take what comes, make the most of it- then let it go...
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Date: 2023-06-28 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-28 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-28 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-28 06:48 pm (UTC)That said, I'm a hoarder- and very bad at letting things go.