Our angry world needs more silence, stillness

How do we repair the ‘spiritual damage’ to our societies?

One of the best speeches I have ever heard in the British House of Commons was delivered by Labour Member of Parliament Glenda Jackson on Apr. 10, 2013.

The speech started out as a critical examination of Thatcherism (former prime minister Margaret Thatcher had just died), but it turned into a much broader discourse on the extensive and continuing “spiritual damage” to societies and communities.

Jackson decried a society where vices become virtues: “Greed, selfishness, no care for the weakest — sharp elbows, sharp knees,” she bemoaned.

The thoughtful, passionate MP warned of a society that aspires merely for “things,” a bleak place where we know “the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

DECLINE OF COMMUNITY

In our polarized, pandemic-era world, with its angry and fearful rhetoric, with its hate-filled airwaves and scary spaces on social media, I sense the effects of the spiritual damage. Sometimes, I feel it locally — a lack of care and a lack of courtesy.

You don’t have to go far to experience the “sharp elbows.”

When I talk about spiritual damage, I am not talking about the decline of religious institutions. I am talking, as was Glenda Jackson, about the decline of community. We should never mock or de-value love, kindness, generosity, integrity and simplicity.

I have sought a bit of inspiration in these troubled times. Through history, some people have managed to stay grounded and stay loving. How?

TWO RECOMMENDATIONS

I would like to recommend two books.

The first is Abraham Joshua Heschel’s “The Sabbath,” published in 1951 and reprinted many times. Rabbi Heschel (1907-1972) lost many family members in the Holocaust. He marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His was a life of active solidarity and empathy.

Heschel was incredibly engaged in the world. Yet, in “The Sabbath” we are taken into the experience of “menuha” – including a planned, anticipated, embraced, weekly joyful rest. Heschel’s practice of Sabbath was not for resolving issues (or even for stressful soul-searching!) but soaking up the sacredness of time. After all, “things” are more fleeting.

His day of joyful rest is like a “cathedral” that no oppressors can demolish. The stillness of the Sabbath clearly re-centred Heschel. It put him on the path of spiritual strength, making him a purveyor of peace and justice.

My second recommendation is an inspirational compendium full of little insights and commentaries. It’s called “Faith and Practice.” The most recent edition was put out in 2010 by the Canadian Quakers (officially known as “Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends”).

I have a lot of respect for the Quakers. Their contemplation and innerspirituality seems to have led them to almost always be on the right side of history. They took great risks to help fugitive slaves and oppose slavery. They have long advocated for dignity for prisoners and major reforms to the justice system. They did not get involved in Canada’s residential schools.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

In 1947, the Quakers collectively won the Nobel Peace Prize for organizing aid to victims of war, often at the front lines. They preferred to risk their lives that way rather than by taking up arms.

They have chosen not to weigh themselves down with dogmas, complex regulations or lofty leaders. Instead, they focus on just a few core testimonials: peace; simplicity; truth and integrity; justice, equality and community; and unity with creation.

But here’s one insight: Silence and stillness are profoundly important to their practice. The Quakers would almost certainly not have achieved their balance, awareness and humble joy in the face of adversity without some built-in pause buttons.

Indeed, for Canada’s Quakers, services (called “meetings”) are largely silent. Members of the community are invited to “centre down.” It appears that a kind of spiritual repair happens as they connect with a light within. There’s new awareness, eventually leading to thoughtful action.

GENTLENESS AND WONDER

Glenda Jackson, Abraham Heschel, as well as the Quakers, seem to be aware that repairing spiritual damage starts not with world leaders but with us, with our own gentleness and wonder.

Helen Lawson is one of many Quakers quoted in “Faith and Practice.” Here is how she ends a poem: “Every moon is light reflected; every bird a holy dove. Every egg, a mystery; and ever babe, a child of Love.”

Silence and stillness helped her to appreciate that and to project it onto the world.