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#4131 -
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"I have
created my own Quaker identity ... as something I don't think
anyone has ever called themselves before .... a Non-dualist
Quaker." -Jenn
From http://friendlymuses.blogspot.com/2011/01/wayless-way-nondualist-identities-and.html
The Wayless Way: Nondualist Perspective on Identities and
Belief
by Jenn
This month at [the Friends Meeting], we are holding a forum on
"Theological Diversity Among Friends" -- that is, it's
notable how many attenders and members we have who also
self-identify with not just "Quaker" but also something
else like Buddhist, Non-theist, Catholic, Methodist, Jewish,
Feminist, Pan(en)theist, etc. For people who like tidy boxes,
such a concept as "Quaker and _______" is confusing.
In effect the confusion lies in confusing identity with entirety.
Identities are many-layered things, like onions or flowers, and
just as bioregions or ecosystems often overlap, so too identities
can converge or diverge, creating thousands of possible hues,
shades and combinations within a single individual, let alone the
human species. That said, we should never believe that our
identities are who we "really" are. Identities are
objects, picked up and carried with us for a time until they wear
out and must be shed, like skin.
At the same time, although an identity can and should be
"shed" -- I don't think we ever really lose it. It's
more like we outgrow it. We engulf it in our new identity. Child
becomes adult -- but we still carry around that inner child, and
we've all experienced moments of "regression" where
those same childhood fears, frustrations and feelings emerge in
their old patterns.
One's beliefs strikes me as akin to identity. We identify or
consent to a certain way of seeing the world. In effect, theology
is cosmology ... a story about how the cosmos or universe
works/is/lives. In sitting meditation, I have often felt that my
different identities are in essence "stories" I tell
myself about who I am.
As the old Gaelic saying goes, "The Truth is in the
Story" --- the Story is the vehicle through which Truth is
conveyed, but it is not the entirety of said Truth, but simply
that ... a story, one way of telling that can never capture the
whole, but only offer a glimpse.
At different times in our lives, we identify ourselves in
different ways -- child to adult or parent, sibling to
aunt/uncle, single to married, etc. These things, including the
places we live, the profession we hold, the education we have,
the way we vote, even our nationality or ethnicity ... these are
all contextual markers though. They are handles which allow
others to quickly access a great deal of information about us,
much like a library index. The human brain operates in much the
same way -- our perceptions need cues ... and our memory works
like a network ... so too, human society requires quick and easy
ways to categorize all the variation out there. Thus language and
society are formed.
Unfortunately, much like we can misremember or have skewed
perceptions, so too identities, operating as stereotypes, can
lead us to make certain assumptions about others -- even
ourselves -- that are not entirely true. For example, I'm a
redhead. People often assume that I have a quick temper. Even I
sometimes attribute my easily-riled passions to my coppery locks.
But this generalization is only true some of the time, not
always. Much of it is contextual -- depending on my mood, current
experiences, health, menstrual cycle, what someone recently said
to me, how stressed I feel, etc. Thus identities are
generalizations but not the "whole truth."
At some point in our lives, we see the world very clearly through
one pair of eyes or maybe a few sets ... we label ourselves as
___ religion and ____ political party and ____
ethnicity/nationality/race, etc. These labels give a sense of
community and place in the world ... a starting point on the
journey forward.
But in effect that is all they can be. We can never be the
entirety of a religion or the entirety of a political system.
Just as one religion or other identity can never be the entirety
of who we are.
Instead, as with all things, balance is key. Go ahead. Shape your
identities. Use them as tools to enable your work and meaning in
the world to blossom. But never lose your connection to
"reality as it is" -- that is, the great vast unknown
and unknowable depth behind the masks which we can experience
now, in this moment as naked experience, naked perception .... a
body-mind living, breathing, being in this place at this time, no
more, no less. And that is enough. All the rest is superfluous.
Such is why I identify myself as a Quaker, and perhaps that is
why others can also identify themselves as Quakers but also so
many other things too. ..... in Silent Worship, the body-mind
living, breathing, being is enough .... it's enough to sit there,
the Light, the Clarity and Shadow of it all flowing through, in,
out, around, us.
Enough? More than enough! Such an experience is transformational
because it both accepts and transcends our boundaries. We are who
and what we are .... all that and yet something more. Individuals
merge into one corporate body -- the group whole. So too, in the
individual, we have not just single identities but multiple. The
One and Many ... an age old dichotomy. Dualism would see those
two as discreet or separate identities. Nondualism sees these as
parts of each other, as whole parts and parts whole.
I have created my own Quaker identity ... as something I don't
think anyone has ever called themselves before .... a Non-dualist
Quaker. But that is just a poor attempt to help others understand
where I'm coming from.
Identity is only the beginning. Our spiritual path is only the
beginning of a much longer, wider, deeper, higher Way. "The
Way that can be named is not the true Way." .... until one
day we discover we are no longer really x, y or z .... or
following any specific "path" but instead, tread the
Wayless Way ... the path beyond all other paths ... and that path
I like to call just "Life."
Visit this blog at
http://friendlymuses.blogspot.com