As we sit in our “expectant waiting”, we are
not generally entirely passive – not least because absolute
passivity is not something that comes easily to people. For
centuries, faith communities have developed strategies to help people
learn various forms of passivity, leading their way towards it
through prayers, mantras and meditation. Not only that, but not all
Friends find the best way to make that contact with the Divine is
through passivity at all.
In this post, I will be exploring what it is we do
in the silence of worship – different ways we bring ourselves to
the right state of mind, what that state of mind might be (different
for different Friends), and what we do once we have reached it. That
is a chronological order, and it might seem appropriate to explore
things that way, but I find it most helpful to consider the state of
mind first, before looking at how we reach it.
