A
JAPANESE VIEW OF QUAKERISM
APPENDIX
D LECTURES
ON JAPAN (1937)
Address given at
the University of Geneva on December 14th, 1926, prior to Us
departure from Geneva.
My subject is "What is Quakerism? " To begin
with the defmition of my subject, " Quakerism" is a term embodying
those religious beliefs, moral precepts, social practices, which are either
peculiar to, or particularly inculcated by, the community of Christians who
came into existence in England in the middle of the 17th century under the name
of the Society of Friends, and who were mockingly called Quakers, i.e., people
who quake and tremble.
II
Quakerism is so
peculiarly English, at least in its beginning, that I cannot conceive of it
being started elsewhere. It is true that similar religious bodies were formed
in other countries such as the Mennonites in Friesland, and later on the
Doukhobors in Russia. None the less it may be said that Quakerism was a product
of the religious turmoil of the 17th century England seeking for personal
conviction in matters of religion and politics, and that its vitality is also
due to the individualistic frame of the English mind. Its founder, George Fox,
did not think of founding a new sect; but when as a young man he came to
realize the power of the Spirit, as he called it, within himself, he shared it
with those who were in search of a religious conviction, who were not at all
satisfied with the formalistic teaching of the priesthood. I am inclined to
think that it was partly the English character of Quakerism that made it
non-proselytizing and circumscribed its activities within the British Islands
and within the Anglo-Saxon stock in America and Australia. It is also the
practical genius of the English race that kept up the vitality of Quakerism
despite many obstacles and impediments, for other mystic bodies have either
been suppressed by authorities or have gradually dispersed; and what remains is
but a faint image of what they once were. Quakerism, too, has been losing its
ground more or less, its followers diminishing in number; but the remnant came
to the fore during the Great War on account of their objection to war and of
their activities in relief work. At present they number about 20,000 in Great
Britain, ioo,000 .in America, about 300 in Japan and perhaps iso in Germany where
they were quite a large body once, but where they were suppressed entirely under the power of
militarism. As to France, until about 30 years ago there was a small
community near Nimes, but at present I do not think there are many left.
III
When
Quakerism is such an English institution why should a foreigner, so foreign as
a Japanese, take upon himself to explain " What is Quakerism" to a Swiss audience, especially
to the spiritual descendants of Calvin, and under the presidency of a
professor of theology of the University of Geneva ! As, however, the Chairman
has himself explained, Geneva is an international city and is becoming more
and more so, and its citizens will surely take interest in hearing something of
Quakerism, which has always
stood for international good-will and co-operation. As to myself, an Asiatic and
Japanese, I have found many points in common between Quakerism and teachings
long current in the Far East. I shall explain, and you will understand, I hope,
even without my going into detail, why Quakerism is so attractive to Eastern
minds. When I speak of the East, I have naturally the Far East in my
mind; but even in the so-called Levant, we meet with religious bodies —Sufism,
Bahaism, etc.—which entertain principles very analogous to Quakerism.
IV
The
starting point of Quaker teaching is the belief in the existence of the Inner Light, the Light that lightens
everyone coming into the world. It is given other names, such as the
Seed, the Voice, the Christ, and so on. Whatever the name, it means the
presence of a Power not our own, the indwelling of a Personality other than
human, in each one of us. Such a doctrine is not at all new. It is as old as
the oldest form of mysticism. George Fox knew perfectly well that it was not
his own discovery or invention. It is an idea that comes to every mystic soul
in any clime. Perhaps it has developed more in the East. SOcrates' daemon must
have meant something very much like it. Buddhism is full of references to it.
The famous word "Nirvana" which is so often translated
"Annihilation" is but a negative way of naming it. Taoism starts and
ends with it. The Zen sect of Buddhism makes it its aim to comprehend it. Wang
Yang Ming, a comparatively new Chinese
philosopher of the i5th Century, has made it the basis of his moral
philosophy.
Now you see the reason why I was particularly drawn to
Quakerism. When I began in my boyhood to hear Christian sermons and read
Christian books, including the Bible, I confess that they were not at all convincing
to me. Only in Quakerism could I reconcile Christianity with Oriental thought.
V
Let it be far
from me to turn Quakerism into Oriental mysticism. Quakerism stays within the family of
Christianity. It professes to rest its structure on the person of Jesus Christ,
whom it identifies with the Inner
Light. It does
not deny his incarnation and historicity,
but it accepts his continued work of grace in each suc‑
ceeding generation. Not only that, it believes his grace
was retroactive, so that it was he who enlightened all
the seers of old. He still dwells within us—in the least
as well as in the greatest, even in the savage and the un‑
lettered. Unlike Orientals, George Fox, a genuine Eng‑
lishman, and his followers, conceived of a personal Christ
as the Light, or, of Light as a person; but, by making
this person eternal and existent before the world was,
Quakerism came to much the same conclusion as the old
mystics. Laotze, 600 years before Christ, spoke of the
same thrme, but in a reverse manner, namely, of a person
in an impersonal way. Allow me to quote that famous
14th chapter of Tao Tel King. He writes: "You
look at it and do not see, and you call it colorless.
You listen to it and cannot hear it and you call it sound‑
less. You stretch your hand and you cannot grasp it and
you call it bodyless. These three surpass your power of
definition and must be all put together as one." Now
the words he used - " colorless," " soundless," and
"bodyless," are in the original Chinese pronounced
ji-hi-wel. Had Laotze ever heard of Jahveh, of Jehovah?
Perhaps he had.
It is not impossible. there was a
communication between China and Judea in those olden times. If he had, may we
not say that he identified Christ with the Tao, the Way, which is the
subject of his whole philosophy—the 'Tay, which the Christians call their
Master and God?
I
shall not detain you longer on this particular theme. I have cited only one
instance out of hundreds to show the affinities between the Western and the
Eastern thought of centuries ago, and the idea developed by the untutored
English cobbler of the 17th century.
VI
Were
these mystics misguided, building their houses on the sands of fantasy and
clothing themselves in garments woven of cobwebs out of their fevered brows ?‑
There seems to
be a regular order in mental evolution. An author with whom I am not always
in, sympathy has made the distinction clear between the different stages in
the development of consciousness. Dr. Bucke, a Canadian alienist, in explaining
the four gradations in the
development of consciousness, says : "These four stages are, first,
the perceptual mind—the mind made up of percepts or sense impressions ;
second, the mind made up of these and recepts-_the so-called receptual mind,
or, in other words, the mind of simple consciousness; third, we have the mind
made up of percepts, recepts and concepts, called, sometimes, the conceptual
mind or otherwise the self-conscious mind—the mind of
self-consciousness ; and fourth, and last, we have the intuitional mind —the mind whose highest element is
not a recept or a concept, but an intuition. This is the mind in which
sensation, simple consciousness and self-consciousness are supplemented and
crowned with cosmic consciousness."
Modern
psychologists do not seem to deny that there can be such a gradual development
in consciousness: Monsieur Bergson's distinction between intelligence and
intuition is well known. Dumb creatures, and perhaps plants also, possess a
certain degree of consciousness, but man alone can detach himself from himself
and reflect upon his own consciousness. This is a state of development not
very difficult for us to attain, in fact every normal human being attains it.
But is not there a stage still higher where we can merge ourselves in the great
universe and feel the very pulses of the all-pervading life—a stage of
consciousness where the microcosm becomes one with the macrocosmos, where we
can feel at once that we are one with the great Spirit that lives and moves
through the universe?
Eastern
philosophy loves to contemplate on the identity of individual life with the
life of the Whole. Known under different names—there is, for instance,
"Liberation," "Brahmithc Splendour," or "Nirvana
"—this cosmic consciousness is the experience of many minds among all the
races of the world. It is an
experience whereby man is convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a Spirit
and that his Spirit is in close communion with the Spirit of the Universe.
He finds himself at the center of the world; he shares all its joys and
sorrows. He blows with every flower and weeps with every ephemeral insect. All
mankind live in him and he in them.
He feels like a giant. Like a lover whom Emerson
paints, he is twice the man and walks with arms akimbo. Like Dante, another
lover, he talks to the Absolute Being in the language addressed to Beatrice.
Curiously enough, the Cosmic sense, as described by those who attain it, is
very much the same everywhere—whether it be by a Buddhist priest, a Shinto
votary, a Mohammedan saint, a French mathematician, an American farmer, or a
Jewish philosopher.
Nothing confirms the identity of the human race better than this spiritual
expansion. But I can speak only as a close observer of those who attain
this high and lofty sense, and not as one who has himself attained it.
To make a little
clearer what I mean by Cosmic
Consciousness and how this is reached, let me cite the example of
Blaise Pascal. Fortunately he left on record what we may call his religious
conversion, and what we may call attainment of the Cosmic Sense. His
biographer, no less a man than Condorcet, has made public the so-called Mystic
Amulet of Pascal, I a parchment document which was found on his person at
his death and in which he described an experience he had in the year 1654, when
he was 31 years old.
The
year of grace 1654
Monday,
23 November, day of St. Clement, Pope and Martyr,
Pascal's
Mystic Amulet (so-called by Condorcet), original parchment disappeared.
Copy on paper in Pascal's own writing preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris.
From
about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve, midnight,
FIRE
God
of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jabob,
not
of the philosophers nor of the Wise.
Assurance,
joy, assurance, feeling, joy, peace.
God
of Jesus Christ,
My
God and thy God.
Forgotten
of the world and of all except God.
He is
only found in the ways taught
in
the Gospel. The sublimity of the human soul.
Just
Father, the world has not known thee
but I
have known thee.
Joy,
joy, joy, tears of joy,
I do
not separate myself from thee
They
left me behind, me 'a fountain of living water.
My
God, do not leave me.
Let
me not be separated from thee eternally.
This
is eternal life that they should know thee
the
only true God and him whom thou has sent.
Jesus
Christ
Jesus
Christ
I have separated
myself from him;
I
have fled, renounced, crucified him.
Let
me not be forever separated from him.
One
is saved only by the teaching of the Gospel.
Reconciliation
total and sweet.
Total
submission to Jesus Christ and to my Director.
Continual
joy for the days of my life on earth.
I
shall not forget what you have taught me, Amen."
It is strange to
see with what suddenness and exuberance these splendours come. Jacob Boehme,
the Teutonic theosopher, who died the year that Fox was born (1624) and who was
also a shoemaker, had an illumination all of a sudden in his humble workshop
when he was 24 years of age. It seems that the experience of what we have
termed cosmic sense happens at an age very much later than the so-called
Christian conversion, which William James and other psychologists find most
common at the period of adolescence. Whether the spiritual illumination is
accomplished through visible fire as in the case of Moses and Pascal, or
through an audible voice as in the case of Socrates or Jeanne d'Arc, or as a
bright light as in the case of St. Paul and Mahommed, the result seems to be
very much the same. It means an immense increase of energy, bodily and
spiritual, peace of mind, joy of heart, readiness to depart this life, and love
for all mankind.
The central doctrine of Quakerism is the
belief in this Cosmic sense which they call the Timer Light, and all the doctrines and precepts of
Quakerism are only corollaries drawn from this premise. Allow me to
call your attention, before I proceed further, to what I consider a very
important point—namely, wherein Christianity differs from other faiths in
respect to this power.
VII
Cosmic consciousness is
the illumination of the mind; it is the acquisition of a new mental power; it
is the purification of the heart, the elevation of the earthly man to the
higher sphere of existence. It is the baptism of the Spirit. The power to
effect these changes has been predicated of Christ. If, however, among
Christians there be such as would refuse to be classed with the heathen who
have caught this power—or if among the non-Christians there be such as would not
gladly acknowledge as friends the Christians who have this vision—it only shows
that neither of them has yet attained to the truth for whosoever gets it
harbors no pride in his heart and entertains no enmity with other children of
the light.
I ask again Is
there, then, no superiority whatever in the so-called revealed religion, by
which is meant, I presume, the revelation of Godhead in the person and life of
Jesus Christ? I believe Christianity has this ad-vantage—not to call it a point
of superiority—that it provides weak, ordinary human mortals with a definite
and concrete object upon which to focus their mind, thus facilitating their
discovery of the Perfect Man. Acquaintance with Him makes us one with
Him—at-one-ment. To follow Him is to be redeemed from a lower plane of life. To
contemplate Him is to see God Himself and be saved.
We read Laotze;
we read Buddhist saints; we study Oriental mystics—we are brought very near to
the idea of redemption, atonement, salvation. We shall perhaps feel the same
assurance and bliss, the same power and the same love for our fellow men; but we feel that we have not reached
our finality. Like Goethe, we still yearn for "more light."
Yes, we see light, but not the one thing essential—namely, a perfect living
Personality. It is not impossible that many an Oriental has caught a more
abundant quantity of light than many a Christian saint, but in that light by
which they saw a thousand and one objects, they could perceive only something
brilliant, but amorphous, which they did not identify as the King of Kings.
They could see rocks and pebbles of all sizes and shapes; but they knew not the
Cornerstone. They saw herbs of varied hues and qualities, but the Vine escaped
their scrutiny.
VIII
The immediate
consequence of the doctrine of the Inner
Light is the peculiar form of worship in vogue among the Quakers—namely, the silent waiting for inspiration.
Believing that God is immanent
in all, they come together and prepare a milieu for His manifestation.
When anybody—it does not matter who, maybe a man, woman or child—feels stirred
in his heart he or she gives testimony in a sermon, song or prayer. An English
writer, Mr. Waley, in a little book in which he compared the Quakers with the
Zen Sect of Japan has said that the "Quakers seek communion with the Divine Spark in corporate
meditation and deliberately exploit the mysterious potencies of
crowd-psychology."
This is in a way misleading, since it is not only in meetings, silent or otherwise,
that Quakers stress the doctrine of
Immanence.
Even their business meetings are
conducted in an atmosphere of tranquillity. Should discussion become heated it
is customary for some member to propose waiting upon the Lord for a few
minutes, and when the excitement subsides they take up the business of the day
again. I must add here that in the meetings decision is taken not by simple
vote, i.e., by merely counting heads or hands, but it is taken by the
weight of opinion. This means that the utterance of one man of high character
and good judgment counts more than the opinions of ten men of lighter weight.
Such a device may look very much like "respect of persons" and
undemocratic and altogether against the fundamental principle of Equality
espoused by Friends, but whoever knows that a mere majority is a mechanical
contrivance, will admit that decision by weight is the more judicious
procedure.
Ix
Another
prominent feature in the religious profession of Friends is their disuse of the
sacraments generally observed in the Christian Church. Holding divine worship
to consist in spiritual communion, and in nothing else, they deny the necessity
of Water Baptism and of the Lord's Supper. They maintain that true baptism must
be of the Spirit and not in water. They even go further. They accept the Bible
as God-inspired, but will not credit it as the sole revelation of divine will.
They say that it is not the Word of God, and in order to understand and
profit by it, spiritual enlightenment must precede its perusal. It may be
remembered that the Bible had been translated into English only eleven years
before George Fox was born, and in his days it was evidently very much studied
and almost superstitious virtues were ascribed to it. No wonder, therefore,
that the Quakers, if for no other reason, should have been thought heretics and
unbelievers.
Another
consequence follows from the Quaker estimate of the Bible. They say that the
knowledge of this book does not by itself qualify a man to preach the truth,
for the truth comes direct from the Spirit. Theological study is not,
therefore, valued by them as much as in other churches.
From this fact
follows another, namely the usage among them of not having regularly educated
clergy. If anybody distinguishes himself, be he educated or not, by preaching
in a manner which appeals as sound and helpful, he is recognized as acceptable
to the meeting, and inasmuch as his gift of preaching is free, he must not
receive any material compensation.
X
The Inner Light being conceived as universal, it is
given to all men irrespective of sex, race, or education. This
being so, there should be no discrimination against women in any way. Hence
among Quakers women have always been treated as equals of men. There are women preachers
and women officials among them. In the meeting women have always exercised
equal rights with men in every way. As to the equality of races, the Friends put their doctrine in practice
in dealing with American Indians and negroes. When in the colonial days of America, Europeans
vied with each other in hunting down the poor natives and taking their land,
William Penn, an Englishman, surprised the natives by dealing fairly and
squarely with them, signing a treaty with them as equal brethren and paying an
adequate price for their lands. You remember Voltaire's remark that this was
the only treaty in history which was concluded without an oath and which was
never broken.
The Quaker attitude to the negroes in America is too
well-known to be recited. So pronounced were the Quakers in their denunciation
of slavery that they were often placed in very dangerous positions during and
before the American civil war. Their protest finds a clarion voice in the lines
of Whittier and their actual participation in the work of emancipation is
immortalized by the pen of Mrs. Stowe in the story of" Uncle Tom's
Cabin."
Thus were put into practice the doctrine of Equality
and of Brotherhood long before these were adopted as political maxims. What
about Liberty? Mr. Gooch, one of the
most prominent living publicists of England, devotes several pages of his book
on the Political Thought in England to the influence of Quakerism on the
development of civil liberty. It is evident that coercion of any kind is
incompatible with the belief in the Inner Light.
XI
The doctrine of equality, when applied in the daily
conduct of life, has had some curious effects. At the time when social usage
demanded different forms of expression in addressing different classes in
society, such discrimination weighed heavily on the conscience of the Quaker
and as a protest he called everybody "thou" and "thee."
When the custom has changed and" you" is employed for all classes
alike, of course the protest has lost its ground.
Similarly the custom known as hat-honor was introduced
to England when Charles II returned from the continent. He brought the polished
manners of the French Court and that involved punctilious formalities about uncovering
one's head in the presence of the great. The Quakers insisted that all men are equal and they
would not bare their heads before one class in preference to another. It
looked as if they had insisted upon being rude to everybody ! We read of George
Fox being summoned to the presence of the Lord Protector Cromwell and there he
kept his hat on while talking with Cromwell for along time. I was told also
that when John Bright was a member of Gladstone's government, he had often to
appear before Queen Victoria: but he always kept on his hat. But as he did not
resist the exercise of force majeure, a court official was placed near the door
to take off his hat as he entered the presence. of Her Majesty, in that way
sparing his conscience and preserving the etiquette of the Court.
The use of the plain language and the scruple about
hat-honor are not strictly religious tenets, and the Quakers call them
testimonies, i.e., usages which the members of the Society should observe as
practical demonstrations of their religious profession. Of these testimonies
there are some more, such as the objection to take oaths, to swear, under any
circumstances (not even in the Court of Justice), and the avoidance of personal
ornaments in clothing. Their refusal to swear is founded on the Biblical
teaching. Their plain clothing was a testimony against wearing the garish
luxurious dress introduced from France at the time of the Restoration. George
Fox had to travel extensively on religious missions. Being a shoemaker he had
sewn for himself a pair of leather breeches and also a leather coat,
anticipating no doubt the latest fashion of automobile drivers ! There are
still many conscientious Friends who will not carry a gold watch or a diamond
ring. Formerly this sartorial scruple went so far as to regard all bright
colors with suspicion, if not with abomination. It is said of an old Quakeress
that when the wind blew a red maple leaf into her presence, she carefully turned
it upside down. When the social custom has so changed that the man's
broad-brimmed hat or the woman's bonnet has become rare and unobtainable
without paying a high price, they in turn become articles of luxury; and hence
they have practically gone out of use among Friends.
It is due to
their idea of the equality and brotherhood of man that the Quakers devoted
their attention to the spread of general education, especially among those who
were denied educational facilities. That is the reason why in the history of
Poor Schools and of Adult education there are so many Friendly names, as no
doubt Professor Bovet here will testify.
XII
The same
principle that encouraged education, when applied in dealing with the
unfortunate, namely those less gifted mentally, morally or economically, has
given rise to new methods in the treatment of the insane, that is to say, the
mentally deficient, the criminal—the morally deficient, and the indigent—the
economically weak. it is a well-known chapter in the history of alienism that
the Friends first started the system of handling the insane with kindness and
as human beings. With regard to the attitude towards criminals, the work of
Elizabeth Fry, at least in England, broke the record in prison administration.
Lastly, about the poor ; as it is often said that there are no poor among
Quakers I must explain how far the statement is justified.
The apparent
absence of poverty among the Quakers is due, I think, to three causes :—(i)
Owing to the necessity felt during the period of persecution, there is a
strong esprit de corps in the Society of Friends, with the result that
there has developed a good system of mutual assistance. The Society has a
special Committee charged with the duty of looking into the condition of its
suffering members, and when the suffering is due to poverty, relief is
provided without any intimation as to the giver or the recipient ; so to all
appearances, therefore, there is no suffering from poverty.
Secondly, as a
rule, the members of the Society are constantly urged to fairness in all
dealings with their fellow-men. In trade, honesty has proved to be the best
policy. Mr. Bertrand Russell, the well-known writer and philosopher, in his
little book, Icarus, speaks of the adoption of the one-price principle
by the early Quakers. He says "They adopted this practice because they
held it to be a lie to ask more than they would take. But the convenience to
customers was so great that everybody came to their shops, and they grew
rich." Mr. Russell adds :-" The same policy might have been adopted
from shrewdness, but in fact no one was sufficiently shrewd."
Perhaps the
third reason ,is the most important, but it is the least thought of. As has
been said before, the Society requires of its members the utmost frugality in
the manner of living. The typical house of a Quaker is comparatively
bare—comfortably and simply furnished, not cumbered with ornaments or loaded
with decorations. Luxury is held in horror in any form. Vanity costs more than
hunger or cold, as a wise man has said. When we think that the most expensive
items in living are the unnecessary things, we can see at once that whosoever
has sufficient strength of mind to defy the demands of a showy life can keep
povthy at a distance.
Being thus
economically competent, the Friends have perhaps been more generous with their
means and have thereby given an impression of being a philanthropic body; but
charity is not the object of their organization. Money must be viewed as a
by-product.
Though the care
of the poor is but 'a practical consequence of the fundamental conception of
man's relation to God,, it certainly forms a vital problem in social life, so
much so that an apostle defined religion as visiting the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and keeping oneself unspotted from the world. That Friends
have not forgotten the traditions of their forbears, is amply shown during the
war, as our Chairman' has made allusion.
XIII‑
I
have one more subject to present before you and I shall be done. 'I refer to
'tha1l-iinportant and all-embracing question of World Peace,
which it has been the task of the Society of Friends from its very beginning to
advocate and strive after. They have fought for it as few others have fought,
they suffered for their conscience Many have sacrificed their bravest sons and
daughters, not to count their worldly possessions, at the altar -of peace.
Prof. Eugene Ch6isy, ,Doyen of the
Faculty of Theology in the University of Geneva.'
In England and
America, many young Quakers were imprisoned as conscientious objectors and more
of them risked their lives in bringing succor to friends and foes,' while the
fighting was going on. A
recent book by A Ruth Fry, A Quaker Adventure, modestly and graphically
written, shows what -Peace can do in the midst of war. While the heat of
nationalism was high, under the regime of,, War psychology, they were subjected
to abuse and scorn, but history, I hope, will one day do more justice to their
achievements.
When the captains depart and the turmoil' is over the
pacific mission of Friends will assume' a new form. If in war they risked their
all, should they do less in peace? Spinoza very wisely remarked that the
absence of war does not necessarily spell peace.
XIV
Friends as a
body have had the immense satisfaction of seeing generally accepted some of the
ideas which they were the first to propose and promulgate. The equality of
woman, the abolition of slavery, the human treatment of the insane and the
criminal, freedom of speech, liberty of conscience, the general spread of
education among the poor, the spiritual interpretation of the Bible—all these
are assets to their credit. But what are these achievements compared with what
still remains to he done--a handful of sand on the vast shore of human sorrow
and suffering.
I have thus far
dwelt upon some of the peculiarities of the Quakers, and tried to explain the
ground for them. I hope I have not overdrawn their virtues. In speaking of the
religious body with which I have identified myself for the last forty years, I
have been constantly reminded of a story of an Arabian saint, who, when a lad,
was ordered one evening by his father to study the Koran with his brother.
Seeing the brother fallen asleep the little boy said: "Father, look at him
sleeping while I have my eyes fixed on the Holy Scripture." Upon hearing
this the good father admonished him gently, saying, "My boy, I wish you were
asleep too rather than that you should indulge in spiritual prides"
