There is a way of being, consciousness, or self-awareness that is innate in human beings and which is intuitively experienced rather than learned though intellectual effort or reflective consciousness. Reflective consciousness lights up in relation to reflections through the functioning of the body. That is, through the senses and intellectual or mental ideological constructs. A person may directly experience the nature of being that is mirrored through the…

From the age of five or six years old I have been an observer of nature and a documenter of natural history Click here to view an example. The nesting habits of wild birds is of particular interest. The method I use to survey breeding birds in an area is to sit quietly in one spot for a set number hours (4 to 8 hours) observing the bird activity around me over a period of days. Over time, a flash…

A Japanese Filmmaker’s Perspective on Filming a Quaker Blessing for the Urakami Cathedral Cross

On July 26, 2019, I met with filmmaker Koji Hayasaki after he filmed the blessing of the Urakami cross during Wilmington Yearly Meeting at Wilmington College. Here is that interview.

Pictured: the wooden cross from Urakami Cathedral in…

A new post on The Empty Path: Nonaligned faith and practice in the present.

"Our primate hardwiring militates against welcoming migrants. It’s that simple. And that complicated.

"Individual human beings always act out of self-interest.…

I am encouraged and grateful my research into early Quakers is revealing many people within the early Quaker gathering who, through the appearance of the inherent Presence of the spirit of Christ in their consciousness and conscience, were (relatively speaking) drawn out of the process of relating to one another through the process of reflective thought to guide and rule their relationships, interactions, and worship. The nature of this different way of relating to and interacting with…

I mention my Quaker ethnicity in this one. I'm sharing my sense of history. 

For related videos, see my School of Tomorrow playlist.

I find this "sermon" somewhat comical, and coming from the unprogrammed side, that's not an unusual attitude, since we don't do sermons that much (as a genre), nor even recognize "recorded ministers" all that much (some of us do). 

Nevertheless, I dive into the Bible from my own Quaker perspective, discussing the concept of races, which probably has something to do with racism as well.

[ I also sound like I have a cold, which I probably do.  My voice varies over my corpus of…

https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/About_DFPS/News/2014/2014-07-21.asp

Sort of science fictiony:

More autobiographical:…

“The kingdom of God has little to do with church and religion - serving God is about serving humanity” Leonhard Ragaz (Swiss theologian born 1868 near Tenna)

The project “Old Cheese Dairy” in Tenna is a civil-society initiative based on a leading by an individual Friend, financially supported by the…

 Originally published on the blog of Quaker Universalist Fellowship.

Reviewed by Larry D. Spears.

Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology, by Edwin L. Battistella (Oxford…

The Religious Society of Friends group on Facebook is very quiet on the subject of impending war with Iran. That's a kind of silence I don't want to be around.  I left the group.  Not enough authentic Quakerism for my taste.

Years ago a fire destroyed my collection of books, videos and documents, some rare, and some historical, and all centered on the theme of Intentional Community.  Since then I have been rebuilding that library and my Religious Society of Friends library.  Of course, many artifacts regarding Intentional Community are safely in the care of The Communal Studies Association and various museums.  And there is no worry about the vast collections of Quaker material,  safely guarded in the libraries…

Let him to whom an Idol is nothing, to whom all shadows, Types and Figures, are come to an end, let him exercise his freedom; yet with all tender love and forbearance to those that see not the same liberty ...

Robert Rich "Hidden Things Brought to Light"

As a clerk of IT (information technology) for our Yearly Meeting, I studied the work of our indigenous members, who were busy building our multi-meeting database. That baton has since been passed, and the work continues.  We haven't outsourced (yet) to a non-Quaker commercial firm.  We use PHP with MySQL.

In my day, we kept track of meeting…

I'm reaching out to Friends in higher education with my recent Youtubes, which I'm free to distribute outside of Alphabet (Google) just as well.  A lot of my viewers don't ever watch Youtubes.

Scouting developed as a result of some folks wanting to abstract the fun part of military campaigning. Lets not…

Iconography: The process of guiding and informing human relationships and interactions through outward political, religious, and social ideological and pictorial representations or symbolic forms.

Christonomy: Human relationships and interactions guided and informed solely through the direct intuitive experience of immanent or inherent Presence of the spirit of Christ itself in itself ... a coming out of representational forms and into the thing itself which outward forms…

The following excerpt is from a new post titled "A Colony of Heaven" which can be found at…

Research Notes.

I am ever thankful for those early Quakers who, through the inshining Spirit, were come out of the process of idenitification with and participation in outward forms to guide and informs their relationships, laid down their testimonies in writing. For by so doing, they make it possible for those of us today who share the same spiritual experience to expose to our contemporaries that the Spirit was ministering in such a way even from the very beginnings of the…

Research Note:

Robert Rich published a pamphlet in 1678 titled Hidden Things brought to Light or the Discord of the Grand Quakers Among Themselves. Discovered: In some Letters, Papers, and Passages written to and from George Fox, James Nayler, and John Perrott; Wherein may be seen the Cause and Ground of their Differences, and falling out: And what manner of Spirit moved and acted Each of Them.

I am currently scribing (as opposed to keyboarding) this…