David Cadman

I hope you will find some of these quotes and extracts to be of interest.  For more information about the book click here.

In seeing things

To be or not to be

Fools fail to see

A world at ease.

Nagarjuna

See Stephen Batchelor, Verses from the Centre, Riverhead Books, New York, 2000, 90.

Life is swept along, short is the life span;

No shelters exist for one who has reached old age.

Seeing clearly this danger in death,

A seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.

Time flies by, the nights swiftly pass;

The stages of life successively desert us.

Seeing clearly this danger in death,

A seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.

The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom, 2000, 90 and 91.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it… We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel.

William Penn, Some fruits of solitude, Richmond, Indiana, 1978, maxims 537, 543-546.

Love is the energizing elixir of the universe, the cause and effect of all harmonies, lights brilliance and the heat in wine and fire, it is the aroma of perfumes and the breath of the Divinity: it is the Life in all being…It is all that the texts have to say, and the more that remains unspoken.

Whitall N. Perry, A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom, Fons Vitae, 2000, 612.

From time to time these things were first revealed. I had often wanted to know what was our Lord’s meaning. It was more than fifteen years after that I was answered in my spirit’s understanding. ‘You would know our Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Hold on to this and you will know and understand love more and more. But you will not know or learn anything else – ever!’ So it was that I learned that love was our Lord’s meaning.”

Quoted in Dorothea Siegmund-Schultze, ‘Some Aspects of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love,’ 199-210.

I am the All

The All comes forth from me,

And the All reaches towards me.

Cleave the wood, I am there;

lift the stone,

and you shall find me there.

The Gospel of Thomas, logion 77.

When this is, that is.

This arising, that arises.

When this is not that is not.

This ceasing, that ceases.

Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, Grove Press, New York, 1974, 53; AN X.92.

We are of God… for love is of God…God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him…because as he is, so are we in this world.

I John, 4, v.v. 6-17.

Generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolution, loving-kindness and equanimity.

It is likely that the doctrine of sufficiency and simplicity that is today often portrayed as no more than a comfortable alternative for those that already have enough will, in our children’s or our grandchildren’s time, become not an alternative but a necessity for survival. For, in a quite practical sense, it is beyond doubt that although our global trade professes the contrary, this planet cannot support for all the level of consumption presently enjoyed by the few. For example, we are told that if the people of China were to reach the same level of consumption as those of us in the West (and why should they not want to?), it would absorb in any one year the entire world fish catch, the entire U.S. grain harvest and well in excess of the entire world oil production. And yet such an aspiration not only exists but is being actively promoted both within China and amongst those countries who seek to trade with her – that means us.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009, 36-37.

Try to live simply. A simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength.

Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker Faith & Practice, Second Edition, 1999, 1.02.41.

The present rationale is that the common good is best achieved through economic growth and prosperity based upon an ever-increasing consumption of products and services. Since it represents convention, the foundation of this rationale is seldom discussed, but one must suppose that it is that human happiness is best attained through satisfying material needs. Ironically, however, if one probes a little deeper it becomes clear that this foundation is not quite as stated. Indeed, the doctrine of consumption and economic growth is not primarily founded upon ‘satisfaction’ but upon ‘dissatisfaction’. For the system to work it is essential that whilst there is the promise of satisfaction, that promise must never be fulfilled. The promise is a lie and is intended to be so – although we are not supposed to notice.

It is rather unsettling, but not surprising, to discover that this deliberately misleading promise was developed in America in the 1920s out of techniques of war-time propaganda, techniques originally used to persuade a reluctant populace to support the war effort. Apparently, after the First World War, a man called Edward Bernays, who had been very much involved in the propaganda exercise, decided to make his fortune by adapting these techniques for commercial and political purposes. Based upon his war-time experience, his quite deliberate aim was to shape the desires of the American people as part of a new consumerism, allied to an associated political agenda of “keeping the voters happy”. He understood something rather important, that is that the appetite of our present materialism depends upon stirring up our wants – but not satisfying them.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009, 40.

Although it is said that the function of the market is to satisfy human wants and so to maximise various satisfactions, it is not true that the function of advertising is to maximise satisfaction; rather its function is to increase people’s dissatisfaction with any current state of affairs, to create wants, and to exploit the dissatisfactions of the present. Advertising must use dissatisfaction to achieve its purpose.

Robert E Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, Yale University Press, 2000, 179.

Dear Vasco, in response to your question “What is worth doing and what is worth having?” I would like to say this. It is worth doing nothing and having a rest; in spite of all the difficulty it may cause, you must rest Vasco – otherwise you will become RESTLESS! I believe the world is sick with exhaustion and dying of restlessness…. Yours sleepily, Mr Curly

Michael Leunig, The Curly Pyjama Letters, Viking, 2001.

Search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war.

Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker Faith & Practice, Second Edition, 1999, 1.02.31.

In all of this, I hear that haunting teaching of Christ:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Matthew 25.42-45

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.

The Dhammapada, v.1.

Prayer came to me from Love; Love came to me from learning to see things as they really are; and seeing things as they really are came to me from discovering my profound ignorance. How long have I journeyed, Lord, when I should have known, really known, from that Sufi tale that was given to me such a long time ago, that Truth lay close at hand? Forgive my stupidity.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009, 57.

How then shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, towards Him who calls in the deeps of our souls.

Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker Faith and Practice, Second Edition, 1999, 2.22.

In the guru yoga it is the mantra of “Om Äh Hüng Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hüng”, which means, “Homage to the enlightened powers of the Lotus-born Guru”. In the Jesus prayer, the words are “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me”.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009, 58.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here Elijah?

Kings I, 19.11-13.

…for contemplation is essentially the action through which we are led to a knowledge of our true identity and being and hence the true identity and being of other things as well…It is not (then) that contemplation is opposed to action: not only is it in itself a form – the highest form – of action, but also unless all other actions are informed by the knowledge that it embraces they will be performed in ignorance…To act well, we must first know. Thus, while contemplation and action are complementary, they are not on an equal footing: contemplation must precede action.

Philip Sherrard, Christianity: Lineaments of a Sacred Tradition, T&T Clark Ltd, Edinburgh, First published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press, USA, 1998, 246-247.

There is the story of the monk that went to see his Master and said to him “Master, how shall I find enlightenment?” The Master replied, “Have your breakfast.” The monk said, “But I have had my breakfast.” “Then wash your bowl,” said the Master. At this point, the monk was enlightened.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009.

Art thou in Darkness? Mind it not, for if thou dost it will fill thee more, but stand still and act not, and wait in patience till Light arises out of Darkness to lead thee.

Britain Yearly Meeting, Quaker Faith and Practice, Second Edition, 1999, 21.65, a quotation from an early Quaker, James Nayler,

We have not yet found the right word or phrase to describe this testimony…but it is in the overlap of care, respect, love, symbiosis, honouring, valuing, hospitality, stewardship, nurture, humility, adaptation and accommodation, peaceable living, interconnectedness, awe, wonder, relationship, harmony, consecration, sacramental or holy living.

Testimonies Committee Minute 2006, Engaging with the Quaker Testimonies: a Toolkit, Quaker Books, 2007, 55.

Indeed, the holy way is described as follows:

Meekness and Mercy and peace-making are high among the qualities that characterize the inner spirit of the kingdom. Patience, endurance, steadfastness, confidence in the eternal nature of things, determination to win by the slow method that is right rather than by the quick and strenuous method that is wrong are other ways of naming meekness. Mercy is tenderness of heart, ability to put oneself in another’s place, confidence in the power of love and gentleness, the practice of forgiveness and the joyous bestowal of sympathy. Peace-making is the divine business of drawing men together into unity of spirit and purpose, teaching them to live the love-way, and forming in the very warp and woof of human society the spirit of altruism and loyalty to the higher interests of the group.

Rufus Jones, The Inner Life, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1917, 21-22.

At the beginning of this work, I suggested that the root of this testimony on sustainability must be Divine Love; and if we are looking for a defining and guiding principle for our testimony, it, too, must be Divine Love. However, difficult it is to understand the workings of this principle, we must always return to it. And because it is essentially mysterious – part of that Great Mystery that we sometimes call “God” – and because it is ultimately beyond our complete understanding, then, following that path of “practical mysticism” to which I have already referred, we should start by attending, in love, to those things that we can understand and know, to those relationships that are close at hand, whether they be with each other or with the rest of the natural world – the way that we grow our food and where we purchase it from, what we eat, the ways in which we use those resources that are most dear to us and to our neighbours, the pace and expectations of our lives and our aspirations, too, so that our testimony does, indeed, “spring from a place of love”.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009.

Each one of us, of course, has a story to tell but how shall our story begin? In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell says:

The first stage of the mythological journey [the “call to adventure”] signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown. This fateful region of both treasure and danger may be variously represented: as a distant land, a forest, a kingdom underground, beneath the waves, or above the sky, a secret island, lofty mountain top, or profound dream state…The adventure may begin as a mere blunder…or still again, one may be only casually strolling, when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of men.

In a world so taken up with rationality and intent, with business plans and five-year strategies, is it not especially thrilling to be told that “the adventure” is always there and always about to begin; that we might stumble upon it when we least expect to or when some passing phenomenon catches our wandering eye and lures us away from the frequented paths of men?

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009.

At some time that I have now forgotten, but in a moment of unintended clarity, I became aware that the destination of my journey was “to be at one, in awe and unafraid”. And ever since then, this has been my quest. It requires courage and, of course, discipline. But most of all it requires mindfulness, wisdom and compassion. And, for me, this is the holy life.

This holy place, this place of love is found by discipline and the letting go of self, by prayer, meditation and contemplation; it is simple and peaceful and it is a pre-condition to living in harmony with others and with Nature. We do not have to desert life to find it; it is there in the most unexpected places and if we are attentive, we will find it close at hand amongst the everyday, in the momentary pause, in the “still small voice of calm”; it was always there and will be with us even at the end.

I believe that to be “at one” is to be at one with the Divine, the inexpressible and the mysterious. In this state I cannot help but be “in awe”; and I find that in such a place of love there is no fear. This is to be entire and holy.

David Cadman, Holiness in the Everyday, Quaker Books, 2009.