Both went down from Oxford and changed the spiritual landscape.   William Penn and Bede Griffiths – two great men of an unconventional God. Spiritual brothers born almost 240 years apart.  Oxford classmates separated by centuries. William Penn fell in with the founders of the movement that came to be known as the Society of Friends. He was drawn to the practice of meditation as worship. He saw the commonality of humankind in the light of the Divine. He turned away from the structures that entrapped the spirit within power and ego. For that he was imprisoned.  He petitioned the King of England to pay a family debt with a land grant.

When given this grant, Penn planned a peaceable kingdom.  The new  city he called “City of Brotherly Love”, Philadelphia.   His colony was named Pennsylvania, “Penn’s Woods.”  All were free to worship in one’s own voice.  There was no dictated proper and correct prayer book.   The land thrived in peace with nature, with the first peoples who were properly reimbursed for the land, and those who fled from the prison of established religiosity.

Bede Griffiths path led to a monastery in India. The land was obtained by his spiritual  fathers in the   English Benedictines.   He discovered the commonality of the Divine and the rooting of spiritual growth in meditation. All were welcomed and flourished in the peaceful haven named Shantivanam, “the Forest of Peace.”   He expanded beyond the limits of conventional Christianity. He acknowledged the existence of the Divine Feminine and the common truth that is present in all faith traditions.   Those who looked upon him as teacher have started or rejuvenated monastic communities, havens of hospitality where all seekers are welcomed.   Eventually, his works were subjected to review by the modern-day equivalent of the Inquisition.  But, his age and physical distance from the main route of theological academia protected him.

Two souls in concert. Both followed the leading of the Spirit. One liberated the spirit from a religio-political system.   The other liberated the soul from the bindings of Western rationalism. Both drawing strength from meditating upon the Divine Presence.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. ~ William Penn

The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout souls, are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the divers liveries they wear here make them strangers. ~ William Penn

Through his experience to the edge of death, he experienced  the “divine feminine.”   His knowledge led to the integration of the polarities of “male” and” female” into the singular Godhead.

The video clip is Thomas talking about his experiences.

Bede would hold up his hand.  Imagine that that the 5 world religions were the fingers of your hand.  If you look at your fingertips, they are so different. If your thumb represents Christianity and your little finger represents Buddhism, these 2 religions appear to be 180 degrees apart.

But as you follow your fingers down to your palm, they draw closer together.  And so do the different religions.  When you reach the palm, the fingers merge into one space.  As do the religions, all converge onto the same sacred concept of the Divine.

An man, born in England, whose life’s journey led him from Oxford and a life-long friendship with C.S. Lewis to a missionary trip to India where “(he) found (his) soul.” A man who was one of the first in the 20th century to speak of the “feminine divine.” A dedicate Catholic Christian who saw the Divine working through all.

This blog is dedicated to introducing Bede Griffiths and his thoughts of spirituality to a wider community.