1. Quaker Study: COME ALL YE WHO ARE HEAVILY CUMBERED…
MARK A. BURCH
Fellow, Simplicity Institute
Melbourne, Australia

2. TESTIMONY TO SIMPLICITY
Query—
The Spirit, working through evolution, has entrusted human beings with consciousness—an emergent property of life itself, and present in human beings to a special degree. How am I orienting my consciousness? With what do I nourish it, develop and train it? Do I apply its special abilities to the service of life? Have I understood “life” broadly to include the welfare of all beings, or only the profit of human beings?

3. X4 - 1 = 0

7. TESTIMONY TO SIMPLICITY
Reflection Questions —
In practical terms, what does living simply mean to you?
How are you living the testimony to simplicity right now?
What difference do you think the decision to live simply makes in terms of issues like environmental sustainability, peace, the priority you give to spiritual development, the quality of your family life, your own well-being?

8. Cumber / Sufficiency Query —
Given that simplicity in living is a supremely skillful means to personal and planetary well-being, have I made reasonable efforts to distinguish real needs from learned desires? Do I strive to respond to the Light in my life making judicious and elegant use of the minimum means? Do I strive for equity and nonviolence in relationship with other beings? Will the “mark” I leave in the world be that of love alone?
Reflection Questions —
How do you experience cumber in your daily life? What is it that distracts you or hold you back from being your best self?
Identify some examples of material and nonmaterial needs in your life and the satisfiers appropriate to each?
What relative contributions are made by material and nonmaterial goods to your personal and spiritual well-being.

9. Simplicity Outside-In
Query —
Do I value both action and stillness in proper measure? Do I understand that non-action is the deliberate decision to desist from action based on mindfulness, insight and wisdom, and do I distinguish it carefully from mere inaction, apathy or cowardice? In what is life, love or justice now calling me to act, and in what is wisdom now calling me to remain still?
Reflection Questions —
What do you think might be the value, if any, of living in a visibly simpler way than the mainstream society? What might be the downside of this sort of witness?
Do you think it matters today that Friends live a visibly simpler life than the mainstream society? If so why and in what ways? If not, why not?
In what ways, if any, might we distract ourselves from making meaningful change in our own lives by focusing attention on changing the minds and habits of others, including governments?

10. Simplicity Inside-Out
Query —
Awake to the fact that Divine Being is continually speaking its holy word into my life, have I been careful to listen, receive and cherish each of them, letting none fall to the ground? Do I discern new revelation in the daily round of my experiences, contemplating them in my heart, and allowing myself to become transparent to Divine Being speaking through me to others?
Reflection Questions —
In practice, how do you organize your life around the promptings of the Light within?
How do you experience living in “duplicity” as Prevallet calls it, and how is the reconciliation of that duplicity working itself out in your experience?
How do you feel about relinquishing control of your inner life to the Light

11. Transformational Simplicity
Query —
Is my home modest and free of superfluities? Does it evoke spaciousness and tranquility? Have I equipped my home for a wholesome self-reliance, mindful also of the claims of justice, nonviolence and generosity? While “keeping to the valley” is there yet room in my home and my heart for hospitality? And am I always mindful that I am merely a tenant in my home—a sojourner who possesses nothing?
Reflection Questions
If you consciously choose to practice simple living, what motivates you to do so? What is your intention in doing so?
What sorts of spiritual practice have been most helpful in your own practice of simple living?

12. The Simplicity Institute
Mark A. Burch
The Simplicity Institute