(Click here for an overview of posts in the series The Art of Living in Community.)

This section is not a curriculum, but a description of Community life. Although most of these ideas probably form the core beliefs of a majority of the Community, insisting on adherence to them would probably alienate a similarly high percentage. Indeed, there may be no single individual who believes in them all in the form they are described here.

A core belief is that here is one God of Love, a God transcendent, but unlike the God of Christian tradition, one incorporating both masculine and feminine elements. Nonetheless, certainly in some sense the creator[1] of the universe and a being or force to whom one might legitimately both pray and offer thanks.

Few, however, are willing to accept a notion of a deity who can be perceived as either exclusively or even primarily outside of our experience of reality. There is Unity in Creation, and every object, animate or inanimate, microscopic or cosmic in scale, contains within it some aspect of the divine presence. We can go further than this and affirm a faith in non-physical beings such as angels, devas, discorporate human and perhaps super-human souls who also form part of creation, who exercise some kind of dynamic intelligence within it, and with whom we can communicate.

Logically this view of a God immanent leads on to the belief that such a presence must also lie within each and every member of the human race. Clearly it will be to a greater or lesser extent dormant within any given individual, and to a significant degree our spiritual aspirations must therefore lead towards an experience and expression of the God Within.

This ambition obviously implies a kind of spiritual evolution; a sense of purpose to life created by our individual and collective attempts to seek the essence of spiritual life and to use our creative capacities to enable the emergence of the divine consciousness latent within us. Concomitant with this is an acceptance that homo sapiens may be the pinnacle of biological evolution on Earth, but that there are other lessons to be learned in realms beyond the physical.

Unlike the Judaeo-Christian world-view many of us accept the idea of re-incarnation , or perhaps more accurately, of other lives. Linear conceptions of time do not suit everyone, and the idea of parallel existences, each one taking place in a kind of eternal now, are favoured by some. Whatever the mechanism this view not only accords with many individual personal experiences, they also make sense of a world with so many varied starting points for human life. Taking into account ‘previous’ actions, omissions, or experiences seems to provide both a richer and more equitable view of the universe.

This being so we can more readily come to terms with the apparent injustices of wealth, health, opportunity and skill which pervade the human mosaic. Each life has a purpose not just relative to objective moral, social, or ethical standards, but also in the context of other soul experiences. It is a liberating, but also humbling idea. We can begin to sense that even the most difficult, luckless, or obscure existence is merely a part of the whole; perhaps it may even be the last redemption of karma before enlightenment or liberation.

This in turn leads to a view that we are not so much victims of circumstance as participants in a drama where we create our own reality. This phrase should not be interpreted as meaning that we are responsible for the rocks, trees and buildings around us. It is intended to imply that our thoughts and emotions are conditioned by our personal perceptions of, or reactions to, events and circumstances. Such interpretations are then largely subjective. This belief leads in turn to a striving to ensure that the choices we make are conscious rather than unconscious ones, and based on for example, mature reflection rather than childhood conditioning.

Critics of the New Age frequently allege that this philosophy is profoundly narcissistic and leads to a toleration of poverty, injustice and so on, at variance from true spiritual teaching, and especially the Christian idea of charity. It is therefore important to stress that a sense of compassion lies at the heart of our Community life. Knowledge or belief in karmic destiny should, and in my experience almost invariably does herald a genuine concern for the divine will, for the nature kingdoms, and for the plight of ordinary human beings. It is certainly not an excuse for laziness, materialism or selfishness.

It is also vital to stress that all of the above should lead to a genuine embodiment of spiritual principles. The student who has read every title in the bibliographies presented here, but who lives without joy, has learned nothing. This is central to our way of life, and one of the reasons we often describe ourselves as a spiritual community, implying a concern with inner dynamics, rather than a religious organisation, suggesting an emphasis on beliefs and forms.

Finally, life in the Community is a celebration of diversity. There are many roads to the Godhead, and if lack of interest or belief in any of the ideas presented above becomes a cause for criticism or embarrassment then this document will have failed in its purpose.

The Laws of Manifestation
Another major contribution to Community and indeed New Age thought has come through David Spangler’s explorations of the philosophy of ‘manifestation’. The following paper explores two main themes – the general idea of manifestation based on faith and the specific Foundation policy of ‘stewardship and manifestation’.

Manifestation Based on Faith
In the pamphlet ‘Findhorn and Finance’ published by the Foundation in 1973, it is stated: “When one gives up all in perfect trust and willingness to serve God, and lives in harmony with his laws and his will, then all one’s needs are perfectly met, often in far greater ways than one might have dreamed.”

In a world where the economic problems of the day are so well known and yet so intractable, it may seem difficult to embrace this statement. How can we reconcile it with a knowledge of ecological imbalance, unemployment, the nuclear arms race, and Third World debt and poverty? The key lies in the recognition that working with the spiritual or inner nature of economics requires attention to the potential of any given situation as well as to its actual or apparent nature. As David Spangler says in the ‘Laws of Manifestation‘, “Manifestation is a process of working with natural principles and laws in order to translate energy form one level to another. It is not the creation of something out of nothing, but rather a process of realising a potential of something that already exists.”

Faith and service are key elements in this principle. Faith means much more than hopefulness: it is knowing that the substance of God and the abundance of the spiritual realms are more real than the apparent word revealed through our senses. Nor is service to be understood in terms of sacrifice or duty, but rather as a blending of one’s self in the opportunity of creative partnership. Faith is the knowing, often transcending the knowledge of the human mind and its logical analysis, and service is the dynamic action of creativity based on that knowing.

In the early days of the Community the principle of manifestation based on faith was adhered to by following the inner guidance of the founders. Their remarkable success in addressing the practical needs and assessing the potential role of the Findhorn Community has been well documented, so perhaps a single example will suffice here.

“It was one manifestation after another,” says Eileen Caddy. “Sometimes it took a while after the thought was put out to achieve the physical reality, but often it would happen quite quickly. For instance, we needed a music system for the sanctuary, and a regular visitor offered his radiogramme and speakers which he said were too big for his own house. Not only did he bring it up from the north of England for us, but he also brought a carpet for the sanctuary as well, and laid it personally! When I received guidance about something, I knew it would come, and often just the right object or amount of money would be given to us. There was always the question of timing though. When I was told we would be going back to Cluny Hill hotel ‘soon’ I didn’t think we’d have to wait 13 years!”

The economic basis of the Community’s early activity was small – almost negligible in comparison to the charity with an annual turnover of a million pounds that is the Findhorn Foundation today. Conducted from a handful of caravans and bungalows, it often utilised the unwanted materials cast aside by others – manure for the original garden from nearby stables, over-ripe vegetables for soup, castaway cement and timber for building materials.

An important aspect of the nascent Community’s life at this time was its work with the nature kingdoms and the natural cycles of the Earth. These natural rhythms were and are influential on our economic system, and there is an enduring link between the two. Just as nature here has an abundant summer and a more introspective winter, so our own cash flow peaks in the summer and this harvest is required to see us through the quieter days and longer nights later in the year.

When the Community grew beyond a few dozen individuals a more sophisticated set of guidelines was required. David Spangler identified four separate stages of working with the laws of manifestation:

• Right Identification
• Right Imagination
• Right Attunement
• Right Action

He stressed the need to see such actions as proceeding from a sense of wholeness and oneness with all life, rather than from separation, lack, or fear. Furthermore, these stages do not require to be undertaken in a mechanical or linear fashion. Thus, an effective condition of attunement might lead to an appropriate identification of a need, and so on.

Stewardship and Manifestation
In tandem with this work the Foundation began to develop the second theme of stewardship and manifestation.

These two concepts have underlain much of the Foundation’s growth, and the interplay between them has influenced a great deal of our recent history. Stewardship is our pledge to the kingdoms that surround and nourish us, and essentially commits us to being wise caretakers of that with which we have been entrusted, as well as covering day-to-day living expenses from our earnings.

Manifestation, on the other hand recognises that any expansion of our work or facilities will need to be supported and financed by other than our resources alone, and that any such expansion involves clearly identifying the greater need or potential it serves, and then proceeding in the faith that all required to realise that potential will be provided.

These two ideas are closely related. For instance, the Foundation’s close attention to good financial housekeeping on our operating account cleared the channels for the Caravan Park Appeal Fund. This appeal raised over £250,000 in a little over a year. The purchase of the Park as a going concern is in turn enabling us to fulfil our promise of good stewardship more fully.

At other points in the Foundation’s history, this principle has been abandoned in favour of taking on loans rather than waiting on funds to become available without strings attached. This policy has enabled relatively rapid expansion to take place, but also tended to make good stewardship more difficult under the burden of loan interest and increased operating costs. Each generation of Foundation members is then faced with the challenges of understanding the relationship between stewardship, manifestation and loan investments. In such circumstances, new solutions appropriate to the moment must be discerned as part of the individual and collective learning process.

(Amended extract from ‘The Findhorn Foundation and Finance’, in ‘The New Economic Agenda’ edited by Sandra Kramer & Mary Inglis; Findhorn Press; 1984)

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[1] I have avoided using capitalisations for descriptions of the deity other than ‘God’ as for some this would be too redolent of overtly Christian notions.