The life and philosopy of Bede Griffiths:
Bede Griffiths was a monk, a man in whom there was no guile, and was last to see the guile that may have been in any other. This monk with a universal heart was an icon of integrity and guilelessness.
Alan Richard Griffiths was born at home at Walton-on-Thames in 1906 in a British middle class family, youngest of three. He had a sister and a brother. Soon after his birth Alan's Dad lost his business, cheated by a partner to the last penny. Mr. Griffiths lost face and never regained his role or place in the family. Alan's mother, who then became both parents to the children, had to move to less comfortable surroundings and had to go to work and manage her own housecleaning.
Soon after graduation, Alan began what he and his two companions called an "experiment in Common Life." With Hugh Waterman and Martin Skinner, he purchased a country cottage in Cotswalds, and took on a lifestyle immersed in nature, as a protest against contemporary life. Mrs. Griffiths made them three wool vests. For their part, the three young men milked cows and sold the milk. They read the Christian Bible together as literature, much impressed with the connections with nature as they lived out their experiment. One of the three found the life too austere and before the year ran out left the group and the experiment concluded. It had been brief but had a profound effect on Alan.
Alan Griffiths then applied for ministry in the Church of England. However, he was advised to first go work in the slums of London. The confusion that ensued with him between his rational mind end his spirit almost broke him. He sought out a retreat during which he fasted, prayed all night until tears flooded him and he had a tremendous breakthrough. As he himself wrote, "I was no longer the center of my own life." But the breakthrough was not complete. Alan went back to Cotswald, lived on turnips, grew weaker and confused again. Therefore he was moved to spend the day in prayer surrendering this time in a closet, visualizing himself at the foot of the Cross. Alan was swept into "real prayer" and later described this as his own "return to the Center." He went to work and ate at the farm next door, joined the family and began to read Cardinal Newman's Development of Christian Doctrine.
