He came to Ecuador to rest and write the story of his life. But he was too busy to do either. With characteristic generosity he gave freely of his time and energy to the English Team at Edibosco, to writing letters on behalf of many prisoners of conscience, to the Self-Realization group, to our babies Ahmad and Jesahel, and to each and every one of the people he met, too busy living the present to write his past.
David Raymond Newton was born in Billings, Montana in 1914, son of a working-class family - miners and cattlemen. As a youth, he knew the Great Depression, but being one of 'the lucky ones' was able to find work and continue his education. He became a school teacher, although his greatest interest was always journalism.
He never sought riches nor social status. During one year he gave everything he had in exchange for the privilege of experiencing life at a work camp run by the American Friends Service Committee. Later, he preferred the rigors of a Civil Service work camp to taking part in war. finally, his conscience obliged him to turn himself in to the authorities and receive a prison sentence in protest to the violence and blood-shed that was occurring.
His was a life of hard work, voluntary poverty and ceaseless search. With his wife, Virginia, he helped found a cooperative community in Macedonia, Georgia. On discovering that true community life could not be established solely on economic principles but required a deeper unity based on spiritual principles, they left the cooperative and joined the Society of Brothers (Brüderhof), first in Paraguay and later in the USA.
The exigencies of community life... required a prolonged separation from the Society of Brothers. Now with six children and in utter poverty, he fought for the survival of his family and its faith. Only after a long decade could he return with his wife and two younger children to 'the life'.
But his restless spirit of insatiable search drove him at last - once his last son had left home - to blaze his own trail alone in the wilderness of the world in hopes of finding a new trace of the beloved. He was an avid reader and a born writer. His body had begun to waken, but his spirit remained young, restless and anxious.
Those of us who were blessed with knowing him well were overcome by his radiant simplicity, his humble generosity, his penetrating sincerity, his love for the beautiful - poetry, music, flowers, love - and his absolute rejection of and impatience with all that is corrupt, arrogant and brutal in man.
I think he found the object of his search. One day he shared with me this thought he had found somewhere:
"In this moment there is nothing which comes to be. In this moment there is nothing which ceases to be. Thus there is no birth-and-death to be brought to an end. Wherefore the absolute tranquility is this present moment. Though it is at this moment, there is no end to this moment, and herein is eternal delight."
Before taking his flight and breaking the chains of this physical world, he wrote these words, which I found on his desk as if he had meant them as a letter to his loved ones:
"How often have I failed to be quiet and listen to my heart saying, 'Search no more! Heaven, as always, is here!'"
I will end with a greeting he carried with him always and I am sure he would like to have expressed to all:
"I greet you with love
And salute you!
The Spirit that illumines you
And the Spirit that enlightens me
Is the same Spirit.
We are one."
(August 11, 1988)
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