The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers
Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Nothingness and Supreme Court Folly, continued
In yesterday’s DM, we meditated on the important mystical experience called tasting Nothingness. Nothingness has been served up in generous proportions by the flood of ugly and
mean and dangerous and “embarrassing” decisions released by the unsupreme court the past ten days.
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Many people are feeling deeply depressed by the goings on, including the Jan 6 commission which, while doing its job faithfully and professionally, is unveiling truths about our past government that are painful to learn about. How a president, still cheered on by many, personally conspired and acted and invited thugs to a sacred ritual to certify votes cast by
hundreds of millions of Americans and knew they were armed and dangerous.
| Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified on June 28 that the former White House tenant waved off concerns about armed rallygoers marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Washington Post.
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Instead, because “they will not harm me,” he encouraged and wanted to join them in the insurrectionist rampage that killed five people, injured hundreds and sought to kill a vice president and speaker of the house.
And it is this individual who appointed the three most recent members of the supreme court. When he goes to prison for his lies and crimes, might that in some way invalidate their presence on the court?
Nothingness is part of the mystical journey that empties us. Christians call it kenosis and also the way of the cross. There is much to learn from our encounter with Nothingness. It is integral to experiences of suffering.
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| Slaves tasted it. Their descendants in Jim Crow times tasted
it.
Indigenous peoples having their culture ripped from them tasted it.
Women taste it on a regular basis—so much so that Carol Christ reports that “women’s experiences of nothingness begin at birth and continue throughout their lives.”
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And now many Americans are tasting it as we watch our democracy melt in front of our eyes.
What is the mystical teaching about Nothingness? There is hidden some wisdom within Nothingness. Thomas Merton called it “the golden zero.”
Gandhi said that to be active in the struggle for justice, you must prepare yourself “for mountains of Suffering” and that “if you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce yourself to a zero.”
Indeed, he says that “true individuality consists in reducing oneself to zero. The secret of life is selfless service.” Nothingness is often part of our deepest callings and vocations. Gandhi says: “The highest ideal for us is to become free from attachment.”
to be continued
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Queries for Contemplation
Have you had experiences of both personal nothingness and of social or political nothingness? How did these experiences transform you or light fires in you? How does it
feed your vocation?
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 148-156.
Banner Image: Police guard barricades at the U.S. Supreme Court on the day Roe v. Wade is overturned. Photo by Ted Eytan on Flickr.
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Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
In this book Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology). Here Fox lays out the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.”
–Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
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Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox and others in Rupert Sheldrake’s 80th Birthday Celebration: A Scientific and Spiritual Pilgrimage, taking place in London and virtually around the
world. Friday, July 8, 9:30am-8:00pm BST (GMT/UTC+1). Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox and special guest Caroline Myss for a 6-part Reflections Parallel course, “Beyond Patriarchy: Recovering the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine and Why it Matters Today,”
hosted by the Caroline Myss Educational Institute. July 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27 (Mondays & Wednesdays) 4:00pm-5:30pm PT (GMT/UTC-7) Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox at the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Virtual Retreat with a discussion of The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times. Thursday, July 14, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT
(GMT/UTC-7)
Register HERE
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie virtual retreat, discussing One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths. Thursday, August 18, 4:00-6:00pm
PT. Learn more HERE.
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Creation Spirituality in Conversation.
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Victor Fuhrman of Destination Unlimited on OMTimes interviews Matthew Fox on Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Navigate to the podcast page by clicking the image on the left.
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Announcing Matthew Fox's Newest Book!
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Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an introduction by Charles Burack
“This collection of Fox’s most life-giving insights blesses the connection between caring for our Mother-the-Earth and lifting up marginalized voices, between waking up from the dream of separation and stepping up to mend the net of creation.”
—Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love and Wild Mercy
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