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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Silence as a Practice of Nothingness In yesterday’s Daily Meditation we considered the apophatic side of Divinity, the limits of language to name the Great Mystery or what Eckhart called “the ocean of God’s unfathomableness.”
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We also considered Estelle Frankel’s endorsement of the “wisdom of Not Knowing” and silence, therefore. If God is Nothingness (among other things), silence can be a door into God, an opening to the
divine. | Nothing so like God as silence. Photo by Adam Derewecki from Pixabay |
Indeed, Eckhart says “nothing in all creation is so like God as silence.” For Eckhart silence is a requisite for listening deeply to the “Word of God” that dwells within us all. |
The Buddha in silent repose. Photo by RKTKN on Unsplash | There are many kinds of silence. Sometimes we are silent out of ignorance; sometimes out of fear or timidity or
shyness; sometimes out of guilt (one bigshot this past week took the fifth amendment in a court trial 440 times lest he incriminate himself). |
But, as Maria Montessori teaches, humans can “make silence”—and
children ought to do so. Another name for “making silence” is meditation or contemplation. Buddhism offers multiple meditation practices to empty the mind of thoughts. It also has lots to say about the nothingness and unknowability of God. |
Says Thich Nhat Hanh: It is impossible to use our concepts and words to describe God…. It’s very wise not to say anything about God. To me the best theologian is the one who never speaks about God. Meister Eckhart is in full agreement when he says: | Finding God in the silence. Photo by Spencer Selover from Pexels |
The most beautiful thing which a person can say about God would be for that person to remain silent from the wisdom of an inner wealth. So, be silent and quit flapping your gums about God. Eckhart urges us to enter into deep silence to find God. It is best, he says, “to maintain total silence about that which is the source of all things.” This is meditation, this is mindfulness. To be continued |
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Queries for Contemplation
Are you at home with silence? Do you practice silence in reaching out to what Eckhart calls “the source of all things” and “Nothingness” and the “Ocean of
unfathomableness”? Adapted from Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, pp. 134f., 137.
Banner image: Photo by Patrick Schneider
on Unsplash |
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and
Useful Names for God …Including the Unnameable God Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of
Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
“This book is timely, important and admirably brief; it is also open ended—there are always more names to come, and none can exhaust God’s nature.”
-Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, author of Science Set Free and The Presence of the
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Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments
field. See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox as he offers a new, 12-week advanced course on the Shift Network:
7 Mystics on Recovering the Sacred and
Forging a New Story for Humanity: Timeless Wisdom to Deepen, Heal & Inspire Your Life Journey. NOTE: There is a prerequisite: In order to take this 12-week advanced course, one must have taken any prior shift course with Matthew Fox (not just the 7-week 7
Mystics course). Tuesdays, August 16-November 1, 5:00pm-6:30pm 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.
Join Matthew Fox in a 6-week virtual course on “Mystics, Mysticism and Ourselves as Mystic-Prophets,” hosted by Creation Spirituality Communities. Wednesdays, 8/24, 8/31, 9/7, 9/14,
9/21, and 9/28, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Thursday, September 15, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality in Conversation |
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Host Sandie Sedbeer welcomes Matthew Fox in a discussion of Creation Spirituality: Fresh Perspectives and Approaches to the Most Vital Issues of Our Time on WHAT IS GOING OM. Navigate to the podcast page by clicking the image on the left. |
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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