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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
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The Apophatic God is the God of darkness and silence and namelessness. God is therefore another expression of Nothingness who bursts the limits of human apprehension and human languaging. Thomas Aquinas says that |
God is said to be nonbeing (non existens) not because God is
lacking in being but because God is beyond all beings. Meister Eckhart develops this idea when he declares that “God is a being beyond being and a nothingness beyond being” who consists of a “changeless existence and a nameless
nothingness.” | “And the spirit of God moved on the waters.” Photo by Conrad Ziebland on Unsplash. |
He elaborates on this difficult-to-grasp concept which in fact goes beyond concepts when he says: God is nothing. It is not, however, as if he were without being. He is rather neither this thing nor that thing that we might express, He is a being above all being. He is a beingless being….God is nothingness, and yet God is something. Father
Bede Griffiths comments on Hindu wisdom regarding God talk: |
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh explains the concept of ‘Emptiness’ (Shunyata). Hossain Salahuddin | We cannot name Brahman. It is ‘not this, not this.’ Whatever word we use, whatever image, whatever concept, we have always to go beyond…One cannot stop with any name of God…. We are all seeing that inexpressible mystery beyond, and that is Brahman, which is neti, neti, ‘not this, not this.’ |
The Buddhist concept of Shunyata or emptiness reminds us that a pregnant emptiness exists within beings and within the context of interconnection. Each being exists only in relationship. Eckhart has a similar teaching when he says “Relation accordingly is present in the essence of a thing, receives its being in the essence….” |
In the Kabbalah God is also called Nothingness or Ayin, Mystical Nothingness: Ayin, Nothingness, is more existent than all the being of the world…. Jewish mysticism calls God “Ein Sof” or “that which thought cannot comprehend.” We are reminded that | “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the Name that can be named is not the eternal Name.” Tao te Ching, chapter 1. Stoic Daoist |
All is one in the simplicity of absolute undifferentiation.
Our limited mind cannot grasp or fathom this, for it joins infinity. In this way we can say that God is the annihilation of all thoughts, uncontainable by any concept. Indeed, since no one can contain God at all, it is called Nothingness, Ayin. If God is the erasure of all thoughts, we can see
why meditation as emptying the mind is so fruitful for connecting us to the One. We can see the power of Silence. |
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Queries for Contemplation
How is God a “nameless nothingness” for you? When you see nothingness all around us, including nothingburgers of many kinds, does it help to know that God too is called Nothingness by mystics of
many stripes and traditions? Adapted from Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, pp. 132, 134. Banner Image: Al-one-ness. Photo by Max 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 Past | |
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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