The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
On Evil and Its Remedies, ii 04/13/2023 |
Martin Buber teaches that we cannot wipe out evil–but we can work to turn it into good. There are lessons to be learned from the light we find in the darkness, lessons of wisdom and
compassion learned from grief and suffering and loss and betrayal. |
The good is a door (“I am the way,” “I am a door”) to the Sacred. The Via Positiva in its many forms and experiences and
expressions opens the way to an experience of the Sacred. But also sin can be a door to evil—it is not evil itself but a door to it. As the Lakota teacher Buck Ghosthorse put it, “Fear is the door in the heart
that | “I am the Door.” Sculpture by M.C. Richards; one of the “I Am” Stations of the Cosmic
Christ. |
lets evil spirits in.” It matters that we ask three important questions: 1) Where is the good all around us? Answer: In the blessing that the universe,
the earth, and our lives are. 2) Where is the good within us? Answer: The seven chakras. They are all love points, places of positive energy and strength we carry within
us. |
A 1-minute sound bath tuned to balance the seven chakras. MeditativeMind | 3) Where are the doors to evil in us? Answer: The seven chakras when they are unbalanced, or “misdirected love,” as Thomas Aquinas defines sin. The seven
capital sins or sins of the spirit are doors that allow evil |
to enter us. We consider them succinctly here. The seventh door is one of envy which is almost endemic in our culture since much advertising is built on it. What role did envy play in the expulsion of two young black men from the Tennessee legislature? What role does envy play in adultism? The sixth chakra names rationalism and intuition when healthy but, as Einstein pointed out, often fails to honor intuition and then rationalism reigns. The fifth chakra is the throat which is so often gagged or misused. When healthy, we speak
truth. |
The fourth chakra is the heart where fear and hatred can stew instead of love and compassion. The third chakra is where healthy moral outrage can be awakened and put to good, non-violent, use. It
lies in the guts where violence can cook. The second chakra, our sexuality, can be truly acts of love but can also turn abusive. The first chakra is our link to the Earth and the cosmos via vibration. Unfortunately, its shadow side
it that is tribalism of various kinds including racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of arrogance. | Falsehood for power: Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton faces media exposure for claiming fraudulent travel per diems based on a false claim of residency. Wikimedia Commons. |
Evil is not stupid. It allies itself not to mediocre movements or people but to power places and power
people whenever it can. In my lifetime I have seen evil at work not only in education and in politics and vast corporations, but also in religion and in church that claim to speak in the name of the sacred. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. xxxviif.
Banner Image: Torii gate demarcating the boundary between the sacred space of a shrine and ordinary space. Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Photo by Syuhei Inoue on Unsplash
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Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that Evil is
not stupid? What follows from that awareness?
Be with this naming of the chakras and meditate on how marvelous your body is! |
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Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of
the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think
creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
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Join Matthew Fox online as he offers a Worship Service Inspirational Message - “Otto Rank, and Pere Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides Calling Us to Deep Freedom” for
Brentwood Inspired Living Center, Sunday, April 16, 10:00 am PT. Learn more HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “Creativity – Where the Divine and the Human Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, April 20, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Charles Burack in an online conversation on “The Essential Writings On Creation Spirituality” hosted by The Aquarian Minyan. Thursday, April
27, 6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Karen Tate interviews Matthew on his latest book Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality to discuss religious vs. spiritual, the nature of evil and angels, compassion vs pity, and wisdom vs knowledge. On Voices of the Sacred Feminine with Karen Tate. Listen HERE. | |
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