The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Merton, Eckhart & the Search for
Our True & Deeper Selves, continued 03/06/2023 |
Human beings have to dig and work at finding our deep and true self. If we do not, we live superficially out of fear or greed or addiction and set ourselves up for false idols and
lies. For someone else’s expectations for us which can set us up for dictatorship of many kinds. |
Indeed, it may be that the increasing quest for authoritarian political leaders is
being stirred up by the same forces that trigger addiction in us. (Remember that “addiction” and “dictator” are closely related words.) | |
When our deeper selves, our truer selves, is ignored, the gaping hole in
the soul seeks to be filled by something else. That something else might be drugs or alcohol or compulsive work or conspiracy theories or political promises–attachments of any kind that allow us to numb our feelings of despair, loss or grief. All such addictions lead us away from our true selves, our inner selves, where our real depth lies. |
Video essay examining the Jungian concept of the shadow and shadow projection and how this shows up in media news and entertainment. Thoughts on Thinking | True self-knowledge includes awareness of our hidden and neglected side, our shadow both personal and collective. If we do not pay attention to it, it can take us over and create monsters of us. Surely this was part of the dynamic of the rise of fascism in the 1930’s. It is present in today’s rise
of |
authoritarianism in politics and religion and the media where plenty of hucksters lurk eager to pounce on self-ignorant people to milk them for unending money and power. The lesson? Don’t be self-ignorant. Discover your true self and work from that. Throw off the false self. Let it go. Learn detachment, as all the mystics teach us. Eckhart: “We sink eternally from letting go to letting go into
the One.” |
When we learn to let go and sink into our true selves, we might find what Eckhart, Merton
and other mystics found: That a Christ (or Buddha or Image of God) dwells deeply within. St. Paul discovered that “not I, but Christ lives within me.” | |
On several occasions Merton declares that “we are other Christs” and, echoing Eckhart, wrote in his journal: “Who am I? A Son of God…My true self is the self that is
spoken by God—‘Thou art My Son!’… Tremendous happiness and clarity (in darkness) is my response: ‘Abba, Father!’” To be continued. |
| To view today's video, please click the image. You will be taken to today's post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view and post your Comments. In the sharing that follows, a kind of community is developing around the DM.
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Adapted from Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, p. 229. And Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart, p. 49. Banner Image: “Midnight mirror image” Photo by Miguel Tejada-Flores on Flickr. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you “sink eternally from letting go to letting go into the One”? Have you tasted the experience of “tremendous happiness and clarity in the darkness” that you are a son/daughter of Divinity? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
A Way to God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality
Journey In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his
Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism | |
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering
Book A centering book by Matthew Fox. This book of simple but rich meditations exemplifies the deep yet playful creation-centered spirituality of Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century Dominican preacher who was a
mystic, prophet, feminist, activist, defender of the poor, and advocate of creation-centered spirituality, who was condemned shortly after he died. “These quiet presentations of spirituality are remarkable for their immediacy and clarity.” –Publishers Weekly. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for a lecture and Q&A on “The Reinvention of Work – A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, March 16, 4:00-6:00 pm PT.
Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Isa Gucciardi for a new Lecture & Q&A on “ Liberation and Salvation: Healing Teachings in Buddhism & Christianity” at Convergence Hosted by
Cameron Trimble, Tuesday, March 21, 4:00-6:00 pm PT Register HERE. Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Jung and Teilhard in Dialogue" to the Creation Spirituality Communities at their Global Kinship event in January 2023. | |
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