The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Thomas Aquinas & Deepak Chopra on
the "Glory of Existence" 03/20/2023 |
In a time of struggle and darkness, with lies and false prophets with very large
megaphones and audiences, it helps to call on the wisdom of great souls and minds who will give us grounding and perspective. |
Such people can call us back to the basics, to how our existence after 13.8 billion
years of the universe unfolding (today’s science) is, as poet Rilke named it, a “miracle,” that is a wonder or marvel. | This is the Carina Nebula. The Webb Space Telescope reveals for the first time previously
invisible areas of star birth. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI |
Something worth marveling about and responding to with awe that in turn fills us with more wonder. |
Deeper than human folly after all is
the wisdom of the universe and creation and Creator. Following are some insights from Thomas Aquinas, who is a wise ancestor, about the presence of divinity among us: God is in all things in the most intimate way. Insofar as a thing has existence, it is like God. Just as flaming up comes with fire, so the existence of any creature comes with the divine presence. The first fruit of God’s activity in things is existence itself. All other fruits presuppose this one, namely,
existence. |
| Aquinas is so confident about the absolute holiness and divinity of existence itself. Where does he derive this confidence about the graced mystery of existence? Says he: God is pure existence. The existence of all other things partakes of God’s. God is essential existence, and all other things are beings by participation. The essence of God is
God’s existence. Moses was taught this sublime truth when he asked: “If the children of Israel say to me, ‘What is God’s name?’ what shall I |
answer them? The Lord replied: ‘I am who am; so shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The One who is has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:13-14). |
Turning from a Christian theologian of the 13th century to a Hindu philosopher and medical doctor of the 21st century, Deepak Chopra writes: “God is not a mythical person—he is Being itself.” |
He elaborates: The vast physical mechanism we call the universe behaves more like a mind than like a machine. How did mind ever find a way to manifest as the physical world?…The very fact that anything exists is supernatural—literally beyond the rules of | “God is pure awareness” by Deepak Chopra. (One excerpt: “The physical body is recycled cosmic stardust.”) The Chopra
Well on YouTube |
the natural world. Yes, the true miracle is existence
itself. |
| 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.
If you can't reach today's post on the website directly, click HERE.
If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
Adapted from Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality, p. 100 And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 99f. And Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, p. 5. Banner image: The Glory of Existence. Photo by Laura Ferreira on Flickr |
Queries for Contemplation Do you agree that the vast universe behaves more like a mind than a machine? And that “the very fact that anything exists is” is the miracle? And that existence precedes all other activities? What follows from that? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation
Spirituality To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing
and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox's life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10
sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity." ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM. | |
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on
Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian
or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths
(Afterword) | |
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 | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and Isa Gucciardi for a new Dialog & 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. |
March 23-26, 2023 (Thu-Sun) Virtual Event The Art of Dying
and Living: An Exploration of Life, Death & the Afterlife Join Matthew Fox and 15 other renowned presenters as they share visions and teachings and lead practices drawn from spiritual wisdom, scientific insight, and time-tested experiential methods of dealing with death and dying. To register, click 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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