The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Eckhart, Thich Nhat Hanh, Hildegard on God as Ground of Being 03/22/2023 |
We have been meditating on how God is Being and how holy being is. The
Book of Acts recalls the earliest days of Christianity and cites a sermon calling God “the one in whom we live, move, and have our being.” |
To call God “the Ground of Being” is to find Divinity in the
depth of things, the foundation of things, the profundity of things. And in the truth of things, our own “true selves” and our efforts to pursue truth and commit to truth over falsehood. | Anchored in the darkness deep below the water, in the mud and silt, a lotus blooms above the surface. Photo by Thanapat on Flickr. |
We all have a depth, a ground, a presence and there, says Eckhart, lies Divinity, for God is the ground of being and “God’s ground is my ground and my ground is God’s ground.” Thich Nhat Hanh agrees when he says: All notions applied to the phenomenal worlds…are transcended. The greatest relief we can obtain is available when we touch the ultimate, Tillich’s ‘ground of being.’…Life is no longer confined to time and space. |
Author Frederick Buechner draws a distinction between the existence of God and God as the ground of existence. | Thich Nhat Hanh did not know that Paul Tillich got his language of God as “ground of being” from Meister Eckhart. But “ground of being” was Thich Nhat Hanh’s favorite name for divinity. Thich Nhat Hanh equates “nirvana” and “God” and “ground of being” when he says: |
God as the ground of being cannot be conceived of. Nirvana also cannot be conceived of. If we are aware when we use the word ‘nirvana’ or the word ‘God’ that we are talking about the ground of being there is no danger in using these words. For Thich Nhat Hanh, “ground of being” is the deepest expression of the reality of divinity. |
Remarkably, Hildegard of Bingen employs the
term “ground of being” 150 years before Meister Eckhart! And she applies it to Mary, symbol of the divine feminine and the goddess in Christianity. | “O viridissima virga” by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) Performed by Allison Mondel Soprano, Gothic harpist, and director of Eya Medieval Music. |
This makes sense since “ground” signifies down and darkness and journeying into the earth or Gaia and who in Hildegard’s words is “our mother.” She composed prayers and songs to Mary: Mother of all joy, ground of all being, glowing, most green, verdent sprout....Ask for us life. Ask for us radiant joy. Ask for us the sweet, delicious ecstasy that is forever
yours. |
| 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 Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, pp. 8, 95f. And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times, p. 120. Banner Image: As fish swim in water, their bodies made
largely of water, creation swims in and embodies the Divine. Photo by Shaun Low on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation How amazing is it to you that Hildegard of Bingen called Mary the “ground of being”? And Eckhart says that “our ground and God’s is the same” and that Thich Nhat Hanh’s favorite name for God is “ground of being”? 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. |
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 | |
Hildegard of Bingen, A
Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her. In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice. “This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence
that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism. | |
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. |
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. March 23, 11:00 AM to March 26, 9:45 pm. 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. | |
Please share this post! Just click the buttons below.
OR share your insights on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox
|
|
|
|
