The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Being & Non-being Rising to Action, Passion & Compassion 03/23/2023 |
We have been meditating on being (and therefore on non-being also) as we consider
names for Divinity that call to us today. A return to the foundation, that “to exist is the most perfect thing of all,” as Aquinas put it in our meditation two days ago. Without existence, nothing else can happen. |
When we return to Source and Beginnings, gratefulness for existence can rise and refresh us and stir us to action. Being includes suffering of course, we do not feel or undergo only the Via Positiva in our life journeys. Being connected to the Source | |
is not always pure pleasure or bliss. It can also be wrenching and sorrowful and break the heart. This is one reason the archetype of the cross speaks deeply to many along the way. The rupture that occurs in the Via Negativa breaks us open to more creativity, more birthing of multiple and fresh and untried acts of imagination that come from a deep place of both being and being broken. |
Breakthrough: sunflower seedlings carry their shells to the surface as they germinate. Wikimedia Commons. | A kind of resurrection occurs when we move from tomb to womb and learn to give birth from a deeper and deeper place. “If you want the kernel, you must break the shell,” says Eckhart. Creativity is eager to share the kernel, the
“pearl of great price” that is not |
discovered without some breakage which in turn can become breakthrough. It is from our Nothingness and our tasting of ashes that we often give birth to the “son of God who is always needing to be born” as Eckhart reminds us. What is the alternative to acting from being and from non-action? Action/reaction. Reptilian brain response alone. “I win, you lose” kind of action. Superficial action. |
Compassion does not happen from the reptilian brain alone. It requires a motherly heart, a caring and non-dualist relationship, a playing out of the inherent interdependence and interconnectedness set deep within the | Kenyan runner Simon Cheprot stops just before completing a 10km international race to lift a fallen rival, Kenneth Kipkemoi, and carry him across the finish
line. Okpekpe Road Race |
universe itself since all beings are stamped with it. Compassion is the acting out of our interdependence, what Thich Nhat Hanh calls our “interbeing.” Compassion, sharing at the level of
being, can fuse all our decisions and actions with an attitude of not taking being for granted—ours or others’. |
| 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, A Spirituality Named Compassion. And Fox, The Reinvention of Work.
Also see Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book Banner Image: “Reaching up, reaching down.” Photo by Akshay
Paatil on Unsplash. Corrections: An image in yesterday’s DM was incorrectly described as depicting a lotus. In fact, naturalist/reader Sue-Anne Solem tells us, the plant was a water lily. Our apologies for the error! |
Queries for Contemplation Are your decisions and actions fused with an attitude of not taking being for granted? Are they born of being and of non-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. |
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social
Justice In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that
promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity. “Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after
centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register | |
The Reinvention of Work:
A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in
describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter | |
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 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. Matthew’s Presentation: “Tibetan Reincarnation and Christian Resurrection: Parallel Possibilities?” Sunday
March 26, 8:00am - 9:00am PT. Register 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. 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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