The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Further Wisdom from Gandhi: The Secret of Life & Beauty’s Role 06/01/2023 |
We are exploring meanings of holiness and in yesterday’s DM we meditated on some of the impact for good that Mahatma Gandhi has given the world, inspiring so many nonviolent movements for peace
and justice by his teachings and his example. |
There is a statue to Gandhi on the waterfront in San Francisco and years ago I was invited by Gandhi’s nephew I believe it was to speak at a ceremony at
the statue. On the statue is this statement from Albert Einstein: Generations to come it may well be will scarce believe that such a man as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. In the DM video yesterday I returned to my Original Blessing book and was surprised by the major role Gandhi plays in that book—he even insisted we | |
“combat the doctrine of original sin.” More of his teachings follow. Says Gandhi: The secret of life is selfless service. The highest ideal for us is to become free from
attachment. This is not unlike Meister Eckhart’s call that we work and love and live “without a why–live in order to live….work for the sake of working…. love in order to
love.” |
Trailer for The Singing Revolution, documenting the nonviolent cultural uprising that brought about Estonia’s independence from the Soviet Union. Kings Place | Gandhi declared that “real beauty is my aim." Alfred North Whitehead declares that beauty is the very aim of the universe
itself: The teleology of the Universe is directed to the production of Beauty…Apart from Beauty, Truth is neither |
good, nor bad…Truth matters because of Beauty. Whitehead adds that
“discord” is necessary to accomplish beauty in the universe. Discord is to be valued for without it there is no new beginning, no fresh start. |
The contribution to Beauty which can
be supplied by Discord—in itself destructive and evil—is the positive feeling of a quick shift of aim from the tameness of outworn perfection to some other ideal with its freshness still upon it. Beauty and terror, Simone Weil observed,
come together. Beauty may be better understood as an adjective than as a noun. Rather than pursuing the question, “What is beauty?” It may be more useful to ask: “What are beautiful experiences you
have | “The Emperor Penguin.” Icon in a series honoring endangered species, by Angela Manno. Published with permission; to purchase, click HERE. |
had? How can we forge more beauty from our common sharing of this planet?” Beauty is simple and it is shareable. To restore the planet and save its creatures is to bring beauty back. With
beauty, cynicism dies. Beauty is possible. Beauty is. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 86, 150, 209f., 212f., 219. Banner Image: “(Mahatma Gandhi leading) the Salt March to the remote seaside village of Dandi, and the Civil Disobedience campaign it launched was the greatest nonviolent battle by history’s greatest nonviolent campaigner.” Photo by Jyoti Prakash Bhattacharjee on Flickr. |
Queries for Contemplation What is Beauty’s role in your life? Is service for you also the secret of life? |
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Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and
Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way. “Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great
Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for an online lecture and Q&A on “Letting Our Minds be Remade Regarding Religion,” hosted by The World Community for Christian Meditation, Tuesday, June 13,
11:00am-12:30pm PT. Learn more: https://wccm.org/events/metanoia/ Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “The A.W.E. Project – Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human” in an online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, June 15, 4:00-6:00 pm
PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August
14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16, 7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic
Mass Register here: https://parliamentofreligions.org/ |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Tikkun Magazine releases a new Interview of Matthew Fox by Andrew Harvey regarding Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality (Orbis, 2022) edited by Charles Burack. Read the interview HERE. | |
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