The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
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Heschel, Eckhart, Merton on
Beholding 05/31/2024 |
Yesterday we meditated on Rabbi Heschel’s invitation to “behold in order to stand face to face with the beauty and grandeur of the universe.” |
Meister Eckhart also calls us to behold. He explains that “the word ‘behold’ implies three things: something great, something marvelous, or something rare.” What is great and marvelous and rare calls out to us, beckons us. It wants to |
At one with the cosmos. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash |
speak to us,
to befriend us, to wake us up, to walk with us, maybe to fall in love with us. It is, as Eckhart understands it, God’s word to us, God’s communication and invitation to pay attention and open our hearts up. And if, as Eckhart teaches, “every creature is a word of God and a book about God,” there are a lot of invitations beckoning
us every day to behold. |
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| The Via Positiva is everywhere and “every creature is gladly doing its best to express God.” In light of today’s creation story from science, that every creature–ourselves included—boasts a 13.8-billion-year history and is kin with us in this universe of two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds
of billions of stars, that is a lot of grandeur beckoning us, isn’t it? Can humanity respond? Why should we settle for war
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control compulsions and addictions which interfere with the beholding we are invited to engage in? Why play at hatred–of self or others—when there is so much beholding to practice and undergo? What Eckhart calls the great and marvelous and rare is everywhere. Heschel speaks of “radical
amazement” and how this cultivates a sense of the sublime. For him, the sublime is “the silent allusion of things to a meaning greater than themselves.” |
We get carried along to an encounter with transcendence and meaning, an awareness that “the world in its grandeur is full of a spiritual radiance.” We try to name this “spiritual radiance." Some call it tselem or the image of God in things. Or the “Cosmic Christ” whose doxa
or |
“Reflection of the Cosmic Moment” window by Doyle Chappell, inspired by The Coming of the Cosmic Christ at aChurch4Me, Metropolitan Community Church, Chicago. Published with permission of the artist. |
glory or light beams from all things. Or the “Buddha Nature” in all things. Consider the experience Thomas Merton once had crossing the street at noon rush hour in Louisville, Kentucky and seeing everyone, all these strangers, lit up like the sun. “How do you tell people they are all
walking around shining like the sun?” he asked in his journal at his hermitage the following day. |
Adapted from Adapted from Matthew Fox, “The God of Awe, Wonder, Radical Amazement, and Justice,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, p. 5.
And from Fox. “Sermon One: All Creatures Are Words of God,” in Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, p. 62.
And from Fox, A Way To God, Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, p. 61.
Also see Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.
Banner Image: “Ocean encounter.” A whale surfaces beside a contemplative paddler. Photo by Howard Ignatius on Flickr. |
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Responses are welcomed. To add
your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Queries for Contemplation |
Is it your experience that “every creature is gladly doing its best to express God?” What follows from that and our encounter with the light or radiance in other creatures, be they small or large, human or more than human? |
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises.
Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a
post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of
Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
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Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in
a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty
Goodbye. |
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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 |
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The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian
paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth
wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
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In the Beginning There Was Joy: A Cosmic Celebration for Kids of All Ages
The first book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series tells the story of the big bang and how humans fit into the awesome, fantastical,
cosmic picture! With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet. "This delicious book for children of all ages celebrates joy as the essential truth of
reality." - Andrew Harvey, Author of The Hope and Radical Regeneration "I absolutely LOVED reading this beautiful, creative, stirring story—a charming, whimsical, powerful, parable." -
Robert Holden, Author of Happiness NOW! and Higher Purpose |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a new, live, 7-week video course hosted by the Shift Network, Cultivating Compassion in Spirituality: What Meister Eckhart & Other World Mystics Can Teach Us About Navigating Collective Turmoil. Tuesdays, May 7 – June 25, 5:00pm - 6:30pm PT. Register HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox and 11 other speakers for a 6-week course on Cosmic Water: The Radical Roots of Mystical Christianity hosted by Advaya.Life (Matthew speaks on June 18). Tuesdays, May 28 - Thursday, July 4, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT Register HERE (for 10% discount use code FOX-WOW) Join keynote speakers Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme at the 2024 Creation Spirituality Communities Gathering on “Reimagining Our Story, Hope for Humanity,” live at Cape Cod, MA and by livestream. Friday, May 31 – Sunday, June 2. Learn more and register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Preserving Things in the Good" at the Unity of Walnut Creek Earth Day worship service held on April 21, 2024. |
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