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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

11/13/2024

As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below. 

We are considering some practices as laid out by Kaira Jewel Lingo from her tradition as a nun in Thich Nhat Hahn’s community in Plum Village, France, and other places around the world. Here is one: 

Moving throughout your day, notice the people, animals, 

Kaira Jewel Lingo reflects on how compassion can be our greatest protection, during an online workshop on “Meeting Times of Crisis with Wisdom, Resilience and Balance”. London Insight Meditation

plants, situations in your life and silently remind yourself, ‘This is me.’ On seeing a flower or a tree, ‘this is also me.’ Encountering other persons, ‘they are also me. I am also them.’

Another meditation of equanimity in times of distress is this: First, take a few minutes to feel your breathing and your body. Allow yourself to open and settle, right here, right now…Now visualize yourself in a large, open clearing or field with grass, trees in the distance, and a big sky above.

Sitting in the field, bring to mind a situation that’s causing you some distress.

Invite the problem that is breaking your heart in the world come with you into the field and sit right next to you. Draw a circle that embraces you both and offer this prayer:

May I open to this moment, just as it is. 
May my heart be at ease with conditions of my life.

Repeat each phrase a few times softly.

Lotus flower found in Penshurst Place & Gardens, Penshurst, United Kingdom. Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash.

Now enlarge the circle by ten yards in diameter. 

How does it feel to experience more space around you and your problem? What is happening in your body?

Repeat this phrase:

As much as I would like things to be different,
Things are the way they are in this moment.

Now enlarge the circle to 30 yards in diameter. How do you feel?

Practice this phrase: May I open to the flow of joys and sorrows with understanding and equanimity.

Now let the circle grow to encompass the entire field–lots of space. Where do you wish to be in the field? Go there. Where is your problem in relation to you? Repeat these phrases or not. Let them go if you prefer:

May I open to this moment just as it is
May my heart be at ease with conditions of my life.

Now sit in the middle of the field again and let your problem be near or far away. Watch the sun as it sets over the treetops giving yourself over to the beauty of this moment. The problem is doing the same.

You must of course maintain your strength, your clarity, your purpose to resolve the problem, but you do not need to waste your energy in frustration, fear, and anxiety about it. Breathe in the beauty, the serenity of the moment: ‘May I open to this moment, just as it is.’

Return to your body in the present 

Kaira Jewel Lingo leads a guided meditation on opening to our Buddha nature, during an online workshop on “Meeting Times of Crisis with Wisdom, Resilience and Balance”. London Insight Meditation

moment, gently open your eyes and move your hands and feet. And recite this Plum Village song:

And when I rise, let me rise
Like a bird, joyfully
And when I fall let me fall
Like a leaf, gracefully
Without regret.*

* Kaira Jewel Lingo, We Were Made For These Times: 10 Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption, pp. 93-97.

See Matthew Fox, “Meister Eckhart Meets Buddhism via Thich Nhat Hanh,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, pp. 35-56.

And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing From Global Faiths, “From Fromlessness, Nothingness”; “Meditations and Mindfulness,”, pp. 157-170, 189-217.

And Rev. Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.

And Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey. 

And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation.

Banner Image: No separation: meditation by the sea. Photo by processingly on Unsplash

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

Do these practices assist you to be more present to the crisis at hand in your life and the greater communities’ life? Do they deepen your sense of equilibrium? What other practices do that for you?

Recommended Reading

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

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity

How can we move away from “us vs. them” thinking as our surroundings feel more divided and polarized than ever? Co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo discuss how Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity answer this question from unique points of view, with many commonalities and practical tools to break down the barriers between us.
“The Lotus and the Rose is an extraordinary example of what can happen when spiritual leaders from different traditions open up and speak from the heart.” — Paul Chaffee, The Interfaith Observer.

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

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.

For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 

To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 

To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.

Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. 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.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE

MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT. 
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478  
Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478

Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org

Join Matthew Fox, Rev. Nóirín Ní Riain, and celebrated Irish performers Owen Ó Súilleabháin, and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin in an Interfaith Advent celebration of Irish sacred music and storytelling to honor the varied Festivals of Light and explore the mysteries they reveal. Saturday, December 7, 9:00am – 11:00am PT. 
Register HERE.

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