The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Enjoyment in Troubled Times
By Gianluigi Gugliermetto 1/15/2025 |
Here is a list of quotes from Matthew Fox’s WHEE! We, wee: A Guide to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality, which I believe make clear why such a 1976 book is in fact a treasure to rediscover, while also explaining the roots or the core of his own sensual, prophetic endeavor. |
A religious person tends to want to use God; a spiritual person enjoys God. (p. 77)
The living God is remembered in spiritual memory which is never of objects but of life. (p. 85)
True ecstasy is the very opposite of an ego trip — it is our forgetting ourselves. (p.
134)
If we are ignorant of pleasure we are ignorant of God. (p. 90)
The person big enough to seek a spirituality of ecstasy is also going to be plunged into the void. (p. 111) |
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It’s not everyday one encounters a theologian who identifies ecstasy as the center of spiritual experience and explains that true ecstatic experiences are those which destabilize the ego and its claims (see DMs for Jan 7, 8, and 9). Even more, the word ecstasy conveys also a pleasure aspect while other similar words, such as transcendence, do not. |
When a dog and human have a bond, the joy of reuniting after a separation is palpable. From the collection of Cynthia Greb. | Pleasure and enjoyment are very important to Fox because they represent a forgotten or repressed element of Western spirituality, which is found however at its very root. If God creates the universe and rejoices in all creatures, the creatures themselves — called to keep and develop a close
relationship to their Source — must share in such divine enjoyment. Pleasure, in this |
sense, is not at the service of the ego, but rather signals that the person is being led into another time frame, away from the purpose-driven behaviors which make up our ethical actions, and even more from our everyday routine of production of goods and services. Matthew acknowledges also the
existence of ersatz ecstasies which imitate the real ones and tend to manufacture pleasure. They are often unethical, using other creatures as means, but more specifically they nurture the claims of the ego, rather than quieting them. They are, in fact, the opposite of the real thing. I find especially remarkable that in
Matthew’s proposal one cannot find the naivete of other joy-based spiritualities — the via negativa being just as important as the via positiva — and that ecstatic experiences are honored for what they are, that is, points of contact with the Sacred Source, upon which a whole spiritual life can be built, through the power of memory. Spiritual ecstasies — whether they are especially large and unique or relatively small and common — do not remain isolated, are not islands of joy in a ocean of suffering, as long as we are able to weave a tapestry with them, in the sense of extending their ability to dislodge our egos through remembering them. |
People who cannot remember, writes Fox, who have no ecstasy to recall or refer to, are a sad people indeed—a people without experience of forgetfulness of the self and, therefore, without experience of God. (p. 82) This is why passionate conversations, silent |
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contemplations of nature, deep artistic experiences, sacred sexual encounters, folk dances, poetry, music, religious rituals properly performed, and so on and so forth, are the stuff which saves us and keeps us truly alive. Not in a survival mood, but in a real and strong sense. We cannot dispense with them or consider them as extras. This is why I dare talk about pleasure and enjoyment in these troubled times. It does not mean taking away the time for grief, nor the time for righteous anger. And even the time for being sad. But it does mean not letting these emotions take over our consciousness.
It is especially important that we don’t yield to the temptation of sadness. We have all the right reasons to
do so, except that at such a point the dragons — those spiritual forces that work inside and outside of us to kill our ecstatic memories — would win the battle, if not the war. |
Queries for Contemplation What is the place of enjoyment in your life? And how it has been changed in
recent times, or by recent news? |
Responses
are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. Books and More by Matthew and Friends! Be sure to check out Matthew's new store at MatthewFox.org, now offering books, recorded courses old and new, and special events... and don't miss our growing collection of books endorsed by Matthew on Bookshop.org! |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
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