With the World Parliament of Religions meeting October 16-18, and with our meditations lately on Nicolas of Cusa, who says all religions are about a “supreme and terrible beauty” called Wisdom, Deep Ecumenism is on my mind.
Buddhist teacher and eco-activist Joanna Macy sounds a lot like Nicolas of Cusa.
Portrait collection by Robert Shetterly. Taken from the website of Joanna Macy.
She writes: From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Native American and Goddess religions, each offers images of the sacred web into which we are woven. We are called children of one God and “Members of one body;” we are seen as drops in the ocean of Brahman; we are pictures as jewels in the Net of Indra. We interexist–like synapses in the mind of an all-encompassing being.
Buddhism, like its Western counterpart Sophia, speaks of wisdom as female–she is the “Mother of all Buddhas” and teacher and nourisher of compassion. She is immeasurable, incalculable and deep like space itself, yet she is also the “ground of being” (a term Hildegard uses for Mary in the West). She is also the void, the hole in the nave of the wheel through which the axle can turn.
She is also a defender of the oppressed. She announces the bodhisattva path for the first time in Buddhist history, which is the path of the prophet, the path of the via transformativa, the path of acting boldly, simply, courageously for the sake of justice and peace for all creatures.
In this dwelling of Perfect Wisdom… you shall become a saviour of the helpless, a defender of the defenseless… a light to the blind, and you shall guide to the path those who have lost it, and you shall become a support to those who are without support.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 229-231.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Worshippers dancing in a Cosmic Mass.
Queries for Contemplation
How important is it that Wisdom is female and she is the ground of deep ecumenism for Macy and Cusa? Is her emergence in our time a necessary prelude to deep ecumenism and a deeper understanding of world religions and spirituality working together to heal Mother Earth?
Recommended Reading
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.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
11 thoughts on “Deep Ecumenism, World Parliament, Cusa and Joanna Macy”
Like minded people coming together, be they the religious, the spiritual, the scientists to support the wisdom of deep ecumenical and deep ecoecology for the healing of the Earth and of humanity is a good and beautiful thing.
However, in my experience, the politicians, the corporations and others whom hold the power in making the necessary decisions and investments, using this wisdom, rarely are engaged with those whom offer it. The question is how do the religious, the spiritual, the scientists engage with and get the politicians, and the corporations to listen, hear, acknowledge and respond to this wisdom being offered?
Platitudes will no longer suffice. A change of consciousness in heart, mind and soul is required within those whom seem to apparently have no interest in such matters. It’s not enough for the prophetic voice of wisdom to keep crying out in the wilderness, when those whom have no interest in hearing Her wisdom refuse to listen and heed Her call. What then are these prophets, mystics, and others to do with their deep ecumenicism and deep ecoecology?
Jeanette, you ask, “What then are these prophets, mystics, and others to do with their deep ecumenicism and deep ecology?” when they confront politicians and corporations which will not listen? They are to do what they always have done: “Keep on, keeping on”–they must keep on preaching and prophesying anyway!
If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, the same results remain. What if the prophets, the mystics, the religious, the spiritual, the scientists, are being called and guided to do something completely different, other then that which they have done before, in order to get the politicians and the corporations to listen, hear, acknowledge and respond to the cries of the Earth and the sufferings of humanity, in relationship with the prompting and leading of Lady Wisdom.
Just questioning, in order to get us all to dream outside the box, in order that we might tap into the infinite possibilities of Her creative ways, which will assist us in engaging with one another in more meaningfully productive results, in order to work together with others whom are apathetic to the many concerns and crissises that we are globally facing.
Truth-telling appears to have little effect, regarding the necessary changes that humanity must make. The reality of the sufferings of the Earth evidenced in climate changes and the sufferings of humanities state and condition of well being itself now manifesting in unbalanced expressions on all levels, also seems to have little effect.
I understand the process of the via negativa, and the via positiva, but my questioning is more about the via creativa and especially the via transformitiva… which I sense is the next critical movement of the Spirit of Lady Wisdom.
You raise some excellent questions and make our quandary clear. The older I get, the more it continues to astound and trouble me that truth telling seems to have little effect. But I do think that it has an effect, despite the “powers and prinicpalities” arrayed against it. Cynthia Bourgeault talks about third force, which i don’t completely get, except that it is being able to hold the tension in conflicts, even in wildly opposite viewpoints, and creativity will bring something new and surprising out of the practice.
Jeanette, You say, “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, the same results remain.” The role of the prophet is to speak forth the word, regardless of if it is accepted or not. And talk about same results–most of the time it was even worse results. Just look at the Bible. The prophets warned the Northern Kingdom of Israel that if they were not faithful to the word of God they would be destroyed and they were–the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom. Then the same thing happened with the Southern Kingdom of Judah–prophets warned them if they didn’t change their ways, they would be destroyed, and they were by the Babylonians. Jesus himself was rejected and killed, and then the Romans destroyed all that was left of Jerusalem and the temple. Then there were the martyrs who were killed rather than listened to. I guess what I am saying, is that prophets are to say what God has given them to say regardless of consequence. But do we always get the same results??? Just look what happened when an Augustinian monk and professor announced a discussion on the subject of use of “indulgences” changed the face of the Church forever. That shows that things don’t always remain the same.
I too, however would like to hear more on the Via Transformativa–which is what deep ecumenism and deep ecology are prophetically calling for in our time!
Read: HEBREWS 11
To ponder Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching and life juxtaposed against Christianity and the institutional church can lead to some startling revelations. }:- a.m.
“This week’s meditations highlight how we lost the essence of Jesus’ message when the church aligned with empire—and the painful results that followed.” —CAC
https://cac.org/jesus-as-central-reference-point-2021-10-17/
I have been discovering experientially through consistent spiritual practice that the birthing power of Wisdom that emanates from the passionate fire of our Cosmic Mother’s incredible unconditional universal love travels through her vast womb of space and is received in open hearts becoming the underground river embodied in each human being. Once this convergence of wisdom is received and integrated, it then is available as emergence into the world. Without conscious awareness of this deep ecology, the human soul plays out innumerable other programs not able to fully realize the scope and depth of who we truly are as children of our Creator.
Martha, I like your discussion of the Cosmic Mother and the underground river, which is the truth that is flowing, and where different peoples of different cultures have made their own wells that go deep into the underground river where there is truth. But I am confident that some day we will “fully realize the scope and depth of who we truly are as children of our Creator.”
Matthew, thank you for explaining the derivation of the term Deep Ecumenism that I had seen previously in your books. The reason I have always been attracted to the mystics, saints, and contemplatives of all past and present religious cultures, including the indigenous, is that they were all describing their personal and communal experiences of the same Living-Loving-Intelligent-Creative- Cosmic Oneness in our relationships with our selves, others, creatures, nature, all creation and the Cosmos. This has contributed greatly to the deepening and faith in my own ongoing contemplative spiritual journey….
ongoing spiritual journey….
Matthew, thank you for explaining the derivation of the term Deep Ecumenism that I had seen previously in your books. The reason I have always been attracted to the mystics, saints, and contemplatives of all past and present religious cultures, including the indigenous, is that they were all describing their personal and communal experiences of the same Living-Loving-Intelligent-Creative- Cosmic Oneness in our relationships with our selves, others, creatures, nature, all creation and the Cosmos. This has contributed greatly to the deepening and faith in my own ongoing contemplative spiritual journey….
H
Thank you for another profound teaching. The river runs through it, truly.