Yesterday we invoked the poet and mystic Rainer Rilke along with Julian of Norwich and other mystics about the profound relationship of both lamentation and praise.
The mystics have a lot to teach us about ways to heal and stay strong during difficult times. They are poets, after all, of both the Via Positiva (joy and praise) and the Via Negativa (suffering, chaos, trauma, grief). We too are mystics, so we too carry such wisdom within ourselves. And we can see it on display in a time of war.
Adrienne Rich tells us how suffering can be a school where we learn important things:
If we could learn to learn from pain
even as it grasps us….
Pain takes holds of us and grabs us, but there is much to learn from it if we allow ourselves to do so. One thing we learn from pain is depths. Our depths. Real suffering and loss reach very deep into ourselves and our communities.
God can be found in such depths. Rilke puts it this way:
Yet no matter how deeply I go down into myself,
my God is dark, and like a webbing made
of a hundred roots that drink in silence.
Suffering, like awe, can render us silent and take us to a place of deep silence.
And sometimes the silence itself is painful, as Job tells us:
The life in me trickles away,
Days of grief have gripped me.
At nighttime, sickness saps my bones,
I am gnawed by wounds that never sleep.
It has thrown me into the mud
where I am no better than dust and ashes.
I cry to you, and you give me no answer;
I stand before you, but you take no notice. (Job 30: 16f, 19)
Another lesson we learn from pain is that of the cosmos itself. Our pain feels as big as the cosmos when our hearts break.
But we can give our pain back to the cosmos and to Father Sky and to Mother Earth. Both are so vast that they can welcome our pain. We do not have to hold it in. Simone Weil put it this way: “One should identify oneself with the universe itself. Everything that is less than the universe is subjected to suffering.”
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 140, 133, 141.
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner image: Photo by David Bartus from Pexels
Queries for Contemplation
What do you learn from pain? Do you experience days of grief and nights when sickness saps your bones? Do you agree with Weil that everything less than the universe is subject to suffering? Is there then a unity and communion to be learned in suffering?
8 thoughts on “More Teachings from the Mystics on Living Deeply in a Time of Danger”
Matthew, Thank you for a profound meditation today. You ask us a number of things today. First you ask, “What do you learn from pain?” I learn what to avoid, but I also learn how to empathize with others, and feel compassion for them as well. Then you ask, “Do you experience days of grief and nights when sickness saps your bones?” My work with the elderly and dying have taught me how to accept grief, sickness, and pain as just a part of life. I see this all as part of the Via Negativa, and as a part of life’s cycling through the Four Paths. Next you ask, “Do you agree with Weil that everything less than the universe is subject to suffering?” Yes I do, and Weil obviously did too. But suffering or not, it did not stop her for being a radical activist. In fact, she worked with factory workers for their rights, fought in the front lines in the war against Franco, and died of starvation during a hunger strike. Finally you ask, “Is there then a unity and communion to be learned in suffering?” Yes, there is. In the church it is called, the “Communion of the Saints”–and the saints have suffered not only now, but for the last 2, 000 + years…
One is directed to live deeply, period, not just in times of danger, though most prefer the shallows. Its just that in times of danger we have no other living choice, as there are plenty of dead ones — anxiety, despair, denial, cynicism, indifference, etc. But beneath all of those very human reactions, God and our God-self remains, even when our sense of that is eclipsed, and even if we have no awareness of that ever. “The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27). For further elaboration on same, see guest column “Our Eternal Roots” recently posted on the Center for Christogenesis website, under my name.
In my personal experience I have learnt that pain becomes a motivator, when the pain itself and the suffering of this becomes greater than the fear and the imaginations that are often attached to these fears. When the pain becomes greater than the fear, then one is motivated to make a change… to face the fears of the unknown, the what ifs of doubts and uncertainty. Pain has a unique way of humbling oneself… awakening oneself to the reality of one’s utter vulnerability, one’s weakness, one’s need of facing the fear of reaching out to another and the possibility of being rejected in one’s greatest moments of pain. When the pain becomes greater than the fear and when one allows this pain to motivate oneself to face these fears… one actually creates an opportunity, an opening to receive the blessing and presence of God’s essence of love, compassion, and mercy being offered, expressed and made manifest through another… God with us, in the midst of our pain and suffering, moving us through all our fears, in solidarity with one another. Pain teachings humanity how to become the hands, the feet, the heart, the mind, the soul, the living Spirit of God’s love, compassion and mercy in the midst of all the suffering in this world. It is this that is of true value, meaning and purpose… the incarnation of this inherent goodness and the nature and beauty of this being expressed and made manifest from within humanity, that pain and suffering helps us to see, unfolding, evolving and emerging… in and through the midst of all our shared suffering. Each one of us all, is God’s answer to our prayers… made manifest when we surrender and respond to the leadings of God’s living presence and essence dwelling within our very being.
Love bigger than evil! ❤️
It is a counterintuitive, holy contradiction to the ways of the world, this downward path, this descent into bliss. Mystics from every tradition speak of it. Friar Rohr’s book Falling Upward is a contemporary handbook on the heels of Thomas a’ Kempis’s Imitation of Christ. }:- a.m.
I very much appreciate your perspectives, Matthew and those who commented. I’m learning from Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects (and also Active Hope) of the importance of “honoring our pain for the world” as a part of the cycle of healing as we face the systemic crises we’re in (biodiversity loss, climate emergency, war, food insecurity, etc. etc.) It’s not easy to breathe into this type of pain, as one can’t fathom facing EVERY moment from the reality that our civilization and all species are in. But, Joanna goes on to teach, as Matthew does in this reading today, that when we learn to “see with new eyes” (Joanna’s words), and see from a cosmic level (Matthew’s point) we can open our hearts, minds and bodies to a new level of action on behalf of Life. We can go forward into our day with awe and wonder – as we learn to embrace the pain and suffering and also embody the joy that is present as well. I encourage others to check out https://workthatreconnects.org/
Thank you for the practical suggestion of falling in love at least three times a day. Paying attention to the true, the good, and the beautiful anchors us as we try to be calm and loving in the midst of constant storms. Joining my suffering to the suffering of others gives me perspective and makes my pain easier to bear and makes my prayers for all who suffer more powerful. I will use my voice, even when it is ignored, as is happening in my state of Florida, as in so many other states. Still, who knows what seeds may be planted.
“Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi”
Lord, make me an instrument of Your Peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow Love;
Where there is injury, Pardon,
Where there is doubt, Faith;
Where there is despair, Hope;
Where there is darkness, Light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to Console;
To be understood as to Understand;
To be loved as to Love;
For it is in Giving that we Receive;
It is in Pardoning that we are Pardoned;
And it is in dying that We Are Born to Eternal Life.
— Amen