The late Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement, used to say that “there’s more good than evil in the world—but not by much.”
I appreciate how real and down to earth his observation is especially with the current news from Ukraine.
Reb Zalman’s words feel like the Sufi poet Hafiz who says “it is a naïve person who thinks we are not engaged in a fierce battle” and he goes on to examine the difference between a soldier and a warrior (hint: the warrior is a God-lover, a mystic therefore, as well as a fighter).
In my Musical, Mystical Bear book, now called Prayer: A Radical Response to Life, I point out that prayer, or our radical, i.e. deep, response to life, consists of our deep “Yes” to Life; and our Deep “No,” to the killing of Life.
Indeed, William James, in his classic work on mysticism, Varieties of Religious Experience, calls mysticism our “Yes faculty.”
Mysticism constitutes our Yes to Life; and prophecy constitutes our No to Life’s enemies that lurk both within each of us and within human societies and institutions.
The Via Positiva and the Via Negativa in turn energize us to launch into our creativity, the Via Creativa that serves the Via Transformativa (Justice and Compassion).
Thus our Yes and our No and the Creativity that flow from it constitute a new understanding of the Trinity: Our Yes to existence and creation and Creator; our No to injustice such as Christ and other Liberators/Redeemers remind us of; and our Creativity or our birthing with Spirit which is born of our deepest Yeses and deepest Nos.
When it comes to Evil, mystics both East and West, prefer to speak of the Good News and therefore ways to go beyond evil. Indeed their basic message is that our Yes predominates and while the No is important and we need to fight evil both within and without, ultimately even the No comes wrapped up inside our Yes.
In a time like today when a horrendous war is being live streamed and humanity’s capacity for Evil is playing out in our living rooms nightly, we want to shout “No!” to out television sets. It is hard to watch and of course much harder to live through on the ground.
I am reminded of what Thomas Aquinas teaches: That one human being can do more evil than all the other species taken together.
Can humanity move to its next evolutionary stage? When Love, Justice and Compassion take over? When Yes triumphs?
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life, pp. 153-156, 77-116.
And Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image; Monument to Archangel Michael, patron of Kyiv, Ukraine, atop the historic Lach Gate in Independence Square. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_archange_Saint-Michel_en_Ukraine.jpg
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Reb Zalman that there is more good than evil in the world—but not by much? What follows from that reality? How does your “No” come wrapped up in a “Yes”?
Recommended Reading:
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer
9 thoughts on “Mysticism and Prophecy, Our Yes to Life and No to Evil”
Matthew, You ask us today: “Do you agree with Reb Zalman that there is more good than evil in the world—but not by much?” I do, and that is the “Good News.” But “Thomas Aquinas teaches: That one human being can do more evil than all the other species taken together.” And Nietzsche says, “Man is the cruelest animal.” In your book, PRAYER: A RADICAL RESPONSE TO LIFE, you point out that prayer, or our radical, response to life, consists of our deep “Yes” to Life; and our Deep “No,” to the killing of Life. This brings to mind Norman O. Brown’s book, LIFE AGAINST DEATH. You write that, “Mysticism constitutes our Yes to Life; and prophecy constitutes our No to Life’s enemies that lurk both within each of us and within human societies and institutions.” Thus our need to be Mystic-Prophets in our time! When it comes to Evil, mystics both East and West speak ways to go beyond evil. “Indeed their basic message is that our Yes predominates and while the No is important and we need to fight evil both within and without, ultimately even the No comes wrapped up inside our Yes.” Also, check out Paul Ricoeur’s, THE SYMBOLISM OF EVIL a great companion to SINS OF THE SPIRIT , BLESSINGS OF THE FLESH.
Holding great suffering in and with Greater LOVE—the mystic as warrior. 🙏🏽♥️
Recall, in the disciple’s model prayer recorded in Luke 11 (mistakenly called the “Lord’s Prayer”), are found words of supplication, asking God to “deliver us from evil.” Supplication means to “plead humbly with someone in power for help or favor.” Being delivered not only implies a Deliverer, as in this case, but a cry on the part of the supplicant for help or rescue that is beyond their own limited resources to effectuate. Now, if an awakened believer is honest, especially about his shortcomings, s/he will realize that often the good they do will be offset or despoiled by their dark side or failings, such that without God’s help they’d be underwater more than not via their life-diminishing ways. Paul says as much about himself and his struggles along those line in Romans 7. In fact, regarding same Peter declares that “if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and (practicing) sinner appear.” Meaning, if believer’s must struggle and get divine help vs their own dark side, the unredeemed have no chance to overcome the gravitational pull of same, even if they tried, which most don’t because they’re generally clueless as to their personal evils (moral deficiencies). This is especially so among many world leaders. Truth be told, the unredeemed are generally expert and having multiple ways to rationalize, normalize, deny or minimize same. Evil, after all, is an equal opportunity employer whose wages are always death in some form. So, while the relative ratio of darkness to light in regenerated believers barely has them, as overcomers, passing muster in the righteousness category, the remainder of humanity not only does not, but CANNOT come even come close to overcoming its evils without likewise calling upon a Deliverer for same. And that’s just for starters. Since the lot of humanity is fallen and unredeemed, despite significant smatterings of the good within and among them (human good, that is), the manifestations of same are not enough to stem the tide of darkness and evil in the world as a whole, to say nothing of shifting it. If such were NOT the case, the world would be in much better shape all around, and Christ wouldn’t have to return for a final global deliverance from its evil ways. That’s what Scripture declares, and quite plainly, especially when it comes to the latter days, which by the way, we’ve been in since Christ ascended. And so while notions of God’s grace and blessings are everywhere to be found along remedial lines sprinkled upon the earth like salt (and light) to retard the earth’s corruptive influences, they are not enough to prevent it from reaching full-term degradation, whereby a more radical global Deliverance (bail out) promises to be in order. Blessings aside, among all the doctrines in Christianity derived from Scripture (not the institutional church), the doctrine of human depravity, which diagnosis the fallen condition of mankind quite thoroughly, is the only doctrine for which there is unmistakable historical evidence, both ancient and modern. Otherwise, wouldn’t have brilliantly written the book of Romans to explain same as the root of the problem. I didn’t write The Good Book. So please, don’t shoot the guy conveying the indisputable kernel of its contents. As such, my prayers are, “Lord, come quickly and end this mess, already,” my own, that of others and the globe. Intimates, after all, can talk to each other that way.
Do you know what a Deus ex Machina is Joe? It is a plot device used when there is a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story, where suddenly and abruptly it is resolved by an unlikely occurrence… like the parousia. It seems that this is how you see God (the Deus ex Machina). More than this you don’t even give God the credit deserved, for you say: “so while notions of God’s grace and blessings are everywhere to be found along remedial lines… they are not enough to prevent it from reaching full-term degradation, whereby a more radical global Deliverance (bail out) promises to be in order.” So, Gods grace is only “remedial” and is “not enough to prevent degradation.” And you describe the parousia as a “bail out.” Okay… Now when it comes to “the doctrine of human depravity” which is another form of the old doctrine of Original Sin, I suggest you read Matthew’s book, ORIGINAL BLESSING.
Yes!!! We pray and act for “Love~Justice~Compassion” in our inner and outer lives with our sisters and brothers, and All Creation in our ongoing evolving Consciousness in the Sacredness of the Present Moment….
“Eternal Present Moment”
Today, President Zelensky addressed the members of the Canadian Parliment, virtually, in the House of Commons. He passionately appealed to the imagination of our leaders. In response to this, two women inparticular, that being Elizabeth May leader of the Green party, and Candice Bergen leader of the Conservative Party, exemplified the Spirit of the mystic and the prophet that Mathew speaks of in today’s DM. They both spoke to not only the unifying of our yes and our no, in solidarity with the Ukraine people and President Zelensky… the resolve of our shared values, virtues, ethics and morales, as well as the hopes and dreams of democracy… that have united our countries and the hearts and minds of all people… but these two women spoke directly to President Zelensky’s impassioned plea to do more, regarding his no fly zone request. Candice Bergen beckoned that the Canadian government work with other allies, other countries to at least create a no fly zone, for safe passage of refugees trying to flee the country and to at least protect the aid routes… an imaginative suggestion of a particular type of fly zone protection, that might be of consideration. Elizabeth May impassioned the political leaders to imagine more creative ideas, in addressing the fly zone request.. inspiring our leaders to move into the Via Creativa, through Crisis Contemplation. May not only Canada, but other allies in this war of Putin upon the Ukranian people and the country of Ukraine respond to the imaginative and creative movements of the Spirit, in discerning in unity the more in all areas, that we can do… standing in the solidarity of what we actively say yes and no to.
Jeanette, Thank you so much for sharing this with us !!!
Standing up for truth and against evil. Here is a good article with a deep understanding of the conflict that has been going on for years in Ukraine between Russians and Ukrainians. I found it very concrete and illuminating. https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/04/nazis-ukrainian-war-russia/