Clearly, in our recent daily meditations, Eckhart is urging us to become the light, the light of Christ, the light of God, the light of the spark within us all that is the image of God at work and that is the Holy Spirit.
And he tells us that the path to follow is one of emptying because the spark and light are already within us, we have to simply get out of the way. It is in our very nature, it is in our very ground, our depths. A ground that is both our ground and God’s ground at once.
Thich Nhat Hanh used to say that his favorite name for God is “the ground of being” and credits German theologian Paul Tillich for the term, but Tillich got it from Meister Eckhart. To me “ground of being” speaks of the depths of being, the being behind and beyond being, the Earth itself which is after all where we first encounter ground and learn to “dig and ditch” as Julian of Norwich puts it in this wonderful passage:
There is a treasure in the earth that is a food tasty and pleasing to the Lord. Be a gardener, dig and ditch, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside down and seek the deepness and water the plants in time. Continue this labor and make sweet floods to run and noble and abundant fruits to spring.
In this thrilling teaching Julian returns us to the joy of working in and with nature, the outer work becomes the inner work and the inner the outer. Indeed, this work of gardening is not only a holy inner work with the soil and with the soul, but it becomes our worship as well. “Take this food and drink and carry it to God as your true worship.”
The Buddha too talks of becoming light. Mary Oliver has a wonderful poem named “The Buddha’s Last Instruction” and it begins with these words,
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.*
As Oliver points out in her poem, there are many other things Buddha could have been thinking about as he lay down to die. But he was thinking of the poor and the multitudes and he offered one more gift to them, a reminder and invitation to “make of yourself a light.”
If we all carry the divine spark within us, it should not be that hard to do, to make of ourselves a light. Essentially, the way to do that is to get out of the way, to be emptied—which is Meister Eckhart’s advice as well as Buddha’s.
*Mary Oliver, Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver, pp. 314f.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Spiritual Warrior for Our Times, pp. 189-193.
And Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, p. 27.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: U.S. Forest Service ranger Dennis Krusac teaches a young neighbor about plants in Atlanta’s Food Forest, a 7-acre agroforestry project dedicated to fighting urban food deserts and hunger. Photo by the U.S. Forest Service.
Queries for Contemplation
What does “ground of being” mean to you? How do you “dig and ditch” and go about finding the ground of your soul? And the spark and light in your soul—even when there is darkness all about 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
8 thoughts on “Becoming the Light, Digging for the Ground of Our Being”
Matthew, Here are my answers to our Queries for Contemplation: “What does “ground of being” mean to you? How do you “dig and ditch” and go about finding the ground of your soul?” Thich Nhat Hanh used to say that his favorite name for God is “the ground of being” and credits German theologian Paul Tillich for the term, but Tillich got it from Meister Eckhart. And Tillich was a and Existentialist, in which the idea of “Being”–especially in Heidegger’s BEING AND TIME and Sartre’s BEING AND NOTHINGNESS show that there was something even more in Tillich’s understanding of Being from Meister Eckhart. The Existentialist vision, which grew out of the time of the World Wars, saw truth as subjectivity, rugged individualism, and total freedom.
“And where do you find the spark and light in your soul—even when there is darkness all about you?” You say that Eckhart is urging us to become the light, the light of Christ, the light of God, the light of the spark within us. But there is darkness and emptying as well. Take for example what is known as the “”kenosis” or the self-emptying of Christ. This is recorded in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2:5-11–we are told that though Christ was equal with god he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and further humbled himself by subjecting himself to not only death, but death on a cross–reserved for criminals of the worst kind. Mary Oliver has a wonderful poem named “The Buddha’s Last Instruction” and it begins with these words, “Make of yourself a light,” said the Buddha, before he died.*
Perhaps, Richard, it’s both and?
We have a foot in both worlds, each with an identity pertaining thereunto. The first, call it Adam I, is naturally sense bound and self-referenced, and must be socialized out of that primary orientation into the larger picture of including others, law, and community. The second, if/when spiritually awakened, call it Adam II, is a supernaturally God-referenced identity that by a combination of grace and self-effort is to be spiritualized into having an even higher, more sacred regard for others, for kingdom principles, and for community, and to in some way(s) be in service to them via that higher identity, and calling. Initially, both identities coexist and attempt to reconcile in synthesis, but not without conflict and struggle. That’s because the identity, energies, and consciousness of Adam I must gradually become taken over (transformed and absorbed) into the Adam II identity (Christ), say, the way fire gradually absorbs firewood into itself. As the wood eventually becomes the fire in transformation, (with crackling resistance), so too does the raw substance of Adam I become more Christ-like by a mysterious alchemy (the cross) at play in the interior life. As the flame becomes the hottest and brightest only at that point when firewood becomes a fully charred carcass, devoid of its former substance, so too the maximum warmth (love) and light (illumination) of Adam II rises out of the transformed ashes of Adam I to become a powerful flaming Christ Light (7th chakra) to the world.
Lasting perennial truth and wisdom—once we discover it our passion is to share it, to help others dig. }:- a.m.
Faith, Hope, Trust, Love, openness to God’s Spirit of Love~Light~Life within and among us in our daily human lives in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment….
🔥❤️🙏
These are some of the metaphorical images that arise, as I ponder the depths of digging and ditching… that continuous labour of descending to the core of being, that groundedness that we are speaking of. One is that of deliberately moving towards the center in a SPIRAL. It’s NOT the movement of a jack hammer pounding away… beating upon everything in its path… but rather more like a curved DIAMOND drill bit… lifting and gently dispersing all obstacles that hinder. Within this spiralling movement… there is the tension that creates the heat of PASSION, yet this is tempered with cool LIVING WATER. Through persistence and perseverance… eventually there is the gushing forth of the OIL OF ANOINTING… fuel for the spiritual warrior… that overshadowing of the essence and presence of LOVE, COMPASSION, MERCY AND JUSTICE… which clothes us in the mantle of the Black Maddonna… blackened, beautiful mystery… emerging… resurrecting from the depths of our soul.
I read something beautifully true, that relates to today’s DM, which I have paraphrased from Henri Nouwen’s devotion.
“Our true challenge, is to return to the center… to the heart… to find there, the gentle voice that speaks truth… that affirms, in ways that no other can. In and through this… the soul’s journey of descent, into the groundedness of being… there is created, new space… which allows us to move in this world, uninhibited by our human cumpulsions… which leads us to act creatively and courageously from the core of our true divinity… even when our words of truth and our actions of love, compassion, mercy and justice… could very well lead us to death.”
This is the pathway of the spiritual warrior.
Thank you, Matthew, for reminding us to “get out of the way and be emptied.” I need this reminder so often … so often. I have my own view of how things should go, how things should be, what the result of my actions should be, how things in this country and world ought to go; and I despair when things don’t go that way–especially when things go (in my own brilliant mind of course) so terribly wrong. Thank you for reminding me to “get out of the way and be emptied.” Oh so hard. Oh so–if I am to believe high teachers like the Buddha and Meister Eckhart–so important.