We have been meditating on the wonder of the universe as being seen through the eyes of the Webb telescope.
How have mystics over the centuries sung about our home, the universe? Consider how they might be responding today to see the pictures of the first galaxies and earliest years arriving in our living rooms thanks to the sacred curiosity and real ingenuity of our (very imperfect) species?
Let us consider their own words. Kabir, from 15th century India, tells us to blend the outside world to the inner world and vice versa.
Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!
All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.
The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.
And the music from the strings no one touches, and the source of all water.
If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.”*
You have made all your works in wisdom. (Ps. 104:24)
Every grain of dust has a wonderful soul. (Joan Miro)
The whole world and all creatures will be to you nothing else than an open book and living Bible, in which you may study, without any previous instruction, the science of God and from which you may learn his will. (Sebastian Franck)
The Word is living, being spirit all verdant greening, all creativity. This word manifest itself in every creature. (Hildegard of Bingen)
Every creature is a word of God and a book about God. (Meister Eckhart)
Creation not only exists, it also discharges truth….Wisdom requires a surrender, verging on the mystical, of a person to the glory of existence. (Gerhard Von Rad, a scholar of Wisdom books of the Bible)
Our children need to learn not only how to read books composed by human genius but also how to read the Great Book of the World. Reading this Great Book is natural to children. (Thomas Berry)
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe….No particle is ever wasted or worn out, but eternally flowing from use to use. (John Muir)
The word that goes forth from my mouth does not return to me empty. (Isa. 55:11)
Thinkers, listen. Tell me what you know of that is not inside the soul?* (Kabir)
To be continued.
*Robert Bly, The Kabir Book: Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir (Boston: Beacon Press), pp. 6, 4.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 35f.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Glory of creation. Photo by Forest Wander on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How does the universe live in your soul? Do these teachings help name the touch and communion between your soul and creation?
9 thoughts on “Mystics on the Wonder of Our Universe, I”
Matthew, Today you begin by asking the question of “How have mystics over the centuries sung about our home, the universe? Consider how they might be responding today to see the pictures of the first galaxies and earliest years arriving in our living rooms thanks to the sacred curiosity and real ingenuity of our (very imperfect) species?” And then you go about showing us a number of writers through time, who have looked at our world with amazement! First, you share with us the modern creation poet, Mary Oliver’s poem, “When I am Among the Trees,” and then continue to share pieces by Kabir, from 15th century India, Joan Miro the 20th century abstract artist, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Berry, John Muir, Isaiah (and I could site many more portions of scripture here) and finally, Kabir. But my personal favorite is Meister Eckhart’s, “Every creature is a word of God and a book about God.”
And now for our Queries for Contemplation. First you ask, “How does the universe live in your soul?” The universe fills me with awe and wonder, but it also sometimes seems to make me sense my insignificance in it all. The universe is sooo large, and I am just one human–“When I consider the heavens , the works of thy hands, what am I that you are mindful of me ???” People who often don’t believe in God, and therefore don’t pray, often say things like this if they are looking for a partner or a job… They say, “I’m just sending this out to the universe to see what the universe has planned for me and this relationship, or this job, or fill in the blank. My own personal feeling is that the universe can’t hear or answer you. So I am in awe over the universe, and yet do not think it has any personal concern for me–or anyone else for that matter.
“Do these teachings help name the touch and communion between your soul and creation?” It certainly does, because even though I feel the universe is indifferent to us, I feel that these teachings help ME to get into communion with creation. And one way I am doing this, is in a book that I wrote which will be coming out in a few months titled, LITURGIES OF THE EARTH which provide eight different seasonal earth celebrations, including the solstices and equinoxes and the quarter days which fall in between them. Doing these liturgies or rituals I believe help one to align themselves with the earth, and help us to enter into communion with the earth itself.
I agree that the universe is indifferent to me and humanity in general. There are people of faith in wisdom circles who think the universe is conspiring on our behalf, but that does not make any sense to me personally. I don’t know how the universe lives in my soul except in the sense that it is expanding always? Really, the soul is beyond me. It would seem that soul is just another aspect of creation as a whole.
I sometimes feel that indifference too, Richard, and others likely do as well. But there’s a time not to trust feeling states, as they can be fickle and therefore unreliable. Especially with Christ, whose presence never leaves, forsakes, or wavers, only our awareness of same does. It’s not so much the universe or creation itself that we’re to be in communion with, but the Spirit, Presence, or God in which/whom all things abide as the invisible substance of their multiple forms. Such defines panentheism. The universe and creation themselves are merely the outer shell or molecular crust formed by the Spirit that animates them. You don’t ingest the fruit rind or candy wrapper. Rather, you ingest only their contents. Spirit is matter’s invisible blueprint or archetype. Creation is to be enjoyed, yes, but only as a window that’s transparent to the transcendent, meant to usher it in like a door or threshold. Beautiful in itself, creation only points to the invisible unifying web in which all things are sustained and suspended. A relationship with THAT reality IS personal and to be experienced firsthand, closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. The visible things that point to that, the beauties of creation and the firmament on high are only signposts. A sign is not the town it points to, nor is a person’s signature that person himself, nor is scaffolding the building behind it, nor is a menu the meal to be tasted, nor is a Bible God — so creation itself is not God, no matter it’s allure. That’s pantheism, a heresy. God warned Israel and us not to make idols of them, nor to worship them, nor to bow before his material image and likeness in them, only to respect and value them. Reflections or shadows of things are not the things that cast them. All of these are vestiges ( vestigia dei). But vestiges, like the remains of the dead, are not the reality that once inhabited it and gave it life, just the organic envelope that turns to dust. Hope this rant helps. Thanks, Richard, for your self-honesty in writing.
The contrast between the accounts in Genesis 1 (original blessing) and the two chapters that immediately follow (man’s willful disconnect from it in condemnation, the “Fall.”) are not at all incompatible. Both are true, and bear witness to the fact that (a) with few exceptions, humans are the only species out of synch with the sacred whole, and (b) humans reflect that very contrast, and the conflicts thereof, within their own souls. That is, “between life and death, God’s blessing and God’s curse” (Deut. 30:19). Ultimately, declares holy writ, individual and/or collective humanity must choose its own fate, either redemption or perdition. And it says here, with few exceptions, it has chosen poorly. Much of Scripture, Matthew’s DM’s, the mystics and poets copiously remind us of the evidence for Genesis 1. At the same time, the dark-side history of mankind, ancient and modern, are evidence for the Genesis chapters that immediately follow, and of the entire biblical (redemptive) timeline until Christ returns again in the Kingdom Age. Neither account needs to be ignored or minimized, and neither overemphasized at the other’s expense. Both deserve equal time in explaining the source and cause of mankind’s woes, and the sacred blessing of the divine milieu that it neglectfully inhabits and has despoiled in placing the planet’s viability in jeopardy. Seems to me, one cannot effectively remedy a problem or deficit, especially a spiritual one, without an accurate diagnosis or assessment of it as causal. As such, am not exactly sure why the DM’s overstate the case for original blessing over the curse it sorely needs redemption from, and along with it the biblical plan for a sacred Redeemer and plan for redemption. Maybe it’s because malignant church history has abusively paid far too much manipulative attention to the dark side, and in its own manifestations of same, (further evidence for the curse), that someone like Matthew needed to give balance to the other side of the story. And, it is fair to say, he has done so brilliantly for many, myself included. Yet it seems to have been done to the unfortunate neglect of giving balance and credibility (resolution of the apparent paradox) to the dark side story as a primary causal factor in the earth’s woes, (those much mentioned in the DM’s using other language), along with the biblical plan for overcoming it. Not exactly sure why, as an explanation seems in order.
What an inspiring and visionary meditation today! It was wonderful to see Master Fox’s enthusiasm for the imagery of Kabir and for the Webb telescope. His excitement and animation is contagious. It helped me to feel again the wonder of a new world, of exploring the world of being and in a certain small way being the eyes, hands, and consciousness of the divine source of all things visible and invisible in whom we live and move and have our being.
Thank you, Matthew for your question about one’s deep connection between the universe and the soul. I love John Muir’s statement about how everything is connected. My own response is best explored in one of my plays, which is on YouTube. The play itself begins 3.40 minutes in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELMnjsWfxWo&t=22s
Perhaps in the light of the JWST photographs, I will revise the play. As writers, aren’t we always revising our words? 🙂
Yes, Matthew, the mystics’ experiences and teachings that the Universe~Cosmos~the Creator’s Loving Creative Spirit is also within us has intuitively inspired me for a long time on this earthly part of my spiritual journey of my eternal soul with others and All Living Evolving co-Creation~multidimensional and multiverse Cosmos… the Loving Diverse Oneness of our Beautiful Beloved Cosmic Christ Consciousness….
🔥❤️🙏
I am currently on a road trip, with another 20 days to go… emerging myself in the glory of God’s goodness… traveling across Canada… experiencing the living book of creation. I am awed by the beauty! The mystic within my soul sense of self is deeply listening… praying and praising the wonder of God’s creation… which I am but a small part of. Today I met a special tree, known as the Bermese. This tree is the most resilient in this area, known as the Crows Nest Pass… in the mountainous region on the border of Alberta and B.C. It begins growing from a crack in the rock. It’s form is shaped by the gusty winds blowing down from the mountain. This tree mirrors the ability to endure and persevere, allowing oneself to be strengthed, to bend with the seasons of change… reflecting the souls resilience of weathering the storms. This particular tree, welcomes all into this beautiful, rugged landscape… as an inspiration of hope. I climbed the rock… to touch this tree… with prayers of gratitude… for its good medicine shared. As I turned to leave, there at my feet was the blessing of two hawk feathers… weathered and worn, yet still filled with a message for this little mystic… that feeds my soul. When I see the unfolding, evolving goodness and beauty… there within all of creation… I know that God is indeed mindful of it all, including myself. The question to ask is… are we mindful of God within the all and the everything of creation?
Jeanette, I too have been traveling. Every year I go to Port Angeles Washington to visit my daughter’s family and my two year old grandson. One things that bothers me when I see creation in this area is there is so much clear cutting of trees. The ocean is beautiful, as well as the mountains–the grandeur of Mt. Rainer is awesome–but the trees… We cut the trees to build things for ourselves, just as we mine things to make for ourselves, and we pump oil out of the ground so we can travel. It seems that everything we humans do to make life easier or better for ourselves has negative consequences for the earth. The question is, “How can we truly live in harmony with the earth ???”