Teilhard de Chardin on Non-Dualism, continued

Beginning with Dr. King’s teaching that dualism is a “strange” and unbiblical” teaching, we have since his birthday been focusing on his and Chenu’s and Aquinas’s creative maladjustment to a dualistic and therefore patriarchal world view. 

They have chosen non-dualism over dualism and in the process released “jewels” of the Christian tradition that Thich Nhat Hanh predicted would happen when Christianity rediscovered its non-dualistic tradition.  Such is the creation spirituality tradition.

Teilhard de Chardin is very much in that creation centered tradition.  Being a 20^th century scientist, he brings much to the table including his own journey and his own glee in the discoveries he came upon.  

He speaks for example of the “Cosmic Christ” which is a foundational pre-Nicene understanding of Christ, an archetype that names the intrinsic doxa or glory inherent in all creatures and creation itself and says this Christ is present “in the heart of the tiniest atom.”

(Parallel teachings are the “Buddha Nature” in Buddhism and Tselem or the image of God in Judaism.)

Teilhard learned ultimately that 

…Matter was not ultra materialized as I would at first have believed, but was instead metamorphosed into Psyche. Spirit was by no means the enemy on the opposite pole of the Tangibility which it was seeking to attain: rather it was its very heart.  

Spirit, psyche, matter are a holy trinity in the universe itself.  Teilhard came to realize, by his study of evolution, that Spirit was “the very heart” of matter, that matter evolved and morphed into Psyche. Psyche was born of matter, and through all this evolving, Spirit was present at the core of things. Teilhard invites us to be aware of consciousness everywhere and to recognize consciousness evolving.  Spirit and “tangibility” are not enemies or even opposites.

He groped for a word to name this conversion he underwent: 

What name should we give to this physio-moral energy of personalization to which all activities displayed by the stuff of the universe are finally reduced?

Only one name is possible, if we are to credit it with the generality and power that it should assume in rising to the cosmic order: love….The conclusion is always the same: Love is the most powerful and still the most unknown energy of the world.

Teilhard places love in the context of not just the personal and psychological but of the cosmos. He sees love, the “physio-moral energy of personalization,” abounding in the universe.  

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, pp. 228, 231, 224.

See also Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

Also see Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: In the All. Image by Mario Kung from Pixabay

Queries for Contemplation

Do you feel that Teilhard found the correct word for naming the activities displayed by the stuff of the universe when he called it Love?  What follows from that?

Recommended Reading

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.

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.

Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.

This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit