Empathy and Cosmic Pain

I suffer from nostalgia. I yearn for some forgotten time/space niche, perhaps in the distant past, where communication among human tribes was limited. I would not know about distant wars and massacres. My village would be like a little Eden, following the rhythm of the seasons, and evil would basically never appear on the horizon of my life. Alas, that is just a dream.

Some historians speculate that such was indeed the situation of our species in the Paleolithic era, before the invention of agriculture, but I have no interest in advocating such a radical return to lack of technology. Thus, my present problem remains: I feel the pain of others, even distant ones, and when their pain is tremendous in its scope, and even more when the cruelty of other human beings causes it, my heart seems to break. I even risk ceasing to function.

Is this an excess of empathy? Can there be such a thing? A popular figure has argued recently that empathy is the basic fault of Western civilization. Apart from the fact that the West seems much less equipped with empathy than other cultures, this guy — who will remain unnamed —represents the opposite of the person that I would like to be. Empathy is what has made my life meaningful until now, and I can’t imagine living without it, both as a recipient and a giver. So what?

One important thing that I learned from Matthew Fox, and that I am still learning, is that when pain is privatized it becomes deadly, while when it is shared it becomes a source of life. Several years ago, Fox was already stating that our pain is a cosmic pain — and for this reason Simone Weil advises us to identify with the universe itself.

Opening up to more pain rather than sheltering myself? What kind of a recipe is that? Essentially, Fox teaches that when we are aware that pain is a cosmic reality, i.e. that pain is the common lot of people and all other creatures, then — and only then — we can engage in healing.

The risk of wallowing in my own ego-focused, individual pain is clear to me. But I also fear being swallowed up by feeling too intensely the sorrow of others. The difference — and this is where my learning comes in — is that when I open up to universal suffering I can either succumb or I can switch to a cosmic plane whereby I am not bearing by myself the pain of the world, and not even my own, but I am sharing all pain with all creatures. Fox quotes in this regard Julian of Norwich, a 14th century mystic, who meditates a lot on the suffering of Jesus on the cross but also connects his pain to that of the whole creation, saying things such as “I saw a great oneing between Christ and us because when he was in pain we were in pain… The sky and the earth failed at the time of Christ’s dying because he too was part of nature.”

It is because pain can be shared, that it can redeem or, rather, it can be redeemed, it can be lifted, it can be healed, it can be turned into the pain of a new birth. Now, this is not a “truth” that can be explained or learned simply with the intellect. Also, it requires a level of vulnerability which can, in turn, be exploited by bad people, so my proposition entails some real risks. Neither do I want to go back on my suggestions about celebrating and taking care of one’s bodily needs as essential elements of a balanced spirituality.

Nonetheless, I wanted to share this learning of mine — as much as one can with words — at the end of a week of meditations which have been devoted to how we can respond spiritually to the barrage of violence and cruelty that we witness every day. I hope that my reflections, based on Matthew’s writings, have been of some help to some of you, and I hope to continue the conversation next week.

---

See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, p. 146

See also Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion

And Fox, Christian Mystics

And Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ

Banner image: “Suffering.” Image by FUMIGRAPHIK_Photographist on Flickr.

---

Queries for Contemplation

Do I deal consciously with my vulnerability, when I feel the suffering of others?

---

Recommended Reading

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

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.

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.