There are many ways through which we human beings can achieve a state of ecstasy, that is, transcend ourselves and touch the divine. Matthew Fox beautifully describes some of such natural ecstasies in his book WHEE! We, wee All The Way Home. A Guide to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality, a book which (as I said yesterday) is well worth of being taken up again.
We live in a context, in fact, where the most natural experiences that make us feel truly alive and that allow us to let go of our attachments to our egos are not welcome anymore, are not given a place of relevance in our culture, and are manipulated to produce a monetary gain.
About the transcendence that we can experience in nature, Matthew writes: The first of the natural ecstasies we can all recognize from our experience is nature itself. How often, how easily, we can fall into forgetfulness (and therefore ecstasy) while sitting by the sea learning to vibrate with it; or walking barefoot on an earthen field with sunshine on our backs; or finding a lone spot with the pine trees at the peak of a mountain (…) Our ecstasy or standing outside of ourselves is so real in nature that we may truly come to believe what is the fact: that we are the sea; we are a part of the stars; we are of the earth.
About friendship as a major mode of transcendence, he writes: A second ecstasy familiar to us all is friendship. The mutual attraction and sharing that reaches to a point of forgetfulness of self (…) is an experience of ecstasy built into our everyday lives. (…) Has our friendship penetrated sufficiently to that depth of experience which is forgetfulness of the self and all the roles we play during our less ecstatic hours? (…) For in friendship we are relaxed enough to experience something greater than ourselves. And that experience some call God and others, love.
Matthew includes several other experiences in his list of natural ecstasies. Sexuality, although the respect that sexuality requires to maintain its ecstatic character appears to be rarer and rarer in our culture. Sports, as long as an excess of competition and violence don’t spoil them. Thinking, which he describes as marrying two thoughts so that a child-thought is born! And, of course, music and arts: Who has never lost herself, stood outside and beyond himself, while listening to a Mozart sonata?
The point is that the experiences which the current culture has more and more come to define as quaint and common are basic only in the sense that they constitute the foundation of what being human is. At present — perhaps much more than in 1976 when the book was written — such experiences are challenged in their abilities to lead us naturally and without effort to ecstasy, to forgetfulness of self. They do exist, of course, but they are under attack and subject to manipulation.
How many of us take the time to listen attentively to a full Mozart sonata? How many afford to spend time for an aim-less yet deep conversation? How often do we enjoy nature without checking our phone? But while these experiences are being forgotten or curtailed, we have not developed other equally practical methods to detach ourselves from the fears, the certainties, and the vociferous claims of our egos.
Natural ecstasies are the easiest ways to reach the self-forgetfulness we need in order to balance the rest of our activities, focused on the attainment of goals. For all their availability, however, they seem to have become difficult to use. Often they are substituted by artificial means. We cannot, in fact, live human lives without at least a modicum of ecstasy, that is, in theological parlance, a modicum of experience of God.
Banner Image: How often do we buffer our self-forgetful experience of nature — whether in grief or joy — through a screen? Kawah Putih, Sugihmukti, Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia. Photo by Panji Adhi on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
What is the relevance of natural ecstasies in your life?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality, pages 45-49
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
8 thoughts on “Natural Ecstasies”
Just back in, walking the dog in the snow. So quiet outside, you can hear the sound of silence. Once played johann van beethoven, Ludwigs father,chased his child away, through the woods, to the live accompaniement of ode to joy. Sensational. Exstatic. Check it out on u tube fx
Such experiences are the fundamental purpose of our lives. They are the goal of all the yogas, Yoga being a Sanskrit word meaning “Union”, as in Union with God: our true state of Being. Ecstasy Is. Period.
I try to remain contemplatively open and Faithful to the Sacredness of the Divine Loving Spirit/Flow of the Eternal Present Moment in Our LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS….
When I was 12 years old, when I first got my horse, Desi, I went riding bareback with a whole bunch of other people at the stable on a sunny day. Near the end of a relaxed lazy walk through the woods, we entered an open space and we all broke into a gallop together. For the first time I learned to relax, and not try to grip and hold on, just sat perfectly relaxed with my seat effortlessly glued to Desi’s back, with the thunder of the hooves of all the horses and their powerful breathing all around me. A completely involuntary estatic smile came over my face, I could not stop it. It was joyous beyond description. I am still thankful for that experience. Horses and their spirits are one the Creator’s almost unspeakably beautiful creations and should always be treated with respect and kindness, never abused or slaughtered.
Thank you for that wonderful sharing, Vivian, and thank you Desi; reading it was like watching Equus on stage again and hearing the extraordinary climactic confession of Dr Dysart: “I sit looking at pages of centaurs trampling the soil of Argos—and outside my window he is trying to become one, in a Hampshire field! I watch that woman knitting, night after night—a woman I haven’t kissed in six years—and he stands in the dark for an hour, sucking the sweat off his God’s hairy cheek! Then in the morning, I put away my books on the cultural shelf, close up the Kodachrome snaps of Mount Olympus, touch my reproduction statue of Dionysus for luck—and go off to hospital to treat him for insanity. Do you see?” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_p1t8K-bVk] Yes, Dr Dysart, we see. . .
Eq… Eq… for Equus, and Ec… Ec… for Ecstasy.
Thank-you, Daniel. Desi had a huge personality, I loved him. He was an Appaloosa, and was a remote decendant of the small remnants of Appaloosas that were left after the US government caught the escaping Nez Perce (who had out fought the US army for months) near the Canadian border (I am Canadian). The army mercilessly shot down all the Nez Perce Appaloosas with gatling guns.
I’ve written in the past about the extraordinary experience I had of extreme Unity when I was 20, but I’ve also had many moments of “natural wonder,” some of which shaded into ecstasy, but all were beautiful.
We are in a time that values the computer and cell phone, when we get far away from “real life.” But if we step away from the speed and turmoil of online experience, and pay deep attention to “our real life,” we can discover our true selves, our deepest lives. Even in our “daily experience,” or rather, ESPECIALLY in our daily experience, there is wonder.
Thank you, GG, for that video of the flash mob in Barcelona. I could not help but be transfixed with joy. I do not know if these are still occurring, but we desperately need them for spiritual nourishment and for forging the bonds of a communal experience that is very healing–in the midst of an ordinary day. Maybe some creative and brave people can bring them to areas where ICE is creating fear and violence.