James Reho’s project (see DMs for April 21-22) derives directly, by his own admission, from Matthew Fox’s joining of sensuality with spirituality, or rather can be seen as a specific response to Matthew’s call, which in Reho’s case becomes a Deep Ecumenism journey into Christianity and Tantra.
Matthew made his case for the joining of sensuality with spirituality in his Preface to his 1976 book WHEE! We, wee, which was added five years after the original publication, partly as a response to the strong reactions that the book elicited. Forty-five years later, this Preface is incredibly fresh and deserves to be read and mused upon again. Here are some lines which are also proof that Matthew’s prophetic feistiness and ironic speech did not begin yesterday:
A word that has proved a stumbling block to some persons on reading this book has been the word “sensual.” One professor wrote to me that he would never read another thing I write because I dared to talk about “sensual spirituality.” Another urged me to use the word “incarnational” instead of “sensual.” A threatened parent told me her daughter would never attend the school I teach in because no spiritual person ought to use the words “sensual and spiritual in the same sentence.” It is good news to me that there are a few words that still arouse people in our culture. Maybe we and our institutions are not as dead as we so often appear after all. I feel sorry for these fearful people who have apparently never enjoyed the sensuousness (no thank you – I will not relinquish this fine English word in favor of the Latin “incarnational”) of a home-grown tomato or a ripe peach.*
I cannot quote the whole page, but the heart of the matter is here: I did not make things sensual; nor did I create bodily senses by which we respond ecstatically to the sensual. The Creator made these gifts, and made them very well. Then Matthew goes on observing that even Karl Rahner, the major Catholic theologian of those days, acknowledged the need to recover the word “sensual” in its original, non-derogatory meaning. And I would say the same for Rahner’s Protestant counterpart, Paul Tillich.
But to a culture deeply steeped in the distrust of the body, it does not matter what major thinkers say regarding the matter. Matthew calls Ernest Becker, Ashley Montague, Erik Erikson, and Robert Ornstein to support his point, but the question now, decades later, is: How much has our present globalized culture understood from the pointed critiques of these giants?
Erikson commented on the standard white male who dominated politics and professions in the 1960s: Anybody who thinks or feels too much seems ‘queer’ to him. How much has changed? Perhaps some of the ruling class of today sends their children to Montessori or Steiner schools, but on the whole, they keep engaging in the same practices of domination and exploitation, which become easy only to those who have cut themselves off from the sensuousness of life, and thus keep their distance from its beauty and fragility.
The underlying argument here is that recovering sensuality and spirituality together means to recover our psychic wholeness that has been lost under the influence of the En-Light-enment when truth became exclusively identified with “clear and distinct” ideas. And by doing that, the natural road to compassion gets opened again, while now it is blocked by the “hardness of heart” chided by the ancient prophets of Israel.
As it should be clear by now, sensuality does not mean sex exclusively. On the contrary, our modern preoccupation with sex might be a signal of how afraid we are of deep sensuality. We try to keep it at bay by satisfying our immediate impulse, over and over again. On the contrary, Reho’s suggestions (see yesterday’s DM) are especially interesting because they are both concrete and deep, tracing a path for a union between spirituality and sensuality which is not fleeting, imaginary, or compensatory. At the same time, the following list from Matthew Fox’s WHEE! We, wee can be very helpful for reminding us that sensuality is everywhere in our lives, and we don’t need special techniques to attain it. The point is to remain open and vulnerable:
To walk barefoot in sand or grass is sensual.
To laugh heartily is sensual.
To burp is sensual.
To get up at dawn and walk with the dew is sensual.
To eat is sensual.
To make love is sensual.
To throw pots is sensual.
To give birth – to a child, to a picture, to a poem, to a song – is sensual.
To sleep under the stars is sensual.
To swim is sensual.
To lie in the sun is sensual.
To dance is sensual.
To hear opera is sensual.
To watch dancers is sensual.
To smell lilacs is sensual.
To be in darkness is sensual.
To cry is sensual.
To hug a baby is sensual.
To get a backrub is sensual.
To be alive is sensual. Yes, very sensual.
* Matthew Fox, WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality: quotes from pages 5-7; list from page 184, slightly abridged.
Banner Image: “Offering Bowl.” Pottery by the late poet/storyteller/artist Bonnie Ann Burnett. Published with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
Where do you think our global culture is, in terms of dealing with the sensuality of life? What actions do you practice to help you grow in the understanding of psychic wholeness?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond
3 thoughts on “The Sensual Basics of Our Existence”
Healthy sensuality makes “sense” because it is a connection, a relationship, a yoga, like the “I and Thou” of Martin Buber where I and Thou (Thou = minerals, plants, animals) are con-sensual.
In terms of dealing with the sensuality of life, I think our western culture is drowning in an “I and it” attitude that generates borders, conflicts, loneliness and death by self-inflicted asphyxiation.
Like anything else, sensuality can be diverted into egotistic anesthesia, i.e. addiction.
Excellent meditations these past days. Thank you.
In a simple way what seems to be lacking in many is an awareness or
omission of presence to our senses. Does the ego have an outsized role in
western culture. I think yes. The technology age removes us further.
Spend sometime reconnecting to the sensuality of the natural world is where I would start.
Global culture, except for some small communities and Indigenous cultures, is generally separated from the sacredness of life, nature, and within Us… Consequently, this separation from the Present Sacredness within and among Us leads to many forms of alienation in individuals and modern societies such as social injustices, materialism, toxic capitalism, depression, addictions, wars, and destruction of Our Sacred Mother Earth and Her living creatures and graceful abundance, ….
Faith, contemplative prayer, membership in contemplative spiritual support groups on the internet, spiritual readings, and openness to loving relationships in the Divine Flow of the Present Moment with physical/nonphysical beings in Nature and all spiritual dimensions in my daily life contribute to my healing/growth in psychic wholeness and transformation towards Loving Eternal Diverse Cosmic Oneness….