In yesterday’s DM, we named character development as intrinsic to healthy fathering. This in turn led to naming the “9 Cs” as a lead-up to the “10th C” or “Character Development.” We treated the first two Cs, Cosmology/Ecology and Contemplation/Meditation.
The third C is Creativity. Getting in touch with our moral imaginations and releasing our creativity for self-healing and healing of others nurtures character development.
Psychologist Otto Rank feels that behind all neurosis there is an “artiste manque,” a failed artist. Often we use our God-given creativity less for healing the self and others than for beating up on ourselves and internalizing our own oppression. In contrast, I have witnessed miracle after miracle occur in art as meditation classes and circle dancing rituals in creation spirituality programs over the years.
The fourth C is Chaos. The dark night of the soul or society can be a gateway to wisdom, for it immerses us into the reality of suffering—our own, others’, and that of Mother Earth. When things fall apart, as Pema Chodron puts it, there is much to unlearn as well as learn. Science teaches that chaos is necessary for creativity to happen. The dark night also purifies our longing.
The fifth C is Compassion. A consensus exists among all religions that humanity is capable of compassion, and this constitutes true religion and authentic godliness. Jesus said, “Be you compassionate as your Creator in the heavens is compassionate,” echoing his Jewish heritage that compassion is “the secret name for God.”
The Dalai Lama says we can do away with all religion but not with compassion. Compassion is living out our common interdependence that science understands as a law of the universe. As Meister Eckhart says, “what happens to another, whether it be joy or sorrow, happens to me.”
The sixth C is Courage. It takes courage to stand up to folly, lies or powerful forces that want to dominate the Earth or others. All prophets and spiritual warriors call on courage to accomplish their vocation. For me, courage is the number one sign of true spirituality. Learn courage from other prophets, other mystics in action.
The seventh C is Critical Consciousness and Judgment. Engaging one’s mystical brain does not come at the expense of the intellectual or rational brain–the two are meant to operate side by side. We need both intuition and reason. A patriarchal society like ours, however, honors the rational brain at the expense of our intuitive brains. We can return meditation, creativity and play into our ways of being, thinking, and acting. Critical consciousness and decision-making are necessary to carry out effective compassion after all.
Einstein says the intuitive brain gives us our values. But the rational brain helps decide how to put those values into effective practice.
The eighth C is Community. The modern era surrendered to an individualism that cut us off from our ancestors, our sense of belonging to the universe, and to one another! Loneliness stalks our times. We can bring back community, the sense of a common good, a common ground, a common task of saving the earth.
The ninth C is Celebration and Ritual. Ritual is one way we bring back a sense of community. African spiritual teacher Malidoma Some says, “there is no community without ritual.” In ritual, the community gathers to say Thank You, celebrate Joy, ask for forgiveness, grieve together, and empower one another to be the best lovers, prophets, and spiritual warriors we can be.
Authentic ritual takes us out of our heads and into our hearts and bodies, collectively so. In ritual the mystical/prophetic body of Christ (Buddha, Tselem) comes alive.
Banner Image: A legacy of courage: “Find A Way To Get In The Way – J. Lewis.” Protestor memorializes the lawmaker and civil-rights activist in his lying in state, July 28, 2020. Photo by Victoria Pickering on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you see in this and yesterday’s meditation a path forward for developing your own character and encouraging it in our leaders?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human, pp. 111-138
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing From Global Faiths, pp. 80-100, 189-253, 377-422
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
3 thoughts on “Character Development, continued”
Yes! All 10 C’s summarize beautifully Our unique Eternal human~Divine Souls and Loving Diverse Oneness on Our Wholistic Sacred Journeys with Mother Earth/Her living creatures, with all physical/nonphysical subtle spiritual dimensions/beings, and within Our Sacred Evolving Humanity and Co-Creation Cosmos… in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment….
I went to a high school run and taught mainly by Jesuits (in the early 1950s). The school’s Latin motto was “A sound mind in a sound body,” which comes from a non-Christian source, I learned later. One could say it’s a good humanistic motto. Matthew and his followers know that spiritual values are made vivid when practically applied. The Letter of James says as much about faith, and talking about it. Show me, he writes, what you do as a Christian, so that I can understand what you say about your faith.
As someone who practices meditation and has contemplative groups that meet regularly, does anyone have ideas on how I could introduce more rituals? Coming from an evangelical background my only real experience with ritual is taking communion.