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On Saturday, there was a phenomenal gathering in celebration of the lifetime of Joanna Macy. About 1,000 individuals participated reside by Zoom and one other 2,000 registered to tune in later.
In right this moment’s video, I share a number of the marvelous tales informed by a number of the individuals invited to talk, together with two of her kids (I used to be honored to be amongst them).
For this DM, I want to share a particular letter that Joanna despatched me about 10 years in the past, which was her response to my ebook Unique Blessing. She informed me she had written this response 20 years beforehand (the ebook got here out in 1983).
In my speak on Saturday, I talked about how “deep ecumenism” was a lot part of Joanna’s mindset, and likewise how I got here up with that language from assembly her and listening to about “deep ecology.” (See my Cosmic Christ ebook.) And the way Joanna incarnated deep ecumenism together with science.
The doc that Joanna excitedly mailed to me could be very a lot a doc in deep ecumenism. She wrote:
Unique Blessing is a revolutionary occasion within the non secular lifetime of our individuals. It takes our ordinary spiritual notions and turns them over, turns them round. Like a revolving wheel, it sweeps us again to the previous after which up and over into the longer term—again to recapture treasures of forgotten knowledge, ahead to contemporary insights and creativity. This revolutionary occasion may be dated ten 12 months in the past, with the publication of Unique Blessing, or dated now, or tomorrow, for it retains on taking place every day with every contemporary encounter with what Matthew Fox is saying. As soon as set in movement, the wheel retains turning.
The picture of wheel comes naturally to me, for it’s central to the Buddhist custom, my non secular path. It symbolizes the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha concerning the dynamic interdependence of all issues. When the Buddha gave his teachings, say the scriptures, he “turned the wheel of the Dharma.” And his followers right this moment preserve the wheel in movement, like Tibetan folks reaching out to spin their temple’s prayer wheels as they go by.
OB jogs my memory of the Dharma wheel as a result of it brings an identical shift of focus—a radical shift from substance to course of. The Buddha shocked historical India by refusing to acknowledge an immutable god, a divinity aloof from the world. He centered as an alternative on the presence of thoughts in each motion, each breath. His teachings didn’t name individuals to hunt a supernatural haven for the sinful, struggling self, however to acknowledge their interdependence with this imperfect world and to observe a magga or path the place the self dissolves into conscious and compassionate intention.
The spirituality of OB has the identical type of revolutionary thrust. It delivers us from theological hair splitting and from preoccupation with our separate selves, nevertheless sinful or noble we might deem them, and summons us into an invigorating movement of spirit-experience. It means that we’re not entities to be perfected a lot as processes to be valued and enlivened. As Buckminster Fuller exclaimed, “I appear to be a verb!” As verbs we would like trajectories, methods to go, paths for exploring and unfolding.
Consonant with science and disaster.
In OB I discover myself once more as verb, as a occurring the trail—and the trail is a number of, full in its fourfold multiplicity. In celebration and gratitude, I recall components of every as I’ve lived them with Matthew Fox.
In her cowl letter she drew a cheerful face and requested: “How do you want being in comparison with the Buddha?” I believe I responded that I’ve been referred to as so much worse issues.
I concluded my speak with a Buddhist-inspired prayer:
Might all creatures be blissful.
Might all creatures be saved.
Might all creatures be acknowledged as unique blessings.
Might all of us be glad about our existence. And act prefer it.
Amen.
See Matthew Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 228-244.
And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing From International Faiths.
And Fox, The Lotus & The Rose: A Dialog Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.
And Fox and Bishop Mark Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ.
And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Occasions.
To learn the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click on HERE.
Banner Picture: “A Gathering to Honor Joanna Macy.” Collage created by the Macy household for the on-line occasion held on August 23, 2025. Used with the household’s permission.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you additionally appear to be a verb? And on a path that’s centered on course of and on exploring and unfolding and consonant with science and disaster?
Really useful Studying
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a complete new route for Christianity—a route that’s in reality very historical and really grounded in Jewish pondering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed means.
“Unique Blessing makes out there to the Christian world and to the human group a radical remedy for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these might have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
In what could also be thought of essentially the most complete define of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the way by which the spirit of Christ resurrects when it comes to the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the younger, the rebirth of efficient types of worship—all of those mirroring the continuing blessings of Mom Earth and the restoration of Eros, the female side of the Divine.
“The eighth surprise of the world…convincing proof that our Western spiritual custom does certainly have the depth of creativeness to reinvent its religion.” — Brian Swimme, creator of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This ebook is a basic.” Thomas Berry, creator of The Nice Work and The Dream of the Earth.
One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from International Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all of the world traditions for his or her knowledge and their inspiration in a piece that’s excess of a listing of theological place papers however a brand new approach to pray—to meditate in a world non secular context on the knowledge all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes which might be foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all of the world non secular traditions supply knowledge about every.“Studying One River, Many Wells is like getting into the wealthy silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you learn this textual content, you mirror, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Really no phrases can totally specific my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to modern spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit
The Lotus & The Rose: A Dialog Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity
How can we transfer away from “us vs. them” pondering as our environment really feel extra divided and polarized than ever? Co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo focus on how Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity reply this query from distinctive factors of view, with many commonalities and sensible instruments to interrupt down the boundaries between us.
“The Lotus and the Rose is a unprecedented instance of what can occur when non secular leaders from completely different traditions open up and communicate from the center.” — Paul Chaffee, The Interfaith Observer.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This can be a ebook of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the photographs of 16 great clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Collectively, these pictures and meditations go far past the standard Stations of the Cross to encourage a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the picture of God in all beings, so wanted in our occasions.
“A divinely impressed ebook that have to be learn by each human being dedicated to non secular and international survival. It’s cosmically sensible.” — Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit
Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this wonderful lady and what we will study from her.
In an period when girls had been marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial determine. But so visionary was her perception that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for recommendation.
“This ebook offers sturdy, sterling, and unvarnished proof that the whole lot – the whole lot – we ourselves develop into will have an effect on what girls after us may develop into….This can be a really marvelous, helpful, profound, and inventive ebook.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, creator of The Hope: A Information to Sacred Activism.
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