Flaming Torches and Flickering Lights

I’m writing from a cellar the place I took refuge from the summer time warmth. It’s a snug area, furnished with a desk, a settee, electrical energy, operating water, and a rest room. Later, I’ll get out of my gap to get meals and occasional. And I can’t cease pondering of the folks in Gaza who’re operating from one place to a different to get some meals to outlive, beneath scorching warmth, with out clear water to drink, within the hope of not being killed within the course of.

I feel additionally of the hostages within the tunnels underground— not for a day like me however for months — with the doubtless prospect of being killed by “pleasant bombs”. Whereas I’m writing there’s nonetheless a dim hope that the Israeli army won’t push into Gaza metropolis. In style protests have been mounting in all places together with inside Israel, and Germany — probably the most staunch ally of Israel in addition to the USA — has lastly stopped the sending of weapons to Tel Aviv.

So many outstanding Jewish and Israeli intellectuals have mentioned that Israel is killing itself whereas committing probably the most horrific crimes. The siege of Gaza is equal in brutality however a lot bigger in scale than these of historic occasions. It has been calculated that the extent of destruction of cities in Gaza surpasses many occasions that attributable to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A good friend has prompt that I take a look at the tragic world occasions of immediately via a psychological lens as properly. I shall do this, to not low cost the social, economical, and political explanations, however to combine them.

The scenario in Gaza seems, partially, as a murder/suicide lure. In such instances, the perpetrator is totally satisfied of getting been wronged deeply however can be unable to get away from the connection. He feels that he can’t escape however neither can he permit the sufferer to maneuver freely. In the long run, the perpetrator feels that he “should” pull the set off, first on his sufferer after which on himself. All of us have seen loads of variations of this scheme in motion pictures and the information.

Clearly, this sample doesn’t match all the weather of the tragedy rolling beneath our eyes in Palestine, however there are some that ring true.

A big portion of the Israeli inhabitants is satisfied that “the Arabs” will totally annihilate them, given the possibility. A long time of propaganda have succeeded in hiding from them the truth of who’s protecting whom beneath their heels. Centuries of homicidal persecution of their forebears have contributed to the creation of a “sufferer mentality” which makes them assume to be the great associate of the connection.

Hamas has been feeding the sample with nearly uncanny precision. The brutality of the October 7, 2023 assaults has contributed immensely to the equation Israeli = good, Palestinians = unhealthy. The tragic stall has been chiseled with blood.

Ariel Toaff, professor emeritus of historical past on the Bar-Ilan College in Israel, has written a couple of days in the past: I’m not going to speak of the ethical picture of Israel, as a result of it has been lengthy misplaced. Gaza would possibly turn out to be the tomb not of Netanyahu and his loopy followers, however ours. And we did nothing to cease him. We’re, in actual fact, his accomplices. The suitable but merciless punishment will attain us ultimately. The useless in Gaza, the ladies and the youngsters, will run after us with their flaming torches proper to the gates of hell.

This quote reveals the tragic consciousness of an insider. Consciousness may not be a lot, proper now, however is our solely hope. We should hold our eyes large open and witness the occasions for what they’re. In occasions like these, we should be taught to not cover away, whereas fostering every and all of the flickering lights of consciousness in all of the folks we meet.

See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society

And Fox, Trump and the MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice

And Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko: Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient for a New Technology

Banner picture: “Mourn the Lifeless, Combat for the Dwelling.” Between 300,000 and 800,000 protested in London in November 2023. Photograph by Alisdare Hickson. Wikimedia Commons.

Queries for Contemplation

What does it imply so that you can foster even the smallest lights of consciousness? 

Really helpful Studying

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling writer Matthew Fox gives a brand new theology of evil that basically modifications the normal notion of excellent and evil and factors the best way to a extra enlightened remedy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to assume creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science.  A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, writer of Quantum Theology: Religious Implications of the New Physics

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

Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given immediately’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this guide using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this guide with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, writer of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For rapid entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion 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 photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for rapid obtain.

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and apply of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the long run that guarantees private, social, and international therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the best way towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Nicely price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient for a New Technology

Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to make use of our abilities in service of compassion and justice and to maneuver past our damaged techniques–financial, political, instructional, and non secular–discovering a spirituality that not solely helps us to get alongside, but in addition encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, remodeling them and within the course of constructing a extra sacred and simply world. Incorporating the phrases of younger activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the guide offers a framework that’s intentionally interfaith and speaks to our profound craving for a life with non secular objective and for a greater world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a robust, inspiring, and important name to embodied consciousness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and writer of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Girl, and the Wrestle to Save the Redwoods