The Magic Notes
Few can hear the magic notes and have danced with joy together.
Many have been drowned by the noise of fame and their desire for material gain.
The universe cries for what could be, the choices that went wrong.
It cries for those who pass this way and didn’t awake to sing their song.
Matthew Fox’s insights on sacred earth, sacred self
My name is Bob McQueen. I was privileged to listen to a one-hour introductory presentation given by Matthew Fox to his seven week course Sacreseven-weekacred Self. I recorded his introduction and from it produced this summary of what I found to be very important insights he provided. His course draws on the wisdom of many profound thinkers such as Thomas Berry.
His course on the deeper purpose of humankind is based upon a scientific perspective as well as a spiritual one. In his introduction Matthew views the 13.8 billion years old universe as the sacred source of our reality. Our solar system is only 5 billion years old. We are children of the universe.
Matthew clearly states that we live both in exciting and dangerous times. We are busy destroying our planet. The “bomb” has already gone off, which has been the production and the release of many chemicals into the earth without the knowledge of their destructive impact.
One important topic that Matthew addressed was the duality which is often referred to as right brain and left brain. The left brain focuses on linear thinking, facts and intellectual knowledge and the right brain focuses on creativity, holistic thinking, and imagination. Matthew views our inner wisdom that moves through the so-called right brain as coming from our spiritual source which hungers to be in harmony with all of nature. He also shared his view that the intellect and knowledge of our left brain can be used as raw power and has damaged the planet and that much of this was facilitated by PhD’s. He views the events related to January 6 as an example of the misplacement of raw power.
Matthew shared that Einstein’s view of our current educational system was academic barbarism. We are educated in a structured way to use our left-brain capability but not taught the capability needed to access and draw on the right brain inner wisdom of our spiritual being. He asserted that humankind’s challenge is to draw on our spiritual wisdom, utilize our intellectual knowledge and act to achieve the purpose of our inner wisdom. Without drawing on our spiritual wisdom we have created a society in which the future of mankind is threatened.
Matthew shared his view that today’s society is largely characterized by suffering and grief. He encouraged humankind to see everything in our world and in our universe as sacred. He encouraged immersing oneself in a natural environment and experiencing silence and in so doing experience the presence of the sacred. We have to find a way to go beyond our separation from nature. He shared that young people today are largely confused and many depressed. It is as if young people sense Earth’s demise and feel helpless. We need to truly love the whole world we live in and learn how to experience our sacred relationship with nature. This is the foundation for deep listening and hearing our inner wisdom. Humankind needs to find and experience sacred love and in doing so bring joy to themselves and others.
There is an opportunity to express art in everything we do, including the experiences we offer our children. Unfortunately, the majority of people today are trapped in their left brain worldview and are unable to experience the sacred joy of life, then often finish up at war with each other and damaging our planet. He referred to this as stuck in the dark night of the soul.
Matthew shared that he respected the wisdom of Thomas Merton. He shared that when Thomas Merton met the Dalai Lama and asked him what his view of God was, the Dalai Lama replied it was the same as his. I looked up Thomas Merton’s view of love which is as follows: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that if love is the reason for my existence, for God is love, love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name”.