MEDITATION 495: On being quietly with God: Matthew Fox brings Thich Nhat Hahn into conversation with Meister Eckhart (10/21/21)

Dear Friends,

We hope that you are safe and well.

Today's meditation features Matthew Fox bringing Thich Naht Hahn into conversation with Meister Eckhart. Thich Nhat Hahn challenges Christianity to recapture its mystical tradition. It reminds us to take time to be quiet with God in the midst of our many activities.

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Ron and Jean

MEDITATION 495: On being quietly with God: Matthew Fox brings Thich Nhat Hahn into conversation with Meister Eckhart

The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers

Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

Thich Nhat Hanh’s Advice for Christianity

October 21, 2021

Deep Ecumenism does not necessarily mean just nodding one’s head in agreement all the time to how our religions have or have not evolved over the years. Sometimes religions can forget some of their deepest insights and need to be awakened.

While Thich Nhat Hanh tells us he is “very excited” about the encounter between Buddhism and Christianity in the twenty-first century, he also calls for a “very drastic change” to occur in the Christian tradition.

What is that change? To know more deeply our mystical tradition and especially to recovery the Apophatic Divinity.

If we can bring into Christianity the insight of interbeing and of non-duality, we will radically transform the way people look on the Christian tradition, and the valuable jewels in the Christian tradition will be rediscovered.

Jesus and the Buddha. Artist unknown. From The Buddhist Christian Church.

Notice what he is saying in this wish of his that Christianity recover its apophatic tradition—that Christianity has lost touch with some of its “valuable jewels.” This is what happens when religions lose touch with their deepest essence and pursue empire longing instead of the deepest teachings of its founders and practitioners, lovers (mystics) and prophets (warriors). TNH calls for a “radical transformation” of the way people look at the Christian tradition.

I think he is right, and this insight exists within the Christian tradition among its mystics. For example, by rediscovering Eckhart’s profound apophatic theology and his unconscious Buddhism we can unlock these “valuable jewels” and at the same time launch a true interchange of Buddhist and Christian wisdom. I am very excited to bring Meister Eckhart together with Thich Nhat Hanh and other Buddhist teachers who have so much to teach us all.

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Queries for Contemplation

Do you feel that “valuable jewels” have slipped away from the Christian consciousness? And that a very “drastic change” is needed to retrieve them and that the mystical and apophatic tradition can bring them back?

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, p. 56.

See also Rev. Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus & the Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.

Banner Image: Statue of Meister Eckhart, Town Hall Tower, Cologne, by Elisabeth Perger; photo by Raimond Spekking, Wikimedia Commons. Thich Nhat Hanh in Paris, 2006; photo by Duc, Wikimedia Commons.

Pastor's Letter

MEDITATION 495: On being quietly with God: Matthew Fox brings Thich Nhat Hahn into conversation with Meister Eckhart (10/21/21)