It is a weekly abstract of the earlier week’s Each day Meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF), and a few by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You may click on on the title of a DM as a way to view the unique piece in its entirety. Additionally, please word, we’ll proceed to supply a video educating by Matthew every Monday.
January 5, 2026: Otto Rank’s Non secular Imaginative and prescient, continued (MF)
Calling psychologist Otto Rank a “religious big of the twentieth century,” Matthew compares Rank’s Jewish spirituality to that of the historic Jesus. Rank wrote of “authentic wound” fairly than “authentic sin;” and diverged from his mentor Freud by celebrating the “unio mystica” (mystical union) as a substitute of treating it as a neurosis, in addition to insisting that Freud’s “masculine ideology” didn’t serve girls nicely. He predicted, accurately, that girls would wish to create their very own psychology. Rank additionally emphasised the human want for the “irrational” (music, dance, laughter, artwork, play) as a crucial counterbalance to extreme rationality.
January 6, 2026: Monks March for Peace whereas Politicians Make Loopy Wars (MF)
Over the weekend, a crazed president carried out an unwise, and unauthorized by Congress, warfare strike upon Venezuela, kidnapping its president and first girl — utilizing a really comparable excuse to that of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine 4 years in the past. Set in opposition to that is the very inspiring peace motion being carried out by 19 Buddhist monks, making a 2,300-mile trek from their monastery in Fort Price, Texas, to Washington DC. Many crowds and native legislation enforcement have come out to assist them alongside the way in which. Ours is a time for all people and all religions to place apart their variations and to march collectively for what issues: Peace and Justice, Compassion and Kindness. Presently in South Carolina, you possibly can comply with the monks’ route HERE.
Why a Buddhist Monk Walks for Peace| Dhamma Speak | Venerable Pannakara |DEC 30-25 | BƯỚC CHÂN HÀNH GIẢ
January 7, 2026: The Expertise of Ecstasy because the Expertise of God (GG)
Trying again to considered one of Matthew’s earliest works, 1976’s playfully-titled WHEE! We, wee All of the Approach Residence, Gianluigi notes how “ecstasy” is simply too typically commodified right into a seek for significant, out-of-the-ordinary expertise by chemical substances or different addictions. But even these are squashed by lack of time to savor them as a result of our regimented lives power us to get again to “actuality.” Matthew’s definition of ecstasy is a memorable expertise of forgetting oneself, of getting outdoors of oneself. There are lots of real methods to have such an expertise of life — unregimented or managed — together with nature, friendship, music, artwork, taking part in a sport. In experiencing ecstasy, we’re experiencing what our forefathers in religious traditions known as ‘grace.’
January 8, 2026: Pure Ecstasies (GG)
An additional clarification of the ecstasies described in WHEE! We, wee All of the Approach Residence. Of nature, Matthew says: Our ecstasy or standing outdoors of ourselves is so actual in nature that we could actually come to consider what’s the reality: that we’re the ocean; we’re part of the celebrities; we’re of the earth. Of friendship: In friendship we’re relaxed sufficient to expertise one thing larger than ourselves. And that have some name God and others, love. Of music and humanities: Who has by no means misplaced herself, stood outdoors and past himself, whereas listening to a Mozart sonata? Pure ecstasies are the simplest methods to succeed in the self-forgetfulness we want, as a way to steadiness our different goal-directed actions.
January 9: Tactical Ecstasies (GG)
When pure ecstasies fail us, it turns into crucial to place effort into what Matthew calls “tactical ecstasies.” Our potential to expertise God, concord, integration and synthesis is usually blocked by our acutely aware on a regular basis existence and attitudes of survival and drawback fixing (from WHEE! We, wee All of the Approach Residence). Learn how to break by this? Matthew recommends a number of methods. Chanting lulls one stage of our thoughts so {that a} completely different one would possibly flood over ourselves. Additionally fasting and voluntary celibacy — so long as they aren’t practiced as self-punishment for imaginary sins. Meditation and retreats additionally calm the acutely aware thoughts and permit a distinct psychological state to emerge. All these serve to purify the senses, not repress them — and make clear our greatest plan of action.
January 10: Maintaining the Coronary heart Shiny in Instances of Heavy Information (MF)
The Venezuela invasion, state-sponsored terrorism in Minnesota, the shutdown of the Company for Public Broadcasting whereas rightwing billionaires proceed to buy-up all main media, all to maintain the general public’s eyes off the Epstein information — in a single week alone, the information is relentlessly darkish. The information was hardly ever optimistic in Jesus’ time both, but he nonetheless spoke of “the dominion of God” in our midst. Matthew encourages us to maintain alive our love of life, by asking ourselves: “What can I contribute to biophilia? How can I finest stand as much as the forces of necrophilia?”
* Robert Kramer, Otto Rank and the Creation of Fashionable Psychotherapy, pp. 224f. (This hyperlink will take you to the writer’s web page, the place you possibly can order a reduced copy; use code “AUFLY30” to say your 30% low cost.)
Banner Picture: The Buddhist Monks’ Stroll for Peace crossing into Lexington County, SC, on the morning of January 9, 2026. From the Dhammacetiya web site.
Associated Readings by Matthew Fox
“Otto Rank on the Creative Journey as a Non secular Journey, the Non secular Journey As an Creative Journey,” in Wrestling with the Prophets, pp. 199-214.
“Otto Rank as Mystic and Prophet within the Creation Spirituality Custom” on MatthewFox.org
“Psychotherapy and the ‘Unio Mystica’: Meister Eckhart Meets Otto Rank” in Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Instances, pp. 139-156.
WHEE! We, wee All of the Approach Residence: A Information to Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality.
Ardour For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart.
Creativity: The place the Divine and the Human Meet.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul & Society.
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
