Addressing our escalating climate crisis, Matthew Fox recently observed, "An absence of the sense of the sacred is the basic flaw in…our efforts at ecologically or environmentally adjusting our human presence to the natural world." He adds, "My conviction is that we need not only an outbreak of creativity in the fields of technology and science…education, politics, religion, media and economics, but especially a spiritual awakening."
But Fox is hardly alone in this call to sacred action. In her paper, "Declare Climate Emergency Now," Joanna Macy said, "While the truth that we are headed toward extinction is a terrible shock, it has the potential to quicken our collective awakening powering a profound transformation of our world. This transformation begins within. We need to know ourselves, not only as individuals, but as co-creators within a deeply ensouled web of life where all is conscious. Once we align with the reality and depth intelligence of consciousness itself, we connect with a spiritual and moral power that gifts intuitive wisdom, guidance, and courage…In essence, we are awakening into the profound intimacy of all things, where we directly know that all beings, nature, the earth, and the cosmos are a part of ourselves." This is mystical activism.
Mystical activism arises from the intentionally awakened, thought-free, sacred awareness of the mystic that transforms our experience of self, work, and the world. In its fullness, mystical consciousness reveals the exquisitely beautiful, infinitely precious, and timeless reality known as Creation. Permeated by the divine Presence, everything is perceived as sacred, including us, for the Beloved is now experienced as the world and everything in it. This transformation of perception leads naturally to mystical activism for we instinctively love and protect that which is sacred to us. In the process, we create the kind of world we want to live in. Failing to see the sacred nature of reality, on the other hand, we will go on desecrating Creation, exploiting her as an endless supply of raw materials, a cash cow of new consumer products, or a garbage dump for toxic waste and discarded packaging.
We are rapidly running out of time to address this ecological nightmare. The time to love and act is now.