Cosmic complexity.

heather
Jun 14
6 min read

Dear ones,

Two days ago, we marked Trinity Sunday—a celebration in the Christian tradition of the mystery of the Three-in-One: the unity and indivisibility of the Persons in God who endlessly pour themselves out for and receive from one another, humanity, and all creation.

There is a simple, radiant hymn in our lineage that reaches back at least to the third century: the Trisagion. "Agios O Theos, Agios Ischyros, Agios Athanatos, Eleison Imas." Translated, it means: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us." Three times holy. "Thrice Holy." Some have rendered the words more dynamically—Holy One or Holy Absolute, Holy Strong One or Holy Backbone (as Cynthia Bourgeault has referred to it), Holy the Undying or Undead One. These ancient phrases still echo the angels' chant in Isaiah: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

The whole earth is permeated with God's presence. This is not merely poetic language but the deepest truth about reality itself. Beatrice Bruteau articulates this beautifully. In her book God's Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World, she writes:

"There may not be an external Designer and a micro-managing Providence from the outside, but neither is the world devoid of divinity. The divinity is so intimately present in the world that the world can be regarded as an incarnate expression of the Trinity, as creative, as expansive, as conscious, as self-realizing and self-sharing."

Bruteau says that God’s Creativity is kin to the kenosis of Philippians 2:6, where being God becomes not something to be clung to, but something to be poured out. God empties Godself, taking the form of limitation in finitude, and is born as a universe. This is the defining divine act: self-giving, being-bestowing, a movement of extreme love and supreme joy.

She sees the trinitarian pattern woven into the very structure of reality. She observes that "randomness, the pool of all possibilities, is part of how it's done. So is spontaneous order, and adaptation by natural selection." The complexity we witness emerging at the edge of chaos—this creative dance between order and freedom—is itself trinitarian in nature.

Consider how relationship and mutual indwelling appear everywhere we look: in the quantum entanglement of particles, in the symbiotic partnerships that sustain ecosystems, in the neural networks that give rise to consciousness, in the social bonds that create communities. At every level, we see what Bruteau calls "manyness so symbiotic as to be one whole living being."

But perhaps most profound is the recognition that we ourselves are expressions of this trinitarian creativity. Bruteau writes: "The cosmic complexity has supported the development of consciousness, and now we can know and understand and contemplate this beautiful and marvelous universe. We can appreciate it as the externalization—the ecstasy—of Creativity itself."

We are not separate from this divine self-creating process. We are part of it. Our very capacity to love, to create, to pour ourselves out for others and receive from them is the Trinity living and breathing within us. We are always participating in the very life of God. This is what it means to be made in the image of the Trinity, engaging relationship consciously and moving beyond the illusion of separateness into genuine communion, and into the endless dance of giving and receiving that is the heart of divine life itself.

The whole earth, and we ourselves, are indeed full of God's glory,

Heather

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, June 9th

Chant: Spirit of truth [open] my mind, soul of wisdom [open] my heart — The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

Tuesday, June 10th

Chant: Veni Creator Spiritus. Mentes Tuorum Visita. Imple Superna Gratia. Quæ Tu Creasti Pectora. Per Te Sciamus Da Patrem. Noscamus Atque Filium. Te Utriusque Spiritum.Credamus Omni Tempore. Deo Patri Sit Gloria. Et Filio Qui A Mortuis. Surrexit Ac Paraclito. In Sæculorum Sæcula Amen. — Poor Clare’s

["Come, Creator Spirit. Visit our minds. Fill with heavenly grace the hearts which you have created. Through you, we learn to know Origin. We recognize also the Kin. You, the Spirit of both. Let us believe always. Glory be to God the Nurturer. And the One who rose from the dead, and the Advocate. In the ages of ages. Let it be so.]

Wednesday, June 11th

Chant: And God said I am made whole by your life, every soul, every soul completes me — Marilyn Scott

Thursday, June 12th

Reading: ‘Interrelationship’ by Thich Nhat Hanh

You are me, and I am you.

Isn’t it obvious that we “inter-are”?

You cultivate the flower in yourself,

so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in myself,

so that you will not have to suffer.

I support you;you support me.

I am in this world to offer you peace;

you are in this world to bring me joy.

Chant: May our hearts be full of grace, our souls fueled by love — Heather Ruce

Friday, June 13th

Reading: 'Please Call Me By My True Names' by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow—

even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving

to be a bud on a Spring branch,

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death

of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing

on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird

that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily

in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake

that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,

selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,

refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean

after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am also the pirate,

my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,

with plenty of power in my hands.

And I am the man who has to pay

his “debt of blood” to my people

dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,

so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up

and the door of my heart

could be left open,

the door of compassion

Saturday, June 14th

Reading: Zen priest, Peter Coyote, on protest:

"I’m watching the Los Angeles reaction to ICE raids with trepidation and regret. Three years ago, I taught a class at Harvard on the “theater of protest”—designed to help people understand why so many protests turn out to be campaign videos working directly against the interests of the original protest. A protest is an invitation to a better world. It’s a ceremony. No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at. More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is. The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress, etc. The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust, who will not embarrass them. If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change. Everything else is a waste.

It was all learned by watching the early civil rights protests in the 50s and 60s. And it was the discipline and courage of African Americans that drew such a clear line in the American sand that people were forced to take sides and that produced the civil rights act. The American people are watching and once again if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this.

Wake up.

Vent at home.

In public practice discipline and self-control.

It takes much more courage."

Chant: If you will, if you will, if you will, if you will, you can become all flame, become all flame, become all flame. You can become all flame: become all flame — Darlene Franz

Sunday, June 15th with Henry

Reading: Gospel of Thomas – Logion 2, transl. Lynn Bauman

Yeshua says,

If you are searching,

you must not stop

until you find.

When you find, however,