Thomas Merton

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Threads on Thomas Merton are very familiar to me! I've hesitated here simply because my threads often consist of a string of quotes, often short but sometimes very long. Here, I would be jumped on from a very great height, a terrible prospect....

But here it is. Strange in some ways to open the thread in the Buddhist section, given that Thomas Merton (aka Father Louis) was a Catholic Christian, in fact a trappist monk. But it's a strange old world at times.

There was once an exchange of letters where a young child, a girl, daughter of an older correspondent, sent Merton a picture of a house. Merton replied to her, saying that it was a very beautiful house but noticed that there was no path to the door. By reply another picture arrived from the child, this time with a path leading up to the door. Merton then spoke of "the road to joy that is mysteriously revealed to us without our exactly realising it."

Dōgen writes “The Dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither surplus nor lack. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.”

Harvesting the truth, letting go of the the self, the practice of compassion— "this is our joyous task" as another has said.

"For the earth brings forth fruits of herself". Task and grace, faith and works.

Myself, I give thanks that some of the seeds that I have tried to plant in the past have never reached harvest time.

Merton did have that period when he got into Zen as did other Christians. In the late 60's when Merton wrote the book, "Zen and the Birds of Appetite," Zen was popular in the West and Merton wrote "Zen is at present most fashionable in America among those who are least concerned with moral discipline." That was the period of "free love etc." The hippy movement. Merton was quick to point out that "the Zen-man's contempt for conventional and formalistic social custom is a healthy phenomenon, but it is healthy only because it presupposes a spiritual liberty based on freedom from passion, egotism and self-delusion."
Merton made the point that one needed to be free from passion, egotism, and self-delusion for Zen to actually be a healthy thing.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

I think Thomas Merton was always interested in commonality of experience across the range of all faiths. As I understand it, his growing and developing interest in Buddhism, particularly zen, was not a passing fancy.

I find the second part of the book you mention ("Zen and the Birds of Appetite"), the dialogue between Merton and Suzuki "Wisdom in Emptiness" constantly worth re-reading.

(Another worth reading is "A Study of Chuang Tzu", the preface to Merton's rather loose translation of that Chinese sage, "The Way of Chuang Tzu".

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

From a letter to Suzuki by Merton...

"The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?......"

[sky]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

From a letter to Suzuki by Merton...

"The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?......"

So true, Zen Master TKH always calls Jesus His Brother

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

It was Thomas Merton in a way who gave me my main claim to fame........being banished from a Discussion Forum! I seem to remember the Forum was "Buddhism Without Bounds" which is slightly ironic given the circumstances.

I picked my fight with the Chief Administrator so there could be only one winner....

This guy made a post about having met and chatted with a couple of novices at the monastery of Gethsemane who had told him about "wild carousing" up in Merton's hermitage in the woods. He then suggested that Merton had a "drink problem". I challenged this and he responded by asking me if I actually knew what a "drinking problem was". To which the Cobbler posted:- "Do you know what gossip is?"

That was my fate sealed!

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

I challenged this

Standing up to those disparaging Merton is a good thing! But then the old saying may ring true, "those who stick their heads out will get rocks thrown at them."