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Quotes by Thomas Merton
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'I'm
deeply impregnated with Sufism.'" Thomas Merton, from The Springs of Contemplation, p. 266
"And I believe
that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great
Asian traditions, we stand a wonderful chance of learning more
about the potentiality of our own traditions, because they have
gone, from the natural point of view, so much deeper into this
than we have." Quote from the book, "Lost Christianity" by Jacob
Needleman
* * * * * *
"Isn't
it a pity that people are going into LSD to have spiritual experiences,
when we have a tradition in the Church [contemplative prayer]
which no one knows anything about?"
Read the Interview in which Matthew Fox quoted Merton.
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| Thomas Merton - Contemplative, Mystic, Panentheist |
"What
Martin Luther King was to the civil rights movement and what Henry
Ford was to the automobile, Thomas Merton is to contemplative
prayer. Although this prayer movement existed centuries before
he came along, Merton took it out of its monastic setting and
made it available to and popular with the masses. It is interesting
to me that many people still think celebrity star Shirley MacLaine
was the greatest influence in the New Age. But for me, hands down,
Thomas Merton has influenced New Age thinking more than any person
of recent decades. Merton penned one of the most classic descriptions
of New Age spirituality I have ever come across. He explained:
"It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race,
... now I realize what we all are .... If only they [people] could
all see themselves as they really are ...I suppose the big problem
would be that we would fall down and worship each other ... At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which
is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth ...
This little point ...is the pure glory of God in us. It is
in everybody."
FROM A
TIME OF DEPARTING BY RAY YUNGEN (quoting Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1989
edition, 157-158)
Catholic
lay monk Wayne Teasdale says this of
Thomas Merton:
"Thomas Merton was perhaps the greatest popularizer of
interspirituality. He opened the door for Christians to explore
other traditions, notably Taoism (Chinese witchcraft), Hinduism
and Buddhism."
[Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's
Religions - Wayne Teasdale]
AND
Wayne
Teasdale , who wrote A Monk in the World, saw Thomas Merton
as being one of the leading interspiritual visionaries as Merton
assimilated "the major spiritual classics of the east into his
Christian understanding, particularly Zen Buddhist, Hindu Vedanta,
Yoga texts and Taoist classics." Wayne Teasdale also said of Merton:
"He was consciously trying to relate the mystical insights of
other traditions with his own Christian faith." p.181
Comment
from Ray Yungen
A
Christian is supposed to evangelize those from Eastern religions,
present them with the gospel rather than assimilate their mystical
insights. That's what the great commission was all about. That
is what the crux of our opposition is all about.
As a movement, those who practice contemplative prayer, on the
whole, tend to develop spiritual kinship to Eastern religions,
especially Buddhism.
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Thomas Keating
Database
of Books Written about Merton
Thomas
Merton said:
"I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity ... I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can."
(David Steindl-Rast, "Recollection of Thomas Merton's Last Days in the West" (Monastic Studies, 7:10, 1969)
"Why
did Merton say that? What did he mean? The story leading to Merton's
comment is a model for and recapitulation of the emergent and
still emerging Buddhist—Christian interreligious dialogue,
perhaps one of the more obscure yet more significant events occurring
today."
By
Alan Altany
FOR
HUNDRED MOUNTAIN
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Featured Resources
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Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that
uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness
(the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped
in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality
is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common
terms used for this movement are "spiritual formation," "the
silence," "the stillness," "ancient-wisdom,"
"spiritual disciplines," and many others.
Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case you will find contemplative spirituality. In fact, contemplative spirituality is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement. |
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