Thomas Merton

There once was a convert to Catholicism who entered the Gethsemani Trappist Monastery in Kentucky when he was 27 years old.  He died 27 years later, in 1968.  He is one of the best-known Catholic writers of our time.  He wrote books about theology and spirituality, and books about contemporary social issues (e.g., racism, war and nuclear proliferation).  He was also a poet and photographer.  To his brother monks in the monastery, he was known as Father Louis.  But to his readers, he was known by his given name, Thomas Merton.

One of the things that I like about Merton is that he viewed life as a journey and believed that he could always learn more, always improve his understanding of himself and his relationship to God.  As a Trappist monk, he was of course focused on prayer and deepening his understanding of God and his relationship to God.  He studied the lives and writings of saints and spiritual writers who had preceded him.  He learned whatever he could about monastic life.  He was deeply committed to his monastic vocation.  However, he was not constricted by the traditional structure of Catholic monasticism.  He was always open to new ideas.  Toward the end of his life, he became very interested in Eastern religions (e.g., Zen Buddhism, Sufism).  In these religions, he saw monks who were able to achieve transcendence that was similar to the contemplative experience of God that those in the Western religious traditions might achieve.  He believed he could learn from these Eastern monks lessons that would help enrich and complement his Catholic faith.

Contemplation was very important to Merton.  He wrote a number of books that focused on that subject.  But he also understood the need for Christian action in the world.  I admire the way he respected both these important aspects of Christianity.  Merton believed that solitude was very important in people’s lives.  For himself, he advocated for years for the opportunity to live as a hermit.  For the last 3 years of his life he was able to do this, living alone in a hermitage on the grounds of Gethsemani.  For those of us not living in a monastery, Merton believed that contemplation and solitude could help us to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and focus on the important things of life.  This contemplation and solitude help us experience God’s love in a deeper way and then lead us to bring God’s love to the world through social action.

One of the other things that I like about Thomas Merton is how down-to-earth he seemed.  Despite his being a well-known author, whose books were read around the world, the other monks at Gethsemani typically regarded him as just a brother monk.  And that is the way he saw himself.  His journals show that he was anything but perfect.  He struggled with obedience to his superiors throughout his monastic life.  Other monks described how he could be curt and abrupt when he thought a conversation was not worth having.  So, despite his great understanding of the spiritual life and his valuable writings that have guided so many others, we see Merton struggling in his spiritual journey, just as we do.

I admire Merton’s dedication to his faith, his journey to deepen that faith and draw closer to God throughout his life, his recognition of the importance of both contemplation and faith-driven social action, and a recognition of his ongoing struggle to become the best person he could be.  His writings cover a wide range of topics, so there might be something for everyone’s interests.  I’m listing some of them below.

Spirituality

Seven Story Mountain (autobiography from birth to life in the monastery)

New Seeds of Contemplation

No Man Is an Island

Contemplation in a World of Action

The Wisdom of the Desert

Social Action

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Cold War Letters

Raids on the Unspeakable

Spirituality of the East

The Way of Chuang Tzu

Mystics and Zen Masters

Zen and the Birds of Appetite

Also, here’s a link to a webpage about Merton on the Abbey of Gethsemani website.  It includes a picture of Merton.

Be Open to the Truth - Addendum

Just a couple days after I posted my blog Be Open to the Truth, I came across a column on Common Dreams that included some good examples of things that many people believe that are not supported by facts.  I thought the information included supported the point I was making in my blog post.  The piece I'm referring to is "U.S. Running on Myths, Lies, Deceptions and Distractions" by John Atcheson.  I hope it rings true for you as it did for me.  You can get to the column by clicking on the name of the article above.

 

Be Open to the Truth

I have a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy.  Sometimes I feel embarrassed to admit that, since I think a lot of people’s reaction would be “What can you do with a degree in Philosophy?”  But, I’m glad that I studied Philosophy and believe it has benefited me greatly throughout my life.

Philosophy is about the meaning of life, what we know, how we know it and how to live ethically. Having a philosophical perspective on life means being open to new ideas, new experiences, new information.  It means being willing to consider ideas, experiences and information, even if they seem to conflict with our currently-held beliefs.  It means thinking critically about our experiences and not just accepting things as true because we saw it on tv, read it in the paper or heard it from a politician.

During my senior year in college, I wrote a paper about philosophy and ideology.  As opposed to philosophy, which is open to all information, ideas and experiences, ideology is rooted in specific ideas and rejects concepts that don’t fit with them.  Presented with new information, philosophy would evaluate it, try to determine its validity and see how it could fit in with the current belief system.  This process might result in that belief system being modified.  Ideology would reject it if it were not compatible with the current belief system.

Racism is a good example of an ideology.  Many people who grew up in the southern United States before the civil rights movement, held a deeply rooted belief that black people were, by nature, inferior to whites.   That belief made them reject facts that would have required them to accept blacks as equals.  Another example of an ideology is the belief of many Americans that global warming does not exist, despite a consensus among most scientists that it is a reality.

We all have a natural tendency to accept certain information and ideas and shut out others.  It’s easier to do this than to leave ourselves open to information and ideas that challenge our current belief system.  However, I think that conservatives in America have a greater tendency to do this.  For example, currently one of the major tenets of conservatism is that taxes not be increased for any reason.  This belief is practically absolute.  No matter what’s happening in our country, taxes must remain as they are; or, better yet, be decreased.  It’s the solution to everything.  If the economy is doing well, the best way to keep it that way is to decrease taxes.  If the economy is doing poorly, decreasing taxes will help it improve.

Another example of conservative ideology is its opposition to regulations.  The belief is that all regulations stifle American business.  There is no acknowledgement that deregulation of the financial industry resulted in a worldwide economic crisis that we are still suffering through.  Related to this is the concept that millionaires and billionaires need to have their taxes reduced so they can be job creators.  Their taxes have been reduced and it hasn’t led to significant job creation.  It doesn’t work – but conservatives won’t admit it.  The belief of many conservatives that President Obama was not born in the United States is based on ideology.  When his long form birth certificate was released, the reaction of some conservatives was that it must be a fake.

Let’s all work at not becoming ideologues, people who won’t take the risk of considering new information and ideas that don’t fit in with our current beliefs.  Let’s be open to new ideas.  Let’s evaluate them carefully.  Let’s be willing to change our ideas and beliefs if we encounter new ideas that are valid and truthful.  Let’s act like philosophers!