"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."
"By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet."
"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another."
These quotes are from Thomas Merton, Catholic writer, theologian and Trappist monk. Merton was the son of a New Zealand painter and an American Quaker and artist. Although Merton was baptized in the Church of England, as a youth, he was an agnostic, not really believing in anything. At the age of 18, he began a tour of Europe which changed his life. When he went to Rome, he began to go to the churches. He didn't participate, but he did observe. He thought he wanted to be a Trappist monk, but it would take many years for that to occur.
Merton visited the United States to see his grandparents before he entered Cambridge University. In college, he forgot about the churches in Rome. He was isolated. It's reported that his college years were dark. He drank and spent too much. Although he did finish his exams for his first year of college, he transferred to Columbia University in the United States as a sophomore. It was here that he matured and discovered Catholicism personally. Merton wrote for many of the literary journals. He also became involved in the peace movement.
No one expected Merton to become a priest, as he had not even been confirmed in the Catholic Church. He was almost 25 when he received Confirmation and not very long after, he announced his decision to enter the priesthood. When he disclosed his past to the mentor who recommended him for the priesthood, Merton was told that he was unsuitable for the Franciscan vocation as a friar. It would be another two years before he would be accepted as a novice monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani, an austere order that spoke in sign language.
He Was Called To Be a Priest, but His Livelihood Was Writing
Merton continued writing, with the blessing of his superior. He began publishing manuscripts of his poetry and journey, publishing an autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain," which was a best-seller in 1949. This autobiography was met with criticism from his fellow monks. One objected to Merton's style, finding it inappropriate for a monk. But Merton's style appealed to a wider audience. The book was named one of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century. Merton would go on to amass a wide readership. He wrote over 70 books before his death, even though he lived in solitude on the monastery grounds.
Merton became interested in Eastern religions when he was younger and studied many of them, including Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Jainism and Sufism. He believed that non-Christian faiths had a lot to offer Christianity, not in doctrine, but in experience and perspective. When Merton's abbot allowed him to go to Asia in 1968, Merton met the Dalia Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist Dzogcheen master and other religious leaders. He was in Bangkok, attending an interfaith conference, when he died.
Thomas Merton is widely regarded as a 20th century thinker and mystic. If you have never explored any of his writings, you should add it to your reading list. "No Man Is an Island" is a very popular book, but so are his autobiographies.
