Thomas Merton

You should go!!!

I don't think anybody can say with certainty what happened to Merton There were reports that he was killed by the Catholic Hierarchy or the CIA. (There were a lot of deaths of important figures in the 1960s!!) A book came out about 7 years ago called The Death of Thomas Merton suggesting that Merton had killed himself because he was Christian and should have been following the Vedantic path. According to the author, he was ready for deeper spiritual depth and his loyalty to Catholicism created a spiritual despair. His death is officially listed as an accident due to faulty grounding on a fan he accidentally touched while getting out of his bathtub. Very weird. But who knows? Nobody knows for certain and we probably never will know. Best to just read Merton and decide what you think for yourself. Personally, I think you'd really like what he was about.

He practiced Zen Buddhism and was extremely involved in trying to bridge the East-West gap which was not a popular subject in his day. He was also very outspoken about the Vietnam War and civil rights. He wasn't always a popular guy - especially among those who were/are suspect of Eastern religions, mysticism, peace activism, and even Catholicism.

He had traveled extensively in Asia and was in Bangkok when he died, preparing to give a talk about the similarities between Catholicism and Buddhism. He had met the Dalai Lama and was friends with D.T. Suzuki (who is well known for bringing Zen to the west). Suzuki claimed Merton had a rare Western mind that was entirely at home in Asian experience. The Dalai Lama said he had a more profound understanding of Buddhism than any other Christian he had met. He was an excellent bridge between East and West and not all Christians were particularly happy about having that bridge.

I read his Seven Storey Mountain very early on in my Catholic days and thankfully didn't stop there. He became somewhat frustrated with the book because he was so young when he wrote it and became much more spiritually mature in his later years, yet the Catholic Church continued to push it as his spiritual masterpiece when his spirituality had deepened greatly in his later years. The powers that be in the Catholic Church weren't as fond of his mystical spiritual depth as they were his youthful monasticism.

I learned of Merton through my RCIA sponsor who had been a Buddhist before he converted to Catholicism. I suppose I had Buddhist leanings even way back then so he encouraged me to read was Merton's Palace of Nowhere by James Finley (which had a foreward by Henri Nouwen - another Catholic trouble maker with eastern leanings.)

It's been a very long time since I read that book - but at the time I thought it was very cool stuff. More recently I've read Zen and the Birds of Appetite - much of which is based on dialog between Merton and Suzuki.

You should go. I really think this is right up your alley.

Oops! I did write a lot. Sorry about that. I'm quite enthusiastic about Merton. He had a profound affect on my thinking many years ago (and is part of what made becoming Catholic so easy for me!) I have Merton: A Film Biography and noticed it's available to watch instantly on Netflix. (I was looking to see if Netflix had the film you are going to see - they don't darnit! And it's $30.00 through Amazon!)