Merton And Thich Nhat Hanh Summary
Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh: the Dialogue between West and East
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in his “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation” in 1989 has raised a pastoral concern about the attempt to mix Christian mediation with eastern techniques in recent spiritual movements. The pope says that these renewal spiritual proposals need to have “their contents and method ever subjected to a thorough-going examination so as to avoid the danger of falling into syncretism.” In the case of Thomas Merton, throughout his pilgrim of seeking for the dialogue between the East and the West, his intention was to avoid two extremes in interreligious dialogue: apologetics and syncretism. …show more content…
They came back to Merston’s birthplace. Merton described the experience of coming back to his birthplace as a returning home because of the connection with contemplation that he had before. When Merton was little, he often played around the ruined monasteries, which allowed him to fall into deep thoughts and imaginations. Strangely enough, Merton never felt that kind of deep spiritual senses when he went to church’s service, but as he walked around the ruined ancient monasteries, he fell into the contemplation, which later pushed him to search for his spiritual experiences in a …show more content…
The death of his father left Merton sad and depressed. Later he recalled “I was there in the dark, unhappy room, unable to think, unable to move…without a home, family, country, father, friends, even without God.” The trauma affected Merton’s spirituality greatly. Feeling alone in this world without any protection made he feel that he was free from everything. This spiritual insight led Merton to seek to his interior self rather than material security. After his father’s death Merton left France and traveled to Rome. In there, Merton was fascinated by the beauty of Byzatine arts, which intrigued Merton to discover the person of Jesus. He started to read and study the Gospels.
There was one incident happened to Merton while he was in Rome completely changed his life. One night, Merton had a vision that his father came back to him. It was so real to Merton that he could see how the misery and corruption of his soul was. He described, “My whole being rose up in revolt against what was within me, and my soul desired escape and liberation and freedom from all this with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything that ever known before.” This was for the first time ever, Merton really prayed so that God would free him from terrible
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in his “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation” in 1989 has raised a pastoral concern about the attempt to mix Christian mediation with eastern techniques in recent spiritual movements. The pope says that these renewal spiritual proposals need to have “their contents and method ever subjected to a thorough-going examination so as to avoid the danger of falling into syncretism.” In the case of Thomas Merton, throughout his pilgrim of seeking for the dialogue between the East and the West, his intention was to avoid two extremes in interreligious dialogue: apologetics and syncretism. …show more content…
They came back to Merston’s birthplace. Merton described the experience of coming back to his birthplace as a returning home because of the connection with contemplation that he had before. When Merton was little, he often played around the ruined monasteries, which allowed him to fall into deep thoughts and imaginations. Strangely enough, Merton never felt that kind of deep spiritual senses when he went to church’s service, but as he walked around the ruined ancient monasteries, he fell into the contemplation, which later pushed him to search for his spiritual experiences in a …show more content…
The death of his father left Merton sad and depressed. Later he recalled “I was there in the dark, unhappy room, unable to think, unable to move…without a home, family, country, father, friends, even without God.” The trauma affected Merton’s spirituality greatly. Feeling alone in this world without any protection made he feel that he was free from everything. This spiritual insight led Merton to seek to his interior self rather than material security. After his father’s death Merton left France and traveled to Rome. In there, Merton was fascinated by the beauty of Byzatine arts, which intrigued Merton to discover the person of Jesus. He started to read and study the Gospels.
There was one incident happened to Merton while he was in Rome completely changed his life. One night, Merton had a vision that his father came back to him. It was so real to Merton that he could see how the misery and corruption of his soul was. He described, “My whole being rose up in revolt against what was within me, and my soul desired escape and liberation and freedom from all this with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything that ever known before.” This was for the first time ever, Merton really prayed so that God would free him from terrible