I recently visited the Abbey of Gethsemani of St. Mary of the Cistercian monks in Kentucky, the US, where American Catholic writer and mystic Thomas Merton is buried. Merton was more than just an academic. He was keen on dialogue with other religions.
One of the most influential American Catholic authors of the 20th century, Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, sold millions of copies. He wrote over 70 other books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality, inter-religious dialogue, to civil rights, non-violence and the nuclear arms race.
One incident which made a deep impression on Merton was his meeting with a Hindu monk named Brahmachari from whom Merton wanted to learn more about Hindu traditions. Brahmachari, however, told him: “There are many beautiful mystical books written by the Christians. You should read St. Augustine’s Confessions, and The Imitation of Christ”. This led him not only to a life of contemplation but also to a deeper respect of Hindu sages.
Merton was also influenced by Buddhism, and studied the teachings of Zen master D.T. Suzuki and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. After meeting Hanh, Merton said, “...he and I see things in exactly the same way”. His book, Mystics and Zen Masters, looked at his own Catholic Trappist tradition of contemplation vis-à-vis that of the Zen masters.
His interest to dialogue with more religions led him to study mystical Islamic Sufism of which he said, “I’m deeply impregnated with Sufism. Sufis chant the name of Allah as a mantra, go into meditative trances and experience God in everything.” The Yoga Journal once wrote, “Merton had encountered Zen Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism and Vedanta many years prior to his Asian journey. He was able to uncover the stream where the wisdom of East and West merge and flow together, beyond dogma, in the depths of inner experience”.
Merton is one example of how one can grow through dialogue with other religions and yet be firmly grounded in one’s own faith. He once wrote, “Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for myself by excluding all these”.
One of his famous quotes worth remembering for our own lives is, “What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous”.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament
of Religions. He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com
