Merton & Buddhism

I came across this article (and this book) just today:

Seeking peace --

Merton's affinity for Buddhism explored

By Frederick Smock

Tongues are wagging over just how Buddhist the celebrated Trappist monk Thomas Merton became late in his life.

"Because it has traditionally been understood that Christianity makes exclusive claims on those of us who follow Jesus, when a great master in our tradition studies (and practices) another way, eyebrows are raised," Bonnie Thurston writes in her preface to Merton & Buddhism.

Sometimes the worry seems nervous.

John Eudes Bamberger, who studied under Merton, wrote in his book Thomas Merton: Prophet of Renewal, "There is no basis for the opinion that Merton's faith in the church or in his Cistercian vocation was ever modified, much less weakened by, his interest in the East."

Not even "modified"?  Thurston, in a second essay here (on the Zen influence in Merton's poetry) writes that "when Merton reached out to Buddhism, he did so by going to his own deepest roots."

The question about his Buddhist leanings could really only be answered by one man, Merton himself, who is no longer with us.

Merton was accidentally electrocuted in Bangkok in 1968, after delivering an address (which was not well received, by the way) to a conference of world religious leaders on the subject of reconciling the differences between Buddhism and Christianity.

Many of the attendees deemed such a reconciliation to be impossible.

The current volume, Merton & Buddhism, collects essays from a conference at the Louisville Seminary entitled "Merton and Buddhism: Wisdom, Emptiness and Everyday Mind," preceded by foundational essays in each title subject, by Buddhist scholar Roger Corless, and Merton scholar . .. Thurston. Taken together, these essays open up avenues of inquiry in solid and exciting ways.

Merton encountered Eastern mysticism as early as 1930, at the Oakham School in England, when he investigated Gandhi for a class report.   At the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, he renewed his interest, corresponding with D.T. Suzuki (who introduced America to Zen in the 1960s) and others, and by writing such books as Mystics and Zen Masters (1967) and Zen and the Birds of Appetite (1968).

He traveled in Thailand and India, meeting fellow monks, and leaning ever eastward.  He was searching for the perfect retreat, which Gethsemani did not provide him, even in his private hermitage.  If he had survived his trip to Bangkok, would he have returned to Kentucky and Gethsemani?  Or might he have established a hermitage in Dharamsala, or Alaska, or Sri Lanka, or Kyoto, that lovely Japanese city of temples?  There is no way to know.

Paul Pearson, the director of the Merton Center at Bellarmine University, contributes an essay about the Zen nature of Merton's photographs -- of tree roots, weeds, and junk-piles. Indian children. Mount Kanchenjunga. The Buddhas at Polonnaruwa. "The camera is the most eager and helpful of beings, all full of happy suggestions," Merton wrote in The Road to Joy. " 'Try this!' 'Do it that way!' Reminding me of things I have overlooked.… This is a Zen camera."

Other essays include Roger Lipsey on Merton's calligraphic drawings, James Wiseman on Merton and Theravada Buddhism, Judith Simmer-Brown on Merton and Tibetan Buddhism, and Ruben Habito on Merton's Zen experience.

Paul Pearson also appends a bibliography on Merton and Buddhism.

Full article here.

(Oh, and for the record, the lama pictured on the cover of this book is Chattral Rinpoche, who, some twenty years ago, when I showed him a picture of Thomas Merton, said then that he remembered Merton very well.

You can read Merton's impression of Chattral Rinpoche in Merton's Asian journals -- click on book list on the right.)

Comments

[scruffysmileyface]

Didn't Merton bounce around a lot? Like, he was Sufi, then Taoist, Confucianist, Hindu, Jain, etc? I've also heard that he followed something akin to the Olcott version of Buddhism, with all of its wierdness.

Could be wrong, though.

[Buddhist Jihad]

No, not at all, not to my knowledge. It's likely he was familiar with other traditions. Olcott was long long before his time.

He converted to Roman Catholicism as an adult, and spent most of his life after 34 a Cistercian Trappist monk, living in a monastery in Kentucky, called Gethsemani. They're a contemplative order, with lots of emphasis on prayer and silence. Nevertheless, he felt called to do even more, as in doing individual retreat in a hermitage, which is not so much a part of their tradition (though it is in the Tibetan tradition.) He also was a prolific writer.

When he traveled to Asia, he met both the Dalai Lama and later Chattral Rinpoche, the lama whose picture appears on this book. Chattral Rinpoche and Merton discussed religious subjects, such as emptiness, (referred to by both Merton in his book, and Chattral Rinpoche in our discussion) but Merton never actually practiced meditation according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition; indeed, he died quite soon after these meetings, just a matter of a few weeks.

[john west]

nice web site!

off the top of your head, is there one or two (only) books written by merton that would suit a buddhist to read about what merton thinks of buddhism..if that makes sense?
thanks for any help with this.

yours john west

[Buddhist Jihad]

His posthumous "Asian Journal." out of print, but still available.

http://www.amazon.com/Asian-Journal-Thomas-Merton-Directions/dp/0811205703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235426289&sr=1-1

"Zen and the Birds of Appetite," "Mytics and Zen Masters,"

[Ken]

I hear that Thomas Merton had said that he had exhausted his studies of the scriptures. Is this true? And if so, Do you really believe the scriptures are so easily exhausted that we could get bored with them and have the need to look into other religions.

[Buddhist Jihad]

I don't know that that is true. I had not heard that.