Merton

[Guest guest]

 

Gloria Lee [glee]

Thursday, September 16, 1999 12:55 AM

NondualitySalon

Cc: HS

Merton

 

 

"Gloria Lee" <glee

 

 

 

I was just today reading about Merton's Asian pilgrimage and I want to share

this excerpt..there he had 4 nice days with the Dalai Lama, and met several

other lamas..on his way to Bangkok, where he died. Here's a description of

a meeting with the Nyingma lama Chatral Rinpoche. (hint: dharmakaya = true,

ultimate reality, "truth-body of Buddha, for my fellow Americans:))

 

They were both monks of zero pretense and they saw eye to eye. Chatral was a

master of Dzogchen, and he lived in a little gompa high in the hills above

Ghoom. ... The two monks talked for two hours about all sorta of things -

"but all leading back to dzogchen, the ultimate emptiness, the unity of

shunyata and karuna, going 'beyond the dharmakaya' and 'beyond God' to the

ultimate perfect emptiness. He said he had meditated in solitude for thirty

years or more and had not attained to perfect emptiness," wrote Merton, and

I said I hadn't either."

 

 

How to attain Perfect Emptiness?! If Perfect Emptiness embraces all things,

how can it be attained? Thanks Gloria for writing on Merton's travels. What

a wonderful mind he had.

 

Bowing to the wise sages in all religions and traditions (and those who have

given up all religions and traditions in the embrace of fullness).

 

Harsha

[Guest guest]

- Jometz

NondualitySalon

Sunday, January 02, 2000 8:04 AM

[NondualitySalon] Merton

Thomas Merton, in Disputed QuestionsThe solitary may well beat his

head against a wall of doubt.That may well be the full extent of his

contemplation. Do not mistake my meaning. It is not a question of

intellectual doubt, an analytical investigation of the theological,

philosophical or some other truths. It is something else, a kind of

unknowing of his own self, a kind of doubt that questions the very

roots of his own existence, a doubt which undermines his very reasons

for existing and for doing what he does. It is this doubt which

reduces him finally to silence, and in the silence which ceases to

ask questions, he receives the only certitude he knows : The presence

of God in the midst of uncertainty and nothingness, as the only

reality but as a reality which cannot be "placed" or identified.

Hence the solitary man says nothing, and does his work, and is

patient, ( or perhaps impatient, I don't know ) but generally he has

peace. It is not the world's kind of peace. He is happy, but he never

has a good time. He knows where he is going, but he is not "sure of

his way," he just knows by going there. He does not see the way

beforehand, and when he arrives, he arrives. His arrivals are usually

departures from anything that resembles a "way." That is his way. But

he cannot understand it. Neither can we.

------The

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