Fetters and freedom: on Thomas Merton’s vision of transcendence through faith | Hacker News Reader

Fetters and freedom: on Thomas Merton’s vision of transcendence through faith

newcriterion.com

45 pointslermontov16 comments

"Each day consisted of the same routines: He chanted the Divine Offices in the monastery’s church with his brothers, prayed in solitude at various points in the day, and worked on the monastery’s grounds scrubbing floors, chopping wood, and engaging in other tasks. He lived in an austere cell; ate plain meals..."

Recently a documentary was made about the daily life in another monastery. It's called "Into Great Silence",[1] and I recommend it for a glimpse in to this sort of life.

I've long been interested in trying to live such a simple existence, but I'm afraid I don't know of any such places that aren't religious in some way, which is a real pity.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Great_Silence

http://www.vedantaworld.org ; depends what you mean by religion. If you mean rituals, chanting, singing and livery, sure there's some of that. But it's the most non-secular approach to 'rejoining with the source' (religion = re-ligare) that I could find, as a previously confirmed and staunch atheist.

The daily schedule involves a relatively austere but comfortable routine, which is supported by a strong questioning and reasoning regime. The entire living experience speaks to and reinforces the knowledge imparted.

I don't believe in God, now. But perhaps been purged of the arrogance that the equipments I have are capable of knowing everything.

Edit: there's a retreat in India in December, here's a link to the invite: http://vedanta.org.za/media/pdf/2016_Vedanta_International_R...

Disclaimer: alumnus of the Vedanta Academy and Vedanta teacher for 3 years in South Africa.

I wonder, if there are no such places that aren't religious in some way, could that be evidence that it is impossible to sustain such places without having some sort of religious foundation to them?

My father visited Merton several times at the monastery in the early 60's (on his own way in to the Catholic church, as an Episcopal clergyman), and found him a most gracious man, giving the clear impression of timeless availability, coupled with fervent interest in my father's situation.

A truly holy man.

I found it pretty odd that in an article about Thomas Merton, there wasn't a single reference to Jesus Christ.

Need there be? I don't see where the lack harms the article.

Thomas Merton is pretty far out. Some amazing souls have walked the earth. Get away from your screen someday, and you mind may be blow, like really blown far away.

Add to your list to explore: Dorothy Day Allan Watts Ram Das Krishnamurti

Should keep you busy, for a few decades.

"A wounded man is not an agnostic - he just has different questions, arising out of his wound." - Merton.

Well, if you're going to OD on religion, that's one of the better ways to do it.

I've never studied Zen Buddhism, but Thomas Merton's message seems (to me) to be inspired by the Bhagavad Gita. I like a guy who extols the virtues of meditation.

A fine "beat" poet as well ;)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detai...

Had he come of political consciousness during the Digital Age, rather than the Cold War, his message would be exactly the same.

Any technological advancements that take us further away from the Mysterious Unity, the Mother of All, will necessarily bind us in webs of illusion and ultimately lead to disunity and strife.

>Any technological advancements that take us further away from the Mysterious Unity, the Mother of All, will necessarily bind us in webs of illusion and ultimately lead to disunity and strife.

i find that blaming of technology is kind of like cheating, kind of easy scapegoating. Emergence of eukaryotes was a great bio-hack by the life back then and that bio-hack directly led to separate organisms as we exist now thus to disunity and strife. I guess we should instead have stayed as simple molecules happily floating in the primordinary soup, in full nirvana and mysterious unity.

Look, if you're expecting terms like "Mysterious Unity" and "Mother of All", complete with Capital Letters for Extra Cosmic Importance, to actually mean anything, you're expecting too much.

Disunity is inherent in individual embodiment. It's worthwhile to remind oneself of the godhead from time to time, but there's a point past which that can become flight from the nature of one's existence, which strikes me as both wasteful and futile.

What does the Bhagavad Gita have to do with Zen Buddhism.

Eh? Those are from two different (though somewhat related in history) traditions. I don't remember which meditation book, it's been a while, but it had clear terminology from the Gita. Wasn't one of the books with "Zen" in the title, FWIW.

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