Thomas Merton Quotes - Page 13

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• I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So there it is, with all its beautiful purposelessness, and it has become very familiar to me though I do not know "what it is." Or even if it is an "it." Not to be foolish and multiply words, I'll say simply that it seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the Gospels, and the Gospels are bursting with it. It is the proper climate for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation.

  Thomas Merton

  Beautiful, Spiritual, Atmosphere

  Thomas Merton (1988). “Encounter: Thomas Merton & D.T. Suzuki”

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• Power always protects the good of some at the expense of all others.

  Thomas Merton

  Protect, Expenses

  Thomas Merton (2010). “The Nonviolent Alternative”, p.213, Macmillan

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• Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

  Thomas Merton

  Relationship, Brother, Silence

  Thomas Merton (2002). “The Sign of Jonas”, p.280, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We cannot love ourselves unless we love others, and we cannot love others unless we love ourselves. But a selfish love of ourselves makes us incapable of loving others.

  Thomas Merton

  Love, Selfish, Loving Others

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• Ash Wednesday is full of joy...The source of all sorrow is the illusion that of ourselves we are anything but dust.

  Thomas Merton

  Dust, Joy, Sorrow

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• Our knowledge of God is perfected by gratiitude: we are thankful and rejoice in the experience of the truth that He is love.

  Thomas Merton

  Thanksgiving, Knowledge Of God, Rejoice

  Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.46, Macmillan

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• The truth never becomes clear as long as we assume that each one of us, individually, is the center of the universe.

  Thomas Merton

  Long, Assuming, Clear

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.21, Shambhala Publications

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• We assume that others are receiving the kind of appreciation we want for ourselves, and we proceed on the assumption that since we are not loveable as we are, we must become lovable under false pretenses, as if we were something better than we are.

  Thomas Merton

  Appreciation, Receiving, Want

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• Infinite sharing is the law of God s inner life.

  Thomas Merton

  Law, Infinite, Inner Life

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.1, Shambhala Publications

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• The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence. And Zen. suggests that we may be driving toward one or the other on a cosmic scale. Driving toward them because, one way or the other, as madmen or innocents, we are already there. It might be good to open our eyes and see.

  Thomas Merton

  Eye, May, Might

  "Zen and the Birds of Appetite".

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• But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Thinking, Hair

  "My Argument with the Gestapo: Autobiographical novel".

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• To find love I must enter into the sanctuary where it is hidden, which is the mystery of God.

  Thomas Merton

  Finding Love, Sanctuary, Mystery

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.61, New Directions Publishing

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• Now anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they first be asked.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Anxiety, Insecurity

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.13, Shambhala Publications

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• Life reveals itself to us only in so far as well live it.

  Thomas Merton

  Wells

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• Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Self, Order

  Thomas Merton (1972). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.180, New Directions Publishing

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• Life is not accomplishing some special work but attaining to a degree of consciousness and inner freedom which is beyond all works and attainments.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Special, Degrees

  Thomas Merton (1993). “The Courage for Truth: Letters to Writers”, p.345, Macmillan

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• To be truly Catholic is not merely to be correct according to an abstractly universal standard of truth, but also and above all to be able to enter into the problems and the joys of all, to understand all, to be all things to all.

  Thomas Merton

  Joy, Catholic, Able

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• Zen insight is not our awareness, but Being's awareness of itself in us.

  Thomas Merton

  Awareness, Insight

  Thomas Merton (1999). “Mystics and Zen Masters”, p.17, Macmillan

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• ....it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Jesus, Essence

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.82, Shambhala Publications

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• A Christian is committed to the belief that Love and Mercy are the most powerful forces on earth.

  Thomas Merton

  Christian, Powerful, Earth

  Thomas Merton (2010). “The Nonviolent Alternative”, p.105, Macmillan

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• Who is willing to be satisfied with a job that expresses all his limitations? He will accept such work only as a 'means of livelihood' while he waits to discover his 'true vocation'. The world is full of unsuccessful businessmen who still secretly believe they were meant to be artists or writers or actors in the movies.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Jobs, Believe

  Thomas Merton (2002). “Seeds”

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• There should be at least a room or some corner where no one will find you and disturb you or notice you.

  Thomas Merton

  Rooms, Should, Corners

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.81, New Directions Publishing

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• Our God...is a consuming fire. And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will be our everlasting joy. But if we refuse His love and remain in the coldness of sin and opposition to Him and to other men then will His fire (by our own choice rather than His) become our everlasting enemy, and Love, instead of being our joy, will become our torment and our destruction.

  Thomas Merton

  Spiritual, Love Is, Men

  Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.124, New Directions Publishing

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• Those who think they 'know' from the beginning will never in fact
  come to know anything.

  Thomas Merton

  Thinking, Facts, Knows

  Thomas Merton (2009). “Contemplative Prayer”, p.13, Image

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• Humble people can do great things with uncommon perfection because they are no longer concerned about their own interests and their own reputation, and therefore they no longer need to waste their efforts in defending them.

  Thomas Merton

  Humble, Humility, People

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