The shallow “I” of individualism can be possessed, developed, cultivated, and pandered to, satisfied: it is the center of all our strivings for gains and for satisfaction, whether material or spiritual. But the deep “I” of the spirit, of solitude and of love, cannot be “had,” possessed, developed, perfected. It can only be and act according to the inner laws which are not of man’s contriving but which come from God. They are the Laws of the Spirit who, like the wind, blows where He wills. This inner “I,” who is always alone, is always universal: for in this most inmost “I” my own solitude meets the solitude of every other man and the solitude of God. Hence it is beyond division, beyond limitation, beyond selfish affirmation.
Thomas Merton
Disputed Questions, p. 207
