Tag: Merton
The Purpose of Education: True Freedom
The purpose of education is to show us how to define ourselves authentically and spontaneously in relation to our world — not to impose a prefabricated definition of the world, still less an arbitrary definition of ourselves as individuals. The world is made up of the people who are fully alive in it: that is,… Read More ›
The Value of True Humility
It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the… Read More ›
Work for Total Abolition of War
What is the place of the Christian in all this? Is he simply to fold his hands and resign himself to the worst, accepting it as the inescapable will of God and preparing himself to enter heaven with a sigh of relief? Should he open up the apocalypse and run out into the street to… Read More ›
Yoda, Yoga, and Merton
“Do or do not, there is no try, Young Skywalker.” I love Yoda. I have a rather large rubber hand puppet of Yoda perched on the sill looking out of my office window at home. When you pull into my driveway you can look up and see Yoda peering down at you. I see this… Read More ›
Caricature of Contemplation
Thomas Merton was adamant that television — at least American television — was a danger for any who are interested in progressing further in the practice of contemplation. He expresses himself on the subject with characteristic verve, a little acerbity, and a not-untypical degree of exaggeration. “The life of a television-watcher is a kind of… Read More ›
The Culture of Death and Entertainment
The culture of death is simultaneously a culture dominated by the notion of “entertainment.” . . . The very notion of entertainment presumes the state of boredom as the norm, which means that a culture increasingly fueled by this notion assumes that our lives are innately and intrinsically meaningless without the constant stream of “stimulation”… Read More ›