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Title: Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0-374-51325-2 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 29 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.69 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A voice of peace that can be heard above our noise
Comment: To defend the spirit against what Merton calls "the murderous din of our materialism", we must learn to live in solitude. But true solitary life is not a withdrawal from society: on the contrary, it is the only way to become social in the fullest sense, because through solitude we come to comprehend God's profound love for us, so that we can love other men in imitation and reverence of Him. Of the many themes Merton emphasizes in explaining true solitude, gratitude and humility are perhaps the most important. To live in solitude is to be without attachment to material things, personal relationships, or even spiritual accomplishment. Therefore solitude is a life of utter poverty and humility: our entire lives are a gift to God. Through this act we discover that nothing is due us, and our lives become an ongoing prayer of gratitude for whatever gifts we receive. For the true solitary, actions are far more important than thoughts, because, as Merton points out, if our ideas are not reflected in our actions, we do not really think them. If we do not follow our true vocation our lives will be choked by internal conflict between what we are called to do and what we actually do. Or worse, we may avoid the problem by ignoring our spiritual condition. Merton's commentary is highly relevant to all who care about their spiritual condition, and all who seek God in the murderous din.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Elixir for our Age of Anxiety
Comment: Thomas Merton writes words that, in their simplicity and honesty and clarity, point humanity to a more holistic idea of what it means to be spiritual. As Merton says, "The spiritual life is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived." By focusing on the power we can gain from a deeper understanding of poverty, humility, solitude, prayer, Scripture, and love, Merton shows us that it is not enough to live "for God" or "with God," but "in God alone," and in Him we find ourselves and our inalienable spirituality. We can discover that to love God with a human heart is enough, for that is what Jesus did and died for, that we may do the same: love God and our fellow man not as angels or demi-gods or as a pure intellect, but as the humans God made in His own image.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great wisdom if you are ready
Comment: The title of this book derives from 1953/54 when Merton was able to enjoy special opportunities for solitude and meditation; the contents of this book are thoughts on the contemplative life and fundamental intuitions that seemed, at that time, to have importance. As such, the chapters do not necessarily relate to one another and are, as the title suggests, a collection of thoughts while in solitude. "It is quite likely that intuitions which seem to be most vital to the writer will not have much importance for others, who do not have the same kind of vocation." For the writer, these reflections on man's solitude before God and man's dialogue with God in silence are essential to his monastic way of life. It is a counterbalance to totalitarianism and the murderous din of materialism that must not be allowed to silence the voices of the Christian Saints, Oriental sages like Lao-Tse or the Zen Masters or Thoreau, Martin Buber or Max Picard. "What is said here about solitude is not just a recipe for hermits. It has a bearing on the whole future of man and of his world and especially, of course, on the future of his religion." Part I is composed of 19 thoughts on aspects of the spiritual life; part II of 18 thoughts on the love of solitude
The desert, supremely valuable to God because it has no value to men, is the logical dwelling place for the solitary with nothing between himself and his Creator. But as man has moved into the desert for testing nuclear weapons or building casinos, the desert moves elsewhere. The new desert is despair.
All temperaments can serve as material for ruin or for salvation; if we make our temperament serve us we can do better than another who serves his temperament. The things we love tell what we are. A man who sins but does not love his sin is not a sinner in the full sense of the word. Even if we are temperamentally inclined to anger, we are still free not to be angry. We are free to desire either good or evil. Too many ascetics fail to become saints because their rules and ascetic practices have merely deadened humanity instead of setting it free to develop richly, in all its capacities.
Jesus had a clear vision of God but experienced our human emotions of affection, pity, sorrow, happiness, pleasure, grief, indignation, wonder, weariness, anxiety, fear, consolation and peace. If we are without human feelings we cannot love God as we are meant to love Him - as men.
Our five senses are chilled by inordinate pleasure. Penance cleans the senses and gives them back their vitality. Lack of self-denial and self discipline is the cause of mediocrity of much devotional art, much pious writing, many sentimental prayers and many religious lives. "Some men turn away from all this cheap emotion with a kind of heroic despair, and seek God in a desert where the emotions can find nothing to sustain them. But this too can be an error. For if our emotions really die in the desert, our humanity dies with them. We must return from the desert like Jesus or St. John with our capacity for feeling expanded and deepened, strengthened against appeals of falsity, warned against temptation, great, noble, pure."
No amount of technological progress will cure the hatred that eats away the vitals of materialistic society like a spiritual cancer. The only cure is spiritual.
A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thoughts for life, ideas for action. Our destiny is to live out what we think. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into reality.
Real self-conquest is the conquest of ourselves by the Holy Spirit. Self-conquest is really self-surrender.
Laziness and cowardice are two of the greatest enemies of the spiritual life and they are most dangerous when masked as discretion. The problem is that discretion is one of the most important virtues.
"Why should I want to be rich, when you were poor? Why should I desire to be famous and powerful in the eyes of men, when the sons of those who exalted the false prophets and stoned the True rejected You and nailed You to the Cross? Why should I cherish in my heart a hope that devours me - the hope for perfect happiness in this life - when such hope, doomed to frustration, is nothing but despair?"
Thomas Merton has great wisdom to pass on to us if we are ready to receive it.
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Title: New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton ISBN: 081120099X Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: November, 1974 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0156010860 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 04 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0385092199 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1971 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Spiritual Direction and Meditation by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0814604129 Publisher: Liturgical Press Pub. Date: June, 1986 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Praying the Psalms by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0814605486 Publisher: Liturgical Press Pub. Date: December, 1956 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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