Sunday, March 9, 2008

flight from the world

"There is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but the flight from disunity and separation, to unity and peace in the love of other men."


(NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION, page 78)

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for bringing this book back to me. It's been 25 years since I read it. It was the 2nd book I read by Merton, and the first to plant the seed that I might, some day, become a Christian.

    Mr. Skank has told me for years that the "short cut to enlightenment is the path of morality." The reason why he's had to repeat it to me is because I tended toward the nouveau New Aeon esoteric- "this is the space age and we are here to go" (out of our bodies, out of time/space limitations) in which technique tends to take presidence.

    It was a bit of a shock when I read Edith Stein's words about how there was growing in western culture a belief that "nothing is true, everything is permitted." These are the exact words that have become the principal tenet for the group I just described.

    If I veered of topic again, forgive me. It is an unfortunate tendency of "5's" on the enneagram to reference everything to find patterns.

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