the collective illusion

"If we take our vulnerable shell to be our true identity, if we think our mask is our true face, we will protect it with fabrications even at the cost of violating our own truth. This seems to be the collective endeavor of society: the more busily we dedicate ourselves to it, the more certainly it becomes a collective illusion, until in the end we have the enormous, obsessive, uncontrollable dynamic of fabrications designed to protect mere fictitious identities - "selves", that is to say, regarded as objects. Selves that can stand back and see themselves having fun (an illusion which reassures them they are real)." 

- Thomas Merton, 'Raids on the Unspeakable', pg15

The Honesty of Thomas Merton

I like this article over on The Internet Monk a lot.  Just goes to show how honesty cuts through all sorts of things that we think divide us.

The Monk Who Wouldn't Go Away by Michael Spencer 

One of the joys of having a hero is sharing him/her with someone else. If you know me very long, you'll hear about my hero, Thomas Merton: monk, writer, poet, activist, Christian, enigma, good looking bald man. Merton (1915-1968) is one of the most significant religious writers of the twentieth century and a lasting influence on untold numbers of Christians (and non-Christians) from every tradition and culture. For those of us in the Bluegrass state, he also holds the distinction of being perhaps the most significant religious figure to reside in Kentucky, being a monk at Our Lady of Gesthemeni monastery near Bardstown for twenty-seven years. He is buried there today.  

Merton is a strange kind of hero for me. I am a conservative Reformed Protestant. He was a liberal Roman Catholic who could easily have become a Buddhist. Merton was a former communist sympathizer turned Democrat who found Gene McCarthy too tame. I am a libertarian-Republican who wishes Pat Buchanan's brain could be surgically altered and put in George W's body. Merton befriended and praised the sixtie's liberal pantheon; wrote poems about them, wrote letters for them. I think those people- Baez, Berrigan, etc- were alternately amusing and frightening. Merton hated systematic theology and loved modern literature. I hate modern literature and love systematic theology. Merton choose monasticism over marriage. I think that was a crying shame. Merton thought a good time was walking barefoot in a cornfield reading Muslim mystics. I'd prefer a Dave Mathews show. He loved jazz. I love bluegrass and rock. Merton died by touching a faulty electrical fan after taking a shower, thus becoming the patron saint of all clumsy people. I haven't yet decided how I'm going to go, but it could possible involve all the White Castles I can eat. 

Read the rest HERE.

The Coffinmaker

A lovely three minutes of film ... "we are meant to carry each other" ...

The Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton - 2010 development pitch

I'm coming around to this idea of the Merton movie.  This is a development pitch that was made in 2010 before the script was written.  I love the way they have portrayed Merton's relationship with Abbot Fox.


The Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton - Development Pitch 2010 from Knitted Heart on Vimeo.

the fear of emptiness and uselessness

"The person who dares to be alone can come to see that the 'emptiness' and 'uselessness' which the collective mind fears and condemns are necessary conditions for the encounter with truth. It is in the desert of loneliness and emptiness that the fear of death and the need for self-affirmation are seen to be illusory." - Thomas Merton, "Raids on the Unspeakable"

James George

This is my first introduction to James George.  Spiritual teachers are all around ...

HT to Intense Cities by Luke Storms

Merton, the Movie

Coming in 2015.  The Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton - The Movie.

I have mixed feelings about this.

The movie is getting some good endorsements:

Jim Forest says of the screenplay: "I found it very gripping - read it in one bite."

Richard Rohr says: "Thomas Merton is serving history as a 'Prime Attractor'.  He excites, challenges, and educates the hardest of hearts and most rigid of minds from so many different spheres of life.  He seduces people into a future where there is room and compassion for so much more.  You can jump into that future through this fully entertaining but profoundly true account of his life."

Cathleen Falsani (Orange County Register Religion columnist) says: "'The Divine Comedy captures the delicious dichotomy of Thomas Merton - a thoroughly modern mystic who toiled in realms both profane and sacred."

What disturbs me is the hype.  Thomas Merton, the man who wanted to disappear, is now a movie star.

And then there is the lead in to their Facebook page:

In 1966, world famous monk Thomas Merton falls in love with a nursing student half his age, plunging him into the most agonizing predicament of his life. 

Description  

In the summer of 1966, world famous monk and peace activist Thomas Merton falls in love with a nursing student half his age, plunging him into the most agonizing predicament of his life. As he endeavors to prevent his secret romance from being discovered by his abbot, James Fox, Merton is brought to the brink of despair, realizing he must finally choose between serving himself or serving the world.

Oy.  Typical sensationalism a bit like tabloid journalism.  This worries me.

Granted, the movie is directed to a younger audience, those who do not know Merton.  It just might invite them to look deeper into a life that seeks a different way of knowing and being in the world.

There are contemplative monks and nunks alive today, hidden in their communities but every bit as holy and radical as Thomas Merton.  They don't have movies dedicated to them - or blogs for that matter.

Is this a matter of staying focused on the moon, rather than the finger pointing to it?  Or is it just one more example of the absurdity of taking our lives so seriously?

Maybe I'm just a grump today.