Thomas Merton and the Subtle Delusion of 'Meditation'

Following a recent conversation about the subtle temptations of meditation I promised a friend I would share some of Thomas Merton's cryptic (and very funny) words on the subject from his late diaries of 1965. I have taken this extract from my 'Christian Mindfulness: Theology and Practice' (SCM-Canterbury).

Love

Peter

The Zen Master

‘Who said Zen?’, wrote Merton in his journal for 1965 – ‘wash out your mouth if you said Zen. If you see a meditation going by, shoot it.’ Even at this late stage of his engagement with Buddhism his critical sense never departed him and he was as aware as ever of the subtle self-deceiving ‘orientalism’ that often overtakes Western study of Eastern literature. Against the backdrop of the 60s psychedelic revolution his comments are refreshing critical:

'In an age where there is much talk about ‘being yourself’ I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that, when one is too intent on ‘being himself’, he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow…

This is not a hermitage – it is a house. (‘Who was that hermitage I seen you with last night?’).

What I wear is pants.

What I do is live.

How I pray is breathe.

Who said ‘Love’? Love is in the movies.

The spiritual life is something that people worry about when they are so busy with something else they think they ought to be spiritual. Spiritual life is guilt.' (May 1965)