In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have. And you realize that you are already there.
Thomas Merton
Prayer Itself
Topic: Prayer, Meditation, & Contemplation
“The great thing is prayer. Prayer itself. If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying. We were indoctrinated so much into means and ends that we don’t realize that there is a different dimension in the life of prayer. In technology you have this horizontal progress, where you must start at one point and move to another and then another. But that is not the way to build a life of prayer. In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have. And you realize that you are already there.“
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Christianity
Merton, Thomas. The pocket Thomas Merton, New Seeds Books, pp. 86-87 [from Basil M. Pennington, Centering Prayer. Doubleday, 1980, pp. 56-57].
Thomas Merton
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama
“From the point of view of a religious practitioner, and in particular as a monastic, Thomas Merton really is someone that we can look up to. From one point of view, he had the complete qualities of hearing–which means study, contemplating, thinking on the teachings–and of meditation. He also had the qualities of being learned, disciplined and having a good heart.”
–A Tribute To Thomas Merton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Abbey of Gethsemani, Trappist, Kentucky July 1996.
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968) was a 20th century American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. He wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese writer on the Zen tradition, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
Additional Quotes from Thomas Merton
“If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves.”
–Thomas Merton, The pocket Thomas Merton, p. 84 [from Basil M. Pennington, Centering Prayer. Doubleday, 1980] p. 56.