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Fascinating ... Ashram Diary has some marvelous material in it and would appeal to a lot of people. --Shirley du Boulay, author of the definitive biography of Bede Griffiths, Beyond the Darkness
Ashram Diary is a contemplative journey. In our world, ravaged by devastation and war, the words of Thomas Matus will replenish our lives with passion, energy, and love. Truly a timely book. --Jim Conlon, director of Sophia Center, Oakland, California, author of Lyrics for Re-Creation: Language for the Music of the Universe
Ashram Diary, from the heart of one who loves Father Bede Griffiths, is truly a way of transformation. With a deep penetration into everyday life at Shantivanam, the Forest of Peace Matus' diary looks in on, and between the lines of, Father Bede's own writings and teachings. Thomas Matus has caught the heart of the guru in action. --Pascaline Coff, O.S.B., founding member of the Bede Griffiths Trust
Ashram Diary is a contemplative journey. In our world, ravaged by devastation and war, the words of Thomas Matus will replenish our lives with passion, energy, and love. Truly a timely book. --Jim Conlon, director of Sophia Center, Oakland, California, author of Lyrics for Re-Creation: Language for the Music of the Universe
Ashram Diary, from the heart of one who loves Father Bede Griffiths, is truly a way of transformation. With a deep penetration into everyday life at Shantivanam, the Forest of Peace Matus' diary looks in on, and between the lines of, Father Bede's own writings and teachings. Thomas Matus has caught the heart of the guru in action. --Pascaline Coff, O.S.B., founding member of the Bede Griffiths Trust
Product Description
Ashram Diary accompanies the reader to Shantivanam, an ashram (hermitage) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Shantivanam began in 1950 when two French priests put on the orange robes of Hindu renunciants and initiated their life of meditation by the sacred river Kaveri. In 1968, an English monk, Bede Griffiths, became the ashram's guru and taught there until his passing in 1993. During the last nine years of Griffiths' life, Thomas Matus listened to his teachings and shared in the life of the ashram.In this book, Matus recounts his experience of India, its people, and its spiritual culture during frequent retreats at Shantivanam. He narrates his travels to sacred Hindu and Buddhist shrines and his conversations with fellow seekers on the path. Honestly examining his own faith and vocation as a monk, Matus invites the reader to share his quest: to rethink Christianity in Indian terms and India in Christian terms, in order to discover the one Reality beyond all names and forms, in which faith and spiritual searching reach their ultimate and blessed end.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Diaries and journals have a particular attraction. Informality, intimacy, and immediate impressions open up the writer's mind and heart to the page.
These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New Camaldoli community in Big Sur, California, spent long periods in India, and most particularly at Shantivanam. A Christian ashram in Tamil Nadu, the distinctive character of Shantivanam stems from its integration of Hindu and Buddhist practices and, above all, during his lifetime, from the powerful presence of Bede Griffiths. It is a place that has drawn many (including myself) and particularly Matus whose initiation as a sannyasi (renunciant) is described in the pages of this book.
"Above all I am happy because, in some sense, I belong here, in India and in the ashram...in a certain sense I am always here."
Thomas Matus writes on subjects as diverse as Jack Kerouac and Gandhi, and reflects, with engaging self-deprecation and sometimes surprising candour, on community conflict, on what it means to be a monk, and of struggles, even after thirty years, with his vocation. He describes in detail his forays into different parts of India, including the sometimes disquieting images of temple carvings. He is, he says, more at home with the Hinduism of yogis and sannyasis than with its temples, and his comments about Buddhism which "never `separated' from Hinduism as Christianity did from Judaism" are most illuminating.
But he, and we, are drawn most to the ashram, and to Father Bede himself. The author describes Bede's stroke - which he viewed as "a grace, an awakening to the mother aspect of God" - his death, and the mourning period which Matus spent at Shantivanam.
Even through difficult times, the author continues to affirm the beauty of life:
"The goodness of human life and of God is known in the act of accepting life as it is - impermanent, incomplete, painful - and experiencing God as infinite, absolute and eternal goodness."
This is a rich and clear-sighted personal portrait: of India, of the monastic life, of Father Bede and his community, and of the author himself.
These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New Camaldoli community in Big Sur, California, spent long periods in India, and most particularly at Shantivanam. A Christian ashram in Tamil Nadu, the distinctive character of Shantivanam stems from its integration of Hindu and Buddhist practices and, above all, during his lifetime, from the powerful presence of Bede Griffiths. It is a place that has drawn many (including myself) and particularly Matus whose initiation as a sannyasi (renunciant) is described in the pages of this book.
"Above all I am happy because, in some sense, I belong here, in India and in the ashram...in a certain sense I am always here."
Thomas Matus writes on subjects as diverse as Jack Kerouac and Gandhi, and reflects, with engaging self-deprecation and sometimes surprising candour, on community conflict, on what it means to be a monk, and of struggles, even after thirty years, with his vocation. He describes in detail his forays into different parts of India, including the sometimes disquieting images of temple carvings. He is, he says, more at home with the Hinduism of yogis and sannyasis than with its temples, and his comments about Buddhism which "never `separated' from Hinduism as Christianity did from Judaism" are most illuminating.
But he, and we, are drawn most to the ashram, and to Father Bede himself. The author describes Bede's stroke - which he viewed as "a grace, an awakening to the mother aspect of God" - his death, and the mourning period which Matus spent at Shantivanam.
Even through difficult times, the author continues to affirm the beauty of life:
"The goodness of human life and of God is known in the act of accepting life as it is - impermanent, incomplete, painful - and experiencing God as infinite, absolute and eternal goodness."
This is a rich and clear-sighted personal portrait: of India, of the monastic life, of Father Bede and his community, and of the author himself.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A rich portrait
2 Sep 2009
Diaries and journals have a particular attraction. Informality, intimacy, and immediate impressions open up the writer's mind and heart to the page.
These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New Camaldoli community in Big Sur, California, spent long periods in India, and most particularly at Shantivanam. A Christian ashram in Tamil Nadu, the distinctive character of Shantivanam stems from its integration of Hindu and Buddhist practices and, above all, during his lifetime, from the powerful presence of Bede Griffiths. It is a place that has drawn many (including myself) and particularly Matus whose initiation as a sannyasi (renunciant) is described in the pages of this book.
"Above all I am happy because, in some sense, I belong here, in India and in the ashram...in a certain sense I am always here."
Thomas Matus writes on subjects as diverse as Jack Kerouac and Gandhi, and reflects, with engaging self-deprecation and sometimes surprising candour, on community conflict, on what it means to be a monk, and of struggles, even after thirty years, with his vocation. He describes in detail his forays into different parts of India, including the sometimes disquieting images of temple carvings. He is, he says, more at home with the Hinduism of yogis and sannyasis than with its temples, and his comments about Buddhism which "never `separated' from Hinduism as Christianity did from Judaism" are most illuminating.
But he, and we, are drawn most to the ashram, and to Father Bede himself. The author describes Bede's stroke - which he viewed as "a grace, an awakening to the mother aspect of God" - his death, and the mourning period which Matus spent at Shantivanam.
Even through difficult times, the author continues to affirm the beauty of life:
"The goodness of human life and of God is known in the act of accepting life as it is - impermanent, incomplete, painful - and experiencing God as infinite, absolute and eternal goodness."
This is a rich and clear-sighted personal portrait: of India, of the monastic life, of Father Bede and his community, and of the author himself.
These diaries cover the years from 1984 to 2004, years during which Matus, a Benedictine monk from the New Camaldoli community in Big Sur, California, spent long periods in India, and most particularly at Shantivanam. A Christian ashram in Tamil Nadu, the distinctive character of Shantivanam stems from its integration of Hindu and Buddhist practices and, above all, during his lifetime, from the powerful presence of Bede Griffiths. It is a place that has drawn many (including myself) and particularly Matus whose initiation as a sannyasi (renunciant) is described in the pages of this book.
"Above all I am happy because, in some sense, I belong here, in India and in the ashram...in a certain sense I am always here."
Thomas Matus writes on subjects as diverse as Jack Kerouac and Gandhi, and reflects, with engaging self-deprecation and sometimes surprising candour, on community conflict, on what it means to be a monk, and of struggles, even after thirty years, with his vocation. He describes in detail his forays into different parts of India, including the sometimes disquieting images of temple carvings. He is, he says, more at home with the Hinduism of yogis and sannyasis than with its temples, and his comments about Buddhism which "never `separated' from Hinduism as Christianity did from Judaism" are most illuminating.
But he, and we, are drawn most to the ashram, and to Father Bede himself. The author describes Bede's stroke - which he viewed as "a grace, an awakening to the mother aspect of God" - his death, and the mourning period which Matus spent at Shantivanam.
Even through difficult times, the author continues to affirm the beauty of life:
"The goodness of human life and of God is known in the act of accepting life as it is - impermanent, incomplete, painful - and experiencing God as infinite, absolute and eternal goodness."
This is a rich and clear-sighted personal portrait: of India, of the monastic life, of Father Bede and his community, and of the author himself.
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