- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Shambhala Publications; New Ed edition (April 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 087773920X
- ISBN-13: 978-0877739203
- Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 1.2 x 11.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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497,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #52 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Catholic > Inspirational
- #82 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Religions > Oriental Churches
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In thirty-seven concise and beautifully written chapters, Thomas Merton explores the meaning of interior solitude and its necessary role in bringing every life to joyous fruition. "What is said here about solitude is not just a recipe for hermits," he writes in the preface, "it has a bearing on the whole future of man and his world."
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THERE IS no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THERE IS no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us. Read the first page
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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The title of this book derives from 1953/54 when Merton was able to enjoy special opportunities for solitude and meditation; the contents of this book are thoughts on the contemplative life and fundamental intuitions that seemed, at that time, to have importance. As such, the chapters do not necessarily relate to one another and are, as the title suggests, a collection of thoughts while in solitude. "It is quite likely that intuitions which seem to be most vital to the writer will not have much importance for others, who do not have the same kind of vocation." For the writer, these reflections on man's solitude before God and man's dialogue with God in silence are essential to his monastic way of life. It is a counterbalance to totalitarianism and the murderous din of materialism that must not be allowed to silence the voices of the Christian Saints, Oriental sages like Lao-Tse or the Zen Masters or Thoreau, Martin Buber or Max Picard. "What is said here about solitude is not just a recipe for hermits. It has a bearing on the whole future of man and of his world and especially, of course, on the future of his religion." Part I is composed of 19 thoughts on aspects of the spiritual life; part II of 18 thoughts on the love of solitude.
The desert, supremely valuable to God because it has no value to men, is the logical dwelling place for the solitary with nothing between himself and his Creator. But as man has moved into the desert for testing nuclear weapons or building casinos, the desert moves elsewhere. The new desert is despair.
All temperaments can serve as material for ruin or for salvation; if we make our temperament serve us we can do better than another who serves his temperament. The things we love tell what we are. A man who sins but does not love his sin is not a sinner in the full sense of the word. Even if we are temperamentally inclined to anger, we are still free not to be angry. We are free to desire either good or evil. Too many ascetics fail to become saints because their rules and ascetic practices have merely deadened humanity instead of setting it free to develop richly, in all its capacities.
Jesus had a clear vision of God but experienced our human emotions of affection, pity, sorrow, happiness, pleasure, grief, indignation, wonder, weariness, anxiety, fear, consolation and peace. If we are without human feelings we cannot love God as we are meant to love Him - as men.
Our five senses are chilled by inordinate pleasure. Penance cleans the senses and gives them back their vitality. Lack of self-denial and self discipline is the cause of mediocrity of much devotional art, much pious writing, many sentimental prayers and many religious lives. "Some men turn away from all this cheap emotion with a kind of heroic despair, and seek God in a desert where the emotions can find nothing to sustain them. But this too can be an error. For if our emotions really die in the desert, our humanity dies with them. We must return from the desert like Jesus or St. John with our capacity for feeling expanded and deepened, strengthened against appeals of falsity, warned against temptation, great, noble, pure."
No amount of technological progress will cure the hatred that eats away the vitals of materialistic society like a spiritual cancer. The only cure is spiritual.
A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thoughts for life, ideas for action. Our destiny is to live out what we think. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into reality.
Real self-conquest is the conquest of ourselves by the Holy Spirit. Self-conquest is really self-surrender.
Laziness and cowardice are two of the greatest enemies of the spiritual life and they are most dangerous when masked as discretion. The problem is that discretion is one of the most important virtues.
"Why should I want to be rich, when you were poor? Why should I desire to be famous and powerful in the eyes of men, when the sons of those who exalted the false prophets and stoned the True rejected You and nailed You to the Cross? Why should I cherish in my heart a hope that devours me - the hope for perfect happiness in this life - when such hope, doomed to frustration, is nothing but despair?"
Thomas Merton has great wisdom to pass on to us if we are ready to receive it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book, first published in 1958, belongs in Merton's "second period", when he was gradually changing from traditional/conservative/monastic to a more radical, all-encompassing outlook. it is a brief book, but no less wonderful because of that. For all its brevity, it provides a huge amount of nourishment, and its a book that I'm sure I will go back to again and again.
It follows on from "No Man is an Island", and contains Merton's reflection on solitude and the spiritual life. It is made up of lots of short chapters, some of them almost prose poems - the chapter beginning "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going" is rightly famous and so typically Merton.
I love this book, and so will you. Buy it, read it, and nourish your soul.
It follows on from "No Man is an Island", and contains Merton's reflection on solitude and the spiritual life. It is made up of lots of short chapters, some of them almost prose poems - the chapter beginning "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going" is rightly famous and so typically Merton.
I love this book, and so will you. Buy it, read it, and nourish your soul.
Format:Paperback
Though pocket-sized the essence of Merton's thoughts on the value of inner solitude in bringing our lives to glorious joyful fruition seep out of the 37 chapters. Solitude is not just a matter of withdrawing from the world - Merton doesn't recommend we all become hermits. Instead he suggests that by deepening our inner lives we are better able to serve the world with more wisdom and joy.
This little book is divided into two parts: 1) Aspects of the spiritual life and 2) The Love of Solitude.
Aspects of spiritual life: This part provides a series of reflections/meditations on such subjects as: the danger of being immersed in unreality; avoiding the abyss or desert of despair; seeing that our temperament is a gift from God and making use of what we have been gifted; being aware that emotions are just as important as reason and that self-denial can be dangerous; suffering is part of life; Spiritual life is not thought alone nor a life a feeling alone - balance is important; real self-conquest comes from the Holy Spirit not from the self; laziness and lack of discipline are blocks in the spiritual life; there is no spiritual life outside the love of Christ; to have a spiritual life you must unify your life, etc. This chapter is very rich and this is just a digest of some of the areas Merton touches on. Plenty of grist to the mill of contemplation and action.
The Love of Solitude: The second part reveals Merton's thoughts on such topics as: solitude can happen at any moment despite what the external circumstances are when a man is suddenly aware of his inalienable solitude and sees that he will never be anything other than solitary; how we do not know who we are or where we are going much of the time; our age as an age of anxiety; Words stand in the way of silence; a man has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and just lives; the need to find silence within others as well as in ourselves; pride and humility seek silence; liberation through silence; as soon as you are really alone you are with God, and so much more ... saturated with wisdom.
One of those books to slip into a jacket pocket or handbag for moments of solitude when you need support or a guide in your reflections on the spiritual life. A lifetime pocket companion.
This little book is divided into two parts: 1) Aspects of the spiritual life and 2) The Love of Solitude.
Aspects of spiritual life: This part provides a series of reflections/meditations on such subjects as: the danger of being immersed in unreality; avoiding the abyss or desert of despair; seeing that our temperament is a gift from God and making use of what we have been gifted; being aware that emotions are just as important as reason and that self-denial can be dangerous; suffering is part of life; Spiritual life is not thought alone nor a life a feeling alone - balance is important; real self-conquest comes from the Holy Spirit not from the self; laziness and lack of discipline are blocks in the spiritual life; there is no spiritual life outside the love of Christ; to have a spiritual life you must unify your life, etc. This chapter is very rich and this is just a digest of some of the areas Merton touches on. Plenty of grist to the mill of contemplation and action.
The Love of Solitude: The second part reveals Merton's thoughts on such topics as: solitude can happen at any moment despite what the external circumstances are when a man is suddenly aware of his inalienable solitude and sees that he will never be anything other than solitary; how we do not know who we are or where we are going much of the time; our age as an age of anxiety; Words stand in the way of silence; a man has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and just lives; the need to find silence within others as well as in ourselves; pride and humility seek silence; liberation through silence; as soon as you are really alone you are with God, and so much more ... saturated with wisdom.
One of those books to slip into a jacket pocket or handbag for moments of solitude when you need support or a guide in your reflections on the spiritual life. A lifetime pocket companion.
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