There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.
Thomas MertonNone of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to put ourselves on the same plane as God โ acting as if we had no needs, as if we were not creatures, not dependent on Him.
Thomas MertonThe deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear Brothers [and Sisters], we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.
Thomas MertonZen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the place where it is thought to be. But they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the "nothing," the "no-body" that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey.
Thomas Merton