Posted by john on March 11, 2002 at 17:50:38:
In Reply to: Re: Seeds of Contemplation posted by PAstor Steven on March 11, 2002 at 10:41:02:
: : I just finished reading this book. I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet, but the opinion is slowly forming in my mind. Have any of you read it? Please tell me what you think of it, good or bad.
: You already know I loved it, as I love anything that stimulates meditation on Him who dwells within the thick clouds and darkness. And then again, I am one of those mystical wierdos that respect in Thomas Merton the fruit of a lifetime of contemplation. ;-)
You know I liked that aspect of the book as well. He also made some very poingnant remarks that I thought were really excellent thoughts. And again, sometimes it seemed as if he just quoted a thought in MY head. My only problem was I guess the perspective from which it was written. It really kept me from being able to grab hold of the book as one of my favorites. It was just so severe and ascetic. He seemed to operate from the principle that all flesh was evil and that anything of the flesh, even everyday pleasures were less desirable than pure thoughtless contemplation. Here I really disagree. I think that in movement and in art and in all aspects of existence God is equally present and that one can be just as Absorbed by Him in these things as in others. Truly these pleasures... the taste of a good meal, the feel of wind or water on your face. The embrace of one you love are all just as valid ways to experience God. Merton almost seemed to describe God as Nirvana. A complete dissolution of existence. And I find this inaccurate of a God who has such personality. I think that in the deepest full expression of God we will be both dissolved and fully present. We won't cease to exist as an entity, but rather be restored to the full expression of beauty that we are, while loosing the barriers between each other that mark this existence. When I feel closest to God I do feel outside of myself and connected to everything, but at the same time I am never void of consciousness. this smacks of the trancendental meditations I used to practice in the throws of depression, with the hope of annihlating myself and thus the pain. Now i just want to be completed. I want to experience everything THROUGH God so as to experience it fully. I have no desire to become nothing and spend my life and eternity in sensory deprivation.
But then, I am far less Holy than this man...so am I wrong, or is he, or is it just a different path? I surmise it is just a different path and one which words can't accurately describe. But as far as the book goes, I find the incorrigible joy of Brother Lawrence more fitting to my style and experience. When I think of God I want to dance, to scream out and laugh and LIVE, not crawl into a dark somber mood and renounce my desires as base manifestations of the flesh I wish to kill.
So there, that's what I thought I guess. And it kind of bugs me because I LOVE the original mystics Merton draws upon. It just seems to me that the book comes off as being dry and too bound by ages of tradition.