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From: amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Any interest in Buddhism?
Message-ID: <741@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 17:26:01 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.741
Posted: Mon Mar  5 17:26:01 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Mar-84 03:28:05 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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About Thomas Merton:

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Catholic monk and author.  He was
originally brought up as a more-or-less agnostic.  He converted to
Catholicism in the late 1930s, and entered a Trappist monastery in
1940.  The Trappists (Order of Cistercisans of the Strict
Observance) are an offshoot of the Benedictines with a very strict
rule.  The name Trappist comes from the Abbey of La Trappe in
France where the order was founded in the late 13th or early 14th
centuries (Cistercisans is from the Abbey of Citeaux, where they
were founded).  Trappists are a good example of what is called
"contemplatives," that is, monks (or nuns) who spend all their lives
inside the monastery, working, praying and "contemplating" God.

Shortly after becoming a monk, Merton wrote his first, and best
known, book, THE SEVEN STORY MOUNTAIN, which was an account of his
life up until that time.  It is well written, a masterpiece of
autobiography, and documents fairly well what led him to join the
Trappists.  It is not a bad piece of Catholic apologetics (look it
up) either.

He went on to write other books, such as: 
THE WATERS OF SILOE, a description of life in his abbey (Gethsemane
	in Kentucky);
THE WISDOM OF THE DESERT, a book about the very earliest Christian monks
	in 5th century Egypt;
CONJECTURES OF A GUILTY BYSTANDER, a book of general essays, of
	which two are outstanding, one on Adolph Eichmann [the head
	of the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jews in WWII] and an 
	essay defending the contemplative life against charges of just
	sitting back and doing nothing;
THE SILENT LIFE, a description of the major Catholic contemplative
	orders, such as the Carthusians and the Trappists;
and others.

Towards the end of his life, he obtained permission to live in a
hermitage in a remote corner of the abbey grounds.  In 1968, he took
a trip to Asia to look into Buddhist monasticism (very good book
came out of that, THE ASIAN CHRONICLES OF THOMAS MERTON), and, while
in a hotel room in Bangkok was electrocuted in a freak accident.

Merton is generally considered to be one of the best Catholic
writers of the 20th century, and a man who was genuinely trying to
define monasticism for modern times.

				John Hobson
				AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL
				ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2