Comptemplative Prayer Is Found in Emptiness

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	• CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER THOMAS MERTON DARTON,LONGMAN TODD LTD, 1973 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Illuminating on Many Levels

This book is profound: in a mere 116 pages Merton reveals indispensable spiritual insights one after another. Contemplation is the practice of seeking clarity--a clear vision of who we are, a clear vision of our relationship to God. So, with honest, relentless precision, Merton exposes our false postures of ego, pride, attachement, fear--those unholy but seductive impulses that cloud our souls and separate us from God. It is obvious that "Contemplative Prayer" is the product of an experienced contemplative, one who has experienced and reflected upon a lifetime of struggle, enough so that he can boil down the essence of spiritual survival into a handful of simple words. But he does much more than that: after shattering each underpinning of our personal complacency, he draws back and puts his observations in their monastic and theological context, giving us a fuller, deeper understanding of the religious tradition we belong to. For example, at one point, Merton elegantly and brilliantly summarizes "Dark Night of the Soul" (St. John of the Cross) in a way that makes it fully relevant to the modern reader. As a bonus, this edition contains an introduction by the distinguished Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (who in some respects is himself a Buddhist version of Thomas Merton). Hahn explores and compares the spiritual struggles of Buddhism and Christianity with respect to prayer, meditation, practice, and God--on those crucial levels we see that ultimately we have one nature, despite the obvious and superficial differences that tend to separate us. On a literary note, "Contemplative Prayer" will be particularly interesting to those drawn to existentialism or seeking a deeper understanding of it. At first glance, one might think no two people could be further apart than Camus' Stranger and the Christian contemplative, but they are in fact quite alike. Both have heightened awareness of their true nature. Both acknowledge the meaninglessness of the world formerly thought of as "real". Both have learned that contemplation of the real comes at a heavy price, yet one that is unavoidable to the soul honestly seeking truth. Christian, Buddhist, existentialist...in the end it seems we are all drawn to the same road.

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Deeper understanding

This book, 'Contemplative Prayer', was Thomas Merton's last book. A prolific writing on spiritual topics, Merton was perhaps in an ideal setting to be able to write about the ideas and methods of contemplative prayer, being a Trappist. Trappists devote themselves to prayer, adding the disciplines of silence and solitude, things that are needed for the contemplative side of things to emerge.

In the introduction by Merton's friend, Thich Nhat Hanh, there is a nine-fold prayer that relates to many of Merton's ideas about contemplative prayer. However, it is a mistake (and both Hanh in the introduction and Merton in the text mention this) to think that prayer is something in and of itself - Christians and Buddhists tend to have the understanding that prayer without practice lacks efficacy.

Merton traces a strong history of contemplative prayer, from the earliest Christians (particularly the Desert Fathers and early monastics) to the latest theologians (Hahn relates Merton's ideas to Paul Tillich, and without mentioning him by name, Merton also seems to strive for that same purity that was the pursuit of Kierkegaard). Merton concentrates especially on various 'via negativa' methods and theologies - St. John of the Cross is but the most powerful example, but Merton draws on Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Catherine of Siena, Meister Eckhart and others.

This is not a how-to manual for contemplative prayer. This was a subject that was beginning to interesting Merton more and more near the time of his death, and we can but wonder if he would have gone on to produce more practical writing on the topic after this piece. However, Merton, being a person with a good grasp for the authority and power of tradition and history, understood that the first task would be to understand what people have done before and how things have worked or not worked, before embarking upon a new subject for oneself. This is that product, and we are the poorer for not having a follow-up to the book.

Reading Merton is never wasted time. This is perhaps less 'spiritual' and more 'academic' than much of his writing, but it still has characteristic Merton sensitivity to subject, and is worthwhile for any looking for a deeper understanding of comtemplative practices.

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Comptemplative Prayer Is Found in Emptiness

Thomas Merton, a great teacher of spiritual principles above and beyond religion and institutionalized group consciousness.

Merton became a Buddhist at the end of his journey. Not the Buddhist of religious philosophy but the Zen experience far beyond explanation,structure and preconceived verbal formulas with absolutely no objectification, including that of God.

Notice this quote and ask yourself, "Is this a description of the Christian contemplative or a Zen Master? Then again, the Zen ontological experience of say D.T. Suzuki can no doubt be likened to the Christian mystic, Meister Eckart.

"Comtemplative prayer comes only when we are able to "let go" of everything within us, to enter into "emptiness," that is to let go of all desire to see, to know, to taste and to experience the presence of God. It is only then when we truly become able to experience his presence. It is neither the desire nor the refusal of desire that counts, but only that "desire" which is a form of "emptiness." Not the false emptiness of simply "blacking out" our thoughts in systematic methods and techniques, where emptiness becomes a thing, but rather the true emptiness that is a no-thing, a nothing, which is total inclusivenss, able to trancend all things, and yet is immanent in all. For what seems to be emptiness in this case is pure being. Or at least a philosopher might so describe it, but to the Christian contemplative is it other than that. It is not this, not that. Whatever you say of it,it is other than what you say. The character of emptiness, at least for a Christian contemplative, is pure love, pure freedom, free of everything, not determined by any thing, or held down by any special relationship, but a pure unconditional, nonparitial, nonjudgemental, inclusive love. 5 stars do not do this book any justice."

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Thinking about contemplation

This is not a how-to book. It is a study of the history and meaning and reason for contemplative prayer, deeply thought of, deeply experienced. My little old copy is dogeared and heavily underlined, having been read so many times. And it is not my first copy - I've given others to friends.
As with much of Merton's writing, it is a tool for examining our own prayer, our own lives. He shows us many ways we may be evading the very goal of our prayer, how we may be shielding ourselves from God's light shining upon us.
Merton did not write this book in order to become popular. It is not all sweetness and gentle breezes of the Spirit. It is more like a cold wind that seeks to blow away our defenses and leave us face to face with what our souls really want - God. Whether we enjoy the process is not the point, but a book like this lets us know that we are not alone on the path, that, tough as it is, others have gone before. It gives comfort in the old English meaning of the word: strengthening. Read this if you need a good dose of spiritual tonic.

review by Janet Knori, author of Awakening in God

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3.4 stars: Helpful to a degree

Merton has done better. "Contemplative Prayer" reads like a term paper, done more out of duty than out of love, a somewhat academic treatise in which we are presented with a collage of quotations about prayer -- from impeccably trustworthy sources, Ruysbroeck, Tauler, Dom Augustine Baker, Abbe Monchanin -- but we are not left with the impression that the author of this treatise has recently prayed.

Merton's best writing, in this reader's opinion, is to be found in "Thoughts in Solitude," "New Seeds of Contemplation," the letters of "The Road to Joy," a goodly portion of the journals -- although they can become wearisome when Merton is exhibiting the symptoms of grouchiness -- and several of the poems.

We owe a debt to Robert Waldron for his book "Poetry as Prayer: Thomas Merton" (Boston, Pauline Books & Media, 2000), in which a handful of poems generate elegant in-depth meditations that almost rise to the level of theology.

For a straightforward treatise on contemplative prayer that is useful, accessible, and edifying, might we recommend "Be Still and Know: A Study in the Life of Prayer" by the late Anglican archbishop Michael Ramsey (Boston, Cowley Publications, 1993). Merton is mentioned with evident approval in Ramsey's lucid and slender volume. Perhaps, too, the books of Orthodox metropolitan Anthony Bloom ("Beginning to Pray," "Living Prayer") would prove profitable. And finally -- also from Orthodoxy -- there is Bishop Kallistos Ware's audiocassette "Discovering the Inner Kingdom: Prayer of the Heart" (Torrance, Calif., Oakwood Publications, 1997).

Of course, if "Contemplative Prayer" by Thomas Merton helps you, then by all means ... stick with it!

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