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	• Seeing That Paradise Begins Now (Bridges to Contemplative Living With Thomas Merton) Ave Maria Press, 2008 - 64 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Seeing That Paradise Begins Now is the eighth and final booklet in the Bridges to Contemplative Living series based on the work of Thomas Merton. Although the theme of dying and being reborn recurs throughout Merton's work and is a staple in this series, it is most specifically treated in Volume 8. Three of the eight sessions are dedicated to "final integration," defined variously as bringing to light the secrets of the total personality and emptying the consciousness of "fictions, idols and untruths and purifying the heart of greed, envy, jealousy, grief and anger."

The session format, built around excerpts from the work of Merton and other spiritual writers, is especially effective in explaining this "death and rebirth." In Session 5, Final Integration I, Contemplative Living as an Inner Experience, Merton describes the process as passing beyond ordinary human existence while retaining "all that is best and most universal." Psychotherapist Ira Progoff uses the symbols of a well and underground stream to represent a continuing cycle of experiences. The outer events of our lives take place on the surface of the well and we find our "deep sources" in an underground stream, where we are revitalized and reconnected to the larger unity of life. The cycle is completed when we return to live our personal existence in the world. Sessions 6 and 7 deal with ego and peacemaking in relation to reintegration. The other voice in both is that of Abdol Reza Arasteh, who wrote of final integration in terms of Sufism and psychology.

All eight volumes come with a leader's guide and contain background on both Merton and contemplation as well as suggestions for using the material. This is an extraordinary series for anyone interested in deepening his or her prayer life or learning more about Thomas Merton, one of the most influential spiritual writers of the 20th century.

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Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton gently leads participants on a journey toward spiritual transformation and a more contemplative and peace-filled life. Each eight-session booklet provides an introduction to Merton and contemplative living through prayers, readings from Merton and other spiritual masters, and questions for small group dialogue.

This eighth and final book of the Bridges series helps participants learn to see that we live in paradise here and now whenever we choose to love and embrace our inexhaustible communion with God and all creation. Opening the ever-present gates to paradise frees us to live at peace and entices those around us to do the same.

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