Osho on Thomas Merton

 

 

Question 1

In Thomas Merton’s view:

“Zen is not a systematic explanation of life, it is not an ideology, it is not a world view, it is not a theology of revelation and salvation, it is not a mystique, it is not a way of ascetic perfection, it is not mysticism as it is understood in the west; in fact it fits no convenient category of ours. Hence all our attempts to tag it and dispose of it with labels like pantheism, quietism, illuminism, pelagianism, must be completely incongruous.
 

“But the chief characteristic of Zen is that it rejects all systematic elaborations in order to get back as far as possible to the pure, unarticulated and unexplained ground of direct experience. The direct experience of what? Life itself.”

Osho,
Has Thomas Merton got it?

 

 

It is a very sad story about Thomas Merton. Perhaps he was one of the persons in the West who has come closest to Zen. He had the sensibility of a poet; the others are approaching Zen from their intellect, their mind.

 

Thomas Merton is approaching Zen through his heart. He feels it, but he could not live the direct experience he is talking about. He would have been the first Zen master in the West, but he was prevented by the Catholic church.

 

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk under the control of the Vatican. The Trappist monks are the most self-torturing ascetics in Christianity. Perhaps that's why they are called Trappist -- trapped forever.

 

Thomas Merton wrote beautiful poetry, and he asked again and again to go to Japan and to live in a Zen monastery to have the direct experience of Zen. But permission was refused half a dozen times; again and again he was refused.

 

If he had really understood Zen he would not have bothered even to ask for permission. Who is the Vatican? Who is the pope? A Zen master asking permission from unenlightened people is simply not heard of. And he followed the orders from the Vatican and from the abbot of his own monastery.

 

He had been reading as much as was available in English about Zen. Finally, he had a chance to go, but he did not understand the way the organized religions work. There was going to be a Catholic conference of missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand, and he asked permission to attend the conference. Deep in his heart he was going to Bangkok to attend the conference just so that from there he could enter Japan without asking anybody's permission.

 

But the pope and the Vatican leaders and his abbot -- they were all aware of his continuously asking for permission to go to a Zen monastery.

 

On the last day of the conference in Bangkok, Thomas Merton spoke about Zen. And he also mentioned that he would love to go to Japan from Bangkok. That very night he was found dead. And without anybody being informed, his body was embalmed immediately, without any autopsy, without knowing the cause of his death. After you have embalmed a body there is no possibility of autopsy. There is every reason to suspect that he was poisoned to prevent him from going to a Zen monastery.

 

Murder has been the argument of the so-called religions. This is not a religious attitude at all. If he wanted to experience Zen, any religious man would have allowed him to go. That's what happens in Zen. No master ever rejects any disciple's interest in some other Zen monk, in some other monastery -- maybe belonging to a different branch, Soto or Rinzai... Permission is gracefully given, and not only to those who are inquiring about going somewhere else. Even the master himself, if he feels that some other master will be more appropriate, some other path leading to the direct experience will be more fitting to the disciple, will send his own disciples to other monasteries. This is a totally different world, the world of Zen, with no competitiveness, no question of conversion.

 

Thomas Merton's murder shows the poverty of Catholicism and Christianity. Why were they so afraid? The fear was that Thomas Merton had already praised Zen, and although he was living in the monastery, it seemed he was wavering between Zen and Christianity. To give him a chance to go to Japan and have a direct experience under a master might have been dangerous. He might have become involved in Zen for his whole life. These so-called religions are so jealous; they don't have any compassion for individual growth, freedom.

 

Thomas Merton's murder is not only Thomas Merton's murder, it should make every Christian aware that Christianity is not a religion. Deep down it is more interested in gathering numbers. Numbers have their own politics. The greater the number of followers you have, the greater the power to dominate. And they are always afraid that anybody who leaves their fold is betraying.

 

But it is absolutely certain that Thomas Merton had already felt in his heart the immense need for Zen. Christianity was no longer satisfying. His whole life he had been a monk in the monastery, but slowly slowly, as he became aware of Zen, he could see that Christianity was not at all a religion; fictions, lies, beliefs, but not a direct experience. The very idea of Zen as a non-systematic, individualist approach to truth in a direct way -- not through theology, not through any belief, not through any philosophy, but through meditation -- was attracting him immensely, but it was not yet an experience.

 

Thomas Merton is far better than Suzuki, than Alan Watts, than Paul Reps, than Hubert Benoit, and than many others who have written about Zen. He comes the closest, because he is not speaking through the head, he is speaking through the heart of a poet.

 

But the heart is only just in the middle, between the head and the being. Unless you reach to the being, you don't have the experience yourself. But he was a sensitive man; he managed to state things which he had not experienced.

 

His statement is beautiful, but it shows clearly that he had not experienced it himself. This is his understanding -- of course, far deeper than any other Western scholar of Zen. If it had really been a direct experience for him, the way he was saying, he would not have cared about anybody's permission, he would not have cared about Christianity. He would have come out of that fold -- which was just a slavery and nothing else.

 

Because he never came out of the fold, that shows he was hanging in the middle, he was not yet certain. He had not tasted the truth. He had only heard about it, read about it, and felt that there seems to be a different approach, altogether different, from that of Christianity. But Christianity was still keeping its hold over him. He could not be a rebel, and that's where he failed, completely failed.

 

A man of Zen is basically rebellious. Thomas Merton was not rebellious, he was a very obedient person. Obedience is another name for slavery, a beautiful name that does not hurt you, but it is spiritual slavery. His asking six times and being refused, and still remaining in the fold, shows clearly that he was spiritually a slave. Although he was showing a deep interest in Zen, it was at the most, deeper than the mind, but not deep enough to reach to the being. He remained hanging in the middle. Perhaps now in his new life, he may either be here, or in Japan -- most probably he is here amongst you -- because that was his last wish before he died.

 

As the conference ended and he went to his bed, immediately he was poisoned. While he was dying, thinking about Zen, his last wish must have been to go to Japan, to be with a master. He had lived under Christianity his whole life, but it had not fulfilled him, it had not made him enlightened. It had only been a consolation.

 

Only fools can be deceived by consolations and lies and fictions. A man of such intense sensitivity as Thomas Merton could not be befooled. But a lifelong obedience turned into a spiritual slavery. He tried to sneak out from Bangkok -- because there was no need to ask the abbot of the monastery, there was no need to ask the pope. He could have simply gone from Bangkok.

 

But these so-called religions are murderous. They must have been ready. If he showed any interest in Japan and not going back to his monastery directly from Bangkok as the conference ended... the murderers must have been already there. And because he mentioned in his last speech to the conference that he was immensely interested in Zen, and he would like to go to Japan from there, this statement became his death.

 

So it is not only Ayatollah Khomeini. There have been murders and murders, century after century, of people who wanted to get out of the slavery and seek and search the truth on their own; who wanted to get rid of all systems, who wanted to have a direct experience of life.

 

Thomas Merton's words are beautiful, but they are empty words because there is no supporting experience behind them. I will read those words again.

 

"Zen is not a systematic explanation of life" -- but this can be said very easily by anybody reading books about Zen. It is not a systematic explanation of life; in fact, it is not an explanation at all. That makes the difference. He is denying: "Zen is not a systematic explanation of life."

 

I say unto you, Zen is not an explanation at all about life or existence. It is an experience, not an explanation. It is not an ideology.

 

This can be said by anyone who is reading a book on Zen. But it is stated with such certainty by so many people who have only an intellectual understanding, that it is not a great indication of whether Thomas Merton had had any experience. Zen certainly is not an ideology, it is not a world view. All these are different words for the same thing: "a systematic explanation, an ideology, a world view, a theology of revelation and salvation." He is simply being tautological, he is saying the same thing again and again in different words.

 

"It is not a mystique" -- there he is wrong. It is, although it is not stated. That's why he thought it is not a mystique. It is the greatest mystique, but it is not said because it cannot be said. Because it is never said, he thought that it is not a mystique. These small things indicate that he's just read about it -- because nowhere is it said that it is a mystique. Because no master ever indicated in words that it is a mystique, he thinks it is not a mystique. It is. It is the greatest mystique, the greatest mystery, the greatest miracle.

 

But to say it in words has not been the way of Zen. It attracts people, takes away their ideologies, their theologies, their religions. It leaves you absolutely fresh at the very center of your being. Without saying anything, you experience the mystique, you experience the mystery of existence and life. But because it is an experience...

 

In Zen they don't even use the word `experience', they use the word `experiencing', because the experience is not something dead and complete. It is a river flowing, flowing, alive, moving. The word `experience' indicates that it has become complete. Anything that becomes complete becomes dead, and Zen is the most alive thing in the world; hence it cannot be said that it is an experience. We have to invent a word, `experiencing'; instead of river, `rivering'... That gives the clear-cut idea that a river is not static, it is moving. On the way, always on the way, moving eternally, falling into the ocean, rising into the clouds, falling in the rain on the mountains, and again into the river... moving in a circle of tremendous aliveness, never stopping anywhere.

 

There is no full stop in Zen, and all our words -- `experience', `knowledge', `understanding'... give the illusion of a full stop. We have to change our nouns into verbs -- verbs come closer to life. We use the word `life', but we should use the word `living' -- that comes closer. Moment to moment, living. `Life' seems to be something dead; it has already completed its course, has come to an end, to the graveyard.

 

Zen is certainly a mystique. In fact, it is the only mystique there is. But it is not being said, it is kept a secret so that you don't go inside your being with a certain idea. You go absolutely clean and fresh. You will find the mystery, the immense mystery of life, but Zen's absolute approach is not to give you any idea what you are going to find. The reason is very scientific.

 

If you have any idea what you are going to find -- which all the religions give you... The mind has the capacity to create an hallucination of the idea. Then the idea becomes a reality to you. Christians experience Christ, Buddhists experience Buddha, Hindus experience Krishna. It never happens to a Hindu that Christ comes, it never happens to a Christian that Mohammed comes. Strange... Mohammed comes only to those who believe in Mohammed.

 

Once in a while it would be good for these people to enter into somebody else's experience. In fact, it would be absolutely right to convert.... If Christ appears to a Hindu, the Hindu will become Christian; if Krishna appears to a Christian, the Christian will turn to the Hare Krishna, Hare Rama movement. But it never happens! It cannot happen because you are carrying a certain idea, so fixed that your whole mind starts creating a dream.

 

The mind has the capacity of dreaming, hallucinating, imagining. If you are constantly working on one single idea, sooner or later it becomes such a fixed program that when you look in silence you find suddenly Christ arising. That fulfills your idea. It is a vicious circle. Because you experience Christ arising in your mind, your belief in Christ becomes stronger.

 

Now it is no longer just a belief, you have experienced it also. Because it becomes stronger, there is more possibility of Christ coming closer to you. Every time Christ appears to you, he will be more solid, more alive, closer. And every time he appears, you are getting feedback for your belief system, it is becoming stronger and more fanatical. Soon you will be almost insane. You will start talking to Christ -- and not only will you start talking, but he will answer.

 

Anybody watching you will see that you are doing both the things: you are asking the question and you are answering the question. Anybody watching you will be able to see that you are just behaving in an insane way. You are not talking to anybody but yourself. But you have gone so deep in the hallucination, with such strength and continuous feedback, that you believe it is Christ who is talking.

 

You can find such mad people sitting and talking in every madhouse, and you know that there is nobody. And the strangest phenomenon which the mind is capable of, is that when the person asks a question, his voice will be different. When he answers the question, his voice will be different again -- booming, coming from the beyond. This whole game he is playing alone; there is nobody to answer.

 

In a madhouse, a madman was keeping his ear close to a wall. He was keeping his eyes down and his ear touching the wall. The superintendent came many times, but the man was completely fixed in his posture. Finally, he could not resist the temptation: "What is the matter?" he asked the fellow.

 

The madman said, "Shhh!"

 

But the superintendent said, "What are you doing?"

 

He said, "I am trying to listen. You can give it a try."

 

So the superintendent came and listened to the wall, and there was nothing to hear. He said, "I can't hear a thing."

 

The madman said, "Neither can I -- but one never knows. I will continue till I start hearing."

 

If you continue till you start hearing, you are going to be completely insane. All the religions have been driving their saints, their monks, into insanity. This world is not in a mess without any reason; the religions are absolutely responsible for it.

 

Thomas Merton says, "It is not a way of ascetic perfection." Because he was following an ascetic way of perfection, he could see that Zen is different; it gives no discipline. The Trappist monk lives under such a strict discipline, it is unbelievable.

 

I have told you the story....

 

A man entered into one of the most prominent Trappist monasteries, and the abbot said, "Do you know our rule? For seven years you have not to say a single word. Only after seven years can you state anything you want, anything you need, anything you want to inquire about -- just a small talk. Then for seven years again you have to be silent."

 

The man was determined to follow the discipline, so he accepted and he was shown his cell. He went into the cell and he saw that the glass was broken. So for seven years he was suffering from cold, suffering from rain -- because the rain was coming directly through the window -- and he could not say a single word, he had to wait for seven years.

 

He waited, and after seven years he went to the abbot and said, "My window is broken."

 

The abbot said, "That's enough. You go back. For seven years no more words. The window will be repaired."

 

The window was repaired, but in seven years the mattress had gone completely rotten because rain was continuously coming in, and even snowflakes were coming in. Suddenly he saw that he had not mentioned about the mattress. "My God! now seven years again..." And the mattress had gathered all kinds of cockroaches, spiders... because the window was broken, and this was a good shelter for cockroaches.

 

After seven years of continuous suffering with cockroaches... he again went to the abbot and said, "You repaired the window, but the mattress is absolutely rotten."

 

The abbot said, "Go back to your cell, a new mattress will be sent." And the people who brought the new mattress pulled out the old one and cleaned the cell, but the new mattress was bigger than the cell. They somehow forced it, and because they were forcing it, the glass of the window broke. Now again begins the same story....

 

Fourteen years have passed -- again he is back to zero. The first day he entered, this was the situation. Seven years he has to wait again. Again the rain -- and he is getting old and sick, and continuously has fever, but he cannot speak.

 

After seven years when he went to the abbot, the abbot said, "Shut up!" before he even spoke. "For twenty-one years I have never heard anything from you except complaints, complaints, complaints! Get out of the monastery!"

 

The poor fellow, after wasting twenty-one years in a Trappist monastery, was thrown out, sick, old, exhausted. Twenty-one years of continuous torture...!

 

Thomas Merton was living in a Trappist monastery. Obviously, he could see that Zen does not give you any discipline, it is not ascetic, and he could see what he had been doing to himself and what other Trappists were doing to themselves. It is sheer masochism -- self-torture in the name of an ascetic way of life. It is not a way of life, it is a way of death! It is slow suicide, slow poisoning.

 

But his statement will be detected by any man who has a direct experience of Zen. He says, "It is not a way of ascetic perfection." The implication is that it is a way of perfection without asceticism. It is not a way of perfection at all.

 

Zen is evolution, endless evolution. Perfection is the dead end of the road, there is no more to go. In Zen there is always the infinite and the eternal available. You cannot exhaust it. In fact, as you go on the way, the way is not exhausted, slowly slowly you start dispersing and disappearing. Suddenly you find one day you are no more, only existence is.

 

It is not perfection at all, it is not salvation. It is dissolution, it is disappearance, it is melting like ice into the ocean.

 

Thomas Merton goes on, "It is not mysticism as it is understood in the West."

 

In the West it is understood as mysticism; that does not mean it is not mysticism. Certainly it is not the mysticism that arises out of the mind as a philosophical point of view. It is pure mysticism, not originating in the mind, but arising from your very sources of life. It blossoms into mysterious flowers releasing mysterious, absolutely unknown fragrances into existence. It is mysticism -- but it is not an "ism." It is not a philosophy, it is not a creed or cult. Again and again you have to fall back towards direct experience.

 

He says, "In fact, it fits no convenient category of ours."

 

All his statements are beautiful, but something is missing. That missing link you will find only if you have the experience. Then you can compare. Otherwise Thomas Merton will look absolutely right, a man of Zen. He is not. He wanted to be, but if he had been, there would have been no need to go to Japan. I have never been to Japan.

 

In fact, in Japanese Zen monasteries my books are being read, prescribed in Zen universities -- but I have never been to Japan. I don't need to. Buddha himself never went to Japan, Mahakashyapa was not born in Japan.

 

His desire to go to Japan shows that he had seen one thing clearly: that Christianity does not work. And he was searching for some new approach that worked. His statement, "In fact it fits no convenient category of ours," is true. But it is not only categories of ours -- it does not fit into any kind of category. It is beyond categories. Neither Christian categories, nor Hindu, nor Mohammedan, nor Jaina, it does not fit into any category. It is so original, you cannot make it fit into any category. The original is always individual; it is not a category.

 

Do you think I fit in any category? All categories are against me! And the reason they are against me is that I don't fit with them. I have no desire to fit with anybody. I am sufficient unto myself. I don't need any religion, I don't need any philosophy, I don't need any category.

 

In other words: I am a category in myself.

 

Zen will not fit into any category because it is a category in itself. And it is such a rebellious category, such an unsystematic category, that in Zen all kinds of wildflowers are accepted as equal with the roses and with the lotuses. It does not matter whether it is a lotus or a rose or just a wildflower, the only thing that matters is flowering. All have flowered to their potential. That's where they are all equal. Otherwise their colors are different, their beauties are different, their fragrances are different -- a few may not have any fragrance at all.

 

So they don't fit in one category, but as far as flowering is concerned, they have all flowered, blossomed, to their totality. Whatever was hidden has become a reality. What was a dream in the plant has blossomed as a reality.

 

Zen is a blossoming of your potential. And everybody has a different potential, so when you blossom as a Zen man you have a unique individuality. You don't fit with any category -- and not only Christian categories. That's what Thomas Merton means: "In fact, it fits no convenient category of ours."

 

But I have to say to you, it does not fit any category at all, yours or ours or anybody else's. It is beyond the mind. All categories belong to the mind. This is the only rebellion against mind: going beyond it. This is the only revolution against the self: going into no-self, into anatta. This is ultimate freedom from all kinds of bondages: prisons and categories and isms and ideologies and world views and philosophies. It is an absolute freedom from all that mind can create and mind can understand. It is also free from the heart.

 

The heart can understand something deeper than the mind, but Zen is far deeper than the heart. The heart can be just an overnight stay. While you are going towards your being, your heart, your art, your music, your dance, your poetry, your painting, your sculpture, can be just one night's halt. But you have to go deeper. You have to reach to the very roots of your life, from where you are getting nourishment every moment, to the point where you are joined with existence, you are no longer separate.

 

"Hence all our attempts," says Thomas Merton, "to tag it and dispose of it with labels like pantheism, quietism, illuminism, Pelagianism, must be completely incongruous."

 

This is a very simple understanding which need not have any direct experience. And he comes to the point. He says, "But the chief characteristic of Zen is that it rejects all systematic elaborations in order to get back as far as possible to the pure, unarticulated and unexplained ground of direct experience. The direct experience of what? Life itself."

 

A beautiful statement, but empty -- a plastic flower with no fragrance and with no life in it. Otherwise, why did he want to go to Japan? If he had had this direct experience he is talking about, there was no need to go to Japan, and there was no need to remain in a Trappist monastery. He should have been a man of freedom.

 

But he could never attain that freedom. He was longing for it, he was desiring it -- and you desire only because you don't have it. If you have it, you don't desire it.

 

And you have asked, "Beloved Master, has Thomas Merton got it?"

 

Not yet -- but perhaps in this life. After being murdered by the Christians...

 

It is a well-known fact to the people who have known the direct experience, that your last thought before you die is going to be your first thought when you are born and you grow up. As you start having intelligence, your last thought of the past life is going to suddenly pop up. It has been hiding itself inside you.

 

It is just like the last thought when you go to bed. Just watch what is the last thought... or perhaps it is better to create the last thought so you are clearly aware of it. For example, you simply think of zero. Go on watching the zero, so it is visual also, and the thought is inside: zero, zero, zero, zero... and sleep starts coming. And when sleep is coming, still a faraway echo, zero, zero, zero... goes on. Once the sleep settles, you forget about the word `zero'.

 

Then remember in the early morning when you are feeling awake -- don't open your eyes, just wait a little. Within moments, the first thought in the morning will be "zero." That will give you the idea that although you had forgotten about zero, the whole night, eight hours, it was continuously moving as an undercurrent. Otherwise, how do you find exactly that thought in the morning as the first thought?

 

The same happens with death, because death is nothing but a deeper sleep. The last thought, the last desire, is going to be your first thought, your first desire as you become mature enough to have thoughts. It will immediately come to your mind.

 

In Tibet they have a special ceremony for dying people called bardo. The person is dying, and the masters of Bardo recite certain experiences that are going to happen to you: that you will be born in a certain womb of a special kind, that you will be born as an intelligent being, that your first thought will be how to find the truth, how to become a buddha... They go on repeating....

 

The man is dying, he is going deeper and deeper into sleep, and they go on repeating it till they feel the man is dead. They have given him the last thought. Perhaps he would not have been able to have this last thought by himself, because his last thought may be money, his last thought may be sex, his last thought may be anything that he has been desiring and has not been able to get: power, prestige, respectability.

 

One never knows what the last thought will be. It will be the one that you have not been able to materialize in your life and in which you have been disappointed. That will bubble up, pop up in your head, and that will drive you into a new life. That will be the determining factor for your new phase, your new journey.

 

The Tibetan enlightened people found that it is better not to depend on the person. It is better to create the aroma, the atmosphere in which he forgets all about money and sex, power and prestige, fame and name, and they go on repeating the Bardo in such a singing voice that it is impossible for him not to hear it.

 

I had one famous doctor in Jabalpur, Dr. Bharat, a Bengali doctor, but the most famous physician in that part of the country. He was the president of the Rotary Club; that's how I came to know him -- because he requested me to address the Rotary Club.

 

So he had come to my house and taken me in his car, and had listened to me for the first time in the Rotary Club, and became very deeply interested in me. He used to come to see me once in a while. He was reading books I had suggested to him because he wanted to read something about Zen, something about Tibetan mysticism, something about Sufism, something about Hassidism -- the things that I had been talking about to him.

 

So he came to the point of knowing about Bardo. He said, "What is Bardo?"

 

I said, "I will come to your clinic and give you a try."

 

He said, "What do you mean, you will give me a try?"

 

I said, "In fact, it is just the opposite. But let me come to your clinic."

 

So I went to his clinic and I told him, "Give me the chloroform."

 

He said, "What?"

 

I said, "You just give me the chloroform, and I will go on repeating: one, two, three, four, five... and you just listen at what number I stop. And when I come back, when you remove the chloroform mask, just listen to me. I will start counting at the same number where I had stopped, in reverse order."

 

He was a little worried. First he said, "Now we have stopped using chloroform."

 

I said, "You will have to do it if you want to understand Bardo."

 

He said, "But it is dangerous."

 

I said, "Don't be worried, it is not dangerous."

 

So I persuaded him. He put me under the mask and I started repeating the numbers: one, two, three... And I was watching inside that my voice was becoming slower and slower and slower, and that he was putting his ear close to my mouth to hear the last -- it was nine. After that I could not speak, the body was completely paralyzed, my lips wouldn't move.

 

After ten minutes he removed the mask and he waited. As I became capable of moving my lips, he heard: "Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." And as I was coming in the reverse order, my voice was becoming clearer and clearer. By the time I reached one, I was back.

 

I said, "This is Bardo. When you are dying, if you can manage by yourself, good; otherwise call me. Then I will give you the idea where to go, what kind of womb to find, what kind of parents will give you freedom, what kind of atmosphere to look for where soon you will become intelligent and will not remain retarded -- the idea of becoming a Gautam Buddha, the idea of becoming enlightened."

 

But he was still alive when I left Jabalpur in 1970, so I don't know what happened to the fellow. He was old, most probably he is dead and is born somewhere. And I don't think he was capable of creating the whole program for the new journey. Bardo is programming your whole journey.

 

Thomas Merton must have been born in Japan or in a place where he can experience Zen without any hindrance from Christianity, without any obedience to any pope. But in the past life, when he was Thomas Merton, he was having a good contemplation about Zen that may have created the atmosphere of Bardo. And because this was his last statement in the conference... and he must have been planning it while he was being poisoned. The next morning he was to leave for Japan, he had booked for Japan -- but he was not aware that Christianity will not allow you to get out of their prison so easily.

 

I am against all these religions for the simple reason that they have been criminals, murderers. They have been talking about peace, love, God; they have been talking great words -- but they don't mean it. What they mean can be found only in their actions, not in their words.

 

-Osho, “The Zen Manifesto: Freedom From Oneself, #2, Q1”

 

 

 

※ Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was born in Prades, France.

After a rambunctious youth and adolescence, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism whilst at Columbia University in the USA, and in 1941 he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a community of monks belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order. The twenty-seven years he spent in Gethsemani brought about profound changes in his self-understanding.

Merton was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion. He wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race. Among his most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of World War II veterans, students, and even teenagers flocking to monasteries across the USA.

Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with the Dalai Lama, D.T. Suzuki, and Thich Nhat Hanh, and authored books on Zen Buddhism and Taoism. For his social activism Merton endured severe criticism, from Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who assailed his political writings as unbecoming of a monk.

During his last years, he became deeply interested in Asian religions, particularly Zen Buddhism, and in promoting East-West dialogue. After several meetings with Merton during the American monk’s trip to the Far East in 1968, the Dalai Lama praised him as having a more profound understanding of Buddhism than any other Christian he had known.

The exact circumstances of his death in Bangkok are unclear.