Mystics and Zen Masters

Mystics and Zen Masters

by Thomas Merton

Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1967. 303pp.

I love that this deeply committed Trappist monk and mystic undertook depth study of Zen Buddhism and Taoism, incorporating ongoing dialogue with Buddhist D.T. Suzuki, monks Buddhadasa and Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama. As the preface indicates, “This is a free-wheeling and wide-ranging book which is more than ecumenical,” extending to “the spiritual family of man.”

Early on, Merton addresses the fact that Buddhism fails to recognize a personal God “object” by saying that the empirical “subject” also vanishes in the highest forms of mysticism. He explains that Zen insight is “. . . at once a liberation from the limitations of the individual ego, and a discovery of one’s original nature.” It is “. . . not our awareness, but Being’s awareness of itself in us.”

his isn’t light reading, but very accessible and fascinating. Throughout, Merton addresses Christian misunderstandings of Buddhism, and explores the deep commonalities between the mystics of both traditions and Taoism. In the process, we learn about the Rinzai and Hui Neng schools of Buddhism, Jesuit missionaries adapting themselves to Buddhism in China in the 16th century, Roman Catholic mystics of the 14th century, the Shakers, and Zen monasticism.

A good read. I highly recommend it.

--reviewed by Sharry Lachman