Meditation Quotes by Thomas Merton

Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring.

— Thomas Merton

Our whole life is a meditation of our last decision - the only decision that matters.

— Thomas Merton

Contemplation is the loving sense of this life, this presence and this eternity.

— Thomas Merton

Zen insight is not our awareness, but Being's awareness of itself in us.

— Thomas Merton

If Zen has any preference it is for glass that is plain, has no color, and is "just glass."

— Thomas Merton

Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.

— Thomas Merton

We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.

— Thomas Merton

True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace. It can come to us ONLY as a gift, and not…

— Thomas Merton

“It is as if in creating us God asked a question, and in awakening us to contemplation He answered the question, so…

— Thomas Merton

“We only know Him in so far as we are known by Him, and our contemplation of Him is a participation in…

— Thomas Merton

Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all…

— Thomas Merton

The whole aim of Zen is not to make foolproof statements about experience, but to come to direct grips with reality without…

— Thomas Merton

Zen is consciousness unstructured by particular form or particular system, a trans-cultural, trans-religious, transformed consciousness.

— Thomas Merton

Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age…

— Thomas Merton

Learn how to meditate on paper. Drawing and writing are forms of meditation. Learn how to contemplate works of art. Learn how…

— Thomas Merton

To enter into the realm of contemplation, one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance…

— Thomas Merton

The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence.…

— Thomas Merton

Some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do…

— Thomas Merton

As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one…

— Thomas Merton

Our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the…

— Thomas Merton

Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep…

— Thomas Merton

“This false “faith” which is what we often live by and which we even come to confuse with our “religion” is subjected…

— Thomas Merton

“I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever…

— Thomas Merton

“Contemplation is precisely the awareness that this “I” is really “not I” and the awakening of the unknown “I” that is beyond…

— Thomas Merton

“Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self..We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all…

— Thomas Merton

“Nothing could be more alien to contemplation than the cogito ergo sum of Descartes. “I think, therefore I am.” This is the…

— Thomas Merton

“Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married…

— Thomas Merton

“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all…

— Thomas Merton

“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep,…

— Thomas Merton

“There are many other escapes from the empirical, external self, which might seem to be, but are not, contemplation. For instance, the…

— Thomas Merton

“Hence the aim of meditation, in the context of Christian faith, is not to arrive at an objective and apparently 'scientific' knowledge…

— Thomas Merton

“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep,…

— Thomas Merton

“There is a 'movement' of meditation, expressing the basic 'paschal' rhythm of the Christian life, the passage from death to life in…

— Thomas Merton

“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and…

— Thomas Merton

Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self…

— Thomas Merton

You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude."…

— Thomas Merton

Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous…

— Thomas Merton

“We must approach our meditation realizing that 'grace,' 'mercy,' and 'faith' are not permanent inalienable possessions which we gain by our efforts…

— Thomas Merton

Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the…

— Thomas Merton

“Contemplation, on the contrary, is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mine” (which would signify “belonging to the…

— Thomas Merton