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Meditation Quotes by Thomas Merton

42 Meditation quotes by Thomas Merton

All Meditation quotes Thomas Merton’s page

Thomas Merton describes contemplation as a quiet interior death that opens a higher life, a stillness where the soul rests. He contrasts this deep pause with the noisy flow of action, and warns that modern technology often drowns the search for truth for its own sake.

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Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring.

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

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

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

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We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Everything in modern city life is calculated to keep man from entering into himself and thinking about spiritual things. Even with the…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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More by Thomas Merton

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

If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must…

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is…

We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human…

The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the…

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

The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of…

Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in…

Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one…

Love winter when the plant says nothing.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of…

“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of…

I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not…

If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and…

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