Review
by Justin C. Maaia, Spring, 2002
Thomas
Merton. The Seven Storey Mountain. New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Comapny, Inc., 1948. 412 pp.
“No
Westerner has ever understood Zen as well as Thomas Merton.”
This is a remark made by Daisetz Suzuki, the great Japanese Zen master
and scholar. It was not made
because of Merton’s ability to grasp abstract concepts–it is well known by
students of Zen that the essence of Zen is experience, not conceptualization.
Nor was it made because Merton had devoted time to practicing Buddhism.
Merton had the experience which allowed him to understand Zen, but it was
an experience obtained by means much closer to the Western heart than Zen
practice. It was an experience
gained in a Catholic monastery.
In The
Seven Storey Mountain, Merton gives the account of his outward and inward
journey from life as a worldly, self-indulgent teenager, to his contemplative
existence as a Trappist monk. It is
this spiritual journey which gave Merton insight into the truths of Zen. If ever an argument can be made for the unanimity thesis of
mystical religious experience, it is embodied in the relationship of Merton and
Suzuki. On the surface, their
traditions are as distant doctrinally as they are geographically.
However, the dialogue that ensued between this Christian contemplative
and his Buddhist counterpart makes a strong argument for the existence of a
“perennial philosophy.”
The book
begins by relating all of Merton’s childhood and adolescent experiences that
are relevant to an understanding of his development and the spirit of the age in
which he lived (and in which we may still live).
After this foundation is laid, the events that marked his struggle toward
salvation are narrated. It is the
story of a struggle to find freedom, and, once obtained, to use it properly; it
is the struggle to be an individual, and to be an individual worthy of his/her
existence; it is the struggle to find God in a godless world.
At times, Merton is ruthless in his criticism of the society in which he
lives. However, he does not blame
this society, nor pass judgment on it. He
only criticizes it because he is a part of it and indeed he embodies it.
His transcendence of this state of being in the world, his attainment of
a higher level of consciousness, and his ability to embrace the world in a new
way are the result of his adversity. Some
of this adversity is handed to him, but he admits that most of it is created by
him. This self-induced ‘hell’
seems to be all the more dangerous because it is internal and because there is
no scapegoat. However, its
transcendence through religious experience, and the heaven that follows, are all
the more intense because of their dire origins.
At the
least, it can be said that the overall structure of such a spiritual journey is
the element shared by all of the sages, the mystics, the saints, the
bodhisattvas of the many religious and philosophical traditions.
How else could Merton have been able to converse so meaningfully with the
adepts of so many different faiths? How
was he able to help establish the religious dialogue that is so vital today?
By reading about Thomas Merton’s life, one may be able to get sense of
what lies at the heart of this dialogue. But
it is only through one’s own journey that one may be able to truly understand
it.
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