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Preying Birds: An Examination of Thomas Merton's Zen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Silvio E. Fittipaldi
Silvio E. Fittipaldi*
Affiliation:
Villanova University
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Abstract

An examination of major themes in Merton's writings on Zen; the ground out of which he met with Zen (theology as experienced in contemplation); his presentation of Zen enlightenment in terms of its effect on awareness; his movement from articulating Zen enlightenment as an experience of “being” to a presentation of it as a realization of “void”; and a positive analysis of his understanding of Zen from the writings of D. T. Suzuki and S. Hisamatsu.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1982 , pp. 37 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1982

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References

1 Merton, Thomas, Mystics and Zen Masters (New York: Dell, 1967), p. ix.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp. 16-17.

3 Merton, Thomas, Zen and the Birds of Appetite (New York: New Directions, 1968), p. 80.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 36.

5 Suzuki, D. T., An Introduction to Zen (New York: Grove, 1964), p. 92.Google Scholar

6 Morton, , Mystics and Zen Masters, p. 13.Google Scholar

7 Suzuki, , An Introduction to Zen, p. 33.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 132.

9 Suzuki, D. T., Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (New York: Grove, 1949), p. 19.Google Scholar

10 Merton, , Mystics and Zen Masters, p. 12.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., p. 13; italics in Merton.

12 Ibid., p. 14; Merton's italics.

13 Ibid., p. 18.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., p. 14.

16 Ibid., pp. 14, 17.

17 Ibid., p. 33.

18 Ibid.

19 Suzuki, D. T., Zen Buddhism. Edited by Barrett, William (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956), p. 219.Google Scholar

20 Suzuki, , An Introduction to Zen, p. 97.Google Scholar

21 I have not been able to make an exhaustive study of this question in Merton's writings. Such a study would need to be done to respond accurately to the above question. I can, however, imagine two possible responses. On the one hand, Merton simply affirmed the tradition of Christian philosophy and theology in which Being is the center. On the other hand, in the context of his encounter with Zen as well as his knowledge of the apophatic western mystics, he was aware of another approach and was beginning to integrate it into his conscious thought and writing near the time of his death. For the purposes of the present essay, I will assume that Merton usually operated out of the first option but also was aware of the second option and quite possibly was moving in its direction at the time of his death.

22 Merton, , Mystics and Zen Masters, p. 24.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. 40.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., p. 39.

26 Hisamatsu, Shin'ichi, “The Characteristics of Oriental Nothingness,” trans, by DeMartino, R., Philosophical Studies of Japan, 2 (1960), p. 65.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., p. 70.

28 Suzuki, D. T., The Field of Zen (New York: Perennial, 1970), p. 21.Google Scholar

29 Suzuki, , Zen Buddhism, p. 3.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., 88.

31 Ibid., p. 210.

32 Ibid., p. 190.

33 Ibid., pp. 190-91.

34 Suzuki, D. T., What is Zen? (New York: Perennial, 1972), p. 23.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., p. 33.

36 Merton, , Zen and the Bird of Appetite, p. 5.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., p. ix.