Monday, September 14, 2015

Guest Quote today

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” - Thomas Merton from here. - thanks John Steiner

As I recall, the SFZC was one of the last places Merton visited before his fateful trip to India. He told Richard Baker that he really felt more like a Buddhist but it was too late to change. I'll write Baker and check. - dc