Zen and the Birds of AppetiteNew Directions Publishing, 1968 - 141 oldal "Zen enriches no one," Thomas Merton provocatively writes in his opening statement to Zen and the Birds of Appetite--one of the last books to be published before his death in 1968. "There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while... but they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the 'nothing, ' the 'no-body' that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey." This gets at the humor, paradox, and joy that one feels in Merton's discoveries of Zen during the last years of his life, a joy very much present in this collection of essays. Exploring the relationship between Christianity and Zen, especially through his dialogue with the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki, the book makes an excellent introduction to a comparative study of these two traditions, as well as giving the reader a strong taste of the mature Merton. Never does one feel him losing his own faith in these pages; rather one feels that faith getting deeply clarified and affirmed. Just as the body of "Zen" cannot be found by the scavengers, so too, Merton suggests, with the eternal truth of Christ. |
Tartalomjegyzék
New Consciousness | 15 |
A Christian Looks at Zen | 33 |
The Man and his Work | 59 |
A Zen philosopher | 67 |
Nirvana | 79 |
Zen in Japanese Art | 89 |
Wisdom in Emptiness | 99 |
Postface | 139 |
Más kiadások - Összes megtekintése
Gyakori szavak és kifejezések
Absolute Asian Avidya awareness basic become Bernadette Mayer Buddha Buddhism Buddhist meditation Catholics Chinese Chris Christ Christian consciousness Christian experience Christian mysticism Church Cistercian completely concept cultural D.T. Suzuki Desert Fathers desire Dhammapada dhism dialogue disciple divine doctrine ego-self emptiness ence enlightenment evil existence existential fact freedom gift God's Godhead grasp ground Hence hermit Hui Neng idea Innocence insight intuition Japanese kind knowledge live means Meister Eckhart metaphysical mind monk moral mysterious ness Nirvana Nishida object one's ontological Paradise Paramita perfect person philosophical poverty Prajna progressive Christians pure purity of heart question radical reality realization religious robbers sciousness seeks Selected Poems self-aware sense simply soul speak spiritual structures suffering Sunyata Taoism teaching theological things Thomas Merton thought tian tion tradition transcendent experience true truth understanding unity Void West Western wisdom words Zen Buddhism Zen experience Zen Masters Zen-man