Merton on Individualism and his shadow self pursuit of it.
Merton on individualism and his own Shadow self
From a friend:
"The heresy of individualism: thinking oneself a completely self-sufficient unit and asserting this imaginary 'unity' against all others. The affirmation of the self as simply 'not the other.' But when you seek to affirm your unity by denying that you have anything to do with anyone else, by negating everyone else in the universe until you come down to you: what is there left to affirm? Even if there were something to affirm, you would have no breath left with which to affirm it.
The true way is just the opposite: the more I am able to affirm others, to say 'yes' to them in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in them, the more real I am. I am fully real if my own heart says yes to everyone. "
From Thomas Merton: Essential Writings, selected with an Introduction by Christine M. Bochen
(Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books 2000), Page 142.
Paschal's comment:
Merton is himself, in his life, an example of the unresolved conflict between the heresy of individualism and Jesus command to love, (both human / divine love).
He used his hermitage to pursue not only his writing but also a public and even a forbidden life (breaking vows), and in his writing there is no evidence that he loved a single monastic brother. In fact, he often complains about the community, the abbot and others. He also unused his reputation to seduce a young nurse less than half his age, in order to write about real human love, and then discarded her because he could not give up his fame. All of this in his own words, for anyone who would read them. His idolization by many is a commentary on the lack of models of authentic spirituality we have in the RC system, which stealthily encourages the heresy of individualism by a false theology of marriage and sexuality, and a structure of worship on Sunday that precludes any genuine connection with others.
From a friend:
"The heresy of individualism: thinking oneself a completely self-sufficient unit and asserting this imaginary 'unity' against all others. The affirmation of the self as simply 'not the other.' But when you seek to affirm your unity by denying that you have anything to do with anyone else, by negating everyone else in the universe until you come down to you: what is there left to affirm? Even if there were something to affirm, you would have no breath left with which to affirm it.
The true way is just the opposite: the more I am able to affirm others, to say 'yes' to them in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in them, the more real I am. I am fully real if my own heart says yes to everyone. "
From Thomas Merton: Essential Writings, selected with an Introduction by Christine M. Bochen
(Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books 2000), Page 142.
Paschal's comment:
Merton is himself, in his life, an example of the unresolved conflict between the heresy of individualism and Jesus command to love, (both human / divine love).
He used his hermitage to pursue not only his writing but also a public and even a forbidden life (breaking vows), and in his writing there is no evidence that he loved a single monastic brother. In fact, he often complains about the community, the abbot and others. He also unused his reputation to seduce a young nurse less than half his age, in order to write about real human love, and then discarded her because he could not give up his fame. All of this in his own words, for anyone who would read them. His idolization by many is a commentary on the lack of models of authentic spirituality we have in the RC system, which stealthily encourages the heresy of individualism by a false theology of marriage and sexuality, and a structure of worship on Sunday that precludes any genuine connection with others.
posted by Paschal Baute at 11:46 AM
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