xt77h41jmf1h https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt77h41jmf1h/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton  This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton, undated text Letter from Thomas Merton, undated   2023 true xt77h41jmf1h section xt77h41jmf1h (Form letter- stencil
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My Dear Friend:

Forgive me for answering you with a form letter, but I get so many requests
like yours that this is the only possibility left to me. It is either this, or no
answer at all. You perhaps do not know to what extent correspondence is restricted
in a monastery like this. Even though I have to write many more letters than
the Rules provide for, I would never be able to answer everything that comes in.
Possibly, however, a few notes here will come close to answering the questions
in your mind, and I hope this will serve your purpose.

First: most of the factual information you may need can be found either in
the usual reference books (SWho's Who in America, Catholic Authors,etc) or in books of
my own. The Seven Storey ~E"Fountain and the Sig! of Jonas are both autobiographical.
More recent information may be found in the preface to a Thfimas Merton Reader (1962)
There is, moreover, a Biblio of materials by and about me, edited by Frank
Dell Isola. This however only goes up to 1956.

To give you a quick rundown on the facts of my life: born in France, 1915.
Educated at grade schools in New York, Bermuda. In highschool in France and England
(prep school). College, at Cmbridge, England and Columbia U. N.Y. Did graduate work
at Columbia. Taught at Columbia and at St Bonaventure University. Entered Trappist
monastery of Gethsemeni in 19141 and have been here since. Ordained priest in 192:9.

In the monastery I have been spiritual director of the monks studying for the priest-
hood, ( Master of Students) and Master of the‘Novices, that is to say I am sup-«used to
guide andinstruct the new ones who have just entered. I have them for three years,
give them classes and so on. This takes a lot of time.

People are always asking if I am still here. '1‘, is is because all sorts of rumors
go around to the effect that I have left. I haven' t. I am still here. I have not been

seen in any New York nightclubs for twenty one years. I am not teaching at Columbia

university now. I am not a priest in a parish in the Bronx, I am not travelling around

Chile giving retreats to nuns, etc etc. If you hear anything of this sort you can
assume that it is for the birds.

 

 . 2

-People often ask why I am here in the first place, and what the contemplative life
means to me. It means to me the search for truth and for God. It means finding the
true sense of my life, and my right place in God's creation. It means reneuncing the
way of life that is led in the Eworld" and which, to me, is a source of illusions
and deceptions. However I say this only for myself, and I have no criticism of anyone
who seeks truth elsewhere and by some other way of life. There are all kinds of ways to
God, and this is only one of the many. But it seems to be the one for me, and it is
the one I have chosen and accepted as God's will. I have never had the faintest desire
to be anything else But a monk, since I first came here. But I have often thought I
would like an even more solitary life than we have here in the monastery. I think solitud

and silence are very important elements which are sadly neglected in the life of modern

man, and if you want to find out more of what I think about this, there are books like

 

Thoughts in Solitude, New Seeds of Contemplation, and parts of the book Disputed
Questions. If you want to find out about the monastic life, besides the Sign of Jones
you can also consult The Silent Life, The Waters of Siloeand some of the pamphlets
published here at the monastery, like Monastic Peace. I would be glad to send you one
if you want it, as a present.

To those who ask what I think about poetry.( I write poetry), there is an essay
published in my Selected Poems which deals with poetry and the contemplative life.
At one time I thought I ought to give up writing poetry because it might not be compatibl
with the life of a monk, but I don't think this any more. I write poetry when I get
an idea.People ask me how I write poetry. I Just write it. I xglt get an idea and
I put it down, and add to it, and take away what is useless, and try to end up with
some kind of a poem. A poem is for me the expresskon of an inner poetic experience,
and what matters is the experience, more than the poem itself.

To those who ask what I think about art, there are a couple of essays on the

subject in Digguted Questions.I like modern art. I have always liked painters like

Picasso, Chagall, Cezanne, Renault, matisse, and so on. I like expressionists and

inpressionists and post impressionists and abstract eXpressionists and.most of the
other "ists" but I don't like socialist realism. Nor do I like candy box art or the

illustrations in the Saturday Evening fiest. I am not prepared to enter into an argument

chut

 

 in flaunts! defence of these preferences.'

Some may want to know what I think about politics. I think first of all that it
is about time that political life in the United States attained a certain degree of
maturity and rationality. we ought to make more serious efforts to act our age and
think in proportion to our size. For this, a whole lot of people who never thought .
about anything serious in their lives are going to have to wake up and startt thinking
about something.It is no good going on emotions and prejudices and slogans and

letting our minds become
feelings of righteous indignation. It is no good simply fining a passive reflection
of a television screen. It is no good going around shouting something that someone
else has suggested that we shout,xnhlxhlx no matter what it may be. If we want to
become a seriously political nation the people have got to do somethinking for
themselves.

I think two issues in this country are extremely serious: one the race issue,
two the question of nuclear war. the second one is worse than the first but both of
them are pretty bad. I do not believe: that people who fight for integration are all
Communists. I do not think that people who are opposed to nuclear war are necessarily
enemies of America and paid agents of Communism. I think, on the contrary, that our
present failure to think straight and act reasonably on these two issuesix is one of
the greatest booms we could offer to the Communist cause. WIXlexinin The Communists
believe almost as an article of faith that Uapitalism is bound to ruin itself by its
preparations for war because it has no other way of surviving. I do not think that our
present line of action is doing anything to shake their beliefs.

Doubtless I could go on to explain what I think about Jazz 3(1 like it) the

movies ( haven't seen one for years, don't miss them) smoking ( don't miss it)

TV ( never watched it, don't want to), the newspapers ( seldom see one), modern youth

(I like zhlui them, at least the ones we've got around here which are the ones I see mes

of) cars 5 I never had one) wives ( never had one, can get along without.) There must

be some other things about which I ought to have an opinion, but this ought to be enough
Once again, I am sorry I cannot answer you personally, But I think by now you

understand. I will be praying for you. God bless you, pray for me too.