Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism - 12

The title of the chapter I have just finished reading is "The Characteristics of Mysticism."

Some underlined phrases:

Jacopene da Todi: "Blessed are the cleane of hart for they shall see God. O sight to be wished, desired and longed for..." One wants a clean windshield to properly see the road.

--"...all mystics, says Saint-Martin, "speak the same language, for they come from the same country." And that language is the language of love.

"RULES: 1) True mysticism is active and practical... 2) transcendental and spiritual...heart is always set upon the changeless One. 3) This one is...Reality...personal Object of Love 4) Living union with this One...arrived at by an arduous...process 5) True Mysticism is never self-seeking." This last one is the hardest. It is so tempting to seek the fruits of the search: peace, holiness, purity; it is so scary to seek the One, not knowing what the outcome might be.

"inaccurately called 'ecstasy,' but is better named the Unitive State"

"The jewels of mystic literature glow with this intimate and impassioned love of the Absolute; which transcends the dogmatic language in which it is clothed and becomes applicable to to mystics of every race and creed. There is little difference in this between the extremes of Eastern and Western thought: between A Kempis the Christian and Jalalu'd Din the Moslem saint."

"...fundamentally a science of the heart."

"The mystic's outlook, indeed, is the lover's outlook."

"St. Bernard...'He alone is God who can never be sought in vain: not even when He cannot be found."

"...sought only for the heart of God, therein to hide myself." --Jacob Boehme

A Year With Thomas Merton - February 21

Where Your Treasure Is

Tremendous discovery. The Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad!

Kairos! Everything for a long time has been slowly leading up to this, and with this reading a sudden convergence of roads, tendencies, lights, in unity!

A new door. (Looked at it without comprehension nine months ago.)

Yesterday's disgust with the trivial, shallow, contemporary stuff I am tempted to read! No time for that.

Scriptures. Greek patrology. Oriental thought. This is enough to fill every free corner of the day not given to prayer, meditation, duties.

This morning, the splendor of my Mass! Sun pouring in on the altar and in glory of reflected lights from the hammered silver chalice splashed all over the corporal and all around the Host. Deep quiet. The Gospel--"Do not fear, little flock." Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. May I learn the lessons of detachment, even from the little white house of St. Mary of Carmel. But no nonsense about not desiring solitude. On the contrary, to desire it in perfection and in truth. Interior and exterior.

February 4 and 14, 1961, IV.92-93

A Year With Thomas Merton - January 23

Unveiling the Heart

Deep snow. A marvelous morning (early in the night hours) in which, among other things, I suddenly wrote a French poem.

Curious dimension of time: in four hours (besides writing this poem, getting breakfast and cleaning up) I reread a few pages of Burtt's book and perhaps twenty pages of Kitaro Nishida. That was all. But the time was most fruitful in depth and awareness, and I did not know what happened to all these hours.

Later I could see by the deer tracks that sometime in the dark before dawn a couple of deer had jumped the fence right out in front of the hermitage--but I did not notice them. (Too dark, and with my desk light in front of me I do not see out when it is dark.)

As regards prayer--in the hermitage. To be snowed in is to be reminded that this is a place apart, from which praise goes up to God, and that my honor and responsibility are that praise. This is my joy, my only "importance." For it is important! To be chosen for this! And then the realization that the Spirit is given to me, the veil is removed from my heart, that I reflect "with open face" the glory of Christ (II Corinthians 3:12-18). It would be easy to remain with one's heart veiled, and it is not by any wisdom of my own, but by God's gift, that it is unveiled.

January 23, 1966, VI.10-11