Hidden Contemplatives / 이한중

As I immersed myself in reading the latest book on Thomas Merton
by a Korean Catholic monastic, Jaechan Anselmo Park, titled
"Thomas Merton's Encounter with Buddhism And Beyond, 2019,"
I came to the realization through Merton's observation that I have led
a life many years, perhaps my entire adult life, that is defined by
Merton as " hidden contemplative."
Perhaps this coronavirus Pandemic has contributed to a degree to 
this awakening by forcing me to live a life that literally imitates that of a monk.
According to Merton, every human being has a monastic dimension that
everyone must realize in different ways. ..... He believed that the seeds of 
contemplation are present in people of every culture, but they are hidden.
He described the hidden contemplative as one who practices a type of 
"masked contemplation" in daily life. These lay contemplatives are not monks per se but can be true contemplatives. ....

because of the great purity of heart
maintained in them by ......abandonment to God's will in all they do and suffer.
They are much closer to God than they realize. They enjoy a kind of a "masked contemplation."
For Merton, contemplation was essential for the attainment of self-transformation, and the capacity for contemplative experience

is opened to everyone. He saw that the search for interior life, a longing for solitude, and
contemplative experience could awaken a hidden contemplative.

As I am looking around and looking back on my life journey,
I find a good number of people or many that fit the description of hidden contemplatives who never told anyone

as far as I know what's in their interior lives, yet demonstrated clearly by their actions what they were
doing in their inner worlds that were founded and built up between themselves and their God or transcendents.
This Pandemic has made me enjoy a plentiful solitude and a good chance
for me to work on my own kingdom, prayerfully on more firm ground,
where I continue my conversation with and pray to Almighty and All-Loving,
day and night, night and day, all by ourselves.
 
June 6, 2020