"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is
untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point
or a spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal,
from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of
our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.
This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us.
It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence,
as our dependence, as our sonship.
It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven.
It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points
of light coming together in the face and
blaze of sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely ...
I have no program for this seeing.
It is only given.
But the gate of heaven is everywhere."

"Our discovery of God is, in a way, God's discovery of us.
We cannot go to heaven to find HIM because we have no way of
knowing where heaven is or what it is.
He comes down from heaven and find us.
He looks at us from the depths of His own infinite actuality,
which is everywhere, and His seeing us gives us a new being and
a new mind in which we also discover Him.
We only know Him in so far as we are known by Him, and
our contemplation of Him is a participation in His contemplation of Himself.
We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us."

.... more from the book quoted above in the text

"Self"
A space,
A universe, where
the past, the present and the future become now and here,
the timelessness, the eternity,
well beyond life and death.
Yet it exists in my being.

"Self"
A spiritual space,
may be a tiny black hole,
may be a seed smaller than the sesame,
may be a microscopic cell carrying my DNAs.
Yet it is big enough to accommodate easily
all the galaxies and the outer space of this universe.

My body,
the most efficient, amazing, little machine in the universe,
the compact carrier of the "Self"
now worn out and often tired after years of service.
Yet my mind, the mirror of the "Self"
finally has cleared up after years of struggle,
can now see everything through and through,
through its eye.
It does not need the light.
It sees the light and the darkness are just illusions.
It sees timelessly along the circle of time and space,
where the light cannot reach.

"Self"
A holy space.
Let it be.
Let it be.
All is quiet and peaceful there.
All is free and eternal there.
And all is beautiful, true and happy there.
It is the kingdom, the holy grail and the heaven
all the wise men have been looking for
for thousands of years.

"Self"
You are IT.
You are the stuff, the substance, which
the almighty, the infinitely wise, is made of, which
creates the world, the universe, small or large.

....................................................

I wrote the above poem some 10 years ago when I was delving into
Buddhism. Buddhism talks about small self(small "I") representing
each of us uniting with universal self(Big "I,"Self running the universe)
when each of us experiences enlightenment as Buddha did.
My poem refers to the state of self when
it achieves the enlightenment.

What Thomas Merton stated is quoted again in the below, which strikes me
to the heart in that he seems to be talking about the same thing
I was describing in my poem above.
It seems to me that the way reaching God must be similar in both
Christianity and Buddhism, although Christians believe in Jesus being
God's Son. Other than that, there appears to be not much fundamental difference
in teachings and ways reaching God, once again though large number of
Roman Catholics desire to reach God by praying through Jesus, St. Mary(mother of
Jesus Christ) and other saints.

Thomas Merton gets much of the credit introducing Buddhism, Taoism and other
eastern mysticism to the Catholic Church.
It is interesting to note that he does not talk much about Jesus when he
talked about reaching God through contemplation.
He sounds almost like Buddhist monk in Zen temple although he is a monk
at Catholic monastery.

"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is
untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point
or a spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal,
from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of
our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.

This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is
the pure glory of God in us.
It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence,
as our dependence, as our sonship.
It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven.
It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points
of light coming together in the face and
blaze of sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish
completely ...."

.....

Thank you, Dr. Bang, for your comments.

"Without solitude of some sort, there is and can be no maturity.
Unless one becomes empty and alone, he cannot give himself in love
because he does not possess the deep self which is the only gift
worthy of love.
And this deep self cannot be possessed. My deep self is not "something'
which I acquire, or to which I 'attain' after a long struggle.
It is not mine, and cannot become mine.
It is no 'thing' - no object.
It is 'I.'

The shallow 'I' of individualism can be possessed, developed, cultivated,
pandered to, satisfied: it is the center of all our strivings for gain and satisfaction,
whether material or spiritual.
But the deep 'I' of the spirit, of solitude and of love, cannot be 'had', possessed,
developed, perfected. It can only be and act according to deep inner laws which
are not of man's contriving, but which come from God.
They are the Laws of the Spirit, who like the wind, blows where He wills.
This inner 'I,' who is always alone, is always universal: for in this innermost 'I'
my own solitude meets the solitude of every other man and the solitude of God.
Hence it is beyond division, beyond limitation, beyond selfish affirmation.
It is only this inmost and solitary 'I' that truly loves with the love and the spirit of Christ.
This 'I' is Christ Himself, living in us: and we, in Him,
living in the Father."

Here is a poem by Thomas Merton, singing the above truth.

Song: If You Seek ....

If you seek a heavenly light
I, Solitude, am your professor !

I go before you into emptiness,
Raise strange suns for your new mornings,
opening the windows
of your innermost apartment.

When I, loneliness, give my special signal
follow my silence, follow where I beckon !
Fear not, little beast, little spirit
(Thou word and animal)
I, Solitude, am angel
And have prayed in your name.

Look at the empty, wealthy night
The pilgrim moon !
I am the appointed hour,
The "now" that cuts
Time like a blade.

I am the unexpected flash
Beyond "yes," beyond "no,"
The forerunner of the Word of God.

Follow my ways and I will lead you
To golden-haired suns,
Logos and music, blameless joys,
innocent of questions
And beyond answers:

For I, Solitude, am thine own self:
I, Nothingness, am thy All,
I, Silence, am thy Amen !

...............................................

By reading the above description by Merton,
one can realize that he has found a common ground
between Buddhism and Christianity,
between Buddha's compassion and Christ's unconditional, infinte love.
You can see and feel how he was able to incorporate Buddhism's
self-realization, enlightenment, and the resulting boundless Buddha's compassion
 into the infinite God's love or
self, deep "I" uniting with universal self, boundless compassion, Christ's love, God's love.
Thomas Merton's statements and poem are so real, so vivid, so powerful and
so beautiful that I felt compelled to share with others.

A good teaching and worthy to remember.

I will copy this article, all of them, and I'll
read again when I visit Buddhist Temple
in the mountain, Upstate, NY, when I go
there, not looking at Buddha, but looking
at the bare mountain without any green
leaves, without any flowers of last season,
but bared branches & trees, in front of the
Temple.

I'll dwell in Absolute Solitude for a moment,
if I could.

Dr. Bang,
Thanks again for your comments.
Indeed we all grow in our solitude, and renew and strengthen our friendship and love.
Saying anything to what Merton said certainly would be considered redundant.

I found out you have a wonder kid, Jeremy Lin, in town,
who certainly sounds like a super star in basket ball New Yorkers have been waiting for for years.
We've got four inches of snow overnight.
Have a good weekend, Dr. Bang.

Here in the below, I would like to quote one more from the book I mentioned.

"Some twenty-five years after they met in Dharamsala, India, in October 1968,
the Dalai Lama wrote about Thomas Merton in his autobiography:
'More striking than his outward appearance, which was memorable in itself,
was the inner life that he manifested. I could see he was a truly humble and deeply spiritual man.
This was the first time I had been struck by such a feeling of spirituality in anyone
who professed Christianity ...
It was Merton who first introduced me to the real meaning of the word, 'Christian.'