AS MERTON's 1968 TRIP TO ASIA continued in India, he met Hindu and Buddhist contemplatives with whom he shared insights gleaned from his own meditation. The very heart of his stay in India was his meeting with the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, at Dharamsala in the Himalayas. They would meet for dialogue three times and they seem to have quickly developed a warm personal relationship with each other. After the initial meeting, Merton wrote in his journal:

"The Dalai Lama is most impressive as a person. He is strong and alert… A very solid, energetic, generous, and warm person, very capably trying to handle enormous problems…The whole conversation was about religion and philosophy and especially ways of meditation… In general he advised me to get a good base in Madhyamika philosophy (Nagarjuna and other authentic Indian sources) and to consult qualified Tibetan scholars, uniting study and practice. (Asian Journal, p.101).

In turn, the Dalai Lama would later say about Merton that “more striking than his outward appearance which was memorable in itself, was the inner life which he manifested. I could see that he was a truly humble and deeply spiritual man. This was the first time I had been struck by such a feeling of spirituality by anyone who professed Christianity." (cf. Canon Allchin’s Address).

The Franciscan priest and author Murray Bodo relates that “the Dalai Lama credits Merton with opening his eyes to the truth that Tibetan Buddhism does not hold the world’s only truth. ‘As a result of meeting with him, my attitude toward Christianity was much changed… Thomas Merton is someone we can look up to. He had the qualities of being learned, disciplined and having a good heart’”

At that same gathering where Merton met the Dalai Lama, Bodo also says that “the Dalai Lama (encouraged) each of us to remain faithful to our own tradition. He says, ‘We need to experience more deeply the meanings and spiritual values of our own religious tradition--we need to know these teachings not only on an intellectual level but also through our own deeper experience. We must practice our own religion sincerely; it must become part of our lives.’”

At this very time Merton would write in his personal journal:

“Last night I dreamed I was, temporarily, back at Gethsemani. I was dressed in a Buddhist monk’s habit, but with more black and red and gold, a ‘Zen habit,’ in color more Tibetan than Zen… I met some women in the corridor, visitors and students of Asian religion, to whom I was explaining I was a kind of Zen monk and Gelugpa together, when I woke up” ("The Other Side of the Mountain," p 255.)

After his second meeting with the Dalai Lama, Merton wrote that “most of the audience was taken up with a discussion of epistemology, then of samadhi. In other words, ‘the mind…’ We got back to the question of meditation and samadhi. I said it was important for monks in the world to be living examples of the freedom and transformation of consciousness which meditation can give. The Dalai Lama then talked about samadhi in the sense of controlled concentration” ("Asian Journal," p.112).

Merton wrote that the third and final meeting was the best of all:

“He asked a lot of questions about Western monastic life, particularly the vows, the rule of silence, the ascetic way, etc… It was a very warm and cordial discussion and at the end I felt we had become very good friends and were somehow quite close to one another. I feel a great respect and fondness for him as a person and believe, too, that there is a real spiritual bond between us. He remarked that I was a ‘Catholic geshe,’ which Harold said, was the highest possible praise from a Gelugpa, like an honorary doctorate!” ("Asian Journal," pgs. 124-125).

Later in November, 1968, Merton was thinking about his now being in Asia:

"I am still not able fully to appreciate what this exposure to Asia has meant. There has been so much – and yet also so little. I have only been here a month! It seems a long time since Bangkok and even since Delhi and Dharamsala. Meeting the Dalai Lama and the various Tibetans, lamas or “enlightened” laymen, has been the most significant thing of all, especially in the way we were able to communicate with one another and share an essentially spiritual experience of Buddhism which is also somehow in harmony with Christianity. "("The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 281").

Nearly a month after his meetings with the Dalai Lama in India and shortly before Merton would go to Thailand for the monastic conference which was supposed to be the reason for his journey to Asia, he was in Sri Lanka (then, Ceylon). Along with another priest, he visited the Buddhist shrine at Polonnaruwa, but unlike the other priest who did not enter the actual shrine complex because of its “paganism,” Merton took off his shoes and walked barefoot towards the enormous statues of the Buddha. What was about to happen to Merton was a pivotal, dramatic turning point of his life, a mystical moment for a Christian at a Buddhist shrine. Always the paradox.

PAGE 5: A deep connection, deeply felt

	Page One | Editor's Notes | Buddhascope | Buddamerica | Dharmatalk | Foundobjects | GuestColumn | Meditation | Poetry | Quotes | ReadingRoom | SiteIndex | Contact Us | Subscribe