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Merton's Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God Through Awareness of the True Self
 
 
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Merton's Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God Through Awareness of the True Self [Paperback]

James Finley (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 1980
"This one door is the door of the Palace of Nowhere. It is the door of God. It is our very self, our true self called by God to perfect union with himself. And it is through this door we secretly enter in responding to the saving call to 'Come with me to the Palace of Nowhere where all the many things are one.'"

As a young man of eighteen, James Finley left home for an unlikely destination: the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton lived as a contemplative. Finley stayed at the monastery for six maturing years and later wrote this book in order to share with his readers a taste of what he had learned on his spiritual journey under the guidance of one of the great religious figures of our day. At the heart of the quest for spiritual identity are Thomas Merton's illuminating insights--leading from an awareness of the false and illusory self to a realization of the true self.

For over twenty-five years Merton's Palace of Nowhere has been the standard for exploring, reflecting on, and understanding this rich vein of Merton's thought. Dog-eared, tattered, underlined copies are found on the bookshelves of spiritual searchers everywhere. Now this Silver Anniversary edition brings this classic to a whole new generation, with a new foreword by Br. Patrick Hart.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Finley is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica, California. Finley spent a number of years under the spiritual direction of Thomas Merton, and they were contemporaries during Finley's six years at the Abbey of Gethsemani. In addition to his clinical practice, Finley leads contemplative retreats and teaches throughout the United States and Canada, and he is the author of many books. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Ave Maria Pr (September 1980)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0877931593
  • ISBN-13: 978-0877931591
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,432,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars inspirational,insightful. Packed full of meaning., April 26, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Merton's Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God Through Awareness of the True Self (Paperback)
Apart from the gospels and new testament,this is,THE,most rewarding book i have ever read.It stresses with clarity the fundamental importance of becoming aware of our true identity in christ,and equally important of becoming aware of our false self,the self rooted in the ego.The book is a wake up call for all those who would see the spiritual life as a process of self agrandizement.With it's raw honesty and gentleness one gradually becomes ever more aware of just how important the issue of identity is in the spiritual life,and the huge importance merton ascribed to it.This book is a threat to the ego and it's hollow and false little world,that it creates in it's rivalry with god.I advise all christians to read and reread this beautiful book,even if at times,it becomes a little tough.
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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars my favorite book, January 29, 2006
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Mark Nicholson (Southern Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
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I would agree with the other reviewer that this book is the most rewarding book I have read to date. I'd been interested in reading Merton and learning about his thought for years since so many of my spiritual "mentors" were themselves "mentored" by Merton. But he was so prolific and so deep I wasn't sure where to start and was looking for a kind of "Merton for Dummies" book! This book is that and so much more.

Sometimes people's gift is in creative, original thought (Merton in this case). And sometimes people's gift is to be able to understand another's thoughts/teaching and to synthesize them into a coherent whole. This is Finley's gift. I don't know that I've ever read such a well laid out book that took me bit by bit in a logical order through a complex subject allowing me to safely arrive at the end (where if you'd tried to start me there I might have misunderstood it).

I can't highly recommend this book enough if you are interested in spirituality.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What a gem!, June 16, 2008
Finley's book is quite a gem. As someone who has been attracted to Merton's work and yet find his writing not to my taste (except his journals) this book has been a wonderful synthesis of Merton's theme of the True Self. One gets the sense while reading that you are privy to one man's soulful, prayerful, life long passion to understand and distill Merton. My consuming self and brain wants to get through the text and yet the words and tone gently, yet persuasively nudge me to slow down and digest this wonderful bounty Finley has penned.

One can feel and sense the care that went into every word. There is so much here for the serious Christian or anyone for that matter who desires a more intimate connection with themselves and thus the divine. One of my double underlined, favorite sections from page 91:

The spiritual life must be approached with our right hand not knowing what our left hand is doing...Only with this detachment from our own progress, and only in freedom from all techniques that feed the birds of appetite, can we hope to find our true self in God. Merton writes:

"The inner self is precisely that self which cannot be tricked or manipulated by anyone, even the devil. He (the true self) is like a very shy wild animal that never appears at all whenever an alien presence is at hand, and comes out only when all is peaceful, in silence, when he is untroubled and alone. He cannot be lured by anyone or anything, because he responds to no lure except that of divine freedom."

Highly recommended and worthy of the high praise!
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First Sentence:
The terms "true self" and "false self" are not the creations of Merton, in the sense in which the term "unconscious" is the creation of Freud or the phrase "cogito ergo sum" is unique to Descartes. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
contemplative awareness, false self, contemplative union, deepest reality, ultimate identity, contemplative prayer
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Holy Spirit, Good News
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