Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

I can't recommend this book enough for those interested in gaining a solid foundation from which they can build a genuine spiritual life. I have a master's degree in divinity from a Catholic seminary and wish I'd found this book a lot sooner. It's not a new book, published in 1978, but is truly timeless in the truths it so clearly reveals in such an orderly and readable manner. Thomas Merton, I'm sure, is very happy with this humble, gentle and powerful synthesis of his teaching. Basically Mr. Finley clarifies the tremendous danger of creating false images of ourselves that trap us in our spiritual growth, the goes on to help us free ourselves from these "idols". By humbly emptying ourselves of self images and meaningless self-serving, egoistic obsessions we can discover our true self rooted in and saturated by the person of Christ, our true self. I'd personally recommend accompanying this book with a practice of Centering Prayer (check out centeringprayer.com or .org).. The combination of the two could turn your spiritual life around for the better.

"Who I am?", asks Merton, and he responds, "I am one loved by Christ". This quote, from page 96 is very important to remember. The result of finding the ultimate consummation of one's true self is the ability to understand, to ask and to answer this question in a necessarily Christocentric manner.

While reading this book, I found myself constantly on alert as to the way in which Thomas Merton (and the author, James Finley) would remain true to the importance of connecting the contemplative (in other words, prayer) goal to the saving and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. Any search into the biography of Thomas Merton during the time in which he instructed the author (the 1960's) reveals some rather dangerous attitudes from Merton, particularly in regards to his attraction to Eastern mysticism. I do not in any way pass judgement on Merton, but these facts nonetheless kept me somewhat guarded as I read this book. And yes, at times Merton's search for the true self (more or less the main point of this book) does seem to focus more on achieving a state of "knowing" God, the Father, as if it is possible in some way to bypass Jesus Christ in this endeavor. So, for the Christian, it is very important to remember that Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In the end, I choose to believe that Merton knew this, and that the quote above is not just lip service to his fellow Christians. He was part of a contemplative order (the Benedictine Abbey of Gethsemani) so it is possible that his appreciation for Eastern mysticism (particularly Budhhism) was to understand their methods, and to steer clear of their non-Christian purposes and objectives. However, the concepts in the final chapter (called The Insight) do seem to introduce ideas regarding the object-subject relationship between ourselves and God that end up clouding this distinction. In fact, the final goal appears to be an annihilation of this distinction. I will also mention that at times, the concepts described in this final chapter, while they acknowledge Christ, do seem to just tack him on the end. This is troublesome for the "Christian" mystic.

For the person who remains Christocentric in their approach to contemplation, there is still a lot a value to take away from Merton's insights. His ideas on the false self (the self you put between God and your true self) really resonate with the way in which so many of us put our ego's and our material possessions above other things. The false self is based upon how we see ourselves from our own point of view and how we try to replace God with ourselves. This is not our spiritual identity. Ultimately, Merton describes a need to fall into God through faith to retrace the steps that Adam took when he sinned and placed himself (his false self) between his true self and God. It is love, Christ's love, which is the most important thing to being your true self.

I do recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a different approach to prayer (a mystical approach) or who is trying to find a renewed purpose in prayer. I'm careful to point out that I am by no means and expert on this topic. My only word of caution is to keep yourself focused on Christ. Lastly, I'd like to add that although the concepts are deep and meaningful, they are described in the most eloquent of terms. This book is very well written.