• “If, in the West, God can no longer be experienced as other than ‘dead,’ it is because of an inner split and self-alienation which have characterized the Western mind in its single-minded dedication to only half of life: that which is exterior, objective, and quantitative. The ‘death of God’ and the consequent death of genuine moral sense, respect for life, for humanity, for value, has expressed the death of an inner subjective quality of life: a quality which in the traditional religions was experienced in terms of God-consciousness. Not concentration on an idea or concept of God, still less on an image of God, but a sense of presence, of an ultimate ground of reality and meaning, from which life and love could spontaneously flower.” – Thomas Merton, “The Significance of the Bhagavad-Gita”

• “…karma means ‘action.’ It’s another title for the idea of cause and effect. The idea here is just simply that…your work is your yoga, and if you use it in the right way it can be a yoga of complete unification, and can lead you to this sense of inmost identity – of being one with God…. Your work – the work of a householder, the work of a married [person]… the work of the kitchen; or your trade…the things you have to do to live – is your yoga. But it all depends how you do it. And the thing to do is to learn how to do your work in such a way that it is a karma yoga. And it can lead you to complete enlightenment. Nothing else is necessary…”

“…The great thing is that your work is not overwhelmingly serious. It’s never to be taken with the kind of seriousness that we take it with, because really not that much depends on the results. The great thing in karma yoga is first of all that you work without desire, and you work without attaching importance to the results. The whole thing is that the work is part of a game which you do as well as you can, but without any desire to succeed and without any care about whether you get results, whether you get rewards or not, because you leave that in God’s hands. It’s the equivalent of our doing it for the love of God, really, purely doing it purely for God’s love.” – Thomas Merton, “Yoga: The Prophetic Vision” (Monastic Conference)

In spite it being over 100 years since his birth, interest in Thomas Merton continues to exponentially grow with conferences, retreat, seminars, classes, and books continuing to emerge year after year. This book offers a significant addition to this material in that it is the first to trace Merton’s interest and dialogue with yoga – a major recent trend in American spirituality – and Hinduism – a topic previously thought to be of little interest to Merton.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Fons Vitae Thomas Merton Series

Thomas Merton’s Prayer
Introduction: “Necessary for Enlightenment”: Thomas Merton’s Lifelong Engagement with Yoga- David M. Odorisio

Part I – Hinduism and Christianity in Context:
Historical and Comparative Perspectives

Hinduism: Origins and Historical Development
Vasudha Narayanan

Yoga, The One and The Many
David Gordon White
Indian Christian Tradition
M. Thomas Thangaraj
Introduction to “Yoga and Hesychasm” by Jules Monchanin
David M. Odorisio
Yoga and Hesychasm
Jules Monchanin
Hesychasm and Raja-Yoga
Thomas Matus

Part II – Merton and Hinduism:
Dialogue and Deep Learning in the Cave of the Heart

Why Zen Buddhism and not Hinduism?
The Asias of Thomas Merton’s Voyages East
Rachel Fell McDermott
Mahanambrata Brahmachari and Thomas Merton
Richard V. Croghan
The Search for Brahmachari
William Buchanan
In Memoriam: Mahanambrata Brahmachari
(25 December 1904 – 18 October 1999)
Francis X. Clooney, SJ
Fight or Flight: Thomas Merton and the Bhagavad Gita
Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa)
Thomas Merton and the Bhagavad Gita
Christopher Key Chapple
Merton on Gandhi
Paul R. Dekar
Thomas Merton’s Deep Christian Learning across Religious Borders
Francis X. Clooney, SJ
Theoria Physike and the Brahma-sutra:
The Rediscovery of the Cosmotheandric Dimension
in the Work of Thomas Merton and Raimon Panikkar
Thomas Cattoi
“Transubstantiation is the Rule”: Merton and Coomaraswamy
Roger Lipsey
The Expansive Hindu: Thomas Merton and Amiya Chakravarty
William Apel
Overlooking America: ‘Day Six O’Hare Telephane’
and the Landscape of Lograire
Patrick O’Connell
Thomas Merton and Paramahansa Yogananda:
Two Prayerful Mergings of Cult and Culture
Emile J. Farge

Part III – Merton on Hinduism:
The Yoga of the Heart

Dr M. B. Bramachari, A Personal Tribute
Thomas Merton
Preface to Dom Denys Rutledge’s In Search of a Yogi
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s Letter to Philip L. Griggs (Yogeshananda)
Thomas Merton
Review of Jules Monchanin, Écrits Spirituels
Thomas Merton
A Tribute to Gandhi
Thomas Merton
Gandhi and the One-Eyed Giant
Thomas Merton
The Significance of the Bhagavad-Gita

Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s Notes on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra
Thomas Merton
Yoga in Merton’s Novitiate
Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO
Exercises to Help Bring the Body Under Control of the Spirit
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton’s Monastic Conferences on Hinduism and Yoga: 1963-1968
Transcribed by David M. Odorisio
Selected Readings on Vedanta from the Journals of Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton

Part IV – Appendix

Reading Thomas Merton Reading Hinduism and Yoga:
A Bibliography of Sources
Permissions
Thomas Merton’s Photographs
All photographs were taken by Merton during his
1968 journey to India unless otherwise noted.
Reclining Bull between Draupadi Ratha and
Arjuna Ratha (Mahabalipuram, India)
Cave Temple (Mahabalipuram, India)
The Great Relief (detail), Arjuna’s Penance (Mahabalipuram, India)
Shore Temple (Mahabalipuram, India)
Jantar Mantar Observatory (Jaipur, India)
Jantar Mantar Observatory (Jaipur, India)
Thomas Merton with Amiya Chakravarty and friends
(photographer unknown; Kolkata [Calcutta], India)
Ananda K. and Doña Luisa Coomaraswamy