Thomas Merton - Letting Go

This video is dedicated to YouTuber burntnortonFQ, with thanks for suggesting that I record it.

The reading in Cable 84 is preceded by the German word, Gelassenheit, which has a rich history in philosophy (Martin Heidegger) and spiritual theology (Meister Eckhart). Some English words given as approximate equivalents are Composure, Serenity, Calm, Wakefulness, Releasement, Letting Go. I do not read this word, but begin with "Desert and void" (reminiscent of TS Eliot's "Waste and void" from Choruses from the Rock).

Cable 84, as ‬burntnortonFQ originally noted to me, ‪is reminiscent of TS Eliot. Where Merton refers to "the incomparable point" and says "there is a point of nowhereness in the middle of movement, a point of nothingness in the midst of being," the Four Quartets spring to mind, where Eliot speaks of "the still point of the turning world," "the intersection of the timeless with time," and‬ ‪"Here, the intersection of the timeless moment‬/ ‪Is England and nowhere. Never and always." ‬

‪I'm also struck by a similarity between Cable 84 and "Tao Te Ching - The Origin," where Sonja Elen Kisa, translating the Tao as Flow, writes: ‬

‪"The Flow is like a vast ocean. ‬
‪Use it — it cannot be drained. ‬
‪How deep it is! ‬
‪It seems to be the origin of all things. ‬
‪So profound — there is always more." ‬

- http://kisa.ca/

Similarly, Merton writes: "Waste. Emptiness. Total poverty of the Creator: yet from this poverty springs everything. The waste is inexhaustible."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Thomas
• Merton
• Gelassenheit
• Releasement
• Serenity
• Calm
• Letting
• go
• Waste
• Void
• Creator
• Creature
• Nothing
• Something
• Being
• and
• Nothingness
• Contemplation
• dadasopher

[chica272727]

In your magnificent way dear Fr.Thomas M you caught the essence of letting go and described it although with words that moves you into no words.

My spirit of a mountain girl is praying and thanking you for who you were and still are. Milena

[dadasopher]

@chica272727 Thank you for your beautiful and insightful comment.

[jezkn]

mmmm - 'releasement' sounds as if it oughtn't to be a word - and yet it is. You live and learn .....

[Poemsapennyeach]

Thoughtful poem...