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LesDawsonsPiano · 70-79
I can't just list, I'm just prone to waffle and ramble. I was posting on another forum, where the subject was life's "meaning". I tend to go off at a tangent, and began to tell of a great dialogue between Thomas Merton (the "anti-monk") and the "zen man" D. T.Suzuki, named "Wisdom in Emptiness". This dialogue was concerned with the Christian Fall and the restoration of paradise.
There were many points of contact and agreement between Merton and Suzuki, but where they differed was on the subject of the Final Things, eschatology.
Suzuki spoke only of the "eschatology of the present moment" while Merton (and you can never be sure with Merton if he is writing with an eye on the censors of the Catholic Church!) spoke of that which lay beyond such,
where our "present moment" is to be handed over to God to create something totally new. "It is to be the great, mysterious, theandric work of the Mystical Christ, the New Adam" as Merton says.
Which I must say leaves me more with Suzuki. Which is the introduction to one of my favourite poems, by Vladimir Holan, called "Resurrection":-
Is it true that after this life of ours we shall one day be awakened
by a terrifying clamour of trumpets?
Forgive me God, but I console myself
that the beginning and resurrection of all of us dead
will simply be announced by the crowing of the cock.
After that we’ll remain lying down a while…
The first to get up
will be Mother…We’ll hear her
quietly laying the fire,
quietly putting the kettle on the stove
and cosily taking the teapot out of the cupboard.
We’ll be home once more.
Which, thinking about it (not always the best option) reminds me of a line from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake":-
Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear
There were many points of contact and agreement between Merton and Suzuki, but where they differed was on the subject of the Final Things, eschatology.
Suzuki spoke only of the "eschatology of the present moment" while Merton (and you can never be sure with Merton if he is writing with an eye on the censors of the Catholic Church!) spoke of that which lay beyond such,
where our "present moment" is to be handed over to God to create something totally new. "It is to be the great, mysterious, theandric work of the Mystical Christ, the New Adam" as Merton says.
Which I must say leaves me more with Suzuki. Which is the introduction to one of my favourite poems, by Vladimir Holan, called "Resurrection":-
Is it true that after this life of ours we shall one day be awakened
by a terrifying clamour of trumpets?
Forgive me God, but I console myself
that the beginning and resurrection of all of us dead
will simply be announced by the crowing of the cock.
After that we’ll remain lying down a while…
The first to get up
will be Mother…We’ll hear her
quietly laying the fire,
quietly putting the kettle on the stove
and cosily taking the teapot out of the cupboard.
We’ll be home once more.
Which, thinking about it (not always the best option) reminds me of a line from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake":-
Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear
