Kandy - Colombo

December 3, 1968
"The mountains are all buried in rain-mist. The valleys are full of it..."

Merton takes the "Kandy Express" back to Colombo and the coast. A piece of his poetry from this day...

Rattling down the mountain
the Kandy Express sings
Tsongkapa, Tsongkapa, Tsongkapa
Praise of Yellow Hats.
Mirigama East.
Pink orchids among coconuts.
Veyangoda.

That which grew slowly toward me on Friday
Flies rapidly away from me Tuesday.
I have seen that buffalo before
I have seen that boy before.

No man twice crosses the same river.

I have seen that felled coconut trunk before.

We rush blindly
In a Runaway train Through great estates
Headlong to the sea...
AJTM p.227

____________________________

Peace and blessings... Rob

"Wisdom can be found traveling." Sri Lankan Proverb

Polonnaruwa

December 2, 1968

Grayston Photo

Thomas Merton visited the ancient ruins of Polonnaruwa on Monday December 2nd, 1968 and wrote about it on Thursday, December 5th. (AJTMpp. 231-236) With another "guest post" Donald Grayston provides the following reflection, and accompanying pictures, regarding this significant day in Thomas Merton's pilgrimage and life. (For the fuller meaning of this event it needs to be read in conjunction with Don's post regarding Merton's visit with Chadral Rinpoche several weeks ago in Dharamsala link here)

I Have Now Seen...
Merton’s time with the great statues of the Buddha at Polonnaruwa, carved out of the living rock, was the high point of his journey. He says that he was “knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures,” “jerked clean out of the habitual half-tied vision of things” (p. 233).

Grayston Photo

Merton speaks of his Asian pilgrimage as having come clear and purified itself. “I mean, I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don't know what else remains but I have now seen and have pierced through the surface and have got beyond the shadow and the disguise. This is Asia in its purity ….” (p. 236).

Grayston Photo

Emptiness and Compassion

By experiencing the union of “emptiness” and “compassion,” Merton had reached what Buddhists would call the first level (there are nine more) of bodhisattvahood—the bodhisattva being the realized human being who, having been enlightened, postpones his enjoyment of Nirvana until all other beings can join him or her in that enlightened state.

_____________________

With thanks to Don Grayston... Rob

____
"I don't know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination."

Thomas Merton on Polonnaruwa

2001 A Space Odyssey

2001 was released in April 1968. It's a fitting post for today in that Arthur C. Clarke lived in Colombo, Ceylon during the time of Merton's visit, and until the time of his death earlier this year. No wonder he is a noted guest at the Galle Face Hotel!! This brief clip also fits Merton's "epiphany" experience in Polonnaruwa... Enjoy!

ADVENT 1

December 1, 1968
"He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Prophet Isaiah

"Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:42

_________________________

Advent in Kandy


"It is hardly like any December or Advent I have ever known! A clear, hot sky. Flowering trees. A hot day coming. I woke at the sound of many crows fighting in the air. Then the booming drum at the Temple of Buddha's Tooth. Now, the traffic of buses and a cool breeze sways the curtains. The jungle is very near, it comes right to the top of the city and is visible a bare hundred yards from this window. Yet I am on a very noisy corner as far as traffic is concerned." AJTM p.219

Merton spends the first Sunday of Advent with Bishop Nanayakkara. They visit a local monastery, a seminary, and an Anglican ashram. He has some quiet time in the afternoon - "...I walked a little by the lake in the cool breeze, thinking of my Advent sermon to be preached in the cathedral where I said the most crowded evening Mass." AJTM p.220

Advent Prophets
Advent is, of course, a wonderful time of the year to remember the prophets. Merton would be familiar with the cycle of Advent readings, including the two above, which likely would have been the readings for the First Sunday in Advent in Kandy in 1968. Thomas Merton lived and wrote in the tradition of the Prophets.

Franciscan priest and teacher Richard Rohr describes the prophet not so much as "one who sees into the future", but rather as "one who sees clearly in the present". It's less about "foresight" and more about "insight". The prophet is one who stands in the midst of the community, tells it like it is, and says WAKE UP! Merton was such a prophet.

Fiery Words
Merton's passion for the prophets is reflected in a short piece he wrote about a "typical day" in the Gethsemani hermitage. In "Day of a Stranger" Merton writes..."There is the deep vegetation of that more ancient forest than mine: the deep forest in which the great birds Isaias and Jeremias sing. When I am most sickened by the things that are done by the country that surrounds this place I will take out the prophets and sing them in loud Latin across the hills and send their fiery words sailing south over the mountains to the place where they split the atom for the bombs in Tennessee." WTSN p. 170

Advent with Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton will be my companion through Advent thanks to a little book published by the Redemptorists "Advent and Christmas with Thomas Merton." A sample...

"Many of the Zen stories which are almost always incomprehensible in rational terms are simply the ringing of an alarm clock, and the reaction of the sleeper. Usually, the misguided sleeper makes a response which in effect turns off the alarm so that he can go back to sleep. Sometimes he jumps out of bed with a shout of astonishment that it is so late. Sometimes he just sleeps and does not hear the alarm at all..." Thomas Merton - Zen and the Birds of Appetite

Good night... Rob

"To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion—all in one."
John Ruskin

Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

A beautiful version sung by Loreena McKennitt. I also love the forest scenes!!

Kandy Express

November 30, 1968

Colombo - Kandy

Kandy Express - Grayston Photo

Thomas Merton travels by train to Kandy on November 30, 1968. He is impressed by the low cost of train travel in Ceylon and the private compartment for "clergy".

Kandy Temple - Grayston Photo

Nyanaponika Thera

While in Kandy, Merton visits German-born, Buddhist monk Nyanaponika Thera. Bhikkhu Nyanaponika Thera is of the Theravada tradition and lives in a hermitage in the jungle near Kandy. Nyanaponika Thera is a co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society and author of numerous books on Theravada Buddhism. Born Siegmund Feniger in 1901 in Germany, he died in 1994 at his forest hermitage outside of Kandy at the ripe old age of 93. Wikipedia. The Buddhist Publication Society continues its work today as a major publisher of books on Theravadda Buddhism. 2008 is its 50th Anniversary.

Merton was familiar with Nyanaponika Thera's writing including "The Power of Mindfulness: An Inquiry into the Scope of Bare Attention and the Principal Sources of its Strength".

TTFN... Rob

"Ceylon is incomparable!" Thomas Merton

On Love

A reflection on Love from Nyanaponika Thera, "The Four Sublime States".

Love, without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate sense there is no possession and no possessor: this is the highest love.

Love, without speaking and thinking of "I," knowing well that this so-called "I" is a mere delusion.

Love, without selecting and excluding, knowing well that to do so means to create love's own contrasts: dislike, aversion and hatred.

Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on earth, in the water or in the air.

Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those who are useful, pleasing or amusing to us.

Love, embracing all beings, be they noble-minded or low-minded, good or evil. The noble and the good are embraced because love is flowing to them spontaneously. The low-minded and evil-minded are included because they are those who are most in need of love. In many of them the seed of goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking for its growth, because it perished from cold in a loveless world.

Love, embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow wayfarers through this round of existence — that we all are overcome by the same law of suffering.

Love, but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches and tortures, that inflicts more wounds than it cures — flaring up now, at the next moment being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and loneliness than was felt before.

Rather, love that lies like a soft but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever unchanged in its sympathy, without wavering, unconcerned with any response it meets. Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn with the fire of suffering and passion; that is life-giving warmth to those abandoned in the cold desert of loneliness, to those who are shivering in the frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have become as if empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest despair.

Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows, understands and is ready to help.

Love, that is strength and gives strength: this is the highest love.

Love, which by the Enlightened One was named "the liberation of the heart," "the most sublime beauty": this is the highest love.

And what is the highest manifestation of love?

To show to the world the path leading to the end of suffering, the path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the Exalted One, the Buddha.

Nyanaponika Thera

All You Need is Love

A reflection on love from the Beatles, Yellow Submarine...

Madras - Ceylon

November 29, 1968
Galle Face Hotel - Colombo



Thomas has travelled from Madras to Colombo, Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. "As usual I am in hotel karma. My Karma. Nineteen twenties, British Raj-karma. The faded cream splendor of Galle Face Hotel." AJTM p.213

Patio at Galle Face Hotel (Grayston Photo)

Merton pilgrim Donald Grayston was in Colombo in 2000, following in the footsteps of Merton. He snapped this great photo of notables who have stayed at the Galle Face.

Notable notables include...

• 60's sex symbol Ursula Andress,
• Worldwide Church of God founder Herbert W. Armstrong,
• sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke,
• English actor Noel Coward,
• Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
• World Bank President Robert McNamara,
• Trappist Monk Thomas Merton, and
• US President Richard Nixon.

...to name but a few.

Pretty swank company!!

Good night, sleep tight... Rob

"The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of others! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real."

Thomas Merton

A Day in the Life of Asia

November 28, 2008
Merton's Asian pilgrimage touched primarily on Thailand (Bangkok), India (Calcutta, Delhi, Madras), Tibet (exiles in Dharamsala and Darjeeling) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). I found it interesting that there was a convergence of significant BBC reports from all of these places over the past few days.

Thai Police Confront Protesters
Protesters force Thai police to abandon a checkpoint as security forces seek to end a blockade paralysing Bangkok's airports. The confrontation at Suvarnabhumi international airport, which came as police tried to prevent more protesters arriving, ended without violence. The police have said they will continue trying to regain control of the sites. But the protesters say they will not leave until PM Somchai Wongsawat resigns, which he has refused to do. BBC 11/28/2008

Police Declare Mumbai Siege Over

Indian officials have said the siege at Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel is over, after the last few militants were killed. Police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said the hotel was now under their control. "All combat operations are over. All the terrorists have been killed."
Commandos began a new assault early on Saturday as fighting that has claimed at least 195 lives entered a third day. BBC 11/28/2008

Tiger Leader Makes Defiant Speech
The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka has said that the government is living in "dreamland" if it expects outright military victory. In his annual speech, Velupillai Prabhakaran said that it was "a dream from which they would soon awake. BBC 11/27/2008

China Condemns France Over Tibet
China says it had "no choice but to postpone" a summit with the EU because of the French stance on the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. China's foreign ministry said French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to meet the Dalai Lama had "deprived the summit of a good atmosphere". Mr Sarkozy has said he will meet the Dalai Lama in Poland on 6 December. BBC 11/27/2008

TTFN... Rob

"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."
Gandhi

Which Way You Goin' Billy

More Canadian Content
Vancouverites Susan Jacks and Terry Jacks made a few hits in the late 60's and early 70's before splitting and going solo. Susan has a concert in Maple Ridge tomorrow night... You Go Girl!

Madras - Chennai

November 27, 1968

East India Company

"Some important dates in the history of the East India Company:

• 1639 Fort St. George, which become Madras.
• 1659 Fort William, a"factory" [trading post], to become the city of Calcutta.
• 1661 The British acquire Bombay from Portugal.
• 1686 The Company is at war with Aurangzeb, the Mogul emperor." AJTM p.194

Some important dates in the history of India:

• 1996 Madras was renamed Chennai.
• 2001 Calcutta becomes Kolkata reflecting Bengali pronunciation.
• 1996 Bombay was renamed Mumbai reflecting Marathi pronunciation.
• 1857 East India Company absorbed by British Government after "First War of Independence".
• 1947 India gains independence from British rule after non-violent civil disobedience campaign led by Mahatma Gandhi.

San Thome

Merton visits San Thome, Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Thomas. Indian Catholic tradition holds that St. Thomas came to India in 52 AD. He is said to have built several churches and lived for a number of years in a cave on a local hill, now called St. Thomas Mount. The Basilica is believed to have been built upon the burial site of St. Thomas.

"Then we went to San Thome. Smaller than I expected, the cathedral is in an entirely Christian quarter. Its architecture is standard 19th century Gothic, spacious, full of old-style statues, and over the chancel arch the words "Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus." I find the inscription strangely touching. I kneel for a while looking up to the shadows of the sanctuary where all is still as it was before the Council. Then we depart." AJTM p.195

St. Thomas Mount

Grayston Photo

Merton also makes a pilgrimage up the mountain to say Mass at the small church on the summit... "Mass this morning at St. Thomas Mount... I entered the little church and found the high altar prepared. It was delightful, a perfect hermitage, with a few Indian women and a couple of Italians - a priest and a layman visiting their relative, the pastor. I said the Mass of St. Thomas, looking at the ancient gray carved stone that was found on the site... A very lovely little church, so quiet, so isolated, so simple, so fresh... One of the nicest things I have found in India or anywhere. I felt my pilgrimage to it was a great grace." AJTM p.196

Peace and grace to you... Rob

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

Mohandas Gandhi

What About Me

Here's a little Canadian Content. Anne Murray's debut album "What About Me" was released in 1968. Enjoy!

Calcutta - Madras

November 26, 1968
Kolkata - Chennai


"Flying into Madras is lovely. The city is all self-evident, spread out along the ocean with its vast beach, its harbour, its rivers, its broad avenues. Then the plane swings inland over the hot fields, neat, cultivated, green flat land. Many coconut palms. Many huts made of palm-leaf matting. Poor as they are, they weather much better than the somewhat pretentious "modern style" houses that are shiny and bright for a month and go black or gray-green in the first monsoon." AJTM p.192

More Truly India
"Madras is a bright and leisurely city. The people are less desperate than the Bengalis. It is more truly India than Delhi or Calcutta (whatever "truly India" might be-as if I were capable of knowing and defining it!)." AJTM p.192

November 26, 2008 - Mumbai

A World in Travail

"Ten simultaneous terrorist attacks on 26 November 2008 occurred across Mumbai (Bombay), India's financial capital and largest city. At least 101 civilians, including at least six foreign nationals, have been confirmed dead, and at least 287 have been injured." wikipedia

Peace and blessings... Rob

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
Mahatma Gandhi

Colonial Madras

Calcutta - "A-a-a-a-chya!"

November 25, 1968


"It is a city I love. Flying out today was beautiful. I don't mean the bizarre, macabre beauty of the disintegrating slums, the old fallen splendor, but the subtle beauty of all the suburban ponds and groves, with men solemnly bathing in the early morning and white cranes standing lovely and still amid the lotuses and flying up in twos and threes against the fresh green of the coconut palms. Yet the city, too, its crumbling walls alive with Bengali inscriptions and palimpsets of old movie posters. And the occasional English spire, 18-century domes... I do not tire of Calcutta." AJTM p.171


Mail Call!
Merton catches up to his mail, or his mail catches up to him, in Calcutta. His list of correspondence is, of course, long..."There is one from Dom Leclercq... contact prints had come from John Griffin of the photos I had taken in Dharamsala... Mother Myriam Dardenne of the Redwoods... Father Flavian says "Come home if you get sick... Naomi Burton is going ahead with publication of "My Argument With the Gestapo"... The "Time-Life Bible" with my piece in it is coming out after all, so I will have some money. Dan Walsh has sent a big check for my travel fund. Most generous! Bob Lax says Emmett Williams wants some of my stuff for an anthology of concrete poetry. My talk in Bangkok is to be on December 10th..." AJTM pp.171-72

Moving On
With this the Himalayan portion of Merton's pilgrimage is over. He spends a couple of days in Madras, makes a visit to Ceylon, and is then off to Bangkok via Singapore for a talk he is scheduled to give on December 10th, just over two weeks.

November 25, 1963
Today was the state funeral for President Kennedy. We all had the day off school. I distinctly remember watching the funeral on our black and white TV. A sad day for all...

TTFN... Rob

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."
Thomas Merton

On the Road Again

November 24, 1968

Merton has travelled from Darjeeling to Kurseong in readiness for tomorrow's flight to Calcutta. He is ready to move on and writes... "My mind turns to Ceylon, Thailand, and Indonesia. I want to see something else. I have seen the mountains and the gompas." AJTM p.167

Harold Talbott
Merton's companion through this stage of his journey has been Harold Talbott, an American student of Buddhism studying under the Dalai Lama. Merton writes of Harold... "Harold left this morning for Bagdogra, Calcutta, Delhi, and Dharamsala. He has been extremely helpful and generous; he paid my bill at the Windamere and shared all kinds of time, ideas, information and help." AJTM p.166

Merton and the Tibetan Lamas
During this brief exposure to Tibetan Buddhism Merton was able to meet many significant teachers. Judith Simmer-Brown writes in "The Liberty that Nobody Can Touch" (found in "Merton & Buddhism:Wisdom, Emptiness & Everyday Mind") that Merton's experience amongst the Tibetan exiles had many of the classic characteristics of the "liberation stories" of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. She writes... "First he met a guru who pointed out the prerequisite for the view of Dzogchen, the change of motivation that entails the renunciation of "Spiritual materialism" [Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche]. Then he met two gurus who discussed the importance of the teacher and the essential nonconceptuality of Dzogchen [Khamtrul Rinpoche and Chokling Rinpoche]. Next he received the basic Tibetan Buddhist meditation instruction from His Holines the Dalai Lama. He met the guru who he felt would be his Dzogchen teacher and investigated the parameters of retreat [Chadral Rinpoche]. And then he went on a short retreat to reflect on his Asian pilgrimage, and to ask the question, should I practice Dzogchen?" MB pp.54-55

Not bad for 25 days in November 1968.

An "In the Footsteps" Footnote
Merton Pilgrim, Donald Grayston, recounts a powerful and transformative experience as he followed in Merton's Asian footsteps during a 3-month pilgrimage in 2000-2001. Grayston has an audience with Chadral Rinpoche, one of the great Tibetan masters that Merton met in Dharamsala. During this meeting Grayston finds himself "silently weeping". Ignoring the long list of questions he has prepared Grayston simply asks the great teacher "Do you have a teaching for me?" Chadral Rinpoche responds... "Yes. Decide for yourself what is the most important thing that Jesus ever said, and then take it as far as you can." Grayston carries this thought for several months before the words of Jesus arise within him "Let your yes be yes and your no be no" (Matthew 5:37), something he has been trying to take "as far as he can" ever since. Look for the fuller telling of this story in the winter issue of the Merton Seasonal or visit Don's website.

Calcutta Riots
Merton makes a journal reference to riots that have taken place in Calcutta around the visit of World Bank President, and former US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. Merton writes... "In Calcutta there has been a Marxist riot led by Maoist students. They burned McNamara in effigy and set fire to busses. Tomorrow I will be there." AJTM p.168

November 24, 1963
Here are a couple of events which I note in the wake of JFK's assassination 5 years earlier (Wikipedia)...
- Lee Harvey Oswald is fatally shot by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters. The shooting was broadcast live on television. [That didn't take long!]
- Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically. [That didn't take long either!!]

Happy trails to you... Rob

"Kanchenjunga has been hidden for three days. I will probably not see it again." Thomas Merton AJTM p.168

You Say You Want a Revolution

This is an interesting video. The audio is Revolution 1 from the White Album. The video is the "single" version of Revolution, a much faster and louder version. Enjoy...

Back in Darjeeling

November 23, 1968
Merton's time amongst the Tibetan exiles is drawing to a close. In a couple of days he will be back in Calcutta and then off to Madras briefly before heading to Sri Lanka (Ceylon in Merton's day), Singapore, and finally back to Bangkok.

Kalu Rinpoche (1905-1989)

Today Merton visits Kalu Rinpoche, a Tibetan retreat master in Sonada. At the time of Merton's visit there were 16 Buddhist hermits in three year retreats with Karlu.

Merton writes..."Khempo Karlu [Kalu] Rimpoche invited me to come and make this hermit retreat at his place or, failing that, to write him with my questions. That was very kind of him. With my reaction to this climate at its best and with the noise of the Indian radio in the cottage across the road from the hemitage, I guess it is still Alaska or California or Kentucky for me." AJTM pp.166-67

Kalu Dharma Centers
Kalu Rinpoche went on to become a significant teacher of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Kalu Rinpoche established over twenty 3-year retreat centers in Europe, USA, Asia, and Canada. There is a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Centre, Kagyu Kunkhyab Chuling, in Vancouver which traces its origin and lineage to Kalu Rinpoche.

All My Life's a Circle

Kalu Rinpoche passed away in Sonada on May 10, 1989. Through reincarnation the lineage of his teaching is maintained. The Third Kalu Rinpoche (Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche) was born on September 17, 1990 and lives in India. This Fall, at the age of 18, Kalu Rinpoche completed the traditional 3-year 3-month retreat.

Peace... Rob

"We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves."
Thomas Merton

The White Album

November 22, 1968
The "White Album", released today, is a true classic. It was standard fare at any of the gatherings with my best buddies through highschool. I can still remember every song although I haven't heard most of them for 30 years!

A Little Background
Most of the songs that would end up on "The Beatles" [White Album] had been conceived during the group's visit to Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. There, they had undertaken a transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.


Although the retreat, which had required long periods of meditation, was initially conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavours – a chance, in Lennon's words, to "get away from everything" – both Lennon and McCartney had quickly found themselves in songwriting mode, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review the new work. "Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon would later recall, "I did write some of my best songs there." Close to forty new compositions had emerged in Rishikesh..." Wikipedia

Some Memorable Tracks

"Back in the U.S.S.R."
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
"I'm So Tired"
"Blackbird"
"Rocky Raccoon"
"I Will"
"Julia"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Happiness Is a Warm Gun"
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
"Birthday"
"Sexy Sadie"
"Helter Skelter"
"Revolution 1"
"Honey Pie"
"Cry Baby Cry"
"Revolution 9"
"Good Night"

Ob-la-di.... Rob

“And in the end, the love we take will be equal to the love we make.”
The Beatles