Томас Мертон – лучшие книги

"Семиярусная гора" — одна из самых известных из когда-либо написанных книг о поисках человеком веры, гармонии и мира. Книга была впервые опубликована в октябре 1948 года и сразу возымела успех, измеряемый в нескольких миллионах проданных экземпляров и переводах почти на 30 иностранных языков в Европе и Азии. Ее читательская аудитория расширяется до сих пор, и появление русского издания — масштабное культурное событие: великая книга о поиске ответов на главные жизненные вопросы и пути к себе, провозглашенная "Исповедью" Августина для ХХ века, пришла в Россию. Перевод русского издания выполнен по пятидесятому юбилейному изданию.

Лекции известного духовного наставника, писателя, поэта, мистика Томаса Мертона, собранные в этой книге, представляют собой прекрасное введение в христианскую мистическую традицию. Мертон рассматривает истоки христианской мистики и ее развитие в восточном и западном христианстве. Но это не только блестящее интеллектуальное исследование мистических текстов: никто не сделал больше, чем Мертон, для того, чтобы дары монашеской жизни, в том числе созерцательная молитва, стали доступны и тем, кто живет вне монастырских стен. Курс, изначально прочитанный для монахов, теперь, спустя более полувека, предстает курсом для всех, кто интересуется…

Томас Мертон - монах-траппист, один из самых значимых и известных англоязычных духовных писателей XX века. Эссе об одиночестве он писал в одно время со своими лучшими книгами. В нем он не столько оправдывает хритианских отшельников, сколько пишет об одиночестве, присущем каждому, о его тяготах и ценности. Эссе - "крик птицы на рифах" или - крик вдогонку человечеству, которое со всех ног бежит от живительного для души одиночества, подгоняемое все более неотвязными развлечениями.

"Zen enriches no one," Thomas Merton provocatively writes in his opening statement to Zen and the Birds of Appetite—one of the last books to be published before his death in 1968. "There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while... but they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the 'nothing,' the 'no-body' that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey." This gets at the humor, paradox, and joy that one feels in Merton's discoveries of Zen during the last years of his life, a joy very much present in this collection of essays. Exploring the relationship between Christianity and Zen, especially through his dialogue with the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki, the book makes an excellent introduction to a comparative study of these two traditions, as well as giving the reader a strong taste of the mature Merton. Never does one feel him losing his own faith in these pages; rather one feels that faith getting deeply clarified and affirmed. Just as the body of "Zen" cannot be found by the scavengers, so too, Merton suggests, with the eternal truth of Christ.

Томас Мертон (1915_19б8) - один из самых известных христианских писателей XX в., монах католического ордена траппистов, священник. Его книги уже при жизни стали духовной классикой. В основном это были сборники эссе, дневники. Единственная цельная большая книга - это его автобиография, которую часто сравнивают с "Исповедью" блаж. Августина и которая была любимым духовным чтением папы Иоанна XXIII. В последнее десятилетие своей жизни Мертон много общался с людьми других конфессий и религиозных традиций, пытаясь наладить диалог на основе внутреннего опыта, в обход неразрешимых доктринальных разногласий. Очерки, вошедшие в "Христианские мистики и учителя дзен", охватывают не только разные конфессии внутри христианства, само христианство и дзен-буддизм, но разные эпохи - от блаж. Иеронима до протестантского монастыря в Тезе, основанного в середине XX в. Книга изобилует ссылками, но главное в ней не обзор материалов, а то, как течет мысль автора, опираясь на его собственный внутренний опыт. Она будет интересна тем, кто размышляет о внутреннем опыте человека, его истинном "я", смысле его жизни.

Siedmiopiętrowa góra Thomasa Mertona jest jedną z najsłynniejszych książek, jakie kiedykolwiek napisano o poszukiwaniu wiary i pokoju. Jest to niepowtarzalny dokument duchowy człowieka, który odszedł od świata dopiero wówczas, gdy całkowicie się w nim zanurzył.
„Miałem – pisze Merton – postawić stopę na brzegu podnóża wąskiej, siedmiopiętrowej góry czyśćca, bardziej stromej i ciężkiej do pokonania, niż mogłem sobie wyobrazić, a nie zdawałem sobie wcale sprawy z trudu wspinania się, jaki stał przede mną”.

Working from existing translations, Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is the chief authentic historical spokesperson for Taoism and its founder Lao Tzu (a legendary character known largely through Chuang Tzu’s writings). Indeed it was because of Chuang Tzu and the other Taoist sages that Indian Buddhism was transformed, in China, into the unique vehicle we now call by its Japanese name—Zen.

The Chinese sage abounds in wit and paradox and shattering insights into the true ground of being. Thomas Merton, no stranger to Asian thought, brings a vivid, modern idiom to the timeless wisdom of Tao.

A 365 daily with inspirational and provocative selections from the journals of Thomas Merton combined with drawings and photographs by Merton.

This volume of daily inspiration from Thomas Merton draws from Merton's journals and papers to present, each day, a seasonally appropriate and thought-provoking insight or observation.
Each month will begin with one of Merton's delightful pen-and-ink drawings or one of his elegant black-and-white photographs.

Thomas Merton was recognized as one of those rare Western minds that are entirely at home with the Zen experience. In this collection, he discusses diverse religious concepts-early monasticism, Russian Orthodox spirituality, the Shakers, and Zen Buddhism-with characteristic Western directness. Merton not only studied these religions from the outside but grasped them by empathy and living participation from within. "All these studies," wrote Merton, "are united by one central concern: to understand various ways in which men of different traditions have conceived the meaning and method of the 'way' which leads to the highest levels of religious or of metaphysical awareness."

Bread in the Wilderness sets forth Merton's belief that "the Psalms acquire, for those who know how to enter into them, a surprising depth, a marvelous and inexhaustible actuality. They are bread, miraculously provided by Christ, to feed those who have followed Him into the wilderness." Merton's goal in this moving book is to help the reader enter into the Psalms: "The secret is placed in the hands of each Christian. It only needs to be discovered and fulfilled in our own lives." The new ND Classic edition of Bread in the Wilderness faithfully reproduces the beautiful, large-format original 1953 New Directions books, created by the celebrated designer Alvin Lustig and lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs of a remarkable medieval crucifix at Perpignan, France.

Unified by Merton’s belief that East and West share “a unity of outlook and purpose, a common spiritual climate,” this eclectic selection also offers a fascinating introduction by the late George Woodcock, author of the acclaimed critical study, Thomas Merton: Monk and Poet.

Thomas Merton spent two weeks in Alaska in 1968 just prior to his fateful trip to the East. He had no thought of publication either of his journal or his conferences—the talks he gave to religious communities there. Although it was his nature to give his attention to what was immediately before him, he was counting the days until he would step onto the plane that would take off across the Pacific. This book contains the journal and letters Merton wrote during his Alaskan visit that were published in a limited edition in 1988 as The Alaskan Journal by Turkey Press. To this have been added the transcriptions of the informal but pithy talks he gave in Eagle River and Anchorage. These conferences are interesting for the direct light they throw on Merton’s thinking about prayer, religious life and community, the priestly tradition, and they are enhanced by their spontaneous quality which gives a palpable sense of being in Merton’s presence. Robert E. Daggy, curator of The Thomas Merton Studies Center, transcribed Merton’s journal and letters and has contributed a fine introduction. Also included is a preface by David D. Cooper of Michigan State University and a group of some of the photographs Merton took on his Alaskan adventure.

As wide a following as the late Thomas Merton had while he lived, ever since his tragic accidental death in Bangkok in 1968. there has been a steady upsurge of interest in both his life and writings.A priest and Trappist monk by vocation, his theological works have been instrumental in reforming Western monasticism and in carrying on the religious dialog botanist and West; and enormously productive poet, his poems display an astonishing technical versatility and deeply felt humanity. Merton's stature as a critic, however, was not fully appreciated until the publication n 1981 of the first collection of his distinct literary essays, now available as a paperbook.