Mystics and Zen Masters

by Thomas Merton

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

, 1999

Overview

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."

Product Details

• Title: Mystics and Zen Masters
• Author: Thomas Merton
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Print Publication Date: 1999
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 321
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781429944007, 9780374218492, 0374218498, 1429944005
• Resource ID: LLS:9781429944007
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-12-01T02:37:11Z

About Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis.