Any Thomas Merton fans out there?
An American catholic Monk.
He wrote a very popular book called "Severn Storey Mountain"
But towards the end of his life he became interested in Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism.
Still he remained very grounded in his own faith, the Catholic faith.
He sparked an interest and formation of Contemplative Prayer. This obviously had some influence from Buddhist meditation. Catholic Conservatives sometimes blame him for taking some Christians in the "wrong" direction. Still Pope Francis was thinking of making him a saint, (to my knowledge)
Anyway he is an interesting guy. And there aren't many people qualified to critique him because such was the depth and breadth of his intellectual abilities.
When I read some of his books, I get stuck on some pages because he can be hard to comprehend.
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