Monk's Miracles
On Thursday night I finished reading the aforementioned Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life and I was left disappointed and unfulfilled. While I appreciate the work that he set out to do (exploring the intersection of the world's religions through their shared mysticism, providing insight into the life of a monk engaged in the world), I think that the book's form and his approach to writing it are ultimately insufficient. The chapters seemed to be sloppily pieced together, with one completely different than the next and no sign of a segue in sight. In his description of life as a monk, I would have liked more insight and less instruction. When he turned to the Divine, his writing lacked the eloquence that I think the topic requires. In short, I wished for Thomas Merton and got something less.
On that note, the next book in my queue is The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton's autobiography. I will return to my philosophy and Russian literature shortly but for now I am inspired to walk along the monk's path a bit further. Maybe that's just the influence of Lent talking.
I know my writing here in the past few months has been more like a string of book reviews than anything else, but it is still an honest reflection of what I'm doing and thinking. I am reading more now than I ever have in my life and I love the intellectual engagement that comes with it. I feel a lot better (in every way) after a night of reading than watching the rubbish that's on television lately. I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.