Name: The Wisdom of the Desert
ISBN: 9780811201025

The Wisdom of the Desert

In this hardcover volume in the Shambhala Library, Thomas Merton (1915-1968) shares his enthusiasm for these fourth century monks who lived in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine. They sought "purity of heart," fought the demons of the false self, and lived upright lives attuned as best they could to the Gospel. These pioneers, as Merton calls them, have much to teach us about the inner life: "What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it all the rest are not only useless but disastrous." Love animated these faithful souls and prayer was central to their lives. Merton compares the desert fathers to Indian Yogis and Zen Buddhist monks of China and Japan. His translations of their sayings model for contemporary Christians a life of diligent and serious spiritual practice.

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hprotagonistMar 2024

Brueggemann is amazing.

I would also add, in no particular order:

- wisdom of the desert (merton's translation of the sayings of the desert fathers)

- pilgrim at tinker creek; annie dillard

- goatwalking, jim corbett

- Impostors of God: Inquiries into our favorite Idols, william stringfellow

- the new testament, trans. by david bentley hart

- the sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel

- zen flesh, zen bones

- moral man, immoral society -- neibuhr

- principia discordia

- the poetry and sermons of john donne

- many other poets.

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stryanAug 2023

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Thomas Merton! He was a truly wise man and I have several of his books (highly recommend Zen and the Birds of Appetite and The Wisdom of the Desert!) and enjoy his "The Way of Chuang Tzu ". But Merton wasn't a translator and was instead arranging others translations, as well as interpreting passages in his own way. So while I'd certainly recommend his books I wanted to stay within the bounds of direct translations.

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50Sep 2022

You might be interested in Thomas Merton's The Wisdom of the Desert[1], and this neat blog[2] I follow pertaining to Eastern Orthodoxy.

1. https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-wisdom-of-the-desert/ 2. https://cassianus.tumblr.com/

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vollmondDec 2018

This has been a light reading year, for various reasons of circumstance and laziness, but here are the standouts in my mind:

* Thomas Merton -- The Wisdom of the Desert

A collection of quotes by and about the Desert Fathers of the early Christian church. I especially liked the ones that showed extreme mercy and selflessness, such as the monks who turned in a band of robbers, felt bad about it, and broke them out of prison, or the monk who would not count payments he received, as that might cause someone who cheated him to add lying about it to their sins.

* Alfred Lansing -- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

This is just an exciting adventure log, following Shackleton's expedition as they spent over a year stranded on an Antarctic ice floe.

"The adaptability of the human creature is such that they actually had to remind themselves on occasion of their desperate circumstances." -- Alfred Lansing

* Seneca -- Letters from a Stoic

"I am not, mind you, against your possessing [riches], but I want to ensure that you possess them without tremors; and this you will only achieve in one way, by convincing yourself that you can live a happy life even without them, and by always regarding them as being on the point of vanishing." Letter XVIII

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