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Recalling the Christian Bodhisattva, Thomas Merton

Recalling the Christian Bodhisattva, Thomas Merton

Last updated on: December 10, 2025 at 12:35 pm by James Ford

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Recalling the Christian Bodhisattva, Thomas Merton 2025-12-10T12:35:16-08:00 James Ford

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Thomas Merton Historical Marker

It was on the 10th of December in 1968, that the American Trappist monk, mystic, spiritual writer, social justice activist, as well as prominent advocate of intereligious dialogue, Thomas Merton, died.

The Episcopal church marks this as a feast for a saint. As well they should. May the other denominations that enroll saints in their liturgical calendars do the same. I might add how Buddhists, especially of the Mahayana schools could profitably do so, as well.

In my own small way I try to keep this small feast, as well.

Thomas Merton was born at Prades, France, on the 31st of January, in 1915. His father Owen was a New Zelander, his mother Ruth, an American. They’d met while each was studying art in Paris.

Thomas was baptized into the Church of England. representing his father’s Anglican faith.

With the onset of the First World War the family relocated to the States. His brother, John Paul was born shortly after. Their mother died when Merton was six. A couple of years later he was sent to a boarding school in France, then after a year or so, his father called him back and the family lived in England.

At eighteen Thomas began at Cambridge, but left. Then at twenty-one he entered Columbia as a sophomore. In 1938 he graduated with a degree in English.

Merton found himself spiritually at sea. He was deeply concerned with those ancient matters of the heart. One mentor suggested he read Augustine’s Confessions. Another, a Hindu monk, Mahanambrata Brahmachari, encouraged him to look deeply into the Christian spiritual tradition. He did.

In 1939 Thomas Merton was re-baptized a Roman Catholic. And late in 1941, he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, in Bardstown, Kentucky.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In 2013 the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly was held in Louisville. For me, a Unitarian cleric actively serving in the parish ministry, I was more or less expected to attend. What that UU convention became for me, was really a Thomas Merton pilgrimage. I drove out to the Abbey of Gethsemani twice, once with my friend and colleague Erik Wikstrom, and once on my own. When Erik and I were there we brought flowers for Father Merton’s grave.

It was my first Merton pilgrimage.

The other spot for me in that 2013 pilgrimage, and in some ways more compelling was right in downtown Louisville, where there’s a marker. On one side are some biographical details. The photo above is that side. As far as I know the other side contains the only state sanctioned marker that notes someone’s spiritual awakening, what in my spirituality would be called a kensho.

He describes that moment in several places, as well as the one on the memorial. Here’s the most complete of the accounts.

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream.…This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in the words: ‘Thank God, thank God that I am like other men, that I am only a man among others.’ It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: …A member of the human race! To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. They are not ‘they’ but my own self. There are no strangers! Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.”

If that were all, I’d be impressed.

But of course there’s more, a lot.

Thomas Merton was author of the best selling spiritual memoir Seven Storey Mountain. It was followed by many other books. And through these writings the cloistered Merton enthralled two generations of spiritual seekers.

His influence would extend well beyond his church. Certainly, I cannot repeat enough, he deeply influenced me.

The way he worked for me was how he was able to bridge traditions, always seeking the deeper truth of things. He gave his life to the spiritual quest, endlessly investigating his own tradition, but then from the depths looking across and seeing other paths that also opened hearts.

Of these I think the one that most captured his heart was Buddhism.

And for me, probably his little volume Wisdom of the Desert, was most important. Merton’s curation of the teachings of those fourth and fifth century Egyptian desert nuns and monks led to a collection of very Zen-like stories that instantly caught my imagination, and, frankly, continues to teach me. Merton’s particular selection, chosen as it was, by a Christian mystic and social justice activist who had a deep interest in the world’s religions, particularly Zen Buddhism, emphasized and perhaps over-emphasized the stories that do look so similar across ages and religions. But, my goodness, they really do.

At the time of his death Merton was on an extended Asian adventure. During this tour he met at various places with prominent spiritual figures, many of whom were Buddhists, and many with whom he had enjoyed an extensive correspondence, including the Dalai Lama and DT Suzuki.

Specifically on this day he was attending a monastic conference at the Red Cross retreat at Sawang Kaniwat in Samut Prakan, Thailand. After giving a talk in the morning, in the afternoon his body was found in his room with a fan lying across it. The conference organizer Rembert Weakland, then abbot primate of the Benedictine order anointed the body. And then the body was returned to Merton’s home, Gethsememani Abbey, outside of Louisville. There was no autopsy.

For various reasons there has been an ongoing controversy about his death. Some opining suicide, others assassination. As with prominent and controversial people sometimes stories just seem to invent themselves. And they sure have in the wake of Merton’s death.

Me, I go with the generally accepted view that he had taken a shower and then coming out touched the fan which was shorted and it either sparked a heart attack, or he had a heart attack as he grasped the shorted fan.

Whatever the circumstances of his death, his life touched many people.

Which is why, in 2019, when I was invited to be a presenter for a tour of Bhutan and I learned we would start in Bangkok, immediately the most important thing for me was to try and find that spot where he died, go there, and to offer my prayers and gratitude. My second Merton pilgrimage.

There weren’t a lot of details I could find about the place on the interwebs.

It was a Red Cross conference center, apparently, and it was about twenty-five miles or so outside of Bangkok. But not a ton more. I turned to Facebook and posted a request. My old friend the Buddhist scholar Justin Whitaker put me in touch with a retired academic Will Yaryan (who has since died). Through Will I was able to correspond with several people and eventually meet two, Joe Shakarchi (very much alive), and through connections given Joe by Will, finally Voravit Chansiri (whom I hope is well and thriving). Quite the chain of connections, mysterious and wonderful. Voravit and Joe showed up at my hotel and together we drove off to the Red Cross center. As it happens Voravit, a devout Buddhist with deep interests in the interreligious encounter had been able to take several other of Merton’s admirers to the site.

It was a bit more than an hours drive, traffic here is pretty fierce, giving LA a real run for the money.

The Red Cross center is humungous, housing many different activities.

Sadly, the building where Fr Merton died has been closed and is in serious derelict condition. Voravit told me it has been scheduled to be demolished.

All things pass. As I write this I don’t know if the site exists anymore, or not. Dreams pile upon dreams.

And so. Today I pause and consider the Christian Bodhisattva, Thomas Merton.

I am so grateful for his life.

I am so grateful for his teachings.

May his memory be a blessing for many…

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