So very true for all of us to listen to even if we don’t recognise it.

We none of us know when we need this in our lives

James Finley is wonderful at putting this across to us

Really good advice. Love it.

The tyranny of hypernovelty.

“Enjoy your meditation”?!

Merton's death was on balance of probabilities to any reasonable person a murder. Light needs to be shone on evil.

This rings so true

Thank you.

What about the idea that God -- in other words, the world -- is a combination of "wrath and mercy?" Yin and yang.

How did it take me this long to find Thomas Merton?

🫂🌎🫂sharing

James Finley should not be praising the Psychiatric Profession in general, causing the impression that God approves of it. If He did, He would not be a God worthy of worshiping! Therefore it is not good that Psychiatry be perpetuating Nazi style Psychiatry that James Finley has claimed in Podcast, the Jews in the Concentration Camps put God on trial for and found Him guilty of.

I read in an article written about Thomas Merton of a Psychiatrist hanging around their Monastery, and initially he dug at Merton, making him feel that he should enter into Psychotherapy or whatever deep rooted whatever he was telling Merton he should be examined by. He was attacking Merton's ego, which was what Merton constantly had his own private battle with. (and eventually did well on his own without a headshrinker). The put down Psychiatrist went to Merton's Abbott and told him that Merton should be treated Psychiatrically. Merton was resentful, angry, and was glad he had not started any formal treatment with the Psychiatrist on his own. He told the Abbott he refused, and the Abbott let it drop. The person who wrote the article claimed to have gotten this account from Merton's own writings. But then this article writer took it a step further, and examined Merton himself, writing that he thought the Abbott should have forced Merton to receive treatment from the Psychiatrist, whom Merton later re-assessed as practically a quack!

Why doesn't he tell the truth about how evil the overwhelming majority of Psychiatry is.

If someone approached me in a restraunt, I would tell him/her, truthfully it's none of your business, I don't talk to eavesdropping nosy strangers.

Great video

This video is not suitable for meditation, which is the category it is in by the group posting it. Sr Joan makes powerful but probably written and not spontaneous Social Justice statements, and every minute when she concludes a statement, there is thunderous applause, whistling etc.... Always sounding the same (canned laughter), and is a terrible distraction for attempting to meditate on what she just said.

In his book "Seven Storey Mountain" that he later described himself as having been immature when he wrote it: he initially wrote of entering the Franciscans because they seemed to be the easiest. Then he was not accepted by them, and after that Dan Walsh started speaking to him about the Abbey of Gethsemani that he (Dan) was familiar with. Merton wrote that first to himself mentally (something like alarm bells went off), he thought there was no way he could do that. The Cistercians were known as one of/or the strictest order. But he let Dan Walsh run off a checklist about them, and in his mind he kept saying: "No, I cannot do that", especially when Dan said they were vegetarians, Merton said no, he could never give up meat. Very soon after, however, he was confronted with a choice, which was to accept the draft and become a soldier, as USA had just entered the war or try to get into Gethsemani and learn how to become a peaceful, non-violent person, and this he did.

He washed out after seven years , he is a nut.

your pronoun confusion lost me...couldnt continue

❤

Music is not welcomed 🙃🤫🤷‍♀️

It's very difficult...thoughts stick like a mouse to sticky paper...time passes slowly...I'm cooking in my head...moving furniture...arguing... Thank you.

Does anyone know what year this was recorded?

It's not for everyone; two hours concentrating weeding a garden, or giving time to working for a worthwhile cause can have a beneficial affect. and it also helps another being, whether human or animal.

This is common knowledge and within what Buddhists have known all along. And Buddhists know more beyond this. Cheers.

The illustration of the Zen Master rubbing two bricks together to make a mirror; for Christians is a parallel to the encounter of St Augustine asking the little boy why he is trying to fill a hole in the sand with water?

Poor myself ... Finleys words strikes such a chord in me that all my other notes feel fake!

Great!!

What is this from?

what is this from?

James Finley and the new age are responsible for the destruction of my family. He just said there is more than one way, which is a contradiction in terms. So is that the one way that there is no one way? So ask yourself if Jesus says For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, is that only one way among many? Certainly, Finley has given his life meaning in his wisdom. I’m not buying it. He says the whole journey is about getting through the obstacle of death. Really? I thought that Jesus did that already. Though the worms destroy this body, yet, in my FLESH I shall see God.

For god so loved the world that he gave his only son our lord. You must be born again, and then you don’t have to seek yourself in useless contemplativa prayer.

Follow Jesus christ. No one has ever tried it ,but it is the answer, that is to trust and believe in god the father ,believe in the resurrection and our eternal life ,and it requires our honest belief, their really is a god there really is an eternal life ,it is insulting to intellectualize it or treat god as concept ,unless the church sermonize with god as reality no one will ever understand god at all no one ever had exept Jesus and we refuse to listen, we destroy as we destroyed the prophets we destroyed jesus ,god is not pleased about that ,and the church continues to destroy anything ,the crusade, a y thing regarded heretic, or not from the institution, and rules, not one bit Christian, true Christianity is belief, and nobody believes, they dont tell that to anybody they have to maintain the appearance of belief, but they do tell,round the kitchen table and with close friends ,and even to their gardener we do not believe, I've heard it thousands of times from church goers ,and if you believe you can tell immediately if a preacher or theologian or spiritual writer believes from the first word ,it is not necessary in today's church to believe. BUT MY GOD YES IT IS

It is only under your arch bishopric that the whole church has been given permission to discredit me and once released, went for it big time and haven't stopped in 20years ,I remain the one person in the whole church it is acceptable by the church to discredit, and they revel in it ,they and you dont know me not one thing make up what you will ,it makes no difference not one jot I know God, God knows me ,and the church will be judged and I c need not forgive any longer.700×700 I am done.g God has accepted me already and protects me And has ordained me and loves me ,so carry on your curses shoot out the tongue, set your traps see where it gets you, that is the legacy you have left after your bishopric.

I found this fom of prayer in 1986/87 when Fr Laurence came to Arcadia, in Australia. It had been a great support for me.He describes it so amazingly.... " This is a gift that God has given us "...Fr Laurence. Thanks Father. Pete

I have tried to distinguish between these 2 ideas..... Fr Laurence has helped a lot.Thanks Fr. Pete

As my current understanding the ‘poverty of Spirit’ means to return yo our true nature which is our home and in that the Spirit may stand in unhampered Nothingness from which all else arise.

Precious 🙏

Wonderful Truth.... Brother James 🙏

I have not yet read anything by Thomas Merton in which he actually mixes himself, Bhuddist teaching with Christian. This book Palace to Nowhere was written by James Finley who is mixing Bhuddism in with what he describes as Merton's spiritual insights. It is very misleading for a Professional but many are. I won't waste anymore of my time. I have not read Merton's books on Bhuddism but he does distinguish that they are Bhuddist and not Christian in the title. I have seen one of his books on Contemplative Prayer but the foreword is by a Bhuddist Priest. Merton himself makes no mention of Bhuddism in it. In his book New Seeds of Contemplation he was careful to claim from the start that he was adhering to Catholic Theology and so will I be. James Finley has an air of Psychiatric Morbidity in his speech and content that is very unhealthy for the mentally ill.

Wonderful insightful words. Thank you.

Beautiful 🙏❣️

God keeps His angels busy naming stars and producing harmonious celestial music etc.......

I remember a few lines from "Desolation Row" Bob Dylan could be depressing but the Monk was right, it is the truth. One line I never forgot is: "Praise be Willows Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn, and everyone is shouting which side are you on?" Another line from a song of his: "I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, and just for that one moment I could be you, then you would know what a drag it is to see you" The truth of this one was in Mother Theresa. She said how awful it would be if your neighbor came looking for Christ and all that is found in you, is you! Yet another one of Bob Dylan is about an apparently materially wealthy woman who finds herself abandoned and destitute thrust into the arena with homeless abandoned women such as myself only I never had to face the loss that this woman did, who could be the woman in Revelation Prophecy living in shameless luxury with all the pretty people. Maybe it is God who has abandoned her. I am very fortunate to have found God this way just as Isaiah said that God was Saying through him: "I let Myself be found by those who were not even searching for Me." Bob Dylan knowing she had a cruel future ahead of her sang: "No one ever taught you how to live out on the streets miss lonely and now your gonna have to get used to it, Oh how does it feel to be all alone, a complete unknown, with no direction home, like a rolling stone?" I love the Bible Proverb that Says: "Sweet is the sleep of the one of little means, but the one with many possessions cannot sleep for worrying about them." The day I learned that the True God loved me, my sleep became peaceful and warm with no nightmares, even outside in the freezing cold.

He still can not see the wood for the trees .

refering to god as him is still an image, an idea, no thing ness is not he or she.

Discovery?

"You can never have too much confidence in God". I like that very much but... Earlier he mentioned that as little children we may see God as "protector". I have a dear friend who says she doesn't believe God exists, but she longs so much for the love of God. She has good reasons for feeling the way she does, because starting when she was very young she was abused, neglected and more and it has continued in many forms. She began life being taught of a loving, all powerful God who would protect her, but in her great need, when she cried out for help it never came. She eventually gave up hope and told me she hates hope because it always disappoints. I try to help her but this wall is very high although I also sense so much her desire to break through and believe.