A FEAST OF STRAW: THE NATURE MYSTICISM OF THOMAS MERTON BY CHRISTOPHER PAGE VICTORIA, B.C. MARCH 2001 The authof bas pteda non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aliowing the exchisive permettant à la NatidLii of Canada to Bihliotbéque nationale du Canada de reproduce, ban, distnie or seii repduie, prêfer, Wbuer ou copies ofthis thesis in microfotm, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or elecûonk formats. la fonne de microfiche/fih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fônnat électroni~. The author retains ownersbip of the L'auteur CO-e la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantiai exûacts hmit Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de ceile-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autonsaticIn. Table of Contents 1. Moving to the Centre .................................................................................................... Il II . Beyond More ...................... ........ ................................................................. 20 III . The World of Huny ...................................................................................................36 ... IV . Disciplines of Love .................................................................................................... 51 V . A Place to Grow .......................................................................................................... 66 Vi . The Sacrament of Creation ........................................................................................ 82 VII. Healing in Creation ........................... ..................................................................98 VI11 . Hearing God's Word ............................................................................................. 111 TX . Beyond Distraction .................................................................................................. 126 Works Of Thomas Merton Cited ............................................................................ 138 Works On Thomas Merton ......................................................................................... 140 Other Works ................................................................................................................ 141 INTRODUCTION I cal1 heaven and earth to witness against you foday that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. As the human inhabitants of this earth we need to discover new ways of being in this place we inhabit. Everywhere we look we can see and feel evidence of the destructive impact of our presence. Our choices have brou* untold suffering to earth, air, water, plants, and al1 other living inhabitants with whom we share this planet. in the last twenty years the litany of disaster we have brought to our physical environment has become so familiar that we almost no longer hear the dire warnings of environmental apocalypse on the horizon. Forty years ago, however, the idea that human beings might have a detrimental impact upon creation was a startling new insight. The damaging effects of our way of relating to our home began to penetrate more general culfurai consciousness throughout North America in the 1960's. Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring spoke with a prophetic voice in 1962 rnarking the beginning of a new level of awareness which in the last forty years has exploded into a massive social consciousness of the human impact upon this pianet and beyond. It may seem logical to assume that with knowledge would come changed behaviour. Nearly forty years of awareness of the temble effects of the human occupation of the earth should surely have altered our way of being in this place, causing us to live more respectfblly in harmony with the systems that sustain our Iife. Changes have taken place. But the changes we have implemented in our patterns of living have not been on an order of magnitude to match the problems we have created. We seem to be fighting a losing battle. And many people who have fought most valiantly to encourage new human patterns of living are beginning to weary of the struggie. They wonder where to look for [ aii biblical quotations are hmThe New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Page 1 hope and how to sustain the energy and commitment necessary to carry on in the cause of allowing the earth to hd. In an address to the Canadian Parks And Wildemess Society on November 19, 1998, vice-president for conservation Harvey Locke said; "most of us will leave here to a nagging sensation that we are not dohg enough. Tôat Nature's fabric is unravelling al1 over the warld and that we work valiantly, but in a doamed cause." Facts and arguments, even scary statistics bave not been sufficient to motivate a sizeable enough change in human behaviour to make a substantial difference to the condition ofthis planet, Appeals to self-interest have been inadequate to motivate altered behaviour. Locke argues, "We environmentalists continue to try out our arguments to protect nature and are stymied by the response that the economy is more important.".' Yet there bave been successes in the environmental movement. Large tracts of wilderness have ken presewed. Legislation has been passai protecting endangered species. Many people take seriously the cal1 to live more responsibly on this earth, More and more people try to recycle, reuse and reduce. increasingly there are attempts to use methods of transportation other than the single-occupant vehicle, to be carehl with water and energy consumption, and to monitor hsechernicals and foreign substances which we reiease into the ecosystern. But, still, the failures outweigh the successes. How are those in the environmental rnovement to respond to the obvious fact that, as Locke suggests, despite our best efforts, we are on the verge of idicting "on this Earth an extinction event equivalent to the death of the dinosaurs"? Has the hour grown too late? Are the troops too tired? Where might we look for new sources of energy, vitality, hope and vision to sustain us in the drive towards living more responsibly on this earth? Where might the environmental movement Iook for new sources of inspiration and motivation? What are the forces powerfiii enough to motivate ordinary people to change their way of being in relationship to the Living systems of this worId? Harvey Locke, "Wildemess and Spiriniality" (unpublisbed address detivered to the Canadian Parks and Wiidemess Society 35" Amllversary Dk,November 19,1998). Ibid Page 2 These are important questions, not just for those who are actively involved in the environmentai movement. They are important questions for al1 people. We al1 need to be concemed to GIid new ways to iive in relationship to creation. There must be healthier, more Lie-giving patterns that we can choose to adopt in relationship to the rest of the world. There must be deeper more creative ways to live in relationship to the rest of the world. Harvey Locke in bis address "Wilderness and Spirituality" suggests a possible direction in which we might look for renewed energy and vision for living more carefully on this earth. The answer may lie in a return to the rwts of the conservation movement and in embracing the spiritual community. We need to restore a sense of the sacred to Creation ifwe are to save it. To do this we need to reach beyond the traditional environmentai community to the spirihiai community. We must reach out to those who have religious and intual impulses and stnve with them to protect the full diversity of life on Earth. T Locke admits, "This is a scary thing to Say to a room full of highly educated people, skilled in rationai and anaiytical thought." But, Locke is not alone in suggesting that the routes of a renewed environmental movement may be spiritual. Writing in Orion magazine in 1998, novelist David James Duncan said Reverence for life is the basis of compassion, and of biological health. This is why, much as it may ernbarrass those of us trained in the agnostic sciences, 1 believe that every Iife-loving human on earth has an obligation to remain both primitive enough, and reverent enougb, to stand up and say to my kind of public: Trees and mountains are holy. Rain and rivers are holy. Salmon are holy. For this reason alone 1 will Bght to keep them alive. This is not an argument, nota number, not a polIed opinion. It7sjust naked, native belief. But if (sic) we put our fùil conviction in such belief, feel no embarrassrnent over if stand by it agah md again, begin to discover some spirit- power in ourselves, and shoot it hmthere into our ûiends and kids, and into our scientific research, our art, our music or writing, and hmthere into beautiful but threatened laws. Ibid 'David James Duncan, 'Watives,'' Orion, 17, no. 1 (Winter 1998): 26. Page 3 in a book published in 1996, Tom Hayden wrote, "Only when enough people awaken to a deep spicitual connection with nature will envkonmentalism become a global ethic." And in his 1992 book, The Trail Home, John Daniel suggests that, in the West we are perhaps beginning to rediscover the spicitual mot of our relationship to creation: "I beiieve that to realize the ethical relationship to land that Leopold envisioned and hdians have lived, we need to rediscover - and pechaps are rdiscovering - a religious relationship to the natural world."' Harvey Locke is in good Company suggesting