Merton on Inferior Forms of Religion

...[F]ew religions ever really penetrate to the inmost soul of the believer, and even the highest of them do not, in their social and liturgical forms, invariably reach the inmost "I" of each participant. The common level of inferior religion is situated somewhere in the collective subconscious of the worshipers, and perhaps more often than not in a collective exterior self. This is certainly a verifiable fact in modern totalitarian pseudo-religions of state and class. And this is one of the most dangerous features of our modern barbarism: the invasion of the world by a barbarity from within society and from within man himself. Or rather, the reduction of man, in technological society, to a level of almost pure alienation in which he can be brought at will, any time, to a kind of political ecstasy, carried away by the hate, the fear, and the crude aspirations centered about a leader, a propaganda slogan, or a political symbol. That this sort of ecstasy is to some extent "satisfactory" and produces a kind of pseudo-spiritual catharsis, or at least a release of tension, is unfortunately all too often verified. And it is what modern man is coming more and more to accept as an ersatz for genuine religious fulfillment, for moral activity, and for contemplation itself.


-Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience

The religious right immediately springs to mind. Clothing themselves in the exterior trappings of religion, yet mistaking their untamed subconscious for true religion, they ultimately fuel their own hatred and intolerance. Merton suggests elsewhere that the contemplative needs to get to what he calls the "true self," which is beyond our subconscious and, in fact, inseparable from God. The method to do this is the contemplative life, lived in isolation. Merton allows that this contemplative experience is probably the same as that described by Zen masters without using the word God. I wish that quiet contemplation were more of a fixture of modern Christianity, because I think its face would change. That would be a wonderful thing. When I read Thomas Merton, I am much more at home than when I listen to Christian evangelists, who often have an underlying energy of hatred, intolerance and fear. They are stirring the depths of our unconscious, of our libido, but they are not contacting genuine spiritual energy, as far as I can tell. Perhaps I'm lashing out a bit here, but I still believe what I'm saying one hundred percent, and the main point is not how terrible Christian fundamentalists are, but how wonderful it is to see that there is a true Christianity, a genuine spiritual Christianity. When I was in high school, I thought wistfully about becoming a (Christian) monk. I had a couple of reasons. At that point I was clothed in the trappings of religion, calling myself a Christian, and believing simplistic things about God, but not really having a genuine spirituality. I recall ranting to myself as I walked my dog about how terrible people are for not behaving morally, never perceiving that my anger was itself immoral. Not very spiritual; very close to my brothers and sisters in the Christian right at that point! The other reason I wanted to become a monk is that the world scared me. The prospect of getting a job and fending for myself scared me. I figured that being a monk would be an easy way to avoid the pressures of the world. I know now that the life of a monastic is very difficult, but it didn't strike me that way then, and I also know, that at least for Buddhists, it is considered improper or "wrong motivation" to take up the life of a monastic because one needs food or shelter. But anyway, I'm glad now two decades later, that my early aspirations for the monastic life are finding fruit, both in my Buddhist practice and in my appreciation for Thomas Merton.