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Article: Merton's enlightenment: what he found in Asia.(Thomas Merton)(In memoriam)(Travel narrative)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- June 2, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Near the end of his posthumously published Asian Journal, Thomas Merton described a remarkable visit he made in December 1968 to Gal Vihara, a Buddhist shrine in central Sri Lanka. Scribbled in a notebook, his account breathes with the anticipation that the American Trappist monk felt on this leg of his journey, his first extended trip after spending twenty-seven cloistered years at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. "I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed," he wrote, "my feet in wet grass, wet sand."
Gal Vihara is one of Buddhism's most sacred sites, set within the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, and Merton--well grounded in Buddhist thought and ...