No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.
Interpretation
Nature expresses profound truths that words often fail to capture.
Thomas Merton suggests that the natural world, particularly the sound and movement of the wind in pine trees, conveys experiences and emotions that surpass the limitations of human language. He emphasizes the idea that nature communicates in a way that resonates deeply with the soul, revealing insights about existence that writing may struggle to articulate.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of nature in our lives.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. 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.
You are sitting and smoking; you believe that you are sitting in your pipe, and that your pipe is smoking you; you are exhaling yourself in bluish clouds. You feel just fine in this position, and only one thing gives you worry or concern: how will you ever be able to get out of your pipe?
An armchair Jungian would say the whole thing is about my own ongoing spiritual search. My interior life has always been one of trying to find a spiritual link, maybe because I'm from a family of separate religious philosophies: Protestant and Catholic.
The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.
There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God.
...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.
BY YOUR RESPONSE TO DANGER IT IS_x000D_ EASY TO TELL HOW YOU HAVE LIVED _x000D_ AND WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO YOU._x000D_ YOU SHOW WHETHER YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE,_x000D_ WHETHER YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO,_x000D_ AND WHETHER YOU BELIEVE_x000D_ IT'S ANY GOOD TO ACT.
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