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Over the
next two weeks, in the fourth and fifth excerpts from his essay on the
Spirituality of Thomas Merton, Fr Collins examines how Merton's ideas
developed between the late 1950s and mid-1960s on what is actually happening
in the mystical (ecstatic) experience. What's the relationship between
the natural and supernatural in the realm of mystical experience?
The relationship between the natural and the supernatural in the realm
of mystical experience has long been a matter of discussion in philosophical
and theological circles. What do humans do on their own and/or what do
they do aided by grace beyond the natural? Thomas Merton wrote rather
extensively about this question in 1958 to the philosopher, Aldous Huxley,
whose book Ends and Means had
been instrumental in Merton's coming into the Catholic Church in 1938.
Merton suggested that one distinguish between an essentially aesthetic
and natural experience and an experience which is mystical and supernatural.
"I would call aesthetic and natural an experience
which would be an intuitive 'tasting' of the inner spirituality of our
own being — or an intuition of being as such, arrived at through
an intuitive awareness of our own innermost reality. This would be an
experience of 'oneness' within oneself and with all beings, a flash of
awareness of the transcendent Reality that is within all that is real."
He likened it to the aesthetic intuition that precedes the creation of
a work of art or that of a philosopher who rises above his concepts and
their synthesis to see everything in one glance like the intuition of
a person who has participated deeply in a liturgical act. He continued:
"By the way, though I call this experience
'natural,' that does not preclude its being produced by the action of
God's grace (a term that must be used with care). But I mean that it is
not in its mode or in its content beyond the capacities of human nature
itself."
Merton then apologized for too glibly distinguishing the natural and
the supernatural as if he were quite sure where the dividing line came.
He then elaborated hesitantly on what he would call a supernatural and
mystical experience. "It seems to me that
a fully mystical experience has in its very essence some note of a direct
spiritual contact of two liberties, a kind of a flash or spark which ignites
an intuition of all that has been said above, plus something much more
which I can only describe as 'personal,' in which God is known not as
an 'object' or as 'Him up there' or 'Him in everything' nor as a 'the
All' but as — the biblical expression — I AM, or simply AM.
But what I mean is that this is not the kind of intuition that smacks
of anything procurable because it is a presence of a Person and depends
on the liberty of that Person. And lacking the element of a free gift,
a free act of love on the part of Him Who comes, the experience would
lose its specifically mystical quality." (Huxley,
Aldous 11.27.58 HGL 437)
By 1965 Thomas Merton's understanding of the natural and the supernatural
in mystical experience had undergone some refinement. He was by that time
not so sure of some of the distinctions he had made in his 1958 letter
to Huxley. As he wrote to Marco Pallis, an English scholar of Tibetan
Buddhism, he was bothered by the division 'natural-supernatural' in religion
and mysticism. He saw that it is misleading and unsatisfactory. He had
come to see that, even within the framework of Catholic orthodoxy, "all
the genuine living religious traditions can and must be said to originate
in God and to be revelations of Him, some more, some less. And that it
makes no sense to classify some of them as 'natural.' There is no merely
natural 'revelation' of God, and there is no merely natural mysticism
(a contradiction in terms)." The whole idea required a
great deal of study since the terms are not clear or unambiguous even
within the Catholic tradition. "And outside
it there is a great deal of confusion as far as I can see."
(Pallis, Marco Easter, 1965 HGL 470)
The psychological danger of regression in mysticism…
Thomas Merton's most extensive epistolary commentary on the psychological
dimensions of mystical or religious experience is found in letters to
Raymond Prince, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal
and a colleague of Linda Sabbath. During the spring and winter of 1965,
Prince had written to the monk about the psychological danger of regression
in mysticism. Merton responded with five specific points.
"1. There is certainly a
great deal of mystical material which consciously and explicitly makes
use of terms suggesting regression. This is especially true in Taoist
mysticism, for instance, And it is true wherever mysticism is couched
in terms of passivity and abandonment, which are sometimes called 'quietistic,'
even though they might not technically earn that designation. But I think
that a great deal of discrimination is needed in evaluating different
accounts of mystical experience. I think in your own approach there has
been a tendency to treat experiences on quite different levels more or
less as if they were all on the same level."
"2. It seems to me that when
ecstatic experiences take on a manic character (which they sometimes do),
this should be regarded as calling their authenticity into question. I
do not say that this would ipso facto invalidate any such experience,
but it would be an indication that caution was required, because ideally
the ecstatic experience should be beyond manic excitement. There are of
course diversities of temperament and personal weaknesses that have to
be taken into account in each case. Very delicate problems of evaluation
are involved here. In my opinion, experiences deep enough to be ecstatic
or to be qualified as 'unitive' should properly speaking be beyond all
regressive symptoms. I would say a unitive experience that was merely
regressive and narcissistic would be invalid religiously and mystically.
There would be no self-transcendence, but only immersion in the self,
in self-awareness as absorbed in an all which is undifferentiated. But
this is not mystical union. Mystic union is not just an 'oceanic feeling'."
"3. I think the regressive
features are normal in a transitional and early phase of mystical development,
in the so-called prayer of quiet, the night of the sense, and perhaps
in some way in the Night of the Spirit (but I question this; here at least
regression must be something other than what you are talking about). I
believe that regression marks these early stages because it is necessary
for one to … to move back in order to take a better leap. Regression,
of sorts, enables the whole self to 'rest' and 'return to the root' establishing
a deep continuity with the past so as to enter a future that is going
to demand an experience of profound rupture. (Yet there must still be
spiritual continuity in spite of the rupture and rift.) The paradox is
that the 'old' will be left behind, and yet the 'new' will be the old
transformed and renewed. Death and resurrection."
"4. In my opinion, attachment
to the 'regressive' and narcissistic peace which is proper to early and
transitional stages of development is quite usually the reason why so
few people really become mature in the mystical life. Many reach the early
stage, but become bogged down in this 'peace' and 'sweetness' and refuse
to make the break with the past which is demanded of them in order to
take the leap into a 'new being.' I think if one simply equates mysticism
with regression, a fatal error will result, and people will be encouraged
not to undergo the 'death' that is required in order to 'live again.'
Of course you may say, rightly, that this 'death' is a climax of regression.
But it is certainly something more than narcissistic and pietistic sucking
at the breast of consolation…"
"5. In my opinion, regression,
the 'ego' and other terms current in psychoanalysis are not strong enough
to bear the weight of description required to make clear what really happens
in mystical experience. A considerable deepening is going to be needed,
in order to discuss these questions adequately. At least this is the opinion
of one who is by no means an expert and who has barely a layman's knowledge
of psychoanalysis. For one thing, the assumption that rational and discursive
knowledge is the normal peak of human intellectual and spiritual development
is, to my mind, a real mistake. If we start to discuss mysticism from
the viewpoint of the Cartesian cogito and the pragmatic scientific mind,
we start with assumptions that make false perspectives inevitable. I think
we have to restore intuitive and 'direct' apprehension of reality to its
proper place as a normal perfection of the human mind, before we can begin
to understand mysticism as something that is anything but pathological.
The point is that primitive people excelled, so it seems, in this intuitive
and direct grasp of reality, and our development as abstract thinkers
is not necessarily in all respects a genuine progress. Here again, the
idea of regression takes on another (cultural) aspect."
(Prince, Raymond 5.22.65 HGL 493-5)
In December of 1965 Thomas Merton again wrote to Raymond Prince about
the notion of psychological and spiritual regression. He compared unhealthy
withdrawal from reality with going deeper into reality while admitting
the danger of narcissism in the spiritual quest. He is probably keeping
in mind his own experience of withdrawal to Gethsemani in 1941 and his
later re-connection with "reality" from his contemplative core
and then his further withdrawal into a hermitage. He stated that regression
is a retreat from reality and is essentially narcissistic. While in deeper
forms of spiritual experience much can resemble regression, it is a misleading
way to conceive it. "In genuine religious
experience, especially mystical, one's awareness of reality is immensely
heightened, the external and the interior being transcended and recaptured
in a unity which is neither and both, and beyond the dichotomy of subject-object,
inside-outside and so on."
The monk admitted that in half-baked spirituality and partial religious
experience there is a tendency to substitute precisely a narcissistic
unity for this transcendence. It can seem like the 'oceanic feeling' which
is certainly regressive. It takes the superficial empirical ego self "as
a kind of paradise of all being and seems to experience everything in
a heightened awareness of the ego self. Those involved in spiritual formation
must help people not to confuse this narcissistic self-awareness with
true mystical contemplation." There are infinite ways
of getting around this, he noted. "By cleverly
rationalizing the narcissistic awareness in certain kinds of philosophical,
psychological, theological language, for instance. Or by the language
of mystical and affective love-union." (Prince,
Raymond 12.18.65 HGL 495)
One wonders, based upon his insights into mystical experience as expressed
in his mid-1960's correspondence, how Thomas Merton would have understood
and evaluated his own mystical experience in Cuba in 1939.
Next week Fr Collins goes on to speculate what Merton would have made
of his experience in 1939 based on what he wrote in his classic work,
The Seven Storey Mountain.
NAVIGATION: PART I | PART
II | PART
III | PART
IV | PART
V | PART
VI
Photo
Credits:
The background images used in the headline are sourced from stock.xchng
and are the work of Kay Pat, New Delhi, India. URL: www.sxc.hu/profile/KayPat.
The image of Thomas Merton used in the text was sourced from Thomas Merton
Books website at: www.thomasmertonbooks.com/about_us.asp
Other images by Brian Coyne
 Fr
Patrick W. Collins PhD lives in Michigan and has long been
very supportive of our endeavours here at Catholica
Australia. Fr Collins retired from active ministry earlier
last year but one suspects that "retirement" is the inappropriate
descriptor. It's more like a change of direction as to how he continues
his ministry. On his own website (www.vatican2.org/patrickcollins/)
he describes himself as "author, preacher, musician and university
professor. He senses that his principal vocation is to contemplative living
— out of which his various ministries flow. In addition to numerous
books and articles, Fr. Collins has produced forty-five TV programs, and
a number of videos, among them Thomas
Merton: Man, Monk, Myth with Music. Fr. Collins
presents various kinds of retreats, missions, and workshops, including
what he calls 'spiritual concerts' which combine texts and tunes for spiritual
insight and growth. This approach gives a feelingful dimension to the
meaning of the words and connects head with heart, reason and imagination.
He calls it "Music with a Message."
What are your thoughts on Patrick's commentary?
You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.
Patrick can be contracted through his own website at: www.vatican2.org/patrickcollins/.
©2007Patrick
W Collins
[Index of commentaries
by Patrick Collins]
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