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Same Religion

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When I was a young Catholic, I wanted to be like Thomas Merton. I wanted to be a Catholic monk like him. Years later, when I became the student of a Zen master who had been invited by the monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani (Merton’s monastery home) to lead Zen retreats there, I realised I had already arrived home.

And for 33 years of meditation, it has been among life’s greatest honors to practice as a true co-religionist of him.

File:Dss and gethsemani.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
Zen Master Seung Sahn teaching the boys of Gethsemani (Merton not pictured — he was long dead by then).