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.
