an "I" that is a subject

 

the true inner self, the true indestructible and immortal

person, the true "I" who answers to a new and secret

name known only to himself and to God, does not

"have" anything, even "contemplation." This "I" is not

the kind of subject that can amass experiences, reflect

on them, reflect on himself, for this "I" is not the super-

ficial and empirical self that we know in our everyday

life.

as long as there is an "I" that is the definite subject of a

contemplative experience, an "I" that is aware of itself

and it's contemplation, an "I" that can possess a certain 

"degree of spirituality," then we have not yet passed over

the Red Sea, we have not yet "gone out of Egypt." We

remain in the realm of multiplicity, activity, incompleteness,

striving and desire.

the separate entity that is you apparently disappears and

nothing seems to be left but a pure Freedom, love identified 

with Love. Not two loves, one waiting for the other, striving

for the other, seeking for the other, but Love Loving in

freedom.

you do not take the step; you do not know the transition;

you do not fall into anything. You do not go anywhere,

and so you do not know the way by which you came back

afterward. You are certainly not lost. You do no fly. There

is no space, or there is all space: it makes no difference.

~ Thomas Merton

from Merton's Palace of Nowhere

by James Finley