Tylos Séja: Thomas Mertonas
Seeding of Silence: Thomas Merton

Summary/Abstract: While reading Thomas Merton’s books one receives the impression of coming into contact with the great tradition of Christian mysticism. For a present-day reader, however, that tradition is no longer self-evident. Upon hearing the term of “mysticism” our imaginations start drawing something akin to the Baroque images of saints: bodies, twisted like those of contortionists, “ecstatic” big eyes, wrenched hands in a “piously elegant” manner, etc. Yet the essence of mysticism does not consist in ecstasy, visions or in any other kind of “strong sensations” which still enchants the admirers of the “Baroque religiousity”. It is quite the opposite: mysticism starts with silence and a sincere prayer. Silence, obscurity, emptiness are the landmarks which set a human person free from the images created by his imagination and liberates him from the concepts formulated by his natural mind.

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