| Author Quoted | Toshihiko Izutsu |
| Title Quoted | Comparative Study of the Key Philosopical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1967/05/12 |
| Imprint | [S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1966-67 |
| Quotation | I am at present reading a most revealing book by a Japanese scholar, Toshihiko Izutsu, comparing the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi with Taoists. The first volume only, on Ibn Arabi, is available, I believe. Others will follow which will show the resemblances. This is very important. If you do not know it already I recommend it to you, and it is easily accessible to you, being published by Keio University. Now, you may have received my new book, Mystics and Zen Masters. It is very sketchy and imperfect, but it may perhaps have some useful material in it. If you do not know the treatise on the "Cloud of Unknowing" I think the remarks in my book will indicate that it would interest you. A friend of mine [William Johnston] has written a study of it with some reference to Zen [The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing, 1967]. It ought to appear soon. I wrote a preface to it. I will send you a copy of the book if and when I get one. |
| Quotation Source | Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1994, p. 332 |
| Letter to | Maso Abe |
| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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