| Author Quoted | Henry Corbin |
| Title Quoted | Imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1961/10/03 |
| Imprint | Paris : Flammarion. [1958] |
| Quotation | The Corbin book on Ibn al' Arabi is in ways tremendous. The plays and changes on the theme of the divine compassion, on the "sympathy" of the spirit and God, on God seeking to manifest Himself in the spirit that responds to a "Nam" which it is meant to embody in its life. Compare the medieval Cistercians with their births of Christ in us. Need for compassion and tenderness towards the infinite fragility of the divine life in us which is real and not an idea or an image (as is our conception of God as "object"). This could and should lead me more and more to a new turning, a new attitude, an inner change, a liberation from all futile concerns to let Him emerge in His mystery and compassion within me. Yielding to the inexplicable demand of His presence in weakness. To be very careful and timid now about those innumerable self-affirmations that tend to destroy His weakness and littleness in me-fortunately indestructible. This mustard seed, His kingdom in me. The struggle of the very small to survive and change my self-affirmations. |
| Quotation Source | Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4, 1960-1963.; Edited by Victor A. Kramer. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 167 |
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| Link to Merton's Copy |
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