| Author Quoted | Maurice Merleau-Ponty |
| Title Quoted | In Praise of Philosophy / transl. of Eloge de la philosophy et autres essays (Paris 1960) |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1963/12/22 |
| Imprint | [S.l.] : Northwestern University. 1963 |
| Quotation | Merleau-Ponty says: "Je suis a moi au etant au mond" ["I am to myself as being in the world"]. And this would appear to be the exact opposite of what I have been saying for twenty years-that I am my own by withdrawing from the world. Actually I agree with him profoundly. Everything depends on the meaning you give to "monde." If it means the delusions and cliches that stand between a supposed autonomous "I" and the world of phenomena, well, one does not want to belong to this and struggle for existence in it, thinking oneself to be now free, now not free. Who is this self? But if it means one's own situation, then how else can one be anything except by being what he is, and how can he be what and who he is apart from all that goes with him? What is with me? What am I in? That is one reason for a Journal like this, to keep honestly situated. It is also a reason for taking pictures, for instance, yesterday, down at "The Point" in Louisville, with Jim Wygal, and along the river front. To withdraw from where I am in order to be totally outside all that situates me-this is real delusion. Hence the similarity between Merleau-Ponty and Zen. I am inevitably a dialogue with my surroundings, and have no choice, though I can perhaps change the surroundings. "L'interieur et l'exterieur sont inseparables. Le monde est font au dedans et je suis tous hors de moi." ["The interior and the exterior are inseparable. The world is created from within and I am always outside myself."] |
| Quotation Source | Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 5, 1963-1965.; Edited by Robert E. Daggy. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1997, p. 48 |
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| Link to Merton's Copy |
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