| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1960/03/18 | Louis Massignon | Akhbar al-Hallaj. Texte ancien relatif à la predication et au supplice du mystique musulman al-Hosayn B. Mansour al-Hallaj |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 380
| Reading [Al] Hallaj in Massignon's translation-about which I wrote him a letter today. Hallaj is right, and our piety is so safe as to be impious. What a difference between the Greeks and this Moslem. I mean the classical Greeks. But in Aeschylus there's the same kind of fire none the less! |
| 1960/03/18 | Louis Massignon | Akhbar al-Hallaj. Texte ancien relatif à la predication et au supplice du mystique musulman al-Hosayn B. Mansour al-Hallaj |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 276
| How can I begin to write you a letter about the amazing book of the prayers and exhortations of Hallaj [Akhbar al-Hallaj, third edition, in Arabic with Massignon's French translation]? I think it is tremendous. In many ways the rude paradoxes are striking in the same way as Zen. But there is the added depth and fire of knowledge of the one God. There is the inexorable force of sanctity. The sense of the Holy, that lays one low: as in Isaias. To read Hallaj makes one lament and beat his breast. Where has it gone, this sense of the sacred, this awareness of the Holy? What has happened to us? How true it is that in the light of such blinding sincerity, our ordinary prayers and protestations of faith are acts of impiety. |
| 1960/11/17 | Bruno de Jesus-Marie o.c.d. | Saint Jean de la Croix |
Ltrs: HGL p. 44
| In regard to St. John of the Cross, I think we have here some paperback editions of his main works and I have asked them to be sent to you. I might also refer you to the life of St. John of the Cross, in French, by Père Bruno de Jesus-Marie, which has some interesting pages on the possible influence of Sufism in the mysticism of St. John of the Cross. References will lead you further along these lines. |
| 1961/05/02 | Titus Burckhardt | An introduction to Sufi doctrine |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 115
| Abdul Aziz has sent some books on Islam, including first of all a powerful and concise little volume on Sufism by one Titus Burckhardt, of whom I had not yet heard. Certainly the very finest thing on the subject I have yet touched, marked with a hardness (solidity) and sureness one rarely finds in western studies of oriental mysticism. Also A. Aziz's own essay on Islam with two tremendous quotes at the end. This is for me only a first reading of the Burckhardt, which I will go over again more intently. Here a frankly intellectual mysticism-with real roots. The Truth Itself smashing vanity: and with no separation of knowledge and love. |
| 1961/05/13 | Titus Burckhardt | An introduction to Sufi doctrine |
Ltrs: HGL p. 48
| But now first of all and before everything else I want to thank you for the remarkable books you sent me. I have been tremendously impressed by Titus Burckhardt on Sufism, which is the book I have read first. It is one of the most stimulating books I have read for a long time, and I realize that there is very much in it for me. In a sense it is one of those books that open up new horizons that I have been waiting for. I am tremendously impressed with the solidity and intellectual sureness of Sufism. There is no question but that here is a living and convincing truth, a deep mystical experience of the mystery of God our Creator Who watches over us at every moment with infinite love and mercy. I am stirred to the depths of my heart by the intensity of Moslem piety toward His Names, and the reverence with which He is invoked as the "Compassionate and the Merciful." May He be praised and adored everywhere forever. |
| 1961/05/13 | Titus Burckhardt | An introduction to Sufi doctrine |
Ltrs: HGL p. 49
| After reading Burckhardt, I have glimpsed many interesting relationships and problems. The question of Tawhid is of course central and I think that the closest to Islam among the Christian mystics on this point are the Rhenish and Flemish mystics of the fourteenth century, including Meister Eckhart, who was greatly influenced by Avicenna. The culmination of their mysticism is in the "Godhead" beyond "God" (a distinction which caused trouble to many theologians in the Middle Ages and is not accepted without qualifications) but at any rate it is an ascent to perfect and ultimate unity beyond the triad in unity of the Persons. This is a subtle and difficult theology and I don't venture into it without necessity "¦ One of the chapters I like best in Burckhardt is that on the renewal of creation at each instant, and also that on the dhikr which resembles the techniques of the Greek monks, and I am familiar with its use, for it brings one close to God. |
| 1961/09/24 | Henry Corbin | Imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi |
Ltrs: HGL p. 50
| Henry Corbin is an author in whom I am greatly interested and think that his book on Ibn Arabi is going to be very important for me. I like very much the first pages of it and the approach that he takes. This is an aspect of mysticism that I have not studied so much: that of the intermediate realm of what the Greek Fathers called theoria physike (natural contemplation) which deals with the symbols and images of things and their character as words or manifestations of God the Creator, whose wisdom is in them. I hope sometime to send you a little thing I have written on Wisdom (Sophia). It is being printed in a very limited edition on a hand press by a good friend of mine. It will be very rare. |
| 1961/10/01 | Henry Corbin | Imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 167
| The first book of Buber that has really gripped me is the one on the Origins and Meaning of Hasidism [New York, 1960]. The point about the seriousness of the Hasidic reaction against Sabbatian Messianism is very convincing. The whole question of the Gnostic trend and temptation. The question of gnosticism is an important one. I am at the same time much taken with H[enry] Corbin's book on Ibn al' Arabi [L'Imagination Creatrice dans Le Soufisme D'Ibn Arabi, Paris, 1958], and his gnostic sufism, this from a favorable viewpoint. The question is-is there an ineradicable opposition between gnostic and prophetic religion? This is stoutly maintained by Buber of course and by Protestants like H. Kraemer. It raises no doubt in the mind of staunch and staid Catholics (who oppose both prophecy and gnosticism). But I am not so sure after all. It is a big question, and the Corbin book shows it is not a simple one. |
| 1961/10/01 | Martin Buber | Origin and Meaning of Hasidism |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 167
| The first book of Buber that has really gripped me is the one on the Origins and Meaning of Hasidism [New York, 1960]. The point about the seriousness of the Hasidic reaction against Sabbatian Messianism is very convincing. The whole question of the Gnostic trend and temptation. The question of gnosticism is an important one. I am at the same time much taken with H[enry] Corbin's book on Ibn al' Arabi [L'Imagination Creatrice dans Le Soufisme D'Ibn Arabi, Paris, 1958], and his gnostic sufism, this from a favorable viewpoint. The question is-is there an ineradicable opposition between gnostic and prophetic religion? This is stoutly maintained by Buber of course and by Protestants like H. Kraemer. It raises no doubt in the mind of staunch and staid Catholics (who oppose both prophecy and gnosticism). But I am not so sure after all. It is a big question, and the Corbin book shows it is not a simple one. |
| 1961/10/03 | Henry Corbin | Imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 167
| 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. |
| 1961/12/12 | al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri Ali ibn Usma | Kashf al-Mahjúb : the oldest Persian treatise on sufiism / by Alī B. Uthmán al-Jullābi al-Hujwīrī : transl. from the text of the Lahore edition, comp. with mss. In the India office and British Museum by Reynold A. Nicholson |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 185-86
| From Al Hujwīrī [The Kashf Al-Mahjub] "It is glorious for man to bear the burden of trouble laid upon him by his Beloved." "Purity is the attribute of those who love, and the lover is he that is dead in his own attributes and living in the attributes of his Beloved." [p 32] "He that is purified by love is pure, and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and has abandoned all else is a Sufi." (p 34) "The Sufi is he that is dead to self and lives by the truth; he has escaped from the grip of human faculties and has attained"¦." (p 35) "Renunciation of pleasure is the act of Man but the annihilation of pleasure is the act of God. The act of Man is formal and metaphorical while the act of God is real." (p 37) "The Sufi is he that has nothing in his possession, nor is possessed by anything." (37) "Sufism is essence without form." [p. 37] "The Sufi is he whose thought keeps pace with his foot." (39) |
| 1963/10/04 | Martin Lings | Moslem saint of the twentieth century : Shaikh Ahmad al-'Alawi : his spiritual heritage and legacy |
Ltrs: HGL p. 465-66
| And now above all, thank you for the superb book on Ahmad Al 'Alawi [by Martin Lings], superb because of its subject and because of the excerpts from his writings. I am immensely impressed by him, and by the purity of the Sufi tradition as represented in him. I am surprised Louis Massignon did not know him better or appreciate him more. I intend to reread the book meditatively; it is one of the richest things of its kind I have found lately. Surely the deepest expression of this kind of mysticism in our time. I have not yet got into Schuon's book on Islam, but will do so immediately. I do as a matter of fact know him and Guenon, though not well enough yet "¦ |
| 1963/10/18 | Martin Lings | Moslem saint of the twentieth century : Shaikh Ahmad al-'Alawi : his spiritual heritage and legacy |
Ltrs: HGL p. 55
| First of all, thank you for the remarkable book on Ahmad Al-'Alawi [Martin Lings, A Modern Saint of the Twentieth Century; Shaikh Ahmad Al-'Alawi, 1961]. I want to say how deeply moved and impressed I was with this book, from beginning to end. I had a chance to read it at leisure and thoughtfully in the hospital, and I am convinced that this is certainly one of the major religious figures of our time. I am very open to the vigorous clarity and the depth of his religious vision, and I must say that there is little in the book that I cannot heartily accept, I look forward to reading it again more slowly and meditatively. I am surprised that Louis Massignon made so few references to Ahmad Al-'Alawi. |
| 1964/05/24 | Louis Massignon | Opera Minora |
Ltrs: CforT p. 45
| I have also been reading the big volumes of Louis Massignon's Opera Minora, so much more "majora" than most other people's masterpieces. They are at times completely shattering. I hope to write something about him as I now have to give an account of recent material on Islam in the magazine of the Order. I also have to report on Buddhism and Hinduism from time to time. This seems like a lot and does imply a kind of scattering of forces, but I think it will do me good and with the grace of God I can handle it. I think that one of the most crucially important subjects to investigate today is the Buddhist metaphysic of the "person," which claims to be non-personal (anatta) but as a matter of fact might well be something completely unique and challenging. The anatta idea is simply a "no" to the Hindu Atman as a pseudo-object or thought. If once one can find that on this crucial point where Buddhism and Christianity are completely opposed, they are in fact perhaps united "¦ Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity, Person but not individual nature "¦ |
| 1964/06/28 | Louis Massignon | Opera Minora |
Ltrs: HGL p. 59
| You probably have received the wonderful new edition of Louis Massignon's Opera Minora. Excellent. I will see that you get them if you do not have them already. Please tell me. Meanwhile I think I will write at least a note of review about Dr. Lings's book on Ahmad Al-'Alawi which I want to reread. I am incidentally supposed to provide notes on Islamic mysticism from time to time for the magazine of our Order. This is a new step, and a promising one. |
| 1964/06/28 | Martin Lings | Moslem saint of the twentieth century : Shaikh Ahmad al-'Alawi : his spiritual heritage and legacy |
Ltrs: HGL p. 59
| You probably have received the wonderful new edition of Louis Massignon's Opera Minora. Excellent. I will see that you get them if you do not have them already. Please tell me. Meanwhile I think I will write at least a note of review about Dr. Lings's book on Ahmad Al-'Alawi which I want to reread. I am incidentally supposed to provide notes on Islamic mysticism from time to time for the magazine of our Order. This is a new step, and a promising one. |
| 1965/02/14 | Rene Brunel | monachisme errant dans Vlslam, Sîdi Heddi et les Heddâwa |
Ltrs: SofC p. 265-66
| It is good to know that the "chroniques" on Islam and so on will get printed, even though not monastic. I have Schuon on Islam and the book on Hallaj, both of which I have been waiting to read, not certain whether you would be expecting a "chroniqu" on them. Can we decide more or less definitely one way or the other whether I should produce another chronique on non-Christian spiritualities for this year? If so I will gladly go ahead with it, and I have some interesting material which is close to monasticism even though as the Koran or rather some Hadith asserts: "There is no monasticism in Islam." Actually I think Dom Leclercq has written on this subject. Do you by any chance have his essay? It was published I think at Toumliline. If you like I can write myself because I need another study on the same thing published in Morocco (Brunel, Le Monachisme Errant dans l'Islam, Institut des Hautes Etudes Marocaines, 1955). I could write for both at the same time unless you have them on hand. |
| 1965/04/24 | Frithjof Schuon | Comprendre l'Islam |
Ltrs: HGL p. 453
| Your new book reached me this morning, and I must say it looks extremely interesting. I am not perfectly sure the review of our Order will want me to review it, this will depend on how germane it is to monasticism. But I think they probably will. On the other hand I have not yet done my review of [Frithjof] Schuon's book on Islam. I have a small pile of books on Sufism etc. building up and will probably do them all at once later on. |
| 1965/04/24 | Martin Lings | Moslem saint of the twentieth century : Shaikh Ahmad al-'Alawi : his spiritual heritage and legacy |
Ltrs: HGL p. 454
| On the other hand I was able to give what I felt was a very enthusiastic review to your admirable book on Ahmad Al-'Alawi [A Moslem Saint of the Twentieth Century, 1961]. I am glad of this opportunity to express my thanks. The book was an inspiration to me and I often think of this great man with veneration. He was so perfectly right in his spirituality. Certainly a great saint and a man full of the Holy Spirit. May God be praised for having given us one such, in a time when we need many saints. I hope that in a few days I will have some offprints and will send you a couple. |
| 1965/12/18 | Reza Arasteh | Rumi the Persian: Rebirth in Creativity and Love |
Ltrs: HGL p. 41
| It is a great pleasure for me to have your book on Rumi. I am reading it with great interest as I like the Sufis and admire them. In fact I will shortly be lecturing on Sufism to the novices and young monks here. Your book will help me in this. I think your book would be even more interesting and valuable if there were allusions to other mystical writers and traditions by way of comparison. You might be interested in some of the works of St. John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic who is thought to have been influenced to some extent by a Moroccan Sufi, Ibn Abbad. Though this hypothesis of influence is very shaky, there are many points in common. In connection with Rumi, it would be worthwhile to examine some of the mysticism of pure love among the Flemish mystics of the fourteenth century and thereafter. Of course there is always Eckhart too. |
| 1965/12/27 | Reza Arasteh | Final Integration in the Adult Personality: A Measure for Peace |
Ltrs: HGL p. 41
| I am interested in your book [Final Integration in the Adult Personality ], which I am sure will fill a great need in this country. The subject is important and it is one which I would gladly preface. Unfortunately, however, I have written so many prefaces in the last few years that my publisher finally took me to task and said that it would not be advisable to continue on such a scale. I promised that I would not undertake any more prefaces for a good while, and so I am unable to accept your offer. I wish I could. This does not mean I am not interested in the book, and I would be happy to look it over some time, perhaps when it gets further into the process of publication. Do you take up the question of psychedelics? I think this is important, because it seems to me to raise the whole question of the validity of mystical experience. And the real purpose of interior transformation by love. Love cannot be incited by a drug "¦ |
| 1966/01/15 | Reza Arasteh | Rumi the Persian: Rebirth in Creativity and Love |
Ltrs: HGL p. 321
| I was glad to get your note. You are right, I have not written for a long time, but I think of you and run into people you know: for example I had a brief exchange of notes with Reza Arasteh, who has sent me his little book on Rumi. I am glad someone is doing work like that. |
| 1966/03/21 | Abu al-Qasim Junayd ibn Muhammad | life, personality and writings of al-Junayd : a study of a third-ninth century mystic / Abu al-Qasim Junayd ibn Muhammad ; with an ed. and transl. of his writings by Ali Hassan Abdel-Kader |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 31
| Began the book on [Abu'l Q sim] Junayd which Abdul Aziz sent - perhaps will take this to the hospital, but don't know how much I will be able to read. |
| 1966/06/02 | Idries Shah | Sufis / Idries Shah ; introd. by Robert Graves |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 75
| Finished [Idries] Shah on Sufism [The Sufis (New York, 1964)] the other day. Parts of its are good. Reading Laura [Anagarika Brahmacari] Govinda on Foundations of] Tibetan Mysticism [New York, 1960]. |
| 1967/05/12 | Toshihiko Izutsu | Comparative Study of the Key Philosopical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 332
| 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. |
| 1967/05/27 | Toshihiko Izutsu | Comparative Study of the Key Philosopical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 238
| A beautiful May morning. Limpid clarity. Silence. Birds. Air thick with the sweetness of honeysuckle. Thank God I have had a few days of quiet. Reading a life of Niels Bohr, finished Izutson on Ibn Arabi and returned it to Wenjyko at McGill. I can't say I am totally happy with the 6th century Palestinian monasticism described in clarity. Too much political struggle - and I mean struggle for power. There is a great difference between a monk speaking out on a moral issue and a monk or community thrown bodily into a violent struggle for power with bishops and other monks. |
| 1968/01/22 | Reza Arasteh | Final Integration in the Adult Personality: A Measure for Peace |
Ltrs: SofC p. 363
| I do propose a review of what seems to me a most important book which most people will not run across easily. It is by a Persian psychoanalyst who is also a specialist in Sufi mysticism. The book is Final Integration in the Adult Personality, and I am reading it now. It could be of decisive importance for some of us in monastic renewal. If you give me the green light I'll do a review article. |
| 1968/01/23 | Reza Arasteh | Final Integration in the Adult Personality: A Measure for Peace |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 45
| I am reading Reza Arasteh's fine book Final Integration and I think it brings a whole lot of threads together and makes much sens"”as opposed to so much of the fragmentary and short-sighted views of sociology and psychology in America. This really has something new to say"”and yet it is in line with the wisdom of the millennia. And very germane to monasticism. |
| 1968/02/14 | A.J. (Arthur John) Arberry | Sufism : an account of the mystics of Islam |
Ltrs: SofC p. 365
| Actually I am getting a lot of questions about the discipline thing so I guess the best thing I can do is mimeograph some notes, but they won't be anything very new. Actually, what I am thinking of is a mixture of traditional monastic ascesis and some interesting ideas on psychoanalysis which have been thought up by existentialist analysts like Victor Frankl and a Persian who knows a lot about Sufism and is also an analyst. I hope to do a review of a book of his soon in Monastic Studies. Also Zen... R. H. Zaehner is good on comparative mysticism. Arberry on Sufism I like. A lot of the books on Zen are worthwhile. For example, Alan Watts' "Psychotherapy East and West," while not being anything special, has some useful ideas in it (he is not always very deep though). Victor Frankl's books are I think a must, even though they are not specifically about spiritual guidance "¦ |
| 1968/03/21 | Reza Arasteh | Final Integration in the Adult Personality: A Measure for Peace |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 70
| This afternoon, because of the rain, no workmen came, and I took advantage of the quiet to write my review of the Arasteh book, Final Integration, which I found excellent. A very warm and good letter came from Walter Weisskopf, about my reply to his article in ICIS. I was moved by his letter. He worries much as I do, and is not an optimist àla [Herbert] Marcuse. Neither am I. |
| 1968/08/18 | Ghazali | Delivrance de l'erreur |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 155-156
| Eating supper I finished Cesare Pavese's The House on the Hill. Marvelous writing! A beautiful book! Then I went out and read a French translation of AI Ghazali's Error and Deliverance which is also a magnificent book, one of the greatest! I am beginning, in spite of myself, Pavese's Among Women Only. Fantastic stuff! What a writer!... The great pages on Al Ghazali's conversion to Sufism moved me. |