“God refuses to be known by the intellect, God only allows himself to be loved by the heart,” St John of the Cross

“Dualism” is how our mind works…often a trivializing, judgmental mind is how our mind operates.

“We must be free to say yes before we say no”

“Our mind is a “control tower”, a “judgement mechanism“

“I gave a retreat in the monastery where Merton was a monk… some would scowl, some would grimace when I mentioned him … So I asked and they said “we did’nt like him much”… one said: “Thomas Merton told us (monks) we were not contemplatives. That we were just introverts.”

“It was almost singlehandedly, that Thomas Merton pulled back the veil.”

“If the divine indwelling is not a living experience, if you have not found your center…you just lose your soul to every new crowd, or every new compliment, or every new confusion…”

“Father Flavian, former abbot, now a recluse, said to me: “Richard.., you get to preach all over the world…I don’t…and so please, just tell the people one thing, and he pointed to the sky, and he said “go tell the people God is not “out there”…God bless you.”

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of western Christians, Catholic and Protestant still think of God as “out there” because they have not had any inner experience. That is why it is so easy to remain dualistic. In “either- or” thinking. Because they have not experienced the mystery which is always paradoxical. Which is always a mixture of darkness and light.”

“Knowing is always balanced by unknowing.”

“From one Jewish-rabbi: “You know, you Christians never really understood the meaning of the third commandment: to “not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain.”

“For some reason you thought that that meant you were not supposed to say “God damn you.” But, do you know that that is not even close to the meaning of the commandment? To speak of something in vain is to speak of it in “emptiness.” Or with futility or a waste of time. But the meaning of the commandment (as it was understood in Judaism for centuries) is to “don’t even speak The Name;” don’t ever in your lifetime, pronounce the sacred name “Yahweh.” “Never.”

“This gave us (at the very beginnings of the Judeo-Christian tradition) a “cosmic” humility about God; that once you think you’ve got God in your pocket, that you understand the “great mystery,” then religion always becomes, he said, “arrogant and idolatrous; where we love our explanations of God, more than actually falling in love with God.”

“Where God refuses to be ever an object of the intellect but God is only known by those who enter into love and surrender.”