On Eastern Meditation by Thomas Merton

Author:Thomas Merton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2012-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

EMPTINESS/SUNYATA

From emptiness comes the unconditioned.

From this, the conditioned, the individual things.

So from the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises:

From stillness, action. From action, attainment.

From their stillness comes their non-action, which is also action

And is, therefore, their attainment.

For stillness is joy. Joy is free from care

Fruitful in long years.

Joy does all things without concern:

From emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness,

Silence, and non-action

Are the root of all things.

(xiii.I., WCZ 81)

The perfect act is empty. Who can see it? He who forgets form. Out of the formed, the unformed, the empty act proceeds with its own form. Perfect form is momentary. Its perfection vanishes at once. Perfection and emptiness work together for they are the same: the coincidence of momentary form and eternal nothingness. Form: the flash of nothingness. Forget form, and it suddenly appears, ringed and reverberating with its own light, which is nothing. Well, then: stop seeking. Let it all happen. Let it come and go. What? Everything: i.e., nothing.

(CP 421)

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