How is Merton's definition of the true self and search for the true
    self any different than the 2,500 year old prescription (dating back
    to Moses and the 10 Commandments) to have religious thoughts and
    motivations during ordinary tasks of living and avoid occasions of sin?

    "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."  Wouldn't
    Merton argue those who violate this commandment are doing so for the
    false self:  the sense that they can gain favor by gossiping or seem
    more important by making bold accusations?


there is nothing new under the sun.  The same thing is merely re stated, a 100,000 + ways...

    2. What happens if the true self leads a person to have less religion
    or less emphasis on God in his or her daily life?  That would seem to
    violate Merton's thesis that finding the true self will lead to place
    greater emphasis on the soul, spiritual matters, and God dwelling
    within us.

    Examples.  Suppose a religious writer repeatedly experiences doubts
    about his chosen profession (much like Merton did periodically
    throughout his life).  This writer learns about an opportunity to
    become managing editor of a newspaper.  After years focused on writing
    a religious column, this person is excited and invigorated at the
    prospect of churning out a daily newspaper.  He ultimately decides he
    wants to spend 50-hour work weeks on the newspaper, but obviously he
    will no longer have as much time for religious reading, writing, and
    study.  Can his "true self" lead him to give up a religious profession
    in favor of a non-religious one, and spend less time thinking and
    writing about God?

    Second example.  A young French shepherdess wants to grow up, get
    married, raise a small family, and continue to be a shepherdess.  This
    goal is what will make her truly happy.  But she was more or less
    pushed into the convent by her well-meaning pastor.  She was never
    happy in the convent, and ultimately died at an early age in her 30s.
    [This is a true story; the person is semi-famous (more on that
    later)]. Pursuing "her true self" would have led her to happiness, but
    with less time spent on prayer and religious study, and more time
    spent on household chores, tending to the sheep, and other domestic
    issues.

    Can  pursuing "the true self" lead one to change course and achieve
    happiness by spending less time on God and more time on earthly
    pursuits?  Even as a shepherdess and mother, this woman would have had
    time for prayers, but not as much time as she had in the cloistered
    convent.


the true self is God.  For example one might think the self
is the motivation to seek the true self.  It is not.  The true
master is the Christ  within.  God is the master you are merely
a puppet until you discover that you are the puppet and the puppet
master..and that both are the same.  The true self IS God.
Whether that leads to shattering of religion then so be it, that
is surely an individual occurrence; one would think for some it
would strengthen religion, others it would destroy it.

In Buddhism we find this concept illustrated easily:  The self
before "enlightenment" is I and WE, after enlightenment it becomes
I, as there is no WE.  I know there are biblical passages that deal
with this eloquently.  Myself I love a passage from a book called
the gospel of eve, it is one of my all time favourite piece of verse
from any religion:

"It is I who am you: and it is you who are me, And wherever you are,
I am there. And I am sown in all; and you collect me from wherever 
you wish. And when you collect me, it is your own self that you collect"

this sentiment is echoed in many other places, I am sure anyone
reading this could think of other examples.

Some use the idea of "know thyself"  Yet knowing thyself truly is to not
know thyself; it is to know all selves.  As all selves is the true 
self. (I am the walrus goo go ca choob)  Again this is echoed in a 
1000 places.  One of my fave passages that speaks of the process of 
"knowing thyself" (from the oracle of delphi) is thomas 22:

22. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These 
nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom."

They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make 
the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper 
like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so 
that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you 
make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in 
place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter 
[the kingdom]."

further Thomas 108:

108. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; 
I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him."

John 4

13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 
14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the 
water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

"And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord generously. 
And so I drank and became intoxicated, from the living water that does not die."
     - Odes of Solomon 9:6-7



water is a cleanser, a place of new life and the domain of the Holy Spirit...

just some thoughts

--Ben