The Seven Storey Mountain

Recently I have been reading The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. This book is remarkable in many ways, but most meaningfully in the way Merton describes his gradual withdrawl from earthly concerns. This journey is quite moving, and it emphasizes an idea lost to modern life: Life is at its most peaceful and an harmonious when the individual is able to disengage from its cares.

Some critics of religion argue that it is just this disengagement that makes faith so ruinous. How can the world be made better when some of its most virtuous withdraw from it into their own world? This criticism only works if one denies the supernatural. If there is a life beyond our own natural world, then preparing for it and interacting with it is perfectly sensible. And at any rate, the world will always be full of evil as long as there are people in it willing to turn away from goodness. Those people who think humans can fight evil on human terms have missed the point.

It is impossible to fight evil on a personal basis when the cause of evil is within. This is like a man trying to steady a falling tree while he is sitting on one of its branches. Goodness comes from outside of us, not from within. And unless humans become attuned to this fact, improvement in the temporal world is impossible.