The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedDenys Rutledge
Title QuotedIn Search of a Yogi
Date (Year/Month/Day)1965/06/22
ImprintNew York : Farrar Straus. 1963
QuotationYour long and interesting letter puts me, I am afraid, in a rather delicate position. Having written a preface to Dom Denys Rutledge's book, I suppose I ought to consider myself obliged to defend it. I am afraid I do not intend to do this "¦ "¦ I wrote the preface at the request of the editor, who is also my own editor and publisher "¦ Reading the book I was myself quite aware of the author's limitations as an Englishman, as a perhaps conservative Catholic type, etc. I could see that though he was earnestly trying to be open-minded, he was hemmed in by some characteristic prejudices and limitations of perspective. On the other hand "¦ I was willing to accept it for the good it contained. In fact, it seemed to me that for all the shortsightedness and lack of perspective, the author was sincere in his "search for a yogi," and what got through to me (I think I say this in the preface) was that he did find some really authentic people, even though he may not have looked in the best places for them.
JournalThe Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1985, p. 338
Link to Merton's Copy