On Father Thomas Merton

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Prayer of calm, written in white man's jail, where he was killed and went to paradise to see with his own eyes, ancestors making cargo to be shipped to the islands, and see with his own eyes, white man changing all the labels. Oh Father Consell, you are so sorry, you are so sorry for us Kanakas, you can help us, we have nothing, no planes, no jeeps, no ships, not even hammers, not even pants, nothing at all, because white man steals everything, and you are so sorry. Oh Father Consell, now you send something, so sorry. Here is how it all began, he says, in the cargo of Kanakas, an old Anna, made him some man and woman along, flowers, animals, trees, fish, put them in a garden along, plenty canned beef, rice bags polished, instant coffee, tobacco, matches and candy bars, old man and woman, no pants and lots of whisky, by and by, they got him, make him plenty trouble, no gut, old Anna took away all the canned goods, all the canned food before they could even find the can opener, quick lock up garden and hide all whisky, you want him inferno,

[01:05]

old man Adam, suppose you speak, I got no inferno, by and by, you go along in, Noah was a good fellow, so old Anna showed him how to build a steamer, make him strong fellow talk, get along steamer with plenty cargo, along all animals, and quick, I make him rain long time, no can finish, Noah had a peaked cap, white shirt, short stockings and shoes, rain came down and Noah rang the bell, and off went the steamer with all the animals, that's all, steamer belong, plenty canned beef, rice bags polished, instant coffee, tobacco, matches and candy bars, no whisky, old Noah always properly dressed, next pick up, next trouble, by and by, rain stops and steamer lands in Australia, old Noah finds a bottle of whisky lying around Sydney, bad news for everybody, that's all, Noah want him one drink, work him trouble, no can find, one drink takes off shoes, two drinks takes off the socks, sun ham belong Noah, watch and laugh when old boy takes off his pants, for this ham is deprived of cargo,

[02:07]

canned meat, razor blades and so forth and sent to New Guinea to be a black man, Shem and Japheth remain quiet, keep the cargo and remain in Sydney, ham belong long time taro garden in New Guinea, without cargo, canned meat, razor blades, etc, but surrounded by friendly Satan, who produce good crop, Satan promote much dancing, and although there is no whisky, they can work pretty good love magic, plenty trouble, but could be in lot worse inferno, food however, too simple, nothing but roots and pig meat, none of it canned, no instant coffee, candy bars, polished rice, Coca-Cola and so on, suppose you want canned food, you better get rid of Satan, for us, Rassim Satan, Whitefella come along from Sydney to help Rassim Satan, with less dancing and more work, also Bible, trouble with Bible is incomplete, all the instructions about cargo turn out, best part all missing, rewritten by Judas, correct information, the ancestors are alive and well in the sky, immediately

[03:11]

above Sydney, Australia, taught and supervised by the God of the Catholics, they are putting meat into cans and sending it to New Guinea, correctly labeled for the natives, also flashlights, razor blades, hammers and so on, plenty for everybody, black and white alike, while the cargo is at sea, the white crew spends all his time changing the labels and readdressing the new shipments to planners, missionaries, government officials and policemen, problem now is to get cargo direct without recourse to ships and planes going into white men, Jesus Christ is now in Sydney, waiting to deliver cargo to natives without the intervention of white men, he has a steamer and it's all loaded, but he does not yet have the proper clothing, Jesus Christ is waiting in a hotel room for someone to bring him a suit, when word travels late, word travels fast, I can't even see anymore, down the coast, large gatherings are dispersed by the police, families are arrested and put in jail because they have

[04:12]

arranged bouquets of flowers for the coming of Jesus with the cargo, in 1940, rumors of distant war, a local leader in Madang, after two hours of silent prayer, stood up and announced that the King was coming to take over, another declared that he was the Apostle Paul, and had a radio like the Australians, one who announced the advent of the King was immediately arrested but he was released when after questioning it became clear that he was not referring to the Germans, but the people understood why he had been arrested, henceforth his message was taken very seriously, flowers were on display everywhere, and those who displayed flowers were arrested, bouquets were made in secret and hidden under baskets, as soon as Jesus appeared with cargo they would lift up the baskets, their world would be all flowers, so that reflects back to the flowers in the Mexico section, I suppose, and then he says, here we got John the Volcano, John Pruhm was one of the people in the book about the cargo

[05:13]

problem, was one of the leaders at one period, Volcano ancestor, he says, my brother here is Joe, everything is near to me, my three sons come down out of the sky in long robes and jackets, they are invisible to women except to Gladys, a little girl, my three sons show themselves under the banyan tree, giving orders to boys and girls who do not understand, he put a sack of stones under the banyan tree, the divine children will come down, my three sons are Isaac, Jacob, and Lastawan, Isaac does all the talking, Gladys, age 12, does the translating, you boys and girls are ropes of John Pruhm, you live together in woody cabins at night, and the night is for dancing, to all the other people, these are my desires, bathe together in the lake, look calm, heavy buying in the stores, day of rest, Friday, Monday, other days recreation, my planes are coming with prefab houses for all, radio salaries

[06:17]

for teachers, means of conveyance, I am John Pruhm King, I level a mountain, where my planes will come, I am king of American flyers, I can arrest the British with my telegraph, will they declare me insane, I am the instigator, just one of the ropes, but Isaac the voice speaks to me direct in secret bushes, banning colors on Thursdays only, red, yellow, and blue strictly forbidden, since red is blood, blue is sickness, yellow is death, Isaac commanded with a man's voice, pull the tickets, we went together to the store, we moved the people out of our way, we climbed over the counters, we carried out all instructions, tore off the price tags, the tags all gone, the store was cleaner, and it had to be made cleaner, preparation, now John Pruhm can come with his army and cargo, the action was defined by the police

[07:17]

as the affair of the tickets, the defendants entered a European store, white sand, leaped over the counters, and pulled the tickets off the goods, I am only one of the ropes, I communicate instructions, Isaac is the one who commands, sundown, Thursday, with a man's voice, armies, cargoes, coming by jet plane, then there appeared to be another uprising by these fanatics, those who had been exiled to Malakula, sent for a lot of coconuts back to their home village, these were to be carefully planted on the site of their home, and so on, and this all makes a whole lot of trouble for everybody, and this thing keeps reappearing, and Merton says that he thinks that a lot of the black Muslim thing in the United States reminded him of the, had some funny cross connection in his mind with the cargo, where

[08:19]

everybody for a while was wearing white clothes and cleaning up their act and getting into a whole new way of living and trying to get a turn away from white society and make their own world and their own trip, and rejecting the outside, so Gladys is a little girl, and then the last part about the West is partly, quite wonderfully, this airplane ride across from Louisville to San Francisco, to deny linoleum badges, to write the false tile field floor of the great Illinois bathroom, lettered over with busy signals, not seeing he is thought

[09:26]

to be over Sioux Falls getting hungry, not seeing he is thought to be saying it is here, family combination shelter and fun room are all that's possible, so he mixes all this stuff with various quotes from, I don't know if you've seen this, but he says that Indians and various other places, four secret presidents with stone ideas who mumble under gas our only government has provided free, and says this mildly toxic convention can harm none but the enemy, mere veils, secrets, deadly plans for distant places, and all high males are flying far west in a unanimous supermarket of beliefs, seeking only one motto, for imagination goes, why not try everything? At this precise moment of history, he says, with goody two

[10:28]

shoes running for Congress, we're testing supersonic engines to keep God safe in the cherry tree, when I said so in this space last Thursday, I meant what I said, our struggle. You would never dream of such corn, the Colonials in Saddlewood like running wide open and available for protection, you can throw them away without a refund. Dr. Hemp Stingle, who was not called Putsi, except by those who did not know him, is taped in the National Archives, J Edgar Hoover, he ought to know, and he does know, but calls Dr. Hemp Stingle Putsi nevertheless, somewhere on tape in the archives. He, Dr. H, is not a silly man, he left in disgust about the same time Shirley Temple sat on Roosevelt's knee and accomplished a pianist, he remembered personality, he, Dr. H, began to teach immoral anecdotes to his mother, a queen bee in the American colony. What's your attitude toward historical subjects? Perhaps

[11:30]

it's their size. Putsi Hemp Stingle was a, became a functionary in the Nazi government at some point. So he says, Voice of little sexy ventriloquist Mignon, well I think all of us are agreed, and sincerely I myself believe that honest people on both sides have got it all on tape. Governor Reagan thinks that nuclear wampums are a last resort that ought not to be resorted. But little Mignon went right on to the point with, we have a commitment to fulfill and we better do it quick. No dupe, she. All historians die of the same events at least twice. I feel that I ought to open this case with an apology, Dr. H certainly has a beautiful voice, he is not a silly man, he is misunderstood even by presidents. You people are criticizing

[12:35]

the church but what are you going to put in their place? Sometimes sit down with a pencil and paper and ask yourself what have you got that the church hasn't? Nothing to add but the big voice of a detective using the wrong first names in national archives. She sat in shocking pink with an industrial zipper especially designed for sitting on the knees of presidents in broad daylight. She spoke the president's mind, quote, we have a last resort to be resorted and we better do it quick. He wondered at what he had just said. Was all like running wide open in a loose gown without slippers, at least some place. Then finally he winds up with the ghost dance where the Indians are telling each other that the buffalo and the ancestors are going to come back and drive the white man away. And so he quotes from various anthropological reports about the different Indians who were leading the ghost dances in various parts of the west and some of it was happening out

[13:45]

here in Oregon. And they kept arresting the Indians for stirring each other up. But the movement went all through northern, went all through western Oregon and Nevada and part of California, Utah. And the Indians were really nervous and the white people were scared that the Indians were going to start killing people. And there was a, I guess, one of the last things that happened was the MoDoc wars up there in the lava beds up in southern Oregon at the last moment in the 80s, 70s or 80s. A quote from the Cornwallis Oregon Gazette for January 4th, 1873 says, scarcely an Injun on the Silat's agency did not express perfect

[14:45]

confidence in the prophecies. They were gathering upon the reservations. They engaged in war dances and decorated themselves with painted feathers. Hi there. Yeah, what's left of it. They were governed by messengers and spies from other tribes. That lady, what's her name? She told me, I saw her Saturday and she told me she wasn't going to come because she was going to take a class at John Kennedy University and all about, all about, all about something psychological. Which lady was that? That lady who used to be a nun. She's very nice. I don't know where she came from. St. Louis. Well, I mean, how did she come to the class? Did she just come out of the blue? Never mind. I never know where you guys come from for God's sake. You know where we come from. We hang around here, but I never see her anymore. She said, well, I saw her Saturday and she was at the, she was at the lecture. Well, okay, that's personal. She used to be a tribal leader for Berkeley. Yeah. I'm not sure if

[15:46]

they left and never came back. Yeah. Old Chocolate Hat was head dreamer for Captain Dick. He stayed with us until he died. So anyhow, all through this thing, there are these trips of mystical and political, funny mystical, political numbers coming down from all these various sources and times. And then somewhere in his notes or in some other place, Merton says, or maybe it's in the introduction to it that he says that the cargo thing is also reminds him of Marxism, communist Marxist Leninism about how it's the same thing. It's all going to come if we behave right and reject capitalism and reject all this bad stuff and purify ourselves and the ancestors are going to come with the cargo and we're going to

[16:47]

be all right. And of course it hasn't happened yet. Somehow they, you know, poor Russians don't have any pants matches, axes, Coca-Cola, yet. Aspirin town. I have some idea that Edward had this somewhat restricted life, like there were many things that he couldn't do. For a long time. Yeah. Yeah. When he was, but then he kept contriving to fall ill. So he, he got to get out and spend time in the hospital in Louisville once or twice. He had some terrible, they did it. One is dreadful, uh, uh, vertebra fusing operations on his back at one point. And then there was, he had, he was always having the tooth trouble and having to have his teeth worked on. And he had some other condition. I forget what it was that got him into the hospital. And so he would also, he kept fretting about how he wanted to meditate and pray all the time. And they kept telling him to make cheese and

[17:51]

shut up and to do his translations and write poetry and do anything else except do, do his priest practice and his hermit. He wanted to be a hermit finally. And they said, well, being a hermit isn't our practice. Our practice is being a cenobitic monks. You know, we eat together and stay together and do everything together at the same time. And, and, uh, Merton says, well, I want to, I want a hermitage. I want to live out in the woods and be quiet. And so they finally let him build this funny little house. There are pictures of it. It's away from the main monastery grounds, often little piney woods out there. Then they wouldn't let him go there for a long time. Then finally they let him go there, but they wouldn't let him have a fire in the place. It was freezing ass cold. And, uh, finally, I think they did let him have a fireplace or do something to try to warm it up. But by that time he was ready to go to Asia and, and, uh, he never got much good out of the place, but except

[18:52]

the satisfaction of actually having it. But he, he wanted, you know, he, he kept saying when he was first, when he was first a monk, he kept fretting about how he was in the wrong order and how he really should belong because he thought the Trappist was a real contemplative order. And he didn't understand that the, that the activity was contemplation, just like, just like they tell, tell you that working in the grocery store is practice. Well, in a way it's true. In a way, in a way it's true because you're not practicing in the Zen all the time. And, and that's the whole point of Mahayana Buddhism. You appear in the world and, and, uh, hang out and do things and, and you're not cloistered and, and, uh, special and set aside and cut off from everything, but you're mixing all the time with the world and everybody. At the same time, you're not distracted by it. You're not, uh, you're not

[19:53]

soiled by it, stained by it, or whatever. I, I think that if that's true, then there's no difference. There's no, it's not more useful or effective to work in the grocery than it is to work at standard oil. Okay. You could work at standard oil. I mean, what was his name? A Glassman Sensei, uh, uh, Tetsugen Schmetzagen. He'll always be burning to me, his mother says, uh, uh, work for, work for IBM, uh, work for some huge computer factory down in L.A. while, all the time he was training. Who is that? Tetsugen Sensei is my, one of Maizumi Roshi's, he was, he was Maizumi Roshi's first Dharma heir and is now in charge of the, of the Riverdale Meditation and Hupla Center over there in, uh, uptown New York. He was, he was, he was and Linda were staying at his place or near this place while, and going to sit with him

[20:55]

and all that while they were living in New York and Linda had that teaching job just now. They just finished up. He, he worked all the time outside in his high-tech job? Yeah. At least, at least for quite a while before he finally got absorbed into the, completely into being made into a Zen teacher. The original question about Ruden was that how did, did he have any trouble with all these heretical things he was saying or even in quotes? I don't think so because people, I think that the church authorities figured nobody was going to read, nobody's going to read this stuff. And for one, for one thing and for another thing, uh, uh, he comes pretty much out and says that it's, that they were heretics but he thinks they were interesting because of the social connotations of it all and the political connotations of it all and how it all matches up with the present day mass. And which was rather thoughty of him considering he was supposed to be thinking about God all

[21:57]

the time. And, uh, the little flower of Jesus and a few decorative things and singing the same mass. All sorts of stuff. Uh, but apparently, apparently later in the last ten years of his life he had time to read all this marvelous, to rake up all this marvelous material from some place and, uh, think about his little brother climbing all over Louise and so on. Uh, and write it all down. It's an interesting stew. And then the other long poem, The Cable to the Ace, is again another weird collection of babble and slobber and funny lines and weird takes and weird plays and so forth. It's very entertaining. At least I think so. I was surprised that the late, from about 1963 onwards from the original child bomb

[22:58]

poem on to the end of the book, except for the translations, which this includes a big chunk of the book as translations, but, uh, his own material from there until he died was very funny and got funnier as time went on. And more entertaining as, as, uh, a livelier, livelier collection of words jammed together in funny ways than he had ever done before. So he, in the, he was, he's at least, uh, uh, goofy in many ways. By the time he died, uh, he was, uh, at least as goofy as Gregory Carso or anybody. And that was an interesting change in him, I thought. Although he became more and more convinced that, uh, monasticism was a good idea and that maybe they could, by observing the, the Eastern monastics, they

[24:07]

could, uh, pick up on an idea about how to revivify and make, make, uh, lively the, the, uh, Catholic monastic orders and orders of nuns and monks and things and get them to get people interested in doing it and stay with it somehow. Is, is he regarded by the monastic community as just being a nut or? I don't know. I don't know. The, the people that he worked with at the, at the Abbey and whatnot, uh, uh, Patrick, uh, the brother Patrick and some other guys who were friends of his all loved, all liked him. There were a lot of other people there who loved him and, and believed in him. But his ideas, I mean. Well, they don't think they pay much attention to his ideas. They just liked him. I don't know if they, uh, if they cared one way or the other. All they knew was that he didn't like cheese. Uh, he says in the very last part of the book there, he has a couple

[25:12]

of slams about the, about the cheese thing. He's a Jesuit priest up in America. He's been reading satires. Uh-huh. Let's see, turn the, turn the very end here. He's doing concrete poetry. Yeah. I think he got it out of the European, uh, uh, trips. Yes. Thanks. He's a Jesuit monk. He's... Is that something? Oh, no. Somebody gave me a biographical piece that it seems like he wrote. Hmm. Hmm. Very weird session schedule. They have, they, they, they have, uh, it's a, the, it has

[26:12]

the psalms on the schedule and all the services are Christian. Hmm. Strange. Hmm. I mean, there's lots of translation. It's all mixed up. Well, I think it's, I think the thing about how it's all run is feeble-minded, sort of feeble-minded nonsense. Well, that seems, you know, that seems to be what's mostly left over from the associated stuff, or at least that's what people... Mm-hmm. Cheese, Joyce Killer Diller. I think that we should never freeze so, such lively assets as our cheese. Okay. This sucker's hungry mouth is pressed against the cheese's caraway breast. A cheese whose scent, like sweet perfume, pervades the house through every room. A cheese that may at Christmas

[27:16]

wear a suit of cellophane underwear upon whose bosom is a label, whose habitat the Tower of Babel. Pones are not but warmed-up breeze. Dollars are made by Trappist cheese. Ha, ha, [...] ha. He makes one of his wonderful litanies in here someplace. Solitary life, he says, white-collar man, blue-collar man, I am a no-collar man, least of all a Roman collar, shaved twice a week maybe. Hear the trains out there two miles away, trucks too, the road not near. Hear the owls in the wood and pray when I can. I don't talk about all that. What is there to say? Yes, I had beer in this place a while

[28:20]

back, and once whiskey, and I worry about the abbot coming up here to inspect and finding a copy of Newsweek under the bed. Ha, ha, [...] ha. Ha! We should all go home, it's probably 11 o'clock at night.

[28:45]

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