“Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self.” 

Trappist Father Thomas Merton

December 24 2021 — I wanted to take the time to send all of you you my most sincere Christmas wishes. For sure, 2021 has been another hellish year, but I hope you will have a safe and beautiful Holiday Season! Don’t forget to laugh!  Don’t forget those who need your help. And don’t forget those we have lost. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: On This Day — Did the CIA Kill Father Louis Thomas Merton? (December 10 1968) [New Book: Thomas Merton’s Betrayers]

“So Brother Matthew locked the gate behind me and I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom.” — Thomas Merton

As the readers of this blog know, Trappist Father Thomas Merton has been on my mind in recent times…

He had gone to the monastery thinking he would stop trying to be a poet and a novelist, but then his abbot instructed him to resume writing.

To everyone’s astonishment, The Seven Storey Mountain outsold all other nonfiction books published in 1948-49, and suddenly the monk who had wanted to live anonymously became a famous writer and celebrity. [Jon M. Sweeney]

In the book “New Seeds of Contemplation”, Merton develops the most essential of his teachings: the distinction between the true self and the false self.

Consider all that we do, often daily, even more often than that, not to engage with who we are truly meant to be. Simply on a physical level—we use entertainments, food, sex, overwork, stimulants and other things to evade our true selves. [Jon M. Sweeney]

Indeed, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, substantial increases in mental health concerns and substance abuse have been widely reported.

Global cocaine production and opium poppy cultivation are at historic highs. Alcohol consumption has soared, particularly among women. People not only fear and wish to escape reality, they wish for unreality. The disinformation business is a booming industry.

Red pill Or blue pill? — The terms refer to a choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill or remaining in contented ignorance with the blue pill.

What is the great thing you have always wanted to do? What has been your excuse for not doing it? Make 2022 the year you escape the Matrix and discover your true self.

PS — Some of you will argue that they are too old to escape their comfort zone. Well… Kathy Bergen is an American Masters athletics track and field athlete. Bergen will turn 82 on this Christmas Eve. Last year, she set the indoor world records in the 60m (10.02) and the 200m races (35.66). This year, she broke two more outdoor world records, improving her time in the 100m to 16.26 and setting a new mark in the 200m with a time of 35.34. Her track and field career began in her fifties and she does not plan to retire. This month, at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida, Bergen was named the top masters athlete of the year by USATF. So, there is no excuse. You are not too old. It is never too late!

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

REFERENCES

The four Thomas Merton books you have to read — Jon M. Sweeney

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MERRY CHRISTMAS! Red Pill Or Blue Pill?

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Oscar Wilde