The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion...

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Quoting Jacob Needleman (p.110), Lost Christianity: In the quarter of a century that Merton lived as Trappist monk at Gethsemane, Kentucky, he delivered a tremendous body of written work dealing with Christian mysticism, the contemplative tradition, monasticism, and the Eastern religions, particularly Zen, which he felt had a crucial role to play in the West by revealing the contemplative, mystical core of normal human life and therefore of the Christian tradition as well. One of Merton's last essays, "The New Consciousness," begins, "Christian renewal has meant that Christians are now wide open to Asian religions, ready, in the words of Vatican II, to "acknowledge, preserve and promote the spiritual and moral goods" found among them.* But "it is not that simple." Merton proceeds to list the strong activistic, secular and anti-mystical tendencies that militate against the recovery of contemplative Christianity in the West. Zen, to Merton is the best hope because it rejects all doctrinal dispute and offers itself as something completely unclassifiable in familiar Western theological, moral or philosophical terms. "The real drive of Buddhism is toward an enlightenment which is precisely a breakthrough into what is beyond system, beyond cultural and social structures, and beyond religious rite and belief... What this means then is that Zen is outside all structure and forms." *(Zen and the Birds of Appetite, pp. 4-5). Zen according to Merton, offers us the pure act of seeing, pure consciousness. It is this, Merton writes, that is the real meaning of knowledge in meditation and contemplation leading to salvation in Christ." "The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion .. . . It is beyond words . . We are already one."