Merton's Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God Through Awareness of the True Self

Finley's book is quite a gem. As someone who has been attracted to Merton's work and yet find his writing not to my taste (except his journals) this book has been a wonderful synthesis of Merton's theme of the True Self. One gets the sense while reading that you are privy to one man's soulful, prayerful, life long passion to understand and distill Merton. My consuming self and brain wants to get through the text and yet the words and tone gently, yet persuasively nudge me to slow down and digest this wonderful bounty Finley has penned. One can feel and sense the care that went into every word. There is so much here for the serious Christian or anyone for that matter who desires a more intimate connection with themselves and thus the divine. One of my double underlined, favorite sections from page 91: The spiritual life must be approached with our right hand not knowing what our left hand is doing...Only with this detachment from our own progress, and only in freedom from all techniques that feed the birds of appetite, can we hope to find our true self in God. Merton writes: "The inner self is precisely that self which cannot be tricked or manipulated by anyone, even the devil. He (the true self) is like a very shy wild animal that never appears at all whenever an alien presence is at hand, and comes out only when all is peaceful, in silence, when he is untroubled and alone. He cannot be lured by anyone or anything, because he responds to no lure except that of divine freedom." Highly recommended and worthy of the high praise!

I can't recommend this book enough for those interested in gaining a solid foundation from which they can build a genuine spiritual life. I have a master's degree in divinity from a Catholic seminary and wish I'd found this book a lot sooner. It's not a new book, published in 1978, but is truly timeless in the truths it so clearly reveals in such an orderly and readable manner. Thomas Merton, I'm sure, is very happy with this humble, gentle and powerful synthesis of his teaching. Basically Mr. Finley clarifies the tremendous danger of creating false images of ourselves that trap us in our spiritual growth, the goes on to help us free ourselves from these "idols". By humbly emptying ourselves of self images and meaningless self-serving, egoistic obsessions we can discover our true self rooted in and saturated by the person of Christ, our true self. I'd personally recommend accompanying this book with a practice of Centering Prayer (check out centeringprayer.com or .org).. The combination of the two could turn your spiritual life around for the better.

I would agree with the other reviewer that this book is the most rewarding book I have read to date. I'd been interested in reading Merton and learning about his thought for years since so many of my spiritual "mentors" were themselves "mentored" by Merton. But he was so prolific and so deep I wasn't sure where to start and was looking for a kind of "Merton for Dummies" book! This book is that and so much more. Sometimes people's gift is in creative, original thought (Merton in this case). And sometimes people's gift is to be able to understand another's thoughts/teaching and to synthesize them into a coherent whole. This is Finley's gift. I don't know that I've ever read such a well laid out book that took me bit by bit in a logical order through a complex subject allowing me to safely arrive at the end (where if you'd tried to start me there I might have misunderstood it). I can't highly recommend this book enough if you are interested in spirituality.

Apart from the gospels and new testament,this is,THE,most rewarding book i have ever read.It stresses with clarity the fundamental importance of becoming aware of our true identity in christ,and equally important of becoming aware of our false self,the self rooted in the ego.The book is a wake up call for all those who would see the spiritual life as a process of self agrandizement.With it's raw honesty and gentleness one gradually becomes ever more aware of just how important the issue of identity is in the spiritual life,and the huge importance merton ascribed to it.This book is a threat to the ego and it's hollow and false little world,that it creates in it's rivalry with god.I advise all christians to read and reread this beautiful book,even if at times,it becomes a little tough.