In Merton & The Tao (Dialogues with John Wu) we learn the Chinese concept of The Dao: ” The Cosmic Dao is imminent, always present and always emerging. It is creative but is not a supreme creator god who gives birth to the world through divine contemplation or the exertion of a supreme will. The Cosmic Dao generates the essence of the world “giving rise in its fluctuation to the complementary polarities of yin and yang.” Britannica.com (Dao).

 A major theme of the Dao is to connect with the natural order of things. When we do this we act in harmony with all things which brings a sense of strength and ease. At the highest level we have what Merton refers to as Skill. Skill is “an adaptive responsiveness to change.” Merton & The Tao at 95. Skill is “a unification of the physical and mental.” Applied to trial  Skill is “a knowing that is intuitive, not intellectual.” Id.

In trial  skill involves more than the spoken word.  Skill involves the body. Skill leads to natural movement that is aesthetically pleasing. It is like a gentle wind with rhythm and timing a sacred dance. The beauty of the movement reveals the Dao-the natural order of things.

Movement has an important role in how our message is received. Movement communicates at the subconscious level.  The subconscious level is where our emotions lie. Emotion is a prime motivator in decision making.

Skill is not attained spontaneously.  Developing skill requires mindful training with a specific method. Attaining skill requires time and assiduous effort. Once skill is attained there is no method to it as it is internalized. 

Practice movement such as dance. All movement should be mindful. A good movement exercise is Tai Chi. See You Tube Trial Lawyers (Tai Chi) Short Form where I demonstrate the Short Form with posts on the moves.

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In MERTON & SUFISM The Untold Story (Edited by Rob Baker and Gary Henry-FONS VITAE 2005) Thomas Merton discusses what he terms “Final Integration.” This is a state Confucius reached by age 70 and a mystical state to be strived for:

Merton teaches the “notion of rebirth” exists in most religions including Christianity, Sufism, Zen Buddhism and other religions with spiritual traditions. Here “emphasis is placed on the call to fulfill certain … potentialities in regard to one’s being, to ‘become someone’ that one already (potentially) is, the person one is truly meant to be.” Id. at 268. This is an awakening or a recognition of our universal essence. When we are “fully born” we have an “inner experience of life.” Id. at 271.

We live from an “inner ground” which is more universal than our ego. In this “fully born” state of “final integration” we reach a “deeper, fuller identity than that of … [our] limited ego self which is only a fragment of our being” Id. In this state we identify with everybody. We are able to experience others “joys and sufferings as our own without becoming dominated by them.” Id. 271-72.

The person who has “attained final integration is no longer limited by the culture in which [they] grew up.” This person embraces all of life including ordinary life, intellectual life, artistic creation, human love and spiritual life. They have passed through all of these “limiting forms while retaining all that is best and most universal in them, finally giving birth to a fully comprehensive self.” In final integration we accept not only our own community, society, friends, and culture, but all mankind. Id.

Here we are not bound to a limited set of values. We have a “unified vision and experience of the one truth shining out in all its various manifestations, …”  With this view of life we are able to bring perspective, liberty, and spontaneity into the lives of others. In final integration we are a peacemaker. Id. at 272.

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Thomas Merton says he cannot define le point vierge so he describes his sudden “realization” while on the corner of 4th and Walnut in Louisville with people in a shopping area:

Then it was as if I saw the secret beauty in their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. … Again that expression, le pointe verge, (I cannot describe it) comes in here. At the center our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God. … This little point…is the pure glory of God in us. …It is like a diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in every body.

Merton discusses “the secret beauty” as being in the hearts of the people in the crowd. Thinking of this makes me realize:

1. My heart and brain developed progressively as a fetus in my mother’s womb, and they are my connection with  God or “The Universal Mind.” 

2. My heart has its own nervous system with electromagnetic energy greater than my brain, and my heart’s electromagnetic energy is a source of communication as it can be detected as an energy wave.

3. Through my heart’s rhythm I can connect to the point in my heart of soulfulness, higher consciousness and spiritual rythmatic energy which entered my heart while I was a fetus in my mother’s womb.

Meister Eckhart teaches- St. John says: “See how great the love the Father has shown us that we are called  the children of God.” Eckerd tells us we cannot be God’s child without having the same being as God’s child.

My connection with God- “The Universal Mind”- is found in my heart. By connecting my heart’s rhythm with the universal rhythm  I can get to the point in my heart Merton refers to as  le point verge.

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