Thomas Merton's Plaque

There’s a plaque in downtown Louisville that marks the spot where Thomas Merton, the Trappist Catholic monk, had a mystical experience while running errands for his monastery. The plaque can be seen at the intersection of what used to be 4th and Walnut (now 4th and Muhammad Ali Blvd - see the Google street view showing the plaque behind the lamppost).

In Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Merton writes:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness. …This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.

…it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of 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. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time.

… if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

Another Thomas Merton quote:

"The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else."

Henry W. Longfellow :

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something that needs our love.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Judge tenderly, if you must. There is usually a side you have not heard, a story you know nothing about, and a battle waged you are not having to fight.
- Traci Lea LaRussa

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
- Ian Maclaren

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
- Henry W. Longfellow

My religion is very simple.
My religion is kindness.
- Dalai Lama

There is no spiritual practice more profound than being kind to one’s family, neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, an unexpected visitor, the person who does the laundry or picks up the garbage, or any other of the ‘invisible’ people whose paths we cross in the course of a normal day. Certainly there are spiritual mysteries to explore, and states of ecstasy or enlightenment beyond description. But as we mature, it becomes clear that those special experiences are meaningful only when they arise from and return to a life of ordinary kindness.
- Bo Lozoff