"Entering the School of Your Own Life" and Thomas Merton

“Entering into the School of Your Own Life” was a phrase taken from Thomas Merton’s Our Monastic Observances for the monks at Gethsemani. He uses the ‘school of our lives’ metaphor to expose a truth about the way in which we should approach our lives as a learning tool. Merton’s meditation called for the attempt to be fully aware of our lives and use our experiences as meditations on what it means to be human in the dimensions of ourselves. Life itself can be a full source of wisdom in our life experiences, and if we approach living our lives as meditation, we can further tap into that experience to come to know ourselves and the providence in the world.
Merton advised his monks to “enter deeply into the school of life itself, to make the monk’s whole life a meditation, a learning from God, a school of wisdom…” In Merton’s view of this, the key element of viewing life as a school and meditation is the human connection with God. By entering into meditations on life itself, and approaching life in this way, Merton hoped to make one aware of their ultimate purpose. This purpose for Merton was the humble submission to the will of the Father and living life with the wisdom that God had afforded him. By truly seeking to learn from life itself, Merton hoped that his monks would remain in a spiritual mindset and be aware of divine love that if unstudied fades away into memory. He also hoped for the response of the devoted faithful, aware of God’s presence and the implications of their actions. Ultimately it seems to me that ‘entering into the school of your life’ is about becoming aware of your life and seeking through living to find God’s plan for you and the wisdom of all the experiences and thoughts that lead to the ultimate truth.
It seems that the focal point of this view is the introspection that is possible by simplicity. By living and thinking relatively simply and being aware of ourselves in the mindset of submission to the eyes of God, Merton suggests that we can learn of the truths of God and our relation and purpose living for God. St. Francis Assisi was once quoted saying “preach the Gospel everywhere, when necessary use words.” I believe that is precisely what Merton means by entering the school, being fully conscious of living our lives as close as we can to the will of God and thus learning more and more through concrete experience the fullness of wisdom and grace that is offered by life from God.
This style of life seems to be completely at odds with the general way that I was taught to approach life. I feel that Catholic Schools ruined my early spirituality and caused my departure from God for most of my teenaged years. In that setting of religion, God’s truth was boiled down into textbooks and appearances, with no thought for the reality of God’s intimate connection within every person. Instead I was taught to say this or that in prayer, and to study not my own spiritual experience, but that of others in a school setting. When there is no consideration for how God works in your personal life or what God’s will may be for each individual, there is a distancing that occurs wherein the image of God becomes one of the great bearded man in the sky, and the ordinary divine presence is lost in the shuffle. Not until I began to do spiritual exploration on my own have I truly managed to come to the realization that the truth is found in the divine life in each person and that God’s relationship to us is a very personal one, and therefore his truth must be found within my own relationship with him.
I think that Merton’s most poignant point about life is that we must each become aware of God’s life in us, that personal investment. By searching for God in the most simplistic ways in our lives is where we will ultimately find God’s truth and become aware of his unique will for each of us.