Zen and the Birds of Appetite.

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Summary: Merton's Prefaces
Review: Merton felt that his journals contained his best writing. I'll offer a different opinion; I think his essays and book reviews contain much of his best writing. "Zen and the Birds of Appetite" is a collection of essays on what's common to Zen and Christianity, and the book includes a book review and Merton's prefaces to two books by other authors.

He seems to write these prefaces not simply because he was asked to. He writes them, I think, because the books really inspire him. (Most of us write these reviews on Amazon.com for the same reason!) His prefaces present his thinking along with the author's thinking in a way that improves the overall publication. Comparing his thinking with another author's thinking seems to make Merton's writing even more succinct and sharply-reasoned than usual. And in "Zen" he's comparing his faith with another faith, so his sensitivity, appreciation, and sharp mind are even more in evidence than usual.

These essays don't amount to a textbook on Zen or Zen Buddhism, any more than a collection of short stories adds up to a novel. But together the essays address an overall question: what is it about Christianity that resembles Zen? In the process of approaching the question, Merton gives us some gems. His discussion of paradise, innocence, and knowledge is the best I've read. You may learn more about Christianity than about Zen in this volume.

His essays make up the first part of the book. The second part of the book is a "dialogue" between Merton and Diasetz T. Suzuki, a Zen scholar quite accessable to the Western mindset. These dialogue seems to devolve somewhat into a "point-counterpoint" duel, but that's fun and a lot of well-framed truth comes out.

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Summary: Good dialogue between Zen and Christianity
Review: Merton introduces Zen and explores his own Christian tradition, looking for similarities. Merton looks at Christian writers like Meister Eckhart, e.g., "The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out ... therefore if you want to discover nature's nakedness you must destroy its symbols...". What ever Zen is, Merton recognizes that it is somehow there in Eckhart. Merton outlines the differences also, in that Christianity is eschatological with the idea of salvation, grace and divine gifts.

Merton also grapples with whether Christianity is dualistic. The intuition of God's presence and direct experience in a mystic like Saint Theresa or the desert fathers sounds similar to the quest for direct experience in the Buddhist. The dialogue with the Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki in the book's second part further explores this dualism and differences. I think this book starts a dialogue that will deepen both Christian's and Buddhist's understanding.

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Summary: Paved With Good Intentions
Review: Okay I love Thomas Merton, but this is one of his slower moving works. It's good; but as a below reviewer pointed out, it's certainly not for everyone. Thomas Merton had a tremendously open mind toward eastern traditions, and in Kentucky there is actually a Thomas Merton Zen center to this day. But as for a book on Zen goes, this was probably designed more for Christians than Buddhists. In fact, I am pretty sure that it was. Probably the most worthwhile and memorable section of this book was the dialogue between Merton and D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese Zen scholar at that time. Now I never liked Suzuki's style too much for my part, being a Zen practitioner I have always found his approach simply too scholarly for my blood. His Zen was that for the academic community, which is not really good or bad. It's one of the reasons Zen Buddhism has flourished here in the United States in the years since. Here Merton shines through. It's ironic, I find he defends his view on Christianity with much more veracity than Daisetz was probably hoping to convey for his part. The two tried to make it a pretty congruent, or harmonious event, but needless to say there were misconceptions on both sides of the aisle.

Anyway, in terms of Merton's literature concerning Eastern thought - I am much more drawn to his, "The Way of Chuang Tzu." Much more fluent and vibrant. Zen and the Birds of Appetite, on the other hand, sets out to do some remarkable things; but I think it might actually put you to sleep. I could be wrong. After all, this is solely coming from the Zen side of the book review. There may be a plethora of Christians who truly identify with what Merton was conveying here. And similarly, there might even be a good number of Zen practitioners who feel they can relate to it as well. You know, I'm just one small voice here. I wouldn't pay too much attention to me. Because it is, nevertheless, one of those books worth having sitting up somewhere on your bookshelf. I am simply giving one take. So, I hope this review was somehow helpful for you all. I hope you enjoy the book and take something out of it.

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Summary: Historically Significant
Review: The most important part of this book is the debate between Merton and Suzuki. Merton falls short of establishing his theories in respect to the Desert Father's similarity to Zen Masters, Suzuki brilliantly counterpoints and illustrates the differences.

Merton shows incredible integrity in publishing a debate he clearly loses.