The Thomas Merton–Dalai Lama meetings in 1968 were a sustained exchange about meditation, monastic life, and spiritual understanding, not simply a courtesy visit. As Merton sought to learn about Tibetan mysticism, the Dalai Lama’s questions and counsel also turned the conversation back toward Merton’s own commitments: his solitude at the Abbey of Gethsemani, his frustrations with monastic life, and what contemplation might mean for participation in the wider world.

Setting and First Audience

Merton recorded the meetings during his Asian journey in a journal that began with his departure from San Francisco. The first audience took place on the afternoon of November 4, 1968. Reaching the Dalai Lama’s palace required a long Jeep trip up a mountain; an Indian official checked Merton’s passport before he was admitted.

Merton was struck by the Dalai Lama’s presence, describing him in his journal as strong, alert, energetic, generous, and warm. Their first conversation ranged across religion, philosophy, and meditation. Merton raised personal concerns as well as his interest in Tibetan mysticism, and the Dalai Lama recommended philosophies and books for him to study. He also urged Merton to build a strong grounding in metaphysics and proposed that they meet again two days later.

Solitude, Detachment, and Participation

Between audiences, Merton considered what the exchange might mean for his life. He gained a renewed appreciation for the solitude available in his hermitage at Gethsemani, which could support the study and meditation the Dalai Lama had recommended. At the same time, he imagined moving to a hermitage in Alaska, where fewer interruptions might make sustained solitude possible. He valued his community and told its monks he would always be a monk of Gethsemani, yet recognized that he had needed to leave for a time. His frustrations with the Abbey and the Cistercian Order had made a different setting necessary for sorting through his concerns.

At their November 6 meeting, the two returned to philosophical questions, though Merton noted that he had some difficulty making his meaning understood. The conversation then turned to meditation. The Dalai Lama demonstrated the sitting posture he considered essential and discussed concentrating the mind. Merton found the exchange lively. In his account, the Dalai Lama insisted on detachment and an unworldly life, but understood these not as a withdrawal from human concerns: they could enable fuller understanding of, and participation in, the problems of life and the world. He invited Merton to return for a discussion of Western monasticism.

Vows and the Mystical Life

Merton considered the third interview the best of the series. The Dalai Lama questioned him closely about Western monastic vows: whether they were connected to spiritual transmission, whether monks advanced through them toward illumination, and what forms of ascetic self-denial could purify the mind of passions. His questions reached beyond outward observance. He asked about such practical matters as monks’ abstention from meat and their attitudes toward alcohol and movies, but Merton understood him to be more interested in the mystical life than in rules for their own sake.

The exchange ended with a strong sense of personal closeness. Merton described the discussion as warm and cordial and felt that the two had become good friends. In a letter to Gethsemani, he expressed the hope that he could bring back to his monastery something of the Asian wisdom he had been fortunate to encounter. The meetings thus joined intellectual inquiry to a possible return: what Merton learned was to be carried back into his own monastic setting, rather than kept as a private travel experience.

Significance

The meetings placed two traditions in conversation through specific questions about practice: how to sit in meditation, what vows accomplish, how ascetic discipline relates to purification, and whether detachment can deepen engagement with the world. Their importance in Merton’s account lies partly in this reciprocity. The Dalai Lama did not merely supply material for Merton’s study of Buddhism; his questions prompted Merton to examine Western monasticism and his own life within it.

The encounter also complicates any simple opposition between solitude and action. Merton’s renewed respect for his hermitage coexisted with his desire to travel, learn, and reconsider the limits of his current setting. The Dalai Lama’s account of detachment as a way toward participation gave that tension a clear form. Merton left the conversations with both a closer personal bond and an intention to bring what he had learned back to Gethsemani.