Personal Manifesto
Thomas Merton Brightman
(All rights reserved)


I am done
with great things, large institutions,
big successes and important people.

I am for
those sometimes glimpsed eternal moral forces
that migrate soul to soul.

I am for
those spiritual fibers that reach like rootlets,
albeit in the dark.

I am for
the light of inner awareness that seeks as water until absorbed.

I am for
spiritual practice that, given sufficient surrender,
dissolves the densest monuments of mind
into the infinite wisdom of the heart.

I am for
remembering my being
as but one drop in an ocean of diversity
that contains All, connected forever in spiritual equality.












Thomas Merton Brightman, Meeleensupeenkwail, "He Who Bears the Gift of Tears"
(Written January 1, 1998; Inspired by William James)