"We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us"
About this Quote
The line reimagines the spiritual search as a movement from frenzy to recognition. What the heart longs for is not an external prize to be hunted down but an indwelling reality obscured by haste, fear, and noise. The task is less conquest than consent. Give it time, and the sought presence reveals itself, not as something fabricated by effort but as something already given.
Thomas Merton wrote out of the soil of monastic silence and the Christian mystical tradition, while also engaging Buddhist and Taoist insights. He distrusted the modern impulse to turn even contemplation into a project with outputs and metrics. For him, the knowledge that matters most does not submit to grasping. It arrives as gift, and it comes into focus when the will relaxes its grip and the attention becomes simple, steady, and honest.
The saying speaks to identity as much as to God. Merton often distinguished the false self, built of anxieties and comparisons, from the true self grounded in divine love. The true self is not manufactured; it is uncovered. Patience is not passivity here, but fidelity to reality. Like seeds germinating beneath the soil, certain truths require darkness, duration, and trust. Hurry only hardens the crust.
There is a psychological resonance too. Creativity, insight, and love cannot be forced. Push too hard and they flee into hiding; dwell with them, and they emerge. This does not excuse avoidance. It asks for disciplined receptivity: practices of silence, attention to the ordinary, a refusal to let distraction set the terms of life.
The promise is quietly radical. You do not need to acquire worth, enlightenment, or God as if they were commodities. You are invited to awaken to what is already present. The work is to make space, to wait without scheming, and to allow the real to introduce itself in its own time.
Thomas Merton wrote out of the soil of monastic silence and the Christian mystical tradition, while also engaging Buddhist and Taoist insights. He distrusted the modern impulse to turn even contemplation into a project with outputs and metrics. For him, the knowledge that matters most does not submit to grasping. It arrives as gift, and it comes into focus when the will relaxes its grip and the attention becomes simple, steady, and honest.
The saying speaks to identity as much as to God. Merton often distinguished the false self, built of anxieties and comparisons, from the true self grounded in divine love. The true self is not manufactured; it is uncovered. Patience is not passivity here, but fidelity to reality. Like seeds germinating beneath the soil, certain truths require darkness, duration, and trust. Hurry only hardens the crust.
There is a psychological resonance too. Creativity, insight, and love cannot be forced. Push too hard and they flee into hiding; dwell with them, and they emerge. This does not excuse avoidance. It asks for disciplined receptivity: practices of silence, attention to the ordinary, a refusal to let distraction set the terms of life.
The promise is quietly radical. You do not need to acquire worth, enlightenment, or God as if they were commodities. You are invited to awaken to what is already present. The work is to make space, to wait without scheming, and to allow the real to introduce itself in its own time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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