Thomas Merton was not your average monk.

In 1965, when he built his hermitage in New Haven, Kentucky,

Merton was debatably the most famous and controversial monk on the planet.

He was a champion for civil rights, a vocal critic of nuclear armament,

and a fierce dissenter to the war in Vietnam. He was a champion for civil rights, a vocal critic of nuclear armament, and a fierce dissenter

to the war in Vietnam. He was a Catholic priest who loved Zen Buddhism, and his beliefs

made him a star and a contradiction. He wanted to change society for the better, and he also

wanted to retreat. Merton built the hermitage to create a sanctuary for himself, an escape.

But in 1968, just three years later, he was found dead in his room in Bangkok, Thailand.

I'm Dylan Thuris, and this is Atlas of Skira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we're going to New Haven, Kentucky, to explore the little house where Thomas Merton,

aka the prophet poet, aka the rebel monk, tried to get away from the world.

And the world was not having it.

More.

After this. And I believe that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great Asian traditions,

we stand a wonderful chance of learning more

about the potentiality of our own traditions

because they have gone from the natural point of view

so much deeper into this than we have.

So I will conclude on that note, so I will disappear from view and we can all have a cope

or something.

Thank you very much.

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