天主教的隱修神父，多馬斯‧牟敦（1915-1968）被譽為當代最具前瞻性的宗教文學作家之一。本篇論文將探索他在默觀修行中養成的直觀智慧，如何透視當代文明的危機，成為「深層生態學」的開路先鋒。論文分析牟敦在研究東西方古老智慧修行傳承的論述裡，在他對寂靜的「無為」力量的剖析同時，也指出了解決生態危機的可能出路——默觀生活修行傳統與智慧的復甦。論文涵蓋的內容如下：1.冷戰時期的社會暴力和60 年代的美國科技神話與生態危機有何關連？2.牟敦的默觀生活3.甘地的非暴力論述 4.牟敦與道家的跨宗教對話，談無為寂靜的療癒力量 5.禪——直觀經驗與愛的流出 6.結論：牟敦的默觀生態學。

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), the Trappist monk and author, has been hailed as one of the most prophetic spiritual writers of our time. This paper intends to recapture his interfaith explorations of the contemplative wisdom and to manifest that Merton’s discourses on silent contemplation are also prophetic insight about ecological healing practices. The narrative will follow Merton’s journey through the social turmoil of 1960s, how he linked the rationales of the just war or self - defense arguments with ecological issues, his dilemma of balancing his anti-war activism and his contemplative silence, his learning of Gandhi ’s non-violence as a balance between contemplation and action, how Taoist philosophy of non-action provides solid philosophical exposi tion of “usefulness” of the “useless” monasticism, and above all, how Zen Buddhists and Christian mystics seek to heal the brokenness of Cartesian dualistic split mind by cultivating a direct intuition of pure vision and love. In conclusion, an alternative life path to the Western aggression and materialism was offered by Merton to his contemporaries and to later generations—i.e., non-violence is our nature and stillness is the ground of beings, pure wisdom of love our way, where we will be One with other beings.