It is tempting to fix a divided, chaotic world in our heads, by imagining it whole and unified by excluding (or exterminating) anyone who won’t play by your rules or who challenges you. Many crimes against humanity are committed in the name of imagined unity and order. This causes domestic violence, institutional dysfunction and state tyranny. Its most subtle and serpent-like form today is in the manipulation of minds through mass media. Rather than imagining a solution and imposing it, we need to go directly into the experience of unity itself. This is the purpose of every true contemplative practice. Whatever reduces meditation to anything less, to just a short-term pain suppressant or distraction, pollutes the well of truth.

 Laurence Freeman OSB