(…) we learn to deal with life by mastering procedures, techniques, but as a result we miss what he calls the vitality of experience, we actually miss the aliveness, the vitality of life because we are reducing it in our minds or left-brains to a mechanism which we are controlling or performing. So society becomes mechanistic, society becomes a system, a mechanistic system, and individuals become cogs in this machine. And I think that depersonalisation of life and of society is a very real concern for us today. And John Main says, meditation is important, because we must free ourselves from this mechanistic view of ourselves and of society. So this mechanistic view – how long will it take? how can I speed up the process? – applies to and controls both the way we see ourselves and the way we are helping to shape society. And the only way we can make a difference is by changing ourselves so that there are more contemplative people who are resisting and transcending the mechanistic process.
( Enlightenment by Laurence Freeman OSB )
