The Contemplative Life is Meant to Purify Us from the Tyranny of a Society Rooted in Commercialism

"The contemplative life should liberate and purify the imagination which passively absorbs all kinds of things without our realizing it; liberate and purify it from the influence of so much violence done by the bombardment of social images. There is a kind of contagion that affects the imagination unconsciously much more than we realize. It emanates from things like advertisement and from all the spurious fantasies that are thrown at us by our commercial society. The contemplative life should liberate us from that kind of pressure, which is really a form of tyranny . . . Perhaps the best way to do this is in the midst of Nature . . . You need access to the woods, or to the sea, or to the desert. Get out in those hills and really be in the midst of Nature a little bit! The woods and Nature should be a part of your solitude . . . "

Thomas Merton

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Photos: Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 28-30, 2015

  
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