The unsellable

Photograph by Hanna Jacobs

In our consumer society it might be a challenge writing an ad for contemplation*. I imagine it going something like this:

• Do not go the contemplative route if you want absolute control over your life and do not like surprises. We are not in a position to answer questions like “What is this going to ask from me?”; “Where will I eventually end up by practicing this?”
• This is definitely not for you if you are looking for a tame, predictable God and you do not like your boat to be rocked. Maybe you are a person loving life’s comforts in general and comfort zones in particular. In that regard you find a religion where your basic cultural values, ideals and yard sticks are maintained with a gospel layer laid on top of it ideal. If that is the case, steer clear from this.
• It is also not for you if you want to continue with business as usual. The contemplative life will change you. You are going to become you. Maybe that is exactly the one thing that you’ve been avoiding most of your life. In this process of becoming you, you are going to face your demons and shadow self. It is going to scare the living daylights out of you before you are going to find them valuable allies and absolute prerequisites to any deep experience of light. Adding to that, as you are going to change everything is going to change. Everything - relationships, your perceptions of success and security, work. It will be as if somebody used a pitch fork and turned your life’s flower beds over totally.
• Do not venture into contemplation if you find it impossible to handle quiet, silence and solitude.
• The advice also applies if you regard this life and the thisness of things as mere stepping stones and sign posts on the way to a more ethereal, uncontaminated afterlife.
• You find that it works best if you assign compartments to the different aspects of your life: recreation, occupation, family, religion, head, heart, body and keep them to that. Then you should not consider a contemplative life. Here everything becomes integrated and part of a much, much larger whole. In contemplation you will find that everything belongs and how you love anything is how you love everything.
• If you are a black/white, either/or person this is not for you. It is going to introduce you to mystery, paradox, a tolerance for ambiguity and the life of this/and. You are going to encounter God in places where you did not want to encounter him and you’ll have to listen to diverse voices and wisdom quite different from the ones you probably grew up with.

Hmmm… It might have value as a teaser towards what is being said implicitly, but people might find the angle too strange. And there is way too little attention given to the sense of being fully alive which actually lies at the heart of it all.

Adding to that, I don’t think people will come to contemplation through marketing strategies or commercials. It opens up by the grace of God as you experience life. The gateways are all those instances where the ego is destabilized and the rational mind as its loyal servant baffled. Times when you are down and out, rejected, at the end of your rope, clueless and smitten are therefore ideal incubators in this regard. In a nutshell: it is mostly the fruit of great suffering or great love. 

It has always been thus. For some reason we’ve lost that wisdom along the way. To such an extent that even our religion found it difficult to reap the fruit of those ripe situations.

Then, on the other hand and without trying to cancel what I've just said, maybe a commercial for contemplation is in order after all. Something that encapsulates what was said in the list right at the beginning and actually refers back to it. A compact, short version if you like. Not for selling purposes though. More as a map of sorts indicating, “You are here.” People should know there is indeed another route from the ones generally propagated and to say that you are not mad when you stumble onto the contemplative principles and find it helpful. Even though it neither surfaces in general conversations nor many so-called expert opinions.

For such an ad I have something very simple in mind. Like:

It is not the end of the world when you experience the hole in your soul. In all probability it is only the beginning. 

With a picture quote.

George

* By contemplation in this context, I understand a life lived within the ancient Christian mystical tradition, where silence, mindfulness and meditation are key practices.