Vacant?

 "And a Rock Feels no Pain... and an Island never cries".

Paul Simon.

A certain popular on-line retail company have begun locating 'zen' rooms (upright, coffin-esque boxes) in various busy locations (shopping malls, travel hubs, recreation centres) in the world.

The idea is that you can 'close' out all the rattle and hum around you and 'centre down' to re-gain your calm before heading out again, presumably renewed and 'harmonised', enjoying 'elevated' consciousness. It appears to be a development for the individual of the 'safe' (panic) space zones which appeared a few years ago.

After the last period of months, I wasn't exactly sure that placing anyone in a highly confined space is especially welcome - but there's the "tilt" factor within this development - it wouldn't be happening, especially in this fashion, unless those producing these 'spaces' knew they were on to something - so what's the 'need' here?

The wording on the outside of these new contemplation zones states that it's a place to practice 'mindful' detachment. Apparently, then, this state is something you can obtain with nothing more than this space and your own determination to achieve such nirvana. As the 'room' provides no more  than a location, everything else  must of necessity be resourced from within yourself, bringing to the fore an ability to 'mindfully' uncouple, presumably, from whatever it is that's jolted you into a condition where you needed to enter the box in the first place.

So, clearly, what's needed is that 'search for the hero inside yourself' - that bedrock reminder that the 'greatest love of all' is, well, when "you" rise up and take hold of you in such a fashion that you can not just survive, but do it all, your way.

The lesson of this moment, then, is, get up, face the music, and tough it out, because real people don't cave... they merely press on through to that profound, purposeful 'mindfulness' that assures them that they're a winner.

Is it any wonder that corporate business has decided to cash-in on such a notion? All people need, apparently, to reach a state of genuine equilibrium is to reach in and let the 'mindfulness' come out, and all that takes is a 'box' to practice such a routine (which the business types will happily provide... along with a few 'tasteful' reminders of their goods and services on the way in and out).

It's the epitome of the modernist sanctuary, and Johann Tetzel must be looking on in genuine admiration at such a smooth stroking of the ego... to match 'spirituality' with contemporary greed is a worthy prodigy of his own 'box' trick (the coin in the coffer equates to unlimited indulgence!). Deliverance is just one wilful "tweaking" away.

So, where does that leave us if, in our case, 'reality' burns us out?                               

When we reach inside, what do we do when what we find is just as damaged and disturbing as what's going on around us? In that case, the current moralist hype pummels us with the unrelenting assertion that we're pretty worthless and a deplorable failure... but behind the hype there's a truth 'in' moralism seeks to escape. The evasion of 'mindfulness' is that labouring to drown-out that we're all deranged if we believe that what's in ourselves is enough to be in any way near complete.

Life tells us over and over in countless ways that when we take what's provided into us from outside (nourishment, sunlight, friendship, love), then we thrive, but when we exclude such resources, we die, so why would we think it's any different when it comes to what truly matters the most - genuine meaning?

When the divine become a monad - 'I, myself and me' - we loose everything because we sink into our own dust.

Christianity says God is a trinity of persons - a community of eternal fellowship, and that is what vitally defines the divine image. We reflect this in our being made 'one' and yet diverse - male and female, so we can find splendour in both our community and our distinctiveness (Genesis 1:26,27).

Whatever the full picture of what has come about since last year, one consequence has been abundantly clear - the enormity of severance from others has struck our society with the strength of a devastating disaster, and this has both isolated and implicitly required an individualism to be deemed 'good', whilst community is now often censured as deadly.

The present proposals to open some behaviours may reverse, in measure, the anxiety of our being together, but it's pretty clear that "safety" is now a radically monitored and regimented. Even when the scale of the health, education and economic consequences of the total closure of society begin to hit home, as they will, it will no doubt prove highly controversial to advocate a return to a semblance of what we knew. The disturbing reality is that we're moving towards a regime where isolation (socially) is clearly going to be the 'preferred' official behaviour for a very long time and this 'boxing' of the world is inherently violent against what we were intended to make ours.

'Mindfulness' may sound healthy and appeal to some, but it leaves us alone in the dark, and there's nothing worse than when we reach a point where we believe the darkness to be 'light' - that is a very terrible place (Matthew 6:23), with no exit, and no future.

The remedy required is not a zen box or a zoom app, or even the 'herd' regime of mandatory vaccinations (watch what unfolds) and documentation. It is the healing that flows from genuine compassion that rages against fear - a burning resolve to speak the truth in love, even when the blindness of the moment wishes only to stifle such conviction.

Life steps into the midst of such a fray (Romans 5:6-8), and by doing so, exhausts the fury of ignorance and the evil of wilful, 'moral' neglect. It holds out what is gloriously better and even when derided, cannot be silenced by folly (1 Corinthians 13).

Solitude is never an end in itself - it only nourishes if it allows us to feed something of benefit to one another, because we must gain from what comes from 'beyond the box' to be fully alive (Ephesians 2:4).