These are times of distress; they do not allow us to retreat just because we are willfully blind to the overwhelming urgency of the tasks that press upon human society. We cannot look for inner detachment in an inner and outer isolation, as implied by Eckhart’s sayings (which are liable to be misunderstood, to say the least). We are thankful that the highly mechanized nature of world economics today does not allow this pious selfishness anymore, for it gives us more protection from self-deception than we had in earlier times.

Do you wish to improve the world? Good. But first seek silence of soul.