The tension of Socrates’ moral imperative that the unexamined life is not worth living, is heightened by Hannah Arendt’s insistence that evil comes from a failure to think. These assertions refute the notion that contemplatives are somehow estranged individuals, out of touch with the world. It rather reminds us that the contemplative traditions were once firmly placed at the heart of society. Not only did their explorations of what it means to be human, responsible, and aware endow life with meaning, but their penetrative questioning proved a powerful indictment of the thoughtless and arbitrary violence by callous self-aggrandizement and passivity in the presence of such wrongdoing.

Perusing the frontier between wilderness and city, between silence and prophecy, these fiercely feeling men and women pursued understanding of the ultimate nature of our existence, bore witness to injustice and suffering, and spoke truth to power and pretense. Enduring hardship with self-discipline, they journeyed beyond the comfort of home and tradition, beyond the safety of doctrine and opinion, to direct and liberating knowledge, for others and themselves.

Although their names vary and their worldviews could seem to differ insurmountably, these Bhikshus and Bhikshunis, Sufis, Prophets, Philosophers, Sadhus, and Friars, lay and monastic, performed functions in their respective societies that were not only surprisingly similar, but seemingly as necessary as mitochondria in a cell. Their communities formed alternatives to cultures of greed and violence, and a check on the capriciousness of rulers. In times of environmental destruction, unparalleled inequality, fake news, and systemic injustice the role of these truth seekers and speakers has never been more pertinent.