This week, the writing prompt was contemplation. Damn, it’s been a doozy.
Every attempt I made to write about contemplation, to break down what it is, to come around it, led me into the middle of it, and I ended up writing something so intense and profound that I had to stop and go for a walk.
And I think this neatly summarises what contemplation is, and can do.
What do you mean by contemplation anyway?
Contemplation, defined as ‘viewing with attention’, has a root in ‘templum’, which leads to ‘temple’. Contemplation is a form of religious meditation when practiced properly. .
When you contemplate, you separate yourself from the object of your contemplation, and progressively work towards it until there’s no separation left.
Everything goes away and (if you’re paying close attention) – CLICK – insight arises.
The action of attention is the point, not the object of your contemplation. When you give your entire attention, you create something great. The intention interweaves with the action and the contemplation is profound.
Contemplation is a tool that encourages mystery to unravel. Nothing is unknown to you, it’s simply hidden.
One of my earlier writings on contemplation brought me to the word ‘discover’.
It’s not about learning something new, it’s about removing the cover you have built over your own raw, pure understanding. As you contemplate, you suspend yes and no, and watch the process unfold, paying close attention.
When everything has come and gone, nothing is left. Then, silence arises and maybe, just maybe, you see the truth that has been covered through your life.
A few days later I saw this idea echoed in writings from Swami Vivekananda. An old thought, discovered internally, through my own contemplation.
Why should people practice contemplation?
Cultivating attention is good on countless levels. The insights are a bonus, but the attention and the giving of attention is a gift by itself.
I didn’t want to learn about contemplation, I wanted to contemplate. When I did, I learnt stuff, and as I was learning stuff, life was just fine.
Not good, not bad, just fine. Perfectly acceptable, free from resistance.
Such a state is attainable, and sustainable, and the more one practices contemplation the more one can bring such a state into daily existence.
Being able to return to centre when you’re spun out, or at least being aware that you’re spun out, is another way of viewing with attention. Only this time, you’re viewing yourself with attention.
Contemplation can be used to find answers to things that are bothering you, if you practice properly. It’s a tool, and the more you use it the more proficient you’ll become with it.
How does contemplation differ from thought?
Thought goes off on tangents, free to roam, but contemplation is intentional, directed, and focused. It can still wander, but the intention is crystal clear from the beginning, and where the contemplation wanders, potential insights lie.
Viewing with attention means nothing is to be ignored.
If you want to blow your own mind every once in a while, sit down and enter a contemplative state about something or other. It can be personal to you, or it can be a problem of the big, bad world.
Whatever it is, let yourself go deep. Hold yourself in suspension with your awareness sharp and your sense of intelligence non-existent.
‘I don’t know’.
Let this guide you when you come upon a thought that feels certain, or solid. Contemplation will guide you to where you need to be.
When nothing is left, when there are no more paths to follow, stay in suspension with awareness. Sooner or later, something may come out from the silence that can change your entire world.
Be brave. Remove those layers. Discover your truth.