Education & Career Trends: November 14, 2022
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Content Credit:
- Article by J.W. Bertolotti, published on medium.com. Original article link.
Although many great philosophers and theologians have stressed the importance of contemplation — the practice is not entirely straightforward. Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, prolific writer, and proponent of contemplative practices. He wrote over 50 books in his short life exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice.
In the opening chapter of New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton wrote,
Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is a spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being.
Similarly, in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle concluded that the activity of wisdom is contemplation, so, therefore, “contemplation is the highest activity of human life.”
What is Contemplation?
For Merton, contemplation is a spiritual vision to which both reason and faith aspire by their very nature because, without it, they must always remain incomplete. Yet contemplation is not vision because it sees “without seeing” and knows “without knowing.”
It is a more profound depth of faith, a knowledge too deep to grasp in images, words, or even clear concepts. For in contemplation, we know by “unknowing.” Or, better, we know beyond all-knowing or “unknowing.”
The modern theologian and writer Richard Rohr (founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation) describes contemplation as a long, loving look at what really is. According to Rohr, “contemplation is finding a place where we can receive all of our experiences without repressing anything.” It allows us to consider everything we’ve done –and not done–in our lives.
Knowing Beyond Knowing.
Merton observed that poetry, music, and art have something in common with the contemplative experience. But contemplation is beyond aesthetic intuition, beyond art, beyond poetry. Indeed, it is also beyond philosophy, beyond speculative theology. It resumes, transcends, and fulfils them all, and yet at the same time, it seems, in a certain way, to supersede and deny them all.
Contemplation is always beyond our own knowledge, beyond our own light, beyond systems, beyond explanations, beyond discourse, beyond dialogue, and beyond our own self.
Merton stressed,
To enter into the realm of contemplation, one must, in a certain sense, die: but this death is, in fact, the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we can know or treasure as life, as thought, as experience, as joy, as being.
And so contemplation seems to supersede and discard every other form of intuition and experience — whether in art, philosophy, theology, liturgy or in ordinary levels of love and belief. This rejection is, of course, only apparent. Contemplation must be compatible with all these things, for it is their highest fulfilment. But in the experience of contemplation, all other experiences are momentarily lost.
Contemplation and Daily Life.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius may provide the best example of contemplation in practice. His personal journal, known today as Meditations, has been called one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus wrestles with several practical topics: change, dealing with difficult people, and even getting out of bed.
Although contemplation has practical benefits for daily life, one must avoid viewing contemplation as a productivity hack. Contemplation is a lifelong endeavour with no goal to attain. The practice of contemplation, like virtue — is its own reward.
…
Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?
When You Quit Trying to Fit In, Great Things Happen
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
Like this post? For more such helpful articles, click on the button below and subscribe FREE to our blog.
Download our mobile app, ICS Career GPS, a one-stop career guidance platform.
One Reply to “The Way of Contemplation — According to Thomas Merton”