Contemplating Contemplation

"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival." - Aristotle

Before we talk about contemplation, perhaps we should first experience it. Let's try a simple exercise:

Take a deep breath. As you breathe in and breathe out, where do your thoughts go? Maybe you've done a thousand breath exercises and immediately feel centered and calm. Maybe you've never done a breath exercise and you're wondering where I'm going with these strange instructions. Whatever you are thinking about, embrace that thought with another breath in — and let the thought go with a breath out.

Now take another breath. This time, focus your awareness on your chest and lungs. Feel the expansion of your chest as your lungs fill with air. As you breathe out, focus your attention now on the air moving out through your lips or your nose. As you breathe, allow your awareness to focus in on one small part of your body. Notice that you can do this with any part of your body. Wiggle your toes and bring your awareness there. Rub your hands together and bring your awareness there. Close your eyes for a moment if that helps. Give full awareness to a single part of your body.

Now take another breath. This time allow your awareness to extend beyond your body. Can you hear the sounds of the breeze or the noise of the air ducts? Is the air cold or warm on your skin? As you breathe again, become aware of the air entering your body. Where does that air begin and end? In similar fashion we might ask where does our awareness begin and end? As you breathe, notice how you can move your awareness around you and within you. With this exercise you are becoming aware of your own awareness. You are not merely experiencing awareness. You are awareness.

How often do we actually become aware of our own thoughts? How often do we become aware of the involuntary movements of our own body? How often do we stop and soak in the movements and sounds around us? Through contemplation, we begin to realize that we are much more than just a series of thoughts trapped inside our head. Through contemplation, as we move our awareness inward, we become aware that our body is a complex system of parts visible and invisible all working together. Likewise, as we move our awareness outward, we become aware that our whole body is part of a complex system made up of our community and environment. Every movement and action we take affects the people and the world around us. Our choices have an impact that will likely outlive our body.

"Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant source." - Thomas Merton

Throughout most of our lives we tend to stay on an individualized level of consciousness. Here we see ourselves as a separate, autonomous individual with our own unique thoughts, beliefs, and abilities. Our identity becomes defined by the boundaries of our skin and our individual thoughts. Everything inside is me. Everything outside is other. But when we have experiences that blur those lines we begin to tap into what some call unitive consciousness. We begin to see how our thoughts, beliefs, and abilities are inseparably interconnected and shaped by those around us.

Contemplation expands our consciousness both inwards and outwards. Instead of being contained within our thoughts, we become aware of our thoughts. As we become aware of our own awareness, we simultaneously identity with the observer and the observed. As Meister Eckhart once said, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

While this type of "seeing" is sometimes regarded as the delusions of mystics, there is really nothing more ordinary than this type of contemplation. Through contemplation we are simply embracing what is. This "is-ness" is the whole of reality and we are not separate from this. We are this. We are the cosmos observing and experiencing itself. We are the recombination of atoms, elements, and genetic material that existed long before us. When you look at your hand with your eyes, your hand it not separate from you. Likewise, when you look into the eyes of another person, they are not separate from you. We are all part of this. In Judeo-Christian terminology, we see the image and likeness of God in everyone. This is the "ministry of reconciliation" the biblical authors speak of — the "at-one-ment" of the universe.

"Seeking the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time, and God's hand in every happening; This is what it means to be contemplative in the heart of the world." - Mother Teresa

Separateness, or duality, is nothing more than a limited perception of reality. It's a comfortable state of mind that allows us to retreat from the complicated nature of existence. And there's nothing wrong with retreating on occasion. But to limit ourselves to this one plane of awareness is to miss the full experience of life. Compassion, love, and joy all emerge from an interconnected awareness of humanity. Likewise, grief and anxiety find release through contemplation as we see the sacredness of life expressed on micro and cosmic levels. We experience the tension in our own bodies and in our larger communities. But we also find grace in all levels - the taste of our food, the warmth of the sun, kindness between strangers, or new scientific discoveries that shift our fundamental understand of the cosmos. All of this is grace to experience this life more fully.

So keep breathing with awareness. As you do, eternity carries you through each present moment of this life. In this contemplative place you are free to move inward or outward, to be loved, to give love — to be love.