A Life of Contemplation
“ It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be persons who devote their lives to contemplation.”
~Saint Thomas Aquinas
The journey inward is the greatest possible adventure, joy and discovery of the profound richness of life’s real meaning. What’s more is it is free and available to all. As the great saint Saraha said, “I have searched temple, mosque, shrine and church and nowhere is there a mystery equal to this very body!”
Often in our busy, work and productivity centered culture, life can become very superficial and shallow, and the rightful place for plumbing the depths or of a life of contemplation is not acknowledged, respected, supported or engaged by many. This is an error of lopsided development, even though for thousands of years creatives and mystics in all cultures and parts of the world have in their own vital ways been responsible for the survival, thriving, uplifting, navigation and enlightenment of humankind. However, this tendency towards a worldly life and a material orientation is not new and all religions speak of it. 2500 years ago, the young Shakyamuni had to rebel against society’s and his father’s expectations for him to be king in order to fulfill his deepest longing and intution to follow a spiritual path. Subsequently, upon seeing or hearing of his glowing fulfillment of the path and realization of perfect Enlightment, many young nobles of his day left their royal lives and households to follow in his footsteps in a simple life of contemplation and dharma in the forests.
Some cling to the phenomenal and others intuit the noumenal. In other words the seen and the unseen and this has probably always been the case due to differing temperaments. Astrology, medicine and psychology have provided us with rich descriptions of various typologies and temperaments. The typologies and temperaments are also occurring at the cultural level. As our current modern global culture has developed, so have our desires which have become increasingly accelearated, materialist, technical and rational as we chart the unknown. The deep connection with the heart, with spiritual and the noumenal and the core of meaningfulness and life’s real purpose and import has become lost for many. During the modern era, many traditional belief systems have lost their foothold, become contaminated, politically manipulated, co-opted, corrupted or outmoded. Greed has become a powerful motivating factor and the pure spiritual motivations of connecting with the sacred, spirit, the celestial and deeply knowing out innermost being has become increasingly difficult to protect in the face of rampant commodification and increasing distractions and conditionings of technology.
After the rise of the mechanical age, two world wars, and nuclear devastation, and covert wars, the post-modern era is marked by discontent, mistrust of government and authority, loss of meaning, and fragmentation and increased tension between the individual and collective. As humanity has spanned the globe and come to know itself more deeply, peering and unearthing the past, exploring the unknown and looking into the body, mind and phenomena, the accelerated rate of change has led to an overall decline in virtue and meaningfulness, both collectively and indivually. In recent generations there is a resurgence of interest in these more intuitive domains of wisdom and magic and heart centered living. When we fear the unknown, we naturally attune to and look to the stars, those nodes of brightness is the fathomless space of the infinite, for inspiration and the celestial movment of forces much greater than ourselves. But it is getting harder to see the night sky as satellites wiz by beaming endless streams of chatter.
In the same way, many fear the interior spaces of the body, heart and mind. In Buddhism, we always hear the words “outer, inner and secret” and the acknowledgment that everything has outer, inner and secret dimensions…infinite layers of richness and meaning and facets, like a jeweled net.
“That which belongs principally to the contemplative life is the contemplation of the divine truth, because this contemplation is the end of the whole human life.”
Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet.”