Are You Contemplative? Am I?

A man of near-frenzied action . . . and snatches of contemplation.

Are you a contemplative? Am I? 

    To contemplate is to "think profoundly and at length; [to] meditate." To be a contemplative is to be "a person whose life is devoted primarily to prayer, especially in a monastery or convent." If that latter definition is too specific for you, it can be made more general, as in, "someone who's given to contemplation." Common synonyms for contemplation include meditation, reflection, deliberation, observation, consideration. 

     "Contemplative living is living in true relationship with oneself, God, others and nature, free of the illusions of separateness," wrote Thomas Merton, an American Trappist Monk widely known as a Christian contemplative. Followers of the daily meditations of Fr. Richard Rohr may have, like me, been puzzled by the language of contemplatives; theirs is a jargon that obviously has to be learned before it's comprehended. The website of the Centre for Action and Contemplation founded by Rohr has this phrase as an aspiration: “There is a deep relationship between the inner revolution of prayer and the transformation of social structures and social consciousness. Our hope lies in the fact that meditation is going to change the society that we live in, just as it has changed us.” 

    I've no quarrel with the hope expressed here; I'm just not used to thinking like that. When it comes to thoughts of peace and non-violence, for instance, I see gun control, not the owners of weapons embracing lives of contemplation. Would it were otherwise! 

    Rohr's organization, we remember, is The Centre for Action and Contemplation. "Thought is powerless, except it make something outside of itself: the thought which conquers the world is not contemplative but active," said William Kingdon Clifford. 

    Seems to me admonitions to adopt a contemplative regimen these days are more like self-help aids than the reaching out for that which renews and equips us to act. Or put another way, filling food baskets regularly and tediously at the local Food Bank is contemplative, a meditation on the meaning of our existence as citizens of creation. 

     I suspect that many a man or woman has escaped into a contemplative, monastic life out of a fear of the world and the acts it requires, and for which they feel inadequate. I think going out and acting would provide for them a better path to the meaning, courage and motivation they crave than would closeting alone with only their own thoughts and a compulsive self-discipline as companions. 

     I contemplate, but I'm not a contemplative. I meditate, if sitting quietly and thinking is the same as meditating. When it comes to contemplative prayer, I hear others talking about its benefits to them, but have nothing to add. I've tried clearing my mind to allow the voice of God to reach me without the white noise of daily living derailing the message. I've never heard so much as a whisper.                  Because I write, I contemplate the subject about which I'm writing at length before beginning to type. As I edit, I'm pruning it to be as uplifting as possible and definitely not be a "stumbling block" to anyone who might read it. Then I contemplate whether to publish it, bank it or delete it.     

    None of this is meant to denigrate those who have found the benefits of contemplative routines. The possibility that what they've discovered in their contemplation may be Greek to me on occasion is neither here nor there; in my experience, friends and acquaintances who make meditation a part of their active days are true seekers of truth and people of action. 

    Maybe I'll try a little harder, or is hard-trying antithetical to success? 

     Hmmm.