contemplative spirituality

Most people don't understand why I'm a Religion minor. Studying religion can seem awfully dull if one looks at the Religion department as being all about the dry facts: when the religions of the world began, what their doctrines consist of, what their practices entail, etc. Helpful in trivia games, perhaps. But not pertinent to my life.

What people fail to realize is that no person is a textbook example of his or her religion. It isn't possible. A person would have to follow doctrine 100% of the time. This would be the equivalent of a person becoming Buddhism or becoming Christianity. We are not textbooks. We are not theories. We are people. We have brains and free will. And the way one lives his or her religion is identical to the way he or she lives each day.

This is why I am a Religion minor. Not only for the facts. Not only because it opens me up to a world of diversity. Not only because it's fascinating. But because it teaches me how to live. It shows me how our own minds, our own lives, interact with things such as religion. How we affect religion and how religion affects us. It doesn't control us. It becomes a part of us, and we of it.

My favorite Religion class this semester is called Contemplative Spirituality. Sound dry? It isn't. It has been a semester of talking about, well, life. As it applies to us, here and now. Some days we talk about what it means to wait. Others, we talk about how to love. And sometimes, we unite in our weaknesses, in being hysterical, in hating loneliness, in losing ourselves to belong.

We recently wrote a midterm explaining what it means to be contemplative now (despite contemplative spirituality being an age old concept). The intention I had behind this blog was to share part of that paper with you. Reasons being: a) I want to share something I don't typically share, b) it explains further why I love my minor, c) it speaks to the portion of the Religion department that people don't seem to understand, and d) I hope it will help someone to live (that is, after all, the purpose of religion).

So, without further adieu, snippets of my paper on what it means to be contemplative:

Gerald May: “In traditional religious usage, the term contemplation implies a totally uncluttered appreciation of existence, a state of mind or a condition of the soul that is simultaneously wide-awake and free from all preoccupation, preconception, and interpretation. It is a wonder-filled yet utterly simple experience." (I unpacked this definition in my paper; the following are shortened snippets)

“uncluttered appreciation of existence” - Often, we think too much. The reason we need contemplation is that we are consumed by our false notions of the world, notions which often have been years in the making. These notions become the lens through which we see the world. When we are blinded by our false preconceptions, we are not wholly alive. This is a lukewarm state of being, one that is caught up in instant gratification of desires, unhealthy attachments, and perpetuating oneself in the shallow efforts of material living.

“free from all preoccupation, preconception, and interpretation" - Richard Rohr writes, “We create artificial fullness and try to hang on to that. But there’s nothing to hold on to when we begin to taste the fullness of the now." This “fullness of now” is, at its core, an untethered, inexplicable, untarnished appreciation of existence. It means taking a step back, stopping our harmful thought processes, and enjoying the simplicity of living in this moment. It means wanting nothing save to be alive, and expecting nothing yet appreciating what one is given. It is this appreciation rather than comprehension that becomes the journey.

“a state of mind or condition of the soul” - I am more apt to see contemplation as a condition of the soul, as this accounts for the fact that the mind can sometimes delude us, and it is when we stop thinking and simply are that we become contemplative. We cannot reason ourselves into being contemplative. In fact, May argues that one of the “most important themes of contemplative spirituality [is] the notion that you cannot do it, you cannot make it happen, you cannot achieve it." It is only when we recognize that we are simply alive, and therefore become “wide-awake and open” that we achieve the condition of the soul known as contemplation.

“wonder-filled yet utterly simple experience” - Contemplation often fills us with a sense of wonder and awe. As we begin to see the world as it truly is, and appreciate the beauty around us, we are changed. Without contemplation, “we are only half-grown and half-awake." We exist in a semi-conscious state, unaware of our true potential. Contemplation, despite its utter simplicity, awakens us to the knowledge of who we are and what we can be. It is a state of being “wonder-filled,” of allowing life to burst with color and song, without trying to grasp it. It is a return to a more fundamental sense of life, yet it is the pathway to becoming fully and deeply alive.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I've been a contemplative my whole life without the proper skills or correct terms to fully appreciate it. I even thought it made me "weird." Perhaps it does; such a title doesn't bother me anymore.