THROUGHOUT HISTORY, CONTEMPLATION HAS been used to gain wisdom and a closer connection with the Divine. Contemplation played an important role in the teachings of the Greek philosophers. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation.”1 Contemplation still plays an important role in the lives of Christian mystics.
Contemplation involves thought, but is not exactly the same as thinking. Dictionaries define it as “thoughtful observation.” When you’re contemplating, your mind is quiet and relaxed, and you’re able to observe, reflect, and consider something while remaining in a meditative state. You will have experienced this state of quiet contemplation while doing many of the exercises in this book.
Contemplation allows you to access information that you could not gain in any other way. Contemplation enables you to draw on your intuition and emotions, as well as your mind. It can help you discover what your heart and soul are trying to tell you.
You can use contemplation to provide answers to a variety of questions. You can ask comparatively simple questions, such as “What can I do to make today a perfect day?” You can also ask more difficult questions, such as “Should I persevere with my difficult relationship?”
You can also use your quiet time to contemplate spiritual matters. This is an excellent way to study spiritual texts, as it enables you to fully appreciate and understand what the writer had in mind. I find it helpful to contemplate writings on the soul. I find it interesting that only small extracts are required. Sometimes a single sentence is all that is necessary, as you quietly contemplate the words, their meaning, and how they relate to you and your everyday life.
You can enter into a contemplative state in many different ways. In fact, you already reach this state on a regular basis without knowing it. Here are two methods I use when contemplating spiritual matters.
Breath Contemplation
Start by choosing a brief passage that appeals to you. (You’ll find some quotes on the soul at the end of this chapter.) Read the passage and then close your eyes. Take three slow, deep breaths and allow your body to relax. Remain aware of your breathing, and allow each breath to quiet your mind.
Open your eyes and read the passage again. Close your eyes and allow the words you’ve just read to filter through every part of your body. Become aware of your physical body and notice any effects the words have, especially in your throat and heart. Become aware of any sensations you may experience in your chakras. Think about the words you’ve just read, and ask: “What do they mean to me?”
If necessary, open your eyes and read the passage again. Close your eyes, still your mind by focusing on your breathing, and ponder the words for as long as you wish. Repeat this stage as many times as you wish.
When you feel you’ve absorbed everything possible from the words you’ve read, take three slow, deep breaths and open your eyes. If possible, write down your thoughts and any insights you obtained while you were contemplating.
Mandala Contemplation
You will need a pad of paper and some colored pencils, markers, or crayons for the mandala contemplation. Mandalas are designs that were originally drawn to symbolize the universe. Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means “circle.” Consequently, mandalas are usually drawn within the confines of a circle. However, mandalas can be drawn in any shape you wish.
Mandalas work well because they enable you to create pictures that come directly from your soul. With a mandala you’re able to convert the words you read into picture form. You’ll find this revealing and illuminating.
Before starting the mandala contemplation, draw a circle, or any other shape, on your pad of paper. You’ll draw your mandala inside this shape. I usually use an upturned plate as a template for my circle.
Start by choosing a text that appeals to you. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Allow your mind and body to become completely relaxed.
Open your eyes and read the text again. Close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, and meditate on the words you have just read.
When you feel ready, open your eyes and use your intuition to pick up one of the colored pencils. Use it to start drawing whatever you wish inside your mandala. As it’s important to draw spontaneously, let your hand draw whatever it wishes. Observe your hand with mild interest, but pay little attention to what is going on. Your hand will know when it’s time to put down one pencil and pick up another. Your hand will also know when you’re finished.
Read the words again. Close your eyes and meditate on the words for as long as you wish. Open your eyes and see if your hand has a desire to add anything to your mandala. Allow it to pick up a pencil and draw, if that is what it wants to do. The contemplation is over if your hand has no desire to add anything to the mandala.
You need to repeat this last stage of meditation if your hand picked up a pencil and added anything to your mandala.
You may want to study your mandala right away to see what insights it has given you. I occasionally do this, but usually allow a few hours to pass before examining it.
You’ll be surprised at the added insights you’ll gain from your mandala. If you do this contemplation on a regular basis, you’ll build up a valuable collection of mandalas that will provide insights directly from your soul.
Quotes on the Soul
Here are some insights into the soul provided by famous people throughout history.
“Now I was a child good by nature,
and a good soul fell to my lot.
Nay, rather, being good,
I came into a body undefiled.”
—The Wisdom of Solomon 8:19–20 in the Apocrypha
“The soul is of heavenly origin,
forced down from its home in the highest,
and, so to speak, buried in earth,
a place quite opposed to its divine nature.”
—Cicero, On Old Age, translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
“A man has a soul, and it passes from life to life,
as a traveller from inn to inn,
till at length it is ended in heaven.
But not till he has attained heaven in his heart
will he attain heaven in reality …
Love does not die with the body …
it lives for ever and ever,
through incarnation after incarnation.”
—H. Fielding Hall (1859–1917), The Soul of a People
“The soul is an emanation of the Divinity,
a part of the soul of the world,
a ray from the source of light.
It comes from without into the human body,
as into a temporary abode, it goes out of it anew;
it wanders in ethereal regions, it returns to visit it;
it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Journals
“Being born twice is no more remarkable
than being born once.”
—Voltaire (1694–1778)
“Either we have an immortal soul, or we have not. If we have not, we are beasts; the first and wisest of beasts it may be; but still beasts. We shall only differ in degree, and not in kind; just as the elephant differs from the slug. But by the concession of the materialists, we are not of the same kind as beasts; and this also we say from our own consciousness. Therefore, methinks, it must be the possession of a soul within us that makes the difference.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834),
“Materialism” in Table Talk
“I simply believe that some part of the human Self or Soul is not subject to the laws of space and time.”
—Carl Jung (1875–1961)
“Nowhere can man find a quieter
or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180), Meditations
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), Mere Christianity
“Just as a mirror, which reflects all things, is set in its own container, so too the rational soul is placed in the fragile container of the body. In this way, the body is governed in its earthly life by the soul, and the soul contemplates heavenly things through faith.”
—Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
in a letter to the monk Guibert
“One certainly has a soul; but how it came to allow itself to be enclosed in a body is more than I can imagine. I only know if once mine gets out, I’ll have a bit of a tussle before I let it get in again to that of any other.”
—Lord Byron (1788–1824)