Contemplation

I have the following post up at Listening Point, in which I try to circle closer to defining what living in a contemplative way actually is:

We know that contemplative living is not to do with sitting in the lotus position on a mountainside all day meditating upon the wonders of creation. And we know that it is all to do with living everyday life in a state of awareness. (Something I tend to think of as “the Zen of washing dishes”.) But what else is it?

It suddenly struck me while looking at the actual word contemplate that it ends in template.

Now templates are used extensively in the building trade, the computer industry and so forth, but the word is also defined as “anything that determines or serves as a pattern, a model”.

So this immediately gives us a clue to living a contemplative life. We are following a pattern. Awareness lights up the pattern for us.

I’m reminded of the patterns created by light and shadow, and the game we played as children: don’t step on the cracks.

What patterns of behaviour are revealed to us by living in a contemplative way? Do we deliberately avoid the shadow? Or do we sometimes hide in the shadow, fearing to come out into the light?

Although the pattern will waver in and out of focus, we can follow it by taking a contemplative approach to our lives. And with awareness, we can get glimpses of the whole thing.