Human Development
Contemplative intuitive meditation
Description:
Contemplation may be conceived as a descent into the depth-consciousness in which is stored the collective wisdom and insight of the human race and where the inner deity is enthroned. This form of contemplation precedes that of the advanced contemplative. Two types of perception, the intellectual-rational and contemplative-intuitive are used alternately and intermingled. The individual strives to adapt his mode of perception to enter through contemplation into an awareness of oneness rather than multiplicity, in order to apprehend the world and himself as they really are. This leads to a gradual transformation of the personality or sense of selfhood and a new vision of the nature of reality. The psychical man slowly and laboriously grows into the stature of the spiritual man through the realization in direct experience of the presence within him (other than the phenomenal ego) of an inner deity which he may apprehend as Spirit, God, Self, the Christ (or Buddha) within, or Atman, namely his essential Self. This realization may take a personalistic or non-personalistic form.In Christian terms, the Cloud of Unknowing describes the signs for transition from "intellectual" to simple, passive, contemplative prayer. The transition indicates a more complete surrender to God in all aspects of life and inviting God increasingly to take the lead. A background of reading, reflecting and praying will have led to a longing for a life of contemplation and prayer. This longing is more persistent than any other; if it disappears it does so only to return with greater joy. Contemplative prayer is loving rather than knowing, even the most holy thoughts are hidden in the cloud of forgetting. A single word arises, encompassing all the love and longing that is felt. Discursive thought and imagination are a hindrance. Similarly, Meister Eckhart speaks of imageless prayer but, while rejecting discursive reasoning or thought as a means of attaining God, he indicates that purest love is heightened, purified, intensified in intellect, a higher knowing or spiritual knowledge. Then there is not only an aspiring to the goal but a uniting with it.
Meister Eckhart has practical advice for those who are troubled by distractions in the mind. Like other authors, he warns against trying to forcibly eliminate such distractions, which is ineffective and tiring. His advice is firmly and resolutely to be detached from them, not to cling to or identify with such images, which will always be there. They must simply be gently put aside. This unencumbered, virginal state is not the highest, however. There is a spark or dart of longing love, as is also indicated in the "Cloud of Unknowing", which is likened to a wife, receiving God into the self and giving birth to Him. Here is the birth of God in the soul's ground.
The essence of contemplative prayer is the way of pure faith. It does not have to be felt but it does have to be practised. A process of interior transformation, this is a conversation initiated by God. If the person consents it leads to divine union. In the process, the person's way of seeing reality changes. There is a restructuring of consciousness empowering the person to perceive, relate and respond with increasing sensitivity to the divine. There is detachment from rather than absence of thought as heart, body and emotions are opened to God.
The practice of contemplative prayer is an education imparted by the Spirit; the person's participation is self denial, denial of his innermost self. This implies detachment from habitual functioning of the intellect and will. It may demand the letting go of the most devout reflections and aspirations as well as ordinary thoughts, if these has been treated as indispensable as a means for going to God. Thought becomes presence, an act of attention rather than understanding. Attention is given to the presence of Jesus without adverting to any particular detail.
As energies from the unconscious are released, two states arise: there is the experience of personal development as spiritual consolation, charismatic gifts or psychic powers; and there is humiliating self-knowledge as human weakness is experienced. The one balances the other, so there is no extreme of pride or despair.
Broader:
Prayer