Why Bother With Contemplative Practice?

by Ani Vidrine

Do you find yourself just wanting to have a sense of peace as your baseline rather than the constant arousal of hypervigilance? Add disturbing world events to that implicit state of agitation, and the desire feels more like a necessity. Cultivating this sense of peace is part of the mission of the School for Contemplative Living (SCL) and is represented in our name. While stress is an inherent part of existence, we have agency in how we relate to it. To that end, the SCL exists to promote contemplative living as a default setting.

So, what do we mean by contemplative living? In his book One Minute Wisdom, Anthony de Mello offered this story called Vigilance about a conversation between a disciple and his teacher (p. 11):

Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?

As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.

Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?

To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.

In essence, contemplative living involves staying awake in the present moment with an open heart. Contemplative practice researchers, Tia Rich and her colleagues, described contemplative practices as those that, “emphasize self-awareness, self-regulation, and/or self-inquiry to enact a process of wellbeing, which may include psychological and/or spiritual transformation, and/or self-transcendence” (p. 2). Their research showed a statistically significant correlation between wellbeing and contemplative practice behavior. So, contemplative practice is not only anecdotally validated in spiritual traditions throughout the ages but is also supported by current research as a relevant path to peace.

As Rich and her colleagues noted, self-transcendence, or the ability to have a perspective broader than your own personal concerns, is often a consequence of contemplative practice. Egocentricity, or myopic self-focus, may be considered the opposite of self-transcendence, and not unexpectedly, research has also shown that as egocentricity increases, wellbeing decreases (see Zappala). As we engage in contemplative practices, we become less self-absorbed and more open-hearted, and this contemplative stance facilitates a shift from hypervigilance as the baseline to peace as our default setting. Notably, renowned Austrian psychiatrist, Victor Frankl, affirmed, “Self-transcendence is the essence of existence” (p. 104).

Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist most famous for his hierarchy of needs theory, hypothesized that the ideal, mature human being is one who embraces transcendent values. He likened psychological human potential to the evolution of human athletic ability in, for example, running a mile in less time than previously thought possible. He called this psychological potential Being-love (Maslow, p. 6) and suggested that this “loving, non-interfering, objectivity” (Maslow, p. 7) is in contrast to a “What about me?” and “How do I protect myself?” mentality. As we loosen the grip on our insular personal perspective through our contemplative practices, we are able to relax more fully into the wonder of the present moment.

As Rich and her colleagues also recognized, a near kin of self-transcendence is the concept of spiritual transformation, and the mystical arm of various faith traditions have historically used contemplative practice as a doorway to the experience of Spirit. While many of us may be familiar with contemplative practices such as meditation, centering prayer, chanting, and walking a labyrinth, there are numerous others that we can explore. For example, the early Christian monastics popularized the practice of lectio divina or divine reading, whereby the practitioner engages in a specific method of reading sacred scripture as a portal to higher consciousness or communion with God. Lectio Divina customarily progresses in four steps: 1) lectio/slow reading, 2) meditatio/reflecting, 3) oratio/responding or dialoguing, and 4) contemplatio/resting in silence. Modern day practitioners have broadened their lectio divina selections to include poems or passages from a variety of sources.

Over time, this same structure of interaction with a chosen source, reflection, dialogue, and silence has been expanded to include such practices as audio divina (divine hearing) and visio divina (divine seeing), as well as other adaptations. In the practice of audio divina, we enter through the act of listening for the voice of the divine in a musical selection, the spoken word, or any natural sounds. Likewise, in the practice of visio divina, we utilize our eyes to engage with the One Great Love. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning affirmed in her poem Aurora Leigh, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.”

On a personal note, I draw from the wisdom of the 12 Step tradition in my own prayer life and appreciate what the second step states, “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” For me, that power is Love, and the various contemplative practices in which I engage awaken me to Love. I know first-hand that contemplative practices increase my sense of wellbeing and reduce feelings of alienation.

In the span of this precious and brief life, it is important to consider questions, such as, “What is my why?” and, “Where am I investing my energy?” Perhaps contemplative living will be part of those answers for each one of us as a powerful way of contributing to personal and global peace. And so fellow traveler, may our hearts join in hope as we journey together noticing with delight all the common bushes afire with God.

References

De Mello, A. (1985). One minute wisdom. New York: Doubleday.

Frankl, V. E. (1966). Self-transcendence as a human phenomenon. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 6(2), 97–106. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.982.8509&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Maslow, A. H. (1969). The farther reaches of human nature. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1(1), 1–9. https://atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-01-69-01-001.pdf

Rich, T., Chrisinger, B. W., Kaimal, R., Winter, S. J., Hedlin, H., Min, Y., Zhao, X., Zhu, S., You, S.-L., Sun, C.-A. Lin, J.-T., Hsing, A. W., & Heaney, C. (2022). Contemplative practices behavior is positively associated with wellbeing in three global multi-regional Stanford WELL for Life cohorts. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013485

Zappala, C. R. (2007). Wellbeing: The correlation between self-transcendence and psychological and subjective wellbeing (Publication No. 3297586) [Doctoral dissertation, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.