For many people today "the tyranny of the urgent" hinders them from cultivating a richly contemplative way of life. To do this requires a spiritual practice that wisdom teachers refer to as holy leisure and interior solitude, a sensibility that in our modern secular age has gone almost entirely out of the world. To cultivate a contemplative and fully human life is nothing less than to go in search of the Holy Grail, to discover the unity of reality and the wholeness of experience within the Greater Ecology of Universal Being. A truly conscious and contemplative approach to living will integrate the spiritual, ethical, intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, relational, somatic, communal, societal and ecological dimensions that circumscribe and express our full humanity.
Three of the most transforming contemplative practices that I know of and can commend from personal experience include: (1) listening regularity with focused intention to selective works of classical music, especially medieval, renaissance and baroque music, and to any music that has not abandoned sacred longing and transcendent vision; (2) reading widely and deeply among the great books, including the fields of religion, spirituality, theology, philosophy, history, literature, arts, sciences, psychology and sociology, books by brilliant and gifted writers that explore life's fundamental metaphysical, nature, human and social questions; and (3) keeping an intensive journal for nurturing new seeds of contemplation. Such a journal will include thoughts and reflections, vision and dreams, intuitions and hunches, descriptions and sensations, emotions and moods, conversations and dialogue, fantasies and memories. It will open up and widen the doors of our perception.
Relatively few people today seem to engage in these contemplative and creative practices. It is not surprising. These kinds of transforming practices that nurture the human heart, soul, mind and spirit are simply not appreciated or valued by our modern secular utilitarian society that is obsessed and driven by the pervasive preoccupations of economics, commerce, consumption, entertainment, media and technology. Even most "religious church-goers" I know are obsessed to some degree or another by these secular preoccupations that may well be their true religion.
We pay professional ministers, educators, artists, therapists and activists to be holy, knowledgeable, creative, sane and civil for us, if that is possible. The truth is that each of us is responsible to become all of these ourselves by virtue of realizing the potential of our full humanity. The recovery of the practice of a true contemplative life is essential if we seek to nurture passionate souls, loving hearts, expansive minds and transcendent spirits.
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