“Contemplation is usually understood in terms of Buddhist meditation, yet Christianity has an equally rich and diverse tradition, best exemplified in the contemporary context by the Trappist monk, poet, activist, and mystic (and Columbia BA) Thomas Merton, contemporary and interlocutor of the Dalai Lama, D. T. Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, and essayist and poet Kathleen Norris. Contemplation also has a rich philosophical heritage in the West, from Aristotle to Schopenhauer and Husserl. And its objects include not only deities but the natural world, works of art, and the transcendental; all begin with the experience of wonder. Contemplation is not the same as meditation: the latter is any one of a set of practices aimed at concentrating the mind on a state of nonjudgmental awareness, while the former involves deep reflection–on a blade of grass, a poem, the nature of truth or a divine being–it can be as much aesthetic as it is religious. Contemplation yields understanding, the satisfying grasp of all the facets and the significance of a situation; intuition, the sense that a state of affairs is good or true; unattached love; fascination; and the happiness of finding repose, one’s place in the world. In our digitally driven lives, powered by the engine of capitalism, we are hungry for meaning; contemplation, a less well-known technology of the self, is an invaluable resource”–
