Contemplation and Meditation
In Christianity, contemplation refers to a content-free mind directed towards the awareness of God as a living reality. This corresponds, in some ways, to what in Eastern religion is called samadhi.
Contemplation as a practice is finding greater resonance in the West both in business – for example in Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization – and in universities in fields as diverse as architecture, physics, and the liberal arts.
In Catholic Christianity, contemplation is given importance. The Catholic Church's "model theologian," St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation." One of his disciples, Josef Pieper commented: "For it is contemplation which preserves in the midst of human society the truth which is at one and the same time useless and the yardstick of every possible use; so it is also contemplation which keeps the true end in sight, gives meaning to every practical act of life."
Read more about this topic: Contemplation
Famous quotes containing the words contemplation and and/or meditation:
“One can hardly imagine a more healthful employment, or one more favorable to contemplation and the observation of nature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The real meditation is ... the meditation on one’s identity. Ah, voilà une chose!! You try it. You try finding out why you’re you and not somebody else. And who in the blazes are you anyhow? Ah, voilà une chose!”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)