Contemplative meditation involves considering or observing a particular situation, question, or idea from inside a meditative state of consciousness in order to gain insight or clarity about it. That’s distinctly different from the essence of mindfulness meditation, which involves (1) doing your best to clear your mind of the many thoughts that often slosh around like clothes in a washing machine in order to be as fully here-and-now in your sensory awareness as possible, and also (2) noticing the thoughts that do remain and arise, contemplative meditation actively guides your thinking process within a meditative state. “From inside a meditative state” means that you clear your mind of most other matters in order to gain one-pointed focus on the item you’re meditating on. Or at least to come as close to one-pointed focus on it as you can.
How do you do that? First you attain a quiet, calm focused mind. For most people that’s quite different from our usual everyday mind. If you’re in that mental state to begin with, perhaps because your surroundings take you there, you can intentionally go directly into contemplative meditation. Or perhaps your surroundings take you into that mental space and you find yourself sponteneously in contemplative meditation about some matter of concern or interest. Like, for instance, someone who’s fishing alone and finds that a good time to contemplate his or her concerns.
More often –at least for many people– contemplative meditation is a stage in a meditative session after you’ve taken yourself into a meditative state and have used one or another concentrative practice (such as described in some of these blogs) to slow your thoughts that are sloshing and whirling around in your mind. You’ve used some kind of mantra or counting practice, or perhaps some other meditative method used in a tradition you follow, to take yourself into that state of having a quiet, calm focused mind.
At that point you can choose among one of three forms of contemplative meditation: You:
- . . . may have one specific matter in mind that you’d like deeper insight into, or understanding about.
- . . . can choose either intentionally or randomly from a “menu” of subjects for contemplative meditation that past gurus, sages or others have found to have particular value as subjects for meditating.
- . . . can move into a “hybrid mindfulness” meditation in which you begin with a more or less empty mind, notice what appears in it, and let that be your subject of contemplation for as long as you find value in doing so
Whichever of those three options you choose, you follow the same basic process. Continue to maintain an awareness of your breathing (breathing in, breathing out) but without any mantra or breath-counting. If you like (especially if your mind tends to be very active or busy) you can also maintain a moving mudra, or if you need to do so in order to keep your focus, maintain visual splitting,
Then make the subject you’ve chosen your focal point. Don ‘t “try to think” about it, but simply let whatever appears in your consciousness that feels in any way related to it unfold. If there’s any kind of valuable insight in it for you, take a moment to voice-record it with your device or jot it down in the tablet that you keep next to you when you meditate. No lengthy detailed treatises — just a few words will usually suffice to remind you of something you otherwise might forget.
Whenever something not related to your subject comes into your mind, let it go and bring your attention back to your breathing and your subject, just as if you were bringing it back to a mantra or breath-counting practice.
Wait watchfully in mind-silence with your subject as your focal point. Whenever any thought that feels like it may have some value arises, follow it and stay with it. As soon as you notice that your mind has drifted off it and into something else (as sooner or later it usually will) bring it back to your subject. Continue to do this until you feel finished with it, or until the time you’ve set aside for your contemplative session is up. (I usually like to allot about 20 minutes for this, with space in my schedule to go on longer if it feels valuable.)
“Hmm,” you might say. “It sounds to me like contemplative meditation is a sort of hybrid cross among mindfulness, concentrative meditation, and ordinary thinking.”
Congratulations! You’re right. But it’s thinking from a clear, focused ground instead of thinking from the somewhat chaotic and confused ground of our usual everyday consciousness. Thinking in which key insights and realizations don’t have to compete with the waves of thoughts and ideas about a whole lot of other things, but can bubble up to the surface of your awareness as if from the depths of a still pond. That can make all the difference. I sometimes find that long-forgotten or long-suppressed items from my unconscious come up as I do this. (Be forewarned that sometimes you might remember things that you’ve forgotten because they portray you in a less-than-admirable light—but the chances are that if you do, you can handle them now, which you couldn’t when you repressed them.)
If you choose option 2 of the 3 mentioned above as starting points for your contemplative meditation session, you might find it useful to read a few brief words about the chosen subject from others who have reflected on it. With many of the items you might choose as starting points, you’ll find such reflections in one or another of the cells of Matrix Meditations.
Enjoy your new meditative adventure!