Western Contemplation
It is well known that one of the principal methods used on the Eastern Way for bringing order to the mind and overcoming the illusions of personal existence is meditation. At the same time, contemplation, as one of the Western techniques aimed at expanding awareness, is far less known and is often confused with Eastern meditative approaches.
However, whereas in Eastern meditation practice the primary importance lies in calming the mind’s surges — diminishing the personality’s streaming tendency by directing attention to the mind itself, i.e., self-centering and self-absorption — in the Western tradition the aim of contemplation is to expand consciousness beyond its limits through contact with other elements of awareness.
In other words, meditation brings order to the mind, bringing it face-to-face with itself, while contemplation brings it into contact with the turmoil of consciousness beyond the personality.
Of course, as parallel paths, these two techniques are largely analogous, differing, as always, only in their direction. Thus the question reduces to which direction is more suitable for a given stream of consciousness to move — toward its source or toward its mouth.
Thus, a Magus for whom contemplation is an important component of the twofold nature of his practice must clearly understand what he is doing and why; otherwise, he risks falling into the clutches of the destructor of passivity.
The essence of contemplation is the experiential discovery of the multiplicity of streams of consciousness, and of their interconnection and union through a common source — the Great Spirit’s striving for self-knowledge in the totality of its differentiated aspects — and by a common outcome — the pleromic fullness of fully realized being.
For this, the mind is trained to extend beyond its personal boundaries, while retaining its sense of self — that is, without merging with the ocean of global consciousness. Considering this Ocean as a collection of separate drops, the mind hovers on the threshold, on the one hand feeling itself part of the whole, and on the other experiencing itself as the whole in part.
Technically, this involves the close contact of a stream of individual consciousness with another such stream preselected, and the discovery, on the one hand, of their shared nature and, on the other, of the nature of individuality — the manner in which each of these distinct streams attains its own fulfillment.
The result of such interaction is a deep — that is, transformative — understanding that the individual mind is a drop destined to become the ocean.
Contemplation can be compared to a drop absorbing the ocean, while meditation is like the ocean absorbing a drop, isn’t it?
Contemplation at the highest level is the ability to look at the Great Spirit, oneself, and everything around through the eyes and consciousness of the Great Spirit. To feel in full the Force of Awareness, Realization opportunities, and Realization probabilities. To see at the same time the Great Spirit, oneself and everything around with one’s own eyes and one’s own consciousness. Thus achieving Merging without Absorption 🙂
Meditation is the plant level of human consciousness.
Contemplation is the animal level of human consciousness.
Contemplation of the highest stage is probably when human consciousness meditates on community, and sees itself in this community. And along with this, from the position of community, meditates on itself. Thus producing changes in itself and in the community.
The most pleasant thing is when after the process of contemplation, I saw in myself a small ray of light, like a beam. I don’t know what it is, but I want to cover it with my hands while walking down the street so that it doesn’t go out. This ray evokes a very tender and touching feeling of purity.
I would like to add that alongside the awareness of the flows, there came a sensation that beside my consciousness, the growth of Another feeling of the World is taking place. That is, consciousness does not influence this process. Whether there will be a merging of these processes in the future, I do not know. And is this merging necessary?
In fact, the consciousness of the world influences the feeling of the world. I believe that by ‘awareness of flows’ you understand the awareness of flows in the smaller world, for example in the world of human society, whereas ‘Another feeling of the World’ is precisely the feeling of the larger world, for example the planet Earth. I consider that for achieving maximum efficiency this merging is necessary, as the smaller world in this case is a part of the larger world, and with the merging it will be possible to bring more from the second into the first.
It is also curious that the Russian mentality equally possesses both meditation and contemplation. The first – due to somatics (thirty years and three years on the stove), the second – due to an indelible striving for spirituality (“You cannot understand Russia with your mind…”). And all of this exists in Russian fairy tales.
The question may seem childish, but I will risk asking it; perhaps someone has encountered something similar or knows what it is about. While meditating (specifically contemplating the streams of thoughts arising in my head and gradually subsiding), I sometimes began to notice that in moments of calmness, when no thoughts arise in my head and there is complete tranquility, it seemed as if an open eye was looking at me. I felt no emotions, it was calm, it seemed to emerge from dark emptiness and then disappeared. It did not appear all the time, only when I made some progress, for example, increasing the time in meditation, or when visualizations visibly improved, and similar things. After such an appearance of this ‘eye,’ trials begin, such as a loss of enthusiasm for practices or some minor material difficulties—something that wants to throw me off practice, and so on. Has anyone encountered something similar? Maybe I’m just overthinking this?
I will answer from my perspective. There is something called the thought sphere. Where in the ocean of things once seen, imagined, heard, etc. ‘visual images, sound ‘tracks’, etc. ‘fly around.’ I spent a period watching entire pop songs and movies that were never broadcast in our reality. By meditating, you reduce the load on the ‘sensors of the body’ and begin to perceive fragments of ‘white noise.’ As for difficulties and petty problems—they are a thorny path to knowledge, its beginning.