Practice contemplation to feed your soul

The practice of contemplation — is it impossible? Yes, but that is because we are not taught that almost all thinking is compulsive.

If we notice, our minds chatter, grinding thousands of words every minute — worrying about the future, replaying past events, inner dialogue and obsessive thoughts of fear or anger. So, we easily abandon the practice.

This endless mental chatter — or monkey-mind — prevents us from focusing: to be in the moment, to notice the beauty around us, to sleep at night. Or worse, to miss the presence of God.

Last year, I had the opportunity to train seven Clinical Pastoral Education students as hospital chaplains at the Philippine Heart Center, a government hospital with a 450-bed capacity, committed to care for patients with heart disease and related ailments.

The intern chaplains’ reactions to the crises and traumas they encountered were staggering. I intervened when I knew most of them were unable to sleep, rehashing in their minds what they experienced both in patient visits and in sessions.

I introduced the practice of contemplation — to focus on their breath or a chosen word that they could go back to, patiently and gently, when thoughts surfaced. Call it a “practice of failure,” says Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, because at the start of silence, it is not attained. It is, however, good not to feed the ego when it occurs because this is a spiritual practice, not an achievement.

I noticed some changes with them after a few weeks of practice. They were more authentically themselves in the midst of fear, anxiety or struggle.

I saw the impact of this practice when on the eighth week, a student led a morning prayer of silence. Many things had happened in our interactions by this time. In the silence, two people who had difficulty accepting each other were moved to embrace and without words forgave each other. Pretty soon, everyone was hugging and praying in the silence of their hearts. The prayer ended with tears of joy at the vividness of the loving presence of God felt by everyone.

“God was not in the strong wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the still small voice” — 1 Kings 9-12. Contemplation is prayer, a felt experience of God’s loving gaze. In scriptures, we know Jesus experienced this intimacy with his Abba.

Contemplation teaches us how to let go of our illusion that we are separate from God because it heightens our awareness of the presence of God in everything and everywhere. It gives us a broader perspective because we are coming from a neutral zone rather than from our bias, judgment, anger or fear.

We may think that we are too busy with the real world to practice contemplation. Yet, who needs contemplation more but the anxious and worried mother, the workaholic father, the fearful person, the busy pastor, the hurting son or daughter, the irritable boss? We all need a contemplative mind. Without it, whatever we do becomes another way of escape from oneself instead of loving service for others.

The practice of contemplation starts with quieting our monkey-mind, putting in effort to recognize our compulsive and repetitive patterns, letting go of them gently, patiently. Slowly, in the silence, we become aware of God’s joyful, loving, tender gaze upon us — we behold the gift until it feeds our soul and impels us to offer this divine gaze to others.

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Practice contemplation to feed your soul."