Knowra Contemplation Contemplation Contemplation is sustained attention or reflection directed toward spiritual, philosophical, or sacred matters. It may involve focused awareness, inquiry, prayer, or silent observation.
Meditation : A practice of training attention or awareness through sustained mental focus. Many contemplative traditions use meditation to stabilize attention or investigate experience.
Attention : The selective focusing of cognitive resources on particular information or experience. Contemplation depends on directing and sustaining attention toward its subject.
Desert Fathers : Early Christian hermits and monastics who pursued prayer and ascetic life in Egypt and neighboring regions. Their practices shaped Christian traditions of solitude, watchfulness, and inward prayer.
Mindfulness : Awareness of present experience, often cultivated with an attitude of openness and acceptance. Mindfulness often emphasizes present-moment awareness, while contemplation may pursue sacred or philosophical understanding.
Lectio Divina : A Christian practice of slowly reading, meditating on, praying with, and resting in scripture. It turns contemplation into a structured sequence centered on sacred text.
Introspection : The examination of one's own thoughts, feelings, and mental processes. It supplies an inward mode of reflection, though contemplation can also focus beyond the self.
Neoplatonism : A philosophical tradition rooted in Plato that describes reality as emanating from the One. Its account of ascent toward the One made contemplation central to philosophical life.
Ritual : A patterned sequence of actions performed according to cultural or religious convention. Ritual organizes outward actions; contemplation primarily sustains inward attention or reflection.
Centering Prayer : A Christian contemplative practice of resting silently in consent to God's presence. Its repeated return to a sacred word supports receptive, non-discursive attention.
Prayer : Communication or communion with a deity or sacred reality. Contemplative prayer is one major form of sustained spiritual attention.
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