Contemplative philo-sophy

In the philo-sophical process we seek to examine ourselves and go beyond ourselves, but our normal capacities are limited. So many fountains of wisdom and plenitude are available to us, but we rarely make ourselves available to them. We usually think and act from our perimeter, instead of sending our roots beyond ourselves.

The result is that when we examine our lives, we tend to do so from the narrow perspective of our perimeter – from our fixed patterns of conceptions. But our aim in philo-sophia is to understand life from a greater wisdom. We therefore need to overcome this limitation and understand ourselves from beyond ourselves. But how do we do open ourselves to this kind of understanding?

One way is through CONTEMPLATION. Contemplation is an inner attitude which we can practice as an exercise, or in everyday life. We contemplate when we open an inner space, or clearing, and “listen” for new understandings. More accurately, when we contemplate we attend to a specific thing – to an idea, to a text, to a past or present experience. We push back our normal patterns of thoughts and reactions, and let an understanding come into us and speak in us.

Since contemplation aims at understanding, it is a form of philosophy – contemplative philo-sophy. But unlike academic philosophy that seeks theoretical opinions, in contemplation we seek understandings that would animate us and inspire us. These understandings cannot always be formulated as a theory.

Contemplation is not the same as meditation. It does not necessarily mean that we sit in a Lotus posture and close our eyes and do breathing exercises. We can open a clearing in ourselves and let new understandings animate us even when we are at work, or on a bus, or in the middle of a conversation. Contemplation is an inner attitude.