Contemplation

This dissertation is about the tenets of spiritual development outlined in Thomas Merton’s writings. Merton (1915 – 1968) was a monk, scholar, author, spiritual practitioner, and mystical theologian. Beginning with the research question: “What is Thomas Merton’s contribution to the theory and practice of spiritual development as found in some of his selected writings on community vs. solitude, contemplative vs. “mental” prayer, and knowledge of self vs. knowledge of God?” I interrogate several veins of literature. These include previous scholarly investigation of Merton and his writings, spiritual development, spiritual direction; Merton’s intellectual, philosophical, and theological heritage; and his monastic and spiritual heritage. Using three selections from Merton’s corpus as data, I employ hermeneutic phenomenology, including Gadamer’s three levels of hermeneutic understanding, and analytical commentary to study objectively and react subjectively to three passages, one each from Merton’s books, letters, and journals. I ascertained Merton’s contribution to the theory and practice of spiritual development in sufficient detail to produce several findings and a model of spiritual development that describes the relationships between the themes of the study (from the research question), some of Merton’s other concepts, and the contributions of other theorists who have studied Merton or spiritual development. Previous Merton scholarship has failed to offer any coherent and comprehensive description of Merton’s views on spiritual development that is both methodologically sound and psychologically informed. The current study successfully fills a gap in the literature by examining Merton’s writings using accepted methodological tools, considering Merton’s thought in the light of other theories of spiritual and psychological development, and offering both a narrative description and model of the major elements of Merton’s approach to spiritual and psychological development.

Accompanied by a new translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics X, this volume presents a hybrid between a traditional commentary and a scholarly monograph. Aristotle's text is divided into one hundred lemmata which not only explore comprehensively the content and strength of each of these units of thought, but also emphasise their continuity, showing how the smaller units feed into the larger structure. The Commentary illuminates what Aristotle thinks in each lemma (and why), and also shows how he thinks. In order to bring Aristotle alive as a thinker, it often explores several possible ways of reading the text to enable the reader to make up their own mind about the best interpretation of a given passage. The relevant background in Plato's dialogues is discussed, and a substantial Introduction sets out the philosophical framework necessary for understanding Book X, the final and most arresting section of the Ethics.

This paper presents a Platonist and Indo-hellenistic ascetic and renunciant view of sexual desire and sexuality and the necessity of celibacy on the spiritual path and concludes that for the many who won't be celibate contemplative ascetics/philosophers lawful and legitimate sexual activity is confined solely to heterosexual intercourse in the context of an indissoluble monogamous marriage.  Thus, it advocates the traditional sexual morality totally in opposition to the modern, naturalist, post-sexual revolution world.  This traditional sexual morality is exactly what the divine Plato advocates for the many in the Laws.

in New Theology Review vol. 18 (2005) 82-85.

Founded on Fidelity to Reality and Conversion to God's Reign, Liberation spirituality (and theology) grow on five pillars.
1) Contemplative Vision
2) Preferential Option for Poverty
3) Universal Brotherhood/Sisterhood
4) Eucharistic Communion
5) The Sign of the Cross

It is well-established that the Jesus prayer basically takes form in early monasticism. Just a few scholars have very briefly suggested a possible connection with late antique philosophy. This article examines the early development of the Jesus prayer in the Collationes by John Cassian, the Gnostic chaptersby Diadochus of Photike andThe Ladder of Divine Ascentby John Climacus, over against two well-known practices in late antique philosophy: meletē or meditation (a repetitive recitation of short sayings) and mnēmē tou theou or dei memoriam (a practice aimed at a constant remembrance of God). From the considerable correspondence in form and purpose, the article argues for a clear impact from late antique philosophy on the gradual development. The main differences are the type of text that is the object of the practice, and the inner attitudes that the practice is aiming at. Homer and Greco-Roman wisdom sayings are replaced by bible verses, and humility and repentance are new monastic inner attitudes not that prevalent in ancient philosophy.

Excellent rational activity is central to happiness as outlined in the Nicomachean Ethics. This chapter argues that this activity is contemplation, but not practical activity in accordance with the virtues, because only the former satisfies the criteria for happiness presented in EN I.12: being honourable, complete, and divine. This intellectualist account of happiness is then defended against the charge that Aristotle distinguishes between human and divine happiness, where only the latter, but not the former requires contemplation: Aristotle’s distinction is rather between qualified and unqualified happiness, and the latter requires contemplation. Finally, the happy life according to this interpretation is sketched: while contemplation makes a life happy, it is not the only thing that counts, as human beings also need to act well in social settings.

This essay refers to 'attributes' of the Absolute and shows how they are reflected in specific facets of contemplative asceticism and renunciation and that this is the way to embody the Absolute in this world.  It attempts to establish contemplative asceticism and renunciation 'a priori', in a way, directly on the basis of metaphysical and spiritual facts and the nature of the One, without recourse to external authorities or traditions.

This essay shows and discusses that, exactly contrary to what the world thinks, worldly and bodily and sensual pleasures and desires and pursuits are actually pain and misery and deprivation, and celibate, vegetarian, teetotalling contemplative asceticism and renunciation is pleasure and happiness and sufficiency.

My theme is ‘life-writing’, understood as the shaping of one's life through the contemplation of values, although this activity is mostly unreflective. To become an art so that one's life can be shaped in greater accord with clearly held values, this process must become reflective. These values have an inescapably ethical dimension, because as we necessarily poetize our surrounding world, we contribute to our personal and communal ethos the character that arises from the culturally shaping power of guiding ideals. Even the immoralist cultivates life within an ethos where obscure feelings connect with some thing or other, whereby certain aims will then appear more valuable than others.

To understand how we cannot help but shape our lives according to dimly or clearly intuited values, I compare Coleridge’s primary imagination, the ‘shaping spirit’ ‘necessary for all human perception’ with Kant’s ‘blind though indispensible function of the soul, without which we would have no cognition at all, yet of which we are scarcely ever conscious’. With Coleridge, we find in imagination an impulse to connect profound but obscure presentiments and ideas with our surroundings. This impulse propels great art and everyday aesthetics alike. Whether we pursue merely what attracts us, or seek value beyond this, all lives are freely shaped, without excuses, as the existentialists say, but not always in the most pellucid consciousness. Our choices inevitably engage us in the poetic art of life-writing. Cast in medias res, we necessarily improvise. But this is no argument against lives being moral-aesthetic works, spontaneous compositions in value.

In her novella Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard draws from the deep tradition of Christian spirituality to probe the nature of human existence. The work chronicles the events of a three day period, yet as the poetic expression of Dillard’s innermost thoughts it addresses a lifetime’s worth of philosophical questions. Dillard’s method of writing involves turning the eye of her mind toward the smallest details of her environment. In doing so she finds an Incarnational peace of contemplative solitude. But a horrific, accidental plane crash shatters this peace and leaves a young girl named Julie Norwich permanently disfigured. The event forces Dillard to rethink whether a logos exists for creation, to cry out into the darkness of God, to test the crushing limits of human temporality. The tragedy of Julie Norwich is an apt lens through which to view the problem of theodicy in the life of prayer. What has the apparent passivity of contemplation to say in the face of real human suffering? Why is something as temporary, changeable, and embodied as a human being worthy of love? My paper analyzes Holy the Firm as a meeting place for Christian spirituality and ethics. I argue that the novella’s form (structure) and content (events and imagery) convey deep spiritual truths about the relationship between the material world and the work of God in Christ. Tracing Dillard’s matrix of poetic imagery through the novella’s three chapters, I find a symbolic journey of faith that parallels three major events in the life of Christ—His Baptism, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. Dillard’s personal tone urges the reader to follow along, to join her in discovering a metaphysical key that makes sense of the apparent dichotomies between “body” and “soul” and the “immanence” and “eminence” of God. Can humans achieve the “peace that passes understanding” through contemplation in a world that appears increasingly chaotic, arbitrary, and distant from God?

A Q. and A. on "the reason for asceticism".  An inquiry I received about the rationale for asceticism from a Platonist perspective giving the questioner's tentative understanding and asking for my comments followed by my somewhat lengthy response.  I give an explanation from some aspects of the Platonist rationale for asceticism and its uncompromising necessity, and point out that asceticism is not just instrumental but a necessary and ongoing good in itself, and that contemplation and asceticism must always go together.

D’après l’oracle d’Apollon, Plotin avait une capacité extraordinaire à ne jamais vraiment succomber au sommeil. Porphyre, dans le commentaire qu'il donne de cet oracle, introduit l’idée remarquable d’une double attention, tournée tout à la fois vers l’intérieur et vers l’extérieur. L’éveil de Plotin ne serait donc pas simplement une autre manière de parler de la contemplation, mais engloberait aussi un pôle « pratique », dirigé vers le monde des sens et de l’action. L’étude des Ennéades nous montre que le commentaire de Porphyre s’appuie vraisemblablement sur Plotin lui-même, lequel soutient que l’éveil du sage, fondé dans la contemplation des intelligibles (des Formes que Plotin présente littéralement comme « insomniaques »), s’exprime également à travers l’action. La thématique de l’éveil se révèle ainsi riche en enseignements, en particulier en ce qu’elle nous force à réviser notre interprétation de la vie du sage selon Plotin, une vie qui ne rejette pas l'action, mais fonde bien plutôt celle-ci dans la contemplation.

This is an article in the philosophy of happiness — but one with an untypical focus. It clarifies the claim of the phenomenologist Dietrich von Hildebrand that (H) high happiness comes especially from loving others, and compares it with the apparently rival Aristotelian claim that (A) high happiness comes especially from contemplating God. The former claim is understood to be about felt love (love defined as an emotional rather than volitional state). Both claims are understood to be about felt happiness (happiness defined as an emotional state rather than a state of objective flourishing). The article argues that, in fact, the two claims are not rival but mutually consistent, since the beloved person can be God, and the contemplation can be a loving one. Both claims are also consistent with scientific evidence, although it is tangential and tentative. Moreover, both claims are plausible, since both are backed up by intuitive explanations of why they should be regarded as true. However, both are in need of a further philosophical or scientific research that could confirm them even more.

Announcement of the 2nd WORLD ENCOUNTER TERESIAN MYSTICISM AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE: Chan/Zen Buddhism and Carmelite Spirituality:  ON LOVE AND COMPASSION (Ávila, Spain, July 26th to 30th of 2022).

https://www.mistica.es/en/2nd-world-encounter-teresian-mysticism-and-interreligious-dialogue

DENIS the Carthusian affirms Mary as the summa contemplatrix, interpreting the plenitude of grace of Luke 1:28 to include the theological gift of wisdom. In Dionysian thought, the gift of wisdom equates to mystical theology, unitive wisdom, or contemplation by negation, the highest form of prayer possible in this life to a wayfarer.

Denis the Carthusian makes an original contribution to Marian studies by positing the exemplarity of Mary's prayer, in accord with Denis's notion of contemplation, suggesting that Mary enjoyed a singular perfection in Her intellectual knowledge of God before the Incarnation; was later instructed in mystical theology by Her Divine Son, the God-Man; and attained to the contemplative vision of God while still on earth as a foreshadowing of the beatific vision Mary now possesses in heaven.

This doctoral dissertation, written by a cloistered monk not unlike Denis the Carthusian, seeks to penetrate the silence and solitude of contemplative monastic life lived by one of Christianity's most prolific authors and popularly hailed "the last of the schoolmen" to explore the notion of Marian contemplation and the incomparability of Mary's prayer for twenty-first century imitation and pastoral application.

What is the relationship between friendship and human flourishing? This is a central topic in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and one to which Maimonides also returned throughout his career. Despite the relative neglect of this topic in recent scholarship, I argue that friendship (philia) was an important link between moral and intellectual perfection for Maimonides. He identified Aristotle’s virtue friendship with the love between students and teachers and also interpreted many of the divine commandments as efforts to promote both family and virtue friendship among the Jewish people. Friendship was aligned thematically in Maimonides’ writings with topics like kinship and sexuality, circumcision, and the ethics of speech, all of which point in different ways to the unresolved tension between rational and sensual aspects of our human condition. This article therefore contributes to the investigation of the relationship between Maimonides’ legal and philosophical writing on social themes. While Aristotle clearly influenced his reading of biblical and rabbinic texts for example, I will also argue that Maimonides’ religious and communal commitments helped to push his reading of Aristotle in a broadly inclusive direction— both with respect to the range of different goods that are appropriate to an ideal human life as well as the potential accessibility of those goods to different classes of persons. I offer this article as a corrective to the exaggerated focus on seclusion and solitary contemplation that has characterized academic scholarship on Maimonides.

Christian asceticism assumes that human beings can profoundly
transform themselves over years of systematic training, with
divine aid. This contribution joins recent scholarship in stressing
the therapeutic and transformative dimensions of asceticism,
but argues that it was not solely or primarily through bodily
training that asceticism implemented this program. In the
Eastern monastic tradition of late antiquity, it was primarily
the mind that needed to be transformed and renewed through
ascetic practice. The form of asceticism at the center of this
study thus involves a disciplined and systematic attempt to
purify the mind and train attention, in the service of
contemplation

This chapter offers analytical meta-reflection on the process of identifying, surveying and examining the current field of academic yoga and meditation studies. It discusses significant and ongoing shifts in this field of study, as well as the scholarly choices that contributors have faced collectively in what they have classified under the categories of ‘yoga’ and ‘meditation’ and in the terms they have used. This chapter discusses the theoretical and practical challenges of one of the first attempts to bring into direct dialogue two closely related areas of academic research: meditation and yoga. Finally, the chapter also points to emergent themes, foci and issues in the field, as well as to current gaps for future research.

https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Yoga-and-Meditation-Studies/Newcombe-OBrien-Kop/p/book/9781138484863

This paper discusses the temporal experience of film viewing by analysing the peculiar case of watching slow cinema, a strand of films that foreground temporality through its radical attenuation of narrativity as well as its austere, minimalist visual style. The article asks why the genre's distinct structuring of temporality divides its audience into diametrically opposing evaluations – i.e. evoking both strong appreciation from a dedicated audience and depreciation from an adverse audience-and poses the question how stylistic and formal aspects of stillness of film as well as viewing attitudes of the audience can correlate to an experiential effect of heightened temporal awareness, or what is dubbed slowness. This is understood as a pensive or contemplative viewing mode that is to be distinguished from boredom. Previous work on the topic has failed to adequately address the issue of slowness, because it has favoured a predominantly formalistic study of slow cinema over the explication of its experiential effects. This paper adds to the debate by adopting the framework of a 'poetics of cinema' (as put forward by David Bordwell); a form of inquiry that assumes a relation between functions and desired effects. This paper thus integrates the study of formal facets of a film, or its constructional principles, with a phenomenological description of the viewing experience, that is, analysing the spectatorial effects of a film. The paper proceeds to answer the stated question by first designing a theoretical framework comprising of three interrelated types of stillness of slow cinema's Deleuzian time-images that afford the typical experience of slowness. Consequently the paper elaborates further on the facets of this temporal experience; the said contemplative mode or form of lingering attention entails a heightened awareness of time or a Husserlian now-consciousness that affords a heterochronic temporal experience. The implications of this understanding of temporal experience in watching slow cinema could benefit the study of time experience in film in general. Moreover, understanding slowness might shed light on the relation between normative or evaluative acts and the audience's biases based on unquestioned, habitual engagement with film.

«Relegado al olvido en su patria durante siglos, en Miguel de Molinos (1628 - 1696) se cumple el aforismo “el tiempo no borra, ubica”. Y lo hace apenas desde principios del s. XIX en que comienzan a surgir estudios sobre su figura y reediciones de sus obras, principalmente de la más destacada: su “Guía Espiritual”. Ya, más recientemente, en los finales del pasado s. XX es que se le otorga el merecido reconocimiento como “una de las figuras máximas de la historia de la espiritualidad” y uno de los máximos exponentes del “quietismo”.

Quietismo que,en la expresión que de él hace Miguel de Molinos, entronca verazmente, en diversos aspectos, con el Hesicasmo (derivado de ἡσυχία/hēsykhía, "quietud, silencio, paz interior") de los monjes del Cristianismo Oriental.

También se conoce a su pensamiento como “molinosismo”, un pensamiento “cargado de una profunda y esperanzadora filosofía”, “filosofía paradójica que entraña la más extrema epojé; aquella que aniquila y destruye sin paliativos la última raíz de lo ilusorio y de la apariencia: el ego.”»

We have two ways of knowing. Our mind knows forms, things, both subtle and gross. Faces, hands, buildings, trees, math formulas, mind knows subject and the mind knows otherness. The mind knows dualities, the mind knows me and you, us and them, and this and that. Mind knows time, mind knows the past, the present and the sense of the future. The mind knows things and entities, the mind knows beings, infinite numbers of beings and things. The mind knows difference. The mind thinks conceptually, feels affectively, imagines through imagery, the mind has sense and the mind has memory. The mind knows dualistically.

L’ouvrage de Pierre Hadot, "Plotin ou la simplicité du regard", dont nous nous apprêtons à faire la recension concerne sa dernière édition de 1997. Les changements qui sont intervenus dans la rédaction de cet essai aussi transportant que riche sur la vie et l’œuvre de Plotin, ne sont pas anodins. Comme le dit explicitement l’auteur dans sa postface, ses propres traductions et commentaires, accompagnées des nouvelles traductions des Ennéades de Plotin, l’ont fait évoluer dans la « représentation » (p. 196) qu’il se faisait du disciple d’Ammonius (p.16). Ces précisions mettent en exergue deux aspects : le premier, celui d’une continuité dans le traitement, par Pierre Hadot, de l’œuvre plotinienne, et, la seconde, l’importance de la problématique relative aux rapports entre « l’Esprit aimant » (p.197) et « l’Esprit pensant » (p.198), entre l’Esprit et l’âme et surtout, entre l’âme et le monde sensible (corps et choses). C’est pourquoi, au lieu de commenter servilement le cheminement de l’auteur divisé en sept chapitres, nous pensons lui faire mieux honneur en présentant son livre autour de la mise en tension de deux thèmes : d’abord, l’ascèse du voir, et, ensuite, le problème gnostique. La façon dont P. Hadot présente de la philosophie plotinienne manifeste en effet une certaine complicité du regard avec son antique prédécesseur, complicité qui ne manque pas, comme toutes, de dévoiler une certaine tonalité subjective dans l’appréciation de ce lointain et inconnu ami, ainsi qu’une certaine critique, une distance fraternelle entre deux points de vue, l’un, antique et l’autre, inévitablement moderne.

This paper examines the phenomenon of 'spiritual' or 'imagined' pilgrimage in Medieval Europe. An analysis of the contemplative processes encountered in physical pilgrim travel precedes an examination of the culture of contemplation on Heavenly Jerusalem in both the cloistered and domestic spaces. Labyrinth pavements and devotional images are addressed a tools for spiritual pilgrimage, and the crypt at Hexham Abbey is also briefly addressed. The symbolism of gesture, iconography and the imagination all play a role in the interior journey towards Jerusalem, in both it's physical and heavenly representation, and allowed the Medieval laity to move closed to the sites encountered in biblical scripture without necessarily having to embark in travelling across continents.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is considered to be one of the most important Catholic American authors of the twentieth century. In this book one can discover Merton not only as a contemplative writer and prophet, but also as a pastoral practitioner.
Dominiek Lootens is a Catholic practical theologian with more then twenty years of experience as a pastoral supervisor and educator in Belgium and Germany. Using his own professional practice as a starting point, he reflects in this book on the life and work of Thomas Merton. He shows how relevant Merton can be for pastoral pactitioners who are active in today´s global context. A variety of professional topics are discussed: interfaith hospital chaplaincy, migration and practical theology, pastoral supervision and spirituality, natural contemplation and Orthodox pastoral theology, racism and adult education, and the training of chaplains as social justice allies.
This book offers practical theologians and pastoral practitioners an in-depth view in the life and publications of Thomas Merton and invites them to bring it into dialogue with their own professional practice.

The spiritual tradition of hesychasm is arguably one of the most distinguishable features of Athonite monasticism. This chapter explores hesychasm’s deep intertwining with Mount Athos, by following its historical unfolding from its inception in the 14th century to its instrumental role in the 20th century Athonite renewal.

Almost two thousand years ago, the Indian sage Patañjali, an inheritor of several of these maps, and a noted master navigator of consciousness, composed an integrated set of aphorisms that describe in great detail the structure and dynamics of consciousness within the human being. More than simply a description, however, Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra provides a theory-practice continuum which includes "... effective definitions, explanations and descriptions of key concepts and terms relating to theoria and praxis in Yoga." This paper is an attempt to sketch a pragmatic map of consciousness for a modern techno-digital culture by describing Patañjali's model of the structure and dynamics of consciousness in the languages of science.  The model will be shown to be supported by recently hypothesized theories of consciousness put forward by the Cambridge molecular biologist Johnjoe McFadden , the New Zealand neurobiologist Susan Pockett,  and the Stanford physicist Frank Heile. 
The model presents human consciousness as operating in two distinct modes: 1.) as a fluctuating process of time-based organic memory and symbolic reasoning within the constraints of the physical neuronal systems, and 2.) as a nexus of electromagnetic energy flux aligned axially within and radiating outward from resonant cavities within the human body. I will describe how this model parallels and is supported by Patañjali's description of 1.) the human mindstuff (citta) and its relation to 2.) radiant consciousness (puruṣa).

Amidst the rich panoply of Jewish Kabbalah, Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) resonates the most with modern, philosophically minded seekers of direct mystical experience. Abulafia was unique amongst Jewish mystics in providing precise instructions for personal spiritual practice. Despite a severe rabbinical ban, the subterranean influence of Abulafia’s complex of ideas and meditation techniques is evident upon many central figures in the history of Religion and Philosophy, including Chaim Vital, Pico della Mirandola and Spinoza.

"The Heart of Jewish Meditation: Abraham Abulafia’s Path of the Divine Names" translates three of Abulafia’s meditation texts to provide reliable access to this fascinating historical figure for modern acolytes of the heretical eternities.

Timeless awareness is the essence of Dzogchen. Time experienced within timeless awareness is also an expression of the essence of Dzogchen. Dzogchen is an ancient form of Tibetan mystic humanism. Dzogchen makes the essential distinction between mind and awareness. A person can be located in mind alone and locked in time. As a person shifts from being located in mind alone (mindfulness) and goes beyond mind alone (mindfulness), one becomes aware of their own awareness. As we focus our awareness on our own innermost awareness, vast dimensions of awareness begin to open and self-reveal its nature to us. Awareness is a multidimensional experience and this awareness is infinite in its horizons. The innate qualities of awareness are spaciousness or openness or emptiness. Another quality of our awareness is luminous radiance and still another is awareness as energy. Awareness is alive and is both vast stillness and unceasing movement. The Union of Mind and Awareness When a person is able to experience the union of their mind and their awareness, then the person has a simultaneous experience of being in time and in timeless awareness. The mind is the place of thinking, feeling, sensation, memory and imagination and the mind is the mode of knowing singularity and difference in the world. This is the realm of ordinary knowingness and this is the realm of duality. Our mind is the realm of time. This time bound knowing is the knowing of you and I, us and them, this or that in time and place.

O fascínio pela verdade do olhar sobre as coisas conduziu a autora à questão essencial: “Sendo o desenho a forma primordial de expressão, ferramenta materializadora da ideia e do universo que nos rodeia, por que razão existe, inexplicavelmente, um estigma de inaptidão acentuado em relação ao mesmo? ” A intenção da autora é demonstrar que o desenho, no seu estado essencial, é idêntico à meditação, e que, se for efectuado com essa postura, origina resultados bastante positivos. Através da pesquisa nas áreas da Meditação e do ensino do Desenho, bem como o testemunho da autora e de demonstrações filmadas, aquando da utilização deste método, por parte da autora e pela dos alunos, acompanhados por registos fotográficos dos mesmos, demonstra-se o resultado real e visível daquilo que foi vivenciado, e que constitui um passo em frente no ensino da disciplina e uma nova forma de aprendizagem, revelando uma abordagem ao desenho, mais natural, total e consciente.

The fascination of seeing the truth of things led the author to the essential question: "Being the drawing the ultimate form of expression, a tool that materializes the ideas and the universe around us, why does exist, inexplicably, a stigma of sharp unfitness regarding this issue?" The author's aim is to demonstrate that drawing, in its essential state, is identical to meditation, and that, if executed accordingly to this state, it can lead to positive accomplishments. By the means of researching on such areas as meditation and the teaching of drawing, as well as through the author’s testimony herself and videotaped statements, produced while using this method by the author and students, all together with photographic records of the drawings, it can be seen the actual and visible result of what has been experienced and can been considered a step forward in the teaching of the discipline as well as a new way of learning, and at the same time revealing a more natural, total and conscious approach to drawing.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/30159

In the summer of 2013 at the Tibetan Center in Poolesville, Maryland the great Lama YangThang Rinpoche gave instruction on the practice of the great compassion, or as he described the practice, as being the practice of Absolute Compassion. The instruction was to extend the light of awareness into the world and into the cosmos. Extending the light of awareness into the present moment of a person, extending the light of awareness into the past time of the person and extending the light of awareness into the future time of the person. This truly is the great practice of the great compassion and everyone can practice this extension of the light of awareness. This very proactive praxis brings forth the light within us and fills us with the light of the field of awareness. It is great to practice this vast practice. Of course it takes a boldness of intention and passion of heart. Extending the light of our innermost awareness into the present of those we love, and into the past of those we love, and then extending the light into their future of those we love is self-liberating. The light of awareness illuminates experience, metabolizes experience, opens us into un-bound awareness, undoes fixated-ness, and brings forth luminous intensity. The light of awareness is pure potentiality. The same practice can be used with those whom we hate or dislike or whom disgust us. This practice of extending the light of awareness deepens our own experience of becoming aware of awareness. As we practice extending the light of awareness, awareness itself completely opens up for us and deepens our experience in depth and breath. In time we begin to experience the true secret of this praxis. Timeless awareness begins to be experienced by us and sustained by us. Timeless awareness is the