Living Contemplative Abundance

I think to understand what contemplation is really about is to understand how to first necessarily and intentionally withdraw from the hedonistic nature of the ordinary world and the illusions of that kind of world. Because by no means is the world ordinary. The mundane world is obsessed with pleasure and desire. The desire for more and more and more. If we want to keep our minds free from the traps and the illusions and especially all the despair that all that uncontrolled desire will bring us then we need something as a toolbox, as a practice that we can use every day to keep us out of the dungeon of the mind. More just wastes time in the end. More never amounts to more and so it is a trap for many unawakened people. Living Contemplative Abundance in everyday life means that you are able to recognize what the best of life is about. It is about letting go of the delusions and stress of life that we always need to catch-up, to get somewhere else and never really feel like we are okay.

“Today expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. Realize the past no longer holds you captive. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. Let the past go. A simply abundant world awaits. (January 11)”
― Sarah Breathnach, Simple Abundance

Contemplation is as dynamic as it is abstract and it is seen with a very right-brained kind of vision and perception. It doesn’t calculate or analyse. It connects and synthesizes the world as we know it. You cannot deeply explore the benefits of contemplation if you stay plugged in to a rushed, stressed and busy world. It is through a kind of self hypnosis that we can practice how to get our minds out of the worthless and into the meaningful aspects of life. This daily work is nothing short of enlightening your body, mind and soul by awakening awareness in all of these aspects of the self.

PRACTICE BEFORE THE STORM

All of us have an illusory self that keeps us from Living Contemplative Abundance ever day. This false self is something that we need to take off like an old coat when the time is right. Once it has served us well we need to give it back. We return it once we have used up all its usefulness that contained our immature natures. Sometimes this false self we are speaking of becomes so much part of us that we actually believe, over time, that it is the true self. It is however only a persona and a mask, hiding what and who we really are until we awaken. So this is what people are talking about when they talk about the transcendent or spiritual self that wakes up through practices like contemplation. This seeking people are doing is all about finding your true self, your purpose and real meaning in life. The mind of a contemplative is always receiving the present moment through all five senses. It hears, listens, sees, touches and tastes everything it can. It breathes in the fragrance in the air that others do not even notice.

“I was surrounded by friends, my work was immense, and pleasures were abundant. Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fanlike petals on eternal soil. Overall, I was happiest to be alone; for it was then I was most aware of what I possessed. Free to look out over the rooftops of the city. Happy to be alone in the company of friends, the company of lovers and strangers. Everything, I decided, in this life, was pure pleasure.”
― Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

Over time we have learned to hide our vulnerability. We need to become aware again of how vulnerable we really are. We believe our own lies that others will get sick, others will die, and others will not have as much as we do in our pursuits of more. But life has a way of teaching us what pain means. And when you really understand this and it brings back the essence of vulnerability, you will be on your way towards all things transcendent. Towards Living Contemplative Abundance in everything you do and create for yourself.

The old workhorse boxer in George Orwell’s animal farm had a solution to every problem in life. “I’ll just work harder”. This is the result however of more of the same. Of more is better. It glorifies busyness. But the main teaching that we can take from this is that most things that we do are a waste of time. What a conundrum! Now, if we are sleeping away and doing mundane tasks for 50% of our lives how foolish would it be to use part of the other 50% to accumulate only material abundance. This really falls short of the value of us as human beings. Deepak Chopra has remarked that those are the very people that need help. “Those are the very people that will one-day say life went by and all I did was get busy. I’ve never heard, as a doctor, a patient say to me “I wish I worked harder or spent more time at the office!”

Centering Contemplative Practice

1. Affirm that you are always worthy of abundance right now. It is not something that hangs just behind the next corner.
2. Affirm that you are rooted and centered in the abundance of Love.
3. I am now bathed in a new abundance mentality and am expecting a life shift through loving kindness that surrounds me now.

Extract from the Book by Mark L Lockwood, The Power of Contemplative Intelligence. Get The Power of Contemplative Intelligence eBook and audio book today for one special price and read more about Living Contemplative Abundance learned at our Wellness Center and discover other topics that will help you live your best life now.