“In this state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding an object in view; the vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and act of vision have become identical.” StatesViewsVisionSeeingObjectsContemplationIdentical Author:Plotinus
“Salvation is not some felicitous state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus' death and our resurrection in his. It comes not out of our own best efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human efforts whatsoever.” HumansWellsStatesJesusChristEffortExampleCreationSalvationInspiredLiftsContemplationResurrectionPursuedGood ExamplesBest EffortShipwreckBootstrapsJesus Death Book:Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus Source: Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus
“Drugs took me to places; they were like portals. It's kind of a cliché, but they were like portals to altered states of consciousness into ways of imagining the world, or seeing a world beyond this world, or seeing a world beyond this world that I might not have gotten to unless I discovered meditation and a very deep, intense spiritual path based on contemplation and meditation.” WorldWayKindStatesMightSpiritualConsciousnessPathMeditationSeeingThis WorldDrugIntenseContemplationAlteredSpiritual PathVery DeepPortalStates Of ConsciousnessAltered StatesAltered States Of Consciousness Author:Anne Lamott
“As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism. Perpetual contemplation of our own actions produces a morbid consciousness, quite unlike that normal consciousness accompanying right actions spontaneously done; and from a state of unstable equilibrium long maintained by effort, there is apt to be a fall towards stable equilibrium, in which the primitive nature reasserts itself. Retrogression rather than progression may hence result.” MayLongSelfStatesDoneActionFallResultsEffortConsciousnessProduceNormalCriticismContemplationStablePerpetualPrimitiveModerationProgressionEquilibriumUnstableMorbidRight ActionSelf Criticism Author:Herbert Spencer