Contemplation

A faithful rendering of Adyashanti’s instructions:

1. Choose a small, potent phrase. Begin small — a single word or short phrase rather than a whole text. Adyashanti’s example: to contemplate change, take just “the courage to change the things I can” from the Serenity Prayer. A line of scripture, a teaching phrase, or a single word (e.g. grace, surrender, trust) all work.
2. Settle into silence and stillness first. Contemplation happens in the quiet of awareness, not in busy thinking. Come to rest before you begin.
3. Hold the phrase in awareness — patiently. Place the word or phrase in “the silence and stillness of your awareness” and simply hold it there. Don’t dissect it or argue with it; keep returning to it gently when the mind wanders.
4. Let meaning steep, don’t extract it. Wait receptively. “Let the wisdom flow from it like tea from a steeping teabag” — allow deeper and deeper layers of meaning to disclose themselves on their own timing, rather than reasoning toward a conclusion.
5. Stay with one phrase long enough. Resist jumping to the next line. The disclosure deepens with patient dwelling; the same phrase can reopen over many sessions.
6. Close by resting in what was revealed. When you finish, sit in meditation with the wisdom that arose — relax, let go of the day’s concerns, and “just be” with the understanding, letting it settle rather than immediately mentalizing it. (Sourcing note: the definition “holding a word or phrase patiently in the silence and stillness until it begins to disclose deeper and deeper meanings,” the steeping-teabag image, the Serenity-Prayer example, and the “begin small” instruction are Adyashanti’s documented teaching, attributed and faithfully paraphrased — short fair-use quotation only.)

Adyashanti (Steven Gray, b. 1962) lists contemplation as one of three core practices in The Way of Liberation, explicitly distinguishing it from inquiry: inquiry challenges, contemplation receptively reflects. → (Adyashanti).

The method closely parallels the Christian monastic lectio divina (especially its meditatio phase — ruminating on a short scriptural phrase) and the broader contemplative-reading tradition, recast for a nondual audience.

Lectio divina (Christian) — lectio / meditatio / oratio / contemplatio: reading a short passage, then dwelling on a word until it speaks; the nearest classical relative.

• Jewish hitbonenut — contemplative pondering of a concept until it permeates feeling and understanding.
• Sufi tafakkur — reflective meditation on a divine name or verse.
• Mantra/japa — repetitive holding of a word (more rhythmic/repetitive; contemplation is reflective rather than repetitive).
• Koan dwelling (Zen) — holding a phrase past the discursive mind; shares the patient holding but aims at a break, not a steeping.

Analyzing instead of holding. Dissecting the phrase turns contemplation back into ordinary thinking; the practice is receptive dwelling, not commentary.

• Starting too big. Whole chapters overwhelm the attention; “begin small” — one word or line.
• Impatience / phrase-hopping. Moving on too fast prevents the steeping; stay with one phrase well past the first obvious meaning.
• Forcing a result. Trying to make meaning appear blocks it; wait receptively and let it come.
• Refinement: keep a notebook for what discloses itself, but don’t write during the holding — let the dwelling lead.