Contemplation and Action: A Reflection
The deepest things in life come not singly but in paradoxical pairs.
Parker J. Palmer[1]
Life itself is the necessary school for contemplation. Richard Rohr[2]
Contemplation and action often seem to be at odds with one another. To consider them together is like comparing opposites. Contemplation implies inwardness, solitude, silence, letting go into emptiness, a slow attentiveness. Action implies outwardness, interaction, speech, effortfulness, quick movement and decisiveness. As one who has a “contemplative bent,” this sense of opposition has often been my experience as I have led a very active life with many responsibilities. Yet both contemplation and action are needed and necessary parts of a full and balanced life. Intuitively, I have known, opposite as they may seem, that they are jointly part of a deeper truth. As Parker Palmer puts it, “Our drive to aliveness expresses itself in two elemental and inseparable ways: action and contemplation. We may think of the two as contrary modes, but they are one at the source, and they seek the same end — to celebrate the gift of life.”[3]
What has emerged for me is a picture of contemplation and action that has three movements. First is the experience noted above: contemplation and action as opposites. From this emerges a deeper picture of the two as complements — mutually supporting and interdependent aspects of life in which we move from one to the other and back again. Finally, and only hinted at within my own experience, is contemplation and action being a simultaneous unity, each being implicated by the other in any and every moment of life.
Pause and Reflect:
Are you more inclined to the life of action or of contemplation?
How do you experience the relationship between these two?
Contemplation and Action: The Tension of Opposites
“Contemplation” is a word used with a wide range of meanings: prayer, meditation, journaling, movement, song, etc., that takes one on an inward path. At the heart of all these practices is the intention and desire to make a connection with and come into relationship with the ultimate Reality and Mystery that we name as God. In one way or another all such practices involve a time apart from the activity of daily life.
In contrast, the active life takes us not inward but outward. Action is not withdrawal but engagement with the world — things, people, ideas, plans, decisions. Action is what we do to generate and sustain the conditions of our lives. It is by action that we earn a living, initiate and sustain institutions, create and procreate, build and maintain friendships, acquire knowledge, and serve others. Love is not a sentiment, but an action. Without action, without those engaged in the active life, without those willing to sacrifice through work and effort, none of these would be possible.
Contemplation and action, then, seem to be in opposition to each other in each of their major characteristics. When taking time for contemplation, it is hard to imagine how one can be active. Contemplation is the place and space of non-action. Solitude and silence are not the conditions for the active life. One must move out of this space to become active. When living the active life, it is equally hard to imagine how one can be contemplative. Where is the possibility for letting go in the demands and the movements of the active life? How can one carve out solitude in the midst of incoming emails, ringing telephones, people at the door, and a multiplicity of meetings? Where can one find silence in the midst of interruption, questions, instructions, reports, and conferences?
Pause and Reflect:
Where and how have you experienced this tension between contemplation and action?
Contemplation and Action: Complementary Movements
Opposite as contemplation and action may seem, my own deeper awareness shows me that they are in fact complementary movements. Parker Palmer affirms this when he says, “Contemplation and action ought not to be at war with one another, and as long as they are, we will be at war within ourselves.”[4] Right action grows out of contemplative awareness. In turn the active life provides the life experience that is the soil of contemplative attention. Without this proper relationship and balance between contemplation and action, Palmer says that “our active lives remain harried and violent, never transformed by contemplation; our contemplative lives remain escapist, never transformed by action.”[5]
The spiritual journey is often characterized as a series of stages — awakening, letting go, the dark night, illumination — all of which lead to the experience of union with God. But in truth, union is not the end point of the journey but its new beginning. The springtime of union leads to the long summer of service. Love of God that is not manifested in love of neighbor is not the fulfillment of the law but a distortion of it. If contemplation does not lead, however quickly or slowly in this direction, then it is not God that has been encountered in the midst of contemplation but some aspect of the ego or the false self. It is false contemplation that is a dangerous illusion.
The tension between contemplation and action, at least for me, is the tendency to move too quickly to action. .It is easy for me to justify the extra time in activity due to its importance, its urgency, or its volume. What is needed is a proper balance, a willingness to engage in the contemplative task until it is done, and a willingness to pause regularly in the active life to check in with the deeper source that guides and energizes it.
Pause and Reflect:
What is your experience of balance or lack of it in the back and forth between contemplation and action?
Contemplation-and-Action: A unified reality
“Contemplation is the highest form of action,” Aristotle is said to have observed. Can it be that beyond being opposites, beyond being complementary movements, “contemplation-and-action” is a unified reality? Palmer points to this in his interpretation of the story of the feeding of the five thousand.[6] Although Jesus and his disciples had headed off for a quiet place of solitude for a time of contemplation, they found instead a crowd hungry for the word and way of Jesus. Without hesitation, Jesus discerns his call for that moment and begins to teach, setting aside the plans for a time of rest and prayer. When evening arrives and the disciples seek to dismiss the crowd so the people can go find shelter and food, Jesus acts decisively for a second time, challenging them to feed the people themselves and then showing them the way. This is contemplation-in-action, for the actions of teaching and feeding are simultaneous with the contemplative stance of love from which they proceed. Jesus is in such alignment with the Source that action and contemplation interweave in time and space.
We might use woven fabric as a metaphor for how contemplation and action are related. The warp of the fabric is the contemplative stance that forms the hidden framework that holds the action together. The weft is the action that is organized upon the warp. Without the weft, the warp is merely a collection of parallel threads that hang loosely. Without the warp, the weft is just a pile of so many colors of yarn, unorganized and with no substance or structure at all. Yet when woven, each section of the fabric, no matter how big or small, is held together by the interaction of warp and weft, the warp providing the hidden structure and the weft the visible and beautiful pattern.
Pause and Reflect:
Have you had any warp/weft experiences where reflection and activity felt seamlessly interconnected? What was that like?
Contemplation and Action: A Human Look
It might be helpful to imagine these three movements of contemplation and action to be stages. First, we experience them as opposites. Then, with growing maturity, we see and experience and even live out of their complementary nature. Finally, we grow into the simultaneous experience of “contemplation-action,” as we pray unceasingly in our life of action. However, I doubt we can ever get fully beyond experiencing all three movements. Nor do I think that is necessarily a bad thing or a handicap. Even Jesus, while epitomizing contemplative action (or active contemplation) spent time in solitude and silence. Even he had to find his rhythm of engagement and withdrawal to a quiet place. And even he, I can only imagine, in his humanness felt the tension between the one and the other.
As I look at the implications of all of this for me in my own active life, I find there are perhaps three invitations. The first is to be willing to recognize, hold, and not refuse the experience of tension between contemplation and action. That will continue to be a part of what it means for me to be human acting and praying in the world. If anything, the tension is an opportunity for growth and, perhaps, to reflect on and adjust the balance in life between contemplative practice in solitude and silence and active engagement in daily life. The second is to be sure to find, and adjust as needed, that balance between contemplation and action as complementary activities. When action becomes too predominant, I would hope that I would experience and recognize the signs, and back off sufficiently to reflect on my active life in contemplative practices. Likewise, when contemplation becomes too predominant, or too self-absorbed or misdirected, I would hope again to recognize the signs and respond. Finally, I would hope, out of a regular and balanced practice of contemplation and action, to find from time to time, and perhaps more often than now, the sense of action and contemplation merging in the moment as compassionate service.
Pause and Reflect:
What invitations in your own life are surfacing just now with respect to action and contemplation?
[1] Parker J. Palmer. The Active Life: Wisdom for Work, Creativity, and Caring. Harper San Francisco. 1990. p. 102.
[2] Richard Rohr. Everything Belongs. Crossroad Publishing Company. 1999. p. 79.
[3] Palmer. Op. cit. p. 15.
[4] Palmer. Op. cit., p. 6.
[5] Ibid. p. 16.
[6] Palmer. Op. cit. Chapter 7.
Copyright Hearken Books.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from Hearken Books is strictly prohibited.
