Contemplation occupies a structurally privileged position across the depth-psychology corpus, functioning not merely as a devotional posture but as the culminating mode of intellective life toward which both ascetic discipline and psychological purification are oriented. The Philokalic tradition, represented most extensively in the Palmers’ translations of Evagrius, Peter of Damaskos, Maximos the Confessor, and Gregory of Sinai, presents contemplation as a graded ascent — from the natural contemplation of created things, through the spiritual discernment of inner essences, to the imageless prayer that approaches union with divine realities. Evagrius systematizes this as the dialectic between praktike and theoria, a schema inherited from Aristotle but radically transformed through Christian apophatic theology. Plotinus independently grounds creation itself in a self-contemplating activity of Nature, suggesting that all productive action is at root an act of contemplation. The I Ching corpus introduces a structurally analogous but culturally distinct treatment through Hexagram 20, where contemplation is the receptive correlate of active approach — a penetrating, wind-like survey of the world that legitimates governance. McNiff extends the concept aesthetically, insisting that visual contemplation of artworks is the irreducible basis for all psychological interpretation of images. These parallel traditions share a common recognition: contemplation is not passive withdrawal but the most intensely active mode of knowing available to the purified intellect.
the act of production is seen to be in Nature an act of contemplation, for creation is the outcome of a contemplation which never becomes anything else
Plotinus argues that the Nature-Principle’s creative act is identical with its act of self-contemplation, making contemplation the ontological ground of all production.
, The Six Enneads, 270thesis
This higher form of contemplation has several names, such as the first contemplation or contemplation of the Blessed Trinity. It results in simple intuitive knowledge or again what he terms ‘essential knowledge’.
Evagrius distinguishes a supreme form of contemplation — the theoria of the Trinity — yielding an experiential, non-essentialist knowledge of God that transcends ordinary intellectual capacity.
, Praktikos, 2009thesis
You must be governed by both ascetic practice and contemplation. Otherwise you will be like a ship voyaging without the right sails.
The Philokalic text insists that praktike and contemplation are mutually necessary, neither sufficient alone for the spiritual life.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
through contemplation he gains spiritual knowledge of the inner essences of all sensible forms and passes beyond them, raising his intellect to the divine realities that are akin to it.
Contemplation is defined here as the intellect’s movement through the logos of created things toward assimilation with divine realities, representing the classical Maximian trajectory.
, The Philokalia, Volume 2, 1981thesis
Evil men, for instance, possess only a very rudimentary form of contemplation which gives little penetration into the true meaning of things. Angelic knowledge, on the other hand, is known as the first natural contemplation.
Evagrius grades contemplative capacity along a cosmic hierarchy, from the merely mimetic contemplation of the fallen to the angelic first natural contemplation, with purified monks occupying an intermediate position.
, Praktikos, 2009thesis
the intellect, when it has attained the heights of the law of spiritual contemplation, destroys man’s all-pervasive subjection, established through the symbols of temporal things, to sense-perception and to the outward form of things.
Natural contemplation is presented as the instrument by which the intellect dismantles its bondage to sensory symbols, disclosing the disparity between temporal signs and divine realities.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
God confers on them the meditation that belongs to the first stage of contemplation, which enables them to acquire inexpressible contrition of soul and to become poor in spirit.
Peter of Damaskos presents the eight stages of contemplation as a divinely conferred progression, beginning in compunction and moving toward the peace that constitutes the dwelling-place of God.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
Contemplation of God can be understood in more than one fashion. God is not solely known by way of that astonished gaze at His ungraspable nature, something hidden thus far in the hope that comes with what has been promised us.
Cassian argues for a pluriform understanding of contemplation that encompasses providential history, creation, and inner purification, not solely apophatic mystical ascent.
, Conferences, 426thesis
Climacus arranges the steps in general accord with traditional divisions of the ascetic life into basic monastic virtues, followed by the practical life and the contemplative life.
Sinkewicz identifies the twofold division of praktike and theoria as the structural scaffold of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, tracing its lineage through Evagrius back to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
, Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, 2003supporting
When the stage of ascetic practice has been fulfilled, spiritual visions flood the intellect like the sun’s rays coming over the horizon; even though they are native to it, and embrace it because of its purity, they appear to come from outside.
The passage describes the phenomenology of contemplative breakthrough, wherein visions native to the purified intellect appear as gifts from without, constituting the characteristic paradox of mystical illumination.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
Aesthetic contemplation is the basis for all of our other methods of interpreting and engaging artistic images.
McNiff grounds the entire enterprise of art therapy in aesthetic contemplation, arguing that all interpretive methods presuppose the prior discipline of sustained visual attention.
, Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul, 2004thesis
Action, thus, is set towards contemplation and an object of contemplation, so that even those whose life is in doing have seeing as their object.
Plotinus subordinates all active life to contemplation as its end, arguing that even practical agents unconsciously seek the vision they pursue by the indirect circuit of deed.
, The Six Enneads, 270supporting
When looking deeply at things, we get outside ourselves and become immersed in the object of contemplation. This meditation brings new and vital energy into our lives.
McNiff frames aesthetic contemplation as a self-transcending, enlivening discipline analogous to sitting meditation, requiring regular practice to yield its psychological benefits.
, Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul, 2004supporting
He must not content himself with a shallow, thoughtless view of prevailing forces; he must contemplate them as a connected whole and try to understand them.
The I Ching commentary distinguishes superficial observation from genuine contemplation, which requires holistic, systemic understanding of the forces at work.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
The wind blows over the earth: The image of CONTEMPLATION. Thus the kings of old visited the regions of the world, Contemplated the people, And gave them instruction.
Hexagram 20 figures contemplation as the penetrating, all-revealing movement of wind over earth — the sovereign’s receptive attention to the people as a basis for wise governance.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
The face of the Lord is true contemplation and spiritual knowledge of divine things attained through virtue. When one seeks this contemplation and knowledge one learns the cause of one’s destitution and dearth.
Contemplation is identified with the ‘face of the Lord’ — true gnosis of divine realities accessible only through virtue — whose absence reveals the soul’s poverty.
, The Philokalia, Volume 2, 1981supporting
I will make it clear to you through the threefold Buddhist contemplation of emptiness, delusion, and the centre.
The Secret of the Golden Flower deploys a threefold Buddhist-Taoist structure of contemplation — emptiness, delusion, and centre — as the framework for the inner alchemical work of heart-emptying.
, The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, 1931supporting
being nourished by the contemplation of heavenly things. His intellect was often lifted up to contemplation, and he did not know if he was still on earth.
The passage presents contemplation as a consuming nourishment that absorbs the hesychast so completely that the distinction between earthly and heavenly existence collapses.
, The Philokalia, Volume 2, 1981supporting
The lesson may be learned by contemplation rather than by having to go through a disagreeable experience. It also means that the lesson is applicable to all situations.
Anthony interprets Hexagram 20 as indicating that inner contemplation can substitute for experiential suffering as a vehicle of learning, extending the principle’s universality.
, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988supporting
everyone who after practicing the ascetic life devotes himself to the contemplation of God and cleaves to stillness. Out of the treasury of his heart he brings forth things new and old.
Gregory of Sinai identifies the contemplative who cleaves to stillness as the true interpreter of sacred texts, whose contemplation of God yields inexhaustible spiritual treasure.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
you should refresh yourself with the contemplation of created realities when you relax from prayer; with conversation about the life of virtue when you relax from silence.
The Philokalic text positions natural contemplation as a form of spiritual refreshment that complements rather than displaces the higher discipline of prayer.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
By meditating in this way, a man gradually advances to the third stage of contemplation.
The passage marks a transitional moment in Peter of Damaskos’s eight-stage schema, linking meditative compunction to progress in the ordered ascent of contemplation.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995aside
The rite of sacrifice is shown to the people and contemplated by them. The holy man knows the laws of heaven. He reveals them to the people, and his predictions come true.
The hexagram commentary links communal contemplation of ritual with the holy man’s knowledge of heavenly law, framing contemplation as the socially mediating act between divine order and human instruction.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950aside