What is Contemplative Spirituality? A Framework for Spiritual Life
In 2013, I began to lead workshops on contemplative spirituality and meditation; this wasn’t because I was an expert (far from it), but because I was searching for community.
I had grown up in a religious tradition that offered symbols and customs that just didn’t work for me any longer: praying to what Christena Cleveland refers to as “whitemalegod,” sitting quietly in a sanctuary staring up at a pastor who had the magical powers of blessing, singing of sacrifice and redemption.
I was searching for fellow journeyers who were also letting go of these traditions while seeking to connect with the sacredness of all things.
In these early workshops, I would start by asking people:
What is contemplation?
In almost every setting, the results were the same. I would hear words like “silence,” “darkness,” “chanting,” and most would paint an image of monks wandering the hallways of some far-off monastery.
I admit, this is what I used to think as well. But if that were the case, contemplation just wouldn’t matter much to most of us. Engaging a contemplative life would be a specialized field, only accessible to the wealthy who have leisure time and the monks with their vows and hyper-scheduled days.
I just don’t think that’s right.
Instead, I’ve come to a definition of contemplation that I think can make sense for all of us, one that invites each of us to have an embodied spirituality in our day-to-day lives.
For me, contemplative spirituality means three things:
Become more intentional and present to your life.
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1. The Divine is Right Here, Right Now.
Rather than seeing the Divine as some far-off god who judges us from the sky, we are invited into a truly spirit-filled world, one in which That Which is Bigger Than Us is present in the here and now.
James Finley, a wisdom teacher if there ever was one, says that the Divine is the “intimate immediacy of Love, manifesting itself in every moment.” In other words, whether we’re sitting in centering prayer, intentionally seeking union with God, or just going about our day-to-day lives, the Divine is present with and within us. In this worldview, we have some really good news: every human, every animal, every plant, and every thing we see is infused with the sacred.
Call it Divine DNA, if you will.
2. The Divine is Experiential and Embodied.
If every thing is sacred and the Divine is with us at all times, even in the moments of pain and suffering, it means we can experience the Divine in every moment! Because what good would the Divine be if it was within us and around us but we couldn’t access it?
This is one of the key similarities across contemplative traditions and core elements of a contemplative spirituality: if we are mindful and intentional in our day-to-day lives, we can begin to recognize our own divinity and the sacred nature of Life, in all its messy glory. In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, “we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
3. Story, Practice, Solidarity.
A world that is infused with the Divine is a truly amazing place…and even more-so if we can lean into it.
But most of us struggle mightily with that! We have jobs and kids and duties to get to, to-do lists filled with shopping lists filled with multi-store excursion lists. For most of us, our lives are already filled to the brim with the doings of life. Without even realizing it, we might find ourselves skimming over the depths of our own lives, moving from one thing to the next.
A contemplative spirituality gives us some tangible tools with which to shift our default operating system from one of incessant doing to one of intentional being. When we engage with our story, develop practices that fit us, and move within our communities with solidarity, we become more in-contact with the divinity of the present moment.
Story: understanding the story we hold of ourselves, the world, and the cosmos
Practice: embodying the person we want to become in the present moment
Solidarity: direct activism, working with those marginalized by systems of harm
Engaging a contemplative spirituality ultimately isn’t about adding more to our lives. It’s about shifting our inner sense of self and our outer worldview from scarcity to abundance, from consumption to creation, from production to celebration, and from seeking control to seeking justice.
How do we engage a more contemplative spirituality?
Through examining our experiences and systems of belief, building a daily practice that fits us, and beginning to infuse our daily lives with solidarity. Read more about these 3 Fundamentals of Practical Inner Work.
Looking for a space to engage your inner work practice?
In my experience, when we don’t have an engaged, embodied practice, it becomes way too easy to drift from one thing to the next, just go through the motions of life, and feel like we’re running on autopilot.
Richard Rohr and my teachers at the Living School often refer to this as the “default operating system.”
And it can be difficult – almost impossible – to change because so many of our families, friend groups, and faith communities would prefer we maintain the status quo rather than ask any difficult or challenging questions. They like this status quo for us, even if we’re experiencing internal rumblings and instability in the quiet moments of our lives.
So we try to “just keep going” with feelings of apathy, burnout, and a lack of connection with both our inner life and our communities as well.
If this resonates, I invite you to join our upcoming 30-day inner work cohort and live into a new rhythm for your life.
Here are a few contemplative teachers I’ve been informed by:
Mary Oliver (poet)
James Finley
Howard Thurman
Mirabai Starr
A Little About Me:
For the past ten years, I’ve worked to support folks in navigating transitions in their identities, spiritualities, and sense of meaning.
In 2022, I wrote my first book Unmasking the Inner Critic: Lessons for Living an Unconstricted Life, which Brian McLaren called “a beautiful and accessible guidebook to help you do the inner work central to the act of being human.” And in 2023, I launched the Inner Work Cohort, a focused 30-day program dedicated to helping folks build a daily practice that feels sustainable, life-affirming, and dignity-centered.
My approach is influenced by my time at the Living School for Action and Contemplation, where I sat at the feet of modern mystics Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Barbara Holmes, Brian McLaren, and James Finley, my ongoing training in integrated parts work and somatic awareness, and my daily practice of walking, questioning, and holding space with others.
