Becoming a Modern Contemplative : A Psychospiritual Model for Personal Growth

Becoming a Modern Contemplative : A Psychospiritual Model for Personal Growth - Praca Zbiorowa

Becoming a Modern Contemplative offers a twentieth-century model for personal and spiritual growth by exploring a variety of human experiences within the scope of contemplative psychology. Contemplation means different things to different people. For Dr. Richard Patterson, contemplation is movement toward life, not away from it.
Patterson contends that everyone has the potential to be a modern contemplative and reap the personal benefits. "I will argue that one can be a contemplative in traffic, at one's desk, while eating a meal, while attending or teaching a class," he writes. Dispelling the notion of the passive contemplative, Patterson suggests that contemplation is more than mere meditation and offers, as evidence, two examples of active contemplatives: author Thomas Merton and suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Certain "tools" are required to follow the contemplative path - solitude, a journal, a sacred place, and a companion - while certain stances - simplicity, detachment, sensuality, a sense of humor, self-discipline, gratitude - help lead the way. Becoming a Modern Contemplative is not merely a "feel-good" approach to personal growth but is a call to actively face one's dark side and confront the evils of the world. Only then will we be able to come to terms with our own inner conflicts. Ultimately, Becoming a Modern Contemplative is for those who wish to grow in their interior life and in external