{"id":19532,"date":"2023-07-09T08:14:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T07:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=19532"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:45:26","slug":"contemplation-and-illumination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/contemplation-and-illumination\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemplation and Illumination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When meditation falls away into stillness so deep that you forget yourself, contemplation begins. Assagioli draws the path between contemplation and illumination: silence in, light out.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Docs. #23204 and #23205, Assagioli Archives, Florence [1]<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span>
Original title: Contemplazione e Illuminazione<\/em>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.
This lecture concluded a multi-part course Assagioli was teaching, which is why it culminates in an extended allegorical reading of the Grail legend and Wagner’s Lohengrin Prelude as the course’s symbolic crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this lecture, Roberto Assagioli distinguishes contemplation from meditation: where meditation marshals the inner faculties, contemplation stills them, holding intense concentration and complete receptivity together so that something deeper can work in the soul. When consciousness participates in that hidden work, illumination follows: flooded light, new intuition, inner transfiguration. He gathers testimonies from Pascal, Whitman, Bucke, Edwards, and others, then sketches the objects suited to contemplative practice from short verses through symbols up to the seedless contemplation of the Spirit. The lecture closes the course with an extended reading of the Grail legend as inner work, and with Wagner’s Lohengrin Prelude as its musical analogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

At the last meeting we talked about meditation, and we saw how a complete exercise of meditation involves the use of all our normal inner faculties. In fact, meditation requires the successive and simultaneous use of:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Memory<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Thought<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Imagination<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Feeling<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Desire<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Impulse<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Will<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Purpose<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The cycle ends with <\/span><\/span>Action.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But there is another exercise \u2014 or inner activity \u2014 by which higher levels of consciousness are reached: deeper and more valuable energies are aroused and more powerful results are achieved, as much in deep inner transformation as in efficiency and radiance in life. This inner exercise is <\/span><\/span>contemplation<\/span><\/span><\/em> . However, since this word has been given different meanings, it is good to specify how we understand it, even though it is something that can hardly be expressed in words. In the practice of meditation, when we have reached the highest and most vital point, that is, to arouse the feelings inherent in the theme of meditation, can we pause, and rise again? With a burst of aspiration we can almost try to get out of ourselves, to contemplate the chosen object steadily until we can identify ourselves with it, to become one with it. This implies a <\/span><\/span>silence<\/span><\/span><\/em> of all faculties, a special state in which there is on the one hand intense concentration, and on the other hand there is complete receptivity to the thing contemplated. In this state we forget ourselves; or more precisely we forget our ordinary personality with its usual states of consciousness (memories, thoughts, images, feelings). But this does not mean that we become unconscious and lazily passive; on the contrary one is <\/span><\/span>extraordinarily alert<\/span><\/span><\/em> , but in a whole different sphere of consciousness and life, more subtle yet more vibrant. One has at one and the same time a sense of stillness, of perfect peace, and yet a sense of intense work taking place spontaneously within us. Because of the first character it has been called by the mystics \u201cquiet prayer.\u201d They also call contemplation \u2014 to use the words of St. Francis de Sales \u2014 \u201ca loving, simple and permanent attention of the spirit (mind) to divine things.\u201d <\/span><\/span>[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is the spirit that works in us in this state of stillness, in this silence. St. John of the Cross expressed this in a bold but very clear and meaningful way, saying that such action is a kind of conception of God in the soul; in other words, a kind of fertilization of the soul by the spirit.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Often during this silence one has only a vague, indistinct sense of that mysterious work; sometimes it even seems as if nothing is happening. This is because the work is done at a level that consciousness cannot reach, in what we have called <\/span><\/span>the superconscious<\/span><\/span><\/em> . But the reality of that work is demonstrated by the effects that are later manifested. At other times, however, consciousness is able to participate, at least in part, in what takes place in the superconscious, and to receive the gifts that come down from the Spirit, and then <\/span><\/span>contemplation produces illumination<\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How can one say what illumination is<\/em>? In human language it is already difficult to express the delicate nuances and tones of normal states of mind, to indicate the different qualities of inner experiences; but how much more difficult is it to give an adequate idea of states of mind that are so much higher or more intense, and qualitatively so different from the usual ones!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For the quality of those states insisted upon by most people \u2014 by both those who have experienced them and those who, like William James, have made an objective and dispassionate study of them \u2014 is their ineffability<\/em>. But while realizing that every word is inadequate to convey the reality, the essence of what we would like to describe, we can at least attempt to indicate, to suggest, some of the most salient features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Consciousness finds itself as if flooded with Light, and is awakened in that Light to a new faculty of intuition, of direct spiritual vision, by which it discovers new true meanings in the soul and in the universe. Or it realizes the profound nature, the essence of what is contemplated, discerns its value, its connections, its place in the Great Reality. This Light is often joined by a sense of expansion, joy, peace, security, power. It is a true inner transfiguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how those who have had such an experience have tried to describe it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI remember the night, and almost the very spot on the hill-top, where my soul opened out, as it were, into the Infinite, and there was a rushing together of the two worlds, the inner and the outer. It was deep calling unto deep \u2014 the deep that my own struggle had opened up within being answered by the unfathomable deep without, reaching beyond the stars. I stood alone with Him who had made me, and all the beauty of the world, and love, and sorrow, and even temptation. I did not seek Him, but felt the perfect unison of my spirit with His. The ordinary sense of things around me faded. For the moment nothing but an ineffable joy and exultation remained. It is impossible fully to describe the experience. It was like the effect of some great orchestra when all the separate notes have melted into one swelling harmony that leaves the listener conscious of nothing save that his soul is being wafted upwards, and almost bursting with its own emotion. The perfect stillness of the night was thrilled by a more solemn silence. The darkness held a presence that was all the more felt because it was not seen. I could not any more have doubted that HE was there than that I was. Indeed, I felt myself to be, if possible, the less real of the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cMy highest faith in God and truest idea of him were then born in me. I have stood upon the Mount of Vision since, and felt the Eternal round about me. But never since has there come quite the same stirring of the heart. Then, if ever, I believe, I stood face to face with God, and was born anew of his spirit. There was, as I recall it, no sudden change of thought or of belief, except that my early crude conception, had, as it were burst into flower. There was no destruction of the old, but a rapid, wonderful unfolding.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI was in perfect health: we were on our sixth day of tramping, and in good training. We had come the day before from Sixt to Trient by Buet. I felt neither fatigue, hunger, nor thirst, and my state of mind was equally healthy. I had had at Forlaz good news from home; I was subject to no anxiety, either near or remote, for we had a good guide, and there was not a shadow of uncertainty about the road we should follow. I can best describe the condition in which I was by calling it a state of equilibrium. When all at once I experienced a feeling of being raised above myself, I felt the presence of God \u2014 I tell of the thing just as I was conscious of it \u2014 as if his goodness and his power were penetrating me altogether. The throb of emotion was so violent that I could barely tell the boys to pass on and not wait for me. I then sat down on a stone, unable to stand any longer, and my eyes overflowed with tears. I thanked God that in the course of my life he had taught me to know him, that he sustained my life and took pity both on the insignificant creature and on the sinner that I was. I begged him ardently that my life might be consecrated to the doing of his will. I felt his reply, which was that I should do his will from day to day in humility and poverty, leaving him, the Almighty God, to be judge of whether I should some time be called to bear witness more conspicuously. Then, slowly, the ecstasy left my heart; that is, I felt that God had withdrawn the communion which he had granted, and I was able to walk on, but very slowly, so strongly was I still possessed by the interior emotion.\u201d [4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If we take a look at other \u201ctestimonies\u201d we find that the manifestation most often reported is of an extraordinary and dazzling sensation of \u201clight,\u201d hence the name of \u201cilluminations<\/em>\u201d is well-suited to these spiritual experiences. Everyone remembers the conversion of St. Paul as it began, according to the narrative contained in the Acts of the Apostles, with \u201ca light from heaven blazing around him.\u201d [5]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And a modern person, Dr. R. M. Bucke, in recounting his own inner experience in the third person, says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    All at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame-colored cloud. For an instant he thought of fire, some sudden conflagration in the great city; the next he knew that the light was within himself. <\/span><\/span>[6]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The testimony of an unknown person, quoted by the James, said,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The very heavens seemed to open and pour down rays of light and glory. Not for a moment only, but all day and night, floods of light and glory seemed to pour through my soul, and oh, how I was changed, and everything became new. <\/span><\/span>[7]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    President Finney thus describes such an experience,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    all at once the glory of God shone upon and round about me, in a manner most marvelous. The day was just beginning to dawn. But all at once a light perfectly ineffable shone in my soul, that almost prostrated me to the ground. In this light it seemed as if I could see that all nature praised and worshiped God except man. This light seemed to be like the brightness of the sun in every direction. It was too intense for the eyes. <\/span><\/span>[8]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The poet Walt Whitman points to this experience with the short but very effective phrase, \u201cLight rare untold, lighting the very light.\u201d <\/span><\/span>[9]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But the simplest and at the same time most powerful expression in its bare conciseness is found in Pascal’s famous “Amulet,” the piece of parchment on which, around a red drawing of the flaming cross are written a few short sentences, direct evidence of the awakening of his soul:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe year of Grace 1654, Monday, November 23rd, St. Clement’s Day . . . from about half past ten at night to about half after midnight, four <\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/em> . .\u201d <\/span><\/span>[10]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The effect of the new light is the transfiguration of the visible world: every being, every object acquires a new beauty, seems to be surrounded by a halo of glory.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “The appearance of everything was altered,” says Jonathan Edwards, describing his own conversion. “There seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God’s excellence, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, and trees; in the water and all nature.” <\/span><\/span>[11]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This high state of consciousness lasts for a longer or shorter time, then it gradually fades away and to our regret we are forced to descend into the heavy and dense atmosphere of ordinary levels of everyday life. But we are no longer the same as before: a change has taken place, a “sign” has been imprinted in us. We can no longer attach importance and value to the common things of communal life; ordinary passions no longer have the power over us that they did before, human attachments have loosened their grip; the ambitions, desires, and goals pursued by ordinary humanity no longer fascinate us. We have glimpsed another reality: higher, wider, brighter, <\/span><\/span>truer<\/span><\/span><\/em> , and we feel a subtle longing, a besetting call, an unbearable aspiration towards that spiritual sphere. But this does not make us passive dreamers. New goals, new tasks of goodness excite us, new achievements attract us, and we resume with increased fervor, with firmer faith, with firmer purpose to “act.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The beauty and value of these experiences naturally arouses a lively desire to have them in those who have never experienced them, and to renew and intensify them in those who have already tasted them. Sometimes they come spontaneously and unexpectedly as the culmination and compensation of a strenuous inner work; but in other cases they are like the fruit and crowning achievement of methodical exercises of inner development \u2014 precisely that is, <\/span><\/span>of Meditation and Contemplation<\/span><\/span><\/em> .<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A careful and complete examination of the various methods would require not a single lecture, but an entire Course; so we shall therefore limit ourselves to reviewing the principal themes and objects of Meditation and Contemplation, referring to the valuable works extant on this subject for those who would like more guidance in this regard.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The choice of these objects depends:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. In the end we wish to achieve.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. On the particular psychological type to which we belong.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The consideration of the first element is quite easy. For example, if we wish to develop a certain quality or virtue (opposite to a defect we deplore in ourselves), it will naturally form the subject of meditation. Thus we may meditate on calmness, courage, confidence, goodness, generosity, humility, wisdom, energy, love, or gladness. If our aspiration turns instead to realizing spiritual consciousness directly, we will choose the most suitable objects for that, which we will name in a moment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It is more difficult, however, to know which objects and methods are most appropriate and which give better results in relation to our particular individual constitution. The study of the various psychological types, and the methods of inner development best suited to each of us, is very interesting and can provide valuable criteria for knowledge and life. In the meantime, the best method to follow is the experimental one; that is, to try various objects of meditation little by little and thus find out which is best suited to our temperament and gives us the best results.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      OBJECTS OF MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      [Examples of] the \u201cobjects\u201d can be listed as follows:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. A sentence, a motto, a thought, a verse, a poetic passage<\/span><\/span><\/em> . They should be chosen from those that most appeal to us, “touch us,” connect to us inwardly. Passages from sacred texts (such as the <\/span><\/span>Psalms<\/span><\/span><\/em> ), from the writings of mystics, of poets: there is a rich harvest in Dante.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n