contemplation as an exercise

In many traditions, I think, contemplation is viewed as something that must be developed in a fairly prosaic way - by completing daily exercises. Just as a child at school might do tasks to practise arithmetic or writing, so a regular return to contemplation is viewed as a foundational requirement in the incremental process of transforming the self. You should not expect to sit down on your first day of anapanasati meditation or on your first morning with Ignatius' spiritual exercises and witness the sky breaking open. Insight develops slowly, step by step, the result of a commitment to regular contemplative work.

Actually, different traditions vary in the extent to which they anticipate instantaneous results from practices of contemplation. In Buddhism, the possibility of sudden insight is countenanced more strongly in Mahayana than in Theravada thought. And some Christian traditions envision a spontaneous experience of ecstasy that is deep, immersive, and immanent in the practice.  Thus, for some, contemplation is like a process of planting seeds - a garden will grow but only very slowly.  For others, it may result in a spontaneous flash of insight - something sudden and immediate, arising in the moment. But flashes of insight are hard to sustain. There are moments when the world seems very clearly delineated: hard-edged and glittering in the winter sun. But these moments do not last and, five minutes later, one is once again listening to difficult people, engaged in circular conversations, struggling with the practicalities of everyday life. The work of contemplation perhaps lessens the duration between the the moments of insight or builds a vision that is always clear and well illuminated. Thus, every time the flame ignites, it can stay alive a little longer.

Quite often, then, contemplation is pictured not as some extraordinary or special experience but as a regular form of exercise or work, to engage in which is to cultivate the self in a quiet and systematic way - to engage in a process of alchemical experimentation that is hidden away in a workshop inside the head.