Aquinas elaborates on the role of meditation and contemplation when he writes:
“In the soul there are two kinds of distraction that have to be removed prior to its coming to a kind of oneness: first, the distraction caused by the variety found in external things. This is the first element that Dionysius* identifies in the soul’s circular movement: its leaving behind external things in order to enter into itself.”
Again, focusing and concentrating and being silent, i.e. letting go of thoughts and the monkey mind, is a first step in contemplation. Notice his goal in this kind of prayer: “Coming to a kind of oneness.” Oneing.
He goes on: “The second diversification that has to be removed is the one caused by discursive reasoning.” Aquinas was very much a “discursive reasoner” so it is all the more striking here that he is telling our left brain to calm down and chill out, to take a rest and step aside so another part of our psyche can come to the fore.
We see in these teachings how profoundly balanced a person Aquinas was—on the one hand to produce the volume and quality of intellectual gifting that he did through his many and diverse and profound writings—but on the other to tell us how to meditate and the importance of ceasing discursive reasoning as well. A both/and approach to work and living and prayer indeed.
Aquinas continues:
We do this [letting go of discursive reasoning] when all the soul’s intellectual powers, that is, the abandonment of discursive reasoning and a fixing of the soul’s gaze in the contemplation of one unified truth. In this work of the soul there is no going astray…
Then something new happens:
After these two steps, a third act of oneness occurs, which is like that of the angels. In it the soul ignores everything else and settles down to the sheer contemplation of God. Thus, in Dionysius’ words, ‘having become one, in a way that is united with’ —’that is, conformed to—’the unified powers, the soul is led to the beautiful and the good.’
Here Aquinas is advocating silence or the “abandonment of discursive reasoning” as a key way to open the heart up and to undergo the prayer of the Via Negativa. He adds:
“The contemplative life consists in a certain leisure and repose: ‘Be still and see that I am God.’ (Ps. 46:10) Gregory, speaking of contemplation, says: ‘Those who are rapt in order to understand the things within close their eyes to visible things.’”
*Dionysius is Dennis the Areopagite the sixth century Syrian monk and theologian; Aquinas is commenting on his book On The Divine Names .
Adapted from: Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, 212.
See also: Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, 130, 132, 137.
Banner image: “Looking inward” Photo by Oluremi Adebayo from Pexels
For Deeper Contemplation
Aquinas speaks of three stages of Letting Go that culminate in a “third act of oneness.” Practice those two stages and come to the oneness by whatever mode of meditation you care to. Does it happen for you?
Take a word, phrase or idea in this reading and be with it, meditating on it.
Recommended Reading
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way. The result is exciting!
Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
8 thoughts on “Aquinas on Contemplation–Part II”
Dear Matthew,
I remember someone once said to me “I don’t know who to thank for being blessed because I don’t believe in God.” I didn’t have an answer for him at the time, partly for not knowing how to verbalize an answer to this and partly because I’ve always looked at myself as both a believer and non-believer. I’ve also felt blessed, truly blessed, at many times on this life journey and can’t remember having a need to name “what or who blesses me (or for whom am I blessed?)” The act of naming tends to move me farther from oneing.
I feel this is like holy week, like Semana Santa, a couple weeks to the fall equinox, Jewish New Year and (hopefully in a few days) mass demonstartions in the streets of New York to shine some light on the seriousness of war, inequality and desecration of mother earth and our atmosphere. This week is also a silent retreat that friends are doing with a teacher of mine, Shinzen Young. This week I’m often with them even if I’m not at the retreat physically.
Reading your meditations every morning has been a blessing to me for these past few months. I’m thankful for your work in this, and thankful for Paul Jay whose interviews with you were the way I was introduced to you, and thankful for every circumstance and experience in this universe that brought me to this place.
I send wishes of peace, metta, wisdom and clear light.
Jonah
Dear Jonah,
Thank you for writing and sharing your journey. You must have done a lot spiritual work to get to where you are night now. I see no need for you to concern yourself that the old language and parameters don’t enliven you anymore. You’ve moved on. That’s how life flows. While you can’t see them; there are other people participating in these meditations who share your feelings about blessing, naming, oneness, and light. Welcome! No one of us travels the same path or has the same experiences, yet we are traveling together.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditations Team
Any chance you could have some meditations quoting the great Christian theologian and near martyr Origen of Alexandria?
Thank you for the suggestion, RIchard. I will pass your request along to Matthew.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
I know that The Divine Mother can talk to us without us trying to be silent. The key, as far as I am concerned, is concentration. Concentration builds new connections in the brain. Contemplation is concentration. I am a juggler. I love to juggle. I am then in a higher vibration when I juggle. In juggling the juggler practices prolonged concentration where there are silent spaces between catching what is juggled. The rhythm or tempo involved has silent spaces like between mantra utterances. There is a blending or merging and getting lost in the activity like the Zen And The Art Of Archery concept. If a person has studied and is studying spirituality and developing their character along the way God will speak to the person without the person actually practicing silence . The person has physically reformed their brain , stays in a more loving way with their self,and is more tuned into life because of the discipline of concentration. So self-inquiry meditation combined with high concentration makes Mother speak. Blend with what we love.
Dear Gary,
Thank you for writing and offering so many fascinating examples of silence and revelation. I was especially taken with your description of juggling, which becomes a meditation for you through concentration. If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that we need not be intentional about silence, and that god/Divine Mother can communicate through our silences and change our natures without our knowing it. My question would be how effective could a change in character be, if the change is not realized or conscious? If a person does not know what has been given, how could the person claim it and employ it in life situations?
For contemplation, Thomas Aquinas has asked us to lose our focus on details and information. I suggest that when you juggle, you narrow your focus, ignoring everything else around you until you finally become one with the act of juggling. not thinking about it, just doing it. You may be concentrating, but you are focused on the whole flow rather than each hand, each ball, and every arc. Consciousness is being present to the whole. Concentration can get us part of the way there, but at some point, we have to let go and let your consciousness apprehend the presence of the divine
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
I love your summation, “He is telling our left brain to calm down and chill out, to take a rest and step aside so another part of our psyche can come to the fore.” And this one, “Let silence tell you the secrets of the world.” These simple statements fit so well with the split-brain literature – that there are two actors within each of us, the discursive left-brain one addicted to identity, time and story, and the always-awake right-brain one, the mystic, accessed only in silence, where we discover that larger consciousness permeating everything and revealing a sacred world already here. Thank you! How do we help people move from left to right brain to restore ecological sanity?
Dear John,
Thank you for your references to the latest literature on how our split-brains affect meditation and mystical experience. To think that centuries ago, Aquinas described our bicameral brain and advised us how to use it to experience mystical union with God. His description of our minds, and his contemplative practice are as true then as they are now.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team