There is a term that the scriptures use to refer to something in us that separates us from God. It is called the "natural man," or at times the "carnal mind." What is this? And how can a correct understanding of it help us commune with and become one with God?
The word contemplation usually brings to mind someone thinking deeply about something. Perhaps similar to pondering something, or meditating upon a thought or subject. But this modern meaning is not what the word used to mean.
Crystal clear, sharp and bright, my mind has no opening for evil to roost. The morning sun shines in, My mind, too, is clear and bright;
A divine light is directed on me, penetrating this glow in which I am contained...
Though he has no form my eyes saw him, his glory is fire in my mind that knows
It pervades the entire universe but nothing pervades it. It is effulgent by nature, and its splendor illumines everything...
I am not my body. I am not my thoughts. I am not my mind. I am not my brain...
And being admonished by these books to return into myself, I entered into my inward soul, guided by thee... And I entered, and with the eye of my soul—such as it was—saw above the same eye of my soul and above my mind the Immutable Light.
For it is a property of the Good that it becomes known to him who is able to see it... It shines forth much or little, according as he who gazes on it is able to receive the inflow of the incorporeal radiance... It is full of immortal life.
Will they ever return to me, those grandiose, immortal, cosmogonic dreams, in which one seems to carry the world in one's breast, to touch the stars, to possess the infinite?