T. C. Boyle

Books are up against TV and movies and video games and a multimedia society that is so busy that people don't have contemplative time any more. I worry deeply about this. In fact, I worry about everything all the time. I used to be a punk. All I wanted to do was tear everything down, and that was so much easier.

American Novelist

Paramahansa Yogananda

Introspection, or 'sitting in the silence,' is an unscientific way of trying to force apart the mind and senses, tied together by the life force. The contemplative mind, attempting its return to divinity, is constantly dragged back toward the senses by the life currents.

Indian Leader

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The bearing, rearing, feeding and educating of children; the running of a house with its thousand details; human relationships with their myriad pulls - women's normal occupations in general run counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life.

American Writer

William Godwin

My temper is of a recluse and contemplative cast; had it been otherwise, I should, perhaps, on some former occasions, have entered into the active concerns of the world and not have been connected with it merely as a writer of books.

English Writer

Derek Jacobi

He was somebody who made me think, I suppose, about the contemplative life. I've always been a city fellow, but I've often had vague thoughts about 'checking out' and perhaps going into a monastery and just seeing what it was like.

British Actor

David Means

Americans are pragmatic; we want quick, clean, simple solutions to vast problems. The paradox is that we're a deeply confessional culture, but we're not often contemplative.

Richard Rohr

I decided years ago that if I'm going to keep teaching contemplation, then the last years of my life should be contemplative.

American Clergyman

Alice Walker

I live a very secluded life, a very contemplative life and a very meditative one. That is my ideal life.

American Author

Nicolas Chamfort

The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live.

French Writer

Antonio Banderas

In my personal life, I am very contemplative.

Spanish Actor

Used when someone is deeply immersed in their own thoughts, usually not disturbed by outside factors.

Quiet Reflection

Indicates a mood or period where serious thinking or reflection is taking place.

Serious Thought

The word often carries a slight hint of sadness or introspection, not just neutral thinking.

Subtle Emotion

Refers to people choosing a lifestyle focusing on spiritual practices like meditation or prayer.

Spiritual Practice

Often associated with monks, nuns, or religious hermits in a monastery or similar secluded setting.

Monastic Connotation

This lifestyle is an active choice and involves dedication to deep thought or prayer.

Not Just Idle

Highlights the act of gazing at something for an extended period, often finding deeper meaning.

Long Observation

Common in discussions about art, where a viewer is deeply observing and considering a work.

Art and Aesthetics

Suggests looking beyond the surface to understand something at a profound level.

Beyond Surface

 he meant clinging to the illusion that life is static and predictable. The third noble truth said that ignorance can be overcome. And the fourth and most important, of course, was the delineation of a contemplative practice that not only had the possibility of a transformation of the human heart,

Wade Davis: The...

 The same thing -- arches are very glamorous. Arches with stained glass -- even more glamorous. Staircases that curve away from you are glamorous. I happen to find that particular staircase picture very glamorous because, to me, it captures the whole promise of the academic contemplative life --

Virginia Postrel: The...

 that support high-productivity and diversity. This place is special because it’s like a perfect union of man and nature very contemplative and good for humans and animal and plants living here. You would not think at first sight but also the mud here is good for us

The Waters of Slovenia PIPE...

 but we need to extend that. It can be extended even to other species. Now, if we want a more altruistic society, we need two individual change and societal change. So is individual change possible? Two thousand years of contemplative study said yes, it is.

Matthieu Ricard: How to...

 which are consistent with this in showing that we indeed come into the world with this quality of innate basic goodness. And one of the reasons why these data on innate basic goodness are so interesting is because in the contemplative traditions

The Science of a Happy...

 when I looked at the earth on the way back and had time to be a little more contemplative underscore and got me thinking brilliant for the first time we were just a small piece of an almost infinite universe before the flight I

Earthrise: The Story of...

 attribute are you mindful sophisticated like double-oh-seven are you established traditional nurturing protective empathetic like the Oprah are you reliable stable familiar safe secure sacred contemplative or wise like the

The greatest TED Talk...

 He comes into the room and he's-- Well, that's actually life-size. Orangutans above all the great apes, find-- they are contemplative. They make choices that are logical and they're thoughtful, maybe more than chimpanzees.

National Geographic...

 and in the small ordinary things of life, there is a deep, indwelling presence that makes them extraordinary. It needs a profound attentiveness and a patient waiting, a contemplative attitude and a generosity and openness

Rev. Tom Honey: How...

 a calm and contemplative mood descends on the colony

Contemplative