The Practice of Contemplation

by Eric S. Fallick
The formal practice of contemplation is the central transformative practice of the Path to liberation.
This is especially so in a spiritual system based on an idealist metaphysic. (Conversely, such a
metaphysic is implied by the fact that all the systems of the philosophia perennis, even non-idealist
ones, consider that the practice of meditation or contemplation is the means of changing one's mode
or state of being.) Since all is mind or spirit or thought, experience without referent; since Reality is, in
fact, contemplation, and knowing or experience is not possible without the Absolute, the absolutely
essential practices of moral discipline, renunciation, and asceticism, and the necessary ancillary study
and reading and thought and reflection may all be taken as also being forms of contemplation.
Contrary to the prevailing view and practice in these darkest of times, when meditation practice is
taken up by worldlings all and sundry without philosophical understanding, without giving up
anything, and with a view just towards being healthy, wealthy, and wise, genuine spiritual
contemplation is a difficult practice of contemplative ascetics requiring renunciation of the world and
worldly pursuits and desires, strict moral discipline, and the ability to think and discern clearly, and is
based on a definite metaphysical or philosophical understanding or view of the nature of Reality, and
has a definite aim or telos. In this short essay, I would like to try and present a very brief discussion of
Platonist contemplation practice.
Plato and Plotinus were the greatest of mystics, contemplatives, and spiritual teachers. Although in
modern times the teaching of the divine Plato has, unfortunately, been presented as just philosophy in
the modern sense of the term as just thinking about things, it is, in fact, a spiritual and soteriological
system more akin to the Indian systems and the Greek systems of Orphism and Pythagoreanism. It has,
however, happily, never become an organized, institutional religion for the many, never has had an
organized, ritualized monastic order, etc. This has allowed it to retain its purely transcendent, spiritual
nature and great liberating power, but perhaps has led many moderns to overlook its actual nature and
content. Similarly, the dialectical form and, in the case of Plato himself, often symbolic, allegorical,
and anagogical form of presentation used may lead to a lack of understanding or appreciation.
Platonism requires of the individual practicer, contemplative ascetic, or philosopher in the original
Platonic sense of the term considerable intelligence, discernment, and self-reliance. The goal or aim of
the Platonic teaching, with, of course, its own uniqueness in various respects, is, like the allied systems
mentioned above, liberation from the endless miserable cycle of repeated birth and death, of
individuated existence in space-time, and, like at least some of the other systems, re-union with the
Absolute. This should be obvious from, for example, an unbiased and informed reading of Plato's
Phaedo, perhaps the core dialog for the Platonist practitioner and the key to understanding the rest of
the Platonic corpus.
As indicated above, real contemplation practice is based on, and in turn reveals, a particular
metaphysic or understanding of Reality. Of course, actual contemplative experience transcends and is
ultimately not a matter of discursive understanding and constructs, but rather is a direct transformation
of state of being and union with higher Reality, but the expression of such contemplative
accomplishment and transformation at the level of discursive thought yields definite understandings,
and such understandings are, conversely, necessary for undertaking contemplative practice. Further,
the attempt at conceptual understanding is in itself part of the practice at a lower level and continues
along the Path in interaction with the knowledge directly seen in contemplation. Thus, it will be
necessary to first sketch a very brief outline of the Platonist understanding of the nature of Reality.

The highest, ultimate, truest, most really being, in fact, the only thing fully being, Reality is the One
or the Good, the self-existent Absolute, the Source of everything. This is really beyond predication,
hyper-one, hyper-good, hyper-beautiful, existence beyond existence, pure knowledge without knower
and known, absolute sentience without subject and object at all. It is not only completely without time
and space, but even beyond eternity and infinity. This is really all that is. It is our origin and goal.
Without it, neither we nor anything else would be even to the degree that we and they are. It is the
ground of all experience, and our whole aim is to return entirely to this. The true noetic love at the
base of our soul that is the propelling force on the Path is for This One only.
The One in its hyper-perfection emanates, without being in the slightest bit altered or affected or
losing any of its total independence, the next descending order of Reality, Nous, commonly
translated as Intellect, but which here will be rendered the Divine Mind-Thought. Here a degree of
nescience has arisen so that there is a degree of multiplicity. This is the realm of the Platonic Forms or
Ideas which are, however, not different from the Divine Mind that eternally and unchangingly
contemplates them. Here subject and object have emerged and become distinct, but are not separated.
Unlike the chaotic multiplicity of the sense-world, here there is only one each of the eternal Ideas.
There is no change or time or space, but their divine paradigms of eternity, infinity, and the interrelation
of the Forms have appeared. One must resist the temptation to imagine Nous as spatially separate from
the One or emerging in time from it. It is more like a lesser degree of being or reality being
discriminated within in it by nescience.
The Divine Mind-Thought, although lacking the hyper-perfection of the One, still is perfect enough
to emanate another lower order of being or reality while remaining unchanged itself. This is the level
of soul, both the World Soul or the Soul of the All and our individual souls. Here subject and object
have split up and time and space and multiplicity and change have appeared. Soul creates, so to speak,
the apparent multiple-object space-time world by projecting the Forms of the Divine Mind-Thought
into multiple partial reflections trying to thus approximate the totality that has now been seemingly lost
at this the last and lowest level of being. Soul, however, unlike the two higher levels, is unable to
remain unchanged in the process and is continually caught up in and is part of its own projection. The
experiential field of the World Soul contains all time and space simultaneously, encompasses the whole
All, including all at once all the modifications reflected in it of the modifications of each of the
experiential fields of the individual souls brought about through their respective volitional activities,
and, in turn, the individual souls' experiential fields are modified reflecting all these modifications
induced by their own actions with respect to the actions of others, but the individual souls do not
experience these changes all at once like the World Soul, but as a continuing series in space-time that
constitutes what appears to them as an involuntarily given empirical world. Again, this level is not to
be thought of as actually spatially and temporally separated from the higher levels (indeed, space and
time have only just emerged at this lowest and least important level), but, again, more like an even
lesser degree of being or reality further discriminated within the two higher levels by a greatly
increased degree of nescience.
For the World Soul and its All, there is not necessarily any fault or problem connected with its
existence at this level. It is merely the necessary and, in some sense, permanent radiation of the Divine
Mind-Thought. For the individual souls, however, which are in some sense microcosms of the whole
system capable of in some sense existing at all three levels, being here as individuals in space-time and
as subjects with separate objects is the greatest of faults and errors. They have, through nescience,
dared to move away existentially from the higher unities, to want to belong to themselves and objects

as separate individuals, and have forgotten their true identity as really being the One. Thus, they
wander further and further away, deeper and deeper into nescience, forgetting the Real more and more,
continually projecting the Forms they have forgotten as such into new supposed objects which they
exalt as more important than and to themselves, and thus experience endless misery (in fact, just the
fact of being here at this lowest level at all is the most hellish suffering compared to the hyper-bliss of
being the One) reincarnating in an endless series of forms both human and non-human.
This then is the situation and reality in which we presently find ourselves, and the obvious task is to
reverse the whole process, escape totally from space and time and multiplicity and individuality, and
even from eternity and infinity and totality, and return to just being the One. This is the Path of
Contemplation. In understanding this process and path, it is important to note that the nature of the
individual soul is to love, and it is where and is what it loves. While the soul's true love is only for its
source, the One, to which it really longs to return, in its present fallen condition this has been forgotten
and its love has been altogether turned around and misdirected through nescience to the things of this
world and itself, pursuing which, its misdirected love becomes all the more misdirected and it ties its
bonds tighter and tighter in a vicious cycle of ever-increasing nescience. Of the essence of the Path,
then, and continuing throughout it, is the continuous effort to give up all love for all the things of this
world and the individual self and to redirect all the soul's love back exclusively towards the Good, the
Absolute. True renunciation and true knowledge go hand in hand together. (This, incidentally, is why
the Socrates of the Symposium, who represents the higher divine part of the soul, states that he says that
he knows nothing other than the things of love (177d 7-8).) It is also important to note that the soul, as
stated above a sort of microcosm of the whole system of reality, never really entirely descends, but part
of it, however much it may be forgotten by the lower part we are mostly exclusively aware of, remains
always above in the higher realities, and it is through this higher part that we need to pull ourselves
back up. Also, it needs to be remembered that everything is really spirit, mind, or contemplation, and
that discursive thinking and physical action are really lower weaker forms of contemplation even
though they appear to us in our delusion to be dealing with and attempting to manipulate an objective,
external, and physical or mental, in the lowest, psychological sense of the word, object-world. Actions
and thoughts directed towards things in this world really aim at creating a state where different things
will appear to us, which is really an altered state of contemplation.
The practice of contemplation, then, may be roughly outlined in three stages corresponding to the
three levels of reality or modes of being. It should be noted, however, that actual practice is iterative
and nonlinear and the three levels constantly interact with and reinforce each other throughout the Path.
Also, this brief outline essay will not discuss all of the practical details and the many difficulties,
troubles, hindrances, pains, and pitfalls that occur through the course of spiritual, contemplative
practice. It may be noted, however, that tremendous perseverance, effort, patience, endurance, and
discernment are required.
The first stage involves alteration of discursive thinking and phenomenal behavior. The practitioner
must first gain a good understanding of the principles of the Path and the nature of Reality, as outlined
above, and of the unsatisfactory nature of worldly life and repeated rebirth. He must stop thinking like
a worldling and start thinking as a renunciant, always thinking of how things are and of getting free,
always seeing things in terms of universal principles, not particular occurrences, as much as possible
not thinking of worldly matters and desires beyond what is necessary, trying to gain greater
understanding, in thought and emotion turning his concern and love away from all the things of this
world and towards the Divine Mind-Thought and the Absolute, etc. This is done through reading,
study, and reflection with continuous effort. (Ideally, it is, of course, good also to have the association

of, teaching of, and discussion with other, more advanced, or at least equal, renunicants and
contemplatives, but, unfortunately, in this dark age, such are hardly to be found, so the sincere aspirant
is basically left on his own with the writings of the ancients as his only guides.) The practitioner must
also in deed renounce all worldly activities, pursuits, and desires as much as possible, and devote all his
time and energy, beyond what is necessary for psycho-physical survival, to contemplation and study.
This includes celibacy, vegetarianism, teetotaling, abstention from entertainments and social events,
complete honesty, kindness and non-harming, etc.-- the cultivation of all moral and ascetic virtue. All
this may seem like only necessary preparatory requirements for contemplation, but since, as stated
above, all is really contemplation, and to know is to be, these practices of thinking and conduct are, in
fact, a sort of low-level contemplation, and by changing one's thinking and actions and way of life and
attitude, one has already to a certain preliminary degree brought about a change in one's contemplative
state and mode of being.
The next two stages comprise what may appear as more the contemplation practice proper. The
second stage is the ascent to and contemplation of and ultimately union with the Divine Mind-Thought.
This stage itself consists of two parts. The first part is the ascent to the noetic realm from the things
here, and the second part, the dialectic proper, is the sustained contemplation of and absorption into
or transfer to this realm after the initial access to it has been gained. The first part is basically the one
part of the Path where the question of a number of methods of proceeding arises. The dialogs give a
number of different methods for making the initial ascent to the noetic realm through either the variety
of different Forms or through working to gain the vision of one particular Form. The Phaedo gives the
direct method of at once shifting the soul from all preoccupation with individual sense data in the
space-time realm to the Ideas which they reflect while sitting in formal contemplation and as each
occasion for discrimination arises in the seeming space-time flow; the Symposium gives the method of
access through contemplation of the specific Form of beauty; the Republic presents the method of
ascent through contemplation of the mathematical-type Forms, and etc. The basic principle and
procedure underlying all these methods is, however, the same. Starting with multiple reflections of
either one specific Form or of a group of related Forms or of many Forms as the occasion for each
arises, one must continually abstract the universal element in each more and more, ignoring the
multiple things per se and concentrating just on that universal non-sense-perceptible element, until the
direct apprehension of the Idea in itself dawns upon one. When, after long, hard practice and impelled
by growing love for the divine beauties one is now beginning to glimpse and by corresponding growing
disgust for the sense world, one has attained at least a degree of direct apprehension of at least some of
the Ideas and can fairly regularly and consistently direct one's attention to them and bring them into
view, one can then proceed to the second part, the actual contemplation proper of the Divine MindThought.
This second part of the second stage is, as stated, where the practicer directly and deeply
contemplates and is in contact with the Divine Mind-Thought. This is the famed dialectic, which,
contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do with discussion between people or discursive or
professorial thinking. In the dialectic, the dialog is between the noetic part of the soul and the
Divine Mind-Thought. Entering into the noetic realm, apprehending the Forms and their relations by
directly receiving them from the Divine Mind-Thought, exploring all the structure and wonders There
and being drawn in by their ravishing beauty, identifying with the Divine Mind-Thought more and
more and attenuating oneself more and more, the summit of this stage is reached when the awareness
and experience of the soul has entirely entrusted itself to and passed over into the awareness and
experience of the Divine Mind-Thought in itself timelessly yet actively resting in itself. Within this
awareness, it receives truer knowledge about itself and knows that this is not the end, but that it must

and its love is impelling it to press further to the One itself. Incidentally, it may be noted that when this
stage is accomplished to some degree, the practicer now has a degree of direct access to knowledge and
the Forms themselves and can directly see the Ideas of contemplative-asceticism-in-itself,
spiritual-teaching-in-itself, righteousness-in-itself, etc., and, to the extent that he can see them
clearly and follow them despite his remaining bondage, habit-patterns, ignorance, etc., now has direct
guidance from the Forms in the Divine Mind-Thought independently of any instruction appearing in
the least real sense world.
Established to some degree here, one may pass on to the third and final stage of directly
apprehending, approaching, and re-uniting with the Good or the One. There is not so much that can
really be said of method for this stage. Understanding now in some way where the One must lie and
with great longing gazing steadily in that direction, being carried out by the surge of the effulgence and
love of the Divine Mind-Thought, suddenly, after a long time, the One appears and manifesting itself
gives a glimpse to the contemplator. Now knowing to at least a small degree where and what It is, one
keeps looking with tremendous long and protracted effort. The One keeps revealing Itself more and
more, deeper and deeper, clearer and clearer, with quantum increases followed by painful returns of
darkness. When the One is manifesting, the soul feels now an almost unbearable love wanting only to
totally be absorbed and obliterate itself in It. Over a long time, the Vision becomes clearer and steadier,
the more one can give up attachment to everything else, and the soul begins to realize its own
nothingness in this contemplationthat really the One Itself is the Source of its own awareness and
experience and that really contemplation of the One can only ultimately be the One contemplating, in a
sense, Itself. The soul's great love is an incomplete reflection of the autonomous Unity of the One in its
hyper-goodness. Continuing more and more, the One manifests Itself more and more, more and more
fully, and the soul passes over more and more into the One and is more and more attenuated as itself.
When the One is fully and completely manifested, then That is all there is: no more soul, no more
world, no more time and space, no more even eternity and infinity and the Divine Mind-Thought;
endless hyper-sentience beyond sentience, hyper-oneness beyond oneness, hyper-goodness beyond
goodness, hyper-perfection beyond perfection. When This is all there is, this One only and fully, and
everything else whatsoever has totally ended completely forever, this is release from birth and death
and the End of the journey.

2011 by Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic@gmail.com