Just This: Prompts and Practices for Contemplation

by Richard Rohr

a long, loving look Non-dual consciousness is about receiving and being present to the moment and to the Now, exactly as it is, without splitting or dividing it, without judgment, analysis, negative critique, mental commentary, liking, or disliking; without resistance; and even without registering your preferences. In other words, your mind, heart, soul, and senses are open and receptive to the moment, just as it is. That allows you to say, “Just this,” and love things in themselves, as themselves, and by themselves, regardless of how they benefit or make demands on you. Is there any other way to love anything? You gradually learn to hold everything—attractive and non-attractive alike—together in one accepting gaze. This is divine seeing. Contemplation has been well-described as “a long, loving look at the Real.” Note that it is a deep looking more than a kneejerk thinking (which is not really thinking at all, but usually narcissistic reacting). Contemplata in Latin means to gaze at something eagerly or with intense interest. It does not mean to think about it! The non-dual, contemplative mind is a whole new mind! (See Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23.) It is truly an entirely different “software and processing system” and, at this point in history, it must be taught, as our culture no longer practices it naturally.