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The contemplative life of an ecozoan is a life-long journey designed to support and cultivate one’s inner life with practices that connect us with the larger self of the evolving cosmos, our planet and its abundant life, our inner being, and the love that joins all things and ever offers new possibilities and guidance when times we are perplexed.  

Silence and solitude are the important, and at times difficult, components of the contemplative life of an ecozoan, and these must be the building blocks of our inner growth. Contemplation is  part of many traditions: In the West, Plato thought that through contemplation we would reach the world of forms and ultimately the Form of the Good. In Eastern Christianity contemplation has gone beyond the intellect recognizing that the darkness of a cloud of unknowing will always be there between us and God, but in that darkness, we will experience God’s presence. Eastern and other traditions, including secular ones, have well developed practices of contemplation too.  

Contemplation is deeply related to the practice of meditation in teachings from the Early Christian desert fathers to those of Eastern sages—such as the practice of mindfulness, as practiced and taught by Thich Nhat Hanh.  

In this corner of this website, we will explore various practices of contemplation and meditation that will help us to deepen and grow so that we may better live the difficulties of the present and future, recognize the possibilities and beauty in ourselves and others, and carry out our part of the Great Work. 

We would like to hear from you! Please send us messages regarding practices you would like to learn, practices you have found helpful, and resources for the contemplative life created by you or others.  

Elisabeth Ferrero will coordinate this area of our work. You may email her at eferrero@stu.edu


Photograph by Sergi Melki on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0 Generic license. The photograph has been cropped