The Contemplative gap is the quiet and peaceful space between your thoughts and mind chatter. It is the silent gap where the mind finally rests and slows down its endless answer seeking and problem solving duties. When we start getting into the Contemplative gap, no thoughts exist in this space. More importantly it allows our deeper essence to arise. It allows us to experience our sacred selves, even just for a moment. It is in this contemplative gap that you can experience unadulterated present moment awareness and gain access to your highest intelligence. This is what we call your Contemplative Intelligence (CQ).

It was T.S. Eliot who put the idea of Getting into the Contemplative gap better in poetic form than perhaps we can do with mere words. He said it like this.

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.

Between two waves of the sea. Between stimulus and response. Between the personality and your true authenticity and essence is where you will discover your Sacred Self – by getting into the Contemplative gap. When we contemplate and get beyond the narrative of ceaseless mind chatter, we get into the gap between our thoughts and make contact with the energy of life. Everything new is created and emerges from that gap! If you want change and progress and growth for yourself. This is the fastest and purest way to transform, or to ‘go above’ what you have created thus far in life which can manifest as depression, addiction and other victim positions.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Victor Frankl

The zen used to say that “It’s the silence between the notes that makes the music”. St. Paul said, “… that which is seen, hath not come from that which doth appear.

Matter is mostly empty space. Although, by volume, an atom is mostly empty space, dominated by the electron cloud, the dense atomic nucleus. Molecules are about 99% space. Keeping with a scientific framework, let us think of thoughts as things. The binary system is all zeros and one’s. If thoughts are a 1 then no thoughts are a zero. If painting a fence is a one then meditating under a tree could be considered a zero.

We’re just as much a part of the miraculously creative panorama of nature as the flowers, the sunsets, the seedlings turning into palm trees, the changing of the seasons, and everything else. It’s being outside of the gap, and listening only to the ego that keeps us from living at the level of being able to manifest.

— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

When we notice the space between thoughts, we can just rest the attention there. At first, this might just be for a few seconds.  With practice, noticing thoughts as they arise and letting them go, the space between thoughts may grow.

Getting into the Contemplative gap with Contemplative Practice

Contemplative Practices that help us work at getting into the Contemplative gap are like doorways or portals that provide the bear attention of present moment transcendence, simple self-awareness that can allow you to mindfully be focused and aware of one’s deeper thoughts and emotions. 

A contemplative practice helps you to “awaken your inner observer”. Aristotle said that contemplation is known both as the highest form of activity, and also it is the most continuous, because we are more capable of continuous contemplation more so than we are aware of any other practical activity. So it is doing everything and nothing all at the same time. And it is truly wonderful to experience it!

Contemplative practices develop many aspects of ourselves. As practices disciplines of body and mind, they share a number of benefits:

• Mindfulness and profound self-awareness
• Awareness of physical movements, posture and rhythms of the body
• Attention
• A holistic approach to well-being
• Balance
• Empathy, compassion, and connectivity to all things internal and external
•   Self-awareness, self-regulation, self-inquiry 
•   Psychological transformation and mental training

“We must go beyond the constant clamor of ego, beyond the tools of logic and reason, to the still, calm place within us: the realm of the soul.”

– Deepak Chopra

Practice of the 5 Contemplative Life Questions

This practice comes from the area of Contemplative Intelligence or CQ. 5 fundamental life questions are as profound as they are healing. The right contemplative questions will open the doors to knowing the right answers. Spending a few minutes contemplating each of these questions will bring some stress and then comfort follows. You see, all these questions need to be known and are known. We have come from somewhere, have become something, and are going somewhere with it all. Practice of the 5 Fundamental Life Questions:

Where have I been?

Who am I?

Where am I now?

Why am I where I am right now?

Where am I going?

So now we know that the contemplative state of mind is rather a state of being and a way of living. It is about giving and receiving, listening and making sounds, stillness and movement, breath and no-breath. It is being present to the real moment, rather than it being lost by the ego’s endless judgements. You may resonate more with some practices than others, which is perfect practice. There is no right or wrong way to practice contemplation “If you’re doing it, you’re doing it right!” For more practices go here.