Hi friends
For years I’ve made a practice every December of choosing a word or phrase that will serve as my touchstone, a North Star to navigate my life by in the coming year. I’m excited to declare my touchstone word for 2022: CONSENSING. “Consensing well with others” is my central learning goal in the coming year.
A little voice in my head says: “Contemplaying our hopes and aspirations may be delightful, but what about the dark side of life? What about loneliness, apathy, anxiety, misery, grief, shame? What about the rage that ferments beneath long unmet needs?” Is the art of contemplaying applicable for these experiences?
Contemplate is from Latin contemplatus, past participle of contemplari “to gaze attentively, observe,” from the prefix com- “together” plus templum “temple.” The original meaning of Latin contemplari was “to mark out a space for observing auguries or omens,” and the temple was a holy space reserved for this purpose.
So, contemplation in the original sense entails gathering with kindred spirits in sacred space to discern, look deeply, seek insight that guides our path forward in a world filled with noise, fear, distraction and confusion. There is a craft to creating settings and occasions for contemplation.
I’m keeping a record of my Google searches that yield NO RESULTS. These are becoming like trail blazes for me. Today I searched: “science of co-enlightenment”. No results. Hmm. “Science of enlightenment” gets 400K results.
A science of co-enlightenment is not difficult to conceive. After all, Thich Nhat Hanh suggested that the next Buddha will not be an individual but would manifest as a community. That prophecy implies a co-enlightening culture in which this collective Buddha nature ripens.
Today’s new contemplayful word:
Curiosify – to awaken and focus curiosity in oneself or another.
Curiosifier – A person who stimulates/awakens the fire of curiosity in others.
The best teachers are master curiosifiers. Skill as a curiosifier is key to success in many endeavors: social change activism, story telling, leadership in business, etc.