First of all, the word contemplation comes from the Latin words for within the temple. "What temple?" you may ask. And that question will lead to the rest, for it is finding your way into that Temple, which is the reward for the effort made in prayer.

Recall the words of the Christ, "...My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Do not allow anyone to convince you that praying, in a contemplative way, is only for experts.

In the monasteries of the twelfth century, the monks were taught "The Ladder," a four step method of prayer. It consisted of reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.

2. Meditation, the second rung, is the place where things are examined and mulled-over in our minds. Here within, we seek to find hidden meanings. We might call this place the "place of consideration," where we consider what we have read, heard or written. We consider it, at as deep a level as we are able for that moment. Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer wrote, "There should be Soul musings or meditations on the ALL THAT IS...prayer must be supplemented by solitary communion with one's inner consciousness."

3. Prayer, the third rung of the ladder, may be compared to the process of painting a picture. My teacher instructed me to enjoy the process and forget abut the product. This is good advise for Prayer as well. Get really involved with the prayer. As Dr. Clymer said,

"Prayer is a mode of preparation for spiritual exaltation...a sincere aspiration of the soul towards the great source of all life, life and attainment.

Ask for enlightenment concerning what you meditated about. Give thanks for every tiny insight that you receive and try to lose yourself in the process.

While in the process, there is a chance that you may be invited into that Temple previously referred to! It may not happen often, but, if you persist, it will happen. This invitation is the means to the fourth rung, Contemplation. It is the subject of the rest of this book.

I would like to describe the Temple to you. I hesitate to do so because it is somewhat presumptive of me; presumptive in the sense that since Thomas Merton did not go into detail, and I am not so advanced as he, I should probably keep my own counsel. Yet, friends do not withhold from their friends. Besides, I an safe in my explanation, for St. Theresa gave a similar description in her book, Interior Castle.

There is within us a Temple. There are several rooms in this Temple that we may be allowed to see, if we are worthy. I cannot tell you about all of these rooms, but I will tell you of what I know.

In the First room of the Temple within, St Theresa speaks about snakes and slimy things that try to trip you up and chase you away. You know that you are in that room when you begin to pray and you are besieged by the fact that you need to get this over with and rush off to the meeting you have scheduled. Or, when yo see in your minds eye, an image of your mother, whom you have not phoned as you promised. This is the room of distraction.

When you come to the Second Rom, (and you will get there if you don't hurry or don't go to the phone to call your mother just now), you will find darkness and you will find unworthiness as well. "How can God love me?" is the name of this room. Pass through it. It cannot harm you, unless you remain there and become discouraged.

The old masters had these words written across their brow: "Permit nothing you dismay." Press on, and when you do, you will become aware of a certain lightness in your center. This is not an imaginary lightness. Some even hear a slight tone in their ears, not an imaginary tone, a real tone. You will become aware of a slight glow. This is room three. All sorts of physical sensations now come in to distract you. You may feel warm. You may start to itch! You may even become uncomfortable with your posture. Press on, for now you may enter the Fourth Room.

This is the gift that Thomas Merton writes about. No one can force their way into this room. The only way to arrive in the Fourth Room is to have experienced the process, to have entered into this process with expectation and, if possible, to have enjoyed the journey through the first three rooms. Then, occasionally, you will be "invited in." When you are, I will not need to tell you anything about that room, that place within yourself. You will probably write and tell me about it! It is a wonderful place to be and it is called contemplation.

There is nothing here but pure love for you, and with you, and surrounding you. It passeth all understanding, and all description, and, dear friend, I could wish nothing better for you than that!

There are many more rooms in this Temple. I know little about them, but I do know that they are there for our exploration and I know that we must first attain the Fourth by invitation. It is our higher self that does the inviting.

I will tell you a secret about this place, this Fourth Room, that someone once told me. If you grow quiet, after all the distractions have failed to dissuade your attempts; if you know and wait for that invitation, and it does not come; you still have a remarkable option open to you.

In the door of this Fourth Room, there is an opening; an opening large enough to receive any thing that you wish to pass through it. You may gather together into a package a particular care or problem, either with the material you are reading or from your own life, and place that "package" through the opening in the door to the Fourth Room. Include a request for a solution or an answer by a certain time, and you will find that you will receive it. You will learn that you can put your package through that door and forget it, with the sure knowledge that it will be resolved by the One who dwells beyond the Third Room.

Somewhere it is written, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will take care of you. So, with this secret, you may learn to "cast thy burden," even if you do not become an expert at contemplative Prayer.

In the pages that follow, I will give you some of the detailed steps in the process. You must imagine that you are building a new set of muscles and, therefore, you will have to do some of the exercises to develop them.

If you find that these exercises are boring to you, or that they seem ridiculous to you, then, by all means, you should put them away until sometime later, when you may wish to attempt them again.

I will mention, however, that those who know how to do something well, have no fear of sharing that knowledge with other, whether it is making stained glass windows or anything else.
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