Contemplation

Description

“I am Mary. Blessings onto you and yours. I give you this day the lovely essence
CONTEMPLATION. Herein is the essence of Rhododendron and I step back and allow
Rhododendron to introduce herself:”
“I am the Rhododendron flower of the east; call me the philosopher’s flower. My essence
brings you quickly into tranquility such that like a tranquil lake, the mind can receive distinct
impressions that embed themselves into your consciousness. My abilities to hold you in a state
of awareness and contemplative insight are unsurpassed and I am able to propel you into super
conscious states with an ease and grace that will surprise you.
My essence creates a profound intimacy with sensory experience. I help you become the
moment in time that you experience every single detail of someone tucking a quilt around you.
You become one with the dragonfly crawling up on the outside of a screen on a rainy day as you
notice one leg of the dragonfly slip in through the space in the screen or the fragrant lilac petals
scattered all over the grass after a windy day. Experience becomes transcendent in my presence
and leads to revelations beyond the customary.
I bring about altered states of consciousness with varied levels of experience easily
transporting you to higher realms and octaves. I raise you above mundane thought and suspend
you into a moment of complete and pure mental acuity. I am the essence for sublime thought,
the few words of a poet or the effortless and few brush strokes of the artist.
My service to you is revealed in a universe of space uncluttered by extraneous debris. You
will be endlessly intrigued and delighted by my assistance. Be with me in physical form or as an
essence, I will show you the way to profound states of awareness and beingness.”
CONTEMPLATION contains flowers that bring us from “tranquil abiding” on, to
contemplative states of discernment, investigation and insight allowing for wonderful
expansions of consciousness. It is important to understand that contemplation does not
necessarily occur during the act of prayer; it is not an isolated part of our lives. Contemplation is
not thinking. Contemplation is not the repetition of words. Contemplation is a receptive
awareness enabling us to penetrate the divine mysteries of being. Contemplation can infuse
every aspect and activity of our lives. Contemplation is a little like listening in silence, but this is
not the silence that is the absence of sound waves, but it is a higher kind of silence where the

overall state of emptiness within the silence waits to realize the fullness of the message from
the divine within that void. And the listening is not just with the ears, this kind of listening is
done with all of our senses.
Thomas Merton explains in his book Contemplative Prayer that “true contemplation is not
one who prepares his mind for a particular message he wants or expects to hear, but instead,
remains empty because he knows that he cannot expect or anticipate the words or messages
that will transform darkness to light. He waits on the word of God in silence and when he is
“answered,” it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence. It is by the silence itself
suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God.
The contemplative way is in no sense a deliberate “technique” of self emptying in order to
produce an esoteric experience. It is the paradoxical response to an almost incomprehensible
call from God.”(page 68)
(CONTEMPLATION combines Rhododendron, (it is no coincidence that so many
contemplative gardens contain Rhododendrons!) Heliotrope, Blue Bellflower, Common Thistle,
Milk Thistle, Spring Beauty, Wintergreen, English Geranium, the imprint of a Loon’s soul
revealing call and many other flowers that we are as yet, unable to see).