
An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation

A habitus is a dynamism—mental, physical, or moral—that generates an increasingly positive momentum toward love of God and neighbor (this is but one love loving love). There can also be a negative habitus, that is, away from love of God and neighbor, but here we shall focus on the positive.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
Its receptivity is not passive. It is a generous receptivity that contributes to the life all round it:
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
reactive mind differs from receptive mind just as hard, dry soil, full of clay, differs from soft, well-worked soil that is rich in organic material. In each case it is soil, but there is a difference in the quality of the respective soils.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
Perhaps the most famous statement of this is provided by St. Athanasius the Great, “God became human so that humans may become God.”8 What God is by nature we become by grace.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
inner vigilance is necessary but insufficient for contemplation.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
“My only ‘me’ is God.” She continues, “In my soul I see nothing but God.”
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
Love makes us real. Love creates us and sustains us in the process of realizing who we already are.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
Devotion can certainly play a positive role in the practice of contemplation, but it differs from the silence of simple reverence.
Martin Laird • An Ocean of Light: Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation
As John Chapman writes in his Spiritual Letters, “Progress will mean becoming more and more indifferent as to what state we are in.”