Meditation Vs. Contemplation?

Hello, Not Knowing community.

This is my first proper post in here. I’m very curious to see what you think of my questions here.

To start, I’ve realized that my perception of meditation is one of mostly belief. I grew up being told that meditation was a valuable way to spend one’s time, and that if one were to meditate with focus and discipline, insights beyond imagination could be found.

I’ve heard meditation explained like this in many different ways, by many people throughout my entire life.

A few years ago I started to take meditation more seriously, since around that time I decided I wanted to develop myself and change my life for the better.

Since then I’ve meditated in phases, sometimes meditating for streaks of 100-200 days (30min a day). My current meditation practice is 30 minutes twice a day. So one hour, and I’ve been at this for two weeks now.

Every time I get into a serious meditation phase I encounter the same experience. It’s rocky in the beginning, but the more consistent I am, the more peaceful the meditation is. I have had many peaceful meditations where I’ve let go of expectations.

What I’m questioning now is: why am I meditating? I’m realizing that all this time I’ve believed that meditation was worthwhile. While I am meditating I feel that an am able to do so with openness and curiosity (sometimes) - I suspect that part of me is only meditating because I “know” that it is a good thing to do. I “know” that it can yield deep insights or other kinds of breakthroughs like access concentration or samadhi states.

I still have not experienced these insights and states.

I’m considering that, as I am and perceive right now, I might not be meditating with a committed interest in what’s true. I do think that’s what meditation should be about, discovering what’s true about the present moment and experience - but either my skewed intent or approach is holding me back from a true experience.

This brings me to contemplation:

The reality is, I prioritize contemplation less than I do meditation right now. Partly because I have grown up to place a high value on meditation, and not contemplation. While meditation is something I think about as “I should do this every day” contemplation is more like “I’ll get to it if I have time after I’ve meditated”.

Based on everything I’ve explained thus far, I am considering changing my priority to contemplation. This is especially inspired by my experience reading Peter’s books. I feel inspired to contemplate the ideas in these books for an hour every day rather than meditate.

So, my questions:

How do you prioritize meditation and contemplation in your life?

What is your perception of meditation? Do you believe or “know” that it is valuable? Or are you meditating from a place of genuine curiosity?

Is one’s capacity for meditative and contemplative focus and efficacy interdependent?

Thanks for reading.

Have a great day,

-Yarrow

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Meditation Vs. Contemplation?