Contemplatives.org is a website and blog dedicated to the contemplative journey that is common across cultures and across traditions. Though primarily grounded in the Catholic-Christian tradition, the aim of this website and its blog is to continuously broaden and deepen how and where contemplation can be seen and lived. We are all called to be Contemplatives in Action, to discover our deepest center (contemplation), and allow that center to guide our daily living (action). In the Christian tradition, we call that center the image of God – Imago Dei. It is also part of the Christian tradition to speak of Social Justice, as a way of acting in the world that creates a loving reality for all beings. As the Thomas Merton quote that frames the title of the website states:
“Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is awareness of the reality that life and being proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is above all, awareness of the reality of that source.”
The aim of this web presence is to aid in the continuing discovery of that source Merton describes above so that we may create a world that truly models the Heaven on Earth we are called as humans to create.
William Haardt is the author of The Soul’s Journey: Finding Our Way Home, which highlights the 6 major stages of the spiritual journey as seen through the lens of Christian and Buddhist mystics like Thomas Merton and Adyashanti. He also includes a few of his own moments of grace for each stage to help give the 6 stages more approachability.
William Haardt earned his BA from Colgate University and his MA from the Jesuit University of San Francisco, completing 1 year of his MA at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He completed his MA Thesis on Christian-Buddhist dialogue with the following question as his focus:
What do Buddhists and Christians offer each other in their approach to self and salvation/liberation?
Since that time, William has been immersed in both the Christian and Buddhist traditions as they have deepened his understanding of contemplation in a variety of ways.