Jesus is a teacher of contemplation

The teaching of Jesus on prayer, in the Sermon on the Mount, contains the basic elements of contemplation: interiority, silence, equanimity, faithful trust, attention and presence. Put those together, and we have contemplation. Jesus is a teacher of contemplation. He doesn’t give us a very direct method of meditation, but meditation is of course a way for us to receive the gift of contemplation that he is describing. John Main gives us examples. He says the spirit of faithful trust implicit in the mantra is what we find in what Jesus says: ‘Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.’ (Mt 6:33) So again, John Main anchors that first statement about Jesus as a teacher of contemplation in the method of meditation that he taught from the Christian tradition and is present in other traditions, the mantra. 

Enlightenment by Laurence Freeman OSB