Thomas Merton

Contemplation . . . is the experiential grasp of reality as subjective, not so much “mind” (which would signify “belonging to the external self”) but “myself” in existential mystery. Contemplation does not arrive at reality after a process of deduction, but by an intuitive awakening in which our free and personal reality becomes fully alive to its own existential depths, which open out into the mystery of God.

For the contemplative there is no cogito (“I think”) and no ergo (“therefore”) but only SUM, I AM. Not in the sense of a future assertion of our individuality as ultimately real, but in the humble realization of our mysterious  being as persons in whom God dwells, with infinite sweetness and inalienable power.

~Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation 9

For more inspiration, meditate with the mystics