When I first started contemplating I approached it from the perspective that I could contemplate a topic, like compassion, for 20 minutes and be done with it. Check it off my list and move on.
Now I see contemplation more like unwrapping a topic. Not a three-dimensional sort of unwrapping where you simply remove the paper to reveal the gift, but more of a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted discovering where new facets of the concept are drawn from within to the surface where I can see them.
And it’s not just because some concepts are so vast or complicated that I can’t cover them in a 20-minute time period. I think it’s also that sometimes I change. And as I change I shift and broaden my perspective, where I stand, which allows me to see more of it. Facets that I could not have accessed before.