Contemplative Receptivity

Pieper's account of leisure depended entirely on distinguishing it from what the modern world had reduced it to. Leisure is not relaxation, recreation, or entertainment. It is not the absence of effort. It is a disposition — a specific quality of attention directed toward reality with the intention to perceive rather than produce. The contemplative mind is not empty. It is intensely alert. But its alertness is receptive rather than grasping, open rather than acquisitive, focused on what is given rather than on what can be extracted. This disposition is the subjective condition for every activity that gives human life its distinctive character: philosophy, art, worship, genuine conversation, the perception of beauty, the experience of love. Without contemplative receptivity, these activities cannot occur, regardless of how much time or resources are notionally allocated to them.