For the Taoist Masters, contemplation was a very different thing from what it became in the western world. Christians are encouraged to examine their lives, to see their sins, and then contemplate the future in which they will join in with God. For the Taoist master, contemplation was never over time. Instead, their contemplation brought them through space. Not the past or the future, that never actually exist, but through whole of the world as it is now. Right now. Their contemplations relied very much on their senses. They sought to integrate themselves with the forces of nature around them. They would become as close to their senses as they could. They not only felt the wind on their faces, but they also felt how the wind moved an energy inside them and moved it all the way to their very core. The sunlight touched their souls. They valued anything that kept their senses razor-sharp. You have to be very perceptive to see the things that they contemplated, but they also left their pledge that if you will allow the energies of your self and the energies that surround you to flow with one another, your journey toward self-perfection will be fulfilled.