contemplatives
Those who reflect
Contemplatives are people devoted to contemplation, especially in a religious context.
The term typically refers to monks, nuns, or other religious practitioners who dedicate themselves to prayer, meditation, and spiritual reflection rather than active ministry: The contemplatives at the monastery rise at 3 a.m. for prayers.
Outside religious contexts, contemplatives are simply those given to deep, sustained thought.
People who practice mindfulness
- seekersThose who pursue answers
- mysticsSpiritual insight seekers
- sagesProfoundly learned people
- practitionersPeople who perform a discipline
devotees · adepts · yogis · inner journey · awakened · enlightened · stillness · recollection
Religious community members
- mysticsSpiritual insight seekers
- hermitsPeople choosing isolation
- monksCloistered religious men
- nunsFemale religious monastics
ascetics · cenobites · friars · abbots · abbesses · cloistered · recluses · mendicants
People who reason deeply
- philosophersSeekers of fundamental truths
- scholarsExperts in a field
- theoristsBuilders of explanatory frameworks
- intellectualsPeople of scholarly pursuits
ponderers · muses · Platonists · metaphysicians · phenomenologists · existentialists · stoics · speculative
meditators
People who practice mindfulness
practitioners · devotees · adepts · yogis · inner journey · awakened · enlightened · stillness · recollection · interiority
monastics
Religious community members
nuns · ascetics · cenobites · friars · abbots · abbesses · cloistered · recluses · mendicants · desert fathers
thinkers
People who reason deeply
- philosophersSeekers of fundamental truths
- scholarsExperts in a field
- theoristsBuilders of explanatory frameworks
intellectuals · ponderers · muses · Platonists · metaphysicians · phenomenologists · existentialists · stoics · speculative · abstract thought
- CatholicismVatican, cardinals, pope, Holy Communion, popes
- believersbeliever, believers, adherent, devotee, theist
- thinkersthinkers, thinker, philosophers, philosopher, Aristotle
- monasticismabbeys, abbey, abbots, abbot, cloister
- Belgian Monasteriesabbeys, Trappists, Benedictines, convents, monasticism
- Catholic figurescardinals, archbishops, abbots, bishops, friars
contemplativesactivists
People working for causes
doers · men of action · practitioners · movers and shakers · go-getters
contemplativesmaterialists
Prioritizers of physical possessions
secularists · hedonists · pragmatists · careerists · socialites
contemplativespragmatists
Those valuing practical results
tacticians · operatives · technicians · empiricists · reactors
- contemplative lifeLife of prayer and reflection
- contemplative prayerSilent, receptive spiritual practice
- contemplative retreatSecluded place for reflection