Meditation and contemplation. What is the difference?

The meditation is to concentration of the mind on itself by isolating it from the senses and the external factors. When we use meditation, the mind normally concentrates on some light, like a candle or on an image that can be mental or physical, a portrait for example.
The contemplation is a step further in the process of abstraction of the mind. The mind concentrates on the most abstract and primordial entities, like the wisdom, the eternity or the truth. That is to say in the metaphysical entities.
These metaphysical entities exist, are eternal and subsist by themselves, they can only be perceived with intelligence, these entities have a common characteristic, between them there is neither corruption, nor evil, nor falsehood, they are the first perfections of the universe.
That is, the eternal perfections that give rise to everything created. The universe is a manifestation of the creative wisdom.
Aristotle explains that contemplation is the most excellent human virtue, and as Aristotle explain greater is the virtue greater is the happiness, to the contemplation is asociated the greatest form of happiness, the happiness of the heart, the radiant happiness, the happiness as a state of the mind.
In the christian faith, the contemplation has another name: the spiritual gift of eternal life.
This is why Jesus said: "This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God", John 17:3
According to Thomas Aquinas God is the wisdom itself, and the contemplation is the same vision of God. Contemplation is from this point of view the angelic activity by excellence.
The eternal life is the true goal of the spiritual life. This activity has another benefit asociated, the fruits of the spirit: the peace, the kindness, the forbearance, the self domain. The fruits of the spirit are the description of the character of God, the sanctity.
The contemplation, that is the vision of God, is the greatest blessing.
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