Pondering

...this is a good point to introduce an ancient practice sometimes described in odd corners of the tradition, known today as pondering...Today we are so used to speed-reading and other methods of reading superficially, that we also need to know a technique that most people perhaps once knew: what it means to ponder a statement.

To ponder a passage of a book we should first read it with great care, making sure that we have clearly dealt with each of its statements separately. Then we should ponder each statement on its own, comparing it with our own experience, until we recognize what it describes. When we have recognized what is described in each statement, then we may reconsider the passage as a whole....

Without having learned to ponder, one should not read serious esoteric texts.

- Robin Amis, A Different Christianity