We shouldn’t confuse various kinds of inner work, insight-gathering, or introspection with contemplative spirituality. Contemplation is about letting go of the false much more than just collecting the new, the therapeutic, or the helpful.
.. if you and your personal growth are still the focus, I do not think you are yet a contemplative—which demands that you shed yourself as the central reference point.
.. Jesus said, “Unless the single grain of wheat dies, it remains just a single grain,” and it will not bear much fruit (John 12:24).
.. Thomas Merton warned against confusing an introverted personality with being a contemplative. They are two different things.
.. Too much activism without enough inner work, insight, or examination of conscience inevitably leads to violence—to the self, to the project at hand, and invariably to others.
If too much inner focus risks narcissism and individualism,
I guess too much outer focus risks superficiality, negativity passing for love of justice, and various Messiah complexes.
You can lack love on the Right and you can lack love on the Left—they just wear two different disguises.