Methods
Scholarly documentation of the contemplative and interpretive methods of the traditions Hekhal documents. Not instruction. What each tradition itself says about its method, in the tradition's own terms, with citations. The differences between methods are as important as the similarities.
Hekhal does not teach contemplative practice and does not commission it. The site documents what each tradition has said about its own method; the practice itself belongs to its lineage, not to a reference site.
Lectio Divina
The Western Christian monastic practice of slow, prayerful reading of scripture, organized in four classical movements -- lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio -- articulated systematically by Guigo II in the late twelfth century.
Ignatian Discursive Meditation
The systematic Counter-Reformation-era Catholic method of structured imaginative-discursive engagement with biblical scenes, articulated by Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises (composed 1522-1535, published 1548) and operating as the foundational pedagogy of the Society of Jesus.