Resting in God's Presence

by Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO

Centering Prayer as taught by Contemplative Outreach is a fairly nuanced practice. You can't always rely on what people say about the instruction they received. I have found that even after several years, people may not have fully understood how to do Centering Prayer. This becomes apparent during the Intensive Retreats or the Formation Workshops in which there is a careful review of the method itself.

One objection to Centering Prayer is as follows: "One is advised to let go of the sacred word just to rest in God's presence: " That advice has to be taken in its proper context and depends on certain steps going before.

First of all, letting go of the sacred word in Centering Prayer is not a deliberate choice. Still less is it a permanent disposition. The whole thrust of Centering Prayer is to encourage us to let go of all thoughts. A "thought" in Contemplative Outreach terminology is any perception whatsoever including memories, plans, visualizations, external or internal sensations, feelings, and self reflections. Any kind of reflecting, even to make a choice, is a "thought," and hence, an invitation to return to the sacred word.

In the beginning our advice is: Resist no thought, retain no thought, react emotionally to no thought, and when you notice you are thinking about some thought, return ever so gently to the sacred word. One does not think about whether to return to the sacred word or not. One simply returns to it when thoughts are attracting one's awareness to a particular object.

We recommend the "discrete" use of the sacred word rather than its constant repetition. By this we mean using it as much as one needs it. This may be continuously at first. Beginners need it whenever they notice they are thinking about some other thought. In following this advice, we note the fact that the sacred word may become indistinct or even disappear for a limited period of time. When thoughts again engage our attention, we return to the sacred word as before. Thus, a disposition of alert receptivity is gradually formed.

Later we suggest returning to the sacred word or symbol only when we notice that we are attracted to some other thought. The meaning of this advice is that with time and regular daily practice one can discern intuitively whether one is disinterested in the thoughts that are coming down the stream of consciousness. Disregard of the thoughts is the sign that the consent of the will is becoming habitual. The will can be directed to God at a very delicate level without having to express its intention in a sacred symbol. Thus, from our perspective, the sacred symbol is not a means of going some place like an elevator. Still less is it a means of bulldozing other thoughts out of awareness. It is rather, a question of cultivating the spiritual level of awareness, which is real awareness, but without particular content.

This brings me to the chief difference between Centering Prayer, Vipassana and Hindu mantric practice. Centering Prayer comes out of the Christian Contemplative Heritage, inspired in the first instance by the Desert Mothers and Fathers and the Hesychastic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, both of which cultivate interior silence and purity of heart. In the methods of meditation in the Eastern religions, the emphasis is on concentration for the sake of developing clarity of mind. By concentrative practices, I understand the use of the rational faculties and the imagination, physical movements and postures, and continued repetition of a word or phrase.

Centering Prayer is a passage from concentrative practices to alert receptivity through consenting to God's presence and action within us, which places the emphasis on purity of intention. Effort refers to the future, consent to the present moment where God, in fact, is. According to St. John of the Cross, purity of intention manifests itself during prayer as "a general loving attentiveness toward God." This is attentiveness not of the mind but of the heart. Its source is pure faith in God's presence leading to surrender to the interior action of the Holy Spirit in the here and now.

Article from Spring 1998 Newsletter, Volume 12 , Number 1

source: Contemplative Outreach

Taming the Mind

by Pema Chodron

This has to do with the importance of a basic attitude of friendliness. Sometimes when our thoughts are like little fleas that jump off our noses, we just see the little flickers of thought, like ripples, which might have a very liberating quality. For the first time you might feel, ---My goodness! There's so much space, and it's always been here." 

Another time it might feel like that elephant is sitting on you, or like you have your own private pornographic movie going on, or your own private war, in technicolor and stereo. It's important to realize that meditation doesn't prefer the flea to the elephant, or vice versa. It is simply a process of seeing what is, noticing that, accepting that, and then going on with life, which, in terms of the technique, is coming back to the simplicity of nowness, the simplicity of the out-breath. Whether you are completely caught up in discursive thought for the entire sitting period, or whether you feel that enormous sense of space, you can regard either one with gentleness and a sense of being awake and alive to who you are. Either way, you can respect that. So taming teaches that meditation is developing a nonaggressive attitude to whatever occurs in your mind. It teaches that meditation is not considering yourself an obstacle to yourself; in fact, it's quite the opposite.

source:  Meditation and the relativity of thought in Buddhism

The Process of Focusing

by Father William Meninger

Focusing is the process that enables us to hear what the body is telling us, through feelings, about our wounds and what to do about them. It can be used for other things involving body knowledege, such as dreams  or spiritual insights in prayer or Scripture reading, but, for our purposes here, we will limit it to the healing of wounds.

Here is a simple explanation of the focusing process. You can actually experience it as you go through the instructions:

1. Sit quietly for a moment; take several deep, slow breaths. Offer this prayer, or a similar one in your own words:   Dear Lord, thank you for gracing me to spend these few moments with your presence. I would like to respond to the innate ability you give me to listen to my body's knowledge. I want to recognize that pain is my body's way of calling my attention to my hurts and that it is also a means to lead me into the healing process. You have never promised me as a Christian, that I would be free from pain (crosses). But you have promised to be with me in my trials and sufferings and to bring me through them in new and grace-filled life. Amen
2. Now feel your body. Perhaps you might give your attention to your solar plexus (guts!), the location of many vague, uncomfortable feelings. Indeed, some people are constantly affected by unfocused, abiding discomfort here. They have never known what these feelings mean or how to deal with them. Go through your whole body - are there any puzzling pains, aches, feelings, anywhere that you cannot account for? Simply let them arise. Don't do anything for a while but just feel! Give your body there or four minutes to speak to you through some feeling or other. Body knowledge takes longer than intellectual knowledge. Don't be concerned with the first thing that comes to mind but wait for something to come to your body feelings. It may be connected to what is in the mind or it may not. Just allow the feeling to be there. Do not do anything else. The feeling may be a physical (e.g., muscle) pain, it may be excitement, fear, heaviness, or depression. What ever it is, it is the body speaking. Don't run from it. This is what we do too often. Drugs, alcohol, medicine, sex and work are the ways we use to get away from body knowledge. Today, you are not going to run. You are going to listen - even through it hurts. If it is very painful just reach out in your heart to God who is present to you and who will accompany you in your search for healing. Allow yourself to weep if this is called for. Weeping is also body language. Realize that whatever you feel is a call for healing. It is not a enemy but a friend or a teacher. Just accept it and be with it for a little while.

excerpt from "The Process of Forgiviness"

Accidental

Taking Up Our Cross

by St. Catherine of Siena

In the center of the garden is planted the tree of the most holy cross, the resting place of the spotless Lamb. He bathes and waters this glorious gardens, irrigating it with his blood; and he himself bears the mature fruit of true solid virtues. If you want patience , he is the bedrock of meekness, since not a murmur of complaint was heard from the Lamb. He is the bedrock of deep humility, since God stooped down to humanity, and the Word stooped to the shameful death of the cross. If you want charity, he is the charity, and even more, for it was the power of love and charity that kept him nailed fast to the cross. The cross and nails could never have held the God-Man, had not the power of charity held him. I'm not surprised that those who make of themselves a garden through self-knowledge are strong in the face of the whole world, for they are conformed and made one with supreme strength. They truly begin in this life to have foretaste of eternal life. They control the world by making light of it . The devils are afraid to get near a soul on fire.

So up!... I don't want you sleeping any more in irresponsibility... No, with a boundless blazing love get up and take a bath in Christ's blood, hide in the wounds of Christ crucified. I'll say no more. I'm sure that if you live in the cell I've been talking about you will discover none other than Christ crucified... Keep living in God's holy and tender love. 

source: Magnifcat, July 2010