Transcript for Thoughts in Centering Prayer

Thoughts in Centering Prayer

Let's look at the third one, the most crucial one

When engaged with your thoughts return ever so gently to the sacred word.

We said that thoughts are inevitable

We said they are integral

in other words, they are part of the prayer

and as far as we can tell from our present level of experience

they are integral because your thoughts may be coming from the unconscious

and may be part of the process of healing

The Spirit works as a kind of Divine Therapist

and one of the ways that He heals the unconscious is

by allowing its feelings and its thoughts to surface

especially during prayer and then later

sometimes outside the time of prayer

but it is precisely the programs in the unconscious

what psychology calls the dynamics of the unconscious

that hinder the free flow of grace

and that needs to be addressed by the Spirit, brought to our attention,

and we have to let go of them, both in our prayer and their consequences in daily life

So you see right away that Centering Prayer involves the whole of life.

And the activities by which we bring its fruits to daily life

is almost as important a factor in the project

as the time that we faithfully spend each day in the prayer itself.

Suppose you were in deep conversation with someone you loved

high up in an apartment house

the windows are open, the traffic is going by

and there's noise you can't stop

all of a sudden there's a crash on the street and the decibels go up

and you naturally feel a curiosity to go see what happened

It's what happens when interesting thoughts or boats come down the stream of consciousness

one wants to look at them

and then as your mind begins to look at this thing,

that is, the young man goes to the window to see what the accident was

he suddenly remembers, "oh, what am I doing? I'm in this

deep, cheek to jowl conversation

a heart to heart conversation and I'm not interested, it's not the time to see what happened outside

or to judge what you're really going to have for dinner,

and so, you want to reinforce or reaffirm the

original tete-a-tete that you were having, and so what do you do?

you would turn your eyes back toward the beloved

or your friend, as a gesture of renewing the conversation

before it got somewhat disturbed, or you might

and you might say "Excuse me" or you might say "As I was saying"

Well, that's what the sacred word does to you..

It's when you are lifted out of your basic intention and

start watching thoughts that you are attracted to or have an aversion to

that you need to do something to return to the sacred word.

But if the thoughts are just going by like noise in the supermarket

you don't pay any attention to them, you are dimly aware that it's happening

then there isn't a necessity to go back to the sacred word

because you are already at the place where the sacred word is meant to facilitate your reaching

which is the abiding turning and resting in the presence of God within you

at the deepest level

so let me sum up very briefly in this modest diagram here

what I am trying to say

Suppose that this is our ordinary awareness,

the stream of consciousness that we are experiencing during the time of prayer

and here are a few boats that are going by

boats representing thoughts, feelings, images, and so on

and there's usually a fleet of them,

Sometimes the whole United States Navy seems to be going down

with all the guns banging

Whatever your experience you're having thoughts going by

at this level, and a deeper level

let's call this the ordinary level of our awareness

and let's call this the spiritual level of our awareness

which you're not aware of most of the time, except in a peak experience

or when life or tragedy brings you to that place, so we're mostly

unaware of what we might call the river itself

on which all our thoughts and faculties are resting

so we're absorbed or dominated in our ordinary psychological life

by the objects of events and people and our emotional reaction to them

The purpose then of Centering Prayer

is to move from this level to this level,

and indeed not to stop there, because human beings have greater depth than that

but to move even deeper to the level of the true self

which is our participation in the divine life

and the Divine Presence itself

as the source of our being at every level.

and in accessing or awakening

our awareness to this presence is the ultimate goal of contemplative prayer or centering prayer

but to reach it we have to pass through the spiritual level and to awaken the true self

and whatever God or the Divine Presence may want to share with us

which is a whole new life, a transformed life,

and which it seems to me is what the Gospel invites us to

especially in St. John, where Jesus speaks of inviting us into the same union and unity

that he experiences with the Father in the Holy Spirit

hence, this is so important from the perspective of prayer as relationship

Now, there are lots of prayers at this level

our vocal prayers, our reflections, our Divine Office,

and the sacraments. But each of these things, especially the sacraments

have this mystical depth, or this mystagogic teaching

which helps us to understand the symbols of the Church

from this level, in which they are transformed and their meaning becomes more powerful

more attractive and more personal

as well as bonding us with everyone else who is having a similar experience

in grace. And we might say that Centering Prayer

is primarily involved in awakening this particular level

as a preparation for going deeper still,

which is the work of the various stages of contemplative prayer and mystical life