Thomas Keating on Method of Centering Prayer

Duration: 7 minutes and 51 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

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Genre: Instructional

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Posted by: castella on Mar 12, 2009

Brief discussion of the method of Centering Prayer

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The Method of Centering Prayer
And so, let's look at the guidelines then from
that perspective. In this talk we are emphasizing
the method and so you could easily
get stuck on doing the method just right
but it's always a relationship
and that means unlike certain other disciplines
if you don't do it correctly
it doesn't matter...It's a help if you do it correctly
but it doesn't matter because it's your intention that
counts, and the relationship is with God
God sees that you're trying hard to do a nice job
however much you're stumbling
He's not going to hold your mistakes against you.
He's looking at your love and through another person
or a book, or eventually through
the inspirations of the Holy Spirit you'll correct whatever
mistakes you're doing. The main thing
to do is to do it
The principal method of Centering Prayer
really is to sit down
Now, that isn't too hard for most people...
Once you sit down, then
the Spirit's got you, especially if you
you sit there for the 20 or 25 minutes you have agreed upon
and if you do that every day
the mistakes and misconceptions will gradually evaporate
Doing it is the primary discipline.
But there are ways of doing it that could
facilitate this sitting there
and so, let's look at the guidelines
Now the first guideline is
Choose a sacred word as a symbol
of your intention to consent
to God's presence and action within you.
Notice please God's presence and action
so we're working with a dynamic relationship
a back and forth, an exchange,
a conversation that has moved to a communion
or is moving in that direction.
The second little guideline is
Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed,
we settle briefly
like in this nice chair,
and then after a few moments of not doing anything
for maybe ten or fifteen seconds
of quiet, you introduce
very gently, very casually
almost informally, the sacred word you have chosen
as in the first guideline, that symbolizes
the consent of your will
to God's presence and action within
-they always go together-
God is not a statue
He's not a static force within us
It's a loving relationship
in faith...and hence
God's Spirit can do all kinds of things
suggest all kinds of things
and He does
The third guideline is
When engaged with your thoughts
return ever so gently
to the sacred word.
Well, this is just to say
to acknowledge the fact that
there are going to be various thoughts
feelings, sense perceptions,
noise in the room, people coughing
memories, imaginations
sort of dreaming, all of this
psychological material you might say
is going to be flowing down the stream of consciousness
as you sit there
and we say it is inevitable, integral
and normal
so this is a terribly important point to get
through our heads if we
have been trained in the doctrine of distractions
that distractions somehow are harmful
or interfere with your prayer
Now, if you're doing discursive meditation
you're supposed to be thinking about something
in particular, then
other thoughts are distractions
that interrupt your prayer
Centering Prayer moves beyond
that level of awareness
and it's designed to
to disregard the ordinary
thoughts or activities of our ordinary psychological
day to day awareness
so you're not on the level that you
usually are on discursive meditation
and, hence, you just disregard
this thought, or these thoughts which
are more like noise in the
street or background music
in the supermarket that you put up with
and pay no attention to
But it's important not to resist
these thoughts
in other words, it's important to have a joyful attitude
towards the thoughts
a friendly attitude
toward the most dreadful thoughts
not that you linger over them or act
them out, but it's important
that we expect them, and they're normal
and they're integral, and
so we receive them all with a smile
an inward smile
A jolly attitude
is recommended
"Here they go again!, ha, ha, ha."
The reason for this is that any emotional
frustration, or annoyance, or
distress or grief, is not
appropriate because that is another kind
of thought, because it's emotionally charged
is more of a hindrance to entering into
interior silence which is the proximate goal of this prayer
than any number of casual thoughts that go by.
So, as soon as you're annoyed you have a second thought
which is much more disturbing
than the first one... So there's really great
wisdom in taking for granted
that there are going to be lots of thoughts, endless thoughts
and that with practice you can disregard most of them
Finally, and there wouldn't be time
in an introductory workshop
to do this....but
it's crucial to have some kind of follow-up
You can only say so much in a six hour
workshop, and all an ordinary person can get
is barely to get the four principles
So it's very helpful to have some kind
of six week program to follow it up
You can watch the first six tapes if you've got them
or read six chapters out of Open Mind, Open Heart
and study them together.

Thomas Keating on Method of Centering Prayer

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