El Método de la Oración Centrante

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.