Open Mind Open Heart
The Contemplative Dimension
of the Gospel
by Father Thomas Keating
Chapter 4
First Steps in Centering Prayer
Part II
Contemplative prayer is a way of tuning in to a fuller level of reality that
is always present and in which we are invited to participate. Some discipline is
required to reduce the obstacles to this expanded awareness. One way is to slow
down the speed at which our ordinary thoughts come down the stream of consciousness. lf this can be done,
space begins to appear
between the thoughts, enabling an awareness of the reality upon which they are
resting.
In this discussion of centering prayer, I am not exploring methods
that help to
calm the body, mind and nervous system, such as breathing, yoga, and jogging . Such
methods are fine for relaxation, but what we are concerned with is the faith
relationship. This relationship is expressed by taking the time to open oneself
to God every day, by taking God seriously enough to make a heavy date with Him, so
to speak--a date that one would not think of breathing. Since this kind of prayer
doesn't require thinking, we can keep our engagement even when we are sick.
The fundamental disposition in centering prayer is opening to God.
Christian practice
can be summed up by the word patience. In the New Testament patience means waiting for
God for any length of time, not going away, and not giving in to boredom or
discouragement. It is the disposition of the servant in the Gospel who waited
even though the master of the house delayed his return till well after midnight.
When the master finally came home, he put the servant in charge of his whole
household. If you wait, God will manifest Himself. Of course, you may have a
long wait.
I find this practice gets me nowhere. Is it good to try to make the faculties
a blank?
Please don't try to make your faculties a blank. There should always be a
gentle, spiritual activity present, expressed either by thinking the sacred word or by
the simple awareness that you are present to God. The experience of emptiness is
the presence of your intention in a very subtle way. You cannot maintain that
experience of emptiness unless your intention is at work. It may seem like no
work because it is so simple. At the same time, this method of prayer takes time
to learn and you need not worry about experiencing what you may interpret as a
blank once in a while. This prayer is a way of resting in God. If you notice
that you have a blank, that's a thought; merely return to the sacred word.
What do you do when you realize you have been dozing?
If you doze off, don't give it a second thought. A child in the arms of a
parent drifts off to sleep occasionally, but the parent isn't disturbed by that
so long as the child is happily resting there and opens its eyes once in a
while.
I was surprised by how fast the time went. Was it really twenty minutes?
Yes. When the time goes fast, it is a sign that you were not doing much
thinking. I'm not saying it is a sign of good prayer. It is unwise to judge a
prayer period on the basis of your psychological experience. Sometimes you may
be bombarded with thoughts all during the time of prayer; yet it could be a very
useful period of prayer. Your attention might have been much deeper than it
seemed. In any case, you cannot make a valid judgment about how things are going
on the basis of a single period of prayer. Instead, you must look for the fruit
in your ordinary daily life, after a month or two. If you are becoming more patient with others, more at ease with
yourself, if you shout less often or less loudly at the children, feel less hurt
if the family complains about your cooking--all these are signs that another set
of values is beginning to operate in you.
If you have no thoughts at all during centering prayer, you then have no
awareness of time. Such an experience reveals the relativity of our sense of
time. Our period of prayer, however, will not always seem short. Sometimes it
will seem very long. The alternation between tranquility and the struggle with
thoughts is part of a process, a refining of the intuitive faculties so that
they can be attentive to this deeper level in a more and more stable fashion.
If you're drowsy or very tired, do you have fewer thoughts?
In general, yes, so long as you don't start dreaming! In the monastery we get
up at 3:00 A.M., and one is often a little groggy at that hour of the morning.
This seems to be part of our particular method, to be so tired that we just
can't think. After working hard all day, one may have the same experience in the
evening. That can be a help as long as you are alert enough to stay awake and
not succumb to the pleasure of drowsing. But don't feel bad if you do fall
asleep. You may need a little extra rest.
On the other hand, try to pick a time when you are most likely to be alert so
you have a fuller experience of centering prayer rather than nodding your way
through it. If you fall asleep, when you awake continue to center for a few
minutes so that you don't feel that your prayer was a complete washout for the
day. The kind of activity in which you are engaged in this prayer is so simple
that it is easy to fall asleep unless you do the modest action that is required,
which is to stay alert. Thinking the sacred wordi is one way of doing this.
Jesus said, "Watch and pray." This is what we are doing in centering
prayer. Watching is just enough activity to stay alert. Praying is opening to
God.
Centering prayer is not so much an exercise of attention as intention. It may
take a while to grasp this distinction. You do not attend to any particular
thought content. Rather, you intend to go to your inmost being, where you
believe God dwells. You are opening to Him by pure faith, not by means of
concepts or feelings. It is like knocking gently on a door. You are not pounding
on the door with your faculty as if to say, "Open in the name of the law! I
demand that you let me in!" You can't force this door. It opens from the other side. What you are saying by means of the sacred word is,
"Here I am, waiting." It's a waiting game to the nth degree. Nothing flashy
is going to happen, or, if it does, you should gently return to the sacred word as
if nothing had happened. Even if you have a vision or hear infused words, you
should return to the sacred word. This is the essence of the method.
The mood I was in was one of expectation. Then I found myself thinking about
the fact that I was expecting something to happen.
Have no expectation in this prayer. It's an exercise of effortlessness, of
letting go. To try is a thought. That's why I say: "Return to the sacred
word as easily as possible"; or, "gently place the sacred word in your
awareness." To struggle is to want to achieve something. That is to aim at the
future, whereas this method of prayer is designed to bring you into the present.
Expectations also refer to the future; hence they, too, are thoughts.
Emptying the mind of its customary routines of thinking is a process that we
can only initiate, like taking the stopper out of a bath tub. The water goes
down by itself. You don't have to push the water out of the tub. You simply
allow it to run out. You are doing something similar in this prayer. Allow your
ordinary train of thoughts to flow out of you. Waiting without expectation is
sufficient activity
What about feelings? Are you supposed to let them go too?
Yes. They are thoughts in the context of this prayer. A perception of any
kind whatsoever is a thought. Even the reflection that one isn't having a
thought is a thought. Centering prayer is an exercise of letting all perceptions
pass by, not by giving them a shove or by getting angry at them, but by letting
them go. This enables you gradually to develop a spiritual attentiveness that is
peaceful, quiet, and absorbing.
Is the deeper attention a function of less thought?
Yes. You may even have no thoughts. Then you are at the deepest point that
you can go. At that moment there is no sense of time. Time is the measure of
things going by. When nothing is going by, there is an experience of
timelessness. And it is delightful.
What should we do about external noise?
The best remedy for a sound that you can't control is to let go of your
resistance to it and let it happen. External things are not obstacles to prayer.
It is just that we think they are. By fully accepting external distractions that
you can't do anything about, you may get a breakthrough into the realization
that you can be in the middle of all the noise on earth and still experience
this deeper attentiveness. Take a positive view of external difficulties. The
only thing about which to take a negative view is skipping your daily time for
prayer. That's the only no-no. Even if your prayer time seems fraught with noise
and you feel like a total failure, just keep doing it.
Is it really possible for people who run around all day to be contemplatives?
Yes. This is not to say that by doing nothing but running around all day
people will become contemplatives. On the other hand, you only have to be a
human being to be eligible to become a contemplative. It's true that there are
certain life styles that are more conducive to the development of a
contemplative attitude, but this method works well if you stay with it.
Can you say to people with whom you are traveling, "I'm going to do my
meditation now?"
Sure. They might be happy to have a few minutes of quiet themselves.
I am conscious of trying to let thoughts pass, but what happens is that I
work with images of my perception of God. They tend to be visual. Is that also a
thought that should be discarded?
Any kind of image is a thought in the context of this prayer. Any perception
that arises from any one of the senses or from the imagination, memory, or
reason is a thought. Hence, whatever the perception may be, let it go.
Everything that registers on the stream of consciousness will eventually go by,
including the thought of self. It is just a question of allowing every thought
to go. Keep your attention on the river rather than on what is passing along its
surface.
My way of focusing on God has usually been through an image. If I remove that image, I have trouble understanding what it is that I should focus on. Is
my attention simply on the word that I am repeating?
Your attention should not be directed to any particular thought, including
the sacred word. The sacred word is only a means of re-establishing your
intention of opening to the true Self and to God, who is at the center of it. It
is not necessary to keep repeating the sacred word. Interior silence is
something that one naturally likes to experience. You don't have to force
anything. By forcing, you introduce another thought, and any thought is enough
to prevent you from going where you want to go.
Some people find it easier to transcend with a visual image rather than with
a word. If you prefer some kind of visual image, choose one that is general and
not detailed; for example, turn your inward gaze toward God as if you are
looking at someone you love.
As you were speaking, it occurred to me that I use images to stop myself from
a free fall.
Some people, when they are quiet, feel themselves on the edge of a cliff But
don't worry There is no danger of falling. The imagination is perplexed by the
unknown. It is so used to images, so plugged into them, that to disengage it
from its habitual way of thinking is quite a job. It will take practice to feel
comfortable with this prayer.
More information can be obtained by reading the book Open Mind Open Heart
by Fr. Thomas Keating. It is offered in our Book
Store.
