Open mind, open heart- the contemplative dimension of the Gospel [20th Anniversary Edition] 0826406963, 0826414206

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Open Mind, Open dieart

Open 9dind, Open Jfeart 7'he Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel Thomas Keating Twentieth Anniversary

Edition

continuum NEW

YORK •

LONDON

2008

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SEI 7NX vrww.continuumbooks.com

Copyright © 1986, 1992 by St Benedict's Monastery Twentieth Anniversary Edition © 2006 by Sc. Benedict’s Monastery

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.

Printed in Canada Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keating, Thomas. Open mind, open heart- the contemplative dimension of the Gospel Thomas Keating Originally published Warwick, N.Y: Amity House, 1986. ISBN 0-8264-0696-3 (pbk.) ISBN 0-8264-1420 6 (hdb.) I. Contemplation. 2. Prayer. I. Title. BV509I.C7K42 1991 248.3'4-dc20 90-86261 86261

Contents

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

vii

Introduction

1 PARTI

1

Dimensions of Contemplative Prayer

11

2

First Steps in Centering Prayer

18

3

The Sacred Word as Symbol

32

4

The Wanderings of the Imagination

43

5

The Birth of Spiritual Attentiveness

65

6

More Subtle Kinds of Thoughts

78

7

Unloading the Unconscious

95

8

An Intensive Centering Prayer Retreat

115

9

Summary of the Centering Prayer Method

120

A Meditation

129 PART II

10

What Centering Prayer Is Not

133

11

An Overview of Contemplative Prayer in the Christian Tradition

140

vi • Contents

12 Guidelines for Christian life, Growth, and Transformation

158

Appendices

1

Practices That Help to Translate the Effects of Centering Prayer into Daily Life

167

2

The Active Prayer Sentence

171

3

The Weekly Support Group

173

4

The Method of Centering Prayer

175

5

Contemplative Outreach

182

Glossary of Terms

185

(Prayer to tfie Moly Spirit Paraphrase of the Latin hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, pour out of the depths of the Trinity a ray of Your Light—that Light which enlightens our minds and, at the same time, strengthens our wills. Come, Father of the poor in spirit, whom You love to fill with the fullness of God.

You are not only Giver of gifts, but Giver of Yourself, the supreme Gift—the Gift of the Father and the Son. You are the very best consoler! What a charming Guest You make! Your conversation, though all in silence, is sweetness itself. How refreshing Your consolation! Soothing like a caress. In an instant You dissipate all doubt and sadness. In the labor of fighting temptation, you are there promising victory. Your presence is our victory. You gently coax our timid hearts to trust in You.

In the greatest of labor, the work of self-surrender, You are our repose—peace in the depth of our souls

viii • Troyer to tfie tKcrfy Spirit

In the heat of inner struggles, Your breath is cooling, calming our rebellious passions, quieting our fears when it looks like defeat. You dry our tears when we fall. It is You who give the grace of compunction and the sure hope of pardon. Oh deliriously happy Light! Fill to the uttermost recesses the hearts of Your faithful children!

Without You, there is no divine life in us, no good disposition at all. If Your breath is cut off, our spirit languishes; nor can it rise until You press Your lips to the mouth of our souls and breathe into us the breath of life.

Your touch is as dew, but You also act with a strong arm. Gentle as the softest breeze, You are also in the whirlwind. Like a giant furnace, You dry up all our faculties—but only to melt the hardness of our hearts.

You cast us before Yju like dead leaves in the winter’s gale— but only to set our feet upon the narrow way that leads to life.

Now, as a mighty Wind coming, pour down torrents of rain to w’ash away our sins. Saturate with grace our dried out hearts. Soothe the wounds You have cauterized.

Give to all who trust in You—with that true trust which only You can give—Your seven sacred Gifts. Grant the reward of selfless love; that is, Your very SelfI Grant us perseverance to the end! And then, everlasting joy!

A men

Introduction

new edition of Open Mind, Open Heart to mark the twentieth anniversary of its publication in 1986 provides an opportunity to update parts of the book on the basis of the experience we have gained in these twenty years. I want to particularly thank Father Carl Arico for his great help in edit­ ing this new edition. Part I lays out the method of centering prayer and its im­ mediate conceptual background. Part II offers spiritual, his­ torical, and theological reflections designed to provide a broader context for the method. Throughout the book ques­ tions frequently asked by practitioners of centering prayer are set in italic type. For the sake of clarity, it seems best to reserve the term centering prayer for the specific method described in this book of awakening to the gift of' contemplation, and to re­ serve the term contemplative prayer for its full development under the direct inspiration of the Spirit. The fundamental purpose of centering prayer and Contem­ plative Outreach, the spiritual network that supports it, is to contribute to bringing the knowledge and experience of God’s love into the general consciousness of the human family. Contemplative prayer is a process of interior transforma­ tion, a conversion initiated by God and leading, if we consent, to divine union. One’s way of seeing reality changes in this

2 • Introduction.

process. A restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate, and respond to everyday life with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through, and beyond everything that happens. According to Christian tradition, contemplation is a pure gift of God. To refer to it as pure gift, however, needs to be nuanced lest we give the impression that it is out of reach and unattainable except for people in cloisters, hermits, or those who lead very austere lives. On the contrary, contemplation is a fundamental constituent of human nature and hence avail­ able to every human being. It is accessed by letting go of our own idea of ourselves, turning our will over to God, and rest­ ing in the Divine Indwelling that is already present within us and waiting to reveal itself to us. Regular periods of silence and solitude can dispose us to extend our consent to God’s presence to every moment of our waking lives and thus reduce the influences of the false self (the “old man” of Saint Paul), which retards the transforming process of grace. The false self is the idealized image of ourselves developed from early childhood to cope with emotional trauma due to the frustration of our instinctual needs for survival/security, affection/esteem, and power/control. The false self also seeks happiness through identification with a particular group from whom it can find acceptance and thus build feelings of self­ worth. On the social level, it gives rise to violence, war, and institutional injustice. Centering prayer is a movement of Divine Love designed to renew the Christian contemplative tradition. It consists of consenting to the call of the Holy Spirit to consent to God’s presence and action within, It is based on the format for the profound form of prayer that Jesus suggests in Matthew 6:6.

Introduction • 3

If you want to pray, enter your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Notice the cascading movement in this text into ever deeper states of silence: 1. Leaving behind external tumult, the environment we may be in, and the concerns of the moment by entering our inner room, the spiritual level of our being, the level of intu­ ition and the spiritual will. 2. Closing the door, that is, shutting out and turning off the interior conversation we normally have with ourselves all day long as we judge, evaluate, and react to people and events entering and leaving our lives. 3. Praying in secret to the Father, who speaks to us beyond the sound of words. The centering prayer method responds to this invitation: 1. By consenting to God’s presence and action within. 2. By surrendering our will completely to God. 3. By relating to God who dwells in secret, which is the silence of self.

As God brings the “new creation” to life in interior silence, that is to say, the new you,, with the world view that Christ shares in deep silence, His view of things becomes more im­ portant than our own. Then God asks us to live that new life in the circumstances of everyday life, contradicted by turmoil, opposition, and anxieties of all kinds. These seem to persecute us because we feel drawn to be alone to relish that silence. But we need to be confronted by the vicissitudes of daily life. The

4 • Introduction

alternation between contemplative prayer and external action gradually integrates the two and establishes us in the contem­ plative dimension of the Gospel, which is a new and trans­ formed state of consciousness. The contemplative dimension of the Gospel manifests itself in an ever deeper union with the living Christ and the practi­ cal caring for others that flows from this relationship. It re­ veals the deeper meaning of the mysteries of Christ and the living word of God in scripture. Centering prayer is a contemporary name for the practice that Jesus refers to as “prayer in secret” in the Sermon on the Mount. In the course of time this prayer has been given other names such as “pure prayer,” “prayer of faith,” “prayer of the heart,” and “prayer of simplicity.” Jesus’ teaching has roots in the Old Testament. For exam­ ple, Elijah’s experience of God on Mount Horeb as “sheer silence”; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night by which Yahweh led his people for forty years through the desert; the cloud in the Temple built by Solomon at the time of its consecration; and the exhortation of Psalm 46:10, which reads, “Be sill and know that I am God.” In the New Testament we hear of the overshadowing of Mary at the moment of the Incarnation; the cloud that over­ shadowed the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration; the silence of Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; and the darkness that covered the earth during the crucifixion. Christian tradition, especially the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth century, interpreted this wisdom say­ ing of Jesus as referring to the movement from ordinary psy­ chological awareness to the interior silence of the spiritual

Introduction • 5

level of our being and beyond that, to the secrecy of union with the Divine Indwelling. This tradition was handed on by the Hesychasts of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and in particular by the sixth­ century Syrian monk known as Pseudo-Dionysius; Meister Eckhardt, John Ruysbroeck, and the Rhineland mystics in the Middle Ages; the anonymous author of The Cloud of Un­ knowing in the fourteenth century; later by the Carmelite tradition exemplified by Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Elizabeth of the Trinity; and in the last century by Thomas Merton. This tradition became known as apophatic contemplation. It is not in opposition to so-called kataphatic contemplation, which draws on the exercise of our rational faculties to access divine union. The two forms of contemplation are best de­ scribed as complimentary. Kataphatic contemplation is nor­ mally necessary as a preparation for the apophatic experience, which passes beyond the excr'cise of the human faculties to rest in God. To explain this experience to ourselves or to share it with others requires symbols and images that we learn in kataphatic contemplation. An example of this complimentarity is the “Sabbath rest” of the Old Testament. Jesus invited his disciples to the same rest when he said, “Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Resting in God is the term used by Gregory the Great in the sixth century to describe contem­ plative prayer as he understood it. Christian tradition has excellent instructions and guidance for the beginnings of the spiritual journey, enshrined espe­ cially in the ancient practice of lectio divina, which became the central practice of Benedictine monks and nuns down

6 • Introduction

through the ages. It had three stages or moments, all of which were interrelated so that one might move from one to the other at will or under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

1. The prayerful reading of the texts of the Old and New Testaments led to reflection on the text, especially on the mysteries of Christ. 2. Reflecting on the text led to responding with acts of faith, hope, and love, gratitude, and self-surrender. 3. Responding led to resting in God beyond thinking or particular acts of the will as the process simplified.

Centering prayer puts into effect the first two recommen­ dations of Jesus’ formula in Matthew 6:6 by leaving behind external concerns and by discontinuing, at least in intention, the interior dialogue that usually accompanies ordinary psy­ chological awareness. Jesus’ third recommendation—“pray in secret”—points to the practice that later became known in the Christian tradition as contemplative prayer. Though there remain other legitimate interpretations of the word contem­ plation, the state of prayer that John of the Cross describes as “infused contemplation” has come to be generally accepted by subsequent spiritual authors as the definitive meaning. The three traditional stages of Christian spirituality are called respectively the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. The purgative and unitive ways are well delineated in the writings of the Christian mystics, but the path from the one to the other is not so clear and does not always ade­ quately address the physical, psychological, and spiritual ob­ stacles that hinder the process, especially our unconscious motivation.

Introduction • 7

Centering prayer elicits a commitment to the goal of inner transformation. It suggests a practical method of entering our “inner room” by deliberately letting go of external concerns symbolized by closing our eyes and consenting to the pres­ ence and action of God within. Next, a sacred symbol, such as a word from scripture, an inward glance toward God dwelling within, or noticing our breath as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, is introduced silently as a way to maintain our intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. As this disposi­ tion of alert receptivity stabilizes through regular practice, we are gradually prepared by the Spirit to pray, that is, to relate to the Father in secret. This interior process was interpreted by the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth century (as well as the later apophatic tradition) to mean letting go of all personal agendas, expectations, and desires for divine conso­ lation, psychological breakthroughs, and self-reflections of any kind. Centering prayer consists of the first two stages leading to “prayer in secret.” The latter consists of relating to God be­ yond thoughts, feelings, and particular acts. The only initia­ tive we take during the period of centering prayer is to main­ tain our intention of consenting to the presence and action of God within. This we do by gently returning to the sacred symbol when we notice we are engaged with thinking some thought, feeling, or bodily sensation. There is a growing expectation that teachers of the Gospel speak out of a personal experience of contemplative prayer. This could happen if the training of priests and ministers placed formation in contemplative prayer and practice on an equal footing with academic training. Until spiritual leader­ ship becomes a reality in Christian circles, many will continue to look to other religious traditions for the spiritual experi-

8 • Introduction

ences they are not finding in their local churches or other Christian institutions. If there were a widespread renewal of the practice of the contemplative dimension of the Gospel which bonds Christians together at a deeper level, the reunion of the Christian churches would be a real possibility, dialogue with the other world religions would have a firm basis in the spiritual experience of the Christian community, and the reli­ gions of the world would bear a much clearer witness to the human values they hold in common.

Tart 2

1 Dimensions of Contemplative Prayer (Contemplative prayer is the world in which God can do anything. To move into that realm is the greatest adventure. It is to be open to the Infinite and hence to infinite possibili­ ties. Our private, self-made worlds come to an end; a new world appears within and around us and the impossible be­ comes an everyday experience. Yet the world that prayer re­ veals is barely noticeable in the^ ordinary course of events. Christian life and growth are founded on faith in our own basic goodness, in the being that God has given us with its transcendent potential. This gift of being is our true Self. Through our consent by faith, Christ is born in us and He and our true Self become one. Our awakening to the presence and action of the Spirit is the unfolding of Christ’s resurrec­ tion in us. All true prayer is based on the conviction of the presence of the Spirit in us and of His unfailing and continual inspiration. Every prayer in this sense is prayer in the Spirit. Still, it seems more accurate to reserve the term prayer in the Spirit, for that prayer in which the inspiration of the Spirit is given directly to our spirit without the intermediary of our own reflections or acts of the will. In other words, the Spirit prays in us and

12 • Open Mind, Open Meart

we consent. The traditional term for this kind of prayer is contemplation. Contemplative prayer is a process within contemplative life. The former is an experience or series of experiences leading to the abiding state of union with God. The term contemplative life is the abiding state of divine union itself, in which one is habitually and continuously moved both in prayer and action by the Spirit. Centering prayer is an entrance into the process that leads to divine union. The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, but this is only one of its forms. “Prayer,” according to Evagrius, “is the laying aside of thoughts.”1 This definition presupposes that there are thoughts. Centering prayer is not so much the ab­ sence of thoughts as detachment from them. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and emotions—our whole being— to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions—beyond, in other words, the psychological content of the present moment. In centering prayer we do not deny or repress what is in our consciousness. We simply accept the fact of whatever is there and go beyond it, not by effort, but by letting go of whatever is there. According to the Baltimore catechism, “Prayer is the rais­ ing of the mind and heart to God.” In using this ancient for­ mula it is important to keep in mind that it is not we who do the lifting. In every kind of prayer the raising of the mind and heart to God can only be the work of the Spirit. In prayer inspired by the Spirit we let ourselves flow with the lifting movement and drop all reflection. Reflection is an important preliminary to prayer, but it is not prayer. Prayer is not only 1 Evagrius, De Oratione 70 (PG 79, 1181C).

Dimensions of Contemplative Troyer • 13

the offering of interior acts to God: it is the offering of our­ selves, of who we are just as we are. The action of the Spirit might be compared to a skillful nurse teaching the adopted children of a wealthy household how to behave in their new home. Like waifs pulled in off the street and seated at the banquet table in the elegant dining hall, we require a lot of time to learn and practice the proper table manners. Because of our earthy background, we tend to put our muddy feet on the table, break the chinaware, and spill the soup in our laps. To assimilate the values of our new home, profound changes in our attitudes and behavioral pat­ terns are required. For this reason we may experience our nurse as constraining in the beginning and heavy on the “don’ts.” And yet she always seems to be encouraging in the midst of correction; never condemnatory, never judgmental, always inviting us to amendment of life. Centering prayer is an education imparted by the Spirit. Our participation in this educational process is what Chris­ tian tradition calls self-denial. Jesus said, “Unless you deny your inmost self and take up the cross, you cannot be my disciple” (Mark 8:34). Denial of our inmost self includes de­ tachment from the habitual functioning of our intellect and will, which are out inmost faculties. This may require letting go not only of ordinary thoughts during prayer, but also of our most devout reflections and aspirations insofar as we treat them as necessary means of going to God. The nature of the rational mind is to simplify what it thinks about. Thus a single thought can sum up an immense wealth of reflection. Then the thought itself becomes a presence, an act of attentiveness rather than of understanding. If we apply this principle to the person of Jesus, we can see that this kind of attentiveness does not in any way exclude His humanity.

14 • Open Mind, Open dCeart

Our attention is simply given to the presence of Jesus, the divine-human being, without adverting to any particular de­ tail of His person. Centering prayer is part of a dynamic process that evolves through personal relationship rather than by strategy. At the same time a reasonable amount of organization in one’s prayer and lifestyle advances the process, just as wholesome food and exercise help youngsters grow to physical maturity. One of the first effects of centering prayer is the release of the energies of the unconscious. This process gives rise to two different psychological states: the experience of personal de­ velopment in the form of spiritual consolation and the experi­ ence of human weakness through humiliating self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is the traditional term for the coming to con­ sciousness of the dark side of one’s personality. The release of these two kinds of unconscious energies needs to be safe­ guarded by well-established habits of dedication to God and concern for others. Otherwise, if one enjoys some form of spiritual consolation, one may inflate with pride; or if one feels crushed by the realization of one’s spiritual impoverish­ ment, one may collapse into discouragement or even despair. The cultivation of habits of dedication to God and of service to others is the indispensable means of stabilizing the mind in the face of emotionally charged thoughts, whether of self­ exaltation or of self-depreciation. Dedication to God is developed by commitment to one’s spiritual practices for the love of God. Service to others is the outgoing movement of the heart prompted by compassion. It neutralizes the deep-rooted tendency to become preoccupied with our own spiritual journey and how we are doing. The habit of service to others is developed by trying to please God

Dimensions of Contemplative Troyer • 15

in what we do and by exercising compassion beginning with those with whom we live. To accept everyone unconditionally is to fulfill the commandment to “love your neighbor as your­ self” (Mark 12:31). It is a practical way of bearing one anoth­ er’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Refusing to judge even in the face of persecution is to fulfill the commandment to love one another “as I have loved you” (John 13:34) and to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13). Habits of dedication to God and service to others form the two sides of a channel through which the energies of the un­ conscious can be released without submerging the psyche in the floodwaters of chaotic emotions. When these energies flow in orderly fashion between the banks of dedication and service, they will raise us to higher levels of spiritual percep­ tion, understanding, and selfless love. These two stabilizing dispositions prepare the nervous sys­ tem and body to receive the purifying and sanctifying light of the Spirit. They enable us to discern thoughts and emotions as they arise before they reach the stage of attachment or quasi­ compulsion. As freedom from the thralldom of habitual’ thoughts and desires grows, we are able to enter into interior prayer with a quiet mind. Detachment is the goal of self-denial. It is the nonpossessive attitude toward all reality, a disposition that strikes at the root of the false self system. The false self is a monumental illusion, a load of habitual thinking patterns and emotional routines that are stored in the brain and nervous system. Like programs in a computer, they tend to reactivate every time a particular life situation pushes the appropriate button. The false self even insinuates that its subtle purposes are reli­ giously motivated. Genuine religious attitudes come from

16 • Open ‘Mind, Open Meant

God, not from the false self. The Spirit heals the roots of selfcenteredness and becomes the source of our conscious activ­ ity. To act spontaneously under the Spirit’s influence rather than under the influence of the false self, the emotional pro­ gramming of the past has to be erased and replaced. The prac­ tice of virtue is the traditional term for erasing the old pro­ grams and writing new programs based on the values of the Gospel. Jesus in His divinity is the source of contemplation. Any­ thing that we perceive of God can only be a radiance of His presence and not God as He is. When the divine light strikes the human mind, it breaks down into many aspects just as a ray of ordinary light, when it strikes a prism, breaks down into the varied colors of the spectrum. There is nothing wrong with distinguishing different aspects of the Ultimate Mystery, but it would be a mistake to identify them with the inaccessi­ ble Light. The Spirit speaks to our conscience through scripture and the events of daily life. Reflection on these two sources of per­ sonal encounter and the dismantling of the emotional pro­ grams for happiness prepare the psyche to listen at more re­ fined levels of sensitivity. The Spirit then begins to address our conscience from that deep source within us which is our true Self. This is contemplation properly so-called. This pattern is exemplified in the Transfiguration. Jesus took with Him the three disciples who were best prepared to awaken to the grace of contemplation; that is, the ones who had made the most headway in changing their hearts. God approached them through their senses by means of the vision on the mountain. At first they were overawed and delighted. Peter wanted to remain there forever. Suddenly a cloud cov­ ered them, hiding the vision and leaving their senses empty

Dimensions of Contemplative. ‘Prayer *17

and quiet, yet attentive and alert. The gesture of falling on their faces accurately expressed their state of mind. It was a posture of adoration, gratitude, and love all rolled into one. The voice from heaven awakened their consciousness to the presence of the Spirit who had always been speaking within them, but whom until then they had never been able to hear. Their interior openness was filled with the luminous presence of the divine. At Jesus’ touch they returned to their ordinary perceptions and saw Him as he was before but with the trans­ formed consciousness of faith. They no longer saw Him as a mere human being. Their receptive and active faculties had been unified by the Spirit; the interior and exterior word of God had become one. For those who have attained this con­ sciousness, daily life is a continual revelation of God. The words they hear in scripture and in the liturgy confirm what they have learned through the prayer that is contemplation.

2 first Steps in Centering Trager

s