Centering Prayer and the distraction of thoughts
(Fr Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, pp.110-115)
To undertake Centering Prayer systematically, take up a comfortable position that will enable you to sit still. Close your eyes. Half of the world disappears for we generally think most about what we see. In order to slow down the usual flow of thoughts, think just one thought. For this purpose, choose a word of one or two syllables with which you feel comfortable.
A general loving look toward God may be better suited to the disposition of some persons. But the same procedures are followed as in the use of the sacred word. The word is a sacred word because it is the symbol of your intention to open yourself to the mystery of God's presence beyond thoughts, images and emotions. It is chosen not for its content but for its intent. It is merely a pointer that expresses the direction of your inward movement toward the presence of God.
To start, introduce the sacred word in your imagination as gently as if you were laying a feather on a piece of absorbent cotton. Keep thinking the sacred word in whatever form it arises. It is not meant to be repeated continuously. The word can flatten out, become vague or just an impulse of the will, or even disappear. Accept it in whatever form it arises.
When you become aware that you are thinking some other thought, return to the sacred word as the expression of your intent. The effectiveness of this prayer does not depend on how distinctly you say the sacred word or how often, but rather on the gentleness with which you introduce it into your imagination in the beginning and the promptness with which you return to it when you are hooked on some other thought.
Thoughts are an inevitable part of Centering Prayer. Our ordinary thoughts are like boats sitting on a river so closely packed together that we cannot see the river that is holding them up. A "thought" in the context of this prayer is any perception that crosses the inner screen of consciousness. We are normally aware of one object after another passing across the inner screen of consciousness: images, memories, feelings, and external impressions. When we slow down that flow for a little while, space begins to appear between the boats. Up comes the reality on which they are floating.
The prayer of centring is a method of directing your attention from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the formless. At first you are preoccupied by the boats that are going by. You become interested in seeing what is on them. But just let them all go by. If you catch yourself becoming interested in them, return to the sacred word as the expression of the movement of your whole being toward God present within you.
The sacred word is a simple thought that you are thinking at ever deepening levels of perception. That's why you accept the sacred word in whatever form it arises within you. The word on your lips is exterior and has no part in this form of prayer. The thought in your imagination is interior; the word as an impulse of your will is more interior still. Only when you pass beyond the word into pure awareness is the process of exteriorisation complete. That is what Mary of Bethany was doing at the feet of Jesus. She was going beyond the words she was hearing to the Person who was speaking and entering into union with Him. This is what we are doing as we sit in Centering Prayer, interiorising the sacred word. We are going beyond the sacred word into union with that to which it points, the Ultimate Mystery, the Presence of God, beyond any perception that we can form of Him.
Thoughts then are the greatest distraction for this form of prayer. Various kinds of thoughts may come down the stream of consciousness when we start to quiet our mind. Fr Keating arranges them into five groups. The appropriate response to each one varies according to the thought.
1. The wool-gathering of the imagination. The most obvious thoughts are the superficial ones that the imagination grinds out because of its natural propensity for perpetual motion. It is important just to accept them and not to pay any undue attention to them. Such thoughts are like the noise in the street floating through the window of an apartment where two people are carrying on a conversation Their attention is firmly directed to each other, but they cannot avoid hearing the street noise Sometimes they reach a point where they don't notice it at all. At other times the honking of horns may distract them momentarily. The only reasonable attitude is to put up with the noise and pay as little attention to it as possible. In this way they give as much of their undivided attention to each other as circumstances allow.
2. Thoughts with an emotional attraction to them. The second kind of thought occurs when you get interested in something that is happening in the street. A brawl breaks out and attracts your curiosity. This is the kind of thought that calls for some reaction. Returning gently to the sacred word is a means or getting back to the general loving attention you were offering to God. It is important not to be annoyed with yourself if you get involved with these interesting thoughts. Any annoyance that you give into is another thought, and will take you farther away from the interior silence that is the proximate goal of this prayer.
3. Insights, and psychological breakthroughs. A third kind of thought arises as we sink into deep peace and interior silence. Something in our minds goes fishing. What seem to be brilliant theological insights and marvellous psychological breakthroughs, like tasty bait, are dangled in front of our mind's eye and we think, "I must take a moment to make sure I grasp this fantastic insight!" If you acquiesce to a thought of this nature long enough to fix it in your memory you will be drawn out of the deep, refreshing waters of interior silence. Any deliberate thought brings you out.
A very intimate kind of self-denial is necessary in this prayer. It is not just an experience of refreshment - a sort of spiritual happy hour - though this can be a side-effect. It involves the denial of what we are most attached to, namely our own inmost thoughts and feelings, and the source from which they come, the false self.
This kind of asceticism goes to the roots of our attachment to the emotional programming of the false self. It is a thorough and delightful kind of self-denial, which does not have to be afflictive to be effective. The question is how to choose the most useful and appropriate kind of self-denial and how to work at it.
4. Self-Reflection. As you settle into deep peace and freedom from particular thoughts, a desire to reflect on what is happening may arise. You may think, "At last I am getting some place!" or, "This feeling is just great!" or, "If only I could make a mental note of how I got here so that I can get back to it whenever l want!" These are examples of the fourth kind of thought. You are being offered a choice between reflecting on what is going on and letting go of the experience. If you let go, you go into deeper interior silence. If you reflect, you come out and have to start over. There will be a lot of starting over.
Reflection is one step back from experience. It is a photograph of reality. As soon as you start to reflect on an experience, it is over. Reflection on joy is an attempt to possess it. Then it is lost. The tendency to reflect is one of the hardest things to handle in contemplative player. We want to savour the moment of pure joy, pure experience, pure awareness. We want to reflect on moments of deep peace or union in order to remember how we got there and thus how to get back. But if you can let this temptation go by and return to the sacred word, you will pass to a new level of freedom, a more refined joy.
The presence of God is like the air we breathe. You can have all you want of it as long as you do not try to take possession of it and hang on to it.
This prayer is communion with the Spirit of God, who is Charity, pure gift. Our possessive instinct wants to hang on for dear life to what is pleasant - and nothing is more delightful than the divine Presence; it brings such a deep sense of security and tranquillity. The Presence of God does not respond to greed. It is totally available, but on condition that we accept it freely and do not try to possess it.
This method of prayer is a learning of self-surrender. It teaches s through our many mistakes nor to be possessive but to let go. If, in this prayer, you can get over the inveterate habit of reflecting on what is going on, if you can have peace and not think about having it, then you will have learned how to do it.
5. Interior Purification. Any form of meditation or prayer that transcends thinking sets off the dynamic of interior purification. This dynamic is God's school of psychotherapy. It enables the organism to release deep-rooted tension in the form of thoughts. Generally, thoughts that result from this therapy arise without one's knowing where they come from or why. They introduce themselves with a certain force or emotional charge. One may feel intense anger, sorrow or fear without any relation to the recent past. Once again, the best way to handle them is to return to the sacred word.
Through this process, the undigested psychological material of a lifetime is gradually evacuated, the emotional investment of early childhood in programs for happiness based on instinctual drives is dismantled, and the false self gives way to the true self.
Once you grasp the fact that thoughts are not only inevitable, but an integral part of the process of healing and growth initiated by God, you are able to take a positive view of them. Instead of looking upon them as painful distractions, you see them in a broader perspective that includes both interior silence and thoughts-thoughts that you do not want, but which, are just as valuable for the purpose of purification, as moments of profound tranquillity.
As you quiet down and go deeper, you may reach a place where the sacred word disappears altogether and there are no thoughts. This is often experienced as a suspension of consciousness1 a space. The next thing you are aware of is the thought, "Where was I? There was no sacred word and I wasn't thinking!' Or you may experience it as a place outside of time. Time is the measure of motion. If the ordinary flow of thoughts is reduced to where there are few or no successive thoughts, the time of prayer passes like a snap of the fingers.
The experience of interior silence or "resting in God" is beyond thinking, images, and emotions. This awareness tells you that the core of your being is eternal and indestructible and that you as a person are loved by God and share his divine life. Many people habitually enjoy the clear experience of interior silence during prayer. Others habitually experience calm and tranquillity along with a trickle of thoughts at the same time. Still others rarely have such experiences. In whatever form or degree interior silence occurs, it is to be accepted but not desired, for the feeling of desire would be a thought.
Take then everything that happens during the periods of Centering Prayer peacefully and gratefully, without putting a judgement on anything. Even if you should have an overwhelming experience of God, this is not the time to think about it. Let the thoughts come and go. The basic principle for handling thoughts in this prayer is this: Resist no thought, hang on to no thought, react emotionally to no thought. Whatever image, feeling, reflection, or experience attracts your attention, return to the sacred word.
Don't judge Centering Prayer on the basis of how many thoughts come or how much peace you enjoy. The only way to judge this prayer is by its long-range fruits: whether in daily life you enjoy greater peace, humility and charity. Having come to deep interior silence, you begin to relate to others beyond the superficial aspects of social status, race, nationality, religion, and personal characteristics.
To know God in this way is to perceive a new dimension of all reality. The ripe fruit of contemplative prayer is to bring back into the humdrum routines of daily life not just the thought of God, but the spontaneous awareness of His abiding Presence in, through, and beyond everything. HE WHO IS - the infinite, incomprehensible, and ineffable One - is the God of pure faith. In this prayer we confront the most fundamental human question: "Who are you, Lord?'-' and wait for the answer.
