I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

PRACTICE

CENTERING PRAYER

Besides the presence of Jesus, another element of Christianity I’ve taken into my heart is centering prayer. Based on The Cloud of the Unknowing, an anonymous text of Christian mysticism from the fourteenth century, the core of its emphasis is that Christ, in this and every moment, is alive within us as the Enlightened One. This Enlightened One has little to do with the physical manifestation of a person or deity and instead is much more about the state of perfect ISness, or I AMness, that is beyond all form and name within Everything Mind.

Centering prayer is a way of opening ourselves to God’s presence in our lives. Prayer is traditionally thought of as bringing our hopes, dreams, fears, and worries to God, but centering prayer varies in that it is a receptive form of prayer. It helps us anchor into a calm stillness, allowing us to experience God’s already-existent presence within us.

The interesting thing about centering prayer is that the actual results usually don’t happen while we’re praying. Instead, these practices help us to center our hearts and minds in a place of alert readiness to feel God’s presence—anytime, anywhere. And when I say anywhere, I mean anywhere: from hardcore and hip-hop shows to drive-in movie theaters and yoga classes; while reading a book, taking an exam, shopping at a record store . . . anywhere means anywhere!

It is recommended that this practice be done twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon or evening) for roughly twenty minutes each time. As we go deeper into centering prayer, our relationship with Christ shifts from that of mere acquaintance to one of actual friendship, trust, and love. It’s through this experience that we learn to rest in God as the perfect stillness that we truly are. As Father Thomas Keating, who revived the practice in the 1970s along with Father William Meninger and Dom M. Basil Pennington, has said about it, “We open our awareness to God whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing—closer than consciousness itself.”1

The practice is relatively simple and can be broken down into the following four steps, which I learned from the teachings of Father Thomas Keating:²

       1.  Choose any sacred word that resonates with you as a symbol of God, doing so with the understanding that you consent to God’s presence and action within you. There’s a recommendation to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance in choosing this word, but I leave that entirely up to your discretion. Some examples of sacred words are: Jesus, Mary, Mother, Father, Jesu, Abba, Mater. But you may also be guided to a more general word such as: love, stillness, shalom, peace, or amen. Once you have your word, use it for the duration of your time spent in centering prayer. You may feel tempted to cover more than one base by incorporating a few different words, but this keeps our thinking minds activated during the prayer. We want to allow our mind to come to a point of stillness, which happens as we calm down through the repetition of a single word.

       2.  Find a comfortable sitting position. If you’ve spent any time in meditation, you already know the drill, but just in case you haven’t, be sure that your spine is erect while you relax your shoulders and belly. Keep your neck elongated yet relaxed, tucking your chin in slightly toward your chest. Imagine the crown of your head being drawn upward, as if a puppeteer were pulling it up by a string. Once you’ve found your sweet spot, close your eyes and take a moment to settle into silence. When you’re ready, gently introduce your sacred word inwardly, which represents the symbolic gesture of your consent to God’s presence and action within you.

       3.  If, or I should really say when, you become aware that you’re lost in thought (it’s pretty much inevitable that this will happen and is completely normal), gently and effortlessly bring your attention back to your sacred word. Some people have a tendency to beat themselves up when their thoughts wander during meditation, as if they were failing at their practice. Well, here’s some friendly advice that I wish I had taken to heart when I first began meditating: do not be one of those people! Seriously, we’ve been lost in thought for the greater part of our lives, so for most of us, it takes awhile to change this. Through dedicated practice, we naturally become more centered with the Witnessing Awareness that underlies the thoughts as they come and go, and when we reach this place, we’ll be less swayed by our discursive minds.

       4.  When you finish approximately twenty minutes in prayer, allow yourself a few moments to slowly reorient back into your normal waking consciousness, even if you find your experience didn’t go very “deep” while you were praying. What I mean by “deep” is that, through the cyclic repetition of our sacred word, our consciousness will often slowly sink back into itself. When this happens, our experience becomes one of Being, where even the awareness of our bodies falls away as we reside in a simple state of ISness. If this happens, great, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s totally cool too. The fact that you’re dedicating yourself to such a profound practice not only for your betterment but also for all beings is huge in and of itself. So seriously, take pride in that. For whatever it’s worth, I have much love and respect for you doing this, or for committing to any other practice that resonates with you and serves humanity in the process—sincerely good stuff.

A few more thoughts on centering prayer:

       •  As I mentioned, the estimated time recommended to spend in prayer is roughly twenty minutes. Using an alarm to keep track of this is totally cool, though not necessary. The more we do this practice, the more our internal alarm clock will know when we’ve hit twenty minutes (give or take). If you do use an alarm, be sure it isn’t one that’s loud, as the sounds can completely jolt you out of the experience, which is never a good time.

       •  If you’ve eaten, try to wait at least an hour before you do centering prayer. Sitting with a full stomach can cause drowsiness and may result in your falling asleep, which you obviously want to try to avoid. If it happens, it happens. When you wake up, return to your sacred word for a few more minutes before concluding the session. (On the other hand, working with this practice while our stomachs are growling can also be seriously distracting, so eating something light before sitting is fine.)

       •  The effects of our time spent in prayer will typically be experienced more in our daily lives than during the actual time spent praying. I find it affects me in various ways throughout the day, from unexpected moments of creative inspiration to naturally experiencing a sense of peace and stillness, even while surrounded by a large group of people in environments like concerts or parks. I’ve even felt the effects while I was at the DMV, and there’s something to be said for that!

       •  Finally, as with any spiritual practice or undertaking, joining a centering prayer group can help you stay committed to your practice, even if you just go once a week. It’s like someone who’s new to Buddhism finding a sangha for support and guidance, or someone who’s new to yoga finding the specific style and teacher that resonates with them and whom they trust to take them deeper into their practice. Support on the path is always a good idea. Don’t be shy!