CENTERING PRAYER

With regard to Centering Prayer, the theoretical context recognises the power of the unconscious.  The theory of the false self system with its three energy centers: survival/security, pleasure/affection/esteem, power/control, acknowledges the role of the unconscious in driving attitude and behaviour.  Centering Prayer frees us from the drivenness of these centers so that we can be open to the action of the Spirit within us and enter into the process of transformation from the false or surface self to the deep self and Divine Union.

 In his book Intimacy with God, Keating compares the effects of the method of Centering Prayer to an archaeological dig.  At the beginning of the practice, what is near the surface of the unconscious is released; then as we continue the practice what is deeper and deeper surfaces.  The unloading takes place gently during the regular periods of Centering, as thoughts, feelings, memories of one kind or another, flow down the stream of consciousness.  The unloading may come more dramatically during the extended hours of Centering Prayer that are at the heart of the extended silent retreats. [1]

 When there is a more powerful evacuation, emotions of all kinds - rage, shame, guilt, jealousy, lust, pride; memories long forgotten, the rubbish of a life time that was rejected, denied and repressed – all come to the surface, and there is no doubt as to where ownership lies.  I cannot pretend that this is not mine.  It rises from within me.  I own it - and I let it go.  There is no denying; no dissociating but there is dis-identifying and transcending.  At least this has been my experience.  Is this so for you?  Each of us has to look into our own practice and recognise what happens for us.

Receptivity is of the essence of the method of Centering Prayer.  There is no single point of focus as in a concentrative method; instead there is open receptivity to whatever is and the more receptive the method the greater and more immediate the involvement of the unconscious.  To quote Cynthia Bourgeault, “Concentrative methods, which always entail a certain degree of egoic effort, tend to retard the participation of the unconscious.  Receptive methods, on the other hand, foster it, particularly in an intensive group situation…” [2]

 And yet it would be a mistake to think of Centering Prayer merely in terms of the psychological healing of the unconscious and the development of a healthy ego, important as this is.  Keating’s genius was to see in the unloading not just a psychological process, but also a deep spiritual purification - the darkness within us, the raw material of our transformation.  And he links the various stages of unloading, of dryness, of darkness, that we go through with the “dark nights” as described in the classical contemplative writings, for example, of John of the Cross.

 Centering Prayer is, after all, prayer and it is about sanctification.  Its purpose is the deep transformation of the self through self emptying and through surrender to the Divine Presence and Divine Action within.

 The Shadow in psychological terms is associated with the split at the horizontal level of the personality.  But there is another even more significant split and this is at the vertical level - the split between the personality or surface self and the deep or true self at the heart of which is the Divine Indwelling.

 Keating by means of a graphic diagram on page 77 of Intimacy with God[3] shows, ‘The Four Moments’ of Centering Prayer and how these lead us through the process of transformation.

The first Moment is as we begin the prayer with the Sacred Word.  The boats float down the stream of consciousness and when we “catch ourselves” thinking of the thoughts we return to the Sacred Word.

Then comes the Second Moment when we Rest.  We have a sense of God’s Presence or we sense nothing and nonetheless are at Rest.  And as the defence mechanisms relax in the Rest, what we have buried in the unconscious begins to surface and we become aware of the junk within us - negative emotions from the past, deep hurts and resentments that we still harbour buried within us, primitive fears.  With the awareness of these emotions and memories we are into the Third Moment – the Unloading of the Unconscious.

 In The Fourth Moment, Evacuation, we “let go” of these primitive emotions and memories even as we “let go” of the needy, driven, unrecognized motivations that govern most of our untransformed human behaviour.  Having done this, we return to the Sacred Word so that we are once again at the start of the cycle.

 Each time we go through the cycle, Keating tells us, we are moving from the ordinary level of awareness and closer to the spiritual level of awareness, closer to the True Self, until finally God willing, we are in Divine Union.  What happens as we release the junk and make the movement from the ordinary level of awareness of the surface self, to the spiritual level of awareness and to the true or deep self?  Inner freedom grows; we experience the gifts and fruits of the spirit; we live the beatitudes.

 But what is meant by ordinary level and spiritual level of awareness?  Ordinary awareness, or egoic thinking as it is sometimes called, is the way the mind usually thinks.  It is an either/or dualistic way of thinking and our sense of self is tied to that way of thinking.  It makes sense of the world by dividing the field into subject and object, inside and out.  It perceives through differentiation.  Built into this way of thinking is the sense of being separate, set apart from the whole.  As a result of this the ego experiences anxiety and scarcity.  It cannot get enough praise, security, achievement to overcome the sense of incompleteness.

 Deeper than this is what Keating calls spiritual awareness.  Spiritual awareness, like ordinary awareness, is a way of perceiving and of being.  The big difference is that whereas ordinary awareness splits the world by noting differences and drawing distinctions, spiritual awareness perceives through an intuitive grasp of the whole and an innate sense of belonging.  It brings with it a sense of expansiveness.  It is a radical shift of consciousness into the unified field of divine abundance; creation takes on new meaning.  It is “…no longer a world of opposites.  Because of our new perspective, we perceive that many seeming contradictions are really complementary at a higher level of consciousness.”  [4]

 Spiritual Awareness brings with it the experience of the closeness of the Kingdom of God and of God’s abiding Presence – “Abide in me even as I abide in you.”  And with this is the sense of trust that life is unfolding in accordance with God’s Plan and that, despite the many hurdles, the evil and violence which surround us and are within us, “All Will Be Well.

 The intention is not to eliminate ordinary awareness.  We need both types of awareness if we are to function in the world.  Spiritual transformation calls for an integration of these two, with ordinary awareness in alignment with and at the service of spiritual awareness, so that action flows from inside out.  When we have to act in the world, we need ego strength to act but we need to be free from the sense of scarcity and preoccupation to assert and fulfil itself, so characteristic of ordinary awareness.  Spiritual awareness, on the other hand, flows from divine abundance, without preoccupation with the self.

 Our sense of self reflects the level of awareness from which we are operating.  The more we think from ordinary awareness the more we think of ourselves as separate; and our posture is one of self-defence and self-justification.  With spiritual awareness comes a sense of connection.  We are at home in the Universe.  We are in alignment with God and with His Will.  Increasingly we trust that the power of God sustains us; that His love encompasses us; that All is Well; and All is One.

 To arrive at this unified whole we have to die to self and the sense of identity that the egoic processing methods of ordinary awareness keep in place.  We have to respond to Jesus’ invitation to inner awakening, an awakening that means becoming intimate with our spiritual identity; our own being and the divine being become more and more mysteriously interwoven.  The real Gold of the Shadow is the Divine Presence.  It is to this that we are invited to surrender and this surrender transforms.  We are made whole.

 I would like to conclude with a quotation from Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom Way of Knowing, “Far from an act of spiritual cowardice, surrender is an act of spiritual power because it opens the heart directly to the more subtle realms of spiritual Wisdom and energy.  One hands oneself over, in the poet Dante’s beautiful image, into ‘the love that moves the stars and the sun.’ When the attitude of prompt surrender has become permanently engrained in a person while still in bodily life, that person becomes a powerful servant of humanity – a saint, in the language of the Christian West – whose very being radiates blessing and spiritual strength.” [5]  May it be so for each and every one of us!

 Sr. Paul D’Ornellas

Ortinola, Maracas Valley

24.10.09