Here are some brief points outlined by Father Thomas Keating (cf. Open Mind, Open Heart) which can help structure one’s understanding and practice of centering prayer. If you are curious about any particular point, please post a comment, and I’ll do my best to clarify/explain in greater detail —
- During the prayer period various kinds of thoughts may be distinguished (and that don’t need to be tightly gripped by your mind).
- Ordinary wanderings of the imagination or memory.
- Thoughts that give rise to attractions or aversions.
- Insights and psychological breakthroughs.
- Self-reflections such as “How am I doing?” or, “This peace is just great!” (or, my personal favorite, “Did I just fall asleep?”)
- Thoughts that arise from the unloading of the unconscious.
- During this prayer we avoid analyzing our experience, harboring expectations, or aiming at a specific goal such as:
- Repeating the sacred word continuously (It’s not a mantra).
- Having no thoughts (That’s what going fishing does :)).
- Making the mind blank.
- Feeling peaceful or consoled.
- Achieving a spiritual experience.
- What Centering Prayer is not:
- It is not a technique.
- It is not a relaxation exercise.
- It is not a form of self-hypnosis.
- It is not a charismatic gift.
- It is not a parapsychological experience.
- It is not limited to the “felt” presence of God.
- It is not discursive meditation or affective prayer.
- What Centering Prayer is:
- It is at the same time a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.
- It is an exercise of faith, hope, and love.
- It is a movement beyond conservation with Christ to communion with him.
- It habituates us to the language of God, which is silence (cf. 1 Kings 19:11-12).