Interview
with Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington William Meninger
Fulfilling
a promise, overcoming all religious division and shallow new age
thinking, it´s time to clarify any doubts and barriers on the way of
loving contemplation described in The
Cloud of Unknowing,
magnificent work attributed to an anonymous fourteenth-century
Carthusian monk and which he completed with another gem, The
Book of the Privy Orientation
[1].
In
this mystical teaching meditation and contemplation are simply
understood as a silent kiss between the Eternal Father and the Son
who dwells in every human heart, or else between Husband-Spirit and
the human Soul Bride.
Something
that reminds of Solomon´s words:
Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than
wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as
ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins [human souls] love
thee.
Song
of Songs 1: 2-3
Many
cultures have known the Lord in some of its aspects or attributes, as
Creator Spirit and supplier, Mother Earth, but rarely in a complete
form, let alone in such an intimate way.
In
the early centuries of the past Era of Piscis, the Desert Christian
Fathers discovered that the higher degree of sustained silent
prayer is love for the One Lord.
However,
discovering its love within and be able to rest on it, lying down or
sitting still, requires very subltle guidance,
understanding and spiritual discipline, because the mind tends to
fall into self-delusions and the heart became a rock, feeling hardly
as it should.
Hence
The Cloud of Unknowing begins
with a warning that makes clear this teaching is not for everyone,
but only for those committed to the inner path, versed in the
principles transmitted by those in the Way.
But
far from being a secret teaching, it has seen the light for anyone
interested and ready to assume responsibility.
The
Trappist monks Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington and William
Meninger popularized this form of contemplation under the name of
Centering Prayer, first by teaching their fellow monks, and then
other people interested in the inner path.
All
started in the 70s as an attempt to show there are methods
as valuable as the Eastern forms of meditation
that began to become popular at that time, due to the spiritual
poverty of conventional mass Christianity in the West.
Nevertheless,
as we will see, Centering Prayer includes meditations in its first
steps, and from there it may lead to what might be called blissful
contemplation and further on, to mystic union, which are in no way
actions the practitioner does, for these come spontaneously when
there is no resistance.
This
three in one combination is generating increasing interest in the art
of Centering Prayer.
The
similarities and differences between Eastern and Western arts will
become clearer as we proceed.
Now
let's see what Father Thomas Keating says in relation to Centering
Prayer:
Silence
is not the absence of noise but the absence of resistance to God.
God
is always present. We are the one who are absent.
The
yearning you feel for God is actually God’s yearning for you, and
this his yearning is an invitation to an incredible intimacy and
tenderness.
These
wise and simple words could perfectly be attributed to Sufi mystics
like Rumi or Ibn Arabi, and it´s surprising to hear they come from a
Catholic Christian monk –not just any one, but the old Thomas
Keating.
He
invites us to discover that our "resistances" are physical,
mental and emotional. These keep us from receiving the finer energy
of Love, causing pain and frustration.
To
get rid of these resistances is precisely the aim of all kinds
of true meditation, even though not all do it in the same way.
One
approach is discursive
meditation,
whose attempt is to experience the content of a prayer, or bring to
light subconscious material by means of reasoning, investigating
points such as:
What subconscious thoughts
and beliefs trigger negative emotions like laziness, boredom,
sadness, anger, hatred, bitterness, pride...?
What
kind of sensations and emotions there are and how are they related?
etc
Then
we have visual
meditation,
typical in cabalistic philosophy, where an intention is
potentiated and proyected by means of concentration on symbols and
letters.
Now,
if these meditations are useful to clear up thinking and the
soul-body relation, many forget the importance of silent
analytical meditation, contemplative meditation and devotional.
Without
accessing the Heart of Life fully, Divine Son in us, the Love of
Massiah-Christ and Buddha in ourselves, there is no chance to make
progress in the inner path, no matter how many rituals we do.
Unfotunately,
there is much confusion about that subject, and many are misled.
Very
popular is the so called Transcendental
Meditation,
which uses a mantra in order to transcend thinking. The problem
is that this type is very limited and often leads to conditioned
perceptions.
By
contrast, Centering
Prayer,
which is rather devotional, uses a word that has meaning for
oneself, but only as a first step and to focus the
intention-attention each time there is a distraction, never
to block the mind. Here longing and love is what propels
the practitioner towards the center of gravity, as shown in The
Cloud of Unknowing:
This
is what you have to do. Lift your heart up to the Lord with a gentle
stirring of love, desiring him for his own sake and not for his
fruits [namely
for the benefits: bliss, healing, etc]
Moreover,
Centering Prayer does not try to get rid of distractions but it
rather needs them and uses them in order to put them aside and
reassure compassion and love over and over again. If the mind
gets off course a hundred times, attention returns to love a
hundred and one, with double strength.
A
similar type of contemplative meditation is Dhyana,
the seventh limb of Yoga; specially the modality in Naqshbandi
Sufism, as it was taught by Bhaisab and described by her disciple
Irina Tweedie in the great spiritual diary Daughter
of Fire.
In
Dhyana the mind is also absorbed by the love that comes from the
silent heart, leading to samadhi, the mystic union.
Here
Centering Prayer and Dhyana coincide, and can be expressed with
verses of Rumi:
Love
arrives complete like the moon at the window
Seek
only that for which you have no clue
Wish
only that for which you have no hope
This
is not the Oxus river or one little creek
This
is the shoreless sea
Here
swimming ends, and always in drowning
Nevertheless,
the Sufi modality of Dhyana has the inconvenient of trying to leave
the body sensation right from the start, and this is not advisable
without the presence of a Master, specially for non-expert
practitioners, since any undesired devil or "cold energy"
might get into a body which is not inhabited by mystic Love.
On
the contrary, both Centering Prayer and the contemplative techniques
of Desert Fathers, simply let Love flood the mind, heart and body,
since one of the aims of the Way is to spiritualize matter and create
an immortal divinized body.
...it
is sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body. (1
Corinthians 15:44)
...the
one who is united with the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians
6:17)
This
is also the aim of oriental paths, although these focus more on
analytic observation on
early stages.
A
well known form of analytical and contemplative meditation is
shamata-vipassana or relaxing-insightful vision, taught by the
Buddha.
This
method has as objects the Laws of Dharma and the five aggregates of
the egoic complex, starting with the attention to body sensation and
breathing. Thus the mind does not fly away and is able to unmask the
delusions of the egoic complex:
1)
Name-Form (labelled objects: body, flower...)
2)
Sensations (cold-heat, pleasant-unpleasant...)
3)
Intellectual perceptions (labeling process)
4)
Unconscious pulsions and desires.
5)
Consciousness that accompanies each aggregate.
However,
as the practitioner makes progress, he needs other objects of
concentration such as Compassion and Divine Love.
This
leads him beyond the egoic complex, helping him receive the
shining of Being, known is Tibetan Buddhism as Mother Light or Rigpa.
That
Light is none other than the Holy Spirit of the Judeo-Christian
doctrine, for there is only one Being, and it dwells beyond all
deceit.
The
Way to Light is Compassion and Loving Mercy (Buddha)
Without
Divine Love and Compassion, any form of meditation is empty and can
easily lead to typical pseudo-nirvanic delusions
or self-centredness, being a waste of time.
Buddha
was one of the first in pointing this truth, abandoning the brahmanic
fanatism. Of course, the Fathers of the Desert and the author of
the Cloud of Unknowing were not the exception.
Now,
these forms of meditation are only a preparation to acquire
self-knowledge and understanding. But they are not self-sufficient,
for Divine Grace plays an important role to take the aspirant higher.
Regardless
of the chosen method, the important point is to understand that
darkness has a pattern:
The narrow
view leads
to dual-divisive
thinking,
which hinders the flow of the Heart, triggering a negative
emotions (restlessness,
anxiety, anger, pride...), which in turn make one react
blindly and
destructively.
Exposing
darkness and follow the Way of Light is the core of the Universal
Way, which must include a daily practice that transcends thinking.
Hence
in the interview Thomas Keating emphasizes the importance of sitting
or lying down every day for a while, letting go of every
thought-emotion with Centering Prayer.
The
own experience tells me it´s very useful to include loving attention
to breath and its spaces as well as body sensation, to make the mind
stable. For what a greater sign of love than the air and life that
keep our body alive?
Yet
the bliss of contemplation only arrives when the Lord finds the house
clean.
Thus
we understand what our being is and who dwells in it, transcending
the illusions that make us captive.
The
Being we really are, our deepest Soul-Self, can do anything, but it
is not what we think, because it lacks selfishness:
I
have been crucified with Massiah-Christ, and it´s no longer I
who lives, but Christ-Massiah who lives in me (Galatians 2:20)
The
Book of the Privy Orientation clarifies
that:
Remember
this distinction between the [Lord] and you: He is your being, but
you're not his.
He
is
All
in everyone (1 Corinthians 15:2)
The
truth is that only the Supreme is and exists; there is only one Being
with many attributes and functions: Father, Mother (ie Gaia-Earth),
Son, plus the Holy Spirit, which is the kiss of light-love that
unites them all.
It
is therefore a serious mistake to say I
am the Supreme God,
and also a great joke.
Such
blunder is typical in narrow phisolophies, as that of Nisargadatta,
author of I am That. Idea which easily leads to pseudo-mystic pride.
Not
even the full human would say that, because a Human is the image
of
the Name of the Supreme, but not the Supreme itself, which is endless
and indefinable.
The
clearest example was the man Jesus or Yeshua, who came to say: I
and my Father are one (John 10:30),
but he knelt before Him, refusing to be equated to him (Philippians
2: 5).
He
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God [the Supreme], the
firstborn of all creation (Colossians. 1:15)
In
any case we are called to be members of God the Son, and we are
already Mother-God, being part of the Earth.
In
a similar line of thought, the genius of Buddha denied the Brahmanic
identification of atman or divine soul with the Supreme.
Thus
he suggested the idea of anatta
or non-soul as well as the idea of para-Brahman, beyond Brahman.
Yet
this does´t deny the Real Self, which is Light itself:
In
the teaching of Buddha, even the attachment to the idea of nirvana
or cessation
of vibrations, is
illusory. As Nagarjuna clarified in the 2nd century:
nirvana is
samsara and samsara is nirvana.
Emptiness
is Form and Form is Emptiness
(Heart
Sutra)
Everything
is vanity
(Ecclesiastes
I)
The
Beloved One and its radiant Fullness is not separate from
Life. The painful samsara –that wheel of forms that are born and
die–, is only a veil or partial perception of the Light. When the
Light awakens in oneself, all shines in its true Nature.
Understanding
what our being is and who dwells in it, prepares us to transcend
philosophy and religion, and thus find the Truth that shines all
over.
The
Kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you,
said Yeshua (Gospel of Thomas).
In
the next article we will see in detail passages of the two
works on Centering Prayer.
_________________________
[1]
Highly recommended is the compilation and brief commentary of both
works, accessible in Spanish translation at:
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