Comments on: What Works: Why to meditate

By: Bruce Clark

Bruce Clark — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:37:51 +0000

Hi Phil
Thanks for your article on centering prayer. I have been doing it for about a year and it has been a real help in my relationship with God and love for Him. I have just started a small group here in scarborough UK and we are going through father Thomas Keating’s ‘Open mind open Heart’. I also am on the two Centering Prayer yahoo Groups entitled ‘Centering Prayer’ and ‘Spritus’ each going through a couple of FTK’s books and also great fellowship with those who have been practising CP for years. I love Cynthia Bourgeault’s books as well and find them very inspiring and spiritually informative. I have started blogging on my prayer times on http://urbanmystik.blogspot.com/
(no-one looks at it:o/) although have gone slightly off the beaten track on occasions! I struggle with the concept of ‘non-duality’ (as can be noted on my recent blog on Ken Wilber)… at the moment it seems to me a contradictory statement .. I mean if it is ‘non’ something it must be dualistic! Am toying with ideas of absolute dualism which is equal and opposite and relative dualism which would be opposite but not equal which is where a biblical view kicks in .. a non-absolute relative dualism where hatred and love clash in a dualistic way but love wins! Hatred is swallowed up in love as ‘death is swallowed up in victory’ …
Thanks also for your mention about the other posts/references that seem opposed to CP. I followed the links and they quite disturbed me. They do at least help me to remember the purpose of centering prayer and also the objectivity of Gods presence. it is good probably to engage in other forms of discursive prayer to keep the balance … anyway thanks again I will keep watching out for more of your posts
God bless
Bruce (Scarborough UK)

By: V

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:33:05 +0000

I’m still pretty early on the path of making the chatter STOP, but I have some exercises that show promise.

First, I pray that God guide me in my meditative journey, and use the Evening Prayer and the Prayer to Michael the Archangel.

Then I find a sort but pithy Gospel or New Testament verse, usually one to three sentences long. I read it over, and over and over again, let it soak into the pores of my being.

The Book of John is really good for this, ditto Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Then I close the bible and settle into the words, going beyond the words. I usually find my way into a silence with a certain texture and mood appropriate to the reading.

If you are still dealing with chatter, I recommend lighting a candle, playing Gregorian chant (preferably turned down somewhat so you can’t understand the words), or burning some incense. All of these things have been done in churches and monasteries since the First Century, so I don’t see anything particularly un-Catholic about that. :)

I then end with a prayer, one of the prayers to the Holy Spirit, and usually re-iterate the evening prayer. I’m supposed to do it for half an hour, but I find that it usually winds up being longer, like an hour. It has done me a great deal of good in a short period of time.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:06:27 +0000

thanks for the article Phil. A succinct and engaging read. So often prayer becomes little more than a magnification of the myriad chattering deceptions which fill our minds,psychic noise thrown outwards. The emphasis upon kenosis is central. Emptying, silence, humility, each so to be able to commune and be receptive.

I liked too how you addressed the problem of our neurotic need to solve everything, more noise. meditation is being at ease with incompletion and brokenness.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:16:15 +0000

Interesting article, Phil. Thanks for writing this. I’ve been looking for some lenten practice to do these next 40 days. Keep up the great work. God bless you and everyone at BustedHalo.com.

By: mairie

mairie — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:24:27 +0000

Thanks Phil for bringing meditation into the Lenten pryer practice again. Why anyone would doubt it’s rightness within Chrsitianity is beyond me. As Julian of Norwich says – it pleases God that we rest in Him.