Last week, we outlined an effective yet simple spiritual practice for quieting our mental and emotional inner chatter. Here’s another powerful practice, one that will help ground you amidst daily the ups and downs of life.
This practice leads us back home, to a deeper way of being with ourselves. The practice aligns us so that we open to different channels of resonance:
resonance within ourselves through mental, emotional, and bodily alignment
resonance with others and our world as we relate to them with more openness and authenticity
resonance with the Divine as we align with its grounding, inspiring, and expansive forces
Centering Practice
Divine Presence is always at home within us. It gets concealed by the noise and distractions of our busy lives. Centering Practice seeks to remove the veil from this deep, creative peace. When we center into inner calm and spaciousness, the sensation of Divine Presence arises as a peaceful, expansive Still Point. It leads us to gently detach from thoughts and distractions by reciting a “sacred word.” And it opens us to “consent to the presence and action of God.”
This practice is an adaptation of the Centering Prayer practice developed by Father Thomas Keating.
Select a “sacred word.” Preferably, it’s one or two syllables, and meaningful but not so power-packed that it’s distracting in itself. Some tried and true ones are: peace, release, open, be still, or let go. The purpose of the word is to clear mental debris as it arises.
Sit in a comfortable place where interruptions and distractions are minimal. The body is to be relaxed and alert, allowing for natural, full breaths. Most people find it helpful to close their eyes.
Gently release arising thoughts and distractions by reciting the sacred word. Thoughts and distraction naturally arise, and each time they do, simply return to your word. These thoughts and distractions aren’t the enemy of Centering Practice, they are “the pathway of return” to our center, and as such we see them as fundamental to the practice. Over and over you will release thoughts, feelings, and sensations. And that’s how it’s supposed to work!
Release into the “Still Point.” In the wake of our sacred word, there often is a brief still point that is a kind of quiet emptiness. You will notice this emptiness gap not when you stop thinking but when the next thought starts. It is in these still points in the midst of our stream of consciousness that we release into a deep and centered place.
Repeat this wave-like pattern of “thought - sacred word - Still Point” over and over. Each moment in the Still Point is touching into eternity and its deep nourishment for the soul.
Thomas Keating has the following recommendations for practitioners of Centering Prayer that equally apply in my adaptation:
The recommended time for centering is 20 minutes twice a day. However, 1, 2, 5 minutes – any and all centering time is valuable.
The 4 R’s of Centering Prayer
Resist no thought
Retain no thought
React to no thought
Return ever so gently to the sacred word
The Benefits of Centering Practice: This practice brings us to our deep and quiet spiritual home, to mental, emotional, and bodily centering, nourishing, and healing. The “still small voice” of the Divine meets us in this profound quiet.
We don’t do this or any spiritual practice to become more saintly. We do spiritual practice to better deal with the everyday hassles and challenges that show up in our day to day lives. The more often we access this still point in our practice, the more easily we can call it forward when the inevitable chaos hits.