November 28, 2017 By Admin

Zen Buddhist Emptiness and Christian Centering Prayer

Recently Ken McLeod presented “Freedom of Choice” as a way to differentiate forms of spiritual materialism and emotional escapism from serious Buddhist practice. He noted The Heart Sutra negations. There is no attainment for bodhisattvas as they pursue the perfection of wisdom. Ultimately, everything is empty. He refers to the illusion of choice as a hindrance to freedom. The more options we have the greater energies, angst, and preferences we experience. These are ways out of serious, dedicated meditation. When we become safely lost in our soothing practice, we may tend to withdraw from the challenges of everyday life in our chaotic world. Pursuit of preferred options and alternatives may soothe us but it also limits our mind training – purified attention and concentration on one thing in the here and now of presence. Having less options on our personal spiritual paths will ensure that we encounter the painful realities of our own emotional lives. If we succeed in this encounter, we may experience healing. What we need is Suzuki Roshi’s “way-seeking mind.” In such ways the Zen meditation may provide direct experiences of emptiness.

David Frenette’s book, The Path of Centering Prayer, notes many details on this practice. Perfected practice in Centering Prayer may open up greater divine love and allow experiences of emptiness. To maintain open curiosity for readers, I will use the words higher power to replace references to god/God. Centering prayer is part of the long, honored Christian mystical tradition. Simplicity is its core, and this simplicity allows greater and greater connection to higher power. It is the presence of higher power as we sit that influences us positively. Higher power presence allows for a life of improved unity and togetherness with all. Centering prayer as a daily practice opens us up to positive attitudes about process and allows deeper internal experience. Gentle receptivity of radical acceptance may open up thoughts, emotions even behaviors; when we experience these as interferences, simply go back to effortless, calm breathing and a selected sacred word. Focus on these as your meditation deepens. If we are successful, we will experience a deep connection to higher power and ultimate emptiness of it all. As our skills improve, we will notice sacred experiences in the words we use, in our breath, and in our spirit. A loving friendship with higher power and self and others may emerge over time. We will use Thomas Keating’s instructions. Recognize he is a priest and a psychologist.

Now we will practice Thomas Keating’s Centering Prayer process on higher power and emptiness. For even more simplicity I have modified a few steps.

Sit quietly with your eyes closed.
Hold an intention to contact higher power and to practice regularly.
Practice counts; there is no perfect way to do this. Just keep practicing.
Select a sacred word (mantra) as your symbol of your spiritual connection with higher power.
As you calm and deepen your breath, say your sacred word over and over again.
When thoughts, emotions, pain, suffering, even behaviors interfere with your practice simply DO NOT engage in story-lines and bring attention back gently to breath and word. Repeat this process over and over again.
Work to let go of your stream of consciousness. Let go of past and future. Stay in the present.
Maintain a friendly, loving attitude to whatever comes up to distract you. Continue to breathe and say your sacred word.
Let go of your false self by misidentifying with ego-self, family, groups, ethnic and racial roots. Be one!
Continue to practice by just be a human being with compassion and love. Let the higher power do its work for you. As you meditate deepen, deepen and deepen.

For more information refer to Keating, T. (1986, 2006). Open-Mind, Open-Heart. St.Benedict’s Monastery/Continuum Books. Frenette, D. (2017). The Path of Centering Prayer. Sounds True. McLeod, K. (2017). “Freedom of Choice.” Tricycle Community. Retrieved 9-21-17. Bourgeault, C. (2016). The Heart of Centering Prayer… Boston,MA: Shambhala Publications.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Preverbal Trauma – Therapy Problems A. R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC Preverbal trauma (hereafter PVT) is one of the most pervasively troubling human conditions. PVT occurs when a preverbal child is exposed to parental, caretaker, or other forms of abuse. This abuse may be sexual, physical, or emotional. This form of abuse is so destructive because […]

Using Mindfulness and Contemplation in Education and Therapy During the past few months I have been engaged with four small groups regarding how to use mindfulness and contemplation in education and/or therapy. The groups have variations: two groups are university faculty members meeting to discuss specific books related to these topics; one group is in […]

Retreats and Therapy: The Power of Silence E. Kubler-Ross once noted that people need to more often revisit silence within themselves and realize all of life’s purposes include learning from our despairing experiences. Suffering may be a hidden source of being blessed with new inner knowledge. Personal suffering if not too, too great may also […]

Buddhist Thought on Joy and Suffering 1) You actually DO have some control over your emotional destiny. 2) The core “conceptual” view of reality is that your inner emotional experience – especially negative afflictive emotional states related to people, places and things you REACT to – are perceived as totally true. 3) In a non-conceptual […]

Tolerance: Mastering Your Egos Impulses It is reported that Ajahn Chah said: “Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism.” This statement has merit in today’s highly competitive society. The 14th Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh have made similar statements. […]

Mindfulness Expands the Art of Journal Writing T. Merton, J. Kerouc, I. Progoff, J. Upton, and others have helped to expand the art or journal writing practice. This type of practice can become your mindfulness practice. You will need to write on a daily basis (even if briefly), and you will need to be highly […]

Relational Suffering and Buddhist Practice Recently I experienced a deep, sudden, afflictive emotional experience. This sudden and profound sense of loss was due to temporary heartbreak; the temporary heartbreak dealt with rejection from a younger woman I found to be interesting and attractive (inside and outside). My “lost” person seemed to possess all the attachment […]

Meditation Process in Chan Buddhism Chan Master Changlu’s The Deportmant for Sitting Meditation (12th century China) is a clear and helpful set of instruction. 1) It begins with the making of a personal vow for great compassion, personal liberation, and samadhi – all for the purpose of delivering sentient beings from their suffering and to their […]

Increasing Creativity and Hope in Your Therapy Sometimes even the most effective therapists get worn out; when this happens, our creative spirit may disappear from the therapy office. In this post I will present some research-based information about being more creative in our work, and add additional information about using mindfulness to enhance your clients’ […]

Inner Workings of Self-Medication Process To continue our discussion about the self-medication process we will first turn to the human brain. The human brain is the most complex system known to science. Here, my comments will be basic. Self-medication often has roots in the quality of our earliest childhood experiences (attachment and object relations with […]

Loving Kindness Meditation from The Buddha Loving Kindness Meditation (hereafter LKM) is, perhaps, one of the most popular meditation practices in the world. What many practitioners do not know is that one form of it came directly from The Buddha. Along with LKM wisdom we also are guided by the enlightened words of The Dalai […]

Mindfulness and Concentration – Experience Differences In this post I will explain some basic differences between mindfulness and concentration, both of which are required for effective meditation practice. This will be the first of three posts dealing with what mindfulness and concentration are, how to experience them briefly in a body-based activity, and how to […]

From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation We humans have a unique way of perceiving and processing emotional experiences. Years ago I developed a formula to understand the perception and process of emotional experiences: CABS-VAKGO-IS/Rels. The C stands for cognition; we spend a great deal of time thinking about pretty much everything we […]

Human Beings Have Trouble BEING Human – Some Sound Advice from Dr Anthony Quintiliani The world today appears to be even more destructive than ever before in human history. However, historians and violence researchers inform us that we as average persons are safer today than we were in the past. Finger-tip access to world-wide media […]

Mindfulness, the Brain, and Education – The Benefits are Many! Current research on mindfulness, brain science, and education suggests that mindfulness-wise application of neuroscience in the classroom may improve social-emotional and educational outcomes for students. Here I will simply review current scientific information about how the human brain learns. Hopefully, this information will be applicable […]

Very “SAD” Facts about the Addictions Field A recent issue of the Addictions Professional presented very disturbing news about how clinicians in the field are doing. NOT WELL! Addictions clinicians treat people with addictions but mainly people with co-occurring disorders – addictions with trauma, depression, anxiety and/or eating disorders. Often there is also a co-occurring medical […]

Forms of Happiness from Buddhist Psychology Given the season “to be jolly” I plan to write several posts on the topic of happiness. The following information notes five stages or levels of happiness. Read them over and see what stage/level may be appropriate for you at this time in your practice. Note that some meditation […]

Trauma Informed Care – Avoidance Process Although more and more clinicians are learning about and using principles/practices of Trauma Informed Care, too few understand the behavioral dynamics of negative reinforcement in the avoidance of trauma-related cues (people, places, things, internal sensations, emotions and images). This post will give a very brief description of negative reinforcement […]

Trauma Informed Care – The Absolute Basics This post aims at providing a very basic introduction to Trauma Informed Care. Advanced versions of this information are available from the author. So what is Trauma Informed Care (hereafter TIC)? Below I have listed rationales of need and core characteristics of TIC in organizations. Why We Need […]

Thoughts on Teaching Mindfulness and Meditation There are always questions about the necessary level of expertise, training, and personal meditation/yoga experience required for a person to self-identify as a teacher. Some differences of opinion exist, and some experts differentiate teaching mindfulness from teaching meditation. Some formal organizations have set their own standards; many of these […]