Last week I discussed Step 3 of Centering Prayer. (On March 12, I provided a summary of Centering Prayer if you need to take a peek to remind yourself.)
Today I will review Step 4:
At the end of the centering prayer session, remain in silence for a minute or two before you resume your daily activities.
After my closing bell has rung I wait before I begin my daily tasks. (I say this because as much as possible my morning sit is the first thing I do to begin my day.)
Let me share some of the things I like to do after my morning or afternoon sits that help me transition to my non-silent parts of the day:
- After each silent sit I often use my prayer rope. (Enjoy my post that discusses how I utilize a prayer rope.) I love the combination of prayer and action. Sometimes I sit. Other times I walk in a circle as I pray with my prayer rope. Here is a beautiful piece about the Jesus Prayer by Clint Sabom.
- I might read a small Bible passage via Lectio Divina. Lectio is a wonderful way to read the Bible because you let God speak to you. Check out my book review that discusses Lectio Divina.
- I might read a few pages of a book.
- Perhaps I have a few thoughts or goals I want to share with God. I will often type them in my journal.
- Verbally I thank God for the wonderful events that have occurred over the past day.
- Lastly, I will pose a question or two to God. I then wait for the answer to appear over the next few days.
What do you do to transition from your sit to your non-silent day?
Next week I will conclude this series and provide some Centering Prayer Next Steps.
I hope you will continue to join me next week.
Go Further:
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice by Cynthia Bourgeault
Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating
Open Mind, Open Heart 20th Anniversary Edition by Thomas Keating
The Path of Centering Prayer by David Frenette
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I just love anything that reflects on how we create a prayerful routine! (and by the way, Happy Easter! – Resucito!)
I usually sit to meditate at 5:30. I would prefer to feed the cats later, but if I don’t feed them first, they will participate in my meditation – on my lap, tugging at my shoulder, or loudly protesting, so I feed them prior to the meditation.
Other pre and post-meditation activities vary. Sometimes I read a few pages of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, http://heartfull.life/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/10/33-34Savitri.pdf or his “Message of the Gita”: http://en.krishnakosh.org/krishna/Essays_on_the_Gita_-Aurobindo_534 before the meditation, sometimes afterward (Lectio Divina style).
I find that after that is for me the best exercise time of the day. Recently I’ve been doing the “7 minute” high intensity interval workout, with various different kinds of exercises, including pushups, squats, kettlebell swings, burpees, plank, pull ups, etc. At least several days a week, I then go for a 20 minute walk (in our very hilly Shiloh/Asheville neighborhood), eat, and then get to work (mostly at home these days, but 2-3 days a week doing psychological evaluations).
I keep sections of the Gita and Savitri printed out, and at least once every 30 minutes, take a 20-30 second break to read a few lines. Often I find I need to move to “wake up” my Awareness, and have accumulated over the years a variety of movements that I find helpful as breaks – slow Qigong movements with deep breathing (sometimes I use our videos to help focus – http://www.remember-to-breathe.org/Breathing-Videos.html), or kettlebell swings if I need something more vigorous. If I’m home, a minute or two of jumping on the mini-trampoline is a great mid afternoon waker-upper as well.
The Gita and Savitri printed out is also becoming a great substitute for impulse net-surfing – if i just take a moment to reflect on how I’ll feel after watching a youtube video or reading something absurd in the news, vs reading a few lines of the Gita, it actually just dissolves the urge to surf (not always! but often:>))
please share more with us on how you work prayerful consciousness into your day. And again, happy Easter.
Thanks Don for sharing your routines! I enjoyed reading what works for you. I like the breaks you take every 30 minutes to read a few lines. Great idea!
please share more with us on how you work prayerful consciousness into your day – I will write/explore this for a future post. Thanks for the idea!
Your question is certainly inspiring me to reflect.
I have a longer comment I’m working on – i think infinitely more important than any technique or practice (even centering prayer!) is the realization that, like the Hound of Heaven, God is seeking us infinitely more intensely than we could ever seek him (or as our local Methodist pastor referred to God – to my immense surprise – this past Easter Sunday – to God, or Him or Her or whatever God is!).
Recognizing that, rather than “doing” something, when we have even a glimpse of realization o what we are doing to block God’s yearning for us, we can then let go altogether and let Him (or Her or whatever!) do the rest.
I actually wrote a chapter on this in Jonathan Shear’s “The Experience of Meditation.” It’s always been the form of practice that makes the most sense to me (it’s very much what Krishna recommends at the end of the Gita – Abandon all dharmas and let Me do the rest – or more simply put in popular culture, let go and let God:>)
But I’m not against practices either. here’s one.
I just took a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, but you can take one from the Bible, Julian of Norwich, Attar, Hafiz, Dogen, or anyone else!
Say you take this from Galatians, 2:20. This to me is a profoundly contemplative vision:
*****
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
*****
When you look up from writing your accounting report, or surfing the net, or writing up notes from your last patient, or practicing your lines for the next youtube video you’re producing, or whatever….
look at the verse. No thinking, no reflecting, this is not lectio divina. You won’t have time to get in the right frame of mind (or heart!).
Just take the words, and memorize them:
*****
– My old self has been crucified in Christ.”
*****
you check back and see, “oh, it’s “crucified WITH Christ.”
You try again. Then next line:
*****
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
*****
Then you try both together. Then the next line
*****
So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
*****
Then all together:
*****
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
*****
Then let go. Do nothing. nothing. nothing, nothing, let go, let go, let go, let go.
Now back to your accounting, surfing (well, maybe not that), note writing, line practicing, or whatever.
And keep letting go!
just one more quick thought about remembrance during the day.
I’ve found it very helpful to remember that techniques dont’ actually “produce” peace or joy or even union with God. They create conditions that make us more receptive to Grace. As neuroscientist John Yates puts it, mystical union happens by accident, but you can make yourself “accident prone.”
What seems to me to be more important than “doing” techniques is noticing through the day what it is that draws my attention away from God. The soul has an innate yearning to unite with God – the more we get out of the way (and the only thing that’s ever really in the way is the old self, the little “me” – as the Lojong teachings of Tibetan Buddhism put it, it is always only one thing that is responsible for blocking this union with God – what they call self-cherishing or self-grasping)
And as I see this, I don’t even need to do anything about it. I see my greed, pride, craving, anger, etc and in that seeing, as long as the flame of aspiration for union with the Divine is awake, that flame will cut the cord of self-grasping and open the heart to Divine Grace.
Don – I love your below comments! I enjoy your insight!
i think infinitely more important than any technique or practice (even centering prayer!) is the realization that, like the Hound of Heaven, God is seeking us infinitely more intensely than we could ever seek him (or as our local Methodist pastor referred to God – to my immense surprise – this past Easter Sunday – to God, or Him or Her or whatever God is!).
I’ve found it very helpful to remember that techniques dont’ actually “produce” peace or joy or even union with God. They create conditions that make us more receptive to Grace. As neuroscientist John Yates puts it, mystical union happens by accident, but you can make yourself “accident prone.”