The Heart of Centering Prayer Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice (Audible Audio Edition) Cynthia Bourgeault Gabra Zackman Audible Studios Books
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Centering prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it a Christianized form of other meditation methods. Cynthia Bourgeault here cuts through the misconceptions to show that centering prayer is in fact a pioneering development within the Christian contemplative tradition. She provides a practical, complete course in the practice and then goes deeper to analyze what actually happens in centering prayer the mind effectively switches to a new operating system that makes possible the perception of nonduality. With this understanding in place, she then takes us on a journey through one of the sources of the practice, the Christian contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing, revealing it to be among the earliest Christian explorations of the phenomenology of consciousness.
Cynthia Bourgeault's illumination of the centering prayer path provides compelling evidence of how important the practice has become in the half century since it first arose among American Trappist monks and of its maturation and refinement over the ensuing years of sincere study and practice. It will resonate with beginners on the centering prayer path as well as with seasoned practitioners.
Cover image Mark Tomalty / Masterfile.
The Heart of Centering Prayer Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice (Audible Audio Edition) Cynthia Bourgeault Gabra Zackman Audible Studios Books
I have known Cynthia for many years. As a practicing contemplative in the Christian tradition I acknowledge and honor her as a practitioner of profound depth, a mystic, scholar, and teacher firmly rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition. I have loved and drawn wisdom and encouragement from all her books, but this is the book I have been waiting for. Heart centered Christianity rooted in actual praxis is what the Christian world needs, not more conceptual polemics of "correct belief" from the brain-mind. The organ of the spiritual experience of God is the heart, the center of our being and the locus of the Living Water of Trinitarian Life within us. What we hunger for is intimacy with the Christ experience of oneness with God. We cannot attain this experience through the brain-mind. Cynthia goes directly to this need and practice based fulfillment of our heart's desire, not to just hold consoling conceptual beliefs of God in Christ, but to directly experience God as Unitive Love, transcending all our brain-mind knowledge, relativizing it, but integrating and connecting the concepts with the Reality. Gregory the Great called the gift of contemplation "the direct experiential knowledge of God infused through love." In this writing Cynthia draws particularly on the shared experience and contemplative wisdom of 10th century Symeon the New Theologian to ground and connect her own experience of the inner life to bring forth a simple but deep teaching of the path of the Heart.I have been meditating daily since the age of 21, over 47 years. The first 17 years of practice took place under the teaching and guidance of Soto Zen teachers. I learned the discipline of cultivating pure awareness/attention in my consciousness, yet a realization of the love based teachings of my Christian roots was lacking to me. I had the grace and good fortunate of finding a mentor, a Christian Cistercian Abbot, Bernard McVeigh, to help me learn gradually over time to ground awareness in the inner sanctuary of the heart, the locus of abiding in God. With his encouragement of good sound teachers, like Father Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeaul, and others, over time my perceptions of the world and my self shifted, and healing of soul happened. And I learned that meditation is not confined to the structures and methodologies of formal sitting meditation practice, but is the every moment return to anchoring attention/awareness ** in** the heart as contemplative masters in the Prayer of the Heart and other Contemplative traditions have guided us to do.
In this book Cynthia validates powerfully what my life long journey of contemplative practice and transformation has been in its simplicity and power. Cynthia states: " As practitioners gradually learn the art of withdrawing energy from all objects of attention, they are..... developing an inner capacity to distinguish by feel, the difference between attention **in** and attention **on**. Letting go is first and foremost a gesture- a subtle inner drop and release- and every opportunity to practice it strengthens the patterning......... But as the magnetic center begins to develop, we acquire a root within us that can stay connected to our deepest spiritual aim and steer a true course independent of reactivity to external circumstances." This is true freedom to give ourselves ever more fully to our heart's desire of oneness with God through the heart as portal to Divine Indwelling. In this way we are fulfilling the invitation of Jesus to "enter the Kingdom" of unitive Trinitarian love, and to validate the teaching of St. John, "God is Love, who abides in Love abides in God." This abiding, is not just an idea, but a practice/praxis of ongoing kenotic release and freedom of the energy of attention/awareness from entrapment in the attractions and misdirections of the brain-mind, to come home -release and fall-into the sanctuary of the heart. In this process the center of gravity of our consciousness and will shifts from a brain-created egoic stance of the false self to being increasingly rooted and identified with the I AM Trinitarian Life flow of the Divine Indwelling. Over a lifetime our ordinary consciousness based on separateness is transformed into the unitive consciousness of the Mind of Christ, where we realize the affirmation of St. Paul, "There is only Christ. He is everything and He is in everything." Col.3:11. This change from ordinary to non-dual consciousness is foretold by Jesus, "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." John 14:20
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The Heart of Centering Prayer Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice (Audible Audio Edition) Cynthia Bourgeault Gabra Zackman Audible Studios Books Reviews
Having read over the past years twelve of Cynthia Bourgeault’s seminal books; I knew her to be a brilliant independent scholar, capable of taking very challenging esoteric concepts and making them understandable and practical. But now when I reading her latest new book dealing with Centering Prayer together with the Cloud of Unknowing, simply stunning. Thank you!
This is one of the best books on Centering Prayer that I've read. If you're looking for an introduction to the Centering Prayer, I would probably recommend first reading her previous book, "Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening". This book does provide a 20+ page pract"how to" overview of the Centering Prayer practice which is a good introduction to beginners and a great refresher for those more experienced, but her prior book much a much larger, general introduction. But for someone with a little more time on the meditation mat (either in the tradition of the Centering Prayer or other disciplines), this is a must read. Cynthia pulls together her experience both in the Centering Prayer and other traditions, her extensive scholarly study, and very recent research in the field of neuroscience to show further stages of development possible through the practice, along with a path forward to put this knowledge into practical steps for others on the path.
This book is comprised of several sections, some of which are great, and others, frankly, were over my head. The writer's style didn't help. A sentence from the book
Even the effusive love mysticism usually typecast in present maps of consciousness as belonging to a personalistic and therefore lower level of consciousness, I suspect actually contains the seeds, metaphorically, of that nonnegotiable Christian affirmation that luminosity is love; the two cannot be separated.
Ok, whatever that said it was probably good. And there is much of that in the book. But it isn't all bad.
The first section is a tutorial on centering prayer that I think is the clearest, most helpful that I've ever read. Other sections of the book are also excellent and useful. And then others are pedantic and difficult, as if written by the other author's highbrowed twin.
It's probably worth a second read to gather everything there. But such is not for the faint of heart.
I'm an avid Bourgeault reader, and I thought she had reached her peak with her book on the Trinity. Not sol The Heart of Centering Prayer tops it. When I saw that she had written yet another book on Centering Prayer, I thought, "What else can be said about Centering Prayer that hasn't already been said?" But Bourgeault has a LOT more to day. The first third of the book reviews the basics, and while there is nothing startling new here, it builds the base for those new to the practice, and is a good review for those experienced in it. What makes the book worth the read is the middle third of the book, where Cynthia delves into the daunting topic of non duality--describing her interpretation of what non duality is and how centering prayer provides a path to non duality for the Christian. It is an amazing read, and quite a revelation to realize that rather than striving up Ken Wilbur's stages of evolution, which ultimately culminates in the mystical and transformative stages for the few, that there is an alternate path to non duality that involves committing to the practice of Centering Prayer and living a life of kenosis (complete surrender). The last third of the book is devoted to an interpretation of the book "Cloud of Unknowing" upon which Centering Prayer is based. It adds a lot of insight on the background and development of the practice. I am a 13 year practitioner of centering prayer, and reading this book has re-kindled my time on the mat. I highly recommend this book for first time users of the practice and experienced practitioners alike.
I have known Cynthia for many years. As a practicing contemplative in the Christian tradition I acknowledge and honor her as a practitioner of profound depth, a mystic, scholar, and teacher firmly rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition. I have loved and drawn wisdom and encouragement from all her books, but this is the book I have been waiting for. Heart centered Christianity rooted in actual praxis is what the Christian world needs, not more conceptual polemics of "correct belief" from the brain-mind. The organ of the spiritual experience of God is the heart, the center of our being and the locus of the Living Water of Trinitarian Life within us. What we hunger for is intimacy with the Christ experience of oneness with God. We cannot attain this experience through the brain-mind. Cynthia goes directly to this need and practice based fulfillment of our heart's desire, not to just hold consoling conceptual beliefs of God in Christ, but to directly experience God as Unitive Love, transcending all our brain-mind knowledge, relativizing it, but integrating and connecting the concepts with the Reality. Gregory the Great called the gift of contemplation "the direct experiential knowledge of God infused through love." In this writing Cynthia draws particularly on the shared experience and contemplative wisdom of 10th century Symeon the New Theologian to ground and connect her own experience of the inner life to bring forth a simple but deep teaching of the path of the Heart.
I have been meditating daily since the age of 21, over 47 years. The first 17 years of practice took place under the teaching and guidance of Soto Zen teachers. I learned the discipline of cultivating pure awareness/attention in my consciousness, yet a realization of the love based teachings of my Christian roots was lacking to me. I had the grace and good fortunate of finding a mentor, a Christian Cistercian Abbot, Bernard McVeigh, to help me learn gradually over time to ground awareness in the inner sanctuary of the heart, the locus of abiding in God. With his encouragement of good sound teachers, like Father Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeaul, and others, over time my perceptions of the world and my self shifted, and healing of soul happened. And I learned that meditation is not confined to the structures and methodologies of formal sitting meditation practice, but is the every moment return to anchoring attention/awareness ** in** the heart as contemplative masters in the Prayer of the Heart and other Contemplative traditions have guided us to do.
In this book Cynthia validates powerfully what my life long journey of contemplative practice and transformation has been in its simplicity and power. Cynthia states " As practitioners gradually learn the art of withdrawing energy from all objects of attention, they are..... developing an inner capacity to distinguish by feel, the difference between attention **in** and attention **on**. Letting go is first and foremost a gesture- a subtle inner drop and release- and every opportunity to practice it strengthens the patterning......... But as the magnetic center begins to develop, we acquire a root within us that can stay connected to our deepest spiritual aim and steer a true course independent of reactivity to external circumstances." This is true freedom to give ourselves ever more fully to our heart's desire of oneness with God through the heart as portal to Divine Indwelling. In this way we are fulfilling the invitation of Jesus to "enter the Kingdom" of unitive Trinitarian love, and to validate the teaching of St. John, "God is Love, who abides in Love abides in God." This abiding, is not just an idea, but a practice/praxis of ongoing kenotic release and freedom of the energy of attention/awareness from entrapment in the attractions and misdirections of the brain-mind, to come home -release and fall-into the sanctuary of the heart. In this process the center of gravity of our consciousness and will shifts from a brain-created egoic stance of the false self to being increasingly rooted and identified with the I AM Trinitarian Life flow of the Divine Indwelling. Over a lifetime our ordinary consciousness based on separateness is transformed into the unitive consciousness of the Mind of Christ, where we realize the affirmation of St. Paul, "There is only Christ. He is everything and He is in everything." Col.311. This change from ordinary to non-dual consciousness is foretold by Jesus, "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." John 1420
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