Dit is mijn onderzoeksnotitie over de oorsprong van
contemplatief of centrerend gebed
------------------------------------
http://www.cuc.claremont.edu/interfth/Centering%5Ccentering_prayer.htm
The Origins of Centering Prayer
Centering prayer is deeply rooted in the church’s long
tradition of contemplative prayer. In A Taste of Silence, Carl Arico highlights the striking similarities between centering prayer and the prayer of giants like Gregory of
Nyssa, John Cassian, Pseudo-Dionysius, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux and Thomas Merton.
Merton
in particular made three important contributions to the practice. The Seven
Story Mountain introduced the monastic life and contemplative prayer to a
wide secular audience. Before Merton wrote, contemplative living and the
experience of prayer without words or images were simply not on the radar
screen of most contemporary thought. Second, during the last years of his life,
Merton fostered an understanding of Eastern mysticism and how its teachings and
practices paralleled and illuminated Christianity. Finally, Merton’s own
practice of contemplative prayer foreshadowed centering
prayer. He wrote: "You rest in [God] and He hears you with His secret
wisdom." In a letter to Abdul Aziz, a Sufi
scholar, Merton described his prayer as "centered
entirely on the presence of God and His will and love," and as
"rising up out of the center of nothingness and
silence." It is most appropriate, therefore, that the practice of centering prayer takes its name from Merton’s writings.
The
current practice of centering prayer can be traced to
the mid-1970’s, St. Joseph Abbey in
Fathers
Keating, Meninger and Pennington entered into
intense, sustained dialogue with leaders from other traditions who lived near the abbey. They invited to the abbey
ecumenically oriented Catholic theologians, an Eastern Zen master, Joshu Roshi Sasaki, who offered
weeklong retreats on Buddhist meditation, and a former Trappist,
Paul Marechal, who taught transcendental meditation.
The interaction between these Christian monks and practitioners of Eastern
meditation helped distill the practice of Christian
contemplative prayer into a form that could be easily practiced by a diverse
array of "non-monastic" believers: priests, nuns, brothers and lay
men and women.
Thomas
Keating was personally disappointed that so many Catholics had left the church
because they had no idea it offered meditation practices that could cultivate
the inner peace and spiritual union they desired. At a monastery gathering in
the mid-1970’s, Keating posed a question to his fellow monks that provided the
impetus to the centering prayer movement: "Could
we put the Christian tradition into a form that would be accessible to
people in the active ministry today and to young people who have
been instructed in an Eastern technique and might be inspired to return to
their Christian roots if they knew there was something similar in the Christian
tradition?"
William
Meninger’s contriution was
to develop a simple, easily taught method of prayer based on the 14th-century
mystical classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. Believers are invited to
enter into a deep, silent state of "unknowing" during which one
expresses one’s "naked intent" to rest in deep communion with God. Meninger suggested the mental repetition of a single
"sacred word" that symbolizes the believer’s intention to turn
completely toward God. This made it easier to let go of the thoughts and
feelings that would invariably come into one’s awareness during prayer. An
abundance of conferences, retreats, audio and videotapes and publications have
followed from these humble beginnings
-------------------------------------
http://www.centeringprayer.com/resting.htm
The contemporary form of centering prayer was
discovered, initially taught, and developed during Keating's tenure as abbot at
Keating came away from the meeting
determined to make a contribution. He asked the monks at St. Joseph's to search
for a method rooted in Christian tradition that would make contemplative prayer
more accessible to those outside the monastery. The novice master at
http://www.americamagazine.org/gettext.cfm?articleTypeID=1&textID=2172&issueID=379
The Origins of Centering Prayer
Centering prayer is
deeply rooted in the church’s long tradition of contemplative prayer. In A
Taste of Silence, Carl Arico highlights the
striking similarities between centering prayer and
the prayer of giants like Gregory of Nyssa, John Cassian,
Pseudo-Dionysius, Bernard of Clairvaux, Teresa of
Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux and Thomas Merton.
Merton in particular made three important contributions to the practice.
The Seven Storey Mountain introduced the monastic life and contemplative
prayer to a wide secular audience. Before Merton wrote, contemplative living
and the experience of prayer without words or images were simply not on the
radar screen of most contemporary thought. Second, during the last years of his
life, Merton fostered an understanding of Eastern mysticism and how its
teachings and practices paralleled and illuminated Christianity. Finally,
Merton’s own practice of contemplative prayer foreshadowed centering
prayer. He wrote: “You rest in [God] and He hears you with His secret wisdom.”
In a letter to Abdul Aziz, a Sufi scholar, Merton
described his prayer as “centered entirely on the
presence of God and His will and love,” and as “rising up out of the center of nothingness and silence.” It is most appropriate,
therefore, that the practice of centering prayer
takes its name from Merton’s writings.
The current practice of centering prayer can
be traced to the mid-1970’s, St. Joseph Abbey in
Fathers Keating, Meninger
and Pennington entered into intense, sustained dialogue with leaders from other
traditions who lived near the abbey. They invited to
the abbey ecumenically oriented Catholic theologians, an Eastern Zen master, Joshu Roshi Sasaki, who offered
weeklong retreats on Buddhist meditation, and a former Trappist,
Paul Marechal, who taught transcendental meditation.
The interaction between these Christian monks and practitioners of Eastern
meditation helped distill the practice of Christian
contemplative prayer into a form that could be easily practiced by a diverse
array of “non-monastic” believers: priests, nuns, brothers and lay men and
women.
Thomas Keating was personally disappointed that so many Catholics had
left the church because they had no idea it offered meditation practices that
could cultivate the inner peace and spiritual union they desired. At a
monastery gathering in the mid-1970’s, Keating posed a question to his fellow
monks that provided the impetus to the centering
prayer movement: “Could we put the Christian tradition into a form that would
be accessible to people in the active ministry today and to young people who have
been instructed in an Eastern technique and might be inspired to return to
their Christian roots if they knew there was something similar in the Christian
tradition?”
William Meninger’s contribution was to develop
a simple, easily taught method of prayer based on the 14th-century mystical
classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. Believers are invited to enter into a
deep, silent state of “unknowing” during which one expresses one’s “naked
intent” to rest in deep communion with God. Meninger
suggested the mental repetition of a single “sacred word” that symbolizes the
believer’s intention to turn completely toward God. This made it easier to let
go of the thoughts and feelings that would invariably come into one’s awareness
during prayer. An abundance of conferences, retreats, audio and videotapes and
publications have followed from these humble beginnings.
-------------------------------------------
http://www.centeringprayer.com/newsltrs/Summer06/TKInterview.htm
An Interview
with Father Thomas Keating
by Netanel Miles-Yepez
No, I started getting interested in interreligious
dialogue in the late Sixties. I was abbot of
NM-Y: What was it about Sasaki Roshi that so impressed you?
TK: Sasaki Roshi
was eager to teach Christian Zen. For him, Zen was not the property of
NM-Y: The dialogue has obviously come
a long way in the intervening years. Were all the monks as inclined to dialogue
as you were in the early days?
TK: This was brand new territory for us and
not looked upon with much sympathy by many members of the community. When
Sasaki Roshi put on the Cistercian habit and joined
us in the refectory, it was a little shocking to some monks.
NM-Y: Were there any visits from representatives
of traditions other than Buddhism? What about Hindus?
TK: We had less exposure to the Hindu
traditions. But we were pleased to host Swami Satchidananda
and several teachers from the Transcendental Meditation movement. I was also
very interested in the Hindu-Christian dialogue going on in
NM-Y: When did Centering
Prayer get started?
TK: Actually, Centering Prayer began around
1976 at |
|
NM-Y: Really? When I have observed you
in interreligious dialogue or teaching Centering Prayer, you seem to move seamlessly from one
category to the other, almost as if there was an intrinsic relationship between
the two.
TK: Yes, there was a lot of interaction
between the two, and it has grown over the years. You see, a great many
Christians had joined one or other of the Eastern disciplines in their youth because
they couldn't find any comparable depth of spirituality in the Christian
milieu, whether in churches, parishes or schools. In fact, many have said to
me, that had they known there was a Christian contemplative practice, they
wouldn't have gone to the East. But, still, they benefited from their Eastern
practice and many remained with it. Others returned to the religion of their
childhood because they felt more at home there. Our chief reason for presenting
Centering Prayer was to contribute to the renewal of
the Christian contemplative tradition, and thus to provide an option in the
marketplace marketplace for Christians who would
never have the time or inclination to learn an Eastern method of
meditation.
NM-Y: Why did you feel this was a
need?
TK: During my early encounters with teachers
of other traditions at
NM-Y: It seems to me, looking back
over your career and your writings, that you have spent a great deal of time
and energy not only articulating a clear "method," but also in making
the psychological and contemplative sophistication of Christianity
explicit.
TK: That's true. It was there, but it was
distributed over a large number of books. In this work, I benefited a great
deal from contemporary science especially developmental psychology, which I
feel teaches truths that all of the world's religious traditions need to take
into account. Likewise, I believe that the existence of the Unconscious
discovered by Freud has tremendous consequences for the spiritual
journey.
NM-Y: You founded the Snowmass Interreligious Conference in the early eighties, didn't
you?
TK: I always saw myself more as its
"convener" than "founder." It was really just a big
experiment in the beginning, and I didn't know how it would work out. I began
planning it in 1983 after taking part in a series of Christian-Buddhist
dialogues at the Naropa Institute in
-----------------------------
http://www.brown.edu/Faculty/Contemplative_Studies_Initiative/grant_location.html
|
Origin of
Centering Prayer movement |
Glastonbury Abbey |
Located
in |
Abbey of Gethsemani |
|
Centering
Prayer – |
Centering
Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative
heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio
Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of
Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.. It was distilled
into a simple method of prayer in the 1970's by three Trappist
monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington
and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, |
|
A Community
of Faith Through Liturgy, Retreats, Education, Counseling,
Social Justice, Spiritual Direction, Meetings & Conferences, in the
Tradition & Hospitality of St. Francis of Assisi... |
First Zen
Institute of America |
The First
Zen Institute of America (FZIA) is a non-profit religious organization
founded and incorporated in 1930 by Sokei-an Sasaki, the first Zen master to settle permanently in |
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