Thomas Keating Quotes
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While doing centering prayer, the practice is to let go of any thought or perception. The priority is to be as silent as possible and when that is not possible to let the noise of the thoughts be the sacred symbol for a while, without analyzing them.
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We are kept from the experience of Spirit because our inner world is cluttered with past traumas . . . As we begin to clear away this clutter, the energy of divine light and love begins to flow through our being.
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For us to remain in this world, our animal brain has to be there to support us.
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For human beings, the most daunting challenge is to become fully human. For to become fully human is to become fully divine.
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The wisdom of all religions has to be respected. The discoveries of science are also essential for our time and the future.
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We need to develop the intuitive capacities of the brain that some geniuses have manifested over humanity's lengthy history.
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Divine life is basically the inner freedom to choose the right and the good spontaneously.
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The word "emptiness" for example, is a very important word both in Christianity and in Buddhism. It has shades of meaning however, that are different in the respective traditions.
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St. Teresa of Avila wrote: 'All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one cause: praying as if God were absent.' This is the conviction that we bring with us from early childhood and apply to everyday life and to our lives in general. It gets stronger as we grow up, unless we are touched by the Gospel and begin the spiritual journey. This journey is a process of dismantling the monumental illusion that God is distant or absent.
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The spiritual traditions of all the religions have certain similarities that are unmistakable. They share many of the same basic practices like sacred reading, spiritual guidance, moderation in eating, drinking and sexual expression, and above all, trying to be aware of the presence of God in other people and in everyday life.
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The complementary movement towards divine love is growth in humility which is the acceptence of the reality about ourselves, our own weakness and limitations.
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Your relationship with God, others, yourself, and all creation keeps changing for the better. Most of the world's religions have developed maps to describe this process.
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I venture to say that it's not enough to respect and tolerate religions other than our own.
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Over time we are able to undermine habitual modes of thinking formed by our self-made self in early childhood, which tries to squeeze happiness from the gratification of our desires for the symbols in our culture of survival and security, power and control, and affection and esteem.
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The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from God.
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is a process of inner transformation, a conversation initiated by God and leading, if we consent, to divine union. One's way of seeing reality changes in the process. A restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate and respond with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through, and beyond everything that exists.
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God is a tremendous supporter of creation, especially of all living beings.
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Religions have a special responsibility to encourage and inspire people to love planet earth, which as far as we know, is the only place in the cosmos that works in such a harmonious way that it can support intelligent life.
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The root of prayer is interior silence.
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The modern world lies under a pervasive sense of anguish, of being abandoned, or at least experiencing God as absent. Yet events that seem to turn our lives upside down and inside out are part of God's redemptive plan, not only for us, but for the world in which we live. God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if God can find enough people to cooperate in this mysterious plan.
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Science and technology has tried to offer an alternative to religion by making a god out of human reason, but that didn't work out too well.
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The acceptance of all that God has given us and the willingness to let it go - to give it back to him at a moment's notice - that's true human freedom.
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All religions proclaim the advantages of peace, loving one another, and "doing to others what we would like them to do to us."
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It's obvious that humanity continues to be torn by religious violence.
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Every time you have a major breakthrough in self-knowledge, and see the way the divine works within your own psyche, external events, and interior experiences of the divine, you are transformed in some degree.
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Humility is the forgetfulness of self.
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The best way to understand another person's religion is to listen to the story of what particular practices helped them to deepen and to embody their religion, especially its spirituality.
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Centering prayer is a training in letting go.
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Just by the very nature of our birth, we are on the spiritual journey.
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Difficulties arise whenever a committed relationship is succeeding. Love makes you vulnerable. . . . Your defenses relax and the dark side of your personality arises. . .
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