Centering Prayer:
Catholic Meditation or Occult Meditation?
Centering Prayer
Catholic Meditation or Occult Meditation?
from The Cross and the Veil
A Critique of M. Basil Pennington's article, Centering Prayer, taken from The Contemplative Prayer Online Magazine.
The following quotes are taken from the above on-line magazine and illustrate the typical errors that have entered the Catholic contemplative tradition through various techniques derived, however innocently, from a mixture of Buddhist meditative practice (which ensures dissociation of the spirit from the body in order to achieved enlightenment) and kundalini yogic practice (which unleashes the occult magic of Kali, the destroyer goddess). This technique, known as Centering Prayer (CP), has been in vogue since the 1970's. Thomas Keating, a Cistercian priest, monk, and abbot in Colorado, is the founder of the Centering Prayer Movement. Father Pennington, another teacher of this technique, is called a "master of centering prayer" on the web site.
CP devotees claim it to be a revival of ancient meditative practice, referring to it as a new version of the practice of ejaculatory mental prayer wherein contemplatives practiced the presence of God by repeating simple sacred words or sentences such as "Jesus, I love you".
Far from simple or sacred, CP is a codified technique which constructs a psychological and spiritual state of awareness designed to unleash unconscious forces and which typically encourages a narcissistic turning-inward and pre-occupation with self awareness, consciousness-raising and the achieving of preternatural experiences.
Following are Father Pennington's statements. Parenthetical comments are mine or attributed:
"Centering Prayer is a simple method of prayer that sets up the ideal conditions to rest in quiet awareness of God's presence. This way of prayer is alluded to in many passages in the Old and New Testaments and probably dates from then."
(vague references citing legitimacy of technique from ancient origins is typical).
"The Greek Fathers referred to it as monologion, "one-word" prayer. The desert father, Abba Isaac taught a similar form of prayer to John Cassian who later wrote of it in France, transmitting it to Benedict of Nursia. Unfortunately, by the time of the 16th century, the prayer form largely went out of use in favor of more discursive modes of prayer."
("he (Cassian) is in fact regarded as the originator of what, since the Middle Ages, has been known as Semipelagianism...Preoccupied as he was with moral questions he exaggerated the role of free will by claiming that the initial steps to salvation were in the power of each individual, unaided by grace... Semipelagianism was finally condemned by the Council of Orange in 529." - taken from The Catholic Encyclopedia)
In the following quote taken from a new article posted to the web site, the bolded phrases are mine, and are typical buzz words revealing the New Age origins of "Centering Prayer":
"Love is God's Being" - by M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O. 03/09/00
"When we go to the center of our being and pass through that center into the very center of God we get in immediate touch with this divine creating energy. This is not a new idea. It is the common teaching of the Christian Fathers of the Greek tradition. When we dare with the full assent of love to unleash these energies within us not surprisingly he initial experience is of a flood of chaotic thoughts, memories, emotions and feelings. This is why wise spiritual Fathers and mothers counsel a gentle entering into this experience. Not too much too fast. But it is this release that allows all of this chaos within us with all its imprisoning stress to be brought into harmony so that not only their might be peace and harmony within but that the divine energy may have the freedom to forward the evolution of consciousness in us and through us, as a part of the whole, in the whole of the creation."
Typical of New Age meditative practice, the soul becomes the "center", energy replaces grace, God actually becomes a pantheistic energy, and the unleashing of this "energy" leads to chaos and then, mysteriously, an evolution of consciousness (refer to article on this web site on the dangers of unleashing occult power through kundalini yoga). Legitimacy of this occult technique is sought in pop-psychology, comparing it to seeking insight through bio-feedback or self-hypnosis.
The following excerpt from the web site details the technique-driven method of withdrawal and dissociation derived from Buddhic meditative practice, which posits ultimate withdrawal from all attachments and this "world of illusion" as the means of achieving oneness with and absorption into the primal void, as one's evolution of consciousness leads to the awakening of the "Self" as God:
As you sit comfortably with eyes closed: 1. Let yourself settle down. Let go of all the thoughts, tensions, and sensations you may feel and begin to rest in love of God who dwells within.
(In Catholic contemplative practice, we bring all of ourselves to God and enter into conversation or communion, bringing everything with us to lay at His Feet. All manner of worries, concerns and thoughts are stepping stones to sanctity as we enter into conversation about them with Him. "Letting go" in this particular technique does not simply involve a discipline of the will, which is a typical counsel in meditative practice, but a profound distortion of the use of the will to achieve a practiced dissociation from ourselves and a mentalization of prayer that can foster habitual disassociation, fantasies and ego flight.)
2. Effortlessly, take up a word, the symbol of your intention to surrender to God's presence, and let the word be gently present.
(Using any word to "conjure up" the divine opens one to self-hypnosis and the possibility of perseverating on the object of meditation, not on the contemplation of Our Lord or the meditation of the virtues or events of His Life.) An extreme example of the occult power of visualization and mentalization occurred several years ago. At one New Age workshop given by Robert Munroe where participants were trained to go out of their bodies while they slept, eager students were encouraged to first visualize placing all their distractions and cares into a trunk and then lock the trunk. This way they would be freed from earthly bonds. Unfortunately, a very beautiful woman also attending the workshop, (then located in a closed sleeping room nearby), reported that during repeated nightmarish attempts to go "out-of-body", she found herself being locked in a trunk and unable to get out.)
St. Theresa of Avila found herself at a time of increased spiritualism and all kinds of exaggerations of mysticism. Well aware of the tendency to get far off course, she insisted that meditation always be directed to and with Christ.
Lectio Divina, or DIVINE READING, is a tried and true way to union with Christ. As we read holy scripture, the Holy Spirit inspires us to pause and meditate on certain words or passages.
Unfortunately, the web site
here critiqued blends the New Age Centering Prayer with Lectio Divina, further
confusing the issue and lending credence to occult techniques by combining them
with the holy.
A Closer Look at Centering Prayer
The Centering Prayer Movement has become very popular in
Catholic circles today.
People sign up for it in retreat centers, in workshops, and
sometimes in their
own parish. These people believe it to be authentic Christian
contemplative
prayer practiced by the saints. Is it really Christian
contemplation?
In
my research on the New Age which I did for the past ten years, I found that
it
is not Christian contemplation and that this type of prayer is not
recommended by Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger, The
Catechism of the
Catholic Church, or St. Teresa of Avila. There have also been
warnings from
Johnnette Benkovic on EWTN (Mother Angelica's Network).
Johnnette has a program
called "Living His Life Abundantly", and has had a
series on the New Age. She
has also written a book called, The New Age Counterfeit, and
devotes one
chapter to the problems of Centering Prayer (CP). She
identifies it as being
the same as Transcendental Meditation (TM) which is tied to
Hinduism.
What is Centering Prayer?
Centering prayer, as taught by Fr. Basil Pennington and Fr.
Thomas Keating, is a
method of prayer that is supposed to lead a person into
contemplation. It is
supposed to be done for twenty minutes in the morning and twenty
minutes in the
evening. The person chooses a sacred word. He tries to ignore
all thoughts and
feelings, letting them go by as boats going down a stream.
When the thoughts
keep coming back, the person returns to the sacred word. The
goal is to keep
practicing until ALL THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS DISAPPEAR. Fr.
Keating says in Open
Mind, Open Heart, "All thoughts pass if you wait long
enough."1 A person then
reaches a state of pure consciousness or a mental void. The
thinking process is
suspended.
This technique is supposed to put them into direct contact with God.
The idea is to go to the center of your being to find the
True Self. This
process is supposed to dismantle the False Self, which is
supposedly the result
of
the emotional baggage we carry.
Fr. Thomas Keating is a monk, priest, and abbot of St.
Benedict's Monastery in
Snowmass, Col. and is the founder of the Centering Prayer
movement. He has
written four books. Fr. Basil Pennington is a Trappist monk
at St. Joseph's
Abbey in Spencer, Mass. He has written over thirty books,
some of which are on
Centering Prayer. Some of the concepts in their books are
similar to New Age
beliefs and practices.
What are New Age Beliefs?
New Agers borrow many of their beliefs from Hinduism. They
believe that we are
all connected to an impersonal energy force, which is god,
and we are part of
this god. This god-energy flows into each one of us; so we
too are god. (This
is
the heresy of pantheism, condemned by the Church at the First Vatican
Council). They think because we are god, we can create our
own reality,
experience our own god-power. This awareness of our godselves
is called
god-consciousness, super-consciousness, Christ-consciousness,
pure-consciousness, unity consciousness, or self-realization.
To reach this
awareness, New Agers use mantras or yoga to go into altered
levels of
consciousness to discover their own divinity. They look
inside to find their
True Self or Higher Self ‹ to find wisdom and knowledge since
the True Self or
Higher Self is god.
They address god as the Source, the Divine Energy, the Divine
Love Energy, or
the Great Universal Intelligence. The goal of New Agers is to
usher in a new
age of peace, harmony and unity. They hope that all mankind will
come to "god
consciousness," which is the awareness that they are
god. The complete
definition on the New Age by Fr. Mitch Pacwa is as follows:
"The New Age
Movement is highly eclectic, borrowing ideas and practices
from many sources.
Meditation techniques from Hinduism, Zen, Sufism, and Native
American religions
are mixed with humanistic psychology, occultism, and modern
physics."2 There is
a
scripture in Col. 2:4-8, that warns us against this pitfall. It states, "I
tell you this so that no one may delude you with specious
arguments . . . See
to
it that no one deceives you through any empty philosophy that follows mere
human traditions, a philosophy based on cosmic powers rather
than on Christ."
How do New Age Beliefs Compare to Centering Prayer?
In
CP, people are taught to use a prayer word or sacred word to empty the mind.
(Fr. Keating says it is not a mantra; but if it is used to
rid the mind of all
thoughts and feelings, then it does the same thing as a
mantra). The goal is to
reach a mental void or pure consciousness in order to find
God at the center.
Pure consciousness is an altered level of consciousness. This
is exactly what
the Hindus and Buddhists do to reach god-consciousness or
pure consciousness.
This is also similar to what actress Shirley MacLaine does to
go into an
altered level of consciousness and discover her Divine Center
or Higher Self,
which is her divinity.
What are the Similarities Between CP and TM?
Johnnette
Benkovic has interviewed people on her show and in her book who have
done both CP and TM. They claim it is basically the same. The
only difference
would be that in TM the mantras are names of Hindu gods, and
in CP the sacred
word is usually Jesus, God, peace, or love. Fr. Finbarr
Flanagan, who was
involved in both CP and TM says CP is TM in a Christian
dress. He says Fr.
Pennington has endorsed TM ". . .without
hesitation."3 Let's look at the
similarities:
1)
Both CP and TM use a 20-minute meditation.
2)
Both CP and TM use a mantra to erase all thoughts and feelings.
3)
Both CP and TM teach that in this meditation you pick up vibrations.
4)
Both CP and TM claim that this meditation will give you more peace and less
tension.
5)
Both CP and TM teach you how to reach a mental void or altered level of
consciousness.
6)
Both CP and TM have the common goal of finding your god-center.
In
regard to vibrations, Fr. Keating says, "As you go to a deeper level of
reality,
you begin to pick up vibrations that were there all the time but not
perceived."4 Fr. Pennington also speaks of ". . .
physical vibrations that are
helpful"5 (Vibrations are common TM, New Age language.)
Using mantras and
reaching a mental void are also New Age, not Catholic. In
fact, reaching a
mental void is described in the Catechism as an erroneous
notion of prayer
(#2726).
When Does the One Who Prays Cross the Line into
Hindu/Buddhist/New Age Prayer?
In
the beginning stages of CP, the one who prays is still ignoring thoughts as
they float by. If they are still thinking of Jesus or
heavenly things, they are
still in Christian prayer. They cross the line when they get
to the point where
they bypass all thoughts and feelings. In other words, there
are no thoughts at
all. Fr. Thomas Keating says in his book, Open Mind, Open
Heart, "As you go down
deeper, you may reach a place where the sacred word
disappears altogether and
there are no thoughts. This is often experienced as a
suspension of
consciousness, a space."6 When a person is able to do
this, they have crossed
the line into Hindu/Buddhist/New Age prayer. HE IS NO LONGER
PRACTICING
CHRISTIAN PRAYER. Fr. Keating wants his followers to let go
of even devout
thoughts. He says, "The method consists of letting go of
every thought during
the time of prayer, even the most devout thoughts."7 (In
Christian prayer,
devout thoughts are important and desirable.) He also tells
his followers to
let all feelings go. To do this, one would have to let go of
any sentiments of
love toward Jesus, the Heavenly Father, or the Holy Spirit.
What Does Pope John Paul II Say About This Type of Prayer?
In
Cardinal Ratzinger's booklet, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on
Some
Aspects of Christian Meditation, he quotes the Pope. On p. 34, footnote 12,
he
writes "Pope John Paul II has pointed out to the whole Church the example
and
doctrine of St. Teresa of Avila who in her life had to reject
the temptation of
certain methods which proposed a leaving aside of the
humanity of Christ in
favor of a vague self-immersion in the abyss of divinity. In
a homily given on
November 1, 1982, he said that the call of St. Teresa of
Jesus advocating a
prayer completely centered on Christ "is valid even in
our day, against some
methods of prayer which are not inspired by the gospel and
which in practice
tend to set Christ aside in preference for a mental void
which makes no sense
in
Christianity. Any method of prayer is valid insofar as it is inspired by
Christ and leads to Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life" [(cf. John
14:6). See Homilia Abulae habita in honorem Sanctae Teresiae:
AAS 75 (1983)
256-257].
What Does St. Teresa of Avila Say About Contemplation?
Throughout their books, Fr. Keating and Fr. Pennington
mention St. Teresa of
Avila, implying that she is an advocate of their prayer
techniques. However,
after reading her books, I have found that her teachings on
prayer are the
opposite of what Keating and Pennington are teaching. First
of all, she says
that contemplation is a gift from God, and no technique can
make it happen. She
says it is usually given to people who have a deep prayer
life and are
practicing many virtues, although God can give it to anyone
he chooses. She
repeatedly insists that contemplation is divinely produced.
She said that
entering into the prayer of quiet or that of union whenever
she wanted it "was
out of the question"8 She also said in her book,
Interior Mansion, "For it to
be
prayer at all, the mind must take a part in it."9 Cardinal Ratzinger, in
his
booklet, also quotes St. Teresa as saying "the very care
not to think about
anything will arouse the mind to think a great deal",
and that the separation
of
the mystery of Christ from Christian meditation is always a form of
"betrayal"10 St. Teresa advised her nuns to
meditate or think about the Passion
of
Christ as a preparation for contemplation. The Catechism describes
contemplation as "a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus" (#2715).
The focus is Jesus
and the heart is involved.
What are the Warnings on Mind-Emptying Prayer from Cardinal
Ratzinger?
Christians dabbling in Eastern religions in the 70s and 80s
had become such a
problem that the Vatican had to respond. In 1989, Cardinal
Ratzinger of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, put out a
document called "Letter
to
the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian
Meditation."
The document states, "With the present diffusion of
Eastern methods of
meditation in the Christian world and in ecclesial
communities, we find
ourselves faced with a pointed renewal of attempt, which is
not free from
dangers and errors, to fuse Christian meditation with that
which is
non-Christian." He goes on to say, "Still others do
not hesitate to place that
absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to
Buddhist theory on the
same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ."11
He says they abandon
the Triune God, "in favor of an immersion in the indeterminate
abyss of the
divinity." Then he says mixing Christian meditation with
Eastern techniques can
lead to syncretism (the mixing of religions).
Is
the Vatican II Statement Regarding Non-Christian Religions Misunderstood?
Yes.
The documents of Vatican II state "the Catholic Church rejects nothing of
what is true and holy in non-Christian religions."12 The
Council Fathers
however, were not recommending the practice of eastern prayer
techniques. The
Hindu view of God is contrary to Christian belief. They do
not worship a God
who is superior to them. They believe that they become god,
like a raindrop
into an ocean.
What Does Fr. Keating Teach About Reaching "Pure
Consciousness"?
In
his book, Open Mind, Open Heart, Fr. Keating says, "As the Spirit
gradually
takes more and more charge of your prayer, you may move into
pure
consciousness, which is an intuition into your True
Self."13 Then, again,
speaking of pure consciousness, he says "In that state,
there is no
consciousness of self. When your ordinary faculties come back
again, there may
be
a sense of peaceful delight."14
What are Altered Levels of Consciousness and What are the
Dangers?
Let us ask Maharashi Yogi, the guru who introduced TM to
America. Fr. Finbarr
Flanagan writes in his article "TM's founder, the
Maharashi Yogi, claims that
the regular practice of TM leads beyond the ordinary
experience of waking,
sleeping, and dreaming to a fourth state of consciousness
called "simple
awareness." Constant practice leads to cosmic
consciousness, then
god-consciousness, and finally "unity
consciousness."15 The fourth state in
other books is also referred to as pure-consciousness. People
who have reached
these altered levels of consciousness (ALC's) describe them
as a pleasant