The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

by Thomas Keating

Overview

"The spiritual journey," writes Thomas Keating, "is not a career or a success story. It is a series of humiliations of the false self that becomes more and more profound. These make room inside us for the Holy Spirit to come in and heal. What prevents us from being available to God is gradually evacuated. We keep getting closer and closer to our center. Every now and then God lifts a corner of the veil and enters into our awareness through various channels, as if to say, 'Here I am. Where are you? Come and join me.' "

Father Keating writes with the simplicity and depth that emerges from more than fifty years of practicing to become a ‘friend of God'—in this case as a Cistercian monk, abbot, and spiritual advisor... Those of us who learn from him are grateful for—and blessed by—his gifts.
—Elaine Pagels

"In an era when the commodification of spirituality in America seems inescapable, his presence and message [are] genuinely inspiring."
—Ronald F. Thiemann

"The spiritual journey, says Thomas Keating, is a journey of self-discovery, since the encounter with God is also an encounter with one's deepest self. As we come closer to God, we encounter the wellsprings of our own makeup, the hidden chambers of our personality and behavior. God calls us to live in a real world as mature people. And so, growing in God's grace is a gradual process of stepping into the light, of owning up to ourselves and becoming fully human."

"To insulate themselves against the pain of living, many people—including many Christians —develop "homemade" selves where they feel protected. But this behavior is radically challenged by Christ, who calls people to repent and reclaim their true selves, bestowed on them by their creator."

"The practice of contemplative prayer assists in this process. But contemplative prayer can also be a dangerous place where primitive emotions are let loose. For this reason, those who desire a profound relationship with God would do well to seek the guidance of a loving companion who can journey with them and bring them to a place of healing and mature life."
—Harold W. Wit, Harvard University, 1998
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809138821
Publisher:	Paulist Press
Publication date:	09/01/1999
Series:	Wit Lectures Series
Pages:	56
Sales rank:	380,831
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.20(d)

Foreword

Father Thomas Keating writes with the simplicity and depth that emerge from more than fifty years of practicing to become a "friend of God" --in his case a Cistercian monk, abbot, and spiritual advisor. What many of us especially appreciate about Thomas Keating is the work he has done--and continues to do--to make accessible the practice of Centering Prayer. In this practice, Father Keating has melded elements of Christian mystical tradition into a practice elementary enough for any of us to learn, but which, over time, may help effect a process of spiritual transformation. Without discriminating in the ways that most Christians do between those we call Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, agnostic, Jew, Buddhist, or by other designations, Father Keating attempts to reintroduce into the lives of those he teaches insights and practices that Christian tradition sometimes has suppressed and often has left in obscurity. These two talks begin with a question of self-knowledge and end by recalling the unconditional love of God. In my own life, I cannot imagine having endured certain difficult times without his generous presence and without the practice he teaches. Thomas Keating is both a "discerner of spirits," gifted with a charism known from the early days of the Christian movement, and a "psychiatrist" in the original sense of the term--"physician of the soul." Those of us who learn from him are grateful for--and blessed by--his gifts. Elaine Pagels Princeton University Introduction In 1997, Father Thomas Keating became the fifth person to deliver the Harold M. Wit Lecture on Living a Spiritual Life in the Contemporary Age at Harvard Divinity School. Born in New York City in 1923, Father Keating entered the Cistercian Order in 1944 in Valley Falls, Rhode Island. Fourteen years later he was appointed superior of St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, and in 1961 he was elected abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, a large Cistercian monastery in Spenser, Massachusetts. After two decades in Spenser, he returned in 1981 to Snowmass, where he established a program of intensive ten-day retreats in the practice that he calls Centering Prayer, a contemporary form of Christian contemplative tradition. Father Keating is one of the architects of the Centering Prayer movement and of Contemplative Outreach, a support system for those on the contemplative path. He is also a former chairman of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which sponsors exchanges between monks and nuns of the world's religions; a member of the International Committee for Peace Council, which fosters dialogue and cooperation among the world's religions; and a member of the Snowmass Interreligious Conference, a group of teachers from the world's religions who meet yearly to share their experience of the spiritual journey in their respective traditions. He is the author of several best-selling books on the contemplative tradition, including Open Mind Open Heart, The Mystery of Christ, Invitation to Love, and Intimacy with God. When he visited Harvard Divinity School, Father Keating delivered two lectures and led a service of Centering Prayer in the chapel of Andover Hall. In an era when the commodification of spirituality in America seems inescapable, his presence and message were genuinely inspiring and encouraging. Thus he fulfilled the desire of Harold M. Wit, who established the lecture series in 1988, to bring to Harvard "unusual individuals who radiate in their thought, word, and being those spiritual qualities and values that have been so inspiring and encouraging to me along my path." The publication of these lectures gives me the chance once again to acknowledge with gratitude Harold Wit, a generous benefactor of Harvard Divinity School, and to thank Thomas Keating for bringing together in these lectures the Christain contemplative tradition with insights from contemporary psychology. May his lectures serve as a guide to "true peace, sane counsel, and spiritual comfort in God," in the words of The Cloud of the Unknowing, the fourteenth-century English spiritual classic on which Centering Prayer is largely based. Ronald F Thiemann Harvard Divinity School Cambridge, Massachusetts