Friday, June 21, 2013

Meditation and Centering Prayer


The Breath

The heart of Zen is focusing on the breath during meditation. Whether you use the basic sitting meditation (zazen), walking meditation, or many other forms, practicing meditation involves focusing on each inhale and each exhale.  Count each inhale and each exhale. Count to four and then start over, or count to 100 and then backwards. Sitting meditation might be 15 or 20 minutes. A walking meditation might be an hour.

When the mind wanders or thoughts intrude, mindfulness is when we return our attention to counting each breath. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) scientific research “suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.”
Reference: Hölzel, Britta K. et. al.  "Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density." Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 140.1 (2005): 36-43.

Thomas Keating has helped many Christians discover Christianity's own version of zazen, Centering Prayer. As in Zen, the repetition of a word or phrase can quiet the tumult in our minds and open us to insight and spiritual growth. Basil Pennington, one of the best known proponents of the centering prayer technique, has delineated the guidelines for centering prayer:
  1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, relax, and quiet yourself. Be in love and faith to God.
  2. Choose a sacred word that best supports your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you (i.e. "Jesus", "Lord," "God," "Savior," "Abba," "Divine," "Shalom," "Spirit," "Love," etc.).
  3. Let that word be gently present as your symbol of your sincere intention to be in the Lord's presence and open to His divine action within you. (Thomas Keating advises that the word remain unspoken.)
  4. Whenever you become aware of anything (thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, associations, etc.), simply return to your sacred word, your anchor.
Reference: M. Basil Pennington (1986), "Centering Prayer: Refining the Rules," "Review for Religious," 45:3, 386-393.

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