Fr Thomas Keating was the abbot of St Joseph Abbey when I sojourned there in 1968 at age 26. We had a series of private chats during which he queried me for ideas to enhance the project of developing a protocol for Centering Prayer. That was when Vatican II let in a breath of fresh air. At time slot 19 in the first video below, he mentions in passing that young seekers, familiar with forms of eastern meditation such as Zen or Yoga, were inquiring about acceptable and effective contemplative practices in Catholicism.

 I was one of them as a postulant on my ten-year pilgrimage in search of God. Fr Thomas and I corresponded by letter several times until he became too busy. We met years later at his lecture here in San Diego after Contemplative Outreach had grown into a worldwide network. Walking alone together on a program break, he told me in confidence about his heart problem and the challenges he faced in promoting Centering Prayer. He passed away in 2018 but lives on within those whom he has mentored and in my autobiography.

He starts this video with an interpretation of the Cana miracle, then segues to the four goals of Contemplative Outreach. He parallels deep personal contemplation as the only way to turn our plain words and mundane perspectives into intoxicating wine that may help others to find God, and humanity to survive what’s to come.

He and two other Trappists (Menninger and Pennington) revivified the ancient Catholic methodology for the daily practice of contemplation.

Their four-fold purpose:

1. To craft a monastic methodology for deep contemplation that works if the lay practitioner works it faithfully, and is simple to practice daily.

2. To inform Roman Catholics oblivious to this ancient methodology to reinvigorate their faith.

3. To give Protestants a way to unite with each other and Catholics by ignoring doctrinal stumbling blocks that resolve through enlightenment.

4. To reach people in prisons, or those brought up in different faiths, who would otherwise reject their fellow man, religion, and God.

Fr Thomas Keating Interpreting Jesus’s miracle of converting water into wine at the Cana Wedding as it relates to Contemplative Outreach.

For those Interested in learning more about this worldwide ecumenical contemplative network: https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/.

Anglicans, Jews, Baptists, Buddhists, Masons, and Baha’i meet with Christians and Catholics in synagogues, temples, churches, homes, and penitentiaries to practice this simple method of contemplation together.

For example, in South Dakota, you might find an active group meeting in Hot Springs:  https://www.southdakotacontemplativeoutreach.org/. Members gather once a week for discussion, video instruction, and communal prayer. If no local group exists, then anyone may join taking qualified instruction, and locally starting a contemplative prayer group. Contemplative Outreach has a YouTube channel with many videos.

Be advised that not all Catholics accept Centering Prayer because some attendees may not agree with strict Catholic doctrine, and personal discussions may delve into syncretistic notions from Eastern practices. New Age ideologies may occasionally be expressed regarding mental telepathy, past lives, astrology, automatic writing, and Tarot cards. Discussing such topics in no way reflects on the Trappists or true Catholic doctrine.

However, hardline Catholic conservatives have been known to criticize Fr Keating’s Contemplative Outreach goal of meeting to pray with non-Christians. His ardent hope was that even atheist practitioners who sincerely practice Centering Prayer cannot maintain obstacles to genuine faith in God.

Here is the typical hardline response from a famous radio personality:

“If you’re referring to the “Centering Prayer” technique authored by Trappist Abbot Thomas Keating and Father Basil Pennington, I would urge extreme caution. This method of prayer is a dangerous fusion of non-Christian Eastern (Zen) mysticism and Christian meditation. It is not compatible with Catholic tradition. The Church warns against blending Eastern (Zen) mysticism and Christian spirituality in the document Some Aspects of Christian Meditation:

12. 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 an attempt, which is not free from dangers and errors, “to fuse Christian meditation with that which is non-Christian.” Some use eastern methods solely as a psycho-physical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation; others go further and, using different techniques, try to generate spiritual experiences similar to those described in the writings of certain Catholic mystics.
http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/meditation.htm.

Another disturbing aspect to Centering Prayer is its New Age influence. We read in the document Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life that the “New Age imports Eastern religious practices piecemeal and re-interprets them to suit Westerners; this involves a rejection of the language of sin and salvation… Additionally, “some of the traditions which flow into New Age are: ancient Egyptian occult practices, Kabbalism, early Christian gnosticism, Sufism, the lore of the Druids, Celtic Christianity, medieval alchemy, Renaissance hermeticism, Zen Buddhism, Yoga and so on. (2.1)
http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/teach/newagereflect.htm

In addition to the above-mentioned documents, I recommend the following articles:

“Danger of Centering Prayer” by Father Dreher
http://catholiceducation.org/article…cs/ap0005.html

“Centering Prayer” from the Cross and the Veil:
http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/diss…nterprayer.htm

More good articles:
http://www.dotm.org/centerprayer.htm

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Personally, I have seen no difference between Raja Yoga, Zen, and Catholic Christian contemplation except where religions built their butress of bias. I’ve been practicing a mix of Raja Yoga, Zen, and Centering Prayer for 56 years, steadily progressing in fellowship with Christ.

Most Christians do superficial prayer, and most newcomers to Centering Prayer can do only surface paddling, which is like snorkeling. However, swimming at 10-foot depths is one thing, and diving down 200 feet is another. No one should undertake deeper mystical contemplation who has not first thouroughly studied what risks to expect in trying to dive much deeper. That takes serious training to avoid difficult experiences while gathering rare and precious pearls of wisdom. To share discoveries with others requires safe and slow resurfacing to avoid the deadly bends. .

As the saying goes, ‘No pain, no gain.’ Long practice and daily training are required. The casual meditator who is impatient and inexperienced gets frightened after dabbling for a little while, and then decides it’s much too fruitless or dangerous. Christian talk show hosts unfamiliar with contemplation often air derogatory opinions, propagated by hearsay. The venturesome must realize that any form of deep contemplation may present hazards and require a slow meticulous effort.

Each level has a reward commensurate with risk. At 2000 feet is where sunken galleon treasures lie hidden, but to reach that depth is extremely dangerous. To discover “secrets hidden since the foundation of the Earth” requires exploring hazardous depths of the subconscious that few ever dare attempt. Expert teachers are a rarity for that reason in any generation.  St Theresa de Avila’s Interior Castle described what one can expect at different levels of mystical union. Jesuit novices must practice hard sensory deprivations that can be physically and mentally dangerous.

Don’t succumb to so-called experts pushing negative hearsay with scarce experience in deep contemplation. Contemplative Outreach methodology is universally effective when religiously applied. Any criticism only reflects on the inadequacies of the critic. Yet, cautious concern is justified. Fr. Thomas Keating’s YouTube channel carefully explains the methodology.

Our Greatest Treasure
I have been crucified with Christ; yet, I live—no longer I—but Christ lives in me.– Galatians 2:19.

The awakening of the eye of faith, which is the awakening of the
contemplative process is to begin to see the Divine Presence in everything. You see everything as it is, but you also see it in its source… and then you are meeting. God in the physical presence of other people and things. This is the presence that predominates in deep prayer or contemplative prayer and when it’s pretty well established, the fruits are available in everyday life in the awareness of the presence of God. To see

God’s real presence is an enormous elevation of the capacity to see, because it’s seeing the Source and the Love and the Person of the Trinitarian relationships that are present in the smallest particle that we know of and beyond…A new level of Christian life opens up … a unity in which God takes over the faculties more and more…suggesting what the right response to every situation is from the perspective of divine love. In the no-self situation, there’s only the doing what has to be done without self-reflection. This is non-duality.

This is heaven on earth, that’s for sure. But it’s extremely down-to-earth… It’s just leading ordinary life from this extraordinary perspective of allowing God to manifest in us rather than ego….God goes slow so not to overwhelm… So weakness then becomes our greatest treasure, because transformation comes about only from God and through his gratuitous generosity, not through anything we can do.

~Fr Thomas Keating, God Is Love: The Heart of All Creation, pgs 93-94.