Centering Prayer – October 2010

I found this on the Internet and thought many would benefit by this Centering Prayer Practice.

“In Centering Prayer we sink down into the quiet depths, where there is only a simple, peaceful flow from our Source into the Ocean of Infinite Love. What serenity, what tranquillity, what peace; what vitality, what power, what refreshment! But, on the surface, a lot of activity is still going on. Thoughts are still careening along, feelings are being evoked, sounds are hitting our eardrums. And every once in a while, a flashy vessel or a particularly interesting one arrests our attention and we find ourselves surfacing-or perhaps we have fully surfaced and all but climbed aboard the enticing boat before we are aware of having left the peaceful depths.

It is at this point that we use our prayer word. We do not so much turn from the thought or feeling. We do not think (another thought) of letting it go. We simply – with the gentlest repetition of our prayer word, maybe only the faintest recollection of it – return to the Presence. The author of The Cloud says, “It is best when this word is wholly interior, without a definite thought or actual sound.” We simply, peacefully sink again into the depths. It is as gentle and effortless as that: a sinking down into the depths. If we but let ourselves go, we have a natural propensity to rest quietly in our Source. And so, throughout our prayer time, the thoughts, the feelings, the sounds, the images continue. We just let them flow along. Our attention is elsewhere. (p.75-76)

The Guidelines for Centering Prayer:

1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.

2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

3. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

Centering Prayer is normally practiced for 20 minutes twice a day, usually after rising in the morning and again before the evening meal at the end of the day.

Explanation of the Guidelines for Centering Prayer
from Thomas Keating’s Open Mind, Open Heart, p.139-141.

1. “Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within”.

a. the sacred word expresses our intention to be in God’s presence and to yield to the divine action.
b. the sacred word should be chosen during a brief period of prayer asking the Holy Spirit to inspire us with one that is especially suitable for us.
- examples: Lord, Jesus, Abba, Father, Mother.
- other possibilities: Love, Peace, Shalom, Silence.
c. Having chosen a sacred word, we do not change it during the prayer period, for that would be to start thinking again.
d. A simple inward gaze upon God may be more suitable for some persons than the sacred word. In this case, one consents to God’s presence and action by turning inwardly toward God as if gazing upon him. The same guidelines apply to the sacred gaze as to the sacred word.

2. “Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.”

a. By “sitting comfortably” is meant relatively comfortably; not so comfortably that we encourage sleep, but sitting comfortably enough to avoid thinking about the discomfort of our bodies during this time of prayer.
b. Whatever sitting position we choose, we keep the back straight.
c. If we fall asleep, we continue the prayer for a few minutes upon awakening if we can spare the time.
d. Praying in this way after a main meal encourages drowsiness. Better to wait an hour at least before centering prayer. Praying in this way just before retiring may disturb one’s sleep pattern.
e. We close our eyes to let go of what is going on around and within us.
f. We introduce the sacred word inwardly and as gently as laying a feather on a piece of absorbent cotton.

3. “When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.”

a. “Thoughts” is an umbrella term for every perception including sense perceptions, feelings, images, memories, reflections, and commentaries.
b. Thoughts are a normal part of centering prayer.
c. By “returning ever-so-gently to the sacred word”, a minimum of effort is indicated. This is the only activity we initiate during the time of centering prayer.
d. During the course of our prayer, the sacred word may become vague or even disappear.

4. “At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.”

a. If this prayer is done in a group, the leader may slowly recite the Our Father during the additional two or three minutes while the others listen.
b. The additional two or three minutes give the psyche time to readjust to the external senses and enable us to bring the atmosphere of silence into daily life.

Some Practical Points

1. The minimum time for this prayer is 20 minutes. Two periods are recommended each day, one first thing in the morning, and one in the afternoon or early evening.

2. The end of the prayer period can be indicated by a timer, provided it does not have an audible tick or loud sound when it goes off.

3. The principal effects of centering prayer are experienced in daily life, not in the period of centering prayer itself.

4. Physical symptoms:

a. We may notice slight pains, itches, or twitches of the body, or a generalised restlessness. These are usually due to the untying of emotional knots in the body.
b. We may also notice heaviness or lightness in the extremities. This is usually due to a deep level of spiritual attentiveness.
c. In either case, we pay no attention, or we allow the mind to rest briefly in the sensation and then return to the sacred word.

5. Lectio divina provides the conceptual background for the development of centering prayer.

6. A support group praying and sharing together once a week helps maintain one’s commitment to the prayer.

7th Annual World Wisdom Traditions

“Unity puts into practice a true ecumenical approach… Unity sees itself as a vehicle for instruction, inspiration and prayer support for spiritual seekers regardless of their religious affiliations… as an ever-expanding expression of love, light, and peace. Therefore, it freely shares its teachings and believes in the oneness and freedom of all people.”
~ The Association of Unity Churches

For the last seven years, our August World Wisdom series has brought great spiritual teachers form many faiths to Unity of Berkeley. We invite you to experience the deep river of Spirit and Oneness that flows through all the speakers that will join us in August.

August 1 ~ Hinduism
Dr. Sunil Sanon heads Divine Light Trust in order to realize his dream of serving the poor, ailing, and the underserved. An innovative thinker, he has spoken on topics related to Mind Body Medicine, paradigm shifts, and ethics. He is a devout disciple of Pandit Sriram Sharma Acharya, founder of Gayatri Pariwar.

Music: Sound Voice Healers and Members of Gayatri Pariwar.

August 8 ~ Judaism

Avram Davis, Ph.D. is the founder and Rabbi Emeritus of Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley. An international known writer and speaker sought after for his humor and joy, he is currently living in simplicity as the Farmer Rabbi. We welcome his wit and wisdom at Unity.

Music: Tad Toomay and the Unity House Band

August 15 ~ Taoism

Master Alex Feng directs the Taoist Center in Oakland and has a deep lineage in the Taoist tradition and ancient Chinese medicine. We welcome Master Feng for the third year. His presence has delighted many with great humor and insight.

August 22 ~ Indigenous Wisdom
Maria Owl Gutierrez has been serving her community as a spiritual healer and teacher for over fifteen years, pulling deep wisdom from her own indigenous identity, as well as spiritual traditions she was initiated into. Through her intentional research, dreamwork and personal experience she has come to realize her work as a multi-ethnic bridge-builder between cultures and traditions. Maria received her BA from New College of California, in Ecology & Sustainable Community. She received her MA from the California Institute of Integral Studies in Integral Counseling Psychology. Maria also holds certifications in master level Intuition Medicine and Clinical Hypnotherapy. She has been a guest speaker at New College.

August 29 ~ Sufism
John “Wadude” Laird, M.D. is Dean of the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism in Pope Valley, California. He received his medical degree from Dartmouth and in addition to his deep loving presence, he is a master healer and teacher. Wadude will lead a Sufi Zikr as his contribution to our World Wisdom series.
Music: Charles Moselle

Our Prayers for the people of Haiti

With situations like the one in Haiti, our hearts open in compassion and we are called to help in some way. As we continue to learn of the many ways we can be of assistance, one thing we can do immediately and jointly is pray. We invite you to join us in prayer for all those affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

As you pray, know that God is present in the midst of every situation. Envision each and every person in Haiti embraced by this Divine Presence of love, comforted, strengthened and guided in next steps. Hold an image of Divine Love in action as people offer assistance and relief by providing food, water, shelter, clothing and medical aid to those in need.

There is energy in prayer that touches the minds and hearts of all involved. United we make a difference.

Here is the link to one international aid organization that is offering immediate assistance. If you are able to do so, making a donation to Oxfam is one way to offer practical as well as spiritual help to the people of Haiti.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/haiti-earthquake.html#

Path Three – The Path of Passion Sunday October, 25, 2009

Passion-Ashes – Bread Crumbs from the Soul
Path Three – The Path of Passion
Sunday, October 25, 2009

I have been reflecting on my Sunday message and really going deeper inside to discover what my passion is. I missed the mark on my “bread crumbs” analogy – calling them passion crumbs instead of what I see now as passion ashes. They are the ashes left behind from the “fire in the belly” that point us and show us the path of our passion. These ashes give us evidence of the “little fires,” the sparks that Vivekananda reminded us are our “karma.” (I will re-type that passage that I shared on Sunday at the end of this writing.)

I was reflecting this morning in my mediation on my own passion ashes, in particular the evidence of a long-held desire/idea/intention of mine to write a book on the Unity teachings of the 12 powers. When I started to look back at the numerous little piles of ashes in my life I could see a steady trail that started in 1992 in Sacramento at Unity Christ Church Continuing Education Program. I was a new Unity Student and taking my first week of classes that would eventually lead to my Licensed Unity Teacher credential. (When I think back I believe that the seeds of desire to become a Unity minster were planted in that week’s experience. But that is another story.) I found a set of colorful cards describing something called Unity’s 12 Powers. I was intrigued ,fascinated and a little bit overwhelmed I didn’t know how I would ever remember 12 somethings, three to five seemed like my limit! I had never heard of this teaching and it seemed to resonate within me very deeply.

Over the next few years I began to gather all the books on the 12 powers that I could find. It was not a program or theme that seemed to interest my minster, but as I was planning to become a Licensed Teacher I was free to do my own study and focus. In December 1995, I decided to select one power to focus on each year. I would close my eyes and select one card from my stack of 12 and really be intentional in my awareness of that particular power for the following year. I remember that first year because I so wanted to pick the power of LOVE, but I got STRENGTH, which seemed rather pedestrian and not very WOW. How wrong I was! That year was one of great challenge for me and my family, and my inner Strength was just what I needed to cultivate and rely on. .

In the mid 1990s I began to create spiritual growth programs based on books. In 1998 created a six week book study for a small group study program in Santa Rosa that was based on the 12 powers. Next I created a 13 week sabbatical for my Unity in Marin minister called Claim Your Power. From the early days of New Thought Unity, later to become Unity of Berkeley, I created the tradition of having people pick a 12 Power Card at the Christmas Eve Service. One year we studied a power each month to bring more focus to the ideas. One year I tried to offer a once a month Saturday class on the 12 powers, but the energy was not strong and so that class did not continue as I had hoped. The timing was not right, not in Divine Order I guess.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day in 2007, I took a week to pray and study and once again caught the fire of writing my own book on the 12 powers. I set up a web site, www.claimyoursoulpower.com. I had wanted to call it Claim Your Power but that name was already taken. I started writing and working on the site, and then my fire went out and another pile of ashes were left on the trail.

This Sunday, when May Rose was sharing about her idea to raise funds for the church by doing a matching $1,000 challenge, I realized how much the 12 powers really mean to ME. She has been telling me that the program is not HER program. She had another idea of how to raise the funds, but due to travel and illness was not able to execute her idea. In being with all of this conversation I realized how I have put my own passion for this project on the back burner. It has been on simmer for a very long time.

Today I have been fanning the fire in my belly and looking at what transformation is happening in this fire, and what is my karma, my authentic action to take? My desire has always been to get this 12 power message out in a contemporary, compelling, current book that will offer insight and tools for personal spiritual growth. And so I am taking this action, I am writing to share with all of you.

Sometimes we share our thoughts and then find the after-thoughts are more powerful. Such has been the case with me today and yesterday and all last week. I have been living these topics, as we are Walking in the Light together for these seven weeks. I dearly hope that you are finding your passion, your deeper purpose and your spiritual power as you journey with me this fall at Unity.

I owe you a write up on our Path Two of Creativity and Abundance. I think I will let Spirit flow these transmissions in the right and perfect order for my soul growth and hopefully for each of you. I welcome your ideas, your comments and your prayers. This journey is more fun when we take it together.

The children did a belly button meditation yesterday to focus on the third chakra and the solar plexus. I hope you will have a belly laugh and find your spiritual power center as you look at the divine fires you have created and those that are waiting for your good karma, your authentic. God bless.
In Love and Oneness
Rev. Patricia

Here is the reading from Sunday morning
By Vivekananda from Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, published 1955 page 5-8

“Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge exists in the mind. Suggestion is the friction which brings it out. So with all our feelings and actions. Our tears and our smiles, our joys and our griefs, our weeping and our laughter, our curses and our blessings, our praises, and our blaming – every one of these we shall find, if we calmly study our own selves, to have been brought out from within ourselves by so many blows. The result is what we are. All these blows taken together are called karma- work, action. Every mental and physical blow that is given to the soul, by which, as it were, fire is struck from it, and by which its own power and knowledge are discovered is karma, using the word in its widest sense. Thus we are all doing karma all the time. I am talking to you: that is karma. You are listening: that is karma. We breathe: that is karma. We walk: that is karma. Everything we do, physical or mental, is karma, and it leaves its marks on us……You must remember that the aim of all work, is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. The power is inside every person; and so is knowledge. Different works are like blows to bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up.”

The Path of Gratitude: The Everyday Mystic – Sunday, October 11, 2009

Reflections from Rev. Patricia
Fall Program at Unity of Berkeley Walking In the Light: 7 Paths to God
Week One – The Path of Gratitude: The Everyday Mystic – Sunday, October 11, 2009

Our community is a very eclectic and spiritually diverse group of individuals. We are Unity of Berkeley, a community that is centered in the positive, practical spiritual teachings of Unity. Yet part of the unique character of Unity of Berkeley is its spiritual diversity. We are not in Kansas any more! We have some people who bring a rich background in a particular religious tradition, while others have abandoned their early childhood religions and taken up various forms of meditation, spiritual practice, reading and study. From these varied spiritual roots we come together to experience the mystery and power of the Divine Presence each Sunday morning and throughout the week in our many classes and workshops. We are connected, not by a particular religion, but by our spiritual curiosity, our sense of wonder and delight, our creativity, and by our willingness to walk our talk, to pray and to love.

Each fall we focus seven Sundays on a particular theme, based on a book that offers new insight and opportunities for spiritual growth. This year, our Fall Program, Walking In the Light: 7 Paths to God invites us to move beyond our August series on the World Wisdom Traditions to an interior examination of our own personal experience of the mystery of spirit in our lives. The framework of our exploration is Joan Borysenko’s book, 7 Paths to God, The Ways of the Mystic. In looking at the 7 paths we will bring in other traditions and open a window into Unity’s 5 teachings as we progress each week. My hope is that you will find and explore your own pathways, open your heart and mind to the many ways that others meet in the mystery of Spirit, and grow and deepen your connection to the God of your Being. By sending out weekly emails, I want to invite all of us to go deeper. Listen to the meditation and message on our website at http://unityberkeley.org/sundays-at-unity/sunday-audio/ Whether you can be with us on Sunday morning or not, you are part of the beautiful and rich reflection of God that is Unity of Berkeley.

The Path One Mystic is what Joan calls the Everyday Mystic. This is the person is deeply and reverently connected to the Earth. This person demonstrates a profound care and concern for the global environment and particularly for all the plants and animals that share our earth with us. In this path, we can identify the grounding of the Native People’s and their alignment and attunement to the Mother. In calling forth from the seven directions, it is the below, the ground of being under our feet which anchors us to this mystical path. This native medicine chant calls forth this deep connection:

Mother I feel you under my feet
Mother I hear your heart beat….

Earth my body
Water my blood
Air my breath and
Fire my spirit.

The Path One Mystic is dedicated to hearth and home, to kinship with to all beings. In that reverence is a fierce sense of pride and commitment to do whatever it takes in small acts and in great ways to preserve and protect our land, our water, our air and all living creatures for generations to come.

The Path of Gratitude is the Red Road. It is a reminder to be fully present to all that is before us, moment to moment. We have created small Gratitude booklets for you to write your Gratitude Lists daily during out seven weeks. Pick one up on Sunday morning. Also pick up a colorful poster to place in your home where you can focus on our weekly path with affirmation cards.

Question to explore on The Path of Gratitude
Chapter 2 – Earth and Home: The Everyday Mystic

1. How does my connection to Earth show up in my life? How do I honor my “home”?
2. How do I use solitude in nature to enhance my intuition and creativity? Take a silent walk. Notice any changes in your insights and feelings.
3. How do I use harmony and beauty to acknowledge Divine Order in my home, workplace, church community, etc.?
4. What am I grateful for today? Adopt the practice of Brother David Steindal-Rast; write down each night one thing that you are grateful for that you have never thought about being grateful for before.

The Path of Gratitude

I respect the Earth and all creation as I delight in
God’s beauty all around me. Gratefully I celebrate
life and I am fully human, fully present.
“Oh, Lord, I see your face in every leaf, and my heart sings.”

As I journey on the Path of Gratitude,
I, ____________________, Am Walking in the Light

Leslie and Darrell Hunger

We have been attending Unity of Berkeley since early 2008.  We have long been interested in and inspired by non-dualistic, mystical, and metaphysical teachings.  In Unity we have found a loving community of like-minded people, which has helped us explore and deepen our spiritual practice. Darrell loves the collective creative energy that infuses everything at Unity. Leslie loves the long meditation period and the awesome music.

We are a joyful spiritual community dedicated to living Divine love, grace, and abundance right here and right now!

If you’ve been longing to connect with a positive and inclusive community of creative, spiritually-minded people, Unity of Berkeley is where you belong. Our members include people from many different religious backgrounds and we celebrate our Oneness while honoring the uniqueness in each person.

Join us for joyful Sunday Celebrations with Reverend Dr. Patricia Keel, or attend one of our inspiring classes or special events. We look forward to celebrating Spirit with you!