The Contemplative Journey Vol 1

Keating, Thomas

ISBN 10: 1591793351 ISBN 13: 9781591793359

Publisher: Sounds True, 2005

Synopsis

In the darkest hour of the darkest age, Christian monks developed a meditation tradition unique in the Western world. A 14th-century author described their profound mystical experience as entering the cloud of unknowing. Yet during the 500 years after this great monastic flowering, this precious tradition and the direct path to union with God it described was virtually lost.

For decades Father Thomas Keating, together with other monks, examined this great question: Could anyone enter the cloud of unknowing through a prayer practice specifically created to attain it? Keating reached back in time for clues about the prayer forms of the Christian mystics. He synthesized his work into a Centering Prayer method that has helped thousands of seekers travel the contemplative path to divine union.

From infancy, Father Keating teaches, we accumulate emotional layers, or programs, as a result of traumatic experiences. The practice of Centering Prayer engages directly with the unconscious and loosens old traumas that hinder your spiritual development. This form of divine therapy draws from a contemplative method that has brought profound inner transformation into the lives of thousands of practitioners.

The Contemplative Journey is Father Thomas Keating's great masterwork: a complete curriculum devoted to a Christian path for achieving the still point of resting in God.

Learn More About:

The complete history, theory, and daily practice of Centering Prayer
· What the medieval saints knew about resting in God
· The sacred word that revitalizes your prayers
· How to heal the irrational drives that can sabotage your spiritual growth

About this title

Book Description

His teachings on Centering Prayer -- a path to God rooted in the "Lost Christianity" of medieval times -- has endeared Father Thomas Keating to many thousands of contemporary Christians. On The Contemplative Journey, Father Thomas teaches a brilliant synthesis of modern psychology and ancient spirituality, guiding listeners to the holy "still point" described in legendary Christians texts more than 600 years ago.

With The Contemplative Journey, Father Thomas -- author of the classics Open Mind, Open Heart; The Mystery of Christ; and Intimacy with God -- has created a long-awaited guide to the authentic tradition of Christian contemplation. In Centering Prayer, he explains, the listener engages beyond thinking, beyond emotions, connecting with God's infinitive love. Inherently and uniquely Christians, this "divine therapy" draws on a receptive meditation technique similar to those that have attracted many contemporary seekers to the Eastern mystical practices.

The Contemplative Journey is the fruit of Father Thomas' life as a devoted monastic, theologian, psychologist, and philosopher: a sweeping masterwork that points the way to the Christian ideal of unity with the divine.

"Profoundly human insights and classical spiritual, gems". -- Catholic Library World

About the Author

Father Thomas Keating
Father Thomas Keating draws from over 60 years of study and prayer as a Trappist monk in sharing the wisdom of 20 centuries of the contemplative Christian tradition. One of the principal architects of the contemplative Christian prayer movement, Father Keating co-founded the Snowmass Interreligious Conference and Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., and is author of many books, including Open Mind, Open Heart.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sounds True
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1591793351
• ISBN 13: 9781591793359
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English