Centre staged: Dana Smith has words of prayer

‘It is the experience itself, often boring and undramatic, which transforms us.’

Sitting at the dinner table of a Buddhist sangha last year, I was not entirely surprised to be surrounded by folks who had once been Quakers. They spoke of the golden thread that runs through all meditative practice; perhaps it runs through all seeking.

I did not ask them why they were no longer Quakers, or why they had joined this sangha. I saw the answer: they had a teacher here, and a clear practice. They practised together. And apart. They were rigorously committed to their inner work. It was obviously transformative: some of them shone, the same way many Quakers are channels of light.

Driving home, I felt an old longing: why didn’t I have a more committed, clear practice? Why was I such a dilettante in my wordless devotion, my daily centering down. In short, why was I still somewhat practice-less?

And then I remembered: my practice was and is waiting for me to show up. Since listening and responding to an Eva Koch scholar’s work on Centering Prayer, and thanks to some Friends, I have remembered Thomas Keating’s Open Mind, Open Heart and many other texts. These describe this method of ‘Centering Prayer’, a simple daily practice for opening to the presence of God. It’s rather like meditation, and draws on the Christian mystical tradition, but is used by people of all faiths and none. An essay in the Friends Quarterly (February 2023) gives an overview of how this practice can help deepen our Quaker faith, and mentions how it may be used to prepare for Meeting for Worship.  But Centering Prayer is different from Quaker Worship, where we’re listening and hoping for an encounter.

A few months ago, I joined a Centering Prayer workshop in Cornwall. We were introduced to the practice, and we heard of the thread that joins the contemplative tradition of early Christians, through mystics such as Eckhart von Hochheim and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, to the mystical heart of Quakerism.

We were provided a framework and a gracious invitation to something that is always available for all of us. Our twenty-minute practices allowed us to reconnect to the ground of being. Words fail here. It is the experience itself, often boring and undramatic, which transforms us. And when we use the practice, it’s not just for ourselves but for everyone past, present and future – the whole of creation.

The workshop made me wonder if our discussion about numbers, and the possible dying of the Quaker tribe, pointed to a need for some personal spiritual practice like Centering Prayer. Even Christ couldn’t be all outflow, all good works, all justice seeking and table-turning. Every being, including divinely inspired ones, need their desert space, that quiet room where they go to be restored.

Yes we have Meeting for Worship and many other meetings throughout the week, but what about being reconnected to the source? Am I willing to go to my own inner room and be vulnerable enough to receive? Can I have Quaker faith and practice?

During April and May Dana will be hosting a weekly Woodbrooke course on Centering Prayer with Rosemary Field.

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