"A certain brother went to Abba Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."

Wisdom of the Desert, by Thomas Merton

What is contemplative prayer? It is easier to say what it is not. According to Cistercian monk, Thomas Keating, it is not a technique, a relaxation exercise, self-hypnosis, charismatic or psychic gifts or a paranormal phenomenon. Nor is it the felt experience of God. All these things may be present, but they are not in themselves contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer is a relationship with God. One of the most common metaphors for contemplative prayer is of the lover or friend. God desires our simple presence more than any action or servic e we might give. The Lutherans call this being saved by Grace. One of my teachers, Sr. Ellen Stephen of the Episcopal Order of St. Helena (Benedictine), says that prayer is a gift to God. "Honey, I brought you a present. It is my behind in this chair." Relationship with the divine lover and cultivating the capacity to love others persons was, and is, the reason for undertaking the discipline of prayer. Increasing the capacity to love and healing the inability to love is not assumed to happen quickly, or without cooperation on our part. Prayer is a discipline, undertaken as one would undertake to learn to play the piano. Practice is the key.

Christian contemplative prayer dates back at least to the 4th through 6th centuries when the early Desert Fathers and Mothers were active in Egypt , Palestine , and Syria . If a single scripture text can be said to sum the philosophy of these early teachers is was Jesus' teaching that the sum of the Law was to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and your neighbor as your self." At the time of the Reformation contemplative prayer declined or disappeared among Protestants, and went into long decline in the Catholic countries. Under the influence of rationalism, the mystic direct experience of God became suspect. By the 19th century the contemplative prayer tradition had almost disappeared except among the cloistered Catholic religious orders, and it was marginalized even there. Christian contemplative practice began to revive among the Benedictines and other monastic orders. During the mid-20th century interest in contemplative practices increased, with the most popular writer on the subject being the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. Nonetheless meditation was more generally associated with eastern traditions such as Zen and yoga, and many who wished to explore the contemplative life turned to Eastern teachers who were beginning to establish themselves in the West.

Jesus taught no specific method, but did regularly withdraw to be alone with God. The fruits of prayer described by Paul the Apostle are love, joy peace, patience, generosity, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and purity. (Galatians 5:22-23). According to Thomas Keating, the fruits of centering prayer are freedom from self-centered motivation, action in service to others, a sense of interconnectedness with all creation, dis-identification with our self-image, healing of fear, conviction of our basic goodness, and capacity for union with God .

Practice of Zazen

Outwardly, the practice of Zazen (sitting meditation) and Christian contemplative practice have much in common. Thomas Merton found during his trip to Asia that, while those concerned with theology of Zen and Christianity could find little common ground, the actual practice of the monks was remarkably compatible. This has been my experience as well. The differences between Christian and Zen thought and practice emerge most clearly in the absence or unimportance of a deity in most (but not all) Buddhist thought.

Central to Zen practice is the practice of Zazen, or sitting meditation. Some teachers of Zen recommend the detached observation of the thoughts during Zazen. Others suggest counting the breath to 10, starting over when the attention wanders or when 10 is reached. Buddhist sects other than Zen teach meditation techniques that include chanting and visualization. (notes by Teresa Tillson )

 Montaña de Oro State Park, San Luis Obispo County, California, 2009