Celtic Christianity Today #3 Rev. Dr. George Cairns: Centering Prayer and Father Thomas Keating

Celtic Christianity Today #3 Rev. Dr. George Cairns discusses Centering Prayer, Contemplative Prayer, Silent Prayer and Father Thomas Keating

(Photos by Greg Peterson)

(Munising, Michigan) – Rev. Dr. George Cairns of Chesterton, Indiana discusses show more...

Centering Prayer and the environmental crisis facing the human race – in this series of videos recorded on November 9, 2007 in Munising Michigan.

Centering Prayer, Contemplative Prayer and Silent Prayer are basically the same thing with very subtle differences, Cairns explained.

A licensed centering prayer instructor, Rev. Cairns learned his techniques from the world's foremost expert on centering prayer, Dr. Thomas Keating.

A professor with the Chicago Theological Seminary, Rev. Cairns encourages everyone to experience the benefits of Centering Prayer, and for those who are afraid they won't do it right, he says “it's impossible not to do this (Centering Prayer) right.”

“There is no such thing as a bad period of Centering Prayer” said Cairns adding one of the difficulties of achieving Centering Prayer is allowing oneself to be distracted by other thoughts.

Centering Prayer is “very gentle,very quiet, very simple and very difficult,” Cairns said.

The Scotland-based Iona community is a good example of a group of people "who are unified by a covenant, worship together and who engage in very effective political action to change structural evil."

Rev. Cairns said "centering prayer" and "participative consciousness" are techniques of deep meditation he learned from Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and teacher. (Trappist refers to a branch of the Cistercian order of monks known for an austere rule including a vow of silence.)

"Silent meditation is a powerful tool to open ourselves to one another and to all creation which is what this participative consciousness is all about," said Cairns, TIP co-founder and board president.

Cairns said the intense form of meditation helps eliminate the "internal dialogue" or "chatter that's going on all the time" in people's minds.

"I found out how much of my life was consumed by internal dialogue," said Cairns, research professor of theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary.

Centering prayer allows "us to open our hearts to a deeper relationship with God and an increased openness to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives," said Rev. Cairns, admitting it's an easier technique to teach than for people to learn and practice.

"The technique to doing it - is simply to rest with God. It's not easy to do, it's easy to teach, but very difficult to do," Cairns said.

In fighting the world's evil, Cairns said "we can't get their with just our hearts - we need our heads and something more."

email Rev. Dr. George Cairns, Founder of Celtic Christianity Today

Related websites and information:

Celtic Christianity Today website

Spirit Cafe Blog with Rev. George Cairns (United Church of Christ website)

Iona Community, Scotland

Iona Community New World Foundation: Iona Community associates, friends in U.S.

Union Community Church, Valparaiso, IN

Web page of Rev. Gregory Jones, Theology Department at Valparaiso University

Celtic Christianity Today (Below):

Turtle Island Project Logo (Above)

Turtle Island TV on bliptv

Turtle Island TV on youtube

email Turtle Island Project to get messages to Dr. Cairns

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Centering prayer/contemplative prayer & Father Thomas Keating:

Photos of Father Thomas Keating in Texas by Marion E. Melchiorre aka marimelch on flickr

Photo by Marion E. Melchiorre

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marionmelchiorre/1540058606

Marion E. Melchiorre is an artist, living in Los Angeles, who gave Celtic Christianity Today permission to use her photos.

Contemplative Prayer or Centering Prayer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemplative_prayer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centering_prayer

http://www.contemplativeprayer.net

http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_practices_centering

Father Thomas Keating:

http://www.tower.com/foundations-for-centering-prayer-christian-contemplative-life-thomas-keating-hardcover/wapi/101392659

http://www.pendlehill.org/bookstore/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=75&osCsid=682097dc7eaa43f4887360dafaab4e4e

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United Nations definition of genocide:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Sixth_Great_Extinction

http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm

http://www.hawaii-nation.org/genocide.html

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/GENOCIDE.ENCY.HTM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Prevention_and_Punishment_of_the_Crime_of_Genocide

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Genocide#Definitions_of_genocide

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Genocide#Genocide_as_a_crime_under_international_law

http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/treaties/genocide.asp

Native American Genocide – then and now:

http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/aiholocaust.html

http://www.nemasys.com/ghostwolf/Native/genocide.shtml

http://www.exiledmothers.com/babies_taken_for_adoption/native_american_babies.htm

http://www.lcsc.edu/elmartin/historybehindthenews/Spring%202005/Delema.htm

http://www.iwchildren.org/silentgenocide.htm

Language-cide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/01/a-native-american-language-goe.html

Ecocide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0722-30.htm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1574160052/bookrags

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/192-1064041-6761846?asin=0615138020&afid=yahoosspplp_bmvd&CPNG=bookmarked&lnm=0615138020ECOCIDE_FILES_:_Books&ref=tgt_adv_XSNG1060

http://www.peace4turtleisland.org/pages/ecocide.htm

American Museum of Natural History survey on Ecocide:

National Survey Reveals Biodiversity Crisis – Scientific Experts Believe we are in the Midst of Fasted Mass Extinction in Earth's History: Crisis Poses Major Threat to Human Survival; Public Unaware of Danger

http://www.well.com/~davidu/amnh.html

http://www.well.com/~davidu/extinction.html

http://www.well.com

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/02/is-mass-species.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1999-04/AMoN-CCAB-200499.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Museum_of_Natural_History

ABC News Special “Earth 2100”

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Earth2100

The Sixth Great Extinction:

http://rewilding.org/thesixthgreatextinction.htm

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/issues/biodiversity/sixth.asp