Centering Prayer of the Heart: Christian Contemplation and Nonduality

Centering Prayer is a silent Christian meditation practise of ‘self-emptying’. In 20 minute sittings you gently re-configure your attention mechanism away from subject-object awareness and access nonduality from the attention of the heart.

On this page I will dive into the ideas behind Centering Prayer, tell you about my own experience of it, and why I believe it could well be a reliable way to access the wisdom of the heart beyond the mind’s subject-object duality. In doing so, you develop a deeper connection to God (or however you want to refer to that ‘higher being’), escaping the confines of ego-consciousness.

* Just to note that on this page I will be using the American spelling of ‘centering’. (The English spelling ‘centring’ just doesn’t look right in this context).

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What is Centering Prayer?

Centering Prayer is a form of Christian contemplative meditation, formulated in the 1970s and 80s primarily by Thomas Keating (1). It uses as its instruction manual teachings from the 14th century mystical text called ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’. (2)

Basically, unlike other types of meditation that encourage you to put your attention on something (such as your breathing, the repeat of a mantra, staring at a candle etc.) the aim of Centering Prayer is to let go of all objects of awareness: thoughts, images, feelings, memories etc.

The premise is that by letting go of these ‘contents of consciousness’ you start to develop a gap between the thoughts/memories/feelings etc. The gap may only be a nanosecond to begin, but with practice it gets larger and you begin to access ‘objectless awareness’ – the Ground of Being itself.

Indeed, the intention of Centering Prayer is to surrender to the presence and consent of God. It is in the letting go (releasing all thoughts and mental concepts) that we enter a different state or a different stage of consciousness. And this is more ‘heart based’ than mind-based.

What I mean by this is that we don’t put the attention on the heart (as this would simply be another ‘object’), but our attention comes from the heart. There is a gentle shift from mind to heart where, with practice and perseverance (as in all types of meditation) you ‘perceive through the eyes of the heart’, something the great poets and mystics have spoken of throughout millennia.

The beauty of the heart is the lasting beauty: its lips give to drink of the water of life. Truly it is the water, that which pours, and the one who drinks. All three become one when your talisman is shattered. That oneness you can’t know by reasoning.

Rumi

Kenosis – or the art of ‘self-emptying’

Thus, it can be said that Centering Prayer is a type of ‘psychological training’ in attention and perception. We reconfigure our attention and in so doing we are enabled to perceive things differently and have a more direct relationship with God.

What we’re talking about here is the state of nonduality, where all ‘things/objects’ become ONE thing. I Am That I Am.

RELATED CONTENT: read about my personal experience of oneness

However, if you’ve ever practised meditation you’ll know how difficult it is to let go of thoughts and mental busyness. And if you pray, most of your praying will be focused ON something; on God, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, the recitation of a prayer, or psalm etc.

But in Centering Prayer, there is no such focus of attention. It is, rather, more about intention; the intention to open your mind, heart, and soul to the consent and presence of God.

It is an act of ‘self-emptying’ or what the ancient Greeks called ‘kenosis’ (3). Buddhists might refer to it as entering ‘the void’.

Indeed, at this point it might seem that Centering Prayer is more Buddhist than Christian. But if you look at the history of Christian mysticism, right back to St Paul, you’ll see that at the heart of Christian prayer or contemplation there is an emphasis on a return to ‘The One’. Indeed, look beneath the doctrines and dogmas of all religions and you’ll find the same thing. And this return is more likely to occur when we first empty ourselves.

Doing so widens the gap where our attention (instead of being buffeted around from object to object) settles down into the heart, seat of intuition, empathy, compassion, and love.

How to empty yourself to God

So, Centering Prayer can be seen as a type of spiritual therapy that, with practise, helps you to alter your attention and perception mechanisms. Indeed, Keating often referred to it as ‘Divine therapy’.

But emptying yourself is never an easy task. Your ego won’t let go without a fight. It fills your mind with a constant barrage of trivialities or spins you off time-travelling through your history or fretting about tomorrow. Very rarely do we live in the eternal moment of now.

Human Givens College (4), where I did much of my training in psychotherapy, taught me the APET model, a model that explains why ‘self-emptying’ – and, indeed, all types of meditation with a focus on the present moment – is difficult.

You see, at least where the mind is concerned, it is continually being triggered or ‘activated’ by things in the environment (the A in APET). The brain then carries out a process called ‘pattern-matching’ (the P in APET), using your history to assess a current situation based on something similar in the past. The brain finds a relevant match which may stir up strong emotions (the E in APET). And these in turn give rise to conscious thoughts (the T).

RELATED CONTENT: Read more about the APET model and why emotions come before thoughts

This is why meditation proves difficult for many people; they can’t still their mind. The problem is, I believe, with the overactivity of the pattern-matching process. The brain is always trying to make sense of what we’re experiencing based on previous knowledge. It is always tapping into our history to make sense of (and assess) the present. That’s why it’s a real challenge to stay in the present moment, the ‘power of now’.

However – and here’s my key point – I’ve long suspected that a vital step toward self-emptying which leads to non-dual consciousness is in learning how to switch off this pattern-matching process.

When you can stop your attention from time travelling through your history or being thrown from object to object, the emotions calm down. Thoughts become more still. And with the help of Centering Prayer, you can empty those thoughts from consciousness entirely and enter the Ground of Being.

The 4 guidelines of Centering Prayer

So, how do we do this ‘self-emptying’? How can we quiet the ‘monkey mind’ that all too easily latches onto one thought after another? Is there a way of turning off the constant chatter of internal dialogue and the process of pattern-matching?

I believe this is where Centering Prayer has the power to reconfigure your attention mechanism, away from subject-object awareness, to a heart-based consciousness of nonduality.

But bear this in mind: you’re not aiming for oneness with God in the prayer time. Centering Prayer is time spent reconfiguring your attention and perception mechanisms. Oneness – if it happens at all – comes later.

There are 4 guidelines in Centering Prayer. The closer you follow these, the more you’ll get from your prayer time. It is recommended that you should set aside 20 minutes or so then follow these instructions…

1. Choose a sacred word that serves as a symbol of your intention for the meditation (more on this below)
2. Sit somewhere comfortable, close your eyes, and gently state your sacred word a few times – the symbol of intention for your meditation
3. When thoughts* arise (and you can guarantee they will!) simply acknowledge them and let them go whilst gently stating your sacred word silently to yourself. Repeat this whenever you notice that your attention has been hijacked by a thought or a train of thoughts (like an internal psychodrama). Just keep repeating this process for the duration of prayer time. This is, indeed, the only thing you have to do in Centering Prayer
4. When prayer time has elapsed sit for another moment or two in quiet reflection before opening your eyes

IMPORTANT: Just to say that a ‘thought’ in Centering Prayer is any object of awareness. So, alongside thoughts, this includes feelings and emotions, physical sensations, memories, random images that pop into your head, patterns and shapes in your mind’s eye, anticipation of the future, fantasies etc.

What is a sacred word in Centering Prayer?

Before you begin the 20 minutes of silence, you will have chosen a word that is sacred to you. This might be the word God or Jesus. It may be Buddha. It might be something like ‘The One’ or ‘Great Spirit’. Perhaps ‘The Tao’. It might be as simple as ‘let go’ or ‘breathe’ or ‘now’.

My own word is ‘surrender’. And what I mean by that is to ‘surrender to the love, presence and will of God’.

The sacred word is a symbol of your intention for the meditation.

It is important here to mention that the sacred word is not a mantra. You don’t keep saying it to yourself over and over like in Transcendental Meditation, but only when your mind generates thoughts or ‘objects’ (and especially so when you become aware that you’re drifting along in a little psychodrama). Simply state your sacred word (silently to yourself) and let the thought go.

Of course, in your early days of practicing Centering Prayer your mind will be busy and you will be saying your sacred word a lot. But please don’t see it as a mantra, otherwise the word itself becomes another object of awareness. And the aim of Centering Prayer is objectless awareness.

So, a thought will arise, you notice it and let it go by silently saying your sacred word or phrase and returning to the space between thoughts, to that state of ‘objectless awareness’. Instead of your attention bouncing hither and thither, you return to the centre. You still your attention mechanism. The pattern-matching process quietens down. You access the eternal moment.

How to deal with thoughts in Centering Prayer

Like practising any meditation, when you become still and quiet you’ll probably notice that your mind becomes very active, at least to begin with. In Centering Prayer, there are ‘4 R’s’ that can help you deal with the ‘contents of consciousness’ that are bound to arise.

Remember these ‘4 R’s’ and apply them during the practise of Centering Prayer…

• Resist no thoughts – this practise is not about forcefully pushing thoughts away but simply accepting them and letting them go; thinking is what the mind does)
• Retain no thoughts – the key thing is not to get ‘hooked’ by the thoughts, even inspirational insights and ‘aha!’ moments, and yes, even Divine images that may arise; just state your sacred word and let them go)
• React to no thoughts – whatever the thought, big or small, good or bad, don’t let the thought steal your attention otherwise you’ll soon be drifting along in some sort of psychodrama of your own making)
• Return to your sacred word – as soon as you notice that your attention has been hijacked by a thought or series of thoughts, say your sacred word or phrase and let the thought(s) go).

So, the bottom line is this: if anything arises into your awareness – let it go. Say your sacred word and return to the gap between thoughts. With practise, the gaps get longer and your attention drifts down gently to a place of inner stillness.

Apophatic vs cataphatic awareness

So, Centering Prayer can be seen as a training method in attention and perception. The aim is to shift away from the mind’s usual subject-object way of perceiving and into a heart-based, nondual way of perceiving (where everything is felt as ONE).

Whereas most forms of meditation and prayer involve concentration on something, Centering Prayer takes a different stance, a stance rooted in mysticism, both East and West. In Centering Prayer, when you let go of thoughts you are practicing moving from cataphatic awareness (i.e. with an object-focused awareness) to an apophatic (objectless or formless) awareness.

In the words of Nisargadatta Maharaj – teacher of Advaita Vedanta – “Neti, Neti.” Not this. Not this.

And as Cynthia Bourgeault (5) says in The Heart of Centering Prayer, “[We] withdraw our attention from all…objects not because these objects are in themselves unworthy of respect, but because attention in the subject/object configuration can never ultimately reach its goal of participative union with God.”

This is what The Cloud Of Unknowing – that 14th century treatise on which Centering Prayer is based – teaches. Objectless awareness – apophatic awareness: The only mode in which God can be accessed or ‘known’.

Is Centering Prayer a form of self-hypnosis?

As a hypnotherapist I’d like to add a few words about certain similarities and differences between Centering Prayer and hypnosis…

To the novice, all types of inner work, be it meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, visualisation etc, all look the same; you close your eyes and go inward. Indeed, going inward is one of the definitions of hypnosis and thus, in this respect, there is a similarity with Centering Prayer.

But with self-hypnosis you are aiming to deliberately program your subconscious with new ideas, positive suggestions, positive visualisations and so forth. In other words, with hypnosis, your mind is still active and focused on some object (such as a goal to work toward). The same applies in the practice of mindfulness; you’re still caught up in a subject-object way of perceiving – still in the observing role, mindful of ‘things’.

In Centering Prayer, the aim is to empty your mind, to let go of all contents of consciousness, to surrender to the awareness of Being itself. As Alan Watts would say, you need to ‘get out of your own way’ if you want to see God.

Be still and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10

Thus, although all inner work (I suspect) accesses the REM state (where the right hemisphere of the brain takes command, leading to intuitive insights, creative solutions, and the experience of nonduality), the aims of each practice – be it self-hypnosis, meditation, mindfulness, or Centering Prayer – are different.

In the short video below, Thomas Keating explains how Centering Prayer differs from ‘attention-based’ meditation and mindfulness…

For a deeper dive into the psychology of Centering Prayer check out Thomas Keating’s excellent 3 part presentation, starting with video #1 here

And then listen to ‘Turning to the Mystics’ Podcast where Jim Finley gives us a brilliant coaching session on Centering Prayer

Moving beyond the Observing Self

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, one of our most important resources is the Observing Self – that part of us that can step back and see things (including ourselves) more clearly and objectively, free from the distortion of prejudice and high emotional arousal.

This can be a powerful resource when learning how to free oneself from destructive emotional patterns and behaviours. But when it comes to meditation – and especially Centering Prayer – using the Observing Self still means you are observing an ‘object of awareness’. You become a watcher of yourself, your life, and the lives of others.

Cynthia Bourgeault refers to this as ‘reflective awareness’. It is an essential development if we want to connect with our interior life and is a major step up on the ‘ladder of consciousness’. But it means we are still operating from subject-object duality. I am me, you are you, that is that etc. If we are observing something, we are still in subject-object perception, still separated from the Oneness of God.

The practice of Centering Prayer enables you to gradually widen the gap between thoughts and surrender into the attention of the heart, no longer in Observing Self mode. There is no subject and no object. You (or more accurately your centre of awareness) rests in nonduality.

And this is, I believe, an important practice in order to boost overall physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing as we come to understand more about attention and what it is for.

Scattered attention: is this why we’re all so tired?

I’ve come to wondering lately whether our scattered attention is one of the main reasons so many of us feel tired all the time, on the edge of burn-out.

To my mind, attention is a form of energy. We need to be careful where we’re directing it and how we’re using it. We need to ask ourselves of anything, “Is this truly worthy of my attention?” “Is this thought, this feeling, this worry, worth going over again and again?” It’s so easy to get caught up in our own soap operas.

But it’s not just a case of doing this to ourselves; our attention is being hijacked left, right, and centre by external forces…

Social Media, Big Tech and the internet as a whole is stealing control of our attention mechanisms. Our attention is scattered far and wide. We feel disconnected and ungrounded. Our concentration spans have diminished. ADD and ADHD are on the increase. (6)

RELATED BLOG POST: How Big Tech have stolen your attention – and how to reclaim it

This is one of the reasons I started practicing Centering Prayer; to reclaim control over my attention mechanism, to find and rest within that quiet centre in myself. And science is now backing up the health benefits of heart-centred meditation…

The science behind heart-centred meditation

For over 35 years the HeartMath Institute have researched the effects of heart-based meditation practices. (7)

They’ve found that when we access the ‘intelligence of the heart’ we become more loving, more compassionate, more altruistic, and way more grateful, among other things. Not only that but this shift in attention and perception (from the heart) has a profound physical effect on the heart itself and our overall wellbeing.

They state that, “Heart coherence…is a measurable state of alignment between your heart, mind, emotions, and physical systems. When you activate heart qualities like care, kindness, and compassion, you reduce stress, think more clearly, and strengthen resilience. This personal coherence radiates outward — uplifting relationships, enhancing group effectiveness, and contributing to global coherence.” (8)

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Find out more about HeartMath in the FREE Experience course then dive deeper into the science and practice of heart-centred meditation with the HeartMath App…

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My experience of Centering Prayer

So, what has been my personal experience of Centering Prayer? In this section I’ll tell you what I’ve found so far.

Let’s start off with how long. It’s still early days for me; I’ve only been studying and practicing Centering Prayer for around 6 months. Thus, it may be way too early to make any assessment but I’ll share 5 things I’ve noticed…

1. Centering Prayer requires commitment and discipline. It’s not much use squeezing a few minutes in here and there. I’ve found it best to practice it for at least one 20 minute sitting a day, preferably two (one in the morning, another in the evening). However, I haven’t always been able to stick to a regime (sometimes ‘life’ gets in the way!)
2. A longer (20 minute) sitting is better than a shorter sitting. I’ve found I need time to let my mind settle. A short meditation doesn’t give me enough time to ‘reconfigure’ my attention mechanism away from subject-object awareness
3. Like all meditation practices (and I have a long history of Eastern practices, mostly Buddhist in orientation) I still find that my mind easily latches onto thoughts/objects. Before I know it, I’m getting way too involved in a story and have to remind myself to ‘surrender’ and let the thought go. This takes practise but, as Thomas Keating reminds us, every thought is an opportunity to let go and return to God
4. During the 20 minutes I have – at times – felt a definite ‘shift’ in my awareness. Sometimes the mind is super busy; other times less so. And it is in these quieter moments that my awareness seems to sink deeper and the gap between ‘objects’ lengthens. It is here that I momentarily enter ‘objectless awareness’; the mind isn’t grabbing on to anything
5. After Centering Prayer meditation I feel very rested and yet alert. I feel grounded and present. And I believe the practice is having a positive effect on my overall wellbeing. Mastering my attention mechanism seems to be saving me energy throughout the day, so I can do things without feeling as tired as I did previously.

So, these are the main things I’ve noticed so far. I will keep up the practice and update with new findings as they occur. Of course, as I see it, the chief aim is not so much to merge with God during prayer time but to see the practice as a reconfiguring of my attention and perception outside of prayer time. In other words, to shift my centre of awareness away from the mind and, instead, to perceive life from the attention of the heart.

A life of compassion, kindness, gratitude, tolerance, empathy, and love. Surely that’s why we’re here?

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Download my free PDF handout on the basic instructions for Centering Prayer

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Notes and references

(1) Info about Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach Thomas Keating – Wikipedia and Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.

(2) The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous 14th century monk. Find out more here in a translation by Evelyn Underhill The Cloud of Unknowing Index | Internet Sacred Text Archive

(3) More about the meaning of ‘kenosis’ kenōsis (κένωσις) | Philopedia

(4) Human Givens College, where I did much of my training in psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. Read more on their APET model The APET™ Model: Rethinking Cognitive Therapy with Joe Griffin & Ivan Tyrrell

(5) Cynthia Bourgeault, author, spiritual teacher, and long time student of Thomas Keating: Cynthia Bourgeault

(6) Statistics on ADD and ADHD, according to the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in the USA Data and Statistics on ADHD | Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) | CDC

(7) Scientific research from the HeartMath Institute Research – HeartMath Institute

(8) Research findings on ‘heart coherence’ Heart Coherence | HeartMath Institute and here Science – HeartMath Institute

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