What is Contemplative Prayer?

What is Contemplative Prayer?

Contemplative prayer is like when you open your mouth and sit back at the dentist.  You try to relax, you understand that something is being done to you by a considerate, skilled being that understands your needs better than you do, in that case, your dental needs.  Opening and inviting in silence allows life to do the same kind of fixing and healing. It’s a kind that we don’t fully understand with the intellect, but can directly experience and sense on the inside and in your heart.

One of my beloved yoga teachers gave the clearest roadmap to Contemplative Prayer, which in my view is Zazen from the Zen tradition with the only addition of a heartfelt “Come, Lord” before beginning.

Connect

The first step is to sit back, hold still and “open the mouth,” figuratively.  This means we open the heart, mind, body, soul—everything the divine has blessed us with—to the building up of our own temple as an instrument for the upliftment of all.  We do trust that the power outlet is there to plug into, but that is all the faith that is required. We just sit and expect nothing and feel the holy breath going in and out, knowing it is doing the needed work, whatever it is. We may have our first experiences physically feeling the energy flow at some point.  Tree breathing is perfect for this.

This grows our inner trust and allows us to…

Align

Still quiet, still submissive, we continue to wait upon the divine for a period in this way every day, trusting our own holy breath is doing the work.  But in our off-cushion hours, we start looking more closely at our daily interactions. We start feeling like there is a little more space between an outside stimulus and our natural reaction where we have more of a a chance to pause and consider our response. This stretching of the time between an irritation and our reaction is a natural outcome of being still some each day. That sitting makes us more sensitive to our inner workings so we have a chance to do differently and it only takes a few weeks to start seeing the gap where there really is a choice. Otherwise we think any reaction was the only choice—the rightful response, how could anything else even happen?

We also start doing the same thing we do on the cushion more often when doing dishes, weeding, driving, or just going about life. We intentionally return our attention to the holy breath of life. We re-align more even when not on the cushion. This is called “effort, or “trying.” At first this can be exhausting, tedious, and can sometimes seem like endless weed-pulling to dump the endless barage of judgments and thoughts we have collected through life that clog our instrument. They do flush themselves out, I promise. It just takes time each day to sit with them and practice coming back to the breath when the mind runs off. No shame, no blame, coming back (turning back toward, or returning the focus, another shame-free definition of “repentance”) is simply a basic task you don’t get emotionally attached to. Again, you don’t look for the fruit or benefit, waiting for a cookie for all this, thinking about the future, or stewing on the past all will keep us from directly experiencing the full force of the divine flowing through right here and now. And with time, you will feel subtler and subtler sensations of life in your body.

But after all this trying and constant, submissive practice, we start noticing more times of…

Flow

This is a spontaneous act of co-creation that begins with this uplifted vision, an opening to divinity, and an allowing that we must offer our time, talents, and abilities, but cannot seek to control how they are used.  Rather, we trust entirely in the benevolent force we have trained to embody.  We are less obsessed with our own weaknesses and grading our own behavior and can move more naturally. We open to flow as a choice, and kind of trust fall. It is not a belief system, it is an act of faith. You do not expect or look to fully understand what is happening or why, no one needs to report to you or account for what is going on. You do not expect gratification from the fruits of any of your labors.  It may bear fruit in a thousand years for all you care, your enjoyment comes from feeling that divine flow in the present moment, and trusting where it leads you.

Flow comes when you trust that because you have asked to be an instrument, you choose to assume that you have already and are currently receiving. This is because you “know in whom you have trusted.” Actively choosing to live in divine flow is an act of active, present, daily hope for the highest good for all life, peace on earth, universal harmony and goodwill. Where and when else can you be of benefit in the world besides right here and now? The energy you invite through you is real, you can feel it yourself..

Contemplative prayer can be a very healing practice for people who aren’t sure what divinity is or who don’t have any specific belief system or faith tradition to work from. While the higher power or life force is being called upon, after that it is mainly a very intense form of listening. You listen with trust that your dusty inner corners, hangups, resentments, false ideas, etc., are being swept by the benevolent force that is life.