Our Consciousness is Like A Great River
Our consciousness is like a great river.
On the surface of our consciousness, superficial thoughts and experiences pass by like boats, debris, water skiers, or other things.
The river itself is the participation God has given us in God’s Being.
Our consciousness is that part of us on which all the other faculties rest, but of which we are ordinarily unaware because we are absorbed with what is passing by along the surface.
In Centering Prayer, we begin to shift our awareness from the boats and objects on the surface to the river itself and to that which sustains all our faculties and is their source.
The river in this analogy has no qualities or characteristics. It is spiritual and limitless because it is a participation in God’s being.
Keep turning your awareness from what is on the surface of the river to the river itself, from the particular to the general, from forms to the formless, from images to the imageless.
Return to the sacred word and renew you intention to consent to God’s inward presence in pure faith. (Keating, OMOH, 2005, p.47)
I would like to reflect on this reading:
This reading provides insight into the mystery of who God is and how God dwells within us while exceeding our ability to articulate God as God is. We grasp for metaphors such as “A great river” to capture this mystery.
Keating describes ordinary consciousness as the thoughts and feelings on the surface of the flow of our mind that absorb us. We are depth deprived. We identify ourselves as those thoughts and perspectives. We are attached to them and may even overidentify with them. We may be addicted to them. (Consider your political affiliation for example.)
We can drop into the spiritual level of consciousness through the practice of centering prayer as we detach from thoughts and let them go and let them flow. We do not seek to make our mind a blank. We have a bit of separation or distance from the thoughts. The hardpan of our identity and connection with the thoughts will be increasingly loosen and softened over time.
We become present to the Loving Presence of the Divine within as we pause from skipping along the surface of life. We connect with our Source within Who is also the Transcendent Loving One beyond us at the same time.
We make an act of faith whether or not we experience this Presence within and without. It is up to God. We wait in hope and longing.
On the surface of our consciousness, superficial thoughts and experiences pass by like boats, debris, water skiers, or other things.
The river itself is the participation God has given us in God’s Being.
Our consciousness is that part of us on which all the other faculties rest, but of which we are ordinarily unaware because we are absorbed with what is passing by along the surface.
In Centering Prayer, we begin to shift our awareness from the boats and objects on the surface to the river itself and to that which sustains all our faculties and is their source.
The river in this analogy has no qualities or characteristics. It is spiritual and limitless because it is a participation in God’s being.
Keep turning your awareness from what is on the surface of the river to the river itself, from the particular to the general, from forms to the formless, from images to the imageless.
Return to the sacred word and renew you intention to consent to God’s inward presence in pure faith. (Keating, OMOH, 2005, p.47)
I would like to reflect on this reading:
This reading provides insight into the mystery of who God is and how God dwells within us while exceeding our ability to articulate God as God is. We grasp for metaphors such as “A great river” to capture this mystery.
Keating describes ordinary consciousness as the thoughts and feelings on the surface of the flow of our mind that absorb us. We are depth deprived. We identify ourselves as those thoughts and perspectives. We are attached to them and may even overidentify with them. We may be addicted to them. (Consider your political affiliation for example.)
We can drop into the spiritual level of consciousness through the practice of centering prayer as we detach from thoughts and let them go and let them flow. We do not seek to make our mind a blank. We have a bit of separation or distance from the thoughts. The hardpan of our identity and connection with the thoughts will be increasingly loosen and softened over time.
We become present to the Loving Presence of the Divine within as we pause from skipping along the surface of life. We connect with our Source within Who is also the Transcendent Loving One beyond us at the same time.
We make an act of faith whether or not we experience this Presence within and without. It is up to God. We wait in hope and longing.
