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Thomas Keating QUOTES

Thomas Keating QUOTES

41 " Gifts of the Holy Spirit grow in direct proportion to the depth and sincerity of our love. "

― Thomas Keating , Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit

42 " Where are you?” God’s question to us never changes. In some cases, life has been so tragic that we are not free to decide where we are. But the power of divine grace, especially as it is experienced in contemplative prayer, opens us to the unconscious and introduces us to a world of unlimited possibilities that are unknown to us now. "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

43 " As soon as we notice we are annoyed or angry about something, we tend to protect ourselves by projecting the cause of our upsetting emotion onto a situation or another person: “They” did this to me. “They” are always a problem. But, in fact, the real problem is not “them” but us. All biases and prejudices are the attitudes of a child from ages four to eight. If they are present in us, we are still functioning at the level of a preadolescent. "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

44 " In the Old Testament, substitutes for the divine presence were called demons or false gods. If we can grasp the fact that only the experience of God can put into perspective all other forms of pleasure or the promises of happiness that various creatures provide, then we will realize that we are looking for happiness in the grass, in the wrong places. All the help we can get from other people who experience the same psychological privation won’t do a bit of good. "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

45 " (1) we don’t know where happiness is to be found (ignorance); (2) we look for it in the wrong places (concupiscence); and (3) if we ever find out where it might be found, the will is too weak to pursue it anyway "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

46 " Let Love Alone speak "

― Thomas Keating

47 " What kind of God is this who permits or sends such tragedy into the lives of his friends? Job complained bitterly about his pitiful condition. But would he have learned who God is unless he had gone through the shattering experiences that brought to an end his naive conception of how God functions? The greatest fruit of the night of spirit is the disposition that is willing to accept God on his own terms. As a result, one allows God to be God without knowing who or what that is. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

48 " Divine love is infused in the seedbed of total submission and self-surrender and brings us through the night of spirit into the transforming union. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

49 " All human history is under the influence of the false-self system that easily moves from our hearts into our families, communities, and nations and then afflicts the whole human race. God invites us to take responsibility for being human and to open ourselves to the unconscious damage that is influencing our decisions and relationships. "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

50 " We share in centering prayer when done in common a reservoir of silence that is enhanced by each one's contribution. "

― Thomas Keating , Reflections on the Unknowable

51 " The false self is deeply entrenched. You can change your name and address, religion, country, and clothes. But as long as you don’t ask it to change, the false self simply adjusts to the new environment. "

― Thomas Keating , The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

52 " When we decide to submit to the Divine Therapy, the first thing that God does is to reassure us that we are respected and loved by God. The idea that we are no good, unlovable or unworthy—beliefs that, as we have seen, may be firmly entrenched from early childhood—is an insult to God. God does not make junk; we make junk. "

― Thomas Keating , On Divine Therapy

53 " The false self is based on two foundational pillars: one is the energy invested in the emotional programs for happiness and the other is the tendency to over-identify with the particular group from which we come or to which we belong. "

― Thomas Keating , On Divine Therapy

54 " The pathology is simply this: we have come to full reflective self-consciousness without the experience of intimacy with God. Because that crucial reassurance is missing, our fragile egos desperately seek other means of shoring up our weaknesses and defending ourselves from the pain of alienation from God and other people. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

55 " Similarly, Jesus invites us to change the direction in which we are looking for happiness and to join the new humanity that is opening to interior freedom and self-transcendence. The primary issue for the human family at its present level of evolutionary development is to become fully human. But that, as we have seen, means rediscovering our connectedness to God, which was repressed somewhere in early childhood. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

56 " the radical healing is the acceptance of the situation, because in some way God is present there. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

57 " A total surrender of ourselves to the spiritual journey is required, not just a patchwork of exercises that are part of daily life but do not affect the whole of it or penetrate the various aspects of our lives. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

58 " The dispositions proper to the mental egoic level reflect the growing sense of equality with other humans, accountability for the care and preservation of the earth and its living and inorganic resources, and a more mature relationship to God. Respect for others diminishes the drive to dominate and control. Cooperation replaces unbridled competition. Harmony replaces rigid value systems. Negotiating replaces exclusive self-interest or national interests. Living in peace with others becomes a more important value, though not at any price. Accessing full mental egoic consciousness is the door leading to the great adventure of recovering and developing union with God. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

59 " Dryness and the Dark Night”:2 A certain scientist devoted his life to developing a strain of butterfly that would be the most beautiful combination of colors ever seen on this planet. After years of experimentation, he was certain that he had a cocoon that would produce his genetic masterpiece. On the day that the butterfly was expected to emerge, he gathered together his entire staff. All waited breathlessly as the creature began to work its way out of the cocoon. It disengaged its right wing, its body, and most of its left wing. Just as the staff were ready to cheer and pass the champagne and cigars, they saw with horror that the extremity of the left wing of the butterfly was stuck in the mouth of the cocoon. The creature was desperately flapping its other wing to free itself. As it labored, it grew more and more exhausted. Each new effort seemed more difficult, and the intervals between efforts grew longer. At last the scientist, unable to bear the tension, took a scalpel and cut a tiny section from the mouth of the cocoon. With one final burst of strength, the butterfly fell free onto the laboratory table. Everybody cheered and reached for the cigars and the champagne. Then silence again descended on the room. Although the butterfly was free, it could not fly. . . The struggle to escape from the cocoon is nature’s way of forcing blood to the extremities of a butterfly’s wings so that when it emerges from the cocoon it can enjoy its new life and fly to its heart’s content. In seeking to save the creature’s life, the scientist had truncated its capacity to function. A butterfly that cannot fly is a contradiction in terms. This is a mistake that God is not going to make. The image of God watching Anthony has to be understood. God holds back his infinite mercy from rushing to the rescue when we are in temptation and difficulties. He will not actively intervene because the struggle is opening and preparing every recess of our being for the divine energy of grace. God is transforming us so that we can enjoy the divine life to the full once it has been established. If the divine help comes too soon, before the work of purification and healing has been accomplished, it may frustrate our ultimate ability to live the divine life. "

― Thomas Keating , Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

60 " the concept of “creative freedom,” in which the origin and stimulation of the action is entirely in the agent, as against “choice-freedom,” in which the stimulus of the act is in the agent's environment, which presents the alternatives and evokes the motive for choosing between them. One who exercises creative freedom may not experience choosing and yet not be compelled, and this realization should mean a more profound appreciation of what freedom, action, and the person as agent really are. This has something to do with the identity that I think we discover in prayer, and I will come back to this point. "

― Thomas Keating , Spirituality, Contemplation, and Transformation: Writings on Centering Prayer