Q. What should one do when compulsive thoughts keep coming into one's meditation time?

A. The question arises, "Why are compulsive thoughts coming at this time?" One reason may be that one may suffer from the affliction of scruples. Another is that one may have an addiction of some kind. We naturally tend to think of our addictions when the mind is not occupied with particular considerations or images. When they become overwhelming, we carry them out in active life. Hence, it is no wonder we think about them during prayer. If it is only an occasional problem, I would simply do what you do with any thought that comes down the stream of consciousness during nondiscursive meditation. If you are following the teaching of John Main, keep saying the mantra. If you are in Centering Prayer, return to the sacred symbol you have chosen.

Scruples are one of the greatest afflictions in life. Such persons love God very much, but they can't move hand or foot without the fear of doing something wrong. They get no enjoyment out of their service of God. It is a very difficult problem to treat because it is involved with emotionally charged thoughts from early childhood that are deeply embedded. That is why the way that religion is taught to children needs a great deal of careful thought and should not be put into the hands of somebody who simply picks up a catechism. It would almost be better not to teach a child religion than to do it improperly. The fear of God should not be instilled into little children. In actual fact it is a technical term in Scripture meaning a right relationship with God. And that relationship is trust. Gratitude and trust are the basis of a healthy relationship with God.

Psychological dynamics may be responsible for compulsive thoughts in a particular case. It is better to have a friendly attitude towards whatever one's compulsions may be. As Therese of Lisieux put it, "No matter how wild my thoughts, I accept them all for the love of God." No thought or desire can harm us unless we consent. Our thoughts are like clouds in the sky. They come and they go. To develop the habit of letting go of every afflictive thought or emotion as soon as it arises is the best ascesis during prayer. Avoid thinking about anything that bothers you during prayer. Let God act. If you are worried about your faults, you will never overcome them. Simply take them as they come. Watch them before, watch them happening, watch them afterwards. Let God work with your faults without being overanxious about them. Our efforts will never accomplish the necessary healing. Only God's grace can do that. To cooperate with the Divine Therapist is work enough. Since God is infinitely merciful and wishes to transform us into Godself, what is there to be worried about? God has the situation in hand. Sometimes our efforts do more harm than good and make things worse. There is a delicate balance between accepting the pain of the disturbing thought, situation, or emotion, and not making too much of it. It is like water off a duck's back. Yes, you are going to get wet, but let the water roll off you. God is sometimes playing with us; sometimes a little roughly, but always lovingly.

Q. I have been meditating for many years, yet I have no spiritual experience. Can you address that?

A. Many people meditate because they receive consolation once in a while. Every now and then they get a ray of light or a sense of peace that supports them on the journey. But someone who is not receiving consolations and still perseveres deserves the first prize. John of the Cross is a great help here. One of his major contributions to the knowledge of the spiritual journey is the alternative he describes for the exuberant mysticism of Teresa of Avila. He teaches that there is also a mysticism of pure faith, which he calls the "hidden ladder," which is characterized by darkness and habitual dryness all the way to transforming union. The ladder of pure faith is like taking the back stairs of Teresa's Interior Castle. But what difference does it make when you are trying to get to the top of the castle whether you take the main staircase with its gilded banisters or the back stairs assigned to the servants? The main thing is to reach the top. In John of the Cross's view, the Night of Sense does not necessarily lead, as Teresa seems to think, to the exuberant mysticism of the prayer of quiet union and fuil union. Some and perhaps even most persons who are led into the Night of Sense continue in it until it turns into the Night of Spirit, without a period of profound spiritual consolation.

Ruth Burrows in her book Guidelines for Mystical Prayer distinguishes between "lights on" spirituality and a "lights off" spirituality. According to her, both ways lead to the transforming union. Those who go the path of exuberant mysticism (lights on) run the risk of becoming attached to their spiritual experiences. The way of pure faith or the hidden ladder--John of the Cross's contribution to the mystical journey--is a great consolation to people who have spent years on the journey and felt that they got nowhere because they had no consolation. My answer to the question is, "You are very close to the top, just keep going."

Q. I am a Zen Buddhist and I have been taught not to expect to gain anything, including peace of mind, from Zen. Can one hope to gain happiness or relief from suffering through Centering Prayer?

A. There is no spiritual practice that I know of that is guaranteed to bring complete relief from suffering. A Zen master, Joshu Roshi Sasaki, came to the Spencer Abbey for seshin once or twice a year for ten years while I was the abbot there. If I understood him correctly, his students are not encouraged to expect anything in Zen practice for substantially the same reasons that I gave when talking about the divine indwelling. We already have all that we possibly need. We just need to believe it.

Zen, if I understand it correctly, teaches that you must not desire enlightenment because you have already got it. The questioner might consult authorities in the Zen Buddhist world to see whether or not to desire anything for ourselves is a hindrance to getting it. The desire itself indicates that we are attached to some project of the false self. Both the path to the transforming union and the path to Buddhist enlightenment teach the opposite. They come to us by not seeking self in any form, including stages of enlightenment or divine union. No doubt, it is hard not to hope for some reward for all our efforts, but it is a sign of progress when we move from the hope of reward to simply accepting God as God is and all reality as it is, without seeking or reflecting on ourselves. As soon as we reflect on ourselves, we are back in our own private universe with the false self at the center. That is not the true universe.

Q. Is personal suffering redemptive and how is that so, if it is so?

A. Personal suffering is certainly redemptive of ourselves and at the same time of everybody else. This is the divine plan, at least in the Christian scheme of things. Jesus has become a human being and taken on the human condition-- that is, sinfulness and sin--taking all the consequences of them into himself. Jesus' descent into hell is the symbol of this psychological and spiritual impoverishment. Notice, the descent into hell is a phrase that appears in the Apostles creed. Hell is not a geographical location. Rather, Jesus is believed to have descended into the psychological state of hell and undergone the ultimate alienation from God that is the essence of sin. In other words, "he who did not know sin, was made to be sin" (2 Cor. 5:21 ), as Paul teaches. He who is in the bosom of the Father accepted, for love of us and our redemption, total alienation from the Father. Jesus, in his passion, death, and descent into hell, threw away the sense of his personal union with the Father. Christ's sacrifice of himself for us, therefore, is not only his death on the cross, but the psychological, spiritual, and personal alienation from the infinite Good which only he could have fully known as God's consubstantial Son. It is from that depth of his humility from having taken the lowest place, that he is able to heal everyone else who is alienated from God and to restore everyone to innocence, freedom, and union with God. That is the meaning of his resurrection, and that is what the full extent of redemption really means.

God goes a step further. God loves us so much that he wants us to participate in the redemption of the human family

When our sufferings are joined to Christ's, they become redemptive for us personally. Then our sufferings become redemptive for those we love and others whom we may never know--for those in the past who needed help and those in the future who may need help. There is no time or space in the redemptive perspective. Everything is now Eternal values cut through chronological time at every moment. If we accept our own redemption, we have entered into the Paschal Mystery. This is the ultimate purpose of the contemplative life. We become what the Buddhists call a bodhisattva, which is someone who is enlightened but who declines to go into final enlightenment until everybody else enters first. This marvelous concept is very close in its inspiration (though maybe not in its explanation) to the Christian idea of Jesus suffering for each human being from the beginning of time until the end. Christ's suffering was not limited to the torments that the authorities inflicted on him; his chief suffering was our sinfulness and the consequences. When we feel alienated from God, we are very close to Christ, because now we know how he felt in his isolation. The great project that the Father entrusted to Jesus is the salvation of every human being. This is "the mystery hidden from eternity in God" (Eph. 3:9) in which we are invited to participate.

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Excerpted from The Better Part by Fr. Thomas Keating

You can obtain a copy by visiting the Contemplative Outreach Bookstore.