Unlike most beginning meditation practices, which provide a simple object of
focus for the attention (like following the breath or reciting a mantra),
Centering Prayer provides no such focal point; it merely teaches the
practitioner how to release the attention promptly when it gets tangled up in a
thought. Echoing the teaching of The Cloud of Unknowing (which turned out to be
Centering Prayer's principal source), a "thought" is defined as anything that
brings attention to a focal point-- "as the eye of an archer is upon the target
he is shooting at," the anonymous medieval author illustrates. His instruction
is to immediately release the object of attention and return to the "cloud of
unknowing," his metaphor for a more diffuse, objectless awareness which he sees
as the foundational prerequisite for what he calls "the work of
contemplation."
Cynthia Bourgealt shares more in this essay.
