Response to The Heart of Centering Prayer, Chapter 4

Cynthia speaks of attention as being an ‘energy field’. In a state of being that expresses the idea of witnessing being in neither the head or in the heart, I think of it as a sort of transcendent state that is not hooked or connected to any ‘thing’, idea or feeling. If we are ‘in’ either of those places, we tend to be owned by the hook and having a relationship with it. We cannot fully witness it because it is a part of us. I can’t fully witness my foot because it is a part of me the observer not apart from me. And yet ironically to be a total and true witness is to ‘know’ it at a gnostic level. It is like being it, not observing it. It strikes me as being a detached and yet immersive ontological state.

I have had three satori experiences in my life and numerous Kensho experiences. The satori experiences were total immersive events that changed me fundamentally and largely shaped my life journey. Descriptions are not possible because they fall so far out of the realm of human cognition. Attempting to describe them would only do them disservice and create false rabbit holes down which the reader could fall. Kensho on the other hand is a more relatable state and is not so totally ego erasing. The Kensho state of mind is the closest I have been to the non-dual witness state of which Cynthia writes. There is a clarity and presence that is palpable but emerges from the senses in a way that is transcendent. Peace becomes an immersive ‘energy field’ wherein you slip into a reality that is less an illusion and more a state of being. The word unitive comes to mind.