Author, Teacher of Nonduality, Retreat Leader

Nonduality & the Heart of Prayer

The belief that we are a separate person, a tiny part of a vast world, leads us to project the idea of God beyond the world, at an infinite distance from ourself.

As this person, we enter into a devotional relationship with God; we surrender to God. This is the highest state of the individual, placing it in the right relationship to the whole. However, when the individual is divested of all the qualities that it derives from the content of experience, it stands revealed as infinite being, God’s being, the only being there is. As such, the individual does not pray; it is dissolved in prayer.

Rooted in the Christian Contemplative Tradition, this event offers an interspiritual approach to prayer!

Fr. Thomas Keating said, "God is too big to be contained in one religion.” This summit offers a fresh approach to prayer & contemplation as we learn from teachers from these contemplative traditions:

Explore life with God through a truly universal approach, getting to the very heart of contemplation.

Days

Contemplative Teachings

Contemplative Practice Sessions

The 2022 Centering Prayer Summit was a gift. It increased my knowledge about centering prayer and offered new insights into our practice. The variety of speakers and their topics generated curiosity and enthusiasm. The impact of this will reverberate out to my personal practice, to my own centering prayer group, to the centering prayer group I help co-facilitate in a local prison, and out into the small corner of the world where I live. I feel deeply grateful for all and to all.

As a "newbie" to Centering Prayer, this summit GREATLY kindled my desire to delve deeper into the practice. AND I learned many ways to do that!! The speakers were authentic and inspirational and encouraging. I appreciate the availability of recordings of all sessions; I foresee spending time exploring more deeply many of the topics - actually ALL of the topics- discussed. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

I found the Centering Prayer Summit to be both informative and transformational. I enjoyed learning from both long established contemplative teachers as well as new voices. All of the speakers were well prepared and helpful. Two of the sessions: Mary Dwyer's and Rev. Nhiên's in particular impacted me personally as they spoke into areas in which I needed to open myself to even more growth in grace. I also benefited from the actual group centering prayer sessions. It was a blessing knowing I was sitting in silence along with several hundred other like-minded souls.

Author of, Centering Prayer: Sitting Quietly in God's Presence Can Change Your Life

Author; Doctor of Ministry from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology

This segment features two Franciscans separated by eight centuries: the medieval John Duns Scotus and the contemporary scientist-turned-religious Ilia Delio, OSF. Participants will explore this spirituality in three movements: by encountering the Scotist concepts of univocity of ‘being’ and haecceitas; via appreciating the extension of these principles in Delio’s notions of “catholicity” and “incarnation;” and through engaging in a brief mindfulness practice that holds unity and multiplicity in tension.

Meditation Teacher, Author, Professor

This presentation will offer practical guidelines for taking a posture conducive to stillness, breathing with awareness, and letting the heart come home to its innermost core in the HERE and NOW, allowing one to listen in the depths of stillness. In that stillness, our heart may be opened to an infinite and boundless realm of Unconditional Love.

Filmmaker, Podcaster, Speaker

Beginning with sharing her award-winning short film Day of a Stranger (30 min), featuring the voice of Thomas Merton from his hermitage space, Cassidy will take us on a journey to queer the contemplative tradition––and see the ways its innate queerness has existed for time immemorial. Her exploration will include notes on queering the deserts of our lives to queering the liminal spaces, which will be featured in her forthcoming book, Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality.

Episcopal Priest, Student of Mevlevi Sufi Path

Sufi teaching tells us that the awakened human heart is, in fact, an organ of spiritual perception, an "eye" by which we can see and increasingly live from Oneness, finding our balanced place in the Wholeness of things. Together we will explore Islamic Sufi cosmology and practices, drawing on the universal wisdom of Sufi saints such as Rumi, Rabia, and Ibn Arabi.

Author, Executive Director at the Shalem Institute

Do you yearn for deep groundedness so that you can persevere in your work for justice with resilience and joy?  This seminar will help you find deep springs of life-giving water to keep your thirsty soul thriving and to help you avoid burnout.

Spiritual Director, Retreat Leader

Our Contemplative Prayer and encounter with the Holy One can only take place in our incarnate whole being. We are not separate from our bodies, thus Contemplative Prayer must include them along with our thoughts and feelings. Within all Wisdom and Contemplative Traditions, people have known this to be true and still our bodies have been viewed as leading us astray from our spiritual path. Our bodies want to be included in our spirituality, through gesture, posture, and the wisdom of sensation, they understand things that our mind and emotion cannot. Join me in exploring what it looks like to listen to our bodies intelligence and allow them to bring their offering, reclaiming what Wisdom Traditions have known for thousands of years.

Author, Dharma Teacher

Learn more about the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s powerful teachings on Engaged Contemplation through the experiences of a devoted student, who lived and practiced with him for 15 years as a nun, Kaira Jewel Lingo. In this interactive presentation, Kaira Jewel will share personal stories of practicing Zen teachings of personal and collective transformation in her own life and how she and many others learned to touch true happiness and heal suffering because of them. We will also practice Touching the Earth, the Plum Village contemplative practice for connecting with our ancestors and all of life in order to touch our interdependence and interbeing, and have time for questions and conversation.

Author, Nondual Teacher

The belief that we are a separate person, a tiny part of a vast world, leads us to project the idea of God beyond the world, at an infinite distance from ourself. As this person, we enter into a devotional relationship with God; we surrender to God. This is the highest state of the individual, placing it in the right relationship to the whole. However, when the individual is divested of all the qualities that it derives from the content of experience, it stands revealed as infinite being, God’s being, the only being there is. As such, the individual does not pray; it is dissolved in prayer.

Keith Kristich

Founder of Closer Than Breath

Jana Rentzel

Director of Contemplative Experience

1. Register below

2. Join live on September 23 and 24, 2023

3. Watch recordings when released after the event!

Explore contemplation as a "return to the original religious experience," held in common by all seekers of Truth. We'll explore the practice of Centering Prayer as a path to the Ground of Being.

Join live or watch the recording of Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown as she explores the power of Silence, Stillness, and Solitude through the teachings of the Prophetic-Mystic-Preacher, Dr. Howard Thurman.

The summit brought together people from all over the globe who are practicing centering prayer and exposed us all to some of the most helpful teachers of this path. But perhaps more importantly, it made us aware that something significant is happening in the spiritual development of humanity, and it is now crossing lines to emerging generations, right at a time when the world is in desperate need of a transforming humanity.

It is such JOY to be with like-minded contemplatives! We shared a beautiful "focus." It was healing to be "present" with people who actually care about the Divine and "neighbors." The Spirit was readily available and genuinely present. These 2 days were like a "balm" or "Oasis."

It was so inspiring hearing from speakers who were with Fr. Thomas from the very beginning of Contemplative Outreach and also the current generation of speakers who are continuing the legacy. I felt strengthened by this community and so appreciative of the experience. The Summit was all I expected and hoped for. Thank you!