Jesus devoted a great deal of his teaching to an idea that is mildly irritating to many Christians: you must die to yourself. It was an irritant for me for a long team because I misunderstood what it meant. I thought it would be following some unpleasant calling like serving in the slums of Calcutta or doing something else I really didn’t want to do.
In fact it is Christ’s formula for transformation, a method by which our fallen nature will die through surrender to God’s presence. What dies is our habits, thoughts and emotions of “looking for love in the wrong places” and what comes alive is that we find love in the right place: in God’s presence.
This sixth video in our “Espresso Series” on Centering Prayer delves into the way in which this central truth of Christ’s gospel flows into a living reality in silent meditation prayer.
Centering prayer meditation erodes the “false self” known in the Bible as the “sinful nature”. More accurately: God is the Divine therapist that operates with infinite wisdom to gently loosen the hold of deeply entrenched neural pathways and destructive thought patterns that constitute our unhealthy pursuits to try to find happiness outside of God’s presence. Centering prayer is a forum in which we surrender to this divine action.
The false self is comprised of unhealthy energy centers that we have subconsciously developed since infanthood and typically fall into three buckets. These correspond to Christ’s temptations in the desert.
1. The unhealthy need for security
2. The unhealthy need for affirmation
3. The unhealthy need for control
Jesus’ formula for freedom is not religious discipline. Even less so the tool often used in religious communities: fear, shame and guilt being deployed to stop bad behavior. These tools work well but create more destruction in the soul. Think of it as inserting a virus to fight a virus. The weaker virus gets suppressed but the stronger virus introduces a new kind of sickness. And fear, shame and guilt are particularly harmful to the soul.
Christ’s formula was “death to self”. This means recognizing false self thoughts, emotions and behavior and surrendering them to God. In their place, we receive the loving Presence of God to replace and truly fulfill the deepest needs of our heart. This takes a lifetime but results are often seen very quickly with a consistent centering prayer practice.
The topic of the false self is very important and a lot more can be said about it than is in this short “espresso” video summary. A more in-depth video teaching on it is available here.
We have a weekly group that practices Centering Prayer by video call. You can learn more here – on how to join or how to replay guided meditation sessions from this group.
Rob Gerhard 