Contemplative Practices and Conscious Dying VI: \u00a0Kenotic Practices<\/span><\/h3>\n

Years ago, I was traveling on a bus in Mexico with friends from my spiritual community. \u00a0Sitting quietly, doing my morning practice, I began to have a surprising experience. \u00a0I felt as though I were being filled with something and then emptied out; this process continued for the duration of the bus ride in a continual dance of filling and emptying. \u00a0And throughout it I encountered state changes, unitive experiences, feelings of fullness and of emptiness. \u00a0\u00a0There was nothing I was doing to make this happen; and although I did not have words for what was occurring I knew I was being shown something.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was not a novice in the practice of energy transmission. Having been trained in the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism by my beloved lama and having studied very closely with a shaman, receiving transmissions from both of them, I recognized the method. \u00a0I knew very well the process of opening myself in order to become a channel through which could flow particular energies. \u00a0For years, I had received such transmissions, and I had given them. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, though, I recognized <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> particular energy, this feeling; indeed, it had been with me my entire life. \u00a0What I could not comprehend during that trip was that I not only was being instructed in some new process, but I also was undergoing an initiation of sorts. \u00a0I was being shown a kenotic practice, although I would not learn to call it that for many years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kenosis refers to the self-emptying movement of surrender. \u00a0Derived from the Greek ekenosein (\u03b5\u03ba\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd), this term is found in Philippians 2:7 and refers to Jesus allowing himself to be emptied. \u00a0This term signifies a very specific energetic movement taught and transmitted by Jesus (and others) and available to all humans regardless of religion or training.<\/span><\/p>\n

All wisdom traditions teach the necessity of surrender, but rarely are we instructed on how to do it. \u00a0Surrender is not something we can ponder, not something to be imagined. \u00a0It only exists as an action, an action at the center of every religion, every spiritual convention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrender <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>the entire dying process. \u00a0At each moment in our lives, we are given the opportunity to release and surrender. \u00a0And each time we accept that opportunity and use it, we are practicing for our eventual final act of surrender, the moment when the Angel of Death reclaims the very last bits of what we have borrowed from her during these magnificent lifetimes. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The most difficult aspect of dying is allowing ourselves to die, surrendering to the death that is occurring already. \u00a0And in my experience it can be even more challenging in metaphysical and metaphoric deaths. \u00a0Each time my body has been dying, I have been unable to hide that reality from myself and others for any period of time. \u00a0My body then actually supports my dying process. \u00a0As I witnessed in my spiritual communities, death practices can only take us to a certain place; they can provide the atmosphere of death or the practice of death. \u00a0Amazingly, those of us who are dying physically actually may have an advantage over those who inhabit healthy bodies, because our physical forms themselves aid in the process of surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kenotic practices tie all of our work with conscious dying together. \u00a0They become a way of living as we die, a way of dying as we live. \u00a0And any practice can be kenotic, as long as it involves surrender. \u00a0When we have a state change through an Illuminative Practice, we are surrendering whatever state we leave. \u00a0In Purgative Practices, we surrender our ability to control the physical, emotional, and mental sensations we encounter as we become more present to them and allow them to work on us. \u00a0And Unitive Practices require us to surrender our sense of \u201cme\u201d as we experience union with some \u201cother\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kenosis is the dance amongst all of these. \u00a0Frequently, during my death journeys I have found that I can be in an Illuminative state one moment then pulled into something Purgative the next. \u00a0I may feel intensely isolated with one exhalation and at one with everything with the following inhalation. \u00a0My capacity to surrender every experience as it passes has increased greatly as I have worked with Kenotic Practices. \u00a0And I have found this invaluable in my work with Conscious Death and Dying. \u00a0Indeed, during my last encounter with death, two years ago, I felt as though I were being called to surrender moment by moment every single day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any practice can be a Kenotic Practice if we perform it kenotically \u2013 that is, if we use it as an act of surrender. \u00a0In fact, it isn\u2019t actually the practice itself that is Illuminative, Purgative, or Unitive either; rather it is the stance we take when performing the practice. \u00a0Any act or glance can be unitive if we are using that lens, just as anything can be Purgative or Illuminative. \u00a0And every single day we have a multitude of opportunities to surrender to something — to allow ourselves to be filled with a sensation, an emotion, an experience — and then to allow ourselves to be emptied of it entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kenotic Practices can be found in all traditions. \u00a0Roshi Joan Halifax presents meditations both for the dead and for their loved ones, building on ancient Buddhist practices that are kenotic in nature.<\/span> \u00a0Her approach appears to be very similar to the ancient Christian tradition as well as to her Buddhist teachings:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the passage from life to death, what you will go through is not a story, or an idea that is somewhere \u2018out there.\u2019 Your old identity is thrashed like grain, and a new life may grow from the brokenness of your past and the breaking open of the present. \u00a0Dying and being with dying are threshold experiences with the potential to destroy our self-clinging as they liberate us into a larger space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Questioning the idea of a \u201cgood death\u201d, Halifax urges us to release all expectations and programs for our dying and to instead embrace the mystery, so that even our ideas about death are surrendered in a kenotic fashion. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cWise dying\u201d is a term she utilizes, signifying the dying person\u2019s \u201cmetacognitive perspective on the experience of dying itself\u201d, not being in reaction to death and the events encountered during the dying process but being with them. \u00a0This is very significant for our work. \u00a0Her abundant practices lead us through contemplations of our dissolution, as well as of physical, social, relational \u2013 and ultimately spiritual and existential \u2013 dimensions of death. \u00a0The latter, she notes, cannot be touched unless we have learned to be with the former. \u00a0So she is guiding us, then, to release our experiences of life as we prepare for death. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is not nonattachment or detachment. \u00a0Rather the movement of Kenosis is more fluid and less controlled by us. \u00a0It involves opening and allowing experiences, thoughts, sensations, even life to fill us up and flow through us. \u00a0We fully\u00a0<\/span>engage, then we fully release. \u00a0I imagine the movement to be like holding sand tightly in my hand, feeling its fullness against my palm and fingers, and then, whenever instructed, letting it flow through my fingers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Kenotic Practice I use daily is Centering Prayer, which is based on an ancient Christian tradition and updated for contemporary practitioners. \u00a0It is a very simple \u2013 and exceedingly challenging \u2013 practice of continual surrender. \u00a0Cynthia Bourgeault\u2019s new work on Centering Prayer indicates that this ancient way of praying, the prayer of surrender, actually changes what she calls our \u201coperating system\u201d by moving our focus into our hearts. \u00a0Over time, it shifts not what we see, but how we see. \u00a0\u00a0The lines of division between me and you, subject and object, ill and well \u2013 even life and death \u2013 can then disappear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLive like you are dying\u201d seems almost clich\u00e9 in our world; it is a phrase often repeated in eulogies and heard in country western songs. \u00a0The truth is that kenosis is a practice to be integrated throughout our lives, not just found at the moment of death. \u00a0What those who follow a wisdom path have always known; what the great sages came to teach, model and share with us; and what every culture tries to \u201crecover\u201d is this essential truth: \u00a0if we live a life of surrender, death is no surrender at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Some Helpful Resources<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bourgeault, C. \u00a0(2004). \u00a0<\/span>Centering prayer and inner awakening<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Cambridge, MA: \u00a0Cowley Publications.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bourgeault, C. \u00a0(2016). \u00a0<\/span>The Heart of Centering Prayer: \u00a0Nondual Christianity in<\/span><\/i> Theory and Practice. \u00a0Boulder, CO: \u00a0Shambhala.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frenette, D. (2012). \u00a0<\/span>The path of Centering Prayer: \u00a0Deepening your experience of God<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Boulder, CO: \u00a0Sounds True.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keating, T. \u00a0(1986). \u00a0<\/span>Open mind, open heart: \u00a0The contemplative dimension of the gospel<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0Amity, NY: \u00a0Amity House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keating, T. \u00a0(1994). \u00a0<\/span>Intimacy with God<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0New York, NY: \u00a0The Crossroad Publishing Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keating, T. \u00a0(2001). \u00a0<\/span>The divine indwelling: \u00a0Centering Prayer and its development<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0New York, NY: \u00a0Lantern Books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keating, T. \u00a0(2010). \u00a0<\/span>Invitation to love: \u00a0The way of Christian contemplation<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0New York, NY: \u00a0Continuum International Publishing Group. \u00a0(Original work published 1992).<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Kenotic Practices<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Centering Prayer<\/span><\/p>\n

Surrender This . . . and This. . . <\/span><\/p>\n

. . . keep coming back. . . we will add descriptions of these and other Kenotic Practices soon. . . <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contemplative Practices and Conscious Dying VI: \u00a0Kenotic Practices Years ago, I was traveling on a bus in Mexico with friends from my spiritual community. \u00a0Sitting quietly, doing my morning practice, I began to have a surprising experience. \u00a0I felt as though I were being filled with something and then emptied out; this process continued for the duration of the bus ride in a continual dance of filling and emptying. \u00a0And throughout it I encountered state changes, unitive experiences, feelings of fullness and of emptiness. \u00a0\u00a0There was nothing I was doing to make this happen; and although I did not have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"\n