by Father Thomas Keating

Our true nature is stillness,

The Source from which we come.

It manifests itself within us

As a rising tide of silence.

A flowing stream of peacefulness,

a limitless ocean of calm,

Or just sheer stillness.

The deep listening of pure contemplation

Is the path to stillness.

All words disappear into it,

And all creation awakens to the

delight of

Just Being.

Father Thomas Keating is known throughout the world as a teacher of and writer on contemplative prayer. A Trappist monk of St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, he was one of the founders of the Centering Prayer Movement.