110 Quotes by Thomas Keating

It is essential for world peace that the world religions make peace with each other. If they don’t, we can hardly expect the nations of the world to lay down their arms.

Perhaps 90 percent of its desires, psychologists say, are unconscious; in other words, many of our deepest commitments to symbols of security, power, and affection in the culture are rooted in desires that are absolutely impossible to achieve.

If you want to be free, he suggests, if you want to heal your relationship with God, with others and yourself, enter your inner room – the office, where the Divine Therapy takes place. Close the door so you don’t run away. Quiet your interior dialogue so that you can listen to what the Spirit is saying to you.

The word “emptiness” for example, is a very important word both in Christianity and in Buddhism. It has shades of meaning however, that are different in the respective traditions.

God is available through many sources besides the religious quest. I don’t mean to imply that psychology replaces the work of religion, but it seems to me that it greatly supports religion and brings a certain clarity to areas of the human condition, especially the discovery of the unconscious.

If our value system doesn’t allow us to enjoy anything without putting a price on it, we miss a great part of the beauty of life. When we bring this value system into the domain of prayer, we can never enjoy God. As soon as we start enjoying Him, we have to reflect, “Oh boy, I’m enjoying God!” And as soon as we do that, we are taking a photograph of the experience. Every reflection is like a photograph of reality. It isn’t our original experience; it is a commentary on it.

Psychotherapy is what God has been secretly doing for centuries by other names; that is, he searches through our personal history and heals what needs to be healed – the wounds of childhood or our own self-inflicted wounds.

The Divine Therapy is designed to enable us to negotiate this healing process according to genetic and temperamental factors, our personality and the circumstances of our lives. An enormous Intelligence is guiding us through this process with a love that is unconditional and determined to bring about this healing, whatever the cost to Itself.

The acceptance of all that God has given us and the willingness to let it go – to give it back to him at a moment’s notice – that’s true human freedom.