Thomas Keating in the Book

¶ … Thomas Keating

In the book "The Better Part," author Thomas Keating promotes his concept and practice of contemplative prayer and living as the key towards living the better life. In promoting this message, the author provides both biblical and practical illustrations in which readers can best understand his concept of contemplative living. In the discussion that follows, both these biblical and realistic illustrations are highlighted in order to bring about a more explicit and concrete view of the contemplative living in accordance to the principles forwarded by Keating.

In illustrating the concept of contemplative living biblically, Keating introduces the story of Martha and Jesus. In it, he introduced one of the initial stages that people go through before they have self-realization and engage in a contemplative life. Portraying Martha as being in the stage of the Purgative Way, she was illustrated as harboring "infantile attitudes." These infantile attitudes are behavior that shows the individual's worldly and most often, negative, concerns.

In order to demonstrate Martha's infantile attitudes, Keating stated:

The Purgative Way consists in becoming aware of how our unconscious needs affect ordinary daily life including our service of God. It is unsettling for us to realize that, mixed in with our good intentions, are these infantile attitudes. They are necessary in early childhood in order to survive, but totally inappropriate now that we have grown up.

In this passage, Keating makes clear the importance of ridding one's self of the trivial negativity that is inevitably associated with infantile attitudes. Overcoming one's tendency to harbor infantile attitudes is the first step towards living a life that is reflective and more accepting, thereby giving way for the individual to adopt a more positive attitude and view towards life.

Given this biblical illustration through the anecdote on Martha, Keating pursued his discussion of contemplative living through contemplative prayer. For him, contemplative living through prayer "is a major contribution to the diminishing of world problems of injustice, prejudice, health, and peace. If enough people progressed in contemplative prayer, they could reduce a sizable portion of the negativity in our world..." Although Keating's testimonial for the power of contemplative prayer is based on subjective judgment, his discussion is but one example of the reality that is contemplative living. Having experienced a more positive outlook in life through prayer, Keating tried to influence other people and share with them this enlightening experience. In effect, he does more than just express his want of other people to follow through his manner of living contemplatively, and provides evidence in which people can actually create their "personal philosophy" in order to live a better, meaningful, and optimistic view of life. In sum, Keating's "The Better Part" provides helpful illustration and discussion of life lived through reflection, prayer, and positive thinking. Keating's discussion may be subjective and personal, but this approach is necessary in order to convince people that indeed, they can also experience enlightening in life through the steps he outlined as essential stages towards achieving contemplative living.