from Martin Laird's INTO THE SILENT LAND

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regarding prayer:

" [learning to not engage with the] running mental commentary that said something like, 'I can't have this thought.' "I must let go of thoughts'...

The practice is not 'never let your attention be stolen.' It will most definitely be stolen, perhaps every few seconds. The practice is to bring your attention back when you realize it has been stolen...

As Teresa of Avila...put it..., 'The harder you try not to think of anything, the more aroused your mind will become and you will think even more.'

The deeper we delve into the prayer word [i.e. the Jesus Prayer], the less we use it as a shield from afflictive thoughts. Rather we meet the thoughts with stillness instead of commentary. We let the thoughts simply be, but without chasing them and whipping up commentaries on them.

The doorways of the present moment are each guarded by an elaborately simply array of distractions that works in tandem with the prayer word. Together they open the doorways into the silent land. These distractions are like the riddles that must first be answered before the door will open. The riddles, however, are not answered by the calculating mind but by successive silences. These silences are built around a central paradox: all distractions have within them the silent depths we seek, the flowing vastness of Presence that eludes every grasp of comprehension. Therefore, distractions do not have to be rid of in order for them to relax their grip and reveal their hidden treasure. Such is the simplicity of paradox....

The discovery of this mystery of silence is the grace of a lifetime, the 'pearl of great price.' The best response to this grace is to gather in the folds of this mantle of silence and wrap them around us....[This] is marked by a sense of deep inner freedom, even in the midst of all sorts of constraints, limitations, trials, failings, and responsibilities....

John Chapman writes in his SPIRITUAL LETTERS, 'One must do this practice for God's sake; but one will not get any satisfaction out of it in the sense of feeling 'I am good at prayer,' 'I have an infallible method.' That would be disastrous, since what we want to learn is precisely our own weakness, powerlessness, unworthiness. And one should wish for no prayer, except the prayer that God gives us--probably very distracted and unsatisfactory in every way.'"

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