In the last five years of his life, Thomas Keating underwent a profound spiritual transfiguration, taking him far beyond our usual understanding of the final, or “unitive,” stage of the spiritual journey--and even beyond the roadmaps he himself so brilliantly constructed and taught for more than forty years. Surprisingly, this journey to the mystical wellsprings of selfhood is conveyed to us in the form of eight short poems, spare in format but searing in intensity. As Thomas forges more and more boldly beyond the boundaries of individual selfhood into the creative spaciousness of pure silence, he joins ranks with Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, Bernadette Roberts, and a handful of other Christian mystics to radically extend our understanding of nondual attainment from a Christian kenotic perspective.

In this all-day teaching retreat, Cynthia Bourgeault will lead us through each of these poems, unpacking the challenging journey toward the final liberation they portend while rooting us firmly yet again in the daily disciplines of silence and surrender which make such a journey possible.