The Dance

"Just as the moon dances with shadow and light, remaining herself throughout,
we also dance with shadow and light, reflecting her wisdom rhythms."
Daily Meditations, Center for Action and Contemplation, Image Credit & Inspiration, July 25, 2025

As a youngster fascinated by astronomy, I spent many cold nights with my telescope observing
the face of the moon. From my observations during different moon phases, I learned that when
the moon was full, brilliantly lit by the sun, it is not the best time for observing the features of the
moon. For without the shadows cast by the craters and mountains, they could barely be
discerned. These features were lost when the sun shone down directly from above. During other
phases of the moon, when sunlight struck the surface of the moon at an angle, the shadows
would appear, giving away the prominence of its features, and allowing an observer to see their
true shape and scale on the landscape of the moon. The shadows produced by the ragged
peaks and broad ridges and deep bowls of the craters provided evidence of their stature, which
was hidden in full sunlight.

Shadow and light dance with one another as we perceive the reality of the world and our
universe. Our perception and understanding may change depending on our perspective, but
that does not change the reality of the real. “What is” is what it is. Just as God said, “I am who I
am.” We do not define who or what God is. God is who God is.

Is there a rhythm to our wisdom, a growing and fading like that of light and shadow?
Is shadow the absence of light or the evidence of light?
Is light the absence of shadow or the creator of shadow? 
Is unknowing the absence of knowledge or the evidence of knowing?
Is knowing the presence of understanding or the creator of unknowing?

Shadow and light, knowing and unknowing.... One cannot exist without the other. Wholeness
comes from the interplay of the two, the dance between them. If we insist on only one, or seek
only one, we lose the contrast between them, we lose the means to see the full picture.

Now, let us take this into the realm of Centering Prayer: Do thoughts inhibit our Centering
Prayer? No, indeed, as we have been taught in learning the method of Centering Prayer,
thoughts are a normal, inevitable, and integral part of the method. For it is in detaching from our
thoughts that we surrender to God's presence and action within our being.

What does it mean to detach ourselves from our thoughts. What exactly are we detaching our
thoughts from? Our mind, our consciousness, our awareness, our egoic system? I don’t know,
and I don’t know if trying to define this helps us. Perhaps that is why we are given the sacred
word. We don’t have to understand or know, we simply consent to God symbolically,
intentionally, without any effort or understanding. We offer our very being, every part of
ourselves, to God by silently offering our sacred word.
​
Centering Prayer is a dance of the presence and void of thoughts. They come and they go.
Where is the prayer? In the thoughts? or the surrender of thoughts? Without one, the other
could not be. Just let go and let them dance.