Thomas Keating

Thomas Keating was born in New York in 1923 and entered the Cistercian Order in Valley Falls, Rhode Island in 1944. Fourteen years later he was appointed Superior of St Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado and in 1961 was elected Abbot of St Joseph's Abbey, a large Cistercian monastery in Spencer, Massachusett. After two decades, he retired as Abbot and returned to Snowmass in 1981.

It was at Snowmass that Thomas Keating established a programme of ten-day retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer. This ten-day model has been replicated around the world as a principle means of deepening the practice of Centering Prayer. Thomas is one of the founders of the Centering Prayer movement and of Contemplative Outreach.

He was formerly the chairperson of the Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue, which sponsors exchanges between monks and nuns of the world religions; he is a member of the International Committee for Peace Council, which fosters dialogue and co-operation among the world religions; and he is a member of the Snowmass Inter-religious Conference, a group of teachers from the world religions who meet yearly to share experiences of the spiritual journey in their respective traditions.

Thomas is also on the panel of the Integral Spiritual Centre, part of the Integral Institute pioneered by Ken Wilber and others, promoting and facilitating a worldview for the 21st century, an approach to life, society and religion that is ‘balanced, comprehensive, interconnected, and whole’.