Oración Mental, Mindfulness, and Mental Prayer: The Training of the Heart in the Iberian School of Abbot García de Cisneros of Montserrat and St. Teresa of Avila

The article argues that sixteenth-century Iberian contemplative prayer, oración mental, as described by García Jiménez de Cisneros and St. Teresa of Avila, deliberately bypasses mental or cognitive faculties, advocating instead a practice closer to a 'prayer of the heart.' It juxtaposes this with the Buddhist concept of sati, popularized in the West as mindfulness, and contends that oración mental may be more accurately translated as 'mindfulness' rather than the conventional 'mental prayer.'

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Abstract

The article explores the practice of oracin mental in the Iberian schools of the sixteenth century "Golden Age," concentrating on the works of two authors: the Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual / Exercitatorium vite spiritualis of Garca Jimnez de Cisneros (1455-1510), abbot of Montserrat from 1493 to 1510 and El Libro de la Vida of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), reformer and first prioress of the Discalced Carmelite Order. The article argues that both present a notion of contemplation that deliberately circumvents the mental or cognitive faculties advocating something closer to a notion of "prayer of the heart." Alongside these Iberian authors the article essays the Buddhist notion of sati, as recently popularized in the West as the practice of mindfulness. In juxtaposing the two practices it argues that oracin mental, especially as presented by Cisneros and Teresa, may more fruitfully be translated by the term "mindfulness" rather than the more usual and less helpful "mental prayer.