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
Buddhist-Christian Studies 2018 DOI: 10.1353/bcs.2018.0022 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Prayer Contemplation Spiritual practice Garcia Mental health Spirituality Religious studies Theology Psychotherapist |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the 16th-century Iberian practice of "oración mental" is more accurately translated as "mindfulness" than as "mental prayer," based on its circumvention of cognitive faculties and affinity with the Buddhist notion of sati. |
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.