These talks awaken us to fresh insights into the meaning of the centre and show how meditation can help us return to that place when a crisis or affliction removes the very centre of our existence. We know the centre as a familiar metaphor for balance, wholeness, convergence, peace. Laurence Freeman reminds us that the centre is also relational; it cannot exist outside of what it is the centre of. The centre is a moving point within a dynamic system. What we need, therefore, is not escape, not clinging to familiar shores, but a way that helps us to navigate. Meditation can act as a beacon to direct us and keep us centred within ourselves, within the universe, within God. It brings us to a new way of seeing the world, of knowing ourselves, and seeing our place in it. 

These talks were given at a weeklong silent retreat at Monte Oliveto, Italy, in June 2010.