Glossary

Address is the direction of attention and expression toward a receiver. Godward prayer addresses the Creator rather than merely thinking about a concept of God.

Authenticity is truthful recognition of the life actually present, including mixed motives. It does not grant every impulse permission to govern action.

Catch means to become aware of an arriving thought, emotion, desire, or impulse and hold it consciously enough to choose a response.

Consciousness means the presence of subjective experience. The capacity to notice mental activity allows an experience to become available for offering.

Containment means receiving an experience within conscious attention without immediately obeying, suppressing, or magnifying it.

Dignity means the inherent worth of a real person, independent of achievement, appearance, status, or usefulness. In this book it is grounded in personhood before God.

Energy names the felt intensity, movement, and pull of an experience. It is a spiritual metaphor here, rather than a claim about a distinct physical substance.

Godward means deliberately oriented toward God. The Godward Way is the full name of the philosophy and practice developed in this book.

Kavanah means intention or directed attention. Within this practice, it is the conscious aim of bringing an experience toward the Creator.

Nonduality names accounts in which apparent distinctions do not describe ultimate reality. The version principally compared here is a recognition of ultimate identity, rather than communion between ultimately distinct beings.

Observe and direct names the third response in the book’s practical map: recognize what arrives and address it toward God.

Offer means to bring the actual experience toward God in trust, without requiring an immediate feeling or a predetermined outcome.

Peace from God means the ultimate ground of belonging understood as received through relation with the Creator. It is not equivalent to uninterrupted emotional calm.

Pure consciousness can refer to awareness experienced with little ordinary mental content, or to a philosophical account of fundamental awareness. This book does not treat the term as a definition of God.

Rupture means a real break in continuity, expectation, or relationship. The Godward Way also affirms real distinction between persons and between the person and God.

Self means the embodied person who experiences, notices, and responds. The observing stance prevents any single mental event from defining the entire person.