I’ve studied Centering Prayer as taught by Fathers Keating, Pennington and Menninger, and also Christian Meditation as taught by Fr. John Main, which is what I personally practice. Both of those methods are very similar and share much in common with Eastern non-Christian practices, which I know gives some Christians and Catholics here the heebie-jeebies. Despite the similarities, these methods of Christian mindfulness draw from our Christian tradition, from the 3rd century Desert Fathers like John Cassian and the 13th century book the Cloud of Unknowing, which both recommend repeating a single word during this way of prayer, ala mantra meditation.
The Greg Bottaro book, on the other hand, follows more the way of mindfulness described in the book, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence and Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean-Pierre Caussade, only updated with some current psychology (Bottaro is a psychologist now, although he did pursue a vocation with the Franciscans earlier). As I said, he goes out of his way to distance the way he teaches from Eastern Non-Christian methods (even though they are still similar). This is why I think Bottaro’s book should appeal to those of us Catholics interested in mindfulness but worried about doing anything not specifically Catholic.
Hope that helps some.
