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used sparingly in christian ascetical writings emanating from egypt from the 4th century on although the writings of evagrius and the sayings of the desert fathers do attest to it in egypt the terms more often used are anchoretism gr ἀναχώρησις withdrawal retreat and anchorite gr ἀναχωρητής one who withdraws or retreats i e a hermit the term hesychast was used in the 6th century in palestine in the lives of cyril of scythopolis 6 many of the hesychasts cyril describes were his own contemporaries several of the saints about whom cyril was writing especially euthymios and savas were in fact from cappadocia the laws novellae of the emperor justinian i r 527 565 treat hesychast and anchorite as synonyms making them interchangeable terms inner prayer edit the practice of inner prayer which aims at inward stillness or silence of the heart 7 dates back to at least the 4th century evagrius ponticus 345 399 john climacus st john of sinai 6th 7th century maximus the confessor c 580 662 and symeon the new theologian 949 1022 are representatives of this hesychast spirituality 7 john climacus in his influential ladder of divine ascent describes several stages of contemplative or hesychast practice culminating in agape the earliest reference to the jesus prayer is in diadochos of photiki c 450 neither evagrius maximus nor symeon refers to the jesus prayer 8 saint john cassian c 360 435 who transmitted evagrius ponticus s ascetical teachings to the west forming the basis of much of the spirituality of the order of saint benedict and the subsequent western mystical tradition presents as the formula used in egypt for repetitive prayer o god make speed to save me o lord make haste to help me web 2 note 1 addition of psychosomatic techniques edit st nicephorus the hesychast 13th century a roman catholic who converted to the eastern orthodox faith and became a monk at mount athos advised monks to bend their heads toward the chest attach the prayer to their breathing while controlling the rhythm of their breath and to fix their eyes during prayer on the middle of the body concentrating the mind within the heart in order to practice nepsis watchfulness 8 9 web 1 while this is the earliest attestation of psychosomatic techniques in hesychast prayer according to kallistos ware its origins may well be far more ancient 10 influenced by the sufi practice of dhikr the memory and invocation of the name of god which in turn may have been influenced by yoga practices from india 11 though it s also possible that sufis were influenced by early christian monasticism 11 note 2 in the early 14th century gregory sinaita 1260s 1346 learned a form of disciplined mental prayer from arsenius of crete rooted in the tradition of john climacus web 3 in 1310 he went to mount athos where he remained until 1335 as a monk at the skete of magoula near philotheou monastery 12 introducing hesychast practice there web 3 the terms hesychasm and hesychast were used by the monks on mount athos to refer to the practice and to the practitioner of a method of mental ascesis that involves the use of the jesus prayer assisted by certain psychophysical techniques hesychast controversy and palamism edit gregory palamas main articles hesychast controversy and palamism about the year 1337 hesychasm attracted the attention of barlaam of seminara a calabrian monk who at that time held the office of abbot in the monastery of st saviour in constantinople and who visited mount athos mount athos was then at the height of its fame and influence under the reign of andronicus iii palaeologus and the leadership of the protos symeon 13 on mount athos barlaam encountered hesychasts and heard descriptions of their practices also reading the writings of the teacher in hesychasm of st gregory palamas himself an athonite monk trained in western scholastic theology barlaam was scandalized by hesychasm and began to combat it both orally and in his writings as a private teacher of theology in the western scholastic mode barlaam propounded a more intellectual and propositional approach to the knowledge of god than the hesychasts taught barlaam took exception to the doctrine entertained by the hesychasts as to the nature of the light the experience of which was said to be the goal of hesychast practice regarding it as heretical and blasphemous it was maintained by the hesychasts to be of divine origin and to be identical to the light which had been manifested to jesus disciples on mount tabor at the transfiguration 14 15 this barlaam held to be polytheistic inasmuch as it postulated two eternal substances a visible and an invisible god 13 hesychasm was linked with messalianiam and bogomilism 16 17 on the hesychast side the controversy was taken up by st gregory palamas afterwards archbishop of thessalonica 13 who was asked by his fellow monks on mt athos to defend hesychasm from the attacks of barlaam st gregory himself was well educated in greek philosophy st gregory defended hesychasm in the 1340s at three different synods in constantinople and he also wrote a number of works in its defense in these works st gregory palamas uses a distinction already found in the 4th century in the works of the cappadocian fathers between the energies or operations gr energeiai of god and the essence of god st gregory taught that the energies or operations of god were uncreated he taught that the essence of god can never be known by his creature even in the next life but that his uncreated energies or operations can be known both in this life and in the next and convey to the hesychast in this life and to the righteous in the next life a true spiritual knowledge of god in palamite theology it is the uncreated energies of god that illumine the hesychast who has been vouchsafed an experience of the uncreated light 18 in 1341 the dispute came before a synod held at constantinople and presided over by the emperor andronicus iii the synod taking into account the regard in which the writings of the pseudo dionysius were held condemned barlaam who recanted and returned to calabria afterwards becoming a bishop in the catholic church 13 one of barlaam s friends gregory akindynos who originally was also a friend of st gregory palamas took up the controversy which also played a role in the civil war between the supporters of john cantacuzenus and john v palaiologos 19 three other synods on the subject were held at the second of which the followers of barlaam gained a brief victory but in 1351 at a synod under the presidency of the emperor john vi cantacuzenus hesychast doctrine was established as the doctrine of the orthodox church 13 introduction in russia edit st paisius velichkovsky and his disciples made the practice known in russia and romania although hesychasm was already previously known in russia as is attested by st seraphim of sarov s independent practice of it citation needed practice edit acquiring inner stillness edit the hesychast interprets jesus s injunction in the gospel of matthew to go into your closet to pray to mean that one should ignore the senses and withdraw inward saint john of sinai writes hesychasm is the enclosing of the bodiless primary cognitive faculty of the soul orthodoxy teaches of two cognitive faculties the nous and logos in the bodily house of the body 20 stages in hesychast practice edit see also christian contemplation theosis is obtained by engaging in contemplative prayer resulting from the cultivation of watchfulness gk nepsis this doesn t mean that human created energy obtains theosis by itself i e without god holy spirit is a doer of theosis because he gives christ s grace and father s love to the purifying ones according to the standard ascetic formulation of this process there are three stages katharsis κάθαρσις or purification theoria θεωρία or illumination and theosis θέωσις or deification also referred to as union with god note 3 katharsis ascese purification edit see also catharsis sobriety contributes to this mental ascesis that rejects tempting thoughts it puts a great emphasis on focus and attention the hesychast is to pay extreme attention to the consciousness of his inner world and the words of the jesus prayer not letting his mind wander in any way at all while he maintains his practice of the jesus prayer which becomes automatic and continues twenty four hours a day seven days a week the hesychast cultivates nepsis watchful attention to reject tempting thoughts the thieves that come to the hesychast as he watches in sober attention in his hermitage st john of sinai describes hesychast practice as follows take up your seat on a high place and watch if only you know how and then you will see in what manner when whence how many and what kind of thieves come to enter and steal your clusters of grapes when the watchman grows weary he stands up and prays and then he sits down again and courageously takes up his former task 22 the hesychast is to attach eros greek eros that is yearning to his practice of sobriety so as to overcome the temptation to acedia sloth he is also to use an extremely directed and controlled anger against the tempting thoughts although to obliterate them entirely he is to invoke jesus christ via the jesus prayer citation needed much of the literature of hesychasm is occupied with the psychological analysis of such tempting thoughts e g st mark the ascetic this psychological analysis owes much to the ascetical works of evagrius pontikos with its doctrine of the eight passions 23 theoria illumination edit see also theoria the primary task of the hesychast is to engage in mental ascesis the hesychast is to bring his mind gr nous into his heart so as to practise both the jesus prayer and sobriety with his mind in his heart in solitude and retirement the hesychast repeats the jesus prayer lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me the sinner the hesychast prays the jesus prayer with the heart with meaning with intent for real see ontic he never treats the jesus prayer as a string of syllables whose surface or overt verbal meaning is secondary or unimportant he considers bare repetition of the jesus prayer as a mere string of syllables perhaps with a mystical inner meaning beyond the overt verbal meaning to be worthless or even dangerous this emphasis on the actual real invocation of jesus christ mirrors an eastern understanding of mantra in that physical action voice and meaning are utterly inseparable 24 the descent of the mind into the heart is not taken literally by the practitioners of hesychasm but is considered metaphorically 25 some of the psychophysical techniques described in the texts are to assist the descent of the mind into the heart at those times that only with difficulty it descends on its own the goal at this stage is a practice of the jesus prayer with the mind in the heart which practice is free of images see pros theodoulon by the exercise of sobriety the mental ascesis against tempting thoughts the hesychast arrives at a continual practice of the jesus prayer with his mind in his heart and where his consciousness is no longer encumbered by the spontaneous inception of images his mind has a certain stillness and emptiness that is punctuated only by the eternal repetition of the jesus prayer citation needed this stage is called the guard of the mind this is a very advanced stage of ascetical and spiritual practice and attempting to accomplish this prematurely especially with psychophysical techniques can cause very serious spiritual and emotional harm to the would be hesychast st theophan the recluse once remarked that bodily postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his youth since instead of gaining the spirit of god people succeeded only in ruining their lungs citation needed the guard of the mind is the practical goal of the hesychast it is the condition in which he remains as a matter of course throughout his day every day until he dies citation needed there is a very great emphasis on humility in the practice of the jesus prayer great cautions being given in the texts about the disaster that will befall the would be hesychast if he proceeds in pride arrogance or conceit it is also assumed in the hesychast texts that the hesychast is a member of the orthodox church in good standing citation needed theosis deification edit main article theosis eastern christian theology theosis is from the guard of the mind that he is raised to contemplation by the grace of god clarification needed the hesychast usually experiences the contemplation of god as light the uncreated light of the theology of st gregory palamas the hesychast when he has by the mercy of god been granted such an experience does not remain in that experience for a very long time there are exceptions see for example the life of st savas the fool for christ 14th century written by st philotheos kokkinos 14th century but he returns to earth and continues to practise the guard of the mind citation needed the uncreated light that the hesychast experiences is identified with the holy spirit experiences of the uncreated light are allied to the acquisition of the holy spirit notable accounts of encounters with the holy spirit in this fashion are found in st symeon the new theologian s account of the illumination of george considered a pseudonym of st symeon himself in the conversation with motovilov in the life of st seraphim of sarov 1759 1833 and more recently in the reminiscences of elder porphyrios bairaktaris of kafsokalivia wounded by love pp 27 31 prelest edit orthodox tradition warns against seeking ecstasy as an end in itself hesychasm is a traditional complex of ascetical practices embedded in the doctrine and practice of the orthodox church and intended to purify the member of the orthodox church and to make him ready for an encounter with god that comes to him when and if god wants through god s grace the goal is to acquire through purification and grace the holy spirit and salvation any ecstatic states or other unusual phenomena that may occur in the course of hesychast practice are considered secondary and unimportant even quite dangerous moreover seeking unusual spiritual experiences can itself cause great harm ruining the soul and the mind of the seeker such a seeking after spiritual experiences can lead to spiritual delusion ru prelest gr plani the antonym of sobriety in which a person believes himself or herself to be a saint has hallucinations in which he or she sees angels christ etc this state of spiritual delusion is in a superficial egotistical way pleasurable but can lead to madness and suicide and according to the hesychast fathers makes salvation impossible citation needed liturgy and sacraments edit hesychasts fully participate in the liturgical and sacramental life of the orthodox church including the daily cycle of liturgical prayer of the divine office and the divine liturgy however hesychasts who are living as hermits might...