The Jesus Prayer: Method
By Archimandrite Sophrony
I propose to devote this chapter to
setting out as briefly as possible the more important aspects of the Jesus
Prayer and the commonsense views regarding this great culture of the heart that
I met with on the Holy Mountain.
Year after year monks repeat the
prayer with their lips, without trying by any artificial means to join mind and
heart. Their attention is concentrated on harmonizing their life with the
commandments of Christ. According to ancient tradition mind unites with heart
through Divine action when the monk continues in the ascetic feat of obedience
and abstinence; when the mind, the heart and the very body of the 'old man' to
a sufficient degree are freed from the dominion over them of sin; when the body
becomes worthy to be 'the temple of the Holy Ghost' (cf. Rom. 6. 11-14).
However, both early and present-day teachers occasionally permit recourse to a
technical method of bringing the mind down into the heart. To do this, the
monk, having suitably settled his body, pronounces the prayer with his head
inclined on his chest, breathing in at the words 'Lord Jesus Christ, (Son of
God)' and breathing out to the words 'have mercy upon me (a sinner)'. During
inhalation the attention at first follows the movement of the air breathed in
as far as the upper part of the heart. In this manner concentration can soon be
preserved without wandering, and the mind stands side by side with the heart,
or even enters within it. This method eventually enables the mind to see, not
the physical heart but that which is happening within it-the feelings that
creep in and the mental images that approach from without. With this
experience, the monk acquires the ability to feel his heart, and to continue
with his attention centered in the heart without further recourse to any psychosomatic
technique.
True Prayer Comes Through Faith and
Repentance
This procedure can assist the beginner to understand where his inner attention
should be stayed during prayer and, as a rule, at all other times, too.
Nevertheless, true prayer is not to be achieved thus. True prayer comes
exclusively through faith and repentance accepted as the only foundation.
The danger of psycho-technics is that not a few attribute too great
significance to method qua method. In order to avoid such deformation the beginner
should follow another practice which, though considerably slower, is
incomparably better and more wholesome to fix the attention on the Name of
Christ and on the words of the prayer. When contrition for sin reaches a
certain level the mind naturally heeds the heart.
The Complete Formula
The complete formula of the Jesus Prayer runs like this: Lord, Jesus Christ,
Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner, and it is this set form that is
recommended. In the first half of the prayer we profess Christ-God made flesh
for our salvation. In the second we affirm our fallen state, our sinfulness,
our redemption. The conjunction of dogmatic confession with repentance makes
the content of the prayer more comprehensive.
Stages of Development
It is possible to establish a certain sequence in the development of this
prayer.
...First,
it is a verbal matter: we say the prayer with our lips
while trying to concentrate our attention on the Name and the words.
...Next, we no longer move our lips but pronounce the Name of Jesus Christ,
and what follows after, in our minds, mentally.
...In the third stage mind and heart combine to act together: the
attention of the mind is centered in the heart and the prayer said there.
...Fourthly, the prayer becomes self-propelling. This happens when the
prayer is confirmed in the heart and, with no especial effort on our part,
continues there, where the mind is concentrated.
...Finally, the prayer, so full of blessing, starts to act like a gentle
flame within us, as inspiration from on High, rejoicing the heart with a
sensation of divine love and delighting the mind in spiritual contemplation.
This last state is sometimes accompanied by a vision of Light.
Go step by step
A gradual ascent into prayer is the most trustworthy. The beginner who
would embark on the struggle is usually recommended to start with the first
step, verbal prayer, until body, tongue, brain and heart assimilate it. The
time that this takes varies. The more earnest the repentance, the shorter the
road.
The practice of mental prayer may
for a while be associated with the hesychastic method-in other words, it may
take the form of rhythmic or a-rhythmic articulation of the prayer as described
above, by breathing in during the first half and breathing out during the second
part. This can be genuinely helpful if one does not lose sight of the fact that
every invocation of the Name of Christ must be inseparably coupled with a
consciousness of Christ Himself. The Name must not be detached from the
Person of God, lest prayer be reduced to a technical exercise and so contravene
the commandment, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' (EX.
20.7; Deut. 5.11).
Attention of Mind gained
When the attention of the mind is fixed in the heart it is possible to control
what happens in the heart, and the battle against the passions assumes a
rational character. The enemy is recognized and can be driven off by the power
of the Name of Christ. With this ascetic feat the heart becomes so highly
sensitive, so discerning, that eventually when praying for anyone the heart can
tell almost at once the state of the person prayed for. Thus the transition
takes place from mental prayer to prayer of the mind and heart, which may be
followed by the gift of prayer that proceeds of itself.
Do Not Hurry
We try to stand before God with the whole of our being. Invocation of the Name
of God the Savior, uttered in the fear of God, together with a constant effort
to live in accordance with the commandments,, little by little leads to a
blessed fusion of all our powers. We must never seek to hurry in our ascetic
striving. It. is essential to discard any idea of achieving the maximum in the
shortest possible time. God does not force us but neither can we compel Him to
anything whatsoever. Results obtained by artificial means do not last long and,
more importantly, do not unite our spirit with the Spirit of the Living God.
It's a Long Path
In the atmosphere of the world today prayer requires super human courage. The
whole ensemble of natural energies is in opposition. To hold on to prayer
without distraction signals victory on every level of existence. The way is
long and thorny but there comes a moment when a heavenly ray pierces the dark
obscurity, to make an opening through which can be glimpsed the source of the
eternal Divine Light. The Jesus Prayer assumes a meta-cosmic dimension. St John
the Divine asserts that in the world to come our deification will achieve
plenitude since 'we shall see Him as He is'. 'And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure ... Whosoever abideth in him
sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him' (cf. 1John
3.2,3,6). In order in Christ's Name to receive forgiveness of sins and the
promise of the Father we must strive to dwell on His Name 'until we be endued
with power from on high' (cf. Luke24-49).
In advising against being carried
away by artificial practices such as transcendental meditation I am but
repeating the age-old message of the Church, as expressed by St Paul: 'Exercise
thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but
godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now
is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust
in the living God, who is the Savior of all men' (1Tim. 4.7-10)
It's Not Like Transcendental
Meditation
The way of the fathers requires firm faith and long patience", whereas our
contemporaries want to seize every spiritual gift, including even direct
contemplation of the Absolute God, by force and speedily, and will often draw a
parallel between prayer in the Name of Jesus and yoga or transcendental
meditation and the like. I must stress the danger of such errors-the danger of
looking upon prayer as one of the simplest and easiest 'technical' means
leading to immediate unity with God. It is imperative to draw a very definite
line between the Jesus Prayer and every other ascetic theory. He is deluded who
endeavors to divest himself mentally of all that is transitory and relative in
order to cross some invisible threshold, to realize his eternal origin, his
identity with the Source of all that exists; in order to return and merge with
Him, the Nameless transpersonal Absolute. Such exercises have enabled many to
rise to supra-rational contemplation of being; to experience a certain mystical
trepidation; to know the state of silence of the mind, when mind goes beyond
the boundaries of time and space. In such-like states man may feel the
peacefulness of being withdrawn from the continually changing phenomena of the
visible world; may even have a certain experience of eternity. But the God of
Truth, the Living God, is not in all this. It is man's own beauty, created in
the image of God, that is contemplated and seen as Divinity, whereas he himself
still continues within the confines of his creatureliness. This is a vastly
important concern. The tragedy of the matter lies in the fact that man sees a
mirage which, in his longing for eternal life, he mistakes for a genuine oasis.
This impersonal form of ascetics leads finally to an assertion of divine
principle in the very nature of man. Man is then drawn to the idea of
self-deification-the cause of the original fall. The man who is blinded by the
imaginary majesty of what he contemplates has in fact set his foot on the path
to self-destruction. He has discarded the revelation of a Personal God. He
finds the principle of the Person-Hypostasis a limiting one, unworthy of the
Absolute. He tries to strip himself of like limitations and return to the state
which he imagines has belonged to him since before his coming into this world.
This movement into the depths of his own being is nothing else but attraction
towards the non-being from which we were called by the will of the Creator.
Knowledge of Personal God
The true Creator disclosed Himself to us as a Personal Absolute. The whole of
our Christian life is based on knowledge of God, the First and the Last, Whose
Name is I AM. Our prayer must always be personal, face to Face. He created us
to be joined in His Divine Being, without destroying our personal character. It
is this form of immortality that was promised to us by Christ. Like St Paul we
would not 'be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up
of life'. For this did God create us and 'hath given unto us the earnest of the
Spirit' (2 Cor. 5.4,5).
Personal immortality is achieved
through victory over the world
- a mighty task. The Lord said, 'Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world'
(John 10. 3 3), and we know that the victory was not an easy one. 'Beware of
false prophets ... Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it' (Matt. 7.13-115).
Wherein lies destruction? In that
people depart from the Living God.
To believe in Christ one must have
either the simplicity of little children - 'Except ye be converted and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt.
18.3)-or else, like St Paul, be fools for Christ's sake. 'We are fools for
Christ's sake ... we are weak ... we are despised ... we are made as the filth
of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day' (1 Cor.
4. 10, 13). However, 'other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 3 .11). ‘Wherefore I beseech you, be ye
followers of me' (1 Cor. 4. 16). In the Christian experience cosmic
consciousness comes from prayer like Christ's Gethsemane prayer, not as the
result of abstract philosophical cogitations.
When the Very God reveals Himself in
a vision of Uncreated Light, man naturally loses every desire to merge into a
transpersonal Absolute. Knowledge which is imbued with life (as opposed to
abstract knowledge) can in no wise be confined to the intellect: there must be
a real union with the act of Being. This is achieved through love: 'Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ... and with all thy mind' (Matt.
22.37). The commandment bids us love. Therefore love is not something given
to us: it must be acquired by an effort made of our own free will. The
injunction is addressed first to the heart as the spiritual center of the
individual. Mind is only one of the energies of the human 1. Love begins in the
heart, and the mind is confronted with a new interior event and contemplates
Being in the Light of Divine love.
A Difficult Task
There is no ascetic feat more difficult, more painful, than the effort to draw
close to God, Who is Love (cf. i John 4.8, 16). Our inner climate varies almost
from day to day: now we are troubled because we do not understand what is
happening about us; now inspired by a new flash of knowledge. The Name Jesus
speaks to us of the extreme manifestation of the Father's love for us (cf.John
3.16). In proportion as the image of Christ becomes ever more sacred to us, and
His word is perceived as creative energy, so a marvelous peace floods the soul
while a luminous aura envelops heart and head. Our attention may hold steady.
Sometimes we continue thus, as if it were a perfectly normal state to be in,
not recognizing that it is a gift from on High. For the most part we only
realize this union of mind with heart when it is interrupted.
In the Man Christ Jesus 'dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' (Col. 2.9). in Him there is not
only God but the whole human race. When we pronounce the Name Jesus Christ we
place ourselves before the plenitude both of Divine Being and created being. We
long to make His life our life; to have Him take His abode in us. In this lies
the meaning of deification. But Adam's natural longing for deification at the
very outset took a wrong turning which led to a terrible deviation. His
spiritual vision was insufficiently established in Truth.
Our life can become holy in all
respects only when true knowledge of its metaphysical basis is coupled with
perfect love towards God and our fellow-men.
When we firmly believe that we are the creation of God the Primordial Being, it
will be obvious that there is no possible deification for us outside the
Trinity. If we recognize that in its ontology all human nature is one, then for
the sake of the unity of this nature we shall strive to make love for our
neighbor part of our being.
Our most dire enemy is pride. Its power is immense. Pride saps our every aspiration, vitiates
our every endeavor. Most of us fall prey to its insinuations. The proud man
wants to dominate, to impose his own will on others; and so conflict arises
between brethren. The pyramid of inequality is contrary to revelation
concerning the Holy Trinity in Whom there is no greater, no lesser; where each
Person possesses absolute plenitude of Divine Being.
The Kingdom of Christ is founded on
the principle that whosoever would be first should be the servant of all (cf.
Mark 9.3 5). The man who humbles himself shall be raised up, and vice versa: he
who exalts himself shall be brought low. In our struggle for prayer we shall
cleanse our minds and hearts from any urge to prevail over our brother. Lust
for power is death to the soul. People are lured by the grandeur of power but
they forget that 'that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
in the sight of God' (Matt. 16.15). Pride incites us to criticize, even
scorn our weaker brethren; but the Lord warned us to 'take heed that we
despise not one of these little ones' (cf. Matt. i8.io). If we give in to
pride all our practice of the Jesus Prayer will be but profanation of His Name.
'He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He
walked' (1 John2.6). He who verily loves Christ will devote his whole
strength to obeying His word. I stress this because it is our actual method for
learning to pray. This, and not any psychosomatic techniques, is the right way.
Not a Christine Yoga
I have lingered on the dogmatic justification for the Jesus Prayer largely
because in the last decade or so the practice of this prayer has been distorted
into a so-called 'Christian yoga' and mistaken for 'transcendental meditation'.
Every culture, not only every religious culture, is concerned with ascetic
exercises. If a certain similarity either in their practice or their outward
manifestations, or even their mystical formulation, can be discerned, that does
not at all imply that they are alike fundamentally. Outwardly similar
situations can be vastly different in inner content.
When we contemplate Divine wisdom in
the beauty of the created world, we are at the same time attracted still more
strongly by the imperishable beauty of Divine Being as revealed to us by Christ.
The Gospel for us is Divine Self-Revelation. In our yearning to make the Gospel
word the substance of our whole being we free ourselves by the power of God
from the domination of passions. Jesus is the one and only Savior in the
true sense of the word. Christian prayer is effected by the constant invocation
of His Name: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy upon us and
upon Thy world.
Though prayer in the Name of Jesus
in its ultimate realization unites man with Christ fully, the human hypostasis
is not obliterated, is not lost in Divine Being like a drop of water in the
ocean. 'I am the light of the world ... I am the truth and the life' (John
8.12; 14.6). For the Christian-Being, Truth,'Life are not 'what' but 'who'.
Where there is no personal form of being, there is no living form either. Where
in general there is no life, neither is there good or evil; light or darkness. 'Without
him was not anything made that was made. In him was life' (John 1:3).
When contemplation of Uncreated
Light is allied to invocation of the Name of Christ, the significance of this
Name as 'the kingdom of God come with power' (Mark 9.1) is made particularly
clear, and the spirit of man hears the voice of the Father: 'This is my beloved
Son' (Mark 9.7). Christ in Himself showed us the Father: 'he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father' (John 14:9). Now we know the Father in the same measure
as we have known the Son. 'I and my Father are one' (John 10.30). And the
Father bears witness to His Son. We therefore pray, 90 Son of God, save us and
Thy world.'
To acquire prayer is to acquire
eternity. When the body lies dying, the cry
'Jesus Christ' becomes the garment of the soul; when the brain no longer
functions and other prayers are difficult to remember, in the light of the
divine knowledge that proceeds from the Name our spirit will rise into life
incorruptible.
From His Life is Mine by Archimandrite
Sophrony, trans. Rosemary Edmonds,St. Valdimir Seminary Press, pp 112-120
