Mantra and Christianity

¢·
 MANTRs.A & CHRISTIANITY

Like a stream, the living tradition of· mantra

meditation flows from the Source and can be followed back to

the Source. Depending on the terrain, it runs swift and straight

or meanders, slowing so much in spots that it appears almost

stagnant. In times of thought it might disappear altogether

somewhere along its course, only to reemerge, first as a trickle

then as a cascade when the rains return.

Early in the first millennium the stream of mantra

meditation divided and flowed into two seemingly distinct

channels - the Eastern branch running clear and stro~g in the

bed carved out by the Vedic tradition, its course easily traceable

down to the present. The western branch, flowing through

markedly different terrain, is harder to follow - it has been

completely lost to view for centuries at a time. Most people raised

as Christians in the West, today have never encountered the

practice of mantra meditation in their own tradition. In the latter

half of the 20 th Century, however, a Benedictine monk, Father

.,~-- John Main, came to realize that in addition to being an Eastern

practice, mantra meditation is deeply rooted in the Christian

tradition as well.

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 The story of how this came about is the story of the

resilience of a living tradition · - how it flows unceasingly,

bubbling up through the culture of the times, speaking through

whatever means are available, crossing the boundaries of time

and place to inspire and nourish those who have ears to hear

and eyes to see.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was

with God, and the word was God". So begins the Gospel of John,

echoing what both the Vedic tradition and the Judeo-Christian

-·
tradition recognize as a fundamental truth : there is an aspect of

language - the word- that is the manifestation of Absolute Truth

'--r or God, and that sacred word is the fundamental force behind

the manifestation of the universe. Christians see this Genesis,

when God speaks formlessness into manifest form '("Let there be

light") as well as in the mystic tradition of the Kabbalah as the

word unfolds and condenses in the form of the 22 phonemes of

the Hebrew language. And we catch a glimpse of it again in the

New Testament when Christ says "Now you are· clean through

the word which I have spoken unto you (John 15:3)

According to Vedic tradition, the world manifests

from the word, exists in the word, and dissolves again into the
word. The world is a source of misery to those who are ignorant

of the word, and a source of joy to those who have penetrated the

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 mystery. In g1v1ng final intructions to his successor, Guru

Goraknath said: "The word is the lock and the word is the key.

An awakened word received from an awakened master is the

only way to awaken the dormant word in the heart of the

sleeping disciple. Upon introducing the word, the gross articulate

word merges into the eternal word" (Gorakhbani 21) ..

Here we come upon one of the central tenets ~-f the

mantra tradition - the awakened word is sown in the heart of a

qualified student by an awakened master.

This understanding- is echoed in the New Testament

when, while preaching to _the multitude, Jesus recounts the

parable of the rower: When the farmer goes out to sow his seed,

some falls beside the road and is eaten by birds, some falls on

rocky ground and sprouts only to wither as soon as the run

comes out because it is not rooted: still other seeds fall among

thorns and are choked as they grow and so yield nothing. Only

seeds that fall on fertile ground take root, grow, increase, and

yield a crop, "producing thirty, sixty and a hundred fold" (Mark

4: 3-8).

As soon as Jesus is alone with his disciples, he

~ explains that he teaches in parables to the multitudes, but he

speaks more directly, top the chosen few. The word is the seed

and students are the soil. When the word falls on those who are

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beside the road, Satan comes and takes it away: when i~ falls on

the rocky soil of those who "have no firm root in themselves but

are only temporary", they receive it with joy yet fall away at the

first s~gn of affliction. Those caught up with "the worries of the

world" receive the word only to allow if to be choked by'' the

deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things". Only

those who have made of themselves fertile ground" hear the word

and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty and hundred fold"

(Mark 4: 14-20).

THUS, IF IT IS TO YIELD ITS FRUIT, THE WORD

MUST BE RECEIVED, RETAINED, AND NOURISHED.

The sages of the Vedic tradition set forth a precise

method for doing this: THE SUSTAINED AND SYSTEMATIC

PRACTICE OF MANTRA MEDITATION. What is more, they

outline a process by which a student is prepared to receive and

retain the word (mantra) through the disciplines of purification,

one-pointedness, and surrender to God. In the Vedic tradition

those practice have been passed down from Master to student in

an unbroken chain for millennia and are documented in

countless Sanskrit scriptures. In the Christian tradition the

practice was passed from master to disciple in the first

millennium but the chain of oral tradition was eventually broken

and the scriptures were translated from language to language.

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 The practices that survived :were preserved and transmitted

through the writings of various adepts, most notably, the early

Desert Fathers.

These centuries after Christ we find these fathers in

the Egyptian desert. Just as w,estern seekers come to India in

search of a teacher so ardent seekers in the Fourth century went

to the Egyptian desert, for it was here that the most famous and

accomplished spiritual seekers of the time were to be found.

Impelled by a tremendous love for God, these early Christians

roamed the deserts of Egypt- baking in the shimmering heat by

day and shivering through the frigid nights- finding their way to

'---r solitary hermits, seeking to benefit from the experience of their

elders and to learn from those who had before.

In 1955 man called Douglas and was later tn become

Father John Main was posted to Kuala Lumpur as a juniour

memb~r of the British Foreign service. In the course of his duties

he was sent to deliver a photograph of the Governor to the head

of an orphanage on the out skirts of the city. This was Swami

Satyanand, a disciple of Raman Maharishi, and had spent

several years practicising the mantra and meditating. As Maine

reports in 'The Gethsemane Talks', the two men fell into

conversation and the talk turned to meditation and prayer.

Impressed by the Swami's aura of 'peacefulness and calm

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 wisdom", Main asked him to accept him as a pupil and teach

him to meditate. The swami agreed, saying "To meditate you.

must become silent. You must be still. And you must

concentrate. In our tradition we know one way in which you can

arrive at stillness that concentration, we use a word that we call
'mantra'.

Swami Satyanand instructed Main to meditate for 30

minutes morning and evening. During the 18 months ~e was a

Kuala Lumpur Main visited the Swami twice a week and the two

would· meditate together. As he writes" I would often ask the

swami 'How long will it take for me to achieve enlightenment?"

'-1'
But the swami would either ignore my crassness or else would

reply with the words th~t really sum up his teaching and

wisdom" "Say your mantra". In all those 18 months this was the

essential core of everything he had to say: "Say your mantra".

When he returned to Ireland, Main continued to

meditate, and gradually his morning and evening practice

became the real axis' of his days. Wanting to build his life

around his practice, eventually he joined the Benedictine order.

But he was in for a shock- when he told his novice master what

,~ - he had learned about meditation, from the Indian tradition, that

man was horrified and told him to give it up and come back to

the Christian way of prayer. Having taken a vow of obedience

QQ
and being a man who took his vows seriously, he complied,

entering what he describes as a long period in the desert. His

deeply sustaining practice of meditation was now gone,· and for

almost 20 years Father John was sustained instead by

obedience, which he described as the foundation of his life as a

monk.

Then in the late sixties Father John became head

master of Sr. Anselm's School in washing ton DC and during

this, the busiest period of his monastic life, a young American

who had been the round of Ashrams and zendes came to the

monastery seeking teachings on Christian mysticism. Father

John, whose time was consumed with administrative chores,

gave him Augustine Baker's "Holy wisdom', hoping it would keep

the young man occupied for a while. But to his amazement the

student returned after a couple of days, brimmig with such

enthusiasm for what he had read that Father John began to pore

over the volume with him. As the two studied together, Father

John realized that this 16th Century monk, Baker, h ad an

'intuitive understanding of the mantra". Baker led Father John

Ma in back to Cassian, and in reading conferences IX and X he

recognized the practice given to him by Swami Satyanand many

years before.

QQ
 When a disciple of Father John was asked if it was

literally the same mantra, he said" It was it the same mantra in

the sense that it contained th,.e same words, but when Cassian

syas 'Take this verse and repeat it continuously in the heart

until molded by the constant use of this single verse you will

come with ready case to purity of heart and poverty of spirit", he

recognised it as a specific, concrete practice, like the one he had

learned from his teacher of Malaya. And John Main saw that

Mantra indeed was part of the Christian tradition - Cassian said

it was an ancient tradition even in his time, going back to the

fathers of the church.

So ·he found this ancient Christian practice of pure

prayer described as in terms of Christian theology - poverty of

spirit, purity of heart, and union with the prayer of Christ - in

what the Desert Fathers call the prayer of fire".

And so Father John returned to mantra meditation -

and this time the Spirit led him quite deep in a very short time.
"And he was uniquely situated to see the tradition as a universal

one of great relevance and urgency for both western society and

for the Church.

Father Lawrence writes in 'Light Within', " John Main

began teaching meditation in 1976 after a short stay at Thomas

Merton's hermitage and after giving three conferences to the

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 monks of Gethsemane Abbey; This led to the rapid, intense and

yet powerfully purposeful mission of his last yea~s, from the

~ meditation centre at his monastery he founded in Montreal, and

now the world wide community of meditation groups".

John Main died in 1982, and since then Father

Lawrence has been spreading the teaching of Christian

meditation around the world as the head of world community for

Christian Meditation. The practice as given by Father John and

passed on by Father Lawrence is simple.

"Sit down; sit still, close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed

·-{ but alert. Silently, interiorly begin to say a single word. We

recommend the prayer phrase, 'Maranatha'. Recite it as four

syllables of equal length. Listen to it as you say it, gently but

continuously. Do not think or imagine anything - spiritual or

otherwise. If thoughts and images come these are distractions at

the time of meditation, so keep returning to the simple work of

saying the word. Meditate each morning and evening for between

20 to 30 minutes"

Through this simple practice Christians are r.egaining

their long lost birthright - the gift of responding to Jesus call to

,..~ leave the self behind. Instead of talking to God, or petitioning

God, or even thinking of God, Christian meditators are

discovering the art of following the biblical in function,' Be still,

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and know that I am God" (Psalm 46: 1 O)'. The tremendous

response to Father John and Father Lawrence as embodied in

"The world Community for Christian Meditation - not only by

,·

Catholics but also by Protestants and by those with no formal

religious background - bears witness to the power of practicising.

what Father Lawrence calls "the incarnation of prayer''.

In the ancient Vedic tradition the true form of mantra

1s not in the letters that can be written or the sound we hear

when the word is articulated. Rather, the essence of a mantra is

'nada' (pure, unstruck eternal sound). In the beginning nada was

the word that was with God, and the word that was God. It is the

source of all mantras and their true forms.

In the Vedic tradition every mantra was revealed to a

sage who was in a stage of pure spiritual absorption (sama dhi)

and passed down from master to student in an unbroken lineage

for power to lead one who meditates on them to the same state of

consciousness attained by the sage to whom the mantra was

first revealed. Mantras cannot be translated - it is the sound it

self that purifies our awareness and leads it inward. Thus in the

yoga tradition the object of meditation is infinitely more

important than technique, a nd this is one reason why a yoga

practitioner never chooses his or her qwn mantra but accepts it

as a gift from the lineage of awakened m a sters.

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 "The western tradition does not have this same

understanding, although it must have been there in the

j.. beginning when the living stream of mantra practice was flowing

closer to its source. THE BREAK IN THE CHAIN OF ORAL

TRANSMISSION, THE OBSESSION WITH ORTHODOXY AS

DEFINED BY THE INSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH WITH THE

ATTENDANT PRACTICE OF EDITIONS AND CENSORING

SACRED TEXTS (AND IN MANY CASES OBLITERATING THEM)

PREVENTS US FROM FINDING THE ORIGINAL MANTRAS, IF

SUCH THERE WERE. We dont even know how much of the little

that has survived is intact. Evagrius was condemned by the

•--/ second council of Constantinople in 533. Cassian and the other

monks who followed Evagrivs' teachings were expelled from the

desert in the year 400 as heretics, and Cassian himself was

condemned by the Council of orange in 529."* 1

The Jesus Prayer :

The method known as the Jesus Prayer consists of

simple, invariable formula" lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have

mercy upon me" repeated again and again. Ideally, in learning,

the prayer, the aspirant approaches a 'geront' or 'startez' (titles

~- for a spiritual advisor) for the proper instructions. The

1
The long Journey Home' & Mantra Found it's way Back to Christianity-° Deborah
willoughby in 'yoga International' magazine May 2000. Jssue no. 53).

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 inspiration for the formula is grounded in the Bible and the

meditations-of the Green Fathers. In 1351 an Orthodex Council

officially approved the doctrinal justification for the prayer. The

ecclesi_astical · achievement was largely due to the defending

efforts of a fourteenth century monk, Gregory Palamas of Athos

who later died as· the Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1359. The

written material required for the the practice of the prayer was

included in the 'Philokalia' "the love of spiritual beauty", codified

in the eighteenth century.

The purpose of the Jesus Prayer is not merely

ritualistic or devotional. Prayer has always been appreciated by

-f the Christian East as a primary means for growth . in self-

knowledge. In the Jesus Prayer an interior transformation is also

sought that deeds to what th~ Greek Fathers called 'theosis', or

the spiritualization of the personality.

Hesychasm, a spiritual tradition that dates back to

the third century, uses the Jesus Formula as one of its forms of

inner prayer. The Hesychast monks (Hesychast means" the

tranquil one') were especially noted for using this meditation as

the chief means for their spiritual development. They combined

meditation and prayer with breathing techniques as instructed

by the monk Nicephotus the Solitary:

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 "You know, brother, how we breathe: we breathe the

air in and out. On this is based the life of the body and on this

depends its warmth. So sitting down in your cell, collect your

mind, lead it into the path of the breath along which the air

enters in, constrain it to enter the heart together with the

inhaled air, and keep it there. Keep it there, but do not leave it

silent and idle; instead give the following prayer:" Lord Jesus

Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me". Let this be its

constant occupation, never to be abandoned ----- these are the

words of this blessed Father, uttered for the purpose of teaching

the mind, under the influence of this natural method, to

abandon its circling, captivity and dissipation and to return the

attention to itself, and in this way to become one with prayer,

and together with prayer, to descend into the heart and to

remain there forever. *2 For a Christian practicing yoga

this description is not merely similar to, BUT THE S~ME AS

JAPA YOGA. The constant remembrance of a sacred sound,

mantra is commonly referred to as Japa. In yoga there 1s an

ancient science of sound that permits the aspirant to use a ·-

series of syllables for the precise purpose of effecting an internal

change in consciousness. The inherent power of the sacred

·>r- sound, however, is not released in a mechanical way merely by

2
('Kodloubovsky E and Palme, GE H, op. cit. p . 192).

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 its repetition. Preparation of the student, proper intonation of

the sound, and the guidance of a qualified spiritual master make

the practice effective. The geront/ staretz served in the same

capacity for the Hesychasts as does a master teacher in the yoga

tradition - as the germinator of the seed-sound.

There is a certain naivete in the western attitude that

believes one can choose an appropriate mantra for oneself. This

thinking finds its logical extension in the idea that the laws of

Japa ~r meditation are a matter of taste or fashion. It OI_1e is not

satisfied by a particular mantra, why not select another? To their

eventual discouragement, such students will find that unless the

laws of sacred sound are respected their,* 3efforts remain futile.

The Hesychast . method involved the combination of

breathing and mental concentration at a definite area of the

body. The combination of these two factors immediately

identifies the process as being similar to ancient yoga. The

Hesychast practice of converging breath, concentration, and

silent intonation at the heart region is a recognized yogic form of

meditation. We have here an historical event in spirituality which

links these two traditions. Whether these monks were informed

~/ yogis is not the issue. The descriptive facts of their method

3
*A Meeting of Mystic paths: Christianity". Justin O' Brien yes International
Publishers, St. Paul Minnesota, 1996.

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 involve the laws of yoga whether the monks were cognizant of the

tradition or not. Just how far back the monks started their

method of prayer in this manner is difficult to trace, but the

psycho-physical emphasis which facilitates the invocation of the

name of Jesus corresponds to particular aspects of yoga and

allows the ancient science to shed light upon this Christian

method of prayer.

YOGA CONTRIBUTES TO A GREATER

UNDERSTANDING OF THIS METHODICAL PRAYER FROM ITS

OWN LAWS OF CONCENTRATION. In the human body are

definite gland and nerve centres, which, when interiorly focused

upon by the mind, bring into play more subtle alterations of

their energy. The stimulation of a particular area through

breathing and concentration affects a gradual expansion of those

positive qualities associated with the spiritual development of

that area.

For example, 1n the yoga scheme of spiritual

development, when the heart region is properly stimulated, an

increase in the aspirant's ability to love, to order one's emotions,

is awakened. One becomes more sensitive affectively, especially

~ - to concerns of other people. A change of heart, a conversion,

takes place. This change now influences one's vision of reality.

One reverses selfishness. · The personality unfolds with

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 compass10n, leading one into a new level of emotional

integration. In yoga terminology, the stimulation of this heart

center, the 'anahat chakra' purifies ego centrism. The same

result is declared by the Hesychast monks when they speak of

the purified heart being the abode of God. The method involves,

what the Fathers call a 'natural' process. It is a reaction from the

excitement of the senses, silent intonation in rhythm with

breathing and an absorption of concentration upon the heart.

Starting from the human situation of "fallen nature", as

described by the monks, this technique attempts a return or

restoration of one's nature to its original pure state. Some times

accompanied by a feeling of warmth a roundthe physical heart,

the technique gradually leads to an awareness of one's higher

self. *4 THE GOAL OF THE HESYCHAST. THEOSIS

The ultimate goal of the Hesychast method 1s the

participation in divine consciousness. A process of conversion is

undertaken in which attention is reversed from the external,

created reality towards the inner spirit. In this way a return or

ascent inward to a divine status or theosis takes place. THE

METHOD HAS SIMILARITIES WITH PATANJALI'S CLASSICAL

YOGA SYSTEM. 'THE YOGA SUTRAS' Like the Hesychast

writings, designate a bodily and mental regime that gradually

disposes one to greater self-knowledge. The coordinated

4
(A MEETINGS OF MYSTIC PATHS' JUSTIN O'BRIEN P. 54)

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disciplines bring a sense of mastery over human nature,

spontaneously inducing a calmness of spirit that spreads

throughout the body-mind complex. Amid that profound peace,

the Hesychast and the yogi intuit their real nature.

As a result of poor living habits, modern •people's

constitution is weakened, their emotions embarrass them and

their thinking is disoriented. Prone to grandiose illusions,

addictions, and selfishness, their inflated egos obscure their real

nature. Hesychasm purposes an orgasmic connection between

body, mind and spirit. By employing a psychosomatic method

including posture, breathing attitude, and concentration, human

nature is rehabilitated into full spiritual actuality. For this a

conversion to theosis, the aspirant must struggle with two stages

of inner development called 'praxis' and 'theoria'.

'Praxis': For the Hesychast, praxis' is similar to the

moral code of yoga, the 'yamas' and niyams'. The comparable

asceticism aims at rectifying the dissipation of the senses and

egotistical tendencies. Daily practice in bringing the senses and

imagination under more rational direction permits fewer and

fewer superfluous images and thoughts to distract

concentration. In this way 'on krateia', mastery of self, emerges.

The Hesychasts insist that the experience of divine existence

remains outside as long as one is unable to deal effectively with

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one's thoughts and pass10ns. Patanjali likewise remarks that

unless one controls the fluctuations of the bodymind complex,

one's essential nature remains obscured.

"YOGA IS THE CONTROL OF THE MODIFICATIONS

OF THE MIND. THEN THE SEER IS ESTABLISHED IN HIS OWN

ESSENTIAL AND FUNDAMENTAL NATURE".

THEORIA:

The second phase of inner development results from

the virtuous efforts of 'praxis'. The purifying struggle to reorder

the bodily and mental faculties throws more light upon the

nature of the world. The inner rectifying of the appetites, along

with restrain of egoism, effects a subjective cleaning, as it were,

that allows one to be more objective. Reality is no longer a matter

of mere personal preferences. The tempering of the · senses

produces a correcting effect upon the mental faculties. Self-

deception about practical living wanes. One contemplates

(theoria) the entire cosmos without imputing personal designs.

Balance returns. The created world is seen with its· relative

merits. The purgative virtues, like yoga practices, effect

discrimination. The Hesychast lives with what the yogi calls

"meditation in action" - being in the world but not deceived

about its nature.

ioo
 According to St. Maximus, 'Puraxis' purifies the

intellect and body. The reintegration of the intellect and

emotions leaves the power of intelligence keenly receptive. No

longer dominated by the desecent towards the material world,

one's cleared intelligence now discerns the "divine wisdom

invisibly contained in creatures". Purgation has increased

sensitivity enabling one to recover the higher intuitive approach

to reality. Instead of relying on the limited frame work of his

rational faculty, he knows the external world in a superior way

from within.

Both Hesychasm and yoga describe an applied

psychology for transforming human nature into its full actuality.

The validity of either tradition lies not in authoritative

declarations, however but in the personal trial of the methods'

intrinsic worth. Both traditions also respect the various levels of

the body mind complex. While the terminology can be

interchanged in either methodology, the Hesychast descriptions

retain a religious symbolism and are less detailed in their

presentation of the of the psychological stages than those of the

yoga sutras'. The traditions agree from the start that the

students emphasis is on "entstasy", a reentering into oneself, as

opposed to "ecstasy", the energetic moving outward from one self

to things. Both understand that the preliminary ascetic practices

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 lead to the interiorization of the mind's faculties, culminating in

· an expansion of consciousness.

But traditions respect the fundamental life principle

as it functions· in the entire body-mind complex.

PRANAYAM: Since breathing and the heart's action

are indispensable for -life, both methods incorporate these facts

of animation. The intrinsic relationship between these two vital

functions, however, is the basis for more than a matter of

ordinary physiology. While breath gives life to the body, the

Hesychast considers the body as "the temple of the spirit"9 the

exact phase the yogic sages use in their 'Sri vidya' tradition. The

Hesychast accepts ~ependence between breathing and the

infusion of the life spirit or 'pneuma;: air serves as a vehicle for

vitality to enter into the body. From the spiritual point '?f view,

the Hesychast sees 'pneuma', or the divine life breath, entering

into one and making one a holy temple. Already manifesting

God's image, one becomes and continues to be enlivened with

God's life force through the action of breathing.

The union of· mind and heart in Hesychasm

unexpectedly concurs with the meaning of yoga - the science of

~-- the unification of one's powers for one's full realization. The

heart region is only one of the several areas available to express

various dimensions of one's personality. Although not described

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in the Hesychast literature, these other centres 5 of concentration

which are associated with definite nerve ganglia thI_"oughout the

body are elaborated in the yoga scriptures. Each of these seven

major centres, called 'chakras', are responsible for characteristic

personality development. The unfoldment of personality or

spiritual restoration proceeds in either tradition from bodily

disciplines and social virtues to inward concentration.

The early Christian communities symbolized their

various practices in religion language that relied upon a close

resemblance to the Hebrew culture and biblical terms. Although

the Gospels were the Christians constant resource for clarifying

their aim, the natural explanation of becoming Christ like, the

spiritual ascent or theosis, can be equivalently interpreted from

the holistic understanding provided by the yoga tradition.

Both traditions assert the fundamental soundnes·s of

human nature.

Sr. Simeon remarked that human deification is not a

supernatural addition to mundane nature; theosis does not

make one into a two-tiered being of nature plus supernatu_re.

Rather, the monk insisted, beneath ego and emotional cravings,

which in Jure and blind one, lies a pure nature which "subsists

fully, just as it was created".

5
Cuttat, Jacques Albert. 'The Encounter of Religions' (New york Desclie Company) 1960; p. 102.

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 The Hesychasts do not speak of attaining something

new but of recovering an inheritance already _intrinsically

possessed: the kingdom of heaven which lies within us. In order

to discover this hidden kingdom, one must enter within and ·

establish an interiorization of consciousness which is referred to

as an."unknowing" or 'agnosia'. Unknowing does not imply a

condition of ignorance, but rather an unblemished awareness of

reality without vested interests. One must leave behind any

preference for the rational mode of uniting with the objects of

knowledge. One must actively seek an inward retraction from

egotistical conceptualizations. *6

1 The ego's liking for conceptualizing reality, even God,

forms the last temptation. From this pervasive tendency, the ego

must be purified. As one interiorizes, the effort to objectify what

the mind most wants to idealize - namely God - must also be

abandoned.

The divine essence is not an idea. Neither is the

experience of divine life. Unlike the cosmos, God's intelligibility

can never qualify as an object of rational knowledge.

"The prayer of the heart must sweep away all

}.,..,.. imagination, both proper and improper -------------- as wax melts

6 * cuttat op. Cit, p. 99.

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 in the fire, so does imagination disperse and disappear under the

action of pure prayer through simple, imageless cleaving of the

~ind to God -----------------' since every thought enters the heart

through imaging something sensory ---------------- so the light of

the deity begins to illumine the mind when it is freed of

everything and totally empty of form--------------- as the lord

dwells not in temples built by human hands, neither does he

dwell in any imaginings or mental concepts".* 7

One finds in 'The Book of Privy counseling' such

passages as:

"Reject all thoughts ----------- see that nothing

remains in your conscious mind save a naked intent stretching

out toward God -------------- leave your thought quite naked,

your affection uninvolved and your self simply as you are ---------
II

The Flemish monk Jan van Ruys broeckom 'The

Adornment of the spiritual Marriage" remarked that:

"Enlightened men are, with a free spirit, lifted above

reason into a bare and imageless vision wherein lies the eternal

7 * Kodloubovsky, E. and Palmer, G.E:H. op., cir., p. 33. ·

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 indrawing summons of the divine unity; and with an imageless

and bare understanding they reach the summit of their spirits."

John of the Cross states that

"The soul must be empties of all these imagined

forms, figures and images, and it must remain in darkness in

respect to these internal senses _if it is to attain divine unio". 8

The student on the path must be alerted, therefore, to

conceptual straps, less he misidentify the level of ideas about

God with the experiential ideas about God with the experiential

intuitive knowledge of God. In their writings, the monks Callistus

and Ignitions note:

"Since every though enters the heart through

r imagining something sensory, so the light of the Deity begins to

t illuminate the mind when it is freed of everything and totally

empty of form------

In it's supreme conclusion, the Hesychast path

striking similar to yoga. The positive unknowing or naked

intellect is achieved through a process of stilling the mind.

Dissociated from the slightest mental activity, sub conscious or

t-' conscious, one breathes in undisturbed equanimity. An inner

purification that exceeds all descriptions reigns. In the

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 undisturbed being of pure awareness without an object, the
I
Hesychast and the yogi realize their absolute nature. Reversing
ij
1
l•
'I the externalization of consciousness, of consciousness, the

vision of the divine becomes one with the vision of self. In perfect

stillness, according to Evagrius, one recovered one's original

state.

8
*Kodloubovsky, E. and Palmer, G.E.H. op., cir., p. 33.

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