ORTHODOX MYSTICISM:TEACHINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS

The "Prayer of the Heart" or the "Jesus Prayer"

Whereas Evagrius and Origen employed the word "mind," Macarian authors used the word "heart," which was not only more Biblical but more in keeping with an appreciation of man's total being. Mystics of the mid-fifth and sixth centuries, such as Diodochus of Photice and St. John Climacus of Mt. Sinai, wrote of the "Prayer of the Heart," using the term "heart" in the biblical and Macarian sense. This "Prayer of the Heart" is also known in Orthodox circles as the "Jesus Prayer," and consists of the sentence "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." This is progressively shortened to the phrase "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy," and ultimately to its shortest form, "Lord, have mercy."

This prayer was prayed by the hesychasts with attention to breathing and posture. The recommended posture was with the head bowed, chin on chest, and eyes fixed on the heart. The obvious parallel between this method of prayer and the technique of Hindu Yoga is interesting, but should not be equated by any means. The rationale behind the breathing and postures are different in that the hesychasts were more frankly hypnotic, i.e., they admittedly used it as an aid to concentration, whereas the yogis embellished the whole procedure with a theory of chakras to justify it.

Breathing and posture were associated with the "Jesus Prayer" by the twelfth century, but it was minimized as a technique to attain mystical experience; the yogis never modified, much less repudiated, their methods. Thus it would seem that the "mystic consciousness" of the hesychasts and the yogis must be distinct, for if the hesychasts had truly valued yogic consciousness, they would have stayed with breathing and posture as an indispensable part of their method, which they did not. This seems to be a distinction of great importance, but the author has never seen it even mentioned, much less expounded.

The "Prayer of the Heart" must be understood as a prayer of the total man. Using the term "heart" in the Hebraic sense, the earliest Christian mystics meant that prayer was not merely a mental activity, nor merely a physical activity, but rather it was both. Prayer was the total response of man to God, and one did not pray merely with the intelligence, or merely with the lips. Through discipline, prayer became a spontaneous offering of the whole being of man. Attention was given to the postures of prayer, whether standing, kneeling, or prostrations. This was not a materialistic view, but a natural and logical expression of their well-thought-out view of the nature of man.

St. Isaac of Syria placed great emphasis on the importance of silence, apparently meaning much more than just abstinence from speech, but rather of a deep tranquillity of the mind resulting in a detachment from earthly things. He also reiterates the belief that temptations are inevitable, and if met with fortitude, a stepping-stone to further spiritual progress:

"First of all let us force ourselves to abstain from speech; then from this abstinence will be born in us something which leads to silence itself. May God grant you the experience of this something, born of this abstinence. But if you embrace this life, I cannot tell you how much light it will bring you.

"When you put on one side of the scales all the works of this life (life of a monk, or a hesychast), and on the other silence, you will find that the latter outweighs the former.... He who forbids his lips to gossip (to speak much), preserves his heart from passions. He who preserves his heart from passions, sees God every hour....

"Temptation is useful for every man. For if temptation was useful to Paul, then 'every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God' (Romans 3:19). Spiritual doers are tempted, that they may add to their riches; the weak, that they may protect themselves from harm; those who are asleep, to prepare them for awakening; those far away, to bring them nearer to God; those who are of God's own household (who dwell in His house), that they may abide in Him with daring.

"A son who is not made to practice (carrying burdens) cannot profitably inherit the riches of his father's house. Therefore God first tempts and oppresses, and then reveals the gift of grace. Glory be to the Lord, leading us to the sweetness of health by bitter remedies!

"No man can pass the time of this education without affliction; and no man, while drinking the poison of temptations, can fail to find it bitter. Yet without them it is impossible to acquire a strong constitution (of the soul). but again, to withstand them is not in our power. How could perishable clay withstand the action of water unless the Divine fire makes it strong? If we submit to the yoke of God's will and prayer with constant desire in humility, then, through patience, we also shall receive everything from our Lord Jesus Christ."

St. Isaac warned that the hesychast's life was not a passive existence, but filled with spiritual "work," that is, with prayers, fastings, vigils, etc.: "Beware of idleness, well beloved, for it conceals certain death; and it is idleness alone that delivers a monk into the hands of enemies striving to capture him. On that day God will condemn us not for psalms nor for omitting prayers, but for the fact that by omitting them we opened the door to the demons. When those latter find a way in, they enter and close the doors of our eyes. Then they fill us tyrannically with all manner of filth which will bring Divine condemnation and most severe punishment.

It is obvious that to these early Christian saints, prayer was not always a quiet meditation, but an emotional experience in which bodily gestures and postures symbolized the soul's anguish over sin, etc.:

"Tears, striking oneself on the head during prayer, casting oneself on the ground produce the sweet warmth of tears in the heart, and with marvelous ecstasy the heart soars to God with the cry: 'My soul thirsteth for Thee, the loving God: When shall I come and appear before God?'... This is Jerusalem and the kingdom of God, concealed within us according to the word of the Lord (Luke 17:21). This region is the cloud of Divine glory which only the pure in heart enter, to contemplate the face of their Lord.

Signs of Religious Ecstasy

The physical signs of religious ecstasy are described in a remarkable passage by St. Isaac: "Love for God is naturally ardent and when it fills a man to overflowing, leads the soul to ecstasy. Therefore the heart of a man who experiences it cannot contain or bear it, but undergoes an extraordinary change according to its own quality and the quality of the love which fills him. Its sensible signs are the following:

"The man's face becomes joyous and aflame and his body is warmed. Shame and fear leave him and he becomes like one in ecstasy. The force which keeps his mind collected flees from him and he is as one out of his mind. A terrible death is for him a joy, and his mental contemplation of heavenly things is never broken. Even when absent, he converses as if present though unseen. His knowledge and sight naturally cease, and he no longer feels his movements among sensory objects. Even if he does something, he is not aware of it, for his mind is on high in contemplation, and his thought always seems to be conversing with someone else.

DESERT FATHERS ON MYSTICISM