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Hesychasm (
Etymology
Hesychasm (Greek: ἡσυχασμός [isixaˈzmos]) derives from the word hesychia (ἡσυχία [isiˈçia]), meaning "stillness, rest, quiet, silence"[2] and hesychazo (ἡσυχάζω [isiˈxazo]) "to keep stillness".
Origins and development
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, a scholar of Eastern Orthodox theology, distinguishes five distinct usages of the term "hesychasm":[3][4]
- "solitary life", a sense, equivalent to "eremiticallife", in which the term is used since the 4th century;
- "the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language";
- "the quest for such union through the Jesus Prayer";
- "a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer", use of which technique can be traced back at least to the 13th century;
- "the theology of St. Gregory Palamas", on which see Palamism.
Early Christian monasticism
Solitary ascetic life
Christian monasticism started with the legalisation of Christianity in the 4th century.
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
The practice of inner prayer, which aims at "inward stillness or silence of the heart,"
The earliest reference to the
Addition of psychosomatic techniques
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
About the year 1337, hesychasm attracted the attention of
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
On the hesychast side, the controversy was taken up by St
In these works, St Gregory Palamas uses a distinction, already found in the 4th century in the works of the
In 1341, the dispute came before a
One of Barlaam's friends,
Introduction in Russia
St
Practice
Acquiring inner stillness
The hesychast interprets Jesus's injunction in the
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.[16]
Stages in hesychast practice
Theosis is obtained by engaging in contemplative prayer resulting from the cultivation of watchfulness (Gk: nepsis). According to the standard ascetic formulation of this process, there are three stages:
- purification,
- illumination, and
- union with God).[note 3]
Katharsis (ascese/purification)
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 to 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.[18]
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.
Much of the literature of hesychasm is occupied with the psychological analysis of such tempting thoughts (e.g.
Theoria (illumination)
The primary task of the hesychast is to engage in mental ascesis. The hesychast is to bring his mind (Gr.
The descent of the mind into the heart is not taken literally by the practitioners of hesychasm, but is considered metaphorically.[19] 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.
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."
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.
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.
Theosis (deification)
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.
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.
Prelest
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 which may occur in the course of hesychast practice are considered secondary and unimportant, even quite dangerous. Moreover, seeking after 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.
Liturgy and sacraments
Hesychasts fully participate in the liturgical and
Texts
Books used by hesychasts include the
Oriental Orthodox views of hesychasm
Coptic Orthodox
Some clerics are "wary of the hesychastic practices of the Jesus Prayer that developed later in the Eastern churches".[20]
Fr.
In 2016 His holiness Metropolitan Bishoy of Damietta, head of theology department in the institute of Coptic studies and secretary of the Coptic Orthodox Church Synod from 1985 until 2012 criticized the god essence-energy distraction and refused Palamism.
Western views of hesychasm
Western theologians have tended to reject the idea that the distinction between essence and energies is real rather than, albeit with a foundation in reality, notional (in the mind). In their view, affirming an ontological essence-energies distinction in God contradicted the teaching of the First Council of Nicaea[21] on divine unity.[note 4] Adrian Fortescue, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), claimed that "the real distinction between God's essence and operation remains one more principle, though it is rarely insisted on now, in which the Orthodox differ from Catholics."[23] According to Fortescue, the Scholastic theory that God is pure actuality prevented Palamism from having much influence in the West, and it was from Western Scholasticism that hesychasm's philosophical opponents in the East borrowed their weapons.[23]
In some instances these theologians equated hesychasm with
The Catholic Church has never expressed any condemnation of Palamism, and uses in its liturgy readings from the work of Nicholas Kabasilas, a supporter of Palamas in the controversy that took place in the East. Its Liturgy of the Hours includes extracts from Kabasilas's Life in Christ on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter in Year II of the two-year cycle for the Office of Readings.[27]
The later 20th century saw a remarkable change in the attitude of Catholic theologians to Palamas, a "rehabilitation" of him that has led to increasing parts of the Western Church considering him a saint, even if uncanonized.[21][28][29] Some Western scholars have argued that there is no conflict between Palamas's teaching and Catholic thought.[30] According to Kallistos Ware, some Western theologians, both Catholic and Anglican, see the theology of Palamas as introducing an inadmissible division within God; however, others have incorporated his theology into their own thinking.[31][note 5]
See also
- Barlaam of Calabria
- Caloyers
- Centering Prayer
- Dhikr
- Eastern Catholic Churches
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Henosis
- Hesychia
- Imiaslavie
- Japa
- Jesus Prayer
- Lojong
- Mantra
- Maranatha
- Meditation
- Mysticism
- Philokalia
- Poustinia
- Prayer
- Pratyahara
- Quiet time
- Quietism
- Tabor Light
- The Way of a Pilgrim
- Theoria
- Theosis
Notes
- ^ John Cassian is not represented in the Philokalia except by two brief extracts, but this is most likely due to his having written in Latin. His works (Coenobitical Institutions and the Conferences)
- ^ Other authors have also speculated about Indian influences on Hesychasm via the Sufi's. Dupuche, Dunn & Cross (2003) states that Indian monks were present in Mesopotamia and Syria in the 8th and 9th centuries, while Nath yogins were in Central Asia and Iran in the 11th century, influencing Sufi brotherhoods.
- John S. Romanides Diagnosis and Therapy[17]
- ^ In the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1909, Simon Vailhé rejected Palamas's teachings that humans could achieve a corporal perception of the divinity, and his distinction between God's essence and his energies, as "monstrous errors" and "perilous theological theories." He further characterized the Eastern canonization of Palamas's teachings as a "resurrection of polytheism." Vailhe: "Palamas taught that by asceticism one could attain a corporal, i.e. a sense view, or perception, of the Divinity. He also held that in God there was a real distinction between the Divine Essence and Its attributes, and he identified grace as one of the Divine propria making it something uncreated and infinite. These monstrous errors were denounced by the Calabrian Barlaam, by Nicephorus Gregoras, and by Acthyndinus. The conflict began in 1338 and ended only in 1368, with the solemn canonization of Palamas and the official recognition of his heresies. He was declared the 'holy doctor' and 'one of the greatest among the Fathers of the Church', and his writings were proclaimed 'the infallible guide of the Christian Faith'. Thirty years of incessant controversy and discordant councils ended with a resurrection of polytheism".[22]
- ^ For example, G. Philips asserts that the essence-energies distinction as presented by Palamas is "a typical example of a perfectly admissible theological pluralism" that is compatible with the Roman Catholic magisterium.[32] Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized his respect for Eastern theology as an enrichment for the whole Church, declaring that, even after the painful division between the Christian East and the See of Rome, that theology has opened up profound thought-provoking perspectives of interest to the entire Catholic Church. He spoke in particular of the hesychast controversy. The term "hesychasm", he said, refers to a practice of prayer marked by deep tranquillity of the spirit intent on contemplating God unceasingly by invoking the name of Jesus. While from a Catholic viewpoint there have been tensions concerning some developments of the practice, the pope said, there is no denying the goodness of the intention that inspired its defence, which was to stress that man is offered the concrete possibility of uniting himself in his inner heart with God in that profound union of grace known as theosis, divinization.[33][34][35]
References
- ^ "hesychasm". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
- ^ Parry (1999), p. 230.
- ^ Ware (1995), p. 4–7.
- ^ Payne (2006), p. 130-131.
- ^ Payne (2006), p. 132.
- ^ Stearn (2020), p. 269–324.
- ^ a b Ware (1995), p. 5.
- ^ a b Ware (1995), p. 6.
- ^ Palmer, Ware & Sherrard (1999), p. 205.
- ^ Ware (1995), p. 7.
- ^ a b Ware (1992).
- ^ Palmer, Ware & Sherrard (1999), p. PR7.
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hesychasts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 414. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Parry (1999), p. 231.
- ISBN 978-0884650447. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2019.)
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ignored (help) Original: Слободской, Серафим Алексеевич (1957). "Недели Великого Поста" [The Sundays of Lent]. Закон Божий [The Law of God] (in Russian) (published 1966). Archived from the original on 25 July 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2019.Паламы […] учил, что за подвиг поста и молитвы Господь озаряет верующих благодатным Своим светом, каким сиял Господь на Фаворе.
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ignored (help - ^ Ladder, Step 27, 5, (Step 27, 6 in the Holy Transfiguration edition).
- ^ "Franks, Romans, Feudalism, and Doctrine – Part 2".
- ^ St. John of Sinai, Step 27, 21 of the Ladder (Step 27, 22–23 of the Holy Transfiguration edition)
- )
- ^ a b Dawood, Bishoy (8 December 2013). "Stand, Bow, Prostrate: The Prayerful Body of Coptic Christianity : Clarion Review". Clarion Review. Archived from the original on 13 August 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ ISBN 9780809124473. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ^ Simon Vailhé, "Greek Church" Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine in Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909)]
- ^ a b "Adrian Fortescue, "Hesychasm" in Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VII (Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1910)". Oce.catholic.com. 2013-08-12. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ISBN 978-0-664-22170-6.
- ISBN 978-0-88141-209-3.
- ISBN 978-0-941532-43-3.
- ^ "DOMINGO V DE PASCUA".
- ISBN 978-0-8091-2447-3.
- ISBN 9780881412956. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ISBN 0-8386-4111-3), p. 243).
- ISBN 0-19-860024-0), p. 186.
- ISBN 9780838641118. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ^ "Pope John Paul II and the East Pope John Paul II. "Eastern Theology Has Enriched the Whole Church" (11 August 1996). English translation". Rumkatkilise.org. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ^ "Original text (in Italian)". Vatican.va. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ^ Pope John Paul II (11 August 1996). "Eastern Theology Has Enriched the Whole Church". CatholicCulture.org. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
Sources
- Dupuche, John R.; Dunn, Geoffrey D.; Cross, Lawrence (2003). "Sufism and hesychasm". In Bronwen, Neil (ed.). Prayer and spirituality in the early church vol. 3: liturgy and life. Pauls Publications in association with the Centre for Early Christian Studies.
- Palmer, G. E. H.; ISBN 0-571-19382-X.
- Parry, Ken (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0631232036.
- Payne, Daniel Paul (2006), The Revival of Political Hesychasm in Greek Orthodox Thought: A Study of the Hesychast Basis of the Thought of John S. Romanides and Christos Yannaras (PDF), Baylor
- Stearn, Rod (2020), "Chapter 7. Cyril of Scythlopolis", Historiography and Hierotopy, Gorgias Press, pp. 269–324, S2CID 243303600, retrieved 2022-05-08
- Ware, Kallistos (1992). "Praying with the body: the hesychast method and non-Christian parallels". Sobornost Incorporating Eastern Churches Review 14:2 (1992) Pp. 6-35. Archived from the original on 2013-01-06. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Ware, Kallistos (1995). Sahas, Daniel J. (ed.). Act out of Stillness: The Influence of Fourteenth-Century Hesychasm on Byzantine and Slav Civilization. Toronto: The Hellenic Canadian Association of Constantinople and the Thessalonikean Society of Metro Toronto.
- Web-sources
Further reading
- Early monasticism
- The Philokalia.
- The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
- The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian.
- Works of St Symeon the New Theologian.
- Coenobitical Institutions and Conferences of St John Cassian.
- 19th-20th century
- The Way of the Pilgrim
- Archimandrite Sophrony(Sakharov), immediate disciple of St Silouan, together with the meditations of St Silouan (1866–1938).)
- Works of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896–1993).
- Elder Joseph the Hesychast. (Life of a very influential Hesychast on Mt Athos who died in 1959.)
- Monastic Wisdom. The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast.
- Wounded by Love. The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios. (Reminiscences and reflections of Elder Porphyrios (1906–1991) of Mt Athos.)
- Works by Elder Paisios (1924–1994) of Mount Athos. (A very well known Athonite Elder and Hesychast.)
- Elder Ephraim of Katounakia. Translated by Tessy Vassiliadou-Christodoulou. (Life and teachings of Elder Ephraim (1912–1998) of Katounakia, Mt Athos, a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast.)
- Hieromonachos Charalampos Dionusiates, O didaskalos tes noeras proseuches (Hieromonk Charalambos of the Monastery of Dionysiou, The Teacher of Mental Prayer). (Life and teachings of Elder Charalambos (1910–2001), sometime Abbot of the Monastery of Dionysiou, Mt Athos, and a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. In Greek, available in English.)
- Works of Archimandrite Aimilianos (1934–2019) of the Monastery of Simonos Petra, Mt Athos, especially Volumes I and II.
- Counsels from the Holy Mountain. Selected from the Lessons and Homilies of Elder Ephraim. (Archimandrite Ephraim of the Monastery of St Anthony, Florence, Arizona. Formerly Abbot of the Monastery of Philotheou on Mt Athos, and a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Not to be confused with Elder Ephraim of Katounakia.)
- Secondary
- Hesychasm: an annotated bibliography, Sergey S. Horujy, Moscow 2004.
- Johnson, Christopher D. L. (2010). The Globalization of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer: Contesting Contemplation. London: Continuum. OCLC 686775525.
- Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East, edited by James Cutsinger
External links
- "Hesychasm", Encyclopædia Britannica
- The Origins of the Jesus Prayer Archived 2022-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, Kalistos Ware
- The Jesus Prayer, Orthodox Church in America
- Hesychasm in Orthodox Christian Tradition Archived 2017-04-04 at the Wayback Machine, St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church
- The Neptic and Hesychastic Character of Orthodox Athonite Monasticism, Archimandrite Georgios, the Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios