Escaping Fantasy Island

Fantasy, according to some Byzantine spiritual fathers, is something we need to overcome. It acts as a power that distorts the imagination. Most of our lives we give into it in one form or another. It is often attached to a sin, like the one the devil offered our Ancestors. At other times, it becomes a false reality that we live in. In both instances we are called to overcome it, if we wish to have more of God. This can be very difficult, especially in our culture that thrives on it. As a culture we are coming closer and closer to the possibility having a perpetual fantasy world. The greatest example of this I believe can be found in the video-game sub culture. The evolution of this culture is making way for a persistent virtual world making any diabolical fantasy a constant reality.

According to St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, “fantasy has more power and domination over us than the senses themselves”.  To overcome the domination that St. Nikodemos speaks of some fathers have taught us to be Watchful (Nepsis). Watchfulness is guarding what you let into your mind or heart. Regarding fantasy, we should have the attitude of a person that has the foreknowledge of someone trying to break into their home. A person in these circumstances is always looking at the windows, the doors, and making sure the thief has no entry. Like a thief, fantasy will come and being aware of this we must keep it from breaking in and stealing what belongs to Christ. In other words, as the apostle Paul teaches, “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2Cor. 2:5b)”. By doing this we will keep our minds and hearts free from the domination of fantasy.

In conjunction with being Watchful, the fathers teach us also to pray. Sometimes in practicing Watchfulness something like a “fantasy island” appears. This island can offer everything from a good lunch, innovative ideas, or even trying to relive an enjoyable experience. In trying to swim towards this island we will always end up drowning in a false reality. Like someone who could drown the fathers teach us that we should pray that way. Imagine sinking in a sea and you see Christ afar off. You would cry out to him with all your strength and do everything in your power so that he could save you. This is the way we must sometimes cry out in our minds, “LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME A SINNER”. 

I want to add that every now and then I hear pious Byzantines attacking the use of the imagination in prayer, like how some use the Rosary. They do this because they have been misinformed about how some fathers understood fantasy. For instance, St John Climacus defines imagination or fantasy as follows: “Fantasy is an illusion of the eyes when the mind is asleep. Fantasy is ecstasy of the nous, when the body is awake. Fantasy is the vision of something which does not exist in reality”. Sometimes the fathers are not always clear on the differences between fantasy and imagination. One thing to keep in mind is that there is no universal teaching on this subject. For instance, imagination according to some fathers is a God given faculty that has a place in prayer. For others, the use of fantasy has been vital in the communication of beauty and ideas. Among these differences, what the fathers want us to understand is that fantasy, as an impassioned state, is what we are called to overcome.  

God has called us to grow in our experience of Him. In order to do this, He has given us everything that He is in Jesus Christ. He has called us to participate in what He is and for some that might mean escaping a “fantasy island”. We all struggle with fantasy in some way. This has been our natural state since the Fall. In the Fall we were offered a false reality as opposed to the one God wished for us to have. Since that time, we have been chasing after these false realities only to end up never really possessing the delight they offer. In contrast, God wants us to experience the reality that he has put before us. He wants us to experience the true delight of his presence, which is hidden in each and every moment.

Some thoughts on Hesychasm

     In my opinion, Hesychasm is the most suitable way for modern man to experience the Gospel.  Unfortunately, Hesychasm is a topic that many people in my church are not familiar with. Regardless, all Byzantine Catholic churches today share a foundation in it. Hesychasm became an official doctrine in 1300’s and it was the Hesychasts who helped develop the structure of the Byzantine rite as we know it, in what was called the Neo-Sabaitic Typikon. Basically, the Hesychasts of Mt. Athos promoted and circulated the Typikon. In addition, it was their spirituality that accompanied and supported the Typikon. Some of the evidence for this is still with us today. For instance, the Athonite tradition of the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” is a popular prayer for Byzantines. Also, It’s not uncommon to see those who practice this prayer using a prayer rope, along with various ascetic postures that have their root in Hesychasm. Another instance, the monastic texts compiled on Mt. Athos in what’s called The Philokalia is still revered among Byzantine Catholics, even though its relationship to Hesychasm is generally not understood.
     Hesychasm is a spirituality for everyone. It is commonly known as the pursuit of stillness. A stillness that is achieved by learning how to approach God through prayer and watchfulness.. The stillness that a Hesychast seeks is in one sense a state of healing from what the fathers call the passions. The passions are the root of our sinful desires. The Hesychast follows various ascetic methods inspired by grace in order to overcome the passions. In this regard, Hesychasm is more like a science or a therapy that seeks to heal our relationship with God. In terms of it being a science the Philokalia is traditionally known as the perfect manual next to the bible for practicing Hesychasm.  

     Also, it could be said that a return to the heart is the overall emphasis of Hesychasm. The heart is the place where we encounter God. Being in the heart is the natural state of the human person, which is achieved through God’s grace and cooperation with him. To understand this better it is necessary to elaborate more on the concept of the heart. Basically, in the Byzantine tradition the heart is the essence of the soul. It is also the center and summation of the three faculties of the soul: the rational faculty (our ability to reason), the appetitive faculty (our ability to desire), and the incensive faculty (our capacity to will). In addition, there is also an energy of our soul that originates in our hearts, which the Byzantine tradition calls the Nous, it is the power that operates through our faculties. Also, the Nous should be understood as located in the heart not like in a vessel but as if in an organ. For example, just like how the physical organs maintain the function of the body through blood flow, the heart produces the noetic energy as fuel for the functions of our soul. Consequently, everything that the soul does has its foundation from what is conceived in the heart through the noetic energy that operates in our faculties.

     The natural disposition of the Nous is oriented toward God through the heart. In fact, the three faculties of the soul were designed to find God in the created order through the noetic energy. However, this is no longer the case do to sin. The problem now with the heart is that the nous is scattered and diffused through our senses into a fallen world. In the original sin the heart became darkened in its relationship with God causing the Nous to malfunction. This is reflected in the creation narrative in how man tried to become a god by following the consul of the serpent (Genesis 3:1). Man indeed was to become a god being in the image of God and called to be like him. This was done through a natural disposition of the Nous and in following the commands that God gave to man. However, man used his noetic energy to follow what is called a Logismoi, which are thoughts often connected with a false image. As result, the noetic energy that once operated toward God replaced God with a false image, and the passions were born.

     The passions remain the great tragedy of the fall that we can’t escape. There is always a Logismoi that comes to our rational faculty saying that this is “the way “or this will make you “fulfilled”. Just like the serpent who spoke to our ancestors in the garden we also yield our desire and will to the serpent’s voice and our noetic energy is no longer directed toward God, which gives birth to a passion. Wanting to find “the way” or being “fulfilled” or in the case of our ancestors “becoming gods” in their own right are not bad things. However, like our ancestors, we are just putting the energy in the wrong place and are powerless to do otherwise, when left to ourselves. Thanks be to God that he gives us the grace now in Christ to overcome our passions, which can be found in the practice of Hesychasm.

     As it says so eloquently in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God. The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods (460)”. Christ did the work of Hesychasm that we could not do, which results in Theosis, becoming a god through grace. In the words of St. Maximos the Confessor, the Lord, "became a man without the slightest change or mutation". There was nothing different about the humanity that God assumed and it is the same humanity that you and I have now. The exception is in what God did with his human nature. Where we are powerless to overcome the passions, because of sin, we find that Christ, "By His privations in the flesh He re-established and renewed the human state", which is to say that he never yielded his noetic energy to a Logismoi. We lacked the power before Him to do this, but now, "by His own incarnation He bestowed human nature the supernatural grace of deification", which can be found in the practice of Hesychasm (Philokalia v2 pg246). 
     It is through the sacraments that we are initiated into the life of Christ, which is the life of Hesychast. The sacraments provide the unmerited encounter God necessary to practice Hesychasm. They also renew the encounter and enrich it. As St. Diadochos in the Philokalia teaches it’s through the sacraments that we receive “all grace” (v1 pg. 279). This is to say, we don’t get part or pieces of God but everything that he is through the mediation of the sacraments. However, this encounter with God is mediated and depends upon our cooperation with him. By grace God comes to take up residence in our hearts through the sacraments but our experience of this salvation depends upon our cooperation. This is where our own ascetical battle with the passion comes into play. He provides the power but it’s up to us now if we want to be truly free, to become hesychasts, and in turn grow in our experience with him.
      One of the ways of utilizing the sacramental power that I have been speaking of is through what our tradition calls Nepsis. Nepsis comes from the Greek word “nepho,” which means to guard, watch over, and keep under surveillance. Nepsis in Hesychasm is the practice for what we allow in our hearts. Nepsis could be described as if having the foreknowledge of a thief that was going to rob you. With this knowledge, you give all your attention to the coming of the thief, you are watchful. Through Nepsis we are seeking to guard the heart. As I shared earlier the Nous is malfunctioning because of sin. Nepsis is the foundational means to heal the Nous. Sin begins with a Logismoi that comes to our rational faculty. If we are not watchful of this activity the Logismoi can lead us to a desire it. The Nous then leaves the heart and then is redirected toward the false reality that the Logismoi offered leaving our heart darkened, which stops the flow of Divine grace into it. This is a very serious thing that happens when one is not watchful. For if we are not watchful, what started with one thought and one sin could lead to a whole lifestyle of indulging in impassioned thoughts leading us further and further away from God. Nepsis seeks to put a stop to this by learning to always be vigilant in what we let into our heart.
     Some of the Fathers of the East in speaking about Nepsis refer to it as an ascetical method inspired by divine grace for it leads us into prayer. It is not something we master but something to always be practiced. Much like someone who plays a sport who is always practicing for it. In practicing the cleansing of the heart from impassioned thoughts, seeking a Hesychia of the mind, there must always be a loving attentiveness to God. In choosing not to receive the Logismoi into the heart we are saying we want something else in the heart, which is to say we want God. Thus, Nepsis gives way to prayer where we can call out, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”.  We are doing the work that God wants us to do and at the same time we must anticipate through prayer that God in some mysterious way is illumining our intentions with divine grace.
     In anticipating the work of God there is no static or clear cut response. We know that he is doing something but we can never fully grasp what it is. All we know is that there is an experience of God and we know this through grace. It’s not the kind of experience that can be measured by feelings or the miraculous. It’s more like a memory of God that we can know and can genuinely respond to. It is this memory that becomes the aim for our entire life where we can through faith seek to see God as He is.  As St. Symeon the New Theologian teaches, “Do not say that God cannot be seen by human beings. Do not say that humans may never see the light of God; Or at least that it is not possible for this generation. My friends this is never impossible. It is more than possible – for those who desire it".

The New Hesychasm (An Introduction)

     The Hesychasm of our fathers worked well for those in their time and circumstances. This does not mean it will work well for us. Even though the principles in Hesychasm remain the same we find that the way we experience life continues to change. This can often be discouraging for those looking for that deep relationship with God that their fathers had in the tradition. Also, most of what is written about Hesychasm comes from monastic perspectives that many can't relate to. On the other hand, there is nothing restricting the Hesychasm of our fathers to certain ways, times or a special class of people. As a result, we need to continually look for ways to bring the Hesychasm of our fathers into our modern experience.
     Hesychasm as it is defined in the Philokalia is “The science of sciences and art of arts (V1 pg.183). Being a science or an art opens Hesychasm to many different modes or applications. This is essential to understand if we want bring Hesychasm into our modern life experience. Even many of the fathers who practiced this tradition gave it their own personal flavor. There is even a great diversity on the meaning of the word. In our days most of Hesychasm is associated with the practices surrounding the Jesus Prayer and even in that there is a plentitude of diversity . Based on this, there is nothing stopping us from finding new ways to achieve our own Hesychia(stillness) as long as we keep to the same principles of the tradition.
      In trying to keep the principles of the tradition we need to look to the life of Christ.The Lord was the greatest Hesychast for stillness (hesychia) was a natural experience in his life. Many do not consider the fact that the Master assumed a human nature that was weakened and subjected to the consequences of sin, even though He never sinned. In embracing all that was truly human our Lord becomes a Hesychast. St. Maximos in the Philokalia demonstrates this when he speaks about the Lord having to ascetically adapt his humanity to his divinity(v2. pgs.146-147).This is where we find the basic principles in Hesychasm, which is conforming our human nature to the divine nature. However, what was natural for Christ becomes an act of Grace for us. It is through this grace that we learn the various ways to achieve godly Hesychia.
     In the human nature of Christ we find a constant state of Hesychia . There was no part of his human nature that was separated from his divine nature. However, this is not the case with us. Diadochos of Photiki explains this best when he teaches that the reality of the divine nature is fully available to us by grace, as it is "hidden" in the heart, but we are constantly distracted from our weak and sinful condition.(Philokalia v1 pg. 279).Consequently, the Hesychia necessary for encountering the divine nature will require an ongoing effort of purification. However, we are not without constant help and encouragement from God to find him in our hearts. There is no moment, event, or experience that can separate us from the opportunity of knowing the riches of the love of God that we experience through Hesychia(Romans 8:38-39).
     The challenge that we have in seeking Hesychia is how to do it. As I said what might of worked for our fathers might not work for us. Even sometimes certain ascetical practices associated with Hesychasm can be constrictive for certain people. For instance, in trying to help a 90 year old living on an oxygen tank it might not be a good idea for them to keep all night vigil, sleep on the ground, and use controlled breathing exercises. You probably would end up killing them. The same thing would go for someone who might be working 3 jobs to survive but desires to get the most out of the tradition. It is possible to discourage them with practices impossible for their circumstances. In contrast, God can use just about any effort we make to achieve stillness and certain traditions associated with Hesychasm are not always effective or needed. In fact, Nikolai Sorsky, who brought Hesychasm to modern Russia, instructed his monks to cease doing many of the practices associated with Hesychasm, even when others fathers of the past said not to. He recognized that Hesychia can be achieved in various ways and once the experience is achieved the work is no longer needed. His example is what we need to apply in our own practice of Hesychasm.
     Based on what we find in Hesychasm you could say we are all called to it. From the perspective of a spiritual science you can see a broad stream of its elements spread across all Christian spirituality. In its own context it has become one of the most developed of all Christian spiritual traditions and it continues to evolve. In its evolution we find it now being renewed. It's no doubt that modern media like the internet has made the tradition more accessible and provided ways for it to be rediscovered in our modern experience. As Byzantines we should learn to take advantage of this tradition, which is an essential part of our patrimony. For it is the time of The New Hesychasm, the time where the everyday man , just like the Hesychast of old, becomes the man who experiences the deep things of God.

John Paul II and the New Hesychasts

     Understanding the great need for spiritual renewal, Blessed John Paul the Great called the Church once to reconnect with the mystical traditions. In doing so, he encouraged reading the teachings of saints associated with the western contemplative traditions. The holy father even said that those who would bring spiritual renewal in our churches would be contemplatives(the New Evangelists). There has been a strong response to his call in the Catholic Church over time. In fact, the resources to tap into the western contemplative teachings since then almost seem endless. However, its important as Byzantines that we respond to this call by also looking at our own mystical traditions. We have a rich tradition called Hesychasm and it has much to offer to the spiritual renewal of our churches.
     In its traditional understanding Hesychasm is defined as the pursuit of stillness(hesychia) in Jesus Christ. It's also commonly known to be a tradition that has flourished in the context of Byzantine monastic communities. Basically, Hesychasm is a way for the (whole) person to experience God by achieving stillness (hesychia). In the teachings associated with Hesychasm, such as in the Philokalia, there are different systems that incorporate mental as well as physical activity. These systems help to purify a person, making them able to achieve 'stillness' and experience God continually. For example, in the most common practice associated with Hesychasm, the Jesus Prayer, the body as well as mind are engaged in the work of purification. The purification takes place in the body through recitation and in the mind by its focus on God. Its in hope that through these continual actions the (whole) person will grow in their experience of God.
     The activities used for purification in the tradition of Hesychasm are very diverse. You will find different fathers speaking about different activities to use in prayer and in daily life. However, even though there is diversity its important to understand the activities as synergistic, and not just as mere methods. Every action in purification, physical or mental, has a dual character. On one end its your own effort, but, on the other it is the work of God. This goes to demonstrate that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit(1 Corinthians 3:9), since in a temple there are always two at work, both God and man. This is a vital distinction to have because many times the actions Hesychasts employ are equated to practices in non-Christian religions or even therapeutic techniques. The difference rests in the fact that by working with the Holy Spirit we can give divinizing power and meaning to any action.
     In contrast to what can be found in the western contemplative traditions there are a few things worth noting. The activities used to prepare one for encountering God are not always of the same nature. In fact, in the west discursive techniques are often abandoned ,such as meditation, when a state of contemplation is achieved. The activities used are even often referred to as "the work" to get to the state. In Hesychasm the activates used in the traditions do not have the form of preparing a person for a state. As I said they are synergistic and remain a normal part of a lifestyle of ongoing purification and encounter. On the other hand, what the two traditions do have in common are moments of immersion in God where our activities do cease. It's in these moments that St. Seraphim of Sarov once said that we "cease to pray" and enjoy the presence of God.
     There will always be moments in the life of prayer in any tradition when God chooses to bless us as St. Seraphim described. However, these moments are not the goal in Hesychasm. The goal is to grow daily in experiencing who God is by becoming what He is through grace. The ongoing purification practiced by the Hesychast allows for a more and more richer experience of divinity in every aspect of what we are. For example, when my mind looks to Christ it is becoming Christ and when I do many prostrations my body is becoming Christ. In essence, Hesychasm is a very special way to live out our Byzantine tradition of Theosis. In fact, Hesychasm itself was birthed overtime from Byzantine spirituality and remains our most developed spiritual tradition.
     In his vision Blessed John Paul the Great saw the renewal of our Church coming from modern contemplatives. In translating this vision into our Byzantine tradition we can say that the renewal of our churches will have their foundation in the New Hesychasts. The New Hesychast unlike the old must be a person who can learn to incorporate this spirituality into all modern circumstances. This can only happen if we learn to take the teachings of Hesychasm, such as in the Philokalia, beyond the walls of the monastery and into ordinary life. It was never to be a tradition for specialized monastic and needs to be rediscovered and renewed in order to fuel the spiritual renewal that we all wish to see.
     Just like the western contemplative tradition, that Blessed John Paul the Great spoke of, Hesychasm can be a vital resource for renewal. Also, Hesychasm can be very simple. You can even be someone who works in front of a computer all day, stay at home parent, or even a garbage man. All you have to do is ask God to purify you through the action. It then becomes synergistic. You are exercising hope doing your best in the task (seeking hesychia) and He is making a way for you to become what HE is. This is no different than when we stand for long hours in prayer except in that there is a different level of intensity or intimacy. There is no part of the day that cannot lead us to encounter God! When St. Athanasius wrote "God became man so that men might become gods" he did not add "only on Sundays" or "clergy only". This was a saying for all people, of all times, and every moment. Through the practice of Hesychasm we can become what God is and be the vessels of renewal our churches desperately need.

(Note: for those who don't understand the Byzantine tradition on divinization. Man does not become another person of the Trinity. He participates in what God is making him a god by grace and never by nature. We are not born eternal beings but become so by participation in what God is. As it says in 2peter 1:4 "you may become partakers of the divine nature")

Vain Repetition

     At one point in my practice of our Byzantine traditions I remember a question that someone asked. They wanted to know if our traditions concerning the Jesus Prayer went against the Lord's teachings. The teaching that they were speaking of are in the gospel of Matthew where the Lord says, "When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again (6:7,NLT).The question that was asked was reasonable based on this passage but this teaching does not represent the way the Jesus Prayer is used in our tradition. What the Lord was addressing was abusive forms of prayer, which in this case meant people who were not addressing God in personal way.
     There are various ways that our Byzantine spiritual fathers have taught us to pray the Jesus Prayer. Among the teachings of our fathers there is nothing close to what can be considered vain repetition. The fathers were always clear that the goal of prayer is a personal relationship. Anything short of this is vain. For example, Elder Sophrony on addressing centering prayer techniques said, "In diverting our mind from all images, meditation can afford us a sense of tranquility, of peace, release from time and space, but there is no feeling of standing before a personal God. It is not real prayer-face to Face.(On Prayer pg.139)." According to Elder Sophrony's teachings repetitive forms used in the Jesus prayer must oriented toward knowing and loving a personal God. We do not use them to enter states of mind or to somehow manipulate God. As the Elder said real prayer is "face to Face".
     When oriented properly the repetition used in the Jesus Prayer helps a person grow in their personal relationship with God. However, it's important to understand why we use repetition in the first place. It's easy to understand why we do it but often we lack the knowledge associated with the tradition. First of all, we were created with the propose of loving God for all eternity. Every aspect of what we are was geared toward developing a personal relationship with God, which would include our mind and body. Next, because of sin there was a disorientation in how we were naturally geared toward God. Being obscured the body and the mind were no longer used for their original purpose. Third, in the work of Jesus Christ and his Church we find a way back to what we were originally created for. In the spirituality of the Church we discover various systems that help return the body and mind to their original purpose. In conclusion, There are many forms of discipline in the Church that we use to struggle against are sinful condition. The use a repetition in the Jesus Prayer is way to recondition the body and mind to their original use.
     Repetition used in praying the Jesus Prayer has taken on many forms in the history of the Byzantine tradition. Many of us know the popular usage that involves inhaling(Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God) and exhaling(Have mercy on me a sinner) a method that's often used in conjunction with a prayer rope. St. Nicodemos in his instructed went a little further with this method in his day. He instructed his followers to hold their breath and say the whole prayer in the mind and then exhale. A method that demonstrates well how the mind and the body are reconditioned back toward God. In this way the mind is disciplined to overcome its tendency to wander in prayer with the body's help. In all the forms that we can find in the history of the Byzantine tradition the goals are always the same, which are to return the body and the mind to the proper use.
     There really is nothing vain about our use of repetition in our Byzantine tradition if we understand it. The use always involves personal salvation. One of our spiritual fathers demonstrated this in his instruction on repetition of the Jesus Prayer. He said that the prayer must be prayed with the same intensity as one drowning at sea who calls for help(over and over again) with all their might hoping that someone will hear them. Likewise we call out to God focusing all our energy upon the single prayer hoping to seek our own salvation. Unlike someone who is drowning in a sea we know our God is listening. His arms are always reaching down to us ready to pull us into His embrace. It could be said that the repetition that we use in Jesus Prayer is our way to open our arms to God.

To read about controlled breathing in the Jesus Prayer (click)

St. Nicodemos and Controlled Breathing

     The tradition of controlling ones breath in prayer as our fathers have taught is one of the most misrepresented aspects of our Byzantine tradition. Many of us have heard the same things: that "we are borderline Buddhists" or that we have "an exaggerated psychophysical symbolism ". One time I had some one send me some Roman Catholic teachings on prayer after they read some of my posts on Hesychasm. He demanded that I stopped teaching it claiming that the tradition is against the Catholic Church. This understanding often comes from a failure to understand the role of the body and how it is an instrument for our salvation, which is a teaching highly developed in the Byzantine tradition.
     Sometimes in the Western spiritual traditions there has been a lack of understanding when it comes to the role of the body in the work of salvation. It is as if in seeking ways to purify the soul the body has been left out. For example, I heard a teaching around thanksgiving many years ago where there was great emphasis on avoiding lustful thoughts and in the same teaching there was a joke about overeating. It was as if the mind was the only thing in need of purification for salvation. In contrast, in the Byzantine spiritual tradition the body's role in salvation has been fully integrated in every aspect of worship. There is not one liturgy where we don't see constant physical work especially in the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, in which there are constant prostrations.
     Many saints of the Byzantine tradition have provided many teachings concerning the body. Among them it could be said that St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain was one of the most prolific. Based on his writings not only concerning the body but many other aspects of spirituality the saint continues to be source for spiritual renewal in the churches of the Byzantine tradition. This was even more so in his time where he helped bring about lasting renewal in many areas of the church of his day. In my opinion, he should be named as an essential saint that we should look to for the renewal of our churches in our modern time.
     When it comes to the role of the body we find In the teachings of St. Nicodemos an understanding that many of us are not used to. Often we find a tendency to understand the soul as something trapped or contained in a body, which makes the body of little value when it comes to spirituality . Echoing the words of St. John Damascene St. Nicodemos writes," the difference between a rational and irrational soul is this: The irrational soul is led and ruled body the body and the senses, while the rational soul leads and rules the body and the senses (A Hand Book on Spiritual Counsel pg.69).".According to the saint the soul is better understood as containing the body making the body truly at its service. However, because of sin there is a disruption in body's relationship to the soul. The body tends to exist for itself leaving the realm of the soul subject to it. Instead of being an instrument that helps develop our relationship with God the body leads us away from him.
     Understanding the body\soul relationship is essential for understanding Byzantine spirituality. The ascetic disciplines found throughout the Byzantine tradition are for the reconditioning of the body's relationship with soul and in turn God. All too often some of the bodily acts are attributed to being purely symbolic or even psychosomatic. For example, history can attest that there have been at times people in the West who have even accused the Byzantine churches as being those who contemplate their navels, which has been the case concerning the tradition of Hesychasm. However, any bodily action involved in the Byzantine tradition has always been for the ultimate healing of the broken condition that resulted from sin.
     For most, some of the bodily disciplines of the Byzantine traditions, such as fasting or prostrations, are easily accepted as ways to develop spiritually. However, there is one aspect of the Byzantine tradition that sometimes is met with reservation, which is controlled breathing that is employed in our prayer tradition of Hesychasm. What is often misunderstood as a psychosomatic technique is really a way to subject the body to the workings of the soul and in turn God. In fact, St. Nicodemos demonstrates great insight in how our relationship with God develops through controlled breathing. He writes," The mind, the activity of the mind, is used from a very early age to be scattered toward the external world. For this reason when you say this sacred prayer(Jesus Prayer) do not breathe continually as is natural to our nature, but hold your breath until your inner consciousness has a chance to say the prayer once. By holding your breath even for this short interval the heart is pressed and troubled and feels pain for not receiving natural oxygen. The mind on the other hand is much more readily controlled to return to the heart, both because of the pain and suffering of the heart but also because of the pleasure that is created from this warm and vivid memory of God (A Hand Book on Spiritual Counsel pg.160)." As the saint demonstrates the controlling of breath that we often employ in praying the Jesus prayer is a way to use the body in order to grow in intimacy with God.
     Byzantine spirituality can be physically demanding. However, undergoing the labor leads to a better relationship with God. Not to be confused with purely symbolic acts the bodily actions found in prayer and worship should be properly understood as ways to develop spiritually. Nicodemos and many fathers of Byzantine tradition can attest to this fact. Also, this understanding is essential for understanding the Byzantine tradition of Hesychasm, which would include the breathing disciplines or even bodily postures associated with the Jesus Prayer. Not approaching this from a Byzantine mindset has led to many in our day to believe that we have a practice that's identical to what can be found in non-Christian religions of the East. This understanding could not be farther from the truth. All though they might look the same the discipline behind it has a different goal and even the structure for its use.

(note: controlled breathing takes on various forms, is optional at times, and is not for everyone.)

To read about the use of repetition in the Jesus Prayer (click)