On the Jesus Prayer (Part 2)
Elder. In the adoption of such a thought and in such a prohibition there is contained a terrible blasphemy—a pitiable spiritual delusion. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the sole source of our salvation, the sole means of our salvation; His human name has borrowed from His Divinity an unlimited, all-holy power to save us: how then can this power, acting to salvation—this sole power that grants salvation—reverse itself and act to destruction? This is foreign to all sense! It is a lamentable, blasphemous, soul-destroying absurdity! Those who have adopted such a way of thinking are truly in demonic spiritual delusion, deceived by the false-named wisdom that has come forth from Satan. Satan has risen up craftily against the all-holy and glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ; he employs the blindness and ignorance of human beings as his tool; he has slandered the name that is “above every name. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:9–10). To those who forbid praying the Jesus Prayer one can reply with the words of the Apostles Peter and John to a similar prohibition made by the Jewish Sanhedrin: “Whether it is right before God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge.” The Lord Jesus commanded praying in His all-holy name; He gave us this priceless gift: what significance can a human teaching that contradicts the teaching of God have, or a human prohibition that strains to set aside and destroy the commandment of God and to take away a priceless gift? It is dangerous—very dangerous—to preach a teaching contrary to the teaching proclaimed by the Gospel. Such an undertaking is a voluntary separation of oneself from the grace of God, according to the testimony of the Apostle (Gal. 1:8).
Disciple. But the elders whose opinion I have cited are held in particular esteem and are recognized by many as the most experienced guides in the spiritual life.
Elder. The Apostle enjoined—or more precisely, the Holy Spirit enjoined through the mouth of the Apostle—to reject every teaching that is not in agreement with the teaching that the Apostles “proclaimed”—to reject it even if “an angel from heaven” should proclaim this disagreeing teaching. “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the one we proclaimed to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, and now I say again: if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8–9). Holy Scripture expressed this not because any one of the holy angels would dare to contradict the teaching of Christ, but because the teaching of Christ—the teaching of God—proclaimed by the Apostles, is fully reliable, fully holy, and is subject to no alterations, however reasonable those alterations may appear to insufficient, perverted knowledge and carnal thinking. The teaching of Christ, being above the judgment both of men and of angels, is received by humble faith alone, and itself serves as the touchstone by which all other teachings are tested.
The opinion of human society concerning a teacher of monasticism carries no weight whatsoever if that teacher’s doctrine contradicts Holy Scripture and the writings of the holy Fathers, or contains blasphemy. Monasticism is a science of sciences: one must know it in order to evaluate rightly one who imparts it. The Venerable Macarius the Great said: “Many who appear outwardly righteous are reputed to be true Christians; but it belongs only to master craftsmen—and among them, those who have a thorough knowledge of the craft—to discern whether such righteous persons truly bear the knowledge and image of the King, or whether the mark has perhaps been counterfeited and impressed upon them by ill-intentioned men. Will the skilled craftsmen approve or reject them? And if no skilled craftsmen are to be found, there is no one to examine the malicious workers—for they too are clothed in the outward appearance of monastics and Christians.”154 The blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, explaining the words of the Archangel Gabriel concerning John, the Forerunner of the Lord—that he “shall be great before the Lord” (Lk. 1:15[1])—says: “The angel promises that John will be great, but before the Lord: for many are called great before men, not before God, and these are hypocrites.” If a vicious life and malicious intent, concealed by hypocrisy, are not recognized by the world and are taken by it for virtue, how much more incomprehensible to the world is knowledge that is insufficient, superficial, or distorted. The world prizes bodily ascetic struggles and deprivations highly, without discerning whether they are used rightly and beneficially or erroneously and to great harm of the soul; the world particularly esteems what acts successfully on the bodily senses, what corresponds to the world’s concepts of virtue and monasticism; the world loves what flatters and pleases it; the world loves its own—so said the Saviour (Jn. 15:18–25). Rather, the world’s hatred, the world’s slander, and its persecution may be signs of a true servant of God: and this too is attested by the Saviour. The holy Fathers enjoin one to choose a teacher free from spiritual delusion, a quality that must be recognized by the conformity of his teaching and way of life with Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Spirit-bearing Fathers.155 They warn against unskilled teachers, lest one be infected by their false teaching.156 They command that the teaching of teachers be compared with the teaching of Holy Scripture and the holy Fathers—what agrees with it is to be accepted, what disagrees rejected.157 They affirm that those who have no purified eye of the soul, and who cannot recognize a tree by its fruit, count the vainglorious, the empty, and hypocrites as men of wisdom and spirit, while paying no heed to the truly holy, finding them ignorant of all things when they are silent—proud and harsh when they speak.158 Survey all of Holy Scripture:[2] you will see that everywhere in it the name of the Lord is exalted and glorified, and his power magnified—salvific for mankind.[3] Survey the writings of the Fathers:[4] you will see that all of them, without exception, counsel and command the practice of the Jesus Prayer, calling it a weapon stronger than any in heaven or on earth,159 calling it a God-given, inalienable inheritance, one of the final and highest testaments of the God-man, a comfort most loving and most sweet, a pledge most certain.160 Finally, turn to the canons of the Orthodox Eastern Church:[5] you will see that she has appointed the Jesus Prayer for all her illiterate children—monks and laypeople alike—to take the place of psalmody and other prayers in the cell rule.161 What, then, can the contradictory teaching of certain blind men—glorified and still being glorified by those like them—signify against the unanimous testimony of Holy Scripture and all the holy Fathers, against the canon of the Universal Church regarding the Jesus Prayer?[6][7][8]
The Moldavian elder, the schema-monk Basil, who lived at the end of the last century, set forth the teaching on the Jesus Prayer with particular fullness in his remarks on the works of the Venerables Gregory of Sinai, Hesychius of Jerusalem, and Philotheus of Sinai. The schema-monk called his remarks prefaces or forewords—a most fitting title. Reading these remarks prepares one to read the aforementioned Fathers, whose works pertain chiefly to monks already considerably advanced. The remarks were published by Optina Hermitage together with the writings of Paisius of Neamţ, of whom Basil was instructor, fellow-ascetic, and friend.162 In his preface to the book of the Venerable Gregory of Sinai, Elder Basil says: “Some who are not acquainted by experience with the mental work, and who imagine that they possess the gift of discernment, justify themselves—or rather, divert others from training in this sacred work—by three pretexts or excuses:[9] first, by relegating this work to holy and passionless men, supposing that it belongs to them and not also to those still subject to passions; second, by pointing to the complete absence of instructors and teachers in this way of life and this path; third, by citing the spiritual delusion that follows upon this work. Of these pretexts, the first is unsuitable and unjust: for the first degree of progress for newly-tonsured monks consists in the lessening of the passions through watchfulness of the mind and guarding of the heart—that is, through mental prayer, proper to those in the active life. The second is thoughtless and groundless: for in the absence of an instructor and teacher, Scripture is our teacher. The third contains self-deception: those who cite it, reading the writings about delusion, trip themselves up by that same writing, interpreting it wrongly. Instead of learning from these writings how to recognize delusion and guard against it, they pervert them and present them as grounds for avoiding the mental work. But if you fear this work and its pursuit out of reverence alone and simplicity of heart, then I too fear it on that ground—not on the ground of empty fables, by which “fearing the wolf, one will never enter the forest.” One ought to fear God as well, but not to flee from Him or withdraw from Him on account of that fear.” Further, the schema-monk explains the difference between prayer performed by the mind with the sympathy of the heart—which is proper to all devout monks and Christians—and gracious prayer performed by the mind in the heart or from the heart, which is the possession of more advanced monks. Those who have acquired and made their own the unfortunate prejudice against the Jesus Prayer, and who are not at all familiar with it through correct and prolonged practice, would have acted far more prudently and far more safely had they refrained from judging it, acknowledging their complete ignorance of this most sacred ascetic struggle, rather than taking upon themselves the task of preaching against the practice of the Jesus Prayer—proclaiming that this all-holy prayer is the cause of demonic delusion and the destruction of souls. As a warning to them, I find it necessary to say that the blasphemy of the prayer in the name of Jesus, and the attribution of harmful action to this name, are equivalent to the blasphemy that the Pharisees pronounced against the miracles performed by the Lord (Mt. 12:31, 34, 36). Ignorance may be excused far more readily at the judgment of God than willful prejudice and the clamors and actions founded on it. Let us remember that at the judgment of God we must render account for every idle word163; how much more terrible the account for blasphemous words against the foundational dogma of the Christian faith. The teaching on the divine power of the name of Jesus has the full standing of a foundational dogma and belongs to the all-holy number and substance of those dogmas. The ignorant and blasphemous speculation against the Jesus Prayer bears all the marks of heretical speculation.[10]
Disciple. Yet the holy Fathers warn very strongly those engaged in the Jesus Prayer against spiritual delusion.
Elder. Yes, they do warn. They warn against spiritual delusion for those in obedience, for hesychasts, for those who fast—in short, for all who practice any virtue whatsoever. The source of spiritual delusion, as of every evil, is the devil, and not any virtue. “With every vigilance one must observe,” says Saint Macarius the Great, “the wiles, deceits, and cunning acts of the enemy (the devil) on every side. As the Holy Spirit through Paul became all things to all (1 Cor. 9:22), so the evil spirit strives maliciously to be all things to all, so as to bring all to destruction. With those who pray he pretends to pray as well, so as to lead them into pride by occasion of prayer; with those who fast he fasts, so as to beguile them with self-conceit and drive them to madness; with those versed in Holy Scripture he too rushes into the investigation of Scripture, seeking in appearance to gain knowledge, but in reality striving to lead them into a perverted understanding of Scripture; with those accounted worthy of illumination by light he pretends to possess that gift as well, as Paul says: ‘Satan transforms himself into an angel of light’ (2 Cor. 11:14), so as to deceive by a phantom of light and draw them to himself.[11] To speak simply: he assumes every form for all men, so that through action resembling the action of good he may bring the ascetic into subjection to himself, and, cloaking himself in a fair appearance, cast him into destruction.”164 It happened to me to see elders who were occupied exclusively with intensified bodily ascetic struggle, and who thereby fell into the most extreme self-conceit and the most extreme self-deception. Their soul’s passions—anger, pride, cunning, disobedience—received an extraordinary development. Self-will and self-direction prevailed in them absolutely. With resolve and bitterness they rejected all the most soul-saving counsels and warnings of their confessors, superiors, and even bishops; trampling on the rules not only of humility but of modesty and propriety, they did not refrain from expressing contempt for these persons in the most brazen manner.
A certain Egyptian monk at the beginning of the fourth century fell victim to the most terrible demonic spiritual delusion. Initially he fell into pride; then, on account of his pride, he came under the particular influence of the evil spirit. The devil, taking advantage of the monk’s voluntary pride, took care to develop in him this infirmity, so as, through pride fully matured and grown strong, to bring the monk finally under his control and lead him to the destruction of his soul. Aided by the demon, the monk attained such a wretched degree of advancement that he would stand with bare feet upon red-hot coals and, while standing on them, recite the entire Lord’s Prayer “Our Father.”
Naturally, people who lacked spiritual discernment saw in this action a miracle of God, an extraordinary holiness of the monk, the power of the Lord’s Prayer, and praised the monk with encomiums, developing his pride and helping him to destroy himself. There was no miracle of God there, no holiness of the monk; the power of the Lord’s Prayer was not at work there—Satan was at work, basing himself on the man’s self-deception, on his wrongly-directed will; demonic spiritual delusion was at work. You will ask: what significance did the Lord’s Prayer have in this demonic action? After all, the one deluded read it and attributed what was happening to its action. It is evident that the Lord’s Prayer took no part in this: the one deluded, by his own will, by his own self-deception and by demonic delusion, turned against himself the spiritual sword given to mankind for salvation. The error and self-deception of heretics have always been concealed by the abuse of the Word of God, concealed with subtle cunning; and in the event described, human error and demonic spiritual delusion, with the same aim, craftily concealed themselves beneath the Lord’s Prayer. The wretched monk supposed that he stood on the red-hot coals with bare feet by the action of the Lord’s Prayer, for the purity and height of his ascetic life—whereas he stood on them by demonic action. In precisely this way, self-deception and demonic spiritual delusion sometimes conceal themselves as if under the action of the Jesus Prayer, while ignorance attributes to the action of this most holy prayer what should be attributed to the combined action of Satan and man—of man who has given himself over to be guided by Satan. The aforementioned Egyptian monk passed from feigned holiness to unbridled licentiousness, then to complete madness, and, throwing himself into the heated furnace of a public bathhouse, was burned. It is probable that either despair seized him, or that some deceitful phantom appeared to him in the furnace.165[12]
Disciple. What is it in a person, what condition within him, makes him susceptible to spiritual delusion?
Elder. The Venerable Gregory of Sinai says: “In general, there is one cause of spiritual delusion—pride.”166 In human pride, which is self-deception, the devil finds a comfortable lodging, and adds his own deception to the self-deception of man.[13] Every person is more or less inclined to spiritual delusion: for “the very purest human nature has something proud in it.”167[14]
The warnings of the Fathers are well-founded. One must be very circumspect, must guard oneself very diligently against self-deception and spiritual delusion. In our time, with the complete dearth of God-inspired instructors, particular caution and particular vigilance over oneself are needed. They are needed in all monastic struggles; they are needed most of all in the ascetic struggle of prayer, which of all struggles is the most exalted, the most soul-saving, and the most assailed by enemies.168 “Conduct yourselves… in fear”[15] (1 Pet. 1:17), the Apostle enjoins. In the practice of the Jesus Prayer there is a beginning proper to it, a proper gradation, and an endless end. It is necessary to begin the practice from the beginning, and not from the middle or the end. The most holy Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, depicting the spiritual fruits of this prayer, says: “Let no one who is uninitiated into the mysteries, or who still requires milk, dare, upon hearing the exalted teaching concerning the gracious action of prayer, to lay a hand to it. Such an untimely attempt is forbidden. The Fathers regard those who venture upon it, who seek prematurely what comes in its own time, and who strive to enter into the haven of dispassion in a state unsuited to it, as nothing other than deranged. It is impossible to read books for one who has not learned to read.”169[16]
Disciple. What does it mean to begin the practice of the Jesus Prayer from the middle or from the end, and what does it mean to begin this practice from the beginning?
Elder. Those novice monks who, having read in the patristic writings the instruction for the practice of the Jesus Prayer given by the Fathers to hesychasts—that is, to monks already greatly advanced in the monastic struggle—incautiously take this instruction as a guide for their own activity, begin from the middle. Those who, without any preliminary preparation, strive to bring the mind into the temple of the heart and from there to offer prayer, begin from the middle. Those who seek immediately to unfold in themselves the gracious sweetness of prayer and its other gracious actions begin from the end. One must begin from the beginning—that is, to perform the prayer with “attentiveness” and “reverence,” with the aim of “repentance,” caring only that these three qualities be constantly present with the prayer. So also Saint John of the Ladder, that great laborer of heartfelt gracious prayer, prescribes attentive prayer for those in obedience, and heartfelt prayer for those mature enough for hesychasm. For the former he considers prayer free from distraction to be impossible, while he requires such prayer from the latter.170 In human society one should pray with the mind alone, but in solitude—with both mind and lips, somewhat aloud to oneself alone.171 The utmost care, the most thorough care, must be taken to order one’s moral life in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel.[17] Experience will not be slow to disclose to the praying mind the closest connection between the commandments of the Gospel and the Jesus Prayer.[18] These commandments serve the prayer as oil serves a burning lamp: without oil the lamp cannot be lit; when the oil is spent it cannot burn—it goes out, spreading a foul-smelling smoke all around. Moral life is formed in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel very readily through the fulfillment of monastic obediences, when they are fulfilled in the spirit in which the holy Fathers have commanded them to be fulfilled. True obedience serves as the foundation and the lawful door to true hesychasm.172 True hesychasm consists in the Jesus Prayer assimilated to the heart—and some of the holy Fathers accomplished the great struggle of heartfelt hesychasm and enclosure while surrounded by the clamor of men.173 Only on moral life brought into order by the Gospel commandments—only on this firm Gospel rock—can the majestic, sacred, immaterial temple of God-pleasing prayer be erected. Vain is the labor of one who builds on sand: on a moral life that is light and wavering (Mt. 7:26).[19] Moral life brought into harmonious and beautiful order, consolidated by the habit of fulfilling the Gospel commandments, may be likened to an indestructible silver or golden vessel—the only vessel capable of worthily receiving and safely preserving within itself the priceless spiritual myrrh:[20] prayer.
Saint Symeon the New Theologian, reflecting on the occasional fruitlessness of the ascetic struggle of prayer and the tares of spiritual delusion that spring from it, attributes the cause both of the fruitlessness and of the delusion to a failure to observe the proper order and gradation in the struggle. “Those who wish to ascend,” says the Theologian, “to the heights of prayerful progress must not begin by going from the top downward, but must ascend from below upward—first to the first step of the ladder, then to the second, then to the third, and finally to the fourth. In this way each one can rise from the earth and ascend to heaven. First, he must strive to tame and diminish the passions. Second, he must practice psalmody—that is, vocal prayer: when the passions are diminished, prayer naturally affords delight and sweetness to the tongue and is accounted well-pleasing to God. Third, he must occupy himself with mental prayer.” Here is meant the prayer performed by the mind in the heart: the attentive prayer of novice monks, with the sympathy of the heart, the Fathers rarely dignify with the name of mental prayer, reckoning it more to the category of vocal prayer. “Fourth, he must ascend to contemplation. The first belongs to novices; the second to those advancing in progress; the third to those who have reached the utmost progress; the fourth to the perfect.” Further, the Theologian says that even those striving to lessen the passions must accustom themselves to guarding the heart and to the attentive Jesus Prayer suited to their condition.174 In the communities of Pachomius the Great—which produced the most exalted laborers of mental prayer—each newly-entered monk was first occupied with bodily labors under the direction of an elder for three years. Through bodily labors, frequent instructions from the elder, daily confession of external and internal activity, and the cutting-off of the will, the passions were powerfully and swiftly subdued, and a considerable degree of purity was given to the mind and heart. During the practice of labors the novice was taught the prayer-work suited to his condition.[21] After three years the novice was required to memorize the entire Gospel and Psalter, and those who were able—the entire Holy Scripture, which develops vocal attentive prayer in an extraordinary manner. Only after this did the initiatory teaching in mental prayer begin: it was expounded richly from both the New and Old Testament.175 In this way monks were led into a correct understanding of mental prayer and into its correct practice. From the soundness of the foundation and the correctness of the practice, the progress was wondrous.176[22][23]
Disciple. Is there any reliable means of preserving oneself from spiritual delusion in general—in all monastic struggles—and in particular in the practice of the Jesus Prayer?
Elder. As pride is in general the cause of spiritual delusion, so humility—the virtue directly opposed to pride—serves as a reliable warning and safeguard against spiritual delusion. Saint John of the Ladder called humility “the destruction of the passions.”177 It is evident that in one in whom the passions do not act, in whom the passions are bridled, spiritual delusion cannot act either, for “spiritual delusion is the passionate or partial turning of the soul toward falsehood on the basis of pride.”[24]