Chapter 8
On the Jesus Prayer and Noetic Activity
8.2.1 Be a sincere child of the Church, and keep everything that the Church keeps.
8.3.1 Be pure and blameless in your life, and do not allow your conscience to accuse you of anything, great or small; but as soon as you stumble in anything, cleanse yourself through repentance.
8.4.1 Fulfill all the monastic rules conscientiously, regarding every task that lies before you to do according to these rules as though it were sent to you personally by God Himself, and dedicate the labor of monastic work to the Lord, as though He Himself were standing before you and watching you.
8.5.1 All of this will make up your active life. If you carry out everything I’ve indicated as you should, your life cannot possibly remain merely external, but will always be interior as well; the interior will permeate the exterior; but it’s possible that there will be no interior life in this, and your life will remain soulless. How can you avoid this? You must bring your heart to every task—a heart filled with fear of God. For the heart to be in a state of fear of God, it must be continually overshadowed by the thought of God. The thought of God will be the door through which the soul will enter into the active life. All labor now must be directed toward thinking unceasingly of God, or being in the presence of God. (Seek God… Seek His face continually). This is where sobriety and noetic prayer stand. God is everywhere: make sure that your thought is everywhere with God. How, then, is it to be done? Thoughts swarm like gnats in their columns, and above the thoughts are the feelings of the heart.[1] To fix the thought on one thing alone, the elders had the practice of training themselves in the continuous recitation of a short little prayer, and from habit and frequent repetition this little prayer became so fixed on the tongue that it repeated itself. Through this, the thought became attached to the prayer, and through the prayer to the unceasing remembrance of God. After the habit was formed, the prayer bound the remembrance of God, and the remembrance of God bound the prayer; and they sustained each other mutually. There it is—walking before God. People used various little prayers, such as: “God, be merciful to me.” or: “God, come to my aid.” or: “I have sinned as a man, but you, being God, have mercy on me.” But then everyone came to prefer the one Jesus Prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!” They learned to repeat it constantly, and with it to keep the remembrance of God. Now you see where the Jesus Prayer stands and what its significance is. In itself it is not noetic, but vocal and external, like all other written prayers; rather, it is a means to noetic prayer, when someone stands before the Lord with it and prays to Him. In the same way, it is not noetic activity either, but the same kind of practice as church prayer or domestic prayer rule recited from a prayer book. Noetic prayer is when someone, having established attention in the heart, from there raises prayer to God. Noetic activity is when someone, standing with attention in the heart and remembrance of the Lord, repels every other thought that tries to enter the heart. Now, I think, you yourself will resolve many of your own misunderstandings. By noetic prayer you surely mean here the Jesus Prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” But after the explanations I’ve given, you can see that this is not noetic prayer but vocal prayer, and you can practice it without fear, just as you learned any other prayer. Whether you’re sitting, walking, or doing something else—repeat this prayer, and that’s all there is to it... and you’ll get used to it, and it will start repeating itself on your tongue. No harm is foreseen in any of this.
8.6.1 Noetic prayer, on the other hand, is when you stand in your heart with attention and cry out to the Lord—whether asking, or repenting, or giving thanks, or glorifying Him. In this activity, too, there is no danger; such prayer is its own safeguard. For the Lord is there, if you turn to Him with faith. At this very hour you can try it out in practice.
8.7.1 Practice it, practice it—and not only when you sit alone in your cell, but everywhere: in church, at table, when you walk. Only take care that there is remembrance of the Lord present, and not mere words.
8.8.1 What the schemamonk Basil said about setting aside singing for noetic prayer applies to recluses and to those persons in whom noetic prayer has opened and become unceasing. These people can do all of it in place of church service and cell rule. But what is meant here is not the repetition of the Jesus Prayer, but the unceasing ascent of cries of prayer at the heart.[2] I read of an elder who could continue his prayer rule only until the first Glory (from the Psalter), and then he would enter into prayer of the heart and pray wordless prayer. The recitation of prayer then ceases of its own accord. So the laying aside of singing does not apply to us—you and I must both attend the church services and fulfill what has been appointed for our cell-rule prayer.
8.9.1 When unceasing prayer of the heart is formed in you, then you will see how to proceed. You ask me to bless your inner work—God will bless it! But understand clearly what the matter is here: learn to say the Jesus Prayer so that it becomes natural to your tongue, yet always with your mind fixed on the Lord. If at the same time you sigh to the Lord from your heart, this will be noetic prayer, not merely the words of the Jesus Prayer. If, standing in your heart with attention before the Lord and saying the Jesus Prayer, you drive away from your heart every other thought and feeling, this will be noetic activity.