Chapter 88

Two Wrong Methods of Prayer—the Imaginative and the Intellectual-cerebral

The first wrong method of prayer depends on the fact that some act in it chiefly through imagination and fantasy. These powers constitute the first station in the movement from without to within, which ought to be passed through, but instead one stops at it. The second station on the path within is represented by discernment, reason, mind, in general—the reasoning and thinking faculty. One must also pass through it and go down with it to the heart. But when one stops at it, there arises the second wrong form of prayer, the distinctive mark of which is that the mind, remaining in the head, wants to arrange everything in the soul by itself and govern it all; but nothing comes from its labors. It chases after everything, but can overcome nothing and only suffers defeat...

And meanwhile, while this ferment happens in the head, the heart goes its own way; no one guards it, and cares and passionate movements rush upon it. Then the mind forgets itself and flees to the objects of cares and passions; and only rarely, when it comes to itself...

The second form of prayer may be rightly called intellectual-cerebral, in contrast to the third—intellectual-cordial. (16, 170–173)