Meg Funk

megfunk.com to phase out!

(Meg Funk) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:51:37 CDT

The Teacher

megfunk.com will phase out off the web on October 15th, 2011

Several factors point to this decision:

1. Lantern is going to specialize in books and phase out their web business.

2. Meg is writing a new book: Discernment Matters and needs more time, space and silence from the electric noise.

3. A new server would cost more and I'm not sure I need it to continue the good work of the books.

4. I will be available by email: megfunk@earthlink.net

5. Will phase out my gmail account on October 15th, too.

6. We've had some issues with viruses and hacking. I feel that less is more, for now. The books will be available and I'll have an email account with Earthlink.

Some have asked if it will be archived anywhere. No, not at this time. Feel free to copy any or all you would like to have for reference.

It's a lot! 600+ entries. I'm sorting through them now. We are all learning together what is beneficial about these new ways of communication.

I feel that my best writing can be found in the books.

Thank you for your support!

Sister Meg

Discernment Matters

(Meg Funk) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:20:01 CDT

no grasping

Discernment Matters:
(Draft one) For those called to live from the heart

Forward:
Kallistos Ware

Preface:
Situating this book #5 in the Matter Series

Introduction:
Executive Summary of the whole book. Our heart’s desire is God. This seeking God can be a journey from anxiety and agitation to confidence and calmness.

The monastic tradition teaches that the path is through renunciation rather than grasping. The path has structure and has specific training that is available to sincere practitioners.

Ultimately on our side it is training of the heart into the experience God. We call this prayer.

There are four renunciations we make along the journey of life. We are plunged into the Baptismal waters and are raised up into Christ Jesus. We are saved from consequences of our sins. We have received mercy. For our part, we renounce our former way of life and promise to follow the teachings and example of Jesus.

Secondly, we make a second renunciation when we accept our given vocation. We renounce the destructive thoughts that become afflictions and, if acted upon, trigger a return to our former way of life. We replace our destructive thoughts, emotions and actions with ceaseless prayer.

Thirdly, we renounce our self-made thoughts of God because God is not one of our thoughts, feelings or emotions. God is God and we are God’s creation.

Finally, we renounce our self-made thoughts of self as our sense of self needs no commentary, nor embellishment. “That we are” is the fact and how, when, who, where are all external conditions that cannot touch our core being. We renounce our dialogue with ego and shift into selfless service, expecting no return.

Discernment is the work of the person in each of these stages of the journey, but what might have been beneficial at one stage is not appropriate at another. We need training in how to make decisions to determine our next step. We need direction that is specific within each one of these stages.
For example, in the first renunciation it is appropriate to undergo counseling, psychotherapy or psychiatric treatment so that we could function at work.

Some inner work might accompany this outer work but inner work is the priority of the second renunciation stage and the outer work is the priority of the first stage.

At the third renunciation and fourth renunciation there is no benefit in returning to commentary with the self as the self-talk is renounced for the sake of pure prayer. There’s no denial of afflictions or being a sinner, but the practice is to refrain from self-talk so that humility prevails. One neither puts oneself up or down, but remains as is.

Discernment Matters because if one is still struggling to stay faithful to a moral life there is little possibility to assume the practices and observances of the mystical life. This impetuosity that promotes our self ahead of our practice is dangerous to our soul.

Also, on the part of the director there is a great moral responsibility to take on the task of guiding others. It is harmful if the teacher teaches other than what is lived in his/her life. While we are all sinners the teacher quickly confesses and moves out of habitual and actual sin, or she/he has the obligation quit teaching because the risk of harming others is unacceptable.

This goes further than meets the eye. If a teacher doesn’t have his/her life in order then, there’s no moral authority to call another to renounce sin. If the teacher accepts an abiding less than moral condition of the student, then it is better to have no teacher rather than a mal-functioning teacher.

We have a dual problem today with gap between the moral and spiritual life. Seeking to be a mystic but living a sinful life risks one’s mental health. Our personal integrity can’t be fooled by tricks of false teachers and teachings. Breakdown happens when we abuse the subtle spiritual senses.

Self-guidance promotes the self. When am I practicing a prayer that is too high for me, too beyond my pace of grace? We need direction. We need training for those who guide us. We need to look again at our tradition and apply those teachings for our own day.

But perhaps the most exciting discovery is to reach into this mystical tradition and to have a sustained practice that does quiet the thoughts and shift the mind to the heart. This is a wonderful place for discernment. The heart knows! So, how does this work? The thinking mind can become still and waits upon the impulse of grace to rise. Wisdom and insight is known by the heart and a new confidence surges in following one’s heart’s desire. This book is a small attempt to look at discernment in each stage and how the teacher and the student can benefit from applying John Cassian’s system of the four renunciations to each and everyone’s spiritual journey.

This book will also apply these teachings to groups. We are in several groups that are all making decisions. Discernment is a major task for a group to be effective in the workplace, church or community. The Holy Spirit is at work in shared wisdom that emerges in sincere groups.

Discernment ultimately is listening with the ear of our heart to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our midst. We share in the reign by doing our little part.

The voice of this book is Meg Funk as a catechist teaching the Christian Tradition on the Spiritual Life. The intended audience is for other teachers and/or those without teachers who can rely on the tradition. Tradition is embodied teachings sourced in past and living in the present confirmed by those who witnessed those saints.

Jesus became like us with a body, mind and soul. We are Baptized into those saving waters that makes us disciples of Our Lord, Jesus. Following his teachings, walking, standing, sitting in His Presence we learn ways of returning to our original and deepest desires. Knowing Him we also know the Father. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit now and in an actual time called ordinary life.

Our Holy Spirit wants to be involved in our lives, year-by-year, day-by-day, and moment-by-moment. Joy abiding, is possible in this lifetime. Our afflictions can be rooted out and our body, mind and soul can abide in peace during this lifetime. The choices make all the difference. Discernment is this process of making good, wise, wholesome and critical decisions that bring us into a conscious, active and living relationship with God. It is the Holy Spirit that can help us to integrate our moral and mystical life for the spiritual journey.

The good prevails over evil. (Gospel, good news)

1. Short theology of Trinity and how the Holy Spirit is for us.
2. Images of the Holy Spirit: how the experience of the Holy Spirit is depicted in language, visual art, music and architecture.
3. Epiclesis: prayer of invocation.
4. Physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit: Discernment is sorting, deciding, discriminating, defining and directing the next foot forward for both little things and big life choices.
5. The necessity of belonging to a faith community of one’s initiation.
6. Moving through Cassian’s four renunciations. (Humility Matters has full catechesis)

former way of life,

thoughts of food, sex, things, anger, dejection, acedia, vainglory and pride;

self-made thoughts of God,

self-made thoughts of self.

7. Using photography to evoke inherence between the text and the reader. (The paper book is freestanding without the photography. The e-book will have 40-60 pictures of original digital photography.)

Chapter One:
Discernment and the First Renunciation: To renounce one’s former way of life that leads away from the baptismal vows to follow Christ. For the first renunciation we take the plunge to change. We pattern our life to imitate Jesus. To listen to his teachings, take to heart his healing and to convert our heart away from sin and toward the saving graces into the reign of God. We take up seriously living the Christian way of life in our little world.

1. The Epiclesis: Calling down the Holy Spirit to critique life now and how it must change to conform to the Baptismal Promises and for the grace to shift from default to a way of life according to one’s vocation. (For Meg it is the monastic way of life.)

2. The Former way of life is described by Pachomius, Anthony, Benedict for monastics. For the Christian we take to heart the Gospel of Mark.

3. The first renunciation is a sustained effort to take refuge in Jesus, the Christ.

4. Individual Method of discernment for those in the first renunciation (once on the horse the disciple takes action toward living the Gospel message):

Right use of money, property, status.

Roles that take responsibility for relationships, for generations before and after us; includes peers, children, parents and the individuals in the margins.

Civic responsibility for society.

Sustainability of shared resources of earth and artistic/intellectual gifts.

Interpersonal integrity.

Work conditions, residential constraints.

The effects of primordial, generational, personal sin

Right use of time and talents.

Obligation to promote beauty, goodness and truth.

Living simply so others can simply live.

5. Spiritual Direction for those in First Renunciation: Distinctions between Spiritual Direction, Counseling, Training into the Tradition, Obedience to a Superior, Spiritual Companioning, Roles in Ministry, Mentor, Boss in the Workplace, Co-Worker, Confessor, Teachers and Parents.

People that come to us in the First Renunciation have not made the leap away from” the world of secular unconsciousness” toward God.

Right effort toward conversion.

Training in breaking habits of sin.

Cultivating habits of formal prayer and liturgy.

The dangers of too many voices cancelling out right action.

Five steps toward changing habits toward desired goals.
i. Notice choice to remain ignorant and resist change.
ii. Entertain awareness that change is possible and desirable
iii. Inquiry into what changes are necessary and what steps would be helpful
iv. Make changes and practice the new behavior for 3-6 months.
v. Sustain the practice with the awareness of the possibility of relapse
vi. To experience relapse and recommitment and benefit of making the new habit a life-long practice.

6. Training for Spiritual Directors working with seekers in the First Renunciation: The big assistance is to help them shift from being an observer totally self-conscious or other-consciousness to a desire for God and take the spiritual journey that engages in the whole effort of living toward God. If they need more exterior assistance refer them to counseling or other forms of therapy. Some do well entering fully into the 12 Step Program of AA or Clinical Pastoral Education.

7. Group Discernment: Assisting groups to make choices toward God. Setting and agreeing on the mission, both strategically and tactically.

Charting a code of discipline.

Learn to set, maintain and update norms.

Noticing and accepting the burden of sin and the rigidity that prevents change.

Assist individuals in groups, especially leaders, to take responsibility for wise discrimination, distinctions. As such a group do not change, only individuals can make the shift based on the aspirations and “will” of the group. Groups are virtual realities, not actual.

Dialogue from experience and articulate values based on the Gospel.

Put mechanisms in place to prevent domination and control that harms others. Have ways of intervention and repentance and forgiveness. Have rituals of reconciliation.

Teach the card-sorting technique that provides a method for each voice to be heard and a way to sort where the energy of the group is rising. Decisions are action taken that has energy to effect the desired outcome.

Return to the right question: What is the way toward God at this time for us?

8. Summarize the gift and benefits of negotiating the First Renunciation: i.e. a way to renounce one’s former way of life and move on toward the Gospel incarnated in our midst. To feel the peace of all energies focused and toward one’s heart’s desire. To participate in groups that promote the Gospel values in our midst. To experience peace through progress in the direction of the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Chapter Two:
Discernment and the Second Renunciation: The Spiritual Journey begins. Before, there was the External Journey from birth to death, but now there is an invitation to live from the inside-out, rather than, from the outside-in. One roots out the inclinations toward sin and the eight afflictions pertaining to food, sex, things, anger, dejection, acedia, vainglory and pride. (Purgative) Training in Practice is helpful. Afflictions are replaced with ceaseless prayer. The main practice is sustained Lectio Divina with emphasis on the Moral Voice heard by the personal senses that roots out afflictions.

1. Epiclesis: Calling down the Holy Spirit to petition for graces needed to repent, change and continue an ongoing way of life that befits one’s vocation. To reduce, refrain and change one’s life to prevent the afflictions.

2. The Thoughts of the Former Way of Life can cause relapse into acting like we did before our conversion.

3. The sustained effort is to begin to practice. The afflictions are a port of entry, but the antidote is to begin a strenuous effort toward sustained practice rooting out vice and replacing them with virtue.

4. The Second Renunciation is the combat that takes place in one’s mind and heart.

5. The method of discernment for those in the second renunciation is to deal with thoughts, images, feelings and impulses that rise on the screen of consciousness.

Diakrisis: (sorting) one’s thoughts of food, sex, things, etc.

Keeping vigil, guarding thoughts, watching thoughts.

Sorting the origin and direction of ones thoughts: God, self, others, evil.

Guard of the Heart/Watching the Thoughts

Attention to Intentions and motivations.

Sorting ignorance as dark side of indifference/apathy

Sorting from the human condition the effects of Primordial, Generational, Personal sin and finding the zone of agency.

Negative praxis of overcoming the domination of thoughts, desires, and passions that leads to afflictions and/or addictions.

Positive praxis to cultivate virtues of love, compassion, and forgiving, non-judgmental thoughts, wholesome desires, and taking action on behalf of others.

6. Spiritual Direction for those in second renunciation: Identifying afflictions. It seems that no matter how beneficial Scripture, Liturgy, and Theological Study can be the starting point of entry is one’s own afflictions. The revelatory text is one’s obstacles to God. We, who were trained in Scholastic Philosophy thought that the sequence was to see, judge and act. We had years and years of content of what to see. Judgment was left to personal option to avoid evil and do good. The evil and good was also the subject of more content. Missing was training of the mind to experience consciousness and redirect our thoughts, emotions and passions toward the good. Theological inquiry dominated rather than training our minds like a muscle that can learn new behaviors like compassion replacing self-serving relationships.

Start a practice of sustained lectio divina (see Lectio Matters)

The tools to use:
i. ceaseless prayer,
ii. talking back to unwanted thoughts and destructive emotions,
iii. self-less service,
iv. remembering death
v. and watching the thoughts and feelings rise with no engagement till the thought passes on with no attraction to the thinker (nepsis).
vi. Training in emotional equanimity (Nil Sorsky)
vii. Method of making a decision.
viii. Confirming signs
ix. Distinguishing invitations from temptations

7. Training Spiritual Directors for working with those in Second Renunciation. Criteria of obedience, following the wisdom of another is recommended. In the monastic tradition obedience is prescribed until the student learns to discern their thoughts and take right action. Until the student can follow the teachings of an elder they lack the discipline of following the impulse of the Holy Sprit that rises in their own soul. This puts a great responsibility on the elder to sort his/her own thoughts and listen to the impulse of the Holy Spirit in their own life and in the directives for the novice.

The criteria for being a spiritual director, for those in the Second Renunciation, are to have a self-acting ceaseless prayer practice. Practice can only be learned by doing it. This is not passing on a theory, as in philosophy, but a way of doing, as in praxis.

The spiritual director would benefit from a sustained practice of lectio divina through the revelatory texts of Scripture, Experience or Nature. Then, the director can teach the student.

The method of disclosure of thoughts to a wise elder, earliest form of spiritual direction. The practice of exagoreusis St. Benedict recommended this tool (RB 7:44; 4:50).

In the second renunciation a meditation practice helps to have a method to notice thoughts, feelings and passions. Meditation is a powerful way to restructure consciousness toward God rather than toward the ego-self. However, consciousness is not enough. We discern and take action to follow the Gospel and to serve others.

8. Group Process for those wanting to discern from the Interior Life. Laying aside afflictions before coming to the table of dialogue.

Asking the right question that is before the group: What does God want of this group?

Attention to environment is essential to provide a warm, quiet, safe space for dialogue of the heart.

All opinions are received reverently. The openness is punctuated by quality silence and shared prayer.

Attention is paid not only to action taken, but also to motivations and intentions.

Desired outcomes are less functional and more quality issues such as compassion, mercy, respect, inclusiveness and individual renunciation for the sake of others.

The card sorting method is used, but the questions are subtler so that more creative, out of the box suggestions can be heard and heeded.

9. Summarize the gift and benefits of negotiating the Second Renunciation: Sustained practice leads to purity of heart. The afflictions are extirpated. The body, mind and soul experiences profound stillness. Avoiding the fragmented mind that leads away from calmness and single-minded attention we have an orderly, moderate and wise pattern of living in service of others. One’s body, mind and soul come to a still point toward purity of heart. Humility is what others see of your purity of heart.

Chapter Three:
The Third Renunciation is to renounce your self-made thoughts of God so that God can be God. We want the experience of God rather than our own experience of ourselves ⎯talking about God. This is the mystical realm of discernment. (Illuminative) Using the practices the drag of afflictions have been mostly rooted out. But now we go with poise towards God without illusion and vainglory. We can relapse to our former way of life, or to our previous afflictions without careful vigilance and humility. The dark nights are in service of combating ever more invisible forces that confront us on the journey.

1. Epiclesis: We invite the Holy Spirit once again to come and give us light.

2. The spiritual life in the light sometimes is dazzling darkness. It has its own map and pitfalls. In the third renunciation we can have the dark nights of senses, soul and spirit. The Third Renunciation is to renounce self-made thoughts of God. God is the Creator and we are the Creatures. The dragon has been slain. The afflictions are rooted out, but the journey continues ever deeper. The interior life become subtler as the impulse of grace is received and responded to by the spiritual senses.

3. The sustained effort shifts to right effort, sometimes passive and other times active depending on the impulse of the Holy Spirit.

4. The method of discernment is to know when to relax and when to respond.

On cultivating an apophatic practice to back out one’s habitual self-made images of God (e.g. Cloud of Unknowing).

The Jesus Prayer that shifts to the Prayer of the Heart.

Descending the mind into the heart and staying there.

Training in warming of the heart.

Will again teach the break points of all the practices that shifts from moral to mystical realization.

Manual Labor and practice of the cell prevents acedia.

The benefits of compunction that prevents vainglory.

Training in right effort, the middle way.

Combating evil as an entity and is not just another form of human weakness.

Confirming signs to have confidence on what action to take when, where and how.

5. Spiritual Direction for those in the Third Renunciation (Illumination). Here is where there are truly dark nights of senses, soul and spirit.

The four paths: doing, loving, truth, being and the tools for each path.

Discerning which are mystical lights and which are illusions.

Combating the Evil One

Discrimination, boundaries in East-West dialogue. How to benefit from insights of other mystical traditions. Christians have taken refuge in Christ; others have taken refuge in the Buddha, etc.

If one cannot find a spiritual director, then where are the teachings?
i. Using sources from other traditions,
ii. relying on the magisterium of the Church,
iii. honoring one’s inviolable freedom of conscience.
iv. Mystical Christian Tradition Saints/Sages/Scholars

6. Training in Spiritual Direction for Third Renunciation: None. Jesus is the only Teacher in the Christian Tradition.

7. Group Process for those in Third Renunciation: We are invited to use the best of our dialogue skills that consciously go beyond power, control and intimacy issues. We can let the group find its internal dynamics that sort out wisely its best next step for the sake of the whole.

Discrimination provides boundaries for dialogue among those of differing initiations. We speak from our own experience and at the table of dialogue we listen with the ear of our hearts to other practitioners. Christians have taken refuge in Christ; others have taken refuge in the Buddha, etc.

Group process would benefit in events that are mostly silence, such as pilgrimages, shared listening to sacred music, recitations and artistic performances. We observe rather than participate in interfaith rituals, as we are not initiated in the rites of other religions. Profound respect and shared reverence abounds. Renounce evangelical agenda.

Different kinds of groups require different norms: working groups, support groups, associations of peers, committees in service of larger organizations, political groups, advocacy groups, social networks, etc.

Group process in the third renunciation would require skills in leadership and membership that function like a monastery or a sangha that supports spiritual practice but never becomes a cult of a closed society around a charismatic leader. The structures of these groups are fluid, protecting one’s freedom of conscience and accomplishes good for the whole.

8. Benefits of the Third Renunciation: The individual prefers not knowing, yet the heart knows. The Art of Dialogue becomes Communion. There’s light in the eyes. Wisdom bounces forth. Final integration enjoys being at home and confident in one’s tradition and deeply felt respect for those from other traditions.

Chapter Four:
Renouncing my self-made thoughts of myself: Total renunciation of free-fall thinking and self-talking to the self. The mystical life reigns and replaces self-consciousness. (unity). In this stage we take on the strenuous effort toward self-less service. We expect no return and live by faith, perhaps even renouncing the comforts of living in a felt God-Consciousness.

1. Epiclesis: We sit in Pentecost posture awaiting the Coming of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Fourth Renunciation is about the self: The self-made thoughts of the self are to be renounced, as there is no self to talk to. We only have a sense of ourselves, no fixed particle, energy or light to call “self”.

3. Effort is radically shifted from the self-effort to total reliance on the impulse of grace. Do no more than, no less than the impulse of grace. Training in no-effort. Rely on God’s grace through surrender to passive and active grace that one responds to gently and without doubt. Training in faith.

4. The Method of Discernment uses all the tools:

Distinctions again between Observance, practice and praxis.

Finding the place in the heart where the Holy Spirit dwells and the thinking mind no longer dominate.

Silence in the heart space lingers in the midst of noise.

Healing of the heart through the Sacrament of Anointing (I see in this book doing a catechesis on the Rite of Anointing. Suffering is accepted as part of life. Healing is in service of undergoing death. I did Baptism in Humility Matters, Confession in Lectio Matters.)

The teaching from St. Teresa of Avila on the autonomous self that sees through Jesus all other relationships and is a foundational spirituality for being a hermit in the Carmelite Tradition.

Decisions made from the 4th renunciation about self-sacrifice, about self-less service, about ministry, about suffering and about dying.

The Little Way is again a recommended tool.

5. There is no training for spiritual directors to help those in the 4th renunciation except their own experience.

6. Gift and benefits of the 4th renunciation: martyrdom. The Monks of Atlas. One can suffer without counting the cost. Kenosis happens in solidarity with all. Have no enemies because compassion happens.

Summary and Conclusions:
Living from the heart. Taking refuge in Jesus.

Appendices:
1. Short history of Discernment in the Monastic Christian Tradition

Scripture

Desert Tradition

St. Benedict

Orthodox Eastern

2. Sample method of discernment in each of the four renunciations.

Former Way of Life: To shift to a smaller cell

Renounce afflictions: To restart monastic life with a director

Renounce self-made thoughts of God: To shift from my thinking mind and renounce speculative thinking, issue based agenda and free-fall mindlessness. To read only those books prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Renounce self-talk to the self: To refrain from self-talk and either simply remain in silence or do colloquy with Our Lord. To accept the progressive stage in life toward dying.

3. A sample agreement between the spiritual director and the one seeking direction.

4. A sample program for mentoring spiritual directors.

5. Resources for Discernment: a list of 12 recommended sources.

The Conferences of Cassian

Rule of Benedict

Desert Christians by William Harmless

Discernment in the Desert Fathers, Diakrisis in the Life and Thought of Early Egyptian Monasticism by Anthony D. Rich. Forward by Benedicta Ward. (Ph.D. Thesis from Oxford 2006)

Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East by I. Hausherr (1990), (CS 116).

Praying with the Desert Mothers by Mary Forman, osb

Discernment of Spirits from Dictionnair de Spiritualite by Jacques Guiller, Gustave Bardy, Francois Vandenbroucke, Joseph Pegon and Henri Martin.

The Physician Champion by Malcom Herring, MD (on mentoring)

The Practice of Ministry by Kathleen Cahalan. 2011. (Trinity as practice)

The Spirituality of the Christian East by Thoms Spidlik

Megfunk.com and DIM/MID.com http://www.dimmid.org/

The Art of Prayer compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966 New York, NY

Afterward:
A meditation on Jesus by Nun Rebecca Cown of New Skete, NY

if only

(Meg Funk) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:40:32 CDT

One God

I am going to renounce
My “if onlys”
On this 10th anniversary of 9/11.

There are three for me,
You probably have your own regrets:

“If only”
Dan Rather would have
Taken Saddam Husain “out”
On the CBS Evening News.

“If Only”
George W. Bush
Would have shouted
“I will get to the bottom of this deed
And root out the cause”.

“If only”
America would
Have not gone to war in Iraq and Afghanistan
And put the two Trillion Dollars toward
Jobs and education.

I am going to replace
My “if onlys”

With:

It starts with me. I will return to the table of dialogue.
I must forgive my enemies.
Now, just who are my enemies?

“If there is ever to be peace, it won’t be authentic until each individual achieves peace within him/herself, expels all feelings of hatred and change it into something else, maybe even into love----or is that asking too much? It is the only solution.”
(Etty Hillesum)

Mary Margaret Funk
Benedictine Nun

Tibhirine Monks of Atlas Algeria

(Alain Woodrow) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:03:14 CDT

In His Name

Meg: as of September 1, 2011 the film Of God and Men is now available. This is the best preparation for any dialogue on the topic of 9/11.
The seven Cistercian Monks who died gave us this legacy:
1) We are to love everyone and have no enemies.
2) Jesus is our guide.
3) Do the little things or ordinary life...hospitality, listening, being at prayer and kind to one another.
4) Expect no return. God alone provides the grace.

Numerous books, articles, television
documentaries and now a film
have been made on the subject, but the mystery of the assassination of seven French Trappist monks in Algeria 14 years ago has never been fully elucidated.
Meg: this is from The Tablet. Permission Granted from: http://thetablet.co.uk
"Mystery of the martyred monks"
Ignatius Kusiak 
The Publisher
The Tablet Publishing Company Ltd. Registered in England No. 311249 Registered
Office: 1, King St. Cloisters Clifton Walk
 London W6 0GY 
Great Britain UK

The French movie, Des hommes et des dieux,
directed by self-styled agnostic Xavier
Beauvois, winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes
this year and released in Britain as Of Gods
and Men yesterday, simply relates the known
facts without expressing a political opinion.

It was an immediate success, with one and a
half million people seeing the film in the first
three weeks after its release in France in
September. Writing a Daily Journal

Was asked recently about the practice of a daily journal. Is it healthy or selfing?

We have been through a period of 50 years discovering the self and being excited about this inner dialogue.

The healthy part is to strengthen the inner life and to check into our own thoughts, feelings, passions, inclinations, desires and emotional content.

It's good for us to take the time to know ourselves.
To know thyself is an ancient way into a relationship with our being. The sequence is often taught:

1. To know yourself.
2. To be yourself.
3. To give yourself.

The problem is that there is no solid self to know, to be and to give. It's more like fluid than solid.

The self cannot be known. The being, as in essence, emerges from time to time, but more like a vapor and like a whisper.

What we can rely on is to give our self, as in service to another. That is authentic.

Some say they are burnt out from giving self without enough self care. It isn't the giving that drains the psychic it is the resistance that wears one to the bone. Giving gratuitously without return is the Gospel and well worth the fatigue and spent experience of emptiness.

In giving we often rest in-service of being there with full energy and attention to those we serve.

So, is journal writing in service of the self-less-ness or is it in the grasping and telling the details of hurts, woes and wings of resistance?

A question for the writer is to whom are you writing? Since soon, and very soon, we are to renounce ourselves for the sake of picking up the cross and following Christ all they way to the next life is the Journal a help or a hindering practice.

To make it a help I recommend three things:

1. The voice be of a sinner asking for mercy.
2. The object of the writing be God, our heart's desire.
3. The content be lifting up our experience of life as it is felt.

Then, Journalling becomes a prayer.

Sister Meg
Beech Grove, IN
August 2011

Degrees of Prayer

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:43:12 CDT

enter, further, yet more

What is Prayer?
By Theophan the Recluse
[�in 1866, after only seven years as a bishop, (Theophan) resigned his position and retired to a modest provincial monastery at Vyshen, where he stayed until his death twenty-eight years later (p. 12).]
p. 52

Degrees of prayer

There are various degrees of prayer. The first degree is bodily prayer, consisting for the most part in reading, in standing, and in making prostrations.

In all this there must needs be patience, labor, and sweat; for the attention runs away, the heart feels nothing and has no desire to pray. Yet in spite of this, give yourself a moderate rule and keep to it. Such is active prayer.

The second degree is prayer with attention: the mind becomes accustomed to collecting itself in the hour of prayer, and prays consciously throughout, without distraction. The mind is focused upon the written words to the point of speaking them as if they were its own.

The third degree is prayer of feeling: the heart is warmed by concentration so that what hitherto has only been thought now becomes feeling. Where first it was a contrite phrase now it is contrition itself; and what was once a petition in words is transformed into a sensation of entire necessity.

Whoever has passed through action and thought to true feeling, will pray without words, for God is God of the heart. So that the end of apprenticeship in prayer can be said to come when in our prayer we move only from feeling to feeling. In this state reading may cease, as well as deliberate thought; let there be only a dwelling in feeling with specific marks of prayer.

When the feeling of prayer reaches the point where it becomes continuous, then spiritual prayer may be said to begin. This is the gift of the Holy Spirit praying for us, the last degree of prayer which our minds can grasp.

But there is, they say, yet another kind of prayer which cannot be comprehended by our mind, and which goes beyond the limits of consciousness: on this read St. Isaac the Syrian.

[St. Isaac the Syrian (died c. 700), Nestorian Bishop of Nineveh and mystical author. His works, translated from Syriac into Greek during the ninth century, have long been widely read and honored in the Orthodox Church.]

60 years Tibet Under China

(Lobsang Sangay) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:03:00 CDT

Cold exploitation

August 16, 2011
NY Times
The Myth of Socialist Paradise
By LOBSANG SANGAY
Dharamsala, India

THREE years ago, Tibetans from Lhasa to Lithang rose up against Chinese rule in Tibet.

Earlier this week, a Tibetan monk set himself on fire — the second self-immolation this year, and a testament to China’s continuing repression and Tibetans’ continued resistance.

We do not encourage protests, but it is our sacred duty to support our voiceless and courageous compatriots.

In 1950, when the Chinese Army first came to Tibet, they promised a socialist paradise for Tibetans.

After more than 60 years of misrule, Tibet is no socialist paradise. There is not socialism but colonialism; there is no paradise, only tragedy.

Some Tibetans helped build roads to Tibet from China and were paid in silver coins by polite and respectful Chinese soldiers.

However, once the roads were built in early 1950s, tanks encircled strategic urban areas, trucks headed straight to the mineral-rich mountains, and Chinese workers arrived later to exploit and mine billions of dollars worth of gold, copper and uranium.

Overnight, it seemed, something had changed. The polite Chinese people changed, too, and became overbearing and aggressive. They used their guns. Battles erupted. There was death and destruction.

The continuing political repression, cultural assimilation, economic marginalization and environmental destruction in occupied Tibet are unacceptable.

The new railway line from Beijing to Lhasa is bringing more heavy equipment to exploit our natural resources and more Chinese migrants, who are beginning to demographically dominate Tibet.

Today,
* around 70 percent of private-sector firms are owned or run by Chinese,
*more than 50 percent of government officials are Chinese,
*and approximately 40 percent of Tibetans with university and high school degrees are unemployed.

And this is made worse by Chinese officials who treat Tibet as their personal inheritance, and behave like latter-day feudal lords.

Earlier this year, several Chinese leaders visited Lhasa to celebrate 60 years of so-called peaceful liberation. But the reality is that the anniversary was observed under undeclared martial law.

Troops carried automatic machine guns as they marched through the streets of Lhasa while sharpshooters positioned themselves on rooftops.

Tourists, of course, were banned from visiting during the “celebration.”

The Tibetan political leadership is still committed to nonviolence and a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

We will continue our “middle way” policy, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet within the People’s Republic of China, a win-win proposition for both the Tibetans and the Chinese.

China aspires to be a superpower. It has a fast-growing economy backed by growing military power, but sadly, its moral power is lagging behind. And moral power cannot be bought in the marketplace or forced with military might. It has to be earned.

As long as Tibetans are reduced to second-class citizens in their own homeland, there will be resistance to Chinese rule.

Finding a lasting solution to the Tibet question, on the other hand, would improve China’s image in the eyes of the world and help protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Peaceful dialogue could lead to genuine Tibetan autonomy within China. This is a solution that would satisfy both Tibetan and Chinese interests and it would be a victory not only for the Tibetan people, but for all marginalized people around the world.

Lobsang Sangay was sworn in last week as the kalon tripa, or prime minister, of the Tibetan government in exile.

Ceaseless prayer clarifications

(Meg Funk) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:06:50 CDT

never-not

Clarifications about ceaseless prayer.

Meg: The previous post from the Art of Prayer makes the point that short prayers are warmer and more beneficial for the beginner.

The directive to pray ceaselessly is to be understood that the repetition of the prayer, like a mantra, continues at an abiding level of actual vibrations of each word. The prayer shifts into a self-actualized refrain.

We cannot be "at prayer" all the time as we have other work to do, but we can continuously be doing the prayer in our hearts and it is as actual and real as our breath or our heartbeat.

The training in the Jesus Prayer guides the beginner. The words ceaseless, continuous, abiding an never-not is quite possible for all of us.

I find that most practitioners can find themselves in ceaseless prayer after about three weeks of vigorous effort.

Short Prayers

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:57:59 CDT

Warmer and more useful

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology
The Inner Closet of the Heart
By St. Dimitri of Rostov
[St. Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov (1651-1709):

Prayer should be short, but often repeated

From those who have experience in raising their mind to God, I learned that, in the case of prayer made by the mind from the heart, a short prayer, often repeated, is warmer and more useful than a long one.

Lengthy prayer is also very useful, but only for those who are reaching perfection, not for beginners.

During lengthy prayer, the mind of the inexperienced cannot stand long before God, but is generally overcome by its own weakness and mutability, and drawn away by external things, so that warmth of the spirit quickly cools down.

Such prayer is no longer prayer, but only disturbance of the mind, because of the thoughts wandering hither and thither: which happens both during prayers and psalms recited in church, and also during the rule of prayers for the cell, [Besides the liturgical services held in church, an Orthodox monk is required by his rule to recite certain prayers daily in his own cell.]

...which takes a long time. Short yet frequent prayer, on the other hand, has more stability, because the mind, immersed for a short time in God, can perform it with greater warmth. Therefore the Lord also says: ‘When ye pray, use not vain repetitions’ (Matt vi. 7), for it is not for your prolixity that you will be heard.

And St. John of the Ladder [St. John of the Ladder, also known as John Climacus (?579-?649), of Mount Sinai, author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a classic work on the ascetic and spiritual life which is normally read each Lent in Orthodox monasteries:

English translation by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore, London (Faber and Faber), 1959.] also teaches: ‘Do not try to use many words, lest your mind become distracted by the search for words. Because of one short sentence, the Publican received the mercy of God, and one brief affirmation of belief saved the Robber.

An excessive multitude of words in prayer disperses the mind in dreams, while one word or a short sentence helps to collect the mind.’

But someone may ask: ‘Why did the Apostle say in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing”?’ (1 Thess. v. 17).

Usually in the Holy Scriptures, the word ‘always’ is used in the sense of ‘often’, for instance, ‘The priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service for God’ (Heb. ix. 6): this means that the priests went into the first tabernacle at certain fixed hours, not that they went there unceasingly by day and by night; they went often, but not uninterruptedly.

Even if the priests were all the time in church, keeping alight the fire which came from heaven, and adding fuel to it so that it should not go out, they were not doing this all at the same time, but by turns, as we see from St. Zacharias: ‘He executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course’ (Luke i.8).

One should think in the same way about prayer, which the Apostle ordains to be done unceasingly, for it is impossible for man to remain in prayer day and night without interruption. After all, time is also needed for other things, for necessary cares in in the administration of one’s house; we need time for working, time for talking, time for eating and drinking, time for rest and sleep. How is it possible to pray unceasingly except by praying often? But oft-repeated prayer may be considered unceasing prayer.

Consequently do not let your oft-repeated but short prayer be expanded into too many words. This is what the Holy Fathers also advise.

In his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew (vi.7), St. Theophylact states, ‘You should not make long prayers, for it is better to pray little but often.’ And St. John Chrysostom, [St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (?344-407), ascetic, preacher, and writer.

Of all the Greek Fathers he is perhaps the best loved in the Orthodox Church, and the one whose works are most widely read.] in his commentary on St. Paul’s Epistles, observes, ‘Whoever says too much in prayer, does not pray, but indulges in idle talk.’ St. Theophylact also says in his interpretation of Matthew vi. 6: ‘Superfluous words are idle talk.’

The Apostle said well, ‘I had rather speak five words with my understanding�than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue’ (1 Cor. xiv.19): that is, it is better for me to pray to God briefly but with attention, than to pronounce innumerable words without attention, vainly filling the air with noise.

Portable closet

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:26:56 CDT

where ever we are

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology
compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
Chapter 1
The Inner Closet of the Heart
By St. Dimitri of Rostov
[St. Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov (1651-1709): one of the most celebrated preachers in the history of the Russian Church. His chief literary work was a great collection of the Lives of the Saints.]

p. 45

The closet also is twofold, outer and inner, material and spiritual: the material place is of wood or stone, the spiritual closet is the heart or mind:

St. Theophylact [St. Theophylact, Archbishop of Bulgaria (11th cent.): Byzantine theological writer, author of many commentaries on Holy Scripture.] interprets this phrase as meaning secret thought or inner vision.

Therefore the material closet remains always fixed in the same place, but the spiritual one you carry about within you wherever you go.

Wherever a person is, his/her heart is always with him/her, and so, having collected his thoughts inside his/her heart, (s)he can shut him/herself in and pray to God in secret, whether (s)he be talking or listening, whether among few people or many.

Inner prayer, if it comes to a person’s spirit when (s)he is with other people, demands no use of lips or of books, no movement of the tongue or sound of the voice: and the same is true even when you are alone. All that is necessary is to raise your mind to God, and descend deep into yourself, and this can be done everywhere.

The material closet of a person who is silent embraces only the person him/herself, but the inner spiritual closet also holds God and all the Kingdom of Heaven, according to the Gospel words of Christ Himself: ‘

The kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke xvii. 21).

Explaining this text, St. Makarios of Egypt [St. Makarios (?300-390), one of the greatest of early monastic leaders, founder of Scetis in the Egyptian Desert. The various writings traditionally attributed to him are now no longer considered to be his work: their exact origin remains obscure, but they seem to have been written in Egypt or Syria during the late 4th or early 5th century.] writes:
‘The heart is a small vessel, but all things are contained in it; God is there, the angels are there, and there also is life and the Kingdom, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace.’

A person needs to enclose him/herself in the inner closet of his/her heart more often than (s)he need go to church: and collecting all his/her thoughts there, (s)he must place his/her mind before God, praying to God in secret with all warmth of spirit and with living faith.

At the same time (s)he must also learn to turn his/her thoughts to God in such a manner as to be able to grow into a perfect person.

inner and outer

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:01:11 CDT

inner beauty

Training, then, must also be twofold, outer and inner:

Meg: Have just finished a week's retreat here at home. I closed my door. The inner world is more inner than ordinary consciousness. This inner is quite demanding, for example to resist reading books!

... outer in reading books, inner in thoughts of God; outer in love of wisdom, inner in love of God; outer in words, inner in prayer; outer in keenness of intellect, inner in warmth of spirit; outer in technique, inner in vision. The exterior mind is ‘puffed up’ (1 Cor. viii. 1),

the inner humbles itself;

the exterior is full of curiosity, desiring to know all,

the inner pays attention to itself and desires nothing other than to know God,

speaking to Him as David spoke when he said, ‘My heart hath talked with thee: “Seek ye my face”; “Thy face Lord will I seek”’ (Ps. xxvi. 8. Sept.). [xxvii. 9 (B.C.P.).]

And also ‘Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God’ (Ps. xli. 2. Sept.). [xlii. 1 (B.C.P.).]

Inner Closet

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:46:22 CDT

instruction for beginners

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

Chapter 1
The Inner Closet of the Heart
By St. Dimitri of Rostov

[St. Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov (1651-1709): one of the most celebrated preachers in the history of the Russian Church. His chief literary work was a great collection of the Lives of the Saints.]

1
p. 43

Enter into thy closet and shut the door

There are many among you who have no knowledge of the inner work required of the (wo)man who would hold God in remembrance.

Nor do such people even understand what remembrance of God means, or know anything about spiritual prayer, for they imagine that the only right way of praying is to use such prayers as are to be found in Church books.

As for secret communion with God in the heart, they know nothing of this, nor of the profit that comes from it, nor do they ever taste its spiritual sweetness. Those who only hear about spiritual meditation and prayer and have no direct knowledge of it are like (wo)men blind from birth, who hear about the sunshine without ever knowing what it really is.

Through this ignorance they lose many spiritual blessings, and are slow in arriving at the virtues which make for the fulfillment of God’s good pleasure.

Therefore some idea of inner training and spiritual prayer is given here for the instruction of beginners, so that those who wish, with God’s help, can start to learn the rudiments.

Art of Prayer-history

(Timothy Ware) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 06:38:46 CDT

Beginnings

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

Meg: This is the most concise accurate history of the Jesus Prayer I have found. Note it sourced in biblical language, but not a direct line of exact phrasing. Also, note the variety of ways to say the Jesus Prayer. It's the prayer that counts not the literal vibrations.

At what date does the developed text of the Jesus Prayer first emerge in a clearly recognizable form? The earliest monastic sources (4th cent.), while mentioning other formulae, do not speak of the Invocation of the Name.

The first writers to refer explicitly to such invocation or ‘remembrance’ of the Name of Jesus are St. Diadochos of Photike (several times cited in The Art of Prayer) and St. Neilos of Ancyra (both 5th cent.); they do not, however, explain exactly what form this invocation took.

But the full text—‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me’— is found in a work of slightly later date (6th— 7th cent.: possibly early 6th cent.), the Life of Abba Philemon, an Egyptian hermit.

[Father Chariton quotes the decisive passage (pp. 76—77). Other early authorities, important for the history of the Jesus Prayer, are the Life of St. Dositheos (Palestine, early 6th cent.), the spiritual letters of Sts. Barsanouphios and John (Palestine, early 6th cent.), and the works of Sts. John Climacus and Hesychios (Sinai, 6th - 7th cent.): none of these, however, give the Prayer exactly in its developed form. Also of importance are the Coptic lives of St. Makarios (see E. Amelineau, Histoire des monast�res de la Basse-�gjpte, Annales du Mus�e Guimet, vol. xxv, Paris, 1894, pp. 142, 152-3, 160, 161, 163).

On the early history of the Jesus Prayer, see B. Krivocheine, 'Date du texte traditionnel de la "Priere de Jesus'", Messager de l'Exarchat du Patriarche russe en Europe occidental, 7-8 (1951), pp. 55-59.]
Thus there is no explicit and definite evidence for the Prayer, in its fully developed form, before the sixth century: but its origins go back to the veneration of the Name in the New Testament.

In time there grew up around the Jesus Prayer a body of traditional teaching—partly written, but mainly oral—usually designated by the name 'Hesychasm', those who follow this teaching being termed 'Hesychasts'. [From the Greek ήσυχία, meaning ‘quietness’, ‘repose’. Hesychasm strictly speaking embraces all forms of inner prayer, and not just the Jesus Prayer: but in practice most Hesychast teaching is concerned with the Jesus Prayer.]

Since the sixth century, this living tradition of the Jesus Prayer has continued uninterrupted within the Orthodox Church. Transmitted by Greek missionaries to the Slavonic countries, and most notably to Russia, it has exercised an immense influence upon the spiritual development of the whole Orthodox world. There have been three periods when the practice of the Prayer was particularly intense:

* first, the golden age of Hesychasm in fourteenth-century Byzantium, with St. Gregory Palamas, the greatest theologian of the Hesychast movement;

* then the Hesychast renaissance in Greece during the late eighteenth century, with St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and the Philokalia;

* and finally Russia during the nineteenth century, with St. Seraphim and St. John of Kronstadt, the startsi of the Optina Hermitage, and also Theophan the Recluse and Ignatii Brianchaninov.

More recently still, during our own time, there has been a widespread practice of the Jesus Prayer in the Russian emigration, not least among lay people: no doubt the Russian publication of Father Chariton's anthology in 1936 played a part in this. Chiefly through contact with the Russian diaspora, many western people have also come to know and love the Jesus Prayer.

[Several great saints in the medieval west—St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for example, St. Francis of Assist, and St. Bernardine of Siena—had a fervent devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus: but they do not seem to have known the Jesus Prayer in its Byzantine form.]

Forward to Art of Prayer

(Igumen Chariton of Valamo) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:29:15 CDT

vows

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

Foreword
When a monk takes monastic vows, he is given a rosary – which is termed his ‘spiritual sword’- and he is instructed to practise the Jesus Prayer day and night.

On entering the monastery I was zealous to follow this instruction, and I was guided in this by my staretz, FatherA., who continually solved the perplexities I encountered in the practise of this prayer.

After the death of my staretz, to solve my difficulties I was forced to have recourse to the writings of wise Fathers. Drawing out of these writings all that was essential concerning the Jesus Prayer, I used to write it all down in my notebook, and so in the course of time collected an anthology on prayer.

The material of the anthology grew from year to year and this is why the subjects in it are not in a strict systematic order and sequence. Its purpose was to be of personal help to me as a book of reference.

Now the idea has come to me to publish this book of reference or anthology, in the hope that it may be of help to others also who look for guidance in perfecting their inner spiritual life. The wise counsels of the Holy Fathers and of ascetics of the present day, which are quoted here, may assist them in their good intentions.

If this book contains many repetitions of the same themes, this is because of my sincere desire to impress them deeply on the mind of the reader.

After all, everything in it, representing as it does the deeply felt convictions of spiritual men, should be of the most vital interest. Their teaching is particularly needed in our times when one observes everywhere a severe dearth of effort in the domain of the spiritual life.

Thus our purpose in publishing this anthology is simply to explain, by all kinds of varied means and frequent repetitions, how the Jesus Prayer should be practised, and so to make clear how much all of us need this prayer and how necessary it is in our work of spiritually serving God.

In a word, we seek to remind our contemporaries-both monks and all lay people striving for the salvation of their souls-of the instructions left by the Holy Fathers concerning inner work and struggle with the passions.

We are all the more anxious to do this because, as Bishop Ignatii [On Bishop Ignatii (Brianchaninov), see above, pp. 14-15.] says, people mostly have ‘a very dim and confused idea of the Jesus Prayer.

Some who regard themselves-and are regarded by others-as endowed with good spiritual judgement, fear this prayer as a kind of infection, giving as the reason for their fear the danger of illusion [‘Illusion’: Bishop Ignatii uses here a technical term in ascetic theology, prelest, a translation of the Greek.

This means literally ‘wandering’ or ‘going astray’. Elsewhere in his writings Bishop Ignatii defines prelest as the corruption of human nature through the acceptance by man of mirages mistaken for truth. To be in prelest is to be in a state of beguilement and illusion, accepting a delusion as reality.] which is supposed inevitably to accompany the practice of the Jesus Prayer.

So they shun it themselves and advise others to do likewise.’ Further on, Bishop Ignatii says: ‘The original author this theory is, in my opinion, the devil, who hates the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ since it robs him of all power. He trembles at this all-powerful Name and has therefore defamed it before many Christians, in order to make them reject this fiery weapon, fearsome to the enemy but a saving grace to men.’

For this reason the compiler felt a pressing need to collect all the necessary material for casting further light upon the perplexities of this spiritual task. The compiler, not daring even to presume that he has achieved Inner Prayer, has not ventured to contribute anything of his own, but has simply brought forth from the treasury of the works of the Holy Fathers their wise counsels concerning unceasing prayer.

These are as necessary to all who are zealous of their salvation as air is needful to breathing.

The present anthology concerning the task of Inner Prayer contains some 400 passages from Holy Fathers and from ascetics of the present day, with detailed instructions from wise men experienced in the work of prayer.

Valamo.
27 July 1936
Igumen Chariton

Bad side-effect: corruption

(Fred Hiatt) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 07:03:48 CDT

Words of caution

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Fred Hiatt
Editorial Page Editor Washington Post

Why is China afraid of the Dalai Lama?

“If China overnight adopted a democratic system, I might have some reservations.. . . If central authority collapsed, there could be a chaotic situation, and that’s in no one’s interest.”

The words of caution might have come from a Communist Party leader, once again lecturing the West not to push too hard on human rights. But, no; this was the party’s nemesis, the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet, explaining in an interview Thursday why he favors “gradual change.”

Listening to his moderate, sensible advocacy of step-by-step democratization, it was impossible not to marvel at the fear that leads Beijing to view this 76-year-old Buddhist leader as such a mortal threat — not to mention the confusion he seems to cause within the Obama administration, which once again was declining to answer the seemingly simple question of whether the president and the Dalai Lama would meet during the Dalai Lama’s 10-day visit to Washington.

We talked in a room in the bowels of Verizon Center. Above us, thousands of Buddhists from around the world were making their way into the stands for a religious teaching. But before the day’s lesson would begin, their spiritual leader, alternately serious and jolly, had some political thoughts to impart.

He chortled as he pointed to Lobsang Sangay, 43, the former Harvard Law School researcher who was recently elected prime minister by Tibetans in exile. “This young man,” the Dalai Lama said gleefully, “he took my power.”

Unlike the Dalai Lama in his monk’s robes, the prime minister-elect was dressed in a politician’s sober dark suit, a symbol of the serious point beneath the Dalai Lama’s ribbing: After four centuries, Tibet has separated spiritual from political authority. The Tibetan government is democratizing. The Chinese Communist Party, the Dalai Lama is too polite to say explicitly, might do well to follow suit.

Born in 1935, and having fled Communist China in 1959, the Dalai Lama takes a long view. Initially, he said, he believed that the Communists, who took power in 1949, had principles — that they were “dedicated to the people.” But Mao Zedong’s emphasis on ideology proved “unrealistic” — a tactful understatement of policies that led to the starvation of tens of millions — and Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, realized that China had to embrace capitalism and allow people to improve their living standards.

So today’s China, he continued, is entirely different from Mao’s. The economy is thriving and connected with the world. Thousands of Chinese have studied abroad.

But capitalism without an independent judiciary or a free press, the Dalai Lama said, brings a “very bad side effect: corruption.” And rising power without transparency breeds fear and suspicion among China’s neighbors.

“They always say, ‘We have no intention to expand,’ ” he said. “I tell my Chinese friends, if everything is transparent and policy is open, there is no need to keep saying that. And if everything is a state secret, then you can 1,000 times deny such intentions, and still no one will believe you.”

The upshot: The United States and other free countries were right to open trade with China and help bring it into the mainstream of global commerce. “Now the free world has a responsibility to bring China into the mainstream of world democracy.”

But, he said, it makes sense to start by urging gradual progress: legal reform, and an end to internal censorship.

You might think President Obama would be interested in discussing these matters with hisfellow Nobel peace laureate (the Dalai Lama was awarded his in 1989), but it’s not so simple. Obama declined to meet with him in October 2009, then welcomed him to the White House four months later; this week, administration officials have declined to say whether another meeting will take place.

The absence of clarity only encourages Beijing’s bullying and discourages other world leaders from engaging with the Tibetan leader.

Meanwhile, a half-century of exile has not tempered his optimism. Noting that even Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has talked about the need for political reform, the Dalai Lama said that intellectuals and party members understand the contradictions in the current state of affairs. “Things will change,” he said.

Simplicity

(Timothy Ware) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:18:28 CDT

simply begin

In the third place, the Invocation of the Name is a prayer of the utmost simplicity.

It is a way of praying that anyone can adopt: no special knowledge is required, and no elaborate preparation.

As a recent writer puts it, all we must do is ‘simply begin’: ‘Before beginning to pronounce the Name of Jesus, establish peace and recollection within yourself and ask for the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost. . . . Then simply begin.The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

In order to walk one must take a first step; in order to swim one must throw oneself into the water. It is the same with the invocation of the Name. Begin to pronounce it with adoration and love. Cling to it. Repeat it. Do not think that you are invoking the Name; think only of Jesus Himself. Say His Name slowly, softly and quietly.’

[‘A Monk of the Eastern Church’, On the Invocation of the Name of Jesus, London, 1950, pp. 5-6.]

This element of simplicity is several times underlined by Theophan: ‘The work of God is simple: it is prayer—children talking to their Father, without any subtleties [p. 106]

. . . . The practice of the Jesus Prayer is simple [p. 89]

. . . . The practice of prayer is called an "art", and it is a very simple one.

Standing with the consciousness and attention in the heart, cry out unceasingly: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me."’ [p. 96.]

The beginner, then, is advised to recite the Prayer ‘slowly, softly, and quietly’. Each word should be said with recollection and without haste, yet at the same time without undue emphasis.

The Prayer should not be laboured or forced, but should flow in a gentle and natural way. ‘The Name of Jesus is not to be shouted, or fashioned with violence, even inwardly.’ [‘A Monk of the Eastern Church’, op. cit., p. 6.]

We must pray always with inner attention and concentration, but at the same time there should be no sense of strain, no self-induced intensity or artificial emotion.

Meg's commentThe prayer is simple so the mind can rest from its over use, its fragmentation, from its free-falling habits. Yet, the operative word is gentle and natural. Forcing and banging it out like harsh shouts only continue the habit of self effort. Soon, and very soon, this prayer becomes self acting!

Christological

(Timothy Ware) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:28:14 CDT

Fact of the Incarnation

In the second place, it is an intensely Christological prayer— a prayer addressed to Jesus, concentrated upon the Person of the Incarnate Lord, emphasizing at once both His life on earth— ‘Jesus Christ’—and His divinity—‘Son of God’.

Those who use this prayer are constantly reminded of the historical Person who stands at the heart of the Christian revelation, and so are saved from the false mysticism which allows no proper place to the fact of the Incarnation.

This text is from:

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

But although Christological, the Jesus Prayer is not a form of meditation on particular episodes in the life of Christ: here too, as in other forms of prayer, the use of mental images and intellectual concepts is strongly discouraged.

‘Standing with consciousness and attention in the heart,’ Theophan teaches, ‘cry out unceasingly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me,” without having in our mind any visual concept or image, believing that the Lord sees you and listens to you.’ [p. 96.]

Meg's comments: In the west there was much quality meditation about Jesus. In the east there was this more contemplative method of being in the gaze. It seems to me that this is what St. Benedict recommends as we listen with the ear of our hearts.

Adoration and Compunction

(Timothy Ware) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:29:24 CDT

Two essential moments

from the Introduction to:The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

Three things in the Jesus Prayer call for special comment, and help to account for its extraordinarily wide appeal. First, the Jesus Prayer brings together, in one short sentence, two essential ‘moments’ of Christian devotion: adoration and compunction.

Adoration is expressed in the opening clause, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God’; compunction, in the prayer for mercy that follows.
The glory of God and the sin of man—both are vividly present in the Prayer; it is an act of thanksgiving for the salvation that Jesus brings, and an expression of sorrow for the weakness of our response. The Prayer is both penitential and full of joy and loving confidence.

Comments by Sister Meg:
When prayer becomes a way of life the benefit of these two emotions of adoration and compunction provide a steady stream of comfort and a surge of God Consciousness that sustains us through the ups and downs of ordinary time.

Jesus Prayer Origins

(Timothy Ware) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:29:51 CDT

Art of Prayer

1
The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo
translated by E. Kadloubovsky and E. M. Palmer
edited with an introduction by Timothy Ware
Faber and Faber, Inc. 1966
New York, NY
ISBN-13: 978-0571191659
$20.00

At what date does the developed text of the Jesus Prayer first emerge in a clearly recognizable form? The earliest monastic sources (4th cent.), while mentioning other formulae, do not speak of the Invocation of the Name.

The first writers to refer explicitly to such invocation or ‘remembrance’ of the Name of Jesus are St. Diadochos of Photike (several times cited in The Art of Prayer) and St. Neilos of Ancyra (both 5th cent.); they do not, however, explain exactly what form this invocation took.

But the full text—‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me’— is found in a work of slightly later date (6th— 7th cent.: possibly early 6th cent.), the Life of Abba Philemon, an Egyptian hermit.

[Father Chariton quotes the decisive passage (pp. 76—77).

Other early authorities, important for the history of the Jesus Prayer, are the Life of St. Dositheos (Palestine, early 6th cent.), the spiritual letters of Sts. Barsanouphios and John (Palestine, early 6th cent.), and the works of Sts. John Climacus and Hesychios (Sinai, 6th - 7th cent.): none of these, however, give the Prayer exactly in its developed form.

Also of importance are the Coptic lives of St. Makarios (see E. Amelineau, Histoire des monast�res de la Basse-�gjpte, Annales du Mus�e Guimet, vol. xxv, Paris, 1894, pp. 142, 152-3, 160, 161, 163). On the early history of the Jesus Prayer, see B. Krivocheine, 'Date du texte traditionnel de la "Priere de Jesus'", Messager de l'Exarchat du Patriarche russe en Europe occidental, 7-8 (1951), pp. 55-59.]

Thus there is no explicit and definite evidence for the Prayer, in its fully developed form, before the sixth century: but its origins go back to the veneration of the Name in the New Testament.

In time there grew up around the Jesus Prayer a body of traditional teaching—partly written, but mainly oral—usually designated by the name 'Hesychasm', those who follow this teaching being termed 'Hesychasts'. [From the Greek ήσυχία, meaning ‘quietness’, ‘repose’. Hesychasm strictly speaking embraces all forms of inner prayer, and not just the Jesus Prayer: but in practice most Hesychast teaching is concerned with the Jesus Prayer.]

Since the sixth century, this living tradition of the Jesus Prayer has continued uninterrupted within the Orthodox Church. Transmitted by Greek missionaries to the Slavonic countries, and most notably to Russia, it has exercised an immense influence upon the spiritual development of the whole Orthodox world. There have been three periods when the practice of the Prayer was particularly intense:

* first, the golden age of Hesychasm in fourteenth-century Byzantium, with St. Gregory Palamas, the greatest theologian of the Hesychast movement;

* then the Hesychast renaissance in Greece during the late eighteenth century, with St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and the Philokalia;

* and finally Russia during the nineteenth century, with St. Seraphim and St. John of Kronstadt, the startsi of the Optina Hermitage, and also Theophan the Recluse and Ignatii Brianchaninov.

More recently still, during our own time, there has been a widespread practice of the Jesus Prayer in the Russian emigration, not least among lay people: no doubt the Russian publication of Father Chariton's anthology in 1936 played a part in this.

Chiefly through contact with the Russian diaspora, many western people have also come to know and love the Jesus Prayer.

[Several great saints in the medieval west—St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for example, St. Francis of Assist, and St. Bernardine of Siena—had a fervent devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus: but they do not seem to have known the Jesus Prayer in its Byzantine form.]

Discernment Matters

(Meg Funk) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 06:53:44 CDT

St. George

Discernment Matters

Cover: Icon of St. George

Forward: T. Ware
Intro: Chapter One

On the Holy Spirit

1. Invoking our advocate, dove who hovers, protects, Fire of Love is
God's part.

2. Cultivation to the Holy Spirit
Our part is descending our minds into the heart.

This is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. With our mind in our hearts (physically, mystically)we discern.

3. Decisions: Diakrisis, sorting our thoughts to go God's way. To observe/watch thoughts that fix us to self-seeking rather than God-seeking.

Discernment in a group:
a) Individual and personal discernment
b) Method of making big and little decisions

4. Spiritual Direction
a) Finding a director
b) Spiritual Journey under the river
c) Renunciations
d) Disclosure to a wise elder

Four paths: action, love, truth, being
Training in practices
Sustained lectio divina

Training spiritual Directors
Entry level: self-acting ceaseless prayer

5. Discrimination

Sober and chaste heart
Compunction
Three obstacles to prayer:
a. to have an activated affliction
b. to have a mind that is anxious and dissipated: ----over-work, too much
--speculative academic thinking,
--to much input from internet
c. to have a mind in free-fall fantasy
-- of a virtual world,
-- or open to illusions of the evil one
-- or the thinking mind talking to itself.

6. Stillness
To retrieve,
reclaim
reappropriate
the Hesychiastic movement
from early monasticism.

To still the body
To calm the emotions
To bring the mind to the heart
and remain at the Table with the Lord
To rest in place
To live in common (nothing virtual here)
To serve community.

7. To do...
no more than
nor do less than
... the promptings of the Spirit.

To teach St Teresa Avila's autonomous self through the wounds of Jesus.

Action then is prompted by the Holy Spirit: when, where, how, to whom, with
and what?

The Matter becomes Spirit only to embody the human. People would see humility.