JESUS PRAYER OF THE HEART
The following is an exerpt from the autobiography Memory Walk in the Light by Donald James Giacobbe:
It is
fitting that if someone has extra food, he should
share from his abundance. However, food is more than just physical.
Although
the physical needs must be met, it is spiritual food for which most
people are
hungry, whether they are aware of this need or have suppressed it. If a
person
has found a source of spiritual food that could feed those who are
hungry, he
is obligated to reveal such a source. Here, I would like to reveal a
source of
spiritual food that is not well known, but which is abundantly able to
feed all
those who partake of it. This spiritual food is referred to in the
following
quotation:
But little by
little, after a
fairly short time I was able to picture my heart and to note its
movement, and
further with the help of my breathing I could put into it and draw from
it the
Prayer of Jesus in the manner taught by the saints Gregory of Sinai,
Callistus,
and Ignatius. When drawing the air in I looked in spirit into my heart
and
said, “Lord Jesus Christ,” and when breathing out again, I said, “Have
mercy on
me.” I did this at first for an hour at a time, then for two hours,
then for as
long as I could, and in the end almost all day long….
When about
three weeks had passed I felt a pain in my heart, and then a most
delightful
warmth, as well as consolation and peace. This aroused me still more
and
spurred me on more and more to give great care to the saying of the
Prayer so
that all my thoughts were taken up with it and I felt a very great joy.
From
this time I began to have, from time to time, a number of different
feelings in
my heart and mind. Sometimes my heart would feel as though it was
bubbling with
joy—such lightness, freedom and consolation was in it. Sometimes I felt
a
burning love for Jesus Christ and for all God’s creatures. Sometimes my
eyes
brimmed over with tears of thankfulness to God…1
This
quotation comes from a book written many years ago
by an unknown Christian author. Entitled The
Way of a Pilgrim, it is a wonderfully simple and beautiful
story of the
adventures of a man who wandered through Russia in the nineteenth
century. At a
time when everything seemed to be going wrong for him in his life, he
decided
to become a spiritual seeker. He didn’t know how to pray effectively,
so he
went to an old monk and asked him. The wise monk gave him the Prayer of
the
Heart to repeat as his spiritual food. The long form of the prayer is,
“Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The
Jesus Prayer, as it is called, can be employed in any one of
several shorter forms, such as:
Lord Jesus
Christ, have mercy on
me.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, mercy.
Jesus Christ
Jesus
I describe
the Jesus Prayer as spiritual food because I
was experiencing its nourishment within myself due to my own practice.
I wanted
to teach others how to open themselves up to this same divine blessing.
There
was a good turnout for these Jesus Prayer classes when I taught them at
the
Yoga Center. Many participants were more interested in yoga than
Christianity
and came out of curiosity more than anything else. Some had been turned
off by
traditional Christianity, but remained open to experiencing the
Universal
Christ that is not limited to any one religion. One time a student
asked me,
“Why do you personally use the Jesus Prayer?”
I answered
with a question of my own, “If you were to
go on a safari in Africa would you go alone?”
“No, I’d take
a guide.”
“There’s your
answer!” I said. “Yoga philosophy says
that we can take four kinds of safaris into four states of
consciousness. You
and I are now on the safari into the conscious state in the world of
form.
Tonight when we go to bed, we will enter the second safari, which is
dream
state of sleep, and also the third safari, which is deep dreamless
sleep. And
finally there is the safari into superconsciousness. We call upon the
Name of
Jesus Christ in our conscious waking state, but in doing so we are
inviting Him
to come with us into all of our states of consciousness. Not only that,
but
with inviting Him we are also welcoming the Holy Spirit to be another
safari
guide, along with Jesus. However, you do not have to be convinced of
the
benefits of the Jesus Prayer before practicing it. You can simply
repeat the
Divine Name with an inner feeling of openness. The true value of the
Jesus
Prayer will be revealed to you as you use it.”
For
inspirational purposes, I liked to quote passages
from the Writings from the Philokalia on
Prayer of the Heart, as for example this one:
And so every
hour and every moment
let us zealously guard our heart from thoughts obscuring the mirror of
the
soul, which should contain, drawn and imprinted on it, only the radiant
image
of Jesus Christ, Who is the wisdom and the power of God the Father. Let
us
constantly seek the kingdom of heaven in the heart, and we are sure
mysteriously to find within ourselves the seed, the pearl, the drink
and all
else, if we cleanse the eye of the mind. This is why our Lord Jesus
Christ
said: “The kingdom of God is within you,” meaning by this the Deity
dwelling in
the heart.2
Although at
the Yoga Center I was practicing the Jesus
Prayer in the form of an unceasing prayer as much as possible
throughout the
day—as is advised in the quote above—in my teaching I advocated a more
moderate
approach to repeating the Divine Name because this is more appropriate
for most
seekers. Instead of constant prayer I suggested calling upon the Name
of Jesus
Christ as part of your daily routine or whenever you’re inspired to do
so. For
example, you can repeat the Jesus Prayer especially upon waking in the
morning
and just before going to sleep at night, or simply during mundane
activities
such as riding in a car, brushing your teeth, or even sitting on the
toilet. It
is especially suited to doing repetitive exercises or doing yoga
postures and
breathing practices. But to instill the Jesus Prayer within your mind
at a deep
level I recommended to my students the setting aside of regular
meditation
times every day.
Eastern
methods of attunement include body awareness as
a means of making meditation methods more effective. However, Western
forms of
attunement do not usually include focusing on body awareness, so today
the West
has made the Jesus Prayer into an entirely mental practice, eliminating
the
holding of the awareness in the heart. But it is the focusing on the
heart that
gives this method its ability to penetrate deep within and enkindle
devotion.
It has far less effect if performed only in the mind.
Focusing the
mind is important, but meditation is not
just a mental technique. It’s really about developing and deepening
your
relationship with God by opening to His presence within. During your
conversations in close relationships, perhaps you have noticed that
when you spoke from your heart, you
were able to
really connect with others in a more deep and meaningful way than if
you had
spoken just with your head. Similarly when you have communion with the
divine
within in meditation, you can connect best by including your heart in
the
process. Many spiritual traditions consider the heart to be the
midpoint
between heaven and earth where we in the human condition can most
easily find a
balance of body, mind, and spirit, bringing wholeness and healing. So
in my
teaching at the Yoga Center I explained the key factor of holding the
awareness
in the heart, thus returning to the version of the Prayer of the Heart
that
flourished in the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Greece and Russia.
St John
Chrysostom described how a Christian should practice the Prayer of the
Heart by
saying: “He should always live with the name of the Lord Jesus, so that
the
heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become
one.”3 He
also said, “Do not estrange your heart from God, but abide in Him and
always
guard your heart by remembering our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name
of the
Lord becomes rooted in the heart and it ceases to think of anything
else. May
Christ be glorified in you.”4
Following the
advice of the early Fathers of the
Church, I provided instructions on how to hold the attention of the
mind in the
heart. Through yoga I was well aware of the benefits of learning to
calm the
breathing in order to calm the mind, which was well known by the early
Christian monks. For example, St. John of the Ladder said, “May the
memory of
Jesus combine with your breathing; then will you understand the use of
silence.”5 Hesychius said, “…let the Jesus prayer cleave to your
breath—and in
a few days you will see it in practice.”6 Monks Callistus and Ignatius
together
wrote instructions for monks on how to practice the Prayer of the
Heart: “You
know, brother, how we breathe: we breathe the air in and out. On this
is based
the life of the body and on this depends its warmth. So, sitting down
in your
cell, collect your mind, lead it into the path of the breath along
which the
air enters in, constrain it to enter the heart together with the
inhaled air,
and keep it there.”7 I recommended repeating the first half of the
Jesus Prayer
on the inhalation and the second half on the exhalation, while simply
observing
the breathing without manipulating it in any way. This will calm the
breathing
and result in calming the mind.
Of course,
this would require an affirmation of at
least two syllables. In terms of choosing the word or words to use, I
recommended using a very short version of the Jesus Prayer because this
helps
to focus the mind. The most essential element is including the Divine
Name of
Jesus Christ in some form, and it is this that makes it the Jesus
Prayer. Any
of the examples of the wording of the Jesus Prayer mentioned above
could be
used, but I usually recommended repeating the Name of “Jesus” or “Jesus
Christ”
or “Christ” perhaps with another word, such as “love,” “light,” or
“peace.” I
did not recommend using the longest form of the Jesus Prayer, “Lord
Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I did not want to
emphasize
the idea of the seeker being an unworthy sinner. For this reason I did
not
encourage the repeating of the word “mercy,” unless there was an
understanding
that asking for mercy is just an invitation for becoming aware of God’s
ever-abiding Love. However, instead of using the word “mercy,” I felt
combining
the Divine Name with the word “love” was a better way to open the heart
to
God’s Embrace.
In addition
to focusing on the words in coordination
with the breathing, it is recommended to maintain the awareness in the
heart
area. For most people the best way to do this is to just hold the
attention of
the mind in the location of the physical heart or in the middle of the
chest,
considered in yoga philosophy to be the heart center. Sometimes a
meditator may
feel a sensation of energy or a slight pressure without pain in the
heart area,
which is quite normal. However, in rare instances, when focusing on the
physical heart, a meditator may experience a noticeable pain in the
heart or
the heart may beat faster than normal, and if this happens, discontinue
your
meditation session. As an alternative, you can meditate holding the
awareness
in the center of the chest, but if this problem recurs, discontinue
focusing in
the chest area altogether. Even without holding the attention in the
heart
area, just coordinating the Jesus Prayer with the natural breathing can
be a
very effective means of using body awareness to calm the mind for
meditation.
Although I
wanted to teach the techniques advocated by
the early Christian monks, my primary purpose was to impart their
overall
attitude. Consequently, I emphasized that focusing on spiritual intent
in the
practice of the Jesus Prayer was much more important than mastering the
correct
techniques. Naturally a certain amount of effort would be required to
make the
Prayer of the Heart effective, but I taught that the real secret of
this method
is in opening up to receive the love and divine grace that God would so
willingly give every seeker.
Perhaps you
are an experienced meditator, but what if
you haven’t meditated before and would like to give the Prayer of the
Heart a
try? Or what if you have already tried to meditate and didn’t feel you
were well
suited to this practice? Let’s compare learning how to meditate with
learning
how to swim in the ocean. The first time you try to swim you will
splash around
and struggle just to keep your head above water. You could give up
right then,
convinced that swimming is too difficult for you. However, if you
persist with
many more days of applying yourself, you will eventually find that you
can
swim. Then when you gain confidence in your ability to swim, you can
even learn
to let go and relax, becoming so calm in the water that you can float
and
become aware that the whole ocean is surrounding you, lifting you up,
and
sustaining you with its buoyancy.
Similarly
after your initial
attempt at meditation you will probably discover just how unruly the
mind is.
When you try to focus on the one thought of the Jesus Prayer in
meditation, you
will undoubtedly find that your peace of mind is drowned out by waves
of
distracting thoughts. You could give up after this first attempt,
convinced
that you don’t have the ability to meditate. But if you want to
succeed, you
will have to be persistent in your practice. The mind is accustomed to
multiplying its thoughts, and it takes time to reorient the mind toward
limiting thoughts in the direction of simplicity. It requires
repeatedly
redirecting the mind in daily meditation to achieve this simplicity of
mind. If
you are determined and consistent in your practice, you will learn how
to calm
the mind and open yourself to inner peace. With further practice
eventually you
can learn how to relax and to “float” in a spiritual sense—meaning rest
in the
Eternal Ocean of the divine presence that is always gracefully
surrounding you,
lifting you up, and sustaining you with light and love.
1. The
Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues his Way,
translated
from the Russian by R.M. French, (New York: Seabury Press, 1972), pp. 40-41. Originally
published by the Seabury
Press; rights owned by Winston Press, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.
2. E. Kadloubovsky and
G. E. H. Palmer, translators, Writings from
the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, translated from the
Russian text,
“Dobrotolubiye,” (London: Faber and Faber Ltd., [1951]1971, 1975) p.
333 (also
reprinted in 1992).
3. Ibid, p. 194
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid, p. 192
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