The Jesus Prayer and “The Way of a Pilgrim”
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!
I have been reading about the Orthodox church a lot recently. In my reading I came across a group of people known as the Hesychasts that, from what I have read, really set the mystical tradition in the Orthodox church on its feet. A key teaching of the Hesychasts that was later written about my many church fathers in the Philokalia was the Jesus prayer. While it probably started as simply uttering the name of Jesus, it quickly progressed to the full phrase “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me!”
As one practices the prayer and becomes familiar with it, he or she can practice saying it silently. After that is mastered the individual should practice visualizing the heart, beating the words of the prayer. During inhalation say “Lord Jesus Christ.” On exhalation say “Have mercy on me.”
I have been practicing this Orthodox form of meditation for about a week now. While I have not devoted myself fully to it (as the hermit in The Way of a Pilgrim did saying it tens of thousands of times a day, I have still been able to see an impact in my life while reciting the prayer. The Jesus prayer brings with it a peace and calm, similar to what I experience in regular medition, except easier to practice while I am working or driving.
The Bible is filled with references to the prayer of the heart and commands to pray at all times. The Jesus prayer was (and is still) an Orthodox response on how to achieve what is described in these verses. When the prayer of the heart (the Jesus prayer) is fully mastered, it is as if the heart prays freely even while the rest of the body is performing other tasks, such as work or even sleeping.
If you are interested in reading more about the Jesus prayer, I would recommend Olga Savin’s translation of The Way of a Pilgrim. I read the abridged version, but it appears that it is out of print now. To read more about the Orthdox church, I would recommend Timothy (Kallistos) Ware’s The Orthodox Church.
June 28th, 2006 at 23:20
Larry wrote about mantras on his blog several weeks ago, and gave the update here more recently.
Trev made a similar comment about carrying the realities found in meditation, through the day, in the comments section of this post.
as for myself, i say this: whatever works, do that. if it stops working, be not attached to the method, but the being.