Monakhos

Wow, I get a little caught up and next thing I see, I haven’t posted for nearly 20 days!

In brighter news, Wisdom Reading is back! Formerly, it was incarnated as a Yahoo! Group, but Jon has now changed it to more of a blog format. I was skeptical at first, but I really think that this medium will work really well. It’ll cover mostly Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian (both mainstream and not) texts. So swing on over, and check out the first few posts.

I got a little bit tired of the Philokalia. It’s great and all, but it can get a little dry. I figure I’ll try to start back on the daily reading/meditating path with some wisdom from Wisdom Reading.

Contact Jon for information on joining the group.

The only drawback in my mind to The Philokalia is that a large portion of it is targeted to those living the ascetic, solitary life of a monk. There is still, however, a lot of wisdom that can be drawn from the writings. There are several works from Evagrios the Solitary in The Philokalia, so I am breaking his writing into sections. One section from the first work, On Asceticism and Stillness stuck out at me:

Be like an astute business man: make stillness your criterion for testing the value of everything, and choose always what contributes to it.

When I think about this I realize how my life would be different if I followed this wisdom every day of my life. Of course I don’t follow this wisdom always, and I am not even sure it is possible to do this 100% of the time, but it is still a good maxim.

That’s all for today. What do you think? More to come tomorrow.

I decided this afternoon that I would start the new year out right. Daily meditation and the study of sacred texts are two things that need to play a more prominent role in my life. I started the habit off with a selection from The Philokalia—a collection of writings by mystical Orthodox priests and monks compiled by St Nikodimos and St Makarios. I plan to continue reading through the entire work, posting about various selections I have read (probably with some breaks in between - the entire work is split into four volumes!)

The first section of The Philokalia is a collection of excerpts from a writing by St Isaiah, who lived in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine around the 5^th century, on guarding the intellect. The mind is a battlefield and unless if one is mindful and keeps it guarded, an individual cannot have communion with God.

Unless a man hates all the activity of this world, he cannot worship God. (v13)

The first virtue is detachment, that is, death in relation to every person or thing. This produces the desire for God, and this in turn gives rise to the anger that is in accordance with nature, and that flares up against all the tricks of the enemy. Then the fear of God will establish itself within us, and through this fear love will be made manifest. (v25)

We have practiced virtue and done what is right, turning our desire towards God and His will, and directing our incensive power, or wrath, against the devil and sin. What then do we still lack? Inward meditation. (v26)

This whole reading reminded me of the Dhammapada and other Buddhist scriptures. The mind is constantly being attacked by evil and the flesh is a distraction from unity with God. Only once we understand that we are not our minds (thoughts) and achieve detachment from our bodies can we really fix anything. Once we do realize this detachment; however, a whole new world is uncovered. We manifest an “anger in accordance with nature” (to put it the way St Isaiah put it) against evil. We are able to truly love. We are one with God (theosis.)

Julie wrote a little on my previous post introducing choice in a post entitled “Why Should I Care?” I think (if I took her post the right way) that she did bring up a good point. You can get so lost in all these ideas that sometimes it is best to simply step back and be. Don’t worry about whether or not you can actual make a choice, just live.

I really think that is the answer to the questions too. Somehow we make decisions and somehow we don’t make decisions at all. Predestination/karmic influences/dependent arising happen somewhere and yet we still control our own destinies. It is fatalistic and yet it isn’t. If that doesn’t make your head spin, what will?

So sorry to those of you who were expecting me to know the answer. Then again, I’m not sorry. I know the answer. The answer is: yes.

You can’t fit a square peg
Through a round hole
Until you realize that squares are round
And circles are square