-=change in focus?=-

Wow... having read a lot of my previous blog entries, it's clear to me that religious tone of this blog is virtually gone, which means I should probably start a new blog altogether, yet I'm a bit lazy to do so.  I suppose it really doesn't matter.

It also may suggest something about my spiritual life. 

-=Jesus Prayer=-

Fortunately, I've been keeping in touch with my spiritual father, and what I've discovered about the Jesus Prayer is that in many ways, it seems a lot like Eastern mysticism.  In fact, in an email, I had written the following:

In fact, St. Simeon the New Theologian's directions on the Jesus prayer sound strikingly similar to methods for deep meditation (i.e. as in Far Eastern religions):
"Sit alone and in silence; bow your head and close your eyes; relax your breathing and with your imagination look into your heart; direct your thoughts from your head into your heart. and while inhaling say, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me," either softly with your lips or in your mind. Endeavor to fight distractions but be patient and peaceful and repeat this process frequently"

This sounds strikingly similar to my past experiences with meditation, and he responded by writing the following:

Yes – you did your homework. The most developed practice of the Jesus Prayer involves techniques employed in the Far East as well.  We continually forget (or suppress?) the fact that Christianity is an Asian religion! We know how far the Church of the East extended into central and eastern Asia in the first millennium. Was entry into this culture significant for the development of this prayer in the Syrian Church?
 
The big difference with non-Christian use of meditation (ancient and modern) is, of course, the invocation of the name of Jesus which makes the practice a matter of personal relationship with God (in contrast to any other use). Since the time of St Justin it has been affirmed that anything can be (and probably has already been) baptized, including meditation. Sometimes Christianity has taken an arguably second place in all this, such as the neo-platonism of a Diadochos or the aristotlianism of the scholastics. The important thing is to keep the Gospel paramount in any expression of faith.

Western Christianity has tended to see Christian faith and practice coming down in a linear way from the OT (Moses and the prophets) to the NT to contemporary interpreters, be they the popes or Calvinist exegetes. Next time you come to the States we must go to some real Eastern liturgies (eg Assyrian or Indian) to see the interplay of these pre-Christian cultures.

I had asked him his thoughts regarding religious experience with regards to right brain functions.  I had seen this TED presentation of Jill Taylor, a neuroanatomist who basically studied her brain as she was having a stroke. (a first hand experience!) In the process, she experienced something similar to a near death experience due to her impaired left analytical brain.  This made me wonder if religious experience is entirely in one's head.  He responded in this way:

Does recognition of more Oriental ways of learning and communicating imply that, as you said, “religious experience is entirely in one’s head.” Surely there is that possibility – hence the Eastern Churches’ insistence that the first explanation for believer’s visions, etc. is delusion while the second is demonic deception. And hence the principle that deepening one’s spiritual life may only be rightly done with humility and with guidance. This reminds me of the Desert Father who was visited by a heavenly being claiming to be the Archangel Gabriel, come with a message from God. The Father replied, “Oh, you must have made a mistake – I am not worthy of receiving angels.” At that the “angel” disappeared.

I had asked him all these questions simply because there is some strange phenomena that occurs with the use of one's right brain, like heightened intuition or having such odd 'visions' like a near death experience.  (Lately, I've been reading quite a bit about what the right brain can do like accelerate the learning process, but it turns out that the right brain is also involved with such odd phenomena.)

I assumed that perhaps this phenomena could be a natural function of the brain, and they are not spiritual in nature (thus implying a split between the physical and the spiritual).  His response was as follows:

It is always a temptation to oppose the physical to the spiritual (how could painted boards be "spiritual?") or to equate them in such a way as to make mundane things "spiritual."  (his use of 'painted boards' refers to icons)

Since you have The Way of a Pilgram at hand, note how, when the pilgrim reports the ease and lightness to which saying 12,000 Jesus Prayers a day has brought him, the elder says, "Do you see with what excellent faculties the God who loves mankind has fitted even the sensual nature of humanity?" He notes that this experience is sensual, natural, even artificial rather than pure prayer, but affirms it as a step. It is precisely our makeup which makes prayer possible. His Spirit cannot bear witness with our spirit (cf Romans 8:16) unless we have a natural spirit (or nous or inner self or whatever you want to call it, in which the Spirit of God can dwell.

One of the big follies of the modern West has been to banally equate et cum spiritu tuo with and with you too. The Lord be "with your spirit" - that innermost aspect of your being which can touch God - is not just a figure of speech, but a reality of our nature in God's image.

Now that's some profound stuff.  I had always thought of spiritual and physical things as somehow separate, like they're compartmentalized.  Eastern Christianity has more of a holistic view of man it seems, just as Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the human body in a holistic manner.  I then asked him to expand on his thoughts:

The point I was trying to make is this: psychic prenomena are NOT "supernatural," they are natural once you recognize the phychic dimension of man's makeup. This is especially comprehensible when you see man's makeup in the tripartite perspective of St Paul (body, soul, spirit). For more on this see Hausherr as I mentioned and Bishop Hierotheos Vlachos of Nafpaktos, many of whose writings have been translated into English.

Interestingly, awhile ago, he told me to read about Bishop Hierotheos Vlachos, who has written Orthodox Psychotherapy, which is a book that I'd like to get my hands on.  Fortunately, some of the chapters are available online.

-=On a more random note=-

My girlfriend was baptized about a week ago.  She has taken on the name 'Michaela' =)