Hesychasm

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Hesychasm is the Greek word for "silence". The word was adopted by early Christians of the East to denote a way of life. These people were known as "Hesychasts". Hesychasts were usually monks who lived a reclusive life of prayer and spiritual work (asceticism). These hesychastic monks wrote numerous books on the matter of hesychasm and what the fruits of hesychasm are. One of the fruits of hesychasm is enumerated in a book called "Orthodox Psychotherapy" by Heirotheos Vlachos.

Read about how hesychasm has the ability to heal human sickness, both spiritual and mental. And also learn the great spiritual fruits of it.

This is a chapter from the book "Orthodox Psychotherapy". ORTHODOX PSYCHOTHERAPY

Hesychia as a Method of Healing

One of the fundamental methods of curing the soul is stillness in the full sense of the word. I believe that we have already made this clear. Contemporary man is seeking healing for his life, especially for his inner condition, precisely because he is over-strained. Therefore one of the messages which Orthodoxy can offer to the contemporary weary, discouraged and floundering world is the message of silence. I think that the Orthodox tradition has a great deal to offer in this area. So in what follows I shall try to explain further the value of hesychia and hesychasm for the healing of the soul, nous, heart, and intelligence. We have the impression that hesychia and hesychasm are among the most basic medicines for gaining inner health. And since lack of silence is what creates the problems, the pressure, anxiety and insecurity, as well as the psychological, psychical, and physical illnesses, we shall try to look at their cause, which is anti-hesychasm. The anti-hesychastic desert wind that is blowing and burning everything is prevalent everywhere and is the dominant cause of the abnormal situation. So we shall look at hesychia as a method of healing the soul, and anti-hesychasm as a cause of psychic and physical illness.








1. Hesychia (Stillness)

Before defining hesychia, or stillness, let us look at its great value for the healing of the soul.

The Holy Fathers who lived the whole breadth of the Orthodox tradition have stressed the great importance of Orthodox hesychia. St Gregory the Theologian regarded hesychia as essential for attaining communion with God. "It is necessary to be still in order to have clear converse with God and gradually bring the nous back from its wanderings" (1). With stillness a man purifies his senses and his heart. So he knows God, and this knowledge of God is his salvation.

St. Thalassios, who fully adheres to this line, declares: "Hesychia and prayer are the greatest weapons of virtue, for they purify the nous and confer on it spiritual insight" (2). Through hesychia man's nous is purified and becomes an acceptable instrument for seeing God. Indeed as we know from patristic teaching, nous is different from intelligence. When the nous is hidden by the passions it ceases to behold the mysteries of God (it is dead), whereas when it is freed from passions it becomes clear-sighted and sees God as light, and this light is the life of man. As we have said, this purification of the nous comes about through hesychia.

It is well known to those engaged in studying the works of the Fathers and to those trying to live this life of quiet, that there is hesychia of the body and hesychia of the soul. The former refers to outward things and the latter to the inward. Hesychia of the body usually refers to the hesychastic posture and the effort to minimise external representations, the images received and brought to the soul by the senses. Hesychia of the soul means that the nous attains the capacity and the power not to accept any temptation to delusion. In this state man's nous, possessed of watchfulness and compunction, is centred in the heart. The nous (energy) is concentrated in the place of the heart (essence), uniting with it, thus attaining a partial or greater knowledge of God.

Stillness of the body is a limiting of the body. "The beginning of hesychia is godly rest" (3). The intermediate stage is that of "illuminating power and vision; and the end is ecstasy or rapture of the nous towards God" (4). St. John of the Ladder, referring to outward, bodily stillness, writes: "The lover of stillness keeps his mouth shut" (5).

But it is not only those called neptic Fathers who mention and describe the holy atmosphere of hesychia, it is also those known as "social". Actually in the Orthodox tradition there is no direct opposition between theoria and praxis, nor between the neptic and social Fathers. The neptics are eminently social and those in community are unimaginably neptic.

I would like to refer to St. Basil the Great as an example of holy hesychia. In a letter to his friend St. Gregory he writes about hesychia as the beginning of purity of soul, and about hesychia of the body, that is, restriction of the tongue, sight, hearing and words. For example, he says: "The very beginning of the soul's purgation is tranquillity, in which the tongue is not given to discussing the affairs of men, nor the eyes to contemplating rosy cheeks or comely bodies, nor the ears to lowering the tone of the soul by listening to songs whose sole object is to amuse, or to words spoken by wits and buffoons - a practice which above all things tends to relax the tone of the soul".

This expresses the state of quietude which the holy Father enjoyed in the desert when he was trying to acquire knowledge of God in the university of the desert after the time he spent in human schools acquiring human knowledge. As a result, this luminary of Caesarea provides us with a classic passage which shows that he had an excellent knowledge of the life of hesychia. He writes: "When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the vision of God. Then when it is illuminated without and within by that glory, it becomes forgetful even of its own nature. No longer able to drag the soul down to thought of sustenance or to concern for the body's covering, but enjoying leisure from earthly cares, it transfers all its interest to the acquisition of the eternal goods..." (6).

Hesychia of the body is helpful for attaining inner stillness of the soul. It appears from the patristic teaching that the former, even if not entirely necessary, is nevertheless very much needed in the godly life. "Stillness of the body is the knowledge and management of one's feelings and perceptions" (7). In another place where St. John of the Ladder speaks of this hesychia, he is thinking especially of "solitary abodes" (8).

Certainly, as we said before, the desert, and in general hesychia of the body, is helpful for attaining inner spiritual hesychia. But the Fathers understood hesychasm "neither as living like a recluse nor as distancing oneself in the desert, but as uninterrupted dwelling in God" (9). Although the desert has great value in that it helps to limit the images and representations coming from the world outside, yet it is not made an absolute. Nicetas Stethatos is characteristic on this point. He points out that virtue is not limited to a particular place and that man's aim is "to restore the powers of the soul and concentrate the general virtues at one point in action according to nature". Saying that these things do not come from outside but "they have been provided us from creation", he concludes: "The desert is unnecessary if we come into the Kingdom of Heaven without it, through repentance and keeping all the commandments of God" (10). It is very characteristic that Nicetas, formulating the problem spoken of by many who say that it is impossible to attain the habit of virtue "without withdrawal and flight into the desert", writes: "I was surprised that which knows no limits was thought by them to be in a limited place" (11).

In any case the desert and hesychia of the body in general helps one to acquire hesychia of the spirit, the holy content of which we are now going to describe.

St. John of the Ladder, writing compactly in his remarkable work, says that stillness of the soul is "accurate knowledge and management of one's thoughts". "Stillness of the soul is a science of thoughts and an inviolable mind. Brave and determined thinking is a friend of stillness. It keeps constant vigil at the doors of the heart, and kills or repels the thoughts that come" (12).

St. Symeon the New Theologian, speaking of inner stillness and describing its holy atmosphere, says: "Hesychia is an undisturbed state of the nous, calmness of a free and rejoicing soul, a heart's untroubled and unwavering foundation, vision of light, knowledge of the mysteries of God, a word of wisdom, depth of conceptual images of God, rapture of the nous, pure converse with God, a vigilant eye, inner prayer, union with God and contact and complete deification, and painless repose in great ascetic labours" (13).

Other Fathers too speak of this holy state of the soul, since life in Christ is a common experience of all the saints. According to St. Gregory of Sinai, "Hesychia means cutting off all thoughts except the most divine which come from the Spirit, lest in accepting the former as good, we lose what is greater" (14).

This rejection of conceptual images is part of man's attempt to purify the intelligent part of his soul. The athlete of the spiritual life struggles to drive away the thoughts which the evil one sows with the sole purpose of breaking up the inner unity of the powers of the soul and making a man's heart sick. It is a fact that Orthodoxy is a therapeutic science. As we read the works of the holy Fathers who refer to these subjects, we see clearly that Christianity cures the sick soul, and among the means of healing, first place belongs to guarding the nous, repelling intrusive thoughts and trying to slay them before they can enter the gate of the heart.

"What is hesychia, other than keeping one's heart away from giving and taking and pleasing people, and such doings? When the Lord told the scribe about the man who fell among thieves and asked him who was his neighbour, he said: `He who showed mercy on him'. Again, He said `I desire mercy and not sacrifice'. If you simply have mercy, it is more than sacrifice. Incline your heart to mercy; for the pretext of hesychia leads to haughtiness before a person has gained himself and become faultless: then hesychia is that he has borne the cross. If you are compassionate you find help. If you restrain yourself as if to avoid going beyond the measure, learn this, that you have lost even what you have: go neither in nor out, but straight ahead, being aware of the Lord's will, because the days are evil" (15).

That hesychia is, above all, guarding the nous, watching one's thoughts, is expressed by St. Thalassios: "Seal your senses with stillness and sit in judgement upon the thoughts that attack your heart" (16).

St. Gregory Palamas, however, is the chief defender of hesychia, as we shall see further on. By the grace of Christ he struggled to safeguard this method of purifying the heart and thoughts, which is an indispensable prerequisite for knowledge of God and communion with Him. In his sermon on the Presentation of the Virgin he speaks of the hesychastic life. It is characteristic that this Athonite saint, speaking from experience, sees the Virgin Mary as the model of noetic hesychia, since she entered into communion with the Holy Trinity in the Holy of Holies in stillness. He writes that we cannot reach God and commune with Him unless we are purified and unless we abandon sensory things and the senses, and unless we rise above thoughts and reasonings and human knowledge and all thought. This is just what the Virgin did. Seeking this communion with God, "the Virgin finds holy hesychia her guide: silencing the mind, the world standing still, things below forgotten, sharing of the secrets above, laying aside conceptual images for what is better. This practice in reality is a true entering into theoria or vision of God - or to put it better, the only example of a truly healthy soul". Then St. Gregory describes the virtues as medicines for the ills of the soul, for the passions; but theoria, he says, is "the fruit of recovery, whose end and form is deifying". The soul, in other words, is healed through virtues, but when healed it is united with God through theoria, to which the way of silence leads. "Through this (theoria) a man is deified, not through reflecting on words or visible things, but taught by silence" (17).

 

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Continued

By this method of Orthodox hesychia and teaching we are healed, being "released from the things below and turning towards God". With constant entreaties and prayers "we somehow touch that untouchable and blessed essence. And thus those who have been purified in heart through holy hesychia, after being ineffably permeated by the light which is above sense and nous, see God within themselves as in a mirror" (18).

The main points in this sermon are that by the Orthodox method, which is essentially a method of noetic hesychia, we purify our heart and our nous, and in this way we are united with God. This is the only method of contact with God and communion with Him.

The holy Fathers call this the soul's peace and Sabbath rest. Man's nous, purified by the method and training of holy stillness, keeps the Sabbath, rests in God. Palamas, speaking of the divine rest, God's rest when He "rested from all his labours", and of Christ's rest at the descent of His soul with its divinity into Hell and the sojourn of His body with its divinity in the tomb, writes that we too should pursue this divine rest, that is, we should concentrate our nous with persevering attention and unceasing prayer. This divine Sabbath rest is noetic hesychia. "If you withdraw your nous from every thought, even good ones, and turn wholly towards yourself with persevering attention and unceasing prayer, you too will come into the divine rest and attain the blessing of the seven beatitudes, seeing yourself, and through yourself being lifted up to the vision of God" (19). It is noteworthy that the saint says these things in a talk to the flock of his diocese of Thessalonica. This means that all, at different depths, can attain the experience of divine rest. I believe that this is the teaching which has been lost in our time.

From what we have said about noetic hesychia one can see why the person who practises this is called a hesychast. A hesychast is one who follows the way of stillness, which in reality is the way of the Orthodox tradition. Its aim is to lead us to God and unite us with Him. We may recall St. John of the Ladder: "Strange as it may seem, the hesychast is a man who fights to keep his incorporeal self shut up in the house of the body... A hesychast is like an angel on earth. With paper of love and letters of zeal, he has freed his prayer from sloth and carelessness...A hesychast is one who cries out: `O God, my heart is ready'. He says: `I sleep, but my heart is awake'" (20).

Indeed, as has already been pointed out, hesychasm is the most suitable method for self-concentration and the ascent of the soul to God and communion with Him. It is very necessary for communion with God. St. Gregory Palamas, after explaining at length that man's nous (energy) should be turned to the heart and that it is in the heart, which is the "reservoir of intelligence and the first intelligent organ of the body", "the reservoir of thoughts", that the grace of God is found, writes: "Can you not see, then, how essential it is that those who have determined to pay attention to themselves in inner quiet should gather together the nous and enclose it in the body, especially in that `body' most interior to the body, which we call the heart?" (21)

But we must emphasise and properly underline that training in hesychia is not simply a human attempt to bring the nous back to itself, and its union with the heart is not just a technical method. This training in hesychia is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit and is expressed in repentance and sorrow. It is not simply an artificial method, which in some depth and breadth can also be found in anthropocentric systems. "The hesychasm of the Orthodox monk springs organically from deep repentance and his longing to keep the commandments of Christ. It is not the artificial application to spiritual life of Areopagitic theology. The theological teaching in the `areopagitics' does not gainsay the results of mental quiet, and in this sense approaches and even falls in with hesychasm. But there is this essential difference: the Orthodox ascetic does not arrive at mental quiet through the abstract philosophy of apophatic theology but by repentance and struggle against the `law of sin' (Rom.7,23) acting in human nature" (22).

All the Fathers make this connection between noetic hesychia and repentance. St. Gregory of Sinai writes: "Without the practice of constant weeping, it is impossible to bear the boiling cauldron of stillness." He who weeps about the things which precede and follow death will have patience and humility, which are the two foundation stones of hesychia. Without repentance and these two foundations a hesychast will have "conceit and negligence" (23).

Therefore the method of training in hesychia - and this must be strongly emphasised - is connected with repentance, tears, sorrow, compunction. Without these it is false and therefore not helpful. For the aim of hesychia is purification of the heart and nous. This is not conceivable without tears and mourning. Hence, for the athlete of noetic hesychia, tears are a way of life. Through concentrating his nous in his heart he becomes capable of seeing his wretchedness, and at once his eyes, and his heart itself, shed tears of repentance. As repentance grows, he is purified and acquires knowledge of God.

But hesychia is also closely connected with keeping the commandments of Christ. The greatest weapons of anyone striving to lead a life of inner stillness with patience are "self-control, love, attentiveness and spiritual reading" (24). According to St. Gregory of Sinai, anyone who practises hesychasm must have as a foundation the virtues of "silence, self-control, vigils, humility and patience". Likewise he should have three activities pleasing to God: "psalmody, prayer and reading, and work with his hands" (25). In another connection the same saint emphasises that "the first requirements of hesychia are to have faith and patience, and with one's whole heart, strength and power, to love and to hope" (26). In another place again he emphasises other virtues such as self-control, silence and self-reproach, "that is, humility. For these support and protect one another; prayer is born of them and grows for ever" (27). Of course one must also give attention to food, exercising all restraint so that the nous will not be dulled by food: "one who practices hesychia must always be in need, not satiated. For with a heavy stomach and a mind dulled in this way one cannot pray with purity and firmness". Sleep comes from much food, and innumerable dreams fill the mind (28).

These things show that the hesychastic way of life presupposes keeping Christ's commandments, since this gives birth to virtues. So too the virtues are not independent of stillness, but neither is stillness independent of keeping God's commandments, His "ordinances".

On the contrary, not keeping the commandments and having passions do not constitute Orthodox hesychia, and if hesychia begins to appear, it is devoured, it disappears. "Nothing has a greater power of disturbing the state of stillness and of depriving it of God's help than the following passions: presumptuousness, gluttony, talkativeness and vain cares, arrogance, and the mistress of all passions - conceit" (29).

All these things show that holy noetic hesychia is necessary for keeping the soul pure from passions and for communion with God. It is not a luxury in one's life, it is not a training for only a few people, not a method only for monks to adopt, but it is for everyone. It is indispensable for attaining contemplation of God and for deification, which is man's goal. However there are differing degrees of noetic hesychia.

Many times in the Gospels the Lord is seen teaching about purifying the heart from passions, about inner prayer, liberation from the power of thoughts, and so forth. He Himself demonstrated to His disciples the value of the desert. It helps a person to conquer the enemy. Thus the Apostles included many so-called neptic topics in their teaching.

This is not the place for developing all these themes. We simply wish to mention a few.

It is well known that after His baptism, the Lord "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt.4,1). It was there in the wilderness that he conquered the devil, who put to him the three well known temptations. Many times we find the Lord withdrawing into the wilderness in order to rest, but also in this way to teach His disciples the value of the desert. "He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself" (Matt.14,13). And after the miracle of multiplying the five loaves, "when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray: and when evening had come, He was alone there" (Matt.14,23).

It is very significant that when the disciples gathered "and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught", the Lord said to them: "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile" (Mark 6,30-31).

The Lord spent whole nights in prayer. Luke the Evangelist has preserved the information: "He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God" (Lk.6,12).

And in His teaching Christ emphasised the value of noetic hesychia and release from the passions that are in us.

Teaching the way of true prayer, He said: "when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place..." (Matt.6,6). Interpreting this exhortation of the Lord, St. Gregory Palamas writes: "...the closet of the soul is the body; our doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its closet when the mind does not wander hither and thither, roaming among things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be attached to external sensory things, and in this way our nous remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God its Father. `And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly,' adds the Lord. God who knows all secret things, sees spiritual prayer and rewards it openly with great gifts. For that prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with divine grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in divine grace" (30).

The Lord said to His disciples who were sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation" (Matt.26,41).

He further advised us to keep our nous, and especially our heart, pure from passions and various thoughts: "When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered and said to them, `Why are you reasoning in your hearts?' (Lk.5,22)" Accusing the Scribes and Pharisees, He said: "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Matt.23,26).

The Apostles' letters also point to the great value of the wilderness, noetic hesychia, inner purification and watchfulness. Here too I would like to recall a few relevant passages.

After turning to Christ, the Apostle Paul journeyed into the Arabian desert, and there he repented of his previous behaviour (Gal.1,17).

The Apostle, who knew this inner stillness of the nous, gave much advice to his disciples. Sensing that Christians who have been united with Christ have the nous of Christ, he wrote: "But we have the nous of Christ" (1Cor.2,16). In another place he exhorts: "Put to death your members which are on the earth" (Col.3,5). By the grace of God the Apostle saw the inner law in his members warring against the law of his nous (Rom.7,23).

In the Apostle's teaching, importance is given to watchfulness, that is, spiritual vigilance not to let one's nous be captured by an external evil power: "Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober... let us who are of the day be sober..." (1Thess.5,6-8). He exhorts the Apostle Timothy: "But you be watchful in all things" (2Tim.4,5).

And on the subject of prayer he is clear. Prayer should go on unceasingly in the hearts of Christians. "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving" (Col.4,2). "Pray without ceasing" (1Thess.5,17).

The Apostle Peter gives the same commandments, thus showing that the members of the Church have a common life. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1Pet.5,8).

All these things show that practically all Christians can attain stillness and thereby also vision of God. On this point too the Fathers are absolute and expressive.

Peter of Damascus writes: "For all men need this devotion and stillness, total or partial, and without it, it is impossible to attain any humility and spiritual knowledge" (31).

In this teaching of Peter of Damascus we need to note the words "all men need this devotion and stillness". If this is supposed to be the case with all men, it is much more so with monks. It is inconceivable that there should be a monk who does not devote time to participating in godly hesychia. We say this because there have always been different ideas in a few circles, especially among those who, if they come upon monks struggling to achieve this godly "hesychia", call them deluded. For this reason we shall take the opportunity to say a number of other things in the next section. The other point which must be emphasised is that "without it, it is impossible to attain any humility and spiritual knowledge". It is the only method and the only way of knowing God, as we mentioned previously, according to the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas.

Some people maintain that hesychia in the way described by the Fathers is inaction, not action. In reality the opposite is the case. Hesychia is very great action in invisibility and silence. The person is in repose and stillness in order to speak with God, in order to allow himself his freedom and to receive God Himself. And if we consider the fact that the greatest problems which torment us are psychical and internal, and if we think that most illnesses (psychological and physical) originate from the elaboration of thoughts, that is, from impurity of the nous and the heart, we can understand the great value of noetic hesychia. So it is action and life. Hesychia offers the indispensable conditions for loving one's brothers dispassionately, for acquiring selfless and dispassionate love. "He who is not attracted by worldly things cherishes stillness. He who loves nothing merely human loves all men" (St. Maximus the Confessor) (32). How can one have selfless love, which is one of the aims of the spiritual life, when one is possessed by passions?

So the hesychastic life is a life of intense activity, but a genuine and good activity. "The stillness of the saints should not be regarded as indolence, but as a form of intense activity. Moreover God is revealed in a similar way in his relations with men. The movement of God towards men is not only a movement of manifestation, but also a movement of revelation. It is not only revelation of a word but also an expression of stillness. That is why man, in order to come nearer to God, is not satisfied only to receive His revealed energies but must also advance towards receiving in silence the mystery of His unknowing. It is not enough to hear His word, but one must also advance towards the unhearing of His stillness. This second part leads to perfection, and so the first is presupposed. In fact, as St. Ignatius the Godbearer observed, only `he who has truly acquired the word of Jesus can also hear His stillness, so as to be perfect'. So then the movement of man towards God should not be only a movement of action, but also a movement of hiddenness; it should not only be a witness of confession, but also a witness of silence and stillness" (33).

Therefore the Fathers speak of "fruiting stillness". When rightly practiced it offers great help to a person, it reshapes his personality, renews his being, unites it with God. Then his social relationships are set right as well. When a man acquires love for God he also acquires love for mankind.