THE PATH OF INNER COMMUNION
The image of “cave of the heart” in the mystic tradition refers to a
real interior sacred space where the Divine Flame we know as the personal and
universal Christ burns in the spiritual center or heart. And the practice of
"tending" this Fire is about our actualization of interior union of
the soul with this Fire of Divine Presence. In our “tending” we make real in
our consciousness what is already ontologically true in the depths of our
being. This actualization, discipline,
or praxis, is known in Eastern Christianity as the Prayer of the Heart, and its
foundation is one of silent inner communion with Christ in the interior space
of the Heart.
Centering in the Heart
The historical Yeshua was put to death
because he challenged religious and temporal authority by teaching that the
temple of God was not the bricks or mortar on the hill but the temple of the
Heart, or spiritual center. Hence our intimate connection with the Source of
all Life, realized or not, is accessible within every being without the
intermediation of human beings, institutions, or correct beliefs. Yeshua taught that in his true essence
as the Universal Christ he is present in the sanctuary of the Heart in every
person. So the great and good news of the Gospel is that the Divine Beloved is
present as Living Flame and Spirit, in intimate personhood and in oceanic being
in the holy Kingdom of God within the deep Heart. The spiritual journey
therefore involves unifying every aspect of our soul and humanity with this
Divine Life within in Its every moment invitation and offering of Divine
Selfhood. In its simplicity this is the mystic promise of Yeshua: The
Kingdom of God is within, and we are all invited to enter and live our life in
communion with His Life.
Kallistos Ware, Orthodox Bishop and
spiritual elder and teacher in the Prayer of the Heart, says this about the
heart as the spiritual center and locus of the presence of Christ within:
"Those who, however
imperfectly, have achieved some measure of 'prayer of the heart,' have begun to
make the transition … from 'strenuous' to 'self-acting' prayer, from the prayer
which I say to the prayer which 'says itself' or, rather, which Christ says in
me. For the heart has a double-significance in the spiritual life: it is both
the center of the human being and the point of meeting between the human being
and God. It is both the place of self-knowledge, where we see ourselves as we
truly are, and the place of self-transcendence, where we understand our nature
as a temple of the Holy Trinity. In the 'inner sanctuary' of our own heart we
find the ground of our being and so cross the mysterious frontier between the
created and the Uncreated. 'There are unfathomable depths within the heart,
state the Macarian Homilies. '...God is there with angels, light and life are
there, the kingdom and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasures of
grace: all things are there.' "(The
Power of the Name, Kallistos Ware)
Prayer of the
Heart/Hesychastic Meditation
Every authentic mystic tradition has
a formal meditative practice as the central spiritual discipline for unifying
human consciousness with the Divine Beloved within. In mystical Christianity, the most highly developed and
widely known meditative practice is Hesychastic meditation, or Prayer of the
Heart. It has its origins in the
early Christian desert mothers and fathers who lived a hermetic monastic life
to realize the mystic teachings of Yeshua in their own interior life. To enter the inner Kingdom of Heaven at
the center of the heart, or deepest spiritual nature, the desert practitioners
of Hesychastic meditation taught we must continually align awareness and will
with the heart or sanctuary of the Divine. They taught that this was the road to salvation, the
re-ordering of our soul and humanity to the Divine Indwelling. They called this
metaphorically, “becoming Fire,” becoming ablaze with the fire of the inner
Spirit of Christ through communion with His Fire in the Cave of the Heart.
The earliest practitioners taught the
synchronization of prayer word and breath as an anchor to continually re-orient
awareness and will in the heart.
This teaching was formalized by John Climacus at the monastery of St.
Catherine of Sinai (7th c.) In his book on Christian Contemplation Brian
Taylor speaks of this development in Christianity:
"However, at some point
these desert contemplatives began to use the name
of Yeshua as their
invocation. In the fourth century text, The Life of
Anthony, by Athanasius of
Alexandria, there was already a practice of
invoking Christ in a
repetitive prayer, even linking the breath to its
repetition, as if the one
who prayed was actually breathing Yeshua: 'Anthony
called his two
companions...and said to them, ‘Always breath Christ. ' " (Becoming
Christ: Transformation Through Contemplation, Taylor)
We know this practice as the Prayer of the
Heart. When Christianity was a vital movement and not yet an institution, the
ancients of the early centuries fled the towns and cities of North Africa and
the Middle East to realize the simplicity and singled hearted life of the
Kingdom within to which Yeshua invites us in the Gospel. Yeshua and all mystic traditions teach
that the spiritual suffering endemic in the human condition is caused by an
ignorance of our true nature and our inheritance of interior union with the
Divine. The Good News is that the Divine Beloved is always accessible to us,
yet we are rarely accessible to the Divine. To heal this condition and become accessible
we must become undivided; to live a life wholly consecrated, wholly unified, in
God. The words “monos” and “monastic” emerged from their
fervent desire for a singular, undivided life. The early men and women monastics were intent on realizing a
life consecrated to union with Christ.
They lived as hermits as well as in communities of “cenobites”, a Greek
word translated as sharing a “common life”. These ancient seekers gathered around teachers who were
called "abba" or "amma", spiritual father or mother. The desert elders offered their lives
to prayer, both in silent solitude, as well as in activity. They helped guide their students to
‘become Fire’, ablaze with the Light of Christ, through communion with Him in
the cave of the heart.
The
desert ammas and abbas realized the primary impediment to the undivided life is
the scattered attachments of the mind.
When early Christians escaped into the desert seeking silence and
tranquility, they also carried their minds with the incessant, noisy traffic of
thoughts. The desert elders
understood that to fully surrender and rest in communion with Christ in the
heart, individuals must be free from the mind's tyranny.
Hesychastic Meditation or Prayer of the
Heart is the most highly developed and widely known meditative practice from
the early Christian desert mothers and fathers. Hesychia is an
ancient Greek word, which means silence or rest. The desert elders understood that when an individuals focus
upon their longing for God, in the silent communion of Hesychastic Meditation
or Prayer of the Heart, they are less apt to be captivated by mind
phenomenon. The desert
practitioners of Hesychasm taught that the way to enter the inner Kingdom of
Stillness is to continually anchor our attention (awareness) and intention
(will) in the Heart of Christ. The
praxis of Prayer of the Heart can occur during formal times in silent sitting
as well as in the midst of activity, throughout the day. For the desert practitioners, the
invitation to “pray without ceasing”, advocated by Saint Paul (1st
Thessalonians 5:17) is both possible and desirable for all. Since the early centuries of
Christianity, the Prayer of the Heart has also been called the “Yeshua Prayer”.
Brian Taylor, an Episcopal priest, speaks
further of this ancient tradition of inner communion with Christ. He writes, "This rich and focused
tradition is perhaps the only specific, practical teaching about contemplative
prayer in all of Christendom that has been handed down faithfully and precisely
from master to disciple, remaining intact over sixteen hundred years. In this sense, the Yeshua(Jesus)
Prayer/ Prayer of the Heart tradition is more akin to the way in which Buddhist
or Hindu meditation is handed down from generation to generation than it is to
anything comparable in the West.
The use of the Yeshua Prayer and the teachings about contemplation that
surrounded it spread from master to disciple through the deserts of Egypt, and
then came into prominence in the sixth century at the well-known and ancient
monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, established by Emperor Justinian I
in 527. In the fourteenth century,
the center of the Yeshua Prayer movement moved to Mount Athos, Greece. …In our
day, Mount Athos and to a lesser degree, St. Catherine's of Sinai, continue as
centers of practice of the
Jesus/Yeshua Prayer."
(Becoming Christ: Transformation Through Contemplation, B. Taylor)
The Holy Name of the
Beloved
When you are in love with someone, the
name of the beloved is powerful.
Invoking the name of your beloved stirs the yearning to be united with
him/her and to give yourself in love.
Historically, across cultures and traditions, the name of the Divine
Beloved has been chanted to arouse devotion in the hearts of participants and
to embody the qualities of God. In
the Christian mystical tradition, the name of the personal Beloved is Yeshua
and invoking his holy name connects us to our great longing and willingness to
be “oned” with the Divine Beloved.
Ancient Christians discovered that communion and transformation in
Christ arose through invoking Yeshua’s name in silent prayer and breath in the
midst of activity. In the crucible
of the desert, early Christians attest that with continual prayer and communion
with Yeshua, the Light of Christ ignites our being into Fire.
Breath as Pure Prayer
In our culture, when a person is fearful
or angry, we encourage, "Breathe easy" or “Take a deep, slow
breath”. When captivated by
memories of a painful past or dreading an imagined future, we can re-orient to
being here-now by consciously breathing. Through awareness of our breath, we can also root and
ground in the present eternal moment where God dwells.
As observed by the desert Christians, our
consciousness is habitually captivated by object creations of the thinking
mind. Anyone who has attempted to
meditate or pray is acutely conscious of the barrage of thoughts and emotions
that flood awareness. To assist
the practitioner in communion with the Divine, the desert elders advocated
using the synchronization of a prayer word with the breath as an anchor to
continually re-orient our awareness into the heart. A word that catalyzes our deepest longing for the Beloved is
the most powerful prayer word. Our
longing for God is the doorway to the Divine, not magic formulas or words. For many the most powerful word of all
was reverently calling upon the name of the Living Christ, or Yeshua.
The invocation of “Yeshua” synchronized
with the breath has become the central expression of Prayer of the Heart. One of the
foremost guides in the formation of the Hesychastic Meditation/Prayer of the
Heart tradition is John Climacus from Saint Catherine’s Monastery on the slopes
of Mount Sinai in Egypt. During
the seventh century, he taught that the invocation of the Holy Name was key to
perceiving the Divine Light in the eye of the heart. He instructs in the Ladder of Paradise, "May the remembrance of Yeshua be united to your breathing, and then you will know the value
of hesychia(silence)”. He
advocated that the practitioner "fasten" their breathing to the
invocation of the Holy Name. In later centuries, the Yeshua Prayer was embellished, to
phrases, such as, “Lord Yeshua Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner”
to accommodate theological formulas and doctrinal purposes. But the simplest and most easily
aligned with the breath has been the holy name of Yeshua alone.
A powerful word for God or Holy Spirit in
the Jewish tradition is “Ruach”, or Life-Breath. To breathe fully with attention and intention is to be aware
of the Breath or Spirit of God breathing in us. The Prayer of the Heart is the antidote to the human
suffering of alienation and separation from God. Whether we combine our breath with the invocation of the
Holy Name or not, the breath in the Prayer of the Heart roots us into the Heart
of God. During every
activity, in each inhalation and exhalation, we can breathe Yeshua.
The nature of the Divine Beloved is
Self-Giving Love. In the Gospel of
John, when Yeshua encounters the Samaritan woman at the well, he informs her,
“If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you ‘give me drink’, you
would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:6) In this gospel passage, Yeshua calls his true nature, the
“gift of God”. In our practice of
inner communion, we breathe in the Self-Giving of God, welling up within us,
and we breathe out our own humanity in self-offering love. To breathe Yeshua, we continually say
"yes" to receiving Him and continually say "yes" to
offering ourselves. In essence, we
wordlessly pray, “I breathe in Yeshua; I breathe out Yeshua. I breathe in the gift of God’s life; I
breathe out in offering the gift of my own life in God. In my breath, I sink into and abide in
communion in the Heart of Christ.
In this intimate communion with Christ, I touch the Kingdom and the
Kingdom touches me.” (Breathing Yeshua , Ryan)
Silent Sitting Practice
of Hesychastic Meditation or Prayer of the Heart
The method of the Prayer of the Heart simply calls us
to take refuge in the Inner Flame of Love. In this intimate encounter, similar to when we seek intimacy
in our human relationships, we give our full
presence, letting no thing intrude, whether our own thoughts, external noise or
distraction. In the interior
sanctuary with the Beloved, we give ourselves to our longing to be fully given
in love. To cultivate this sacred
silent space, which the ancients called “hesychia”, there are external and internal
disciplines we must cultivate.
The
Guidelines of Formal Prayer of the Heart Practice
1. Setting:
Set aside a sacred space, a quiet place consecrated to your desire for
communion with the Beloved in the cave of the heart.
2. Time:
Choose a time most conducive to silent interior meditative prayer, when
you are alert and not likely to be interrupted. For most that is early morning and early evening.
3. Body
Posture: Sit upright, where minimal effort is
required to maintain a straight back and be alert. For some a chair is best, for others, a prayer bench or
cushion. Let the hands be
reverently folded in your lap or resting on your thighs facing upward or
downward.
4. Breath: Breathing should be relaxed, not forced. Allow the breath to be deep and
abdominal, relaxing the tensions in the shoulders, chest and abdomen. Let the out-breath be released slowly,
synchronized with the invocation of the Holy Name or prayer word.
5. Preparation: Choose or create a short prayer phrase of consecration
to prepare for your entry into silence and to awaken your longing. Examples might be, “O Beloved,
take my life and make it yours.” or “O Yeshua, You are my Refuge.”
6. Length of Prayer Session:
Twenty-five to thirty minutes of Prayer of the Heart session is best,
with a brief walking meditation in between for more than one session. Two sessions a day, one session in both
the morning and evening, or two sessions in the morning, are often recommended. Allow for a gentle transition from the
meditation session, perhaps ending with a spoken vow of practice, devotional
prayers or short spiritual reading you may find inspirational. (To be explored
in a later chapter.)
The Method
Prayer Word:
Choose a word, which touches you and best expresses your desire to be
one with the Inner Flame of Love, or Christ within. For many, the most fitting meditation word is the invocation
of the Holy Name of Yeshua or a form of the Yeshua Prayer, such as “Lord
Yeshua, have mercy". Repeat
the word or words silently and continuously, synchronized with your breath. Let
the word and breath sink deeply into the heart in the chest and solar plexus.
With more than one syllable or word, align the recitation of the word or phrase
with the in-breath and out-breath in an easy rhythm of breath and word. Let this prayer word or phrase be the
anchor of returning to your longing for communion with Christ. Some practitioners may find repeating
any word is unnecessary or even a distraction. For these individuals, the in-breath and out-breath alone is
the purest and simplest form of meditation practice, and breath alone is fully
sufficient complete prayer.
Observing the
Mind/Abiding in the Heart:
Observe the mind traffic, release and return to abiding in the heart (This may
be experienced energetically in our body awareness deep in the lower chest and
solar plexus area). Continually
observe and release from involvement with thoughts by returning to your breath
and the name of Yeshua or prayer word.
The continual process of “release and return” coincides with the natural
rhythm of the breath. When
breathing in, we receive the Self-giving of the Divine. When breathing out, we offer ourselves
into the Divine Embrace. Being
present to the Presence of the Beloved with loving devotion and self-offering,
we increasingly abide in the Heart of Christ in the sanctuary of our own
heart. In growing depth our
awareness settles and anchors in the warmth and spaciousness of our spiritual
center, the cave of the heart within.
Summary of
Guidelines and Method
Gradually, over time,
we cultivate a capacity, not to stop thought and emotion, but to release from
them. Increasingly, we abide in
the ‘cave of the heart’, which is beneath and beyond all mind activity. We experience that we have thoughts,
but we are not our thoughts. We
can rest in the Heart of Christ alone, in our silent prayer practice, or in the
midst of daily activities. Our
true home, our monk's cell, is the Kingdom of the Beloved within, and our
practice is one of ceaseless return and refuge in the Heart of Christ, the
Inner Flame of Love.
Thomas Kelly, the twentieth century Quaker mystic, spoke
eloquently of the "perpetual return of the soul to the Inner
Sanctuary." He writes, "
Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy
place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually
return. Eternity is at our hearts,
pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding
destiny, calling us home unto Itself…Continuously renewed immediacy, not
receding memory of the Divine Touch, lies at the base of religious living…What
is here urged…are secret habits of unceasing orientation…so that we are
perpetually bowed in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily
affairs. What is here urged are
inward practices of mind…letting it swing like the needle, to the polestar of
the soul. And like the needle, the
Inward Light becomes the truest guide of life…He who is within us urges, by
secret persuasion, to such an amazing Inward Life with Him, so that…we always
look out upon all the world through the sheen of the Inward Light…Yield
yourself to Him…and you will have found the Instructor Himself, of whom these
words are a faint and broken echo….the Master of Galilee…expected this secret
to be freshly discovered in everyone…The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no
mere doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be
accepted or rejected as a mere belief.
It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and
Christian groups - yes, and of non-Christian groups as well - who seriously
mean to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. He is the center and source of action, not the endpoint of
thought. He is the locus of commitment,
not a problem for debate. Practice
comes first in religion, not theory or dogma… A practicing Christian must above
all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner
sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and…who brings the Light into
the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and re-creates it after the
pattern seen on the Mount….On one level, we may be thinking, discussing,
seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes,…we
may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle
receptiveness to divine breathings…ever the accent must be upon the deeper
level, where the soul ever dwells in the presence of the Holy One…("The
Light Within," A Testament of Devotion, T. Kelly)
The path of inner communion with
Christ opens to us in the praxis of Prayer of the Heart. Through a daily practice in silence and
solitude, we are ever more accessible to Divine Love. To commune with and remain rooted to the Divine, we
continually tend to Yeshua’s Fire in the cave of our heart.
