Глава 6. О том, как должно в начале обучаться действованию умом в сердце этой Божественной молитвы

In ancient times, this all-holy work of mental prayer shone forth in many places where the holy fathers stayed. That’s why there were many teachers of this spiritual work back then. For this reason, St. Our fathers, writing about it, expressed only the ineffable spiritual benefits that came from it, without, as I think, the need to write about the experience itself of this activity, which is befitting of beginners. If several have written about this, then this is only for those who know the experience of this doing - it is very clear; but for those who don’t know it is completely incomprehensible. Some of them, when they saw that the true and unpretentious teachers of this work began to completely diminish, and fearing that the true teaching about the beginning of this mental prayer would not be lost, wrote the very beginning and experience of how beginners should learn, and enter with their minds into the lands of the heart, and there, truly and unpretentiously act prayer with their minds. It is these fathers who must present the most Divine teaching on this subject on Wednesday. Saint Simeon the New Theologian speaks about the beginning of this work as follows: “True and unadulterated attention and prayer consists in the fact that during prayer the mind guards the heart and remains constantly inside it, and from there, that is, from the depths of the heart, sends prayers to God. And when the inside of the heart tastes that the Lord is good and delights, it will no longer come from the place of the heart. And together with the Apostle he will say: it is good for us to be here (Matthew 17:4). And constantly examining the places of the heart, he invents some way to drive away all the enemy thoughts that are there.” And below he speaks about this even more clearly: “As soon as the mind finds a place in the heart, it immediately sees what it has never seen: it sees the air in the middle of the heart, and itself, all bright and full of reasoning. And from then on, no matter where a thought appears, before it enters and is depicted, it immediately drives it away and destroys it by calling on Jesus Christ. Henceforth, the mind, having received the memory of malice towards demons, moves natural anger against them, drives out and overthrows mental adversaries. And you will learn other things with God’s help through mindfulness, holding Jesus in your heart” (A Homily on Three Types of Prayer). The Monk Nicephorus the Faster, teaching even more clearly about entering the heart with the mind, says: “First of all, let your life be silent, carefree and peaceful with everyone. Then, having entered your cage, shut yourself, and sitting down in some corner, do what I tell you. You know that the breath we breathe is this air; we exhale it with nothing other than the heart. It is the cause of life and warmth of the body. The heart attracts air in order to release its warmth through breathing and give itself coolness. The cause of this action, or better to say - the servant, is a lung, which, being created by the Creator - rare, like a pump, conveniently brings in and removes the surrounding environment, that is, air. Thus, the heart, attracting cold through the air and emitting warmth, continually performs the function for which it was designed to form life. You are together, and having collected your mind, force it to enter your heart along with your breath. When he enters there, what follows will no longer be gloomy or joyless.” And below: “Therefore, brother, train your mind not to leave there soon: because at first it gets very bored from the inner seclusion and cramped space.” When he gets used to it, he no longer tolerates wandering outside, because the Kingdom of Heaven is within us: when we consider it there and seek it with pure prayer, then everything external becomes vile and hateful. If, as has been said, you immediately enter with your mind the place of your heart that I showed you: then give thanks to God, and glorify, and leap, and stick to this doing constantly, and it will teach you what you do not know. You also need to know that the mind, being there, should not stand silent or idle, but these words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” have constant work and teaching, and never cease from this. This, keeping the mind low, keeps it elusive and impregnable to the enemy’s attacks, and elevates it daily into love and desire of the Divine. If, brother, having worked a lot, you are not able to enter the lands of the heart, as we commanded you: then do what I tell you, and with the help of God you will find what you are looking for. You know that the literature of every person is in the Persians: here, inside the Persians, and with the silence of our lips, we speak and reason, and say prayers and psalms and so on. Having taken away every thought from this literature (you can do this if you want), let it say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and force this, instead of every other thought, to constantly cry out within. “When you hold this for a while, then the heart’s entrance will be opened for you, as we wrote to you, without any doubt, as we ourselves have learned from experience. And the whole face of virtues will come to you, with much-desired and sweet attention: love, joy, peace, and others.” The Divine Gregory of Sinai, also teaching how the most salvific invocation of the Lord should act in the heart with the mind, says: “Sitting in the morning on a seat of one quarter, bring the mind down from what is sovereign in the heart, and keep it in it. And bowing with difficulty, and feeling severe pain in the chest and shoulders and neck, constantly cry mentally or spiritually: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Then, if, perhaps, for the sake of crampedness and soreness, and from frequent invocation, it becomes unsweetening for you (which does not happen because of the monotony of the food of the Triple Name, often poisonous, for those who eat Me, it is said, will still hunger - (Sir. 24:23): then changing your mind to the other half, saying: “Son of God, have mercy on me!” And repeatedly pronouncing this half, you should not, out of laziness, often change them: because trees, often transplanted, do not take root. Hold back the breath of your lungs, so that you do not breathe insolently; for the breath of spirits coming from the heart scatters the thought and darkens the mind, and returning it from there, or consigns it to oblivion as a captive, or forces it to learn from another instead of one, and it turns out to be insensitive in what it should not. If you see the impurities of evil spirits, that is, thoughts arising or depicting in your mind, then do not be horrified: but if good understandings about certain things appear to you, do not listen to them: holding your breath as much as possible, and confining your mind in your heart, and constantly and often calling upon the Lord Jesus, you will soon crush and destroy them, hurting them invisibly with the Divine name, as the Climacus says: “By Jesus beat the warriors in your name, because there is no stronger weapon, neither in heaven nor on earth.” And again the same Saint, teaching about silence and prayer, how one should sit in it, says: “Sometimes one should sit on a chair, for the sake of work; sometimes in bed a little before the time, for comfort. You must sit in patience, for the sake of those who said that you must endure in prayer (Luke 18:1), and not get up quickly, faint-hearted due to the difficulty of the illness and mental cries and frequent tension of the mind. This is what the Prophet says: sickness has overcome me like a woman in labor (Jer. 8:21). So, bowing down and collecting your mind in your heart, if your heart has been opened to you, call on the Lord Jesus for help. When you have pain in your shoulders, often having headaches, endure it intensely and zealously, seeking in your heart the Lord: the kingdom of heaven belongs to those in need, and those in need delight it (Matthew 11:12),” and so on. And also, as one should say a prayer, he says: “The fathers said this: “another says: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! - all: another - half: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me! - and this is more convenient, due to the weakness of the mind and infancy. No one can, by himself, without the Spirit, secretly name the Lord Jesus - purely and completely, precisely by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3): but, like a speechless baby, he cannot yet complete it with his members. Out of laziness, he should not often change the invocation of names; but rarely for retention. Again: some teach to pronounce it with the lips, others with the mind; and I admit both. Sometimes the mind becomes exhausted, bored with talking; sometimes - lips. Therefore, one must pray - both with the lips and with the mind; however, one must silently and unabashedly cry out so that the voice, confusing the feeling and attention of the mind, does not interfere, until the mind, having become accustomed to the task, succeeds and receives the strength from the Spirit to pray firmly and in every possible way. Then he no longer needs to speak with his lips, and even cannot, being able to do things completely with his mind.” And so the above-mentioned holy fathers, as shown, present a very clear teaching and experience of teaching smart doing for beginners. And from this teaching one can understand the teaching of the other Saints about this work, stated more secretly. To the most merciful God be glory, honor, worship and thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: