(Archimandrite Zacharias of Essex)
It is unfortunate that there is
widespread confusion, not to mention delusion, in the
inexperienced, whereby the Jesus Prayer is thought to
be equivalent to yoga in Buddhism, or
'transcendental meditation', and other such Eastern
exotica. Any similarity, however, is mostly external,
and any inner convergence does not rise beyond the
natural 'anatomy' of the human soul. The fundamental
difference between Christianity and other beliefs and
practices lies in the fact that the Jesus Prayer is
based on the revelation of the One true living and
personal God as Holy Trinity No other path admits any
possibility of a living relationship between God and
the person who prays.
Eastern asceticism aims at divesting the mind of all that
is relative and transitory, so that man may identify with
the impersonal Absolute. This Absolute is believed to be
man's original 'nature', which suffered degradation and
degeneration by entering a multiform and ever-changing
earth-bound life. Ascetic practice like this is, above
all, centered upon the self, and is totally dependent on
man's will. Its intellectual character betrays the
fullness of human nature, in that it takes no account of
the heart. Man's main struggle is to return to the
anonymous Supra-personal Absolute and to be dissolved in
it. He must therefore aspire to efface the soul
(Atman) in order to be one with this anonymous
ocean of the Suprapersonal Absolute, and in this lies its
basically negative purpose.
