One of the greatest
spiritual gifts that Elder Paisios
gave me was his guidance along the
mystical path of the Jesus Prayer.
This started at the beginning of our
acquaintance and continued until his
repose twelve years later. The Jesus
Prayer consists of the repetition of
the phrase "Lord Jesus Christ, have
mercy on me."' The Jesus Prayer is not
recited as a Mantra, but as a prayer
to the Person of Christ.
Prayer, as I
learned, is a relationship between two
persons, God and man, who move towards
each other. Thus, the swiftness or
slowness with which a person advances
in prayer depends on both the human
and divine wills. Neither the freedom
of God in His sovereignty nor the
freedom of man in his free choice are
ever violated. For his part, man
offers his good intention, his labors,
and his desire to draw near to God.
God, in turn, offers His grace...
When yogis claim
that the Jesus Prayer resembles their
own mantras, they are in fact trying
to fit the Jesus Prayer into their own
Procrustean bed. Of course, there are
similarities, but there are also
enormous differences-both a table and
a horse have four legs, but to
conclude that they are consequently
the same would be an error of the
crudest sort. But this is just the
kind of error the yogis make when they
claim that the Jesus Prayer is a kind
of mantra. A brief examination of the
essential differences between the
Jesus Prayer and a mantra should
provide those with an open mind the
wherewithal to draw the proper
conclusions.
First, consider how
the Orthodox tradition understands the
meaning of the Jesus Prayer: "Lord
Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." The
word "Lord" is the name for God most
frequently encountered in the Old
Testament in the oft-repeated formula
"Thus saith the Lord ..." or in the
commandments: I am the Lord thy God.
When Orthodox Christians call Jesus
Christ, "Lord," they are confessing
that He is the God of the Old
Testament Who spoke to the
patriarchs-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Word is the Person who gave the
law to Moses. In other words, the One
who spoke to the prophets was none
other than the second Person of the
Holy Trinity, Who later took flesh and
was united with human nature in the
Person of Jesus Christ. Furthermore,
when we say "Lord Jesus Christ"-with
faith, with all our heart's
strength-we come under the influence
of the Holy Spirit, as Saint Paul
says: No man can say
that Jesus is the Lord but by the
Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3).
Having recognized
the existence of the true personal God
outside and beyond his own self, from
this God a Christian asks "mercy." The
elder once told me, "Mercy contains
all things. Love, forgiveness,
healing, restoration, and repentance
all fit within the word 'mercy."' It
is the mercy of God that brings about
repentance, purification from the
passions, the illumination of the nous, and, in the end,
theosis. From my journey I
have learned that salvation comes from
the mercy of Christ, the unique Savior
of mankind, rather than from my
intelligence, my prideful endeavors,
or the techniques of yoga. Salvation
and theosis are so very
precious that it is impossible for
anyone to make any effort or do any
ascetic labor that would be equivalent
to even the smallest fraction of their
value.
Indeed, from my
conversations with other fathers who
were laborers in the Jesus Prayer and
from my own experience, I know full
well that prayer is a gift from God.
Nothing is accomplished by human labor
alone, for Christ said, Without Me ye can
do nothing (John 15:5), and as the
Apostle James bears witness, Every good gift
and every perfect gift is from
above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights (James 1:17) Even
as God granted us existence, in the
same way He gradually grants us to
know Him and be united with Him
through prayer, leading us ultimately
to life eternal.
Now, consider how
the yogis view a mantra. First of all,
there are many mantras, and each
refers to one of the many gods of the
Hindu pantheon such as Krishna, Rama,
Vishnu, or the goddess Kali. There is not one
standard explanation given by yogis
for the mantras; rather, their
explanations are tailored to the
receptivity of each listener. For
beginners who are not disposed to
worship idols, yogis give a
pseudo-scientific, mechanistic
explanation: they claim that the
benefit accrued by repeating the
mantra is due to certain frequencies
produced by its pronunciation, which
cause spiritual vibrations that
activate spiritual centers within man.
(However, the existence of such
centers in man can only be taken on
faith-if someone willingly chooses to
believe such a claim.) For those who
are inclined towards psychological
interpretations, the yogis present the
repetition of a mantra as a type of
auto-suggestion that enables the
practitioner to program his inner
world according to positive models.
When addressing those who have become
more involved with Hinduism and now
believe in many gods, the yogis claim
that the worshipper receives the
blessing of whatever god is being
invoked.
What constitutes
the infinite distance separating the
Christian Jesus Prayer from the Hindu
mantra, however, is that which lurks
behind the name of the god being
invoked in a mantra and invited into
the soul. Through the mouth of the
Holy Prophet David, God declares, All the gods of
the nations are demons (1 Psalm 95:5)––In
other words, behind the names Krishna, Rama, or Shiva are demons lying
In wait. Once they are invoked by the
use of the mantra, the door is open
for the devil to begin his theatrical
productions, using sounds, images,
dreams, and the imagination in general
in order to drag the practitioner
deeper into deception.
Another significant
difference between the Christian Jesus
Prayer and the Hindu mantra is the
diametrically opposed viewpoints of
the two faiths regarding techniques
and the human subject. I recall a
conversation I had with Niranjan after
he had given me permission to begin to
practice some supposedly powerful yoga
techniques. I said to him, "It's fine
practicing the techniques, but what
happens to the human passions of
greed, lust for power, vainglory, and
selfishness? Aren't we concerned about
them?" "They disappear," he replied,
"through the practice of the
techniques." "Do they just disappear
like that, on their own?" I asked.
"Yes, they disappear automatically,
while you are practicing the
techniques."
What an astonishing
assertion: physical exercises can wipe
out the inclinations that a person's
soul acquired in life through
conscious choices. But, in reality,
man, as a self-determining and free
moral agent, can change the conscious
aspect of his personality and his
moral sense only by the use of his own
free will to make conscious decisions
in real-life situations. Any external
means to automatically induce such a
change in a person's consciousness
without his consent circumvent man's
free will, obliterate his volition,
and destroy his freedom, reducing man
to a spineless puppet manipulated by a
marionettist's strings. Hinduism's
relentless insistence on properly
performed techniques with automatic
results degrades man by depriving him
of his most precious quality: the
self-governing free will. It restricts
the boundless human spirit within a
framework of mechanical methods and
reflexes.
Orthodox Christian
Faith, on the contrary, recognizes and
honors the gift of human freedom as a
divine trait. This recognition and
approach help man to be actualized as
a free being. Precisely on account of
the human freedom to choose, man's
often- unpredictable responses can't
be limited to the mechanical reflexes
of a closed system, but can
innovatively turn in any spiritual
direction that he, as a free subject,
wills. This is why Orthodoxy is not
adamant about techniques and methods.
In freedom and with respect, Orthodoxy
seeks the human heart, encouraging the
individual to do what is good for the
sake of the good, and pointing out the
appropriate moral stance of the soul
before God, which an individual can
then freely choose to embrace.
Genuine spiritual
development entails a deepening
familiarity with God and with one's
own self, acquired through moral
choices that a person freely makes in the
depths of his heart. Spiritual
progress is a product of man's way of
relating to himself, to his fellow
man, and to God by the good use of his
innate moral freedom. This is why
Christ calls out, If any man wills
to come after Me, let him freely
deny himself (Matt 16:24)––that
is, without being deceived, without
being psychologically compelled, and
without being forced, all of which are
inappropriate to the spiritual
nobility of Christian life.
Father Porphyrios
had a small parrot that he taught to
pray in order to illustrate the
absurdity of some Christians' empty
repetition of the words of prayer, as
well as the ridiculousness of the
opinion commonly presented in Eastern
religions that someone can make moral
advances by physical exercises or
breathing techniques. Every so often,
the parrot would mechanically say,
"Lord, have mercy." The elder would
respond, “Look, the parrot can say the
prayer, but does that mean that it is
praying? Can prayer exist without the
conscious and free participation of
the person who prays?"
The Gurus, Young
Man, and Elder Paisios by Dionysios
Farasiotis, St Herman of Alaska
Brotherhood, 2008, pp 276-285
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