Dear Chaverim,

It was very interesting for me to know from Prof. Elqayam's post about
the Byzantine and Hesychast roots of AMIRA"H"'s Kabbalah. Hesychasm is
also a very important part of Russian Orthodox mysticism derived from
Byzantine in 14 century. Hesychasm (from Greek "silence", "calm"
"tranquility") is a mystical practice of the Greek Orthodox monks from
the Isle of Athon/Athonos (where there is also a Russian monastery). It
was theoretically expressed by St. Gregory Palamas in his polemics with
the Catholic rationalistic theologian Barlaam of Calabria. This practice
included:

1. Constant repetition of the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus, God's Son be
merciful to me"). It is "mindful prayer" or "heart prayer".

2. The practice of puting mind into the heart combined with the mental
concentration on the heart center.

3. Some special contemplative postures and respiratory techniques
combined with the Jesus prayer.

4. Mystical theology og the uncreated energies revealed by Christ on the
Mt. Thabor in his transfigiration. These uncreated energies are
mediators between created humans and absolute God; being joined together
with these uncreated energies of eternal uncreated Light saintly humans
obtain "theosis", or divinisation, becoming thus a God-man by God's
mercy (like Christ was God-man by his very nature). It is a very
Christocentric theology, and mysticism of eternal uncreated Light is
substantial for Hesychasm.

Hesychast theology was recognized as orthodox by the Church Councils of
Constantinople of 1341 and 1351. St. Gregory Palamas obtained title of
the Church Father in the realm of predominance of the churches of Greek
Orthodox confession (like Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and
Serbia).

It is interesting that Russia gave a number of the saints of Orthodox
church who practiced Hesychasm (St. Serge of Radonezh, St. Neehl of Sor,
St. Seraphim of Sarov, etc.).

Kol tuv,
Evgueni
Kyrie Eleison!

YAKOV LEIB COMMENTS:

I'm very grateful to Prof. Tortchinov -- who, of all of us, should know
whereof he speaks about Byzantine mystacism, since he is professor and
chairman of the department of religion and oriental studies at the
University of St. Petersburg, Russia -- I'm very grateful to him for his
summary of the practice of Hesychast mysticism in the Russian Orthodoxy.

I first learned about Hesychast mysticism 45 years ago, when I was a
sopohmore in college. I had read a short story in the New Yorker
Magazine called "Franny & Zooie" (sic) by J.D. Salinger. (Actually, it's
the source of the now-common phrase with which it ends, "when the fat
lady sings.) In it, a Jewish boy named "Zooie" trys to comfort his young
sister, "Franny" who has gone crazy in the stall of a public toilet
after a prolonged period of having practiced Hesychast. Needless to say,
I was intrigued and have been praticing it, on and off in a small way,
ever since.

For those who may be interested, there's an excellent little book on
Hesychast called ON THE PRAYER OF JESUS, translated by Father Lazarus
from the "Ecstatic Essays of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaniov" (London: John
M. Watkins, 1965). It may be out of print, but those of you with access
to a Vedanta Society Bookstore can probably find it there. That's where
I originally found it myself around 30 years ago.

(I might add that one of the most extraordinary experiences of my
spiritual life was when I attended a Russian Orthodox Easter Service in
San Francisco, just a few years before Bishop Ignatius's book on
Hesychast was re-issued in 1965.)