Very cool. Did you learn anything about the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart?
Of course you are in the world as long as you are alive. In this world there is a hierarchy of needs. Probably half of the people of the earth do not have sufficient food for each day, and probably not near enough nutritional food. So the given needs are food and clothing and shelter from the weather. If you are having those needs met only then can you begin to be concerned about values. Most people of the earth have values that concern visible things which the eye can see, a nicer home, nicer clothes, nicer food, and then things that can give pleasure over and above needs, a very nice automobile...maybe a Porche or a Lexus, an extravagant house, maybe a swimming pool or a country club membership. When you have or want more than you need, these could be called worldly desires, and 'looking out for number one'. Then you would say these people are not only in the world but of the world, IOW, they value only what you can sense with the five senses.
But there are higher values, compassion, love for one's neighbor, enough to part with some of your unnecessary desires. There is a great biography of Father Seraphim Rose, Not of This World. He had pretty 'New Agey' interest as a young man, but decided to become Eastern Orthodox, Russian, and eventually became a priest and monk. He wrote many books but died at too young an age. But not of this world means you value things which cannot be physically seen or sensed. The Eastern Orthodox Church has its roots in Eastern Orthodox Monasticism, and that as you probably know is centered on Mt. Athos, and that means the influence of the monks filters all they way down to the local church. Basically it means you value the spiritual more than the physical world, and you value eternity more than time. It means you value your spiritual nature over and above your physical desires and appetites, and others over self.
Thanks so much for the welcome reply. I am finally finding the time to answer. Yes, I studied the Jesus Prayer inside and out: the Philokalia, Fr Lev Gillet (my teacher's teacher), Kallistos Ware and others. I still practice it, but my focus is not on forgiveness of sin but on needed grace in these hard times--the Greek word 'mercy' can connote either.
I also read Rose and found his story fascinating.
Thank you for your wonderful explanation of being in the world but not of it. My dilemma is one of emphasis: finding solace in my transcendent being versus
the agony of vocation (MLK
Jr. phrase) in a world that sorely needs illumined service.
It is a continual dance. My latest solution is to resume a sitting metta (loving kindness) practice as a way to keep a balance between the two worlds we walk in.
With so many thanks,
Julian (Juliana)
Yes, I know about the agony of vocation (but haven't heard that phrase before). When I was young, within certain limitations, I didn't know what to do with my life. I knew even less career-wise. At 28 I found myself doing electrical work, three years later got married with an instant family, (two children from my wife's first marriage, who I adopted), and that sealed the deal, I pretty-much had to remain an electrician, couldn't really start over, then being responsible for four, and two more within 5 years. So it was just a way to make money, not very fulfilling, but eventually I realized it suited me pretty well. But I tried to teach all my kids to figure out what they loved to do, and then figure out a way to make money doing it.
But then it's also possible....I guess you have read The Way of A Pilgrim? (about one of six reasons I'm pilgrim). Pilgrim (narrator) wanted to know what the scripture to pray always, to "pray without ceasing" meant. But I'm sure you know the story, as you are familiar with the Philokalia. Anyway, it
is possible to "pray" always. I eventually realized I was very lucky to have been an electrician. I had really learned 93% of all I would ever need to know after about eight years, starting out as an electrician helper (it took about 15 years to learn another 5%, and another 5 years to learn the another 1%, and that was just for residential work, I didn't do much commercial work, just basically as a helper when needed). So while I worked, I could be
attentive to what I was doing. In The Dark Night of the Soul, St John of the Cross said there is a
secret ladder [the poem itself is pretty short, the book explains the two nights of the soul, the first night of sense, and the second (more difficult) night of the spirit]. So, from my study I came to know (surmise) that your
attention is the secret ladder. Your attention is like a plumb line going right up through your spirit and right up ~into~ God, or the Ground of Being, or, as I say SOCI (Supreme, Ordering, Conscious, Intelligence), or the Unmanifest, or also like the name En Sof (or Ain Sof,
Endlessness, from the Kabbalah. Ayin means no-thing, nothing).
Just jumping right in, so the Jesus Prayer is
not just saying the words. Being
attentive is more important than saying the words. The words alone do not really get ~above your head~. Being attentive ATST is what's
important. And then, (you) connecting the dots, the Prayer of the Heart,
IS the prayer of the heart. If this breaks any confidences with the monk from Mt. Athos, you don't have to reply.
OK....while I'm here (I have posted on the following here previously, somewhere). If you look at the words of Jesus, and then look at the early writings from the Philokalia (4th century, I think Mark, but don't have it with me), you can surmise there was an oral tradition that was handed down
from Jesus until written down in the 4th century. So I surmise that Jesus had an
inner teaching he called ~
watching~ (
I've given it that name). If you look at the gospels there are at least 6-8 instances of Jesus telling people to watch, sleep not, stay on the alert, etc. If even these made it into the Bible, I consider that there must have been this teaching about
attention that made it, in an oral tradition, that is, passed down from teacher to student, down to an early writer, that was then handed down and copied, the Philokalia volume one.
And you may know the distinction between the
Essence of God (as En Sof) and the
Energies of God. I think this was discussed and debated by St Gregory Palamas (14th century, but yes, this distinction was known earlier), who said there is a distinction between the two, and we can
never 'come into contact' with the 'Essence' of God, an aspect of God unreachable to man, but the Energies of God, man
can "touch" and in some sense "sense" (and in Judaism and the Kabbalah this is called the Shekinah, the "feminine" aspect of God). And the Energies of God is how God
can manifest and operate in the world, our physical world.
OK....enough.... but yes,
it is a continual dance.
(And just for the record,
being-awareness is not the same as self-reflection).
