And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and His clothes become as white as the light.
Matthew 17: 2
In the 13th century AD / CE, St Gregory Palamas defended the assertion of hesychasts that certain of the contemplatives could see the vision of the uncreated light. The Eastern church has never made a distinction between dogma of the church and mysticism (the experience of divine things) rather that they are complimentary. Hesychasm or silence is practiced routinely by Athonite monks and versions can be attempted by the “householder” in a form of meditation of the Jesus Prayer. Please refer to earlier post.[i]
Many western Christians have turned to other Eastern forms of meditation for physical, mental, and spiritual health without knowing our own tradition has a form of mediation. In a book called, The Attention Revolution,” Alan Wallace writes in his book about the famous psychologist, William James. Attention also has a profound impact on character and ethical behavior. James felt that the capacity to voluntarily bring back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. Christian contemplatives have known for centuries that a wandering mind easily falls into temptation, leading to sin. And Buddhists have recognized that a mind prone to distraction easily succumbs to a myriad of metal afflictions, leading to all kinds of harmful behaviors.[ii]
Wallace further describes eastern techniques for improving attention span using breath work from the Buddhist tradition and describes in detail the 10 stages to achieve Shamatha. The stages go from but not limited to directed attention, through continuous attention, single-pointed attention and finally Shamatha. Wallace says that one of the first signs of progress in Shamatha practice is recognizing how chaotic our minds are. We remain under the illusion that our minds are calm and collected and only when we direct our attention on a single object can we observe how turbulent and fragmented our attention is.
As a westerner, I was surprised that the Eastern Christian tradition says the same thing but with attention on God asking for grace to help in our journey. There are 3 groups of exercises to master the body, master the personality and then finally to establish contact with higher levels of consciousness. The first group start with “inner and outer cleanliness” which includes daily physical exercise and healthy diet routine guarding against excess and restoring inner balance. The first group goes further in posture including “posture of the sage” and breath work. Liturgical chants are also a form of controlled breath mixed with the spiritual.
The second group of exercises begin to master the personality with “constatation.” To constate means to recognize the state, to establish a fact without applying any kind of personal judgement. It is a simple observation of a fact with attention. External constatation is when we look at ourselves from the outside. Internal constatation is when we observe our inner life of emotions and reactions. Both together are called “double attention.” Please see earlier post.[iii]
The third group of exercises involves attaining higher consciousness beginning with concentration, then contemplation, and finally ecstasy. Where one evolves to higher consciousness, I am not sure as I have not gotten there yet. St Gregory Palamas describes the uncreated light which is the light of Christ on Mount Tabor. The uncreated light is experienced by certain contemplatives which I assume is the ecstasy spoken of by the tradition. Palamas also speaks of “mysteries” that cannot be fully known or experienced until reaching the future age of the Kingdom of God. Such things cannot be expressed in dogmatic form and must remain in the realm of mystery.
I feel the important thing is to know that the Christian tradition offers a meditative contemplation or mysticism that so many people are looking for in our current turbulent times. To begin the experience on the pathway is all we can do now because somethings cannot be proven and must remain a mystery yet can be a salve to our souls.
[ii] B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., The Attention Revolution Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind, Wisdom publications, Boston.