January 16th Podcast of Philokalia Group

For those not able to attend last night's group, here is the podcast of our discussion of Nepsis (Wakefulness, Attentiveness) at

http://philokalia.podbean.com

 Enjoy!

Love is Attentive and Watchful: Guarding the Heart and Taking Every Thought Captive for Christ

The full title of the compilation of writings of the Desert Fathers is ‘The Philokalia of the Neptic Saints gathered from our Holy Theophoric Father, through which, by means of the philosophy of ascetic practice and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and made perfect.’  Thus, the full title of the book refers to the original authors as the ‘Neptic Saints’, emphasizing one of their common practices of nepsis or ‘watchfulness’.  It refers to much more than general spiritual alertness and vigilance and is the practice of watching all of one's thoughts and fantasies, thus keeping guard over the heart and mind.

    

Anthony Coniaris, in his work ‘Philokalia: the Bible of Orthodox Spirituality’, states: “Nepsis means to be completely present to where we are just as a mother has an attentive ear to the least sound of her baby in the crib even as she talks on the phone or vacuums the rug.  Love is attentive and watchful.  Bishop Kallistos Ware tells us that ‘watchfulness means, among other things, to be present where we are - at this specific point in space, at this particular moment in time.  All too often we are scattered and dispersed, we are living, not with alertness in the present, but with nostalgia in the past, or with misgiving and wishful thinking in the future. . . The neptic man, then, is gathered into the here and now.  He is the one who seizes ‘kairos’, the decisive moment of opportunity.”   

This may seem to be a rather broad definition, but its broadness captures the all-encompassing nature and importance of nepsis for the spiritual life.  Coniaris reminds us: “There is in the mind a deep center where the whole person converges.  This center is to be completely tuned in to God.  To be completely present to God is the beginning of prayer.  The essential part of prayer is this inner attention to God  . . .”  Thus, nepsis is intimately tied to what was addressed in the previous post - the intellect (nous).  “The intellect (nous) is like a bridegroom.  St. Ilias the Presbyter said, ‘The intellect that encloses itself within the mind during prayer is like a bridegroom conversing with the bride inside the bridal chamber.’”

Philokalic spirituality presupposes above all that the deep center where the whole person converges should be healed.  When the nous (intellect) is darkened through sin, the whole soul is darkened and defiled.  

Hierotheos Vlachos in his work ‘Orthodox Psychotherapy’ speaks of this healing in terms of two kinds of watchfulness: the guarding of the nous and the guarding of the thoughts.  He writes: “The guarding of the nous is a ‘watchtower commanding a view over our whole spiritual life.’  The guarding of the nous has been called ‘light-producing and lightning-producing and light-giving and fire-bearing’ and it surpasses many virtues.  The guarding of the nous is that which by Christ’s power can change men from being sinful, indecent, profane, ignorant, uncomprehending and unjust to being just, responsive, pure, holy and wise.”

“Watchfulness is also called the guarding of thoughts.  St. John of the Ladder teaches that it is one thing to guard thoughts and another to watch over the nous.  Watching over the nous is higher than guarding the thoughts.  This is true in the sense that we defined earlier, that the nous is the eye of the soul, the heart, while a thought is what functions in a man’s mind.  It is one thing to try to keep the mind pure and another to try to keep the nous, that is the heart, pure.  Nevertheless, purity of thoughts is needed, because it is impossible to keep one’s inner self free from sin if one has evil thoughts.  The patristic commandment is to concentrate our nous (the soul’s energy and essence), to be watchful of thoughts and to fight against impassioned thoughts.  It is essential that we pay attention to our reflections, recollections and notions.  Indeed in this struggle to keep the nous pure and have constant remembrance of God, we have to discard the good thoughts as well, because even with good thoughts the nous gradually forms the habit of withdrawing from God.  The monk Silouan taught: ‘The saints learned how to do battle with the enemy.  They knew that the enemy uses intrusive thoughts to deceive us, and so all though their lives they declined such thoughts.  At first sight there seems to be nothing wrong about an intrusive thought but soon it begins to divert the nous from prayer, and then stirs up confusion.  The rejection of all intrusive thoughts, however apparently good, is therefore essential, and equally essential is it to have a nous pure in God.’  We should protect the eye of the soul from every thought, as we do the eye of the body from every harmful object.  When a person becomes accustomed to this holy struggle of laying aside all thoughts, then the nous tastes the goodness of the Lord and acquires purity so that it can distinguish thoughts and ‘store in the treasures of memory those thoughts which are good and have been sent by God, while casting out those which are evil and come from the devil.’”

Thus, the clarion call that comes to us from the Scriptures and the Fathers is “Watch and pray.”  In the words of Philotheus, “At every hour and moment let us guard the heart with all diligence from thoughts that obscure the soul’s mirror, for in that mirror Jesus Christ, the wisdom and power of God the Father, is . . .luminously reflected.”

 

The Characteristics of a Distinctive "Philokalic" Spirituality

From all appearances the Philokalia seems like a mere collection of texts written by 36 different authors.  Indeed, Kallistos Ware reminds us, the word Philokalia can signify “a love what is beautiful and good, love for God as the source of all things beautiful.”  But, he continues, it can also simply mean “anthology”.  When a person picks up the Philokalia, the second meaning seems to be the dominant one.  Ware states: “The different texts are given simply in chronological order, with no attempt at systematic classification, no grouping of topics, and no clear indication which writings are considered suitable for ‘beginners’ and which for the more ‘advanced.’”  But when we begin to look deeper, dominant motifs and master themes emerge which, Ware states, “give to the Philokalia a coherent unity and a definite purpose.”  

According to Ware, the first theme and general scope of the Philokalia is Inner Action.  The Philokalia is concerned with the interior life.  It is not concerned with bodily asceticism, although this of course is discussed and a necessary part of the spiritual life, but rather with “guarding the intellect.”  “What it reveals to us, says St. Nikodimos in his preface, is ‘the kingdom of God that is within you,  . . . the treasure hidden in the field of the heart.’”  This kingdom within is characterized by two fundamental virtues - nepsis and hesychia.  Nepsis “is a term denoting sobriety, temperance, lucidity and above all vigilance and watchfulness.”  Hesychia “signifies not so much exterior silence as inner stillness of heart.”  These two virtues, which we will discuss further in later posts, foster greater freedom from the thoughts and fantasies often associated with our passions and give rise to pure prayer free of all images and discursive thought.  

The second theme, according to Ware, describes the basic aim of the Philokalia: Deification or theosis - a direct, transforming union with God.  St. Nikodimos in the first sentence of his preface to the Philokalia writes: “God, the blessed nature, perfection that is more than perfect, the creative principle of all that is good and beautiful, Himself transcending all goodness and all beauty, in His supremely divine plan preordained from all eternity the deification of humankind.”  Simply put, the supreme end of the spiritual life is to be one with God through having his image and likeness perfected within us.  

The third and final theme discussed by Ware is the means of this Deification: the Continual Invocation of the Holy Name.  The grace bestowed on us at baptism is obscured by our sin and through being immersed in worldly cares and controlled by our passions.  Once again in the preface to the Philokalia, Nikodimos tells us how this grace can be reactivated: “The Spirit. . . revealed to the Fathers a method that is truly wonderful . . .whereby grace can be rediscovered.  This was to pray continually to our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, not simply to pray with the intellect and the lips alone; . . . but to turn the whole intellect towards the inner self, which is a marvelous experience; and so inwardly, within the very depths of the heart, to invoke the all-holy Name of the Lord and to implore mercy from Him, concentrating our attention solely on the bare words of the prayer, not allowing anything else whatever to gain entry from within or from without, but keeping the mind totally free from all forms and colors.”  When we engage in this spiritual work and live in accord with the commandments then we begin to “return to the perfect grace of the Spirit that was bestowed upon us in the beginning through Baptism.”  

As we begin our study of the Philokalia at the Oratory, and in later posts we will be discussing in depth these and approximately 20 other related themes of “philokalic” spirituality and examine how these themes are developed by particular writers.    

Quotes from, “The inner unity of the Philokalia and its influence in East and West” by Kallistos Ware, pp. 6-10.  Edit. Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, Athens 2004.