Hesychasm is a mystical tradition of contemplative prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The hesychast, in the truest sense, is not someone who has journeyed outwardly into the desert, but someone who has embarked upon the journey inwards into his own heart; not someone who cuts himself off physically from others, shutting the door of his cell, but someone who ‘returns into himself,’ shutting the door of his mind.
The teachers of hesychasm suggest using the Jesus Prayer as a way to enter into contemplation: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Repeating each word slowly, softly, and flowing from one to the next. Gradually, with practice, the repetitive rhythm of the words moves into long periods of continuous, uninterrupted prayer. The hesychast is called to become conscious of the actual presence of Jesus in the interior of his own being, a presence given full and existential reality.
The hesychast ceases from his own activity, not in order to be idle, but in order to enter into the activity of God. His silence is not vacant and negative, but intensely positive: an attitude of alert attention, of vigilance, and above all of listening.
The principal thing is to stand with the mind in the heart before God, and to go on standing before God unceasingly day and night, until the end of life.
Philippians 3:8 “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.”
