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Hesychasm (the Jesus Prayer)

Meditative Practices
Origin 400 to 1350 CE

The repetition of a short prayer, most commonly "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner", until it settles below deliberate thought and continues on its own. Hesychia means stillness, and the aim is a quieted mind held in the heart rather than in the head. Practised in Orthodox monasteries and increasingly by laypeople, it is normally done alone, seated, in a dark and silent room, often counted on a knotted woollen cord. Some traditional instructions attach a bodily technique: the head bowed, the breathing slowed and matched to the words, the attention drawn down toward the chest. Teachers warn against attempting the physical method without direction and against pursuing experiences for their own sake. The tradition holds that a practitioner may in time perceive the uncreated light of God.

Facts
Status
Status Within the Tradition
The tradition holds that a practitioner may in time perceive the uncreated light of God, though teachers warn against attempting the bodily technique without direction and against pursuing the experience for its own sake. 2
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 3
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 3
Practice
Who Performs It
Monastics: monks and nuns 1
Obligation
Undertaken only with authorisation or transmission 1Tradition: Eastern Orthodoxy
Frequency
Continuous: a standing discipline, not an event 1
Solitary or Communal
Performed alone 1
Form
Posture and Bodily Form
Seated with the head inclined toward the heart, the prayer joined to the breath 1
Origins
Origin Period
400 to 1350 CE 1
Origin Period
Systematised on Mount Athos and defended by Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century 1
Place of Origin
The Byzantine Empire, in Orthodox monastic practice 1
Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly Note
Teachers warn against attempting hesychasm's physical technique without direction and against pursuing the experience for its own sake, since the tradition holds only that a practitioner may in time perceive the uncreated light of God. 2
Learn More
The Prayer of Stillness

Hesychasm, from the Greek hesychia, stillness or quiet, is the contemplative tradition of Eastern Orthodox Christianity that seeks inner silence and unceasing prayer of the heart. Its practical core is the Jesus Prayer, a short invocation, most fully "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner", repeated continuously until it descends from the lips into the mind and from the mind into the heart, and finally continues of itself without deliberate effort, fulfilling the apostolic injunction to pray without ceasing. The repetition is often synchronised with the breath and counted on a knotted woollen cord, and it is aimed at gathering the scattered mind, uniting it with the heart, and holding the practitioner in the continual remembrance of God.

The tradition grew from the desert monasticism of Egypt and Sinai, was developed on Mount Athos, and is gathered in the Philokalia, the great anthology of ascetic and contemplative texts compiled in the eighteenth century that spread the practice through the Orthodox world and, through works such as the Russian "Way of a Pilgrim," far beyond the monasteries.

Palamas and the Light of Tabor

Hesychasm became the centre of a major theological controversy in fourteenth-century Byzantium. The hesychast monks of Athos claimed that the practice could culminate in the vision of a divine, uncreated light, the same light, they held, that shone from Christ at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. Critics, led by the philosopher Barlaam, dismissed such claims and the accompanying bodily techniques of prayer as crude. The monk and later archbishop Gregory Palamas defended the hesychasts with a distinction that became Orthodox doctrine: between God's unknowable essence, which no creature can approach, and his "energies," the divine action and presence in which God is genuinely encountered and by which the human person is deified. The light of the vision, Palamas argued, is God's uncreated energy truly seen, not a created symbol.

The councils of the mid-fourteenth century vindicated Palamas, and his essence-energies distinction and the theology of theosis, the transformation of the human person by participation in the divine life, remain foundational to Orthodox thought. Hesychasm thus stands as both a method of prayer and the practical root of a whole theological vision, and its repetitive invocation invites comparison with the mantra and remembrance practices of other traditions while resting on its own distinctive Christology.

Connections

Associated With

Gregory Palamas, Figures

He defended the hesychast monks against the charge of delusion and gave their practice its theological account.

Belongs to Tradition

Church of Cyprus, Denominations

Kept in the Church of Cyprus, autocephalous since the Council of Ephesus in 431. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Church of Greece, Denominations

Kept in the Church of Greece. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Eastern Orthodoxy, Denominations

The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Denominations

Kept in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the see of first honour among the Orthodox churches. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Georgian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Georgian Orthodox Church, which has used its own language and script in worship since the fifth century. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Greek Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Greek Orthodox churches. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Romanian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Romanian Orthodox Church, the one Orthodox church of the Byzantine tradition whose language is Romance. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Russian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Slavonic recension of the Byzantine books. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Serbian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Kept in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Jesus Prayer belongs to Orthodoxy, defended by Gregory Palamas against the charge that its practitioners claimed to see God's essence; monks and increasingly laypeople repeat it alone on a knotted woollen cord, and teachers warn against the breathing technique without direction.

Disciplines That Use This

Hesychasm, Disciplines

The prayer itself.

Source The Orthodox ChurchTimothy Ware (Kallistos Ware)
Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source
2. The Philokalia
Compiled by Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and Makarios of Corinth, Faber and Faber, 1782View the Source
3. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
The Holy Bible
Anonymous (multiple authors), Robert Barker, 16111 Thessalonians 5:17
Quote, 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.
View the Source
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