The goal of the spiritual life – forgive
me for using such a vague term, but despite its inadequacies, and despite is
overuse, it’s still a useful term – should be to acquire a peace of mind that
is not contingent upon conditions. Of
course, as an Orthodox Christian, this should not be the ultimate
goal. The ultimate goal should be to
attain salvation – and salvation for the Orthodox is nothing other than
theosis, to attain union with the Uncreated Energies of the Incarnate Logos.
But I think that theosis often seems too
lofty a goal, despite the fact that the means to attain it – humility, fasting,
unceasing prayer – are simple things (though simple, obviously, doesn’t equate
to easy.) How does one know that
he or she is even moving toward theosis?
The answer, I think, is how at peace one’s mind is, regardless of the
conditions in one’s life.
And on the flip side of this, if you
believe you have attained theosis but are not experiencing an inner peace and
tranquility not dependent upon conditions, then, sorry, but theosis is not yet
in your grasp – in fact, you would be guilty of spiritual pride.
For the remainder of this article, I would
like to discuss the things in one’s daily life that lead to this kind of peace. Two of the things that I won’t be discussing
in this article are fasting and prayer (although I will discuss watchfulness
some). There are plenty of great
articles and books available – even if just online – for anyone interested in
these subjects, material written by people far more wise than I. The suggestions, pointers, and subtleties
suggested here assume that one is already partaking in a life of prayer,
fasting, and watchfulness. This article
also assumes that one is already immersed in the life of the Church: regular
attendance of the Divine Liturgy, partaking of the Holy Mysteries (especially
the Eucharist and Confession), and contributing to a local parish.
Peace of
Mind
What is peace of mind? The inevitable thing that many do is to equate
peace of mind with happiness, but this isn’t the case. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being
happy (as long as the happiness isn’t coming from some of the lesser forms,
such as happiness at another’s expense, or happiness that will cause you un-happiness
at a later date), but “being happy” should not be the goal of the spiritual
life. Happiness is fleeting. It comes and it goes. Many things will happen in our lives that
will not make us happy. Friends and
loved ones die (sometimes tragically), our spouses may leave us, we may lose
our job – when things of this nature happen, happiness is not going to be the
result. But we are capable of
maintaining an inner peace, a tranquility that transcends our suffering, even
in the midst of tragedy.
Acquiring peace of mind first means that you
must be willing to set your priorities on the things that matter – namely, the one
thing that matters: attainment of theosis.
(There are a lot of Orthodox, I think, who like the thought of attaining
theosis, but they don’t want to do the work that is required. Their priorities are simply not in the right
place.)
In order to set your priorities, you need
to come to terms with the fact that there are things that you should and should
not do. A lot of people don’t like
Orthodoxy (or any “religion” for that matter) because they don’t want to be
told a list of “shoulds or should nots”.
But the spiritual life – or any disciplined life, no matter whether the
discipline is “spirituality” or not – doesn’t work in such a manner. You should (or should not) do certain things
because of the result of your actions.
If you want a life of spiritual peace and of inner tranquility, then not
only should you do certain things, but you must do them.
The first thing that Orthodox need to
realize – and I don’t think it’s a subject that is even thought about too much,
perhaps because of its seeming simplicity – is that your practice should be of
one piece. In other words, attainment of
theosis is not comprised of different steps that you can take, discarding the
lower steps as you move toward your goal of union with the Divine. As you begin on the ladder of Divine ascent,
you start with being more kind, more generous, more giving to others, doing your
best to practice humility and to bear the cross of the many things that the
Lord will place in your life along your journey. But you don’t drop these things as you climb
higher along the ladder. If anything,
you more easily increase them, even developing layers of subtlety that you
wouldn’t have done before. A
God-realized elder or saint of the Church sees his passions – and his thoughts
that lead to those passions – more clearly as he attains theosis. Although the path to salvation is often
depicted as a ladder, we need to realize that it could be just as easily
represented by a wheel (as in the Eightfold Path - see my previous post
comparing and contrasting Orthodoxy with Buddhism).
Humility
One aspect of Orthodox spirituality that
clearly distinguishes it from the western forms of Christianity (whether
Catholic or Protestant) is that Orthodox spirituality represents a negation of
the self. (Western spirituality is all
too often an affirmation of the self – a spirituality that affirms that our
thoughts really are what we are, and that we can trust our truest, deepest
self.) And negation of self begins with
humility.
Humility is the most difficult aspect of
the spiritual life. But it’s also the
most important because it’s the “springboard” that allows the rest of the
spiritual life to flourish. Humility is
– despite our western mindset that wants to say otherwise – one of the most
surefire ways to bring about a true peace of mind. A humble mind does not cling to self and
others (whether those others are people or things) as being me, myself, or
mine. Humility allows us to let go of
our sense of self – the sense that we are somehow more important than others,
and are the real center of the universe.
Humility does not mean that we revile
the self, however – a common misunderstanding, I’m afraid, even among Orthodox. Listen to these words of Elder Paisios of the
Holy Mountain:
“Humility is the thought and conviction of our heart that we are more sinful than all men and unworthy of the mercy of God. Reviling ourselves doesn’t mean that we have true humility. True humility is when someone shames and abuses us publicly, and we endure it and say, “God ordered that brother to shame me for my many sins.” We should receive everything as a command of God. When someone shames you, say that God commanded him to do it. When someone takes something of yours, God commanded him to take it, in order to make you a monk. When you are removed from a higher place, God changed your place so that you would change from your passions and bad habits. This is true humility. And pride is when we trust in ourselves, in our mind, our strength, when we think we are more capable than someone else, better, more beautiful, more virtuous, more pleasing to God. Then it is certain that we are overcome by the ugly sin of pride, from which may God, who humbled Himself for our salvation, preserve us. Let us humble ourselves, brethren, because a proud man cannot be saved. Let us weep for our sins here, so we can rejoice forever in the next life, for after we leave this world everyone will forget us. Let us not hope in men, but only in God. A man changes. Today he gives to you and tomorrow he asks from you. Today he praises you and tomorrow he condemns you. Let us place our hope in the mercy of God, and we will never go astray.
“Brother, often animals are wiser than men. Let us learn obedience and patience from the ox, humility and meekness from the lamb, cleanliness and industry from the ants and bees. We can learn a lesson for our life from all the animals.
“It’s best for a man to become a clay vessel, which is useful to all people and for all kinds of daily work, for food, water, and so on. Golden vessels are put in safes and locked up in cupboards. For fear of thieves they are seldom used, maybe only once a year. A clay vessel has its daily use and service to man. So also is a humble man who does not seek honors and rank. He remains insignificant even amid men of lower rank, but he benefits, counsels, and helps everyone, and all seek him out and rejoice with him. Humility is a great gift to monks and all Christians!”
Our
Thoughts
Our thoughts – as Elder Thaddeus of
Vitovnika would tell us – determine our lives.
If our thoughts are kind, peaceful, calm, tranquil, and full of
loving-kindness toward others, then that is how our lives will be lived. It really is that simple. Once again, however, simple doesn't always
equate to easy.
In today’s spiritual marketplace – a world
that is essentially nothing more than what the late Buddhist teacher Chogyam
Trungpa would have labeled “spiritual materialism” – you will find plenty of
books that deal with the “power of positive thinking” or stuff of similar
ilk. There is usually some degree
of insight to these books – our thoughts are very powerful, after all – but the
approach that these books take is misguided at the least ( downright demonic at
the worst). Our thoughts don’t need
to become more positive, but they do need to conform to the will of God. Here is what Elder Paisios has to say about
positive thoughts, and then the kind of thoughts that we need to truly nurture:
“In the beginning, we should willingly try
to develop positive thoughts, which will gradually lead us to the perfect good,
God, to whom belongs every glory, honor and worship; on the contrary, to us
belongs only the humility of our conceited attitude.
“We must always be careful and
constantly question the nature of our thoughts. When someone is
preoccupied and trusts his own way of thinking, he becomes vulnerable to the
devil, who is capable of transforming us into sly persons, even when we are
honest by nature.”
For me – and my spiritual struggles to
conform to the will of God – it really does begin and end with thoughts.
Practice watchfulness of your thoughts
throughout the day. Here is what
Metropolitan Jonah has to say about inner watchfulness:
"On an even deeper level, this spiritual
principle – do not react – teaches us that we need to learn to not react to
thoughts. One of the fundamental aspects of this is inner watchfulness. This
might seem like a daunting task, considering how many thoughts we have.
However, our watchfulness does not need to be focused on our thoughts. Our
watchfulness needs to be focused on God. We need to maintain the conscious
awareness of God’s presence. If we can maintain the conscious awareness of His
presence, our thoughts will have no power over us. We can, to paraphrase St.
Benedict, dash our thoughts against the presence of God. This is a very ancient
patristic teaching. We focus our attention on the remembrance of God. If we can
do that, we will begin to control our troubling thoughts. Our reactions are
about our thoughts. After all, if someone says something nasty to us, how are
we reacting? We react first through our thinking, our thoughts. Perhaps we’re
habitually accustomed to just lashing out after taking offense with some kind
of nasty response of our own. But keeping watch over our minds so that we
maintain that living communion with God leaves no room for distracting
thoughts. It leaves plenty of room if we decide we need to think something
through intentionally in the presence of God. But as soon as we engage in
something hateful, we close God out. And the converse is true – as long as we
maintain our connection to God, we won’t be capable of engaging in something
hateful. We won’t react…"
The key point, for me, with what
Metropolitan Jonah has to say is that we need to “maintain the conscious
awareness of God’s presence.” This is
one thing that distinguishes Orthodox spirituality from other forms – for
instance, this is a key difference between Orthodox watchfulness and Buddhist
mindfulness. We cannot truly
control our thoughts without the Divine’s help.
Saint Hesychius, in the Philokalia, tells us this:
“The spirit cannot conquer a demonic
fantasy by its own unaided powers, and should never attempt to do so... The
demons are a sly lot: they pretend to be overcome and then trip us up by
filling us up with self-esteem. But when we call upon Jesus Christ, they
do not dare to play their tricks with us even for a second."
The Peace
that Passes All Understanding
As we practice these things – being more
humble, kind, compassionate, caring, and conquering our thoughts through inner
watchfulness – something will begin to happen to us. We will develop a peace that –as the Bible
tells us – passes all understanding.
And as we live, move, and dwell in this peace, something else will
slowly happen: union with God. But it
won’t happen because we forced it, or because we were seeking an “experience”
of God (which can often be a dangerous, misleading practice, by the way). It will happen because you can’t acquire
theosis without first acquiring a peace of mind that is not contingent upon
conditions.
