/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

hesychasm and prayer my friend, pagan meditation is emptying yourself and leaving a void, christian meditation is emptying yourself and filling yourself with God

>>715580

As the other anon said, Hesychasm is great. Read The Way of a Pilgrim.

For western spirituality, try St. John of the Cross, and the Cloud of Unknowing.

Tread cautiously OP. Isolated meditation seems to actually degrade mental health from what I've experienced . It's eroded my mental capacity to prodice juicy plump fruit. It's far more functional to give what you've got inside and share meditation with others than to horde it all inaide yourself.

Cataphatic vs Apophatic?

>>715691

>>715693

I don't know about that chief. Hesychasm has always scared me. It reminds me too much if new age spiritualism and even uses the same exercises of looking within and controlling your breathing. It seems like something that's completely foreign to the biblical and even early church beliefs and seems like another one of the eastern churches new belief.

Sensus Fidelum is the bomb.

Also you can read the cloud of unknowing. I can drop a PDF of it if you like, comfy read. Get the pengiuns classic, it's the better version out there.

>>715756

Especially for yourself, learn to meditate and pray the rosary better. Also Lectio Divina, check the vid i showed you. That will make sure your focus is strictly on God.

If you're a prot, and are uncomfortable with saying the hail mary and what not (you shouldn't be) you can still meditate on the mysteries, the sorrowful and joyful mysteries shouldn't trigger you at all. Lectio Divina is also totally biblical and something you should get into.

>>715756

>uses the same exercises of looking within

"behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21

>controlling your breathing.

You control your breathing so that you attune your prayer with breathing, so that you can do it without even noticing it, constantly praying.

Ultimately you should do the meditation that you find works best.

>>715756

I don't understand why people are so afraid of anything vaguely spiritual nowadays. I don't care whatever denomination you are, until "rationalism" came into place in Europe, meditative practices were commonplace among nearly everyone devout in their faith. Hesychasm in of itself just refers to stilling the mind and has direct roots in St. Anthony and the desert fathers of the church. You can feel uncomfortable about the uncreated light stuff, sure, but all Christians should strive to still their mind and in doing so, come closer to God. This should not be a controversial thing. It is calming yourself through breathing, and the repetition of a prayer that helps to center the mind on God. St. Paul tells us to pray always.

It reminds you of New Age beliefs because new age beliefs stole true meditation at least in its outward forms and removed anything related to Christ. They realized that Christianity had a rich tradition of profound spiritual practices, but most didn't like the struggle or dogmatism of Christianity so they forsook it. Regardless, to condemn a teaching you need to actually say why, not just that it resembles something else you don't like. You need to say more than X resembles Y therefor its bad since both Christianity and certain pagan religions have concepts of the flood, yet that doesn't make the Deluge a pagan concept.

If one isn't spiritual and just follows Christianity like its merely a code of laws and not a mystical relationship between man and God, one isn't even Christian, rather just a Kantian or something. Religious experience is supra-rational and anyone who forsakes the spirituality Christianity offers is being denied a profound joy.

I'm not saying you yourself are necessarily falling into this category, but so many western Christians are profoundly deprived of spiritual life that they look to other psuedo-religions instead of being shown that Christianity has the most genuine spiritual practice of all.

>>715763

What translation of Luke 17:21 is that? All the translations I see say:

>nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Just look here: https://biblehub.com/luke/17-21.htm

I'll try the breathing thing but it's gonna be weird for me since I've never done something like this before and like I said earlier seems new agey.

>>715788

It is best to find a spiritual father before engaging in any sort of prayer beyond the standard sort. Hesychasm is a fantastic prayer, but it can easily devolve into new age emptiness if it is not done correctly. If you wish to have a meditative type of prayer, one cannot go wrong with the simply Jesus prayer or Rosary, repeating the prayer over many times, stilling the mind as you do so and not worrying about the breath or posture.

If you are not familiar with Hesychasm and try to start on your own, you may easily go astray.

>>715580

Puritan meditation (deep contemplation of the divine attributes)

>>715797

>Puritans

That's so based, I love the puritans. Never knew they would be doing this kind of stuff. I'll definitely be looking into this one.

>>715580

You don't necessarily need a form of mysticism for your mental health.

Just do some breathing for relaxation, and then pray normally.

There is no need to go into spiritual practices like eastern meditation.

>>715788

https://biblehub.com/greek/1787.htm

The word used is Entos, which means inside or within.

The reason I think many bible editions prefer "in your midst" is because the verse looks quite "Eastern" as you have said, it can be wrongly interpreted by some to support some sort of pantheism.

>I'll try the breathing thing but it's gonna be weird for me since I've never done something like this before and like I said earlier seems new agey.

The breathing is not necessary, it's there to help.

As >>715794 pointed out its best to consult with a spiritual father before you start to avoid it evolving into some new age nonsense.

Ultimately though what is most important is how your heart feels about the prayer, and if it is doubting the prayer and not working with it then don't do it by any means.