Hello everyone !
I recently redrafted my thesis entitled How can the predominantly Orthodox practice of iconography help contemporary Roman Catholics practice hesychia?
I have to hand it in on February 3rd for my degree course on Visual Communications. The word limit is 8,500 words that I am well over. I need some advice on what parts are extraneous or need elaborating upon etc.
Peace - Leao
leo_earle@hotmail.com
Dear Leao,
Justin is right- check your dates.
Also, if you really want your essay to stand out, you might make use of a discussion of "prelest" ("beguilement" or "spiritual delusion") which one never seems to find in non-Orthodox writings on hesychia. The practice of hesychia requires an experienced, Orthodox guide in order to avoid falling into the pitiful state of prelest. Here's a quote from one of our Saints you may find useful:
"Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide - either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called "prelest", or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles (podvigi) undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God's elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness - prelest."
St. Seraphim of Sarov http://www.orthodox.net/gleanings/prelest.html
And here's another:
" You write, "When I was reading the writings of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, the following questions came to mind: On page 230 it is written that we are all in prelest; why then, when someone speaks of 'a man in prelest', is this attributed a special meaning? and how should one treat such a person?
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In order to understand the expression "we are all in prelest," it is necessary to consider the following. The ancient ascetics regarded "repentance or lamentation of one's sins" as their primary ascetic labor. Many of their sayings concerning this have come down to us. I will cite a few of these in confirmation of [Bishop Ignatius'] writings. "A brother said to Abba Sisoes: I perceive that the remembrance of God (mental prayer) ever abides in me. The elder said: It is not so extraordinary that your mind is constantly turned toward God; what is extraordinary is when a person considers himself the worst of all creatures" (Ignatius Brianchaninov, Patericon, 4). "When Abba Arsenius the Great passed away, and St. Poemen heard of his repose, he shed abundant tears and said: Blessed are you, Abba Arsenius, because you wept over yourself during this life! One cannot help but weep, either here according to his own will, or against his will in the torments of hell" (Patericon, 29). The more advanced a man is in holiness, the deeper is his awareness of his own sinfulness. Conversely, the less refined a man is, the weaker is his awareness of his own sinfulness. In the majority of people Such an awareness is altogether absent. This is why they do not understand the ascetic labor of repentance and do not feel any need for it. Because they do not understand this labor and feel no need to repent, one may say that all such people are in prelest. And inasmuch as we have but a limited awareness of our sinfulness, one may say that we are all in prelest !"Bishop Theophan of Poltava (+1940) http://www.roca.org/OA/66-68/66n.htm
The Philokalia- the fullest resource on hesychia, is full of warnings and advice about being on guard against prelest- such as ignoring "light" we see emminating from an Icon during prayer. Discussions of prelest never seem to make it into non-Orthodox discourses on hesychia- here's your chance to be a pioneer!
George
"As long as it depends on Monothelitism, then Miaphysitism is nothing but a variant of Monophysitism."