Knowing God, According to St Silouan the Athonite

St Silouan the Athonite

"We may study as much as we will but we shall still not come to know the Lord unless we live according to His commandments, for the Lord is not made known through learning, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and scholars have arrived at a belief in the existence of God, but they have not come to know God. To believe in God is one thing, to know God another." St Silouan the Athonite p.354

How does this happen?
"The soul suddenly sees the Lord and knows that it is He.

Who shall describe this joy, this gladbess?
The Lord is made known in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit pervades the entire man - soul, mind and body.

After this wise is God known in heaven and on earth.

The Lord in His boundless mercy accorded this grace to me, a sinner, that others might come to know God and turn to Him." p.353

"I went into church, to Vespers, and looking at the icon of the Saviour, I cried: 'Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me, a sinner. ' And as I uttered these words, I saw the living Lord in the place where the icon was, and the grace of the Holy Spirit flooded my soul and my whole body. And so it was I came to know through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is God; and I was filled with a sweet longing to endure sufferings for His sake." p. 458

"Pride is the root of unbelief. ...the Lord reveals Himself only to the lowly in heart....If we take pains to explore the human heart, this is what we shall see: the Kingdom of Heaven in the heart of the saint, but in the soul of the sinner darkness and torment. And it is good to know this because we shall dwell eternally either in the Kingdom or in torment." p.355

"Many martyrs came to know the Lord...
The grace of God teaches them to love their enemies, since the man who has no love for his enemies cannot come to know the Lord, Who died on the cross for His enemies, and gave us an example in Himself with the commandment to love our enemies (The Gospel of St John 13:15)"

"The man to whom the Lord is known through the Holy Spirit  (the man to whom the Lord has appeared alive and visible as stated above- emphasis mine) becomes like unto the Lord, as St John the Divine said, 'We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is' 1 John 3:2, and we shall behold His glory." p.356

"But the man who cries out against evil men but does not pray for them will never know the grace of God." p.357

"O ye peoples of the earth, fashioned by God, know your Creator and His love for us!
...Turn to Him, all ye peoples of the earth, and lift up your prayers to God...
Know, all ye peoples, that we are created for the glory of God in the heavens. Cleave not to the earth, for God is our Father and He loves us like dear children." p.358-359

Selections from the book, St Silouan the Athonite by Archimandrite Sophrony, translated by Rosemary Edmonds, St Vladimir Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 10707. ISBN 0-88141-195-7

New Books by Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex, U. K.

This book is available from St Tikhon's Bookstore
Note: 10/5/2015 Both of these books went out of print very quickly. A new edition will be available soon.

Contents
Preface
Part 1
    The Unity of the Church in the Image of the Holy Trinity
Part 2
     The Principles of Orthodox Asceticism
Part 3
     On the Necessity of the Three Renunciations in
            St John Cassian and St John Climacus
Part4
      The Light of Tabor

Index of Scriptural References

I just began to read this book.  I have the feeling that  I should be reading it on my knees, because I am reading wondrous things about God,  the Holy Trinity,  Who dwells in Light unapproachable. Elder Sophrony,  who saw and conversed with God in the Eternal Light, even while still living; describes Him Who is known in love, beyond words and human categories of thought. I am not worthy. One clearly understands why the six-winged seraphim cover their faces and their bodies with their wings as they worship crying out,  "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord our God!"

"God is Truth and Life, and in Him the saints too become living and true.’‘Every religion, all the old and new para-religious forms, the lives of the mystics — all have their ascetic culture, which varies in accordance with the underlying dogmatic consciousness. The dependence of the ascetic act on the form of dogmatic consciousness and, vice versa, the dependence of doctrine on spiritual experience, is a theme of great interest…’

This book is a collection of texts which all demonstrate Archimandrite Sophrony’s profound conviction that true life is based on true doctrine." from St Tikhon's website

This book is available from St Tikhon's Bookstore

Contents
Foreword

Talk to His Family

Letters to Maria
    There are 69 letters in this section.

Letters to Alexandra
     There are 8 letters in this section

Index of Biblical References

"This book consists of letters Archmandrite Sophrony wrote to his family in Moscow between 1958 and 1986, addressed in particular to his sisters Maria and Alexandra, as well as a talk recorded there in 1975. The talk and letters are rich in historical interest and in spiritual teaching, as well as providing insight into Archmandrite Sophrony’s life and his understanding of the state of mankind in the modern era." from St Tikhon's website

The Jesus Prayer Method by Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex

The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation by Dr Christopher Veniamin

The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation is available from Amazon.com

Dr Christopher Veniamin just published his essay on the
Orthodox understanding of salvation in the teaching of
St Silouan the Athonite and Elder Sophrony of Essex.
It is available in digital form in Kindle format.

This is a very important subject and Dr Veniamin manages 
to explain theological concepts with ease. He writes,

"There are, described in this passage, four stages of love, the
fourth and highest of which is that which is attested to by the
penetration of Divine Grace into the body, into the very marrow
of a person's being. And this is identified by Saint Silouan as the 
highest state of holiness. 'He who feels grace in both soul and
body is a perfect man, and if he preserves this grace, his body
is sanctified and his bones will make holy relics.'

As with Christ's voluntary death, in which it was not possible for
the Body of the Logos of Life to see corruption, and which was 
thus raised together with His human soul on the third day, so too
will it be with the bodies of those saints which have known great
grace in this life, and who have been able to preserve it. They too,
even after death, are not separated from the grace and love of 
God, neither in soul nor in body, and hence their bodies are 
revealed as holy relics." Kindle location 226 of 341.


The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation: "Theosis" in St. Silouan the
Athonite and Elder Sophrony of Essex [Kindle Edition]
by Dr. Christopher Veniamin, 

Mount Thabor Publishing (August 23, 2013)

Hidden Joy by Igumen Nektary (Morozov)

Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov

Fragment from an article posted in the Orthodox blog 

Pravoslavie.ru

"Somewhere I happened to read a line written by Archimandrite
Sophrony (Sakharov), “Grace comes to the heart that has 

suffered.”

It seems it was in a letter to Hieromonk Dimitry (Balfour)… And a
line by the Apostle Paul was something I didn’t come across by
chance—I have read it many times, over and over: For just as we
share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort
abounds through Christ (2 Cor. 1:5)…So, on Saturday at the Vigil
Service, during the Polyeleos I was looking at the icon of St. Gregory
Palamas and thought about his amazing life, about the light of
Mt. Tabor, the nature of which he so wisely explained and in which
he himself abided—being transformed, illumined, “reaching for the
heights”. What grace he lived in! But then it was as if a spear pierced
my heart: How he also suffered!

And not only he, but anyone who with time had become no longer a
slave but a friend of God, one of those who pleased Him, and became
like unto Him insofar as that is possible for a human being. No
matter whom we talk about—martyrs and passion-bearers, holy
hierarchs and monastic saints, about righteous women and fools-
for-Christ they all had to suffer. Only they had all different kinds of
sufferings—some were physical, others emotional, caused by ill-
intentioned people, or sometimes from the demons, hateful and
inhuman.

But no one, absolutely no one, as St. Isaac the Syrian said, “has ever
ascended to heaven by living coldly.” And from what we have come
to know and are still learning, he also testifies that a person is
especially looked after by God when the Lord sends him constant
sorrows. Abba Isaac also adds that there is no other path to draw
closer to Christ other than the path of sorrows."

Please continue reading here.

From the Post-Modern Persona to the Person

A study on the anthropology of Saint Gregory Palamas

by Elder Efraim of Vatopaidi

From Pemptousia

Icon of St Gregory Palamas inside his shrine in Thessaloniki, Greece

The theology of the person, as this is revealed in the hesychast ascetic tradition, is the most significant counter-argument to post-modern individualism and relativism. The ascetics of introversion and of conscious tranquillity (hesychia) is not a psychological proposition but the authentic and only way of transforming the “repulsive mask” into a person.

It has been aptly remarked that what will best characterize the theology of the 21stcentury is its concern with anthropological questions. If we have not sufficiently investigated anthropological truths in the sphere of theology today, imagine what must be the case in the realms of philosophy, the intellect and the social and human sciences.

Today’s post-modern people do not know what a person is. They live, and project, the mask of a persona. What is a mask? It’s a guise which was used in Ancient Greece by actors to take on a variety of roles- personae- on stage in the theatre. So this mask is not something real, it’s artificial, it’s a virtual reality, to use modern IT terminology. We need to remove this false object and replace it with the real one, which, in this case is the person.

The Fathers of the Church did not define what a person is. But in order to refer to the magnificence, the enormous worth of the human being, they used the term “person”. Basil the Great writes that persons are the only animals who are God-made. Saint Gregory the Theologian says God made a creature- the person- who was a mixture of visible and invisible nature, who is a second cosmos, “great in miniature”. Saint John Chrysostom stresses that “the person is the most carefully made of God’s living things”.

Human beings are the crown of creation. The longing for perfection is innate. This can be seen in the execution of any academic activity, art or even profession. People try, to the best of their abilities, to achieve perfection, even in their everyday activities. And this is evidence of the potential God has given us for our personal perfection and completion as a psychosomatic entity and being.

In the created universe, there is nothing superior to us humans. “The lowest orders of beings, even though they have a kind of rationality, still do not have an independent aim, but rather their purpose is to be the material precondition of the existence of humankind. People yearn for a boundless, personal reality (God) Who is superior to them and can nourish them infinitely. They cannot possess this reality, because their potential is limited, but nor will they disappear into it”. It is this personal God Who gives meaning and purpose to our existence. Our human nature, with its countless hypostases, is able to communicate, by energy, with the distinct and mutually-penetrative persons of the Holy Trinity.

The late Elder Sophrony, in accord with the holy Fathers, offers no definition of the person. More important for his ascetic theology is his assertion that the person exists, which leads him on to a description of its capacities. The person cannot be defined, but it can be characterized, dynamically and existentially, by the manifestation of its energies”. The person lying in the “hidden being of the heart”, emerges when that being, through the Grace of God, discovers the sphere of the heart, the core of our being.

Saint Gregory Palamas says something very important and which is the central point of this article: When the nous, our highest faculty, distances itself, through Orthodox ascetic practice, from every perceptible thing, rises above the turmoil of concern for material matters and instead supervises the inner being, it will see the “repulsive mask”, that is the ugly, the hideous mask, which has been put together by passionate attachment to earthly affairs, which is nourished and inflated by sin. So the nous hastens to cleanse this mask with grief and repentance, to remove the unsightly cover through asceticism and observance of God’s commandments. Saint Gregory goes on to say that since the soul is not diverted by the diversity of sin, it discovers the peace of its psychosomatic powers, harmony of the mind, and genuine inner tranquillity, so that it comes to real knowledge of God and of itself. Then the “repulsive mask” is transformed into a face, the persona into person, in the image of the true and eternal face and person of Christ the God/Man.

Please continue reading here.

A Beautiful Mind - The Orthodox Way to Knowledge

Photo from the movie A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe
and  Jennifer Connelly

In the movie, 'A Beautiful Mind' Russell Crow brilliantly portrays
the Mathematician and Noble laureate on Economics, Dr John 
Nash from Princeton University. Dr Nash has struggled with 
mental illness all his life, but it did not hinder him from writing 
the paper which won him the Noble Prize in 1994.

Perhaps the most poignant scene of this movie is the moment when
Alicia, Nash's wife, has to decide whether to stay with her husband
or take their child and leave. Alicia looks at John who is sitting on 
the edge of the bed, and sighs, and asks him;

"You want to know what is real? And then holds his hand and
touches it to her face and says, "This is real". Then Alicia says,
"Maybe the part that knows the waking from the dream, maybe
it isn't here (and touches John's head) maybe it is here (while
touching John's hand to her heart, and then rests the palm of her
hand on his). Then she exclaims, "I have to believe that something
extraordinary is possible!"

I am certain that the Director, Ron Howard, is not trying to give us
lessons in epistemology, (the branch of philosophy concerned with
the nature, presuppositions and scope of knowledge). But I can't 
help watching the movie with my own Orthodox mindset and 
realize how accurate Alicia's instincts are. 

The Apostle Paul proclaims, 

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has 

shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory

of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6

What is knowledge, and how do we acquire it? No Western 
philosopher even comes close to the way the Orthodox Church
answers these questions. According to Orthodox Tradition, the 
source of Orthodox spiritual knowledge is divine 
revelation given to the Prophets, the Apostles, the Church
Fathers and the Saints of every age, even to the present 
time, during the experience of 'theosis' (contemplation of the
divine reality).

According to St Maximos the Confessor, "The soul would never be
able to reach out toward the knowledge of God if God did not allow
Himself to be touched by it through condescension and by raising it
up to him. Indeed the human mind as such would not have the
strength to raise itself to apprehend any divine illumination did not
God Himself draw it up, as far as it is possible for the human mind
to be drawn, and illumine it with divine brightness". 
From 'Maximos Confessor Selected Writings', Chapters on Knowledge #31
p.134, Trans. by George C. Berthold, The Classics of Western Spirituality, 
Paulist Press New York 1985

This indeed was the experience of the Apostles,"When Jesus came
into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying,
'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' So they said, 'Some
say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of
the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' 

Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the

living God. 'Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, 

Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed 

this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." 

Matthew 16:13-17 NKJV  

During the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the pattern of the way
to the knowledge of God was revealed in the experience of Peter
John and James, "Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and
James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain
by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face
shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.  
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I
will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, 
and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud over-
shadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “ This is
My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” 
When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and
were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said,
“Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no
one except Jesus Himself alone." Matthew 17:1-8 NASB


This experience was not to be exclusive to the three closest disciples
but it became also the way in which the other disciples (who saw the
Lord after the resurrection) and generations of saints have seen the
Lord and have acquired the knowledge of God, for centuries, even 
unto our present day.

Fr John Romanides tells us that, "When you behold God Who is 
Love, then faith in God and all the concepts related to faith, 
together with hope in God and all the concepts related to hope 
are set aside.

The concepts are taken away, because they are replaced by the
vision of the Beloved Himself. During an experience of 'theosis'
or glorification, this Love is the vision of God. Then a person is
glorified. He sees Christ in glory and partakes of the glory of 
Christ. He experiences participation in God.  

Theosis is not an ecstasy. It is not something that only the human
rational faculty experiences.  During the experience of theosis, the
entire man participates in this experience. Even the body 
participates with all its senses in normal working order. When 
someone sees Christ in glory, that person is completely alert. So
this person does not see something in his mind. He sees with his
body as well.

When the uncreated Light becomes visible, it is much more
luminous and intense than the light of the sun, and yet it is by 
nature different from sunlight. It is the very Light of the 
Transfiguration. In fact, this Light is not even light as we 
understand it and are familiar with it. Why not? Because the
uncreated Light transcends light.

Although the saint is in a supra-natural state during an experience
of theosis, he continues to mix with those around him as before.
The only difference is that he does not eat, sleep, or relieve himself
for the duration of this state, since his condition is above nature
and his life is sustained solely by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
If this state lasts for forty days and forty nights, as it did with Moses
on Mount Sinai, the person in this state does not sleep, does not
grow tired, does not eat, does not drink, and so forth for so many
days and so many nights." Patristic Theology pp. 73, 74,75 by Fr John
Romanides, Uncut Mountain Press 2008.

What is the place of dogma and the scriptures after the experience
of revelation has taken place? What happens after the vision of 
Christ in glory?" Fr Sophrony of Essex who himself experienced
the vision of God in Uncreated Light tells us that, "A genuine 
theological process has revelation 'from above' as its starting point:
the intellect can only theologize on the basis of the given revelation. 

In church tradition the datum of revelation is encapsulated
in the form of dogma: 'The human spirit, confronted by dogma,
will then look for its own ways to assimilate the gifts of divine 
revelation and to appropriate what they contain. This predominance
of revelation in theology determines the task of theology: in fact, it is
not a speculative building up of new theological systems with a more
perfected logical framework, but an exposition of the datum 'from 
above' and an integration of the divine revelation into the categories
of human experience and expression. "Theological development 
fundamentally has no other function than that of rendering 
unchangeable dogmatic truths accesible to souls by 'translating'
them into a language suited to the men for whom they were 
intended." 
( Fr Sophrony in 'La felicite de connaitre la voie' p. 25-26). 
From 'I Love therefore I am' p.41-42, Nicholas V. Sakharov, SVS Press 2002

And as Fr John Romanides explains above, the direct vision of Christ
in glory communicates the knowledge of God to the heart of man in
a way that human language, concepts and images cannot contain or 
express in its fullness. The human nous (sometimes translated mind
but not to be confused with the brain or reason), is the organ of the
soul by which man can know God and have communion with Him.
The nous knows intuitively, that is, it knows by direct immediate
knowledge without the need of discourse (deductive reasoning).

'The divine initiative through revelation presupposes a personal
relationship between the recipient (man) and the source of the
revelation (God). Spiritual Knowledge is 'living', ontological,
and personal."  'I Love therefore I am' p.42-43

This is what the Apostle Paul means when he writes to the Church
of Corinth, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6.
As Professor Harry Boosalis explains, notice how brilliantly the 
Apostle connects these three things, knowledge of God, the vision of
the Uncreated Light of the Glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.
This knowledge is communicated directly and immediately to the 
heart of Christ's disciple who is striving to keep the commandments
and purify his heart.

The Lord assures us that, "He who loves me will keep my word and
my Father shall love him and we will come and dwell in him" 
John 14:23

"This communion in being is realized by the indwelling of God, of
the Holy Spirit in man, by which man goes beyond the categories
of empirical knowledge and is lifted up to the contemplation of the 
Divine reality. According to Father Sophrony, "Only the dwelling
in us of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will give us authentic
knowledge of God" 'I Love therefore I am" p.44-45 

St Maximos the Confessor also, explains the experience of the 
transfiguration in a very moving way. It brings consolation and
hope to us who are striving in the hope to see the Lord, "For the
Lord does not always appear in glory to those who are 
standing before Him; rather, He comes in the form of a
servant to beginners,... Thus it is possible for the Lord
not to appear in the same form to all those who meet 
him, but to some in one way and to others in another 
way, that is, by varying the contemplation (of Him) 
according to the measure of faith in each one." 
Maximos Confessor Selected Writings p.150

Thus we begin to understand the words of our Lord when He said,
" You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have
eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to
come to Me so that you may have life." John 5:39-40 NASB 

St Maximos, filled with the Spirit and with clear vision fully 
understands the meaning of the Transfiguration and the place of the
Scriptures in relation to the revelation. With words that sound more
like a hymn of praise than a dogmatic statement he bears witness to
Him who is the Truth,

"When the Word of God becomes bright and shinning in us,
and His face is dazzling as the sun, then also will His clothes
be radiant, that is, the clear and distinct words of the Holy
Scripture of the Gospels now no longer veiled. Then Moses
and Elijah will stand beside Him, that is, the more spiritual
meanings of the Law and the Prophets."
Maximos Confessor Selected Writings p.150, Trans. by George C. Berthold, 
Paulist Press 1985


With compunction of heart we must entreat our Lord Jesus Christ
and pray, "Sanctify me by your mysteries, illumine my mind with
knowledge of you, cause your hope to shine forth in my heart, deem
me worthy to supplicate for it, God my Father and Lord of my life;
illumine your lamp within me, place in me what belongs to you so that
I may forget what belongs to myself.

Cast upon me the constraint of wonder at you, so that the constraint
of nature may be overpowered by it. Stir upon within me the vision of
your mysteries so that I may become aware of what was placed in me
at holy baptism. 

You have placed within me a guide: may he show me your glory at 
all times. You made me to be light and salt for the world: may I not
prove a stumbling-block for my companions.

Seeing that I have left the world, may I never again look back to it 
and to the things which I renounced when I made my promise to you.

Cast reigns of delight upon my heart, so that my senses may not gaze
beyond the paths of your law. Rig together my impulses for the ship
of repentance, so that in it I may  exult as I travel over the world's sea
until I reach the haven of your hope.

When I am tempted, may my mind take courage from the recollection
of you. Illumine the dark path before me by the brilliance that comes
from awareness of you," St Isaac the Syrian
The Prayers of St Isaac the Syrian p.16, Trans. by Sebastian Brock, Divine Ascent
Press 2011.

Thoughts and Deception by Archimandrite Sophrony

                                    Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov


Those who want to pray with a cleansed mind (nous) must not concern themselves with the latest news from the newspapers, or read books that are irrelevant to our spiritual life – especially those books that arouse the passions – and they must not strive to learn out of curiosity whatever pertains to the lives of others. All these things bring foreign thoughts to mind, and when a person attempts to elucidate them, they confound his mind even more.



When the soul is taught love by God, then it will feel sorrow for all of Mankind, all of Creation, and will pray that everyone might repent and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. But, should the soul lose this grace, love will abandon it (because without the grace of God, it is impossible to love one’s enemy) and that is when wicked thoughts will issue from the heart, as the Lord had said (Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21-22).


Without the humility of Christ, Man’s nous (mind) will not be cleansed and his soul will never feel reposed in God, but will always be agitated by various thoughts that will hinder his “theoria” (sighting) of God. Ah, the humility according to Christ! Those who have tried it, rush towards God, insatiably, day and night!


Ah, but what a weakling I am! I have been writing for just a short while, and yet I have quickly become tired, and my body yearns to rest. But even the Lord Himself, when He was on earth “in His flesh”, was familiar with human frailty. He, the Merciful One, would also feel weary after His journeys on foot, and He had also slept on board a boat during the tempest; and, after the disciples had roused Him from His sleep, He commanded the sea and the wind to become still, and a great calm followed. So it is with our soul, whenever we call upon the most Holy Name of the Lord: a great calm follows.


Allow us, o Lord, to glorify You, until our dying breath…..


One can fall into deception, either out of inexperience, or out of pride. And if it is out of inexperience, the Lord heals the deceived one very quickly; however, if it is on account of pride, then the soul will be struggling for a very long time, until it has learnt humility and will then be healed by the Lord.


We fall into a deception, when we consider ourselves more prudent and experienced than the others – even our own spiritual father. This is what I myself had thought -in my inexperience- and this was the reason that I suffered. And I thank the Lord from my heart, because in this way, He humbled me and admonished me, and did not revoke His mercy from me. Now it occurs to me that without confessing to our spiritual father, it will not be possible to avoid deception, because it was to the spiritual father that God gave the gift of “binding and unbinding”.


If you sense light inside you or around you, do not believe in it unless you also have a deep solemnity within you for God and a love for your fellow man. However, do not be afraid; only humble yourself, and that light will disappear.


Should you see a certain vision or dream, do not trust it, for if it was from God, the Lord Himself will inform you about it. A soul that has not tasted of the Holy Spirit cannot discern where the vision comes from. The enemy will give the soul a “sweet sensation” combined with vainglory, and it is from this, that deception will have become evident.


The Fathers say that when a vision is a hostile one, the soul feels confusion or fear; but this will happen only to the humble soul that considers itself unworthy of a vision. The vainglorious person however, may not feel either fear or confusion, because he is desirous of visions and regards himself as worthy of them, which is why the enemy can easily deceive him.


Celestial things are recognized through the Holy Spirit and terrestrial things through one’s physical state. Whosoever attempts to know God through the physical mind is deceived, because God can only be known via the Holy Spirit.


If you see demons with your mind, then humble yourself and try not to look, and run as fast as you can to your spiritual Geron (Elder), to whom you have surrendered yourself. Tell him everything, and the Lord will then show His mercy on you and you will be rescued from that deception. But if you believe that you know more about spiritual matters than your spiritual father and you cease to tell him whatever is happening to you, then, because of this act of pride, inevitably, a certain trial will “befall” you, in order to restore your prudence.


Fight your enemies with humility.


When you see another mind struggling with your mind, then humble yourself and the struggle will cease.


If you happen to see demons, do not be afraid, but humble yourself and the demons will disappear. But if fear does overcome you, you will not avoid suffering some harm. Be brave. Remember that the Lord can see you, if you have hinged your hopes on Him.


But, for the soul to acquire respite from the demons, it must humble itself and say: “I am worse than all the others; I am more wretched than every beast and every wild animal”…


Just as people enter a house and leave it, so do thoughts come from demons and they can leave, provided we do not hold on to them. If your thought says: “steal” and you obey, you are in this way giving the demon power over you. If your thought says: “eat as much as you want, until you are full”, and you do eat excessively, then again the demon will hold power over you. Thus, if the thought of every passion conquers you, you will end up a dwelling-place of demons. However, if you commence with the appropriate repentance, then the demons will begin to quake and be forced to leave.”
Source

Secondary Source

Hinduism and Buddhism Offer a Form of Self-Deification, without the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Lotus Flower

"Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life,
and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:14 NKJV

Buddhism appears to be very noble in its teaching. Buddhist monks are
meek, simple and kind, and their discipline is very alluring. Eastern
mysticism is so enticing that, such a great elder like Fr Sophrony of
Essex, spent some years learning it until he realized he was deceived,
returned to France and went to Mount Athos to become a monk.

Fr. Nicholas V. Sakharov, who is the nephew of Elder Sophrony, in his
book, "I Love Therefore I Am" p.17, St Vladimir Seminary Press, New
York 2002, describes the temptation that lured Fr Sophrony (then Sergei
Sakharov) away from the God of his fathers; "Christianity appeared to
him as a merely psychological, moral doctrine that did not account for
reality ontologically (ontology is inquiry into the nature of being itself).
Within the Christian framework of beliefs, built on faith in the
personal-hypostatic Godhead, the concept of the divine absolute
seemed inconceivable, since the concept of person, as he then
understood it, implied particularity and hence, ontological limitation.
The absolute, he thought, must be beyond everything, beyond every 
concept or measure: it therefore transcends Christian categories."

Let us explain briefly what Sergei (Fr Sophrony) was facing. I will mention

two very well-known followers of Eastern Mysticism, Dr. Deepak Chopra

who is a sophisticated intellectual and an adept to Vedanta Hinduism , 

and Dr. Robert Thurman who is a former Buddhist monk and an 

academic. Sergei did not meet these people but he learned and 

practiced the ancient teachings that Hinduism and Buddhism represent,

for years.

Deepak Chopra, refers to gods and goddesses (and among these he 

includes Buddha, Jesus Christ and all the Hindu gods) as archetypes 

corresponding to higher states of consciousness (Source). He states that
he does not worship gods but invokes them. Why? It is because by
invoking this or that god, he believes he is achieving a higher state of
consciousness that corresponds to that particular god. The higher state
of consciousness is not ‘out there’, it is within him. But even this is
eventually done away with, as he gets closer and closer to the infinite
impersonal absolute of which he knows nothing, except calling it, ‘that’.
The self then will be assimilated into the infinite absolute losing its
particularity and self-awareness. To Deepak, the infinite absolute is
personal and self-aware only in time and space; and this happens only
through us as human beings, but not in his essence. 

Source

Robert Thurman along with Deepak Chopra, during the lecture given at
The Tibet House in New York in 1999 entitled, “God and Buddha – A
Dialogue”, makes an apparently unimportant personal remark. He
states, “I sometimes forget the names of my children”. The pursuit of
this kind of divestiture of the apparent limitations of self is at the core of
the goal of both Hinduism and Buddhism.

The Orthodox Faith on the other hand affirms that while God in His
Essence is unknowable, beyond participation and absolutely
transcendent, He is profoundly immanent in His creation through and
in His Energy. This Energy is not created or temporary since it is
absolutely identified with God, “For in Him we live and move and 

have our being” Acts 17:28.

God does reveal Himself to us and it is indeed possible to make
positive affirmations about Him. “God is love” 1st John 4:8, therefore
He is Personal and knows Himself infinitely, “For who among men
knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in
him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of
God” 1st Corinthians 2:11. He creates and is aware of us as distinct
from Him without this limiting Him in any way. 1st Corinthians 8:3
affirms, "but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him."

The greatest revelation given to mankind was given in Jesus Christ,
the Word of God. In the Jordan River, during the baptism of Jesus,
God reveals Himself as One in Essence and Three in Person; God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The human person is limited and
finite but in God, the Persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
not. 

Orthodox Tradition recognizes that we are not ‘our thoughts’. The
form of the ego comes about after the fall, when man becomes
fragmented by sin, and it (the ego) must die. The ego must wither
away, allowing the spirit to take its place and grow as the soul is
healed.

Father Damascene writes, “the soul of fallen man has come under
the illusion of its self-sufficiency. Therefore it is not satisfied with
concerning itself with a man’s temporal needs (food, clothing,
shelter), but seeks also means toward a man’s ascendancy and
sensual pleasure. Such a soul has become (or better to say has
attached itself to) what is today called an ‘ego’. While the spirit 
(heart) is our true self-the true seat of our personhood - the
ego is our false self, an illusory self-sufficient entity. 

Because it thinks to achieve its ends and overcome obstacles
through its own unaided powers, the ego can also be called our
false problem solver. Having become the master of man through
the illusion of its autonomy, the ego does what it can to conceal
the existence of the spirit. In this way the spirit is not allowed to
fulfill its designation of rising to God, and thus it becomes
darkened. Its light has not been put out; it is still light, but
because it stands apart from the Creator, this light is darkness.
That is why Christ said, ‘take heed that the light which is in you
be not darkness.’ Luke 11:35.

Since the spirit is now held captive by the ego in the realm of the
senses, it has also become sick. The only cure for this sickness
is to give the spirit its rightful mastery by stripping the soul of the
form of the ego”. " When the soul takes the position of servant
and aligns itself with the spirit, then the spirit returns to itself and
naturally fulfills its true purpose, rising to the Creator. 

St Basil the Great (A.D. 379) describes this spiritual process as
follows, 'When the spirit (nous) is not engaged by external affairs
nor diffused through the senses over the whole world, it retires
within itself. Then it ascends spontaneously to the consideration
of God. From Hieromonk Damascene's, ‘Christ the Eternal Tao’
p.280-281, St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1999. 

The fullness of personhood can only be achieved by overcoming
the passions and by our union with Jesus Christ, by participation
in His Life by partaking of the Eucharist; and hopefully by
communion and eventual union with God in the Uncreated
Eternal Light of Divinity.

When man finds the place of the heart and purifies it through
prayer, asceticism and participation in the sacramental life of
the  Orthodox Church then a wondrous flower blossoms, the
true hypostasis or personhood of man. This is what the Apostle
Peter refers to, when he writes, “So we have the prophetic
word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention
as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star  arises in your hearts.” 2nd Peter 1:19.

In 1st Peter 3:3,4 we read, “Your adornment must not be
merely external …but let it be the hidden person of the
heart, with the  imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet
spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” This verse 

identifies the 'heart' with the 'spirit', while at the same time
describes a healthy spirit as gentle and quiet  that is, still.
Stillness (hesychia) is the ancient form of asceticism by
which Orthodox Christians have sought, since time 

immemorial, the healing of their soul and union with God.

Fr Zacharias Zacharou, the blessed disciple of Elder Sophrony
of Essex, explains in his book, 'The Hidden Man of the Heart'
p.1,Edited by Christopher Veniamin Mount Thabor Publishing
2008; "All the ordinances of the undefiled Church are offered
to the world for the sole purpose of discovering the deep heart
(Ps.64:6) the center of man's hypostasis (person). According
to the Holy Scriptures, God has fashioned every heart in a
special way, and each heart is His goal, a place wherein He
desires to abide that He may manifest Himself.

Since the kingdom of God is within us (Luke17:21), the heart
is the battlefield of our salvation, and all ascetic effort is aimed
at cleansing it of all filthiness, and preserving it pure before
the Lord. 'Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the
issues of life', exhorts the wise Solomon, the wise king of Israel
(Prov.4:23). These paths of life pass through man's
heart, and therefore the unquenchable desire of all who
ceaselessly seek the Face of the Living God is that their heart,
once deadened by sin, may be rekindled by His grace."

How was Fr Sophrony able to escape the maze that is
Eastern Pantheism?
God in His love, knowing Sergei's heart, had mercy on him,
and after a period of some years, gave Fr Sophrony the
solution to the problem. In page 19 of his book, Fr Nicholas
writes, "This quest culminated in his discovery that Christ's 
precept to love God with all one's heart, mind and strength
is not a moralistic psychology but a profound ontology.
Love emerged as an authentic source of cognition",
 (process of knowing). 

Here I would like to point out the words of the Apostle John,
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and
 everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."
1st Epistle of John 4:7

Fr Nicholas writes, "If God is to be known by love, then
the divine absolute is a personal being. Fr Sophrony
understood that this personeity (personae) is implied in the
formula of Exodus 3:14, 'I AM that I AM'. It was at this moment
that Fr Sophrony's experience of uncreated light returned in
a more powerful form than in his childhood. It began on Holy
Saturday in 1924 and remained until the third day of Easter
Week; the strength of this experience was never matched in
his later visions of light. These experiences and discoveries 
resulted in his return to Christianity, a volte-faceso dramatic 
that he began to distance himself even from his
art".

Buddhist monks achieve a divestiture of the mind by means
of energies that are not from God. They are deceived. They
want to be delivered from suffering (as taught by the Four
Noble Truths of Buddhism) and descend into the darkness
of unknowing motivated by the belief that they are God in
their own essence and not merely creatures. This is the pride
of Adam!

Without humility then they behold a certain light in that
darkness, during their meditation. They are not able to realize
this 'light' is only their own beauty as created beings in the
image of God. This light is created and God is not in it. So
they are deceived in believing that they themselves are God
because they possess this light in themselves.

In the book 'St Silouan the Athonite by Archimandrite
Sophrony', particularly chapter 7 "The Imagination and the
Ascetic Struggle Against its Various Aspects" Fr. Sophrony
says, "The overcoming of discursive thinking is not yet
true faith and real divine vision...what they then
contemplate is still merely beauty created in the Divine
image. Since those who enter for the first time into this
sphere of the 'silence of the mind' experience a mystic
awe, they mistake their contemplation with mystical
communion with the Divine, whereas in reality they are
still within the confines of created human nature".

"This mental light, .., might as just as well be called
darkness, since it is the darkness of divestiture and
God is not in it. And perhaps in this instance more
than any other we should listen to the Lord's 
warning, 'Take heed therefore that the light which is
in thee be not darkness'. Luke 11:35. The first
prehistoric, cosmic catastrophe- the fall of Lucifer,
son of the morning, who became the prince of 
darkness- was due to his enamored contemplation
of his own beauty, which ended up in his self-
deification".p.161-162

The denial and rejection of our nature as personal beings,
as well as the denial of the Personal Divine Absolute, the
God of Moses, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;
amounts to nothing less than suicide in the spiritual
plane. It is the teaching of demons, utter darkness, death
of the soul and the rejection of the God of love.

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach
to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you,
he is to be accursed!" Galatians 1:8 NASB


For those seekers into Orthodoxy from eastern mysticism,
I strongly recommend the following book;

St Silouan the Athonite
by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov


Description:
In the autumn of 1892 a young Russian peasant named Simeon from the province of Tambov was drawn to that ancient repository of Orthodox spirituality, Mount Athos. He had done his military service and now came to the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon, to embark on long years of spiritual combat lasting until his death in 1938. 504 pages. From the backcover.


Table of Contents
PART I
The Staretz's Life and Teaching
1. Childhood and early years
2. Arrival on Mt Athos
3. Monastic Strivings
4. Portrait of the Staretz
5. The Staretz Doctrinal Teaching
6. Pure Prayer and Mental Stillness
7. The Imagination and the Ascetic Struggle against its Various Aspects
8. Uncreated Divine Light and Ways of Contemplation
9.Grace and Consequent Dogmatic Consciousness
10. Spiritual Trials
11. 'Keep Thy Mind in Hell and Despair Not'
12. The Divine Word and the Bounds of Created Nature
13. On the purport of Prayer for the World
AFTERWORD
14. The Staretz Demise
15. Testimonies
Potscriptum
PART II
The Writings of Staretz Silouan
1. Yearning for God
2. On Prayer
3. On Humility
4. On Peace
5. On Grace
6. On the Will of God and on Freedom
7. On Repentance
8. On the Knowledge of God
9. On Love
10. We are Children of God and in the Likeness of the Lord
11. On the Mother of God
12. On the Saints
13. Concerning Shepherds of Souls
14. Concerning Monks
15. Concerning Obedience
16. Concerning Spiritual Warfare
17. Concerning Intrusive Thoughts and Delusions
18. Adam's Lament
19. Reminiscences and Conversations
20. Thoughts, Advice and Observations on Asceticism

This book is available from St Vladimir Seminary Press and Bookstore