Tyranny of Thought-- Part III: A Thought-Provoking Book, A New Classic of the Spiritual Life

Another item in my reading list for overcoming the tyranny of thought in the spiritual life has been Christ the Eternal Tao by Hieromonk Damascene.  This book is, of course, more recent than de Caussade, or Irala.  It was first published in 1999.  Hieromonk Damascene is a student and spiritual son of the late Fr. Seraphim Rose, a very well-known Orthodox orientalist.  He has been called the Orthodox version of Fr. Bede Griffiths.  The book is a Christian commentary on the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's classic, the Tao Te Ching.  The book is fascinating on many levels, but especially in the areas wherein the issues of prayer and watchfulness are discussed.  Hieromonk Damascene has very penetrating insight into some very difficult passages and expressions from the Fathers of the Church, which, in the past, have served to confuse the question concerning the role of thought in the Christian spiritual life.  In fact, I have found no clearer clarification of the Fathers' teaching than his citation and subsequent elaboration of the spiritual counsel of Elder Silouan of the Holy Mountain.  He quotes Silouan:

"The experience of the Holy Fathers show various ways of combating intrusive thoughts but it is best of all not to argue with them.  The spirit that debates with such a thought will be faced with its steady development, and, bemused by the exchange, will be distracted from remembrance of God, which is exactly what the demons are after-- having diverted the spirit from God, they confuse it, and it will not emerge clean."

Hieromonk Damascene goes on to elaborate as follows:

Struggle against thoughts is vain and futile. It is enought simply to observe the thoughts as they arise, as St. John Climacus teaches, then let them go without reacting to them or following them... Many ancient Christian teachers speak of the struggle with thoughts. It is vital that we understand what they mean by this. Our struggle is not against the thoughts, for as Christ said, "Resist not evil." Rather, our struggle should be to rise toward our source of knowing, the Tao/ Logos Who is beyond thought. In other words, we not engage the thoughts, but instead struggle to keep our attention lifted above them, in the stillness of the higher mind.

Each time we catch ourselves in a thought, we just return our tattention to what is above it: to our spirit and to God. We do not validate the thought by giving it any more attention. This is already to repulse or cut off the thought without directly struggling against it.  It is active, not passive; but the action does not involve movement towards the distracting thought. Rather, it is like a train that has been switched to a sidetrack and must simply be switched back to the main track, which alone leads to one's destination.

     The clarity of this description is a great gift, because it shows the proper place and role of mindfulness meditation (nepsis) in Christian practice.  Earlier, in fact, at the beginning of this same fascinating section of the book, Hieromonk Damascene interpreted the Lord's words to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Watch and pray," as referring to the virtue of nepsis and its essential connection with the practice of prayer.  The meditation practice of the Eastern religions amounts to and ends with nepsis, mindfulness meditation, because they have no knowledge of the Incarnate Logos, but in Christian practice nepsis is only the first part in a two stage process: first we watch, then we pray. He says simply:

"Prayer cannot be pure if the mind is actively engaged in following thoughts. For prayer to be pure, it must arise from a pure spirit; and this can only occur when one first stands watch and thus rises above thoughts and images. That is why Christ said, "Watch and pray": prayer and watchfulness are inseparably bound. As St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, a nineteenth-century Russian ascetic in the Philokalic tradition, writes: "The essential, indispensable property of prayer is attention.  Without attention there is no prayer."

Prayer cannot be separated from nepsis.  Prayer must be offered in nepsis, for the one who practices watchfulness knows from experience what it means to be able to rise above thought, observe one's own thoughts, and effectively be the judge of thought (that is, to be able to see oneself as distinct from his or her thoughts).  From this vantage point of detachment from thought, even the person who is very hardened in vice is able to feel the innocence of the higher mind, while beholding the muck that continuously threatens to pull it down.