When I talk to Christians about meditation, most of them are unfamiliar with the concept of contemplative prayer. This tradition has a rich history, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where it is called Hesychasm, which means stillness.
Hesychasm is a traditional system of ascetic practices meant to purify the soul, combined with a very specific form of contemplative prayer, the Jesus prayer: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The prayer is meant to be said silently, internally, and continuously, following Paul’s teaching: “Pray without ceasing.”(1 Thess. 5:17)
The Hesychasts also take inspiration from Jesus’ words in Matthew, to “go into your closet to pray.” This is taken to mean that one should withdraw from the senses and turn inward.
The Hesychast brings her mind down into her heart when she prays. The prayer is meant to drive away all temptation, and all conceptual thought, until one reaches a state of inner stillness and emptiness of the mind.
“When during your prayer no conceptual image of anything worldly disturbs your intellect, then you know you are in the realm of dispassion.”
— St. Maximos the Confessor
Eventually the Hesychast is filled with “uncreated light” which is nothing less than the Holy Spirit itself.
“The vision of uncreated light is man’s deification.”
— St Gregory Palmas
This illumination by the Holy Spirit is called theosis, union with the divine. This Union with God is, according to Eastern Christianity, the purpose of human life as well as the purpose of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
“God became man so that man might become a god.”
— Athanasius the Confessor
Now this may sound radical, even heretical, to Western Christians, but in the East there is a long tradition of saints who have realized union with God. Much like how Buddhists understand that all beings have Buddha Nature and therefore have the potential to Awaken to their Buddha Nature, Eastern Christians accept that everyone has the potential to Awaken to the Christ Within.
Part of the reason this sounds so heretical in the West is because it suggests that individuals can realize a state of being that is very similar to that of Jesus. However, this isn’t quite the right understanding, as the pathways are reversed. The incarnation was the Divine taking the form of a man, whereas theosis is the process of man becoming divine.
The following words are not often talked about, but they are among the most interesting found in the bible:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
— John 14:13
Man becoming divine might very well be an example of a believer doing “greater works.”
Although the following is not a Hesychasm meditation, it lies very much within the Christian tradition of contemplation and theosis. Please enjoy: