The Way of a Pilgrim
I read the version translated from the Russian by R.M. French. It
includes the second book titled The Pilgrim Continues His Way. The
first book is about an anonymous Russian pilgrim in the 1800's who
follows a mystical Christian path. Another review pointed out that
the narrative has two layers: spirituality and the day-to-day
experience of being a homeless wanderer. I was fascinated by the
amount of overlap between yogic ideas and the spirituality describe
in this book. Below are my notes with my own words in square
brackets.
Foreword
Many years ago, while using a sabbatical to learn something about t
Tibetan tradition, I chanced onto a certain monastery--one of two
such in the whole of Tibet, now reconstituted in exile in north
India--which trained its lamas, the now famous Gyuto Monks, to chan
in an extraordinary way, a way that enabled individual lamas to
produce multiple tones simultaneously. That is (in language that i
plain if paradoxical), its lamas sang solo chords: solo in the sens
that one voice was singing, chords in the sense that the one voice
was sounding multiple discrete tones simultaneously. Such was the
sound that greeted my incredulous ears at 3:00 A.M. under a full mo
on an October night, out on that Himalayan mountain where the wind
never stops blowing.
A haunting, holy sound, it pursued me, leading me at length into th
following understanding of its significance. When the lamas chant
that way, it's not an art for art's sake. Their chanting is closer
to spiritual technology, for it amounts to a procedure for getting
them onto the wavelength of the gods. Sound a string; if a second
string is tuned identically, it will pick up the vibrations of the
first. So with the lama; insofar as he succeeds in tuning himself
the wavelength of the gods, the gods power will infuse him. In the
first stage of his mantric meditation the lama sounds the chord
himself, but as his meditation deepens it appears as if the god
invoked is doing the sounding and he, the lama, is resonating. And
when his meditation reaches its climax, distinctions between lama,
god, and sound collapse entirely, and all that remains is that one
holy chord.
Chapter 1
[The author is initiated into mantra meditation using the mantra
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." It transforms the author's
life and he becomes a pilgrim.]
Chapter 2
He said "Let this be a lesson t you in detachment from earthly
things, for your better advance toward heaven. This has been allow
to you to save you from falling into the mere enjoyment of spiritua
things."
Regarding The Philokalia: Those who are uninstructed, but who
nevertheless desire to learn interior prayer from this book, should
take things in this order: first of all, read through the book of
Nicephorus the monk (in part two), then the whole book of Gregory o
Sinai, except the short chapters, Simeon the new theologian on the
three forms of prayer and his discourse on faith, and after that th
book of Callistus and Ignatius. In these Fathers there are full
directions and teaching on interior prayer of the heart, in a form
which everyone can understand.
And if, in addition, you want to find a very understandable
instruction on prayer, turn to part four and find the summarized
pattern of prayer by the most holy Callistus, patriarch of
Constantinople.
"Well, it says in the New Testament that man and all creation 'are
subject to vanity, not willingly,' and sigh with effort and desire
enter into the liberty of the children of God. The mysterious
sighing of creation, the innate aspiration of every soul toward God
that is exactly what interior prayer is. There is no need to learn
it, it is innate in every one of us!"
"But what is one to do to find it in oneself, to feel it in one's
heart, to acknowledge it by one's will, to take it and feel the
happiness and light of it, and so to reach salvation?" I asked...
[In one story he dreams and receives healing instruction from his
dead teacher. He follows the instructions and it saves a woman's
life.] After this the report quickly spread through the whole
neighborhood that I was a prophet and a doctor and a wizard. There
began a ceaseless stream of visitors from all parts to bring their
affairs and their troubles to my notice. They brought me presents
and began to treat me with respect and to look after my comfort. I
bore with this for a week, and then, fearing I should fall into
vainglory and harmful distractions, I left the place in secret by
night.
Chapter 3
[This chapter is about the author's youth, his loss of the use of h
arm, how he learned to read and write, how he inherited and was
married, how he lost it all and his partner died, and how he became
pilgrim.]
Chapter 4
I value your heartfelt and kindly welcome even more than the treat
you offer me...
I spoke the real truth with a sincere heart both to you and to your
wife when I told you about my birth, and I never had a thought of
lying or of deceiving you. Why should I? As for the things I say,
they are not my own, but what I have heard from my departed starets
[teacher], who was full of divine wisdom, or what I have gathered
from a careful reading of the holy Fathers. But my ignorance has
gained more light from interior prayer than from anything else, and
that I have not reached by myself--it has been granted me by the
mercy of God and the teaching of my starets. And that can be done
anyone. It costs nothing but the effort to sink down in silence in
the depths of one's heart and call more and more upon the radiant
name of Jesus. Everyone who does that feels at once the inward
light, everything becomes understandable to him, he even catches
sight in this light of some of the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
And what depth and light there is in the mystery of a man coming to
know that he has the power to plumb the depths of his own being, to
see himself from within, to find delight in self-knowledge, to take
pity on himself and shed tears of gladness over his fall and his
spoiled will! To show good sense in dealing with things and to tal
with people is no hard matter and lies within anyone's power, for t
mind and the heart were there before learning and human wisdom. If
the mind is there, you can set it to work either upon science or up
experience, but if the mind is lacking then no teaching, however
wise, and no training will be any good. The trouble is that we liv
far from ourselves and have but little wish to get any nearer to
ourselves. Indeed we are running away all the time to avoid coming
face to face with our real selves, and we barter the truth for
trifles. We think, "I would very gladly take an interest in
spiritual things, and in prayer, but I have no time, the fuss and
cares of life give no chance for such a thing." Yet which is reall
important and necessary, salvation and the eternal life of the soul
or the fleeting life of the body on which we spend so much labor?
is that I spoke of, and that leads to either sense or stupidity in
people.
Then picture to yourself your heart in just the same way, turn your
eyes to it just as though you were looking at it through your breas
and picture it as clearly as you can. And with your ears listen
closely to its beating, beat by beat. When you have got into the w
of doing this, begin to fit the words of the prayer to the beats of
the heart one after the other, looking at it all the time. Thus,
with the first beat, say or think "Lord," with the second, "Jesus,"
with the third, "Christ," with the fourth, "have mercy," and with t
fifth "on me." And do it over and over again. This will come easi
for you, for you already know the groundwork and the first part of
praying with the heart. Afterward, when you have grown used to wha
I have just told you about, you must begin bringing the whole praye
of Jesus into and out of your heart in time with your breathing, as
the Fathers taught. Thus, as you draw your breath in, say, or
imagine yourself saying, "Lord Jesus Christ," and as you breath
again, "have mercy on me." Do this as often and as much as you can
and in a short space of time you will feel a slight and not
unpleasant pain in your heart, followed by a warmth. Thus by God's
help you will get the joy of self-acting inward prayer of the heart
But then, whatever you do, be on your guard against imagination and
any sort of visions. Don't accept any of them whatever, for the ho
Fathers lay down most strongly that inward prayer should be kept fr
from visions, lest one fall into temptation.
Chapter 5
Don't be distressed dear brother. Everything is pleasing to God an
for our salvation--everything, whatever it is that happens in time
prayer. So the holy Fathers say. Whether it's lightness of heart
heaviness, it's all all right.
[This chapter includes an interesting template for a confession
titled "A Confession which Leads the Inward Man to Humility"]
Listen, this is what Mark the podvizhnik writes: 'The soul which is
inwardly united to God becomes, in the greatness of its joy, like a
good-natured, simple-hearted child, and now condemns no one, Greek,
heathen, Jew, nor sinner, but looks at them all alike with sight th
has been cleansed, finds joy in the whole world, and wants
everybody--Greeks and Jews and heathen--to praise God.' And
Marcarius the Great, of Egypt, says that the inward contemplative
'burns with so great a love that if it were possible he would have
everyone dwell within him, making no difference between bad and
good.' There, dear brother, you see what the holy Fathers think
about it. So I advise you to lay aside your fierceness, and look
upon everything as under the all-knowing providence of God, and whe
you meet with vexations accuse yourself especially of lack of
patience and humility.
Chapter 6
They, estimating the act of faith by the strength of their own
inexperienced and shortsighted reason, forget, in so doing, that ma
has two natures, in direct influence upon another, that man is made
of body and soul. Why, for example when you desire to purify your
soul, do you first of all deal with your body, make it fast, depriv
it of nourishment and stimulating food? It is, of course, in order
that it may not hinder, or, to put it better, so that it may be the
means of promoting purity of soul and enlightenment of mind, so tha
the continual feeling of bodily hunger may remind you of your
resolution to seek for inward perfection and the things pleasing to
God, which you so easily forget.
As when you are planting a vine you bestow your thought and labor
with the purpose of gathering the vintage, and if you do not, all
your labor will be useless, so also in prayer, if you do not look f
spiritual fruit--that is, love, peace, joy, and the rest--your labo
will be useless. And, therefore, we ought to fulfill our spiritual
duties (prayer) with the purpose and hope of gathering fruit--that
to say, comfort and enjoyment in our hearts.
As a result of this knowledge [of God] the most savage islander,
without any impulse from outside, as it were involuntarily raises h
gaze to heavens, falls on his knees, breathes out a sigh which he
does not understand, necessary as it is, and has a direct feeling
that there is something which draws him upward, something urging hi
toward the unknown. From this foundation all natural religions
arise. And in this connection it is very remarkable that universal
the essence or soul of every religion consists in secret prayer,
which shows itself in some form of movement of the spirit and what
clearly an oblation...
But the human spirit is not satisfied with anything that belongs to
the senses, and the innate love of self never abates its urgency.
And so desires develop more and more, the endeavor to attain
happiness grows stronger, fills the imagination, and incites the
feelings to this same end. The flood of this inward feeling and
desire as it develops is the natural arousing to prayer. ... So it
that innate self-love, the principal element in life, is a
deep-seated stimulus to prayer in the natural man.
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LOC: BX597.Z9 O732
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