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Todd,

Thanks for rereading the text to help me understand this.

If it is not private revelation to which he is referring, I'm curious what he means by images "within and without"?

Also, I would gather from what you are saying that the powers of intellection are not suspended or suppressed in heschast prayer, but rather transcended (and "transfigured"). If that is the case, it would seem then that they still function as part of the prayer, but on a supernatural level by virtue of their participation in the energies of God. Otherwise, again, the prayer risks becoming disincarnated and not truly personal.

Also, it still does not completely reconcile for me the spiritual practice of icon writing and hesychasm. I attribute that, of course, to my own imperfect understanding of the matter.

In ICXC,

Gordo

Gordo,

In the text that I have quoted, St. Gregory of Sinai is referring to the sources of the mental images that the mind creates, but it is the mind (i.e., the human intellect) that is causing the distracting images, and there is nothing in the text that would indicate that these images are being forced -- by some kind of external power -- upon the man attempting to pray. Thus, as I have pointed out already, the hesychast is supposed to quiet his mind, and so he should not be trying to create mental images, whether they come from his memory or from something happening around him.

Now, let us look at the sentences that follow the phrase "within or without" in the quotation that I supplied:

"For the intellect itself naturally possesses an imaginative power," notice here that St. Gregory is focusing attention on the one praying, because it is his (the hesychast�s) "imaginative power" that is causing the distraction from true prayer, i.e., the prayer of the heart, which necessarily excludes the use of the natural power of the imagination. He then goes on to say that these mental distractions arise in those "who do not keep a strict watch over" this imaginative power, which "can easily produce, to its own hurt, whatever forms and images it wants to." Now, what -- according to St. Gregory -- is the source of the images that he is talking about? Is it some kind of �private revelation� in the modern Roman sense of the term? No, it is not; instead, it is the natural power of the human imagination, which -- to its own harm -- produces the images he is condemning. Now these distracting images are produced by internal memories of external stimuli, and that is why he describes them as "the recollection of things good or evil,� which �suddenly imprint images on the intellect's perceptive faculty and so induce it to entertain fantasies, thus making whoever this happens to a daydreamer rather than a hesychast," because he has not controlled his thoughts and emptied his mind of diastemic images in order to unite with God, who is beyond form or shape, and who dwells in utter darkness. The hesychast, to quote St. Gregory of Nyssa, is supposed to leave �behind everything that is observed, not only what sense comprehends but also what the intelligence thinks it sees,� for he must penetrate deeper and deeper into the mystery of God, until he �gains access to the invisible and the incomprehensible, and there [he] sees God, [for] this is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that consists in not seeing, because that which is sought transcends all knowledge, being separated on all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind of darkness.�

Clearly, the hesychast is supposed to expel all thoughts from his mind, and so he is not supposed to create images intentionally within his mind, nor is he to entertain those mental images that may arise involuntarily as a natural attempt of his intellect to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Finally, I have to say that I have never read any hesychastic text that encourages the use of mental images in prayer, but if you have read anything written by the holy hesychasts that recommends this practice, then by all means post the texts so that we can discuss them.

God bless,
Todd