Dear Simeon,
The Jesus Prayer is the "prayer of the Heart" and while, on the face of it, it seems to have connections with Eastern non-Christian disciplines, it is not the same thing.
The prayer is not about inducing a "state" in us or any such thing.
It is about focusing on our relationship to our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, while calling on His Name in His Presence.
It is about confessing our sinful, fallen state to Him while imploring Him to pour the abundant and healing Grace of His Love and Mercy into the empty vessels of our souls.
It is about calling down the Epiclesis of His Name so that by means of the Holy Spirit we may live in Him and be partakers of His Divine Life.
It is about a process of gradual transfiguration of our sinful selves into the full stature of Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.
As we say it, we want to say it more. It appeals to us, after we've gotten over the initial slothfulness by which the evil one and our sinful inclinations attack us.
We should get ourselves a prayer rope or lestovka and have it with us at all times as we pray this prayer at all times.
Our Tammy makes all sorts of prayer beads, Paternosters, Rosaries and Chotkis -
www.chotkis.com [
chotkis.com]
(She's made me a Paternoster, a Chotki and a rosary of "Los Muertos" or of the dead - beautiful work!)
The Old Believers say that it takes three years of constant praying and invocation of the Name of Jesus to fully come into an experience of its spiritual meaning.
It is good to have a spiritual director, if we can get one, to guide us on this path.
The evil one, the world and our sinful inclinations will put up all sorts of roadblocks on our way.
There will even be times when our praying will excite sinful, sensual passions in us and the like. We put these and everything to flight by clinging to the Name of Jesus even more.
"Beat down your enemies with the Name of Jesus."
If you go to the Prayer Section, our Monastic Guide Fr. Archimandrite Gregory has a number of very important articles on the Jesus Prayer that we should all read.
There are secular (or New Age?) companies in the U.S. I've read about that offer courses in saying the Jesus Prayer.
But without living a life in the Church, receiving the Sacraments/Mysteries and struggling in the Christian moral life - the endeavour will be rather fruitless.
The Jesus Prayer is meant to support our life in the Church, not be something apart from that life.
Alex
I have never reached the end yet. I often pray it during the day also. I think this is a very experiencial prayer so I am sharing my experience as well as the reference above. There are no words to adequately descibe what has happened in my heart since I began praying it each night and often during the day as well unless to simply say, 'peace.' It goes beyond thinking.