Elder Paisios in the Light of the Transfiguration

By Dionysios Farasiotis

One day, when I was leaving Elder Paisios’s cell, I recalled something that was troubling me and I mentioned it to him: “Elder, that yogi, Niranjan, was able to produce a light.” “What kind of light?” he asked. “Once, when we were all sitting around him, his body suddenly started to give off a golden-yellowish light in the form of a continually expanding sphere, which eventually engulfed us all. I wasn’t the same afterwards – it altered my way of thinking. What was that light?”

The Body and Athletics in Orthodox Theology (3 of 4)

...continued from part two.

3. Mental Training

It is known that athletes, to achieve their objective, struggle daily to train under the supervision of a qualified coach, and of course under particular training rules.

As is known with those who deal with these issues, that since man consists of the union of body and soul, it is thus necessary for an athlete to have a good psychological and mental constitution to be successful in their purpose. Therefore, along with physical exercises, the athlete does mental exercises, namely concentration, attention, a good psychological condition, etc. The effort to obtain a good psychological condition is called mental training.

The Resurrection of Christ as a Response to Reincarnation

By Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Vamvinis

The resurrection is the hope that Christ brought to the world that lived under the dominion of death. It is an event that shows the value of the human body, because what we expect as a result of the Resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of the bodies that were dissolved after their separation from their souls. The proclamation, therefore, of the Resurrection of Christ, and the consequences it has on the whole human race, is the answer of Christianity to all those who talk about reincarnation, whether they have been influenced by ancient Greek philosophers or by Oriental religions.

Teachers of Orthodox Christianity and Teachers of Other Religions

The Path Towards the Light: 
Orthodoxy's Holy Teachers and Teachers of Other Religions

By Theodore Riginiotes

In a certain village of Messaras lives an elderly lady called G***, who, to those who know her, it is well known that God has bestowed her with exceptional charismatic gifts. Once, for example, the Archangel Michael appeared to a certain sick person in Athens who did not know her at all, and announced to him: "I came to heal you, because G*** sent me to you in her prayer."

The elderly G*** said to me: "I am no saint; just an old lady who beseeches God for her salvation. If you want a Saint, you should go to so-and-so the ascetic who lives over there, or the other one, *****, who lives in that area", giving me the names of four or five contemporary ascetics - mostly unknown - who live in various regions of Crete.

Characteristics like those of the elderly G*** - on their own - do not mean anything. They can quite easily be imitated by a con artist, although, people like the old lady are not frauds, as she never profited in any way from those charismatic gifts; in fact, all that preoccupied her was the fear that she might lose that mystical relationship with Christ in her heart. Instead, we can find such abilities in teachers of other religions: Buddhists, Hindus, and even witch doctors or shamans. Nevertheless, we need to mention that in our spiritual tradition there are quite a number of people who have reached the elderly lady's "level". For example, the inconceivable, miraculous charismatic gifts of contemporary Orthodox saints such as the Elders Porphyrios, Paisios, Iakovos and others, who not only had the gift of insight and healing, but also had experiences of the "warping" of space and time, the multiplication of matter, teletransportation, communication with animals, and many other signs. What is even stranger however, is that similar phenomena as well as appearances of such Elders continue even after their death - or, to use the Orthodox term - after having fallen asleep in the Lord. Even in Crete, there are such Elders, as, for example, the Elder Eumenios from the Roustikoi Monastery of Rethymnon, and others.

These wonderworking saints are descendants of a previous generation of wonderworkers, to which belonged people such as Saint George Karslidis († 1948), the sightless Saint Matrona of Moscow († 1952), Saint John Maximovitch († 1966), and many others in the world, who in turn were descendants of another generation, which included Saint John of Kronstandt († 1908), Saint Nectarios of Optina (Russia † 1937), Saint Matrona of Anemniasevo († 1932), Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian († 1924) and many others.

Proceeding in this manner backwards into history, we can see holy wonderworkers living in every Christian generation, right through to the Disciples of Christ, whose miracles have been described in the New Testament (in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles).

***

These holy and charismatic teachers of Christianity differ immensely from the respective Lamas, Swamis, Shamans, etc. However, I would like to mention three points, which perhaps reveal those elements that I desire to point out to you.

First of all, there is no "method" in the lives of these Christians which they follow in order to attain such characteristics, nor were they initiated in any kind of mystic teaching. The only thing they did was to open wide their heart to Christ, as God, and to their fellow man. Their way of life does not include the practicing of a certain method (for example: yoga, meditation or martial arts), but rather, we would say that theirs is a path which includes a descent into two intelligible realms - which the contemporary saint, the Elder Sophrony Sakharov, characterizes as "Hades": the "Hades of repentance" and the "Hades of Love". The first "Hades" is the complete rejection of my old self and its acts and desires (which are characterized by selfishness), and the second "Hades" which contains an unconditional love, to the point of self-sacrifice for each and every human being individually, even my enemy (whom I have forgiven completely). This love culminates in (or begins from) a love for Christ, with Whom a proper communication is maintained through prayer, as well as participation in the Divine Liturgy and the Sacrament of Holy Communion; a communication that can even reach a vision of the Divine Light, not only during prayer, but also during one's ordinary everyday life. This vision may sometimes last for entire days, and one can continue with his daily activities and simultaneously find himself inside the Divine Light - which reveals itself to him as a personal being, as Christ.

Given that there is no method by which one can strive to attain a certain result, such major spiritual experiences can be experienced not only by monks or priests, but also by common people, family men and women, or even children (who may not even be aware of what they had experienced). Christian spiritual experiences - miracles, or visions of Christ, the Panagia or certain saints - can be experienced by non-Christians, who may well remain faithful to their religions, but some find the courage to convert to Orthodoxy, by placing themselves at the starting point of that new course. What all of them have in common, however, is the "Hades of repentance" which gives birth to a humble heart, and the "Hades of love", whose prerequisite is a humble heart.

A second characteristic of Orthodox wonderworking saints is that they do not in the least desire to attain any exceptional spiritual gifts, or to have any special spiritual experiences. They do not desire any increase in knowledge, or the acquisition of "wisdom", or a "higher consciousness", or to become "one with the universe", to become "attuned" to it, or something similar. They desire only Christ. Their desire directs them outside their own self, towards another Person - which they love and to which they are inclined to be joined to, by following His path, the path of humble and selfless love towards God (the Holy Triune God, not some subjective notion "of a God", or a fantasy that "god" is a symbol of beauty or of love, or a spark that exists inside us or inside every being, etc.) and towards our fellow man. This is the reason that they do not immerse themselves inside their own self - like yogis do - but instead they look to Christ, as God, and ask for His mercy and His precious help in cleansing their heart of passions and in becoming transformed into the kind of being that He wants them to be.

Furthermore, they do not strive to carve "their own path towards perfection", but rather, dedicate themselves to the path that Christ taught and be incorporated in the Body that He founded: the Church. Christians never pursue any personal struggle for perfection; they dedicate themselves and their spiritual and moral struggle within the Church: they congregate with their brethren and they partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, from the same holy chalice. Christ is also a member of this community - its Head, to be precise - and it is within that community that I can meet with Him. Even a hermit is always a member of the community; he too becomes joined to it, through his prayer to Christ (a prayer for all people, and in fact for all beings), and he also partakes of Holy Communion, which renders it possible.

Given that Christ is the One that I love, because He is the One that I desire to be joined to, and because I know that this union is feasible (as known to all the saints of Orthodoxy, who already experience from this lifetime that this union is what renders them wonder-workers with the spiritual gifts that the Triune God bestows and retracts appropriately, without man's ability to selfishly "recall" them with his own methods), this is the reason I am not interested in the possible existence of "other paths" for the acquisition of wisdom, knowledge, or supernatural powers. Even if someone teaches me how to awaken or manipulate these powers, I do not desire them. I desire only Christ.

Deep down I do desire such powers, which is why I am not in the state to see Christ; and if I do see something, it will likely not be Him, but "someone else" who will want to entrap me. Saints, who have attained perfection, have actually rid their inner self of egotism and do not desire any powers, but only Christ.

A favorite example in Orthodoxy that reveals the manner of approaching Christ is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who, after allowing himself to become totally crushed, afterwards fell at his father's feet and begged him to count him among the servants. That is just how a humble Christian feels, when realizing the abyss that separates him from the absolute purity of Christ, i.e., he is fully aware that he is not without sin; but we see that the prodigal son's Father (symbolic of Christ) restored the prodigal one to the status of son and honored him with a ring and resplendent garments, dismissing not only the son's request to become a servant, but also his previous life of debauchery where he had squandered the inheritance that he had demanded (and received) from his Father without having toiled for it.

We might mention here that most of us are very sinful; our intentions deep down are not in the least pure and, if possible, our ego would lead us down very dark paths, regardless if we harmed people or "benefited" them. And yet, we do not admit anything like this (often not even to ourselves), but instead we present our self as "worthy" of receiving spiritual gifts from Christ - albeit not even admitting that Christ is God, or that He does commune with man - and instead maintain that there is merely an impersonal "divine essence" or a "universal soul", thus turning our back to the True God, Who has appeared to countless saints.

Two examples of different paths to approaching God are the holy Elders Porphyrios and Sophrony. The former had visited the Holy Mountain from his early teenage years and never distanced himself from Christ, thus most probably not having to experience the anguish of repentance to a large degree. Oppositely, the latter had denied Christ, become an atheist, indulged in transcendental meditation, and had even entertained almost morbid thoughts that he himself was a god (thoughts that were influenced by oriental philosophy); thus, when he experienced the sighting of the Divine Light, God's absolutely humble love made him feel like an unworthy traitor, never having imagined that God could be so humble and condescending. The Elder Sophrony experienced the "Hades or repentance" with extreme anguish, which, however, "regenerates, and does not cause despair nor does it exterminate man".

Most of us are more akin to the Elder Sophrony - relatively speaking - rather than the Elder Porphyrios; by the way, this is why it is of incalculable value to raise our children the Christian way: so that they may find Christ in the easier manner, not the more painful one - nor reach the end of their life not having found Him at all.

The third characteristic of saints, which I would like to mention, is the knowledge (through experience) of all spiritual situations, which allows them to discern between the positive and the negative ones, even if externally they may present the same characteristics. This spiritual science is called the "discerning of spirits" and it allows the saints to distinguish between a real experience or spiritual gift that originates from God, and an "exact replica" that originates from the devil and is given to people as bait, with the intention of flattering their ego and drawing them even further away from their purpose - which is their "in Christ" union with God.

The discerning of spirits is especially apparent in saints who have also "tasted" exo-Christian experiences, after having been initiated in other spiritual traditions prior to discovering Orthodoxy. One such personage is the Elder Sophrony that we mentioned earlier, but, there are other similar cases which are recorded throughout the history of Orthodoxy - even with ascetics who had never ceased being faithful to Christ, but had been caught in a moment of egotistic weakness and had acquired "spiritual gifts" that led them into numerous torments.

The discerning of spirits is a Christian contribution that is necessary for a real evaluation of spiritual experiences, as well as of "powers", of "spiritual gifts", of "contacts with other beings", of "revelations", of "wisdom" and all the other elements that the various spiritual traditions safeguard and impart, as though they are priceless treasures. If I may be allowed to make an observation here, given that this spiritual gift is absent, even in the non-Orthodox versions of Christianity (which is why we observe "spiritual experiences" and "charismatic displays" in various heresies such as Papism and Protestantism - phenomena which according to Orthodox criteria are seen as suspicious, and even purely demonic), Orthodox Saints have experienced similar situations as those experienced by the teachers and the sages of various religions. Reversely, however, the teachers of other religions who may have "broadened their consciousness" or have "communicated with entities" etc., have not savored the experience of a union with Christ. This is the reason why an Orthodox Saint (who can immediately perceive the presence or the absence of divine Grace) is far better "equipped" to evaluate a spiritual phenomenon... and, quite frankly, this evaluation is not favorable as regards the quality of the "powers", the "spiritual gifts", the "revelations" etc., even within Christianity and within Orthodoxy, and even more so within the various religions where people worship spirits of an indeterminable identity (quite possibly malign or threatening ones, or deities that fuse "good and evil" together, as if they are supposedly the different aspects of the same thing, or supplementing each other) and they open up towards these entities, striving to become joined to them or be possessed by them, whereas God, the Angels and the souls of the reposed Saints - i.e. the benign spirits - never possess a person.

The religions of the Far East - such as Hinduism or Buddhism - regard as the perfect state and redemption the elimination of the human personality and its annihilation or its assimilation into the "universal psyche", because they regard the present world as a self-deception. Christianity on the other hand knows, from the personal experience of the saints, that an individual's personality is never lost; that it remains alive after the body's death and also that the body likewise anticipates its resurrection, as pre-announced by Christ in many parts of the New Testament.

So, where does this "elimination" that the oriental religions strive for lead to? Or, what exactly are the spirits and the entities that come into contact with people, either as "gods" or as "ancestors" or as beings "from other worlds" (for example elves and fairies), or even in the modern-day West (which is presently in a spiritual confusion), as "wise extraterrestrials" with divine qualities?

The above are just a small chapter in the huge topic of the differences between religions. Religions are not paths that "all lead to the same finishing point"; they do not say "the same things with other words", nor can they all lead Man to the Truth and to perfection. We Christians are fully aware of this, because experience has reassured us that the Truth is Christ, and that perfection is one's union with Him - which involves the in-Christ participation of imperfect man in the perfection and purity of God. Without Christ, there is no perfection and no Truth; only solitude (like in Buddhism), or paths that lead to the unknown. An "unknown" that is very well known - thanks to the experience and the wisdom of true peaceful warriors and teachers of mankind, who reached the highest point of spiritual progress that is possible for human persons: that of the saints.

All of the above, my brethren, you need not blindly accept as dogmas. Examine them in depth, and you will discover for yourself what the truth is. Be careful, however, in case you fool yourself that "truth" is whatever accommodates your ego (by telling you that you will find God "within you", or that you and God "are one", or that you will become virtuous, luminous, prescient and omnipotent by means of rigorous exercise), just because that which invites you to the thing most hated by fallen man will seem unpleasant to you, i.e., repentance and humility.

Source

How A Hindu From Fiji Became an Orthodox Priest

By Fr. Barnabas Nair

Greetings to all my beloved Orthodox Christians. I am Fr. Barnabas from Labasa, the second largest island in Fiji. I am taking the opportunity to convey to you how I found the truth in the Orthodox Church.

When I first met His Eminence Mr. Amphilochios on my island Vanua Levu in the city of Savusavu it was a Saturday morning on the 18th of June in 2010. When he visited me in my store, he was standing near my door. I thought he was an ordinary man, but then I saw that he wore a pectoral cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I took him into my shop. I was very happy and my tears were rolling when I shook hands with him. With his smiling face he called me outside and we had a pleasant conversation.

I managed to meet him again the next Sunday. It was the only time for me to pray with a holy man, I, who up until then was a very strong Hindu and did not want to become a Christian. One evening I invited him to my home to have dinner and to meet my family. Throughout my life being a Hindu no one ever visited my family. But that which His Eminence did by visiting me, despite me not being a Christian, was an emotional moment for me and left me speechless. We had some discussions and later he asked me if I wanted to change my faith and become an Orthodox Christian. Something that I easily noticed was that he was a man full of love and true faith.

Later he took me and my family to Greece, and then I was ordained a deacon in Rhodes in the Monastery of Panagia Ipseni. We came to know what Orthodoxy is. It is a true faith and today I feel proud that I am an Orthodox Christian. When I see churches and monasteries, tears fall from my eyes and I thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who changed our life into Orthodox Christians.

Then after a week I was ordained a priest in the Church of Saint Gregory Palamas in Thessaloniki. It was a great day for my family and for the people of my island of Vanua Levu. In my life I never thought I would become an Orthodox priest and I am very proud and want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ.

I assure you that with the help of God and the blessing of His Eminence Amphilochios I will bring in many Orthodox Christians on my island, in the Church of Saint Athanasius and Saint Nicholas in Vanua Levu. The grace of our God and His infinite mercy be with you.

I want to thank His Eminence Archbishop Amphilochios for my ordination to the diaconate, as well as the nuns and fathers of the monastery in Tharri of Rhodes. I would also like to give my heartfelt thanks to the residents of Rhodes for the care and love shown us during our stay on the island.

Finally, I want to thank the people of the Orthodox Brotherhood of Foreign Missions in Thessaloniki for their great support during my ordination and throughout the entire duration of my stay there.

Source: Written in November of 2011. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Yoga and the Christian Faith

Dr. Christine Mangala was born a Hindu, a Brahmin, the highest and priestly caste in India. She was brought up on yoga. Her grandfather, in fact, was a personal friend of one of the expounders of modern yoga and Vedanta philosophy, the well-known Swami Sivananda, who is the founder of the Divine Life Society. She became a Christian at age 22, and later converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. She received her doctorate in English literature from Cambridge University, and has authored articles on literature and books of fiction, of which she has written several, as well as various spiritual subjects, including yoga and Christianity. She is married to Dr. David Frost, the director of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England with whom she has four children, and she attends St. Ephraim’s Russian Orthodox Church in Cambridge, UK, England.

By Dr. Christine Mangala Frost

I was born a Hindu, became a Christian at the age of 22 and have been an Orthodox Christian for ten years. I was brought up with yoga. My grandfather was a friend of one of the founders of modern yoga, Swami Sivananda, who used to send his books on yoga to my grandfather along with a vitamin-rich sweet herbal concoction we loved to eat. As children we were encouraged to do certain postures and breathing exercises, always with a clear warning that there are different ways of breathing for men and women as their bodies are differently shaped. When I got married and had children, I passed on to them some of the ideas I had found useful from my childhood yoga lessons. We lived on top of a hill, and as the children walked daily to school (we did not have a car), they had to climb up a steep incline. At times, they would complain about how their legs hurt. I would say, without thinking for one moment how odd it might sound, "breathe through your knees." Somehow they seemed to understand what that meant and did as told, and soon found it less of an effort to climb. Later on, as they grew up, they learnt to do postures from modern western manuals and benefit from the exercises. They were brought up in a Christian home and were in no danger of being led astray by esoteric Hindu spiritual ideas, such as "self-realization", which often accompany modern yoga. On a visit to India, when they met such ideas in an ashram, they were rather repelled by them as they were by the idolatrous, cultic atmosphere that prevailed in that ashram.

I recount this chiefly to emphasize that there is more to yoga than mere exercise and that we need, more than ever, the gift of discernment when we attend yoga classes or read about it in books. We need to have a clear idea of what we are dealing with if we want to use it without compromising our Christian faith.

Yoga was once regarded with awe in India as an esoteric branch of Hindu spiritual discipline that required great physical and psychological daring. It was sought by the solitary spiritual seeker eager to ascend the higher rungs of a Hindu ideal of spiritual perfection. Such a seeker would undertake an austere regimen of physical and mental discipline strictly under the guidance of a revered master, a guru of spiritual discernment who would monitor his disciple's progress vigilantly. The ultimate goal of yoga was nothing short of experiencing the divine within oneself.

Since the nineteenth century, largely due to the relentless propaganda efforts of Hindu missionary gurus such as Swami Vivekananda, yoga has been stripped of its mystique and complexity. It has been remolded in the idiom of American schools of self-help and positive thinking and marketed as a safe and easy pathway to bliss within the grasp of all. Both in the East and West, yoga is now a household word; a highly popular keep-fit routine taught and practiced by large numbers in church or school halls and sports-venues. While some yoga teachers promote it as a mere technique for ensuring one's well-being, others advocate it as an all-purpose answer to not only the ills of modern life but to the ultimate questions of life itself. Some yoga teachers and students play down the importance of the Hindu ethos in which the psycho-spiritual jargon of yoga is anchored, others eagerly embrace that very ethos, especially those who find the creeds, rituals and demands of institutional Christianity irksome. Many Christians practice yoga untroubled by its spiritual baggage while others feel some unease, and often meet with disapproval from their priests and bishops.

As Orthodox Christians, what are we to make of modern yoga?

Is yoga safe for Christians to practice? Or, is it so counter to the Christian faith as to be shunned totally? The conundrum posed by modern yoga was brought into sharp focus by a report in The Times (Friday, 31 August, 2007) which caused a stir. "Vicars ban unchristian yoga for toddlers" so ran the headline: "A children's exercise class has been banned from two church-halls because it is teaching yoga. The group has been turned away by vicars who described yoga as a sham and unchristian." The slant given in the report seemed to suggest that the vicars were being unreasonable, bigoted and unduly alarmist. The yoga teacher Miss Woodcock is said to have been "outraged" by their ban on her "Yum-Yum Yoga class for toddlers and mums". She claims that she explained to the church that her "yoga is a completely non-religious activity." She does, however, concede that "some types of adult-yoga are based on Hindu and Buddhist meditation but it is not part of the religion and there is no dogma involved."

"Exercise", not "meditation": in saying this, this yoga teacher is drawing our attention to the two major types of yoga prevalent today: Modern Postural Yoga and Modern Meditational Yoga. Realizing that meditational yoga often takes one deep into spiritual realms and goals incompatible with Christianity, Miss Woodcock is eager to keep "exercise" apart from "meditation." Is such a defusing of yoga to make it "safe" possible?

The vicars disagree: " The philosophy of yoga cannot be separated from the practice of it, and any teacher of yoga (even to toddlers) must subscribe to the philosophy. Yoga may appear harmless or even beneficial, but it is encouraging people to think that there is a way to wholeness of body and mind through human techniques—whereas the only true way to wholeness is by faith in God through Jesus Christ."

Any reliance solely on "human techniques" for achieving wholeness divorced from faith in Jesus Christ is understandably castigated by the vicars, one an Anglican and the other, a Baptist. Their rejection stems from a fear of nullifying the role of faith and grace in salvation and of falling into the heresy of Pelagianism. Protestant tradition in general tends to be nervous of any suggestion of "spiritual effort" despite the fact that St. Paul admonishes us to "work out our salvation with diligence".

The concept of synergy

In the Orthodox tradition the role of human freewill in responding to the divine call to "wholeness" or "holiness" is beautifully encapsulated in the concept of synergy. The Incarnation of Christ as fully human and fully God means that we now have a way through Him for what St. Maximus calls divine-human "reciprocity". God becoming human makes possible our participation in His life, a lifelong process which is described as theosis (deification). Our salvation is not an automatic result of an initial assent, or a legal status of being redeemed from our "slavery" to sin but an "active perfection" in love to be realized in the body of Christ, in his Church.

Therefore baptized Christians are urged to fast, pray, give alms, repent, confess, participate in the life and liturgy of the Church; all these require an initiative on our part, a willingness to prepare ourselves to receive and respond to the grace of God. Like the Prodigal Son, remembering God, "Our Father," means setting our heart towards our journey home back to Him. There is a subtle symbiosis between human readiness or willingness and the work of the Holy Spirit. To adopt a telling image from St. Ephraim, the human person is a "harp of the Spirit." To play well the music of the Holy Spirit our harp needs to be well tuned, its strings neither too tight nor too slack. Yoga techniques are primarily aimed at achieving a psychosomatic equilibrium or poise. So we may well ask, without falling into any heresy, is it not possible to treat yoga-techniques as means "to tune up" our body and mind so that we become better receptors of God's grace? Can Hindu yoga help a Christian to fulfill the command heard by the psalmist "Be still and know that I am God?" What role, if any, can yoga postures and meditation play in fulfilling the commands of Christ : "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mathew 22: 37-39)?

The Hindu-Buddhist Ethos of Modern Yoga

Before I attempt to answer these questions I need to sketch in brief the types of yoga one encounters today and the Hindu-Buddhist ethos they are steeped in. One writer cites four types: Hollywood Yoga, Harvard Yoga, Himalayan Yoga and Cultic Yoga.[1]

1. Hollywood Yoga , as the name implies, aims at beauty, fitness and longevity.

2. Harvard Yoga sets its sights on mental clarity, concentration and psychic calm.

3. Himalayan Yoga goes way beyond the other two and aims at a mystical state known as samadhi (absorption).

4. Cultic Yoga centers round a charismatic guru. Enlightenment is said to be imparted by the mere touch of a guru to a disciple who worships him or her as God.

5. Purist Hindu practitioners claim to follow the guidelines provided in the original Sanskrit text, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras; their teaching follows the "eight-limbed" (ashtanga) yoga. Doing postural exercises is a relatively minor matter in an agenda that lays stress on mental and moral purification and a harnessing of psychic powers for spiritual perfection. The "eight-limbs" consist of :

"five restraints" (yamas)

"five disciplines" (niyamas)

"physical postures" (asanas)

"regulation of vital force" (pranayama)

"sense organ withdrawal" (pratyahara),

"concentration" (dharana),

"meditation" (dhyana)

"absorption" (samadhi).

The first two "limbs" aim at cultivating virtues such as truthfulness, selflessness and non-violence. Some Hindu teachers of yoga regret that the third, "physical postures", is now widely taught without any reference to moral perfection. They insist that the poise attained by the practice of postures is meant to set the yogi on a journey whose ultimate goal is spiritual, a state of permanent bliss known as samadhi or "absorption".

Absorption into what? This meets with different answers depending on what you believe.

If you are a Hindu who believes that there is no difference between his Self (atma) and the Supreme Self (brahman), "absorption" means arriving at an experience of undifferentiated oneness with brahman. Such a Hindu sees the ultimate spiritual reality as Impersonal and strongly contends that belief in the Impersonal is superior to any belief in a Personal God.

If you are a Hindu who worships God as a deity, a theist who cultivates a personal relationship of love with his or her god or goddess, and seeks liberation by the deity's grace, "absorption" means a drowning of self in the Godhead.

If you are a Buddhist and do not believe in a Creator-God (as the Dalai Lama reiterates often) "absorption", means entering nirvana, a "blowing out", an ultimate extinction of self.

Though the ambitious spiritual program of Patanjali's Yoga morphed into keep-fit routines in Western Yoga classes and manuals, one still meets some mutation or other of the complex, inter-dependent psycho-spiritual concepts from the original author. Underlying them all is the view derived from a system of philosophy known as samkhya. According to samkhya, our ordinary psychosomatic self is a by-product of biophysical processes and that by the disciplines of yoga, one peels oneself like an onion to reach the core where one finds "pure consciousness." As one yoga teacher explains: 'once the individual grasps that he is essentially pure consciousness different from and separate from psychophysical processes, he is disunited from his false notions. At the same time the individual is also united in his thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions to his real self.'[2]

"Pure Consciousness" or Kingdom of God?

It seems a questionable claim that a systematic severing of contact with the external world creates an integrated human being. On the contrary, as R.D. Laing has shown in his The Divided Self, embarking on a radical withdrawal from external reality may well render one schizoid. Not only does the yogic inward journey run the risk of mental illness, but the goal of such yoga raises some serious problems for a Christian. Jesus admonishes us to seek the Kingdom of God within, not "pure consciousness." When a Christian prays, "Thy Kingdom come," he is paradoxically envisaging the reign of God as an external as well as an internal happening. Even in the Christian monastic traditions, which recommend withdrawal from the world, from the objects of sensual experience, the monk is in search of an "inner kingdom" (cf. Metropolitan Kallistos' choice title for his writings). In this "inner kingdom", God the Holy Trinity, our God who has "revealed" Himself to us in Jesus Christ reigns supreme. We recognize Him and commune with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the same Spirit we call upon God as "Our Father." In countless parables, Jesus describes what that phrase, the "Kingdom of God" means. Among other things it stands for a "life abundant" here and hereafter; and it encompasses the whole of creation. As Patriarch Ignatius IV reminds us, 'The Kingdom of God is nothing other than the glorified Body of the risen Christ, in which each day humanity enters into communion.'[3] The Christian goal of "the Kingdom of God" is a far cry from whatever one understands by "pure consciousness."

Influential Hindu missionaries like Vivekananda and his followers deploy certain yoga techniques to promote a pop-mysticism based on the notion of "Self-realization." which has become a yoga buzz-word. The path to "Self-realization" through yoga is presented as of universal appeal, free from dogma and strictly non-denominational. However, a close scrutiny of Vivekananda's writings reveals a strong bias in favor of one specific Hindu tradition, that of the non-dualist, (advaitin) Vivekananda bowdlerized the subtle metaphysics of Hindu non-dualism (advaita) and championed its cause in the marketplace with the ardor of a philosophical imperialist. Random quotes from his writings illustrate his reckless syncretism and the audacious, often preposterous claims he made for his mode of "Self-realization."[4]

"All is my Self. Say this unceasingly. "

"Go into your own room and get the Upanishads out of your own Self. You are the greatest book that ever was or ever will be, the infinite depository of all that is."

"I am the essence of bliss. " "Follow no ideal, you are all that is. " "Christs and Buddhas are simply occasions upon which to objectify your inner powers. We really answer our own prayers. "

" We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Jehovah, Allah, Agni, but it is only the Self, the 'I'."

"The universe is thought, and the Vedas are the words of this thought. We can create and uncreate the whole universe. "[5]

When Vivekananda realized that he needed something more than loose philosophical talk for his brand of "Self-realization," he wrote his seminal work, Raja Yoga, which is a practical manual for those seeking the so-called "Self-realization."

"Know thyself": in Yoga and Christianity

There are many reasons why the spiritual ethos underpinning modern yoga is incompatible with Christianity, chief among them being the inordinate focus on self. Self-deification, from a Christian point of view, is at the very root of evil. In Christian understanding, the very Fall of Man is a turning away from God towards a misguided, rebellious reliance on self. This rupture of communion with God results in sin and death. Commenting on the Socratic dictum, "Know Thyself," (which is also a message of modern yoga), Orthodox theologian Mantzaridis writes: 'If there exists something that man can and must seek and find within himself, it is not the self which deviated but the new man in Christ, born through baptismal grace and the other Church sacraments. Man's return to himself can only truly exalt him provided it takes place within the life in Christ.'[6] The Christian goal and the means to that goal are succinctly put by the same author in his explication of St. Gregory Palamas: 'Direct and personal knowledge of God is achieved through a mystical communion with Him. Man gains true knowledge of Him once he is visited by deifying grace and united through it with God. The more man accepts the divinizing transformation worked within him by the Holy Spirit, the more perfect and full is his knowledge of God.'[7]

St. Paul reminds us, to know God is to be known by him, that is, to be loved by Him. Love implies a relationship, a communion, not annihilation nor "absorption", least of all "self-absorption".

Christian Yoga?

Given that the spiritual ambience and goals of yoga, by and large, are incompatible with Christianity is there any way a Christian can disengage it from its Hindu ethos, use its techniques and still remain a committed Christian?

Some Christians believe that this is possible. A notable example is the Benedictine monk, Dechanet, who argues that yoga can do a great deal for Christians, well beyond improving our physical wellbeing. He believes that yoga can help us to be better Christians, provided we practice it within a framework of Christian prayer. In his book Christian Yoga Dechanet takes up the challenge of Christianizing yoga. This he does, with an acute awareness of the counter-Christian ethos of traditional yoga. He states emphatically how the two are dissimilar: 'The Christian starts from faith, and reaches a certain experience, in divine charity, of the God of Revelation, experiencing "Emmanuel", God with us, God with me. The Hindu has only empirical data to guide him and at the end of his road discovers a sublime but almost savage isolation.'[8]

Dechanet gives careful guidelines as to how one can do yoga to be a better Christian: in prayer, worship, in one's love of God and love of one's neighbour. He presents a set of yoga exercises and advice on breathing as ways of presenting ourselves to God with integrity and sincerity: 'Our whole aim is to bring calm and peace to the whole being; to make a good and faithful servant of the body; to free the soul from anxieties and problems that are all too common; and to finally to arouse the spirit.' [9]

A Critique of Dechanet

I must confess to being somewhat troubled by that last phrase, "arouse the spirit". This is the language of a Hindu yogi who believes in "arousing" dormant powers by masterful self-effort; and therefore it is not suitable to describe a Christian experience of the Spirit. Our Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit, "O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth..." makes it very clear that, as fallen creatures, what we need most urgently is an infusion of new life. So we ask to be cleansed and purified by Him who is "everywhere present and fills all things." This prayer clearly positions us as supplicants seeking the Spirit's abiding presence within us.

When I started work on this essay, I decided to test out Dechanet's recommendations, and practiced some basic yoga postures during my morning prayers; and I found that with some conscious effort and concentration it was possible to synchronize my petitions, praise and thanks with the postures. It certainly curbed the level of anxiety, and I could tell myself that I was able to "consider the lilies of the field", as our Lord commanded us to do, a little better than I normally do. The breathing exercises infused a sense of wellbeing and increased my ability to deal with the turmoil of the day.

However, there was one thing that troubled me somewhat in combining yoga with prayers. I found myself much more aware of myself praying. There was a degree of self-consciousness I felt uncomfortable with: I would rather have forgotten myself while saying the words of prayer or entering silence. Instead, I seemed to be watching myself praying. I decided that the sense of well being I had experienced was genuine enough but it was the result of the exercises, which were clearly beneficial. I decided to revert to my old habit of keeping the exercises separate from prayers.

My conclusion:

1. Incompatibility.

Christians undertaking yoga should be fully aware that its Hindu-Buddhist spiritual ethos is incompatible with the Christian faith. For example: even the Dalai Lama's commendable guidelines on cultivating compassion focus on "self-effort," for he frankly admits that he does not believe in a Creator God. For a Christian, love of one's neighbour (compassion) is inseparable from love of God, and, both are kindled in the human heart by the Holy Spirit.

If a yoga teacher introduces concepts and goals incompatible with being a Christian, one needs to resist them. For this one needs to have a good and clear grasp of what it means to be a Christian. If you are well grounded in Christian thinking, prayer and Christian living, it should be possible, by the grace of God to take what is good in yoga and discard its alien ethos. Attempts to Christianize yoga are commendable but may prove distracting.

2. Yoga to keep fit

It is perfectly feasible to use yoga as a keep-fit routine to tune the body, and make it a fit instrument for Christian prayer. We should be grateful that the modern teachers of yoga have reduced it to a gentle form of exercise.

[Editors Note: Even though the respectable author of the article regards that Yoga can be used purely for exercising, there are nevertheless other Orthodox students and authors who disagree and believe that even in such a case, it can still create problems in a person. Further down, you will see that even "Gurus" assert that Yoga has negative side effects on the body. On the basis of this and everything else that you will read further along, we would recommend that the reader resort to other kinds of physical exercise... after all, there are several other kinds, which do not have religious roots.]

3. Caution

I would, however, sound a note of caution. It is important to make sure that you are in normal health before you undertake postural yoga. A medical check-up is a good idea. For example, if you have blood-pressure problems certain postures should be avoided. Some postures stimulate the thyroid, and if you have any problems relating to that gland, again, you need to be careful. Some difficult postures like the headstand should be done only for short spells. One Indian guru, who rejects yoga, mocks its claim to enlightenment with the remark that too many headstands damage the finer blood vessels in the brain, even cause partial brain damage, and the consequent stupor is hailed by some Hindus as a state of enlightenment!

Even greater caution is necessary with what is taught as "meditation." Some advanced forms of meditation-exercises change one's brain rhythms and lead to a sense of euphoria, which can be addictive. As with other addictions, when the effect wears off, one may end up in depression.

4. Psychic Danger

Breathing techniques aimed at rousing what is called kundalini, dormant sexual energy, which is sublimated into spiritual energy, are particularly dangerous, as they expose one to psychic forces beyond one's control. Here it is well to remember Jesus' parable about the unclean spirit (Matthew 12: 43-45). A purified, heightened consciousness without the presence of God is a dangerous state to be in.

5. Mantras and Jesus Prayer

Some yoga teachers encourage chanting of mantras as a means of eliminating disturbance. Mantras are abbreviated invocation of Hindu deities; a mantra's sound vibrations are said to activate unexplored levels of consciousness. Christians need no such mantras. Rather than enter unknown and potentially dangerous psychic realms through such chanting, we can stabilize ourselves by saying the Jesus Prayer. We have in the Jesus Prayer the most perfect invocation of the Divine Name, which we are called to "hallow," that is hold holy. Moreover, our cry is grounded in a sober awareness of our own spiritual poverty as sin-prone creatures; hence, like the blind beggar we say, "Lord Jesus, Have mercy!"

Vocal or silent repetition of the name of Jesus acts like a mantra yet the Jesus Prayer is not a mantra. The Jesus prayer, unlike a mantra, contains in a nutshell the basics of the Christian faith. Unlike a mantra, which works more like self-hypnotism, the Jesus prayer marks a movement to and from God as it embodies a relationship in faith and love. Unlike Hindu mantras, whose ambit is what Christians would see as the "old Adam", the ultimate aim of the Jesus Prayer is, to quote St. Paul ,"to put on the new man." In the writings of the Desert Fathers, of St. John of Damascus, especially in the hesychast tradition so soundly defended by St. Gregory Palamas, and in the works of modern commentators like Bishop Brianchaninov, Metropolitan Kallistos, monk Porphyrios, we have invaluable guidelines for the practice of the Jesus Prayer. As Bishop Brianchaninov puts it, "In the name of the Lord Jesus quickening is given to the soul deadened by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is life. And His name is living; it revives and quickens those who cry by it to the source of life.'[10]

Having sounded these warnings, I still believe that a modest yoga regimen can help us to stay supple in body and mind, spiritually alert and vigilant and ultimately live a Christian life with greater zest and joy. We can take our cue from the early Church Fathers. The Cappadocian Fathers were trained in pagan schools of rhetoric and logic but discarded the pagan ethos and deployed the techniques of their learning to brilliant effect in their Christian spiritual theology. Similarly, we too can deal with yoga without being swamped or led astray by its alien ethos, provided we entrust ourselves to Christ our Lord, and our God.

NOTES

[1] Ashok Kumar Malhotra, An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy: an annotated translation of the Yoga Sutras, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2001, p. 15

[2] Ibid., p.4

[3] Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch, The Resurrection and the Modern Man, translated by Stephen Bingham, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, New York 1985, p. 71

[4] For a informative and penetrating analysis of the hybrid origins of modern yoga see, Elizabeth DeMichelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism Continuum , London, 2004.

[5] All these quotations from Vivekananda's Complete Works cited above are from DeMichelis, A History of Modern Yoga, pages 121-122.

[6] George I Mantzaridis, The Deification of Man: St. Gregory Palamas and the Orthodox Tradition, translated by Laidain Sherrard, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, New York, 1984. pp 82-83. Italics mine.

[7] Ibid.,p.114

[8] Dechanet, Christian Yoga, London, Burns & Oates, 1956,1964, p.121

[9] Ibid., p.85.

[10] On the Prayer of Jesus, translated by Father Lazarus, London: John M. Watkins, 1965, p.27.

Source

Is Yoga Exercise? (A Statement on Christians Who Practice Yoga)

An encyclical issued on June 4, 2013 by Metropolitan Markos of Chios on Christians who practice Yoga and whether or not it is merely a physical exercise. He basically explains that the Hindu religious practice of yoga was established for the sole purpose of entering into a particular spiritual state, and never had anything to do with exercise until a few decades ago when Hindu yogis explained it this way when they were trying to win converts in the West.

Encyclical 14: Is Yoga Exercise?

To the Sacred Clergy and Pious People of our Sacred Metropolis,

My brethren,

A key feature of our time is the confusion observed in various aspects of human life. A characteristic example of this spiritual and existential confusion is the fact that yoga is fundamentally a religious technique of Hinduism, advertised in our country, in Europe and in the United States as an exercise-fitness solution which is offered to release us from the numerous problems stemming from a stressful lifestyle.

But what is yoga? The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj which means to "unite", meaning the union of the individual soul with the impersonal Absolute One of Hinduism (see P. Schreiner, Yoga: Wörterbuch des Christen-tums, 1995, p. 1376). This union is considered a liberation and redemption of mankind from karma, that is, from the consequences that result from our choices and actions in supposedly previous lives.

Moreover, concerning the term yoga, we must stress that it is used as a qualifying term of one of the six classical orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy (see H. Baer, ​​"Yoga", in the Lexikon der Sekten, Sohdergruppen und Weltanschauungen, 7th Ed, 2001, pp. 1166-1174).

But is yoga exercise? Can one isolate the practical exercise from its religious content and background? Can one ignore the purpose for which it is used? Unquestionably no.

And what about the claim of various centers, institutes, schools, groups, journals and gyms, that present it as lacking a religious nature, alleging it to be a "scientific" psychosomatic practice, or a practice for a simple existence and spiritual self-knowledge? Without doubt these assertions are inaccurate. They oftentimes misinform and confuse using an extremely attractive vocabulary (see R. Hauth, (Hrsg), Kompaktlexikon Religionen, 1998, p. 366).

On the contrary, yoga is a religious systematic theory, technique and method that evolves in stages and practices, one of which is meditation, which leads those who use it, with the guidance of a teacher (guru), to a singular life joined to the impersonal Absolute of Hinduism. In this way a person is redeemed and atones for the errors and mistakes made during the source of all supposedly previous incarnations.

From the above, therefore, we observe that the view of yoga simply as an exercise is incorrect. And this 1) because it is a fundamental feature of the Hindu system, 2) it cannot be stripped of its religious character according to the conditions of the content and purpose of exercise, 3) it is intrinsically linked to the anti-Christian concept of reincarnation, and 4) because it constitutes a humanistic effort towards self-redemption through techniques and exercises.

Why are the various techniques of yoga dangerous? The answer is given to us in an article on yoga from the authoritative encyclopedia Δο­μή (Domi). It says there: "It is known that the practice of yoga creates for the individual not entirely physiological properties - and parapsychological - because it reverses certain physical and mental functioning" (Δο­μή, vol. 4, p. 199).

To conclude this brief offering of ours on whether or not yoga is exercise, we must again remind all of the obvious. The value of our identity as Orthodox Christians is incompatible with the use of Hindu religious practices in any aspect of our lives.

The salvation of man which is freely housed within the Church, is the work and offering of the love and grace of our Christ. For us does Paul say with all gravity: "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal. 3:26-27), and: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14-15).

With warm fatherly prayers,

The Metropolitan of Chios, Psara and Oinouses, 

Markos

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Genuine and False Experiences of the Grace of God

A recorded speech of Archimandrite George of our Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory of the Holy Mountain at Stratoni of Halkidiki, on 14/27 January 1989, at the invitation of the Most Reverend Nikodemos, Metropolitan of Hierissou, of the Holy Mountain and Ardameri.

I am very pleased seeing at this evening's meeting, a holy and blessed gathering, the honorable presbytery led by the preacher of the Holy Metropolis, but also yourselves, a pious crowd, who through the blessing and invitation of your Most Reverend Metropolitan and Head Shepherd, you are gathered here this evening so that all of us confess our true faith to our God-man Lord. Your presence this evening is not only the attendance for a lecture but also the testimony of the Orthodox faith, which my humility will profess by mouth while you profess it with your presence. And as the Lord said in the Holy Bible: "Whoever confesses Me in front of men, I shall confess him in front of My Father in the Heavens".

The purpose of our life, as you know, is our union with God. As the Holy Bible says, man was created "in the image and likeness" of God, namely to unite with Him. The likeness of man with God, our holy Fathers call it "theosis". Can you see how great is the purpose of man's life? Not simply to become better, more virtuous, more courteous, but a god by grace. And what is the difference between the Holy God and deified man? That our Maker and Creator is God by nature and according to His nature, while we become gods by grace, for although by nature we remain men, with His grace we are deified.

When man unites with God by grace, he receives also the experience of God, he feels God. For otherwise how could we unite with God without feeling His grace?

The first-created in Paradise, before they sinned, could converse with God, could feel divine grace. God created man to be a priest, prophet, king. Priest to accept His existence and the world as gifts of God, and to offer in return himself and the world to God eucharistically and doxologically. Prophet to understand the mysteries of God. King to reign in the material creation and himself, and to use nature not as a tyrant but as a ruler. Not to abuse creation, but to use it thankfully. Today man does not use nature logically but acts selfishly and foolishly, with the result of destroying his natural surrounding and within it destroying himself.

If man had not sinned and replaced his love and obedience to God with his selfishness, he would not have separated from God, but would have been king, priest and prophet. However, our Holy God who hurts for His creature, wishes to return man back to the state where he again can become a true priest, prophet and king. To be able to again receive the experience of God and to unite with Him. For this, in the history of the Old Testament we see God preparing slowly the salvation of man with the coming of His Only Son. He thus gives graces like those that man had before his fall, like the grace of prophesy. In the Old Testament there were men, like the prophet Elijah, the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Moses, who received the prophetic grace and saw the glory of God. Except this grace was not generally given to all, nor was it for the full period of their lives, but was a partial grace that God gave them for a specific purpose and for defined occasions. Namely, whenever God wished these just men to declare the coming of Christ to the world or to declare His Will, they were given the capacity to receive some experiences and revelations.

However, the prophet Joel prophesied that a time will come when God will give the grace of the Holy Spirit not only to select men and for a specific purpose, but to all people. Here is what the prophesy of Joel says: "I shall pour My Spirit upon all flesh", I shall give My Spirit to every person, "and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28). Namely, my people will see spiritual visions, will see the mysteries of God. This pouring of the Holy Spirit happened during Pentecost. Then the grace of the Holy Spirit was given to the whole Church. This grace was not given during the period of the Old Testament because Christ was not yet incarnate. The communion of man with God had to first be restored for God to give the grace of the Holy Spirit to all the people. This communion our Saviour Christ achieved through His Incarnation

The first union that God had with man in Paradise was not hypostatic and for this it failed. The second union is hypostatic, namely personal. In the hypostatic person of Christ, human nature was united undisturbed, properly, indivisibly, inseparably, with the divine nature forever. No matter how much men sin, it is no more possible for human nature to separate from God, because in Jesus Christ, the God-man, it is united forever with the divine nature.

For man therefore to be able to receive the Holy Spirit, to become priest, king and prophet, to know the mysteries of God and to feel God, he must become a member of the Body of Christ, of the Church. Jesus Christ is the only one, true and perfect priest, king and prophet. What Adam and Eve were created to do, they failed due to sin and selfishness, but was done by Christ. Now all of us, united with Christ, can partake in the three offices of Christ - the royal, the prophetic and the priestly. At this juncture we must clarify that with Holy Baptism and Chrismation, the Christian receives the priesthood but not the special priesthood that is obtained through tonsuring and through which the liturgists of the Church receive the grace to perform in the Church and to shepherd the laity.

Laity, again, is not only the non-priestly but those who through Holy Baptism and Chrismation receive the right to be members of the people of God and the Body of Christ, to participate in the three offices of Christ. In fact the more healthy, conscious and active a Christian member of the people of God and of the Body of Christ is, that much more closely he participates in the priestly, prophetic and royal right of Christ, and that much greater experience and feeling of His grace he receives as we see in the lives of the Saints of our Faith.

Forms of experience of the grace of God

What are the experiences of grace that a Christian can receive so that his faith and Christian life not be for him something mental and external, but a true spiritual feeling of God, a communion with God, a habitation of God in which the complete man participates.

It is foremost an internal information that through faith in God he finds the true meaning of his life. He feels that his faith in Christ is a faith that comforts him internally, that gives meaning to his life, and guides him, that it is a strong light that illumines him. When he perceives the Christian faith within himself this way, he begins to live the grace of God. God is not something external to him.

Another experience of the grace of God man receives is when he hears in his heart the invitation of God to repent of his dark and sinful deeds, to return to the Christian life, to confess, to enter on the path of God. This voice of God he hears inside him is an early experience of the grace of God. All those years he lived away from God he could not understand anything.

He starts to repent: he confesses to the Confessor for the first time in his life. After confession he feels a great peace and joy that he never felt before. And then he says: "I have been comforted". This comfort is the visit of divine grace in a soul that has repented and God wishes to comfort it.

The tears of a repenting Christian when he prays and asks to be forgiven by God or when he confesses are tears of repentance. Those tears are very comforting. They bring lots of peace to the soul of man. Then man feels that these are the gifts and experiences of divine grace.

The deeper man repents and comes to a greater love of God and prays with godly eros, that much more those tears of repentance become tears of joy, tears of love and divine eros. Those tears that are higher than the tears of repentance, are also a higher visitation and experience of the grace of God.

We approach to commune the Body and Blood of Christ having repented, confessed, and fasting with spiritual preparation. After Holy Communion what do we feel? Deep peace in our soul, spiritual joy. This too is a visitation of Divine grace and an experience of God.

There are however other higher experiences of God. The higher experience of God is the vision of the uncreated Light. This Light the disciples of the Lord saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Christ shine like the sun with heavenly and divine light, which is not material, created light, like the sun and the other created lights. It was the uncreated Light, namely the Light of God, the Light of the Holy Trinity. Those who are completely cleansed from their passions and sin, and pray with true and pure prayer, they are found worthy of this great experience to see the Light of God in this life. This Light is what will be shining in eternal life. Not only can we see eternity from now, but we can also see from now this Light. For this Light envelops the Saints. We do not see it, but the cpure of heart and saints do see it. The bright halo that is painted around the faces of the Saints is the Light of the Holy Trinity that has illumined and sanctified them.

In the life of Basil the Great we read that Basil, when he was praying in his cell, he could be seen entirely shining as well as his cell which was illumined by the uncreated Light. We see the same in the lives of many saints.

So, therefore, for someone to be found worthy to see the uncreated Light is one of the highest experiences of God, which is not given to everyone but to very few, those who have progressed in spiritual life. According to Abba Isaac, in every generation almost one man manages to see lucidly the uncreated Light. There are however even today Christians who are worthy to have this unique experience of God.

Of course we should also say that everyone that sees light does not mean that he sees the uncreated Light. The devil deceives and shows them other lights, demonic or psychological, to believe that it is the uncreated Light, when it is not. For this every Christian that hears something or has a certain experience, must not accept it as if from God, because he could be deceived by the devil. He must however confess it to his Confessor who will then tell him whether it is from God or if it is a deceit of demons. A lot of caution is needed in such cases.

Determination of a pure experience of the grace of God

Let us now look at the conditions which ensure whether different experiences we have are genuine and not false.

The first condition is that we should be men of repentance. If we do not repent of our sins and cleanse ourselves of our passions we cannot see God. As the Lord says in His beatitudes, "Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God". The more man cleanses himself from his passions, repents and returns to God, that much better he could feel and see God.

To attempt to receive experiences of God with artificial ways and methods as is done in the heresies of Hinduism and in Yoga is false. Those experiences are not from God. Those are experiences that are derived from psychological ways.

The Holy Fathers tell us: "Give blood and receive the Spirit". In other words, if you do not give the blood of your heart with your repentance, prayer, fasting, and asceticism, you cannot receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. True spiritual experiences are given to those who through humility do not ask for spiritual experiences, but ask God for repentance and salvation. To those who are humble and say, "My God, I am not worthy to receive a visitation of Your grace, and divine and heavenly solace and spiritual pleasures". To those however who through pride ask God to give them experiences, He will not give them true and genuine experiences due to their pride. So therefore the second is humility.

The third condition to receive a true spiritual experience is to be in the Church. Not outside the Church. For outside the Church the devil will deceive us. When a sheep becomes separated from the flock, it will be destroyed by the wolf. Within the flock there is security. The Christian inside the Church is secure. However, when he leaves the Church, he is exposed to the deceits of other people and of demons. We have many examples of many people who did not obey the Church and in their spiritual state they fell into deceits. And they believed that they saw God or that they were visited by God when in reality the experiences they had were demonic and destructive to them. Also it helps greatly to have pure and warm prayer. The truth is that at the time of prayer God gives most spiritual experiences to man. For this, those who pray with longing, zeal and patience, receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the feeling of the grace of God.

As you may know, there is a prayer we say at the Holy Mountain and which you may also be saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner". This prayer which is characterized as noetic, heartfelt and unremitting when it is said with humility, with longing and persistence, brings in the heart of man the feeling of the grace of God.

False experiences of the grace of God

People have false experiences of God when they believe that by themselves, with their own powers, in heresies, in groups, in religious gatherings, outside the Church, they can receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. They gather and some new "prophet" acts the leader and they believe they are receiving the grace of God.

It happened that I was present at a gathering of Pentecostals in the United States in 1966 while I was there. Their "church" was a hall of a school. First someone started to play some music with soft and gentle sounds, which as it went on it was becoming progressively more intensive, deafening and frantic so that it caused excitement. The music finished and the preacher started. He too started gently and as he continued he would scream louder. At the end he too created an excited atmosphere. And then when all the people suffered from auto-suggestion and hysteria, they started to scream and move their hands and give out unintelligible shouts. I felt that the Spirit of God was not there, which is a Spirit of peace and not of disturbance and excitement. The Spirit of God does not come with artificial and psychological ways. Instead I felt sorry for the children that were there with their parents for they could suffer the consequences of this mass neurosis.

A young man who became a monk at the Holy Mountain and who first went through the Hindu yoga (you should know that there are approximately 500 Hindu heresies in Greece), described to me what experiences they try to have there. When they wished to see light they would rub their eyes so that they could see little stars. When they again wished to hear unusual sounds they performed some sort of pressuring of the ears so that they would create sounds.

Similar psychological experiences that are produced artificially, some heretics attribute them to the Holy Spirit.

Other experiences in heretic gatherings are not only psychological. They could be demonic. The devil manipulates the seeking of such experiences by some people and presents them different signs which are not of God but theirs - diabolical. They cannot understand that they are victims of the devil.

They believe these signs are heavenly and from the Holy Spirit. The devil also can give them some prophetic capability as he gives to the "mediums". The Lord has however forewarned us, "There will rise false christs and false prophets and will give you great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect (Matt. 24:24), They won't simply do miracles and wonders, scary signs. Like the Antichrist when he will come he will not do bad things. He will do benefactions, healing of the sick and other impressive things to deceive the people, if possible even the elect, to believe him as savior and follow him.

That is why we must be careful. Everyone who can do signs and prophesies is not always from God. Again as the Lord says: "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name cast out devils? And in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I say unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me you that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:22-23).

I knew a young man who was led astray by occult and Pentecostal heresies, who confessed that the different experiences he had when he was a members of these heresies, were diabolical.

A previous Pentecostal man for example confessed that at the Pentecostal gatherings, when some "prophetess" would prophesy, he felt a demonic disturbance and that when he tried to say the prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner", the speaking in tongues would start and drown him, impeding him from saying the prayer.

Because the devil transforms to an angel of light, we must be careful with experiences. The Apostle John advises us: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). Not all the spirits are from God. Those who have the Apostle Paul's gift of discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) can discern the spirits if they are from God or if from the devil. The Confessors of the Church have this gift. That is why when we have such problems we must seek our Confessor and he will determine the source of every experience.

Even the monastics can be deceived. We have cases at the Holy Mountain where monks were deceived by such experiences. For example, an angel appeared to a monk - while it was the devil - and told him: "Come to the peak of Athos to show you great miracles". He guided him there and he almost fell over the cliff, had he not invoked divine help. He made the mistake to believe the vision as if of God when he shouldn't have. The monastics know when they have a vision they must tell it to their Elder and he will tell them if it is from God or from the demons. Where there is pride, therefore, deceit is very possible.

About Pentecostals

The experiences of the Pentecostals are not from God. For this, not only are they not helped to come to Church but instead they are driven away from the Church. For only the devil is interested in driving people out of the Church.

Also their divisions in many heresies and groups is proof they do not comprise the true Church of God. Protestantism consists of thousands of heresies. One of the protestant heresies is Pentecostalism. Only in the USA there are over 39 different Pentecostals. Many of the Pentecostal heresies have no relationship between them. Here are some titles of some of the Pentecostal groups: "Congregation of the Church of God of the Mountain", "Integrated Congregation of the Church of God", "Theater Gar", "Sleepless Mission", "Church of Mother Horn", "Church of Mother Robertson", "Jesus and Sleepless Mission", "Remainder of the Church of God", "Fire born Church of God's sanctity of America", "Church of Mogara Cook", "National Spiritual Davidic Union Temple Church of God", "Church of the Square Bible".

If the Spirit of God existed in these groups, there would have been a union, there would have been one Church and not so many different and opposing groups.

Also, some of the demonstrations that take place at their gatherings, such as trembling, dropping to the ground as if dead, screaming unrecognizable sounds, are not from the peaceful Spirit of God. Similar phenomena we find in idolatrous religions. There are also many similarities with the Spiritualist phenomena.

They also cultivate a spirit of pride believing that the whole Church of two thousand years is deceived, while they discovered the truth in 1900. The first one who created the group of Pentecostals is an American. The first Pentecostal in Greece, Michael Gounas, preached, "After so many centuries in the land of Greece the outset of the visitation of God happened like the day of the Pentecost". According to him, the visit of Christ started in Greece by him like in the day of the Pentecost! All these years there was nothing. Do you see the satanic egoism and pride?

What now with the sought after gift by them of "speaking in tongues"? In truth, in the New Testament there is reference to "speaking in tongues". The Holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost spoke the tongues of the people who had come for pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to teach them the Good News. The gift of speaking in tongues is a grace given by God to the Apostles for a specific purpose: To convert the non-Christians to the Christian faith. The Holy Apostles, when speaking in tongues, did not speak meaningless sounds like demoniacs. They spoke tongues, not any tongues, but the tongues of those who were in Jerusalem and could not speak the Jewish language, so that they could hear of the greatness of God and believe. So the meaningless cries have no relation to the gift of "speaking in tongues" which the Pentecostals maintain.

The Orthodox Church is the place of the genuine experience of the Grace of God

The Church of Pentecost is our Orthodox Church. And why is she? Because she is the Church of the Incarnation and Humanity of Christ, of His crucifixion death, His Resurrection, and of Pentecost. When from the complete work of Christ we isolate only one part, we overemphasize it and falsely explain it, this becomes one-sided and a heresy. Only the Church that accepts and lives the whole work of Christ, including Pentecost, is the true Church of Pentecost. Can there be a Resurrection without a Cross? Unless man crucifies himself with fasting, prayer, repentance, humility, asceticism, could he see God? The Cross precedes in the life of Christ and of the Christian and the Resurrection and Pentecost follows. They want a resurrection and spiritual gifts without crucifying themselves through repentance, asceticism, fasting and obedience to the Church. That is why they do not comprise the Church of Pentecost.

At every Divine Liturgy of our Church we have Pentecost. How does the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ? Don't they become through the descent of the Holy Spirit? There is Pentecost! Every Holy Altar of the Orthodox Church is the table of Pentecost. At every baptism we have Pentecost. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, man becomes a Christian and becomes one with the Body of Christ. Every tonsuring of a Deacon, Priest, and of course a Hierarch is a new Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends and makes a man a liturgist of God.

Every confession of a Christian is Pentecost. The moment the Christian kneels to his Confessor and with humility tells him his sins with repentance and the Confessor reads him the blessing of forgiveness, he is forgiven by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

At every gathering and at every Mystery of the Church it is a continuation of Pentecost, because they are performed in the presence of the Holy Spirit. For this almost all Services, the prayers and the Mysteries of the Church, begin with a prayer: "Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth... come and abide in us...." We ask the Paraklete to come, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And He comes. Wherever the Orthodox Church meets, the true Church of Christ, there also is the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Every Saint of our Church is a Spirit-bearing man, full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - a man of Pentecost.

The Lord's Prayer requests: "Thy Kingdom come" meaning: "May the grace of Thy Holy Spirit come". The kingdom of God is a grace of the Holy Spirit. So with the "Our Father" we seek the Holy Spirit.

The prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner", this too is done through the grace of the Holy Spirit. For as the Apostle Paul says: "No one can say Lord Jesus, if not from the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). No one can invoke Jesus Christ but only through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, only the Holy Water of the Orthodox remains unspoiled. Those who have Holy Water at your home, you know that no matter how old it is, it never spoils.

This is our faith, the true and Orthodox one.

To depart from this faith and follow some American recent "saviors" who believe that the Church starts with them, just imagine what demonic conceit they have! The Church exists for two thousand years and they say that from them, the Pentecostals and other heretics, begins the true faith.

When in the 14th century the western monk Barlaam fought the Orthodox teaching on the divine energies and the uncreated Light, as they lived it at the Holy Mountain, God brought forth the Hagiorite Hieromonk Gregory Palamas, a great theologian and teacher of the Orthodox Faith. As now, if the Pentecostal heresy did not exist we would not have gathered here. We would not have made our faith more profound. We would not have confessed our faith. Thus in the end it goes against the heresies and the devil what they set out to achieve against the Church. The Apostle Paul says: "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among you" (1 Cor. 11:19). There must also exist heresies for the faith to appear in the persevering ones. Now that our holy Church is attacked by atheism, carnal pleasures, the heresies through the radio, television, newspapers and other means, this is the time that the faithful and true Orthodox Christians and fighters and witnesses of the Orthodox faith will appear.

In these very critical times, any Orthodox Christian who keeps his Orthodox faith in Christ, will receive great blessing and great reward from our Holy God. And this because in this evil and corrupt time he was not led astray by the contemporary idolatry and the false gods, he did not bend a knee to them but remained steadfast and immovable in our Orthodox Faith.

We wish therefore that no Greek Orthodox become a traitor, a Judas and apostate of our holy Orthodox faith. May all those that were led astray by the evil one due to their ignorance, into deceits and heresies, be illumined by God and return to our holy Orthodox faith that they may have the hope of salvation.

We may all be sinners, but when we are within our holy Orthodox Church we have the hope of salvation. On the contrary, even if we were "righteous" outside the Church we have no hope of salvation. All of us who are within the Church, we shall repent, we shall confess, we shall be forgiven and God shall have mercy on us. Outside the Church who will save us? What Holy Spirit will forgive our sins and which Church will intercede after our death for our souls? Therefore, any Orthodox who dies Orthodox should know he/she has a hope of salvation. However, anyone who departs from the Church, even if he believes he has done good works, has no hope of salvation.

For this, brethren, let us remain in our Orthodox Church faithful and immovable with a holy stubbornness to our end so that we may all have, with the grace of God and the blessing of the Theotokos, hope for our salvation.

Source: Magazine, "Saint Gregory" of the Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory. Edited by John Sanidopoulos.