St. Simeon the New Theologian:
“Sit alone in a quiet place, take your mind from every temporal and vain thing, bow your head towards your chest and stay attentively inside yourself, not in the head but in the heart, and hold the mind there with your eyes watch your breathing. With your mind find the place of the heart and let it abide there. In the beginning you will experience darkness and discomfort, but if you will continue with this activity of attention without interruption, you will attain unceasing joy.”
Here’s some more links on The Prayer of the Heart from other traditions you may find interesting …
On the Indestructible Drop within the Heart,
Consciousness as the Mind of Clear Light & the Empty Space Particles
http://www.zeropoint.ca/monadsI5DalaiLama.htm
Lataif Chakras of The Heart |Sufism
http://www.nurmuhammad.com/HeartLevels/coverLataif5levelsofheart.htm
Sufi Cosmology, Psychology and Lataif
http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/sufi_cosmolosy_and_psychology.pdf
The Subtle Centres of the Heart
by Abu Bakr Siraj ad Din Cook
http://www.almirajsuficentre.org.au/Subtle%20Centres.htm
‘The first step is that of purest prayer.
From this there comes a warmth of heart,
And then a strange, a holy energy,
Then tears wrung from the heart, God given.
Then peace from thoughts of every kind.
From this arises purging of the intellect,
And next the vision of heavenly mysteries.
Unheard- of light is born from this ineffably,
And thence, beyond all telling the heart’s illumination.
Last comes- a step that has no limit
Though compassed in a single line-
Perfection that is endless.’
salaam.
Jai
Your most welcome.X
Jai
There are many books on the market with respect to Jesus/Heart/Mind prayer (there are many titles under which you can find it). Unfortunately, there aren’t many reliable texts giving detailed, technical indications.
The Philokalia is one of the few reliable text on the subject. It is a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox tradition (most of them hermits living isolated lives). They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in the practice of the contemplative life.
Amazingly, there are so many similarities between their practices and yoga (asanas/metania, pranayama/controlled breathing, jappa/repetition of the heart prayer, solar centering enhancement/ focusing attention on the heart or abdominal area and so on). They speak (of course in their specific dogmatic language) of stages of samadhi and even symptoms of the kundalini are being described with an amazing clarity.
One of the most important ingredients in achieving their goal is “HUMILITY” (They say that the mind has to join the heart and to obtain a state where the prayer is being recited by itself…it’s about, probably a state of supreme samadhi). They say that you have to tear your heart up (figuratively) and to deeply cry your sins in order to get the prayer working. They believe that when you are clean enough (through the practice), the holy spirit (samadhi) comes and dwells you.
I’ve had the privilege to meet some wonderful romanian monks during my spiritual trips in the Carpathians mountains and I can say I was really, really amazed of their deepness and their superb, simple lives.
Anyway, if you are interested in the subject, Philokalia is the text you have to get your hand on. There are 12 thick volumes, but do not get discouraged, if you are interested specifically in the technique, get the 5th volume and enjoy the “heart prayer”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIhk7btxJek : Here you can find some details on Jesus prayer given by elder Cleopa, a monk that lived as hermit in total isolation, in the Carpathians mountains for more than a decade.
Love
I think the mystical practice of hesychasm is inseparable from the context of Orthodox theology and dogmatic. There is a genial book about that called “Mystical theology of Eastern church” by Vladimir Lossky.