Please note: Breathing – parts 1 and 2 – were published two weeks ago. If you’d like, you can read them HERE and HERE.
James Reho elaborates beautifully on the breathing techniques of Christian Orthodox (i.e. Greek) monks. He underlines especially the connection of such techniques with the “Jesus Prayer” and highlights the similarities with Tantrism, which I find fascinating.
St. Gregory of Sinai (14th century) teaches what Reho calls the simple yoking of breath with the Jesus Prayer, which opens up an entire new field of power for the mantra. The Jesus Prayer consists in this phrase, repeated many times: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” In the course of the development of the tradition, the phrase has been enlarged up to about double its size: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Some, however, took the opposite direction and shortened it, like Callistus and Ignatius (14th century), who were convinced that the entire petitionary part of this mantra is a concession to our egos, which feel the need to ask for something, to get some spiritual swag from the repetition of the mantra. Thus for them the prayer could be shortened to “Lord Jesus Christ” or even just “Jesus” as this one word is sufficient to fill [the advanced practictioner] with ineffable bliss and joy.
St. Gregory advised us to mentally say the basic form of the prayer many times over: the first part “Lord Jesus Christ” while inhaling, the second part “Have mercy on me” while exhaling. This basic method was slightly different for St. Nicephorus, who introduced a slight suspension of the breath between the two portions of the prayer, after the inhaling.
Reho comments that a very similar practice of breath retention is common in yogic breathing, and that the uses and modifications of breath are powerful and also dangerous, as both the tantric masters and the Orthodox monks knew perfectly well. I can testify the same as, several years ago, I delved without experience into a kundalini breathing practice and my blood pressure spiked to very dangerous heights.
The point of the coupling of the Jesus Prayer with breathing is that of reaching a state of bliss which Reho, as a tantric practicioner, notices to be very similar to the union of Shiva and Shakti. The Hesychasts — such is the name of the Greek monks practicing this kind of prayer — called this state “heaven in the heart.” And indeed the heart as both a physical and a symbolic location gets heavily involved. (See DM for April 30.)
Reho offers a step-by-step description of what I described, above, which is worth quoting in full for its clarity and helpfulness:
We breathe in very slowly through the nose, following the breath with our inner vision and proprioception into the region of the Great Heart. This may at first feel like imagination, but soon you will build the ability to feel the location of the breath within the body and be able to direct the breath into the Great Heart. The breath should make the breast bone come slightly forward and should expand the ribs forward and out to the sides. During this slow inhalation we pray,“Lord Jesus Christ…” Then we pause, more than hold our breath at the top of the inhalation, and then slowly, gently, exhale completely (really empty the lungs here) through the nose, praying, “… have mercy on me.” The inhalation, retention, and exhalation should all be smooth and not in the least labored or forced.
Reho also elaborates on the dangers: We can damage ourselves if we fall into the temptation (which will surely come) to push it a bit and retain the breath for longer periods or force the breath to slow beyond our capacity. Any sign of struggle or difficulty is a sign to back off.
Reho is convinced — and I am tempted to agree in principle — that through the simple repetition of the Jesus Prayer, coupled with breath and attention as described, we create new cerebral and soulful pathways and modify our being on a very deep level.
In time and through practice, the Christ whom we invoke and whose mercy we ask, this external individual who seemingly holds power over us, becomes one with us and we with him. This is the true Christian alchemy that has been lost for so long to the West, and yet cannot be recovered at will or through simple understanding. Much effort and practice are instead required.
James Reho, Tantric Jesus, pp. 197-220.
Banner image: Icon of Christ, found in Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Monastery Jordanville, New York. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Do you have experiences with breathing techniques and breathing prayer? Do you believe that breathing can change you? In what ways?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic–and Beyond
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Time
Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus and The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity
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6 thoughts on “Breathing – part 3”
The “Great Heart” of Orthodox theology seems very similar to the Hara of Oriental spiritual practices.
Hesychasts were sometimes called “navel gazers” because, during prayer/meditation, they keep the eyes fixed on the area surrounding the navel which some authors also call “the place of the Heart,” an energy center not to be confused with the organ in the chest. St. Gregory Palamas, a major figure of Orthodox spirituality, taught that the heart is a place where man’s whole being “becomes like a knot.” He also stressed that God’s essence is unknowable, but can be experienced through His energies.
“The distinction between God’s essence and his energies by Palamas became important because it affirmed that the monks at Mt. Athos and others in Christian tradition had actually experienced God. They didn’t just know about God as the rationalists would explain, but they knew God because they had participated in his energies.” (G.C. Higgins, quoted by A. Grantin at https://renew.org/the-life-and-work-of-gregory-palamas-eastern-orthodox-theologian/)
“What of the flask, if wine intoxicates?” Musset asks. Should God be approached first as a concept (flask) potentially conducive to mystical experiences, or as a mystical experience potentially reported in poetry? That is the core difference between the Religions of the Book and the Oriental spiritual practices.
Yes… Yes… Awareness of the ongoing breathing of my body helps me to be more open to the Living Eternal Presence and Flow of Divine Love~Light~Life… within, through, among Us in Our Loving Diverse Oneness with one another, with Sacred Mother Earth & Her living creatures, and with-in Our Sacred evolving Cosmos in All physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions and beings ….
I love that you always make sure to include mother earth and all of her creatures!
I am an Animist who does something similar by imagining Mother Earth’s energy entering my feet, then up my spine to head, then around to my heart area and solar plexus. The feelings are of comfort and a noticeable relaxation of my body!
Thank you Thank you Thank you
My “Mystical Experience of the One” had very definite “breathing parts” to it.
First, in that I was speaking/reading, subtly, about mystical ideas out loud (although I didn’t know about such things yet). There was a deep breathing and rhythm to it, but it wasn’t planned. And the text didn’t, at all, go into the Mystical Experience, which is good because it really COULDN’T talk about something so radical and so non-thought.
Then, second, after reading, I sat, straight-backed in a big old wooden chair, and relaxed into the summer evening, utterly and completely joyful and calm, with NO thoughts or expectations of any kind whatsoever. All thought and experience was totally released, totally relaxed, totally without any expectations or questions. Just BEING.
And then it happened, and I was flung into THE Mystical Experience, and then gradually came back to this type of reality. I was stunned, but luckily I wrote down a few of the most radical details.
It took some time to find out just exactly what had happened, and more time yet to assimilate the new info. Well, actually, I’ve been assimilating the info. every day since, and that is decades.
This is the Mystical Experience that underlies Judeo-Christianity-Sufism-Hinduism, and ancient neo-Platonism. It’s interpreted slightly differently in each religion, but it’s the same underlying Mystical Experience of the One.