Humility and Taming the Passions: The Jesus Prayer

"Let us cry to him to come, and he will cure us by his coming. Let us moan like a sick man, and he like a doctor will come lovingly to our aid. Let us cry like the one who fell among thieves, and the good Samaritan will come to clean our wounds and guide us to the Inn; that is, to theoria (vision) of the Light which consumes all our being. When God comes into our heart, he gains victory over the devil and cleanses the impurities which the evil one has created. The victory, therefore, over the devil is the victory of Christ in us. Let us do the human part; that is to invite Christ. And he will do the divine part; he will gain victory over the devil and cut him off. So we should not want to do the divine part ourselves and expect God to do the human one. We should understand this well: We do the human part, the prayer of Jesus, and God the divine part, our salvation. The entire work of the Church is the collaboration of human and divine."
~ A Night In The Desert Of The Holy Mountain: Discussion With A Hermit On Jesus Prayer

"Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!" ~ The Jesus Prayer

This is the Jesus Prayer, practiced for centuries by Christian mystics in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The constant repetition of this prayer engenders deep humility within the soul and places it in a devotional relationship to Christ, the teacher of God. First, the prayer is recited almost mindlessly. When the voice grows tired, it is repeated silently, and when the mind grows tired it is spoken again. In the beginning, it is only a method to block out evil and inferior thoughts, leaving no room for them. In time, one begins to reflect on the deeper meanings and implications of the words. Finally, they migrate from the intellectual center to the heart of the aspirant. When this happens, it is no longer necessary to think of them or to recite them, because they go on repeating themselves automatically within the heart. This final stage produces an experience of profound and abiding bliss, which is an echo of Paradise.

"This prayer has filled Paradise with holy men and women."
~ Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

In "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", St. John Climacus, in addition to outlining stages in the soul's ascent to God, lists four stages by which the soul descends. The first is when an unworthy suggestion arises in the mind, in order to tempt us. The second is when we enter into dialogue with that suggestion; whether to dispute or to consider it. The third stage is when we consent to encourage and obey the suggestion. It is not until this third stage that one has yielded to the temptation. Finally, in the fourth stage, we become bound; the sin becomes habitual and compulsive. With the practice of the Jesus Prayer, one learns to be watchful, so as to dismiss the suggestions of the devil the very instant they appear. One neither disputes nor considers them, but merely retrains one's conscious attention on the prayer. In this way, the passions are cut off before they have an opportunity to take root.

"The cunning enemy knows very well how to hide behind passions and weaknesses.
So, in order to strike him, you must fight and mortify yourself -- all your passions, that is."
~ Elder Joseph the Hesychast

The first task along the spiritual path is the silencing the lower self. Before anything great may be accomplished, the lower self must be brought into submission. Silence lays the foundations for patience, which, in turn, lays the foundations for a deeper experience of silence. These two, working together, alternately and simultaneously, encourage each other. But since it is not possible to enter immediately into silence or patience, the first task is one of distraction and redirection. When the attention has been sufficiently fixed on higher matters, and the lower self has undergone a corresponding mortification, the true dance between silence and patience may be practiced. This is because the guarding of the lower self does not allow the passions to take possession.

Humility is the foundation. Without humility, one rushes out, at the mercy of the passions, hastily approving without qualification this, and disapproving without qualification that. No care is taken to discriminate, or to seek the grace of God before taking thought, speech, or action. What is needed is a thorough recognition of the soul's dependence upon the grace of God. By our own power, we can do nothing. Our attempts to reflect and reveal the gifts of the spirit fall flat if proper care is not taken to first receive those gifts, and to acknowledge our own position as one of receptivity to the blessings we wish to impart.

"All the eagerness you have for spiritual things is due to grace alone. Nothing is your own."
~ Elder Joseph the Hesychast

In order to purify ourselves, to prepare the ground, and to clear a channel for grace, we must first develop a fairly accurate assessment of ourselves in relation to God. The key phrase here is "in relation to God". While it stands to reason that we must be mindful of our faults and challenges, it is equally important to reflect that even our strengths are poor and miserable things beside the power of God, who looks down even on miracles and things too lofty for mortal eyes to see.

It follows that one ought to regard the words of a flatterer as more to be feared than the bite of an asp, for a snake can only strike at your flesh, but a flatterer strikes at your soul; even at the very foundation of your soul, which is humility. Therefore, when you anyone praises you, and you feel yourself puffed up, quickly purge the venom through prayer, lest it seep into the blood, and from there into the heart. Suck it up into your mouth, "Lord, Jesus Christ," and spit it out into the dirt, "have mercy on me." In this way, you will be rescued from the trap of vainglory, by the grace of God.

Conversely, one may regard insults as salutary, and enemies as one's greatest benefactors. The more they burn and reduce us to bones and ash, the more quickly and thoroughly do they humble us, and so make way for the grace of God. Without humility, repentance is impossible, and without repentance, we rely on our own strength, and refuse to acknowledge the power of God, beside which our greatest talents are as dust.

Mind you, it is not enough simply to pulverize the self. If we were to stop there, we would merely be left feeling self-hatred, anguish, and despair. The key is to raise oneself up, not by one's own strength, but by the power of God. If we merely exchange a favorable opinion of ourselves for an unfavorable one, we merely remain fixated on ourselves. We must use the opportunity to redirect our attention to something greater than ourselves; to God; or Christ, His avatar.