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Hidden Fire: Orthodox Perspectives on Yoga

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The practice of yoga is becoming normalized in our society as a religiously-neutral, “holistic” exercise program that will promote mental and physical health.

But this article, written by an Orthodox author who had once pursued yogic practices extensively in India, shows how yoga is inseparable not only from Hindu and Buddhist doctrines, but from dark and demonic energies as well. Indeed, he draws our attention to stern warnings in Hindu and Buddhist yoga manuals themselves, cautioning that these practices can lead to a deterioration of both mind and body.

“To think of yoga as a mere physical movement is tantamount to saying that baptism is merely an underwater exercise,” he explains.

An American Experience of Romanian Hesychasm [VIDEO]

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Sometimes the simple and heartfelt introductions to people and places different than our own reveals to us the important things that that press of events in our own lives keeps hidden from our view.

In this insightful short video Dr. John Farina, Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, opens to us the rich spirituality of Orthodox Romania through the simple but profoundly authentic lives of ordinary people.

Farina speaks of Hesychasm, the practice of acquiring inner stillness primarily through the practice of the Jesus Prayer. “Be still and know that I am God” the psalmist instructs us and the hesycast tradition takes this instruction to heart and the Jesus Prayer is the way by which the believer can accomplish it.

He shows us men and women who reveal a depth of character and wisdom that was forged in the crucible of a difficult life but also one of profound meaning and beauty. Their lives were shaped by an active and vibrant community of faith around them, including parishes and monasteries some of which we see in the video.

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Literature, Culture and the Western Soul

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In his his splendid biography of Fr Seraphim Rose, Fr Damascene Christensen tells the story of a young monastic aspirant seeking the esoteric spirituality of Orthodox Christianity on Mt Athos. But once he finally arrives at his destination, the Abbot hands him a copy of Dickens’ novel, “David Copperfield” to read.

When the young man protests in dismay that this is not the deep Orthodox wisdom he was seeking, but heterodox Western sentimentality, the Abbot smiles and replies: “unless you first develop normal, human, Christian feelings and learn to view life as little Davey did—with simplicity, kindness, warmth, and forgiveness—then all the Orthodox ‘spirituality’ and Patristic writings will not only be of no help to you—they will turn you into a ‘spiritual’ monster and destroy your soul.”

In this essay, the Sisters of St Xenia Skete, spiritual daughters of Fr Seraphim, make a strong case that we must not scorn our native Western culture, but like the early Church Fathers, incorporate the best of secular wisdom into our Orthodox worldview.

How To Love Christ: Learning From the Beloved Disciple

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As Christ has taught us, nothing is more important for us than learning how to love (Matt. 22: 36-40). But how can we truly love others until we have learned to love Christ Himself who has loved us first, before any other, and far more greatly than any other? St Theophan shows us how St John, the Beloved Disciple, can help us learn to love Christ our God, with all our heart and soul and mind:

How did St. John the Theologian attain such lofty love for the Lord and become a model of love for all of us? I think that he did this in the same way that people begin to love one another. They see the beauty and goodness of a person and become attracted to them with all their heart. In like manner St. John saw the beauty of the Lord and was attracted to Him. Here follows the path of ascent in love for the Lord. Let us enter upon it, and in the end we will acquire it.

‘The Great Scattering’: How Identity Panic Took Root in the Void Once Occupied by Family Life

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In a recent collection of writings on “Identity and Identification,” the editors state (without irony) that “we are insecure about the nature and significance of our biological, socio-political, national, professional, religious and sexual identities; but we are also more generally unsure about which category of distinction is most important.” Indeed, much of our political debate today centers upon issues concerning “identity,” so much so that many political affiliations are now labeled as “identity politics.”

It is, then, easy to forget that not so long ago, educated people would have found this obsession with “identity” to be quite unintelligible, if not altogether deranged. What happened, to bring us to this state of affairs? Mary Eberstadt provides a compelling answer to this question.

On Salvation — From the Elders of Optina Monastery

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Beginning in the nineteenth century, a remarkable succession of illumined elders residing in Optina Pustyn Monastery helped bring about a spiritual renewal in Russia. Figures from Dostoevsky and Soloviev to Khomiakov and Kireyevsky to Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, and even Tolstoy sought their advice.

This collection of sayings from the Optina Elders, focuses upon the path to salvation, and gives a taste of their wisdom and their deep understanding of the human soul. Not surprisingly, the theme of humility is often central. For example: “ when doing good deeds, if we begin to think highly of ourselves, then the power to do good is taken away from us and we are allowed to be overcome by the passions so that our thought may be humbled.”

The Problem with Self-Justification: Or, How to Keep Rowing Upstream

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If our salvation requires repentance, and if we desire salvation, why do we find it so difficult to repent? St Basil the Hesychast, spiritual father of St Paisius Velichkovsky, explains that the difficulty lies not simply in our commission of sins, for there is no man without sin (John14:4-5), but in our chronic justification of these sins, and hence our blaming others for them—just as Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed Eve. As long as we cling to self-justification, there can be no true repentance, nor can the breeze of healing grace enter our souls.

This is not a passing challenge, something we can move beyond. We must constantly struggle against our urge to justify ourselves, which St Basil compares to rowing upstream, against the current, which is always ready to carry us away from our destination. This is symbolized through his charming allegory of a journey upstream on the Dnieper River to the Holy City of Kiev. Finally, as his narrative makes clear, we must have spiritual companions if our continued struggle against self justification, and thus our salvific pilgrimage, is to be successful.

Should St. Paul Have Been More Tolerant? What Modern Churches Are Missing

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Common misconceptions about common words can lead to common errors writes Hieromonk Gabriel, but when those errors force a reading of scripture not in accord with the meaning of the Apostle they will end up driving people away from the Church. We see this in our day with words like “mercy,” “compassion,” “tolerance” and others that are thrown about to justify almost any idea or behavior.

Why is this happening? Why do some Christians employ the words of scripture but interpret them with meanings drawn from the dominant culture? Hieromonk Gabriel writes it is because we remove ourselves from holiness, we don’t study the lives of the Saints to become practiced in the ways of holiness ourselves. The illness within the modern church is our unbelief.

Is There No Repentance after Death?

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The Church Fathers maintain consistently that there is no repentance after death. This claim bears upon both the great question of how we shall fare after our departure from this life, as well as the more immediate question of how we ought to live now. But if the soul retains consciousness after our earthly repose, precisely what is it that makes postmortem repentance impossible?

Noted patristics scholar, and Another City Associate Editor David Bradshaw lucidly addresses this momentous question, drawing faithfully upon both scripture and patristic writings, and in the process casting light upon the true nature of repentance itself, as well as the condition of those who adamantly refuse the Love of God.

The Virtue of Irrelevance: An Essay on Education

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In a world where it is becoming increasingly unwise to entrust the education of our children to teachers who promote trendy, “relevant” curricula, the question arises “What, then, should we teach them?” British philosopher and public intellectual St Roger Scruton argues eloquently that the supposedly “irrelevant” traditional curriculum of great books, ancient languages, and classical music turns out to be in fact the most practical schooling of all, for it has proven its value in cultivating character and preparing students for challenges that are “new and unforeseeable,” and which “relevant” curricula bound up with current preoccupations cannot envisage.

Frederica: Annual Dormition Fast Prayer Vigil to End Abortion

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Occasions of joy sometimes elicit occasions of sorrow. This is so because the world is fallen, shorn from the full beauty and majesty of God. The world however, is not without hope because of the promise of the restoration of all things through the work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Righteous. The fallen world can be made new.

Marriage: Instructions from a Manual That Does Not Yet Exist

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There are two ways to experience He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

One is the asceticism of the monastic who forsakes all for the Kingdom. The other is the asceticism of the married, the widowed, and the single person who live in the day to day world and actively seek the Kingdom by embracing the Eucharistic heartbeat of creation and so find their being in in the life and the suffering of the other.

Perceiving the Sanctity of Saints: A Review of Konstantin Kapkov’s “The Spiritual World of Emperor Nicholas II and his Family”

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The author of this essay, Andrei Manovtsev, is one of the foremost scholars of the lives of the Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He has contributed greatly to the current research on what are for now being called the “Ekaterinburg remains”—bone fragments unearthed near Ekaterinburg that are believed by some to belong to the Royal Family.

Dostoevsky or Nietzsche? God-Man or Man-God?

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“What is man?” This question shapes all of Dostoevsky’s thought and writing. And perhaps his most important insight is that humanity today is faced with a great choice: between the God-man (Christ) and the Man-God (most visible in Nietzsche’s Übermensch or Overman). Sadly, key figures of Western culture have been increasingly pursuing the second alternative for several centuries, seeking to become divine on their own terms and by their own efforts—striving to re-create the world and human nature itself according to their own will.

How to Read the Holy Scriptures

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Because Orthodox worship is replete with scriptural references, the Orthodox tend to take them for granted, says Fr. Seraphim Rose in this lecture given in 1979. Instead, we should read them more often and with greater diligence because they have great benefit in the spiritual life. St. Seraphim of Sarov for example, used to read the entire New Testament once a week.

Time and Place in the Healing of the Paralytic

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Fr. Alexander Webster, Dean of Holy Trinity Seminary, masterfully compares chronological time and sacred time in the biblical story of the Healing of the Paralytic to reveal that both culminate in the healing work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The paralytic waited for the stirring of the waters every year in order to be healed. One day the Messiah came and asked the paralytic if he indeed wanted to be healed. When the paralytic responds in the affirmative, Jesus heals him by the power of His Word.

Met. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (and Fr. John Romanides) – On The Mystery of Pentecost

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In two volumes of Empirical Dogmatics, Metropolitan Hierotheos offers us a once-hidden treasure: the unwritten teachings of Fr John Romanides, one of the greatest Orthodox theologians of the last century. These “spoken teachings” (recorded from lectures at the University of Thessaloniki, as well as more informal venues) convey Fr John’s theological views in a vivid and engaging manner, explaining the Orthodox Way as leading, by means of purification (askesis) of the soul, through illumination (theoria) to the experience of glorification (theosis) or participation in the uncreated grace of God.

Orthodox Spirituality and the Technological Revolution

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Technology has led us into a dangerous new arena. As Fr Aimilianos puts it, whereas in industrial society people were ccnsumers enslaved to the products they had made, in post-industrial society they are “ becoming consumers and slaves to [the] images and information which fill their lives.” Contrary to the technocrats with blind faith that technology will somehow itself offer the solution to how it should be regulated, the Orthodox Church looks to monastic tradition and practice for a model of how technical applications can be used to help us meet our needs in a way that is friendly to beauty and that frees us to worship the Creator.

In Depth Articles

Original Sin According to St. Paul

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In regard to the doctrine of original sin as contained in the Old Testament and illuminated by the unique revelation of Christ in the New Testament, there continues to reign in the denominations of the West a great confusion, which in the last few centuries seems to have gained much ground in the theological problematics of the Orthodox East.

The Divine Liturgy as Mystical Experience

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There are cases in scripture where God appears directly and sensibly to man—indeed, does not only appear to him, but walks, speaks, dines, and even wrestles. There is no suggestion that, because God is “purely spiritual,” such appearances are not of God “as He is in Himself.”

Nature and City in the Greek East

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The poet seems to suggest that we can now find the natural city only in the imagination. The bridge for the modernist poet is now an interior, and even a psychological function. It was not always so.

Lost in Manhattan

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