On watchfulness and Holiness

On Watchfulness and Holiness 

Written for Theodolous

Watchfulness is a spiritual method which, if sedulously practised over a long period, completely frees us with God's help from impassioned thoughts, impassioned words and evil actions.  It leads, in so far as this is possible, to a sure knowledge of the inapprehensible God, and helps us to penetrate the divine and hidden mysteries.  It enables us to fulfil every divine commandment in the Old and New Testaments and bestows upon us every blessing of the age to come.  It is in the true sense, purity of heart, a state blessed by Christ when he says: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt 5:8); and one which because of it's spiritual nobility and beauty-- or rather because of our negligence-- is now extremely rare among monks. Because this is its nature, watchfulness is to be brought only at a great price.  But once established in us, it guides us to a true and holy way of life.  It teaches us how to activate the three aspects of our soul correctly, and how to keep a firm guard over the senses.  It promotes the daily growth of the four principal virtues, and is the basis of our contemplation. 

From the Philokalia: 

The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition.  It was compiled in the eighteenth century by two Greek monks, St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain of Athos (1749-1809) and St Makarios of Corinth (1731-1805) . . . .(Introduction)

The primary value of these texts is that many of them provide personal accounts from monks who lived as ascetics in seclusion in the desert and got to know themselves very well.  Many of the texts give very practical instruction as to what one can expect to come up against after long and sedulously practised 'self observation' -- watchfulness.

The Philokalia helped give Gurdjieff valuable ideas about how to order one's inner life in order to observe it, and that by observing one's inner life (in an orderly way), it becomes more ordered.

As my teacher so beautifully said, turning on a light (the light of consciousness) to illuminate a messy room, (your psyche) does not in and of itself clean up the mess.  But that now you can see the mess.  

Much of the Philokalia must be read in as much cultural context as you can possibly imagine for the times.  The body is seen as being something of an enemy to the soul, when we now understand that the body and soul are intimately interwoven throughout our life on earth.  I haven't come across any women I can recollect in the Philokalia, they seem nonexistent and I wouldn't be surprised if they do surface (there are five volumes and I haven't read them all) I'd imagine it's in the form of some sort of  temptress.  Grain of salt time, but there are gems.  

As with everything my advice is to trust what resonates.  The above passage resonates for me.  I've emboldened the bits I have found to be true, if not as a crystallised state within me then certainly as a temporal experiential one.

There is no end point with self-observation.  You never 'succeed' at it.  You never finish. 

There are very, very, few texts in the world that describe self-observation and accurately describe what arises from it and how to deal with what comes up.  Parts of the Philokalia do.  

When it comes to Christianity I ascribe to the Gurdjieffan view/truth, that we can only strive to become Christians.  There is a major difference between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity in their major themes.  The Western Christian theme is one of salvation.  That we will be 'saved' by accepting Christ, whereas the Eastern Orthodox platform is one of deification. That we should strive to become more like the Divine.  Two quite different approaches. http://linkusblesstheweather.blogspot.com/