Christ the Eternal Tao Seminar

Location:St. Barnabas Antiochian Orthodox Church, Costa Mesa, CA

Date: Nov. 6-7, 2009

Part One: The Orthodox Christian Worldview

1. The Creation and Pre-fall State of Man
   1. Man's spiritual state before the fall
      1. Incorruptible and without decay
   2. Conditional Immortality
      1. If they (Adam and Eve) did not sin
      2. No necessity for being corrupt or incorrupt
   3. The state of man's body before the fall
      1. Free from illness, disease, sex, pain, cold, heat, sleep
   4. The state of man's mind before the fall
      1. Grace to prophesy
      2. Memory was simple and one-pointed
      3. Not susceptible to imagination
         1. Imagination is lower part of soul & irrational
            1. Dogs and other animals dream
   5. What might have been
      1. Deified by nature, not by grace
   6. Man's calling to deify the cosmos
      1. Cosmos made for man
      2. Man made to be one with God
      3. Man is link between pure material world and spiritual world, and is to bring all creation into union with God
2. The Fall of Man and Its Consequences
   1. The corruption of human nature
      1. All made sinners by Adam's nature
      2. Passions entered in (we don't share guilt of Adam's sin), we inherited the corrupted nature
   2. The loss of grace: spiritual death
      1. Stripped of grace - death of his soul that day (Gen. 2:17)
      2. Bodily, he continued to live - result of separation of soul & body
      3. Soul does not disintegrate after separation from God but is made ugly
      4. Image of God is indestructible - no complete depravity
   3. Physical suffering, death, and decay
      1. Pain and fatigue experienced with separation of soul and body
      2. Body susceptible to corruption
   4. The change in man's soul after death
      1. Body became grosser/denser flesh
      2. Man refashioned by God to handle these new needs (St. John Chrysostom)
   5. The condition of man's soul after death
   6. Why God allowed the entrace of death and suffering
      1. Set a limit to man's sin with death, so evil may not be immortal
      2. God inflicts punishment out of mercy
      3. Man succumbed to pride of being like God
      4. Reason for God allowing death
         1. Quell man's pride
         2. Restrain man's sensual desires
   7. Death opens way for refashioning of man by God-Man Jesus Christ
3. Redemption and Deification
   1. "Trampling down death by death"
      1. By means of Jesus Christ's death, redemption is accomplished
      2. Spiritual and physical death redeemed by Jesus Christ's physical death (not spiritual)
      3. Ancient analogy
         1. Fish is death/hell, which swallows every person after Adam, since sin is proper food of death
         2. Fish takes bait, which is Christ's flesh, but the hook is the divinity of Christ
         3. Since death/hell cannot hold God, death/hell is destroyed/blown up
         4. All the holy released
      4. Why could/did He conquer death?
         1. Sinless
         2. God
   2. The commonality of human nature as it relates to redemption
      1. Human nature is one. Unity of human nature
      2. Universal human nature contracted sickness of Adam, and also liberated by Christ
         1. Redemption of soul with incarnation
         2. Redemption of body (while body still in tomb) with resurrection
         3. Resurrection in future
   3. Spiritual resurrection
      1. Baptism (not chronological)
         1. Died and buried with Christ, so body of sin destroyed
         2. Spiritual resurrection, grace of the Holy Spirit is able to live in use since we are fit vessels
      2. Unified to Christ through holy communion
      3. Reopens way to deification, partakers of Divine Nature, as Man existed before Fall

• Q & A
  • I.C.1.a. How would procreation happen then?
    1. Procreation in some other way
    2. Man's physical body changed (See II.D.2)
  • I.D.3.b. I always considered imagination to be a God-given faculty which allows us to emulate our creator, i.e., to be creative ourselves. Is it not?
    1. Creativeness and imaginativeness are not the same. Man has other creative faculties
  • What is a saint?
    • Saint is one who restored in themselves the original likeness of God
    • Saint simply means "holy one"
  • Man's free will and God's will
    • St. John Cassian - writings on synergy of free will and God's will

Part Two: The Path to Union with God

1. Cultivating the Seed of Divine Energy
   1. No longer grace working from outside in, but inside out
   2. Nous (Greek term)
      1. Highest faculty of soul
      2. Grown through participation of sacraments
   3. Brings ultimate personal union with God
   4. Submit to Divine Energy by humility
2. Foundations of the Path to Union with God
   1. The sacramental life of the church
   2. A life according to the commandments of Christ
   1. Existential statements of Who He is
   3. A life of accountability (to others)
      1. Stop being spiritual while looking in a mirror
      2. Cut off our will before others
   4. Being willing to give up resentments and behaviors which separate us from God
      1. Forgive - oblivious to wrongs, don't hold anything against anybody
      2. Stop immoral behaviors as described by the Church
3. An Introduction to Prayer
   1. Four types of prayer
      1. Liturgical (prayer in church)
         1. Breath of the Church
         2. Work of the people, allows to be accountable
         3. Saved in community, not in isolation
      2. Private prayers read from a prayer book
         1. Learn right posture toward God
      3. Prayer in your own words
         1. Actually use right posture as learned in III.A.{1,2} to approach God
         2. Don't need elaborate speeches - speak simply and frequently
         3. Pray before all encounters
      4. The Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
         1. Based on blind man and pharisee prayers in Scriptures
         2. Flexible because of brevity
         3. "Pray without ceasing"
   2. The content of prayer (all types)
      1. Yearning, longing
         1. Cry out to God w/heart (not simply voice)
         2. Longing uniquely for Him
   3. Prayer for others
      1. With contrition and pain of soul
   4. Thanksgiving
   5. Confessing lapses, repenting
      1. Confess as soon as we become aware
      2. Each day
      3. Stop thinking about it and bring it before God
4. Watchfulness
   1. Introduction to watchfulness
      1. Against sinful thoughts and all thoughts which distract us from prayer
   2. Watchfulness and prayer
      1. Many parables
      2. Pray while watching
      3. Prayer is pure when arising beyond thoughts and images
      4. Without attention there is no prayer
      5. One cannot stand with the other
   3. Making our eye single
      1. Focus
   4. Going within
      1. Tear away from outward distractions
      2. Cut off thoughts to cut off everything
      3. Don't argue w/thoughts
   5. Wrong struggle and right struggle
      1. Initially, don't study a lot, just watch
      2. Thoughts disintegrate when not dwelt upon
      3. Creating images only distract us further
      4. Don't be agitated w/appearance of thoughts
      5. Be observant, just let them arise & disappear
   6. Our thoughts are not who we are
      1. Great mistake to consider our thoughts as ourselves
      2. Continual thoughts are onerous & murderous
   7. Thoughts and evil spirits
      1. Spirits can only enter when soul is darkened
   8. Stages in the development of sinful passions
      1. Provocation
      2. Conjunction
      3. Joining w/will
      4. Pre-occupation w/it
      5. Captive to urge
   9. Facing ourselves
      1. Realization slowly
      2. Tears of compunction of heart
      3. To know oneself is the goal of the practice of the virtues
   10. Distrusting thoughts
       1. Thoughts: self-assuring, logic, & criticism
       2. No logical mind
       3. Culminate good thoughts, but then go even beyond that
       4. We don't allow others to finish what they're saying
       5. Thoughts are not natural
   11. Judgmental thoughts
       1. Can lead to depression, despair, & sickness
       2. Do not judge anyone: keep simple
          1. Don't judge the person (or ourselves) but the action
          2. Reaction isn't always appropriate
   12. Prayer in times of temptation; the power of direct appeal
       1. In heart or w/words
5. The Jesus Prayer
   1. Introduction to the Jesus Prayer
      1. Not merely in speakers, but reaching heart
      2. We merge w/God
      3. Origins w/what Christ said, "If you ask anything in my name..."
      4. Prayer is the unceasing noetic faculty of the Holy Spirit
   2. Be aware of Whome you are addressing
      1. Be concentrated on the words & _Who_ we are talking to
      2. Be conscious of the One we're addressing
      3. Not reduced to technical exercise
      4. Turn to Lord in your mind
      5. Address & sense the Lord
   3. Love and yearning
      1. Don't force
         1. Say it slowly, gently, humbly, affectionately, w/o compulsion
         2. Longing, with longing
   4. Watchfulness and the Jesus Prayer
      1. Short, one-pointed prayer
      2. Learn to cut off thoughts
   5. No images
      1. Become idols
      2. Don't make words the idol
         1. Essential part is walking w/God
      3. Union w/God should not be brought down to visuals
      4. Not supposed to pray to icons
   6. Levels of the Jesus Prayer
      1. Verbal - said with lips
      2. No longer lips, but mental
      3. Prayer is in heart
      4. Prayer continues in heart, self-propelling
      5. Delights mind w/divine light
6. Praying in the Heart
   1. What is the heart?
      1. Mind (or Nous)
         1. Control of emotions
      2. Thinking is guided by heart & more intuitive rather than intellect
   2. Awareness in the heart
      1. Center of spiritual awareness
      2. Mind we can only know we are praying, w/o consciousness
      3. Heart is real knowing/awareness
      4. Be aware of prayer, as if you felt it
   3. The union of the mind and the heart
      1. Separation is from Fall
      2. Through aid of breathing, mind & heart can be aided to unite
      1. Misapplication can be very bad
      2. Danger of psychotechics
      3. Not acquired through thought
      4. Don't try to measure progress
   4. Spiritual fruits of the Jesus Prayer
      1. Contrition
      2. Soreness
      3. Special grace to overcome distracting thoughts
      4. Filled w/love for all creation
      5. Filled w/joy & exaltation
7. Union with God
   1. Deification in the broad sense and in the strict sense
      1. Deified when baptized & chrismated, but just seed
         1. It needs to grow
         2. Broad sense
      2. When purified of sinful passions
         1. Strict sense
         2. Experience of uncreated light
   2. Accounts of deification
      1. Sophrony
      2. Symeon the New Theologian
   3. Toward the Eschaton
      1. The progress of eternity
         1. Continual
      2. Physical resurrection and the restoration to incorruption
         1. Experience in life of Church
         2. All fruits of Jesus Christ's death & resurrection will be revealed
         3. We'll be changed, with creation
      3. The permanent deification of the whole man--body and soul--and of the entire cosmos
         1. Body will not only be incorruptible, but spiritual
         2. Cosmos will also become spiritual
8. Conclusion
   1. We can begin deification now
   2. Holy ones beckon us to follow them
   3. Laziness & stubbornness keep us from them
   4. Accept the invitation

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