Deepening the Jesus Prayer

As wondrous and powerful as the Jesus Prayer is, there is a way to further enhance its efficacy.  To do this, you connect the power of your emotions to the intent of the prayer.  Instead of simply reciting the words over and over, you emotionally charge the words, imbuing them with your own genuine longing. 

There are two critical elements that need to be addressed here: your intention and your emotional focus and power.  Your intention, by using the Jesus Prayer, is not simply to repeat a jumble of words just to hear yourself talk.  Your intention is your determination to present yourself to your Creator, your Messiah.  Reflect on that for a moment.  If you go to your boss with a problem, you might feel a little anxiety.  If you go before your city Council, or before the governor of your state, you will probably experience some considerable anxiety.

So what are you going to feel like when you present yourself to the Creator of all that is?  The Creator of all humanity and every bit of the planet Earth, with all of its marvelous complexity?  How are you going to feel in front of the Creator of the solar system, and not just our little solar system, but the entire Milky Way – 100 billion stars, many of them shining even brighter than our sun?  Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

Perhaps more than anything, being clear about our intention to present ourselves to our Creator – to be present to that wonderful Presence that vibrates through and within everything that is – is the most critical element in the Jesus Prayer and in all prayer.  This is also something that is commonly overlooked.  We often just sit down and pray without really considering the meaning of our prayer.  Without considering that we are standing before the Most High.  Being clear and focused in our intention is critical to unlock the full power of our prayer.

The second element here – the use of our emotional power – is also a critical factor for enhancing the efficacy of the Jesus Prayer.  Our emotions carry this amazing power that enables us to connect deeply with others.  Remember what it was like when you first fell in love with someone?  You thought about that person all the time and couldn’t wait to be with them again.  When you are finally together, it's blissful, and you feel completely seen and understood.  As a result, you did everything in your power to be with the person you loved.

Our intention with the Jesus Prayer, and with all prayer, is to connect with the Divine in just this loving and all-consuming way.  Sadly, the emotional component of prayer is often overlooked or disregarded.  We don’t use our innate power for connection to further deepen our connection with God.  By tapping into this innate capacity in our prayer, we enhance its efficacy many times over.

That being said, this enhanced practice is not for those who are just starting to learn the Jesus Prayer.  It is enough, for those who are just learning, to develop a focused attentiveness to the Lord.  After approximately six months or so of continuous practice with this prayer and the attainment of some interior stability, you may wish to enhance the power of the Prayer by being clear about your intention and connecting your emotions to the Prayer, enlivening it with your emotional energy.

A brief note about the following instructions:  You will remember, from previous newsletters, that the Jesus Prayer is not about the words used, per se, but about using words as a vehicle to enter into the Being of God.  Despite the plethora of words used to describe this enhancement, please remember that the Prayer is not about the words.  The words used below are intended to guide you toward those interior movements that will help you deepen your prayer.

Enhancing The Jesus Prayer

1.  Position your body comfortably, spine erect, on a chair or cushions.

2.  Become aware of the physical sensations that flow through you.  Close your eyes and experience the streams of sensation that course through your physical body.  No need to change them.  No need to judge them.  Simply let yourself feel deeply the multitude of sensations cascading through you.  Gently focus on the sensations in your head...in your neck and shoulders...your elbows...your wrists and the palms of your hands...the sensations in your knees...your ankles and the soles of your feet.

3.  Now open your awareness to feel God's Presence right here with you.  Feel that Presence all around you...within you.  Let yourself rest in this Presence.

4.  Be aware of the sphere of energy around your head.  Let this sphere of energy begin to get heavy and drift downward toward your heart center, until your head rests in your heart.

5.  In your heart and from your heart, say the words, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me...Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."  Let your heart repeat these words over and over again, feeling God's Presence right here with you.

6.  After the words have stabilized, begin to feel the words.  Instead of just saying the words, feel their meaning.  Feel what it means to acknowledge Jesus as your Lord.  Historically, a lord has had the power of life or death over his subjects.  As you acknowledge Jesus as your lord, let yourself fully experience your absolute dependence on your Lord.  Feel your need for his favor, his generosity, his willingness to give.  Your life, your continued existence, all depend on his good will towards you. 

7.  Be aware of the difference between yourself and your God.  You are small and limited in power.  Your Lord is not just large but without limits.  As you experience the difference, use this as an opportunity to let go of your self-centeredness, your constant cry of “Me-me-me.”  Rest in the Immensity that is your Lord.

8.  In your Jesus Prayer, you have named him as your Christ, your Messiah.  The Messiah is the one who saves us from our selfishness, from our ego-driven limits.  He is the one who invites us to open to our true nature as children of the Divine.  Acknowledge Jesus as your Christ.  Feel what it is, to be saved from your own drivenness, your own neediness.  As you acknowledge your Savior, feel yourself letting go of that which separates you from Him.  

9.  In this great Prayer, you are asking your Lord, "Have mercy on me."  Repeat these words with all of your emotional power.  Let yourself explore the depths of your need for God’s mercy.  This is not a time for blaming yourself, but a time for acknowledging your genuine neediness and your profound need for mercy and divine assistance. 

10. Rest here, in the Presence of your Lord.

(To close your meditation)

11. When you are ready, let yourself come back to this place.  Let the feeling return to your feet, your hands, and your face.  Take a deep breath, and open your eyes.

Connecting your emotions to your prayer is one of the great contributions that Christian contemplatives have made to the development of prayer.  Our Christian heritage is full of emotion:  from Christ, the Messiah, being born in a stable, to the bloody crucifixion, and then the sweetness of Jesus' resurrection.  It is natural for us to use the strong feelings that are aroused in us as we read the narratives of our Savior's work, and to apply these feelings to our prayer.  

To state the obvious, our emotions move us.  There is a powerful force within our emotions that can transport us to different places.  So too it is in prayer.  When we find ways to connect our emotions to our prayer, then that power to move us is unleashed and channeled into spiritual pursuits.  In this way, our emotions can become a great force for our interior development.

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The Jesus Prayer is one of the great spiritual tools that the Church has developed to aid us in our walk with the Lord.  It has been developed and refined over virtually the entire scope of Christian history, a period spanning approximately 2,000 years.  Over this period, those elements of the Prayer that were not efficacious in producing spiritual transformation have been pruned away.  What is left is the pure essence.  

The Prayer is like a powerful vehicle, waiting only for us to use it.  Because of its power, it should not be used lightly.  This is not a toy for children to play with.  It has the capacity to provoke the most profound kinds of spiritual change in our hearts.  So we should not use this prayer until we are quite ready, in our own minds, to move into the depths of God.

The Prayer will lead us, as directly as possible, into a direct encounter with the Divine.  The benefits which accrue from this encounter are impossible to enumerate.  There is such a sweetness, such a joy that arises from this direct encounter, that language is simply too gross a vehicle to adequately describe the experience.  This, of course, has not stopped people from trying to describe what has happened to them.  Let us close this chapter with a description of the effects of this Prayer, as described by the anonymous Russian pilgrim of the nineteenth century.

The Prayer of my heart gave me such consolation that I felt there was no happier person on earth than I, and I doubted if there could be greater and fuller happiness in the kingdom of Heaven.  Not only did I feel this in my own soul, but the whole outside world also seemed to me full of charm and delight.  Everything drew me to love and thank God: people, trees, plants, animals.  I saw them all as my kinsfolk; I found on all of them the magic of the Name of Jesus.  Sometimes I felt as light as though I had no body and was floating happily through the air instead of walking.  Sometimes when I withdrew into myself, I saw clearly all my internal organs and was filled with wonder at the wisdom with which the human body is made.  Sometimes I felt as joyful as if I had been made Tsar.  And at all such times of happiness, I wished that God would let death come to me quickly, and let me pour out my heart in thankfulness at His feet.

Have a great week, and remember that if you have any questions about your practice, please don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected].

With love,

P.S.  Several of you have expressed the desire for an online meditation class.  If there is enough interest, I will try to figure out how to hold a group class on the web.  If you have an interest, please write me at [email protected]. 

Humility as a Tool  → Letting go → Fear → Openness →  Acceptance & Growth

If you are finding this newsletter course helpful, you may want to consider Dr. Kaisch's latest book, Inside the Invisible:  The Universal Path to Spiritual Transcendence.👇

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