Lo Yoga è una disciplina conosciuta principalmente come metodo antistress.
Si è portati così a trascurare le potenzialità dell’incontro, tra la più conosciuta filosofia orientale e la religione cattolica.
Il cristiano può accostarvisi in modo davvero proficuo e la meditazione Yoga, se intesa e praticata in its most elevated of the authentic way of spiritual quest, it can become a means to revive their faith.
Now, my significant experience of Christian Yoga, I intend to offer it to you.
If you plan to attend my meetings on the "prayer of the heart", call the number 335-5445222.
Si è portati così a trascurare le potenzialità dell’incontro, tra la più conosciuta filosofia orientale e la religione cattolica.
Il cristiano può accostarvisi in modo davvero proficuo e la meditazione Yoga, se intesa e praticata in its most elevated of the authentic way of spiritual quest, it can become a means to revive their faith.
Now, my significant experience of Christian Yoga, I intend to offer it to you.
If you plan to attend my meetings on the "prayer of the heart", call the number 335-5445222.
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
It was not a way to stress that they met the French priest Jules Monchanin (1895-1957) Benedictine monks and Henri Le Saux (French, 1910-1973) and Bede Griffiths (British, 1906-1993), in their ministry of inculturation of the gospel on Indian soil in the early twentieth century.
The first two, in 1950, founded in Tamil Nadu Saccidananda the Ashram (Hermitage of the Holy Trinity), a Shantivanam (Forest of Peace). On the death of Monchanin, Le Saux moved in northern India, on the banks of the Ganges, by entrusting the leadership of the ashram Bede Griffiths, who converted the chapel into a small monastic community of Catholic rites in India. Bede Griffiths then affiliated to the Order Camaldolese the community and had become a center of spirituality where people from different religious traditions could join in an atmosphere of prayer, putting into practice this wonderful marriage of East and West, at the base of his vision. The fathers of
Camaldoli Hermitage, are still actively engaged in interreligious dialogue, in line with the Encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam, but the only official document of the Church, which may have value for Christians methods Eastern meditation is still the Orationis formas of 1989, signed by the then Cardinal Ratzinger: an exercise in great balance between the "desire to learn to pray" and the danger of self-sufficiency of oriental techniques, which create "feelings of quiet ', which could make us forget that prayer is always dialogue with an Other, but Ratzinger also recognizes that "authentic Christian meditation practices from the East and the large non-Christian religions ... can be a suitable medium to help the faithful to stand before God."
Hesychasm, the "Yoga for Christians"
For Christians, the human body was created by God and endowed with its natural law.
The first two, in 1950, founded in Tamil Nadu Saccidananda the Ashram (Hermitage of the Holy Trinity), a Shantivanam (Forest of Peace). On the death of Monchanin, Le Saux moved in northern India, on the banks of the Ganges, by entrusting the leadership of the ashram Bede Griffiths, who converted the chapel into a small monastic community of Catholic rites in India. Bede Griffiths then affiliated to the Order Camaldolese the community and had become a center of spirituality where people from different religious traditions could join in an atmosphere of prayer, putting into practice this wonderful marriage of East and West, at the base of his vision. The fathers of
Camaldoli Hermitage, are still actively engaged in interreligious dialogue, in line with the Encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam, but the only official document of the Church, which may have value for Christians methods Eastern meditation is still the Orationis formas of 1989, signed by the then Cardinal Ratzinger: an exercise in great balance between the "desire to learn to pray" and the danger of self-sufficiency of oriental techniques, which create "feelings of quiet ', which could make us forget that prayer is always dialogue with an Other, but Ratzinger also recognizes that "authentic Christian meditation practices from the East and the large non-Christian religions ... can be a suitable medium to help the faithful to stand before God."
Hesychasm, the "Yoga for Christians"
For Christians, the human body was created by God and endowed with its natural law.
However, the West has lost time in the appropriate capacities to enhance the body as the temple of the Spirit. It is rather nice and secure in accordance with the divine law. Needless to say, then, that a Christian can approach the Yoga in an intelligent and useful to your spiritual life.
Among the forms of prayer more and more popular even among Catholics, there is the practice of ' hesychasm , an ancient Christian spiritual tradition whose technical approaches for many aspects to yoga, just think of the recitation of the Holy Rosary repeats its mantra that look like the Hindus. Hesychasm has thus gained the definition of "Christian Yoga" . Has the peculiarity to unify and integrate the breath with the rhythm and activity of the mind, in the rhythmic recitation of a prayer.
THE PRAYER OF THE HEART
Hesychasm is a system of spirituality that has the underlying esychía, a Greek word meaning "inner peace, silence."
Its origins are ancient, although it is usually associated with the Byzantine mystics of the fourteenth century and Mount Athos. This spiritual tradition began in the fourth century AD with the first Christian monks, known as the Desert Fathers and continues uninterrupted to this day. In Christianity the esychía meant above all a life of prayer and solitude, the monks retreated into more remote areas of the Egyptian desert and seek communion with God through a strict ascetic and meditative practice. Even then, great importance was given to the incessant repetition, verbal or silent, the so-called preghiera mantrica del cuore: «Signore Gesù Cristo, abbi pietà di me» o «Kyrie eleison» nella sua forma più breve, quale mezzo per raggiungere l’esychía, la tranquillità dell’anima.
S. Cassiano (V sec. d.C.) scrive a proposito di questa preghiera continua: «è un segreto che c’è stato insegnato dai pochi sopravvissuti fra i Padri dei primi tempi, e che noi affidiamo a quel piccolo numero d’anime veramente assetate di conoscerlo. Al fine dunque di tenere sempre il pensiero fisso in Dio, dovrete proporvi continuamente questa formula di pietà». A partire dal VI secolo d.C. la tradizione esicastica si diffonde nei monasteri del Sinai e infine sul Monte Athos.
L’esicasmo si diffonde poi anche fuori dei monasteri grazie a due opere: la Filocalia, importante collezione d’antichi scritti cristiani, che è pubblicata nel 1782 da Nicodemo Aghiorita e da Macario di Corinto, e i Racconti di un pellegrino russo, pubblicato nel 1884 da autore anonimo.
IL METODO D’ORAZIONE ESICASTA
La versione che oggi è più diffusa, è probabilmente il metodo d’orazione esicastica secondo l’insegnamento di Padre Serafino.
Si tratta di un racconto apparentemente ingenuo e semplice, che in realtà illustra in maniera precisa e accurata le caratteristiche di questa pratica meditativa. Padre Serafino accoglie nel suo eremitaggio di S. Panteleimon (Monte Athos) un giovane French philosopher, who desires to be initiated into the "method of prayer hesychastic.
First they are taught to "meditate like a mountain," which is the property sit on the floor with your legs crossed, looking for stability and presence. The first piece of advice to be given to those who want to meditate is not of a spiritual, but physical: Sit down. The young man learns to feel like a mountain, "could take time, to welcome the seasons, keep calm and quiet" and the rhythm of his thoughts will change, "He had learned to" see "without judging, as if he had given everything that grows on the mountain the "right to exist". "
Then they are taught to "meditate like a poppy," to direct our meditation towards the light, straightening the spine: "If you look good poppy, it will teach not only the straightness of the stem, but also a certain flexibility in the spirits of the wind and then a certain humility. " From the mountain he had learned the meaning of eternity, it shows the fragility of the poppy: "Meditate is to know the Lord in the transience of the moment, a moment right, well oriented."
Teaching is the next "meditate like the ocean": the young man had already spent long hours in the Atlantic shore and knew the art of give its breath to breath big waves, but now had become rooted and stable and it felt like a drop of water that had retained its identity and yet he knew of "being one" with the ocean, " She learned to meditate and breathe deeply, is to abandon its course the ebb and flow of the breath "and" also learned that if there were waves on the surface, the ocean floor remained quiet. Thoughts come and go like foam, but the fund is being immobile. "
He is then taught to "meditate like a bird": "Meditation is like the dove murmur, let rise in you that song from the heart ... singing, meditation and breathing. " Father Seraphim asked him to repeat, humming, singing what is in the heart of all the monks of Athos: Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison, and adds: "When thoughts torment you, return gently to the invocation, breathe more deeply, keep law and property and are learning a beginning of esychía. This invocation leads gradually to a deep respect for everything that exists and what is hidden and is at the root of all existence. Father Serafino
then teaches him "the meditation of Abraham," with which "we we enter a new and higher consciousness that is called faith, that the consent of mind and heart to that "You" that is, what transpires in multiple intimacy of all beings. " The young man is initiated to "an awakening of the heart": how to meditate Abraham actually means "to join with faith to the One who transcends the universe, is to practice hospitality, and to intercede for the salvation of all men, is to forget oneself .... "
The final lesson of Father Seraphim is "meditate as Jesus ':' Meditate like Jesus is to bring all forms of meditation that I taught you so far. Jesus is l’uomo cosmico. Sapeva meditare come la montagna, come il papavero, come l’oceano, come la tortora. Sapeva anche meditare come Abramo».
LE AFFINITA’ TRA LA MEDITAZIONE ESICASTA E LO YOGA
A conclusione di questa breve esposizione, mi sembra interessante considerare le affinità che esistono tra la meditazione esicastica e quella Yoga, non solo nei mezzi utilizzati, ma anche nello spirito stesso che le anima e le sostiene.La forte somiglianza tra le tecniche psico-fisiche dell’esicasmo e quelle dello Yoga è riconosciuta da Mircea Eliade, che arriva a stabilire l’esistenza di un problema vero e proprio; gli studiosi sono infatti incerti se proporre un’influenza diretta dell’antico East sull'esicasmo or assume a spontaneous rediscovery of foreplay ways of prayer and ascetic. The similarities are obvious. The retreat
sitting in a cell kept quiet, as recommended by the monks of Mount Athos, easily recalls the famous verse of Hathayoga-Pradipika: "Who is going to practice Yoga must stand at the center of a small solitary cell, free from rocks, water and fire. "
The focus on breath control and its effects on the mental plane takes us back to pranayama, and the repetition of the name corresponds to the repetition of the mantra in the Eastern tradition.
The theme of the heart, key nell'esicasmo, is clearly present in the physiology Indian mysticism, which Anahata chakra, the center of psycho-physical, whose revival is characterized by a feeling of universal love for all beings.
On a less technical then we can see that both the spiritual traditions are presented as ways of salvation for mankind free from suffering: guide the practitioner through an ascetic path gradual and systematic, using the body as a tool for inner transformation, and allows to reach union with the Divine ecstasy.
YOGA FOR aroused their Faith
If you put aside mistrust and dogmatism, and if we consider Yoga in its truest essence of authentic and high-street search spiritual, we realize that meditation can be practiced by members of any religious belief.
It is not uncommon, and even just in Catholic circles, the case of those found in yoga a way to rediscover and revive their faith.
On the other hand the same great Eastern masters, including Master and Gandhi urged not to leave their religion they belong.
Among the forms of prayer more and more popular even among Catholics, there is the practice of ' hesychasm , an ancient Christian spiritual tradition whose technical approaches for many aspects to yoga, just think of the recitation of the Holy Rosary repeats its mantra that look like the Hindus. Hesychasm has thus gained the definition of "Christian Yoga" . Has the peculiarity to unify and integrate the breath with the rhythm and activity of the mind, in the rhythmic recitation of a prayer.
THE PRAYER OF THE HEART
Hesychasm is a system of spirituality that has the underlying esychía, a Greek word meaning "inner peace, silence."
Its origins are ancient, although it is usually associated with the Byzantine mystics of the fourteenth century and Mount Athos. This spiritual tradition began in the fourth century AD with the first Christian monks, known as the Desert Fathers and continues uninterrupted to this day. In Christianity the esychía meant above all a life of prayer and solitude, the monks retreated into more remote areas of the Egyptian desert and seek communion with God through a strict ascetic and meditative practice. Even then, great importance was given to the incessant repetition, verbal or silent, the so-called preghiera mantrica del cuore: «Signore Gesù Cristo, abbi pietà di me» o «Kyrie eleison» nella sua forma più breve, quale mezzo per raggiungere l’esychía, la tranquillità dell’anima.
S. Cassiano (V sec. d.C.) scrive a proposito di questa preghiera continua: «è un segreto che c’è stato insegnato dai pochi sopravvissuti fra i Padri dei primi tempi, e che noi affidiamo a quel piccolo numero d’anime veramente assetate di conoscerlo. Al fine dunque di tenere sempre il pensiero fisso in Dio, dovrete proporvi continuamente questa formula di pietà». A partire dal VI secolo d.C. la tradizione esicastica si diffonde nei monasteri del Sinai e infine sul Monte Athos.
L’esicasmo si diffonde poi anche fuori dei monasteri grazie a due opere: la Filocalia, importante collezione d’antichi scritti cristiani, che è pubblicata nel 1782 da Nicodemo Aghiorita e da Macario di Corinto, e i Racconti di un pellegrino russo, pubblicato nel 1884 da autore anonimo.
IL METODO D’ORAZIONE ESICASTA
La versione che oggi è più diffusa, è probabilmente il metodo d’orazione esicastica secondo l’insegnamento di Padre Serafino.
Si tratta di un racconto apparentemente ingenuo e semplice, che in realtà illustra in maniera precisa e accurata le caratteristiche di questa pratica meditativa. Padre Serafino accoglie nel suo eremitaggio di S. Panteleimon (Monte Athos) un giovane French philosopher, who desires to be initiated into the "method of prayer hesychastic.
First they are taught to "meditate like a mountain," which is the property sit on the floor with your legs crossed, looking for stability and presence. The first piece of advice to be given to those who want to meditate is not of a spiritual, but physical: Sit down. The young man learns to feel like a mountain, "could take time, to welcome the seasons, keep calm and quiet" and the rhythm of his thoughts will change, "He had learned to" see "without judging, as if he had given everything that grows on the mountain the "right to exist". "
Then they are taught to "meditate like a poppy," to direct our meditation towards the light, straightening the spine: "If you look good poppy, it will teach not only the straightness of the stem, but also a certain flexibility in the spirits of the wind and then a certain humility. " From the mountain he had learned the meaning of eternity, it shows the fragility of the poppy: "Meditate is to know the Lord in the transience of the moment, a moment right, well oriented."
Teaching is the next "meditate like the ocean": the young man had already spent long hours in the Atlantic shore and knew the art of give its breath to breath big waves, but now had become rooted and stable and it felt like a drop of water that had retained its identity and yet he knew of "being one" with the ocean, " She learned to meditate and breathe deeply, is to abandon its course the ebb and flow of the breath "and" also learned that if there were waves on the surface, the ocean floor remained quiet. Thoughts come and go like foam, but the fund is being immobile. "
He is then taught to "meditate like a bird": "Meditation is like the dove murmur, let rise in you that song from the heart ... singing, meditation and breathing. " Father Seraphim asked him to repeat, humming, singing what is in the heart of all the monks of Athos: Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison, and adds: "When thoughts torment you, return gently to the invocation, breathe more deeply, keep law and property and are learning a beginning of esychía. This invocation leads gradually to a deep respect for everything that exists and what is hidden and is at the root of all existence. Father Serafino
then teaches him "the meditation of Abraham," with which "we we enter a new and higher consciousness that is called faith, that the consent of mind and heart to that "You" that is, what transpires in multiple intimacy of all beings. " The young man is initiated to "an awakening of the heart": how to meditate Abraham actually means "to join with faith to the One who transcends the universe, is to practice hospitality, and to intercede for the salvation of all men, is to forget oneself .... "
The final lesson of Father Seraphim is "meditate as Jesus ':' Meditate like Jesus is to bring all forms of meditation that I taught you so far. Jesus is l’uomo cosmico. Sapeva meditare come la montagna, come il papavero, come l’oceano, come la tortora. Sapeva anche meditare come Abramo».
LE AFFINITA’ TRA LA MEDITAZIONE ESICASTA E LO YOGA
A conclusione di questa breve esposizione, mi sembra interessante considerare le affinità che esistono tra la meditazione esicastica e quella Yoga, non solo nei mezzi utilizzati, ma anche nello spirito stesso che le anima e le sostiene.La forte somiglianza tra le tecniche psico-fisiche dell’esicasmo e quelle dello Yoga è riconosciuta da Mircea Eliade, che arriva a stabilire l’esistenza di un problema vero e proprio; gli studiosi sono infatti incerti se proporre un’influenza diretta dell’antico East sull'esicasmo or assume a spontaneous rediscovery of foreplay ways of prayer and ascetic. The similarities are obvious. The retreat
sitting in a cell kept quiet, as recommended by the monks of Mount Athos, easily recalls the famous verse of Hathayoga-Pradipika: "Who is going to practice Yoga must stand at the center of a small solitary cell, free from rocks, water and fire. "
The focus on breath control and its effects on the mental plane takes us back to pranayama, and the repetition of the name corresponds to the repetition of the mantra in the Eastern tradition.
The theme of the heart, key nell'esicasmo, is clearly present in the physiology Indian mysticism, which Anahata chakra, the center of psycho-physical, whose revival is characterized by a feeling of universal love for all beings.
On a less technical then we can see that both the spiritual traditions are presented as ways of salvation for mankind free from suffering: guide the practitioner through an ascetic path gradual and systematic, using the body as a tool for inner transformation, and allows to reach union with the Divine ecstasy.
YOGA FOR aroused their Faith
If you put aside mistrust and dogmatism, and if we consider Yoga in its truest essence of authentic and high-street search spiritual, we realize that meditation can be practiced by members of any religious belief.
It is not uncommon, and even just in Catholic circles, the case of those found in yoga a way to rediscover and revive their faith.
On the other hand the same great Eastern masters, including Master and Gandhi urged not to leave their religion they belong.
Yoga, then, as an authentic way of union and meeting.
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