study notes

This book can be ordered thru Amazon.com for under $10.00.  There are even some used copies for under $5.00.  Now reading it for the 4th or 5th time, I have selected it as the first book to be reviewed more fully in this new, Study Notes section.  I will mention in my blog when new postings have been made here ...or you can just check back from time to time. 

 Chapter One: The opening two paragraphs get right to the root of the book. As you read further and discover the many other branches that make up this 194 page book, you will see that everything stems from what is said here: a sincere question and seeking out a spiritual master for help. The Pilgrim wants to know how to obey Saint Paul’s command, to pray continuously (1 Thess. 5:17). Unable to find the answer he then begins his search for “an experienced and learned person .” Traveling with just the clothes on his back and a knapsack full of dry bread crust and his Holy Bible, the Pilgrim begins his great journey.

The Pilgrim is so eager to know, he mentions that he cannot even sleep. Lord Chaitanya also pointed out how this eagerness is one of the defining and necessary qualities when serving the Lord. I am reminded of this every time I play ball with my little dog, Coco. To watch her eagerness for the ball is amazing. And it doesn’t matter if I throw the ball across they yard or only a couple of feet, each time she goes after the ball with the same intensity. I think great devotees must be that way; given an unglamorous chore, such as cleaning the toilets, or asked to drive to a beautiful farm and bring back hand-churned butter  ...either one, they have the same eagerness to serve.

Again, in the very first chapter, after a year of looking, the Pilgrim meets his spiritual master. This elderly saint explains that because so few Christians actually take up the practice of continuous prayer, that instead of giving an accurate explanation of St. Paul’s admonition, churches are filled with lofty and beautiful sermons about the necessity, power, benefits, means, conditions, and fruits of prayer. He explains how this is backwards. It is not the fruits and results of prayer that lead to prayer. Instead it is prayer, itself, that is required: First of all, there should be prayers offered (1 Tim. 2:1). At the bottom of page 17 this is expounded upon nicely.

Turning to page 18, you can read between the lines and understand the inner qualities of the elderly saint (guru, spiritual master) …how he is not “book learned,” but rather experienced by actual practice, having himself practiced continuous and ceaseless prayer. Just as so many mystical objects were churned into existence by the demons and demigods, churning the Holy Names of God with one’s tongue also produces fruits that can only be experienced by actual doing (see the free e-book, Abandoned <book section> for a complete description of the churning of the ocean of milk).  I like where the Pilgrim's spiritual master says that, in fact, our only contribution toward perfection in prayer is our ability to pray all the time. 

Saint Isaac of Syria calls regular and constant prayer, the mother of all spiritual Good. “If you win (achieve, accomplish) the mother, you will have all the children (fruits: to do good).”
 

Saint Isaac of Syria *

 
Side Note:  *This Holy Father of the 7th century, was born in the region of Qatar on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Gifted with a keen intellect, he thirsted also for spiritual knowledge, and, when still quite young, entered a monastery with his brother.  He gained considerable renown as a teacher and came to the attention of the Katholikon Giwargis (George), who ordained him bishop of Ninevah, the former capital of Assyria some distance to the north. For reasons not entirely clear, he requested to abdicate after only five months, and went south to the wilderness of Mount Matout, a refuge for anchorites. There he lived as a solitary for many years, in strict asceticism, eating only three loaves a week with some uncooked vegetables. His constant study of the divine writings strained his eyes, and eventually blindness and old age forced him to retire to the monastery of Shabar, where he died and was buried.

It was already towards the end of his life in the wilderness that, out of love for his neighbor, he felt compelled to share the experience he had gained. The result was a collection of incomparable texts on the spiritual life, from which we have gathered the following pearls.

· What salt is for any food, humility is for every virtue. To acquire it, a man must always think of himself with contrition, self-belittlement and painful self-judgment. But if we acquire it, it will make us sons of God.

· Let us love silence till the world is made to die in our hearts. Let us always remember death, and in this thought draw near to God in our heart--and the pleasures of this world will have our scorn.

· Walk before God in simplicity, and not in subtleties of the mind. Simplicity brings faith; but subtle and intricate speculations bring conceit; and conceit brings withdrawal from God.

· As a man whose head is under water cannot inhale pure air, so a man whose thoughts are plunged into the cares of this world cannot absorb the sensations of that new world.
 
· It is a spiritual gift from God for a man to perceive his sins.

· Ease and idleness are the destruction of the soul and they can injure her more than the demons.

· A life of spiritual endeavor is the mother of sanctity; from it is born the first experience of perception of the mysteries of Christ--which is called the first stage of spiritual knowledge.

· To bear a grudge and pray, means to sow seed on the sea and expect a harvest.

· A small but persistent discipline is a great force; for a soft drop tailing persistently, hollows out hard rock. 

· The key to Divine gifts is given to the heart by love of neighbor, and, in proportion to the heart's freedom from the bonds of the flesh, the door of knowledge begins to open before it.

· Dispassion does not mean that a man feels no passions, but that he does not accept any of them.

· This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.  

(Repentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong and gain forgiveness from the one wronged. In religious contexts it usually refers to confession to God, ceasing sin against Him, and resolving to live according to His law. It always includes an admission of guilt, and also includes at least one of: a solemn promise or resolve not to repeat the offense; an attempt to make restitution for the wrong, or in some way to reverse the harmful effects of the wrong where possible).

 ·   see: http://www.roca.org/OA/137/137d.htm

The first chapter now introduces us to the Ceaseless Jesus Prayer and the holy book, the Philokalia, along with more comments on the necessity for one to obtain a spiritual master. Both the Jesus Prayer and the Philokalia are discussed in detail, followed by the Pilgrim's experiences as he struggles to take his first journey into Divine Order of chanting the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. This is fascinating and as you read, you follow the unfolding relationship between the Pilgrim and his Spiritual Master, who sadly passes away right before the start of Chapter Two. From a Vaishnava standpoint, it is interesting how the Pilgrim’s spiritual master introduces at this time the chanting on beads to a fixed number of rounds (prayers).

The first chapter end with the Pilgrim noting more of his daily experiences, brought fourth by the churning of the Holy Name. At one point he mentions, "and if I happened to meet people during the day they all seemed as close to me as if they were my kinsmen, even though I did not know them."  This is why I love this book so much. …"all people seemed good to me and I felt that everyone loved me." Right here I find a proof-of-sorts to my own reading of the Holy Bible. This is what I feel would be the natural result of doing the right thing: that is, constant calling upon the Holy Name of the Lord. With this mystical kinship with complete strangers, how easy it would be to love others as we love ourselves.

MATTHEW 22:37-40— Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar…Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that your are obeying all the others.

Chapter Two: This is a rather long chapter, 33 pages, and begins with the Pilgrim deciding to walk to the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

Walking through the forest, he plans to find places of solitude for prayer and study. His constant companion is the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Chris have mercy on me. His chanting brings him great joy and different manifestations of ecstasy. He has his Holy Bible and Philokalia with him, using both to always check himself for self delusion and pride. The sweetness of the Holy Name has never been greater. During the next two month even his dreams were often visited by his late spiritual master who emphasized that he always remain humble in spirit.

Ch. 2 also has many stories about amazing incidents that happens to the Pilgrim as he walks toward Irkutsk; even things that almost take his life. These different stories help make this chapter read quickly.

1. He is beat and robbed of his knapsack containing his Bible and Philokalia. Relief from his great suffering finally coming in a dream with his spiritual master who teaches him about detachment from material possessions and complete surrender. Feeling much better, again the Pilgrim takes shelter of the Holy Name and shortly meets with soldiers, the thieves, and a great officer in the Russian army. This officer tells the Pilgrim about his own trials. This officer had fallen out of grace due to alcoholism, and nothing could help him overcome it. This is actually a story to illustrate the power of the Holy Scriptures to defeat and turn around even the worst of sinners. The Pilgrim knows a similar story about the power of the Holy Scriptures to cure alcoholics. After he tells the officer this, the Pilgrim moves on, setting up the next part of this chapter .

2. Eight pages are used for this next section, leading up to the circumstances that allows the Pilgrim to stay for the summer ...bartering his time watching over a stand of trees in exchange for a run-down shack to live in; a perfect arrangement for the Pilgrim. Leading up to this, first the Pilgrim is on the road (end of Ch.1) - praying and studying. He realized more than ever how the Philokalia is like a magnifying glass that unlocks for him the mysteries and understandings of the Holy Bible. All around him, nature seems alive and spirit filled.

The Pilgrim meets an old woodsman who offers the Pilgrim a place to stay for the summer. The Pilgrim accepts, finally finding a situation that will give him a place of steady solitude, that he plans to use to more fully grasp the art of ceaseless prayer of the heart.

The woodsman tells the Pilgrim about himself. How he sold and gave away his old life for a life of repentance, full of daily, self-inflicted suffering and penance in order to wash away his sins and save his soul from hell, which he fears. But after 10 years in the forest, doubts are now assailing the woodsman. He feels that perhaps there is no God, after all, and that his last ten years have been wasted following a mirage. The Pilgrim them reinforces the woodsman with Scripture and leaves him with the Jesus Prayer.

Finally alone in his little forest hut, the Pilgrim reads the entire Philokalia, but after finishing it he still finds himself perplexed. It is a complex book. To easy his confusion, the Pilgrim chants for 24 hrs. without stopping, then falls asleep, during which time his spiritual master again visits him in his dreams. His spiritual master tells him that there are different sequences required to read the Philokalia, depending on the intelligence of the reader. The different, recommended chapters to read and their order are explained to the Pilgrim. This is on page 39. His spiritual master even takes the book from the Pilgrim and marks a certain section with a piece of charcoal. When the Pilgrim wakes, he finds his Philokalia open and marked, just as in his dream.

He then reads this section twice, filling him with complete understanding. For three weeks the Pilgrim applies this new understanding to the Jesus Prayer, achieving various emotions including ecstasy, feeling of love, tears, joy, etc. Five months now pass in this manor, ending when workers arrived to cut down the forest. Again the Pilgrim continues toward the city of Irkutsk.

The Pilgrim reaches his destination but regress a bit to tell a few of many events that happened to him along the way.

A). The first involves being attacked by a large wolf and the rosary beads he had inherited from his spiritual master. Stopping at an inn after this, the Pilgrim has an encounter with a believer and a non-believer, and those discussions are related.

B). This second story involves the Pilgrim being invited to live in a church, which he accepts in exchange for doing a few chores, such as guarding the offering funds.

Gradually, many in the town come to respect and think of the Pilgrim as a saint. Also, a young girl befriends the Pilgrim, upset that she is being forced to marry a man of no faith. All in all, the church becomes too much of a distraction so the Pilgrim leaves. Out on the road the girl catches up to him, having run away on the day of her wedding. But men come and take her away, also arresting the Pilgrim because it appears that instead of a saint, the Pilgrim is simply manipulating the young girl for his own carnal ends. This results in a short trial and a beating. Again the Pilgrim is back on his journey, having never felt any pain from the beating, protected by the Holy Name. That night, again his spiritual master visits him in a dream, urging him to read the following words in John of Karpathos, Ch 35:

“Sometimes the teacher falls into disrespect and suffers trials for those whom he helps spiritually.”

His spiritual master points out more areas in the scriptures to help the Pilgrim make sense of all that has just happened to him, ending by reminding that it is his duty to help the fallen souls by preaching to them, but to always guard against vanity and being puffed up.

C). The next incident happens when the Pilgrim falls into icy water at night and looses all use of his legs. Paralyzed for three days and cast out, finally a peasant offers to help him, with the Pilgrim agreeing to teach the peasant’s son to write …if he is healed. Using putrid old animal and bird bones, broken and cooked down into a gooey-like substance and applied to the Pilgrim’s legs, after a week the Pilgrim is on his way to full recovery. The Pilgrim’s comments about this are interesting.

The boy learns to read quickly which in turn leads the Pilgrim to meet the boys employer, who comes to meet this stranger who can read and write. The Pilgrim introduces this man to the Philokalia. However, in explaining the Jesus Prayer to this person, the man becomes critical of both the Philokalia and the constant chanting of the Jesus Prayer. This opens the door for the Pilgrim to set the man straight. This man accepts the correction and invites the Pilgrim over for dinner so that he can read the Philokalia. One evening the man’s wife gets a chicken bone lodged in her throat. Nothing seems to help her and the doctor is sent for. The Pilgrim falls asleep only to be visited once again by his spiritual master, who admonishes the Pilgrim to be active in helping the lady. He tells the Pilgrim how to administer aid to the woman, whose throat is swelling shut. The suggested cure does the trick but the Pilgrim has to leave that place because once again too much attention is drawn to him by many who think the Pilgrim is a great religious person, able to heal, etc.

D). On the final leg of his journey to Irkutsk, the Pilgrim again describes the enormous joy from chanting the Jesus Prayer. He meets a man there who will try to arrange transportation for the Pilgrim to Jerusalem. The Pilgrim leaves Irkutsk with his next destination Odessa & his eyes are set on Jerusalem. Thus ends Ch. 2.

Chapter Three is only 4 pages long but is one of the most interesting to read because you learn about just who the Pilgrim is, how he ended up with a useless and deformed hand, about his family, and about the tragic events that sent the Pilgrim on his long journey.