By Fr. Brendan Pelphrey
A central question, however, is exactly what we mean by “mindfulness.” How do we understand what we are doing? Why we are doing it? As mentioned already, both Buddhists and Christians are taught not to condemn or to act as a judge over others. On this subject, St. Paul says, “Who am I to judge another man’s servant?” (Romans 14:4). However, in this sentence we see an important difference between the two traditions.
Orthodox Christians see themselves as servants of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal God, one of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Christian practice of not-judging is directly linked to Jesus Christ: He is the Judge, the “other man” to whom all creation must answer—not ourselves. He is the one who said, “Judge not.”
It is also important to add that the Orthodox Christian way of Mindfulness is not a technique for anything. It is not a way to eat more healthfully; it is not a way of relaxation; it is not a way to avoid the bad fruit of Karma or to be more “integrated.” If it has a purpose, it is to render us capable of receiving God through repentance, humility and silence before the eternal Word.
To put this another way, the Orthodox practice of nipsis is prayer. Prayer is not simply asking God for things. Rather, it has to do with listening intently and receiving God. We quiet the mind, so that it is not trying to figure things out (here Orthodox have something in common with Buddhism). Then the mind—that is, the dianoia, the active, logical reasoning capacity—becomes subject to the Heart—the nous or center of spiritual activity, the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. In this state, all mental activity becomes caught up in prayer, which begins in silence before the Awesome God.
We can say, therefore, that Orthodox mindfulness is not simply an awareness of myself, or of “suchness,” or even of my not-Self (as one of my Buddhist friends might put it). It is, rather, a deep awareness of the presence of Christ, both within us and outside of us. The mind “descends into the heart” precisely to encounter Christ. There is a cosmic “other”—the Author and Savior of the universe—who is the object of our contemplation; and in the Christian understanding, it is the Holy Spirit of God who prays within us.
When an Orthodox Christian hears about “eating with mindfulness,” something else also comes to mind. We are to be mindful when we consume the Body of Christ at the Holy Eucharist (the “Lord’s Supper”). We are to examine ourselves, and also discern the presence of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 11, especially verse 29). Then, this moment of awareness in the Eucharist is extended into all the rest of life. Everything is done in the presence of God and in awareness of the divine presence. “Pray without ceasing,” counselled St. Paul. For the person who practices Christian mindfulness, everything becomes prayer, an opportunity to encounter Christ and to serve Him.
From our saints and monastics who practice mindfulness continually, especially the so-called “neptic” saints or hesychasts, we further learn that there can be a deep experience of awareness which few people achieve. It is described, for example, by the 14th century abbot St. Gregory Palamas. When his detractors accused his monks of practicing some kind of eastern meditation, he pointed out that in the end, “mindfulness” and the Orthodox practice of prayer are quite different.
St. Gregory argued that the purpose of practicing silence in the monasteries is not to eat with awareness, but to experience God, who is beyond our ability to understand. To encounter God in this way is life-changing. One is filled with divine love, taking on the likeness of Christ. It is to have the experience of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, in which Peter, James and John saw the divine and uncreated Light (cf. Matthew 17).
In America today, we are constantly being taught to focus on ourselves in a kind of superficial way. But we are taught very little about how to encounter God. Perhaps we are suffering from cultural narcissism. Recently, I saw a poster in the window of a local restaurant which advertised a workshop on “mindfulness.” In very large letters across the top, the poster read, “It is all about yourself.” The point of the workshop, the poster said below the headline, was to teach us how to have self-esteem and to make life work for us.
I beg to differ. True mindfulness is not ultimately about ourselves; it is about encountering Truth. It involves repentance. It leads to enlightenment, in which a person begins to experience everlasting life and eternal Light. There is an Orthodox hymn which invites eating with mindfulness. The hymn says,
Draw near and taste
of the fountain
of immortal life. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
To me, that is eating with mindfulness.
~The Sounding, “Eating with Mindfulness”, Orthodox Christian Network (OCN), http://myocn.net/eating-mindfulness/. Fr. Brendan Pelphrey, a former Protestant pastor and missionary, has been a priest in the Greek Archdiocese since 2000. He has taught in a number of universities in different parts of the world, including Hellenic College in Brookline, MA. His academic degrees and publications are in the fields of Philosophy, Comparative Cultures, Christian Dogmatic Theology and Patristics, New Testament, Christian Medieval Mysticism and Christian Mission.
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