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Dear Brothers and Sisters
Before moving forward in this month's newsletter, let us take a moment to honor the holiday of the 4th of July. Freedom and Independence. Freedom to move about, to have our own opinion, freedom of speech, freedom to worship the God of our understanding…freely, to live to our full potential, and many other freedoms to act independently.
These freedoms can feel at times like we are loosing them and or engaging to retain them, depending on ones make up and state of consciousness.
A mystic once told me:
“The Great Truths can’t be understood (by the mind). Only Lived. These Truths live you…Truths that live us.”
Defending Ourselves Against Negative Thoughts-Logismoi
No matter which side of the issue you are on, our negativity about others is damaging to others and ourselves. In the book, The Mountain of Silence, the saints, and mystics give us methods of defending ourselves as these thoughts that cross our minds. The first one is:
The Strategy of Indifference.
It’s a strategy that is so simple, we often simply ignore it. Which is the strategy itself! In The Mountain of Silence, they give a few analogies. One is using a loud plane flying over your home. Is there anything you can do about it at that moment in time to make it go away? Yelling at it, throwing your fists in the air, will that stop it in its tracks and make it disappear? No. It will only upset you and disturb your peace of mind. Engaging yourself in that disturbance only causes more disturbance.
Similarly, when you are in that first or second stage of negative thoughts/Logismoi, the best method is to pay it no mind, do not engage the mind in that thought. “Ignore them completely. Never open up a dialogue with the intruder. Do not interact with them either out of curiosity or overconfidence. It’s a tactical error. It's like starting a dialogue with a mortal enemy who is much more clever than you. If you pay attention to Logismoi/negative thoughts you must realize that it will become increasingly bolder. It will begin to invade your heart with louder and louder noise. The best strategy in confronting Logismoi/negative thoughts, therefore, is to completely disregard it. Do not focus on what it tells you and urges you to do.” The Mountain of Silence.
This strategy can also be practiced when provoked by others. But it is also pointed out to remember that people are not logismos, negative thoughts…but producers of logismos/negative thoughts and or actions. Engaging with someone who is shouting insults and or obscenities at you only fuels the fire of negativity surrounding you. The best strategy for us is to shrug it off, not respond. Go within (see it all as a witness of the situation) and know you have nothing to do with that person. Your ego will try to defend itself, it's natural. Just ignore the insults and obscenities, paying them no attention and eventually, our ego is silenced, and usually, the person eventually goes away if there is no engagement.
The best method for a person to fight Logismoi/negative thoughts or others provoking us is to, just keep the negative thoughts out.
Splitting Logismos is the next strategy.
Again, these strategies are so simple we ignore them because our ego thinks it knows better. Splitting these negative thoughts simply focuses on something ordinary. Like, counting the number of people on the bus, if you're riding a bus. Or if you’re in the park, count the number of branches or leaves on the tree. In the 12 Step rooms, you’ll hear a saying…” Move a muscle, change the thought.”
By doing this, you lessen the energy of the negative thought, it becomes weaker. The weaker the negative thought becomes as you continue to repeat this simple process. Physical exercise or work is also helpful. But remember, not to bring negative thoughts with you. Focus on the task at hand. When I was a young Brahmachari student/monk, in my early years, physical work was very important for spiritual growth. It was a farming community, without a lot of machinery. The work was not just for our material substance. All work was done in God’s name, never for personal gain. Keeping one in a humble state, kept negative thoughts out.
There is another method by which to silence Logismoi, it’s called the Adversarial method. But it is an advanced method that you can read of in The Mountain of Silence to find out more if you are interested.
One would think that resorting to prayer while being attacked by negative thoughts would also be a resourceful action. Not so. At times, if one uses prayer when under attack by negative thoughts, it has something like the opposite effect. As it says in The Mountain of Silence, “It may lead a person to extreme psychic turmoil and to a loss of self-mastery. Old Paisios (an elder of Mt Athos’s, an old sage/mystic) used to tell us that when confronted with a logismos, whoever resorts to repeating the Prayer very rapidly resembles a terrified soldier in the heat of battle. He holds his rifle tight to his chest, paralyzed with fear. To reassure himself that he is not afraid he repeats, Holy Virgin help me, Holy Virgin, help me. And he shakes from head to toe, sitting completely immobilized and unable to fight or even to breathe.”
To continue from The Mountain of Silence; Before a person begins to pray when confronted with a troublesome logismos, a rational mastery over the situation must be developed. Again, if at all possible, the best way is to employ the strategy of complete indifference. Pray, but not while in a state of panic.
In other words, when under the attack of negative thoughts/logismos, regaining our reasoning and willpower is of utmost importance before using prayer. We need to bring ourselves back to level ground. Otherwise, you become highly vulnerable to the machinations of these negative thoughts. As in the story of the soldier above, you become paralyzed.
Prayer does its work at the deepest recesses of the *heart and leads to true spiritual health. Mountain of Silence
*Heart in The Athonite spiritual tradition: Nous is often equated with heart, and by heart, we mean the center and totality of the mental and psychological powers of the individual. This is what Christ meant when He said: “Blessed be the pure of heart for they shall see God.”
Only Love
Michael
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