The Way of a Pilgrim (ISBN 1-893361-31-4) translated and annotated by Gleb Pokrovsky is a Russian classic on spirituality and the Jesus Prayer. This book is part of the Skylight Illuminations series edited buy Andrew Harvey and published by Skylight Paths Publishing.
This book and the Jesus Prayer have been round for a long time but this is the first translation that's easy to read and understand. It reads like a novel. Our Pilgrim tells the story as he travels from place to place. He stops at several places along the way to read his book and practice his prayer. The story may be an allegory about the Road to Christ Consciousness or it may just be the story of a pious person. I suspect it's both the story of a spiritual being and a description of one path to attaining Christ Consciousness.
The Jesus Prayer is very simple: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. The prayer is repeated thousands of times a day by our Pilgrim. It is prayed first with the lips until it becomes a habit and then with the mind without any sound. Finally it's prayed by the heart. The prayer continues without any conscious effort on his part. This is called praying without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing. is a biblical phrase attributed to St. Paul in the new testament at First Thessalonians 11-22. It's also a Buddhist admonition and a Mantra Yoga practice. It's said to be the easy path to Christ Consciousness or to Enlightenment.
Most people who practice the Jesus Prayer start out by saying the prayer one or two hundred times and increase this number over time. When they reach 1000 times a day they start to internalize it and say it both with the lips and with the mind. Over time the increase the repetitions with the mind and decrease the repetitions with the lips until it's an entirely mental prayer.
Eventually they do the same thing the Pilgrim did. They move the prayer from their head to their heart. They increase the repetitions of the prayer until the prayer prays itself unceasingly. The individual becomes the watcher and Enlightenment or Christ Consciousness is achieved.
The same process described in this book can be used with any prayer and it can be directed to any name of Deity the person desires. Inn India this same process is used by the Shakti Cult to pray unceasingly to Shakti. The Shiva and Vishnu cults have similar practices as do Sufis and other Muslin groups. Undoubtedly the Early Greeks, Romans and Egyptians had similar practices. It's probably nothing new.
But it works no matter how often the prayer is intoned each day, and no matter how long it takes to internalize it into the mind and eventually into the heart.
You can use this book as a template for your own spiritual work, as an inspirational tool to help you on your own spiritual path, or as a good book worthy of reading, studying and understanding.
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