A Comparative Study of the Jesus Prayer of Hesychasm and Samatha-Vipassanā Meditation: Juxtaposing Christian “Watchfulness” with Buddhist “Mindfulness” in Healing

Abstract

The significant growth in the spread of mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness practices over the past few decades has generated excitement and apprehension for many, including Christians. Some Christians desire the physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness yet proceed with caution because of its secularized form and/or Buddhist origins, preferring to find a parallel spiritual practice within Christianity. This thesis presents the Jesus Prayer of Hesychasm of Eastern Christianity as a feasible alternative to mindfulness practices for Christians. It establishes that the essential elements that make up contemporary mindfulness meditation––an embodied spiritual practice with a constant awareness of the object of one’s attention––are present in the Jesus Prayer of Hesychasm, even when the spiritual or faith understandings of the two ancient traditions are incompatible. It also advances the identity of Jesus Christ as the Divine Healer––offering a parallel interpretation of him as the Redemptorist Saviour––and Christianity as a healing religion. For this task, the dissertation will engage the historical-critical and the comparative theology of textual and praxis comparison methodologies to demonstrate that Buddhist samatha (calm/ concentrative) and vipassanā (insight/mindfulness) meditations find counterparts in Eastern Christianity’s hesychia (inner stillness) and nepsis (watchfulness) spiritual exercises before proceeding to discuss the Jesus Prayer, the heart of hesychasm. The significant similarities between hesychia-nepsis and samatha-vipassanā allow scientific research on mindfulness’s health benefits to be a proxy for hesychastic spirituality. The Jesus Prayer of Hesychasm accommodates Christians who prefer an embodied, non-discursive contemplative prayer, especially those who prefer to remain within the framework of purely Christian spiritual exercises. This dissertation also provides constructive comparisons for Christians who feel at home with Buddhist meditation, as they can find a similarity with Buddhist meditative practices in Christian philokalic tradition.