Impromptu #2 - The Jesus Prayer

[Music] here we have a subtle energy now subtle energy by the nature of things will manifest and the rather noticeable excitement we're all feeling today a lot of talking you know wasn't excited is symptomatic of this now this subtle energy can easily run to waste and just be lost so it needs cherishing there's not to waste it so we're given the instruction when we've nothing to say say nothing in other words don't just let this habitual gamble just pour out in what isn't really necessary try to bring in this quality of discrimination all things are permitted but not everything is profitable not everything is useful to our spiritual development so this subtle energy treated with respect harbor it in your heart and it will serve you well don't throw it away in unnecessary excitement now then i've managed to talk to all of you except one in some small detail about your practices of meditation and it really has taken me rather a long time to realize this but what i propose to you to do now is share with you um what i do my own experience and i don't offer i offer this purely take it or leave it i know you've all got your own practices to some extent and if you prefer um to continue with that well god bless you but just listen to what i'm going to share with you and if you like it then take it and if you don't want it well just let it be information and leave it at that but this is what's available to you now then if you don't mind i'm going to start with a bit of history um in the early years of christianity it was apparently a much more contemplative um faith than it's become in common usage in the west today and many um people who loved it went into the desert what was in the egyptian desert and became what was known in history as the desert fathers they lived in they were hermits and lived in caves and they practiced what has come down to us as that is now called the jesus prayer now meditation is as old as history there's nothing new about meditation it goes back the records in the vedas that go back to the very beginnings but the the the name and form of meditation rather than the names used in meditation have varied of course as they're multiple names of god and all true meditation systems are really based on calling on in some way on this whatever we conceive god to be of god and so these desert fathers naturally use the name of jesus it was used put onto the the timeless method of just raising yourself to god and if you like to think of it this way think of the first sort of dinosaurs the first neolithic people who who stood on the hillside like we were yesterday and just lifted their eyes to the heavens you know that's what meditation is it's absolutely fundamental it's as natural as breathing it's just going out going outside isn't it looking at the stars at night it's as natural as that that's what it is and of course being men we we have to put it into a little box and call it meditation and attach names and forms to it because this is what we do um so the jesus prayers started now then and the the creed and the early words of christianity were formulated now to begin with the center of christianity was in the middle east in constantinople that was the head of the center of the church i always forget the date i think it was around 300 or something like that or maybe a bit later um if you're familiar with the creed at all there's a phrase the holy ghost which means the spirit this invisible entity proceeding from the father and in the bible it's written a bit they're two versions of it and men have always argued as to whether the spirit proceeds from the father or from the father and the son the son being jesus now this may appear all just a bit academic to you but but that's how people think and so there developed an argument as to whether this spirit originates from the father or from the father and the bigger head of jesus who is known as the historical figure and so the church split and there's this great was called the great chisholm between what's called the eastern church and the western church and the western church saw man i.e the incarnation of jesus as instrumental in the transmission of spirit and so the pope was became the human representation of this continuing this human representative through which the spirit flowed and from this western tradition flowed the whole thing of the dignity of man and to this whole thing of human rights that we make such an issue of today and the you know the the um lengths to which we go to you know to uh raise the worth of human existence and the emphasis on human creativity and all that has become we've become accustomed to in the west now the eastern church is quite different to this there isn't the same emphasis on man in fact man is seen as a sinner now yesterday we talked about what that means that basically man has turned away from the light and so he is in darkness he transmits the power of darkness and hence all the problems of the world it's all my fault so there's quite a different emphasis on the worth of human life in west we rather tend to dismiss sin and forget about it and we try to reform the world by human endeavor it's up to me to help the ecological crisis by we're going to stop plastic etc and make the world a better place rather forgetting that i myself am the cause of the trouble we try to sort out the world out there it's his fault by changing the government or something or changing laws but basically the fault is mine but we don't really think that way in the west we're going to make a better job we're going to be educated we're all going to be clever we're going to man we'll make the we'll save the world in the east it's not seen like that man is the cause of the trouble and jesus is the savior which might call old-fashioned christianity before it all became modernized for the emphasis on man now then not so long ago the whole idea of meditation was really quite alien when i started to meditate 60 years ago i was considered not really not christian it was something that was really belong to those eastern people you know this people called spader spaded these days and east was east and west is west whenever the train did meet and now of course we're all equal aren't we not allowed to say such things but um but in the east meditation has always been part of the faith they called it something else of course but they use this jesus prayer which is really just meditation using the name of jesus and to those of us that have a leaning towards christianity and haven't sort of taken the anti-jesus stance well it's actually very comforting and very nice to use the word jesus because most people in the west whatever their thoughts or knowledge of christianity at least have some respect for the name of jesus and somehow he's associated with goodness and good things so uh there's a feeling of safety with jesus and that that's borne out in practice and uh although i was taught to meditate uh nearly 60 years ago and i was first taught with a an eastern mantra um [Music] about 20 30 years ago i had what do i call a jesus experience and i simply changed the the mantra i was originally given and started using the jesus prayer and in every other respect the moment the meditation is precisely the same it's just a different mantra and if anyone comes to me these days and asks to be taught meditation i usually ask them if they'd like to use the name jesus if they don't object that's what i would recommend it's been proved by history to be highly effective and i find it so um so um if you don't object i just like to introduce you to how the house is how this set method of mesnation is introduced but before i do it would any of you like to say anything or comment or ask anything by the east john by the east you're referring to eastern christianity which is essentially correct me if i'm wrong greek orthodoxy yes thank you phil that that's correct yes um yes i don't mean the far east it's the middle east essentially yes i am half russian mum was russian um but having been through the uh the awful traumas of the revolution and civil war when she was a little little girl she came to england to very damaged what we'd call these days abused and traumatized little girl and and when she eventually married and produced me she she sought to protect her children from her own traumatization through those dreadful years so i was brought up english but i never really felt i was fully english i went to a very english boarding school education but i sort of never quite fit in i didn't know why at the time i just felt a failure really yes that was it i felt something wrong with it i didn't know why and it was only much later in my 50s that i went to russia for the first time and then i had the amazing experience i was in a train a very ordinary dingy train with a crowd that couldn't be more ordinary sort of everyday russians i suddenly felt i could got these people think and feel as i do it's extraordinary and you know it makes me cry just to say it and on countless occasions just in the most grotty situations in russia i just felt such happiness be among my own people again where i belonged and uh and that's how you because you got the grips of the language it's impossible language and i started reading simple children's books on on prayer and faith and that i this whole world of orthodoxy gradually opened up to me and i rediscovered christianity from a different perspective and i realized to my utter amazement that meditation which i'd been practicing since my twenties which i loved so much was actually part and parcel of the orthodox faith and their understanding of man well that was a a revelation of an enormous comfort to me to to find that um greatly boosted both my faith and christianity and my faith in meditation and the jesus prayer is is really what they've used in in orthodox countries as their method of meditation the words of it are rather archaic and rather long but don't be put off by that that's just like the prayer when we were having lunch do you remember i explained to you that prayer well these words are they just need understanding for what they mean but the words are the words they don't worry about the words the words are just the structure just like the you know like the walking stick is what keeps them falling over that's what words are they're just instruments conveyors of the meaning the words of this just listen lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner and i suggest that instead of sort of you know bristling resistance against that word sinner you just bear in mind what i've been trying to explain to you that basically the human condition is that we have turned away from the presence we are absent we're not generally here we were all talking about very interesting subjects this morning but for most of the time most of us were not present you see this what happens with the best will in the world we get interested in hearing someone's life story asking questions and that but in the process we lose this essential presence so this is this is the fact this is the human condition you can't avoid it this is why we all live in bodies that are going to die in the real world of course there is no death no death whatsoever in this fallen world it dies therefore everything everything that is around us that dies is not it it's sin and that's why things go wrong in this life that's why the pure things the pure you see from this first subtle presence what happens the first things that sort of emanate from it first of all it's love isn't it in this presence we look at each other and without us doing anything about it without i loving you we find ourselves in love simple and we're also free aren't we freedom from worry freedom from fear and there's a contentment isn't a wholeness i will use the word happiness one night but one might even say a certain joyful but think primarily of love and freedom now why is it i've talked to several of you about this that in this world our love affairs go wrong why why does it some of us are lucky some of us not so lucky love you see gets into this i'm in your box i'm in my box and you're in your box and i expect you to fulfill some hole in my life you see you might do for a while then it might not we talk of a honeymoon don't we look after the honeymoon we get down to the every day and usually things begin to take on a different aspect anyway let's keep it simple we start off with these what you can call cure the pure love but then our human experiences that we then encounter the whole gamut of human experience which is up and down to say the least why because we have turned we are sinners in other words to use this language human condition is sin yes so uh in all our understanding of life it's really essential to to recognize the first cause how we have presence absence we're in the light and in the light there's no question islam you may have heard me on youtube you know people you know send me all these hundreds of different questions and questions about of course worldly matters but in this presence when the mind is addressed there's no question this then there's no doubt and there's no question questions belong here in this world of time and space and you and me this world of separation in the real world there's only eternal time one time space yes but space is infinite isn't it there's no there's no fences there's no barbed wire in heaven there's no walls no separate houses it's all one whole holy think of the connection wholeness and holiness now another word for this is i am this is the basic what we are what man is adam i believe who in the bible is the first man i believe is means i am that's also the word jesus i am this is what you are and what i am but why don't i live there because i live in this fallen human condition called sin so both exist the real world and the unreal world and so we can delight divide life into what is pure and what is impulse what is divine and what is demonic i'm afraid the human life much of it is demonic it is governed by me me because in this fall we it is what we can call separate existence comes into being me and god thinking of god as a separate entity we ask what is god and so he's something over there something up in the sky whatever we conceive him to be separate existence i'm being you're you well meditation is really a age-old process of has been recognized from the very beginnings of mankind's first recorded history anyway as a process of doing that which is just not trying to bash away at this break down this separate existence but simply let go so the body stays on the chair my body here and your body over there but in just letting go it it frees our sense of i am from its attachment to i am john and that is christian over there in letting go that i am me when you are you we discover so utterly simply this simple i am which is simply a higher level of consciousness so you don't have to do anything it's here it's here it's free it's given to you as jesus says one of his great statements i am with you always we can never not be in jesus in i am he is always here it's only we who are absent so it's all about just coming back home you see just turning in the right direction that's really all we have to do just do that it couldn't be simpler so why do we find it complicated well think curry thinkery thunk gets all of it utter bunk so let's sit still and show some will will my friends not thinkery thinker is uncle chatter chatter chatter so we have the practice of meditation which works if we do it if we don't do it of course it doesn't work and we just talk about it so you need to be determined you need to want it and thank god i think all of us in this room want it otherwise we wouldn't have bothered to come here we want it you've got to want it dears that's the only thing that's really essential the disaster whether you want freedom or love or whatever perfect love or self-realization or whatever you want to call it you've got to want it now when we sit down just to for any reason we and you look into yourself you usually find yourself thinking this is the normal human condition as eckhart tolle puts it and i repeat after him we are lost in thought like lost sheep lost in thought i'm lost like a little lost lab in the fields where's mommy man and so we all got this longing to love and be loved or don't fence me in or i must get out of this awful world or whatever there's something within us pulling us home we're all different here some of us are driven by the mind and some more by the heart but it doesn't matter which it just whatever the way we're made um thinking how do we deal with thoughts well it's pretty useless trying to sort out your mind think anyone's ever ever succeeded in doing that so there are millions of methods of trying to do this and that to the mind the what you can what you can do is transcend it which is much much simpler i told you yesterday about thinking of the mind like clouds clouds are essential they're part of the organization of creation but if we live under the clouds we we go around saying oh it's a gray rather dark morning i don't feel too cheerful wait till the sun comes out or you can get in the airplane go up find the lovely open sky beyond you see meditation is simply a matter of going beyond the clouds of the mind so think of it like that how do we do that it's to do with attention look coronavirus now if you think about that goodness me and start talking about it and your neighbor talks about it it becomes the dominant subject isn't it as it's taken over society today all the newspapers are full of it and the whole world is thinking about the virus but you know the last how long have we been together 36 hours i've hardly thought about it have you so where's it gone we've just forgotten about it and we got interested in something else now you see there we are it all depends what we give our attention to now if you attend to whatever it is fear for example fear gets bigger doesn't it we can spend we can dwell on fear and end up absolutely sweating with fear and inner panic unable to sleep consumed by fear another very common one is poor me loneliness all sorts of different conditions can take hold of us literally take hold of us almost devour us like devils like monsters monsters in the mind so we need an effective way of dealing with it now just as we can lose this emphasis on the virus by thinking of being present here thinking of this little group here this is the way to deal with all these the mind you give your attention to something else you don't try to change the mind you simply attend to something else something preferable and lo and behold these other things just forgotten when we go on holiday you normally forget about your daily well you can't do carry your daily worries with you for the first few days and then after the first week usually you begin to enjoy yourself don't you you leave your worries behind you come home refreshed that's exactly what meditation is so into the mind we introduce an another word another theme like a work of a sound or repetition and by repeating this sound and giving our attention to it all these other concerns are simply forgotten about and left behind it's like a mental handrail think of it we're in a dark cave uh unsure of whether we're going to fall so we hold on to a handrail don't we like that and and so you can walk along and you're quite safe that's exactly what a mantra is just a mental handrail to begin with we hold it firmly and we just hold it lightly just like that just reassurance and this guides us through all the spooks and dangers and horrors of this dark cave was safe so with this jesus christ we just repeat this word this praise lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me just keep repeating it over and over again i'll show you how and so when we do that learn and behold we find we've forgotten other things if you repeat it gradually you don't first of all you say it aloud so it's quite emphasis is on the words and then you have to say more quietly sort of whisper very very gentle just like a finger hole just like a gossamer thread that you can hold on to and so you move from the gross to the subtle the repetition moves from lord jesus christ from the grocery sub and there you are on the way that's how it works don't try to change anything no criticism don't try to get rid of anything simply give yourself an alternative and practice that for a few minutes and so so you can sort of rest in the subtle beyond the clouds and you come back into the world and something of that is conveyed with you like it's like having a bath you after you've had a bath you feel clean you're refreshed to take on the world again if we do this habitually twice a day that refreshment of higher consciousness of freedom from fear freedom from our worries be conveyed with you and my darlings what do you think's brought you here today whatever is it about me that makes why you wanted to come here it's only because for many years i've regularly practiced this and something of that of that freedom of that universality has soaked into this miserable sinner called john and thank god i won't say push the old bee out but because in friendship it's still there but there's enough of it you see to form something that attracts all these viewers on on youtube you see it's nothing to do with me i am the problem john butler is the problem is the obstacle it's that you see and this really in again inscription in sorry christian language this is jesus this is this is the savior that which saves you see which that's how it works got it but it's wonderful it's literally wonderful isn't it it really works it's for real dears it's not it's not just pie in the sky or some belief something picked up in a book it's actually real i think this is this exactly is you see the salvation of our souls because the soul is this latent divinity you see in all of us recognized or not you can see it sometimes by looking into people's eyes you know the eye is the window of the soul and you can you can see beyond the flesh can't you there's a light there that is not this is not a name or form it is beyond that is this it's light literally and so that's really what it's about the flesh we know will die it'll get old and gray and fail and the mouth will say stupid things and all these things go on but the light is in another dimension isn't it that's why when you often it's happened with me on several occasions i'm sure it's happened to you that very often the first process of the first of all there may be a physical attraction between the sexes but then when you get to looking in someone's eyes you can sort of become something bigger doesn't it something more meaningful on our journey through the mind you encounter all sorts of different things concepts also the mind is full of everything from dreadful monsters to visions and to more glorious all sorts of things you can see devils or angels everything's in the mind and as we start going through the mind for most people you venture beyond our normal everyday experience and going to unknown territory now i can give you a very interesting a very simple instruction whatever comes into the mind hold on to your handrail your safety rail and go beyond but of course people don't follow instructions do they it's easy for me to say so and you'll nod your heads but then you'll forget about it and you'll meditate and you'll be presented with a monster or you put some gorgeous vision of something see jesus even and you see you'll be tempted you will want to stay there you will indulge now meditation is to go beyond beyond beyond beyond like an aeroplane darlings beyond even the beautiful clouds so whatever whatever comes into the mind whatever you see or hear voices from heaven whatever it is go beyond hold on to your mantra and go beyond the aim isn't to have visions good or bad but you will encounter all sorts of things in your journey through the mind and if they're not yours you'll pick them up from other people and from the world around you and that's why it's no news really you're wasting your time trying to analyze it or sort it out you never will just go beyond just remember that word beyond god has the whole world in his hand but because we don't realize this we think that i'm can pray for you and at that level of course it's very good um i told you this morning that poor boy who got in a state about our breakfast you know we were there the delegation went to put the hurry up well yes but we could also hold hold him in peace couldn't we give him bring him to rest help him by keeping him in peace so yes that's very effective because it's better than getting cross with him isn't it in one sense you put out a an unhelpful vibration and the other you send out something that's helpful so yes prayer for somebody can be very helpful but there's always a higher you see the prayer is really surrender to all almighty and most merciful father which is this presence you see it's totally as phil said benign most merciful everything is allowed no judgment no criticism it is freedom freedom and total unconditional love and also it is no death no coronavirus no fear and that is the true estate of everybody so the best prayer of all is not to ask god for help which is already there is to accept is to be whole to be whole to make whole be whole recognize that somebody's died they haven't died at all it's just what we think has happened disaster the world's going to end of course nothing can end in endlessness all the problems of the world exist in no problem and the problems are here and here is the freedom the perfection and meditation is a journey from the imperfect to the perfect from unwholesomeness to wholeness from the limited to the unlimited and it's all right here and now and the only thing that holds us in bondage is our attachment to this lower world yes arthur you see a lot of people will learn standard prayers praying for the queen for handicapped for the refugees etc etc they sit there and dutifully go through this list which is all very good at that level of duality and there it can stay and this in a way where chris western christianity has got itself stuck because this is taken for reality but there's a higher reality of freedom see by surrender to the one the one who really knows and in whom there is no problem and no death and it's in in this in our own it's in making ourselves whole that is that we cease to be an impediment to the divine influence that's what i think we take ourselves out of the way the john butler the me that which believes in separation there's a phrase in one of the great sayings of jesus to the see the pure in heart see god to the pure all things appeal but see the impure in heart in other words in here see problems the impurity to make home be whole the most wonderful thought the most marvelous exotic dream of whatever you know it is that we can put in our mind actually there's nothing so wonderful just to go beyond here but it doesn't it takes it's no you know you have to experience it for ourselves at first we only just get little glimpses occasional glimpses very occasional a little glimpse and then we back in that problem again because if we're diligent and determined to practice sometimes it will get just like this as the sun will break through the clouds even though sometimes you know weeks and weeks go by and you don't see the sun then you get a glimpse that's how it works you can only be as you are accept yourself as you are you can't be anything else you will grow dear you'll grow into one day as i said to you your hair all look in the mirror and you'll see your hair's grey there it'll happen in the same way this this uh this um understanding of your place and all that will will happen naturally for now you must accept yourself exactly as you are look you've come here today you're sitting in this chair now you're looking at me that's all you've got to do for now you see don't worry about tomorrow i think what jesus said take no thought for the morrow what to do seek the kingdom of heaven and that's right here now and all else will be added unto you it's enough sufficient for the moment here and now it is a journey yes everybody every all religious writers talk of it as a journey many many trials monsters to to encounter many fearful trials got giants to fight all sorts of things good and bad and the bad the good are often the work most tempted tempting because that's what's called temptation we will fall into temptation for sure as eggs is eggs get hurt get burnt that's just the journey that's why if we got this prayer just keep doing it twice a day sit down do this little prayer and you'll gradually pass through that's what i've done nothing else my dear if anything makes me sit here in front of you today it's nearly 60 years of twice a day meditation that's all i've done well all that's required of you is just to listen i'll tell you exactly what to do just listen let's just sit let's just feet on the ground let's be present if i had you individually i'd ask you to needle with me but we don't have that so let's do it like this just listen lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner now would you repeat with me just like that lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner be careful not to hurry it don't fall over your words just keep the same place as i'm saying it don't hurry and it's important to listen to each syllable with full attention 100 attention hear each word the beginning and the end of it and the sound of it and the pause in between each word lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner that's better and again lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner very good well done now again just listen to me dears don't do anything just listen to me lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ son of god this right so just uh let's say do we say together now you see i start off saying it aloud and i say it and whisper and there were even quite a whisper i take it gradually take it inside no force just let it gradually settle into just being mouthed then you don't even need to use your lips but the important thing is to keep it repeating and if it happens to stop just keep it going keep don't let it stop remember that as a hand rail you've got to keep it there make sure it's there just let it go quieter and quieter let's start it together and just follow as i lead you and i'll tell you i'll say all right after a little two all right then you can open your eyes yes you can close your eyes to start with all right 1 2 3 lord jesus christ son of god have mercy on me a sinner lord jesus christ of god so um hmm all right there's very good if you just open your eyes before we start speaking just as the consciousness of the objects of the world come into focus just stay with that uh that subtlety as it were slightly detached from the things of this world do you know what jesus himself called the spirit the comforter he said i will send the comforter the spirit which is the comforter to be with you and he will teach you all things very good we we start off with this repetition which sets the scene it's a statement of the human condition you see and what it's all about you don't need to carry all that luggage with you all the way in the journey from the gross to the subtle that the mantra becomes subtler also as long as the hand rail is there it doesn't matter too much what you what you call it or what the mantra is made of well what the what the handrail's made of you see they don't fight with too much with uh with that uh author and just say lord jesus lord jesus christ just say as much as is appropriate say the whole mantra unless you don't honestly you're struggling with it and we say just take it take it lightly take it simple i know we're all conditioned on this sinner word it's difficult for many people think of it as simply as as turning that way to the light that way to the dark i like that look my face is lit my face is in shadow as simple as that that's it no need to make it any more complicated the 2000 years of tradition behind this prayer idea it's been used by countless peoples most of the great saints certainly of the eastern church have used it so it's it's for a purpose it's been established for a purpose the word including the word sinner um particularly in the west is very easy to wreck to dismiss that whole fact that all our troubles originate from us turning away from the light that's the meaning of the word sinner um but you'll find that there are many variations in the practice of prayer keep it flexible there are no rigid rules about it when you're when you love someone when you're close to someone or you're getting to know someone at first it's it's all formal manners isn't it you know how are you and you call someone by their by their name correctly and then you start calling them you know sweetie or something or you don't call them anything or just hold their hand or you know it's just like that isn't it we start off with the formal repetition and then we relax when we get on more confident terms with people breathing of course is just a sensation it's a physical sensation isn't it and and so hold to the mantra and you may find yourself caught up on this sometimes it happens if there's a ticking clock in the room also this sort of thing can drive me nuts and to start with but hold of the mantra and the mantra will take you beyond the breathing you'll forget about it but it may take a little bit of time and patience it's just a a a symptom on the way well-known situation beyond go beyond how to the mind it's the sound of the mantra you see and the listening the more you listen the more carefully you listen like when you listen to music you know first time you listen to music you keep listening to the same piece over and over again you you'll hear more and more and more and more more subtle more subtlety it's just the same with the mantra very often in life we feel we have to make a choice but we don't both are acceptable it's not really black and white it's an absolute principle you see in certainly christianity it's what's called the trinity which people get terribly screwed up about it simply means the law of three the three lunas it's in every religion three so there's you me and there's this presence which holds us which we're contained in we always get lost in what's called duality and we forget the third point remember the third point tonight comes much choose i need to choose find the third point and all is contained god holds the whole world in his hands with black and white [Music] you

Channel: Spiritual Unfoldment with John Butler

Views: 217,482

Rating: 4.8633657 out of 5

Keywords: jesus prayer, asmr, awakening, bakewell, christ, christian mystic, farmer, freedom, gentle, jesus, john butler, meditation, mystic, organic farmer, peace, presence, relaxing, rest, self realisation, sleep, soothing, spirit, spiritual awakening, spiritual healing, spiritual unfoldment, unintentional asmr, whispering, prayer of the heart, orthodox christianity, eastern orthodox, jesus prayer meditation, the jesus prayer, the jesus prayer meditation, jesus prayer orthodox, jesus prayer russian

Id: Sj2GgP2E0vs

Length: 68min 51sec (4131 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020