Attention to the Navel and the Search for a Heartfelt Place in the Hesychast Tradition

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate what role the hesychast tradition assigns to focusing attention on the navel and what warnings in this regard it makes, based on the references to this in the treatises «The Method of Sacred Prayer and Attention» St. Symeon the New Theologian and the «Triad in Defense of the Sacred Silent» by St. Gregory Palamas. To solve this problem, the method of comparative analysis of ascetic terminology and interpretation of the hesychast fathers is used in describing the practice of fighting thoughts when performing the clever practice of the Jesus Prayer. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the prayer method with focusing attention on the navel was used by hesychasts at the final stage of heartfelt prayer before the admiration of the mind for spiritual contemplation. This practice was intended for those who had already had the initial experience of true contemplation and whose mind had acquired the ability to distinguish between true contemplation and false. The method of sacred prayer was not intended for novice prayer books, whose heart had not yet been opened and whose mind had not been united with the heart in the Jesus Prayer.