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christian-spirituality-mysticismWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Hesychasm

Inner stillness and the Jesus Prayer, until the heart beholds divine light

Hesychasm is the Eastern practice of inner stillness and the Jesus Prayer, cultivated as a path toward the vision of the divine light. Its tradition runs through Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and the Philokalia, and it defines much of Eastern Orthodox mysticism. Its theology, especially the claim that the light beheld is uncreated, was controverted and is bound up with the distinction between God's essence and energies.