Preface. The Forgotten Christian Inner Tradition
An Accident of History
The Modern Situation
Acknowledgements
Introduction. Searching in the Ruins
A Research Report
A Method of Therapy
Saints Are Always Somewhere Else
From Investigation of the Past, a New Vision
Chapter 1. The Royal Road of the Early Church
The Path of Heart
Pray for Help
The General Resurrection
Unchanging Truth
Loss of Ancient Knowledge
The Sources of My Investigation
The Teachings of the Bible
The Apocrypha
The Fathers of the Church
Eastern Monastic Practice
Monastic Rules
Church Liturgies
Great Spiritual Texts
Alchemical and Mystery Teachings
Chapter 2. The Burning Bush
A Hermit Speaks
Trial by Fire
Symeon the New Theologian on Inner Experience
Saint Maximos on the Fall
Our Nature Is Fundamentally Good, but Has Been Distorted
Modern Man's Inability to Remember Inner Experience
A Theory of Knowledge Is a Barrier to Faith
Gregory of Nyssa's View
Chapter 3. The Rediscovery of Spirit
The Christian Overcomes the Fall
The Life of Moses
Philosophy in the Early Church
Saint Isaac's Prayer for Gnosis
Two Very Different Kinds of Knowledge
The Inner World as a Window onto the Invisible World
The Role of Knowledge in Spirituality
Saint Maximos on Contemplation
Chapter 4. The Wise and Foolish Virgins
The Quest for Energies
The Wedding Garment
Shining Faces
"Ask, and it shall be given you. "
Christianity as a State of Being
The Startsi
The Prayer of Joseph the Visionary
The Control of the Senses
The Five Virgins as the Senses
Koinonia as Communion
Chapter 5. Gnosis Is Not Gnosticism
An Experiential Gnosis
Different Worldviews
False Gnosis
The Alexandrian Tradition
Knowledge of God's Omnipotence
A World Without Gnosis
The Question of Education
Paideia and Catechism
Chapter 6. The Work of God
The Working of the Word
Surrender into the Hands of God
Doing the Will of God
Gregory of Nyssa and the Chariot Parable
Work on Oneself
Modern Solutions
The Biblical Paradox of the Knowledge of God
Ascesis as Work on Oneself
Chapter 7. Three Renunciations
Three Renunciations Defined
The First Renunciation: "Dying to the World"
The Turn Toward Reality
The Two Nights
Bitter Waters
The Second Renunciation
"Transcending Knowledge with My Thought"
The Third Renunciation
The Parting of the Ways
A Fourth Stage
Theosis: Deification
A Modern Understanding of the Three Renunciations
Saint Silouan of Mount Athos
Chapter 8. Faith and Assent
The Philosophy of Assent
The Psychology of Assent
Two Stages of Faith
Faith Without Works
Faith of Consciousness
The Common Ground of Faith
Chapter 9. The Eye of the Soul
Transformation of the Heart
The New Man as the Prodigal Son
Mneme Theou
The Struggle for Metanoia
"The love of the soul is its salvation"
Recognition
Chapter 10. Metanoia and Ascesis
Modern Views of Metanoia
Metanoia as Change of Being
Saint Paul and the Ascetic Struggle
Monastic Forms of Ascesis
Agrypnia: The All-Night Vigil Service
Fasting
Obedience and Cutting off the Will
Obedience to the Commandments
The Struggle with Eroticism
The Passions
A Transformed Eros
The Hospitality of Abba Moses
Chapter 11. Prayer
The One Thing Needful
Theocentric Selflessness
The Just
Epiousion
Prayer as Relation to God
Degrees of Prayer
The Inner Room
The Jesus Prayer
Noetic Prayer
Non-Doing
Chapter 12. A Nonmonastic Path
Monastic and Nonmonastic Ways
The Difficulty of Monastic Methods
Renunciation of Inner Possessions
Yoga and Discrimination
The Two ''Legs" of the Tradition
Mouravieff's Method
Watchfulness (Nepsis)
Presence
The Ark as Separation from the World
Magnetic Center
Passive Unconscious Stage: Attraction to the Way
Active Stage: The Struggle
Through Knowledge to Detachment
Second Passive Stage: Magnetization to God
Chapter 13. Memory and Discrimination
What We Think Determines What We See
The Garden, a Model of Memory
Plato's Wax Tablet Model
The Parable of the Sower
Illusory Memories
The Nature of Diakrisis
Cassian on Diakrisis
Meat Diet and Milk Diet
Chapter 14. Provocation
Stages of Provocation
1. Provocation (Russian prilog)
2. Conjunction (Russian sochetanie)
3. Joining (Russian slozhenie)
4. & 5. The Struggle Against Habit
6. Captivity (Russian plenenie)
Observation of Provocations
Resisting Provocation
First Provocation: Gluttony
Second Provocation: Lust
Third Provocation: Avarice
Fourth Provocation: Sadness
Fifth Provocation: Anger
Sixth Provocation: Accidie
Seventh Provocation: Vanity
Eighth Provocation: The Demon of Pride
The Fear of Opening Ourselves to God
Postscript. Healing the Soul: Some Conclusions from Matthew 13
The Barbarians Within
Need for Christian Teaching
Taking up the Cross
Reports of a Lost Esotericism
The Psychological Method
A Method for Today
A Christian Origin
If Thine Eye Be Single
A Different Kind of Concentration
Notes
Index
