This can be illustrated by the key prayer, the Shema. The first line begins with "Hear".... and ends with "One". Usually the emphasis is placed on the "One", as an act of faith and belief. However from the perspective of awareness, the key word is not "One" but "Hear", or better, "Listen!" It is the listening that gives us a sense of the "One". The same with the next two lines, which start with the key verbs "Bless", or better, "Affirm!" and "Love!" These are not debatable issues. These are highly active and deep states of mind. They imply openness, non-judgmental panoramic awareness and compassion. They require contemplation and meditation. Generations of Jews have asked : "How do we love God?", "Where can we begin?". Here, with meditation, is the beginning. It is the essence of all religious experience; the essence of practical Judaism and also the Eastern cultivation of an aware mind, or a sacred view.
It goes even deeper. For in prayer there is a total mystery. God is only describable by negatives, and is ungraspable by the human mind. So for generations Jews have struggled with the difficulty of praying to the ungraspable and unknowable. The result is invariably that Jews have prayed to their own projections, or those given to mankind by biblical images. However this process is much more deeply understood in Buddhist terms which have delved inwards to meet this mystery head on. The result of this is a method of peeling away layers of our projections and assumptions, apparent answers, which are only delusions of the conditioned mind. The end of the process is realization.
Even the sense of Jewishness is mysterious, at least when examined from the perspective of the rational mind. It leads to endless philosophical discussion on what it means to be a Jew. However this is often frustrating as it fails to probe the non-rational feelings and hidden unconscious awareness of Jewish identity. This is only approachable by turning the gaze within, to what the Buddhists would call the "heart-mind". There awaits not necessarily clear answers, but at least a process or a journey of meeting with the self in its awesome complexity and fullness.
All too often this self is seen as a heavy baggage which we have dragged with us for thousands of years, especially in the Galut. It is so heavy. It is laden with fear, exile, persecution and confusion. It drives many away from Judaism seeking the apparent relief of "normal" secular life. But from the perspective of the practice of mindfulness and insight, the Jewish suffering through the ages is the departure point for a journey of liberation and freedom. The spiritual experience can emerge from it like the lotus from the muddy pool. Admittedly, it is not easy to let go of this suffering. The deep, historical sense has often resulted in idolizing our past. We often make a virtue out of hating our enemies and live with the Destruction of the Temple, the Holocaust, and the Slavery in Egypt as deep archetypes. The path of insight can help us to accept our history and then accept ourselves. Not to forget, but to fully allow and be with these ancient emotions, and to be genuinely liberated from Egypt.
In its meaning as a method of spiritual awakening and realization, meditation was first rediscovered in the West through an awakened interest in Eastern spiritualities, that have been practicing it for millenaries.
When it entered the Western world, meditation was first examined by science using its traditional tools: yogis who were experts in meditation were examined in laboratories, their brain waves and heart rates were measured, together with the unusual exploits that they were able to accomplish.The Western world needed tangible proof, that would meet its criteria.
Once this proof had been established, psychologists became interested in the therapeutic effects of meditation. Depending upon the therapist's approach and of the patient's needs, meditation was used as a clinical tool that helped the progress towards self-control, self-exploration, and inner freedom.
The stream of transpersonal psychology in particular relates to the field of human experience that deals with an optimal psychological health, and an optimal well-being.
Transpersonal psychology allocates the perspective of a sequence of psychological development that would start in the darkest recesses of the unconscious and would end with communion with the Supreme Reality, and through this to a total inner freedom.
This ideal of "optimal psychological health" is found in all cultures, and each spiritual tradition has developed its model of human perfection : the "just" in Judaism, the "saint" in Christianity, the "enlightened being" in Hinduism and in Buddhism, the "Perfect Man" in Sufism.
All of them represent a human being that has dis-identified himself from his ego and that has rediscovered his divine identity, his true nature, that was visible "before the mirror got misted", according to the Buddhist image.
And in these spiritual traditions, meditation was considered as the royal path towards inner realization and maximal human development, that makes possible the return to one's spiritual and divine essence : in fact, the etymological meaning of the word "meditation" is "coming back to one's center" - from the Latin "itari in medio".
Meditation has also been rediscovered as one of the keys to spiritual development in the heart of the mystical tradition of the three main religions in the West : Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
A renewed interest developed for the mystical currents of these religions that deal with meditation :
A Christian that sings a gospel from the bottom of his heart, a Hassidic Jew dancing and singing the divine glory, a Sufi chanting one of the name of God, a Hindu singing a homage to divinity, and a Buddhist repeating a Divine mantra, are all engaged in a process that is more or less the same.
Meditation is then experienced as the place of encounter midway between the soul and the Divine.
Devotion starts from a dualist situation, the devotee being separated from the object of his devotion.
It then matures through stages ending with a reaching of God in a mystical union, such as it has been described by the great Hindu, Jew, Christian and Sufi mystics.
Starting with the personal image of divinity, these beings have found quite a different reality, that may be called "enthusiasm" in its original meaning of "God within me".
Here is how the great mystics have attempted to express in words this transcendent lived reality:
"If God is me, there is no me any longer, there is nothing left but the Absolute, the Unique, the Eternal", stated Master Eckhart, the Christian mystic of the XIIIth century.
"That that knows himself does not see anything other that God, since the Self is identical to the Divine essence itself".
"When you know yourself, your illusory ego is removed, and you are no other than God".
The Lurianic Prayer-Meditation system, based on the Zohar and other Kabbalistic traditions, is a practice that constructs a sacred experience of ascent and unification with the Divine on all levels of existential manifestation, and a "Descent with the Effluence" for the sake of Cosmic Rectification, or "Tikun".
The processes whereby the Sacred Constructs are invoked in the course of the standard Jewish Morning Prayer, and how the ascent and descent are affected, will be outlined in my discussion.
One of the significant contributions to the understanding of the religious psychology of Mystical Union is the system of classification of the various stages of Tantric Union. Needless to say, there are many Eastern systems that classify the various stages of Meditative Enlightenment, such as the Mahayana Buddhist "Bhumi" system, or some Vedantic systems, or those derived from the Patanjali Yoga Tradition. For our purposes here, being that we are dealing with an "elite" type practice that invokes Cosmic Structures, I think that the most apt type of application would result from the analysis of the three levels of Union in the non-dual Annutara Tantra, although reference will also be made to the lower levels of the Kriya and Yoga Tantras.
The application of the experiential-attitudinal elements of these Tantric levels constitutes an attitudinal map that can elucidate one's relationship to the experience of Lurianic-Kavanot practice.
In the last section of the talk, I will bring quotes from various Kabbalistic and Hassidic Masters that may serve to illustrate concordance with the intentional (and transcending-intentional) existential levels denoted by the Nyingmapa (and Dzog-Chen) Tantric systems. These would enable us to continue to study the extent of spiritual cross-cultural exchange in this area. Needless to say, there is little result for the individual without openness and practice and good intention.
LIVING MEDITATION : CONTEMPLATION AND ACTION
Jean-Marc Mantel, M.D.
Email: jmm@essence-euro.org
Beyond a technique, meditation is an art of living. What does it mean to live without conflict? First observe that we live more or less constantly in a state of defense, of internal contracture. This habit is deeply rooted in psychosomatic structure. We can observe that the forehead is contracted as soon as some worrisome thoughts arise, that shoulders rise with the rhythm of mental activity, that the abdomen does not breathe freely, that the muscles of the arms have difficulties releasing their habit of grasping and seizing.
Starting from this objective fact (the body does not lie), we continue our exploration to the level of listening and observation. To listen simply to what is, without qualifying, is a forgotten function. To look without naming or comparing, to feel the body without refusing or accepting are unusual attitudes. There is therefore a constant interference of the intellect in some functions as natural as breathing, feeling, listening and observation.
Our functioning is thus disturbed by the desire to escape suffering, to perpetuate agreeable moments or to grasp happiness.
Because happiness is perceived as something external, it is looked for in situations, beings and objects.
A more attentive investigation shows us that situations only catalyze something that is already in us. How could we look for joy or quietness if they were not already here?
Meditation is this conscious returning to this primordial quality of being that is the even source of harmony and plenitude. It concerns an up-stream ascent, as a boat that would sail against the current of a river. What we are seeking is already present The intuition of this will be used as a guide. The look searches in the world of forms, then returns to the world without form. It perceives there what it seeks. The quest ends. The body relaxes and the mind is resorbed in the silence.
Most of our actions have psychological motives : need of fondness, attention, desire of power or security. They therefore come from a state of suffering that we seek to pacify through the action and its result.
What would an action without psychological motivation mean? We are often confronted with situations that need an answer. The answer can come from an inner reaction of impatience or anger. But it can also come from the perception of a demand. The situation needs a reply, an action. Inwardly, there is no emotional reaction. No pleasure of acting, no displeasure, no waiting. What must be done is done. The personality is then in the background. The action is not related to an egocentric self-esteem. The action is lived in a neutral and non affective way. It is not an insensibility. A deep quietness lives in the comprehension. This quietness is not concerned with the action and its results. Quietness is present before, during and after the action. Quietness is beyond pleasure and displeasure, refusal and acceptance.
This immutable tranquillity, non affected by circumstances, is meditation. Present in action and non-action, it constitutes the foundation of an harmonious and adapted way of living. Free of conflict, free of suffering, I am what I am looking for. The seeker is the searched.
MEDITATION IN TAOIST CHINESE TRADITION BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
Yossi Morgenstern
To become more efficient they used a few modes of organizing the data of their experiences. The most well-known is the Yin/Yang model :
The traditional Chinese meditation contains two aspects :
1. To observe the human being as a part of the cosmos, he has to surrender himself to the natural laws.
2. The unique role and place of the man in the cosmos as a connection between heaven and earth.
This work of refining energies is done in the body which is the place, the temple of the transformations. The Taoists used to describe it in terms of Alchemistry.
The different parts of the body have different roles :
This traditional point of view is a holistic on, which means :
2. Social and cosmic - transforming the energetic level and supporting energy exchanges - by meditating focusing outward.
It is recommended that no food or drink be taken for three hours before whirling. It is best to have bare feet and wear loose clothing. The meditation is divided into two stages, whirling and resting. There is no fixed time for the whirling - it can go on for hours - but it is suggested that you go on for at least one hour to get fully into the feeling of the energy whirlpool.
The whirling is done on the spot in an anti-clockwise direction, with the right hand held high, palm upwards, and the left arm low, palm downwards. People who feel discomfort from whirling anti-clockwise can change to clockwise. Let your body be soft and keep your eyes open, but unfocussed so that images become blurred and flowing. Remain silent.
For the first 15 minutes rotate slowly. Then gradually build up speed over the next 30 minutes until the whirling takes over and you become a whirlpool of energy - the periphery of a storm of movement but the witness at the center, silent and still.
When you are whirling so fast that you can't remain upright, your body will fall by itself. Don't make the fall a decision on your part nor attempt to arrange the landing in advance : if your body is soft you will land softly and the earth will absorb your energy.
Once you have fallen, the second part of the meditation starts. Roll onto your stomach immediately so that your bare navel is in contact with the earth. If anybody feels strong discomfort lying this way, he should lie on his back. Feel your body blending into the earth, like a small child pressed to the mother's breasts. Keep your eyes closed and remain passive and silent for at least 15 minutes.
After the meditation be as quiet and inactive as possible.
Some people may feel nauseous during the Whirling Meditation, but this feeling should disappear within two or three days. Only discontinue the meditation if it persists.
We learned there about four who entered the Pardes : Ben Azai, Ben Zoma, Elisha Ben Avuya, and Rabbi Akiba. Ben Azai peeked and was injured. And about him it is said : "if you find honey eat only enough, (lest you overeat and vomit it up)" (Proverbs 25). Ben Zoma peeked and died. And about him it is said : "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his pious ones" (Psalms 116). Elisha ben Avuya lost his faith... And about him it is said : "don't let your mouth cause your flesh to sin" (Ecclesiastes 5). Rabbi Akiba entered in peace and left in peace. And he said, not because I am greater than my fellows, but rather, to borrow a phrase from the Mishna : "your deeds bring you close, and your deeds push you away". And about him it is said : "the King brought me into his chambers" (Shir Hashirim Rabba 1 : 4).
By following the root of their inner being to higher and higher realms, and concentrating on Divine names which serve as passwords to permit entrance through the upper gates, Rabbi Akiba and his comrades were able to enter within the inner chambers of the King's palace. At this level of utterly sublime holiness, there exists a tremendous temptation for the soul to abandon its earthly attachment and return to the source of its being. Just as the body loves its own soul, constantly drawing from it life, evenmore so, the soul greatly longs to return to its Creator. The soul is compared to the daughter of the King who is banished from the palace to marry a poor peasant. No matter how he tries to please her with course, simple food and country pleasures, it can never equal the royal splendor she is accustomed to from her childhood.
Having pierced beyond the filters which separate us from the blinding glory of G-d, the comrades of Rabbi Akiba succumbed to the temptation to peek at the Shechina, the revealed aspect of G-d.
The profound intensity of spiritual experience was overwhelming : "if you find honey eat only enough", or as expressed elsewhere, "for no man shall see me and live. (Exodus 33)". Rabbi Akiba, however, had the fortitude to resist abandoning himself to merge with the source of Creation. He insists that this was not due to his being greater in wisdom than the others, but rather because of his devotion to worldy action : "your deeds bring you close and your deeds push you away". Besides expressing the secret of his success, in this statement Rabbi Akiba also defines what he sees as the purpose of his life, as well as the fundamental purpose of Creation.
Why did G-d cause our soul to descend away from His light to dwell in the darkness and physicality of the world? We find two answers in Pirke Avot (4 :16,17). Rabbi Yaakov said : "this world is like a corridor to the next world. Prepare yourself in the corridor in order to enter the great hall". From this it would seem that the next world, wherein we enjoy closeness with Hashem is the goal but we are required to purify our character and carry out G-d's commandments (mitzvot) in this world so as to be deserving of this reward. By achieving this closeness with G-d through our own efforts, we are much more able to enjoy His goodness without the embarrassment that comes from accepting a free handout.
In the next mishna, Rabbi Yaakov states : "better is one moment of repentance and good deeds in this world than the entire world to come". This can be explained as G-d desiring that we provide for Him a dwelling place, here below. As the Torah states, "make for me a Tabernacle and I will dwell within them". He does not say : "make for me a Tabernacle and I will dwell in it", but "I will dwell in them". This implies the obligation for each individual to sanctify himself with G-d's commandments and make of himself a Temple, so that the Shechina will dwell within him and be revealed in this world. This would seem to contradict the first mishna by defining character refinement and good deeds in this world as the actual goal and not just as a preparation for the next world.
By synthesizing these two polarities, Rabbi Akiba's statement resolves this contradiction. "Your deeds bring you close", refers to the first goal : get close to Hashem in the next world by doing mitzvot in this world. "Your deeds push you away", refers to the second goal : perfect yourself through mitzvot, in order to invite the Shechina to dwell in this world. On the merit of Rabbi Akiba's deeds he was able to enter the Pardes "b'shalom" drawing close to the Supreme Holiness in that dimension. Subsequently, he was able to use these same deeds as a kind of tether to hold his yearning spirit in touch with this world and enable his return "b'shalom". Upon returning, he now carries within himself an increased measure of holiness and so infuses even more perfection into his deeds, which thereby enables more of Hashem's presence to be revealed in the world.
This very same dialectic is manifested by the angels, as described by the prophet Yehezkel (1:14) : "the Chayot run forward with anticipation and return". Rashi explains that they momentarily pop their heads up through the heaven spread above them, into the realm of the Shechina before returning to manifest G-d's glory below. Simply expressed, to the degree that one is committed to giving of the light down below, one is able to receive light from above. In Kabbalah, the analogy is used of a vessel which is capable of receiving light. The vessel will crack from an over intensity of light, unless all impurities have been removed, so that it can both hold and radiate this light below. By functioning as a perfect channel, heaven and earth are united to reveal G-d's oneness.
Rabbi Akiba returned from the Pardes to become one of the greatest Jewish leaders of all times. Indeed, our entire oral tradition comes down to us through him and his students. Many years later, he was among 10 sages which the Romans sentenced to death for teaching Torah. His execution was designed to be especially painful. While his flesh was being raked with steel combs, Rabbi Akiba amazed both his students and the Roman officers by crying out in great joy and happiness, the twice daily proclamation of a Jew's faith : "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One". When asked if he wasn't either insane, or possessed by demons, Rabbi Akiba explained: "all my life I longed to give up my life for the sanctification of G-d's name. Now that I have the opportunity, shouldn't I be happy?". Based upon what has been explained, we can understand this. At long last, Rabbi Akiba was absolved from his responsibility to provide a dwelling for G-d in this world. He was now free to lovingly abandon himself to that great Divine light without having to return to this world. When he uttered the word "One" his body collapsed lifelessly, and a voice called out from heaven, "Rabbi Akiba is invited to receive his reward in the next world". Up till now a frequent visitor, he was now to make the the chambers of the King his permanent abode.
Our deepest sense of what it means to be a human being defines the Self and our ability to apprehend the Divine within.
The Dalai Lama has said : "every major religion of the world has similar ideas of love, the same goal of benefiting humanity through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making their followers into better human beings".
Meditation and prayer are "spiritual practice(s)" that allows us to place ourselves within the authority and power of the Holy Spirit.
The disciplines of Meditation and Prayer lead to a deeper understanding of God and of our common spirituality. Such is the focus of this conference. Our individual practices of meditation may vary but we are united in our search for depth of understanding about ourselves, our world and the experience of the Holy in our lives.
Our meditations may include Yoga or various transpersonal and transcendental traditions, they may be a pure form from a particular tradition or a combination of different practices.
Tonight we are to experience Meditation in the Sufi Tradition when witnessing the mystical dancing of Dervishes by members of the Acco Theater Center. A dervish told the Greek writer Nikos Kazantakis : "we bless the Lord by dancing... because dancing kills the ego, and once the ego has been killed, there is no further obstacle to preventing from joining with God".
Among our topics to be addressed will be the place of the human ego and religious consciousness.
My personal Theology of Meditation has developed and is developing. I am, what might be termed, a unique Jewish Universalist. Jesus of Nazareth is my Master Rabbi. My God is the God of this Rabbi Jesus, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael and more the Lord of the universe and all its peoples and religious traditions. I am a religious pluralist.
I must share with you that I have been deeply influenced by the work of Swiss psychologists and psychiatrist Carl Jung and his bridging work between the psychology and religion.
My subject is Theology of Meditation and, for me, is defined by a four-fold manner : first, by the Meditator; second, by his or her native and/or adopted culture; third, by the practice and goal established for meditation and contemplation, and lastly; fourth, by the ultimate quality and personal spiritual integrity and centeredness of the meditator's life.
Each of us has been born into a certain religious culture and this culture has shaped us and our spiritual quest perhaps more than we would care to mention. This leads me to explore the second factor determining our Theology of Meditation - Culture.
Some brief examples of the differences between East and West involve the Ego. The East conceives of consciousness without an ego, the West not. Religious truth for the East is internal and from the West external. God is external and totally Other from the West generally and internal and the result of self liberation for the Eastern practitioner.
The pattern of Meditation and Contemplation we choose must be right for us.
Jung has written of the East and West : "I have serious doubts as to the blessings of Western civilization, and I have similar misgivings as to the adoption of eastern spiritually by the West. Yet the two contradictory worlds have met" (Collected Works, vol. 11, p. 487). Indeed they have! During this conference we shall be thinking about some of the consequences of East meeting West.
The most common word for meditation in Judaic literature is Kavannah. This word is translated as "concentration", "feeling", "devotion" or "intention". The Hebrew root kaven means "to aim". Meditation and Contemplation means to aim, direct our thoughts and our consciousness.
The Dalai Lama in writing about Meditative Concentration remarked: "to strengthen our practice, it is necessary to develop one-pointed concentration of the mind" (p. 88, A Flash of Lightening in the Dark of Night - A Guide to Bodhisattva's Way of Life., Shambhala, Boston, 1994).
In daily practice of Kavannah, the meditator invites awareness into his or her consciousness. This is similar to the experience of the Buddhist in meditation.
There is an old esoteric saying that I wish to close my talk with which sums up my Theology of Meditation. It reads : "that which is one is one; and that which is not one is also one". As a Universalist, I feel there is a unity in diversity especially when we seek the Holy. Amen.
As a natural result of the life relationship with the Jewish people, Christian meditation was from the beginning practiced as a meditation on God's self-revelation, on God's word.
Like all other creatures we were called into being by God's word, but man alone has been given the ability to answer His call and to express in words his own being. We are even able to give a voice to the speechless creatures. I therefore see meditation and prayer as basic human acts.
In meditation a person reflects on and repeats the word of God. It is a unique opportunity to hear the language of God, to learn it and to stammer it after Him.
It is therefore not astonishing that in the Bible meditation is an undertoned murmuring, whispering, ruminating of God's word. The larynx could pass as the seat of meditation. It is not only an undertoned murmuring, but an echo awoken in the heart that becomes language and which is repeated to make it penetrate deeply. (The first Christian monks learned the whole book of Psalms by heart to have an arsenal for their meditation).
If we apply these philosophical axiom to Western and Eastern Christians: "all what is received, is received according to the receiver". We must state that generally Easterners have a more collective personality, with less need for a private life and silence. In spite of the diversity of cultures and times it embraces, in spite of the richness of its experiences, Oriental mysticism has remained more than the "one school" of Western Christianity, in which liturgy, theology and experience are closely related. Individuals have never asked for the same attention that we see in the autobiographies and personal accounts of Western mystics. Therefore it has always remained less individualistic and psychological, but more concentrated on Christ communicating himself through his mysteries (word and sacrament).
Therefore I want to make a case for the meditative value of most of corporate Christian worship : the Eucharist, the prayer of the Hours and the administration of the sacraments. The Church has used all this masterly to make a school of prayer: poetry, music, repetitions, rousing sermons and silence tune the faithful to receive the word of God, to become aware of an almighty, all-encompassing Love, to be in the joy of God's presence. Joining their voices with the many others present, strengthens their faith and their fervor. They leave refreshed and many times they repeat at home the tunes and texts that were printed in their minds. For many faithful this is the most adaptable and ideal form of meditation. Many of these celebrations have resounded in me for a whole day or even longer: "my love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts" (Canticle 1 :13).
In Western tradition they have discerned, since the time of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and later St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the cross, three stages:
2. A transition from discursive meditation to affective prayer. This does not happen suddenly, but slowly the reasoning diminishes and the effective colloquy , even with very few words, takes over. "Your kingdom come" or "Come, Lord Jesus" may be enough to stay in silent union. This stage is very similar to the "prayer of the heart" of the Eastern Christians.
3. Contemplative prayer may be defined as a simple and affectionate gaze on God or things divine. It requires a great purity of heart, a great mastery over self and a constant need of conversing with God: "my eyes are ever towards the Lord" (Ps. 25 : 15). It is a kind of contemplation in which the acts of the mind and the will have become simplified under the influence of a special grace which takes hold of us and causes us to receive lights and affections which God produces in us with our consent.
The experience of Eastern methods can, through their intensity, help a person, to an experience of God. The "self" is and remains one of the main creatures of God; it will be at its most excelled by the "Thou". But at the same time such an experience may - because of its quality - be seductive. What Augustine calls the "pondus rerum", the weight of the created things themselves is nowhere so strong as here. With the experience of another person, with personal love, it is different because here a person is loosened from his involvement with himself.
A word on the function of notion: meditation, mystique, consciousness of faith have been recently understood in terms of unity, to become one, to become yourself, but in this process people are too little conscious of the weight of their own words.
The Christian notion of "Mystic" originates clearly from a situation of meeting, of encounter and not from an experience of unity. The ultimate goal is a "mystical communion" with God, an experience of Jesus Christ (and not of yourself) in word and sacrament.
I shall never lose my own identity, which is my glory, but it shall forever - even in the most beatific and final union with God - remain limited to its capacity of being a creature. The Eastern Church Fathers stress this point very much. For them the beatitude is not the "Summi boni tota simul et perfecta possessio - the all at once and perfect possession of the Supreme Good" (Boethius and St. Thomas Aquinas) but for Gregory of Nyssa we go from abyss to abyss, from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). The model of a Christian is Abraham who eternally starts on his way to an unknown country which God will point out to him. God becomes ever more intimate and ever more distant : more intimate as the Dove, more distant as the Darkness. The person is in a true sense transformed into the divine. But God at the same time remains constantly "beyond" and we must always go out (ek : Out of' in a continuous "epectasis"), beyond the stage we have reached to make a further discovery. (See : From glory to glory. Texts from Gregory of Nyssa's mystical writings with an introduction by Jean Danielou, John Murray, London, 1962).