Regarding your practice and your "roaming" mind, this of course is the experience of everyone when first trying to concentrate. My advice is that you should be less concerned about "concentration" than about purity of "intention". If one in fact has undertaken a...

Let me add an additional word on the subject of what one should expect from a Path. It is well known that Guénon placed much of his emphasis on intellectual doctrine and the "technical" aspects of initiation and method, whereas the Schuonian doctrine is...

When it comes to the way in which the terms are actually used in practice by the Orthodox, I would agree with your interlocutor that "heterodoxy" is less grave than "heresy", though this is a little paradoxical inasmuch as the former word betokens a larger, and more...

Historically, most Christian "missions" have been focused on converting the "heathen" to Christianity, with social service and aide—medical care, building projects, and so forth—being looked at, at least in part, as a means to that end. But it is not...

You object to my saying that "Jesus was not a human being", but I am afraid this has led you at least to the fringes of the Nestorian heresy. For Orthodoxy, the humanity of Christ is not hypostatic, which means that, though He was an "individual", He was not an...

Visitors to www.cutsinger.net may be interested to know something about the Byzantine icon that can be seen in the header on the homepage. It was painted for Professor Cutsinger by Father Damian Higgins, a hieromonk and iconographer, and close personal friend. The...

Anamnēsis (an · am′· nē · sis) n. [Gr. ἀνάμνησις remembering < ἀνά up, again + μιμνήσκειν to call to mind, attend] a recollective ascent or ascensional recollection *********************************** Welcome to Anamnēsis, the weblog of Dr James S. Cutsinger, an...

For several years my son, Trevor, and I had discussed the possibility of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Athos, the world's only monastic republic, located on the easternmost peninsula of Halkidiki in northern Greece. Renowned for its natural beauty and...