Originally posted by Leao:
The secret to appreciating an icon is to give it long and prayerful attention�talk to it, read about it, and gaze at it in silence, and you will gradually come to know it by heart. We have to gaze at it. Here I make an important distinction between how the West and the East consider reality. Benedict set the tone for the spirituality of the West, and he put great emphasis on listening. On the other hand, in the East, the Byzantine fathers focused on gazing. This is the core of Eastern spirituality and is the reason icons are revered in the East in a way they are not in the West
With all due respect to whomever wrote this� it is imaginative but I do not really understand it.
An icon - is a type of language. It is sign and symbol which relays meaning to the mind. Just as words are also signs that trigger an experience to the mind. Iconography is an art form appropriate to the culture and churches in which it arose. The style is similar in basics (yet its own variation) to Coptic, Ethiopian and Oriental religious artwork. The position of the hands and fingers - the placid gaze of the face - the use of primary colors - angelic figures around the head - style of nose, eyes and fingers - these are styles shared in fundamentals with other Eastern cultures.
Artwork in the East (when we speak of Byzantine) peaked at the same time that Eastern church scholastics peaked - at the time of the glory of the Byzantine empire.
The West also has artwork used for religious purposes. More appropriate to the Roman and Greek culture - that style probably peaked with Michael Angelo and its scholastics peaked about the time of Thomas Aquinas.
Has the East nothing to compare to a Gregorian chant? Certainly it does - the Liturgy of the East is mostly sung. Certainly it does - for the people of the Eastern church.
The Pieta, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the interior of St. Peter�s - do not compare to the artwork of icons? Certainly it does - for the peoples of the Lain church.
What is more beautiful and more full of meaning for any man - than his own language? Be it artwork or music or speech or photo?? Does a man not understand his native tongue better than a foreign language. Which language would convey to him - more meaning - more word play - more nuance - more emotion - than his native tongue?? The language even his mental thoughts are spoken in.
I have both Eastern and Western religious art on my walls - by nature - artwork is for the eyes and gazing. Does the East gaze more? What a nonsensical question.
I listen to both Arch Bishop Sheen (tapes) and Bishop Kallistos Ware (tapes) - my mind grows silent for each. Which listens more - the East or the West? What a nonsensical question.
Nonsensical because there is only one reality - and there is only one humanity. The East is not a different species and neither is the West - only - one - shared - human nature.
My wife is Greek - I am Polish - is there a �secret� to the icon?? No. One simply must know its language. If one is not born into it in some way then one must go out and learn it. I can see how someone who is not familiar with icons may think �Ah.. There must be a secret there because they adore them and give them so much reverence.� but it is not a �secret� - it is simply human nature. Shall we say there is also a �secret� to the Pita? A secret to the hours of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the Waset? Is Western Adoration of the Eucharist - visual? Or listening? That is a nonsensical question for anyone who has ever spent an hour of stillness gazing at the Body of Christ in silence.
If the man (quoted above) is speaking something of his own personal moments of discovery - then his statement is poetic - and speaks of a man who overcomes his own limitations - his own soil. A man learning to notice one humanity across all cultures and not just the society in which he was raised� but if he means that statement in a way according to his last sentence�
This is the core of Eastern spirituality [gazing} and is the reason icons are revered in the East in a way they are not in the West
Than he has learned nothing - and continues to define others by his own personal views.
A human - is a human - is a human - is a human - if Jesus taught us nothing else - it is that. Exterior differences of hair, skin, society and culture - are accidental to a single human nature shared by all.
is the reason icons are revered in the East in a way they are not in the West
The reason is nothing more than the icon has traditionally been the main religious artwork of the East (East - as in culture - as in geographic area) and so it is a language (sign and symbol) which has its fullest meaning to those who know that language. And so too the artwork of the West (Greco-Roman) has been the traditional religious artwork of the West and speaks in fullness to those who were born and raised with this type of artwork.
Benedict set the tone for the spirituality of the West, and he put great emphasis on listening.
I do not understand this statement at all. The monastic life first arose in Egypt - with the Coptic desert fathers - from there it entered the Greeks of the Eastern church through Origin and Pontius Evagirust - and from there it entered Europe by way of Benedict and the Cistercians - �listening� and �gazing� one can not do one without the other coming along. That is just the way human nature is built. It is impossible for one �sense� to go into contemplation while the other senses are busy busy busy with something else. When we bring one sense into contemplation - all other senses come along with it. It is important to realize that contemplation is not in the senses - it is in the spirit - the mind and the heart. Even so� Benedict�s emphasis was on silence of mind, interior pray, obedience, and accomplishing daily work in a contemplative mind. Exactly the same as the Coptic desert fathers from whence it came. An attention to experiential reality - through attention of the senses - and less attention to the noise of our imagination. An attention - inside and out - to the presence of Providence - inside and outside.
Each (and this may be what he meant) the man of the East and the man of the West - has a broken and fragmented view of reality - some of this broken view does have to do with what is passed to them culturally and socially - and both are trying to return to reality itself. Indeed - it is one reality. One Word. One God who creates and governs all. The saint is one who has left un-reality - and is going to - reality. One experiential reality which the church tells us is a Peron and calls it Providence and Jesus called it the Will of the Father. The goal of any saint (East or West) is this - one - experiential reality. And so the church of the East and the church of the West - have one - view of reality. One - same Jesus Christ.
important distinction between how the West and the East consider reality
Two difference Providences? Two Jesus Christs? Two Gods? Two realities? Not - One Church?
Better he is to enter
into the church where there is one spirit - than to remain in the courtyards.
As a personal statement I can appreciate his sentiments - as a factual statement for all of us - he is mistaking varied exterior cultural expressions of the church - for the church itself. Something we all do from time to time.
I tend to take it as a personal statement - and as such - if this is the way in which he can enter into the spiritual beauty of an icon then I shall smile and say �good for him�� good for him that he can enter into this experience of the Eastern churches. May his experience of the one-ness of the churches - ever widen.
Please could someone explain or give me some links that elaborate on this differentation between Eastern and Western spirituality in terms of gazing and listening. I'm studying how Eastern (intuitive) hesychast spirituality can be of use to Western Catholics and I think it is important to do this in comparison to the predominant Western Benedictine (rationalist?) tradition of spirituality which I am unacquainted with.
Probably the best way to express how the hesychast spirituality can be valuable to the West is to join it to its like in the West. Telling a Benedictine that his spirituality is �rational� would be something that a dedicated Benedictine would not understand at all and find no value listening to a man who does not what Benedictine spirituality is. But if you were to compare the inner silence of a hesychast with the same inner silence that is the goal of the Benedictines through silence, obedience and attention to daily duty - you would now be speaking about something that is central to both Benedictine spirituality and Eastern spirituality.
For exmaple - the similarities between the Eastern form of the hesychast 'Jesus prayer' and the Westen 'pratice of the presence of God' (Bother Lawrence). It is the same spirituality under slightly diffrent exterior forms.
These are my own thoughts. Someone else may reply better.
-ray
