Orthodox Christian Hesychasm is not a divisive, sectarian phenomenon but the living wisdom of the hallowing Spirit, awake in Christ to the generous grace of the Father of light and glory. Metanoia turns the light of awareness round to awaken to theoria, seeing that sees who sees at centre, illumined vision of uncreated light that unveils the glory of grace. Saint David’s metanoia awoke him to profound theoria, but the light of glory is the uncreated energy of God in every saint, one healing energy of grace in all, one hallowing glory of grace for all, opening to wisdom’s vision of glory through the Name. When the light of awareness turns and sees, heaven and earth unite so that wisdom and glory conjoin. Awareness of the presence of awareness turns to see wisdom’s awareness of the presence of glory at the heart of every perception. a hallowing blessing that imparts to the saints the deifying co-inherence of God the Holy Trinity. The practice of turning co-incides with the practice of seeing that beholds uncreated light at centre, opening to awareness of uncreated glory everywhere. A body of uncreated light arises, opening to a body of uncreated glory, turning seers of light into glorified saints. The uncreated energy of wisdom turns its light around to behold the uncreated energy of glory, spontaneously unveiling the pearl of great price, treasuring the hidden treasure buried in every heart. Stillness attends this treasure with the flame of the Name, which is the golden flame that refines the lead of ordinary awareness into glorification, enthroned and crowned by hallowing the Name.
Turning the light of awareness round is not an isolated phenomenon happening to a private individual, since every saint abides in Christ who is the wholeness of humanity in person. Seers in Christ are humanity in person awakening to the uncreated light of glory, unveiling Christ’s deification of creation through glorification. God’s grace in all bestows grace to all, for the benefit of all. The Spirit breathes this glory with every breath, but if hardened hearts never look back, the mystery of glory goes unrecognised. Blind eyes dither in a netherworld that refuses heaven, so end up in hell, reifying separation rather than partaking of the union of graced communion. The Name reverses this reversal by inverting all its inversions, awakening the eye of the heart. The practice of wisdom, God’s vision of God, supports the experience of glorification by sustaining illumination in the awakened heart. Wisdom turns what seemed inside, by releasing it out there off centre so that glory, which seemed outside, is unveiled in here at centre in the midst, releasing both ‘in’ and ‘out’ into glorious, turned translucence. Single-eyed seeing may appear shallow at first but it sinks immeasurably deep, because in itself it is neither crude nor superficial. Grace is what it is, uncreated light of glory, which is never shallow and never narrow. Revelation of the Name in the midst focuses on glory at centre, not on shallow or narrow ways and means intended to get there, but which inevitably fall short of glory because they separate what is already one. The centre is everywhere and therefore nowhere, so nowhere is peripheral and nowhere is cut off from glory anywhere. The wisdom that discerns the glory of grace is never divisively transcended because in its completeness, it transcends all improvement and all refinement. Focus on the still centre is not fixation on a fixed point, but luminous turning on the central axis of the Name, enlightening vision of glory in the midst.
Turning steps back from oblivious dissipation to behold the glory of wisdom’s vision of God, awakening the eye of the heart to hallowing wisdom with ineffable insight into glory. Self-enquiry unveils God because humanity is created God-centred, not self-centred, being created in the image and likeness of God. But the glory of God cannot be grasped or comprehended, so instead of compulsive strain and stress, Great Peace dawns then reigns. Wisdom is practiced by turning and turning is practiced by seeing, for the two are one in the union of wisdom and glory. Wisdom cannot be conceptually proved or externally verified but wisdom does infallibly unveil the glory of grace. Consequently, trust is crucial, because without confidence in grace, the glory of grace remains concealed and hidden. The energy of grace is evident as glory, which unveils the union of wisdom’s awareness and the breath of glory’s living presence. Wisdom turns the light of awareness round to unite with the presence of glory in the breath of living presence, glory still to come until the Name is hallowed. Listening to the Spirit turns awareness round into the breath of the presence of glory, showing us that God spontaneously breathes us whilst our material bodies spontaneously breath air. Wisdom and glory unite in the Holy of Holies, turning the venom of afflictive separation round into the medicine of blessed paradise, unveiling that the greater the light of wisdom, the greater the presence of glory. The Spirit of truth imparts true breathing, true inspiration, true purity of heart. The practice of turning is the practice of true seeing, wisdom’s vision of the glory of presence, which is glory’s awareness of the indivisible presence of God.
Awareness and presence are co-inherent because in God, wisdom and glory are one. When grace purifies the heart, wisdom and glory conjoin. The pure heart is like a broody hen enclosing the egg of the Name in loving warmth, hatching the awareness of presence in the hallowing presence of graced awareness. Wisdom turns the warmth of love within to embrace the egg of light and glory in the Holy of Holies. When awareness descends to the egg in the heart, the energy of presence ascends with graced wings to the crown. The flame warms the Name so that grace hatches Christ in the heart. The grace of self-emptying is not vacuous emptiness but a love that seeks not its own. The death of death does not kill anyone, but dies to death’s deadly delusion by resurrecting Christ in all, for the glorification of all. Uncreated light bestows freedom from oblivion by being radiantly oblivious to oblivion, not by destroying anything real. The Spirit of truth breathes light of glory into an unregenerate world by breathing light and glory in the midst, unceasingly invoking the regenerating Name of light and glory. Wisdom watches and waits on God at centre, glorifying God in his Name. Delusion dithers between distraction and oblivion, dissipated by distraction, deadened by oblivion. But the Spirit of truth abides with Christ in the Father’s heart, emptying distraction into graced lucidity and oblivion into graced clarity. Stillness unceasingly practices graced turning with seeing and illumined seeing with turning, curing every illness of mind or spirit wherever the Spirit’s breath infuses the timeless life of grace. When practiced, turning unveils uncreated light and seeing beholds uncreated glory, wisdom wedded with glory as graced union and timeless communion.