Danny’s Reviews > The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs > Status Update

Syrian Orthodox theologian Mar Eprem…[on] Hindu holy men:
Where there is a genuine love of God and unselfish love of one's neighbour, compassion for the poor and the oppressed, wherever one sees sacrificial love at work, and glorification of God, there the 'energies of God' are present.

By reminding us that we are each made in the image of God, and that our vocation is to love and be loved, an Elder may free suffering individuals from the vicious circle of blame and guilt and set them free to love their enemies'- something only possible once they cease to see them as 'enemies'

Elder Amphilochios…said: “I was born to love people. It doesn't concern me if he is a Turk, black, or white. I see in the face of each person the image of God. And for this image of God I am willing to sacrifice everything.”

constant repetition is not required. What is reguired constant aliveness to God - an aliveness present when you talk, read, watch, or examine something.

What is Hesychastic Prayer?
The word hesychia means stillness, rest, quiet, silence.

there tends to be an underlying assumption that to be 'spiritual' is to be somehow 'bodiless’ and 'ethereal'. But the call to a Christian to be holy' is to the whole person…so it follows that to 'spiritualise' the body would not mean to ‘dematerialise' it.… for a Christian to be 'spiritual' means not to reject but to sanctify the physical.

the conflict is not that between body' (söma) and 'soul' (psyche) but between flesh' (sarn) and 'spirit' (pneuma)

hesyehasm offers a thoroughly Christian alternative to yoga that does not compromise any aspect of Christian faith, theology or worship. In Some respects the hesychastic tradition is so close to meditative yoga that one might be tempted to describe it as Christian yoga, were it
not for crucial differences in spiritual goals and in the guidelines tor attaining them.

A body soul is a corpse and a soul without a body is a ghost.' The soul is not just in the body, nor is the body some kind of cage that constricts the soul: rather, the soul is to be seen as the inward and the body as the outward expression of one distinctive individual.

Where Christianity, especialy Orthodox Christianity, differs from Hinduism is that it can take discussion of suffering beyond a virtue-oriented, conventional moralism to that volatile, mysterious,metaphysical dimension where human-divine encounter seems for the believer to fail utterly.