St. Gregory Palamas defended Hesychasm from people who believed the body was fundamentally evil, and therefore God should be sought without rather than within. St. Palamas asked: If knowledge of God can be attained through secular knowledge, why did the pagans worship demons? As Holy Apostle Paul says, they are “wise according to the flesh (1 Cor. 1:26).” St. Palamas argues that through prayer and ascetic struggle the body can become the dwelling place of God, which is the ultimate goal of Hesychasm.
The Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts (Jer. 31:33).” Therefore, it makes sense that looking inward, man will find communion with God. St. Palamas argues that those who let the mind wander outside the body are giving themselves over to demonic suggestion and fleshly desires. He poses the question “If the Kingdom of God is within, why do we look for it without?” Those men who claim the body is evil misunderstand that which houses the Kingdom of God cannot itself be inherently evil, and as Palamas argues, “No evil thing is evil insofar that it exists, but that it is used in an activity inappropriate to it.” Accordingly, it becomes evident that the Hesychast is seeking communion with God exactly where Christ told him it would be, within.
St. Palamas expands on the importance of the body while discussing its use in the expressions of the Holy Spirit. For example, the face of Stephen the protomartyr “shone like the face of an angel,” and those who worked great healing miracles did so because they were in a state of “intense mental prayer,” where the body is in perfect tune with the soul. If the body was fundamentally evil, this would not be possible. It is impossible to imagine that something evil can shine like the face of an angel or work healing miracles. Furthermore, St. Palamas mentions that one of the gifts of grace working in man is that his eyes will acquire “a gentle glance that conveys mercy from on high,” again such a thing could not be witnessed within something evil.
The importance of cleansing the mind cannot be overstated. If the Kingdom of God is within, the reason we cannot access it is because of our own impurities. St. Palamas says, the “mind becomes evil by dwelling on fleshly thoughts,” as he references Apostle Paul, who states, “What is good does not dwell in me, that is, in the flesh,” surmising that he does not say flesh is evil, or mind, but that which inhabits it. St. Palamas then answers the question: “Is the mind in the brain or heart?” explaining clearly that the heart is the “first rational organ” and the driving force of our thoughts as well as the “seat of the soul.” However, the mind is weakened by our senses and man must therefore guide it back to the heart to make rational decisions.
To do this, St. Palamas teaches the reader how to use hesychasm to purify their mind. He says we must force the mind to return to the body “if we are to acquire virtue.” If the mind is without, which it is wont to do, it is practically impossible that it will not fall victim to sensual temptations. St. Palamas references the Ladder of Divine Ascent saying “The hesychast is one who seeks to circumscribe the incorporeal in his body” i.e. his mind. If the mind can wander out, it can be brought back to its source where it can find its way back to its natural state.
The practical steps for the beginner are to focus on the breath. The beginner’s mind “becomes dispersed easily” as “nothing is more mobile and shifting than the mind”; therefore, it needs an anchor. After some time the hesychast will experience intense reflection and the breath will quieten; St. Palamas describes this as a “spiritual Sabbath.” He explains that this “Sabbath” strips the soul of its cognitive powers and controls all corporeal activity. Using this example he discredits those who are against hesychasm by saying that “Those who love disputation have sterile views based on words and not effort” because the “beginners [of hesychasm] must toil” for “patience is the fruit of love.” Those who rely on their words and philosophies to deride hesychasm do not understand hesychasm because they do not want to toil, they avoid the struggle and remain stuck in the intellectual mind which feeds off the material world.
Further to this, the beginner must overcome the passions with fasting and vigilance. He says that beginners “must gain mastery over every sensory pleasure” through vigilance which will “make the disobedient flesh subject to the Spirit” and warns man to “never leave any part of your soul… or body without surveillance.” St. Palamas says fasting “is of greatest benefit to those who practice inner prayer,” as those who wish to reach mastery in internal prayer must suffer: “This suffering alone mortifies the body’s inclination to sin, and moderates and weakens the thoughts that provoke violent passions.”
The result of this practice will be true inner prayer in which the “spiritual grace in the heart is a fountain of holy joy that attracts the soul to itself,” according to St. Palamas. Furthermore, because the body rejects all evil lusts, the spiritual joy coming from the mind is not corrupted by the existence of the body. When one has reached this state of communion with God, they have surely found the Kingdom of God within. This proves that the body is not fundamentally evil and justifying the prayer method of the hesychasts.