The Philokalia and Rachmaninoff

One of my spiritual disciplines in my hermitage monastery is to copy favorite selections from The Philokalia into a journal book, whilst listening to "Vespers" by Rachmaninoff, the 1965 Soviet Union record pressing, with Aleksandr Sveshnikov as conductor.

Vaspers the Grate is my old internet nickname, dating back to 2004 and the name of my first blog. 

Vaspers is a variation of "vespers", an evening service or all-night vigil.

The Philokalia is my favorite Christian text after the Bible itself. It blows away all the modern books. 

It's a collection of very early writings by Russian and Greek Orthodox acetic hesychast monks who were seriously struggling against self-deception, craving, and the corruptions in society and the church. 

Great statements on how the mind works and how to subdue the bad passions and stupid thoughts.

Deprivation is liberation. Pleasure causes pain. Austerity is clarity. Gratifying cravings just intensifies the cravings. 

Enlightenment destroys blind spots before it grants vision.

http://www.orthodox-christian-comment.co.uk/curiosities-meaningrachmaninovvespers.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia

http://archive.org/details/Philokalia-TheCompleteText
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