Before we begin it will be helpful to know what the article below means by the word "nous" and "noetic" which are defined here, here and here.
The following are excerpts from this Eastern Orthox website with my added commentary on how it relates to origional 1844-Mormonism:
Hesychia as our Method of Healing Orthodox Psychotherapy
One of the fundamental methods of curing the soul is stillness in the full sense of the word. I believe that we have already made this clear. Contemporary man is seeking healing for his life, especially for his inner condition, precisely because he is over-strained. Therefore one of the messages which Orthodoxy can offer to the contemporary weary, discouraged and floundering world is the message of silence. I think that the Orthodox tradition has a great deal to offer in this area. So in what follows I shall try to explain further the value of hesychia and hesychasm for the healing of the soul, nous, heart, and reason. We have the impression that hesychia [stillness] and hesychasm [practice of inner stillness] are among the most basic medicines for gaining inner health. And since lack of silence is what creates the problems, the pressure, anxiety and insecurity, as well as the psychological, psychical, and physical illnesses, we shall try to look at their cause, which is anti-hesychasm. The anti-hesychastic desert wind that is blowing and burning everything is prevalent everywhere and is the dominant cause of the abnormal situation. So we shall look at hesychia as a method of healing the soul, and anti-hesychasm as a cause of psychic and physical illness.
1. Hesychia (Stillness)
Before defining hesychia, or stillness, let us look at its great value for the healing of the soul. … St Gregory the Theologian regarded hesychia as essential for attaining communion with God. “It is necessary to be still in order to have clear converse with God and gradually bring the nous back from its wanderings” (1).
… Through hesychia man’s nous is purified and becomes an acceptable instrument for seeing God. Indeed as we know from patristic teaching, nous is different from intelligence. When the nous is hidden by the passions it ceases to behold the mysteries of God (it is dead), whereas when it is freed from passions it becomes clear-sighted and sees God as light, and this light is the life of man. As we have said, this purification of the nous comes about through hesychia.
This aligns with Lecture on Faith # 7 on Christians becoming a holy glorified (splendorous) being, and Christ as Light per D&C 88 being an indwelling Light via the Divine Mind (in Lecture 5) as a noomatic fluid energy that energizes one's nous with illumination and divine fulness (as Lecture 5 puts it). Similar to how Joseph described revelation. The Book of Mormon in turn is an enlightenment text to heal the nous and ascend in vision to experience the Divine Light.
The article continues:
Hesychia of the body usually refers to the hesychastic posture and the effort to minimise external representations, the images received and brought to the soul by the senses. … In this state man’s nous, possessed of watchfulness and compunction, is centred in the heart. The nous (energy) is concentrated in the place of the heart (essence), uniting with it, thus attaining a partial or greater knowledge of God.
Stillness of the body is a limiting of the body. “The beginning of hesychia is godly rest” (3). The intermediate stage is that of “illuminating power and vision; and the end is ecstasy or rapture of the nous towards God” (4). …
… Hesychia of the body is helpful for attaining inner stillness of the soul. It appears from the patristic teaching that the former, even if not entirely necessary, is nevertheless very much needed in the godly life. “Stillness of the body is the knowledge and management of one’s feelings and perceptions” (7). In another place where St. John of the Ladder speaks of this hesychia, he is thinking especially of “solitary abodes” (8).
Certainly, as we said before, the desert, and in general hesychia of the body, is helpful for attaining inner spiritual hesychia. But the Fathers understood hesychasm “neither as living like a recluse nor as distancing oneself in the desert, but as uninterrupted dwelling in God” (9).
This is what Lecture 2 teaches regarding God, that He is the eternal ALL basically. The Lectures and Book of Mormon explain that the God the Father as a personage (form) of noomatic light duplicated His genome, as His Logos condescended to become human so that we could be deified and metamorphosize into the same personage of light (a celestial body per D&C 76) and dwell in everlasting burnings in the presence of the personage of the Sun-like Father of lights. So what original 1844-Mormonism does is provide a theology for understanding why Paul says the Deity is in whom we live and move and have our being, and why Paul says it is no longer "I" who live but Christ who lives in me: which Restoration Scripture describes as the Divine Mind connecting with Paul's nous as he undergoes noomatic gene therapy, so that he is one with God. The article continues:
… St. John of the Ladder, writing compactly in his remarkable work, says that stillness of the soul is “accurate knowledge and management of one’s thoughts”. “Stillness of the soul is a science of thoughts and an inviolable nous. Brave and determined thinking is a friend of stillness. It keeps constant vigil at the doors of the heart, and kills or repels the thoughts that come” (12).
St. Symeon the New Theologian, speaking of inner stillness and describing its holy atmosphere, says: “Hesychia is an undisturbed state of the nous, calmness of a free and rejoicing soul, a heart’s untroubled and unwavering foundation, vision of light, knowledge of the mysteries of God, a word of wisdom, depth of conceptual images of God, rapture of the nous, pure converse with God, a vigilant eye, inner prayer, union with God and contact and complete theosis …” (13).
This to me describes the spirituality of Joseph Smith very well. The article continues:
... It is a fact that Orthodoxy is a therapeutic science. As we read the works of the holy Fathers who refer to these subjects, we see clearly that Christianity cures the sick soul, and among the means of healing, first place belongs to guarding the nous, repelling intrusive thoughts and trying to slay them before they can enter the gate of the heart.
… That hesychia is, above all, guarding the nous, watching one’s thoughts, is expressed by St. Thalassios: “Seal your senses with stillness and sit in judgement upon the thoughts that attack your heart” (16).
St. Gregory Palamas, however, is the chief defender of hesychia, as we shall see further on. By the grace of Christ he struggled to safeguard this method of purifying the heart and thoughts, which is an indispensable prerequisite for knowledge of God and communion with Him. In his sermon on the Presentation of the Virgin he speaks of the hesychastic life. It is characteristic that this Athonite saint, speaking from experience, sees the Virgin Mary as the model of noetic hesychia, since she entered into communion with the Holy Trinity in the Holy of Holies in stillness. He writes that we cannot reach God and commune with Him unless we are purified and unless we abandon sensory things and the senses, and unless we rise above thoughts and reasonings and human knowledge and all thought. This is just what the Virgin did. Seeking this communion with God, “the Virgin finds holy hesychia her guide: silencing the nous, the world standing still, things below forgotten, sharing of the secrets above, laying aside conceptual images for what is better. This practice in reality is a true entering into theoria or vision of God – or to put it better, the only example of a truly healthy soul”. Then St. Gregory describes the virtues as medicines for the ills of the soul, for the passions; but theoria, he says, is “the fruit of recovery, whose end and form is deifying”. The soul, in other words, is healed through virtues, but when healed it is united with God through theoria, to which the way of silence leads. “Through this (theoria) a man is deified, not through reflecting on words or visible things, but taught by silence” (17).
Note how one finds similar ideas in Joseph's teaching on ascension and enlightenment and how he preached against the sectarian Creeds, dogmatism, and scholasticism. He spoke more plainly about the process of deification, which in the Book of Mormon is the simple Doctrine of Christ: simply faith, water baptism, a fiery baptism, and enduring to the end and ascending to the throne room of God in vision to see the face of God's fiery personage and experience God as an all consuming fire and radiant Light.
The article continues:
… The main points in this sermon are that by the Orthodox method, which is essentially a method of noetic hesychia, we purify our heart and our nous, and in this way we are united with God. This is the only method of contact with God and communion with Him.
This is essentially what the Lectures on Faith are teaching, building off of The Mook of Mormon as an Ascension text and the light of deification in Lecture 7. The article continues:
The [Eastern Orthodox] holy Fathers call this the soul’s peace and Sabbath rest. Man’s nous, purified by the method and training of holy stillness, keeps the Sabbath, rests in God. Palamas, speaking of the divine rest, God’s rest when He “rested from all his labours”, and of Christ’s rest at the descent of His soul with its divinity into Hades and the sojourn of His body with its divinity in the tomb, writes that we too should pursue this divine rest, that is, we should concentrate our nous with persevering attention and unceasing prayer. This divine Sabbath rest is noetic hesychia. “If you withdraw your nous from every thought, even good ones, and turn wholly towards yourself with persevering attention and unceasing prayer, you too will come into the divine rest and attain the blessing of the seven beatitudes, seeing yourself, and through yourself being lifted up to the vision of God” (19). It is noteworthy that the saint says these things in a talk to the flock of his diocese of Thessalonica. This means that all, at different depths, can attain the experience of divine rest. I believe that this is the teaching which has been lost in our time.
Note that the Book of Mormon emphasizes that the main aim of Christian Discipleship is to experience inner stillness by finding "rest" in the Lord, which is a core theme in all Smith-Rigdon Restoration Scripture. As this LDS Topical Guide reveals:
spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, Isa. 11:2 (2 Ne. 21:2).
root of Jesse … his rest shall be glorious, Isa. 11:10 (2 Ne. 21:10).
ye shall find rest for your souls, Jer. 6:16 (Matt. 11:29; Alma 37:34).
Therefore, whosoever repenteth [changes course unto baptism], and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest, Alma 12:34.
teach his commandments … that they also might enter into his rest, Alma 13:6.
lifted up … and enter into his rest, Alma 13:29.
paradise, a state of rest, Alma 40:12.
nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments, 3 Ne. 27:19.
come unto me in my kingdom; and with me you shall find rest, 3 Ne. 28:3.
enter into the rest of the Lord, Moro. 7:3.
rest our souls in the kingdom of God, Moro. 9:6.
soon go to rest in the paradise of God, Moro. 10:34.
rest with them in the kingdom of my Father, D&C 15:6.
that you may enter into my rest, D&C 19:9.
that power shall rest upon thee, D&C 39:12.
Hearken yo to these words. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let the solemnities [silence/quietness in ritual reverence] of eternity rest upon your minds. D&C 43:34.
Compare:
D&C 84:61
… remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity [silence/quiet reverence] and the spirit of prayer …
D&C 88:69
Remember the great and last promise which I have made unto you; cast away your idle thoughts …
sought me early shall find rest, D&C 54:10.
those that die shall rest from all their labors, D&C 59:2.
which rest is the fulness of his glory, D&C 84:24.
shall be caught up, and his rest shall be glorious, D&C 101:31.
when every man shall enter into his … immortal rest, D&C 121:32.
die unto me; for they shall rest from all their labors, D&C 124:86.
greater happiness and peace and rest for me, Abr. 1:2.
Smith-Rigdon Christianity is not supposed to be a burden or stressful or perfectionistic. The doctrine of Christ is a renewing of your mind (nous) to have more inner peace with your nous filled with the Divine Mind of Lecture 5. As Christ says in Mormon Scripture (emphasis added):
D&C 10:67:
Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth [i.e. renews their nous] and cometh unto me, the same is my church [i.e. assembled enlightened-ones dwelling in stillness].
Matt. 11:28: Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
D&C 101:16:
Be still and know that I am God.
Divine rest in Mormon Scripture is therefore the inner stillness (or quiet reverence) of God's luminous presence beyond idle thoughts and ideas and Creedal scholasticism.
The article continues:
From what we have said about noetic hesychia one can see why the person who practices this is called a hesychast. A hesychast is one who follows the way of stillness, which in reality is the way of the Orthodox tradition. Its aim is to lead us to God and unite us with Him.
One could say that a Mormon on the Ascension Path is also a kind of hesychast, only the Mormon version is not ascetic or monastic (with an emphasis on denying the bodily passions), but instead in 1844-Mormonism God is communed with through the body as well as the inner silence of the nous united to the Divine Mind (of Lecture 5). Rather than a mortification of the flesh among monastics, Parley P. Pratt preached the goodness of the sensual affections; and Mormon Scripture explains that we are in our bodies so that we might have joy in our bodies, and that there is a plan of happiness within the opposition in all things that includes joy through the passions: as "God is more liberal in his views" than the Eastern desert monastics supposed.
The article continues saying prayer need not be just petitionary prayer but can be contemplative prayer, which I agree with:
… Many times we find the Lord withdrawing into the wilderness in order to rest, ... “He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself” (Matt.14,13). And after the miracle of multiplying the five loaves, “when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray: and when evening had come, He was alone there” (Matt.14,23).
It is very significant that when the disciples gathered “and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught”, the Lord said to them: “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile” (Mark 6,30-31).
The Lord spent whole nights in prayer. Luke the Evangelist has preserved the information: “He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Lk.6,12).
… Teaching the way of true prayer, He said: “when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place…” (Matt.6,6). Interpreting this exhortation of the Lord, St. Gregory Palamas writes: “…the closet of the soul is the body; our doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its closet when the nous does not wander hither and thither, roaming among things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be attached to external sensory things, and in this way our nous remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God its Father. `And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly,’ adds the Lord. God who knows all secret things, sees spiritual prayer and rewards it openly with great gifts. For that prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with divine grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in divine grace” (30).
The Lord said to His disciples who were sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Matt.26,41).
… Accusing the Scribes and Pharisees, He said: “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also” (Matt.23,26).
This is a good point, if your inner state is self-centered or religiously legalistic (with religious-OCD type perfectionism), or you are chronically stressed and angry or anxious, that's going to spill over into how you treat others; as James put it your tongue can be a fire of social destruction; but if you are secluding yourself away from the Noise of the World to acquire inner stillness in contemplative prayer, you can center your nous and commune with Divine Mind/Fullness (what Eckhart Tolle calls Spaciousness), the Divine ALL, and free yourself of tension, stress, and Monkey Mind (idle thoughts); and thus be a better version of yourself.
The article continues:
... Here too I would like to recall a few relevant passages.
After turning to Christ, the Apostle Paul journeyed into the Arabian desert, and there he repented of his previous behaviour (Gal.1,17).
The Apostle, who knew this inner stillness of the nous, gave much advice to his disciples. Sensing that Christians who have been united with Christ have the nous of Christ, he wrote: “But we have the nous of Christ” (1Cor.2,16). In another place he exhorts: “Put to death your members which are on the earth” (Col.3,5). By the grace of God the Apostle saw the inner law in his members warring against the law of his nous (Rom.7,23).
In the Apostle’s teaching, importance is given to watchfulness, that is, spiritual vigilance not to let one’s nous be captured by an external evil power: “Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober… let us who are of the day be sober…” (1Thess.5,6-8). He exhorts the Apostle Timothy: “But you be watchful in all things” (2Tim.4,5).
And on the subject of prayer he is clear. Prayer should go on unceasingly in the hearts of Christians. “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving” (Col.4,2). “Pray without ceasing” (1Thess.5,17).
… All these things show that practically all Christians can attain stillness and thereby also vision of God. On this point too the Fathers are absolute and expressive.
Peter of Damascus writes: “For all men need this devotion and stillness, total or partial, and without it, it is impossible to attain any humility and spiritual knowledge” (31).
… Some people maintain that hesychia in the way described by the Fathers is inaction, not action. In reality the opposite is the case. Hesychia is very great action in invisibility and silence. The person is in repose and stillness in order to speak with God, in order to allow himself his freedom and to receive God Himself. And if we consider the fact that the greatest problems which torment us are psychical and internal, and if we think that most illnesses (psychological and physical) originate from the elaboration of thoughts, that is, from impurity of the nous and the heart, we can understand the great value of noetic hesychia. So it is action and life. Hesychia offers the indispensable conditions for loving one’s brothers dispassionately, for acquiring selfless and dispassionate love. “He who is not attracted by worldly things cherishes stillness. He who loves nothing merely human loves all men” (St. Maximos the Confessor) (32). How can one have selfless love, which is one of the aims of the spiritual life, when one is possessed by passions?
So the hesychastic life is a life of intense activity, but a genuine and good activity. “The stillness of the saints should not be regarded as indolence, but as a form of intense activity. Moreover God is revealed in a similar way in his relations with men. The movement of God towards men is not only a movement of manifestation, but also a movement of revelation. It is not only revelation of a word but also an expression of stillness. That is why man, in order to come nearer to God, is not satisfied only to receive His revealed energies but must also advance towards receiving in silence the mystery of His unknowing. It is not enough to hear His word, but one must also advance towards the unhearing of His stillness. This second part leads to perfection, and so the first is presupposed. In fact, as St. Ignatios the Godbearer observed, only `he who has truly acquired the word of Jesus can also hear His stillness, so as to be perfect’. So then the movement of man towards God should not be only a movement of action, but also a movement of hiddenness; it should not only be a witness of confession, but also a witness of silence and stillness” (33).
Therefore the Fathers speak of “fruiting stillness”. When rightly practiced it offers great help to a person, it reshapes his personality, renews his being, unites it with God. Then his social relationships are set right as well. When a man acquires love for God he also acquires love for mankind.
2. Hesychasm
So far we have explained as best we could what hesychia is, what are its characteristics and how indispensable it is for our spiritual life. It is recommended by all the Fathers as the best method of purification and returning to God. Moreover, as we have pointed out, Orthodoxy is a therapeutic science which aims to cure man’s illnesses. This should never be overlooked, because to do so would be to destroy the whole essence and content of Christianity. Purification, a necessary precondition for deification, is attained through the method of Orthodox devotion in which hesychia has a very important place.
This whole method and its way of life is called hesychasm. That is to say, the person struggling in an atmosphere of stillness is called a hesychast, and this way of living in stillness is called hesychasm. We certainly know hesychasm as a theological movement of the fourteenth century, mainly represented by St. Gregory Palamas, which uses a particular psychosomatic method and seeks, with the help of divine grace, to unite the nous with the heart and so to live in communion with God. St. Gregory maintained that this goes on in the body as well. That is to say, the body too can acquire experience of the life of God. …
… We find hesychia in Holy Scripture, in the first Fathers of the Church. We have already mentioned examples of Fathers from all the centuries of the history of the Church. …
However, we also use the term hesychasm to characterise the method used to concentrate the nous in the heart. This is a very large subject and I would like simply to point to a few topics.
In the effort to be purified, a man’s nous “stands prayerfully in the heart”, constantly repeating the single-word Jesus prayer. It is not busied with many words. It unceasingly recalls the Name of Jesus Christ. At the same time the nous watches to see that thoughts do not enter the door of the heart. So, as St. Maximos the Confessor says, watchfulness is linked with the prayer.
“But the nous can still more deeply penetrate into the heart when, by divine impulse, it so unites with the heart as to be divested of all images and concepts, while the heart is closed against every foreign element. Then the soul penetrates into the `darkness’ of a quite especial nature, and is subsequently deemed worthy of standing ineffably before God with a pure nous” (35).
Many methods are used for attaining this concentration and the return of the wandering nous to the heart. … St. Gregory Palamas presents the prayer of the Publican, the way in which he prays, as the type of the hesychast’s prayer. He refers to the Gospel: “The tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying: `God be merciful to me a sinner'” (Lk.18,13). Interpreting this passage, St. Gregory says that the word used here for `standing’ shows the long continuation of the standing, together with the persistence of the supplication and the penitential words. The Publican said “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Nothing more. “Neither intending nor considering anything else, he was paying attention only to himself and God, rotating his prayer on itself, multiplying only the simple entreaty which is the most efficacious type of prayer.” One sees here the value of the simple prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” The hesychast, like the Publican, thinks about absolutely nothing, but concentrates his nous on the words of the prayer. …
It seems clear here that the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee was used by Christ, and also by St. Gregory Palamas, interpreting the parable `hesychastically’, to present stillness and prayer as the best way to receive mercy from God. It is the most perfect prayer. …
… We must emphasize the fact that the value of noetic hesychia, unceasing prayer, repetition of the single-word Jesus prayer, the special way of concentrating the nous and uniting it with the heart, the standing of the body during prayer and the confining of the senses, the teaching that the grace of God is uncreated and that a person can receive it in his heart, that the light of Tabor is higher than human knowledge and not “inferior to thought”, all of which define what is called hesychasm, have been “justified” by the Council of Constantinople and consequently one who speaks against these things is no longer within the Orthodox tradition and at any rate creates preconditions for being cut off from its life.
… Today theology is being developed through the elaboration of logic. It has become simply a logical system. I would characterize it as philosophical. It is a history of theology. It is not a fruit of hesychia and participation in God. This is why many errors and many differences in theological thoughts and views have appeared. Today most of us do not live theology as a therapeutic science, as I said before. We do not recognise the way of Orthodox devotion. …
… “So soon as the nous unites with the heart it can see every movement in the realm of the subconscious. (Here we use this term from contemporary scientific psychology in a conventional way.) While the nous dwells in the heart it perceives the images and thoughts around it proceeding from the realm of cosmic being which attempt to seize heart and nous. The attack of intrusive thoughts is fierce. ... His constant aim is to reduce the number of outside impressions to its very minimum. Otherwise at the time of inner noetic prayer all the impressions of the day will crowd unrestrained into his heart, causing the greatest disturbance.
“The monk’s purpose is to achieve continual vigilance of the nous in the heart; … and the feeling of God, present and active, becomes powerful and plain” (45).
Orthodox theology needs to be imbued with this hesychastic method in order to be really Orthodox and not academic. Efforts are being made in this area. But the problem remains essentially a problem. Does contemporary theology speak of tears and mourning, self-reproach and humility? Does it regard as a way of knowing God “to make the nous and the world stand still, forget things below… lay aside meanings for what is better?” Does it presuppose that for us to attain communion with God, “we should abandon everything sensory along with sensation, rising high above thoughts and reasonings and all knowledge and thought itself, wholly surrendered to the energy of spiritual sensation, which Solomon called a sense of the divine, and reaching the unknowing above knowledge, that is, above every form of the much talked-of philosophy…” (46)?
I believe that on the contrary, contemporary theology is conjectural, rationalistic. …
Archimandrite Sophrony also writes: “The theologian who is an intellectual [logician] constructs his system as an architect builds a palace or a church. Empirical and metaphysical concepts are the material he uses, and he is more concerned with the magnificence and logical symmetry of his ideal edifice than that it should conform to the actual order of things.
“Strange as it may seem, many great men have been unable to withstand this [rationalism], in effect, artless temptation, the hidden cause of which is pride.
“One becomes attached to the fruits of one’s intelligence [rationalism] as a mother to her child. The intellectual [logician] loves his creation as himself, identifies with it, shuts himself up with it. When this happens no human intervention can help him – if he will not renounce what he believes to be riches, he will never attain to pure prayer and true theoria” (48).
… Thus we will come to understand that the Church is a place where souls are healed, but also a place of theophany. Within purification there comes knowledge of God, vision of God. … we must struggle to keep and preserve a pure nous.
St. Thalassios’ exhortation should become a rule of life: “Enclose your senses in the citadel of hesychia …” (50).
The words of St. Gregory the Theologian which we quoted at the beginning should be regarded as a basic aim of life: “It is necessary to keep silence in order to come into pure contact with God and to minimise any delusion of the soul” (51).
We must be well aware that this hesychia is “indeed the true and unerring mode of life in God, as handed down to us by the Fathers”, according to the Fathers Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos.
I would like to end these thoughts about hesychia with the teaching of Kallistos and Ignatios of Xanthopoulos: “This way, this spiritual life in God, this sacred practice of true Christians is the true, unerring and genuine secret life in Christ. Sweetest Jesus, the God-Man, laid this path and gave it His mysterious guidance; the divine Apostles trod it, as well as those who came after them. From the very beginning, from the first coming of Christ on earth up to our time, our glorious teachers who followed Him, shining like lamps in the world with the radiance of their life-bearing words and wonderful deeds, have transmitted to one another right up till today this good seed, this sacred drink, this holy germ, this inviolate token, this grace and power from above, this precious pearl, this divine inheritance of the Fathers, this treasure buried in the field, this betrothal of the Spirit, this kingly symbol, this springing water of life, this divine fire, this precious salt, this gift, this seal, this light, and so on. This inheritance will continue to be so transmitted from generation to generation, even after our time up to the very second coming of Christ. For true is the promise of Him Who said: `I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen'” (52).
There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was attempting to produce a similar science of inner stillness in order so that Mormons could find rest (stillness) in the Lord (as the Father of lights), by becoming enlightened and illuminated by the Light of Christ.
Beginning with the Book of Mormon as an ascension text: where one was to overcome the fear of death and destructive habits by experiencing the divine Light within a vision of the Father's luminous personage of fire; each subsequent ritual that Joseph developed was only an additional method of assurance of grace and finding further rest in the Lord, and/or empowerment through the Strength of the Lord. Thus experiencing God's energy and stillness within the presence of the divine Light through the solemnity [silent reverence] of ritual practice in communion with other enlightened-ones on the path to an ascension experience and the ongoing path of theosis through indwelling fulness of divine stillness and empowerment through the energies of God (who is all in all).
