This book is about the life lessons learned and experienced by the author during a pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece, one of the oldest surviving monastic communities in the world; an exclusive domain of monks and other holy men; a place molded in tradition, history, legend, and miracles. Known as the Holy Mountain, it remains fundamentally unchanged since the eighth century. The author visits a number of monasteries and learns from the monks, hermits, and other people he meets about the historical differences between the Christian religion in the East and West, the symbolism of the faith, the influence of paganism on Christianity, and the Byzantine Empire's art and iconography. Most importantly, immersed in this environment, he is confronted with some of the fundamental questions that we deal with on our lives' journeys over and over again. He is also introduced to the mystic side of an unfamiliar spiritual practice called "hesychia," a technique combining concentration with inward tranquility. The book merges elements of research, memoir, art, history, philosophy, and spirituality into a single story. What emerges is a fascinating and insightful account of a world that is entirely new to many Western readers.
Centred around three journeys to Mount Athos, one of the most important places in Orthodox Christianity, this is both a travel book and a journey of self-discovery in a world beset by violence and fear. Mount Athos is the spiritual home of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and for more than ten centuries this monastic community in northern Greece has been a centre for contemplative life, a staging ground for mystical visions and teachings, and a watch tower for Byzantium. A world unto itself, which has existed almost unchanged since medieval times, the theocratic state of Athos is a spiritual haven which stands in dramatic counterpoint to the contemporary world. Even time is calculated differently here - Athos rejects the Julian calendar and clocks are reset every day to Byzantine time - midnight falls at sunset. Christopher Merrill travelled to Mount Athos in search of spiritual renewal and a vision of eternity.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Anthropology of Sound presents the key subjects and approaches of anthropological research into sound cultures. What are the common characteristics as well as the inconsistencies of living with and around sound in everyday life? This question drives research in this interdisciplinary area of sound studies: it propels each main chapter of this handbook into a thoroughly different world of listening, experiencing, receiving, sensing, dreaming, naming, desiring, and crafting sound. This handbook is composed of six sections: sonic artifacts; sounds and the body; habitat and sound; sonic desires; sounds and machines; and overarching sensologies. The individual chapters explore exemplary research objects and put them in the context of methodological approaches, historical predecessors, research practices, and contemporary research gaps. This volume offers therefore one of the broadest, most detailed, and instructive overviews on current research in this area of sensory anthropology.
For two weeks in July 1987, Marcus Campbell kept a journal as he walked about Mount Athos, known as The Holy Mountain, in Greece, searching for the place in which to spend the rest of his days. He hoped to meet, in a monastery, cave or hut in the wilderness a particular man, a geronda (elder) or pnevmatikos ('spirit-filled' guide) to whom he could entrust himself, body and soul.This vivid account, including the author's journal record of his travels, was intended to provide a picture of Mount Athos as he found it, for family and friends, especially women friends, who could never visit it themselves. A highlight of the book is the author's encounter with the Elder Paisios (1924-94) who in 2015 was canonized a saint of the Greek Orthodox Church.
In August 2013 Father Spyridon took a life changing journey to the heart of Orthodox monasticism on Mount Athos. During his visit he encountered monks and hermits of the ancient Christian tradition who shared the wisdom of their lives. Journey To Mount Athos is a journey into mysticism and faith that will speak to the hearts of many.
Searching for forgotten Christian knowledge of man among the monks of Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain of Northern Greece... "Jesus said: 'Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds, and when he finds, he will be troubled, and when he has been troubled he will marvel, and he will reign over the All.'" (Gospel According to Thomas) DEDICATION: Spiritual men seek among the centuries-old forests of Athos for ten or a dozen holy men who are sanctified to replace a similar number in the hidden corners of Athos' forests and mountains. When these secret-saints die, it is said, ten or twelve new saints are formed, although at any time, only two of them become publicly known. I was blessed to meet one of them on a number of occasions, sometimes being able to find a translator of his Greek, sometimes being forced to learn through the language of love without detailed interpretation. Both ways, it seemed to me that I learned then 'by heart', not just in words, but in new understanding. - Robin Amis BACK COVER: Exploring the Holy Mountain is exploring oneself... Over the past several decades there have been numerous accounts written by travelers and pilgrims to Mount Athos in Northern Greece. Since its beginnings as a monastic republic before the 10th century AD, this narrow peninsula which protrudes for 50 kilometers into the Aegean Sea has captured the imagination of hundreds of writers, scholars, and pilgrims. To this day, there is a constant stream of visitors to its monasteries, which allow their doors to open to a limited number of visitors each day in order to preserve their time-honored way of life, and to protect it from tourism as well as curiosity-seekers looking for the new or exotic in their travels. Robin Amis began writing this book in the early '80's, when he first started visiting the Mountain regularly - visits which now total over 60. His first impressions of what he found there are encapsulated in this account of keenly observed descriptions of landscape and monasteries interspersed with deeply learned 'lessons' - truths brought home to the author by circumstances which so often evoked an inner response. It is these revelations which tie the book together - and as in all true revelations, they do not follow a logical sequential pattern - they come 'out of the blue', surfacing when another relevant memory calls them up into consciousness out of the depth of our being. This book, then, could really be called an 'inner journey', for which external details provide a kind of scaffolding on which to hang the various insights that keep on emerging all the way from the beginning of the book to its end. Views From Mount Athos, may be regarded as a 'travel book' - but it is also a many-layered journey - spiritual, philosophical, and psychological as much as physical. As Robin walks the narrow paths of the mountain from monastery to monastery, he finds himself increasingly detached from the noisy world of the West and travels the mountain tracks within himself. Among his guides on this journey was the blessed Elder Paisios (now Saint Paisios), from whom he learned the 'wisdom of the heart'. Though published near the end of his life, this book is actually his first; the manuscript lay forgotten for over twenty years while he developed his understanding of spiritual life for lay people in the modern world, expounded notably in his A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (Praxis Institute Press, 2003).
Discover the rich spirituality of monastic life on Mount Athos--a place like no other on earth. Twenty-five years ago, M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, was the first Western monk to live on Mount Athos for more than the usually permitted overnight visit. The Monks of Mount Athos chronicles his extraordinary stay, his experiences of the East, and lively conversations with his hosts about theological differences and unfamiliar spiritual practices. Listen in as Abbot Basil wrestles with historical differences between Christianity's East and West, learns the Orthodox practice of "the prayer of the heart," and explores the landscape, the monastic communities, and the food of Athos--a monastic republic like no other place on earth. New to this edition, Archimandrite Dionysios, a monk from "the Holy Mountain," reflects on the ecumenical openness fostered as a result of, and since, Abbot Basil's stay. The abbot's experiences on Mount Athos motivated him to re-examine his role as a monk and his relationship to God. His inspiring meditations will help you to explore your own relationship to God and to others.
