Concepts
The living vocabulary of the inner tradition — words that name what the soul knows
ἀγάπη
Agape
Love — the goal of the entire spiritual life
αἰχμαλωσία
Aichmalotia
Captivity — when the pattern runs on autopilot
αἴσθησις
Aisthesis
Spiritual perception — the inner senses awakening
ἀντίρρησις
Antirrhesis
Rebuttal
ἀπάθεια
Apatheia
Inner freedom — not apathy, but emotional liberation
ἄσκησις
Askesis
Ascetic practice — training, not punishment
χάρις
Charis
Grace — the divine gift that meets human effort
διάκρισις
Diakrisis
Discernment — the mother of all virtues
διάνοια
Dianoia
Reason — the discursive, analytical mind
ἔλεος
Eleos
Mercy — tenderness, not judgment
ἐλπίς
Elpis
Hope — settled confidence grounded in experience
ἐνέργειαι
Energeiai
Divine energies — God's own life, freely shared
ἐγκράτεια
Enkrateia
Self-mastery — the freedom to choose
ἐπιθυμία
Epithymia
The desiring faculty — longing in its raw form
ἔρως
Eros
Intense longing — the soul's burning desire for the divine
γνῶσις
Gnosis
Spiritual knowledge — knowing through encounter, not reasoning
ἁμαρτία
Hamartia
Missing the mark — the tradition's reframe of 'sin'
Hesychast
A practitioner of hesychia — stillness
ἡσυχία
Hesychia
Stillness — the tradition's namesake
ὑπομονή
Hypomone
Patient endurance — the quality of staying
ὑπόστασις
Hypostasis
Person — concrete, distinct reality
Ἡ εὐχὴ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ
The Jesus Prayer
The integrating practice of the entire tradition
καρδία
Kardia
The heart — the deep center of the person
κατάνυξις
Katanyxis
Compunction — the piercing of the heart
κάθαρσις
Katharsis
Purification
κένωσις
Kenosis
Self-emptying — the Christological pattern for spiritual life
λογισμοί
Logismoi
The eight thought-patterns — the tradition's diagnostic framework
λόγοι
Logoi
Inner principles — divine meanings embedded in creation
Λόγος
Logos
The divine Word — creative intelligence through which all things exist
μετάνοια
Metanoia
Conversion of the heart — the fundamental movement of return
μνήμη θανάτου
Mneme Thanatou
Remembrance of death — the clarifying lens
μνήμη Θεοῦ
Mneme Theou
Remembrance of God — continuous awareness of the divine presence
νῆψις
Nepsis
Watchfulness — the Philokalia's organizing concept
νοῦς
Nous
The deep intellect — the eye of the soul
οὐσία
Ousia
Essence — the divine nature beyond comprehension
παρρησία
Parresia
Intimate communion — the freedom to approach without fear
πάθος
Pathos
The passions — impulses that dominate when ungoverned
πένθος
Penthos
Compunction — the productive form of grief
φαντασία
Phantasia
Imagination
φιλαυτία
Philautia
Self-love — the root from which all passions grow
φιλοκαλία
Philokalia
Love of the beautiful — the collection itself
φωτισμός
Photismos
Illumination
πίστις
Pistis
Faith — trust that makes sustained practice possible
πρακτική
Praktiki
The practical life — first stage of the threefold path
πρᾶξις
Praxis
Action — the active dimension of the spiritual life
πλάνη
Prelest
Spiritual delusion — the tradition's central warning
πρόληψις
Prolepsis
Predisposition — the habitual biases that shape your inner life
προσβολή
Prosbole
Provocation — the innocent first arrival of a thought
προσευχή
Proseuche
Prayer
προσοχή
Prosoche
Attention — the foundational skill
συνδυασμός
Syndiasmos
Coupling — when you start talking to the thought
συνείδησις
Syneidesis
Conscience — the inner witness
συγκατάθεσις
Synkatathesis
Assent — the moment you say yes to the thought
ταπείνωσις
Tapeinosis
Humility — accurate self-knowledge, not self-deprecation
θεολογία
Theologia
Direct Knowledge of God
θεωρία φυσική
Theoria
Natural contemplation — seeing God in creation
θέωσις
Theosis
Deification — the tradition's ultimate horizon
Θεοτόκος
Theotokos
The God-Bearer — the icon of theosis
θυμός
Thymos
The incensive power — the soul's faculty of resistance
ἀκηδία
Akedia
Restlessness
γαστριμαργία
Gastrimargia
Appetite
ὑπερηφανία
Hyperephania
Pride
κενοδοξία
Kenodoxia
Vainglory
λύπη
Lype
Sadness
ὀργή
Orge
Anger
φιλαργυρία
Philargyria
Greed
πορνεία
Porneia
Desire