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a note about attention during prayer; a quote from Valaam elder John
#the person does not truly repent of some sins, i.e. he does not want to completely give up some sinful habits for which the consciousness condemns him,<ref name="joseph"/><ref name="ioann"/><ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://www.ioann.org/pisma/molitva.html Letters of elder John (Krestiankin). On Prayer.] Elder John (Krestiankin) writes to some person who has demonic attacks because of the previous devotion to heretic and demonic teachings. Elder John says that when someone starts to pray with Jesus prayer while keeping the passions in the soul and in the heart - that can cause mental damage. So elder John advises that person to reduce the prayer rule.</ref>
he/she can fall into prelest. The false thought is already in considering one of such practices to be true, not dangerous and fruitful.
Note regarding false way #2 that the question where exactly the attention should be kept for the particular person it not straightforward, especially for a novice. Archbishop Anthony (Golynsky-Mikhailovsky) in his book<ref>{{Ru icon}}[https://predanie.ru/book/186878-put-umnogo-delaniya/ Archbishop Anthony (Golynsky-Mikhailovsky). Path of Noetic Doing. Comment 6. Attention.]</ref> on Jesus prayer analyses many writings of Holy Fathers and says that though some people can start practicing prayer already from the heart, some others on the first stage can keep attention in the throat. It can be difficult for a novice to keep attention in the heart while striving to enclose the mind within the words of the prayer. In the same book, in a quote of St. Basil Polyanomerulsky, it is noted that some people even having heard where attention should be kept did not know where the top of the heart is is and were keeping attention at the bottom of it or even in the center of the stomach resulting in delusion. In another quote in the same book, St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says that the upper part of the physical heart coincides with the spiritual heart – the concentration of all spiritual powers, the human spirit. And while the grace upon Baptism sanctifies it, the middle and bottom of the heart (associated with powers of anger and lust respectively) are not yet purified; keeping attention in these places can invoke passions and delusion.
Also, Metropolitan Ierotheos (Vlachos) in the book "A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain"<ref>{{Ru icon}}[https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ierofej_Vlahos/odna-noch-v-pustyne-svjatoj-gory/#0_14 Metropolitan Ierothos (Vlachos) "One night in the desert of the Holy Mountain."] </ref> speaks of the following errors in the prayer:
Unconditional action of prayer assumes that free will does exist neither in man nor in God and that God can do something harmful and with no regard to the inner determination of all involved persons. St. Hilarion of Optina writes that though we should pray about each other, the view on prayer that every petition is necessarily executed originates from pride and leads to delusion. <ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://www.optina.ru/starets/ilarion_letters_4/#51 Letters of St. Hilarion of Optina. Letter 51.]</ref>
The Valaam elder schema-hegumen John (Alekseev) writes about Jesus prayer: "Why do we read the Jesus Prayer? So that, constantly remembering the Lord and repenting of sins come to spiritual peace, inner silence and love for our neighbor and righteousness, then we live in God, who is love. But there are people who look at this prayer as a kind of magic that will give them reading of minds, insight, the gift of miracles and healings, etc. This approach to prayer is extremely sinful. Those who act so are deceived by demons who give them some kind of power to destroy them altogether, forever".<ref name ="ioann"/>
Professor A.I. Osipov writes that "an awareness of magic is deeply present in our 'old man'. For very many people, Orthodoxy consists in placing candles, 'venerating', donating something, leaving prayer requests, ordering Liturgies, molebens and pannikhidas, joining in the cross processions, visiting holy shrines, confessing and receiving Communion. The most important part of salvation, life according the commandments and repentance, remains undone. However, without spiritual transformation (in Greek, the word for repentance is μετάνοια [metanoia], which means to change one’s way of thinking), all of these external activities are at the least useless, and at the worst harmful, for they can cause one to feel self-righteous and raise his self-opinion over “sinners.”"<ref>[http://www.alexey-osipov.ru/web-files/books/Put_razuma_v_poiskakh_istiny/Pyt_razuma_english_(A_I_Osipov).doc A.I. Osipov. Search for Truth on the Path of Reason. P. 240.]</ref>
