History Byzantine Empire Crusades Ecumenical council Baptism of Kiev Great Schism By region Eastern Orthodox history Ukraine Christian history Asia Eastern Christian history Traditions Oriental Orthodoxy Coptic Orthodox Church Armenian Apostolic Church Syriac Christianity Assyrian Church of the East Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Catholic Churches Liturgy and Worship Sign of the cross Divine Liturgy Iconography Asceticism Omophorion Theology Hesychasm - Icon Apophaticism - Filioque clause Miaphysitism - Monophysitism Nestorianism - Theosis - Theoria Phronema - Philokalia Praxis - Theotokos Hypostasis - Ousia Essence-Energies distinction Hesychasm (Greek ἡσυχασμός hesychasmos, from ἡσυχία hesychia, "stillness, rest, quiet, silence") is an eremitic tradition of prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and some other Eastern Churches of the Byzantine Rite, practised (Gk: ἡσυχάζω hesychazo: "to keep stillness") by the Hesychast (Gr. Ἡσυχαστής hesychastes).
Based on Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "go into your closet to pray", Hesychasm in tradition has been the process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential knowledge of God.

Gregory Palamas: defender of Hesychasm

The Philokalia. (Four volumes published, one awaited.)
The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John of Sinai.
The Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian.
Works of St Symeon the New Theologian.
Coenobitical Institutions and Conferences of St John Cassian.
The Way of the Pilgrim.
St Silouan the Athonite. (Contains an introduction by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), immediate disciple of St Silouan, together with the meditations of St Silouan (1866 – 1938).)
Works of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896 – 1993).
Elder Joseph the Hesychast. (Life of a very influential Hesychast on Mt Athos who died in 1959.)
Monastic Wisdom. The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast.
Wounded by Love. The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios. (Reminiscences and reflections of Elder Porphyrios (1906 – 1991) of Mt Athos.)
Works by Elder Paisios (1924 – 1994) of Mount Athos. (A very well-known Athonite Elder and Hesychast.)
Elder Ephraim of Katounakia. Translated by Tessy Vassiliadou-Christodoulou. (Life and teachings of Elder Ephraim (1912–1998) of Katounakia, Mt Athos, a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast.)
Hieromonachos Charalampos Dionusiates, O didaskalos tes noeras proseuches (Hieromonk Charalambos of the Monastery of Dionysiou, The Teacher of Mental Prayer). (Life and teachings of Elder Charalambos (1910–2001), sometime Abbot of the Monastery of Dionysiou, Mt Athos, and a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. In Greek, available in English.)
Works of Archimandrite Aimilianos (1934 – ) of the Monastery of Simonos Petra, Mt Athos, especially Volumes I and II.
Counsels from the Holy Mountain. Selected from the Lessons and Homilies of Elder Ephraim. (Archimandrite Ephraim of the Monastery of St Anthony, Florence, Arizona. Formerly Abbot of the Monastery of Philotheou on Mt Athos, and a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Not to be confused with Elder Ephraim of Katounakia.)
Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East - edited by James Cutsinger