There are many elements to the Philokalia. It is of course the

   "The Orthodox Spiritual Life"

   Our discussion is not on the singular work of Origen and his writings compiled
   in 360AD. But rather a group of spiritual writings dating in the church from the
   4th through the 15th century. This second volume includes the first and
   consists of 5 volumes of work.
   It was compiled in it's last form by St Macarios and St Nicodemas from Mount
   Athos in Greece in 1777 and financed by John Mavrocordatos, Prince of
   Moldavia. And it's final form was published in 1782 in Venice Italy and
   consisted of 1207 pages.
   The Philokalia consists of writings of such great men of the church as St
   Symeon the New Theologian, (part of my namesake), St Anthony the Great,
   Philotheus the Sinaite, Maximus the Confessor( namesake of Bishop Reed in
   Georgia), Evagruis of Pontus, Nilus of Ancyra, Diadochus of Photice, Nicephorus
   the Monk, Ignatius Xanthopoulos and Kallistos. St Maximus the confessor is
   the largest contributor to the work. It is well to note, that these men were all
   what the modern church would call Charismatic. Oh how I love it.
   The topics of Philokalia include the following.

   *Nepsis- or inner attention, watchfullness
   *Asceticism- rooted in the word Askesis (struggle, pruning of the tree)
   *Theosis - Union with God
   *The Passions- human impluses
   *The Gift of Tears
   *The ladder to heaven- from St John the ladder
   *Spiritual Synergy- A favorite of mine
   *Hesychasm- the practice of silence
   *Kyrie Eleison- Lord, Have Mercy
   *Descend with the mind into the heart
   *The inner closet
   *The inner flame
 

NepsisNepsis is a greek word which means to be watchfull, alert, vigilant and to basically keep a look out. Jesus tells us in the gospel of St Luke 12:37 "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He comes, shall find watching." St Symeon the New Theologian wrote regarding prayer;
    "Attention must be so united to prayer as the body is to the soul...Attention must go forward and observe the enemies like a scout, and it must engage in combat with sin, and resist the bad thoughts that come to the soul. Prayer must follow attention, banishing and destroying at once all the evil thoughts which attention previously fought, because by itself attention cannot destroy them."
   In the divine liturgy of St John Chrysosotom he calls for us to "Watch, therefore, at all times praying."
   St Thoephan said that when we pray/ "When praying to God, start as  if you had never prayed before."
To be involved in Nepsis: watchfullness and alert is not only to guard our thoughts against the devil and sin, but also to guard our thoughts on the mind of Christ. To resist the devil by being alert, thus able to concentrate on Christ.
   St Symeon the New Theologian regarded the struggle of Nepsis thusly.
   "Our whole soul should have at every moment a clear eye, able to watch and notice the thoughts entering our heart from the evil one and repel them. The heart must be always burning with faith, humility and love. Do not fear the conflict, and do not flee from it; where there is no struggle, there is no virtue."
Scripture tells us to put on the full body of armor, for we do not fight against flesh and blood. Nepsis, the struggle. Guard our hearts and minds on the things of God.
The Philokalia tells us: "Vigilance is a firm control of the mind. Post it at the door of the heart, so that it sees marauding thoughts as they come, hears what they say, and knows what these robbers are doing, and what images are being projected....so as to seduce the mind by phantasy."
   St Maximus wrote; "let us not sleep, but keep watch about Our Lord and Saviour, to make sure with unceasing vigil that no one should steal Him away from the Sepulchre of our hearts, lest we may have to say at some time; they came while we were sleeping and stole Him away. For we lapse into sleep. So with unceasing watch let us keep Him within the sepulchre of our souls; there let Him rest, there let Him sleep; there when He wills, let Him rise again.
   Jesus asked his disciples"Could you not pray a little longer?"
With Nepsis and watchfullness, comes a charismatic gift, discernment. By being watchfull we can be alert to things coming into the body of Christ that are harmful, or are from the enemy, thus the gift of discernment is needed by all christians and therefore could benefit from Nepsis.
  One of the enemies of the christian is a group of thoughts called Logismoi in Greek. The Desert Fathers thought that these were thoughts brought in by demons. These thoughts darken the mind, they bring in doubt, they leave the gate open to other non Godly thoughts. The look good on the outside, but on the inside they are dead mens bones.
  How do we practice Nepsis, by the help of the Holy Spirit. He enables us to fight all good battles.
Asceticismhas as its root word and element the word Askesis. Askesis can be defined as struggle, the effort of working towards Theosis. And the part that hurts but that lets us know of His love for us, pruning. Such as pruning a tree. John 15:2 "He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.". Askesis is never to be considered a means to an end in itself. It is only part of the path towards Theosis. St Seraphim of Sarov states: "The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christs sake, they are only means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God." The true end of askesis is the mystical union with God, Theosis.  St Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 9:27 "...I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disfigured." Askesis may also be called the cost of discipleship. We think in the modern world of cheap grace. Of no price to be paid for the intimacy with God. Yet the bible tells us that we must die to flesh, and live in the spirit for we are new creatures. It is the goal of Askesis that we die to self, that we yield ourselves totally to our Master, so that we might have union with Him, that we might become one flesh. Romans 6:1 "dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."In askesis we are set free from the flesh. We no longer are slaves to sin. We overcome obesity, by our fasting. We overcome a lack of intimacy and power by constant prayer. We overcome the enemy and his doubt casting by constant communication with the Holy Spirit.
Theosissimply put is "Union with God".  It was Theia Enosis(union with God) that Christ asked the Father for when He prayed that ..."they also may be one in us." (as we are one) John 17:21. Another common means of expressing Theosis by orthodox is that we are "partakers of Divine Nature". Theosis also relates to salvation in many respects. And Theosis is seen in a very favorable light by Orthodox. It is the good news of the gospel, that we are to share in the very life of God. "Who is man that You are mindful of him?" Salvation in orthodox terms is not only forgiveness of sins, and reconcilliation or justification by faith, but also the renewing and restoration of God's image in us, "Let us make man in our image." Therefore the restoration of what was lost, by Theosis with Christ and the price He paid for us to restore our fallen state back into relationship with the Creator. Thusly Theosis is our great potential. We can think of theosis as the transfiguration of man, restoration of communion with God, recieving the Holy Spirit who then dwells within us, becoming temples of the Holy Spirit, ascending to the throne of God, participating in the kingdom of God, and by grace being what God is by nature. St Paul in Eph. 3:19 "we are made to be filled with all the fullness of God." St Symeon the New Theologian states "we become gods by disposition and grace, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and together with this we receive the mind of Christ; and through it all we see God and Christ Himself, living in us according to His divinity, moving in a conscious way within us." Maximus the Confessor :"Man by the grace of God can become that which God is.."
  Zen Buddhism says, "In the begining there was nothing. The purpose of life is to achieve nothingness."
  Orthodox Theosis says,  "In the begining there was God. The purpose of life is to achieve union with God not in His essence but through His energies."Orthodox Scholar Anthony Coniaris states that" many of those who are baptized have in them the seed of theosis but have never made a authentic act of personal faith."
   St Gregory of Nyssa wrote; "...composed of bread and wine. He thus is commingled with us, so that by our union with the immortal, we might share in immortality."
The Passionsare the fleshly desires and the urge after things not of the Spirit. We readily think of drunkeness, orgies, idolatry, pride, pornography, lust, greed, etc... The Fathers of the Philokalia help us by giving us by reminding us of our God given weapons of spiritual warfare.
1) Prayer
2) Remembering the name of Jesus
3) Remembering the Lords passion, his last night before His death and His sufferings.
4) Nepsis, watchfulness, vigilance
5) By starving our passions, by not fueling them.
6) By waging war with them through ascesis.
7) By putting on the full armor of God. And by reading the Holy Scriptures and church writings.
8) Through partaking of the sacrements, ie.. the Holy Eucharist and Confession. And by being prepared to take the sacrements.
  Our biggest struggle with the passions is our own mind. In taming our thoughts. (logismoi) For by our thoughts we arouse our passions. And if we are not careful our thoughts that go unchecked become a obsession that gets acted upon. In the Philokalia, the authors felt the need to name some of the more serious passions and give us a way to fight them. First in line is;
*Pride- St John Climacus wrote, "Pride is denial of God" As we know pride is the sin that befell Satan in heaven. Climacus also says that pride is like a "bitter Pharisee, a cruel judge. It is the foe of God, it is the root of blashemy." Addiction is also a form of passion. Perhaps you are addicted to some form of flesh. It may seem simple enough in moderation, but you have allowed it to become a passion, a addiction.
  The ancients would raise the passions to the level of Gods and bow down and worship them. For example; Aphrodite was the god of lust, Jupiter the god of war, Bacchus of appetite and Venus and sexuality.
  The passions distort. If ever a man has been in prison for a long period of time, even though he hates it with his soul, he longs to return to it, because of his addiction to the famaliar, to the safe and perhaps to the wicked.
*Self- Many who win great victories in life, politics, business, sports, wars, etc... have only later to lose everything due to the inability to control self.
  St Justin the Martyr, "To yield and give in to our sinful desires is the lowest form of slavery. To rule over such desires is the only true freedom."
Gift of Tears When we are baptized we often find ourselves crying tears of joy. And we can also look at the baptismal water as immersion in tears. But these tears only cover the moment of baptism backward. Back towards the past that we just left. They do nothing for the future. But our present day tears offer us a new and perhaps daily baptism. When we repent and cry tears of repentence we wash ourselves anew. St Symeon the New Theologian links tears to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. St John Chrysostom  writes; The fire of sin is intense, but it is put out by only a small amount of tears, for the tear puts out a furnace of faults, and cleans our soul of sin." Isaiah 38:5 "Thus says the Lord... I have seen your tears, behold, I will add fifteen year to your life."
***St Symeon the New Theologian writes a strong reply on tears. "No one will ever prove from the divine Scriptures that any person was ever cleansed without tears and constant compunction. No one ever became holy  or recieved the Holy Spirit, or had the vision of God experienced His dwelling within himself, or ever had Him dwelling in his heart, without previous repentance and compunction and constant tears ever flowing as from a fountain. Such tears flood and wash out the house of the soul: they moisten and refresh the soul that has been possesed and inflamed by the unapproachable fire."