Omphaloskepsis

The term introspection is a loan translation of the Greek expression omphaloskepsis. In the modern, figuratively he calls an exaggerated preoccupation with itself The Greek term originally referred to an extraneous aspect of a contemplative prayer practice of Hesychasm, a flow in the Orthodox Byzantine church. Today the term " navel-gazing " colloquially often used in German to offhand, joking manner. He is usually associated with a negative rating, because it conveys the idea of an exaggerated, barren -occupation with the person or group that distracts from more important tasks and prevents necessary devotion to the environment.

As a navel-gazing the sitting meditation of Zen Buddhism ( zazen ) is also sometimes referred to pejoratively.

Religious origin

Theory of Hesychasm

From the 12th/13th. Century Byzantine monasticism spread in a prayer practice of, is sought in the complete outer and inner peace (Greek hesychia ) and is therefore called Hesychasm. The center of the late medieval Hesychasm was the Mount Athos. Among the features of hesychastic spirituality that is still maintained in the Orthodox Churches, owns a particular seating position when individual prayer. Critics who pick out a single aspect, use for the derogatory term " navel-gazing ".

An essential component of hesychastic experience are visions of light. The praying Hesychasts my perceive a supernatural light, which they equate with the light in which, according to the Gospels, Christ was transfigured on a mountain. This light is called Tabor light, because the mountain is by extra-biblical tradition to Mount Tabor. Opponents of Hesychasm challenge the admissibility of the theological presuppositions that assumption.

Hesychasmusstreit

In the early 14th century Hesychasm became the object of a bitter theological conflict ( " Hesychasmusstreit " ) between Hesychasts and Antihesychasten. The spokesman of the Hesychasts was the Athos monk Gregory Palamas. His theology gave the hesychastic practice their theoretical rationale and justification. On several councils in Constantinople Opel fell in the period 1341-1351, the decision of the Byzantine church, first to condemn the opponents of Hesychasm and the Hesychasm, together with its theoretical justification by the teaching of Palamas ( " Palamismus " ) to raise the binding Church teaching. This is the official theological position of the Greek Orthodox Church today.

Practice of prayer

The hesychast literature contains several suggestions for posture and especially for breathing, which aim to promote concentration. The body is designed to support by his attitude, the mental focus on the heart as the middle man and seat of the soul. This can happen, for example, by the worshiper himself physically to the center of his body, the navel, aligns. This is not, is a necessary component hesychastic prayer. A significant part of the literature hesychastic the navel does not occur or is rejected because the navel the seat of the passions was.

Gregory Palamas emphasizes that technical instructions only tools are designed to facilitate the difficult task of sustained concentration to the beginner. The desired peace is not an end in itself, but only a prerequisite for the attainment of the spiritual goal for the Hesychasts.

Even at the time of the Hesychasmusstreits in the 14th century, the navel-gazing of opposing side was made a point of criticism. So Barlaam of Calabria designated criticized by him hesychastic monks as " navel souls " or " people with the soul in the navel " ( omphalopsychoi ).