#not letting one’s mind wander

This study analyses Saint Basil the Great’s teaching on vigilance as a means of unifying the mind and the person, examining three stages corresponding to his life: his pre-Christian education through classical learning, his monastic life, and his episcopate. The four defining elements — living in the presence of the Lord, a focused mind, remembrance of God and gratitude — are presented as the foundation of personal, communal and ecclesiastical unity.

The spiritual crisis caused by cyberculture — the fragmentation of the self, distraction and inner incoherence — is analysed through the lens of Orthodox anthropology, bringing into dialogue Matthew Crawford’s contemporary diagnosis in The World on Your Head with the patristic tradition of mindfulness (προσοχή), from Saint Basil the Great and Diadochus of Photice to the Byzantine Hesychasts, proposing inner attention as the Gospel’s essential response to digital culture.