So, over the past day(or two days), I've been getting a small understanding of hesychasm and scholatism. Apparently, heyschasm comes from some dude called Gregory Palamas who argued with another individual(forgot his name), and is a direct contrast to Roman spirituality. From my understanding, they take it out of when the Lord says when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray",[1] 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". They also have saints like Saint John Climacus(who is venerated by the RCC, Eastern Catholic Churches, and Orthodox) as a Saint. So basically, they focus on the complete repression of imagination, and want to focus on repentance, advancing one's spiritual state over time, and denying the passiosn of the body, with the ultimate aim being "theosis", the complete union with God. Furthermore, they do not imagine stuff because they can be instances of demonica apparitions. God's energies(his grrace) is revealed in the form of Uncreated Light(Light of Tabor). Roman spirituality, with many of our great saints like Francis of Assisi, Igantius of Loyola, Theresa Avila, John of the Cross, etc, all advocate for imagination b/c they see it as a gift of God, and that it will allow us to deeply understand the Gospel. Ik Thomas Aquinas is also considered a big guy on this, however I am confused on him because he seemed to study Aristolean philosophy. I'm not sure why he would do so, considering the fact that (to my knowledge anyway), it's pagan, and we shouldn't connect our sacred theology with something like that(please correct me if I'm wrong). As I look at this things, I see that hesychasm is something that I agree with, but I'm not really sure since there are theologians who disagree with it, and apparently compare it to other heresies that appeared in the Later Middle Ages.
Please help!
Also, according to some of my own research, Orthodox individuals state that scholasticism is rooted with Aristotelian philosophy. Again, help would be appreciated!