What does the Jesus Prayer actually mean, and how do I use it?

The meaning of the Jesus Prayer really is twofold. Number one is, from the holy fathers, they tell us there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. We see this all throughout the scriptures. The name Jesus Christ has power. Even non-Orthodox acknowledge this. His name is powerful. The holy fathers tell us that when we repeat his name, it is like a Brillo pad that scrubs on the inside of our soul. So like you have a pot that you've baked something in and it has crust on the inside of it, and you take a Brillo pad and you scrape at the crust to get off the grime, they say the power of the Jesus Prayer is in that. But it's also the second part of it, have mercy on me. They say that there's two meanings behind this. Number one is, God have mercy on me. But people mistake this, they're like, God have mercy on me, like they're afraid of God. That's not what we're saying. It's more like, God have mercy on me, look at me, I'm in the sludge, I'm in the mire of life, I'm in the mud, I'm sunk down, pull me out of the mud, have mercy on me. We actually often say it's like a person who's drowning and they yell, have mercy on me. Like, throw me the life preserver, give me your hand, pull me out of the situation. They also say that when we say have mercy on me, we are also talking about mankind and everyone. That is another aspect of the Jesus Prayer, so that we can remember people by name, but we also have to remember, even in the shortness of the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me. And since I am part of the human race, part of mankind, I'm also praying for all of mankind. Very, very powerful. I think that there's more that can be said about it, but it's almost like we could just talk about the Jesus Prayer for an hour. The reality is that there are innumerable writings on it that go into greater depth. At the end of the day, it is pretty much the most powerful weapon against sin and the temptations of the devil, just about.