Mystagogy 1 part 5/13

The demons, as when, watching for an opportune time in our negligence, they suddenly assail us with great vehemence, stirring up the aforementioned passions and the like.

And evil resolve, as when, knowing the good, we deliberately choose the evil instead.

(34) The rewards of the labours of virtue are dispassion and knowledge;

for these become procurers of the kingdom of heaven, just as the passions and ignorance become procurers of eternal punishment.

He, therefore, who seeks these for the sake of men's esteem and not for the good itself, hears from the Scripture:

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss."

(35) There are many things that are by nature good and are done by men, yet are not good again on account of some motive;

for instance, fasting and vigil, prayer and psalmody, almsgiving and hospitality are by nature good works, but when they are done for the sake of vainglory, they are no longer good.

(36) In all that is done by us, God seeks the purpose, whether we do it for His sake or for some other reason.

(37) When you hear the Scripture saying:

For You will render to each according to his works.

God does not reward as good the things done apart from a right intention, even if they appear to be good, but rather the things done according to a right intention.

For God's judgment looks not at what is done, but at the intention behind what is done.

(38) The demon of pride has a twofold malice;

for it either persuades the monk to attribute his achievements to himself and not to God, who is both the giver of good things and the helper toward their accomplishment; or, if it cannot persuade him in this, it incites him to despise the brethren who are still less perfect.

And the one thus driven does not realize that it is persuading him to deny God's help.

For if he despises those others as unable to achieve, he plainly presents himself as having achieved by his own power;

which is impossible, since the Lord has said:

Without Me you can do nothing.

For our weakness, when moved toward good things, cannot bring them to completion without the giver of good things.

(39) He who has come to know the weakness of human nature has gained experience of the divine power; and such a one, having achieved some things through it and eagerly striving to achieve others, never despises any human being.

For he knows that, just as God helped him and freed him from many grievous passions, so too He is able to help everyone when He wills, and especially those who struggle for His sake;

and even if, by certain judgments, He does not deliver all from their passions at once, yet in their proper seasons, like a good and loving physician, He heals each of those who strive.

(40) Pride supervenes upon the inactivity of the passions, either because their causes have been cut off, or because the demons have craftily withdrawn.

(41) Almost every sin comes about through pleasure, and its removal comes through hardship and grief, whether voluntary or involuntary—through repentance, or through a corrective affliction brought upon us by divine providence.

For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged;

but when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world.

(42) When a temptation comes upon you unexpectedly, do not blame the one through whom it came, but seek out the reason why, and you will find correction;

since whether through him or through another, you were bound in any case to drink the wormwood of God's judgments.

(43) However ill-disposed you are, do not refuse hardship, so that through it you may be humbled and vomit out your pride.

(44) Some temptations bring pleasures to men;

others bring bodily pains.

For according to the cause of the passions lodged in the soul, the Physician of souls applies the remedy through His judgments.

(45) The onsets of temptations come upon some for the removal of sins already committed, upon others for the removal of sins now being committed, and upon yet others for the checking of sins about to be committed;

apart from those that come for testing, as in the case of Job.

(46) The prudent man, reckoning the healing wrought by the divine judgments, bears thankfully the calamities that befall him through them, accounting no one else the cause of them but his own sins.

But the fool, ignorant of God's most wise providence, when he sins and is chastened, reckons either God or men to be the cause of his own evils.

(47) There are some things that arrest the passions in their movement and do not let them advance to growth, and there are others that diminish them and lead them toward reduction;

for instance, fasting, toil, and vigil do not let desire grow;

while withdrawal, contemplation, prayer, and yearning for God diminish it and lead it to extinction.

And likewise with anger;

for instance, long-suffering, the bearing of no grudge, and gentleness arrest it and do not let it grow;

while love, almsgiving, kindness, and benevolence lead it to reduction.

(48) He whose intellect is wholly directed toward God—his desire too is intensified into divine yearning, and his whole incensive power is transformed into divine love.

For by long participation in the divine illumination he has become wholly luminous, and having bound his passible part tightly to himself, he has turned it, as has been said, into an unspeakable divine yearning and an unceasing love, having wholly transferred himself from earthly things to the divine.

(49) Not in every case does the one who does not envy, nor grow angry, nor bear a grudge against the one who has grieved him, thereby already also have love toward him;

for he may, though without rendering evil for evil, still not of his own accord render good;

for to do good from inward disposition to those who hate one belongs to perfect spiritual love alone.

(50) Neither does the one who does not love someone thereby already and in every case also hate him, nor again does the one who does not hate thereby already and in every case also love;

but he may stand as it were midway toward him, that is, neither loving nor hating.

For the loving disposition only the five ways mentioned in the ninth chapter of this century are naturally fitted to produce: the praiseworthy, the intermediate, and the blameworthy ones.

(51) When you see your intellect dwelling with pleasure upon material things and lingering fondly over thoughts of them, know that you love these more than God;

for where your treasure is, says the Lord, there will your heart be also.

(52) An intellect joined to God and abiding in Him through prayer and love becomes wise, good, powerful, loving toward mankind, merciful, and long-suffering;

and, to put it simply, it bears within itself almost all the divine attributes.

But withdrawing from Him and turning toward material things, it becomes either brutish, having grown pleasure-loving, or bestial, fighting with men on account of these things.

(53) Scripture calls material things 'the world,' and worldly are those who busy their intellect with them, to whom it also says reproachfully:

Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world;

the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life are not of God, but are of the world, and so forth.

(54) A monk is one who has separated his intellect from material things and, through self-control, love, psalmody, and prayer, cleaves steadfastly to God.

(55) In the spiritual sense, the man of practical philosophy is a herdsman of cattle;

for moral achievements hold the place of cattle, wherefore Jacob also said:

Your servants are keepers of cattle.

But the man of knowledge is a shepherd of sheep;

for the thoughts hold the place of sheep, being shepherded by the intellect upon the mountains of contemplation; for this reason it is also said:

Every shepherd of sheep is an abomination to the Egyptians—that is, to the opposing powers.

(56) The base intellect, when the body is moved through the senses toward its own desires and pleasures, follows after and consents to its fantasies and impulses;

but the virtuous intellect exercises self-control and restrains the body from passionate fantasies and impulses, and rather strives by spiritual discipline to make such movements of his better.

(57) Of the virtues, some are bodily and some are of the soul.

And bodily ones are such as fasting, vigil, sleeping on the ground, service, and manual labor—so as not to be a burden to anyone, or for the sake of giving to others, and so forth.

The virtues of the soul are such as these: love, longsuffering, gentleness, self-control, prayer, and the like.

If, then, from some necessity or bodily circumstance—such as illness or something of the kind—it happens that we are unable to fulfill the aforementioned bodily virtues, we have pardon from Him who also knows the causes.

But if we fail to fulfill the virtues of the soul, we shall have no excuse whatsoever.

(58) Love for God persuades the one who partakes of it to despise all passing pleasure and every toil and grief.

And let all the saints persuade you of this—they who suffered so much for Christ's sake with joy.

(59) Guard yourself against self-love, the mother of vices, which is the irrational love of the body.

For from it is begotten the whole catalogue of vices.

For when this is destroyed, all that springs from it is destroyed along with it.

(60) The passion of self-love suggests to the monk that he should have pity on the body and partake of food beyond what is fitting—ostensibly for the sake of stewardship and proper management—so that, being little by little drawn aside, he may fall into the pit of love of pleasure.

But to the worldly person it suggests that he should henceforth make provision for desire.

(61) They say that the highest state of prayer is this:

that the intellect becomes outside the flesh and the world, wholly immaterial and formless, in the act of praying.

He, therefore, who preserves this state unimpaired truly prays without ceasing.

(62) Just as the body, in dying, is separated from all the affairs of the world, so too the intellect, in praying at the highest level, dies and is separated from all the thoughts of the world.

For unless it dies such a death, it cannot be found with God and live.

(63) Let no one deceive you, monk, that it is possible for you to be saved while serving pleasure and vainglory.

(64) Just as the body sins through things and possesses the bodily virtues as a means of discipline, so that it may be temperate;

so too the intellect sins through impassioned thoughts and likewise possesses the virtues of the soul as a means of discipline, so that, beholding things purely and dispassionately, it may be temperate.

(65) Just as nights succeed days and winters succeed summers;

so do griefs and pains follow vainglory and pleasure, whether in the present or in the age to come.

(66) It is not possible for one who has sinned to escape the coming judgment apart from voluntary hardships here or involuntary afflictions.

And they say the first reason is this: that, being warred against and warring back, we may come to discernment of virtue and vice;

the second, that, acquiring virtue through warfare and toil, we may hold it firm and unshakable;

the third, that, advancing in virtue, we may not become high-minded, but may learn to be humble-minded;

the fourth, that, having had experience of vice, we may hate it with perfect hatred;

and the fifth, above all, that, having become dispassionate, we may forget neither our own weakness nor the power of Him who helped us.

(68) Just as the intellect of the hungry man imagines bread, and that of the thirsty man water, so too that of the glutton imagines a variety of dishes;

and that of the pleasure-lover, the forms of women;

and that of the vainglorious, the honors that come from men;

and that of the avaricious, gains;

and that of the resentful, revenge upon the one who grieved him;

and that of the envious, harm to the one he envies; and similarly with the other passions.

For the intellect, harassed by the passions, receives impassioned thoughts, both when the body is awake and during sleep.

(69) When desire grows strong, the intellect imagines in sleep the materials that produce pleasures;

and when anger grows strong, it sees things that produce fears.

The unclean demons increase the passions, taking our negligence as their accomplice and provoking these passions;

but the holy angels diminish them, stirring us toward the practice of the virtues.

(70) The desiring part of the soul, when frequently provoked, instills in the soul a habit of love of pleasure hard to dislodge;

and the incensive part, continually agitated, renders the intellect timid and unmanly.

The former is healed by intensified asceticism of fasting, vigil, and prayer;

the latter by kindness, philanthropy, love, and mercy.

(71) The demons make war either through things or through the impassioned thoughts attached to things;

through things they war against those who are engaged in things, and through thoughts against those who are separated from things.

(72) By as much as it is easier to sin in thought than in act, by so much heavier is the warfare through thoughts than that through things.

(73) Things are outside the intellect, but the thoughts of them are formed within.

It rests, then, with the intellect itself to use these well or ill;

for upon a mistaken use of the thoughts there follows a misuse of the things.

(74) The intellect receives impassioned thoughts in three ways: through sense-perception, through the bodily temperament, and through memory.

Through sense-perception, when the things toward which we have passions strike upon it and move it to impassioned thoughts;

through the temperament, when the body's constitution is altered by an undisciplined diet, by the activity of demons, or by some illness, and again moves it to impassioned thoughts or to thoughts against Providence;

and through memory, when memory brings back the thoughts of those things for which we have had passions, and likewise moves it to impassioned thoughts.

(75) Of the things given to us by God for our use, some are found in the soul, some in the body, and some about the body;

such as, in the soul, its faculties;

in the body, the sense organs and the remaining members;

about the body, food, money, possessions, and the like.

To use these well or ill, or the circumstances connected with them, shows us to be either virtuous or base.

(76) Of the circumstances connected with things, some belong to the things in the soul, some to those in the body, and some to those about the body;

and of those in the soul, such as knowledge and ignorance, forgetfulness and memory, love and hatred, fear and courage, grief and joy, and the like;

of those in the body, such as pleasure and pain, sensation and disability, health and sickness, life and death, and the like;

and of those about the body, such as having good children and childlessness, wealth and poverty, glory and dishonor, and the like.

Of these things, some are considered good and some bad by men, though none of them is evil in its own principle (logos);

rather, according to their use they are found to be either properly evil or good.

(77) Knowledge is good by nature, and so likewise is health;

yet their opposites have benefited the many more than these have.

For to the wicked, knowledge does not turn out for good, even though by nature, as has been said, it is good;

and likewise neither health, nor wealth, nor joy;

for they do not use these things beneficially.

Therefore the opposites of these are profitable to them;

and so neither are those opposites evil in their own principle, even though they seem to be evil.

(78) Do not misuse your thoughts (noemata), lest of necessity you also misuse things.

For unless one first sins in the mind, one would never sin in act.

(79) The generic vices are the image of the earthly man—such as folly, cowardice, intemperance, injustice;

while the generic virtues are the image of the heavenly man—such as prudence, courage, temperance, justice.

And just as we have borne the image of the earthly, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly.

(80) If you wish to find the way that leads to life, seek it in the Way, and there you will find it—in Him who said:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Only seek it with great labor, for few are those who find it; and beware lest, having been left out of the few, you be found with the many.

A man refrains from evils for one of these reasons: either through fear of men, or through fear of judgment, or because of the recompense to come, or through love of God, or finally through a conscience that smites him.

(82) Some say that evil would not exist among beings, were there not some other power drawing us toward it;

but this power is nothing other than the neglect of the intellect's natural activities.

If, then, you too are willing, drive out negligence and you will at the same time expel evil—which is the mistaken use of thoughts, upon which follows the misuse of things.

(83) It is according to the nature of the rational part within us both to be subject to the divine Logos and to rule over the irrational part within us;

let this order, then, be kept in all things, and neither will evil exist among beings, nor will anything that draws toward it be found.

(84) Of thoughts, some are simple and some are composite.

Simple are the dispassionate;

composite are the impassioned, as being compounded of passion and a mental image (noema).

This being so, one can observe many of the simple thoughts following the composite ones, whenever they begin to be stirred toward sinning in the mind.

For example: an impassioned thought concerning gold rose up in someone's memory, and he was impelled in his mind toward stealing, and so committed the sin in his intellect.

And following upon the memory of the gold came also the memory of the purse, the chest, the chamber, and the rest.

Now the memory of the gold was composite,

but that of the purse, the chest, and the rest was simple;

for the intellect had no passion toward them.

And the same holds with regard to every thought—in the case of vainglory, of woman, and of all the rest.

For not all the thoughts that follow upon an impassioned thought are themselves impassioned, as the argument has shown;

from these things, then, we are able to recognize which mental images are impassioned and which are simple.

(85) Some say that the demons, by laying hold of the members of the body during sleep, stir up the passion of fornication;

then the passion, once stirred, brings up the form of a woman to the intellect by way of the memory.

Others say that they appear to the intellect in the shape of a woman;

and by laying hold of the members of the body, they stir up the desire, and thus the fantasies arise.

Still others say that the passion which prevails in the demon drawing near stirs up the passion, and thus the soul is kindled toward such thoughts, bringing up the forms by way of the memory;

and concerning the other impassioned fantasies likewise, some say it comes about in this way, others in that.

Yet by none of the aforementioned ways are the demons able to stir up any passion whatsoever, when love and self-control are present in the soul—neither while the body is awake nor during sleep.

(86) Some of the commandments of the Law must be kept both bodily and spiritually, while others spiritually only.

For instance, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' and the like, must be kept both bodily and spiritually—

and spiritually in a threefold manner.

But to be circumcised, to keep the Sabbath, to slay the lamb, to eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and the like, are to be kept spiritually only.

(87) There are three more general moral states among monks:

the first is to sin in no way in act;

the second is not to let impassioned thoughts linger in the soul;

the third is to contemplate dispassionately in the mind the forms of women and of those who have caused grief.

(88) He is free of possessions who has renounced all that belongs to him and possesses nothing whatsoever on earth except his body;

and having severed even his attachment to it, he has entrusted the care of himself to God and to the godly.

(89) Of those who possess things, some possess them dispassionately, and therefore when deprived of them they are not grieved, like those who received with joy the plundering of their goods;

but others possess them with passion, and therefore when about to be deprived they become deeply grieved, as the rich man in the Gospel went away sorrowful;

and if they are actually deprived, they grieve even unto death.

Deprivation, then, tests the disposition both of the dispassionate man and of the impassioned.

(90) The demons make war on those who pray perfectly, so that they may not receive the mental images of sensible things in their bare form;

on those given to knowledge (the gnostics), so that impassioned thoughts may linger within them;

and on those who struggle in the active life, so as to persuade them to sin in act;

and in every way against all they struggle, that the wretched ones may separate men from God.

(91) Those who are trained in piety by divine providence in this life are tested through these three kinds of trials:

either through the giving of pleasant things, such as health, beauty, fine children, wealth, glory, and the like;

or through the infliction of grievous things, such as the loss of children, wealth, and glory;

or through things that cause pain to the body, such as diseases, torments, and the like.

To the first kind the Lord says:

'Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple';

and to the second and third kinds:

'In your patient endurance you will gain possession of your souls.'

(92) They say that these four things alter the body's constitution and thereby supply the intellect with thoughts, whether passionate or dispassionate:

namely, the angels, the demons, the surrounding air, and one's diet (regimen).

The angels, they say, effect alteration through a word;

the demons, through touch;

the surrounding air, through its changes;

and diet, through the qualities of foods and drinks, and through excess or deficiency;

apart from those alterations that befall it through memory, hearing, and sight, the soul being first affected by the grievous or joyful things that befall it.

And being affected by these, the soul in turn alters the body's constitution;

while the constitution, being altered by the aforementioned factors, supplies the intellect with thoughts.

(93) Death, properly speaking, is separation from God;

and the sting of death is sin;

and Adam, having received this sting, was at the same time banished from the tree of life, from paradise, and from God;

and the death of the body of necessity followed upon this.

But Life, properly speaking, is He who said, 'I am the life';

He, having entered into death, brought the one who had been put to death back again into life.

(94) A discourse that is written down is composed either for one's own remembrance, or for the benefit of others, or for both, or to the harm of certain persons, or for display, or out of necessity.

(95) 'A place of green pasture' is the practical virtue;

and 'the water of rest' is the knowledge of created things.

(96) 'The shadow of death' is human life;

so if anyone is with God and God is with him, that person can say plainly:

'Even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.'

(97) A pure intellect sees things rightly;

a well-trained reason (discourse) brings what has been seen before our eyes;

and a keen hearing receives them.

But the one deprived of these three reviles the one who has spoken.

(98) With God is the one who knows the Holy Trinity, and its work of creation and providence, and who has rendered the passible part of his soul dispassionate.

(99) They say that 'the rod' signifies the judgment of God;

and 'the staff' signifies His providence.

It belongs, then, to the one who has partaken of the knowledge of these things to say:

'Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.'

(100) When the intellect is stripped bare of the passions and is illumined by the contemplation of beings, then it is able both to dwell in God and to pray as it ought.

THIRD CENTURY. (1) The reasonable use of conceptions and of things produces self-control, love, and knowledge;

but the unreasonable use produces dissipation, hatred, and ignorance.

(2) 'You have prepared a table before me,' and what follows.

The 'table' here signifies the practical virtue;

for this was prepared by Christ over against those who afflict us.

And the 'oil' that anoints the intellect signifies the contemplation of created things;

and the 'cup of God' signifies the knowledge of God;

and 'His mercy' signifies His Word and God.

For He, through His incarnation, pursues us all our days, until He overtakes all who are to be saved, as He did Paul.

And the 'house' signifies the kingdom, in which all the saints are restored;

and the 'length of days' signifies eternal life.

(3) It is through misuse that the vices of the soul's powers befall us—that is, of the concupiscible, the irascible, and the rational powers.

The misuse of the rational power is ignorance and folly;

and that of the irascible and concupiscible powers is hatred and dissipation.

But the right use of these is knowledge and prudence, love and self-control;

and if this is so, then nothing that has been created and made by God is evil.

(4) Foods are not evil, but gluttony is;

nor is the begetting of children, but fornication is;

nor is wealth, but avarice is;

nor is glory, but vainglory is.

And if this is so, then there is nothing evil among existing things except misuse, which arises from the intellect's negligence regarding its natural cultivation.

irrational anger, mindless desire, reckless imagination.

But irrationality, mindlessness, and rashness in rational beings are privations of reason, of intellect, and of careful discernment.

And privations are subsequent to the possession of habits;

therefore there was a time when reason, intellect, and reverent discernment were present in them.

And if this is so, then neither are the demons evil by nature;

rather, they have become evil through the misuse of their natural powers.

(6) Some of the passions are productive of licentiousness;

others are productive both of licentiousness and of hatred.

(7) Gluttony and gourmandizing are causes of licentiousness;

but avarice and vainglory are causes of hatred toward one's neighbor;

and the mother of these, self-love, is the cause of both.

(8) Self-love is the passionate and irrational love for the body, to which are opposed love and self-control;

he who has it has all the passions.

(9) "No one," says the Apostle, "ever hated his own flesh";

but plainly he buffets it and brings it into subjection, furnishing it with nothing beyond food and clothing, and these only such as are necessary for living.

Thus then a man loves it without passion, and as a servant of divine things he nourishes and cherishes it, supplying only what meets its needs.

(10) Whomever one loves, him one is altogether eager to serve.

If then one loves God, he is altogether eager to do what is pleasing to Him;

but if he loves the flesh, he hastens to perform what delights it.

(11) To God are pleasing love and temperance and contemplation and prayer;

to the flesh, gluttony and licentiousness and the things that increase them.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

(12) The mind, if it inclines toward God, has the body as its servant and supplies it with nothing beyond what is necessary for living;

but if it inclines toward the flesh, it becomes enslaved to the passions, ever taking thought for the body to satisfy its desires.

(13) If you wish to gain mastery over your thoughts, take care of the passions, and you will easily drive the thoughts from the mind.

For instance, against fornication: fast, keep vigil, labor, and live in solitude;

against anger and grief: despise glory and dishonor and material things;

against the remembrance of wrongs: pray for the one who grieved you, and you will be set free.

(14) Do not measure yourself against the weaker among men, but rather stretch yourself out toward the commandment of love;