Mystagogy 1 part 6/13

for by measuring yourself against the former, you fall into the pit of self-conceit;

but by stretching toward the latter, you advance to the height of humility.

(15) If you altogether keep the commandment of love toward your neighbor, why do you breed bitterness through grief against him? Is it not plain that, preferring transient things to that love and clinging to them, you wage war against your brother? (16) Gold has become so coveted by men, not so much for its usefulness as because through it most people serve their pleasures.

(17) Three are the causes of the love of money:

love of pleasure, vainglory, and unbelief;

and of the three, unbelief is the most grievous.

(18) The pleasure-lover loves money in order to live luxuriously by it;

the vainglorious, in order to be honored by it;

the unbeliever, in order to hide and hoard it, fearing famine or old age or sickness or exile; and he sets his hope on it rather than on God, the Creator and Provider of all creation, even down to the least and smallest of living things.

(19) There are four who acquire money:

the aforesaid three, and the steward;

and only the latter plainly acquires it rightly, that he may never cease supplying each person's need.

(20) All impassioned thoughts either excite the desiring faculty of the soul, or disturb the irascible faculty, or darken the reasoning faculty;

and from this it comes about that the mind grows dim of sight toward spiritual contemplation and toward the departure of prayer.

And for this reason the monk, and especially the hesychast, ought to attend carefully to his thoughts, and to know and to cut off their causes.

For instance, the desiring faculty of the soul is excited by impassioned memories of women;

[and by] intemperance in food and drink, and by frequent and senseless association with women themselves;

and these are curtailed by hunger and thirst and vigil and withdrawal.

And the irascible faculty in turn is disturbed by impassioned memories of those who have caused grief;

the causes of these are love of pleasure, vainglory, and love of material things;

for on account of these the passionate man is grieved, either as having been deprived or as not having attained;

and these are curtailed by contempt and scorn for these very things, for the sake of love toward God.

(21) God knows Himself, and He knows also the things made by Him;

the holy powers too know God, and they know also the things made by God.

But not as God knows Himself and the things made by Him, so also do the holy powers know God and the things made by Him.

(22) God knows Himself from His own blessed essence;

and the things made by Him from His wisdom, by which and in which He made all things.

But the holy powers know God by participation, He being beyond participation;

and the things made by Him by the apprehension of the principles contemplated in them.

(23) The things that have come to be are outside the mind, but within it the mind takes up their contemplation.

Yet it is not so with God, who is eternal and infinite and undefined, and who has graciously bestowed upon things that are their being and well-being and ever-being.

(24) The rational and intellectual essence participates in the holy God, both by its very being and by its aptitude for well-being;

I mean goodness and wisdom;

and by the grace of ever-being.

By this, then, it knows God;

and the things made by Him by apprehension, as has been said, of the artful wisdom contemplated in the things made, which is bare and without subsistence, existing only as constituted within the mind.

(25) Four of the divine attributes, which hold together and guard and preserve all that exists, God in His supreme goodness has made common, bringing into being the rational and intellectual essence:

being, ever-being, goodness, and wisdom.

Of these He bestowed two upon the essence;

and two upon the gnomic aptitude;

and to the essence, being and ever-being;

and to the gnomic aptitude, goodness and wisdom, so that what He Himself is in essence, the creature might become by participation.

And after the image, as a being, of Being;

and as ever-being, of the Ever-Being;

even if not without beginning, yet without end;

and after the likeness, as good, of the Good;

and as wise, of the Wise;

the one by grace [after] the one by nature.

And after the image, every rational nature is of God;

but after the likeness, only the good and the wise.

(26) Every rational and intellectual essence is divided into two, that is, into the angelic and the human nature.

And the whole angelic nature again is divided into two universal dispositions and companies, holy and accursed, that is, into holy powers and unclean demons.

And the whole human nature is divided into only two universal dispositions, the godly, I say, and the ungodly.

(27) God, being self-existence and self-goodness and self-wisdom, or rather, to speak more truly, being even beyond all these, has nothing whatever opposed to Him.

But created things, since they all have their existence by participation and grace, and the rational and intellectual ones also have the aptitude for goodness and wisdom, do have opposites:

to existence, non-existence;

and to the aptitude for goodness and wisdom, evil and ignorance.

And whether these always exist or do not exist lies in the power of their Maker;

but whether they participate in His goodness and wisdom or do not participate, lies in the will of rational beings.

[Some say creatures] say there is nothing opposed [to essence], and that the opposition lies in the qualities alone.

But we say that only the divine essence has nothing opposed to it, since it is eternal and infinite and bestows eternity on the others;

whereas to the essence of created beings, non-being is opposed, and it lies in the power of Him who truly is for it to be always or not to be, and His gifts are irrevocable.

And for this reason it both exists always and shall exist, being held together by the almighty power, even if it has non-being as its opposite, as has been said—being brought from non-being into being by God, and having its being or non-being in His will.

(29) Just as evil is a privation of good, and ignorance a privation of knowledge, so also non-being is a privation of being—not of Him who truly is,

but of that which is by participation in Him who truly is.

And the privations of the former follow upon the disposition of created beings;

but that of the latter (being) lies in the will of the Maker, who out of goodness ever wills that things should be, and that they should ever be benefited by Him.

(30) Of all created things, some are rational and intellectual and receptive of opposites, such as virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance;

while bodies are diverse, composed of opposites, that is, of earth, air, fire, and water.

And some are wholly incorporeal and immaterial, even if some of these are joined to bodies;

while others have their constitution from matter and form only.

(31) All bodies are by nature inert.

(32) Of the powers of the soul, one is nutritive and growth-giving;

another is imaginative and impulsive;

and another is reasoning and intellectual.

And of the first alone do plants partake;

of the second, in addition to this, the irrational animals;

of the third, in addition to the two, human beings.

And the two powers are corruptible;

but the third is shown to be incorruptible and immortal.

(33) The holy powers, imparting illumination to one another, impart to human nature also either their virtue or the knowledge that is in them;

virtue, namely that God-imitating goodness, by which they benefit both themselves and one another and those below them, making them godlike;

and knowledge, either something more exalted concerning God—

for it says, "You, Lord, are Most High forevermore"—

or something deeper concerning bodies, or more precise concerning incorporeal things, or clearer concerning providence, or more distinct concerning judgment.

(34) The impurity of the mind is, first, to have false knowledge;

second, to be ignorant of any of the universals—

I speak in relation to the human mind, for it belongs to an angel to be ignorant of none of the particulars;

third, to have impassioned thoughts;

and fourth, to consent to sin.

(35) The impurity of the soul is not to act according to nature;

for from this the impassioned thoughts are born in the mind.

For then it acts according to nature, when its passible powers—I mean the irascible and the desiring—remain free of passion amid the assault of things and of the thoughts about them.

(36) The impurity of the body is sin in act.

(37) He loves stillness who is not affected by the things of the world; and he loves all men who loves nothing human; and he has knowledge of God and of divine things who is not scandalized at anyone, whether on account of his failings or on account of thoughts arising from suspicion.

(38) Great is it not to be affected by things;

but far greater than this is to remain free of passion toward the thoughts about them.

(39) Love and self-control keep the mind free of passion both toward things and toward the thoughts about them.

(40) The mind of the God-loving man does not war against things, nor against the thoughts about them, but against the passions joined to the thoughts;

for instance, it does not war against the woman, nor against the one who caused grief, nor against their images, but against the passions joined to the images.

(41) The whole warfare of the monk against the demons is to separate the passions from the thoughts;

for otherwise he cannot look upon things without passion.

(42) A thing is one matter, a thought another, and a passion another;

and a thing is, for instance, a man, a woman, gold, and so forth;

a thought is, for instance, a bare memory of one of the aforesaid;

a passion is, for instance, irrational affection or indiscriminate hatred toward one of the aforesaid.

It is against the passion, therefore, that the monk's battle is waged.

(43) An impassioned thought is a thought compounded of passion and a [bare] thought.

Let us separate the passion from the thought, and the bare thought remains;

and we separate them by spiritual love and self-control, if we are willing.

(44) The virtues separate the mind from the passions;

the spiritual contemplations, from the bare thoughts;

and pure prayer presents the mind itself to God.

(45) The virtues exist for the sake of the knowledge of created things;

knowledge, for the sake of the knower;

and the knower, for the sake of Him who is known beyond knowledge and who knows beyond knowing.

(46) Not as if needing anything did the superabundant God bring created things into being, but that they, partaking of Him according to their measure, might find enjoyment, and that He Himself might rejoice over His works, beholding them rejoicing and insatiably ever being filled with Him who is unfailing.

(47) The world has many poor in spirit, but not as it ought to be;

and many that mourn, but on account of loss of money or the death of children;

and many that are meek, but toward unclean passions;

and many that hunger and thirst, but to seize what belongs to others and to gain by injustice;

and many that are merciful, but toward the body and the things of the body;

and pure in heart, but for the sake of vainglory;

and peacemakers, but who subject the soul to the flesh;

and many that are persecuted, but as unruly;

and many that are reviled, but for shameful sins.

But those alone are blessed who do and suffer these things for Christ and according to Christ.

So that they are not blessed because they do and suffer these things;

for the aforementioned do the same;

but because they do and suffer these things for Christ and according to Christ.

(48) In all that is done by us, the aim is sought by God, as has often been said, whether we act for His sake or for some other reason.

When therefore we wish to do anything good, let us have as our aim not the pleasing of men, but God;

so that, ever looking to Him, we may do all things for His sake;

lest we both endure the labor and lose the reward.

(49) Cast out of the mind, at the time of prayer, both the bare thoughts of human affairs and the contemplations of all created things, lest, imagining the lesser things, you fall away from Him who is incomparably better than all that exists.

(50) If we love God genuinely, by that very love we cast out the passions.

And love toward Him is to prefer Him to the world and the soul to the flesh;

to devote oneself continually [to Him] through self-control and love and prayer and psalmody and the like.

(51) If, devoting ourselves to God for a long time, we take care of the passible part of the soul, we shall no longer be driven aground by the assaults of thoughts;

but, understanding their causes more precisely and cutting them off, we become more discerning, so that there may be fulfilled in us the saying:

"And my eye has looked upon my enemies, and my ear shall hear of those who rise up against me to do evil."

(52) When you see your mind moving piously and justly amid the thoughts of the world, know that your body too remains pure and sinless;

but when you see the mind in its thinking dwelling upon sins and you do not check it, know that your body too will not long delay before falling into these very sins.

(53) Just as the body has the things [of the world] as its world, so the mind has the thoughts as its world;

and just as the body commits fornication with the body of the woman, so the mind commits fornication with the thought of the woman through the imagination of its own body;

for it sees the form of its own body mingling with the form of the woman in its thinking.

In the same way it also takes vengeance on the form of the one who caused grief, in its thinking, through the form of its own body.

And likewise in the case of the other sins;

for whatever the body does in act in the world of things, these the mind also does in the world of thoughts.

(54) Is it not enough to make one shudder and be amazed and stand in ecstasy of mind, that God and Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son?

"Judge not, that you be not judged;

condemn not, that you be not condemned."

"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes"; and:

"In whatever judgment you judge another, you condemn yourself."

But men, having ceased to weep over their own sins, have taken judgment away from the Son, and themselves, as if sinless, judge and condemn one another;

and heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered, yet they are not ashamed, being without feeling.

(55) He who pries into the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even made a beginning of repentance, nor of searching out and knowing his own sins, which are in truth heavier than a great weight of lead; nor has he understood whence a man becomes heavy of heart, loving vanity and seeking after falsehood.

(56) Self-love, as has often been said, is established as the cause of all impassioned thoughts.

For from it are born the three most generic thoughts of desire:

those of gluttony, of avarice, and of vainglory.

From gluttony is born the thought of fornication;

from avarice, the thought of covetousness;

from vainglory, the thought of pride.

And all the rest follow upon each of the three;

those of anger and grief and remembrance of wrongs and listlessness and envy and backbiting and the rest.

These passions, then, bind the mind to material things and hold it down to the earth, lying upon it like a most heavy stone, though by nature it is lighter and swifter than fire.

(57) The beginning of all the passions is self-love;

and self-love is the irrational love for the body;

he who has cut this off has cut off together all the passions that come from it.

(58) Just as parents are fondly attached to the children born of them, so also the mind is naturally attached to its own reasonings.

And just as to the doting parents their own children, even if they are utterly ridiculous, appear the most seemly and beautiful of all, so also to the foolish mind its own reasonings, even if they are the most worthless of all, appear the most sensible of all.

But to the wise man it is not so with his own reasonings;

rather, when he seems to be fully assured that they are true and good, then especially he does not trust his own judgment, but appoints other wise men as judges of his own reasonings, lest he run, or have run, in vain;

and from them he receives confirmation.

(59) When you conquer one of the baser passions, such as gluttony or fornication or anger or covetousness, immediately the thought of vainglory flies upon you;

and if you conquer this, the thought of pride succeeds it.

(60) All the base passions, when they dominate the soul, drive out from it the thought of vainglory;

but when all the aforesaid are defeated, they release it back upon the soul.

(61) Vainglory, whether being done away with or remaining, gives birth to pride;

and when it is done away with, it produces self-conceit.

(62) Vainglory is done away with by hidden labor;

and pride, by ascribing one's good deeds to God.

(63) He who has been deemed worthy of the knowledge of God, and has richly enjoyed the pleasure that comes from it, despises all the pleasures born of the desiring faculty.

(64) He who desires earthly things desires either food, or the things that gratify the belly's lust, or human glory, or money, or something else that follows upon these;

and unless the mind finds something better than these, to which it may transfer its desire, it will by no means be persuaded to despise these utterly.

And incomparably better than these is the knowledge of God and of divine things.

(65) Those who despise pleasures despise them either out of fear, or out of hope, or out of knowledge and love toward God.

(66) Knowledge of divine things without passion does not persuade the mind to despise material things utterly, but is like a bare thought of a sensible object.

For having been cleansed for a little while through diligence and having attained knowledge, but afterward growing careless, they became like Saul, who, having been deemed worthy of a kingdom and having conducted himself unworthily, was cast out of it with terrible wrath.

(67) Just as the bare thought of human affairs does not compel the mind to despise divine things, so neither does the bare knowledge of divine things persuade it to despise human things utterly;

because the truth now exists in shadows and conjectures.

And for this reason there is need of the blessed passion of holy love, which binds the mind to spiritual contemplations and persuades it to prefer the immaterial to the material and the intelligible and divine to the sensible.

(68) Not at all has he who has cut off the passions and made his thoughts bare thereby already turned them toward divine things; but he may be affected neither toward human nor toward divine things;

which happens in the case of those who are merely practical and have not yet been deemed worthy of knowledge, who abstain from the passions out of fear of punishment or hope of the kingdom.

And we have knowledge in mirrors and riddles.

And for this reason we have great need of occupation with them, so that by long meditation and converse with them we may form a habit of the contemplations that is hard to be torn away.

(69) If, having cut off the causes of the passions for a little while, we occupy ourselves with spiritual contemplations, but do not always dwell in them, making this our very work, we easily turn back again to the passions of the flesh, reaping nothing thence but bare knowledge with self-conceit;

the end of which is both the gradual darkening of that knowledge itself and the complete turning of the mind toward material things.

(70) A blameworthy passion of love occupies the mind with material things;

a praiseworthy passion of love binds it to divine things.

For the mind is wont to expand in those things upon which it dwells;

and in those things in which it expands, in these it also turns its desire and love, whether in divine and proper and intelligible things, or in the things and passions of the flesh.

(72) God created the invisible world and the visible;

and the soul and the body too, plainly He made.

And if the visible world is so beautiful, what then must the invisible be? And if that one is better than this, how much more, beyond both, is God who created them? If, then, the Maker of all beautiful things is better than all created things, by what reasoning does the mind, forsaking that which is better than all, occupy itself with the things worse than all—I mean with the passions of the flesh?

Or is it plain that, having from birth associated with and grown accustomed to this, it has not yet received perfect experience of Him who is better than all and beyond all? If, then, by long ascetic practice of self-control over pleasures and of meditation on divine things, we little by little tear it away from such a relation, it expands in divine things, advancing little by little, and recognizes its own proper dignity, and at last transfers its whole longing to the divine.

(73) He who dispassionately speaks of a brother's sin speaks for one of two reasons: either to correct him or to benefit another.

But if he speaks apart from these reasons, whether to the man himself or to another, he speaks in order to reproach or to disparage him, and he will not escape the divine abandonment, but will altogether fall into some fault, either his own or another's, and being reproved and reviled by others he will be put to shame.

(74) The principle of those who commit the same sin in act is not one and the same, but diverse.

For instance, to sin from habit is one thing, and to sin from being carried away is another;

the latter neither had the intention before the sin nor after the sin, but is even exceedingly pained over what has happened;

but he who sins from habit is the opposite;

for first he did not cease sinning in his thought even beforehand, and after committing the act he is of the same disposition.

(75) He who pursues the virtues for the sake of vainglory plainly also pursues knowledge for the sake of vainglory.

And such a one plainly neither does anything nor speaks for edification, but in all things hunts for the glory that comes from those who see or hear.

And the passion is exposed when some of the aforesaid bring blame upon his works or words, and he is exceedingly grieved at this—not because they were not edified;

for this was not his aim;

but because he himself was made of no account.

(76) The passion of avarice is exposed in this:

in taking with joy and giving with grief.

And such a one cannot be a good steward.

[A man acts] either out of love for God, or out of hope of recompense, or out of fear of punishment, or out of fear of men, or out of nature, or out of pleasure, or out of gain, or out of vainglory, or out of necessity.

(78) To be rid of thoughts is one thing, and to be freed from passions another.

And often a man is rid of thoughts when the things toward which he has the passions are not present;

and when the things appear, he is exposed.

One must therefore watch the mind in the presence of things and know toward what it has the passion.

(79) That one is a genuine friend who, in time of trial, bears with his neighbor the afflictions and needs and misfortunes that arise from circumstances, as if they were his own, calmly and undisturbed.

(80) Do not dishonor your conscience, which ever counsels you most excellently;

for it sets before you a divine and angelic judgment, and frees you from the hidden defilements of the heart, and grants you boldness toward God at your departure.

(81) If you wish to become discerning and moderate, and not to be enslaved to the passion of self-conceit, ever seek in the things that are what is hidden from your knowledge.

And finding very many and diverse things that escape you, you will both marvel at your own ignorance and humble your mind; and coming to know yourself, you will understand many great and wonderful things;

since thinking that one knows does not allow one to advance in knowing.

(82) That one truly wishes to be saved who does not resist the medicines of the Physician;

and these are the pains and griefs brought on through various afflictions.

But he who resists does not know what is being accomplished here, nor with what benefit he will depart hence.

(83) Vainglory and avarice are generative of one another;

for the vainglorious grow rich, and the rich become vainglorious—but this is so with worldly men;

since the monk, being without possessions, rather becomes vainglorious;

but if he has money, he hides it, being ashamed to have a thing unbefitting his habit.

(84) It is proper to the vainglory of the monk to take vainglory in virtue and the things that follow upon it;

and proper to his pride to be exalted over his achievements and to set others at naught, and to ascribe these things to himself and not to God.

But it is proper to the vainglory and pride of the worldly man to take vainglory and be exalted over beauty and wealth and power and prudence.

(85) The achievements of worldly men are the downfalls of monks;

and the achievements of monks are the downfalls of worldly men.

For instance, the achievements of worldly men are wealth and glory and power and luxury and good bodily condition and the begetting of many children and the things that follow upon these;

into which the monk, if he falls, is destroyed.

But the achievements of the monk are voluntary poverty, obscurity, lack of power, self-control, hardship, and the things that follow upon these;

into which the lover of the world, coming against his intention, considers it a great downfall and is often in danger even of having recourse to a noose.

(86) Foods were created for two reasons:

for the sake of nourishment and of healing.

Those, then, who partake of them apart from these reasons, as misusing the things given by God for [right] use, are condemned as gluttons;

and in the case of all things, misuse is sin.

(87) Humility is continual prayer with tears and labors;

for this, ever calling upon God for help, does not allow one foolishly to trust in one's own power and wisdom, nor to exalt oneself over others—which are grievous diseases of the passion of pride.

(88) To battle against the bare thought, that it may not stir up the passion, is one thing;

and to battle against the impassioned thought, that there may be no consent, is another.

But both ways do not allow the thoughts to linger.

(89) Grief is joined to the remembrance of wrongs;

when therefore the mind mirrors the face of a brother with grief, it is plain that it harbors remembrance of wrongs against him.

"And the ways of those who remember wrongs lead to death," because everyone who remembers wrongs is a transgressor.

(90) If you remember a wrong against anyone, pray for him, and you will stay the passion from its motion, separating the grief through prayer from the memory of the evil he did you;

and becoming loving and kindly disposed, you utterly do away with the passion from the soul.

But if another remembers a wrong against you, be gracious toward him and humble, and conduct yourself well with him, and you will deliver him from the passion.

(91) You will stay the grief of the one who envies you by labor;

for he considers as a misfortune that in you which is envied, and it is not possible to stay it otherwise, unless you conceal it from him.

But if it benefits many while it grieves him, which side will you disregard? It is necessary, then, to be of benefit to the many, yet not to neglect him as far as possible, nor to be carried away by the malice of the passion, as one who defends himself not against the passion but against the one who suffers from it;

but in humility to consider him as surpassing yourself, and at every time and place and circumstance to prefer him.

And you can stay your own envy if you rejoice with the one you envy in the things in which he rejoices, and grieve with him in the things in which he grieves, fulfilling the saying of the Apostle: