The second century
1. He who truly loves God prays without any distraction of mind, just as he who prays without any distraction of mind truly loves God. But he cannot pray without distraction whose mind is attached to anything earthly. So he does not love God whose mind is bound to anything earthly.
2. A mind that is long occupied with the thought of something perceptible certainly has a passion for it — of desire, or of sorrow, or of anger, or of rage; and unless it counts that thing as nothing, it will not be freed from the passion.
3. The passions, taking hold of the mind, bind it to material things and, having torn it away from God, make it be occupied with them; and on the contrary, the possession of the love of God frees it from the bonds of the passions, persuading it to count as of no great account not only perceptible things but even this earthly life itself.
4. The purpose of the commandments is to make thoughts about things blameless, and that of reading and knowledge is to make the mind immaterial and unearthly. As a result of this, prayer becomes undistracted.
5. To free the mind wholly from the passions so that it can pray without distraction, labour alone is not enough unless various kinds of spiritual knowledge are joined to it. The first frees the mind from want of restraint and from hatred, while the second keeps it from forgetfulness and ignorance, and in this way it is given the power to pray as it ought.
6. There are two highest states of pure prayer. One comes to people of the active life, the other to those of the contemplative life. The first is born in the soul from the fear of God and from the grace of hope; the second from the love of God and from boundless purity. The sign of the first is the fencing of the mind from earthly thoughts, prayer without distraction and with trembling, as though God Himself stood before the one praying, as indeed He does. The sign of the second is that during the saying of the prayer the mind is caught up by the divine and measureless light and does not feel at all either itself or anything that exists, save only Him who out of love has planted such light in it. One who is in such a state labours to understand the divine words and receives a pure and luminous knowledge of God.
7. Whatever a person loves, he tries by every means to be occupied with it and drives away everything that hinders him in this, so as not to lose what he desires. Such also is the striving of one who loves God toward pure prayer, and every passion that may become a hindrance he drives away from himself.
8. He who rejects self-love, the mother of the passions, will with God’s help be able to overcome all the other passions too: anger, despondency, remembrance of wrongs and the rest. But whoever is overcome by the first will, even against his will, be poisoned by the others too. For self-love is a boundless love of the body.
9. People love one another for the following five reasons, of which some are praiseworthy and others blameworthy: they love either for God’s sake, as the good man loves everyone, and the good man is loved even by the wicked; or by nature, as a parent loves a child and the child the parent; or from love of honour, as the one praised loves the one who praises him; or from gain, as one loves a rich man for profit; or from sensuality, as one held by gluttony loves a feast. Of these the first is praiseworthy, the second is twofold, and the rest are passionate.
10. If you hate some, and others you neither love nor hate, and others you love but moderately, while some you love very much, then by these differences know that you are still far from perfect love, which teaches us to love all people alike.
11. “Turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 36:27), that is, you must fight against evil so as to lessen the passions, and then be watchful lest they multiply; and again fight so as to gain the virtues, and after that be watchful so as to keep them. This is to till and to keep (Gen. 2:15).
12. By God’s permission those who tempt us either inflame the desiring part of the soul, or disturb the incensive part, or darken the reasoning part, or seize the body, or snatch away bodily necessities.
13. The demons either hinder us themselves, or arm against us those people who do not fear God; they hinder us themselves when we are away from people, like the Lord tempted in the wilderness. And through people they hinder us during our dealings with them, as the Lord was tempted through the Pharisees. But let us imitate our Image, that is, the Lord, and drive them away in both cases.
14. When the mind is making progress in the love of God, then the evil spirit begins to hinder it and suggests such thoughts as no person could invent, save the father of the evil spirit, the demon. All this he does out of envy of the God-loving person, so that he, held by such thoughts, may fall into despair and may no longer strive to offer prayer to God. But by all this the crafty one gains nothing for his purpose; on the contrary, we are only strengthened. For we, having passed through this battle and having resisted, become experienced and sincere in the love of God. “Let their sword enter into their own heart, and their bows be broken” (Ps. 36:15).
15. By means of the senses the mind perceives things naturally. Neither the mind, nor the natural perception of things, nor the things themselves, nor the senses are evil, since they were created by God. What then is the evil here? Plainly, passion, which hinders us in the natural perception of things. And if the mind is watchful, passion will not hinder us in the natural perception of things.
16. Passion is an unnatural action of the soul, arising either from an unreasoning love for something perceptible, or from a thoughtless hatred on account of something perceptible. Unreasoning is the love of food, or of a woman, or of property, or of passing glory, or of anything else perceptible. Unreasoning is the hatred when people thoughtlessly hate, as has been said, some one of the said things, or someone because of them.
17. And again: evil is a sinful judgement about visible things, accompanied by their wrong use. Reasoning thus, the right attitude toward marriage sets as its aim the bearing of children. But whoever understands in it only sensual pleasure errs in his judgement: he counts evil as good and uses it for evil. In the same way we should consider the thought about other things too, and their use.
18. When the demons tear your mind away from dispassion and seize it with thoughts of fornication, then with tears cry out to the Master: “They have cast me out, and now they have compassed me about; my joy, deliver me from them that have compassed me about” (Ps. 16:11; 31:7). And you will be set free.
19. Strong is the demon of fornication, and with all his force he attacks those who fight against this passion, especially in the case of want of restraint in food and at meetings and conversations with women. First he quietly brings into the mind the desire for sensual pleasures, then by means of memory he enters into the one who keeps silence; and in so far as he inflames the body, so far does he set before the mind various foul images and thus stirs up the desire for sin. If you do not want all this to go on in you, take up fasting, toil, vigil and good silence, together with prayer before sleep.
20. The tireless hunters of our souls try by means of passionate thoughts to cast the soul into sin committed in thought and in deed. But when they meet a mind that does not receive them, they “are ashamed and confounded”; and when they perceive that the mind is occupied with spiritual contemplation, then they “are turned back and put to shame very speedily” (Ps. 34:4; 6:11).
21. He does the work of a deacon who trains the mind in pure labour and drives passionate thoughts away from it; the work of a priest, who enlightens the mind with the knowledge of what exists and roots out false knowledge; the work of a bishop, who completes the perfecting of the mind by imparting the knowledge that worships the Holy Trinity.
22. The demons grow weak when, through the keeping of the commandments, the passions in us are lessened; and they perish when, because of the soul’s dispassion, they are wholly driven out of it, since they find in it nothing by which they could stay there and fight against it. This means that they “grew weak and perished at Thy presence” (Ps. 9:4).
23. Some abstain from the passions out of human fear, some out of love of honour, some out of self-restraint, while some are freed from the passions by God’s providence.
24. Every word of the Lord contains these four things: commandments, doctrines, threat and promise. And for the sake of all this we endure all the harshness of life: fasting, vigil, lying on the bare ground, want, toil in obedience, offence, insult, torment, death and everything of this kind. “That my mouth might not speak of the works of men, by the words of thy lips I have kept myself from hard ways” (Ps. 16:4).
25. The reward of self-restraint is dispassion; of faith, knowledge. Dispassion gives birth to the power of discernment, and knowledge to the love of God.
26. The mind which leads a right active life makes progress in prudence, and when it contemplates rightly, in knowledge. The first gives one who labours in this the ability to tell good from evil. The second rewards the one who partakes of it with the ability to know the qualities of bodiless and bodily beings. And the grace of theology the mind gains when, winged by love, it flies past all the above and, reaching a state of being with God, contemplates in spirit the qualities of God, as far as this is possible for the human mind.
27. When you want to speak of God, do not seek what God is in Himself, for this cannot be found not only by the human mind but by the mind of those beings which stand after God. As far as you can, consider those qualities which surround God: eternity, beginninglessness, uncircumscribedness, goodness, wisdom, the power that helps all, provides for all and judges all that exists. Among people he is already a theologian who sees these qualities even a little.
28. Strong is the person who joins knowledge with practice, for then he quenches sensuality and lessens anger, and by this he gives wings to the mind and abides with the Lord.
29. When the Lord says, “I and the Father are one,” He signifies by this the unity of nature; and when He says, “I am in the Father and the Father in me,” He shows us the inseparability of the hypostases. Thus the tritheists, separating the Son from the Father, fall into the abyss on both sides: either they confess the Son consubstantial with the Father but separate Him from the Father and are forced to say that the Son was not begotten of the Father, and so fall into heresy, confessing three gods and three beginnings; or, confessing that the Son is begotten of the Father but separating the Son from the Father, they must allow that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father, and subject the Lord of times to time. By the teaching of Gregory the Great, it befits us to confess one God in essence and three hypostases, each according to its own proper qualities, since, by his teaching, the Trinity is divided yet indivisible, is united yet remains distinct. A wondrous division and unity! But what wonder would there be here if God the Father were united with God the Son and separated from Him as a person is united with a person and separated from him?
30. He who is perfect in love and has reached the summit of dispassion makes no distinction between his own and another’s, between the believer and the unbeliever, the slave and the free, even between male and female; but, having risen above the power of the passions, he sees one thing only, the nature of man; he looks upon all alike and is equally disposed toward all. In him there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free, but in all and in everything, Christ.
31. The demons take their occasion from the passions that exist in the soul, so as to stir up passionate thoughts in us. Then by means of these they overcome the mind and make it fall by inclining it to the desire for sin. The mind, already overcome in this, they lead to sin in thought, and after this they make it, like a captive, perform the sinful deeds themselves. Finally, after all this, having laid the soul waste with thoughts, they withdraw together with them. There remains in the mind only the idol (the imagined image) of sin, of which the Lord says: “When ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place” (Matt. 24:15). Let the reader understand that the holy place and temple of God is the mind of man, in which the demons have set up the idol of sin, having laid it waste with passionate thoughts. And that what the Lord said was fulfilled historically too, of this, I think, anyone will be convinced who reads Josephus Flavius. Some, however, say that the same will happen in the time of antichrist too.
32. Three beginnings move us to good: the good given by nature, the holy powers and a good will. The good given by nature is when, for example, we deal with people as we want them to deal with us; or when we see a person in straits and poverty and pity him by nature. Good comes from the holy powers when, in our striving after a good work, we find a good helper in ourselves and succeed. And finally, a good will is when, distinguishing good from evil, we choose the good.
33. Likewise there are three beginnings which move us to evil: the passions, the demons and an evil will. A passion is when we desire something unreasonable, as, for instance, to eat out of season and without need, or when women do not want to bear children; and likewise injustice, when we are angry and indignant against anyone whatsoever who has insulted or grieved us. And the demons, using our own negligence and seizing a fitting time for them, fall upon us suddenly and with the greatest force stir up in us passions like those named above. And finally, an evil will is when we know what is good but by our own will choose evil.
34. The reward for labour in the virtues is dispassion and knowledge. As these are for us the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven, so the passions and ignorance are the cause of the torments of hell. Therefore to those who seek them for the sake of earthly glory, and not because it is good, Scripture says: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss” (James 4:3).
35. Among human actions many are good in themselves but for some reason become evil. For instance, fasting and vigil, prayer and psalmody, almsgiving and hospitality are in themselves good works; but when all this is done out of love of honour, then it is no longer good.
36. In every action of ours God looks at the intention: whether we do this or that for Him or for some other reason.
37. When you hear the words of Scripture, “Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:6), remember that God will repay you with good not for what is done with an evil intention, though it may seem good to you, but precisely for what is done with a good intention. For God’s judgement sees not only what is done but the intention with which it is done.
38. The demon of pride has a twofold craft: he either persuades monks to ascribe their right deeds to themselves and not to God, who gives grace and helps godliness; or else, when they do not agree with the demon in this, he suggests to them that they should despise less perfect brethren. But they do not understand that even in such an action the demon is prodding them to reject God’s help. For by despising those who, like themselves, are not perfect, they show that they ascribe their own correctness for the most part to themselves, which is impossible. As the Lord says: “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Our weakness is so great that even when we desire good we cannot bring it to an end without the help of the Giver of grace.
39. He who has grasped the weakness of human nature has known by experience the power of God’s help. Such a person, whatever he has done and whatever he does by the help of this power, will never despise any human being. For he knows how God helped him and from how many passions and misfortunes He delivered him. So He helps everyone who wishes it, and especially one who labours for God; though, for certain reasons, He does not free everyone from the passions at once, but, like a good and man-loving physician, heals each one who comes to Him in due time.
40. In the time when the passions are inactive pride arises, when their causes are unnoticed or when the demons craftily withdraw.
41. Almost every sin arises for the sake of one’s own pleasure and therefore is blotted out either by repentance — by willing or unwilling toil and suffering — or by the working of that trial which depends on God’s providence for us. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged,” says Scripture; “but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:31–32).
42. If a trial suddenly comes upon you, do not blame the one through whom it came, but seek why it came — and you will be corrected. For through him or through another you had to taste the bitterness of the cup of God’s judgements.
43. The more sinful you are, the less should you reject bodily straitness, so that, humbled by it, you may cast off pride.
44. Trial sometimes brings people pleasure, sometimes sorrow, and sometimes bodily suffering. For the Physician of souls, by His providence, uses the medicine that answers to the cause of the passions existing in the soul.
45. To some a trial comes for the blotting out of sins committed in the past, to others for the cutting off of those committed in the present, and to others for turning them from those that would be committed in the future — apart from that trial which comes upon a person for the sake of testing, as happened to Job.
46. The prudent man, thinking on the healing power of God’s providence, bears with thankfulness the misfortune that has fallen upon him and blames for it no one but his own sins. But the senseless man, when he sins and is punished for it, counts as the cause of his misfortune either God or people, and does not understand God’s wise design.
47. There are means which hinder the working of the passions and do not let them grow. So, for instance, fasting, toil and vigil do not let sensuality grow; while solitude, knowledge, prayer and the love of God lessen them and in the end destroy them. It is the same with regard to anger: long-suffering, freedom from the remembrance of wrongs and meekness weaken these passions, while love, mercy, good will and love for people lessen them.
48. He whose mind strives unceasingly toward God has his desire grow into a striving toward God, while his anger turns wholly into the love of God. For, through long communion with the divine light, the mind becomes wholly full of light, and it presses down and quenches its desiring part. It turns it, as we said, into a striving toward God and into an unceasing love of God, for the mind passes wholly from the earthly into the divine.
49. Everyone who neither envies the one who has insulted him, nor is angry with him, nor remembers the wrong, nor repays evil with evil, does not yet have love for him; for he can, according to the commandment, refrain from repaying evil with evil even without love. But without forcing oneself it is not so easy to answer evil with good, since to do good to those who hate us out of a good disposition belongs only to those who have perfect spiritual love.
50. Not to love someone does not yet mean to hate him, just as not to hate someone does not yet mean to love him. One may be in a middle state toward him, that is, neither loving nor hating. For the feeling of love usually arises in the soul from those five beginnings spoken of in the ninth chapter of this second century, of which one is praiseworthy, the second twofold, and the remaining three blameworthy.
51. When you notice that your mind finds delight in material things and thinks about them with pleasure, know that you love them more than God. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” says the Lord (Matt. 6:21).
52. The mind which is given over to the Lord and by prayer and love abides with Him is wise, good, strong, loving to people, merciful, long-suffering and, to put it simply, a bearer of almost all divine qualities. But the mind which has departed from God and made friends with material things, given over to sensuality, is either bestial or savage, and for this reason wars against people.
53. Holy Scripture calls the things of sense “the world,” and whoever is occupied with them in mind is of the world; and of a strong attachment to it Scripture says: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15–16).
54. A monk is one who has turned his mind away from the things of sense and has drawn near to God by self-restraint, by love, by psalmody and by prayer.
55. In the spiritual sense, keepers of cattle are those who lead the active life, since in the spiritual life moral deeds rightly performed have the significance of working cattle. Therefore Jacob says: “Thy servants are keepers of cattle.” But a shepherd of sheep is the man of knowledge, since the sheep signify thoughts which the mind pastures on the mountain of knowledge. That is why “every shepherd of sheep is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Gen. 46:34), that is, to the hostile powers.
56. The mind is corrupt when it follows the body, which is inflamed by the sensual and vicious feelings proper to it, and when it merges with the body’s daydreams and strivings. But the mind of high morals refrains from passionate daydreams and strivings and, departing from them, tries to make its own action better.
57. Of the virtues some are bodily and others of the soul. The bodily are: fasting, vigil, lying on the bare ground, serving, doing handiwork so as not to be a burden to others, giving alms and so forth; and those of the soul are: love, long-suffering, meekness, self-restraint, prayer and the rest. So if for some reason, through weakness or illness or the like, we cannot fulfil the above bodily virtues, in this case the Lord, who knows the reasons for it, has mercy on us and forgives us; but when we do not fulfil the virtues of the soul, then we deserve no forgiveness, since these are not hindered by such obstacles.
58. The love of God makes the one who partakes of it count as nothing every passing pleasure, every torment and sorrow. Of this all the saints will convince us, who endured so many torments for Christ’s sake.
59. Beware of the mother of evils, self-love, which is an unreasoning love of the body, since from it, under the appearance of a seeming good, are born the three first and inborn passions and unbridled desires, namely gluttony, love of money and love of honour, for which the necessary bodily needs serve as a pretext; and from them a whole heap of passions arises. This is why, as has been said, we must wholly renounce self-love and fight it with the greatest watchfulness. By destroying it we shall destroy all its offspring as well.
60. The passion of self-love suggests to a monk that he should spare his body, as it were for the sake of keeping his health, that he should be indulgent to himself in food and manage his body sensibly, so that, little by little inclining him toward the body, it may cast him into the abyss of sensuality; while lay people this passion, because they are lay people, pushes to “make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:14).
61. It is said that the highest state of prayer is that in which during prayer the mind is outside the body and does not see or notice the world at all. He who firmly keeps such a state truly prays without ceasing.
62. As through death the body departs entirely from the things of this life, so the mind, put to death by the working of perfect prayer, is cut off from every earthly thought. And if it does not die such a death, it will not be able to live and be with God.
63. Let no one deceive you, humble monk, with the thought that you can be saved while serving sensuality and love of honour.
64. As the body sins in deed and for its correction has bodily virtues, by which it becomes dispassionate, so the mind sins by passionate thoughts and for its correction has the virtues of the soul; and, looking at things purely and blamelessly, it becomes dispassionate.
65. As day is followed by night and summer by winter, so love of honour and sensuality are followed by sorrow and bitter pains, either in this world or in the life to come.
66. It is impossible for a sinner to escape the judgement to come without hard voluntary toil here, or without suffering caused by involuntary misfortune.
67. It is said that God allows the demons to war against us for five reasons: the first reason is that we, having fought and resisted, may be able to tell virtue from sin; the second, that, having gained the virtues by fighting and toil, we may keep them firmly and faithfully; the third, that we, advancing in the virtues, may not have a high opinion of ourselves but may learn humility; the fourth, that, having experienced in deed the evil of sin, we may hate it utterly; and the fifth and chief, that we, having become dispassionate, may not forget our own weakness and the power that helps us.
68. The mind of a hungry man dreams of bread, of a thirsty man of water; the mind of one who loves fine food, of various dishes; of the sensual man, of a woman; of the honour-loving man, of honours from people; of the money-loving man, of riches; of the resentful man, of vengeance on the one who offended him; of the envious man, of the misfortune of the one he envies. The same happens with the other passions too, since a mind seized by the passions brings forth passionate thoughts, both when the body is awake and when it sleeps.
69. When sensuality grows, then the mind in sleep dreams of things that bring pleasure; and when anger grows, then it sees things that bring fear; the unclean spirits use our own negligence as their helper and rouse and strengthen the passions; while the holy angels lessen them when they move us to the fulfilling of the virtues.
70. Frequent inflaming of the desiring part of the soul breeds in the soul an irresistible inclination to sensual deeds, while frequent disturbance of the incensive part makes the mind faint-hearted and takes away its courage. The first is healed by long labour in fasting, vigil and prayer; the second by kindness, love for people, love and mercy.
71. The evil spirits war against us either through things or through passionate thoughts about things. Through things they war against one who moves among things, and through passionate thoughts against one who has withdrawn from things.
72. As much as it is easier to sin in thought than in deed, so much is the fight with thoughts harder than the fight with things.
73. Things are outside the mind, but the thought of them is in the mind. Therefore it can use them either well or badly, since a sinful use of thoughts is followed by an evil use of things.
74. The mind receives sinful thoughts in three ways: by means of the senses, from the state of the body, and from memories. By means of the senses — when things toward which we have a passion make an impression on them and rouse passionate thoughts in the mind; from the state of the body — when we do not restrain ourselves in food, or when the state of the body, changed by the working of a demon or by some illness, rouses passionate thoughts in the mind, or even opposition to the will of God; from memories — when the imagination renews the thought of things toward which we once strove and so breeds passionate thoughts in the mind.
75. Of the things granted to us by God for our use, some are in the soul, others in the body, and others near the body. In the soul are the powers of the soul; in the body, the senses and the other members; near the body, food, land, money and so forth. By the good or bad use of these things and by the occasions that arise from this we are either virtuous or vicious.
76. Of the cases named, some come from what is in the soul, others from what is in the body, and others from what is near the body. In the soul are knowledge and ignorance, memory and forgetfulness, love and hatred, fear and courage, joy and sorrow and the rest; in the body, rest and weariness, keenness and dullness of the senses, health and sickness, life and death and the like; near the body, the having of children and childlessness, riches and poverty, fame and obscurity and so forth. Of these, by human judgement, some are good and some evil, whereas in fact not one of them is evil, but each is evil or good according to how it is used.
77. Knowledge by its nature, like health, is a good. But to many the opposite has brought profit, for to the evil knowledge brings no good, although, as has been said, in itself it is a good. Likewise neither health, nor riches, nor joy are for their good, since they cannot use them to their own profit. For such people the opposite is profitable, and accordingly this (that is, the opposite) is in that case not an evil, though it seems to us an evil.
78. Do not use thoughts for evil, lest of necessity you use things for evil too; for if you do not first sin in the mind, you will never sin in deed.
79. The chief faults of the earthly image (Adam) are: senselessness, faint-heartedness, want of restraint, unrighteousness. The chief virtues of the heavenly image are: prudence, firmness, dispassion, righteousness. “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49).
80. If you want to find the way that will bring you into eternity, seek it in that Way which says to you: “I am the way and the door, the truth and the life” (John 14:6; 10:9).
81. The soul departs from sin for these five reasons: either from human fear, or from the fear of punishment, or for the sake of the judgement to come, or from love for God, and finally because of the pangs of conscience.
82. Some say that there would be no evil in creatures if there were not a certain outward power which pushes us to evil. But this power is nothing else than our own negligence about letting the mind act according to nature. Therefore he who cares for this always does good and never evil. So root out negligence — and with it you will put to death evil too, which is the bad use of thoughts and is followed by the evil use of things.
83. By the reasoning part which is in us it befits us to submit to the word of God and to rule over the unreasoning part which is in us; if we always keep this rule, there will be in creatures neither evil nor what pushes us to evil.
84. Of thoughts some are simple and others compound. Simple are the dispassionate, and compound the passionate, just as the thoughts caused by the passions are compound. And it can also be seen that a compound thought follows upon many simple ones when desire strives to sin in thought. Let us take gold for an example. Someone has in his mind a passionate thought about gold and tries in thought to steal it — he has already committed the sin in his mind. Sometimes the memory of gold is followed by the memory of a purse, a chest, a storeroom and so on. In the first case the memory of gold was compound, since it was bound up with passion; but that of the purse, the chest and the rest was blameless, since the mind had no passion toward them. The same happens with every thought, for instance with the thought of love of honour, the thought of a woman and the rest. Not every thought that follows a passionate thought is passionate, as is shown in the example. From this one can understand which thought is passionate and which is not.
85. Some say that the demons, touching the shameful parts of our body during sleep, rouse the passion of fornication; and that then the roused passion, by means of memory, brings the image of a woman into the mind. Others say that the demons themselves appear to the mind in the form of a woman, and then, touching the shameful part of the body, rouse the desire for a woman; such fantasies do occur. Others again think that whatever passion is in the demon that draws near, that same he rouses in the person, and so desires are kindled in the soul and representations are brought in by means of memory. About other passionate fantasies some say it happens one way, others another. But by none of the aforesaid means will the demons be able to rouse any passion, either in waking or in sleep, if love and self-restraint reign in the soul.
86. Of the commandments some must be kept both spiritually and bodily, and others only spiritually. For instance: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal and the like must be kept both bodily and spiritually — and spiritually in a threefold way. On the contrary, circumcision, the keeping of the sabbath, the offering of sacrifices and the rest are to be kept only spiritually.
87. Monks have three chief moral states: the first, when they never sin in deed; the second, when they do not let sinful thoughts linger in the soul; the third, when they picture a woman and those who have insulted them blamelessly in the mind.
88. Free from possessions is he who has renounced everything of his own; he has nothing on earth but his body, and even from it he has removed every pleasure, while the care of himself he has entrusted wholly to God and to godly people.
89. Some acquire property without passion and therefore do not grieve at its loss, as once certain people took joyfully the spoiling of their goods (Heb. 10:34). Others acquire it with passion, and therefore, when they are asked to leave what they have gained, they give themselves to sorrow, like the rich man of the Gospel who went away grieved (Matt. 19:22); and if they really lose it, they grieve terribly. So the loss of property shows up the one who acquired it with passion or without passion.
90. Upon great men of prayer the demons fall, seizing their mind with the thought of things of sense and thereby separating them from prayer. But those who have advanced in knowledge they hold for a long time in the circle of passionate thoughts, while those who are in the labour of toil they push to sin in deed. The accursed ones war against all by different means, so as to separate people from God.
91. By God’s providence, one who trains himself in godliness is tried in this world by these three kinds of temptation: either by the granting of prosperity, such as health, beauty, many children, riches, fame and the like; or by the sending of misfortune, such as the loss of children, of land, of fame; or by what torments the body, for instance by illness, by torture and the rest. To the first the Lord says: “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33); and to the second and third: “In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19).
92. It is said that the state of the body is changed, and thereby passions or blameless thoughts are bred in the mind, by these four causes: angels, demons, the air, food. It is said that the angels change it by a word; the demons by touch; the air by its changes; food by the amount of meat and drink, by taking too much or too little of them. Besides this, it is said that changes come also by means of memory, hearing and sight, when the soul first falls under the influence of sorrowful or joyful circumstances and, harmed by them, brings about a change in the state of the body; and the changed body, as was said above, gives the mind the corresponding thought.
93. Death in itself is separation from God; and the sting of death is sin, by committing which Adam was at once driven away both from the tree of life, and from paradise, and from God, and after this unavoidable death followed. For life in truth is He who tells us: “I am the life” (John 14:6). He, having been among the dead, brought the dead man to life again.
94. When anything is written, it is written either for one’s own remembrance, or for the profit of others, or for both these aims together, or to someone’s harm, or for show, or out of necessity.
95. “A green place” (Ps. 22:2) is active virtue; and “the water of rest” is the knowledge of created things.
96. “The shadow of death” is the life of man. And he who is with God and with whom God is can say boldly: “Yea, though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me” (Ps. 22:4).
97. A pure mind looks upon things blamelessly; a word spoken in measure conveys what has been seen as though looking with another’s eyes; and a keen hearing will hear well what is said. But one who lacks all three of these qualities will blame the speaker.
98. He is with God who has come to know the Holy Trinity, its creations and its designs, and who keeps in dispassion that part of the soul which gives birth to passion.
99. It is said that “the rod” signifies God’s judgement, and “the staff” His providence. Whoever has come to know this can say: “Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me” (Ps. 22:4).
100. When the mind is freed from the passions and enlightened by the knowledge of the truth, then it will be able both to abide with the Lord and to pray as it ought.
