59. Выдержка из преподобного Исихия о борьбе со страстями

Everything has already been told to you about mental warfare in general. There are many passions, but no matter how many there are, they all fit in the way shown and are all driven away and overcome, as said. Each passion, of course, has its own characteristics, with which it is aroused; There are also a lot of accidents in the way they appear. But this does not change the general methods of fighting with them. Do as it is said, and you will successfully drive away every passion, no matter with what strength it arises in you. So that you can better remember all this and make sure that you need to act this way and not otherwise, I am making an extract from the Monk Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, whose book, I remember, I sent you. “He who strives internally at every moment must have the following four things: humility, extreme attention, contradiction (of thoughts) and prayer. Humility - since his opponents in battle are proud demons - in order to hold Christ's help with the hand of the heart, for the Lord hates the proud. Attention - not to allow the heart to have any thoughts, even if they seem good. Contradiction - so that, as soon as the one who comes (thought) sees, he immediately repels the evil one with anger. Prayer - in order to immediately cry out to Christ with unutterable groaning after a contradiction. And then this ascetic will see the enemy bound or persecuted by the worshiped name of Jesus, like dust by the wind or like smoke disappearing with his dreams” (paragraph 20). Here's another similar place: “In mental warfare one must act as one acts in (ordinary) war. First, attention is required; secondly, when we notice that the enemy has advanced a thought, we must strike him with a curse, with anger in the heart; thirdly, one must pray against it, calling on Jesus Christ in the heart, so that the demonic ghost immediately disappears, so that the mind does not follow a dream, like a child seduced by some artist (magician, buffoon)” (paragraph 105). “If in your heart you always deal with humility, with remembrance of death, with self-condemnation, with contradiction of thoughts and with calling on the name of Jesus Christ, and with these weapons you daily continue the soberly narrow, joyful and pleasant mental path, then you will enter into the holy contemplation of the saints and be enlightened by the deep mysteries of Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” , in whom “all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily” (Col. 2, 3, 9). For you will feel in Jesus that the Holy Spirit has descended on your soul, giving light to the mind so that it can look with open face. “No one,” says the Apostle, “can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). Of course, by this he affirms the mysterious seeker” (paragraph 29). In these and other similar places, St. Hesychius generally speaks about the course of mental warfare. More in his book it is said in parts about each of the shown methods of warfare, and especially about attention to the heart, staying there and mentally turning to the Lord with prayer from there. Please look through that entire book now. And I will write down a few points about this for you. “The great lawgiver Moses, or, better, the Holy Spirit through his mouth says: “Take heed to yourself: let not the word of iniquity be hidden in your heart” (Deut. 15:9). He calls a secret word one mental representation of something bad (passionate), hated by God, which the fathers also call an excuse brought to the heart by the devil, after which, as soon as it appears to the mind, our thoughts immediately rush and passionately communicate with it” (paragraph 2). “Attention is an unceasing heartfelt silence from every thought, in which the soul always, continuously and unceasingly breathes and calls on Him for the One Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God; courageously takes up arms with Him against enemies; Confession is made to Him, who has the power to forgive sins; often with a secret invocation embraces Christ, the only knowing heart” (paragraph 5). “Sobriety is the firm installation of a thought and its standing at the door of the heart, so that he sees creeping thoughts and understands what image the demons are trying to draw and imprint on the mind in order to deceive them through the imagination” (paragraph 6). “The thought that stands (in the heart) and calls Christ against the enemies and resorts to Him is like a certain beast surrounded by many dogs and defending itself in a stronghold. From afar, she mentally discerns the mental ambushes of invisible enemies and, constantly praying against them to the peacemaker Jesus, remains unharmed by them” (paragraph 8). “He who does not have prayer, pure from thoughts, has no weapon for battle. I mean prayer that is constantly performed in the interior of the soul, so that the secretly attacking enemy is defeated and scorched by the invocation of Christ. For you must look with both a sharp and intense eye of the mind in order to recognize those entering, and having recognized it, immediately crush the head of the serpent with contradiction and at the same time cry out to Christ with groaning - then by experience you will recognize God’s invisible help, then you will clearly see the right state of the heart” (paragraphs 21 and 22). “So, let the soul be bold in Christ, let it call on Him and not be afraid at all: it does not fight alone, but together with the terrible King, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things, corporeal and incorporeal, visible and invisible” (paragraph 40). I will limit myself to these extracts, because if I were to write out everything related here, I would have to rewrite half of the book. And I made these extracts in order to renew in your memory what I have been explaining to you for so long about the memory of God and the internal battle with the passions. Know that this is the whole essence of working to achieve salvation. After reading this, do not say to yourself: “What am I, a hermit, that I should follow such rules?!” You are not alone, but very, very many people say this, but not from among those who properly set about the work of achieving salvation. Those who have undertaken this work cannot speak like that. So you, if you want to live in the spirit (which is what achieving your salvation consists of), must urgently act as prescribed. And if you want to live carelessly, then, of course, all this does not suit you. I began to write about this, believing that your decision to belong to the Lord was sincere. For whoever has such a decision sincerely cannot avoid the prescribed path. He can work hard and make various detours, but until he attacks this path, there will be no use. I am pointing it out to you directly so that you don’t wander around. Work harder and you will soon see success. Everything requires work; nothing happens without work. Do not allow such superstition. Whoever lives in the desert, or in a monastery, or in the world works out his salvation—everyone has an urgent law to cleanse his heart from passions; he cannot clean it otherwise than in the described way. Do not refuse and do not rest your feet. You might be interested in: