62. После руководства к мысленной борьбе со страстями предлагается наставление о деятельной борьбе с ними. Наиудобнейший внешний вид жизни для борьбы со страстями. Заключение беседы о борьбе со страстями

God's mercy be with you! As a guide to the purification of passions, when they are in you to some small extent, what has been said is enough. But since we are already talking about this, I will add something else that may, however, be useful to you not in the future, but now. The prescribed struggle with passions is a mental one. And it is valid because, not allowing passions to feed on anything, it thereby mars them. But there is also an active struggle against them, which consists in deliberately undertaking and doing things that are directly opposite to them. For example, to suppress stinginess, one must begin to be generous; against pride one must choose derogatory activities; against the passion to have fun - homebodies and the like. It is true that one such way of action does not directly lead to the goal, because, enduring oppression from the outside, passion can force its way inside - either by itself, or giving way to another. But when this active struggle is combined with the internal, mental one, then the two of them soon defeat every passion against which they are directed. And this is the advice I am enclosing for you. Try to find your main passion and direct not only a mental, but also an active struggle against it. I can't determine what exactly is important to you. Perhaps it has not yet been determined, but anyway, if you begin to more closely monitor the movements of your heart, it will affect your attention. Then, if you would like to trust me, we will figure out together how to quickly deal with your main infirmity. Let me also remind you that there are cool techniques for this active struggle with passions. Our usual one is a world-denying life in its detached form, when, having decisively abandoned everything and placed all trust in the Lord, they enter the monastery to live in uncomplaining obedience, in strict fasting, in hard-working prayer and vigilant sobriety. Here, lack of anything, cutting off one’s will and self-pity soon grind out everything passionate from the soul. Then a peaceful dispensation of the heart and purity of the heart are established - the final goal of a world-denying life. I am not driving you out of the world. You will also be saved in him if you hold yourself in relation to him as if you do not exist in him. I only remind you of this as a way of life that is most adapted to the task of cleansing the heart from passions. I will also add that one of the laws of Divine Providence for us is to arrange everyone’s life and the flow of accidents in it so that, using them wisely, he can cleanse himself of passions in the fastest and most convenient way. I remind you of this because you once asked why people have different fates and why they are changeable - and it seems that I did not answer you. So, I answer why. Then, because the way the Lord arranges it is more convenient for people to cleanse themselves of passions, or because He wants in this way to grind into powder our incandescent selfhood, our stubborn egoism, on which the passions that destroy a person rest. And I’ll add one more thing. Beat passions both from within and without, and nurture your good sides, giving them space and exercise. The main thing here is prayer. It has already been discussed. It is followed by the work of doing good. And this was what we were talking about when you were thinking about some broad goals in life. And along with this should come soul-saving readings and conversations, and the performance of church rites, and feats of self-mortification: denying yourself, when necessary, little by little food, sleep, amusements and all sorts of pleasures of self-indulgence, and keeping yourself in constant self-resistance and self-constraint. And this was what we were talking about. That's the whole course of cleansing yourself from passions. You already have all this in motion. May the Lord prosper you. You might be interested in: