Слово 26. О первой степени ведения

When knowledge follows carnal desire, then it brings together the following methods: wealth, vanity, decoration, bodily peace, zeal for verbal wisdom, suitable for ruling in this world and exuding renewal in inventions, arts, and sciences, and everything else that crowns the body in this visible world. And according to these distinctive features, as we have said and distributed, knowledge becomes contrary to faith. And it is called naked knowledge, because it excludes all concern for the Divine, and due to the predominance of the body, it introduces irrational powerlessness into the mind, and all its concern is completely about this world only. Here is the concept of this knowledge about itself: it, without any doubt, is a mental power that secretly rules a person, Divine guardianship, overseeing him and completely caring for him. Therefore, he does not attribute the government of the world to God's Providence, but everything good in man, his salvation from what is harmful to him and his natural guarding against misfortunes and from many of the opposites that secretly and openly accompany our nature, seem to him to be a consequence of his own zeal and his own methods. This is the concept of self-reflective 157 knowledge. It dreams that everything happens according to its industry; and in this we agree with those who claim that there is no control over this visible world. However, it cannot remain without constant care and without fear for the body, and therefore it is overcome by cowardice, sadness, despair, fear from demons, fear from people, rumors of robbers, rumors of deaths, care in illness, anxiety in poverty and lack of necessities, fear of death, fear of suffering and evil animals and everything else similar to this and likened to the sea, in which every hour day and night the waves are restless and rush towards the swimmers, since this knowledge has no care for itself to cast on God in the hope of faith in Him. And therefore, in everything that concerns himself, he is busy inventing means and tricks. When the methods of his inventions in one case turn out to be invalid, and he does not see the mysterious Providence in this, then he argues with people who interfere and resist him. In this knowledge the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is planted, uprooting love. And it looks for the small misdeeds of other people, their guilt and weaknesses, and sets up a person to teach, to contradict in words, to invent crafty means and tricks; it resorts to other methods that are offensive to a person. There is arrogance and pride in him, because he appropriates every good deed to himself, and does not attribute it to God. Faith attributes its works to grace, and therefore cannot be exalted, as it is written: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13); and again: “Not I, but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). And what the blessed apostle said: “the mind is insolent” (1 Cor. 8:1), he said this about that knowledge that is not dissolved by faith in God and hope in Him, and not about true knowledge. Let this not happen! True knowledge perfects the soul of those who acquire it in humility, as it perfected Moses, David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul and other saints who were granted this, according to human nature, perfect knowledge. And in such saints, their knowledge is always absorbed by extraordinary contemplations, Divine revelations, high contemplation of the spiritual, inexpressible mysteries, and their soul in their eyes is considered ashes and dust. Other knowledge, as is characteristic of it, is arrogant, because it walks in darkness, values ​​​​its property in comparison with what is on earth, and does not know that there is something better than it. Everyone is drawn into exaltation because they are on earth, weighing their lives with their flesh, relying on their deeds and do not think in their minds about the incomprehensible. And they are exposed to this while they swim in these waves. But the saints excel in glorious Divine virtue; and their work is sorrow, and their thoughts do not wander into the care of inventions and vain things, because those who walk in the light cannot go astray. Therefore, all who have wandered away from the light of the knowledge of the Son of God and have deviated from the truth walk along these paths. This is the first degree of knowledge in which a person will follow carnal lust! We condemn this knowledge and recognize it as contrary not only to faith, but also to any practice of virtue. In Greek it is approximately the same as “philosophizing.” You might be interested in: