Слово 42. Послание к одному из возлюбленных Исааком, в котором предлагает он а) учение о тайнах безмолвия и о том, что многие, по незнанию сих тайн, нерадят о сем чудном делании, большая же часть держатся пребывания в келлиях, по преданию, ходящему у иноков, и б) краткий свод относящегося к сказанию

Since I am forced by my duty to write to you, brother, about what is necessary, then with my letter, according to our promise given to you, I inform your love that I have found you, by the severity of my life, having prepared myself to go into silence. Therefore, everything that I heard about this work from sensible men, after I combined the collection of their sayings in my mind with the closest experience that I actually had, I imprint in a short word in your memory; only you yourself, after carefully reading this epistle, help yourself with your usual diligence, because with wise understanding, not along with ordinary reading, you must begin to read the words collected in this epistle of ours, and, due to the great power hidden in it, with other reading, accept it as a kind of light; and then you will find out what it means to remain in silence, what the doing of it consists of, what secrets are hidden in this doing, and why some belittle the value of truth in public life and prefer it to the sorrows and feats of silent sojourn and monastic life. If you wish, brother, to find incorruptible life in your short days, then let your entry into silence be with prudence. Enter into the study of his work, and not for the sake of the name alone, enter this path, but delve into it, go deeper, strive and strive with all the saints to comprehend what the depth and height of this life is. For in every human undertaking, from the beginning of its doing to the end, some method and hope of accomplishment are presupposed; and this prompts the mind to lay the foundation of the matter. And this goal strengthens the mind to bear the difficulty of the matter; and in looking at this goal, the mind borrows for itself some consolation in action. And just as someone unremittingly strains his mind until the end of his work, so the venerable work of silence becomes a haven of secrets with a deliberate goal, to which, from beginning to end, the mind attentively looks in all its long and difficult labors. Just as the eyes of a helmsman are fixed on the stars, so one who lives in solitude throughout his journey directs his inner gaze to the goal towards which he set out to go in his mind from that first day on which he decided to travel along the fierce sea of silence, until he finds that pearl for which he set off into the impalpable abyss of the sea of silence, and hope-filled attention eases him in the burden of the task and in the cruelty of the dangers encountered in it. his procession. And whoever, at the beginning of his silence, does not assume this goal in himself for his upcoming work, acts unreasonably, just like someone who fights with the air. Such a person never gets rid of the spirit of despondency throughout his life; and one of two things happens to him: either he cannot bear the unbearable burden, is overcome by it and completely leaves silence, or he patiently remains in silence, and the cell becomes a prison house for him, and he languishes in it, because he does not know the hope of consolation generated by the practice of silence. Therefore, wanting this consolation, he cannot ask with heart disease and cry during prayer. Our fathers, filled with pity and loving their sons, left us signs of all this for the needs of our lives in their writings. One of them said: “For me, the benefit of silence is that when I leave the house in which I live, my mind rests from the preparation of war and turns to better work.” In a similar way, another said: “I strive in silence so that the verses may be enjoyed for me when reading and praying. And when my tongue becomes silent from the sweetness of understanding them, then, as if in some kind of dream, I come to a state of compression of my feelings and thoughts. And also, when, while moving away during this silence, my heart calms down from the rebellion of memories, then waves of joy are constantly sent to me by inner thoughts, which, beyond expectation, suddenly come to the delight of my heart. And when these waves approach the ship of my soul, then from the broadcasts of the world and from carnal life they plunge it into true miracles, into the silence that abides in God.” And another also said: “Silence cuts off pretexts and reasons for new thoughts and, within its walls, leads to dilapidation and fading of the memories of what we have done before 247 . And when the old substances in thought become dilapidated, then the mind, correcting them, returns to its rank.” And another said: “You will understand the measure of what is hidden 248 in you from the difference in your thoughts, but I am talking about constant thoughts, and not randomly excited and passing in an hour. There is no one wearing a body who would come to his home without being separated from two, good or bad, changes: and if he is diligent, then from changes of little importance, and with the help of nature (because fathers are the fathers of those born), and if he is careless, then from high changes, and with the help of the leaven of that grace that was in our nature" 249 . And another said: “Choose for yourself a delightful work, unceasing vigil at night, during which all the fathers put off the old man and were granted renewal of mind. In these hours the soul feels this immortal life, and by the sensation of it it takes off the garments of darkness, and receives the Holy Spirit into itself.” And another also said: “When someone sees various faces and hears various voices that disagree with his spiritual occupation, and enters into conversation and communication with them, then he cannot find free time for the mind to see himself in secret, to bring to mind his sins, to purify his thoughts, to be attentive to what comes to him 250, and to converse intimately in prayer.” And again: “It is impossible to subordinate these feelings to the power of the soul without silence and alienation from people, because the rational soul, being essentially united and associated with these feelings, is involuntarily carried away with its thoughts if a person is not awake in secret prayer.” And again: “Oh, how much pleasure it brings, how it cheers, pleases and cleanses the soul of wakefulness - by its awakening together with prayer and reading! This is best known to those who are engaged in this at all times of their lives and live in the strictest asceticism.” Therefore, you, a person who loves silence, set these indicative gestures of the fatherly words before you as a certain goal and direct the course of your work towards getting closer to them. And first of all, manage to find out what you most need to coordinate with the purpose of your work. For without this you cannot acquire knowledge of the truth; and by this try to show your patience in abundance. Silence is the sacrament of the future age, and words are the instrument of this world. A fasting person tries to liken his soul to spiritual nature through silence and incessant fasting. When a person, in his divine work, excommunicates himself in order to remain in his innermost being, then he is initiated into these sacraments, and his service is filled with the Divine sacraments, and through them, both the invisible Powers and the shrine of the Power that dominates creatures. And if some excommunicated themselves for a time in order to enter into the Divine mysteries, they were marked with this seal. And some of them were entrusted, for the renewal of those at the middle level, with the discovery of secrets hidden in the unknown silence of the Lord, because to serve such secrets would be indecent for a person whose belly is full and his mind is outraged by intemperance. But the saints did not dare to converse with God and did not ascend to the innermost mysteries, except when their members were weak, with a pale complexion from love of greed and from a silent mind, and when they renounced all earthly thoughts. For when, after a long time in your cell, in the midst of abstaining your feelings from every encounter, the power of silence overshadows you, then you first experience joy, which without reason takes possession of your soul from time to time, and then your eyes will be opened, so that, according to your purity, you can see the strength of God’s creation and the beauty of creatures. And when the mind is guided by the miracle of this vision, then both night and day will be one for it in the glorious wonders of God’s creatures. And for this reason, the feeling of passions in the soul itself is stolen by the sweetness of this vision, and in it the mind ascends to two more degrees of mental revelations, located in the order following it, starting with purity and higher. May God grant this to us too! Amen. That is, previous impressions. That is, your internal structure. The general meaning of this place is this. If a person is zealous, then he is freed from small obstacles from attachment to the sensual, and, moreover, he is freed from them thanks to his nature, which is pure (just as the pure God-created nature that produced him, so is he, his son, pure). And if he is careless, then he is freed from great obstacles from attachment to the Divine, and, moreover, freed from them with the help of Divine grace given to us, according to the words of the Apostle: “And when sin increased, grace began to abound” (Rom. 5:20). (From a note on the Greek text). That is, to those thoughts that come to him. You might be interested in: