Слово 59. О чине монашеского жития, о сокращении 512 и различии оного и о том, почему и каким образом добродетели рождаются одна от другой

From doing with compulsion 513 is born immeasurable ardor, inflamed in the heart by ardent thoughts that first appear in the mind. And this doing and keeping refines the mind with its ardor and imparts vision to it. And this vision gives rise to the above-mentioned ardent thoughts in the depths of the spiritual vision, which is called contemplation. And this contemplation gives rise to ardor, and from this ardor, produced by the grace of contemplation, a stream of tears is born, at first - to a certain small extent, that is, in one day a person’s tears flow many times and then become scarce, and then incessant tears follow, and from incessant tears the soul accepts the pacification of thoughts; from the pacification of thoughts he rises to purity of mind, and with purity of mind a person comes into the vision of the mysteries of God; because purity is hidden in pacification from abuse. After this, the mind reaches the vision of revelations and signs, as the prophet Ezekiel saw. This depicts the three degrees by which the soul approaches God. The beginning of all this is a good intention before God and immutable types of deeds of silence; they are generated by much cutting off and removing oneself from the affairs of life. There is no great need to talk about each type of these matters, because they are known to everyone; however, since the description of them is not useless, and even, as I argue, rather useful for those reading, they should not be lazy to describe them. This is the essence: hunger, thirst 514, reading, all-night and sober vigil, according to each person’s strength, and many bows, which should be performed both during the day and many times at night. Let the smallest measure be for you to make thirty bows at one time, then bow to the Honorable Cross, and that’s it. But there are also those who, according to their strength, add (bows) to this measure. Others spend three hours in a single prayer, having a sober mind and throwing their face to the ground without compulsion and soaring thoughts. And these two types reveal and show the abundance of the wealth of benevolence, that is, the grace that is given to each person according to his dignity. What other way of praying and staying in it, free from coercion - I find it fair not to announce and, neither verbally nor in writing, not to depict the order of this prayer, so that the reader, finding himself not understanding what he is reading, does not consider what is written to have no meaning 515, or, if he turns out to know this, does not begin to humiliate the one who does not know the order in this, and in the latter case it would not happen reproach, and in the first - laughter. And then, according to the saying of the Apostle, which he said about those who prophesy, I too will find myself a foreigner in such matters (1 Cor. 14:11). Therefore, whoever wishes to understand this should follow the path described above and consistently undergo mental work 516. And when he begins to do this in practice, then he will recognize this by himself and, of course, will not require a teacher. For he says: sit in your cell, and this in itself will teach you everything. To our God be glory forever! Amen. Instead of “reduction,” perhaps we should read “tension.” That is, with self-coercion. The word “thirst” is not in the Greek text; it was added from the translation of St. Paisia. In Greek the text contains the word “useless”; Rev. Paisius, apparently, had the reading “unintelligible,” “without meaning,” which is what we accepted here. In Greek The text says “let him do what is in accordance with reason.” But Rev. Paisius, apparently, had the reading “consistently let the thought do the work,” which we accepted here. You might be interested in: