Слово 75. О непрестанном посте, и о том, чтобы собрать себя воедино, и о последствиях сего, и о том, что посредством ведения различий обучился он 593 правильному употреблению всего подобного

Having been tempted for a long time in the gums and ears, having tested myself many times in these two ways, having taken upon myself countless blows from the enemy and having been rewarded with great help in secret, over the course of many years I gained experience and, by the grace of God, I learned experimentally the following. The foundation of all that is good, the return of the soul from captivity to the enemy, the path leading to light and life - all this is contained in these two methods: to gather oneself together and always fast, that is, wisely and prudently make it a rule for oneself to abstain from the womb, to remain in one place forever, to ceaselessly abolish 594 and think about God. Hence the submission of feelings; hence the sobriety of the mind, hence the taming of the fierce passions aroused in the body; hence the meekness of thoughts; hence the bright movements of thought; hence the diligence towards acts of virtue; hence the high and subtle understandings; hence the tears that know no measure, flowing at all times, and the memory of death; hence pure chastity, completely far from any dream that tempts thought; hence the sharpness of vision and the sharpness of understanding what is far away; hence the deep, mysterious understandings that the mind comprehends with the help of Divine words, and the internal movements occurring in the soul, and the discrimination and reasoning of spirits - from holy Powers, and true visions - from vain dreams. Hence that fear in the ways and paths, which in the sea of ​​thought cuts off laziness and negligence, that flame of jealousy, which tramples all danger and overcomes all fear; that ardor that neglects all lust, and blots it out in the mind, and, along with everything else, brings into oblivion all remembrance of what is transitory; in short, from here comes the freedom of a true person, spiritual joy and resurrection with Christ in the Kingdom. If anyone neglects these two methods, then let him know that he will not only lose everything that has been said before, but he will also shake the very foundation of all virtues by neglecting these two virtues. And just as they, if someone holds them within himself and remains in them, are the beginning and head of divine activity in the soul, the door and path to Christ, so if someone retreats and moves away from them, he will come to these two opposite vices, I mean - bodily wandering and dishonest gluttony. This is the essence of the beginning of the opposite of what was said above, and they give place to passions in the soul. And the first principle of one reason 595 first of all releases submissive feelings from the bonds of self-collection. What happens next from this? Inappropriate and unexpected adventures, close to falls; mutiny of strong waves 596 ; a fierce ignition excited by the sight of the eyes, taking possession of the body and imprisoning it in fetters; comfortable crawling in thoughts; uncontrollable thoughts leading to fall; lukewarmness 597 in the desire for the things of God, and a gradual weakening of the distinction of silence 598, and a complete abandonment of the rule of one’s life; Due to the fact that it constantly appears to a person in involuntary and diverse visions and is encountered when moving from country to country, from place to place, there is a renewal of forgotten vices and learning of others that he did not know before. And the passions, which, by the grace of God, had already been mortified in the soul and destroyed by the oblivion of the memories stored in the mind, again begin to move and force the soul to do them. This is what (if we don’t talk or go into detail about everything else) is revealed as a result of this first reason, that is, the wandering of the body and impatience in enduring the misfortunes of silence. What happens as a consequence of another reason, that is, if we have started the business of pigs? What kind of business is this for pigs, if not to allow the belly to know no bounds and to constantly fill it, and not have the specified time to satisfy bodily needs, as is typical for rational people? And what comes next from this? Hence - heaviness in the head, great burden in the body and relaxation in the muscles, and from this - the need to leave the service of God, because there comes laziness to throw about it 599, and negligence about the usual bows, darkness and coldness of thought; a mind that has grown dull 600 and incapable of prudence from confusion and great darkness of thoughts, a thick and impenetrable darkness spread throughout the entire soul, strong despondency in every divine work, as well as when reading, because a person does not taste the sweetness of God’s words, great idleness from necessary affairs 601, an uncontrollable mind wandering throughout the earth, great accumulation of juices in all members, at night, unclean dreams of nasty ghosts and inappropriate images, filled with lust, which penetrates the soul and impurely fulfills its desires in the soul itself. And the bed of this accursed man, and his clothes, and even his whole body are desecrated by many shameful impurities, which flow from him as if from a source, and this happens to him not only at night, but also during the day, because the body always exudes impurities and defiles the thought, so for this reason a person turns away from chastity. For the sweetness of excitement is felt throughout his whole body with a constant and unbearable kindling. And he has seductive thoughts that depict beauty before him, and at all times irritate him and excite his mind to combine with them. And a person, without any hesitation, combines with these thoughts, thinking about them and lusting after them, due to the darkening of his mind. And this is the very thing that the prophet said: this is the reward for sister Sodom, who, in luxury, ate bread to her satisfaction, etc. (see Ezek. 16:49). And about this it was said by one of the great sages that if someone richly nourishes his body with pleasures, he will subject his soul to war; and if one day he comes to his senses and takes the trouble to force himself in order to master himself, then he will not be able to do this due to the strong irritation of bodily movements and because the irritations and excitements that captivate the soul with their lusts are strong and compelling. Do you see the subtlety of these godless 602 in this? And he also says: bodily pleasure, due to the softness and tenderness of youth, causes passions to soon be acquired by the soul, and death surrounds it, and thus a person falls under the judgment of God. And the soul, which always learns to remember what is due, rests in its freedom; her worries are small, she does not repent of anything, caring for virtue and holding the reins of passions; By maintaining virtue, it comes to growth, to carefree joy, to a good life and to a safe haven. Bodily pleasures not only intensify passions and stir them up in the soul, but even uproot it from its very roots, and at the same time inflame the belly to intemperance and the boundlessness of extreme debauchery, and force it to untimely satisfy bodily needs. The one overcome by this does not want to endure a small hunger and control himself, because he is a prisoner of passions. These are the shameful fruits of gluttony. And the above-described fruits of patience, staying in one place and in silence bring great benefit to the soul 603. Therefore, the enemy, knowing the times of our natural needs, prompting nature to satisfy itself, knowing that from the wandering of the eyes and the rest of the womb the mind comes into a whirlwind, tries and intensifies at such times to encourage us to make an addition to the natural needs, and to sow in us images of evil thoughts, in order, if possible, to strengthen the passions of nature for the sake of an intensified struggle and to drown a person in the fall. Therefore, just as the enemy knows the times, so we must know our weakness and the strength of our nature, that it is not sufficient to resist the aspirations and movements in these times, and the subtleties of thoughts, which in our eyes are lightly like dust, so that we cannot see them and resist what meets us; and because of the many trials to which we have been miserably exposed more than once and with which the enemy has tempted us, we must manage in the future and not allow ourselves to be defeated, in order to fulfill the will of our peace and not allow ourselves to be overcome by hunger, but if hunger exhausts and oppresses us, let us not move from the place of our silence and go to places where this could easily happen to us, and prepare for ourselves pretexts and ways to leave deserts. For these are obvious plans of the enemy. If you remain in the desert, you will not be tempted, because you will not see any women or anything harmful to your life in it, and you will not hear obscene voices. “What is the way of Egypt to you, if you drink the water of Geon” (Jer. 2:18)? Understand what I am telling you: show the enemy your patience and experience in small things, so that he does not look for great things from you 604. Let this little be an indication for you how to overthrow your opponent, so that he does not have time and he does not dig great tunnels for you. For whoever does not listen to the enemy in order to move five steps away from the place of his silence, can he obey and leave the desert or approach the village? Who does not agree to look out the window from his silent cell, will he agree to leave it? And whoever you can barely convince in the evening to taste very little food, will the thoughts of eating catch him before the time? Whoever is ashamed to fill himself with something cheap, will he desire expensive dishes? Whoever you can’t convince to look at your own body will be caught by curiosity to see other people’s beauties? Therefore, it is clear that someone, at first neglecting the small, is defeated and thus gives the enemy a reason to attack him in the great. Whoever does not care that his temporary life continues, even for a short time, will he be afraid of the bitterness and sorrows that lead to the death he desires? This is a judicious battle, because the wise do not allow themselves to imagine great deeds, but the patience they show in small things protects them from falling into great labors. Therefore, the devil tries to first make sure that unceasing heartfelt prayer is abandoned, and then instills disregard for the established times of prayer and the rules performed physically. And thus, at first the thought indulges in weakness - to taste some small amount of food and something most insignificant and insignificant ahead of time, and after falling into violation of one’s abstinence, a person creeps into intemperance and fornication. First, he is overcome by the desire (it would be better to say, it seems unimportant in his eyes) to look at the nakedness of his body or at some other beauty of his members, when he takes off his clothes, or when he goes out for bodily needs, or enters the water and relaxes his feelings, or boldly puts his hand under his clothes and begins to touch his body, and then he rises up against it, and so on, one after another. And whoever previously guarded the stronghold of the mind and grieved over one of the things that was said, then opens wide and dangerous entrances to himself, because thoughts (I will say likewise), like water, while they are restrained from everywhere, maintain their good order, and if little of their stronghold comes out, they cause destruction of the fence and great devastation. For the enemy stands before our eyes day and night, taking notice, waiting and watching through which entrance of our feelings is open for him to enter. And when we are negligent in any of the above, then this cunning and shameless dog shoots his arrows at us. And sometimes nature itself loves peace, freedom, laughter, soaring thoughts, laziness and becomes a source of passions and an abyss of rebellion, but sometimes the enemy secretly puts this into the soul. But we will therefore replace our great labors with small labors, which we regard as nothing. For if these labors, neglected by us, as shown, prevent many great feats, inconvenient labors, confused struggles and serious wounds, then who would not hasten with these small preliminary labors to find sweet peace for themselves? Oh, how amazing you are, wisdom, how you foresee everything from afar! Blessed is he who has found you. For he is free from the negligence of youth. If someone buys a cure for great passions for a small price or a small thing, then he does well. For one day one of the wise men, swaying from weakness and feeling this, quickly corrected himself, suddenly sitting up; the other, looking at him, laughed at this. But he answered: “I was not afraid of this, but I am afraid of negligence: because small negligence often leads to great dangers. And by the fact that I violated the order and soon corrected myself, I showed that I was sober and did not neglect even what was not scary.” Here is wisdom: in the smallest and most insignificant, no matter what a person does, he must always be sober. He prepares for himself great rest and does not sleep, so that nothing nasty happens to him, but he cuts off the reasons for this in advance 605 and for the sake of unimportant things endures minor sorrow, destroying the great sorrow with it. But the reckless prefer small, close peace to a distant kingdom, not knowing that it is better to endure torment in asceticism than to rest on the bed of the earthly kingdom and be condemned for laziness. Death is desired by the wise, so as not to fall under the accusation that they performed any of their deeds without sobriety. Why does the Wise One say: “Be awake and sober for the sake of your life”; because the sleep of the mind is akin to true death and is its image. And the God-bearing Basil says: “Whoever is lazy in something small, do not believe that he will excel in something great.” Don’t be discouraged when it comes to what life will bring you, and don’t be too lazy to die for it, because cowardice is a sign of despondency, and negligence 606 is the mother of both. A fearful person makes it known that he suffers from two ailments, i.e., love of body and lack of faith. And love of the body is a sign of unbelief. But whoever neglects this confirms to himself that he believes in God with all his soul and looks forward to the future 607. If someone has approached God without dangers, exploits and temptations, then you too imitate him. Heartfelt boldness and disregard for dangers occur for one of these two reasons: either because of hardness of heart, or because of great faith in God. Hardness of heart is followed by pride, and faith is followed by humility of heart. A person cannot gain hope in God if he has not previously, to a large extent, fulfilled His will. For hope in God and courage of the heart are born from the testimony of conscience, and only with the true testimony of our mind do we have hope in God. The evidence of the mind is that a person’s conscience does not condemn him at all, as if he had neglected something to which he is obliged to the best of his ability. If our heart does not condemn us, “the boldness of the imam is towards God” (1 John 3:21). Therefore, boldness is a consequence of success in virtues and a good conscience. Therefore, it is a painful 608 thing to subjugate the body. Anyone who even partly feels hope in God will not agree out of necessity to work for this cruel ruler - the body 609. Glory to our God forever and ever! Amen. Neither hot nor cold. Regarding his superiority. That is, due to their abandonment. The words: “they bring great benefit to the soul” are added from the ancient Slavic translation. Of course, probably the bliss of the future life. Paisius added: “earthly and perishable.” You might be interested in: