Нил Постник

The birthplace of the holy Venerable Nile was Constantinople, his mentor was St. John Chrysostom, and the year in which he flourished was 442 AD. Having nobility and wealth in abundance, he served (χρημάτισε) as prefect of the capital of Byzantium. But then, leaving everything behind, he came to Mount Sinai, where he chose an ascetic life. Having a high level of education (μόρφωση), secular and spiritual, he left us several works filled with spiritual wisdom and inexpressible sweetness, from which we, in the image of bees, collected a word on prayer, divided into 153 chapters, and with an inscription about the feat of fasting. We offer them to our readers like a honeycomb. [The honeycomb] verily exudes honey and ambrosia and sweet nectar, and yields abundant fruit of [spiritual] benefit. There is a mention of Nile in the wise Photius (in reading 201, p. 266), who says: “The word of the monk Nile has also been read, divided into 153 chapters, in which [this] divine man reveals the path (τρόπο) of prayer. And many other wonderful deeds (έργα)..., testifying to the perfection of the deed (έργα) and the power of words. Our Reverend Father Neil preface to the prayer I was scorched by the feverish heat of impure passions when, as usual, you, with the touch of your God-loving letters, revived me again, encouraging my mind, exhausted by the most shameful [temptations], thereby blissfully imitating [our] great Mentor and Teacher. And this is not surprising: your destiny, like that of the blessed Jacob, has always been glorious. After all, having served well for Rachel and received Leah, you [now] are pursuing your beloved because of her; probably having already completed a week of years (Gen. 29:20–30). As for me, I do not deny that, having worked all night, I caught nothing (Luke 5:5). However, on your advice, having cast the nets [once again], I caught many fish - I don’t think they were large, but the number, nevertheless, was one hundred and fifty-three (John 21:11). And I send them to you in a basket of love, fulfilling your command through the same number of chapters. I am amazed and earnestly desire to imitate your wonderful desire to receive chapters on prayer. For you not only wanted to have them, imprinted with your hands and with ink on the charter, but you wanted to possess them, unshakably rooted in your mind with love and unforgettable malice. But since, according to the wise Jesus, they are all doubly, one opposite the other (Sir.42:25), then accept [my gift] both in letter and in spirit. After all, the mind precedes every letter, and if it does not exist, then there is no letter. Therefore, the image of prayer is dual: one is active, the other is contemplative. The situation is similar with number: what is obvious in it is quantity, but its meaning is quality. Having divided the work on prayer into one hundred and fifty-three [chapters], we sent them to you as a gospel reward, so that you might find pleasant delight in the symbolic number, also finding here the figure of a triangle and a hexagon, indicating both the pious knowledge of the Trinity and the outline of this universe. For the number one hundred itself is quadrangular, and fifty-three is triangular and spherical. Twenty-eight is triangular, and twenty-five is spherical, since five is twenty-five. Thus, you have the figure of a quadrangle due to the quaternity of virtues, and also in the number twenty-five you have the figure of a circle, [denoting] through the circular rotation of times the wise knowledge of the age. For time rolls on week after week, month after month, year after year and time after time, as we see in the movement of the sun and moon, spring and summer, etc. The triangle probably signifies the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. Or in other words: if you think of the number one hundred and fifty-three, then it, due to its abundance and as a triangle, is active, natural and theological. It is also faith, hope and love, or gold, silver and precious stones. This is what refers to number. As for the heads, do not despise their poverty, as one who has learned both to endure hunger and to be in want (Phil. 4:12). Remember the One who did not reject the widow’s two mites, but accepted them more graciously than the riches of many others (Luke 21:3). Therefore, having known the fruit of good will and love, be attentive to your sincere brothers, pray for the weak, so that he becomes healthy and, taking up his bed, can walk (Mark 2:11) through the grace of Christ. Amen. 1. If someone wanted to prepare fragrant incense, then, according to the law, he would add in equal measure pure frankincense, cassia, onikh and stakti (Ex. 30:34). And this is the fourfold virtues. When they are present in full and equal measure, the mind will not be betrayed. 2. The soul, having been purified by the fullness of the commandments, prepares an unshakable position of the mind, making it capable of perceiving the desired state. 3. Prayer is a conversation between the mind and God. What state must the mind achieve in order for it to be able to invariably reach out to its Master and converse with Him without any intermediary? 4. If Moses, who tried to approach the bush [burning] burning on the earth, was forbidden to do so until he took off his shoes from his feet (Ex. 3:5), then shouldn’t you, who want to contemplate the One who is above all feeling and thought, and become an interlocutor with Him, take off every passionate thought? 5. First of all, pray for the gift of tears, so that through contrition you can soften the rudeness existing in your soul and, having confessed your iniquities to the Lord (Ps. 31:5), receive forgiveness from Him. 6. Use your tears to carry out every request. For the Lord rejoices greatly over you when you pray with tears. 7. If you shed streams of tears in your prayer, do not be at all proud of it, considering yourself superior to many. For your prayer received help [from above], so that you could zealously confess your sins and appease the Master with tears. Therefore, do not turn protection from passions into a passion, so as not to anger the One who gave you grace. 8. Many who cry about [their] sins have forgotten the purpose of their tears and, falling into madness, have turned away [from the true path]. 9 . Stand [at prayer] diligently and pray fervently, turning away from the worries and reasoning that take possession of you. For they confuse and confuse you in order to weaken your strength. 10. When demons see your zeal for true prayer, then they plant thoughts about certain things that are supposedly necessary. After a short time they awaken the memory of them, moving the mind to search for these things, and since it does not find them, it soon becomes discouraged and mourns. While standing in prayer, demons [once again] remind the mind of the things sought, forcing it to remember them, so that it, encouraged to engage in them, loses fruitful prayer. 11. Strive to ensure that during prayer your mind becomes deaf and dumb, and then you will be able to pray. 12. When temptation happens to you, or you enter into an argument and, irritated by the contradiction, utter a disrespectful word, then remember prayer and the judgment that it entails, and the disorderly movement within you will immediately calm down. 13. What you do to take revenge on a brother who offended you will become a stumbling block for you during prayer. 14. Prayer is an escape [from the tree] of meekness and gentleness. 15. Prayer is the fruit of joy and thanksgiving. 16. Prayer is protection from sadness and despondency. 17. When you leave [the world], sell what you have and give it to the poor (Matthew 19:21) and, taking up the cross, deny yourself (Matthew 16:24), so that you can pray undistractedly (without entertainment). 18. If you want to pray with merit, deny yourself every hour and, enduring numerous and severe trials, philosophize about prayer. 19. No matter what hardships you endure while striving in wisdom, you will discover its fruit during prayer. 20. If you want to pray as you should, do not plunge your soul into sadness. Otherwise, you are struggling in vain. 21. [Scripture] reads: Leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother (Matthew 5:24); then, when you come, you will pray calmly. For memory malice darkens the ruling principle of the soul of the one praying and darkens his prayers. 22. Those who accumulate grief and memory in themselves are like those [people] who scoop up water and pour it into a leaky barrel. 23. If you are patient, you will always pray with joy. 24. When you pray as you should, then things may arise in front of you that you consider it fair to deal with using anger. However, there is no righteous anger at one’s neighbor at all. For if you make an effort, you will find that it is possible to settle the matter without anger. Therefore, use all means possible so as not to burst into anger. 25. Be careful that, under the pretext of healing someone else, you do not become unhealed and put obstacles in your prayer. 26. By abstaining from anger, you yourself will find forgiveness [from others] and show yourself to be reasonable by becoming one of the prayer books. 27. Armed against anger, never allow lust to enter you. For it supplies the substance for anger, which clouds the intelligent eye, upsetting the state of prayer. 28. Pray not only with external bodily movements, but encourage your mind to turn with great fear to the feeling of spiritual prayer. 29. Sometimes, as soon as you start praying, you immediately begin to pray well, and sometimes, even after working hard, you cannot achieve your goal. [This happens so that] you seek spiritual perfection with even greater zeal and, having acquired it, keep it unspoiled. 30. When an Angel approaches [us], the [demons] that bother us retreat and the mind finds great joy, praying with cheerful fullness of health. However, sometimes ordinary warfare consumes us, and the mind fights, unable to raise its eyes to grief. And this is because before he was infected with many different passions. However, if he searches more, he will find; if he knocks harder, it will be opened to him (Matthew 7:8). 31. Do not pray for the fulfillment of your desires, for they are not always in tune with the will of God. Better pray as you were taught, saying: Thy will be done on me (Matthew 6:10). And in every matter, ask God that His will be done. For He desires what is good and beneficial to your soul, but you do not always seek this. 32. Often, when I prayed, I asked that what seemed good to me would be fulfilled, and, unreasonably persisting in my request, I forced the will of God by force, and did not surrender [myself] to God, so that He would arrange [everything] economically, since He knows better than me what is good for me. However, having received [what I asked for], I then suffered greatly because I did not trust in the will of God, for [the acquired thing] deceived my expectations. 33. What is good other than God? Therefore, let us hand over everything that concerns us to Him, and it will be good for us. For the Good One, of course, is also the Giver of good gifts. 34. Do not be sad if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask for. For He desires to more fully benefit you, who constantly and intensely pray to Him. After all, what could be more sublime than the desire to have a conversation with God and communicate with Him? 35. Undistracted prayer is the highest thinking of the mind. 36. Prayer is the ascension of the mind to God. 37. If you are eager to pray, renounce everything in order to inherit everything. 38. Pray, firstly, for cleansing from passions; secondly, about deliverance from ignorance and oblivion; thirdly, [about liberation], from temptation and abandonment by God. 39. In your prayer, seek only truth and the Kingdom [of God], that is, virtue and knowledge, and everything else will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). 40. Righteously [to pray] means to pray not only for one’s own purification, but also for every one of one’s fellow tribesmen, in order to imitate the angelic image [of life]. 41. See whether you really stand before God in your prayer, or whether you succumb to the temptation of human praise and hunt for it under the plausible pretext of prolonged prayer. 42. Whether you pray with the brethren or alone, strive to pray not only out of habit, but with feeling. 43. The feeling of prayer is deep thought, accompanied by benevolence, contrition and mental anguish when confessing sins with silent groans. 44. If during prayer your mind is distracted, then it realizes that it is not a monk praying and that he is still a worldly person decorating the outer tabernacle. 45. When praying, be extremely vigilant in relation to your memory, so that it does not offer you its [sinful memories]. On the contrary, move yourself to conduct [your] ministry. For the mind during prayer can be stolen by memory. 46. When you pray, the memory evokes in you either dreams of past deeds, or new worries, or it presents you with the face of the offender. 47. The demon is very jealous of the praying person and uses all means to lead him astray. Therefore, he does not cease to evoke thoughts about things with the help of memory, but with the help of the flesh he casts them down to the ground with passions, in order only to hinder his progress along the good path of asceticism and ascension to God. 48. If the most cunning demon, having used many [cunnings], cannot interfere with the prayer of the righteous, then he retreats a little, but then, when the prayer is finished, he takes revenge on him. For this demon either kindles anger in him, destroying the best state [of the soul] that arose as a result of prayer, or incites him to unreasonable pleasure and mocks the mind. 49. Having prayed as you should, expect what you should not, but stand courageously, protecting your fruit. For this is what you were designed for from the beginning: to work and to keep (Gen. 2:15). Therefore, having cultivated it, do not leave what you have earned through labor unprotected, otherwise prayer will not benefit you at all. 50. Any battle that arises between us and unclean demons is waged only because of spiritual prayer and nothing else. After all, for them it is extremely unpleasant and painful, but for us it is salutary and beneficial. 51. What do the demons want to arouse in us? – Gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, memory malice and other passions, so that the mind, having become clothed with them, cannot pray as it should. For the passions of the irrational part [of the soul], beginning to dominate the mind, do not allow it to move rationally. 52. We pursue virtues for the sake of the logoi of created things (τοὺς λόγους τῶν γεγονότων); We strive for them for the sake of the Word, which gives existence [to these logoi], and this Word usually reveals itself [to us] in a state of prayer. 53. The state of prayer is a skill of dispassion, which, with the help of the highest love, delights the wise mind to spiritual heights (literally, “delights to intelligible heights”). 54. He who wishes to truly pray must have dominion not only over the violent and desirable [parts of the soul], but also be beyond all passionate thought. 55. He who loves God always converses with Him as with the Father, turning away from every passionate thought. 56. One who has achieved dispassion does not necessarily immediately [be granted] true prayer. For he can still be occupied with simple thoughts and amuse himself by considering them, and therefore be very far from God. 57. But even when the mind does not linger on simple thoughts about things, this does not mean that it has already reached the place of prayer. For it is possible to always remain in contemplation of things and constantly reflect on their logoi, which, although they are simple statements, but, as ideas about things, imprint and shape the mind, and therefore lead it far from God. 58. Even if the mind turns out to be above the contemplation of bodily nature, this does not mean that it has seen the perfect place of God. For he can [all the time] remain in the knowledge of intelligible [things] and dissipate his attention on them. 59. If you want to pray, then you need God, who gives prayer to the one praying. Therefore call upon Him, saying: Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come (Matthew 6:9, 10), that is, the Holy Spirit and Thy Only Begotten Son. For this is what the Lord taught [us], saying: The Father must be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). 60. He who prays in spirit and truth reverently honors the Creator, not [coming] from creatures, but [coming] from Him Himself, praising Him. 61. If you are a theologian, then you will pray truly, and if you pray truly, then you are a theologian. 62. When your mind, [kindled] by ardent love for God, gradually renounces the flesh and turns away from all thoughts emanating from feeling, memory and temperament, and at the same time becomes filled with reverence and joy, then consider that you have approached the limits of prayer. 63. The Holy Spirit, sympathizing with our weakness, visits us even if we are unclean; and if He finds that only the mind is praying to him with love for the truth, then he descends on him and disperses the entire phalanx of thoughts and [sinful] thoughts that surrounded him, turning him to an ardent desire for spiritual prayer. 64. While others produce thoughts, thoughts and ideas in the soul, taking advantage of changes in the body, the Lord does the opposite: He enters the mind itself and imparts into it knowledge of those things that are pleasing to Him; through the mind He also calms the intemperance of the body. 65. No one can avoid reproach when, while loving true prayer, a person falls into anger or resentment. For such a person is like one who wants to be watchful and damages his own eyes. 66. If you want to pray, do not do anything contrary to prayer, so that God, approaching [you], travels with you. 67. When praying, do not clothe the Divinity within yourself in visible forms and do not allow your mind to be imprinted in any [sensual] image, but approach the Immaterial immaterially, and [then] you will comprehend [It]. 68. Beware of the traps of opposing [forces]. For it happens that when you pray purely and serenely, then suddenly a certain alien and alien image appears before you in order to lead you into conceit and [instill the idea] that the Divinity is in a certain specific place and as if It immediately reveals itself to you as something quantitative, whereas this Divinity is devoid of form and size. 69. When an envious demon cannot awaken the memory during prayer, then he forces the bodily temperament to produce some alien idea in the mind and give it form. And since the mind has the habit of remaining in speculation, it easily gives in and, rushing towards immaterial and formless knowledge, is deceived and filled with smoke instead of light. 70. Stand on your guard (Hab. 2:1), protecting your mind from thoughts during prayer, in order to fulfill the request and be unshakable in your own peace, and also so that the One who sympathizes with the ignorant will visit you too - then you will receive the most glorious gift of prayer. 71. You cannot pray purely if you are absorbed in material things and agitated by constant worries. For prayer is the detachment [of the mind from all] thoughts. 72. A bound man cannot escape; and the mind, slavishly serving passion, cannot see the place of spiritual prayer, for it is dragged and whirled by passionate thought and is unable to achieve motionless constancy. 73. When, finally, the mind begins to pray purely and dispassionately, then demons attack it no longer from the left, but from the right. They [figuratively] represent to him the glory of God and take the form of something pleasing to the senses, so that it seems to him as if he has already completely achieved the goal of prayer. This, as the man abounding in knowledge said, comes from the passion of vanity and from a demon touching a certain place in the brain. 74. I think that a demon touching the said place [of the brain] turns away the light that surrounds the mind. And thus, the passion of vanity penetrates into the rational part of the soul, setting the mind in a frivolous mood so that the divine and essential knowledge becomes palpable. Since the mind is not bothered by carnal and impure passions, but is in purity [in prayer], it seems to it that there is no hostile action in it. Therefore, he accepts the phenomenon produced in him by the demon as a divine phenomenon. And the demon, having demonstrated extraordinary skill, [acts] on the light associated [with the mind], changes it and, as we have already said, thereby shapes the mind. 75. The Angel of God, appearing [before us], with just one word drives away from us every enemy action and allows the light of the mind to act steadily. 76. When the Apocalypse speaks of an Angel who brings incense to give it [to help] the prayers of the saints (Rev. 8:3), then I think that grace is meant here, brought into action by the Angel. [This grace] creates the knowledge of true prayer, so that the mind finally remains firmly outside all confusion, despondency and negligence. 77. Bowls full of incense, which, as they say, are the prayers of the saints and which were brought by the twenty-four elders (Rev. 5:8), [must be understood this way]: the “cup” is affection for God, or perfect and spiritual love, in which prayer is carried out in spirit and truth. 78. When it seems to you that if you pray, you don’t need to cry about your sins, [immediately] pay attention to how far you are from God, although you must always abide in Him - then you will shed hotter tears. 79. Truly, having known your limits, you will begin to readily lament, complaining about yourself like Isaiah: how, being unclean and being among such a people, that is, among opponents, you dare to stand before the Lord of Hosts (Is. 6:5). 80. If you truly pray, you will gain complete certainty and the Angels will gather to you, as to Daniel, and enlighten you regarding the logoi of created things. 81. Know that the holy Angels encourage us to pray and stand next to us, rejoicing and praying for us. But if we are careless and susceptible to opposing thoughts, then we make them very angry, because while they strive so hard for our sake, we do not want to pray to God for ourselves, but neglect our service and leave their Master and God, going to meet unclean demons. 82. Pray meekly and calmly, sing psalms wisely (Ps. 47:8) and euphoniously - then you will be like a young eagle soaring high. 83. Psalmody lulls passions and calms the intemperance of the body; and prayer prepares the mind to carry out the action that is characteristic of it. 84. Prayer is an action befitting the dignity of the mind or its best and true use. 85. Psalmody refers to manifold wisdom, while prayer is an introduction to immaterial and slightly varied knowledge. 86. The most beautiful thing is knowledge, for it promotes prayer, prompting the thinking power of the mind to contemplate Divine knowledge. 87. If you have not yet received the [grace-filled] gift of prayer and psalmody, be persistent and you will receive it. 88. He also told them a parable about how one should always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). Therefore, do not be discouraged and do not be discouraged by what you have not yet received. You'll receive it later. And to the parable [the Lord] added [also the words]: Although I do not fear God and am not ashamed of people, yet, like a woman who gives no rest, I will bring judgment on her (Luke 18:4, 5). So God will soon protect those who cry to Him day and night (Luke 18:7). Therefore, rejoice as you continue in holy prayer with diligence and patience. 89. Do not desire what seems right to you, but desire what pleases God, and you will be serene and grateful in your prayer. 90. Even if it seems to you that you are already with God, beware of the demon of fornication, for he is very deceptive and envious. This demon wants to be more agile than the movement and sobriety of your mind in order to distract it from God, even when it stands before Him with reverence and fear. 91. If you diligently practice prayer, then prepare for the attacks of demons and patiently endure the blows of their whips. For they will attack you like wild beasts and ulcerate your whole body. 92. Prepare, like an experienced fighter, not to hesitate if you suddenly see a [certain] vision; do not be afraid if [you see] a sword pulled out against you, or a torch aimed directly at your eyes; do not lose heart if a certain face, ugly and bloody, [appears before you]. On the contrary, stand firm, making a good confession (1 Tim. 6:12), and look upon your enemies with a light heart! 93. He who endures sorrow [worthily] will also find joy, and he who is courageous in hardship will not lose [spiritual] sweetness. 94. Be careful that the crafty demons do not deceive you with any vision, but be attentive when turning to prayer and call on God, so that if the thought [comes] from Him, He Himself will enlighten you, and if not, so that He will quickly drive the tempter away from you. And be brave, because the dogs (demons) will not resist if you resort to fervently calling on God in prayer (ἔντευξις, request). Then the demons, invisibly and indirectly scourged by God’s power, will run far away [from you]. 95. You must not be ignorant of the following cunning of demons: at times they are divided among themselves, and if you seem to be seeking help against some, then others come in angelic forms and [as if] drive out the first ones so that you are deceived by their intent (lit. “consciousness, spirit, will, opinion, intention”), mistaking them for genuine Angels. 96. Take care of much humility and courage, and then the attacks of demons will not touch your soul, and the blows of their whips will not come close to your bodily church, because He will command His angels about you - to keep you (Ps. 90:11). And the Angels will invisibly repel every enemy action from you. 97. He who cares about pure prayer hears noises, stomping and voices emanating from demons, but he will not fall on his face from them and will not lose his head (literally, “and will not betray [his] understanding”), but, turning to God, he will say: I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Ps. 22:4) and the like. 98. During such temptations, use short and intense prayer. 99. If demons threaten you, suddenly appearing out of thin air to strike you and steal your mind, do not be afraid of them and do not pay attention to their fears. For they frighten you, testing whether you take them seriously or have already completely despised them. 100. If you stand before God Almighty, the Creator and Provider of everything in prayer, why do you stand before Him so unreasonably and neglect His irresistible fear, being afraid of mosquitoes and cockroaches? Or do you not hear the saying: Fear the Lord your God (Deut. 10:20) and Whom all fear and tremble at the presence of His power (2 Chron. 36: the prayer of Manasseh) and so on. 101. Just as bread is food for the body, and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind. 102. In the sacred place of prayer, pray not like a Pharisee, but like a tax collector (Luke 18:10-14), so that you too may be justified by the Lord. 103. In your prayer, try not to call curses on the head of any [person], so as not to destroy what you are building and not to make your prayer vile. 104. Let him who owes ten thousand talents (Matthew 18:24-35) serve as a lesson to you: if you do not forgive [your] debtor, then you yourself will not receive forgiveness [of your debt]. For [Scripture] says: He gave him over to the torturers (Matthew 18:34). 105. While standing in prayer, do not pay attention to the needs of the body, so that if you are bitten by a flea, louse, mosquito or fly, you will not be deprived of the great benefits from prayer. 106. It has come to our attention that one of the saints, when he was praying, was so opposed by the evil one that as soon as he stretched out his hands, the evil one was transformed into a lion and, standing straight on his hind legs, raised his front paws, plunging his claws into the sides of the ascetic and not retreating, in anticipation that he would let go of his hands. But the saint never relaxed his hands without completing his usual prayer. 107. The same was, as we know, John the Small, or better yet, the greatest monk who remained silent in the pit. As a result of his constant presence with God, he remained motionless when the demon, in the form of a dragon, wrapped itself around him, bit his flesh and burped in his face. 108. You, of course, have read the lives of the Tavennisiot monks, where it is said that when Abba Theodore was speaking to the brethren, two vipers crawled under his feet, and he calmly covered them with his feet, like a vault, and kept them there until he finished his speech. Only after that did he show them to the brothers, explaining what was the matter. 109. We also read about another spiritual brother that while he was praying, a viper crawled up and grabbed his leg. But he only lowered his hands when he completed his usual prayer. And this one who loved God more than himself did not suffer any harm. 110. During prayer, keep your eyes downcast and, having renounced your flesh and soul, live according to your mind. 111. Another saint, who was silent in the desert and fervently praying, was attacked by demons for two weeks in this way: they played with him like a ball, throwing him into the air and catching him on a substitute reed mat. However, they could not bring his mind down from fiery prayer. 112. Two Angels appeared to another God-loving [ascetic], walking through the desert and mentally praying, and, standing on his sides, began to make the journey with him. But he did not pay attention to them at all, so as not to suffer damage at best. After all, he remembered the words of the Apostle: Neither Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers... can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:38, 39). 113. A monk becomes equal to the Angels when he desires to see the face of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 18:10). 114. During prayer, never seek to see [any] face or appearance. 115. Do not want to see in a sensual image either Angels, or the Power, or Christ, so as not to become a complete madman, mistaking the wolf for a shepherd and worshiping [instead of God] the opponents of demons. 116. The beginning of pretentiousness of mind is vanity; prompted by it, the mind tries to describe the Divine in [some] face or form. 117. I will say my own - what the novice also said: blessed is the mind that, during prayer, has acquired complete freedom from material images. 118. Blessed is the mind that, indulging in prayer without distraction, always acquires greater and greater love for God. 119. Blessed is the mind that, during prayer, becomes immaterial and detached (lit. “non-covetous”) from everything material. 120. Blessed is the mind that, during prayer, has acquired complete insensibility (ἀναισθησία, in the positive sense). 121. Blessed is the monk who considers every person to be a god after God. 122. Blessed is the monk who looks upon the salvation and prosperity of all with great joy, as if it were his own. 123. Blessed is the monk who considers himself dust trampled underfoot by all (1 Cor. 4:13). 124. A monk is one who, having withdrawn from everyone, is united with everyone. 125. A monk is one who considers himself one with everyone, since he wants to see himself in everyone without exception. 126. He successfully performs prayer who brings all his first thoughts to God. 127. If you want to pray like a monk, avoid all lies and all oaths, otherwise it is in vain that you take on an appearance that is unusual for you. 128. If you want to pray in the spirit, do not drag up anything carnal, and then there will be no clouds to obscure your [eyes] during prayer. 129. Entrust [all] your bodily needs to God, and it will be clear that you trust him with the needs of the spirit as well. 130. If you achieve the promises, you will reign. Therefore, fixing your gaze on them, you must willingly endure the poverty of life here. 131. Do not give up poverty and sorrow, which are the substance of weightless prayer. 132. Let the physical virtues in you be the guarantee of spiritual ones, the spiritual virtues - the guarantee of spiritual ones, and the spiritual ones - the guarantee of immaterial and essential knowledge. 133. When praying, observe the thought: if it calms down easily, [trace] where it came from, so as not to fall into an ambush and, having fallen into deception, not to betray yourself. 134. It happens that demons inspire thoughts in you, and then encourage you to resist these thoughts in prayer and [internally] argue with them. Then [the demons] voluntarily retreat, so that you, having fallen into delusion, imagine yourself as if you have already begun to conquer your thoughts and frighten the demons. 135. If in prayer you confront any passion or demon that bothers you, remember the words of [the Psalmist]: I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not return until they perish. I will afflict them [so that] they will not be able to stand up; they will fall under my feet. ( Ps. 17:38, 39 ) and so on. Speak them at the right time, putting on the armor of humility against your opponents. 136. Do not think that you have already acquired virtue if you have not previously fought for it to the point of blood. For we must fight until we bleed, struggling without reproach against sin, according to the divine Apostle (Heb. 12:4). 137. It may happen that, having helped some [person], you will suffer damage from another, and therefore, offended, you will say or do something indecent [in relation to your neighbor]. In this way, you will waste what you have collected well. And this is the goal of crafty demons. Therefore, you should be reasonably vigilant. 138. If you are attacked by demons, accept them, but take care to avoid their slavery. 139. At night, crafty demons ask [God to give them] a spiritual teacher and [they could] frighten him themselves; during the day they [attack] him through people, entangling him in a network of misfortunes, slander and dangers. 140. Don't ask for mercy from the clothiers. For if they beat, trample with their feet, stretch and polish, then this only makes your robe [more] lighter. 141. Since you have not renounced passions and your mind resists virtue and truth, you will not find fragrant incense in your bosom. 142. Are you hungry to pray? – Then move from here and always have a residence in heaven (Phil. 3:20). And have it not only in words, but by angelic deeds and divine knowledge. 143. If only in misfortunes you remember the Judge and how formidable and incorruptible He is, then you have not yet learned to work for the Lord with fear and rejoice before Him with trembling (Ps. 2:11). Know that in spiritual joys and holidays you should serve Him with great reverence and awe. 144. That man has spiritual understanding who, until complete repentance, does not cease to remember with sorrow [his] sins and the righteous punishment for them in eternal fire. 145. Possessed by sins and anger, but shamelessly daring to reach out to the knowledge of divine things and begin immaterial prayer, let him hear the Apostolic prohibition [which states] that it is not safe for him to pray with his head naked and uncovered. For such a soul, says [the Apostle], must have on its head a sign of authority over it, for the Angels (1 Cor. 11:10), clothed in shame and appropriate humility. 146. Just as someone suffering from an eye disease will not benefit from intensely looking at the scorching sun at midday, when the gaze is not covered by anything, so a passionate and unclean mind will not benefit at all from the mental image of awe-inspiring and supernatural prayer in spirit and truth. On the contrary, [such insolence] will bring upon the mind the indignation of the Divine. 147. If the Self-sufficient and impartial did not accept the one who came with a gift to the altar until he was reconciled with his neighbor who was upset with him (Matthew 5:23, 24), then notice how great [internal] vigilance and discernment must be so that we can burn incense acceptable to God on the spiritual altar. 148. Do not be lovers of words and lovers of glory, otherwise sinners will do not only on your back, but also on your face (Ps. 129:3). And during prayer you will be a laughing stock for them, carried away and seduced by them into monstrous thoughts. 149. Attention that seeks prayer will find it, for it is prayer, and nothing else, that follows attention, and it is precisely this that one should zealously engage in. 150. Just as sight is better than all the senses, so prayer is more divine than all virtues. 151. Praise for prayer is not just quantity, but also quality. This is shown by those who entered the church to pray (Luke 18:10) and the words: And when you pray, do not say unnecessary things (Matt. 6:7) and the following. 152. As long as you pay attention to the position of the body corresponding to [prayer], and your mind cares about the comforts of the [bodily] tabernacle, you have not yet seen the place of prayer and are far from this blessed path. 153. When, standing in prayer, you find yourself above all other joy, then you will finally truly find prayer. The same venerable father of our Nile, an ascetic word, very necessary and useful Many of the Hellenes and a considerable number of Jews began to practice philosophy, but some of Christ’s disciples were zealous for true philosophy, because they alone had Wisdom itself (Christ) as a teacher, showing in practice what kind of life is appropriate for such a purpose. For the first, as if appearing to act in a disgraceful manner, adorned themselves with someone else’s mask, bearing only one name and being deprived of true wisdom. With an old cloak, beard and staff they showed their wisdom, but they took care of the body, served lusts as if they were mistresses, were slaves of the womb, allowed gross pleasures as a natural thing, submitted to anger, loved fame, greedily, like dogs, rushed to luxurious meals, not knowing that the wise must first of all be free and, above all, avoid being a slave to passions or mercenary and servant of slaves. For whoever lived as he should, it did not harm him at all that he was a slave to people, but whoever has passions as mistresses, he, serving pleasures, is exposed to shame and arouses great laughter. Some of them do not care at all about an active life, but, as they think, are engaged in speculative wisdom, delving into difficult research, talking about things that cannot be proven, boasting that they know the size of the sky, the measure of the sun and the effectiveness of the stars. And others sometimes attempted to theologize, although in this the truth is unsearchable and the guess is dangerous; they lived more dishonestly in the mud of wallowing pigs. If some led an active life, then they became worse than the first, having worked hard for fame and praise, for out of nothing else than the desire to show themselves and the love of fame, these pitiful ones began many things, accepting a cheap and insignificant reward for such misery: because they always remain silent, eat grass, cover their bodies with thin rags and live, enclosed in a barrel, not expecting any reward for this after death, worse than any madness. This meant limiting the rewards for virtue in real life, imposing on oneself feats for which there is no time to receive crowns, waging a constant struggle without any rewards for it, being in competitions that bring nothing but shedding sweat. Among the Jews, the descendants of Jonadab turn out to be admirers of this way of life, who, accepting everyone who wants to live like this, subject them to the same rule, themselves always living in booths, abstaining from wine and from all luxury, being content with a poor meal commensurate with bodily needs. Therefore, they are both very concerned about moral education and spend a lot of time in speculation, which is why they are called Essenes, so that the very name makes them seen as wise people. In a word, in their opinion, the goal of wisdom is fully achieved when deeds do not in the least contradict the vow. But what is the use of exploits and difficult struggles for them, who rejected Christ the Lawgiver? And their reward for their labors also perishes, because they have renounced the Distributor of the rewards of true life, and therefore are far from wisdom. For wisdom is the correction of morals, with true knowledge of Existence. And far from him are those and others, both Jews and Greeks, who rejected the Wisdom that descended from Heaven and attempted to be wise without Christ, Who alone showed true wisdom in both deed and word. He was the first with His life to pave the way to this wisdom, showing the image of a pure life, always ascending in soul above bodily passions, and finally, when the salvation of people, which He was building, required death, He did not spare even the soul; and thereby teaching that those who intend the right to be wise must renounce everything pleasant in life, work, neglecting the body, dominate the passions and not highly value the soul itself, but, when it must be used for the demonstration of virtue, willingly betray it. And having borrowed this way of life, the holy Apostles imitated it. As soon as they were called, they renounced worldly life, considered their fatherland, clan, and estate as nothing, immediately entered into a harsh and difficult life, overcame all inconveniences, sorrows, bitterness (Heb. 11:37), being persecuted, naked, suffering a lack of the most necessary things, and subsequently daring to death. In everything they perfectly imitated the Teacher and in their lives they left an example of the best way of life. But since all Christians, being obliged to chart their lives according to this model, either did not want to, or did not have the strength to imitate, a few were able to rise above worldly rebellions, avoid the stormy city life and, thus placing themselves outside the unrest, love the monastic life, then only the latter made their lives an imprint of apostolic virtue, preferring non-acquisitiveness to acquisitions, so as not to have fun with anything, giving instead of gourmet food the advantage of a hastily prepared one, so that, by satisfying the bodily needs with food that has happened, thereby preventing the uprising of passions; Having disdained luxurious clothes and made beyond the need, as an invention of human luxury, according to the needs of the body, they used a simple and simple robe, despising pleasures, recognizing it as an unwise thing to leave the care of Heavenly, and to occupy the mind with what lies on the earth and naturally goes to the animals, they did not know the world, becoming outside of human passions: between them there was neither an advantage, nor an inferior advantage, neither judging nor being judged. For each had his own conscience as an incorruptible judge, and it never happened that one became rich and another became poor, one wasted away with hunger, and another sat down from satiety, because the poverty of those who were insufficient was replenished by the generosity of those who were abundant. They had equality and equal rights, and inequality was banished by the voluntary union of the advantaged with the inferior. It would be better to say that there was no equality then, because even then the zeal of those trying to become more humble produced inequality, just as the frantic desire of those who intensify to become more famous now produces inequality. Envy was banished from them, hatred had no place, vanity fled from them, pride was destroyed, everything that could cause indignation was exterminated - for the strongest passions they were somehow dead and insensitive, not even dreaming of them, because at first, with daily exploits and patience, they perfectly diverted from themselves the remembrance of passions. In a word, having established themselves in this state, they became, as it were, lamps shining in the darkness, non-wandering stars illuminating the gloomy night of life, the calmness surrounding them, showing everyone how conveniently to hide in the pier, harmlessly avoiding the attack of passions. But this strict life, this Heavenly rule of life, like an image that, from the negligence of those who copy it over time, gradually becomes less similar, finally reached the point of dissimilarity and became completely far from the prototype. Those who were crucified to the world, who renounced worldly life, who renounced living like other people, who strived with the immutability of dispassion to be transformed into the nature of the disembodied Forces, again turned back to everyday pursuits, to shameful trades, darkening the strict life of those who had previously spent it beautifully, and by their inattention doing that they blaspheme those who could be praised and glorified for their virtue. We still hold on to the handle of the rala (plough), maintaining an honest appearance, but we have already become unsuitable for the Heavenly Kingdom, because we have returned back and with great care we hold on to what we were obliged to forget, we are no longer trying to live a life that does not require costs and troubles: silence is not recognized by us as necessary to rid ourselves of outdated impurities, but we respect many things that require care that is useless for the true purpose, and the competition about the material defeated the saving advice. The Lord completely freed us from caring about earthly things and commanded us to seek only the Heavenly Kingdom, and we, as if trying to follow the opposite path, did not pay attention to this, renouncing the Lord’s commandments and the Lord’s care for us, and placed our hope in our own hands. For the Lord says: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them (Matthew 6:26); and again: Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin (Matthew 6:28). He forbade even having a scrip, a sack and a rod (Luke 9:3; 10:4), but commanded that one be content with one false promise, which, sending His disciples to do good to other people, he said like this: For the one who works is worthy of food (Matt. 10:10). For he knew that this promise in the provision of what we need is stronger than our effectiveness. But we do not refuse to acquire as much land as we can, we buy herds of sheep, working oxen, different in appearance and size, fatted donkeys, so that the sheep provide us with plenty of wool for products, and the oxen, serving the products of agriculture, give us food and food for themselves and other animals; the jugular pack animals, making up for what was lacking in one country with those brought from other countries, supplied the necessary food with seasonings, thereby increasing the pleasantness of life. And among the arts, those that are more profitable and do not leave us any time to remember God, steal all our leisure from us, we prefer, condemning, as can be seen, either the Trustee in weakness, or ourselves for our previous confession; and, although we do not admit this in word, we expose ourselves to this in our deeds, admiring the life of the laity, when we do the same things as they do, and even, perhaps, spend more time than them in bodily exercises. Why do many even consider piety to be a means to acquisition and think that this serene and blessed life of ancient times is engaged in nothing more than to, under the guise of feigned piety, avoid difficult services and, having acquired the freedom to enjoy unhindered, extend their aspirations to anything, with great shamelessness boasting before the inferior, and sometimes even before those who have an advantage, as if a virtuous life is considered a reason for autocracy, and not to humility and modesty. Therefore, those who should respect us look at us as an idle crowd: bureaucrats and commoners laugh at us more than at those hustling in the markets, because we do not, as we should, have any difference from others, we want to be known not by life, but by clothing, we refuse to work for virtue, and desire glory for it with fury, showing in ourselves one shadow of the former truth. And now another, having taken upon himself this venerable image, but not having yet washed away the impurities of his soul, not having erased the imprinted traces of previous sins in his heart, even, perhaps, still unruly admiring their representation and not having taught his character to conform to this promise, not knowing what the purpose of wisdom according to God is, raises his eyebrows in a Pharisaical manner, thinking highly of one external image as success in virtues, and goes everywhere, carrying with him shells with which he has not learned to act, with a visible appearance he shows in himself knowledge that he has not tasted even with the edges of his lips, turning out to be an underwater rock instead of a pier, instead of a church a sunken tomb (Matthew 23:27), instead of a sheep a wolf - to the destruction of those caught by appearances. For when such, having fled from the monasteries because they could not bear the severity of life, give themselves freedom in the cities, then, already disturbed by the needs of the belly, to the deception of many they accept the image of piety as a bait, being ready to do everything that bodily need forces them to do, because the compulsion of natural necessity is stronger than anything, which in difficult circumstances skillfully invents an outcome from them. Especially when deliberate idleness is added, then every pretext finds its place with greater cunning. Therefore, just as relentlessly as parasites, they stand at the doors of the rich, like slaves, run in front of them in the squares, pushing aside those who come close to them, driving away those they meet, try to provide them with the most convenient passage and do this out of need at meals, without learning to restrain their voluptuousness when eating delicious dishes and not wanting, according to the Mosaic commandment, to carry a spatula in their belts so that when needed dig a hole (Deut. 23:13). For those who used it knew that the limit of any enjoyment of foodstuffs is the larynx and that what accidentally replenishes bodily poverty covers the indecentness of untimely desire. Therefore, the name of God is blasphemed, and the desired life has become an object of disgust, and the acquisition of people who live truly virtuously is considered illusory, and the cities are burdened with those walking here and there idle, and the owners of the houses suffer anxiety, feel unpleasantness at the very sight, seeing how they beg for alms with shamelessness, standing at the door, and many, having received shelter in the house, covered themselves for a while with a feigned having protected themselves from suspicion of malicious intent by piety and the mask of hypocrisy, and subsequently having robbed the landlord, they leave and thereby dispel the bad reputation of monastic life in general. Thus, finally, those who were once teachers of chastity are expelled from the cities as destroyers of it; and they do not find access for themselves, like the unclean, on a par with those possessed by leprosy. Others would rather trust themselves to robbers and those who dig up walls than to those going through the monastic life, reasoning that it is more convenient to beware of someone who clearly intends to be malicious, rather than someone who inspires trust with the intention of luring them into the net. And these, who have not even laid the foundation for a pious life, who have not known what the benefits of silence are, and who, perhaps, are prompted by some necessity to begin the monastic life without reasoning, and who regard monasticism as an opportunity to buy what is necessary, would behave, I think, more piously if they did not walk through the doors of everyone, but as an excuse for shame - to collect abundant alms - they would have their own clothes, and those wishing to bring in tribute to the body not only the necessary things, but that the luxury of whimsical and immoderate desires has acquired. But it is difficult to heal those suffering from such an incurable disease. Can anyone interpret the benefits of health to those who have never tasted health, but from the very beginning grew up with a debilitating disease and, out of habit, think about the damage to their nature that there is no disadvantage against the natural state? Every word will be in vain and will not correct when the diligence of those listening, deviating towards the worse, has an opposite disposition to what is offered as advice, and especially when the hope of benefits is fed by desire and passion blocks the ear for any advice, so that advice about chastity does not find any access when the heart is directed towards greed, no matter how vile it is. But we, beloved ones, who, out of love for virtue, as we think, have renounced worldly life, renounced worldly lusts and promised to follow Christ, why do we again fall into worldly absent-mindedness and, to spite ourselves, build up what we previously so beautifully destroyed? Why do we take part in the evil intentions of those who go about their business, not as they should, by our efforts for vain things, inflaming the desires of the weak, for the simple-minded we become a path to covetousness? We are commanded by the Lord to heal, and not to irritate those who seek and please us - to keep in mind what is beneficial to our neighbor, so that, following our reckless desires, we do not cause many of the common people to stumble, becoming for them a reason for competition about earthly things. Why do we place a substance that we have been taught to neglect into greatness, having attachment to money and property, dividing the mind into many and useless worries? Trying to do this, just as it diverts us from careful care for the most necessary and leads us to the fact that we do not care about the blessings of our souls, so those who are carried away by the pomp of life and consider the pleasure brought by wealth to be the highest well-being, when they see that those who promised to be philosophical and boasted that they are above pleasures, are trying for them more than they themselves, lead into a deep abyss. Nothing leads more to inevitable punishment than to make many zealots of their own evil deeds: because the destruction of the imitators becomes an increment of punishment for the one who taught, and those who do not refuse to imitate, as vile deeds, are threatened with considerable condemnation when they also have a teacher of evil deeds, which those with a chaste thought avoided, recognizing the teaching as reprehensible. Therefore, let no one be offended by what was said, but either correct what is sinfully done through the indifference of many to the shame of the name, or let him renounce the name. For if we are supposed to be wise, then possessing property is a superfluous matter for philosophy, which vows to be alien to the body itself for the sake of spiritual purity. And if someone desires to acquire property and enjoy the pleasures of life, then why do they honor wisdom in word, shunning it in practice, and, adorning themselves with honorable names, commit deeds that are contrary to what they promise? Then let us not consider it shameful for ourselves that those whom we recognize as inferior and call laymen reproach us for violating the Laws of the Savior, and those who should learn from us teach us the commandments of the Lord that we have neglected. For when we quarrel and they say to us: The servant of the Lord should not quarrel, but be friendly to everyone (2 Tim. 2:24) and even when we ask about money and property and they remark to us: To the one who wants to take your shirt, give him your caftan (Matthew 5:40), then what else will they do than, mocking us, ridicule and shame us for the contradiction of our deeds to our vow? For there is no need to quarrel with someone who disputes our property and do everything that care for him forces us to do. One moved the border of the vineyard and added part to his own, another let cattle into your field, another diverted the water flowing into the garden: is it really necessary for this to go berserk, to become worse than frantic, to prepare vengeance on all of them, to nail the mind, which is obliged to engage in the contemplation of Existence, to the judgment seats, and to turn the contemplative power into office cunning, in order to successfully abound in what is not at all useful for us? Why do we challenge someone else’s as our own, preparing for ourselves the heavy shackles of matter, and do not listen to the one who calls them unfortunate? The Prophet says: Woe to him who enriches himself not with his own, and to him who overly aggravates his bonds (Hab. 2:6). For if those who pursue us are light, according to the word of him who said: Those who pursued us were swifter than the eagles of heaven (Lam. 4:19), and we burden ourselves with worldly affairs, then it is clear that, moving more slowly in our course, we will easily be caught by enemies, from whom Paul taught us to flee, saying: “Avoid fornication (1 Cor. 6:18) and covetousness.” Sometimes, even with all readiness for honor, if they do not rush with intense effort, they remain far behind, not getting what they want, perhaps because the steps of the pursuing enemies are more accelerated. Those who hasten to great virtue are hindered by addiction to worldly affairs, which often causes destruction of both soul and body. For what destroyed Naboth the Israelite? Was it not the enviable vineyard that became the cause of his death, arousing envy of his neighbor Ahab? What caused the two and a half tribes to remain outside the land of promise? Aren't there a lot of cattle? What separated Lot from Abraham? Was it not a great number of sheep, which aroused constant quarrels between the shepherds, and finally divided them among themselves? Therefore, if the estates of the envious incite those who own them to murder, the owners themselves are diverted from the most important occupations, ties of kinship are dissolved, friends are driven to enmity, have nothing to do with the Life of the Future, and do not bring any great benefit to the body, then why, leaving the service of God, do we completely indulge in vanity? For it is not we ourselves who provide for what is needed for our life. God organizes everything: human effort, if there is no God’s help, of necessity does not reach the end, but God’s Economy delivers perfect benefits even without human effort. What benefit did their own labor bring to those to whom God said: “You sowed much, but received little... then I scattered ( Hagg. 1:6, 9 ) from your houses”? Do those who live virtuously lack anything necessary? Did they not care about this at all? Didn’t the Israelites, for forty years without using anything from agriculture, eat without lack of food? But the sea again creates extraordinary food, supplying quails, and the stone, unaffected by moisture, disintegrating, delivers water in abundance, and the sky brings down manna, this extraordinary and unprecedented rain, and clothes and shoes, which do not wear out, serve all the time. What kind of land did Elijah eat while cultivating the stream? Didn't the crows bring him food? And when he came to Zarephath, the widow, in need of necessities, did not provide him with bread, stealing it from the mouths of her children, so that it would become clear that virtue was preferable to nature. Although this is extraordinary, it is nevertheless fair, because one can live without food, whenever God pleases. For how did Elijah complete the forty-day journey, refreshed with only food (1 Kings 19:8)? How did Moses, after talking with God on the mountain for eighty days, remain without eating human food? For, having descended after forty days, when, irritated by the merging of the calf, he broke the tablets, he immediately ascended the mountain again and, after spending the same number of days on the mountain and then receiving the second tablets, he descended to the people. What human reasoning can provide a sufficient explanation for such a miracle? How is it possible to get enough of the fluid human nature, which has been exhausted for so long, while nothing replenishes the daily lost strength? But this bewilderment is resolved by God’s word when he says: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (Deut. 8:3). And therefore, why are we dragging the heavenly life down to earth, burdening us with material disasters? Why do we, having once been brought up in scarlet garments, clothe ourselves in pus, as Jeremiah said about some in Lamentations (Lamentations 4:5)? For when we rest in bright and flaming thoughts, then we dress (ντυνόμαστε) in scarlet, and when, having emerged from such a state, we interfere in earthly affairs, then we dress in pus. Why, having abandoned hope in God, do we make our muscle a support for the flesh, attributing the Providence of the Lord to our hands? And what, as Job experienced, was imputed to him as a great sin, that is, placing his hand on his mouth and kissing it (Job 31:27), we are not afraid to do now. For it is the custom of many to kiss hands and say that from their hands is abundance. Making them understand by images, the Law says: “He who walks on his hands is not clean, he who has many legs is also not clean, and he who always walks on all fours is not clean” (Lev. 11:27, 42). He who walks on his hands is the one who leans on them and places all his hope in them; walks on four, who, having given himself over to sensual affairs, constantly occupies the sovereign mind with them, and multi-legged, who is surrounded from everywhere by the body. Therefore, the wise Influx wants the perfect one to have not even two legs, but one and that one rarely moves for bodily affairs. Rarely,” he says, “step your foot toward your friend, so that, having had enough of you, he does not hate you (Prov. 25:17). If someone rarely approaches Christ with a request for bodily needs, then he will be loved by Him, for this is the purpose of such friends, as the Savior says to His disciples: You are My friends (John 15:14). If he does this often, he will become hated by Him. Who will inspire confidence and will not be abominable, always troubled by these needs and never restored to the right life, because he does not have shins higher than his feet on which to rise from the ground? Just as the legs, bending at first, take on the entire weight of the body, and when they approach the ground a little, they cause it to immediately rise up, so the thought, discerning natural affairs, after it has humbled itself to the needs of the body, quickly raises a light thought, without bringing with it any of the vicious impurities. Having straight legs is also characteristic of those who are very devoted to pleasure and always remain down, but it is also characteristic of the Heavenly Powers, because they have no need at all for the body and do not require bending their legs to do so. This means, as I think, the great Ezekiel said, that their legs are straight and their legs are covered with feathers (Ezek. 1:7), which depicts the inflexibility of the will and the speed of this nature in thoughts. But it is enough for a person to have bending shins, and use them for ascents, sometimes bodily, and sometimes spiritual, raising mountains, and, due to the affinity of the soul with the Mountainous Forces, often contemplate the Heavenly with them, and according to the strength of the body, be as concerned with the earth as the need forces it. Always groveling in someone who serves for pleasure is a truly unclean thing and not befitting a person who has received rational knowledge as his inheritance. For the Law called the one who walks on four unclean with restrictions, and not just, but if he always walks on four (Lev. 11:42), because he gave those in the body time to descend to the needs of the body. And Jonathan, fighting with the Ammonite Nahash, crawling (περπάτησε) (1 Samuel 14:13) on four, won the victory, because he served only the need of nature. And the one fighting the serpent crawling on his toes (this is how the name Naas is interpreted) had to transform somewhat to resemble him in the same way to walk on all fours, and then, getting up and taking his own position, overcome it with great convenience. What does the story of Ish-bosheth teach us? Is it not that one should not be too busy with the physical and entrust one’s self-protection to one’s feelings? Ishbosheth, the king, slept in a spoon, and at his gate, as it is said, he allowed a woman to stand. Those who came with Rechab, finding that the gatekeeper had fallen asleep while cleaning the wheat, secretly entered and killed Ishbosheth, who was also found sleeping. For everything falls into sleep - the mind, the soul, the heart, and the feeling when it overcomes the bodily. The fact that the gatekeeper cleaned the wheat shows that the thought was diligently occupied with the bodily and not lightly, but with some care, took care of the purity of this. For that the Scripture does not retell this in the form of only history is clear from the following. Why was a woman the gatekeeper to the king, who was supposed to be surrounded by many warriors and given all the honor due to his rank? Or why was the king so poor that the gatekeeper cleaned the wheat? But the incongruous is often mixed into history for the reason that what is signified is true. For everyone’s mind, like a king, resides somewhere inside, having the heart as the gatekeeper of the senses, and when it entrusts itself to the body (for the body’s job is to cleanse the wheat), then the evil ones without difficulty secretly mortify the mind. That is why the great Abraham does not entrust a woman with guarding the door, because he knows the deceitfulness of feeling: how, enjoying the vision of the sensual, it separates the mind and convinces it to partake of the pleasant, and this communion is obviously dangerous. On the contrary, he himself is at the door, making open access to Divine thoughts and closing the door to worldly concerns. For what does vain care about this give us in life? Is not all a man’s work, according to the word of Ecclesiastes, for his mouth (Eccl.6:7)? Food and clothing, according to the Apostle, are sufficient to support this pitiful flesh (1 Tim. 6:8). Therefore, why do we endlessly and, as Solomon says, work for the wind (Eccl. 5:15), being careful about earthly things, preventing the soul from enjoying Divine blessings, loving the flesh and its peace more than necessary? From neighbors we raise her into an enemy and adversary, so that not only the struggle between them becomes doubtful, but, with a great increase in strength, struggling against the soul, she rejoices that she does not allow the soul to achieve honors and crowns. What is the need of the body, under the pretext of which it extends its desire to the point of useless difficulty? Without a doubt, in bread and water. And don’t springs supply water in abundance? Isn’t bread convenient for everyone who has hands? We can earn it by other works, with which our bodily needs are satisfied, and we have little or no fun. But doesn't clothing require great care? Not a little, if we keep in mind one need, and not our usual pampering. For did the first man wear clothes made of gossamer fabric, or fine linen, or purple, or silk robe? Was it not skins that the Creator prepared for him to wear? And didn’t he command us to eat grains? He set these limits to bodily needs. This is what the statute gave and has put a long distance behind the spreading indecency of man today. I’m not talking about the fact that those who live well will, without a doubt, even now be nourished by the One who feeds the birds of the air and clothed with such glory. Clothes the lilies of the field, I do not say, because it is impossible to convince so many who have departed from this faith. But to someone who lives virtuously, who will not offer him what he needs even with a request? If the Babylonians, barbarian people, having taken Jerusalem by right of war, respected the virtue of Jeremiah and generously provided him with every bodily allowance, giving him not only what he needed for food, but also vessels usually used at the table, then wouldn’t those who purified their minds to understand the beautiful and zealots of virtue respect a virtuous life from childhood more than the barbarians? For if, due to the weakness of nature, they themselves cannot become ascetics of it, then they honor virtue and are amazed at its ascetics. Who convinced the Shunammite woman to build an upper room for Elisha, to place there a bed, a table, a seat and a lamp (2 Kings 4:10)? Isn't this man's virtue? What persuaded this widow, when the whole earth was depleted by famine, to prefer serving the Prophet to her own needs? Without a doubt, if Elijah’s wisdom had not amazed her, she would not have offered him even a little consolation in life, taking it from herself and her children, and out of generosity to the stranger, prematurely choosing death, which she had vividly imagined shortly before. What made them so was their courage, tirelessness in their work and carelessness about the affairs of life. For, having loved moderation and not to become poor, having succeeded, so to speak, in having few needs, they approached the ethereal Powers. Why, being invisible in body and ignorant, they became more powerful than those in charge of everything, and spoke with such boldness with those wearing a diadem, with which they do not speak with their subjects. For, relying on what weapon or what strength did Elijah say to Ahab: I do not corrupt (παρασύρω) Israel, but you and your father’s house (1 Kings 18:18)? How does Moses jealously resist Pharaoh, having no other guide to courage other than virtue? How did Elisha, when the army of the two kings, Israel and Judah, united in battle, said to Ahab's son: As the Lord of hosts lives (δυνάμεων), before whom I stand this day, if it were not for the sake of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not have looked at you and would not have seen you (2 Kings 3:14)? He was not afraid of the advancing army, nor was he afraid of the irritability of the king, who, probably due to the war, was driven by an unreasonable desire and whose thoughts were outraged by the struggle. Is the power of the king of the earth able to do anything like virtue? What porphyry divided the river like the mantle of Iliin? What diadem stopped illnesses like the apostolic leaders? The Prophet alone denounced the lawless king, surrounded by the entire army, and since the denunciation aroused anger, the king, stretching out his hand against the Prophet, did not touch him, and could not bend his withered hand to himself. There was a conflict between virtue and royal power, and the victory of virtue turned out to be the strongest: the Prophet did not fight and virtue put the enemy to flight, the ascetic remained inactive, but faith acted, the king’s supporters became judges of the struggle, and the hand witnessed the victory of virtue. They did this because they decided to live as one soul, despising the body and bodily needs, and the fact that they had no need for anything made them superior to everything. For they would rather decide to leave the body and free themselves from life in the flesh than to change their virtues and, for the sake of a bodily need, to flatter someone living in abundance. And we, when we need something, like young dogs who, cheerfully waving their tails, caress those who throw a bare bone, perhaps a bone or crumbs, we run to the rich, calling them benefactors and trustees of Christians, and, in a word, attribute to them every virtue, although they are extremely vicious, just so that we can succeed in what we want; We are not curious to find out how the saints lived, whose virtues, of course, we expected to compete with. Naaman, the Syrian military commander, once came to Elisha, bringing with him many gifts. What about the Prophet? Did you do him a favor? Did you hurry to meet him? Was it not through the boy alone that he explained to him the need for which he came, without even receiving him in person, so that he would not think that the healing was given to him for the sake of what was brought? This is not said so that we learn arrogance, but so that for the sake of bodily needs we do not flatter those who care about what we have vowed to neglect. Therefore, why do we, leaving the goal of philosophy, engage in agriculture and trade? What great value do we bring to God through our care? To make it clear that the care of agriculture is a common task, human effort dissects the earth, puts in seeds, and God irrigates the earth with occasional rains, helping the seed to spread roots in the softened bowels of the earth, brings out the sun, warming the earth, and, with its warmth, causing the plants to rise, sends winds, commensurate with the age of the cultivated fruits. First, with gentle breaths it blows through the plain covered with greenery, so that the hot winds do not burn the crops warmed by the sun, and with strong gusts of winds it brings the milky juice of the fruit to maturity in the vaginas, during threshing it gives the necessary heat, and during winnowing - suitable winds. If we don’t get enough of this, then human labor will turn out to be vain and our efforts, unimpressed by God’s gifts, will come to nothing. But often there is no lack of anything in order for everything to come to perfection, and a heavy rain that happens at the wrong time carries away either the ear that still requires threshing, or the wheat that was harvested in time. And sometimes, in the granary itself, worms and aphids destroy it, stealing, so to speak, the ready meal from the very mouth. Therefore, in what way and for what is our effort useful to us, when God rules the helm and moves and leads everything as He pleases? Shall we say that a body in weakness needs consolation? But how much better it is to die than to do something unbecoming of our vow! Of course, if God wants us to still live, then he will either give the body strength equivalent to weakness in order to endure the difficulty of illness and accept crowns for courage, or he will come up with a means to console the suffering, and this idea in the Source of salvation and wisdom will not be insufficient for salvation. Therefore, it is a wonderful, truly wonderful thing, beloved, to once again enter into primeval bliss and take up the life of the ancients, because, I think, this is convenient for anyone who wants to. And if any work is required, it will not be fruitless, having sufficient relief for this in the glory of those who preceded and in the correction of those who will follow. For those who have begun such a way of life and leave behind others an example of a perfect life will receive considerable benefit from the perception of what they have left behind. Let us avoid staying in cities and villages, so that those living in cities and villages will flock to us; let us rush into the desert in order to attract to ourselves, if anyone is quite pleased with this, those who are now fleeing from us. For in a song of praise it is written about some that they left the cities, settled on rocks and became like mourning doves (Ezek. 7:16). And John the Baptist was in the desert, and all the cities with all the inhabitants came to him to see the leather belt, flocked dressed in silk clothes, agreed to talk in the open air, having houses with gilded roofs, and resting on beds decorated with precious stones became more glorious than reclining on the sand, and everything was bearable for them, although it was done against custom, because love for the virtue of their husband took away their feeling mournful, and surprise at what they saw covered up the difficulty of a harsh life. So much virtue is more honorable than wealth and a silent life is more glorious than a lot of money! How many rich people were there at that time who thought highly of their fame? And they are silent about them, they were consigned to oblivion, and the unglorious man is sung with surprise to this day, and the memory of the desert dweller is coveted by everyone, because it is characteristic of virtue to be glorious and to send rumors about himself as a messenger of his goodness. Let us give up feeding livestock in order to take on the pastoral title. Let us leave the shameful purchase in order to acquire precious pearls (Matthew 13:46). We flee from cultivating the land that produces thorns and thistles in order to become workers and guardians of paradise. Let us give up everything and choose a silent life in order to shame those who now reproach us for our addiction to covetousness. For nothing shames those who attack so much as the correction of those who are reproached, accompanied by modesty, because the change that has taken place in those who are reproached turns into shame for those who reproach. I consider it disgusting, and truly disgusting is what everyone rightly laughs at us for. Others, having barely begun monastic life, having learned only the first rules of asceticism, immediately volunteer to be a teacher in what they did not learn: how to pray, when and what rules to observe in food; entails a number of students when he himself has a need for training, and to a greater extent, the more convenient he considered this task for himself, not knowing that of all the difficult things, the most difficult is to take care of souls, which first of all must be cleansed of old impurities, and then with great care brought to the point that the lessons of virtue are imprinted on them. And who does not imagine anything more than bodily asceticism, how to correct the morals of his subordinates? How to remake those over whom a bad habit has prevailed? How to help those struggling with passions, without knowing at all what mental warfare is? Or how to heal ulcers received in battle, when you yourself still lie in ulcers and need bandages. Any art requires time and a lot of study to be successful. One takes on the art of art without studying. And the inexperienced will not dare to take up farming; Those who are not initiated into the art of medicine do not undertake this matter either. For they will expose themselves: one by the fact that they will not benefit the sick, but will even make their illness more severe, and the other by turning the good land into barren and worthless. The untrained dare to do piety alone, as the most convenient thing, and many consider this inconvenient task to be easy. What Paul also admits he has not achieved (Phil. 3:13), that they knew this exactly, is asserted by those who do not know the very thing that they do not know. That is why monastic life has become despicable and those who go through it are ridiculed by everyone. And who wouldn’t laugh, seeing that yesterday the one who carried water in the tavern is today surrounded by students as a teacher of virtue with obsequiousness, or in the morning the one who retired from public affairs, due to failure in them, in the evening with many students, pompously walks around the entire square? If they were fully convinced that great work is to lead someone to godliness, and knew exactly what danger is accompanied by the task, then, of course, they would refuse it as beyond their strength. But while they don’t know this and consider it a glory to be in charge of someone, they throw themselves into such an abyss and consider it easy to be thrown into a burning furnace, and thereby arouse laughter in those who knew their yesterday’s life and anger God with such rashness. If neither venerable old age, nor long-standing boldness, nor priestly rank turned away God’s wrath from Elijah, who neglected to correct the children, then will those who have not acquired God’s trust through previous deeds, who do not know either the nature of sin or the method of correction, but who, out of love for glory, unskillfully undertake a terrible task, get rid of this wrath? Therefore, the Lord, although apparently condemning the Pharisees, said: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go around sea and land in order to convert even one; and when this happens, you make him a son of Gehenna, twice worse than you (Matthew 23:15), but in reality, with their reproach he admonishes those who will subsequently fall into the same sins, so that, hearing this: Woe, they will refrain from untimely wishes, recognizing that the disaster that threatens them is worse than human glory. May Job also convince them, either to take care of his subordinates like him, or to abandon such superiors as those who do not know how to act in the same way as he, who do not even want to make the same efforts about those under their care. For if he, wanting his children to be clean from mental defilements, daily made sacrifices for them, saying: Perhaps my sons have somehow sinned and thought evil in their minds against God (Job 1:5), then how can these, not being able to distinguish between obvious sins, because their reason is darkened by the dust raised in the fight against passions, proceed to authority over others and accept take upon yourself to heal others, having not yet healed your own passions and not having the strength, as a result of your victory, to lead others to victory as well? For first you must struggle with passions, and with much sobriety commemorate what happened during the battle, and then, based on what you have experienced, communicate to others the rules of the struggle, and make victory more convenient for them by telling them in advance how to conduct the battle. For others have overcome passions in themselves, perhaps through a long-term strict life, but do not know the method of victory, because, as in a night battle, they did not follow the course of the whole matter and their mind did not accurately understand the enemy’s intentions. This, portrayed in images, was done by Joshua when the army crossed the Jordan at night, ordering to take stones from the middle of the river and outside the river to build a pillar out of them and write how they crossed the Jordan, meaning by this that the deep thoughts of a passionate life should be made obvious and put them to shame in all clarity, and not hide this knowledge from others out of envy, so that not only those who crossed would know the way to cross, but also those who intend to do it They conveniently made this transition according to the lesson given to them, and the experience of some became an instruction for others. But our teachers do not see this, do not listen when others speak, they look only at their own conviction, and they assign slave service to the brethren, like mercenaries, putting all their glory in this, in order to command a large number, and they compete to lead slaves behind them, no less than others, during their processions, showing themselves to be more traders than teachers. For when they consider it an easy matter to command in word, although what is ordered is difficult, and they do not agree to teach by deed, then they make their goal clear to everyone that they are taking on this authority because they are not trying to bring benefit to those who come, but to fulfill their own pleasure. Let them, if you please, learn from Abimelech and Gideon that it is not a word, but a deed that leads those in authority to imitate. Abimelech, having chopped an armful of wood, carried it and said: what I did, do you also (Judges 9:48), and Gideon, leading to a common cause, goes ahead and says: look at me and do the same (Judges 7:17). And the Apostle, who says: these hands of mine served my needs and the needs of those who were with me (Acts 20:34), and the Savior Himself, Who works and then teaches, who will not be convinced by teaching by deeds to consider teaching by words more convincing? But they close their eyes to these examples, and with arrogance they prescribe what should be done. And when, apparently, they know something like this by ear, then, like the shepherds condemned by the Prophet for inexperience, they wear a sword on a muscle, which is why, in addition to the muscle, their gum eye also becomes blind (Zech. 11:17), because the gum (right) activity, foolishly left in negligence, extinguishes along with it the lightness of contemplation. Those who punish severely and inhumanly are subject to this as soon as they receive into their hands the power to inflict punishment: in them, contemplative thoughts, which belong to the number of gums, soon fade away, and also deeds, being deprived of contemplation, fade away, because those who have a sword girded not on their thigh, but on an arm, can neither do nor see anything. They attach a sword to their thigh, who use God’s word against their passions. And they wear it on their arm, in their hands the power to punish the sins of others. So the Ammonite Nahash (which is interpreted as serpents) threatens the perspicacious Israel to gouge out the right eye of everyone (1 Samuel 11:2), so that no right thought of the one who prevails over him would lead him to right action, for he knew that this is the reason for great success in those who come from contemplation to action, because with such, what they did becomes innocent, having been foreseen with discerning eyes of vision. And that accepting authority over others is characteristic of easy people, for whom there is no benefit at home - this is clear from experience, because one who has tasted silence, who has begun to practice a little in contemplation, will not agree to bind the mind with concerns about the body and, having distracted it from knowledge, when it mostly soars above the surface, turn it to earthly affairs. But this is even more clear from the notorious parable that Jotham proposed to the Shechemites, saying: The trees of the forest once went to anoint a king over them and said to the vine: Reign over us. And the vine said to them: Shall I leave my good fruit, with which they glorify God and people, and go to possess the trees (Judges 9:8, 9; 11-13)? When, like this, both the fig tree refused due to its sweetness, and the olive due to its fatness, the thorn, a barren and thorny tree, assumed authority over them, having no fatness either in itself or in the trees of its subordinates, because the parable called the trees that required authority over them not garden trees, but forest trees. And just as the vine, the fig tree, and the olive tree refused to rule over the trees of the forest, enjoying themselves more with their fruit than with the position of authority, so those who see in themselves some fruit of virtue and feel benefit from it, even though many force the authorities to do so, reject the honor bestowed by many, preferring their own benefit to it. What the thorn tried to do to the trees in the parable, happens to the people who drew up similar agreements. For either, as it is said, fire will come out of the thorns and consume (Judges 9:15) the trees of the forest, or fire will come out of the trees and girdle up the thorns. When useless contracts are drawn up, then it is necessary to follow the danger both for those who have subordinated themselves to an inexperienced teacher, and for the students themselves who have taken over the leadership through carelessness. For the inexperience of the teacher destroys the students, and the negligence of the students puts the teacher in danger, especially when the students are lazy due to the teacher’s lack of information. For nothing should be hidden from the teacher that contributes to the correction of subordinates, and students are obliged not to neglect any of the teacher’s commands. It is dangerous and disastrous for them to disobey and not to pay attention to those who sin. Let them not consider these things to be a pretext for peace and pleasure. The most difficult thing is to rule over souls. Those overseeing the dumb and cattle do not encounter any contradiction in the herds, and therefore the supervision over them is often successful. But for superiors over people, the difference in morals and the cunning of the mind make the superiority very difficult, and those who approach it must anoint themselves as if it were a difficult feat, so as to endure the shortcomings of everyone with all patience, and generously teach them what is hidden from them through ignorance. Therefore, the laver in the church is supported by oxen, and the candlestick was constructed entirely tightly molded and carved. And just as the candlestick meant that one appointed to enlighten others must be solid in all parts, not have anything light or empty, and that everything superfluous in him must be smoothed out, which would not be useful for those looking on to see in a model of blameless life, so the oxen under the laver meant that the one who begins a task of this kind should not refuse everything that comes close to him, but bear both the burdens and uncleanness of the lower ones until It's safe to wear. For if he makes the actions of those who come clean, then, of course, it is necessary for him himself to become involved in some uncleanness. Likewise, the laver, while cleansing the hands of the one who washes them, itself takes into itself his uncleanness. And it is impossible for one who talks about passions and destroys similar defilements in others to avoid being desecrated, because the very remembrance usually defiles the speaker’s thought. And although it does not imprint with living colors images of the shameful, it nevertheless defiles the mind for a long time, disturbing the streams of words with unclean names. And the abbot should be so knowledgeable that not a single one of the enemy’s plans remains unknown to him, and he could, entrusted to him, indicate in detail the secret tricks in the fight, and, predicting the enemy’s malice, without difficulty proclaim victory to them, and crowned with limelight from the feat. But it is rare and not easy to find such an abbot. The great Paul testifies to this, saying: For we are not unaware of his devices (2 Cor. 2:11). And the wonderful Job, perplexed by something like this, says: Who will reveal the outer side of his garment? who will enter the curves of his chest? Who will open the doors to herd him? ( Job 41:4, 5 ). And this means: his face is not visible, because he covers his deceit with many clothes, catches him with a deceptive appearance, and secretly insidiously arranges his death. And in order not to count himself among those who do not know the properties of the enemy, Job tells his signs, as if he clearly knows all his strangeness, and says: His eyes shine like the morning star (Job 41:9); his belly is copper shields (Job 41:6). And this he says, denouncing his evilness, because, transforming himself into the image of a star (star), he manages to attract those who look at him, and with the shields that are inside him, he prepares death for those approaching. And the parable makes it clear the danger of the matter, saying: He who splits wood will suffer harm from them: if the ax falls off (Eccl. 10:9, 10). He who disassembles a thing in his word, and in what is considered to be united, dissolves the connection and separates what was completely alien to the other, with the intention of showing what is truly good in what is considered as such, if he does not protect the words from everywhere, he will suffer disaster in those who listen, as soon as this fence falls from the word, giving the students a reason for temptation. So one of Elisha’s disciples, cutting down a tree near the Jordan, when the ax fell into the river, seeing the trouble, cried out to the teacher: Oh, lord, and this is borrowed (2 Kings 6:5). Those who undertake to teach by hearsay are subject to this and are unable to achieve their goal because they do not speak according to their own understanding. When, during the course of the conversation, they become aware that they have said something contrary to what was supposed, then they admit ignorance, incurring disaster from the word used. That is why the great Elisha, having plunged the tree into the depths, caused iron to float out; and thus the thought that the student had lost and which was considered hidden in the depths, the Prophet clarified and presented to the eyes of those listening. Here Jordan means the word of repentance, for there the Baptism of repentance was performed by John. But whoever spoke the word about repentance inaccurately, and by revealing hidden kindness made the listeners become careless, threw the ax into the Jordan. It is clear that the tree that appears will carry the ax out of the depths and force it to surface. For before the Cross, the word about repentance was hidden, and therefore those who intended to say something about it were convicted as having ventured prematurely, but after the Cross it became clear to everyone, as in its time, shown by the tree. I say this, not only inspiring not to be a guide for anyone, and not forbidding any of the young to lead the way to godliness, but advising them to first acquire the habit of virtue, corresponding to the greatness of the matter, and not hastily indulge in achieving the goal, thinking only about pleasant things - about the services of students and about good fame among outsiders, omitting from sight the subsequent danger, and before establishing the world of war weapons should not be converted into agricultural tools. When all passions are subdued, enemies no longer bother you from anywhere, and defensive weapons do not need to be used, then it is good to cultivate the souls of others. And while the passions still reign supreme, the struggle with the wisdom of the flesh continues, we must not take our hands away from weapons, but we must constantly have them at hand, so that the evil ones do not turn our repose into an attack and capture us without shedding blood. For, as those who valiantly strive for virtue and, out of great humility, think that victory has not yet been won, the word of Scripture gives the following advice: Beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks (Is. 2:4), instructing them not to attack vanquished enemies in vain, but for the benefit of many to turn their spiritual strength from the skill of warfare to the cultivation of those that still abound. the fruits of vicious deeds, so to those who, having not come to such a state, through inexperience or foolishness, took up work that exceeded their strength, he advises the opposite, saying: Beat your plows into swords and your pruning hooks into spears (Joel 3:10). For what good is agriculture to us when the country is engulfed in war, which prevents us from using the products of agriculture, and it will bring abundance to the enemies rather than to the workers? Therefore, perhaps, God does not allow the Israelites, who were still fighting in the desert with different nations, to take care of agriculture, so that this would not interfere with military exercises, and after conquering the enemies, he advises them to take up it, saying: “And when you enter the land of promise, plant in it some tree (Lev. 19:23) fruitful, but before you enter, do not plant." For in the first commandment the last was also implied; and this is fair, for what is implanted before perfection is not durable, especially when those who want to implant it are still of an unstable disposition. But order and consistency, if in anything else, then in matters of piety, have a place and must be introduced into regulations from the very beginning. For those who have lost sight of what constitutes the firstfruits, and are caught up in deceitful things afterward, are necessarily convinced to conform to the consistency of order. And just as Jacob, captivated by the beauty of Rachel, despised the weakness of Leah’s eyes, but did not run away from the labor of acquiring such virtue, but completed this week (Gen. 29:28), so he who wants to legally settle in his way of life should not be raised from the end to the beginning, but from the beginning successfully stretches to perfection. For in this way he himself will achieve what he wants, and he will reproachably lead his subordinates to the end of virtue. But many, without putting in any work, without having accomplished any small or greater deeds of godliness, without reasoning pursue the name, showing a terrible clouding of mind, not recognizing the danger in this, and not only do not refuse when others call them to action, but, bypassing the back streets, forcibly attract those they meet, promising any service, like constituting contracts with mercenaries for food and clothing. And with such love for the work, when they want to show up with a crowd at the crossroads, rest, leaning on the hands of their companions, and fully withstand the face of the teacher - as those who have taken on such a performance, so that those who provide this service do not abandon them, it is necessary for them to do a lot for the pleasure of the servants, and give freedom to their wishes, like a driver who lowered the reins and allowed the horses to run freely, rush along rapids and abysses and hit the everything that is underfoot, because there is no one to stop and hold back disordered aspirations. But let such hear how blessed Ezekiel mourns the one who regrets those who provide food for the pleasure of others and by yielding to the desires of everyone to store up grief for themselves in treasure, for they say: Woe to those who sew little cushions under every elbow of the hand and make veils on every head of every age to corrupt souls: for a handful of barley and for a piece of bread ( Ezek.13:18, 19). So they too, collecting from alms what they need for the body and contenting themselves, as it were, with scraps of collected supplies, they shame those who are obliged to pray or prophesy with an open head with veils, turning the masculine state by laying veils into a feminine one and destroying souls that should not die. Most of all, having submitted to the True Teacher Christ, they should, with all their might, refuse to care for others. For He says to His disciples: But do not call yourself teachers (Matthew 23:8). If he advises Peter, and John, and the entire rank of the Apostles to stay away from such matters and consider themselves small for this dignity, then after this, who will imagine that he is higher than the Apostles, and will award himself the dignity that was forbidden to them? Or perhaps the One who said: Do not be called teachers - forbids not to be, but to be called only teachers? If someone, involuntarily, because he has accepted one or two, is forced to rule over many, then first of all let him carefully examine himself, whether in deed, rather than in word, he is able to teach what to do, presenting his life as a model of virtue to students, so that those who copy from this model will not diminish the beauty of virtue by the ugliness of an error against the original. Then let him know that he should worry no less about his subordinates than about himself, because he will give an account both for himself and for them, how quickly he took upon himself to save them. And for the saints it was a special concern to leave their disciples no less than themselves in virtue and bring them from their previous state to a better state. Thus, the Apostle Paul made Onesimus a martyr from a runaway slave; Elijah prepared the prophet Elisha from a farmer; Moses adorned Jesus with perfections more than anyone else; Eli reached the point where Samuel was even taller than him. For if the diligence of the disciples themselves helped them to acquire virtue, then the main reason for their success was that they met teachers who were so perfectly able to ignite the smoldering spark of zeal with greater power, and it made them luminous, which is why they became the mouth of God, serving people to communicate the will of God to them, because they heard Him who said: If you bring forth precious things from worthless things, then as are My lips you will (Jer.15:19). And what the teacher is capable of, God inspires Ezekiel, teaching what kind and from whom he should prepare disciples, for he says: Son of man, take yourself a brick, and lay it before your face and inscribe on it the city of Jerusalem (Ezek. 4:1), meaning by this that the teacher makes the disciple out of clay into a holy church. This is also beautifully said: Place it before your face. For improvement in the student will occur more quickly if he is always in the mind of the teacher: frequent reminders of beautiful examples draw similar likenesses in the souls of those who are not very cruel and stubborn. That is why Gehazi and Judah fell, one into theft, and the other into betrayal, because they moved away from the eyes of the teacher, and if each of them had remained with the one who had disciplined him, they would not have sinned. And that the teacher is in danger from the negligence of the disciples, God depicted this in the words that followed, saying: And put an iron pan between you and the city, and it will be a wall between you and between it (Ezek. 4:3). Whoever does not want to share the punishments with those who indulge in negligence, after making it a city out of plinth (brick), must remind him of the punishments that are forgotten by those returning from such a state, so that these punishments, becoming a wall, separate the innocent from the guilty. Having commanded this, God says to Ezekiel: Son of man, I have made you a guard over the house of Israel, and if you see the sword coming and do not testify to them, and take away someone’s life from them, I will require it at your hand (Ezek. 33:7; 33:6, 8). Moses builds such a wall for himself, telling the Israelites: “Take heed to yourself, lest you seek to follow them after they have been destroyed (Deut. 12:30) from you.” This happens to those who do not pay careful attention to their hearts: after the passions are cut off, images of old ideas begin to arise in them, like some offspring, and if someone gives them the freedom to often fall into the ruling mind and does not forbid entry, then they will again open a shelter for the passions within themselves, after victory making life again unsafe from struggles. For passions, even when they are tamed and, like oxen, trained to eat hay, tend, through the negligence of the tamer, to become wild again and come to brutal ferocity. Therefore, to prevent this from happening, it is said: “You will not be required to follow them after they have been destroyed (Deut. 12:30) from you,” so that the soul, when required, has acquired the habit of enjoying such ideas, does not return to its former vicious life. The great Jacob, knowing that this happens and that such things, if you see them often and think about them often, most harm the heart, sealed the clearest and most open images of shameful ideas - alien gods - in Sikimech (Gen. 35:4), because this work in the fight against passions hides and destroys them not for a short time, but even to this day (Gen. 35:4), that is, for all the time, for the word “day” is extended to the whole age, always meaning the present time. And the word Sikima is interpreted: laying on the shoulders, which means work in the fight against passions. Therefore, Jacob and Joseph, who struggled with passions, for their work in this struggle give the preferential property - Sikimy. For Jacob himself, saying that he took Sikim with a sword and bow (Gen. 48:22), shows that through struggle and labor he prevailed over passions, hiding them in the land of Sikim. Apparently, something opposite seems to be in hiding the gods in Sikimeh, and in putting an idol in a hidden place, for the first - hiding in Sikimekh - is commendable, and the latter - putting an idol in a hidden place - is reproachful. This is how the Law decreed this with an oath, saying: Cursed is he who places an idol in a secret place (hidden place) (Deut. 27:15), because it is not the same thing to hide forever in the ground and to put it in hidden places: what is hidden in the earth and is no longer visible to the senses is erased over time and from memory, and what is placed in hidden places, although hidden, perhaps, from strangers, is often visible to the one who placed it, renews the memory that secretly carries the idol. For every shameful thought formed in thought is a hidden image. So, it is a shameful thing to make such mental ideas public, it is dangerous to put a statue in hiding, and it is even more dangerous to follow and look for images that have already been destroyed, while the heart conveniently inclines again to the torn passion and tugs the scales to the ground on the side of idols. For this is the property of virtue: it is very sensitive and, if we are careless, it is very conveniently pulled to the opposite side. Scripture seems to portray this as an image when it says: The land to which you are going is moving because of the movement of foreign people (1 Ezra 9:11). For, as soon as one who has the habit of virtue moved towards the opposite, virtue also moved along with it, because the earth is moving. Therefore, it is necessary at first not to give access to the heart to ideas that usually damage the thought, and not to allow it to retire to Egypt, because from there it is forcibly taken to the Assyrians. If the heart is plunged into the darkening of unclean thoughts (for this is how Egypt is interpreted), then it is forcibly and involuntarily drawn towards passionate activity. Therefore, the Lawmaker, blocking the entrance to voluptuousness and expressing this in an image, commanded to guard the head of the serpent, because he also guards the heel (Gen. 3615). His goal is an action that, if he does not undertake, it will not be easy for him to infuse poison in remorse, and we must take care to crush the very attack of voluptuousness, because, after crushing it, the action of the serpent is weak. Perhaps Samson would not have burned the foreigners’ fields if he had not turned the heads of the foxes and tied them with their tails. For, by preliminary actions he was able to guess the machinations of cunning thoughts, regardless of the beginning (because thoughts contrive to make them apparently worthy in order to reach the end), by mutual comparison of extremes, he could expose the incongruity of thoughts, connecting tail with tail and placing a candle of reproof between them. And, in order to make what is asserted clearer, I will reveal what was said in application to two thoughts, for this will be a true confirmation in the reasoning of other thoughts. Often the thought of fornication arises from vanity and, although it shows the threshold of the paths leading to hell as venerable, it nevertheless hides those disastrous ways in which those who follow it are foolishly led into the mysteries of hell. For he sometimes puts on display the priesthood, and sometimes the perfect monastic life, imagines that many come for the sake of benefit, leads him to dreams of glorification for word and deed, and when, having sufficiently nourished him with such thoughts, he takes him away from natural sobriety, then, vividly depicting to him a meeting with a woman, of course, an honest one, he entices him to commit a shameful deed, reducing freedom of conscience to extreme shame. Therefore, he who intends to tie his tails, let him take the ends of two thoughts: the end of vanity - honor and the end of fornication - dishonor - and when he clearly sees that they are opposite, then let him think that he acted like Samson. And also the thought of gluttony ends with the thought of fornication, and the thought of fornication ends with the thought of sadness, because sadness and despondency immediately follow in someone overcome by such thoughts, after he has become sober. Therefore, let the ascetic think not about the enjoyment of food and not about the pleasantness of pleasure, but about the end of both, and when he finds that sadness follows both thoughts, then let him know that he has tied tail to tail and destroyed the Philistine fields with reproof. Therefore, if warfare with the passions requires such knowledge and such experience, then let those who take upon themselves leadership over others know how much knowledge they need in order to wisely show their subordinates the way to the honor of the highest rank (Phil. 3:14), clearly teach everything that is needed in the fight, and not only imagine the image of victory, striking the air with your hands, but conduct a real fight with the opponent, inflict on him fatal blows and not in vain to throw up your arms in the air, but to crush the opponent himself. For this struggle is much more difficult than a physical struggle: there the fighters’ bodies bend, which can be straightened without difficulty, but here souls fall, which, if once overthrown, can hardly be restored. If someone, still struggling with a passionate life and being stained with blood, undertakes from reasonable souls to build God's church, then he, without a doubt, will hear: You will not build a church for Me (2 Samuel 7:5), for you are a bloodsucker (2 Samuel 16:8); To build a church to God, you need a peaceful state. And Moses, who accepts the tabernacle and places it outside the camp, lets them see that the teacher should be as far as possible from the noise of war and, having decided to lead a peaceful and non-military life, settle away from the blood-stained army. When such teachers are found, they need students who have renounced themselves and their will so much that they do not distinguish themselves in any way from an inanimate body or from a substance given into the hands of an artist, so that just as the soul in the body does what it wants, and the body does not in the least oppose it, and just as an artist shows his art on a substance and the substance does not interfere with his intention, so the teacher produces knowledge of virtue in his students and they are obedient to him and do not contradict anything. To wish to inquisitively examine the teacher’s orders and evaluate his orders means to hinder your own success. For, of course, what is in reality not solid is what seems solid and probable to the inexperienced. The artist and those who do not know art judge differently what concerns art. One rule is its reduction, and the other - probability: the probable rarely falls on the truth, but more often evades correctness, being led into the seduction of affinity. Apparently, what seems more unreasonable than this - if the helmsman, when the ship is rushing indirectly towards the voyage called direct by seafarers, orders, leaving the edge of the ship raised above the water, to sit on the edge immersed in the water, while the wind presses harder and submerges the edge that he ordered to burden! And although probability advises to burden the edge that is raised up, and not to go to the edge that is in danger, swimmers listen more to the helmsman than to their own imaginations. Necessity convinces them to enslave themselves to the art of the one entrusted with their salvation, although what is visible does not assure them of what is actually happening. Therefore, those who have entrusted their own salvation to others, leaving behind the probable, let them yield to the art of the knowledgeable, recognizing his information as more reliable than their reasoning. And, firstly, having renounced themselves, let them not leave anything, even the smallest thing, outside, fearing the example of Ananias, who, thinking of hiding property from people, received condemnation from above for theft. But let them betray both themselves and everything they own, fully knowing that what they left behind, constantly attracting thoughts to itself, will greatly distract from the best, and in the end will completely tear them away from brotherhood. Therefore, the Holy Spirit wrote the lives of the saints, so that each of those who go through any way of life would be led to the truth by similar examples. Therefore, why did Elisha, having submitted to the teacher, renounce the world? It is said: He plowed with oxen, and he had twelve pairs [of oxen], and he killed the oxen, and, having lit the plow of the oxen, he roasted their meat (1 Kings 19:19, 21), and this indicates the fervor of zeal; did not say: “I will sell the oxen and dispose of them as it should be,” did not reason that the sold oxen would bring more benefit, but, completely surrendering to the desire that attracted him to cohabitation with the teacher, he neglected the visible and tried even more to free himself from this, because it distracted him from the right intention; he knew that slowdown is often the cause of a change in intention. Therefore, the Lord, offering the rich the perfection of living according to God, would he have commanded to sell his property and give it to the poor, and leave nothing for himself, if he had not known that what he leaves, as well as all his property, becomes a reason for entertainment? I think that Moses, when he commands those who intend to cleanse themselves in great prayer to shave their entire body (Lev. 14:9), thereby prescribes complete renunciation of property. And secondly, let them forget the affinity and property, so as not to ever bother themselves with a reminder of them. If the ark made that the cows harnessed to its chariot forgot their nature and, when their calves were locked up at home and no one forced the cows, they unmistakably completed their journey, not turning aside to the right or to the left (1 Samuel 6:12), even turning their necks and not showing affection for the children and not expressing pain in the lowing of separation from their born, but also burdened with heaviness the ark, and drawn back by the sovereign power of nature, walking as if according to the rule, did not stray anywhere from the straight path, having overcome natural compassion with reverence for the ark placed on them, then why not do the same for those intending to lift the mental ark? And even more must be done so that in matters of necessity over rational nature there is no superiority in the nature of the dumb, when the rational does not do according to reason what the dumb do out of necessity. Or maybe Joseph got lost in the desert because he was looking for the limit of perfection in the affinity of names. Why does a person, with a desire to know the truth, ask him about the reason for wandering, when he learned that the reason is passion for his own (Joseph, if he had not had an erroneous judgment about art, would have asked not about where the brothers pasture, but where they feed the flock), says to him: They left here, for I heard them say: let us go to Dophaim (Gen. 37:17) (and Dophaim is interpreted: sufficient abandonment), teaching This is because he who is still attached to the physical is mistaken, and that it is impossible to achieve perfection otherwise than by sufficiently abandoning the addiction to carnal affinities. For if anyone leaves Haran, which means feelings (for Haran is interpreted: caves), and comes out of the vale of Hebron, that is, low affairs, and from the desert in which the seeker of perfection wanders, but does not move to sufficient abandonment, then there will be no benefit for him from long-term distress, as he has deviated from perfection due to attachment to affinity. Yes, and the Lord, correcting the thought of the Mother of God Mary, who was looking for Him among her relatives (Luke 2:44), and recognizing Himself as unworthy, whoever loves his father or mother more than Him, expressly inspires the abandonment of family ties. Having succeeded in this, those who have recently been freed from rebellion are advised to remain silent, and with frequent outings not to irritate the wounds inflicted on the heart through feelings, and not to bring new images to the old idols of sins, but to reject the attack of new ideas, and to use every effort to blot out the old ones. Silence is difficult for those who have recently renounced the world, for then the memory, taking advantage of time, sets in motion all the impurity stored in it, without having the leisure to do this before due to many inexhaustible matters. But after difficulty, silence brings benefits, freeing the mind over time from confusion by bad thoughts. For if it is necessary for someone to wash and cleanse their soul from everything that defiles, then they are obliged to withdraw from all deeds from which impurity increases, to give great silence to the mind, to withdraw from irritants, to avoid cohabitation with relatives, loving solitude - this mother of wisdom. But it is easy for them to fall back into the nets from which they considered themselves freed, when they fearlessly try to be in community with crowds of people of all kinds. For it is of no use to one who has gone over to the side of virtue to amuse himself with the same deeds from which he himself, having condemned them, fled. Habit is a strong current, why should one be afraid lest, in the silence achieved with great care, one should not resume vile undertakings and bring to memory forgotten bad deeds. For the mind of those who have just evaded vice is like a body that has begun to regain its strength after a long-term illness, for which, as it is not yet completely strengthened, even an unimportant pretext can cause the return of the disease. And the rational forces in these people waver and weaken, why should we be afraid that the passion that is usually irritated when we swirl in a crowd of people does not return? That is why Moses commanded those who did not want to suffer anything from the destroyer to stay inside the closed doors, saying: “Let no one go outside the doors of his house (Ex. 12:22), lest the destroyer touch you.” It seems that Jeremiah also commands the same thing when he says: Do not go out into the field and do not go onto the roads, for the sword of enemies surrounds you on every side (Jer. 6:25). It is common for courageous ascetics to boldly enter into battle with enemies and avoid their malice unharmed. And if anyone is not yet able to fight, then let him remain at home without reproach, finding comfortable security for himself in silence. Such was Joshua, about whom it is written: But the servant Joshua, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle (Ex. 33:11). For, taught by the legend of Abel, he knew that those who go out into the field out of long-standing rivalry are killed by their bodily brothers and friends in the flesh. But no less than this, from the legend about Dina one can definitely learn that it is typical for a truly girlish and effeminate mind to accept what is higher than our state, and to be deluded by the thought that my strength is enough for this too. If Dina had not hastily given herself over to the sight of what the natives had, of course assuming that she had sufficient strength to do so, and had not been in the least carried away by the pleasantness of what she saw there, she would not have untimely corrupted spiritual prudence, captured by the representation of feelings before she legitimately entered into conversation with the male mind. God, knowing that this passion (I mean conceit) has taken root among people, and wanting to uproot it from our habit, says to the legislator Moses: And make the children of Israel reverent (Lev. 15:31), for he knew that he was alien to reverence - it was beyond his strength to hastily begin exploits. Therefore, if you have not perfected yourself, you should not interfere in public riots, but run away from them as far as possible, placing your thoughts away from the noise that is heard. For it is of little benefit to those who have withdrawn from worldly affairs to be made public with rumors about them and who have left the city, like Lot, to sit at the gates of action, filled with the confusion there. But, following the example of the great Moses, one must withdraw outside, so that not only the deeds, but also the voice about them, ceases, as he says: When I leave the city, I will stretch out my hands into heaven to the Lord, and the thunder will cease (Ex. 9:29). For then there is true silence, when not only actions, but also the remembrance of them, having subsided, give the soul time to come to the state of seeing the impressed images, to enter into a struggle with each of them and to tear it out of the heart. When images come one after another, then it is impossible to erase the previous imprints, because the mind is occupied with new images and the work of cutting off the passions with them necessarily becomes more burdensome because, gradually increasing, they acquire strength and, like rivers, with their incessant flow, they darken the spiritual vision with new ideas. Just as those who want to see the bed of a river dry (perhaps for the sake of something lying there and worthy of study) will not receive any benefit by running out of water in the very place where, in their opinion, the thing they are looking for lies, because the empty place is immediately filled again with incoming water (and when the flow at the top is blocked, the bottom will open without difficulty, since the remaining water will drain by itself and dry will leave them the land for the desired exploration), so it is convenient to exhaust the active images of passions, when feelings no longer bring anything from the outside; when, like a stream, they give new and new sensations, then it is not only difficult, but also impossible to completely clear the mind of such a tide. For although passions do not disturb, and do not find a chance to be aroused in frequent meetings with people, however, returning imperceptibly, they become more and more strengthened, acquiring new strength over time. Just as the often trampled earth, even if there are thorns on it, does not produce them again, because trampling underfoot prevents growth (but these thorns, in its depths spreading deep, strong and very juicy roots, sprout as soon as time allows time to sprout), so passions, which frequent meetings with people prevent from expressing themselves, take advantage of the silence, become stronger and attack with great cruelty, heavy and making warfare dangerous for those who at first did not care about fighting them. That is why the Prophet commands: Destroy the seed (σπέρμα) om Babylon (Jer. 50:16), advising to destroy the images while they are still in the vaginas of the senses, so that, falling to the ground of the heart, they do not sprout and, watered by the abundant and useless rains of their successive occupation, do not bear a hundredfold fruits of vice. And another Prophet pleases those who do not wait for the maturity of passions, but destroy them at the very breasts, saying: Blessed is he who takes and dashes your babies against a stone (Ps. 136:9). Or maybe the great Job, contemplating with himself, makes it clear to someone like this, saying that reeds and reeds grow in water, and when deprived of water, every plant dries up (Job 8:11, 12). And what was said: Mravolev died because he had no food (Job 4:11), seems to mean something similar. For the great Job, wanting to show the insidiousness of passion, invented a complex name for it, combining the names of the bravest lion and the most insignificant of all creatures, the ant, because attacks of passions begin with unimportant ideas, creeping in imperceptibly like ants, and the consequences become very important for the one subjected to these attacks and are no less dangerous, like the attack of a lion. Why should an ascetic then fight passions when they approach like an ant, offering their insignificance as bait? For if they manage to reach the lion’s fortress, they become insurmountable and greatly oppress if they are not given food; their food, as has already been said more than once, is the incoming images of passions through the senses, because these images feed the passions, successively placing each idol in the soul. Therefore, in the church, the Lawgiver arranged lattice windows (Ezek. 41:16), meaning that those who intend to keep their hearts pure, like the church (just as it was done there with lattice windows, so that nothing unclean could enter), should protect their feelings with visors of thoughts - the fear of the future Judgment, visors that would block the entrance of newly born and invading unclean images. And for this reason, perhaps, Ahaziah fell ill, since he fell from a lattice window (2 Kings 1:2), for, during temptations, having indulged in pleasures, to ignore the doctrine of retribution means to fall from a lattice window. What is more serious than this illness? For physical illness is an unnatural state, when the balance of the elements is taken out of the natural state by the predominance of one. Mental illness is a deviation from right thoughts, when the soul is overcome by disease-causing passions. Solomon protected the vision of the one capable of hearing with such a lattice barrier, saying: When your eyes see someone else’s [wife], then your mouth will speak crooked things (στραβά) (Prov. 23:33), calling crooked things that after sin will meet the soul at the time of retribution. Thinking about this and bringing oneself into the proper state rejects all dangerous sight of the eyes. Solomon also spoke about the state of mind that should be at this time: You will lie as if in the middle of the sea, like a helmsman in great excitement (Proverbs 23:34). For if someone, during a struggle with his eyesight that irritates him, is able to bring himself into such a confrontation with threatening punishments as a person is overcome by the sea, then he will easily overcome those who are fighting him, without feeling the blows inflicted, so that he will say: They beat me and it did not hurt me, they mocked me and I did not understand (Prov. 23:35), that is: “They beat me, thinking to abuse me, but I did not feel the blows, because the wounds from them [the same as] the arrows of infants (Ps. 6368), I did not pay attention to their seduction, without even showing the appearance that I noticed their presence.” So David, despising such opponents, said: I did not know the changeable evil one towards me (Ps. 100:4), that is, I did not feel when they came and when they left. And whoever does not even know that the senses have great communication with the sensual and that from this communication we easily fall into seduction, he, not suspecting what harm can come from feelings, and carelessly being carried away by them, just as during seduction he recognizes malice, without learning to distinguish this in advance? And that the feelings have a struggle with the sensual and the sensual imposes tribute on the defeated feelings, this is clear from the war of the Assyrians with the Sodomites. Scripture historically sets out this enterprise of the four kings of the Assyrian people against the five kings of Sodom, describing first the conference, alliance and peace sacrifices at the Salt Sea, then the slavery of the five kings for twelve years, after this their fall away in the thirteenth year, and in the fourteenth a war in which the four kings attacked the five kings and took them captive (Gen. 14: 1-11). And the legend ends with this, and from this legend we learn what concerns us, and we learn the struggle of the senses with the sensory, for each of us up to twelve years from birth, not yet having a pure mind, is unconsciously subjected to slavery (and the senses carry out the orders of sensory things, like their rulers: sight - of visible things, hearing - of sounds, taste - of juices, smell - of odors, touch - of all sensory things that move this feeling is given) and a person, in infancy, is not able to distinguish and resolve his sensations. And as soon as reason begins to mature and begins to feel harm, it immediately plots apostasy and escape from such slavery. And if a person, having strengthened his mind, is confirmed in this decision, then he will forever remain free, having escaped from cruel rulers. If his determination in this undertaking is weak, then a person again betrays his feelings, defeated by the dominion of the sensual, into captivity, and they remain in painful slavery without any good hope. Therefore, according to legend, the five kings, defeated by four kings, run to the wells of tar (Gen. 14:10), teaching us that those defeated by the sensual, as if in an abyss or a well, throw into each sense everything sensual, namely, what is tangible for each of them, no longer thinking about anything visible, because they are immersed in desire for earthly things and pleasure The people here loved it more than mental pleasure. Likewise, a slave who loves his master, wife and children, renouncing true freedom by affinity with the body, becomes an eternal slave, having pierced his ear with an awl (Ex. 21:5, 6), so as not to ever perceive the words about freedom, having heard the natural opening of the ear, but, having loved the present, to remain a slave forever. That is why the Law commanded that the hand of a wife who took the yatra (testicles) when two husbands were fighting among themselves should be cut off (Deut. 25:11, 12), because during the struggle of thoughts about the choice of worldly and heavenly goods, abandoning this choice, she took hold of that which serves to give birth and corruption (the Lawgiver with the generative members signified the work of birth). Therefore, renouncing worldly affairs is of no benefit to those who do not remain with their resolve, but are again carried away and give in to thoughts, and therefore often return to what they abandoned and thereby declare their addiction to it, just as Lot’s wife, looking back, has become an example for the disobedient until now, having turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). This is also the habit, the image of which was Lot’s wife, and which irrevocably brings back those who intend to leave. What does the Law say, which commands the one who enters the church, after praying, not to return through the same gates by which he entered, but to go out through the opposite gates, traveling in a straight direction and not turning back (Ezek. 46:9)? Is it not that efforts in direct progress towards virtue should not be weakened by doubts? For frequent inclinations to that from which we have moved away will, without a doubt, lead us back from the habit, and, weakening the striving forward, will completely attract us to ourselves and force us to return to our previous bad deeds. For habit is strong enough to hold you back and not allow you to return to the previous habit of virtue, because from habit comes skill, and skill turns into nature; It is difficult to transform and change nature. Even if it is shaken somewhat by violence, it soon returns to itself, but, driven out of its limits, it does not achieve perfection unless great work gives it the opportunity to return again along the same path in order to move from the acquired habit to the abandoned skill. Look at the soul following its habits, how it sits on idols, nailing itself to substances that have no image, and renounces the ascent to the teaching that is ready to guide it to the highest, and says: I cannot stand before you, for I have an ordinary feminine (Gen. 31:35). And the soul, which has long been at peace with the affairs of life, sits on idols, which in themselves do not have an image, but receive an image from human art. For wealth, fame and other things of life are not something that does not have an image, but they do not have anything definite and articulate in themselves, they are counterfeited with an attractive likeness to resemble the truth, every minute turning from one type to another, but we ourselves give them an image, when we form a useful idea with human thought about something that is not suitable for anything useful. For when we extend the satisfaction of the necessary needs of the body to enormous expense, seasoning food with thousands of sweets, richly adorning clothing to the point of luxury and splendor, and then, accused of that vanity, which in vain and in vain were called luxurious costs for such a need, which can be satisfied with little, we come up with the excuse that we are doing as we should, then what else are we doing but not trying to give an image to unimageable substances? We rightly called such a soul the one who sits on them, for the soul, having confirmed in itself such judgments about what has been said, is nailed to the here, already serving idols, and not the truth and not having the strength to return to it, but through habits, like monthly impurity, desecrating the nature of everything here. By the word village (Gen. 31:34) Scripture here understands laziness in doing good and voluptuousness - laziness when it says: Those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, chained with sorrow and iron (Ps. 106:10), because darkness and fetters serve as an obstacle to doing, - voluptuousness when it speaks of those who have turned their hearts to Egypt and reason with each other with a friend: “We remembered when we sat by the meat pots and ate our fill of meat (Ex. 16:3).” For those who truly sit over the cauldrons are those who kindle desires within themselves with pampered and incessant fervor. The mother of voluptuousness is gluttony, for it gives rise to voluptuousness, and perhaps many other passions; from it, as from a root - offspring, other passions arise and, soon becoming trees, on the one that gave birth they grow into vices reaching to the heavens, because love of money, anger, sadness are the offspring and shoots of gluttony. A glutton, first of all, needs money to satisfy his always-burning lust, although it is never satisfied, and anger must be aroused when money interferes with the acquisition of money; Of necessity, sadness also follows when anger due to impotence does not turn into action. For he who walks on the breast and belly (Gen. 3:14), when he has substances that produce pleasure, walks on the belly, and when this is lacking, he grovels on the breasts, where anger is hidden, because sensualists, deprived of pleasures, become angry and upset. Therefore, the great Moses places a word on the chest (chest) of the priest, significantly meaning that the aspirations of the passion of anger must be curbed by thought, because the word of judgment is a rational force. And the priest restrains passions with reason, because he is imperfect; the perfect Moses completely separates from himself everything that is wrathful, because he does not bear a word, but separates the breast itself, for it is said: And Moses took the breast and brought it, laying it before the Lord (Lev. 8:29). Others, just as they do not completely cut off anger, do not restrain passion with reason, but overcome it with work; and these are the ones who take away the breast along with the shoulder (Lev.9:21), because the shoulder is a sign of labor and doing. And in a similar way this: Walking on the belly (Gen. 3:14) - in the very truth means pleasure, because the belly is the immediate cause of pleasure. When it is full, then the desires for other pleasures are strong, and when it is impoverished, these desires remain calmer and unexcited. And here there is a difference between the prosperous and the perfect, for Moses, who completely rejected the enjoyment of food, washed his womb and feet with water (Lev. 8:20), meaning by the womb to mean pleasure, and by feet ascension and prosperity. He who succeeds washes away what is in the womb, and not the whole womb. There is also a great difference in the words washed and washed (Num. 8:7), for the former is voluntary, but the latter is done by order. Just as a perfect person should be aroused to virtuous actions with spontaneous zeal, so a successful person should submit to the instructions of the abbot and, with extreme care, wean off the entire breast, and not wean off the womb, but wash it out. For the wise man is able to completely reject and eradicate anger, but he cannot cut off the womb, because nature forces even the most abstinent to consume the necessary foods. When the soul is not guided by the right and firm law, but is corrupted by adulterous pleasures, then the womb is burned for this, since lust remains unsatisfied, although the bodily receptacles are overflowing, and the dissolution of the womb follows, due to the fall of the womb (Num. 5:22), for the heart becomes powerless to give birth to good things. With the inflammation of the womb from the high value of food, the spiritual forces also weaken, for their word of the Law meant the womb. Therefore, the sensualist walks on his belly, pouring himself out in delightful pleasures. And one who begins a virtuous life takes away the fat (fat) from the womb, refusing foodstuffs that fatten the body. And the successful one exhausts what is in the womb, and the perfect one exhausts the entire womb, completely rejecting what is unnecessary for the necessary needs. It is very appropriate to add to the words on your chest and belly: You will walk (Gen. 3:14), because pleasure is possible not for those who are motionless and at rest, but for those who are moving and filled with confusion of passions. What is more akin to gluttony is voluptuous movement. And nature itself, wanting to show their affinity, assigned the instruments of cohabitation a place under the womb, by this proximity signifying a close connection. For if this passion weakens, then it weakens from the impoverishment of what is higher - the womb, and if it intensifies and comes into motion, then strength is given to it from there. But gluttony is not the only passion that feeds and rewards: it destroys everything good in a person. For, as soon as it prevails and gains the upper hand, good qualities usually fall and are destroyed: continence, chastity, courage, patience and all other virtues. This was very accurately portrayed by Jeremiah, saying: “The wall of Jerusalem around was destroyed (Jer. 52:14) by the Babylonian archmagir (chief of the bodyguards), calling the passion of gluttony the archmagir. For just as the Arch-Mage makes every effort to serve the stomach and comes up with thousands of artificial ways to give pleasure, so gluttony sets everything in motion, serving the pleasure of the larynx: the variety of foods overthrows and destroys the firmness of virtues. For sweets and seasonings, even for well-established virtue, become siege and battering weapons, shaking and overthrowing its stronghold and fortification. But just as luxury is destructive of virtue, so moderation usually destroys the strongholds of vice. Just as the wall of Jerusalem, that is, the soul of the pacified, was destroyed by the Babylonian archmagir, having driven it into carnal pleasures with the art of cooking, so the rolling dough of Israeli barley bread overthrew the tent of Midian (Judges 7:13). For a moderate lifestyle, rolling and prospering, for the most part destroys prodigal passions. The Midianites serve as an image of fornication, because they bring harlots to Israel and deceive a great multitude of young people. It is very appropriately said in Scripture that the Midianites have tents, and Jerusalem a wall, because what embraces virtue is strengthened and firm, but what contains vice is one appearance, a tent, no different from a ghost. That is why the saints fled cities and averted crowded meetings, knowing that treatment of depraved people is much more pernicious than a contagious disease. Therefore, taking nothing with them, they left their property as spoils for others, refusing to entertain them. That is why Elijah, having left Judea, lived on Mount Carmel, deserted and filled with animals, except for trees, having nothing to console himself with food, because he was content with tree fruits, satisfying the necessary needs with them. Similarly, Elisha led the same life, borrowing from the teacher with other good qualities and a love for desert living. And John, living in the Jordanian desert, ate locusts and wild honey, showing many how easy it was to satisfy the needs of bodily life, and reproaching them for their burdensome pleasure. Or it may be that Moses, generally foreshadowing something similar, gives the Israelites a law about manna - to collect it day after day, secretly commanding that the human content should be only one day, and not prepared in advance, for he considered it proper for rational nature to be content with what one has, and to recognize Christ as the dispenser of everything else. He who cares about what lies ahead shows that he does not believe in God’s mercy, as if it does not always exude inexhaustible gifts to people. And to briefly say: for this reason all the saints, of whom the world was not worthy, left the inhabited universe, wandered through deserts and mountains, through caves and gorges of the earth, and wandered in sheep's and goats' skins, suffering shortcomings, disasters, bitterness (Heb. cities, so that by the force of their desire, like a stream, they are not forcibly drawn into the indifferent mixing of the crowd, rejoicing in being with animals and considering the harm from them less than the harm from people, it is better to say, running from people as from evil ones, and trusting animals as friends, because they do not teach vice, but marvel at virtue and honor it. So Daniel was destroyed, as they thought, by men, but saved by lions; and they, having preserved the person convicted unjustly out of hatred, let those know that there is no justice among people, proclaiming a truthful trial over the person convicted unjustly; and the husband’s virtue became for people a pretext for envy and discord, and for animals a reason for respect and honor. Therefore, in whom the love for improvement is infused, let us be jealous of the virtues of the saints and, having refused to serve the dictates of the flesh, we will seek freedom, let us follow the wild donkey released by the Creator into the desert, which does not listen to the threats of the tax collector and laughs at the urban crowds (Job 39:5, 7). And if until now we have prepared him to bear a burden, placing on him the yoke of sinful passions, then we will at least free him from the bonds. Even if those who are not born gentlemen, but who have acquired dominion by skill, object to this, then, of course, they will hear, if only they hear that we say to them not with one tongue and not just with a voice, but with an inner disposition: The Lord demands him (Matthew 21:3), they will immediately release him, so that, adorned with the apostolic vestments, he will become a chariot of the Word or, released into the ancient pasture of the Word, after every grain he will seek ( Job.39:8), that is, following the powerful sayings of the Divine Scripture, he was guided by them to a blameless life, acquiring at the same time both abundant food and great pleasure. But at the same time, one must look for it, just as a wild donkey, released by God into the desert, searches for every kind of grain, having the desert as its home and salt marshes as its habitat (Job 39:8, 6), when salt marshes and the desert for the most part are not very capable of growing grass. Will anyone say that for one in whom there were no passions, when the one who harbors the passions is destroyed, it is enough to seek teaching in Divine words. Let's leave worldly affairs and turn to spiritual blessings. How long will we remain at children's games, not at all accepting a courageous way of thinking? How long will we be weaker in our actions than the smallest babies, and not guided by their example to succeed in the most important things? With the change in age, they also change their disposition to games and easily leave their addiction to what was used as fun. In childhood, perhaps nuts, bones, balls serve them as amusement, and they are partial to them until they come to a perfect mind, and consider it sufficient for themselves to prepare this. But as soon as someone succeeds and becomes a man, he gives up this and gets down to business with great diligence. And we remain in infancy, marveling at what is characteristic of childhood and worthy of ridicule, we do not want to worry about the best and think about what is appropriate for husbands, but, leaving this, we amuse ourselves with earthly affairs, providing a reason for laughter to those who judge matters in accordance with the natural order of ages. Just as it is shameful to see a perfect man sit on a heap of ashes and draw childish games in the ashes, so it is shameful, and much more shameful, to see that those who have in mind the enjoyment of eternal blessings rummage in the dust of earthly things and disgrace the perfection of the vow by the incongruity of their actions. And the reason for this for us, it seems, is that we do not imagine anything more important than what is visible, from the comparison of the low value of real goods we do not recognize the superiority of the goods there, and, illuminated by the brilliance of the goods revered here by the venerable, we dwell on them and cling to them with desire. For in the absence of the best, the worst is always highly valued, taking the place of the better. And if we had a higher concept of the blessings of the future, we would not stop with surprise at the blessings here. Therefore, let’s begin to get rid of real goods, we will neglect property, and money, and everything that immerses ourselves and drowns our thoughts, we will throw away the load so that the boat can somehow rise out of the water; overwhelmed, let us throw out many missiles so that the mind (the helmsman) can be saved along with the floating good (καλούς) thoughts (λογισμούς). If those sailing the sea during a storm do not care about their goods and with their own hands throw the cargo into the sea, putting property below life, so that the ship, burdened with the weight of the cargo, is not in danger, scooping up water, lighten it, throwing into the depths, perhaps even expensive rarities, then why do we not, for the sake of a better life, neglect what draws the soul into the abyss? Why is the fear of God not so strong as the fear of the sea? Those, out of love for temporary life, do not highly value the loss of what they are carrying, but we, speaking about ourselves that we desire Eternal Life, do not neglect even a little, but decide it is better to perish along with the cargo than to be saved by losing it. Therefore, I beg you, let us strip ourselves of everything - the enemy stands naked, because wrestlers do not enter into a fight clothed: the law of wrestling forces them into the field naked. Whether it’s hot or cold, they go out like this, leaving their clothes outside the field. If any of them refuses to expose himself, then he must refuse to fight. And we, having made a vow to asceticism, when we are fighting with opponents who are much more active than those who fight sensually, not only do not take off our clothes, but, carrying thousands of burdens on our shoulders, we enter into asceticism, giving those opponents many conveniences to capture us. How can someone who covets property fight against the spirits of evil when blows are conveniently thrown at him from everywhere? How to deal with the spirit of love of money showered with money? How to overtake the demons naked from all care, clothed with thousands of worries? Divine Scripture says: Naked will he flee in that day (Amos.2:16). Naked, who is not clothed in numerous rags of concern for the affairs of everyday life, naked, for whom complex thoughts about money and property do not hinder the speed of running, because the naked is difficult and even impossible to catch those who are malicious. If the great Joseph had been naked, the Egyptian woman would not have found anything to grab him by, for the Divine word says: Grab him by the garment, saying: Lie with me (Gen. 39:12). Clothes are bodily matters, for which the prevailing voluptuousness entails; and whoever cares about them must be carried away, fighting against those who seduce them. Thus, the ascetic of chastity, as soon as he saw that he was being forcibly drawn by the necessary needs of the body to the pleasure of communication and unity, having learned that he had to live naked with a mistress who could restrain and force him, he left his clothes in her hands and ran out (Gen. 39:13), as in paradise, walking in virtue naked in imitation of the primordial one, who, as a predominant gift, received from God nakedness, kept it until through disobedience he was reduced to the need for clothing. For while he was fighting against opponents who were urging him to break God’s commandment, like a wrestler in the field, he stood naked; the one who was defeated and left the fight, as it should have been, was clothed in a robe, leaving nakedness with the cessation of the ascetic state. That is why the Provider, turning his speech to the anointing one, says: Take away his clothes, for he has passed away (πέρασε μέσα) (Prov. 27:13). While he was out of the field, he made good use of the clothes of those who did not fight, hiding in himself the courage of a fighter by putting on clothes. But since he has entered into the feat, take away his clothes, because he must fight naked, and not only naked, but even anointed. Being naked makes it impossible for the opponent to grab hold of the wrestler, and anointing him with oil, even if he is grabbed, makes it possible to escape from the hands of the one who grabs him. Why do opponents try to shower each other with earth, so that, by adding dust to the roughness of the smoothness of the oil, they can make the opponent easy to hold when he is captured? But what is dust there, then in our feat are earthly affairs, and what is oil there, then there is a lack of care; and just as there the anointed one conveniently resolves the so-called traps, and if dust falls on him, he with difficulty avoids the hand of the opponent, so here too, he who does not care about anything is difficult for the devil, but whoever cares and cares, as if with some dust, gives roughness to the smoothness of an uncaring mind, he with difficulty gets rid of the devil’s hand. It is characteristic of a perfect soul not to have cares, but to overwhelm itself with worries is characteristic of an ungodly soul, for it is said about a perfect soul that it is like a lily among thorns (Song. 2:2), and this means a soul that among those who care about many things lives without cares. Lily in the Gospel also means a soul that has no cares, for it is said: it neither labors nor spins, but rather than Solomon it is clothed with glory (Matthew 6:28, 29). About those who have a lot of worries about the body, it is said: The whole life of the wicked is in worry (Job 15:20). And it is truly wicked to extend care for the physical for a whole life and not show any effort about the future; for the body, although it does not require more care about it, spend all the time, but for the soul, which has such a long path to success that a whole life is not enough to complete it, not even a little time can be devoted. For even if we spend, apparently, a little, we do it lazily and carelessly, caught up in the splendor of the visible, subjecting ourselves to the same thing that those who are seduced by vile, dissolute women endure, who, due to a lack of natural beauty, invent a fake one to deceive the audience, correcting their ugliness with the invention of rubbing. For, once overcome by the vanity of the present, we are unable to see the vileness of the substance, deceived by addiction. And that is why we do not stop at the necessary need, but, having set ourselves the goal of immoderate satiety with life, we strive for all kinds of acquisitions, not noticing that the measure of acquisition is bodily need and that which exceeds this measure is already disorder, and not need. Just as a shirt proportionate to the body is both a need and an adornment, but sagging on all sides, entangling the legs and dragging along the ground in ugliness becomes an obstacle to any work, so possessions that exceed bodily needs serve as an obstacle to virtue and are subject to great censure from those who are able to investigate the nature of things. Therefore, one should not pay attention to those who are deceived by the sensual, and recklessly follow those who, due to inattention to the mental, are addicted to earthly things. This would mean the same thing as making blind judges for flowers, or making deaf judges for music sounds, deprived of the ability to judge what is being assessed, and believing them as those who, according to reason, have chosen the enjoyment of real goods. For those who are blind are those who are deprived of the most necessary abilities to judge and their intellect, which usually pronounces judgment on what is worthy of respect and on what is indifferent. One of them was Achar, the son of Charmia, who confessed to Jesus that he hid the stolen goods underground in the tent (σκηνή) [of life] and buried silver under it. For he who values ​​motley and brilliant substances more highly, and buries reason under them, is naturally deceived, falling like a dumb man and indulging in the presentation of what he likes, because he has brought down reason from the throne of government and placed it alongside the subordinates, or rather, along with the defendants. For if he had been in his own dignity and had been entrusted with judgment over what is visible, he would have pronounced a truthful and faithful verdict, without giving in to the desire for what is deceptive. Therefore, it is wonderful to remain within the limits of need and try with all your might not to transgress them. For if someone is even somewhat carried away by the desire for the pleasures of life, then no reason will stop the striving forward: there is no limit to what is beyond need, but unlimited efforts and endless vanity will constantly increase the work on this, feeding the desire, like a flame that is fed by adding firewood. When those who have once transgressed the limits of natural necessity begin to succeed in material life, then they want the bread to be accompanied by pleasant food, and the water to be accompanied first by the usually used and then more expensive wine. However, they do not agree to be content with the clothes they usually use, but first they buy clothes made of wool, and moreover, more brilliant ones, choosing the very color of the wool, then from these clothes they move on to prepared together from flax and wool, after this they make silk clothes, and those are at first simple, and then dotted with images of battles, animals and all sorts of stories; They also acquire silver and gilded vessels, not only used for feasts, but also supplied in abundance for animals and beds. And should we say more about this excessive wastefulness, when they extend it to the most dishonest needs, and do not consider it proper to make vessels for eruptions from another substance, if silver is not used for such service? Thus, voluptuousness extends to extremes and honors the most dishonest deeds as precious substances. But this means behaving unnaturally. The natural way of life is the same determined by the Creator for both us and animals. Behold, I have given you, God says to man, all the grass in the field, it will be food for you and for the beasts (Gen. 1:29, 30). Therefore, having received food in common with the dumb and having transformed it into something more luxurious with our own imaginations, shouldn’t we justly be recognized as more unreasonable than the dumb, if the animals remain within the limits of nature, without violating what was decreed by God, and we, people gifted with reason, have completely departed from the ancient law? For what delicacies do the dumb have? What bakers and cooks, with a thousand arts, prepare delight for the poor belly? Don’t they love the ancient poverty, eating grass, being content with what happened, and drinking water, sometimes only rarely? That is why they indulge in carnal pleasures less often, without igniting their desires with any fattening food and not always knowing the difference between the male and female sexes. For this feeling gives them one time in the year in which natural law, as a means of procreation, has invented to gather them to sow others like themselves: at other times they are so alienated from each other that they completely forget about this desire. And in people, from expensive dishes, the insatiable lust of fornication instilled frantic desires, not allowing the passion to subside at any time. Therefore, since the acquisition of property is accompanied by great harm and, like something pathogenic, serves as a reason for all passions, let us eliminate the very reason, if only we are thinking about the well-being of the soul. Let us heal the passion of the love of money by non-covetousness. Having loved solitude, we will run away from gatherings of useless people, because being with frivolous people is detrimental and detrimental to a peaceful state. Just as those who are exposed to contagious air will certainly become sick, so those who spend time with people of all kinds become familiar with their vices. For what do those who renounce the world have in common with the world? No soldier interferes in the affairs of this life in order to please the commander of the army (2 Tim. 2:4). Purchasing interferes with military exercises. And if we don’t practice, how can we stand firm in the fight against those who are tempted in battle? It would be better to say, if we are to tell the truth, that we are fighting so lazily and negligently that we cannot resist an enemy that has already been defeated, and we who stand are subjected to the malicious intentions of the fallen one. What those who rob the dead for the love of money endure during the war, often after a victory are killed while lying down and for the sake of vile self-interest, who perish pathetically after acquiring trophies, is what we now endure as we approach the deposed and dying enemy. Just as those, out of passion for money, searching the dead, often approached another half-dead and undressed him, unnoticed received a mortal blow and fell, foolishly disgracing the glory acquired by victory, so we, when through chastity or abstinence we overthrow or consider ourselves to have overthrown a barbarian, then, seduced by his clothes, which people recognize as expensive, wealth, power, health, honor, we approach him, wanting to take something from him, and thus we die, betraying ourselves to be killed. So five virgins perished, killed by purity and abstinence, and by cruelty of heart, which is generated by the love of money, putting themselves to the sword, when the enemy, as deposed, could not kill them, who stood firm. Therefore, let us not desire anything of the enemy, lest we destroy our souls along with what belongs to him. For even now he invites and encourages everyone to do this, especially if he finds those who obey him. If he called on the Lord Himself, saying: All this I will give to you, if you fall and worship me (Matthew 4:9), and with what is considered brilliant in the world, he attempted to seduce Him who has no need for it, then will he really not think of seducing elusive people inclined to enjoy sensual things? Let us train ourselves in godliness if physical training also has success: for there is little benefit in bodily exercise, being like the lessons that are taught to children, but godliness is useful for everything (1 Tim. 4:8), preparing health in the soul for those who desire victory over opposing passions. Just as it is proper for wrestlers, learning from childhood games, to exercise their bodies and frequently move their limbs, and those who have matured in the art of wrestling should take care of their ascetic strength and anoint themselves for sacred feats, so those who begin to learn godliness should carefully restrain their active forces: it is important for them if they prevail over passions, being irritated by the pleasures in which they grew up, and almost involuntarily drawn into habitual evil deeds, and those who have already reached a state of active virtue and are concerned about what is reasonable are obliged to guard their reason with all care, so that during disorderly movement they do not get carried away into something imperfect, and, moreover, thoughtlessly. Some should try to learn how to control bodily movements, while others should try to teach the aspirations of the mind, harmoniously directed towards a single wise behavior so that not a single worldly idea distracts the mind from Divine thoughts. For the lust of the godly must be entirely directed towards the desired, so that there is no time left at all to put into action one’s passions based on misanthropic thoughts. If every passion, when it comes into motion, keeps the mind bound in the person who possesses it, then why should not jealousy of virtue keep the thought free from other passions? For does the irritated person receive any external sensation while mentally struggling with the idea of ​​the one who offended him? And also greedy for money, when, carried away by dreams, he fixes his gaze on what brings profit? Often a depraved person, sitting in company with others, constricts his feelings and, occupied with his beloved face, talks with him, forgetting those present, sits as a silent pillar, not knowing anything that is being done or said before his eyes, but, having gone deep inside himself, he is completely occupied with his performance. Perhaps the word of God calls such a soul a sitting one, when it, standing away from the senses, stops its own activity, not accepting anything external into itself at all, due to the bad idea that occupies it. If this, due to addiction, so much takes over the thoughts and leads the feelings to inaction, then how much more will the love of philosophy, having enraptured the mind in the sublime and occupied with the contemplation of the mental, force it to renounce the sensual and the feelings? Just as in a person who is being cut or burned, the thought will not go further than the felt suffering due to the prevailing pain, so for someone who thinks about anything with passion, it is impossible not to direct all attention to the passion that occupies his heart and has made the thought completely of the same quality as itself, because pleasure does not give room for sorrow, joy - sadness, joy - despondency, and conversely, the prevailing sorrow does not allow pleasure, the mastering sadness does not is combined with joy, despondency is not dissolved by joy. Opposite passions are incompatible with each other, never come together, do not enter into friendly communication due to naturally irreconcilable hostility and alienation. Therefore, let the purity of virtue not be disturbed by thoughts about worldly affairs, let the clarity of contemplation not be confused by bodily concerns, so that the image of true wisdom, shining with its inherent beauty, is not condemned by daring lips and, due to the inexperience of those who write, does not become the subject of ridicule, but is praised, if not by people, then at least by the Heavenly Powers or the Lord Himself Christ, from Whom the saints seek praise, like the great David, trampling upon human glory and asking praise from God, says: From You is my praise (Ps. 21:26); and again: My soul will boast in the Lord (Ps. 33:3). People often denigrate good things out of hatred, but the heavenly spectacle impartially judges deeds and pronounces a verdict on what has been done according to the truth itself. Therefore, let this spectacle, which needs to delight in the delight of affairs, be delightful. And as for people who can neither reward those who lived well, nor punish those who lived differently, it is not of great importance if, either through envy or partiality, the deeds of virtue are marred by the names of vice, and the life recognized by God and people is denigrated with fictitious blasphemies. For during the reward of those who lived well, without a doubt, not according to human opinion, but according to the very reality of what was accomplished in life, there will follow the reward of eternal blessings, which may we all be worthy to receive by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and to the boundless and endless ages of ages! Amen. The text is provided only in Russian, see the source for the original. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith