Letter to the monk Leonid

To a brother engaged in mental prayer. Instruction in spiritual life What do you think? - What is the shortcoming that I could particularly complain about when I am not leaving my cell in solitude? - Due to lack of time. Soreness and treatment consume my time all the time. I lie, lie, lie in inaction, in numbness: a strong medicine draws out an old cold from the veins and bones, like a barber squeezes blood out of a simmered drinker. If, God willing, I become stronger, the classes that are now patiently waiting for me will come and begin to take up my time. If I return to St. Petersburg and the Sergius Hermitage, my brothers, friends, acquaintances, curious people, the affairs of the monastery and monasteries will attack me there, they will steal all my time. I thought: now, in my free moments, I will little by little compose for Leonid the description and explanation of some of the monastic deeds that I promised him, and together I will give answers to some of the articles in his letters. We do not agree with you in terms of some of the expressions we use; By the same word you mean one thing, and I mean something else. For example, by the word: “spiritual, spirituality,” you mean what everyone has now accepted to understand - with such an understanding you move away from the meaning associated with this word in the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers. Nowadays the book is only about a religious subject; it already bears the name “spiritual”. Nowadays, he who wears a cassock is undeniably “spiritual”; he who behaves with restraint and reverence is “spiritual” to the highest degree! This is not how Holy Scripture teaches us, this is not how the Holy Fathers teach us. They say that a person can be in three states: natural, subnatural or supernatural and supranatural. These states are otherwise called: mental, carnal, spiritual. Another way: biased, passionate, dispassionate. Unnatural, carnal, passionate, he serves a completely temporary world, even if he does not indulge in gross vices. Natural, soulful, partial is someone who lives for eternity, practices virtues, struggles with passions, but has not yet received freedom, who does not clearly see either himself or his neighbors, but only guesses like a blind man, by groping. The superior, spiritual, passionless one is the one who has been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, who, being filled with Him, acts, speaks under His influence, rises above the passions, above his nature. Such people, indeed: the light of the world and the salt of the earth, see themselves, they also see their neighbors, and they can only be seen by someone who is spiritually similar to them. “But the spiritual one contends with all things, but he himself contends with none” (1 Cor. 2:15), says Scripture. These are extremely rare these days. In my life I had the good fortune to meet one - and until now wandering on earth - an old man, about 70 years old, from a peasant background, illiterate: he lived in many places in Russia, in Mount Athos - he told me that he, too, met only one. Hold, both in this case and in others, to the terminology of the Holy Fathers, which will correspond to your practical life, which often disagrees with the terminology of the latest theorists. Forgive me for calling theorists dead! Let these dead people fiddle with their dead people, that is. with those who want to hear the word of God with the goal of enjoying eloquence, bloody outbursts, and play of the mind, but not in order to “create the Word.” – The latter need to be told: “with what pleasure we listened and spent our time,” and the first need the world to say about them: “Ah! How cleverly and beautifully they speak.” Do not be seduced by natural intelligence or eloquence! It's all dust. To this eloquence and this mind it is said: “Thou art the earth”! However, I understand that you, having tasted life, cannot be satisfied with the dead! Well said St. Simeon the New Theologian: “Those who pretend to be virtuous and sheepskin, showing one thing outwardly and being another in the inner man, all sorts of untruths, full of envy and zeal and the sweets of evil, very many honor them as impassive and Saints, having an uncleaned spiritual eye, less able to know them from their fruits; in the good will and virtue and simplicity of heart of those who abid and are truly holy, as they despise others from people, and, despising them, come and count them for nothing. Those who are verbal and vain are charged with being teachers rather than spiritual. By the Holy Spirit, those who are ill with the devil, who are afflicted with arrogance and pride, turn away from arrogance and pride, then they are horrified by his words, rather than moved. From the womb and the teachings of those who speak thinly, and those who lie against their salvation, the great ones praise and accept.” Likewise, only those books in the strict sense can be called “spiritual” which were written under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Do not get carried away by the general flow, but follow the narrow path after the Holy Fathers. You fell in love with mine: I tell you how I tried to behave. You wrote to me in your letter: “Run people and you will be saved”! – there was a prophetic voice to Arseny. How can one who loves silence willingly endure the cramped conditions of a hostel on the same basis as newcomers and those still restless?” - When Saint Arseny was in the capital, at the Royal Court, and prayed to God, with the temptation he encountered, not knowing what to do, a voice came to him: “Run, man, and you will be saved!” – And you had this voice, it resounded in your soul when you lived among the many-witted world; you obeyed him, retiring to a secluded monastery. You did this with simplicity of heart, sincerity, simplicity of intention, with a small, preparatory knowledge of monastic life. You were met with unexpected sorrows and bewilderments! What about that? “God loves you, He wants to give you His mercy, to make you wise,” this is what the holy elder monk said to the holy young monk who was complaining about his sorrows. - God sent sorrows; He will also send consolation. When Saint Arseny was already in the monastery, he again prayed to God: “Lord! teach me how to be saved!” He was given a more complete answer: “Arseny, avoid people, be silent, remain silent: these are the roots of sinlessness.” “And you already heard in the monastery: “Get used to silence,” which greatly contributes to silence. Already in the monastery you heard: “die for people” - the same as “flee people.” You heard: “learn silence between people through spiritual achievement.” Arseny the Great used to admonish the brethren from his experiences: “strive as much as you have, so that through your inner work, which for the sake of God, everything external will be defeated.” Macarius the Great, the founder and chief mentor of the Skete of Egypt, famous for asceticism, in which Arsenius the Great lived, used to say to the brethren, at the end of the Divine Liturgy: “flee, brethren.” One day the elders objected to him: “Where should we run beyond this lonely desert?” The great saint of God pointed his finger at their lips and repeated: “flee, brothers.” I beg you: give a price, give due weight to the work of the Holy Fathers, which they learned from Divine revelations: give a price to the work that will make salvation and prosperity convenient for you; give, though you, the value of doing, - I say with tears and tears, doing, which is now rejected by the monks, trampled upon by them, buried in deep oblivion, into obscurity, replaced - I don’t know what - with some kind of games. “We pray according to Christ, as we pray to God, we pray according to Christ!” (2 Cor. 5:20) - said the Apostle. Alas! I am looking for self-sacrifice in myself and do not find it! I am looking for a person who would decide to reject his own will and, stripped of all will, wholly wanted to follow Christ, to fulfill His will - and I do not meet such a person! My eyes yearn between the multitude, as if in a deserted desert, - they do not find a sight on which they would stop with consolation!... We have all loved our empty and stupid desires, we have loved the corruptible, temporary, the flesh and blood that lives in them - eternal death!... The path is narrow, the path of self-sacrifice; cramped and on the wide path - self-indulgence! We are crowded, we are in a hurry, we are pushing each other into the already full, already satiated abyss of hell! “There are still ascetics today, but they do not have the crowns of saints, the crowns of Christ.” The crown of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Christ crowns His conquering warriors with the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit does not descend: because the ascetics labor unlawfully. “Even if someone strives,” said the Apostle, “he will not get married unless he strives lawfully. “No one who has been a warrior,” he proclaims, “obliges himself with the purchases of life, so that he may be pleasing to the commander” (2 Tim. 2:4–5). Everything that hinders self-sacrifice and introduces rumors into the heart is a worldly purchase. God looks at her angrily - he turns away from the warrior who has pledged himself to the purchase of life! Therefore, the holy Apostle convinces his disciple to true spiritual feat: “For you have suffered evil, for you are a good warrior of Jesus Christ,” says St. Isaac of Syria about ascetics who do not care about eradicating spiritual passions: “They will not reap anything. Just as those who sow among thorns cannot expect any fruit, so also those who consume themselves with resentment and affections; they will not be able to accomplish anything - they will only groan in vain on their beds from vigils and other oppressions. And the Scripture testifies about them: “They seek Me day by day and desire to understand My ways, because men have done righteousness, and have not forsaken the judgment of their God; Now they ask Me for righteous judgment, and they want to draw closer to the Lord, saying: Why did we suffer and did not see? Our souls were humbled and you did not see? In the days of your fastings you will obtain your wills” (Is. 58:2–3), i.e. “If you fulfill your thoughts, offer them as burnt offerings to idols; you have recognized your fierce thoughts as if they were gods, you are sacrificing to them your autocracy, more honorable than all sacrifices, which you should have sanctified to Me with good deeds and a clear conscience” 1 . – Saint Simeon says: “If someone exchanges love for the Bridegroom Christ for love for something else, secretly or openly, and his heart is held by this love; he becomes hateful, abominable to the Bridegroom, unworthy of union with Him. He said: “I love those who love me” 2. Listen to how the ancient monks deeply respected the works of the saints, what a priceless price they gave them! We, the darkened ones, are unable to even understand this: because we have not lived a significant, attentive life; - they lived somehow lightly, windily, as if “jokingly”, as if believing and not believing eternity, the double reward in it. “Once upon a time, the Great Saint of God, Elder Daniel, went with his disciple from Skete to the monastery of the mountain Thebaid, where Abba Apollos lived. The fathers, hearing about his coming, went out to meet him seven miles from the monastery. There were more than five thousand men, including five hundred standard-bearers. It was a wonderful sight! They all lay prostrate on the sand, waiting to receive the Elder, as if the Angels were waiting to receive Christ. Some of them spread their clothes under his feet, others their hoods, and fountains of tears flowed from their eyes. Father Apollos came and, approaching the Elder, fell on his face seven times before him, bowing to him. Then they greeted each other with love. The brothers began to beg the Elder to grant them permission to hear the word of salvation from his lips. The elder did not soon begin to talk to anyone. They sat down on the sand outside the monastery. The church could not accommodate them all... Father Daniel ordered the following to be written to his disciple: “if you want to be saved, keep non-acquisitiveness and silence: because in these two works lies the whole of monastic life.” – The student wrote what the elder said to him and gave it to one of the brethren, who read it to the Egyptian brethren. Everyone was moved and began to cry 3. What was the life of the Elder that he was able to condense his entire monastic life into two words! – and in two words set decisive boundaries for the mind and heart, defining the work of salvation! What was the life of the brethren, how rich their souls were in the experiences of paying attention to themselves, examining themselves, that they understood the full depth of the elder’s words and responded to him with a common sob! Non-covetousness is the same as mortification towards everything - to keep the mind free from everything earthly; and silence, turned into a habit, gives him all the freedom to constantly look into the heart. Here is a living image of a true silent person, a true monk, a dead man to the world, a mysterious priest and bishop, offering to God an unceasing sacrifice of deep, holy thoughts and feelings, and a sacrifice of heartfelt and mental silence that exceeds them - this mysterious darkness, behind which is directly God. Listen to what the Lord said. Give value and weight to the words of the Lord!... everything for us is without price and without weight!... With price and weight only our wishes!... “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a hidden treasure in a village, which a man found hidden; and for his joy he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that village” (Matthew 13:44). -What kind of treasure? – The Holy Spirit, bringing the Father and the Son into the soul. – Which village is this treasure hidden in? - Repentance. - How did this village come to be? - By living faith. – What does joy mean? – Kindled zeal for the cause of God, born from living faith. – What does “hidden” mean? - Silence and stillness. – What does it mean: “the village sells all the trees and buys it?” - Non-covetousness. Everything, everything must be sold, every addiction, every inclination of the heart, in order to buy repentance. Otherwise it won't sell. If a trifle is retained in the heart, the heart cannot inherit repentance: this trifle entertains it. You need to hide in silence. Hide not only from people, but, if possible, from yourself. Whoever does this will experience repentance; whoever acquired this village has a treasure - the All-Holy Trinity. ABOUT! when She would look upon us in need in the waves of the invisible sea, would grant us, me and you, through selflessness, to inherit the land of repentance, would become our treasure, immeasurable and incalculable wealth. Let me make you an offer: agree that for being silent, when you little by little introduce yourself into the habit of silence, they will consider you a little strange, and they will say both about your strangeness. Agree to this with generosity: it will not be contrary to the will of God and will more seclude your heart. “If anyone thinks that he will be wise in you in this world,” God commanded His Apostles, “let him be, for he will be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18). You write: “I have no privacy at home, in church it is often violated... the connection of thoughts is hindered by a restless thought: they are spying on me.” The Gospel says: “to the nazirah... let the nuns find their speech” (Luke 6:7). Who is the “nazirah” for? For the Lord. Let them watch you too, come to terms with it. Do not refuse the cup of Christ, both in this case and in all. Say to yourself: “They did this to Christ, why shouldn’t they do this to me?” Our earthly life is short - like a deception: its sorrows, by the very thing, mean nothing; – have as much meaning as we give it to them. Humility will bring peace, prayer, silence into your heart. – When you are at home, think that you are with the Angels; Having rendered a service, when dealing with them, say mentally: “Angels of God! accept service from a sinner.” Whether you sit at a meal, at tea, at handicrafts, say to yourself: “I am worthy to be with the Angels of God.” Love for one's neighbor in God brings consolation from God to the heart, and this consolation secludes a person in himself. He loves his neighbor and is at the same time dead to him; his heart sinks into silence, which is the beginning of God’s love. You write: “Without freeing myself from the anxious sensations of the heart and the worries of the mind and forcing myself to engage in mental activity, I only feel a “severe” headache and nervous disorder.” – I repeat to you that all external worries and anxieties must be overcome by internal action. Renewal must begin from the heart; heart is the root. “If the root is holy, so are the branches” (Rom. 11:16). This image of heroism was established by the Savior Himself. “First cleanse the inside of the glass and take care,” He said, “so that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:26). When anxiety comes, reject the thoughts that bring it, calm down the excitement of the blood, accepting as true that every thought that brings anxiety is ungodly, and again continue the prayer activity. In all deeds, especially in prayer, constancy and patience are required. Impatience knocks down its delicate color, just as frost and winds knock down the flowers of fruitful trees. “Be patient in prayer” (Col. 4:2), said the Apostle: this is a distinctive property of practicing prayer. First, introducing the mind into prayer, accustoming it to it, do not keep it in it for a long time, so that it does not become unnecessarily tired, but introduce it more often to the activity of prayer. Oh! This activity requires compulsion! The criminal - our mind - does not like the prison of prayer; he needs crazy freedom; with violence it is necessary to drag him into prison, into chains; without this, the raging one will not be tamed, nor will he return to common sense. In due time, when he is tamed and becomes as quiet as an Angel, his heart comes out to meet him with all his spiritual strength, as with a child, with all his bodily abilities, as with slaves, and there will be peace in that house, holy peace from the Most Holy Lord, a great feast of renewal and resurrection. – Headache is a common initial accompaniment of deep attention to the word of God and prayer. “For the word of God is living,” says the Apostle, “and is active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, members and marrow, and is judgmental by the mind and the thought of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Not only does it hurt with you, not only did it hurt with me: it hurt with the Holy Fathers, - and they put it in their Scriptures, says St. Gregory of Sinai: “And having suffered from pain and headaches many times, you endured it more laboriously and diligently, seeking the Lord in your heart.” At times, from exercising in prayer, there is relaxation of the whole body, sweat, fever; all this for beginners; – among the successful, prayer strengthens and nourishes the soul and body. But even they sweat. However, you have been taught the easiest method of attention and prayerful feat, alien to any difficult mechanical bodily exercise, for which good health is necessary. Pay as little attention as possible to the little things, to all the sensations in your body, make sure that your mind remains in repentance and moves away from entertainment. I hope your headaches won't last long. And it didn’t last long for me. After they passed, the activity of prayer became more natural to the mind and easier for it. When praying, do not demand from your mind anything that exceeds its strength, for example, indestructible complete undistractedness. Mentally show your weakness and old age to God, saying: “Lord! You see all my dilapidation!” - and, enduring, generously endure the weakness of your mind. It is not in vain and not without purpose that it is said: “By enduring, I endured the Lord, and listened to me and heard my prayer: and raised me from the pit of passions and from the clay of the mud, and set my feet on stones and straightened my steps: And put a new song in my mouth” (Psalm 39:1-4). In the second letter you write: “Remove me, O Lord, from the wicked man, deliver me from the unrighteous man, who conceived unrighteousness in my heart, I will fight with the army all day long. They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent, the poison of asps is under their lips. Save me, O Lord, from the hand of sinners; deliver me from the unrighteous people, who thought the heels of my feet” (Psalm 139:2-5). “Who do you think is a wicked man, an unrighteous man, a sinner who fights all day long, with the venom of an asp under his lips?” - This is the devil. – When Saint David curses his enemies, or more correctly, through his mouth the Holy Spirit, then in these “cases” we must always understand the unclean spirits, the enemies of the human race, who have taken away paradise from us, who want to take away the redemption and salvation given to us by God. In Scripture the devil is sometimes called a man. So the Savior called the one who sowed the tares among the wheat “the enemy - man.” The book of Psalms is the most sublime spiritual book. It describes in depth and detail the inner feat of a warrior of Christ. Demonstrative shadows and allegories are often used, giving the book mystery and darkness - (it is not without a reason that there is a veil on it!). There is no need to take it “literally”: the literal understanding of Scripture kills the soul. Spiritual understanding is necessary: ​​it revives, puts on right, holy paths. The Spirit of God, commanding through the mouth of David complete hatred of invisible spiritual enemies, teaching us to resort to prayer to God for their contrition and destruction, at the same time demands from us love for our enemies - men, demands forgiveness of the insults inflicted on us from our neighbors, demands this with the invocation: “O Lord my God,” the Psalmist prays, “if I have done this, if there is unrighteousness in my hand, If I reward those who repay me with evil: let me then fall away from my enemies; let the enemy take my soul in marriage, and let him overwhelm and trample my belly into the ground, and let my glory settle in the dust” (Ps. 7:4-6). Here are two sides that do evil: neighbors, people, and devils. The Holy Spirit teaches us that by taking vengeance, repaying one's neighbor evil for evil - with words, or deeds, or thoughts - a person invites upon himself the battle of an invisible enemy, victory, overthrow by him, loss of grace. “Glory” is the grace of the Spirit. “He who prays for people who cause offense,” said St. Mark the Ascetic, “crushes” demons; but he who disputes with the first is crushed by the second.” You have experienced all this yourself. Therefore, reject all excuses, which are all wrong, because they oppose the commandment of God; try without fail to acquire love for your enemies, and until you are able to take this stronghold, “strengthen your battle,” constant battle, repeat attacks after attacks. That is, pray for those from whom you are suffering, and fulfill what the Lord commanded regarding your enemies at the end of the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew - you will certainly receive healing! In due time, the banner of victory, the banner of the Cross of Christ, will begin to flutter on the walls of your Jerusalem. – Know: Divine Scripture, misunderstood and interpreted, can destroy the soul. This is what the Holy Apostle Peter said about the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul, extending this remark to other books of Holy Scripture (2 Pet. 3:16), which should especially apply to the Old Testament, full of prototypes, shadows, and therefore sacred gloom. Be careful with the two-edged sword of Scripture. The Holy Fathers advise novice monks, more than just reading the Holy Scriptures, to practice reading the active works of the Fathers, in which the monastic exploits are explained in detail and the path to the correct understanding of the Holy Scriptures is indicated. And you follow this holy and saving advice of the Fathers. For the same reason, it is more useful for beginners to read akathists and canons for prayers than the Psalter. But it is most excellent when the mind reaches the point where it is completely satisfied with the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” You write in the second letter: “I thirst, but do not expect anything good from myself, below the perfect feeling of repentance or humility.” – Repentance is the wondrous grace of God, the priceless gift of God, the totality of all monastic deeds. A monk, educated by all his private endeavors and having reached considerable maturity, leaves behind his many weapons, puts on the clothes of repentance and in them enters his inner spiritual cell. When he enters there and the fragrance of the sacred censer of contrite and humble prayers is heard in it; then the Spirit descends to the weeping soul and preaches peace from God to it. There is a time for everything “The Heavenly Father has appointed seasons and seasons in His power” (Acts 1:7). Do not demand too much from your soul; sit at the door of repentance with selflessness, like a widow in all respects, thereby proving that you truly desire humility, from which comes repentance; the giver of both is one God. In my last letter I wrote to you how to deal with thoughts and indignations. I repeat again: gird yourself with the sword, put on your armor. Do not honor your enemies with anything more than conversation, below words, below views. As soon as you hear the voice of war, get up for battle, shouting to your thoughts and feelings: “Let us take courage and be strong for our people and for the cities of our God!” (2 Samuel 10:12). The voice of war is a violation of the peace of the heart. As soon as the peace of the heart begins to be disturbed, to waver, know: foreigners are coming. And here is a covenant from God for you regarding your behavior with foreigners: “If I have beaten you, I will destroy you with destruction: do not make a covenant with them, but have mercy on them: do not make matchmaking with them: do not give your daughter to his son, and do not understand his daughter to your son: for he will turn your son away from Me, and serve as a demon: and The Lord will be angry with you and will quickly consume you. But do great things to them: you will scatter their towers, and you will crush their pillars, and you will cut down their oak groves, and you will burn the statues of their gods with fire; For a people are holy by nature to the Lord your God, and the Lord your God has chosen you” (Deut. 7:2–6). Matchmaking and marriage are depicted here as a conversation with sinful thoughts, acceptance, assimilation of sinful thoughts and feelings. Idols are objects of passion, passion, special affection; they must be burned with the fire of prayer, the fire of love according to God. The treasury is its own will, the will of flesh and blood; the pillars are justifications; shady oak groves are the carnal mind, which blocks the Divine Light from us. The true servants of God fulfilled this command of God. When David took possession of the capital of the Ammonites, Rabbathon, - “Taking,” says the Scripture, “the crown of Malchom their king from his head, the weight of the talent of gold, and the dredging of the stone, and on the head of David, he carried out much greed from the city. iron, and the Plinthians led them through the cave. And thus created Ammonim for the whole city, and David and all Israel returned to Jerusalem” (2 Sam. 12:30–31). - Exactly: glorification of God, thanksgiving to God for everything sorrowful that happens, surrendering oneself entirely to the will of God, with the rejection of one’s will, prayer for enemies, blessing of enemies as instruments of God’s Providence, - and other holy works: - saws, and tridents, and axes, and a plinthian furnace for sinful thoughts and feelings. Our mind, - the mysterious David, - the king and leader of the army of Israel, - thoughts and feelings of the Divine service, when it takes away the city and cities of foreigners, then it returns to Jerusalem with all its Israelites - to the city of peace 4, from where the war with foreigners led it. On his head is the crown of Malchom - the active mind he acquired during the battle with sinful endeavors - in its exploits, difficulties, misfortunes and triumphs; with him - “there is a lot of self-interest” - precious experiences that can nourish, support him for the future, support and nourish those who consult with him. Talent is weighty in the golden crown acquired by David: the precious active mind is heavy; rich in experience, he does not hesitate, is not carried away by every thought that appears to the mind, but examines it with distrust and tests it, even if it seems good. So Joshua, the military leader of Israel, asked an unknown knight who suddenly appeared before him, although it was an Angel: “Are you ours, or from our adversary” (Joshua 5:13). The end of the word contained within the advice: if you happen to fall, be overcome, get carried away, be deceived, sin before God - do not give in to despondency and cowardice. The same transformative Old Testament says: “Speak unto Joab (the leader of the Israelites), let this word not be evil before your eyes, as the sword devours the flesh at one time, and at another time the sword devours it; strengthen the war” (2 Samuel 11:25). Be gentle with yourself, don't judge yourself. When you are defeated, run to God with repentance, and your victory will be forgiven: and you again take up the sword and cut: “Strengthen the battle!” Take the city with stubborn, constant war! – The Lord came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous! You liken yourself to the blind man of the Gospel, crying out after the Savior and being rebuked... “Arise, be bold”: The Divine Teacher “is calling you... your faith will save you” (Mark 10:49, 52). Dobrotolyub. Part 1, Ch. 81. Jerusalem means “city of peace”