Часть II. Подвиги самоочищения от нечистоты греховной жизни, или подвиги совлечения ветхого человека

Having completed the preliminary degrees, the ascetic must enter into the very feat of putting off the old man. The task facing the monk requires that he crucify “the flesh with its passions and lusts,” mortify the “earthly members” (Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5), cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), and eradicate in himself everything old and sinful. Our venerable teacher guides the ascetic in this matter in this way: First of all, he points out the need to cleanse himself from the filth of the flesh, i.e. from all those vices and passions that have their basis in the depravity of our bodily nature and arise from it, and then advises us to begin to eradicate spiritual vices. This rule can be found in the fact that the struggle against the flesh, requiring mainly external means, is more accessible and convenient for beginners than a purely spiritual struggle. St. John draws attention primarily to those aspects of our corrupted sensual nature from which the vices arise in the greatest number and greatest importance. In this regard, in the first place he places our corrupted heart as the source of evil, then he points to the tongue (See James 3:2, 5, 6.), then to the belly, which can so dominate a person that it becomes his god, as the apostle puts it. From an evil heart, from an unbridled tongue and belly, many vices can occur. By the degrees of the spiritual Ladder, the Reverend prescribes liberation only from the most important of them, the root ones, which serve as the beginnings of a vicious life and produce from themselves hordes of other vices. With the destruction of the most important vices, these latter ones are destroyed by themselves. As for the order of the fight against vices, the reverend man has in mind the genetic connection of vices and first of all speaks of a vice, which, as it were, produces others from itself, then of another, which is immediately born from the first, so that the previous feat can serve as an aid to the subsequent one. Feats against heart defects In accordance with this, the Reverend appoints the first feat against the vices of a bad heart to be the destruction of anger in him, as the most important and primary among them. The tendency to anger is a true misfortune for every person, and even more so for a monk. Anger darkens the light of sound reason (See Ps. 4:5), deprives pure and godly prayer (See Matt. 5:24; 1 Tim. 2:8), and prevents self-correction 31 . Anger repels the saving effect of the grace of the Holy Spirit on us. If the Holy Spirit brings with Him peace of mind, and anger is the indignation of the heart, then, consequently, nothing blocks His path in us so much as rage. Not limited to this harm to a person, anger also brings with it many other vices into his soul: malice, hatred, enmity, slander and many others with their countless offspring. Therefore, the Word of God with all severity commands every Christian to abstain from anger, not only manifested, but also hidden in thought (See Eph. 4:26, 27, 31; Matt. 5:22). The reverend by unacceptable anger means any kind of irritation of the heart, not only frenzied rage, but also slight annoyance, irritation produced in us by any unpleasantness, small or great, an insignificant joke or bloody insult. And for someone who wants to achieve this degree, it is not enough to be able to endure only unimportant insults, or even important ones, but with some bitterness and heart disease; he needs to acquire the skill, amidst sorrows of all kinds, to maintain complete calm and an unperturbed disposition of soul, even to rejoice, according to the Savior’s commandment: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12). In the fight against this mental illness, anger and irritability, the following means can be usefully used, in the opinion of the Reverend. 1) Music and singing. A harmonious combination of sounds, especially in spiritual chants, have an undoubted, experienced property of taming emotional disturbances, calming and softening the heart. 2) Society. Sometimes it happens that solitude contributes to increased anger. Left alone with himself and under the influence of passion, a person begins to think about the circumstances of an unpleasant incident, imagining them in exaggerated terms. The bile spreads more and more and, finally, the unfortunate man is completely overcome by rage, he becomes furious, almost crazy. He begins to scold his enemy, threaten him, accompanying all this with the most harsh gestures. For such people, society can be very saving. A conversation with strangers distracts the attention of an angry person from the person who angered him, stops the play of his imagination, calms the excitement of the blood, and restores the dominion of sound and calm reasoning in the soul. 3) Strict submission to the elder, example and instruction of a prudent brother. The remarks and admonitions of a senior, venerable person, an example of his meekness in the most distressing circumstances, the sincere advice of a friend, a brother cannot be a cure against irritability, except for those who have nothing good in themselves. However, “outrage of anger,” notes the Reverend, “has many and different reasons. Therefore, it is impossible to prescribe one specific medicine to cure it. And I give this advice so that each of the sick, applying himself to his illness, with all decent diligence, seeks a cure. Let the first healing be to find out the cause of your weakness, so that, after understanding it, with God’s assistance and the advice of spiritual doctors, you can apply a healing plaster to it.” The first and worst manifestation of anger is memory malice. Despite, however, the close connection between them, even after a significant weakening of the first, the latter stubbornly remains in the human soul. It even happens that, as irritability decreases, a person becomes even more angry in his soul, secretive and retentive, so that special and, moreover, intense efforts are needed to expel this vice from the soul. The Reverend calls “memory malice” any temporarily hidden hostile feeling towards a brother who has not pleased us, ranging from barely noticeable displeasure to persistent enmity, wishing and seeking all sorts of harm against him. Therefore, a feat of this degree requires not only that a person not be angry or hostile to the offender, not have any displeasure against him, but that he treat his offender as a friend, as a brother, and love him as himself. This is how our venerable teacher talks about this: “We should consider it a complete triumph over memory malice not if we begin to pray for those who have saddened us, or to appease them with gifts, or to treat them to a table, but if we, seeing them fallen into some kind of external or spiritual misfortune, will sympathize and cry for them as for ourselves.” Three remedies against memory malice, as the most effective, are indicated by St. John: 1) The Lord’s Prayer, the words of which are often and with attention repeated: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, can finally put to shame the one who is angry with his brother and change his disposition towards him. 2) An apology to the enemy. Our teacher explains the beneficial effect of this act as follows: “When you, having struggled a lot with this passion (memory malice), cannot crush its thorns, then at least verbally apologize to your enemy, and, having confessed to him your long-term pretense, and being burned by your conscience like fire, you will love him completely.” 3) Remembrance of the passion of Christ, which can soften and touch our hearts by the example of the Savior’s suffering. “He who has reached the ninth degree,” says St. John about this degree, “boldly asks Christ the Savior for permission for his sins.” For He clearly said: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Feats against the vices of the tongue In the closest connection with the considered vices are the main vices of language: slander comes from hatred and memory, which is fed and supported by verbosity, and this, in turn, is supported by lies. Therefore, following the exploits against heart defects, the Venerable Climacus prescribes a fight against the aforementioned tongue defects. Slander is a shameless and daring admiration of the rights due to the One God, as it always pronounces judgment on one’s neighbor; This is the extreme baseness of the soul, because people for the most part slander and condemn others falsely or for things of which they themselves are guilty (and even more condemned). More than other sins, it is incompatible with repentance, which must be performed throughout life, at least in spirit, by every Christian, and especially by a monk, and therefore alone can plunge a person into complete destruction. By slander, St. John means not only when they attribute to a person such vices that he does not have at all, when his honor and his virtues are completely unfairly defamed, but also any condemnation of his neighbor, censure of his shortcomings, even those that actually exist in him. Therefore, the real degree requires not only removal from all slander, but also the acquisition of the spirit of perfect non-judgment. “Only he has triumphed over the vice in question and completely driven it away from himself, who has become unjudgmental to such an extent that, even seeing someone sinning with his own eyes, he not only does not say, but does not even think anything bad,” teaches the Reverend. Against the spirit of slander and condemnation of your neighbor, you can successfully use the following means: First, do not listen to someone who slanderes a fellow man. Secondly, consider your shortcomings more, more often and more carefully. If someone looked closely at his own atrocities through the veil of pride, he would never in his life have cared about the affairs of another, thinking that he does not have enough time to mourn his sins. Thirdly, when you see someone sinning, attribute the sin not to him, but to the devil who instigates it. Although few may be immune from slander and condemnation, at least every reasonable person considers these sins to be very serious. As for verbosity and silence, most people consider the former, if not a virtue, then at least an indifferent matter, and the latter, if not a vice, then at least a regrettable shortcoming. This is not how our reverend teacher thinks. “Much verbosity is the seat of vanity.” Who does not know that by speaking a lot of words, everyone thinks to express his eloquence, his intelligence, to present his person from an advantageous side, to earn the praise and approval of his listeners. “From talking too much, purity of heart and tenderness are lost; a person is overcome by scattered thoughts and an irresistible laziness towards all kinds of work and deeds, and especially prayerful ones.” Everyone who is at least a little attentive to themselves knows all this from their own experience. “Prudent silence is a guardian of thoughts, an incentive to remember death, the power of soul-saving sadness, an increase in the mind, a teacher of reflection, success in virtues unnoticed by the ascetic, an inconspicuous ascent to heaven.” All this is the truth, known through the experience of many ascetics. From here you can see to what extent the advocates of multi-verbalism are right and to what extent you need to beware of it, and if it has already taken hold of someone, then to what extent you need to take care of eradicating this weakness. In St. John one can find two means to this end. The first memory of death and the repentant mood of the spirit, lamentation of sins: in such a state of mind one can hardly engage in idle talk, even if it were only an empty matter, and not at the same time criminal. The second is solitude: there is no one to talk to - and, of necessity, you have to remain silent. The third sin of the word is lying. Criminal in itself, it becomes completely intolerant and humiliating for the motives and goals that those who resort to it most often pursue. One lies for a joke, another in order to arouse laughter among those present, a third in order to lay nets for his neighbor, etc. But there is no mercy for the deceitful. The Prophet David says: “Destroy all who speak lies” (Ps. 5:7). They can wean off lies: inattention to false speeches, even very pleasant ones, and even denunciation of them; fear of God, i.e. constant remembering that God hears our words and that one day we will have to give an account for every word; crying about sins abundantly in tears: “he is drunk with wine and involuntarily always speaks the truth; just as someone who is drunk with tears of tenderness can never lie.” It is impossible not to notice that the obligation to go through the last three degrees lies with every Christian without distinction, and does not apply only to monks. Judging one's neighbor, speaking too much, and lying are clearly and positively condemned by the Word of God in every Christian without any exception. The Holy Church teaches everyone to pray without exception: Hey, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother! Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idle talk!.. Place, O Lord, a guard over my mouth and a guardrail over my lips! Do not turn my heart into words of deceit! Feats against stomach defects, or carnal lust The Reverend includes the third category of vices: unbridledness of the womb and the resulting laziness and bodily impurity. But since laziness also comes from talking a lot, the feat against laziness is prescribed by the Reverend immediately after the feat against talking a lot and before the feat against gluttony. Laziness not only does not allow a person to do anything good, but, as the ancients put it, it is the mother of all vices. That’s why Climacus says: “Laziness for a monk is his death.” The disease of laziness is no less deadly for every Christian (See 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12). Remedies against laziness: general recollection of our falls, mortal memory and imagination of future blessings prepared for us; and private - hard work, handicraft and prayer. However, a decisive victory over laziness can only be achieved by defeating the disease of gluttony, from which, as noted above, this vice originates and is maintained. A terrible and humiliating vice in a person is gluttony. It makes a person incapable of any kind of activity, and even more so for pious activities, it weakens and, as it were, completely suppresses our spirit, completely turning a person into an animal. To one possessed by this passion, pure prayer is unknown, since the thoughts of the incontinent are always defiled by impure ideas, tenderness is unknown to him, since the satiety of the womb dries up the sources of tears, the highest aspirations of the spirit towards God are unknown and incomprehensible, since for the incontinent, God is the womb. Dejection, idle talk, laughter, a sea of ​​unclean thoughts and lusts - these are the most common, inevitable fruits of gluttony! The vice of gluttony sometimes reaches the point of monstrous greed and greed for food. It happens that a glutton, being physically unable to eat much, would nevertheless like to devour everything that his eyes can see. The most general and effective remedies against this disease, indicated by the holy man, are as follows: 1) Prudent choice of kind and gradual limitation of the amount of food eaten. The Monk Climacus strongly disapproves of those who, after eating pleasant and varied food for a long time, suddenly want to become great fasters and eat only bread and water. “This,” he says, “is the same as if someone told a child to climb to the top of the stairs in one step.” He advises observing careful gradualism, first removing from the table those foods that most fatten the flesh, then those that inflame it the most, and finally, tasty and sweet foods. As for the quantity of food, he does not at all prohibit taking it in an amount sufficient to satisfy hunger, just as, according to the rules he wrote about its quality, he does not reject eating digestible food. The rules of strict abstinence and fasting are given not in order to torment and torment a person, but in order to tame rebellions and incitements of the flesh, in order to promote the angelic purity of human life 32 . 2) Physical labor. Physical inactivity, if it cannot induce one to take food in a particularly large measure, makes food harmful, even if consumed in small quantities, it does not allow it to be digested properly. Undigested food produces bad juices, makes a person overweight and relaxes him. Physical labor has the opposite effect. 3) Finally, the common moral remedy for driving away all vices is recollection and lamentation of sins committed and remembrance of death with the idea of ​​everything that follows for a person. The immediate and most unfortunate consequence of unbridled womb is slavery to prodigal sin. But the first fragrant fruit of abstinence and fasting is the destruction or at least weakening of the actions of the prodigal spirit and the acquisition of blessed and worthy purity. Therefore, it is most natural and trustworthy for an ascetic to undertake this feat after he has ceased to be a slave to his womb and becomes its complete master. Purity of flesh and spirit constitutes the most important vow of monks and the work of their entire life. In purity is their honor and glory and, finally, a victorious crown. Sins against chastity are among the most criminal and unforgivable sins. One Holy Father considered only murder and renunciation of Christ more criminal than them, and in this case referred to conciliar decisions against them. The sin of unchastity is the most vile and destructive sin. He defiles a person’s entire body: “the fornicator sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18). The body of a Christian must be a pure vessel of the Holy Spirit. A Christian must be one spirit with the Lord, and falling into fornication, he becomes one with the fornicator and, thus, drives away Divine grace far from himself, falls far from saving unity with the Lord. That is why the apostle commands to “put to death your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness” (Col. 3:5). As low and ungodly as carnal lust is, just as high and God-loving is the opposite virtue - purity, chastity. Since God is incorporeal and incorruptible, He delights in the purity and immaculateness of our body, since through it we become like the Angels and even God Himself. That is why some Fathers even called purity complete holiness. The Savior promises this virtue the reward of the closest vision of God: “blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The feat of this degree consists not only in keeping one’s body clean, but also in protecting one’s heart from being seduced by bad wishes and lusts, one’s thoughts from unclean thoughts and imaginations, one’s will from the slightest inclination towards carnal lust, and to keep one’s entire soul immaculate and holy. The Savior clearly said: “Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). In any battle, but especially in the fight against the prodigal spirit, a person cannot achieve victory by his own strength alone; and if anywhere you need to expect everything and ask for God’s all-powerful help, then it is in the present case. This spirit has deeply taken root in our nature, so that the ascetic needs to fight with his own nature. This unclean spirit, always inherent in a person, constantly torments him; reasons and temptations to criminal thoughts await the ascetic at almost every step. A meeting with certain persons, the sight of other objects, the sounds of a voice, a careless touch - everything can sometimes pour into the soul the deadly poison of unclean thoughts and desires and then defile the body. It is clear that nothing can be done against such an enemy without special help from God. We must not, however, neglect those strictly human means that instill in us the prudence and experience of ascetics, such as: heartfelt contrition, fasting, labor, humility, obedience, mortal remembrance and prayer. Feats against the vices of lust Criminal lust is generally revealed by a passion for acquiring wealth and is manifested by love of money or covetousness, depending on what it is directed towards. Against these two types of lust, the monk prescribes warfare at the height of the sixteenth and seventeenth degrees of his spiritual ladder. “The lover of money,” says the Rev., “is a scoffer of the Gospel, which, like the entire Word of God, demands non-covetousness from every Christian, and even more so from an ascetic who has pledged to seek the highest perfection and has taken a vow of poverty (See Matt. 6:20; Luke 12:21, 33; Mark 4:19; 1 Tim. 6:7, 10, 18, 19). The love of money is the daughter of unbelief in God’s Providence, which gives everything necessary not only to man, but also to the last of creatures. The love of money is idolatry, since one blinded by this passion honors soulless metal, giving it all his heart and all his soul. The love of money suppresses the good seeds of good deeds in the ascetic and predisposes him to a countless number of the worst dispositions and actions. Its immediate consequences are: loss of pure, undisturbed prayer, anger, sadness, quarrelsomeness, hatred, strife, remembrance and hardness of heart.” The apostle rightly calls it “the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). The same should be said about covetousness, since it differs from the love of money only in that the covetous object of unreasonable attachment is not only money, but also other things that make up a person’s wealth. However, it should be noted that the essence of the feats of these two degrees is not to have no property, but to not tie your heart to any acquisition. A non-covetous monk does not tell everyone about his needs - when God sends him something, he accepts it; He only thinks about the property he has received and has in his possession as if he did not have it at all. However, in the teaching about these exploits one cannot find encouragement for idleness and complete carelessness about one’s livelihood. “If anyone does not want to work, neither should he eat,” says the apostle (2 Thess. 3:10), whose own hands served not only his needs, but also the needs of those with him (Acts 20:34). As a means against the love of money and covetousness, the Venerable Climacus indicates: obedience, unshakable faith and remembrance of death, combined with care to give an account of one’s deeds after death. Feats against spiritual vices Moving on to purely spiritual exploits, St. John prescribes to monks, first of all, to fight against the coldness of the soul in relation to salvation. It sometimes happens that ascetics, having accomplished lower feats with some success against the vices of their sensual nature, consider their work almost completed and sufficient for themselves if they maintain the heights they have achieved, and therefore insensitively fall into that lukewarmness that is so strictly condemned in the Apocalypse and from which there is only one step to complete insensibility. For a Christian, it is hardly possible to think of anything worse than the state of heartfelt insensibility! What does she represent? “The insensitivity of the heart,” says the Reverend, “is extreme negligence,” is a kind of internal invincible laziness, due to which a person, knowing his duties, does not fulfill them, fully understanding the danger of his situation, even regretting it, but does not want to force himself to improve. “The insensible person is angry with himself, but, out of habit, he again returns to the bad, the unfortunate person is angry that he does this, and is not ashamed of his own words. He scolds himself with his tongue, but defends himself with deeds. When he remembers the separation of the soul from the body, he sighs, but he himself dozes all his life, as if he were eternal. He talks about the vigil, but immediately falls into sleep. He praises prayer, but he himself runs away from it, as if from a whip, and even if he prays, he is always cold and as if covered with some kind of impenetrable darkness, which does not allow his heavenly mind to philosophize; He even approaches the Sacrament of the Eucharist without any heartfelt tenderness, as if he were eating simple bread and simple wine, and completely blocks his path to further virtuous ascent.” In a word, insensibility of the heart is, as it were, spiritual death. That is why the feat against this evil mental illness is included in the Ladder among the feats against spiritual vices. Let us note here that the feat of this degree is extremely necessary not only for monks, but also for the laity, and even mainly for the laity, because the vice against which it is directed is the most common among them and occurs among them much more often than among monks, although in a slightly different form. Attributing all holiness to external honesty, many lay people care little about correcting their hearts, about organizing their inner life according to the rules of holy Christian morality. To overcome spiritual coldness and carelessness and to acquire so much zeal for one’s salvation that one does not retreat in the face of the most powerful temptations and does not lose courage even after defeats, one can, in the opinion of the Reverend, through the fear of God, frequent reflection on the final judgment, intense and diligent prayer and much vigil. The last two means - prayer and vigil - especially support spiritual life and weaken the harmful consequences of heartfelt insensibility. Therefore, diligent exercise in prayer and vigil are indicated in the Ladder as special feats of the next two degrees. Instead of any discussion about the harmful consequences of negligence in prayer, the Monk John only describes how it is revealed in monks. This alone is enough to arouse disgust towards it, so pitiful are the monks who are subject to it. The main means by which one can avoid all types of negligence, absent-mindedness and indecency during prayer is a living and constant remembrance that when we pray we come before the face of God. Vigil consists not only in shortening sleep, but also in ensuring that the time thus saved is devoted to useful and pious deeds. “Let us consider,” says St. John, “how we act when we are awake during the evening, day and night missions.” And he continues: “Some, during evening and night prayers, raise their venerable hands, others sing psalms, others practice reading Holy Scripture, others fight sleep through needlework, and others delve deeper into contemplation of death. God accepts all these gifts and values ​​them, depending on the extent of them and the diligence of the one who brings them.” This is how he describes the fruits of vigil: “Cheerfulness purifies the thought, vigil clears the memory, and excessive sleep brings oblivion to a person and darkens his soul. Pay attention to yourself soberly after prayer, and you will see whole crowds of demons, defeated by us, who after prayer try to defile us with obscene imaginations.” At the same time, one cannot remain silent that the feats of standing in prayer and vigil are clearly commanded by Jesus Christ for all Christians. “Watch and pray!” (Mark 13:33). “Take heed... to yourselves,... be vigilant at all times” (Luke 21:34, 36), He said to his disciples, and through them to all of us. These exploits were sanctified by His own example. He left us an image and, to the best of our ability, let us follow in His footsteps. The activities that true and soul-beneficial vigil requires may seem completely inconvenient in worldly life only for those who love the world more than God, and turn away from all work for the sake of their souls and for the sake of God. The spirits of evil are trying in every possible way to take away or crush this weapon, which is so terrible for them, and are trying in every possible way to hinder the ascetic in his feats of prayer and vigil. For this purpose, they impose various insurances on the soul of the ascetic - a temptation that is insignificant for those who have a courageous spirit, but disastrous for the cowardly and fearful. They become completely unable to perform cell prayer and maintain vigil at night, and sometimes even during the day. Every sudden incident, one rustle, their own shadow, the emptiness of a place confuses their soul, frightens their imagination and distracts their thoughts from pious activities. The Monk Climacus places the victorious struggle against this truly childish weakness in the twenty-first degree of his spiritual ladder. St. John explains the fear of the fearful by a lack of living faith in God and excessive arrogance. Whoever does not have a firm and living faith that without the will of God and our Father not even one hair can fall from our head, that He guards our entry and departure, protects us from all evil, he can only believe in his own strength, rely on himself alone, for him there is no “helper”, “no one who saves” (Ps. 106:12; 2 Sam. 22:42) in the event of great trouble. But at the same time, he cannot hide from himself the extreme weakness of his strength before the dark forces of hell, which constantly war against man. This is the source of his timidity! It is completely indecent and unpardonable for a Christian to succumb to this pitiful feeling and thus please the spirits of evil. How many guarantees have been given to him of God’s most caring, fatherly care for him, aimed precisely at protecting him from the evil slander of the enemy! St. John offers the following remedies against vain timidity and cowardice: do not stop going to places at midnight where you are afraid to be; call on the name of Christ more often and, in general, arm yourself with prayer against spiritual adversaries; cry for your sins and put aside all earthly cares. The power of this last resort lies in the fact that the fear of answering for sins before the inexorable justice of God drives out any other fear, and the abandonment of all worries puts the ascetic in a position in which he has nothing to fear, even if some unfortunate circumstance happens to him: he is not tied to anything. Among laymen, by the very way of their life in society, the weakness in question should be less common than among those leading a solitary life. However, in the world there are many timid and superstitious souls who sometimes suffer more from vain timidity and fear than some hermit in solitude. Since in them such timidity is the fruit of lack of faith and a significant (at least in some cases) obstacle to pious pursuits, therefore they need to try in every possible way to free themselves from this weakness. The means indicated for this by the Reverend, and for the laity, are the best. However, timidity is only the very first and least of the internal spiritual temptations, and the fight against it is only the beginning of the terrible spiritual battles that lie ahead. Having not managed to deprive the ascetic of weapons, the best in spiritual warfare, the enemy, if we continue the comparison, tries to instill in the warrior of Christ the spirit of treason, tries, little by little, to imperceptibly infuse vain desire and care into the ascetic, so that people speak well of him, i.e. tries to arouse vanity in him. When he succumbs to this tempting desire, then, obviously, he will do everything for himself, and not for God, for his own praise and glory, and not God’s, to which he is called and for which he took a special oath at Baptism and in monastic vows, and, therefore, becomes a traitor before the majesty of God. There is no need to prove that this is a great vice; it destroys the fruits of all previously accomplished deeds and virtues, takes away the reward for the works that the ascetic does and is about to do, and calls upon him the terrible wrath of God. It was not in vain that the Savior said: “Woe to you when all people speak well of you” (Luke 6:26). Pointing out the feat of the twenty-second degree in the fight against this vice, the Reverend demands from the ascetic not only that he expel every vain thought from his heart, but that he joyfully endure all kinds of reproach and humiliation; only in this case will it be clear that the ascetic has in fact completely overcome the spirit of vanity. It must be said, however, that the fight against this unclean spirit is extremely difficult. Since here a person needs to fight with his own self, that self that is so proud and does not see and does not want to see its shortcomings, which is so kind to us, even with obvious weaknesses. The more a monk acquires virtues, the more he is in danger of being attacked by the spirit of vanity. Having successfully completed the beginning of difficult and painful feats, according to human reasoning, it is quite excusable and natural to feel some complacency. And the higher and more numerous the feats, the more natural and stronger this feeling is in the ascetic. But may the love of God preserve the ascetic from the temptation to review the deeds he has accomplished with self-gratification! The complacency that comes from this review is already the seed of vanity, which inevitably and very quickly develops from it. On the other hand, as the ascetic begins to show some success in spiritual life, there are people who begin to lavish praise on him, to be amazed at him, and thereby inevitably arouse vanity in him. “Great work,” says St. John, “is worth reflecting human praise from your soul”; or in another place: “To bear insults is characteristic of people of exalted souls, and to listen to praise without any feeling is characteristic of only the holy and blameless.” The attacks of other passions are more obvious, and therefore the fight against them is more convenient, but the vice of vanity is elusive, it imperceptibly mixes with our every thought, every action and, like poison, poisons them. This is how St. John describes it: “When, for example, I keep a fast, at that time I become vain, but when, in order to hide my fast from people, I allow it to be eaten, then again I become vain about my prudence. Dressed in light clothes, I am overcome by curiosity. Whether I begin to speak, I have vanity; whether I want to remain silent, I again indulge in it. No matter how you throw this tripod, it will always end up pointing up.” However, no matter how strong this unclean spirit is, with God’s help you can overcome it. You just need to not forget or weaken those remedies that are indicated by St. John against any mental illness. This is a fervent prayer to God, the Only Physician of our souls; living and unceasing remembrance of our death and the future impartial, terrible judgment on us, and the even more terrible universal judgment at the end of the world; combined with deep contrition of heart, a recollection of one’s sins: “When someone begins to praise us, we will each time consider ourselves unworthy of these praises, and thus will not allow a feeling of vain glory to creep into our hearts,” a rule that is very useful for the laity. Everyone in his circle, and especially those placed above others at some height, has to hear flattering speeches that imperceptibly inflame a feeling of vanity, which, however, is criminal not only in a monk, but in every Christian. So that praise cannot darken and fog the head, the closest, easiest and surest remedy for a worldly person is to constantly remember his shortcomings and consider himself unworthy of praise. If the ascetic, who has allowed the feeling of vanity to take possession of himself, does not try to destroy it or begins to do it only half-heartedly, not with all zeal and selflessness, then he will soon bitterly mourn his negligence: he will not even notice how the destructive satanic spirit of pride will take possession of his soul. Concern for human glory, not weakened by all measures, will soon produce in the vain ascetic a desire to become higher than others; not being rejected, but, on the contrary, listening with pleasure to the praises of flatterers will imperceptibly give rise to the conviction in him that he really is superior to others in many ways. However, pride is a vice that overwhelms not only those who cannot resist the fight against the spirit of vanity, but also those who courageously and victoriously withstand it. The enemy of our salvation, embittered by the successes of the ascetic and his rapid approach to the highest perfection, sends upon him the most severe temptation - his own spirit, the spirit of pride, which intensifies to bring him down from the heights of virtues into the abyss of sin. To do this, the enemy uses the very successes of the ascetic as a weapon against him, trying to puff up his heart with them. Therefore, in any case, the ascetic has yielded somewhat to the vain feeling or overcome it; after the struggle with this temptation, a battle with the spirit of pride awaits him, a battle which therefore forms the subject of the twenty-third labor in the Ladder of our holy teacher. “The spirit of pride,” says the Monk Cassian, “is the fiercest, fiercest of all others. It is fierce in its consequences, in the disorder it brings into the soul that has opened its entrance to it; They are also fierce because of the tenacity with which he remains to torment her, despite the most extreme efforts of the ascetic to drive him away.” Contempt for others, the desire to humiliate, condemn one’s fellow man at every opportunity, anger, hard-heartedness, the complete absence of any compassion, withdrawal from the gracious help of God, and then blindness of the mind, mental barrenness, spiritual death - these are the main bitter fruits that, first of all, and with unimaginable speed, the bitter seed of pride produces in the human soul. However, any other vice can lead to all these sad consequences, sooner or later, more or less. The most painful product of pride for an ascetic is inexplicable blasphemous thoughts. It, like a demonic vice, infuses the soul of a person and makes the devil himself reign in it, who tries to impart to it his own properties, and it is known that for the devil blasphemy is a need and pleasure. This is why pride is revered and is the cause of blasphemous thoughts! The state of the ascetic, when these thoughts begin to take possession of his soul, is the most bleak, pitiful and dangerous state. Incomprehensible to him, quite suddenly, some obscene and shameless ideas appear in his soul, some obscene words come to mind and do not go away, some strange, ungodly thoughts awaken in his mind, blasphemies against God Himself and everything Divine and sacred. And, what is most disastrous of all, such thoughts most attack and confuse the ascetic during prayer, even when performing a bloodless Sacrifice. “This is a temptation,” says St. Climacus, “it distracted many from prayer, dried up many with sadness, exhausted them with hunger, not giving the slightest rest, took away from many all hope of the possibility of salvation and thus made them worse and more miserable than any atheist and pagan.” Being extremely easily grafted into every soul, pride, meanwhile, is driven out only by incredible efforts. Истинное несчастье гордеца состоит в том, что его страсть совершенно ослепляет его. Thinking too much about himself, he even finds himself still very modest in his judgment of himself. To open the eyes of those blinded by pride, the Monk Climacus points out several signs by which one can recognize the presence of this vice in a person, which are: extreme vanity, shameless preaching of one’s own merits, desire for praise, boasting of one’s virtue, impatience of accusations, love of contradictions and desire for superiors. And since all these signs of a proud spirit are most manifested during obedience, under strict supervision and during exercises, the Venerable Climacus advises using the latter as a means of crushing pride in a monk. However, these means, in the words of St. John himself, provide only some hope for salvation. Consciousness alone is not enough. A more reliable and effective measure against it is for the one who dreams highly of himself to reach the conviction that he has nothing at all to be proud of, but, on the contrary, there are many reasons to humble himself. Pride is nourished in a person by some high natural and grace-filled talents, by the deeds and virtues he has accomplished, that is, in general by everything that in any way distinguishes him from other people. In accordance with this, the Venerable Climacus advises: a) Remember that our very good deeds are the gift of God, since only with the help of His grace can we accomplish them. And to be proud of other people's jewelry is unworthy and insane. “You could,” he says, “be exalted by those virtues that you would have accomplished either before your birth, or without the help of mind and body, since being, and mind, and the body itself are all a gift of God.” b) Do not forget that the end crowns the deed and that it is still unknown whether we will not ruin the rewards for the exploits of our entire lives by some late fall. There is an example in the Gospel that someone reclined at a wedding, but was then bound hand and foot and thrown into utter darkness. c) Read books telling about the virtues of the Holy Fathers, whose exploits seem to exceed nature itself. “If we compare our deeds with the deeds of these great lamps, we will find that we have not yet embarked on the path of their careful living, and we have not kept our vows as we should.” d) Constantly remember your sins. “Pride,” says the Reverend, “is born from forgetting one’s sins, and, on the contrary, from remembering them humility is gained.” By properly using all these tips, a monk, and even a layman, can suppress a blind and unreasonable high opinion of himself. But the bitter fruit of this vice often remains even after its destruction. It is not always possible to get rid of unclean and blasphemous thoughts using the means shown. To drive them away, special means are needed, especially since these thoughts sometimes overwhelm the soul regardless of pride; they very often enter, according to St. John, into the simplest and most blameless hearts, which are more worried and embarrassed by this than anyone else. The most important remedy against these embarrassments is very simple. You just need to accept these demonic suggestions as demonic and, without losing heart, drive them away with prayer. “No one,” says the Reverend, “do not consider yourself guilty of these blasphemous thoughts. God, the knower of the heart, knows that these unclean thoughts are not ours, but those of our spiritual adversaries. And therefore he will not condemn us for them. Whoever blames this demon (unclean thoughts) for nothing is freed from blasphemous thoughts.” If these blasphemies are hidden and nourished in our hearts, then this arms the devil and evil thoughts against us as powerfully as anything else. Therefore, we must immediately reveal blasphemous thoughts to our spiritual father. “Nothing opposes penitents so much as their own outrageous rage, since the correction of morals requires much humility.” See about this: John Cassian the Roman. About eight evil thoughts. Christian Reading, 1839.