Главы о трезвении 120

Whoever, according to the Gospel, is only a believer, by faith moves the mountain of his evil nature (see: Matt. 21:21), by non-stop degradation, pushing away from himself the inclination that was in the feeling to be under the feeling. Whoever can be a disciple, receiving from the Word with his hands the crumbled bread of knowledge, feeds thousands (see: Matt. 14:19), showing by his very deed the multiplying power of the Word. And whoever was able to be an apostle heals every ailment and every disease, casting out demons (see: Matt. 10:1), that is, driving away the effects of passions; healing those who are ill, that is, those deprived of piety, leading through hope to practice in it and lifting those who are sick with laziness with the word of faith; for whoever is commanded to step on the head of serpents and scorpions (see: Luke 10:19) destroys the end of sin. 2. The Sabbath of Sabbaths (see: Lev. 16:31) is the spiritual peace of the rational soul, which, distracting the mind even from all the most divine words hidden secretly in creatures [created], in the delight of love, completely clothed it in the one God and with mysterious theology made the mind completely motionless from God. 3. The harvest of the harvest (see: Lev. 23:10) is every contemplation of God inaccessible [to others], composed in the mind in an unknown [to ourselves] way after the secret contemplation of mental things, [contemplation] which is appropriately brought by the one who worthily honors the Creator from visible and invisible creatures. 4. He who spends the sixth day evangelically, having previously mortified the first movements of sin, through virtues reaches a state of dispassion, pure from all evil, keeping the Sabbath (see: Ex. 16:29,30) with the mind even from the most subtle representation of passions in the imagination. And the past Jordan (see: Joshua 3:14-17) is transferred to the land of knowledge, in which the mind, mysteriously created by the world, becomes a dwelling place in the spirit of God. 5. Whoever has divinely fulfilled the sixth day (see: Numbers 29:29) with the offering of deeds and thoughts and has done his deeds well with God, by contemplation he has transcended every being subordinate to nature and time, and is brought into the secret vision of the ages and the eternal, in an unknown way subordinating with his mind the complete abandonment of created beings and exaltation above them. If someone was worthy of the eighth [day] (see: Num.29:35. Lev.23:36) and rose from the dead (that is, from all sensory and mental words and thoughts according to God), he began to live the blessed life of God (the law, which is truly rightly called life, and is life); since he himself became god by deification (see: John 10:34). 6. Everything visible has a need for the cross, that is, in such a state that would keep everything produced by the cross in feeling; nevertheless, the spiritual has the need for burial, that is, the complete immobility of this burial in the mind. For when all natural action and movement is destroyed along with the effect of those [phenomena] on us, then the mind, being only in itself and as if resurrected from the dead, appears above everything that has an outline from it, and nothing, in a natural relation, has absolutely no affinity with it. For the salvation of those who are being saved is by grace, and not by nature. 7. Until our minds completely leave the usual attachment to the essence of ourselves and to everything that comes after God, we will not acquire immutability in virtue. When we achieve this dignity through love, then we will recognize the power of God’s promise, for those who are worthy must believe that there is an unshakable affirmation where the mind will first establish its power through love. For, without having departed from itself and from everything that is possible to think, and without establishing itself in silence, which is above thinking, the mind cannot be free from the changeability [inherent] in everything. 8. All thinking necessarily contains multiplicity or, at least, duality. For thinking is an average relationship between certain extremes and comes into contact with both: the thinker and the thought. But none of them retains complete uncomplexity. For something that thinks is something that is subject, which necessarily has the power of being thought concomitant with it, 121 or the subject essence to which this power belongs. For no being is entirely, in itself, a simple being or thinking, an indivisible unit. But God, let us call Him essence, does not have the power naturally concomitant with Him to be thinkable, so that He is composed; whether we call It thinking, does not have a naturally underlying essence suitable for thinking. But God Himself, in essence, is thinking, and all thinking, and is one, and above all essence, and above all thinking; therefore, it is an indivisible unit, having no parts and simple. Therefore, whoever has a certain way of thinking has not yet emerged from duality; and whoever has completely abandoned it has in some way ascended into unity, having superiorly laid aside the power of thinking. 9. In plurality there is difference, and dissimilarity, and difference; to find oneself outside of this in God, the truly one and only, means to rise above plurality to contemplations about God. And this is shown by Moses, who set up a tabernacle outside the regiment (see: Exodus 33:7,11–23) of mind and then talked with God. For it is not safe to try to express the inexpressible with the spoken word, for the spoken word contains duality and more. Or rather, without a voice, with a single soul, one can see what exists, because [then] it abides in an indivisible unity, and not in multiplicity. For the bishop, who was commanded to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year (see: Heb. 9:7) inside the veil, teaches [us] that only one who has passed through the courtyard and the holy place and entered the Holy of Holies, that is, who has passed through the entire nature of sensory and mental [beings] and has become pure from every property consistent with temporary existence, must be unveiled and with a naked mind begin to see visions of God. 10. The great Moses, having placed his tabernacle outside the regiment, that is, having established his thought and mind outside the visible, begins to worship God and, having entered darkness (see: Ex. 34:8; 20:21), into an invisible and immaterial place of knowledge, he remains there, initiated into the most sacred secrets. 11. He who fulfills the law in external life and behavior is free only from the consequences of evil, sacrificing the unreasonable action of passions as a sacrifice to God, and for salvation he is content with this way [of action] due to spiritual infancy. 12. He who truly loves the gospel life has destroyed both the beginning and the end of his evil behavior, and in deed and word he goes through every virtue, offering the sacrifice of praise and confession; having freed himself from all anxiety [arising] from the action of passions, and being free in his mind from the struggle with it, he has an insatiable pleasure that nourishes the soul only in the hope of future benefits. 13. The fear of Gehenna encourages beginners [a virtuous feat] to avoid evil; the desire to reward good things gives the successful zeal to do good, and the sacrament of love elevates the mind above all created things, making it blind to everything that is after God. For those who have become blind to everything that comes after God, the Lord makes wise (see: Ps. 145:68), showing them the most Divine. 14. Having desired knowledge, the 122 souls must stand motionless before the Lord, as God says to Moses: “But stand here with Me” (Deut. 5:31). You should know that there is a difference even between those who stand before the Lord, unless those who are inquisitive read this carelessly: “There are none of those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1). For the Lord does not always appear to all who stand before Him with glory, but to the newcomers He comes in the form of a slave (see: Phil. 2:7), but to those who can follow Him, ascending the high mountain of His transfiguration (see: Matt.: 17:1–9), He appears in the image of God (see: Phil. 2:6), in which the world was not even before it was (see: John 17:5). The same Lord can appear in the same way to everyone who is with Him, but to some in this way, to others differently, according to the faith of each, revealing to them various contemplations. 15. The sun rises and the sun sets (see: Eccl. 1:5), says Scripture. Therefore, the Word sometimes seems to stand high, sometimes low; that is, according to the dignity and proportionality and conformity of those who undergo virtue and turn around Divine knowledge. But blessed is he who, like Joshua (see: Joshua 10:12,13), keeps within himself the unsetting Sun of righteousness throughout the day of evil (see: Matthew 6:34) of this life, not described by evening and ignorance, so that he can lawfully drive away the evil demons that have risen against him. 16. He who undergoes wisdom, [based] on piety, and takes up arms against invisible forces, must pray that natural reasoning, which has a light commensurate with [its strength], and the enlightening grace of the [Holy] Spirit, will be preserved in him, for that [natural reasoning], through the active fulfillment of the commandments, as a mentor, guides the flesh to virtue; This [the grace of the Holy Spirit], enlightening the mind, leads it to prefer life to wisdom over everything else (Wisdom 7:8; 8:9), by which it destroys both the strongholds of evil and every exaltation charged to the mind of God (2 Cor. 10:4,5). Joshua demonstrates this through his prayer, asking that the sun stand opposite Gibeon, that is, that this unsetting light of knowledge of God be preserved above the mountain of mental contemplation, and the moon against the wilds (see Joshua 10:12), that is, that natural reasoning, which lies above carnal weakness, remains unchanged [in relation to] virtue. 17. Those who sit for the sake of the fear of the Jews in Galilee in an upper room, with the door closed (John 20:19), that is, out of fear from the spirits of evil, living safely in the land of revelations, at the height of Divine contemplation, having closed their senses, like doors, they accept the Word of God coming in an unknown way, which appears to them without sensory action, and grants peace with the proclamation (see: John 20:19,21). dispassion to them, and by the breath (see: John 20:22) - the division of the Holy Spirit, and gives power to the evil spirits (Mark 16:17), and shows them signs (see: John 20:20) of His secrets. 18. The land of the Chaldeans is a life of passion, in which idols of sins are created and worshiped. Mesopotamia (see: Acts 7:4,2) is a life that shares both opposite morals. And the land of promise (see: Heb. 11:9) is a state filled with every good. So, anyone who, like the old Israel 123, returns to his old habit, is again reduced to the slavery of passions, deprived of this freedom. 19. It is worthy of remark that none of the saints, as we see, descended into the land of Babylon: for it is indecent and inconsistent with reasonable understanding that those who love God should choose the worse instead of the good. If some of them, together with the people, were involuntarily taken there, then by these we mean those who, not by choosing something more preferable, but because the salvation [of their neighbors] required it, for the sake of guidance for those in need [of it], leave the highest word of knowledge and undergo the teaching of the passions. Therefore, the great apostle decided that it was more beneficial for him to remain in the flesh, i.e. for the sake of the students for their moral teaching; although he also had a perfect desire to be freed (see: Phil. 1:24,23) from the moral teaching of others and to be with Christ in the world above and in simple mental contemplation. 20. Departs from the flesh (see 2 Cor. 5:8) the one who came from the active skill to the skill of knowledge, delighted, like clouds, by higher understandings into the transparent air of secret contemplation, so that he can be with the Lord. He certainly departs from the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6), who cannot contemplate insensible actions with a pure mind, to the best of his ability, the highest understandings and cannot comprehend a simple word about the Lord without fortune-telling 124. 21. In the Holy Scriptures we see, through various divinations, God and the Word of God clothed in flesh; but we do not yet see mentally the incorporeal and simple, one and only Father, as we mentally saw Him in the incorporeal, one and only Son, according to what was said: “He who has seen Me in the form of the Father” and: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:9,10). Therefore, a lot of intelligence is needed so that, having first penetrated through the veils of the sayings [spoken] about the Word, we are thus able with a pure mind to see Him standing naked and showing Himself as a man. Therefore, it is necessary for one who piously seeks God not to be bound by anything that is said, so that in ignorance he does not accept [what is said] about God instead of God, i.e. so that, to stumbling himself (ἐπισφαλῶς) 125, instead of the Word, he does not love only what is said [in the literal sense] in Scripture, and so that the Word itself does not withdraw from the mind, which, holding clothes, imagines holding the most incorporeal Word, like that Egyptian woman who held not Joseph, but his clothes (see: Gen. 39:12), and those of old people who, captivated by visible splendor alone, in ignorance served the creature more than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). 22. When the mind rejects many opinions about the words of truth that lie on it, then the clear word of truth appears to it, gives it the guarantee of true knowledge and removes the previously accepted opinions like scales (see: Acts 9:18), from the visual powers, as was the case with the divine and great Apostle Paul. For opinions [attached] only to the sayings of Scripture alone and partial contemplations in the sense of visible things are really scales that lie on the insightful power of the soul and hold back the transition to the pure word of truth. 23. He who has valiantly conquered the passions of the body, and has fought hard against evil spirits, and has driven out their devices from the land of his soul, must pray that he may be given a pure heart and that a right spirit may be renewed in his womb (see: Ps. 50:12), i.e. so that he would completely get rid of evil thoughts, and by the gift of grace would be filled with divine thoughts, and thus become the mental world of God, bright and great, consisting of moral, natural and theological contemplations. 24. A pure heart is one that has presented to God a memory that is completely formless 126 and has no images and is ready to accept only the impressions of God, from which it usually becomes bright. 25. Some of those who are inquisitive ask how there will be a difference between the eternal mansions and the promises? Is it by a certain place or by a mental representation of the spiritual difference separating the quality and quantity of each monastery? And to some the first seems [fair], to others the second. But he who knows what is said: “The Kingdom of God is within you” and: “The Father’s mansions are many” (Luke 17:21; John 14:2), will accept the second. 26. Whoever, by divine desire, has conquered the spiritual disposition towards the body, has become unlimited 127, although he is in the body. For God, who attracts the desire of the one who desires, is without comparison above everything and does not allow the desirer to attach his desire to anything that is after God. So, let us desire God with all the strength of our desire, and let us make sure that our free choice is not possessed by anything bodily, and let us place ourselves above all truly sensory and mental things by [spiritual] disposition; and [then] we will not accept any harm from the natural life in relation to being with God, indescribable by nature. Question . Does a person enter this state at any time? Answer . Grace incessantly abides with a person and from a young age it takes root in him, like leaven, penetrates him and, as if something natural and fused with him, becomes co-inherent with him; and although grace is one, it acts in a variety of ways, as it wishes, providing for the benefit of man. Sometimes the fire is kindled and flares up more, sometimes it is quieter and more moderate. The light itself at times flares up and shines more, but sometimes it moves away, and there is darkness. And the lamp always burns and shines; when it is purified, it emits more light, that is, it becomes more obvious in the communion of God's love 128; sometimes the coexisting light dims. To some the sign of the cross appeared in the light and was impressed on the inner man. It once [happened] that a man in prayer seemed to go into a frenzy and saw himself standing on the altar in the church, and three loaves were brought to him, as if leavened with oil, and the more he ate them, the more they multiplied and increased. And at other times there appeared, as it were, some bright robe, which does not exist on earth in this age and which cannot be made by human hands. Just as the Lord, having ascended the mountain with John and Peter, was transfigured, and His robe was shining (Mark 9:3), such was that robe, and the man clothed in it was horrified. At another time again [this light] was constantly visible in the heart and the inner, deepest and most hidden light opened, a new, bright world was opened together with the Lord, praising and praising, so that that man, completely absorbed in its sweetness and contemplation, no longer controlled himself, but was like a madman and a foreigner to this world, because of the overwhelming love and sweetness and hidden secrets, and, at that time freed, soon reached the perfect measure, and was clean from sin. But then the grace disappeared, and the veil of opposing power came. This is partly as if a person had become one degree below the standard of perfection, i.e. he had to, so to speak, go through twelve degrees and thus achieve perfection; and for some time he reached and reached this measure and entered into perfection; but then grace diminishes again, and he descends to one degree and becomes the eleventh. If someone is rich in grace, he always stands night and day in perfect measure, being free and pure, always captivated [by grace] and at the same time suffering grief. And now, if those wondrous gifts that were revealed to man and which he tasted through experience were always preserved in him, he could not accept [on himself] the ministry of the word or any burden [of his neighbors] and would not be able to hear anything or care about anything, even if it concerned himself, or about tomorrow, but could only lie in a corner somewhere, worn out by grief and intoxicated. Therefore, the perfect measure was not given to him so that he could exercise himself in caring for the brethren or in the ministry of the word. However, the mediastinum of the fence was destroyed (see: Eph. 2:14); only his condition is as if some dark force lay over him. Just as light and thin air covers a lamp, although it always burns and shines, so there is a veil in it over that light. Therefore, I confess that such 129 is imperfect and not completely free from sin, but, so to speak, both free and not free. The mediastinum of the fence was destroyed and excavated, but in some parts it was not completely destroyed, and his prayer was not always equal. There is a time when it is more kindled, and comforts, and reposes; but there is a time when it hides and happens under darkness, as grace itself arranges for the benefit of man. However, having entered into perfect measure, and having at times tasted this age, and having experience [in this], I have not yet known a single perfect and free Christian. But even if someone rests in grace and enters into the mysteries and revelations and into the great sweetness of grace, at the same time there is sin within him. These, because of the abundant grace and light [that is] in them, consider themselves free and perfect, because they have the effect of grace, but due to inexperience they sin. But I have not yet seen a single one free, although for some time I myself have partly entered into this measure and I can see what kind of structure a perfect one has. 27. Immediately, after the sign of the cross, grace acts like this: it pacifies all members, and the soul, due to much joy, appears like a simple, gentle child, and a person no longer condemns either the Greek, or the Jew, or the sinner; but the inner man with a pure eye looks at everyone as one, and rejoices equally about the whole world, and wants all Greeks and Jews to worship the Son of God as the Father. And doors are opened for him, and he enters into many monasteries; and as he enters, they open up to him more, and from a hundred mansions he enters another hundred mansions and grows rich, and again, when he becomes different, other new and wondrous [objects] are shown to him, and, as a son and heir, he is entrusted with things that cannot be expressed by human nature or by these lips and tongue. At another hour, as an embassy before God, out of much love for Him, he begins to pray for peace, so that the whole world will be saved, like the whole Adam; inflamed with love and wanting everyone to be saved, he teaches [his neighbors] the word of life and the Kingdom, preaching about Christ (Eph. 6:20) and, as one can hear, telling the heavenly and Divine secrets of the endless and incomprehensible age. At another hour, the whole person is armed, putting on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:11), and takes on the heavenly army, and begins to defeat the enemy regiments and slaughter many corpses there. At another hour, the Lord again acts in the soul, and the soul and the Lord rejoice mutually, and a person finds himself in much light and joy, [turning] to the Lord and to his brethren. The lamp and the light burn night and day, but the whole, according to God's providence, does not change, and the whole person is pure, and a little is missing for him to be what he should be; however, the mediastinum is destroyed and death is defeated. Sometimes the lamp flares up more and shines brighter, so that a person cannot bear its radiance and brilliance, but sometimes it is as if allowed. Sometimes the light that is still burning seems to fade and a certain thin and gloomy air of an opposing force falls over it, like a curtain. That is why such a person says that he is not completely free. Glory to the Lord forever. Amen. 28. Good [deed] - fasting, vigil, wandering life; however, these are only the works of an external good life, but the rite of Christians is more internal than these [physical virtues], and no one should [only] rely on them. For it happens to some that they are involved in grace and the malice [enemy], still hiding inside them, builds feats, voluntarily yields to them and does not act, but makes a person think that his mind has been cleansed, and then leads the person into conceit that he is a perfect Christian; and then, when a person thinks that he is free and becomes careless, then anger attacks him in a robber manner, secretly making an ambush, and tempts him, and brings him down to the underworld of the earth. For if robbers or warriors, being twenty years old, know how to build forts against the enemy, set ambushes, lie in wait for [enemies], and attack them from the rear, and surround them on all sides, and beat them, much more [can all this be done] by malice, which lives for so many thousands of years and whose job is to destroy souls. She knows how to create secret annoyance in the heart and at some times not act in order to lead the soul into conceit of its perfection. The foundation of Christianity is this, so that a person, no matter how many [deeds] of righteousness he does, would not rest on them and would not consider himself to be something great, but would be poor in spirit. And if he becomes a partaker of grace, so that he does not think that he has achieved anything, and so that he does not imagine himself to be a great man, and so that he does not begin to teach; and, spending a good life in great fasting, wandering and prayer and being a partaker of grace, he did not think highly of his soul. But truly, such a beginning of grace was then especially for him so that he would bear labor, hunger and thirst, so that he would not be satisfied [in his striving] and would not consider himself righteous and rich in grace, but so that he would weep and cry, as a mother cries, who had an only-begotten son and raised him, and he, when he matured, unexpectedly died. This work is not included in the critical edition of the works of St. Brand as related to the so-called. “To the Macarius Corps” (see about this corpus in the publication by A. G. Dunaev: St. Macarius of Egypt. Spiritual words and messages. Collection of type I (Vatic, graec. 694). M., 2002. P. 12–312). – Note. ed. Those. the power to imagine oneself in self-consciousness as separate from oneself. – Note. lane See: Ref. 26.19. “Stood” – foundations. – Note. ed. We are talking about the resettlement of the Jews from Palestine (“the Promised Land”) to Mesopotamia (“the land of the Chaldeans”), carried out by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (2 Kings 25, 1–21). – Note. ed. That is, without images and comparisons. – Note. lane Lit.: “deceptively.” – Note. lane Those. clean of impressions. – Note. lane Those. rose above limitations. – Note. lane In some manuscripts: “When it becomes clearer, then in the communion of the love of God the one who emits light appears more.” – Note. ed. 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