Слово 8. О хранении и блюдении себя от людей расслабленных и нерадивых; о том, что от сближения с ними воцаряется в человеке нерадение и расслабление, и он исполняется всякой нечистой страсти, – и о хранении себя от близости с юными, чтобы ум не осквернился непотребными помыслами

He who forbids his lips to slander keeps his heart from passions. And whoever keeps his heart from passions sees the Lord every hour. He who always thinks about God drives away demons and eradicates the seed of their malice. Whoever watches over his soul hourly, his heart rejoices at revelations. He who concentrates the vision of his mind within himself sees the dawn of the Spirit within himself. He who abhors all soaring of the mind sees his Lord within his heart. If you love purity, in which the Lord of all can be seen, then do not slander anyone and do not listen to the one who slanderes his brother. If others argue in front of you, close your ears and run away from there, so that you do not hear angry expressions and your soul does not die, having lost its life. An irritated heart cannot contain the mysteries of God; and the meek and humble of wisdom is the source of the secrets of the new age. Now, if you are pure, then heaven is within you, and in yourself you will see the Angels and their light, and with them and in them the Lord of the Angels. He who is justly praised suffers no harm. But if praise delights him, then he is a free worker. The treasure of the humble is within him, and that is the Lord. He who watches his tongue will never be robbed by it. Silent lips interpret the mysteries of God, but those who are quick to speak withdraw from their Creator. The soul of a good person shines more than the sun and every hour rejoices at the vision of Divine revelations. Whoever follows the one who loves God will be enriched in the mysteries of God; and whoever follows the unrighteous and proud will withdraw from God and be hated by his friends. He who is silent with his tongue in all his appearance acquires a humble and wise orderliness, and he will easily prevail over the passions. Passions are uprooted and put to flight by the constant immersion of thought in God. This is the sword that kills them. Just as in the silent silence of the sensual sea a dolphin rushes and swims, so in the silence and calming of irritability and anger in the sea of ​​the heart, at all times, to the joy of the heart, secrets and Divine revelations rush through it. He who desires to see the Lord within himself makes an effort to purify his heart by constant remembrance of God, and thus, with the brightness of the eyes of his mind, he will see the Lord hourly. What happens to a fish that comes out of the water, so happens to the mind that has emerged from the remembrance of God and soars in the remembrance of the world. To the extent that a person withdraws from conversations with people, to the same extent he is rewarded with a bold mind to converse with God, and to the extent that he cuts off the consolation of this world from himself, to the extent that he is rewarded with the joy of God in the Holy Spirit. And just as fish die from lack of water, so smart movements that arise from God disappear in the heart of a monk who often turns and spends time with worldly people. A layman who is poor and suffers in worldly and everyday affairs is better than a monk who suffers and spends his time in worldly affairs. He who with fiery zeal, day and night, seeks God in his heart and eradicates in him the attacks that come from the enemy, is feared by demons and desired by God and His Angels. The pure in soul has a mental realm within him; the sun shining in it is the light of the Holy Trinity; the air that the inhabitants of this region breathe is the Comforting and All-Holy Spirit; those co-seating with him are holy and ethereal natures; and their life, and joy, and gladness is Christ, light from light - the Father. Such a one is hourly amused by the vision of his soul, and marvels at his beauty, which is truly a hundred times more brilliant than the light of the sun. This is Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God, hidden within us, according to the Lord’s word (Luke 17:21). This region is the cloud of God’s glory, into which only the pure in heart will enter to see the face of their Master and illuminate their minds with the rays of the Master’s light. And whoever is irritable, who is angry, who is love-loving, who is covetous, who is a glutton, who treats the worldly people, who wants his own will to be done, who is hot-tempered and filled with passions - all of them are in the same confusion as those who fight at night, and they feel the darkness, being outside the realm of life and light. For this region is the lot of the good, the humble, who have made their hearts pure. A person cannot see the beauty that is within him until he abhors all beauty outside of him and dishonors it. He cannot raise his gaze directly to God until he has completely renounced the world. Whoever humiliates and belittles himself, the Lord will make him wise. And whoever considers himself wise falls away from God’s wisdom. To the extent that the tongue refrains from verbosity, the mind is illuminated to discern thoughts, and even the most reasonable mind is confused by polyphony. He who becomes poor in worldly things will become rich in God; but the friend of the rich becomes poor in God. He who is chaste, humble-wise, abhors freedom in words and has driven irritability from his heart, he (I am sure of this), as soon as he begins to pray, sees in his soul the light of the Holy Spirit, and rejoices in the brilliance of illumination with His light, and rejoices in the vision of the glory of this illumination and in his change until he becomes likened to its glory. There is no other work that could so overthrow the armies of unclean demons as vision in God. One of the fathers told me the following: “One day I was sitting, and my mind was captivated by a vision. And when I came to my senses, I sighed deeply. The demon standing opposite me, as soon as he heard this, was afraid and, as if devoured by some lightning, cried out in need and, as if persecuted by someone, gave himself up to flight.” Blessed is he who remembers his departure from this life and refrains from attachments to the pleasures of this world, because he will receive greatly increased bliss during his departure, and this bliss will not become scarce for him. He is born of God; and the Holy Spirit is his feeder; from the womb of the Spirit he sucks life-giving food and, to his joy, smells His stench. But whoever is attached to the worldly, to the world and to its tranquility, who loves conversation with the world, loses his life, and I have nothing to say about him; All that remains is to cry with a cry, an inconsolable cry that will crush the hearts of those who hear it. You who are in darkness, lift up your heads and let your faces be illuminated with light! Come out from under the power of worldly passions, may the Light that is from the Father come to meet you, and may He command the servants of His Mysteries to loosen your bonds, so that you may follow in His footsteps to the Father. Alas! How are we bound and what prevents us from seeing His glory? Oh, that our bonds would be broken, and that we might seek and find our God! If you want to know human secrets and have not yet reached the point of knowing by spirit, you will find out by the speeches, lifestyle and routine of everyone, if you are wise. He who is pure in soul and blameless in his lifestyle always pronounces the words of the Spirit with chastity and, in accordance with the measure of his understanding, discusses both the Divine and what is in himself. And whose heart is crushed by passions, their tongue is set in motion by them. If he begins to talk about spiritual things, he will reason under the influence of passion in order to gain victory in untruth. The wise notice such a person at the first meeting, and the pure smell his stench. He who, in soul and body, is always given over to vanity and wanderings of the mind, is a fornicator; whoever agrees and participates with him in this is an adulterer; and whoever communicates with him is an idolater. Friendship with young people is fornication, which God abhors. There is no band-aid to soften such a person. And whoever loves everyone equally with compassion and without discrimination has achieved perfection. The young, following the young, makes the prudent weep and weep for them; the old man, following the young man, acquires a passion that is stinkier than the passion of the young. Even if he talked about virtues with the young, his heart was wounded. A young man, if he is humble and silent, if his heart is pure from envy and irritability, moves away from every person and is attentive to himself, then he will soon understand the passions of a careless old man. And if the old man is not equally disposed towards the old man and the young man, then try with all your might not to have contact with him, but even more so, move away from him. Woe to the careless who pretend and, under the appearance of purity, feed their own passions. He who has achieved gray hair in purity of thoughts, in good living and in continence of the tongue, here still enjoys the sweetness of the fruit of knowledge, 85 and upon his departure from the body he receives God's glory. Nothing cools so much the fire breathed into the heart of a monk by the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of the soul as dealing with people, talking a lot and any conversation, except conversation with the children of the Mysteries of God, which contributes to an increase in the knowledge of God and to rapprochement with God, for such conversation, more powerful than all virtues, awakens the soul to this life, eradicates passions and lulls bad thoughts. Do not acquire for yourself friends and companions other than such 87, lest you cause stumbling block to your soul and stray from the path of the Lord. Let the love that unites and interfaces you with God be magnified in your heart, so that worldly love, whose cause and end is corruption, does not captivate you. Staying and interacting with ascetics enriches both with the mysteries of God. And love for the careless and lazy makes it so that, having indulged together in the soaring of the mind, they fill the belly to the point of satiety and beyond measure. To such a person food without his friend seems unpleasant, and he says: “Woe to him who eats his bread alone, for it will not be sweet to him.” And they invite each other to feasts and pay each other, like mercenaries. Away from us, this vile love, this indecent and unholy pastime! Run away, brother, from those who are accustomed to such things and do not agree to eat with them, even if you are in need, because their meals are vile, demons serve at them; the friends of the bridegroom-Christ do not partake of it. He who frequently holds feasts is a worker of the prodigal demon 88 and defiles the soul of the humble. The simple bread from the table of the immaculate cleanses the soul of the eater from all passion. The stench from a glutton’s meal is an abundance of dishes and cookies. The mad and senseless are drawn to her like a dog to a butcher's shop. The meal of one who is always in prayer is sweeter than any fragrance from musk or fragrance from the world; the lover of God desires it as a priceless treasure. From the meal of those who fast, remain on vigil and work for the Lord, borrow for yourself the medicine of life and awaken your soul from deadness. For among them, sanctifying them, the Beloved reclines, and the bitterness of suffering 89 transforms them into His inscrutable sweetness; His spiritual and heavenly servants overshadow them and their holy dishes. And I know one of the brethren who clearly saw this with his own eyes. Blessed is he who has stopped his mouth from all voluptuousness, which separates him from the Creator. Blessed is he who eats the Bread that came down from heaven and gave life to the world. Blessed is he who in his field saw the Watering of life, mercifully coming from the bosom of the Father, and raised his eye to Him. For when he drinks of Him, his heart will rejoice and prosper, and will be in gladness and joy. He who has seen his Lord in his food hides from everyone and partakes of Him alone, without entering into communication with the unworthy, so as not to become their partaker and not be left without illumination by the ray of the Lord. And whoever has deadly poison mixed into his food 90 cannot eat it pleasantly without his friends. He is a wolf, devouring carrion, who enters into friendship for the sake of his own belly. What gluttony do you have, foolish one, you want to fill your belly at the table of the careless, where your soul is filled with every passion! These warnings are sufficient for those who can bridle the belly. The stench of a faster is very sweet, and meeting him gladdens the hearts of the prudent; and the glutton is attacked by fear from his treatment of the fasting man, and he uses all measures not to eat with him. The lifestyle of the abstinent is dear to God, while its proximity is very difficult for the covetous. The silent one is much praised by Christ; but its approach will not be pleasant for those whom the demons have caught with an addiction to fun and soaring of the mind. Who does not love the humble and meek, except the proud and slanderous, who are strangers to his work? Someone told me from his own experience: “On the days I have a conversation with someone, on those days I eat three or four crackers a day, and if I begin to force myself to pray, then my mind does not have boldness towards God, and I cannot direct my thoughts to Him. When I am separated from my interlocutors for silence, on the first day I force myself to eat one and a half crackers, on the second - one, and as soon as my mind is established in silence, I try to eat one whole cracker, but I cannot; My mind constantly converses boldly with God, although I do not force it to do so, and the luminosity of the Divine, without diminishing, illuminates me, and draws me to see the beauty of the Divine light and to be amused by it. If, during the silence, someone happens to come and talk to me for even one hour, then it is impossible for me not to add more food, not to leave something from the rule, not to relax my mind to contemplate this light.” You see, my brothers, how beautiful and useful patience and solitude are, what strength and what comfort they bring to ascetics. Blessed is he who, for the sake of God, remains silent and eats his bread alone, because he always converses with God. To him be glory and power now, and always, and forever! Amen. That is, those who are the children of the Mysteries of God. Performer of carnal lust. Of course, the work of fasting and heroism. You might be interested in: