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Regarding blasphemous thoughts, one must regret and repent before the Lord, but not lose heart and not think that this is harmful. Just as you don’t want such thoughts and turn away from them, God is not angry with you. The thoughts are not from you, but the enemy does. And the blame is on him. Read from St. Dmitry Rostovsky wrote an article about this in the first volume of his works. Pray to God to drive the enemy away. Tell your confessor often. And the enemy will run away. He pesters you with such pestering when he sees that your soul is timid. And when he sees that the soul is courageous and understands his machinations, he immediately lags behind (1, p. 46). 2. Bad thoughts must be driven away without any reasoning. Regarding all thoughts, keep the following rule: as soon as you notice them, drive them away without any reasoning and remain with the thought of one Lord Savior, omnipresent and seeing everything... They will not confuse you (1, p. 145). Any confusing thoughts that come, drive them away without talking to them. Now you can already see tangibly that all this is the enemy of suggestion. How can you prolong your time with an enemy? We must drive him without slowing down (1, p. 155). 3. On the fight against the spirit of blasphemy and doubt What you do not understand about the method by which the truth should be carried out in the heart, you will understand when you experience it. Here's how to do it! – Take any truth and understand it more fully in your mind, as it is confessed, and then pray to the Lord, may He write it in your heart, as it is confessed. This is a simple matter! Prayers from the truth are also no wonder. Our prayers all come from dogmas. The Lord came to earth for our salvation. Confessing this truth, pray: “Lord! Just as then, walking on earth, you healed all sorts of ailments, cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, come now to me and enlighten the eyes of my mind, and take away the leprosy of sins from me.” This is true in relation to all truth. When all the truths enter the heart, then all doubts will end. They themselves will bounce off like arrows from someone who is covered in armor. This means, in other words, is to taste the truth - to rejoice in it, to remember it with consolation and sweetness and to turn it around in the mind with warmth of heart (1, pp. 151-152). Consider yourself such a person as one who experiences suggestions for some sinful deed or evil lust. And learn to act in relation to doubts in the same way as he acts in relation to lusts. The first trick for someone experiencing evil inclinations is not to consider the suggestions as their own, but as the all-natural, to put a separation between themselves and this all-natural and, recognizing it as alien, to treat it not as their own creation, but as the enemy’s creation. Hence, the compulsion to act according to the suggestion of the experienced is not immediately weakened in the soul, but completely departs from it. They usually believe: one’s nature demands - how can one not satisfy? But whoever immediately recognizes the situation that was born as an alien creation, it is not this situation that comes to mind, but something completely different. He turns to desire with questions and subjects it to analysis and criticism. This is the simplest technique to dispel temptation: it will disappear like smoke from the wind. This is exactly what you should do whenever you have doubts. With each of its creations, do not formulate it in your mind, as if it already exists in reality, as it suggests, but stop it at the very entrance, like an uninvited guest, and subject it to inspection. Just as in wishes not to be with him in the heart there is the first, so in doubts not to be with him in the mind is the first. You will say that it suddenly embraces and covers the entire mind. It's nothing. And the same thing happens in desires, that they suddenly embrace the whole heart. But this does not mean that they have already won, but only means that the attacker is callous. If someone accidentally rushes at you and wraps his arms around you, you do not surrender to his power, but push him away: so it is here. Let doubt engulf your entire mind, strain to push it away so that it becomes outside and you can deal with it as with another, alien person. If you begin to act this way, many doubts will immediately disappear as soon as you tear away from the mind and demand to be judged. If they stubbornly remain, start driving (1, pp. 156–157). In relation to wishes, according to the awareness of the enemy’s approach to us in them, all saints have the second method, instead of fighting them personally, to turn to the Lord Savior, and they disappear (1, p. 157). You have heard, of course, that everyone has both a Guardian Angel and a tempting enemy. There truly is. The enemy constantly slips in thoughts and desires of his own kind. If you don’t listen to yourself and watch out, you will perish. It will make you foggy and dizzy. Everyone has a special enemy: some are lustful, some are selfish, others are proud – with different shades. You have a spirit of blasphemy and doubt. There is an enemy nearby, not in order to submit to him, but in order to fight him and through the struggle develop in yourself the opposite good: instead of lust - chastity, instead of pride - humility... instead of doubts, you have sincere, firm and reasonable faith. This is the task of your life. Please fulfill it (1, pp. 158–159). But there is a way to get to the point where doubts are not born at all. One told me how someone taught him how to achieve this. Imagine, he says, the truth and pray about it, or rotate it in your mind during prayer and compose prayers from it. The moment will come when this truth will enter the heart and embrace the entire being of the soul, feeding it and making it happy. This is the affinity of the soul with the truth; and after this, doubts can no longer shake her. They may pass through the memory, but they are far from the soul, like talking or whispering behind a wall. So, he says, someone taught me. I began to do this - and by the grace of God, although I am a sinner, my mind floats calmly in the area of ​​truth and is comforted by it (1, p. 159). Believing in God and being in communion with Him is a man. And whoever deviates from this does not think and be determined like a human being (1, p. 161). Animals have a soul, but an animal one. But a person has a human soul, higher, like the person himself. Animals have their own rank, and humans have their own. The creations of God are so arranged that every higher class combines in itself the powers of the lower classes and, in addition to them, has its own powers assigned to its class and characterizing it. In the world or its composition, it is necessary to distinguish, in addition to the elements, a system of forces arranged in a ladder, going from lower to higher. The lower force is the one that acts in dead nature and whose higher products are phenomena of chemical combinations and crystallization (for example, snowflakes - streaks on windows in winter and details). Above this stands the power of vegetation, which holds in its power both the crystallizing force and the force of chemical combinations. Above the plant force stands the animal force, which in its power holds both the plant force, the crystallizing force, and the force of chemical combinations. Above animal-spiritual power - the power of human nature, which contains all the forces lower than it, in its power and acts by them. Is it surprising that we have something similar to animals? There are similarities with plants, for nutrition and growth of the body is a plant matter; but what can be deduced from this? Nothing is allowed except that to each his own rank” (1, p. 162). In a person it is necessary to distinguish between soul and spirit. The spirit contains a sense of the Divine - conscience and dissatisfaction with anything. It is the power that was breathed into the face of man at creation. The soul is a lower force or part of the same force assigned to conduct the affairs of earthly life. She is such a force as the soul of animals, but exalted for the sake of combining the spirit with it (1, pp. 162–163). When a person maintains his rank, he lives by the spirit, that is, he is led by the fear of God, and his conscience listens, and he seeks things above. And when he succumbs to the desires of the soul below, he leaves his rank and thinks of getting what the spirit wants among creatures. He fails to do this, and he languishes and collapses. The spirit here is like a captive in bonds: it is in the service of barbarians - lustful passions. He himself is not satisfied and makes passions unsatisfied, giving them a boundless overflow. Why do animals have animal needs in their own measure, but in a person, when he indulges in sensuality, the sensual needs have no limit and measure? This immensity is communicated to them by the spirit that has been captured by them, and the spirit with this immensity seeks to quench its thirst for the infinite, in the image of which it was created and in which its only good. So you see that we also have functions of animals, and in their very movement something is manifested that is completely unusual for animals. No matter what you think about, you will always come to the conclusion that man has a spirit, whose true life is life in God. There only he finds peace, there is his paradise and the promised land (1, p. 163). God foresees because He sees your free decisions. These decisions constitute the subject of omniscience, and they constitute it in the form in which they are, precisely as free decisions. Not everything that God foresees is what God determines. Theologians distinguish in God between determination and permission. What God determines happens as He determines, and what He allows may not happen as it happens, although God foresees what will happen. Such is the fall of the ancestors and spirits. They fell freely, although God foresaw it. On God's part, everything has been done so that we do not fall. It was clearly said to the ancestors: do not eat. And he indicated the consequences. Something similar must be assumed among fallen spirits (1, p. 165). Why did God allow it? - Because otherwise it would be necessary to take away freedom or destroy free creatures in the world. But without this, the world would be much lower than it is now. And God allowed him to fall, creating an image of rebellion from the fall. We are moving toward rebellion by fighting opposition. This is the law! And everyone who follows it is crowned with success. We don’t know what the spirits have. But since their freedom is free, then until the decision of the Court, their uprising is possible, just as the fall of the forces of light is possible. Whether it will be or not is not for us to decide. But the possibility of this cannot be rejected (1, p. 165). 4. The demon is a producer of blasphemous thoughts. Ways to deal with it It is necessary to make prayer appeals as often as possible, until incessantly. Choose verses from the psalms that touch your heart, memorize them and often repeat one or the other... Learn short prayers from St. Chrysostom - 12 during the day and 12 at night; and also repeat often. More usually, the Jesus Prayer is repeated: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! The work of self-compulsion overcomes everything (1, p. 212). Have you heard that there is unceasing prayer? Desire and seek. You will search and you will find. You already have the germs of it: this feeling for God, which happens from time to time. You had it in force, but you allowed it to grow cold. And it comes from time to time. Try to make this feeling permanent - and it will be unceasing prayer. Have you ever loved someone deeply? Remember how your beloved face did not leave your heart and the feeling was still there, and the thought did not leave, and everything you did, you thought that that face was seeing, and you tried to do what you did well, so as not to deserve disapproval from that person. Continuous prayer is similar to this, only it takes place in a different area. Help you, Lord, to find such a feeling for Him. Then all the mistakes, lethargy and laziness will end!!! (1, p. 212). Demon... is their producer. He does this in order to confuse you and deprive you of the courage to pray. And what he means is whether you will agree to some kind of blasphemy, in order to plunge you into the sin of blasphemy, and then into despair. The first thing to do against this demon is... do not be embarrassed and do not at all think that these are your thoughts, but directly attribute them to the demon. Then - think and say the opposite against thoughts and words. He instills bad things about the saint, and you say: “You’re lying, you sly man, that’s what he is like...” So against everything, and you keep saying it until they leave. Conclude like this: “Cursed be you, blasphemer, and let the words of blasphemy be directed at your head...” Turn to the Lord with the following prayer: “I open my soul before You, Lord! You see that I do not want such thoughts and do not favor them. The enemy is in control. Drive him away from me." St. Niphon was tormented for four years by this spirit, which buzzed in his ears: there is no God, there is no Christ, etc.... He said: “There is both God and Christ... and I worship Them and serve with all my soul.” God finally delivered him (1, pp. 212–213). I'm sending you a book. In it you will see yourself, how you were in adolescence, how you deteriorated - and how you improved, and what is to come... It was written more than 40 years ago, but is not out of date 180 (1, p. 213). 5. Turmoil in thoughts and feelings is overcome by the memory of God and the memory of death And the troubles in thoughts and feelings that you experience will all subside over time, if, despite them, you do not stop being jealous with all your zeal for one thing that pleases God. To this end, there is one sure way - to have the memory of God and the memory of death. They will instill the fear of God, which will be both a motivator for everything pleasing to God, and a turner away from everything that angers God, and a guardian of good things within, and a destroyer of everything bad that lies there. The memory of God sees the Lord before itself and in itself, and immediately notices evil arising from the heart and suppresses them. And this is the whole point (1, p. 237). Of course, establishing ourselves in the memory of God requires work. And take it on. For the first time, remember the Lord only 10 times a day; and in the end - that you will forget about Him in only ten moments; and finally the Sun of Truth, Christ the Lord, will shine on the firmament of your soul and will shine there, not dimming for a single moment. Seek and you will find (1, pp. 237–238). 6. Means of fighting and cleansing the heart from sinful thoughts Thoughts must be driven away, not retained arbitrarily. Sympathy or sweetness, as soon as it appears, must be suppressed with all your might... This is the main point of internal warfare... The question “how?” it is solved as follows: pay attention to your heart, stand there before the Lord and do not allow anything sinful there. This is the whole point of internal warfare. I won’t write this anymore (3, pp. 119–120). 7. The science of fighting thoughts was taught by Hesychius of Jerusalem Thoughts bothered you?! How you treated them, always do so... The science of this, that is, of warfare with thoughts, was taught well by Hesychius of Jerusalem. Buy his book and study it (3, pp. 120–121). 8. The fall usually begins with the acceptance of sinful thoughts. Treat them properly Suddenly, a fall rarely happens, but usually it begins small - with thoughts, easy sympathies and slowness in thoughts... more and more... until the lust for sin... after which the fall does not slow down. The holy fathers describe this course of the fall in detail... Take the book of Hesychius of Jerusalem about sobriety... You will see everything there, and act according to how it is written there. The main thing here is to never leave a trace of not only sympathy produced by thoughts, but also the thought itself, so that disgust and disgust with sin remains in the soul (3, pp. 123–124). 9. On the fight against thoughts during prayer The integrity of your prayer is disrupted by your thoughts. Did you notice?! Now try to fix it. The first step towards this is, when starting to pray, to arouse in oneself the fear of God and reverence; then become attention in the heart and from there cry out to the Lord. And extraneous thoughts will creep in; As soon as you notice, drive away. If they climb again, drive them again... And that’s how it is. Don’t let your tongue read the prayer, and don’t let your thoughts wander around... always drive them away and pray. We must work and pray to the Lord to help us cope with our thoughts. Do you have a collection of fatherly lessons on prayer? Read and delve into it, apply it to yourself. Work unceasingly on this... and God, seeing your work, will give you what you seek (3, pp. 155–156). 10. Sobriety is a feat of struggle with thoughts. When the heart is in religious feeling, thoughts do not bother During prayer, thoughts creep in - you need to drive them away, they creep in again - drive them away again... and so on. Just don’t indulge him, but, as soon as you notice, drive him away. This is the feat of sobriety. Work to ensure that your heart is in some kind of religious feeling... when your heart is in feeling, thoughts do not bother you and everything goes around feelings (3, p. 159). 11. Extinguishing passionate thoughts and movements until they completely disappear is the goal of asceticism The main thing is to make the heart pure. It is unclean from pride, in which all passions live and act... Extinguishing passionate thoughts and movements... is the goal of asceticism. Therefore, no matter what passionate thing you notice, arm yourself against it without self-pity (3, p. 160). 12. About the harm of distracted thoughts for prayer and spiritual life Above all, watch out for entertaining thoughts and breaking them up and for passionate movements. Dispersion of thoughts and any carnality or rest with food and sleep are the first enemies, and irritation is always with them. Run away from the slightest movement of displeasure (3, p. 207). 13. Guidance on how to manage thoughts On my own behalf I will say: try to always be in feeling towards God (this is the lesson of Climacus). This feeling will keep your attention close to your heart. Such attention will immediately catch someone else’s thought and tell you about it, and you, with God’s help, in the name of the Lord, will drive it away (3, p. 212). 14. About passionate thoughts, feelings and desires and the fight against them Make it a law for yourself every time trouble happens, i.e. an enemy attack in the form of a bad thought or feeling, do not be content with reflection and disagreement alone, but add prayer to this until opposing feelings and thoughts form in the soul. And always end your battle with sin with this. It's like taking out a splinter... It's also good that you notice the bad... and don't want it. Strengthen your reluctance and disfavor towards passions... This will keep you always ready to meet the enemy as an enemy, which is the beginning of a successful battle (4, pp. 77–78). 15. On the suppression of sinful thoughts The main thing is to suppress thoughts. When the thoughts have subsided... everything else loses its power. As soon as an evil movement appears, now set your thoughts on some sacred object from the Gospel events - the Transfiguration, the suffering of the Lord, the crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and others. This will throw all the bad things back. Or... bring to mind, as you do... death, Judgment and its consequences. Following this, fixing your thoughts on the presence of the Lord, call on Him as if you were talking to someone face to face, and trust Him for healing, saying: “You see, Lord, that I have... I don’t want anything like that... help and drive away these attacks...” and the like, and begin to say the Jesus Prayer... repeating it with faith... And limiting the entire content of the head and heart to it alone (4, p. 96). 16. Tempting thoughts are overcome by mental prayer And make sure that there are fewer images in your soul, and more thoughts and feelings. Images are the work of the imagination - the lowest labor force, and always irritate daydreaming. The latter will not be tamed as long as the imagination is strong and swarms with images. The way to stop the flow of images is the mental prayer you have started. Work hard. The moment will come when you will feel that this current is like the flow of blood in a bleeding woman (see Luke 8:44) (4, p. 172). The first tempting thought that will begin to hit you will be self-righteousness; behind him will come internal self-exaltation, or trumpeting before oneself; and then - arrogance in front of others. Understand these ways. Read Macarius the Great, and especially the Ladder, where a lot is said about discerning thoughts. The same thing can be both pleasing and unpleasant to God, judging by one’s thoughts. Learn (4, p. 173). 18. About the fight against sinful thoughts All that remains is the struggle with thoughts that will buzz every now and then like incessant mosquitoes. Learn for yourself how to deal with them. Experience is science. I'll tell you one thing. Usually thoughts are spinning in your head. These are empty. But you look for those who pierce the heart like an arrow and leave a mark there, like a scratch. Immediately take up and erase the trace with this prayer, replacing its opposite feeling. When heat is stored, these cases are rare and weak (4, p. 177). 19. Studying the thoughts coming from the heart leads to self-knowledge Do not take your intelligent eye off your heart and immediately grasp and disassemble everything that comes from there: good - let him live; not good - you need to kill him immediately. From this learn to recognize yourself. Whichever thought comes out more often means that passion is stronger; start acting harder against that one. But don’t rely at all on yourself and don’t hope to do anything with your own efforts. The Lord sends healing medicines and remedies. Surrender yourself to Him - and this for every hour. Work - work, but expect all good things from the only Lord” (4, p. 179). If you feel your thoughts wandering, beware. This is very dangerous. The enemy wants to drive you into some slum and kill you there. Thoughts begin to wander as fear diminishes and the heart cools (4, p. 221). 21. About one who is troubled by blasphemous thoughts The second question is about one who is troubled by blasphemous thoughts. How should she be?! Let her read St. Demetrius of Rostov about this subject. Then read this article with her yourself. It is necessary to emphasize more than anything else that these are enemy thoughts and are not accepted when they are not accepted. To bring her to the point of inspiration is not to accept, but to reject with anger, throwing them back in the face of the enemy... and you can spit with abusive words to the enemy... on his head, laying down those thoughts... Always say to the Lord: I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want these thoughts... Please explain to her thoroughly that thoughts are not imputed until they are accepted, and that she is not to blame for this. Let her work on this and understand the line of division between the imputation and non-imputation of thoughts. I can't say anything more than that. This is in addition to what you tell her... “be patient.” Be patient and pray to God, and don’t make a mistake yourself. This is how all life is! So much for non-decisive decisions (4, pp. 247–248). 22. How to avoid mind wandering when reading and praying That thoughts run wild during reading and prayer - what to do? No one is free from this. But there is no sin here, but inappropriateness. It is a sin when someone self-willingly develops extraneous thoughts, but when they involuntarily run away, what is the fault? Guilt also occurs when someone, having noticed his thoughts wandering, continues to wander with them. And this is what you need to do: as soon as you notice a thought running away, immediately return it to its place. In order to have less wandering of thoughts during prayer, one must strain to pray with a warm feeling; and for this, in advance - before prayer - you need to warm up the soul with meditation and bows. Get used to praying your own prayer. So, for example, the essence of evening prayer is to thank God for the day and for everything that is encountered during it, both pleasant and unpleasant; whatever bad thing has been done, repent of it and ask for forgiveness, promising to be correct the next day, and pray to God for protection during sleep. Speak all this to God from your thoughts and from your heart. The essence of morning prayer is to thank God for sleep and strengthening and to pray to Him to help us do things all day for His glory. And speak this to Him with your thoughts and from your heart. At the same time, both morning and evening, express to the Lord your deepest needs, especially spiritual, and even external, saying to Him childishly: “You see, Lord, illness and infirmity! Help and heal!” All this and the like can be expressed before God in your own words, without resorting to a prayer book. And maybe it will be better. Try it; if it goes, you can leave the prayer book completely, and if it doesn’t go, you need to pray with the prayer book, because otherwise you can be left without prayer at all (9, pp. 116-117). Our mind is alive by nature. Vanity weighs him down. When little by little this yoke falls from him, he begins to soar everywhere, goes around both heaven and earth, sees everything, understands everything, and it is easy for him. There is nothing bad here, but there is little use. This bird-mind needs to be put in a cage and told to him: sit here and sing this, and don’t you dare fly back and forth: the hawk will catch you (11, p. 12). 24. Sinful thoughts and the fight against them When evil thoughts attack, one must turn the eye of the mind away from them and, turning to the Lord, drive them away in His name. But when a thought stirs the heart and this evil one is more or less pleased with it, then one must scold oneself and beg the Lord for mercy, and beat oneself until the opposite feeling is born in the heart: for example, instead of condemnation - exaltation of another, or at least a heartfelt feeling of respect for him (11, p. 43). Work harder to strengthen yourself in mental attention and you will see what a treasure our heart is. Do this: in the morning, become more deeply established in your thoughts about the Lord, stand before Him with your mind during prayer; and then strain throughout the day not to depart from Him, taking His sweetest name as your aid. Whether you are doing anything, talking to someone, walking, sitting, eating - let your mind be with the Lord. You will forget - and again return to the Lord and scold yourself with contrition... and that’s all... this is the feat of attention. Then, in the light of the Lord, not a single thought will be hidden and its assessment will be correct, all good looks will be scattered. Meanwhile, the soul will cleave more and more tightly to the invisible and become stronger (11, pp. 43–45). The holy elders say: what is quickly gained is soon lost. What you achieve with difficulty, then and with frequent hardships, you will value dearly and cherish more diligently. Just don’t be timid, but everything is yours and yours. Various kinds of thoughts will come. Do not accept them, persecute them in the name of the Lord. This is how they did it, turning to the Lord as a child. Don't dwell on them and don't want to talk to them. It seems that Hesychius has everything explained: the preposition is a thought, the first step; then attention, the second step is holding the thought in the soul and talking with it. This is already bad, because here there is a conversation with the one who slips the thought. Next is pleasure with thoughts. This is even worse. Next comes the addition or inclination of the will: here it is not far from the matter that decides the fall. Whoever cuts off a thought will put an end to everything, and whoever engages in it, there is a danger that everything will go further and further (11, pp. 61–62). 25. About organizing thoughts Disorder inside is always from disordered thoughts. Keep them on a leash, and in order to be in time for this... guard the memory of God and the memory of death. God is everywhere and sees everything... and sees everything inside of you. Go with this thought in your heart and observe the movements that happen there - and accept some, reject others (6, p. 80). 26. About the ridiculous thoughts that come Let Blueberry behave like this regarding absurd thoughts: as they seem, meet them with hatred and contempt and abuse of the damned enemy, for this is his job. Then let him immediately turn in prayer to the Lord, asking Him to drive away thoughts and complaining to Him about the machinations of the enemy. And they will pass (8, p. 44). 27. About the fight against evil thoughts Regarding unkind thoughts, it is known that as soon as such an unkind thought is noticed and resolutely rejected, then, no matter how bad it may be, it is not imputed to the one who experiences it. Keep this in mind and be calm (8, pp. 180–181). Any confusing thoughts that come, drive them away without talking to them. Now you can already see tangibly that all this is the enemy of suggestion. How can you take time with enemies? We must drive him without slowing down (8, p. 216). With this letter, the book “The Path to Salvation” by Bishop Theophan was sent (1, p. 213). You might be interested in: