Discourse 6

Discourse Six. That which is found in the events of folly: the weakness of the rational nature indicates that it is necessarily receptive of this. It was not revealed to God that he might be left to be raised completely from this, before his nature came into being as a second creation. And this receptivity of events is the cause of the disturbance of the intellect. That, however, which is of habit is license. There are three orders by which every rational soul approaches God: there is from the fervor of faith, and there is from fear, and there is from the lordship which is from God. But to the order of love, from it and to it alone one does not approach, except when one of these orders takes cause. Just as from a womb not formed, one is born in the night of thoughts, so from the labor of words and deeds not formed, there is no knowledge and no prudence of the air. The purity of the mysteries adorns the soul. And the addition of works disturbs the air and expels it from tranquility, and drives away from it the spirit. It is fitting for the solitary to toil and apply himself to heavenly labor, so that habitually without purity there may be in his intellect.

as one who, when left to himself, and when some action from this world is considered, and the thought of one of the desires is manifested, does not see himself. As one who, from his complete departure from these transient things, is found able to be occupied with the law of the Lord by night and by day, without any addition of the labors of the body, apart from the beauties of thought; he makes his bed from caves and dry caverns, and does not approach the knowledge of God. The body is worn out; to uproot sufferings from their thought, they were not able. And even if they reaped, it was nothing. Like a man who sows on rocks and cannot reap. Thus, when the destroyer corrupts his intention with hypocrisy and falsehood and the pride of victory over the passions, and he stretches himself out on his bed from the multitude of his vigils and his asceticism. And the Scripture bears witness, saying: Like a people who performed righteousness and did not leave the judgment of their God, they ask me about judgment and righteousness, and they wish to approach God. Why do you fast and I have not seen? And you humble yourselves and I have not known? Behold, on the day of your fasting, you do your own wills, and you offer up all your idols. This, then: their thoughts are evil, and their intentions are evil; instead of God, they hold themselves in their own selves.

and your precious freedom is sacrificed by you in everything: a sacrifice from everything precious, that which was fitting for you to separate by your beautiful deeds and the hidden vision of the heart. Good earth that gladdens its lord with the fruits of a hundredfold: a soul that rejoices in the governance of God, in its wakeful vigil night and day. There the Lord passes over its plantations and its enclosures: a cloud for shade by day, and the gleam of the flame of fire by night. And from within its darkness, light shines forth. Just as a cloud obscures the rays of the moon, so the thickness of the belly hides the wisdom of God from the soul. And just as the kindling of fire in dry wood, so the desire of the body in a full belly. And just as coals of oil kindle the flame of fire, so the abundance of foods inflames the passion of intercourse within the body. In a body that loves life, the knowledge of God does not dwell. A man who loves his body is not fit for divine gifts. Just as from pains a fruit is born that gladdens the womb, so from labors is born in the soul the knowledge of the mysteries of God. But for the lovers of life, the fruit is shameful.

Just as a father has compassion on his son, so Christ has compassion on the suffering body, and he draws near to its mouth in every way. To the labor of wisdom there is no limit. The ascetic: he who in his thought has hidden from himself every name of this world. The mourner: he who with fasting, vigil, and mourning passes all his days in the hope of those heavenly things. The solitary: he who, when his seat is removed from the visions of the world and beyond, has a solitary question in prayer: the desire for the world to come. The wealth of the solitary: either the consolation that is found from the midst of mourning, or the joy that comes from faith, the treasury of his deep thought. The compassionate one: he who has not separated his thought from the need of compassion for one of the members of the body of Christ. Virginity: it is not only that a person preserves his body from the corruption of stains, but also that he is separated from his very self, and that he is alone with himself. If you desire chastity, flee the wandering of seductive thoughts, by means of the reading of Scripture and the humble prayer that comes from God. And then, against the causes that come from nature and within the passions. Without these, a person who has seen splendor in his station cannot.

If you wish to drink from compassion, first train your soul to drink from the humility that is upon the desires, whose weight will not hinder the mind from emerging from the disposition of its own self that was established beforehand. The simplicity of compassion is known through the endurance of oppression. And the perfection of humility is known through the constriction of the stomach when it rejoices. If you are truly compassionate, when you are separated from your own self unjustly and by oppression, do not be angry inwardly. And outwardly: do not show your wrath to others. But swallow the offenses of your oppressors in the pains of compassion, like the harshness of wine that is dissolved within many waters. Rather, show the sign of simplicity from abundant compassion, in the additions you make and the burdens you impose on your oppressors while you are joyful. Yes, just as the blessed Elisha also did to his enemies, who came upon him to seize them. For he prayed and covered their eyes with blindness, to the force that was with him he was testing. And what he wanted: nothing existed before him, and in that he fed and gave them drink and released them to go; upon the compassion that was kindled within him he was testing. And if you are truly humble: when you are oppressed, do not be disturbed.

and the spirit upon the face of the desires. Do not go out, but in truth receive upon yourself the word of injustice against you, while you are not hindered from pursuing the investigation of the end of the matter. Rather, especially, add to the forgiveness. Others: the foul name of fornication came upon them by their own will, and they were dripping. And others: the acts of the man of violence were received by them, and they nurtured the fruit of sin that was not their own as if it were their own, with tears. And they asked for forgiveness of sins they had not committed, with weeping from the afflicted, while the whole purity of asceticism adorned their person. Others, however, because they were not praised for the wondrous deeds of hiddenness that they held, showed the forms of the foolish in themselves, while they were shaken by all taste and haste. As if from the bitterness of the acts, holy angels were not inquirers over the multitude of men like these. You, however, practice humility upon yourself, and while others bear witness to themselves, you, even when you are not received, bear with silence and consider yourself humble. If you are humble, condemn yourself in these things; if you are not, you are disturbed.

The multitude of the houses of the father: to the changes of the mind it covers the monks of that place. This, then: to the distinctions of the degrees of the passions and the spiritual ranks, intellectually it is delighted in that, and the alteration of the orders of the gifts. And not as in the separation of a local dwelling: by the manifest knowledge of the alteration of the arrangement of the individual cells: each one of the persons is changed in being. But as the sun, by a single interior light that is perceptible, fills each one of them with a solitary vision of purity from its own radiance, each one individually from it. As a father's bosom can contain the equal outpouring of his light, and as a lamp in a single house distributes its light distinctly, while it is not divided substantially from the simplicity of its radiance to the multitude by the alteration of its appearance. Thus also, when in a single undivided cell, it begins to give forth to the multitude from distinct things, which are equal there in the offering of the change: from a single perceptible sun, each one according to the order of his conduct, draws delight for himself in one air and one place and one sitting and one vision and one rule, while he does not see the great change of the order of his companion, who is less than him.

As when the multitude of gifts of his companion and the poverty of himself. And this, then, becomes for him: a cause of grief and of the departure of his mind. Hush. There is no one in that place who can perceive by means of the senses. A person, by the gift of equality and the greatness of his order, is delighted within himself. The vision, however, from without is one for all of them, and one place. And more truly, as the small habitation of the angelic encampments in the unanimity of the aerial place: and the equality of the revealed vision and the hidden knowledge of their degrees: in the revelations of the theory of their orders, which are changeable. If, from the hypostatic substances outside of the operative sense and the intellectual motions, and not even in the world to come, which will be moved from a person to bring about, by a word, another final smallness from this: this, however, from the intellect and the whole, and also on account of the perfection of the pure one, more clearly. True, then, is the word spoken by the fathers: that from it, without knowledge, without time, it is limited; from it, however, to the revelation of its nullity, time is preserved, along with the rest of the proper mysteries which, with silence, are limited to the essence.

For apart from the highest, the perfect cessation, and the lowest, the complete, there is no longer a middle place between this one and that one in the division of the future. Either entirely from the highest, or entirely from the lowest. And within this and that: changing orders of retributions. And if this is true, as indeed it is, what is that folly of those who say: "Is not the kingdom a thing that is sought?" For a man says: "Woe to that man who is saved alone from Gehenna, can he be seized?" Salvation from Gehenna: that is the kingdom. And the fall from this: that is Gehenna. For the books do not teach three places. But what? What, then, does the son of man come in his glory? He sets up sheep from his right and goats from his left. Nor does it say three groups here, but two: the right-hand ones and the left-hand ones. Distinctions of places of their abode: precisely bounded. These, it says, will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. And these: to the eternal fire. And again: they will come from the east and from the west, and will recline with those of the house of Abraham in the kingdom. And those who are not sealed with the sign: they will go out to the darkness outside the kingdom. There they will be weeping over themselves, and gnashing of teeth: which is the grief of the difficult separation from the fire.

From here it is understood: that what remains from that ascent is the very Gehenna of affliction. It is fitting that a person should bring himself to the beautiful things, and enter into the tranquility of his cessation, from error to the knowledge of life. And this is the order of our Lord and the apostles, and of many of the exalted. Let him perceive in himself that from a mixture of air and tranquility like this, his vision becomes disturbed in the contemplation of the wills, and in his haste he is deprived of discernment, and his knowledge is darkened, until finally his mind is occupied with caution and the greater suppression of the senses. And while he is being healed, he is disturbed. And when he wishes to become strong, he destroys the natural health of himself, and goes out from the constrained freedom of his will to the agitation of the air. Let him remember here the word of the apostle who says: "The strong are the true food." And let him turn to his interior, lest he hear from there miraculously: "Where is the physician of others? You fill the graves." And let him be with himself, and keep his position strong alone. And instead of a word that is sensibly perceived, let the beauties of his conduct serve him. And instead of words of the mouth, if possible, while he is in the health of himself, let him keep others, that they may be helped.

and by means of his dream he is dreaming, even when he is far away, by the practice of his remaining works, it is more beautiful than when he serves his hour in the sluggishness of the word in his place while he is ill, just as concerning medicine it is fitting, so also that one is more than that. For a blind man leading a blind man, both fall into a pit. The strong do not have true food, and those whose senses have been struck and have become hardened to receive all foods. This, however, from all the encounters of the senses, without the heart being disturbed, because of its encounter in completeness. But when the tempter desires to defile a pure thought with thoughts of fornication, first he soothes his anger with vain glory, while the beginning of the thought is not like the pricks. This does to the guarded thought, that which cannot easily cast into it a naked evil thought. But what comes out of the house of his rebellion, that wretched one, by means of the thought of the first thoughts, and is quickly moved from there, he encounters in it the fullness of fornication, while passing the thought over base desires. First, however, he is frightened from ceasing in his encounter with them, because of the pressure of the thoughts that encountered the desires, which from their sight was stronger than when they were the guide of their course.

Yet he is lowered from the height of his first thought, but not defiled. If, however, he does not turn to his concealment and does not sharply apprehend the first thoughts, that there is a cause for the second thoughts, when he encounters many diverse passions through them, then that habit blinds the discernment of the soul from the multitude of passions. For according to the measure and depth of the first pain, so is the bitterness of the second. It is easier and more beautiful to choose pains through the memories of the virtues than to be victorious through struggle. For when the pains have departed from their place and have been moved to show themselves in the body through agitation, then forms and images also sink into the mind. This order requires great strength to take power from the mind and to disturb and agitate the contemplation greatly. The first evil, however, of which I spoke, not even the traces of the pains are known in the mind after their cessation. Bodily labors and the reading of the Scriptures preserve purity, and they establish hope and fear for the labors, and for hope and fear they establish in the mind distance from evil things and constant prayer, until a person receives the Paraclete concerning the seals of the monastic life.

of the second thoughts: harmful memories are fixed in his heart. For by means of the thought that was in him, he renews himself for the causes of excellence and vigilance, which are from the narrow paths of sin, and he sees in himself, by the power of the spirit that takes hold, not yet standing firm, that he may be anxious for that aim which removes harmful memories from a person and brings near to him pride through the disturbance of the air. But when the power of the spirit prevails and dwells in the known powers of the active soul, then instead of the laws of the body, commands of the spirit are fixed in the heart. These the heart learns secretly from the spirit, so that it is not occupied with the assistance of perceptible letters through the medium of the senses. As much as it learns from matter, the air, its learning is bound to error and confusion. But when its learning is from those things that are not corruptible, and its memory also stands without corruption in the cognizance of them. There are good thoughts, and there is good will. There are evil thoughts, and there is an evil heart. For the former, apart from the latter, are scarcely considered for reward. That is to say, they are movements that pass within the mind, like winds that pass over the sea and raise up waves. For these are roots.

of the second thoughts: harmful memories are fixed in his heart. For by means of the thought that was in him, he renews himself for the causes of excellence and vigilance, which are from the narrow paths of sin, and he sows the seed of a good foundation. Thus the outcome is good or evil, and not according to the agitation of thoughts. For the soul does not cease to mix with changing thoughts. But if you cut off each of these outcomes at its root, when there is no root for them from below, you are near to the time when, after many years in a single day, your good deeds will change and your judgment will be cut off. The one who is without wings is the one who has newly come out of the wombs of sufferings through the labors of repentance. And at the time of prayer, he compels himself to rise above earthly things, but he cannot. Yet still he gazes upon the face of the earth, where the serpent crawls. He restrains his thoughts by means of reading, labors, and fear, and the intention of the virtues of excess. For apart from these, he knows nothing else. And even these, a small time preserves that one when he is pure. And again memories come, and they disturb and submerge the heart. For he does not yet perceive the pure and free air, which is without the memory of the passions, a time that greatly restrains that one when he is in haste. For still he has bodily members; these, however, are the excesses of the body that are openly employed.

to the vision of her own excellences that work: He does not yet see and perceive that this is the wings of the air, by which one approaches the heavenly ones and is removed from the earth. As a man serves God with perception and with the virtues, the natures of the virtues are imprinted in his thoughts, and his mind contemplates the orders of the bodies in these divine things. But when he perceives that which is beyond the virtues, then according to the measure of his perception, his thought also is raised above the orders of the virtues, offering sacrifice with his sacrifice. The eyes of the Lord are upon the meek, and his ears are to hear the poor. The prayer of the meek is as from the mouth to the ear. Lord God: the darkness of my thought. In the time when you are in silence with the good work of meekness, when your soul has approached to go out from under the cloud, this sign will be for you: your heart burns and is inflamed like a furnace by night and by day, so that you consider all earthly things as ashes and filth. But this: that you should not even have the patience to approach, because of the novelty and warmth of the thoughts, which are violently agitated in your soul. And from silence is given to you a fountain of tears, so that like the waters of a torrent, they flow from your eyes without restraint, while they are mingled with all your works.

tion, with your reading and with your prayer and with your service and with your meditation and with your patience and with your silence and with everything that you do, tears are mingled in you. But when you see these in yourself, be encouraged: you have crossed the sea. And add labors, and hold fast to beauty and freedom, so that grace may increase day by day, until you meet these. Not yet is your journey completed to reach the mountain of God. But after you have found the treasure, and that warmth has quenched it—so that there is no exchange for anything else that you are destined to receive after them—woe to you if you lose! Or you have been raised up, or you have been healed. What then is that thing which is placed after tears, which a person who has passed beyond them encounters? And what other thing after that? They indicate below, in the chapters that are on the stream of behaviors, like something that is clarified from the writings and from the fathers who were confirmed in mysteries such as these. If you have no labors, do not speak about excellence. The sufferings for the sake of righteousness are weightier before God than all orders and offerings. And the fragrance of the ointment of their being is more fragrant than all sweet-smelling spices and choice perfumes. But every excellence of the body in which it is not constrained, consider it a sin without the soul.

The offerings of the righteous: the tears of their fathers. And their sacrifices are received: the vigils of their watchers. The saints groan from the burden of the body and are afflicted, and in pain they send their prayers to God. And at the sound of their groaning, the holy powers hasten to their appointed times: that they may be with them in hope and that they may be with them in petition. The holy angels become partners with the saints in their fasts and pains, by their proximity to them. Labors and humilities: God works on earth for humanity. Faith and compassion, however, bring one near to simplicity quickly. Trembling and brokenness of heart do not occur in one soul, just as neither does the suppression of thought occur in those who are intoxicated. When trembling is given, grief and mourning are removed. Wine is for joy: and trembling is given for the gladness of the soul. That which intoxicates the body. The word of God, however, is for the mind. Those who are inflamed with trembling are snatched away by the meditation of hope in their thoughts to the world to come. Just as also those who are drunk with wine are presented before them with changing phantasms. Thus also he who is intoxicated with the hope of future things and is inflamed knows neither constraint nor the world nor anything in it. These are for the simple of heart and the trembling in hope that occur.

And many are those who, after the heavy labors of purity, are destined to be with those who run in the course of conduct by means of a yoke. These, at the beginning of the path, taste only through the faith of the soul. Whatever the Lord wills, he does. Blessed are those who kept themselves in the sea of afflictions simply and without turning back, in the expanse of God, and did not turn their backs, so that they might be delivered quickly to the shore of the kingdoms, and live in those airs which, for them, sweeten all their beautiful labors. And they are made manifest from their fruits, and they rejoice in the joy of their hope. Those who run with hope do not see the thorns on the path, nor are they hindered by the stumbling blocks of such things. But when they emerge from the sea, then these are seen by them, and they praise God that they were preserved among all those many thoughts and rocks, while they did not know it, because they did not cease to give themselves over to be consumed by such things. But those who run by the wide gates and wish to increase and become wise, and give themselves over to the turning of thoughts and to fear, and stand before many preparations, and to see and consider the causes of thorns and weak thoughts—these are found, as at the threshold of their houses, to be dead.

The lion in the path, and the slaying in the marketplaces. And like those of whom it was said: the valiant ones see the end, and they are like locusts in their eyes. And their cities, of the chaste. And their walls ascend up to the sky. These are they who, at a distance from death, are found at the head of their path. These are they who, in a secure manner, are made wise, to begin but not to finish. And the simple one is ashamed, and passes by in his first step. Do not trust in the body, nor in the thought that perhaps it will not come in his hands, his merchandise. Let not the excess of your wisdom be a stumbling block to yourself and a snare before you, to begin manfully and lightly upon the hope of God with your blood-stained boldness, so that you are not securely bound, and stripped of the knowledge of God. He who looks to the spirits does not sow. Choose death in battle for the sake of God, and not life in shame and lowliness. When you are about to begin one of the works of God, first make a testament, as if you have no more life in this world, and as one who has prepared for death. With the cutting off of hope, approach it, as if in that action your end ascends, and it is the last of your days, and you have no more to see the days after that.

And this truly was fixed in your thought, that the purpose of your life might not be cut off from victory, on account of your casting aside your thought. For this reason, know: let not wisdom wholly rule over your desires. Give a little place also to faith in your mind. Remember earnestly the days after death, and never let negligence enter into your soul. As the saying of the wise man who said: Learn the hours from this world; they are not even like a single day in the world of the righteous. Manfully begin every work of virtue; do not approach it with two hearts. Do not be divided in your heart on the path of your discipline, on account of hope in the goodness of God, lest your labor become a mockery and the toil of your service be a burden upon you. But believe in your heart that God is compassionate, and to those who seek him he gives goodness, not according to their works, but according to their love and according to their faith towards him. When you have believed, it will be for you. There is one whose struggle at the beginning of the whole day fills in for the hours of his services. And there is one whose sitting, in the length of his silence, contains the measure of his prayers. There is one whose discipline of his tears fills in for his vigils, and seeks nothing else with it, for it is better for him than anything.

And there is: the eagerness of the meditations of his mind cuts short the laws that limit him. There is: the pain of hunger eats from his flesh, and he is left with the rags that gird his belly, from the fullness of his work. And there is: by the breadth of his thought, his psalms are not interrupted. And there is: by the writings his heart is inflamed. And there is: by hope he becomes confident. And there is: the wonder of the words halts the running of his lips, from the one who is accustomed to it. And there is: he tastes all these and is sated, and turns and departs. And there is: by a little only from them, and he is puffed up and insolent and goes astray. There is: his body is wasted by them through the multitude of his pain along with his sorrows. And there is: the gain of something, something. There is: wickedness. And others: the glory of man. Others: the pain of the passions. Others: mixture with impurity. And there is: he suddenly stands up and does not turn back, until he takes the pearl. Joyfully he begins every work that is for the sake of God. And if you are free from pains and from division of heart, that God will raise up the head and help you and make you wise, and according to his will and wondrously he brings about the completion. To him is glory and thanksgiving and worship and exaltation, forever and ever. Amen. The six discourses on the practices of the solitary life are completed.