Discourse 14

Again concerning those who are in the path of stillness: when they begin to shed tears, even a little, they do not know where they have arrived in their labor, in the undiscernible sea of the conduct of stillness. They find it possible to trust, in a short time, in the weakness of their beginning, which gives fruit. 14. I say to you, truly, and do not laugh, for I speak the truth. And do not dispute the word, for those who have received it from me know it is true. If you prostrate yourself before God with the members of your eyes until you encounter tears, do not suppose that you have attained anything in the conduct. For still, the world serves your passions. This, however, stands for you in the conduct of worldly believers. For you work in the service of God with an external person, and with an internal person who still has no fruits. By his fruits he shows, from where I said he begins. But when you reach the place of tears, then know that the mind has gone out from the prison of this world and set its foot on the ladder of the new world. And it begins to ascend that wondrous air there, and begins to let down tears. By that which is written for them now, the ropes of departure, concerning that evil spirit which runs, that grace, the mother of the interior, hastens to give birth in secret to the image of God, the light of the world to come.

And when the time of birth arrives, the mind then perceives something from the taste, like a certain sweet sensation that receives bitterness within from the members in which it was nurtured. And without enduring anything unaccustomed, it moves the body with a weeping that is mixed with a joy that overcomes the sweetness of honey. The more that inner bitterness increases, the more the increase in tears occurs. The discipline of tears, however, begins when the mind begins to be purified. But the flow of tears from this order of which I speak is not upon that natural one; I have placed it at a certain time. This, however, is a supplication at a certain time for everyone who labors with God in stillness. At one time: in the theory of the mind. And at another time: in the words of the Scriptures. And at another time: in the labor of prayer. I have not set it down to speak concerning that final one: which is without ceasing, night and day, for that one who, through the humility of practices, has found truth within stillness: that there are flowing springs of water, a time of two hours lacking a little more? This occurs at the time of passage. I speak, however, of a mystical passage. Again, after the tears, you enter into the realm of thoughts. And in this realm of thoughts, you enter into that divine rest of which Paul spoke. At the time: like nature.

From this place of silence, the mind begins to dwell. Then, when the chaste ones are seen, the Spirit of the Holy One reveals heavenly things before it, while God dwells in you and the fruits of the Spirit stir within you. And from there you perceive that change, which the whole nature is prepared to receive in the renewal of all, luminously, as if by a sign. Behold, I have written these things for my own assistance and for the assistance of everyone who encounters this book, as I have attained from the theory of the Scriptures, from the mouth of the truthful, and a little from experience. May it also be an assistance to me through the prayers of those who are assisted by these things, because I have labored in them. Hear also something else that I will say to you: as you have learned from the mouth of the undeceiving, and what has entered this place of silence of thoughts, then the burden of tears is again taken from you, and you come to that which is by measure and proportion. This is a certain truth, as in the Paschal canons, and it is true and trustworthy from the whole Church, and from the luminaries and the heads of the orders in her.