Discourse 68

The limited heads. Silence. You know, my brothers: that the spiritual perception is uniquely by the power of that visionary: that which, like a foundation, something from the mind is preserved with it: without the participation of another light: it cannot receive the distinctions of the wills. All the spiritual perceptions of the pure one: equally are balanced with the intellectual perceptions of the conduct of the spirit in this measure. And that natural power of the mind: that even self-knowledge is astonished: without receiving the divine light: that the soul might participate in its contemplation of the truth: it cannot. That which from the abundance of practices: after it is tested in the natural health of the sensible sense of the soul: is called: many times they said that with the personal and bodily sufferings: in the philosophical course: when they relied uniquely on this: even from the truth that they held: they erred. And the vision of the habit: they lost. And like the eyes of those who see the sparks of the air: because of the weakness of their sight: which are hindered by the moist humors in them: each one of them: to one form of death that was imagined before him: he considered truth. And when all the images of all of them were gathered to one: there appeared there instead of one: many images of the time of truth.

And this happened to them: concerning the rays of grace, that which is of the solitary life, which illuminates the soul, they did not ask. It is the truth: the perception of God, through the sensation of his spiritual feelings, which the person in his station tastes. The love of spiritual knowledge, divine love, that which through fiery thoughts, through the spirit from prayer, is found. Love is the fruit of prayer. Through the vision of its water, it cuts off the one who is insatiable from its affection, when it burns in it without ceasing, whether through that which is perceptible and through the body, or through that which is through the quiet movement of the intention, praying warmly and sharply. Prayer is the death of the movements of the will from the life of the flesh. For it is equal, both that which prays purely and that which dies from the world, and this is that which a person does to himself. As for that which is to be constant in prayer, he knows his acquaintances, the books: that pure prayer is what it is in its time.

And it is known that those who received this solitary contemplation, that solitary prayer was extinguished in their petitions, so that in proportion to their emotions they would not be alone, that disturbances might be stirred up against themselves on account of the opposing pains that after prayer move within themselves. The love of God is found in the humility of the soul. Just as from the seeds of the power of fasting the shoot of humility grows, so from satiety comes dissipation, and from fullness comes emptiness. But on the table of hunger, no base thoughts are pressed. Every food that is received within is an addition to the natural seed that is kindled in the body. And when the organic members are filled with the moisture from the whole body, so that it is there, if the body happens to see or the heart is stirred by some memory not from will, along with the thought of the moment, a liquid humor is easily moved from there and is preserved throughout the whole body. Just as also the power of contemplation becomes very strong and is humbled and shines in its movements, through that sensation of the members, at that moment its distinctness is separated, and as from a height something is lowered from where it stands. And the coarseness of its thoughts is entangled.

And his pure abstinence: it is constrained in the exercise of his passion, that which burns in the heart, in the ardor of the members. And immediately half of his strength is diminished, as one might say, and his first intelligence of his reason is confounded. And when he has not entered the arena, he is found guilty without contest and without the labor of his opponent, and of being condemned under the debased will of the body. Thus all this great and replete mountainous obstacle to the good will of man, that when it is managed correctly in the measures of abstinence, it is inclined to surrender to that thing which never was inclined nor consented to arise in his mind. And when he sleeps alone, a storm of thoughts of impure images surrounds him. And his pure solitude becomes a place of visions and a furnace of passions, while he converses and speaks with them in the intoxication of thoughts, and caresses his secret members, though no woman is near him. What sea is so agitated and tossed by waves, as that which is agitated by the storm of the passions that are stirred up against him in the sea of his body, from the fullness of the belly?

O abstinence! How your beauty is adorned in sleeping on the ground and in the pain of hunger, which separates from it the six passions of the body and the repletion of the belly, which has made a deep hollow between the loins for the entrails, because of the restraint of the regimen! For upon food and drink that is taken into it, foul images and deceptive forms are fashioned and come into being from it. And they go forth and appear to us in the hidden place of our mind, and they draw us secretly into partnership with them in pure thoughts. The end of the belly, however, a dry place, makes the thought chaste, so that it is free from thoughts and rests from all the tumult of cogitations. But that which is full and sated makes a place of visions and spectacles, and turns to destruction and solitude. Fullness is for you: many things are superfluous. That which is established in divine goodness, so that the soul may contemplate without distress, is not from that which does not let foul thoughts enter into you, or even the trembling of the members of the body, which cannot be prevented. Nor is it from that which you can easily conquer them, while the whole mind is not defiled or disturbed, even though this is very exalted. But it is from that which, from the excellent service of the intellect, not even the occasion is left to approach them and add to them.

But when thoughts become narrow, they are snatched away from their purpose by the cord of something outside the will—something from habit and from nature, which is kindled within the heart, the dwelling place of the mind. Another is the contest, and another is the order of priesthood. The thought of heavenly mercies has died to the world; only thoughts that are accustomed to be with it concerning the passions, without the trouble of the contest. And if from the movement of the limbs, the sensation of non-death. The perfection that is weary with flesh and blood: it rules over those who seek from flesh and blood, and it does not abolish its own pure qualities, while it still in the life from the elements casts off the movement of its vitality, and from the four foundations of its being it receives its changes in all its aspects.