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ABDUCTION.........5
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Captivity is one thing, battle is another. Captivity signifies a violent abduction, while battle indicates a contest between equally matched adversaries. For precisely this reason the Apostle says that the devil attacks with fiery arrows those who carry Christ in their souls. For someone who is not at close grips with his enemy uses arrows against him, attacking him from a distance. In the same way, when, because of the presence of grace, Satan can lurk no longer in the intellect of those pursuing a spiritual way, he lurks in the body and exploits its humors, so that through its proclivities he may seduce the soul. We should therefore weaken the body to some extent, so that the intellect does not slide down the smooth path of sensual pleasure because of the body's humors. We should believe the Apostle when he says that the intellect of those pursuing the spiritual way is energized by divine light, and therefore obeys and rejoices in the law of God (cf. Rom. 7:22). But the flesh, because of its proclivities, readily admits evil spirits, and so is sometimes enticed into serving their wickedness.
| St Diadochos of Photiki On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination One Hundred Texts |
You should also learn to distinguish the impassioned thoughts that promote every sin. The thoughts that encompass all evil are eight in number: those of gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, self-esteem and pride. It does not lie within our power to decide whether or not these eight thoughts are going to arise and disturb us. But to dwell on them or not to dwell on them, to excite the passions or not to excite them, does lie within our power. In this connection, we should distinguish between seven different terms: provocation, coupling, wrestling, passion, assent (which comes very close to performance), actualization and captivity. Provocation is amply a suggestion coming from the enemy, like ‘do this’ or ‘do that’, such as our Lord Himself experienced when He heard the words ‘Command that these stones become bread’ (Matt. 4:3). As we have already said, it is not within our power to prevent provocations. Coupling is the acceptance of the thought suggested by the enemy. It means dwelling on the thought and choosing deliberately to dally with it in a pleasurable manner. Passion is the state resulting from coupling with the thought provoked by the enemy; it means letting the imagination brood on the thought continually. Wrestling is the resistance offered to the impassioned thought. It may result either in our destroying the passion in the thought — that is to say, the impassioned thought — or in our assenting to it. As St Paul says, ‘The flesh desires in a way that opposes the Spirit, the Spirit in a way that opposes the flesh: the one is contrary to the other’ (Gal. 5:17). Captivity is the forcible and compulsive abduction of the heart already dominated by prepossession and long habit. Assent is giving approval to the passion inherent in the thought. Actualization is putting the impassioned thought into effect once it has received our assent. If we can confront the first of these things, the provocation, in a dispassionate way, or firmly rebut it at the outset, we thereby cut off at once everything that comes after.
| St John of Damaskos On the Virtues and the Vices |
35. Provocation, they say, is a thought still free from passion, or an image newly engendered in the heart and glimpsed by the intellect. Coupling is to commune with this thought or image, in either an impassioned or a dispassionate way. Assent is the pleasurable acceptance by the soul of the thing seen. Captivity is the forcible and enforced abduction of the heart, or persistent intercourse with the object, disrupting even our best state. Passion, in the strict sense, they define as that which lurks impassionably in the soul over a long period. Of these stages the first is sinless; the second, not altogether free from sin; the sinfulness of the third stage depends on our inner state; and the struggle itself brings us either punishment or crowns of victory.
| St Philotheos of Sinai Forty Texts on Watchfulness |
63. When because of our laxity we allow the demons to beguile us with suspicious thoughts about other people — that is to say, when we fail to control the abduction of our eyes — then they incite us to pronounce judgment on others, sometimes even those who are perfect in virtue. If someone is affable, with a cheerful, smiling face, we think him prone to pleasure and the passions; and we assume that anyone who looks downcast and sullen is filled with arrogance and anger. But we ought not to concern ourselves with people's appearance. Everyone is likely to judge wrongly in this respect; for men have various characters, temperaments and bodily features, the true assessment and study of which pertain only to those in whom the spiritual eye of the soul has been cleansed through deep compunction, who are filled with the boundless light of divine life, and to whom it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 13:11).
| Nikitas Stithatos On the Practice of the Virtues: One Hundred Texts |
79. The passions of the incensive faculty are anger, animosity, shouting, bad temper, self-assertion, conceit, boastfulness, and so on. The passions of the appetitive faculty are greed, licentiousness, dissipation, insatiateness, self-indulgence, avarice and self-love, which is the worst of all. The passions of the flesh are unchastity, adultery, uncleanliness, profligacy, injustice, gluttony, listlessness, ostentation, self-adornment, cowardice and so on. The passions of the intelligence are lack of faith, blasphemy, malice, cunning, inquisitiveness, duplicity, abuse, backbiting, censoriousness, vilification, frivolous talk, hypocrisy, lying, foul talk, foolish chatter, deceitfulness, sarcasm, self-display, love of popularity, day-dreaming, perjury, gossiping and so on. The passions of the intellect are self-conceit, pomposity, arrogance, quarrelsomeness, envy, self-satisfaction, contentiousness, inattentiveness, fantasy, fabrication, swaggering, vainglory and pride, the beginning and end of all the vices. The passions of the reason are dithering, distraction, captivation, obfuscation, blindness, abduction, provocation, connivance in sin, bias, perversion, instability of mind and similar things. In short, all the unnatural vices commingle with the three faculties of the soul, just as all the virtues naturally coexist within them.
| St Gregory of Sinai On Commandments and Doctrines, Warnings and Promises; On Thoughts, Passions and Virtues, and Also on Stillness and Prayer: One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Texts |
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ABIDE.............16
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Do not let restless desire overcome your resolution; for 'restlessness of desire perverts the guileless intellect' (Wisd. 4:12). Many temptations result from this. For fear that you may go wrong, stay rooted in your cell. If you have friends, avoid constant meetings with them. For if you meet only on rare occasions, you will be of more help to them. And if you find that harm comes through meeting them, do not see them at all. The friends that you do have should be of benefit to you and contribute to your way of life. Avoid associating with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him. Let your friends be men of peace, spiritual brethren, holy fathers. It is of such that the Lord speaks when he says: 'My mother and brethren and fathers are those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven' (cf. Matt. 12:49-50). Do not pass your time with people engaged in worldly affairs or share their table, in case they involve you in their illusions and draw you away from the science of stillness. For this is what they want to do. Do not listen to their words or accept the thoughts of their hearts, for they are indeed harmful. Let the labor and longing of your heart be for the faithful of the earth, to become like them in mourning. For 'my eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me' (Ps. 101:6). If someone who lives in accordance with the love of God comes to you and invites you to eat, go if you wish, but return quickly to your cell. If possible, never sleep outside your cell, so that the gift of stillness may always be with you. Then you will be unhindered on your chosen path.
| Evagrios the Solitary Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life |
170. We write of what we know; and for those who want to understand what we say, we bear witness to all that we have seen as we journeyed on our path. He Himself has declared: 'If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch; and men gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it is burned. If he abides in Me, I abide in him' (cf. John 15:5-6). The sun cannot shine without light; nor can the heart be cleansed of the stain of destructive thoughts without invoking in prayer the name of Jesus. This being the case, we should use that name as we do our own breath. For that name is light, while evil thoughts are darkness; it is God and Master, while evil thoughts are slaves and demons.
| St. Hesychios The Priest On Watchfulness and Holiness Written for Theodoulos |
170. We write of what we know; and for those who want to understand what we say, we bear witness to all that we have seen as we journeyed on our path. He Himself has declared: 'If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch; and men gather it, and cast it into the fire, and it is burned. If he abides in Me, I abide in him' (cf. John 15:5-6). The sun cannot shine without light; nor can the heart be cleansed of the stain of destructive thoughts without invoking in prayer the name of Jesus. This being the case, we should use that name as we do our own breath. For that name is light, while evil thoughts are darkness; it is God and Master, while evil thoughts are slaves and demons.
| St. Hesychios The Priest On Watchfulness and Holiness Written for Theodoulos |
197. When clouds are scattered the air is clear; and when the fantasies of passion are scattered by Jesus Christ, the sun of righteousness, bright and star-like intellections are born in the heart, for the heart is then illumined by Jesus. Solomon says: "They that trust in the Lord shall understand truth, and the faithful in love shall abide with Him' (Wisd. 3:9).
| St. Hesychios The Priest On Watchfulness and Holiness Written for Theodoulos |
We gain nothing, therefore, by our decision to renounce earthly things if we do not abide by it, but continue to be attracted by such things and allow ourselves to keep thinking about them. By constantly looking back like Lot's wife towards what we have renounced, we make clear our attachment, to it. For she looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, remaining to this day an example to the disobedient (cf. Gen. 19:26). She symbolizes the force of habit, which draws us back again after we have tried to make a definitive act of renunciation.
| St Neilos The Ascetic Ascetic Discourse Written for Theodoulos |
66. If a demon has such strength as to force a man, even against his will, to change from his natural state of goodness into a state of sin, how great must be the strength of the angel who at the appointed time is commanded by God to restore that man's whole condition. If the icy blast of the north wind is strong enough to give to water the hardness of rock, what cannot the warmth of the south wind achieve? If extreme cold forces everything to submit to it — for 'who can withstand His cold?' (Ps. 147: 17) — cannot heat in the same way alter everything? 'Who can abide the burning heat?' (Ecclus. 43:3). So let us confidently believe that the cold, dark coals of our mind will sooner or later blaze with heat and light under the influence of the divine fire.
| St John of Karpathos For the Encouragement of the Monks in India who had Written to Him One Hundred Texts |
81. Until our minds in purity have transcended our own being and that of all things sequent to God, we have not yet acquired a permanent state of holiness. When this noble state has, by means of love, been established in us, we shall know the power of the divine promise. For we must believe that where the intellect, taking the lead, has by means of love rooted its power, there the saints will find a changeless abode. He who has not transcended himself and all that is in any way subject to intellection, and has not come to abide in the silence beyond intellection, cannot be entirely free from change.
| St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God First Century |
33. He who devoutly strives to attain wisdom and is on his guard against the invisible powers, should pray that both natural discrimination — whose light is but limited — and the illuminating grace of the Spirit abide with him. The first by means of practice trains the flesh in virtue, the second illuminates the intellect so that it chooses above all else companionship with wisdom; and through wisdom it destroys the strongholds of evil and pulls down ‘all the self-esteem that exalts itself against the knowledge of God’ (2 Cor. 10:5). Joshua exemplifies this both when he prays for the sun to stand still upon Gibeon, that is, for the light of the knowledge of God to remain unsetting as it shines for him over the mountain of spiritual contemplation; and when he asks for the moon to stand still in the valley, that is, for the natural discrimination which watches over the weak flesh to remain changelessly wedded to virtue (cf. Josh. 10:12-13).
| St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God Second Century |
42. Those who abide solely by the letter of Holy Scripture and tie down the dignity of the soul to the external worship of the Law make the Logos flesh for themselves in a reprehensible manner. They think that God will be pleased with sacrifices of dumb animals. They pay much attention to the body with outward purifications but neglect the soul’s beauty, stained as it is by the passions. But it was for the soul that every power of the visible world was brought forth and that every divine teaching and law was proclaimed.
| St Maximos the Confessor Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God Second Century |
But he who by God’s grace has achieved a certain degree of spiritual knowledge and can understand the awesome things that occur before and after death as a result of man’s primal disobedience, should continue in all stillness and detachment to occupy himself with such thoughts as well as with the actions that — induce them, and should not let himself be distracted by vain things. ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’ (Eccles. 1:2); and on the basis of this text St John of Damaskos said. ‘Truly all things are vanity, and life is but a shadow and a dream.’ For everyone worries in vain, as the Scripture rightly says (cf. Ps. 39:6): for what can be more vain than a life whose end is putrefaction and dust? Thus detachment is mortification, not of the intellect, but of the body’s initial impulses towards pleasure and comfort. For the desire for comfort, however slight, is a non-spiritual desire. And when the soul recognizes in itself some altogether spiritual activity or knowledge, it feels still greater distress at the presence of this non-spiritual desire; for if the soul is non-spiritual, the Spirit of God will not abide in it (cf. Gen. 6:3). When this happens, the soul will not be interested in any good work, but will struggle to fulfill the desires of the body and of its own indwelling passions, piling darkness upon darkness, and gladly accepting to live always in utter ignorance.
| St Peter of Damaskos Book II Twenty-Four Discourses VIII Mortification of the Passions |
5. If you struggle to keep the commandments, persisting in the paradise of prayer and cleaving to God through continuous recollection of Him, then God will release you from the self-indulgent proclivities of the flesh, from all sensory impulsion and from all forms engraved upon your thought; and rendering you dead to the passions and to sin He will make you a participant in divine life. A sleeping person looks like one dead so far as his bodily activity is concerned, and yet he is alive thanks to the co-operation of his soul. Similarly if you abide in the Spirit you are dead to the world and the flesh, but you live according to the spontaneity of the Spirit.
| Theoliptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia Texts |
43. If, then, you yearn to be enriched with holiness — and without holiness no one will see the Lord (cf. Heb. 12:14) — you should abide in your own cell, enduring hardship and praying with humility. For the cell of one rightly pursuing the monastic life is a haven of self-restraint. But all that lies outside, and especially what is found in market places and at fairs, constitutes an obscene medley of ugly sounds and sights, drowning the wretched soul of the nun who exposes herself to them. One might also call this evil world a raging fire that devours those who come into contact with it and bums up every virtue they possess. The fire that did not bum was found in the desert (cf. Exod. 3:2). Instead of in the desert, you should abide in your cell and hide yourself a little until the tempest of passion has passed over you. When it has passed, spending time outside your cell will do you no harm.
| St Gregory Palamas To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia |
43. If, then, you yearn to be enriched with holiness — and without holiness no one will see the Lord (cf. Heb. 12:14) — you should abide in your own cell, enduring hardship and praying with humility. For the cell of one rightly pursuing the monastic life is a haven of self-restraint. But all that lies outside, and especially what is found in market places and at fairs, constitutes an obscene medley of ugly sounds and sights, drowning the wretched soul of the nun who exposes herself to them. One might also call this evil world a raging fire that devours those who come into contact with it and bums up every virtue they possess. The fire that did not bum was found in the desert (cf. Exod. 3:2). Instead of in the desert, you should abide in your cell and hide yourself a little until the tempest of passion has passed over you. When it has passed, spending time outside your cell will do you no harm.
| St Gregory Palamas To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia |
Then you will experience the blessing that David experienced, and you will say to God, 'Darkness will not be darkness with Thee and night shall be bright as day for me, for Thou hast taken possession of my mind' (cf. Ps. 139:12-13). It is as if David were saying that not only has God become the sole object of his soul's desire, but also that any spark of this desire in his body has returned to the soul that produced it, and through the soul has risen to God, hangs upon Him and cleaves to Him. For just as those who cleave to the perishable pleasures of the senses expend all the soul's desire in satisfying their fleshly proclivities and become so entirely materialistic that the Spirit of God cannot abide in them (cf. Gen. 6:3), so in the case of those who have elevated their intellect to God, and who through divine longing have attached their soul to Him, the flesh is also transformed, is exalted with the soul, communes together with the soul in the Divine, and itself likewise becomes the possession and dwelling-place of God, no longer harboring any enmity towards Him or any desires that are contrary to the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:17).
| St Gregory Palamas In Defense of Those who Devoutly Practice a Life of Stillness Answer |
6. No body is higher than the celestial body. Yet this is not to say that the region beyond the heavens does not admit a body, but only that the heavens contain every body and there is no other body beyond. But if a body could pass beyond the heavens, which is our pious belief, then the region beyond the heavens would not be inaccessible. God, who fills all things and extends infinitely beyond the heavens, existed before the world, filling as He now fills the whole region of the world. Yet this did not prevent a body from existing in that region. Thus even outside of the heavens there is nothing to prevent the existence of a region, such as that which surrounds the world or as that which is in the world, in which a body could abide.
| St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts |
42. The mediator and cause of death, twisted in character and inordinate in craftiness, once insinuated himself into a twisting serpent in God's paradise. He did not himself become a serpent (nor could he, except in an illusory form; and this he preferred not to adopt at that time, for fear of being detected); but, not daring an open confrontation, he chose a deceitful approach, trusting that by this means he would escape detection. Thus, having the. visible aspect of a friend he could secretly insinuate the most hateful things, and by the extraordinary fact of his talking-for the visible serpent was not endowed with intelligence, nor did it previously appear capable of speaking — he could astonish Eve and draw her whole attention entirely to himself and by his devices make her easy to deal with. In this way he was able immediately to induce her to subject herself to what is inferior and so to enslave herself to things over which she was appointed to reign worthily, as she alone among visible beings had been honored by God with intelligence and created in the image of the Creator. God permitted this so that man, seeing the counsel coming from a creature inferior to himself — and, indeed, how greatly is the serpent his inferior — might realize how completely worthless this counsel was and might rightly reject with indignation the idea of submitting to what was clearly inferior to him. In this way he would preserve his own dignity and at the same time, by obeying the divine commandment, would keep faith with the Creator. Thus he would have won an easy victory over the spirit that had fallen away from true life, and would have justly received blessed immortality and would abide eternally in life divine.
| St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts |