Treatise to Eulogius

1Chapter 1. Those who possess the heavenly land by labors gaze intently neither at the belly nor at anxious care for perishable things — not like those who offer prayers for the sake of gain, supposing godliness to be a means of profit — but with noetic vision the pure companies partake of the nourishing nature of the heights, wrapped in light from glory.

And you yourself (O initiate of the virtues, Eulogius), while being nourished by the sacred substance of the highest ones, shedding the bulk of the flesh through the gatherings of thoughts, knowing that the matter of the flesh becomes the food of thoughts, just as having seized the methods by the center of labors, you appoint me to become a mouth for your works against them; and if it were not for the bold command of love, I would have declined such a seafaring of the vessel; but since it is necessary to obey rather than to oppose those of the same soul: be for me the things toward God, so that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, and I shall be for you the things of obedience, so that you may be given to reap the fruits of the seed.

Chapter 2. Exile is the first of the splendid contests, especially when, in addition to this, you go abroad alone, athletically stripping off homeland, race, and property, having stood before the splendid contests; if you thus begin according to God, walking the path of the beginning with fiery faith and divine Spirit, and keeping it safe by the perfection of endurance, your soul shall be a gilded wing of virtue, departing from familiar places and hastening to fly toward heaven itself. But the begetter of evil schemes to cut off the wings of this way of life, mirroring the earth from which your race has come forth, especially in the incursions that occur in sickness; and in the settling of the hottest exile, he retreats for a little while until he learns the soul is nauseated amid tribulations...

Like a storm-tossed ship, the night-raven, bringing on the night of thoughts, darkens the soul from the ray of the superior ones. But if he were stationed alone in the wrestling-ground of the desert, and the body should happen to be struck by sickness, it shows the soul's exile all the more harshly.

It is not in a place, but in a manner that the one subjecting the soul to the virtues is established; and that having consolation at home from his kin, there he could have kept the contests of renunciation without pain; where there is also a ready service for weakness, and not as now, hardship and painful fainting; and especially where the zeal for hospitality is not lacking from brotherhood. Therefore, “Depart!” he says, you who bring joy to your own kin and carry off glory for yourself, yet have left behind unendurable grief without sympathy; for many, without fleeing their fatherland, have chosen virtue from the midst of their kin.

But he, having clothed himself in the purple of afflictions in the station of exile, and having the hopes of labors crowned with faith and the endurance of thanksgiving against these thoughts, shakes off the snowflakes from without; and however much they dig to turn the heart back, let us chant psalms against them all the more: “Behold, I went far off in flight, and I lodged in the desert” (Ps 55:7 LXX). For reproaching they oppress, and they flatter to turn you aside, so that, having emptied the intention, they may cut off the thanksgiving in endurance, and thus thereafter widen the nets with much security, and from the proper things.

Chapter 3. For this reason, he who begins to touch virtue, let him count also the war against it, so that, not being seen untrained as if unready, he might be seized. For courage is praiseworthy when virtue is in peace, but this manliness is more praiseworthy when war is standing by; for this is virtue, not only through which it works, but also through which it fights against evils, the one impassive through more wars...

2Having conquered suffering, he who claims to possess virtue unassailed is still passion-driven; for against the battle-array of the virtuous strategy of labors, the vice of the adversaries is also drawn up in counter-formation. It has been taken away for a heart without war to be in virtue. For virtue is called a practical name from deeds of valor. Virtue does not seek the praises of men, for it takes no delight in honor, the mother of evils. The beginning of honor is people-pleasing, and its end is pride. For he who demands honors exalts himself, and such a one does not know how to bear being made nothing; the desire for honor is a fantasy, for he who loves it fantasizes about its inheritance.

Let the labor of the virtues be honor to you, and dishonor be praise according to human will; seek no glory from the flesh, O you who destroy the passions of the flesh, but seek the better thing, and glory shall be yours. He who wishes to be honored envies the one who is approved. And he who is defeated by excessive honors heaps hatred upon jealousy toward him; he wishes no one to be preferred before himself, but snatches the first places, lest he appear inferior; he cannot bear to honor the approved man in his absence, but even in his own labors he mocks the low-seeking glory, and insolence is a most sharp slaughter to the glory-seeker, and he does not entirely escape wrath from this.

Chapter 4. Such a person serves a barbarian mistress and was sold to many masters — to pride, envy, jealousy, and the aforesaid picked troops of the spirits; but he who shatters the spirit of honor by humility will utterly destroy the whole legion of demons. He who makes himself a slave to all through humility will be conformed to the one who humbled himself, having received the form of a slave. If you measure yourself by the smallest measure, you will not measure yourself against a companion, and he who reveals the weakness of the soul through lamentations will not think much of those laboring upon themselves.

Demons bring vileness and insolence upon the humble-minded, so that, not bearing their own nothingness, they may flee from humility; but he who bravely bears dishonors through humility is raised by them all the more to the height of philosophy. David, being insulted, did not answer back, but even checked the vengeance of Abishai. And you, being insulted, do not insult in return, but rightly calm the one avenging you; bear insolence — your own progress — and with lips close the door of thumos; you will answer those who threaten not at all, so that by silence you may lull the smoking lips; you will pain those who then threaten and insult when you put bridles on your jaws. For you, by being silent, will not be consumed by insult, but he is all the more bitten by your silence, if you long-sufferingly endure the insolence of the insolent; shake off the praise of men from within, so that you may shake off the ostentatious thought before it.

And watch also for self-satisfaction, especially in stillness, lest having magnified yourself above the insolent one, you dishonor him. One of the brothers was insulted by a pious one, and having endured injustice, he departed divided between joy and grief: partly because, being wronged, he was insulted and was not provoked in return, and partly because the pious one was deceived and, having deceived, rejoiced. But consider for me also the deceiver, having suffered both: in that he disturbed, he wholly rejoiced at having disturbed, and in that he was not provoked in return, he was more grieved.

Chapter 5. When the demons see us not inflamed unto the same grating of insults, then, standing by in stillness, they pry up the ruling faculty, so that those with whom, being present, we made peace, when they depart we may speak boldly against. Therefore, if you carry out a dispute or an insult toward a brother, consider yourself to have failed, so that in stillness you may not find a battle of thoughts in your heart, one reproaching the manner of the insults, and the other reproaching in return that the terrible things happened and you did not insult in return. When a provocation embitters the brothers in the community, then the thoughts cast in to call the solitary blessed, so that, having emptied us of long-suffering, they may separate us from love. But he who overturns anger with long-suffering, and grief with love, overturns two evil beasts with twofold manliness, fighting with thumos; he who exhorts, and falls on his knees, so that he may drive away anger, drives both the provoker and the provoked away from himself, because he who makes peace among the angry wages war against the spirit of anger; but the anger of kinsmen will rage against him for his insolence toward him, because he took the fight of his neighbors upon himself — he who bears the impudence for the sake of peace is compelled to become a son of peace; but the bond of peace is to be sought not only toward men, but also in your body, and in your spirit, and in your soul.

Chapter 6. For when you unite the bond of this your triad to the...

3In peace, then, as being united by the commandment of the Divine Trinity, you hear: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God' (Matt 5:9). For if you bring the flesh, which is contrary to the desire of the spirit, into peace through labors, you shall gain glory among the beatitudes beyond this age, having conquered the war in your body that fights against the law of your mind and captures you by the law of sin in your members.

Great is the bond of peace, in which also the joy that enlightens the eye of the intellect for the contemplation of the higher powers is united; if, therefore, we might acquire the peaceful joy in the midst of labors, we would thankfully repel the difficult things that come upon us through it, and we would not admit the demon of sorrow who, especially by mutilating in tribulations, falls upon the soul, and prepares a space of acedia so that they may darken the soul and at the same time stir up pains. Let the joy of peace, therefore, be a written law of our heart, drowning sorrow, driving out hatred, destroying anger, dissolving acedia, and compensating for grief. For it is a sea of virtues, nestling in peaceful patience, in thanksgiving, and in endurance, drowning the opposition of the devil by the cross.

But consider for me the opposing joy standing near in turmoil, lest, shadowed, you be deceived into grasping one kind instead of another. For the demons also fashion themselves after the spiritual gifts, so that, having led the mind astray by the overshadowing, they may remove it from its wits; for a spiritual joy stands near the heart when nothing is present, because it finds the ruler hanging aloft, away from godly sorrow, but later it delivers the soul to the Spirit of sorrow, because it made it captive of spiritual joy.

CHAPTER 7. I say this too, as the experience of those seeking has suggested to one of the brothers, that instead of rejoicing in the Lord (Phil 4:4), the avenger brings in a domestic joy against it. And instead of godly sorrow, he treacherously brings the opposite upon the mind, so that the soul may be darkened by anxieties over the shifting changes of the ray of the superior ones. Sorrows are twofold, being yoked to every work of evil, and...

One sorrow stands by the heart from an unseen cause, while another is born, driven by different causes; the sorrow according to God calls the soul back through tears, not accepting either opposing joy or sorrow, and being anxious about the approaching death and judgment; and this has gaped, awaiting little by little.

Failed desires plant sorrows; but prayers and thanksgivings wither these; between angry persons a middle sorrow trembles. Therefore, the first one, having sobered up, if he rises from the passion and gives his hand to the other, by apology drives away the bitter sorrow. Sorrow is a disease of soul and flesh; it lifts up the captive woman and withers the one upon the spot. From opposites sorrow is born, and from sorrow wrath, and from these is born phrenitis — reviling. If you wish to trample together sorrow and wrath, embrace the long-suffering of love and clothe yourself in the joy of harmlessness; let your joy not be sorrow to another; he who rejoices in injustice will mourn in prosperity, and he who endures, suffering unjustly, will shine with exultation; for the things to come are contrary to the things present.

Chapter 8. In tribulations be most thankful, because through them you will more clearly perceive the grace of assistance. For thus, thankfully shaking off the coming tribulations, you will not dim the most brilliant beauty of patience, even if a demon lashes you according to the flesh — he will be found a procurer of the greatest reward for you, if you receive the wound on the subject of thanksgiving. For thus you will put even him to flight from you. And so that your reward may rain down more through endurance, let your endurance act as general through the pursuit of courageous labors; for through every evil, acedia also counter-attacks you, and spying upon all your labors, it tempts; whomever it does not find nailed by endurance, him it weighs down under itself and bends low; but if the demon of acedia grows weak against the endurance of labors, the beast again bites the achievement of despair; if then with understanding you drive this away, you will also drive the vainglorious spirit in him at the time of gathering. When the spirit of acedia falls upon you, it votes psalmody as burdensome to the soul, it sets sloth as an opponent to zeal, so that, having touched with speed, it may make the flesh recline by...

4A memory, as if having been exhausted for some reason. Therefore, when we are awake at night, let us not incline the assembly toward acedia, so that the demons, standing by, do not gather the tares of the thoughts and sow them together in the heart; for when we destroy the assembly of hymns, then we gather together the assembly of thoughts. Having been awakened before the assembly, let us practice thoughts of light in the heart beforehand, so that, having been made ready, we may stand at the psalmody with a watchful mind.

In one way the psalm must be said with a rushing sound in wakefulness, in another way one must be tested against babbling in the psalmody; for according to the ambush of the adversary it is necessary that we also be transformed, because at times they suggest letting the tongue run, the soul being held by acedia, and at times they provoke the words to be sung, just as the noetic eye receives its strength from the food of light. For he who stretches himself toward the vision of the high things will receive a sharper eye, according to the pattern of Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

When a thought comes as an enemy to your heart, do not seek other things instead of others through prayer, but whet the sword of tears against the enemy; for in this way, if we strike more fiercely in the battle, we will make him depart from us more readily. Love beauty with the work of the hands, and especially the memory of prayer; for the one is not always, but the other, unceasing, has the means of the labor.

Do not hesitate to give the debt of prayer, hearing a thought through the pretext of works, and do not cause turmoil in the work, tossing the body about, so that you may not disturb the heart of prayer together with it. Just as the outer man works with hands so as not to burden anyone, so let the one in the thoughts work, so that the mind may not be burdened. For the thoughts bring their own work to the soul when they catch it idle with respect to godly thoughts.

O unplowed field: let the works of the hands be toward love of mankind, and the mind of the rational part toward love of wisdom, so that the one may be a hospitality to strangers and a burning of laziness, but the other a general of contemplation and a shaking-off of thoughts; let us strike the pleasures of the thoughts with boldness, turning all our anger toward them, so that we do not, by receiving things from them through pleasure, become gentle toward them in return.

Chapter 10. Prepare yourself to be both meek and a combatant, the one toward your kinsman and the other toward the enemy; for in this is the use of thumos, in opposing the serpent according to enmity; and in this is the reasonableness of meekness, in being long-suffering toward the brother according to love, and fighting against the thought. Let the meek man, therefore, be a combatant, meekness being divided from the deceitful thoughts, just as battle is divided from those of the same nature; do not turn the use of thumos toward the life contrary to nature, so as to be angry at the brother according to the likeness of the serpent, but to be befriended by the serpent according to the agreement of the thoughts. The meek man, even if he suffers terrible things, does not depart from love; for because of this he is long-suffering and endures, he is kind and remains. For if long-suffering belongs to love, thumos-fighting does not belong to love; for thumos stirs up grief and wrath, but love diminishes these three things. If you have a firm foundation in love, attend more to this than to what afflicts you; serve God in fear and in love, the one as Master and Judge, the other as Lover of mankind, and He nourishes. He who has acquired the virtues of love takes captive the passions of the wicked, and he who has these three things from the Holy Trinity — faith, hope, love — will be a city fortified by a triple wall for the virtues. You will be revealed as loving not only in not receiving from another, but in giving ungrudgingly as one who has renounced, in giving, as you struggle with matter, to cast pure seeds, so that instead of wheat, nettle does not come forth to you. Remember God in the things you provide, both giver and receiver, so that He may reckon to you the wages of your renunciation along with praises.

Chapter 11. The unattached man has the pleasure of life without care, but the lover of possessions has the pain of anxiety for wealth in all things; then you will drive the multitude of thoughts into captivity, when you do not give the heart to the cares of material things; then also you will carry the cross undistracted (Matt 16:24), when you deny the desire to acquire, but the thought of material things will predict old age to you, and diseases, so that it may divide your hope toward God by money. Let him who has preordained to practice renunciation be walled in by faith, and be strengthened by love, and be made firm by hope. For faith is...

5Not an abandonment, but the substantiation of better things in the hope of endurance and the love of life. When you renounce all external matters, pay attention to the dark thoughts reproaching you for poverty, lack, insufficiency, and ignominy, bringing these to you, so that the murderers may treacherously work repentance of such bright virtue.

If, therefore, you attend to the discernment of the struggle, you will rather find that through the things by which they reproach you, the crown is being woven for you; for indeed, in renouncing, you renounce for their sake through the struggles by which you are reproached. Do not, therefore, give in to the wrestling of the inner thoughts, because the end is not praised at the beginning of renunciation, but in the perfection of endurance the beginnings are crowned; nor are the contests composed in bodily gymnastics alone, but in the wrestling of the thoughts the crown is also sought.

Chapter 12. Judge the thoughts at the tribunal of the heart, so that when the robbers are being destroyed, the chief robber may be terrified; for he who is a precise examiner of thoughts is also a true lover of the commandments. Therefore, when a hard-to-find thought comes upon your heart, then kindle more intense labors upon it; for either it will flee, not bearing the heat as an opposite, or it will remain, as being at home on the straight path.

And it happens when the demons, having suggested a seemingly good thought to the heart, and immediately transforming, pretend to oppose it, so that from the opposition you may think that they know even the impulses of your heart; and not only that, but so that, judging, they may judge your conscience, as if by the opposition the evil had been defeated by the good; and it happens again when they flatter your own craftiness to you, so that you may seem wise to yourself. When thoughts transfer you to the place which they suggested we love, then they make us repent again, so that they may make us unstable from every side, and unfruitful.

Therefore let us not fling ourselves from place to place, but rather let us bend toward stillness and labors, because from our idleness the thoughts take their power against us. But he who knows the experience of the thought in the place where he was called, let him remain in that place before God; but he who does not know still walks in struggle. Let the changing of places be toward more spiritual things, and not toward more restful things; for endurance, patience, and love give thanks in tribulations; but acedia, lightness, and self-love rejoice in rests. The unstill one is warred upon as to the soul through the senses concerned with appearances, but the lover of stillness, guarding the senses, wars against the thoughts.

Chapter 13. Therefore, by the command of the law, let your ruler gather together the order of the senses, so that you may not disturb your soul with the lashes of evils through sight and hearing; existing in two substances, guard each to distribute the order, so that the one may excel and the other not resist, and do not give the commands to the tyrant, because, once this is given to the fire, you will pay the last quadrans. When you turn the causes of the passions to counter-war, let no evil thought magnify you, lest, believing a spirit of error, you be struck out of your wits; but seek to reason about the excesses on which you labor, so that you may not be robbed of the ends of your accomplishments through the inner thoughts. Some, having been praised for accomplishments, in time grew acedic toward their labors, and the praise passed through, but the labors were loosened. Some, being hardened by the weight of good things, were thought to be great, and the conscience of the soul was wounded, and the disease of praise was enlarged, while the thoughts, leading the soul astray from the wounds, carried away the labors in the praises. Whenever the most wicked grow rich by the honors of men, then the demons, having prepared dishonors, bring them, so that, being from the honors, they may not bear the dishonors.

6and they may not endure the insults. When I give great repentance concerning sins, then the thoughts, enlarging the struggles of the labors, diminish the sins, and often they cover them in secrecy, or even signify that these are permitted to remain, so that one might be discouraged by the labors, not calculating that the laments cried out because of the stings should be more numerous.

Chapter 14. But he who, cutting off the passions that fall upon him, commands more soldiers, will lead a campaign in the battle. Do not forget having stumbled, even if you repent, but have remembrance of your sin, the grief toward your humility, so that, having been humbled, you may by necessity cut off pride. If anyone having done impious things would wish to live excellently, let him stand in alternation of better things against the contrary of his deeds; for indeed he who opposes the contrary deed with the virtue of each, shoots the dragon with the quiver of virtues, and vanity is the sharpest weapon against the beast, piercing the labors, which he, having anticipated through the secret strategies of works, has approached all the bringing of the head of the devil. Seal your fragrances of the labors with silence, so that being released by the tongue, glory may steal them away; hide your tongue in the manner of the practical aspect of asceticism; for indeed, by silencing, your faithful companions witness the labors of your life. He who, not having anything from the present labors to be witnessed, let him never witness to himself by tongue; for some, having exhausted themselves through the labors of hardness of heart, compare their deeds as a cover for the laziness of past times, providing uncertain witnesses not present through manifest works. Just as you hide your sins from men, so hide the labors from them; for indeed the counter-art of the secrets of the heart, folding up the hidden things, and the refreshments, stand against them; but if we hide the faults with safety, and the pains against them we uncertainly reveal, we are performing the opposites in both. But be ashamed of the publication of shameful things, lest they make a reproach and render the things of your soul useless. Fear also the display of the labors, lest he bring the destruction of the soul as a man-pleasing accusation; but if you manifest the shameful things to God alone...

Regarding faults, do not display the struggles against them as if they were human victories, so that they might not be thought to be crowns.

Chapter 15. Those receiving the power of labors from grace should not think they have this as an inherent strength; for the word of the commandments is the cause of all good things to us, just as the one who casts away is the cause of all evil. Therefore, whatever good thing you accomplish, offer thanksgiving to the cause of the good; but whatever evil flows through you, cast it toward the leader of these. To the end of every undertaking, we bring thanksgiving to the better, so that your offering, being legally presented, the evil might be put to shame. For he who has joined thanksgiving to his practice will have an unshakeable treasure of the heart, having doubled the wall against evil. This man is praiseworthy, who has joined the contemplative to the practical, so that the space of the soul might water itself toward virtue from both sources; for the contemplative gives wings to the spiritual essence through the contemplation of the superior ones, but the practical kills the members upon the earth: fornication, the passion of uncleanness, evil, and bad desire. Therefore, those being surrounded by the armor of both these things will easily overcome the remaining wickedness of the demons. The demons fight the soul through thoughts, but those fight back more fiercely through endurance, and, being cowardly, they approach the rest of the battle wearing the strong general of the struggle. If you wish to command against the phalanx of the demons, shut the gates of your soul with stillness, and touch also your ear with the words of the fatherhood, so that then, having learned the thorns of thoughts, you might strike them, upon hearing paternal instruction. Do not be a judge of works, but an examiner of words.

Chapter 16. For it is the habit of such thoughts to lead you toward the practical aspect of the one instructing you, so that, having made you a terrible critic of this, they might turn you away from beneficial instruction. Do not contradict the one instructing, even if you are a contemplative; for if the practical of the contemplative is severed, the need of the one joining the harmony of either of the virtues will be judged by a terrible judgment. He who spreads the paternal commandment from the ear, and will be obedient to the legal commandment, shall not only speak being delighted by the achievements of the Fathers, but also himself being a worker of these.

7Demand the most wicked thing. He who seeks the more wicked thing is able to see what sort of thought opposes him with what sort of labor; he is found a craftsman in wrestling against error, but in all your noetic labors, if he should fail in any, the one who has seized this enters in its place. Remember to preserve the heart by the mindfulness of labors, lest the forgetfulness of the superior care, having seized it, deliver it to the captivity of the thoughts; for the forgetfulness of captivity leaps upon evil, so that, once the mind is stolen by it, this evil may readily enter in, the mind being stolen from God and distanced from memory, and sinning indifferently through the external senses; for such a one is unable to discipline hearing and tongue, because he has released the love-charm of labors from the outward senses. He who loves to listen to the one who blames so-and-so — the two work together with two complicit spirits; for evil-hearing becomes a partner of accusation, and they love one another unto the ruin of the heart.

Chapter 17. Bar your ears from slanders, so that you may not sin doubly with them, accustoming yourself to a terrible passion, and not restraining them from tongue-pain. The lover of mockery plunders the soul of the superior ones, digging through a rotten hearing with slanders; but he who flees the neighbor’s insulting tongue also puts his own insult to flight; he who provides pleasant ears to the mocker milks the venom of the beast into his ears. Let your ear not taste this bitter antidote, lest perhaps you also mix such a thing for another; do not bewitch your ear with slanders, so that, having been sold to passion, you may not serve through many sufferings; for one passion of the many, finding a place in you, brings in other things also to the same fold; then the ruler is enslaved by a multitude of evils, when, yoked to passion, he unyokes the labors. He who tries to search out the thoughts of others does not search out his own actions in deed; do not mock the one who has died as if he lived carelessly, so that you may not become a bitter judge of the dead from habit of the living. Do not let those who stumble exalt you with a vainglorious thought as a judge, but attend to yourself with a sober thought, and be a tester of your own actions. Groan as one stumbling, and do not puff up as one standing upright; be unobserved and do not boast, so that you may not clothe yourself in evil as an ornament. For some, unable to be known out of reverence, hastened, even if...

So that evil may be known in this way: others, having increased in envy, use accusations as grazing animals, and they belittle those standing firm in virtues. Some, gossiping about trivialities around you, shroud a noble life, not so that they might mourn trivial faults with toil, but so that they might shadow the reputations of the vainglorious.

But do not be beautified by the one deceiving you, nor be delighted by being deceived; for if he touches upon the serious merely for a name, he works not for God, but for men. Do not speak with boldness to the one living only for appearance, even if he sends a great name for this. He is a friend for the sake of a face, and time becomes his accuser.

Chapter 18. Beware of acquiring a friend to spy, so that you may find a cover for your own faults, and hide the envy existing in you rather than the envier. When your own friend, being diminished by your praises regarding your labors, turns toward envy, as if to hurl words of vainglory against your labors to those around you, so that he might shadow the glory running about you with his own limbs, then do not be moved by his malice, so that you may not siphon a bitter venom into your soul. For this is the work of Satan, to set him on fire with envy and to consume you with bitterness.

Rather let us humble ourselves, and let us lead such people in honor by enduring them, and by the table the thought made savage by zeal. Do not reproach the friend with zeal as if from another person, so that, by reproaching him as if from a different mouth, you might make yourself appear innocent and exalt yourself as blameless. For this is a transformation of Satan, of one seemingly reproaching the Most High from a face, so that, by reproaching his own envy toward God as if from another mouth, he himself is considered faultless.

Do not desire to have the brother as a slave, seeking to catch the fault of this one, so that you may not be found a fellow-worker with Satan. He who has faulted, and says others are faulting, or says ‘let him not fault if he is faulting,’ does so so that he may not be the only one fallen into evil, which is, first of all, from the fall of the devil, this also a work. But let him be one repenting of the strange works he has done; recognizing the lamentation of sorrow over them, he shall also embrace the primary stillness of labors, which appears to him as the manifold contemplation of virtues. Let him who is still in tongue be manly according to the thoughts; for the courage of the soul is not...

9It is being purged. That which testifies to you is the conscience, not allowing the thought that mocks, nor the one that speaks sweetly of the slip, nor the one that contends and does not share, so that you might not suffer a passion and, having fought for virtue, be defeated; it is the proud one who does not share with the thought that opposes toward a contrary spirit.

It is not praise through a tongue speaking haltingly, but through lips whose glory moves steadily. While listening to a word, ask your mind, and then, having discerned the verdict, you will give it; do not miscalculate your mind through the thoughtlessness of words, so that your fallen tongue might not be sunk. Let not a wordy spirit lead you astray, for in it the deceitful lie nests.

He who is bitten by the slanders of others, and does not cast these toward the devil, incites the demon of his own thoughts against himself, and provokes it even more to prepare arrows for himself, in that he causes the soul, being mocked through such things, to fall apart. If you walk abroad for the sake of service, do not seek to be hospitable by all, but rather deem yourself unworthy of glory, so that in this way you may flee the thought of slander, even if one speaks the truth.

I think, however, that he who slanders the greatest things is not lacking in love, nor is he acting unjustly, nor will he be malicious, but will bless. For he who is malicious toward demons does not act maliciously toward men; but he who is malicious toward his brother makes peace with demons. The wrath of contention is a burning of the heart, but the souls of the unresentful are cooled spiritually; sparks of fire-embers are being hunted, so also are the malicious souls hunting evil thoughts; just as the sting of a scorpion has a most sharp pain, so also a malicious soul has a most bitter venom.

Chapter 22. He is malicious toward spirits of fornication and vainglory, two bitter demons opposed to one another; for one flees from faces, while the other greets faces. And the demon of debauchery, having suddenly struck the combatant of asceticism with its filth, falls quickly, as the heat of the endurance of passing through pains...

Not enduring, but the one having been flattered by the slight flattery of pleasures, converses a little with the heart, so that having perceived the evils, it may discourse with them and be captured, and bring the hatred of sin to an end.

But the deceiver of vainglory, becoming public-spirited, stands stealthily against the soul of the willing-minded, devouring the glory they work through their labors.

If anyone therefore wishes to overcome these with God, let him discipline the flesh against fornication, and let him humble the soul against vainglory.

For in this way we will easily cast out vain glory and please God, and we will blow away the impure fantasies and make the heart pure of pleasures.

It is most difficult a habit of pleasures to bury the heart, and much toil is needed to cut off the custom of evils to the extreme.

Therefore do not allow the thought to converse with pleasures; for in a gathering of evils a fire is kindled, for as they heat you, they make you reason that it is a labor to restrain the fire of nature, and that the life of self-control is great; and they also bring to you memories of those things which they present to you by night as shameful, shaping for you the fiery idols of delusion; then, having more fiercely kindled the fever in the flesh, they will testify to you within by the law of sin that you are not strong enough to restrain the violence of nature, even if today you sin through necessity, but tomorrow you will repent because of the commandment.

For the law is philanthropic, and forgiving sin to those who repent (Rom 2:4). And they bring forward some of those who, having stumbled in self-control, repented again, so that from these they may make their advice plausible: that by calling back the soul through turning-repentance, they might make the temple of temperance a place of fornication.

In this way the double-tongued ones drag down the thought like serpents in the moving workshop of the heart.

Chapter 23. But you, O man of self-control, do not let repentance appear again.

10By deceiving with vague hopes, many having fallen were immediately uprooted, while others were not able to stand because of the habituation of pleasures as if bound by law. For what do you know, man, if you will live in order that you might also repent, that you are writing down periods of life for yourself?

And while stumbling there, you grant a favor to your flesh; it is better to grant yourself the memory of death and so that you might paint for your heart the terrible judgment of the court, if perhaps you might be able to extinguish the fever of the flesh with prudence. For you will not extinguish the passions any other way than by tempering the pains of their reconstruction in your flesh. Nor indeed the psychic passions, before you cause the fruits of love to overflow in the heart. The bodily passions take their beginning from the natural things of the flesh, through which also self-control exists, but the psychic ones have their origin from the psychic things, through which also love exists. Love is a kinship with dispassion, and an elimination of passions, bringing forth patience, and cooling the burning mind, putting forward humility, and carrying away pride. Love has nothing of its own except God; for this is God.

He who, becoming a new convert to the bright assembly of monks, let him push away the thoughts approaching him from the praises of his kin, so that he might seek not the praise from men, but the beatitude from the commandments. And let him cleanse himself from the demons entering his cowardice; for you did not receive a spirit of cowardice again into fear. Let him not strike himself with a spirit of cowardice, nor let him tremble at the nocturnal beats of the demons, when they do not even have authority over pigs. Therefore, when coming out of the cell in the night watches, let him not be terrified, but let him enter back without retreating as if fleeing from the demons, but rather, bending his knees in that place, let him pray in cowardice; for they will not fall upon you even if they terrify you thus. But when he rises, let him refresh the heart, let him call upon God with psalmody, ‘You shall not fear (he says) from the fear of the night, from the arrow that flies by day, from the thing going about in darkness, from the happening, and from the demonic north wind’ (Psalm 91:5). For having done this once and many times, he will drive away the demon of cowardice from himself. For being unable to harm by work, they make the soul timid through phantasms, so that the weak men...

that they may think themselves strong and powerful.

Chapter 24. Do not adorn yourself with fine garments, so that you do not clothe yourself more visibly with the demon of vainglory; for virtues are not carried in the beauty of garments, but in the beauty of the soul the labors bring forth gold. Rather, one should clothe himself with the fear of God through the scourges of judgment, so that he may clothe himself with the unquenchable heat of the fire, and through the bad skill of the thoughts be more subtle, for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). He who announces the error of the thoughts through experience will not be known by all, except those in experience, for experience has become the way of the knowledgeable in this respect; for the cause of both is practical training, which, by possessing it more intensely, we come to know ourselves, and to know the thoughts, and to know God. Let him who, through the departure from practical training and the indwelling of the knowledgeable in the thoughts, mocks the unskilled through his skill, watch lest he struts in knowledge for the sake of a display of glory; but if the thought of these great things plunders, let him take for help the Greek Jethro, who gave to Moses the great prophet the wise counsel from grace through judgment (Exodus 18). Let the power of your thoughts be in works, for the practical things of the words are more philosophical, just as they are also more laborious; when action is present, it is as if the words flash with lightning, but when works are not present, the words of the works do not flash with lightning. The fault of the city is a younger word, and lips shaking somewhat with laughter; but he who agitates and is agitated in vain will be outside of calm, and though there is no storm, he is tossed by a blizzard.

Chapter 25. Do not store up the untimely tongue, so that you do not remain under that which you do not wish. Flee from wagging the tongue at your neighbor, so that you too may escape the wagging of the devil; flee from reproaching your brother for his stumble, so that you do not fall away from sympathy as a stranger. He who does not have kindness and love for the brother, how could he be a member of the Christ-bearing love? If a brother interrupts your concise fast, do not receive the listlessness of the thoughts by assuming for you a crowd in your stillness, and a disturbance in your fast, and they do this so that, seeing your brother, you may not see him as God himself. Let us not claim that the continuous oversight of brothers is a disturbance, but rather that it is an alliance; according to the...

11Let us entrust the phalanx of the opponent to their own guard. For thus, having been united by the love-charm of love, we will drive out malice, and we will transfer the works of the hands into the treasury of hospitality. Let us not receive these brothers as if we were merely providing a favor, but let us welcome them with supplication as being debtors, just as Lot showed (Gen 19:1-3). Some are lifted up strangely at a stranger’s rank, and when they call a stranger, they do not invite him at all, but they broaden the word of the invitation with pride; and they reproach the one who declines as if through insolence; because of this, a great swelling arises from here. For the thoughts, piercing the eye of the soul, blind it, so that we might use the most beautiful of the commandments most poorly.

Chapter 26. When a thought strikes you, do not force the brother too much at the table; then it mocks you through him, so that you do not have an unbridled tongue toward the violence of love; for perhaps it suggests to you that one of the wanderers is a brother, and that having been satisfied with bread he should depart, but it suggests to him hospitality, that he has found nothing else beside you; for bearing the eye toward his practical change, it implants one into the other in the hearts, so that one might cut off hospitality and the other might sprout reproach. Abraham, sitting before the tent, if he saw anyone passing by, received him with work; living in impiety, he emptied the table, receiving barbarians, yet he did not fail to receive angels (Gen 18:1-8). Let those know the sweetness of hospitality who, having sojourned, were welcomed by it, when even a simple word prepares a sweet table for the heart. Therefore, with much diligence, let us practice hospitality, so that we might receive not only angels, but also God. ‘For as much as you did to one of these least of my brothers, you did to me’ (Matt 25:40), he says. Who of those sharing in virtue more knowingly answered thus? The diligence of hospitality is accustomed to make vanish the fantasies that echo the demons in the heart, and a bountiful service being made with readiness, if anyone has turned away at all from the material things; and these things happening with humility and the crushing of the heart, one is freed even more from the fantasies that weary. For the demons greatly condemn the humility...

Yes, knowing that this was a masterly commandment. Who among the tested ones moves a word concerning humility, and diminished this, saying: that a Father, he says, of the all-tested, being harassed by a demon and terribly shaking his jaw, immediately changed and provided the other one ready, but he who, as if struck by a lightning bolt of humility, was struck back and cried out, was instantly separated from the creature.

Chapter 27. The appearance of the holy bishop, and this is also the word. It happened, he says, that a son of a faithful widow having the demon Python, having lingered in the wound, did not undergo treatment. But the mother of this, being humbled by grief, froze the passion with thanksgiving, as if having hung the soul upon a cross, and drove away the demon of the child with prayers; for while the youth was wandering in the days around him and the mother was praying in the house, the demon, shouting this woman’s name, was driven by torments. But she, hearing this very thing, did not rush to the matter, binding the battle of nature by humility, being led away involuntarily by others, and even then the demon remained fit to use the flight. But she, having approached and having enveloped the child with tears, put forward thanksgiving and humility against the demon, but having wept bitterly and having implored Christ and having marked the cross, before many lashes, the demon fled from the child more readily.

The demons envy those who flash with lightning in the submission to the Father, and their teeth chatter against them, because in submission they unhesitatingly yoked the departure, through which also, speaking precisely with pretexts, they stir up provocations, and in the occurring anger, they wrap up wrath; then they will also slightly raise up hatred toward the Father, as if they were being unjustly struck and were paying attention only outwardly; so that, having scattered the soul by various ways, they might scatter those of the paternal embraces. Therefore, he who exists in submission to the Father, let him be defeated by insult and let him conquer by humility, and let him be regulated by patience, and let him not endure the murmuring of thoughts toward severity and the insolence of brothers.

Chapter 28. And that freedom is not equal to strenuous slavery, for they throw in, even more than these, so that the one under authority might spontaneously...

12Having acted, they easily wander into the material things; for some they strive to separate from the fatherhood through these, and others through other means. Work, and acquire, and live as a guest, inwardly desiring to acquire a good reputation for oneself; for from the seemingly good things, the chaff of wickedness is sown in part, and from the beginning they allow him to be flattered by vainglory, and to be sober through continuous fasting, and to stand up zealously in prayers and in assemblies, so that he might consider that, being a person of such kind, he did not happen by chance; for there are insults, sorrows, and disturbances, but here is peace, tranquility, and joy; there is the severity, fear, and shock of the Father, but here is carefreeness, fearlessness, and being unshockable. And thus, stealing his mind in such things, they seize it; and suddenly, standing over excessive sleep, they drench the soul with fear, and they neglect the assemblies through carelessness and acedia, and they remind him that hospitality is a burden, and they bring all the tools of malice, so that, having thrown acedia upon him, and having worked hatred toward his life, they might thus stand him naked of virtues to be an example to the angels.

Sometimes the demons magnify the labors through thoughts, and sometimes they belittle these as being of no use, so that where they may plant thoughtlessness, there they may sow ignorance. For to those who do not bend, they weaken, magnifying the labors so that they may plant thoughtlessness; but to those who do not yield to thoughtlessness, they do nothing more, but rather they belittle the labors as being of no use, so that, having weakened, they may sow ignorance.

Chapter 29. Therefore, when the thoughts magnify the labors, casting these aside, let us belittle the soul; but when they again belittle the labors as being of no use, we, with whatever power, let us magnify the mercies of Christ; for the more you harden your body, the more your conscience searches you. Know yourself, being aware of the secret thefts of the thoughts, lest, being carried along unperceivingly regarding their secret robberies, we should be shaded by hardness of heart alone, reaping the virtues. For thus some, having been imagined, were scattered from their wits like a...

They are terrors, those demons who act as deceivers of imaginations and who carry away visions, and even when they snatch away the soul through cowardice. To one of the brothers, while he was wakeful at night, the demons were striking out fearful imaginations, not only to the outward eye, but also with the inward gaze, so that the mind, being agitated by anxiety concerning the coming night, was in danger of having the faculty of reason snatched away; and for many nights the war was attacking the soul, while the one in danger was struggling inwardly to hold onto the ruler of the faculties, by seeing for himself the actions of the stings being brought against him, while withholding the soul from the giver of prayer; furthermore, they terrified him by scattering the soul with the fire of judgment, so that, by compounding fear upon fear, he might repel cowardice, just as it has happened, as the one who suffered the war said. For while the demons were terrifying the soul in many ways, he who was weary was seeking God through prayer; but those who were scattering the soul with their imaginations, he, weighing the weight of those stings, was demonstrating his state to the God who sees all; and those who were again blinding the eye of prayer, he, repaying the fear of judgment, made the fear of the phantasms vanish; for the other part of the fear, having overcome the other, wandering with God occurred; for the soul, having been humbled by the memory of sins and having been awakened by the fear of judgment, fled from the terrors of the demons through the things within; and the whole thing has happened by grace from above, both to drive away the terrors of the demons and to support the soul that was falling. ‘For the Lord supports all those who are falling, and raises up all those who are broken’ (Celsus, Cap. 44).

Chapter 30. There is a time when we strive to make prayer pure, and perhaps we are not able. And there is again a time when, without our striving, the soul approaches pure prayer, because our weakness and the grace from above being called upon bring us back to the purity of the soul, while at the same time, being disciplined through both, we do not give ourselves credit in praying, but recognize the one who gives. For what we should pray according to, we do not know. Therefore, when we strive to make the prayer pure and are not able, but are darkened, then by tears...

13Having drenched the sides with tears, let us entreat God so that the night of the war may be dissolved and the light of the soul may be illuminated. Because of the service of a brother companion going abroad, according to the custom of prayers, renew the memory of this one; but do not imagine this beyond measure, lest the demons, having taken the beginning of care from you, sharpen this and extend it further, shadowing this for you in the singing of the psalms, and falling short in God of the care according to God, so that, striking back care with care, they may lead us captive from the superior ones, so that one does not consider the command: ‘Cast your care upon the Lord’ (Psalm 55:22). For they show, as if from the excessive care for the brother, that they also command griefs, subordinating the ruling faculty. Furthermore, they even reproach you for slowness, as if the brother had neglected the speed of the service, so that the much-caring longing might perhaps even turn into hatred. And it is a custom in the cares concerning the one away to do this also to the demons, in which they see him coming on the day, to mirror this one as a master, so that, as if from a dream that has passed, they may make us in the time of the ones away the prophets of dreams and again receive them, whom it is rather necessary to turn away and violently divert, lest from these they also lead the soul astray into other things.

Chapter 31. For these things indeed predict nothing, but they resent the things they see happening, and they imagine; indeed, often while we are being quiet, seeing a brother coming toward us, they mark us through thoughts, in which it is not right to believe, even if they think they are saying the truth; for through a certain truth they introduce a lie, so that they might map out the pitfalls on the paths in front of us by parts. Just as idle gold, being cast into a furnace, becomes purer, so also a soft monk, being refined in communal life, is made bright by his endurance; for he works to learn obedience through the command of the brothers; and through the striking of trials, he prepares to have a nature of incense. When therefore he has endured insults with joy, and embraces lowliness with simplicity, having become superior to the things suffering against him, he strives to shine with virtues beyond, with the grace to him...

16To have become pure, and to have ascended to the edge of holiness. Regarding these things—and the impurities from which he abstained, and the fasts he chose—they assign to him the times in which he ought to boast as an elite, and they diminish the brotherhood as something trivial. Thus, they narrate his struggles as if they were perfected by his own strength alone, saying, ‘I did these things, and I practiced thus, and I was persecuted,’ while even now cutting off the saying, ‘Not I, but the help within me.’ For they do not allow him to confess God as a helper in those things in which they make him magnify himself, so that, having completed all the struggles as if from his own inherent strength, he might fully demand the praise of his labors, so that he might sink into the abyss of blasphemy, unashamedly contradicting by helping himself.

Chapter 34. Thus, indeed, when the heart is echoed by the glory of thoughts and does not oppose them, it will not be outside the possibility of a madness in the secret parts of the mind, with the ruling part of the mind being at risk of being cast out, or through believing in dreams, or being transformed in vigils, or being dazzled by a transformation of light. For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light to deceive us (2 Cor 11:14), perhaps showing gifts, so that having fallen you might worship, or proclaiming himself to take up the role as another Elijah, or promising to sanctify, some of whom, having received faith in these, missed the truth and became mentally deranged. You then, O suppliant of the Holy Trinity, knowing these things in which you labor, keep your heart with every guard, lest, attending only to external labors, you be bitterly drenched from within. My words, then, O child, are spoken to you, and let your heart keep my sayings; remember Christ who guards you, and let him not forget the worshiper and the consubstantial Trinity, to whom is the glory forever. Amen.