Silence and the Peace of the Triad

Having 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...