On Evil Thoughts

1Concerning the different evil thoughts. Chapter 1. Of the demons opposed to the praktike, the first to array themselves for battle are those entrusted with the pleasures of gluttony, that is, the appetites, and those who suggest love of money to us, and those who call us out toward the glory of men. All the rest, marching behind these, take over those wounded by them. For it is not possible to fall into the hands of the spirit of fornication without having fallen by gluttony; and it is not possible to rouse thumos without fighting for foods or money or glory with irrational desires; and it is not possible to escape the demon of sadness, having been deprived of all these or being unable to obtain them; nor will anyone escape pride, the devil’s first offspring, without having expelled love of money, the root of all evils — even if poverty humbles a man, according to the wise Solomon; and in short, it is not possible for a man to fall to a demon without first being wounded by those front-rank fighters; wherefore the devil then brought these three thoughts to the Savior as well. First entreating him to make the stones become bread, then promising him the whole world if, falling down, he would worship; and third, telling him that if he would listen he should be glorified, having suffered nothing from so great a fall, whereupon our Lord, showing himself stronger, commanded the devil to depart behind him, through these things also teaching us that it is not possible to repel the devil without having despised these three thoughts.

Chapter 2. All demonic thoughts bring into the soul notions of sensible things, in which the mind, being imprinted, carries about within itself the forms of those things, and henceforth recognizes from the thing itself the demon that approached; for example,

if the face of the one who harmed and dishonored me should occur in my mind, the grudge-bearing thought that suggested it is exposed. If again a remembrance of money or glory should occur, it is clear from the thing that the one afflicting us will be recognized; and likewise with the other thoughts, from the thing you will find the demon standing by and suggesting the phantasies. I do not say that all memories of such things come from demons; since the mind itself, when moved by the man, naturally brings up the phantasies of what has happened, but only those memories which draw thumos or desire along with them contrary to nature. For through the disturbance of these two powers, the mind commits adultery in thought and fights, being unable to receive the phantasy from the Lawgiver who framed it, if that brightness, in the privation of all the notions in things, appears to the ruling faculty in the time of prayer.

A man would not lay aside his passionate memories without having taken care of desire and thumos, having consumed the one with fastings, vigils, and sleeping on the ground, and having tamed the other with long-sufferings, freedoms from rancor, and almsgivings; for from these two passions almost all the demonic thoughts consist, which cast the mind into ruin and destruction. Chapter 3. It is impossible for anyone to overcome these passions without having utterly despised foods and money and glory, and even his own body, because of those who often attempt to beat it; it is altogether necessary, then, to imitate those in peril at sea, who jettison the cargo because of the violence of the winds and the waves rising against them. But here one must attend precisely, lest in jettisoning the cargo we do it to be seen by men; since we have received our reward in full, and a second shipwreck, harder than the first, will receive us, when the demon of vainglory blows against us.

2a second shipwreck, harder than the first, will receive us, when the demon of vainglory blows against us. Wherefore our Lord in the Gospels, training the governing mind, says: ‘Take heed not to do your almsgiving before men to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in the heavens.’ And again: ‘When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand praying in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so as to appear to men; truly I say to you, they have received their reward.’ And again he says: ‘When you fast, do not become gloomy like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so as to appear to men fasting; truly I say to you, they have received their reward.’

But here one must attend to the Physician of souls, how through almsgiving He heals thumos, through prayer He purifies the mind, and again through fasting He withers desire, from which the new man is composed, being renewed according to the image of Him who created him, in whom there is neither male nor female through holy dispassion, nor, through the one faith and love, Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all things in all.

Chapter 4. One must inquire how the demons imprint and shape our ruling faculty in the phantasies during sleep; for such a thing seems to happen to the mind, whether seeing through eyes, or hearing through hearing, or again through some sense or other, or from the memory, which imprints the ruling faculty — not through the body, but moves those things which it received through the body. The demons, then, it seems to me, move the memory and imprint the ruling faculty; for the organ is held inactive by sleep. How, then, they again move the memory must be inquired — perhaps through the passions? And this is clear from the fact that the pure and dispassionate no longer suffer anything of the sort. There is also a certain simple movement produced by us or by holy powers, according to which we meet with saints in dreams and converse and feast together with them. Yet one must attend to this: that the images which the soul receives together with the body, these the memory moves without the body, and this is clear from the fact that often we suffer this even in dreams while the body is at rest.

For just as one may remember water both with thirst and without thirst, so one may remember gold both with greed and without greed, and likewise with other things. But for the mind to find differences between such and such phantasies is a mark of their evil craft.

And at the same time one must know this too: that the demons also use external things for their phantasies, as in the case of those sailing, with the sound of the waves. Our thumos, when moved contrary to nature, contributes greatly to the demons’ aim, and becomes most useful for all their scheming; hence none of them declines to trouble it by night and by day; but when they see it bound by gentleness, then they immediately release it under just pretexts, so that, having become sharper, it may serve their beastly thoughts; wherefore one must neither provoke it over just nor over unjust matters, nor give an evil sword to those who suggest them. Which I know many do often, and more than they should, being kindled by small pretexts.

Chapter 5. For over what, tell me, do you fall so quickly into battle, if you have despised foods and glory and money? And why do you feed the dog, you who profess to have nothing? But if it barks and attacks men, you are clearly shown to possess something within, and to wish to guard these things. But I am persuaded that such a one is far from pure prayer, knowing thumos to be the destroyer of such prayer.

And besides these things I marvel, as though the saints were forgotten — David crying, ‘Cease from anger, and forsake thumos’ (Ps 37:8); the Preacher commanding, ‘Remove thumos from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh’ (Eccl 11:10); the Apostle commanding, ‘to lift up holy hands to the Lord in every place, without anger and doubting’ (1 Tim 2:8). And why do we not learn from the mystic and ancient custom of men, which drives the dogs out of the houses at the time of prayer, hinting at this: that thumos must not be present with those who pray? And again: ‘Their wine is the venom of dragons’ (Deut 32:33). The Nazirites abstained from wine.

3And one of the wise men from without declared gall and loin to be things not eaten by the gods — not knowing, I think, what he was saying; of which I myself consider the one a symbol of anger and the other of irrational desire.

But concerning the fact that one ought not be anxious about clothing or foods, I think it superfluous to write, since our Savior Himself forbade it in the Gospels: ‘For do not be anxious, He says, about your soul, what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will put on.’ For this is outright the mark of pagans and unbelievers, who reject the providence of the Master and deny the Creator; but such a thing is wholly foreign to Christians, who have once believed that even the two sparrows sold for a farthing are under the management of the holy angels. Yet this too is a habit of the demons: after the impure thoughts to cast in also those of anxiety, so that Jesus may withdraw, there being a crowd of notions in the place of the mind, and the word may become unfruitful, choked by the anxiety of thorns.

Chapter 6. Let us then, laying aside the thoughts from anxiety, cast our anxiety upon the Lord, being content with present things and using a poor life, and let us day by day strip off, along with our dress, the fathers of vainglory. But if anyone thinks it unseemly in poor dress, let him look at holy Paul in cold and nakedness, who awaited the crown of righteousness. But since the Apostle called this world a theater and a stadium, let us see whether it is possible, clothed in thoughts of anxiety, to run for the prize of the upward calling, or to wrestle against the principalities and powers and against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age; I do not know — being taught even by sensible experience. For that athlete will of course be hindered by his tunic and easily tripped, just as the mind is by the thoughts of anxiety — if he is a true witness who says that the mind clings to its own treasure: ‘For where your treasure is, He says, there will your heart be also.’

Chapter 7. Of the thoughts, some cut and some are cut; the evil cut the good, and the evil are in turn cut by the good. The Holy Spirit, then, attends to the thought first set forth, and judges or accepts us according to it. What I mean is this: I have a certain thought of hospitality, and I have it for the Lord’s sake; but when the tempter comes, it is cut — he suggests entertaining for the sake of glory.

Again: I have a thought of hospitality aimed at appearing to men; but this too, when a stronger thought comes, is cut through — the thought directing our virtue more toward the Lord and compelling us not to do these things for men. If, then, through our works we henceforth remain in the former thoughts while being tempted by the latter, we shall have the rewards of the former thoughts alone when they were set forth, because, being men and wrestling with demons, we cannot always keep the right thought incorrupt, nor again keep the evil thought untried, having acquired the seeds of virtues.

Yet if any of the cutting thoughts lingers, it settles in the region of the one being tempted, and henceforth the man, moved according to that thought, will act. We have learned with much observation that this is the difference between angelic thoughts, human ones, and those from demons: first, the angelic investigate the natures of things and trace out their spiritual logoi.

For example: for whose sake gold came to be, and why it is sandy, and how it is scattered somewhere below among the parts of the earth, and is found with much toil and labor; and how, once found, it is washed with water and handed to fire, and thus falls into the hands of craftsmen — those who make the lampstand of the tabernacle, and the censer, and the bowls and the cups, from which the Babylonian king no longer drinks now through the grace of our Savior — while Cleopas bears a heart burning from these mysteries.

But the demonic thought neither knows nor understands these things; it only suggests the acquisition of sensible gold, and foretells the luxury and glory to come from it; but the human thought seeks neither the acquisition nor investigates of what the gold is a symbol, but only brings into the mind the bare form of gold, separated from the passion of greed; but the…

4The same account will be given for the other things as well, by one who trains himself mystically against this evil one.

Chapter 8. There is a demon called the wanderer, who stands by the brothers especially toward dawn; he leads the recluse’s mind about from city to city and from house to house and from village to village — first, supposedly, making mere visits, meeting certain acquaintances and talking at length, corrupting his own state toward those he meets, and becoming distant, little by little taking forgetfulness of the knowledge of God and of virtue and of his calling. The recluse must, then, watch him: whence he begins and where he ends; for he does not work that long circuit idly or by chance, but wanting to corrupt the recluse’s state, he does these things so that the mind, inflamed by them and intoxicated by the many encounters, may straightway fall to the demon of fornication or of anger or of sadness, which most ruin the brightness of his state. But we, if we aim to know his craftiness clearly, must not speak to him hastily nor show that we know what is happening — how he works the encounters in the mind and in what way he drives the mind little by little toward death, since he will flee from us; for he does not consent to be seen doing these things; and henceforth we shall know nothing of what we were eager to learn. But let us allow him even one more day, or a second, to complete the drama, so that, having learned his awkwardness precisely, we may thereafter refute him with a word and put him to flight.

Chapter 9. But since it happens that in the time of temptation the mind, being clouded, does not see clearly what is happening, let this be done after the demon’s withdrawal: sitting by yourself, remember the things that happened to you — whence you began and where you went, and in what place you were seized by the spirit of fornication or of anger or of sadness, and how all that happened came to pass — and learn these things clearly, and hand them to your memory so that you may have wherewith to refute him as he approaches, and denounce the place hidden by him, and henceforth you will not follow him. But if you ever wish to provoke him even to madness, refute him as soon as he stands by, and reveal the first place into which he entered, and the second, and the third — for he rages greatly, not bearing the shame; and the proof that you spoke to him at the right moment will be that the thought has fled from you; for henceforth it is impossible for him to stand when clearly refuted.

When this demon of wandering is defeated, there succeeds a very heavy sleep, and numbness with much coldness of the eyelids, and endless yawns, and shoulders weighed down and growing numb — which the Holy Spirit will dissolve by intense prayer.

Chapter 10. Hatred against the demons contributes greatly to our salvation, and is fit for the working of virtue; but we cannot nourish this in ourselves as some good offspring, since the pleasure-loving spirits destroy it and call the soul back again to friendship and familiarity; but this friendship — or rather, this hard-to-heal gangrene — the Physician of souls heals by abandonment; for He allows us to suffer something fearful from them by night or by day, and again the soul runs back to its original hatred, taught to say to the Lord, according to David: ‘I have hated them with perfect hatred; they have become enemies to me’ (Ps 139:22). For he hates the enemies with perfect hatred who sins neither in deed nor in thought; which is the proof of the first and greatest dispassion.

Chapter 11. But concerning the demon who makes the soul insensible, what need is there to speak? For I fear even to write about him — how the soul is displaced from its own state; for at the time of his visitation it strips off the fear of God and reverence, and reckons sin not to be sin, and does not consider lawlessness to be lawlessness, and remembers punishment and eternal judgment as a bare word, and truly mocks at the fire-bearing earthquake, and supposedly confesses God but does not know what He commanded; you beat upon the breast while it moves toward sin, and it does not feel. From…

6…the demons fear, as they fear gentleness; for that Moses too possessed it, being called meek above all men (Num 12:3). And holy David too declared it worthy of God’s remembrance, saying: ‘Remember, Lord, David and all his gentleness’ (Ps 132:1). But the Savior Himself commanded us to become imitators of His gentleness, saying: ‘Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls’ (Matt 11:29). But if anyone abstains from foods and drinks, yet provokes thumos with evil thoughts, he is like a ship sailing the sea with a demon as pilot; wherefore one must attend as much as possible to our dog, and teach him to destroy only the wolves and not to devour the sheep, showing all gentleness toward all men.

Chapter 15. Alone among the thoughts, that of vainglory is manifold, encompassing almost the whole inhabited world and opening the doors to all the demons, like some evil traitor of a good city. Wherefore it greatly humbles the recluse’s mind, filling him with many words and affairs, and ruining his prayers — through which he strives to heal all the wounds of his soul. All the demons, having been defeated, augment this thought, and again through it they all gain entrance into souls, making the last things truly worse than the first. From this thought is born also that one of pride, which shook down from heaven to earth the seal of likeness and the crown of beauty.

But leap away from this, and do not linger, lest we betray our life to others and our life to the unmerciful. Intense prayer puts this demon to flight, as does doing nothing willingly that contributes to the accursed glory. When the mind of the recluses lays hold of a little dispassion, then, having acquired a horse of vainglory, it immediately gallops through the cities, glutted with unmixed praise from glory, whom, by dispensation, the spirit of fornication meets and shuts into one of the pigsties, teaching him not to leave his bed before perfect health, nor to imitate the unruly among the sick, who, still carrying remnants of weakness within themselves, give themselves to roads and untimely baths, and fall into relapsing sicknesses.

Wherefore, sitting still, let us rather attend to ourselves, so that, progressing in virtue, we become hard to move toward evil, and being renewed in knowledge, we receive a multitude of varied contemplations, and being lifted up again in prayer, we shall more clearly behold the light of our Savior.

Chapter 16. I cannot write all the evildoings of the demons, and I am ashamed to enumerate their evil crafts, fearing the simpler among those who will read. But hear the craftiness of the spirit of fornication. When someone acquires dispassion in the desiring part, and the shameful thoughts henceforth become cooled down, then it brings in men and women sporting with one another, and makes the recluse a spectator of shameful deeds and postures. But this temptation is not among those that linger; for intense prayer, and a very strict diet with wakefulness, and the exercise of spiritual contemplations, drive him like a waterless cloud. Sometimes it even touches the flesh, levering it toward irrational burning, and this utterly wicked one contrives countless other devices, which it is not necessary to publish or hand over in writing. A boiling of thumos stirred up against the demon also contributes greatly against the thoughts — which thumos it especially fears when troubled over the thoughts and destroying its notions; and this is the ‘Be angry, and sin not’ (Eph 4:26). This is a useful medicine applied to the soul in such temptations. The demon of anger also imitates this demon, and fashions — he too — some of one’s parents or friends or relatives or household being insulted and beaten by the unworthy, and stirs up the thumos of the recluses, so that they may utter something evil or do something toward those appearing in the mind — to whom one must not attend, but must quickly snatch the mind away from such images, lest, lingering among them, he become at the time of prayer like a smoking firebrand. And the irascible fall into these temptations…

7…and especially those easily kindled to fits of anger, who are far from pure prayer and from the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Chapter 17. The Lord handed over the notions of this age to man, the good shepherd, as sheep; for He has, He says, put the age in his heart; having yoked to him thumos and desire for help, so that through thumos he might put to flight the notions of the wolves, and through desire he might love the sheep — though often assailed by rains and winds. And besides these He gave him pasture, that he might shepherd the sheep, and a place of grass, and water of rest, and a psaltery and a harp, and a rod and a staff, so that from this flock he might both be fed and clothed, and gather mountain hay. ‘For who, He says, shepherds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock?’ The recluse must, then, guard this flock by night and by day, lest any of the notions become beast-caught or fall among robbers; but if anything of the sort should happen in the glen, immediately snatch it from the mouth of the lion or the bear. The notion concerning a brother becomes beast-caught if it pastures with hatred what is in us; and that concerning a woman, if it turns among us with shameful desire; and that of silver and gold, if it lodges with greed. And the notions of the holy gifts, if they graze in the mind with vainglory; and likewise it will happen with the other notions, when they are stolen by the passions.

Chapter 18. One must keep these things not only in the day, but also guard them waking by night. For it happens that even one who phantasies shamefully and evilly loses his own; and this is what was said by holy Jacob: ‘I did not bring to you a beast-caught sheep; I paid back from myself thefts of the day and thefts of the night, and I was consumed by the burning heat of the day and the frost of the night, and sleep departed from my eyes’ (Gen 31:39–40). But if from toil acedia also comes upon us, let us run back a little to the rock of knowledge and converse with the psaltery, striking the strings of knowledge through the virtues, and let us again pasture the sheep under Mount Sinai, so that the God of our fathers may call us too from the bush and grant us also the words of the signs and wonders.

Christ raises the rational nature put to death by evil through the contemplation of all the ages; and His Father raises its dead soul through the death of Christ, by knowledge of Himself. And this is what is said by Paul: ‘If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him’ (Rom 6:8).

When the mind, having stripped off the old man, puts on the one from grace, then it will also see its own state at the time of prayer, like in color to sapphire or heaven, which Scripture also calls the place of God, seen by the elders under Mount Sinai.

Chapter 19. When one of the enemies, having approached, wounds you, and you wish to turn his sword, according to what is written, against his own heart, do thus, as we say. Divide up by yourself the thought cast by him — whatever it is, and of how many things it is composed, and which of them most afflicts the mind. What I mean is this: suppose the thought of love of money has been sent by him; divide it into the mind that received it, and into the notion of the gold, and into the gold itself, and into the money-loving passion; and then ask which of these is sin — the mind? And how? It is the image of God. Or the notion of the gold? And who in his right mind would ever say this? Or is the gold itself sin? And for whose sake did it come to be? It follows, then, that it is neither a thing subsisting in essence, nor a notion of a thing, nor again an incorporeal mind, but a certain misanthropic pleasure, born from free will, constraining the mind to use God’s creatures badly — which God’s law has been entrusted to circumcise.

And as you investigate these things, the thought will be destroyed, being analyzed into its own contemplation, and the demon will flee from you, your mind being lifted to a height by this knowledge.

Chapter 20. But if you wish to use his sword, and desire first to master him with your own sling, cast you too a stone from the…

8…your shepherd’s bag, and seek the contemplation of this: how angels and demons approach our world, but we do not approach their worlds; for we can no longer join angels to God, nor do we choose to make demons more unclean. And how Lucifer, rising early, was cast down to the earth, and deems the sea as an ointment-jar, and Tartarus of the abyss as a captive, and boils the abyss like bronze, troubling all through his evil and wishing to rule all? For the contemplation of these things greatly wounds the demon and puts all his host to flight. But these things happen only to those gradually purified, who in some measure see the logoi of what has come to be. But the impure do not know the contemplation of these things, nor would they be heeded even if they chanted what they learned from others, since much dust and tumult arise through the passions in the war. For the host of the foreigners must by all means quiet down a little, so that Goliath alone may meet our David. Likewise let us use this division and this kind of war against all impure thoughts.

Chapter 21. Of the unclean demons, some tempt man as man, and others trouble man as an irrational animal; the first, approaching, cast into us notions of vainglory or pride or envy or accusation, which touch nothing of the irrational; but the second, drawing near, stir up thumos or desire contrary to nature. For these passions happen to be common to us and to the irrational animals, being covered by the rational nature. Wherefore the Holy Spirit also says to those falling into human thoughts: ‘I said: You are gods, and all sons of the Most High; but you die as men, and fall as one of the rulers’ (Ps 82:6). And to those moved irrationally, what does He say? ‘Do not become like a horse and mule, which have no understanding; with bit and bridle you must hold their jaws, who do not come near you’ (Ps 32:9).

But the soul that sins, it shall die. It is clear that men, dying as men, will be buried by men; but those put to death as irrational — that is, falling — will be eaten by vultures or crows, whose young, some call upon the Lord, while others are defiled in blood. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Chapter 22. When some of the unclean thoughts are quickly put to flight, let us seek the cause whence this happened: whether because of the scarcity of the thing — the matter being hard to obtain — or because, through the dispassion present in us, the enemies had no strength against us? For example, if one of the recluses should be prompted by a demon to be entrusted with the spiritual governance of the first city, it is clear that he will not linger imagining this thought, and the cause becomes known from what is said; but if one becomes entrusted of any city whatever, and reckons likewise, such a one is blessed in dispassion. Likewise such a manner will be found when examined in the case of the other thoughts. These things one must know for our eagerness and power, so that we may see whether we have crossed the Jordan and are near the city of the Phoenicians, or still dwell in the desert and are beaten by the foreigners.

For the demon of love of money seems to me very manifold and resourceful for deception; often, when straitened by extreme renunciation, he immediately plays the steward and lover of the poor, and receives guests not yet present more genuinely, and sends service to others who are lacking, and visits the city prisons, and supposedly ransoms those being sold, and attaches himself to rich women, and points out those who ought to receive benefit, and again advises others who possess a fat purse to renounce it, and thus, having deceived the soul little by little, subjects it to thoughts of love of money, and hands it over to the demon of vainglory.

Chapter 23. He brings in a multitude of those glorifying the Lord for these stewardships, and putting forward some who gradually converse about priesthood, he then foretells the quick death of the existing priest, and adds that he would not escape even if he did ten thousand things; and thus the wretched mind, bound by these thoughts, quarrels with those of men who have not accepted them, but with those who…

9To those who receive him, he readily grants gifts and accepts their gratitude; but some who waver, he hands over to the judges and commands them to be banished from the city. But when these remain within and the thoughts turn, immediately the demon of pride also stands over them, stamping continuous lightnings through the air of the cell, and sending winged dragons, and — the final evil — working the loss of reason. But we, having prayed destruction upon these thoughts, let us live with poverty in thanksgiving: ‘For we brought nothing into the world, and it is clear that we can bring nothing out; but having food and coverings, let us be content with these’ (1 Tim 6:7–8). And let us remember Paul, who called the love of money the root of all evils (1 Tim 6:10).

All the unclean thoughts, lingering in us because of the passions, bring the mind down to ruin and perdition; for just as the notion of bread lingers in the hungry man through hunger, and the notion of water in the thirsty man through thirst, so too the notions of possessions and of money linger through greed, and the notions of foods — and of the shameful thoughts born from foods — linger through the passions. And it will be shown likewise in the case of the thoughts of vainglory and of the other thoughts. But it is impossible for a mind choked by such things to stand before God and to bind on the crown of righteousness.

For dragged down by these thoughts, even that thrice-wretched mind in the Gospels declined the most excellent thing — the knowledge of Christ; and again, he who was bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness had his garment woven from these thoughts — whom the one who had called him declared unworthy of such a wedding (Matt 22:11–13). Therefore the wedding garment is the dispassion of a rational soul that has renounced worldly desires. But what the cause is of the notions of sensible things, lingering, corrupting knowledge, has been stated in the chapters On Prayer.

Chapter 24. Of the demons opposed to the praktike, three are the foremost archons, whom the whole camp of the foreigners follows — who stand first in the war and call souls to evil through the unclean thoughts: those entrusted with the appetites of gluttony, those who suggest the love of money to us, and those who call us to the glory of men. Desiring, then, pure prayer, keep guard over thumos; and loving chastity, master the belly: give no bread to your belly, and squeeze it with water; keep vigil in prayer, and put rancor far from you; let the words of the Holy Spirit never fail you, and knock at doors with the hands of the virtues. Then dispassion of heart will dawn for you, and you will see a starry mind in prayer.

Of the notions, some imprint and shape our ruling faculty, while others provide knowledge only, without imprinting or shaping the mind. For ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God’ (John 1:1) lays up a certain notion in the heart, yet neither shapes nor imprints it. ‘Having taken bread’ shapes the mind, and ‘break’ again imprints the mind (Matt 26:26). But ‘I saw the Lord seated upon a throne high and lifted up’ (Isa 6:1) imprints the mind — apart from the ‘I saw the Lord’ — and the wording seems to imprint the mind, while what is signified does not imprint. For he beheld with the prophetic eye the rational nature, exalted through the praktike, having received into itself the knowledge of God. For God is said to sit where He is known, since a pure mind is also called the throne of God. And ‘a woman’ is also called ‘a throne of dishonor’ — that is, a soul hating just things; and the dishonor of the soul is vice and ignorance. Therefore the notion of God is not in the things that imprint the mind, but in the notions that do not imprint the mind.

10Because the one who prays must be wholly separated from the things that imprint the mind. And you will inquire whether, as it stands with bodies and their thoughts, so it stands also with incorporeals and their logoi — and whether the mind will be imprinted in one way when it sees a mind, and disposed in another way when it sees its logos. From this we know how spiritual knowledge separates the mind from the notions that imprint it, and presents it unimprinted to God — because the notion of God is not in the imprinting ones; for God is not a body, but is rather in the non-imprinting notions.

Again, of the contemplations that do not imprint the mind, some signify the essence of incorporeals, and others their logoi; and it is not as it happens with bodies that it happens also with incorporeals: for with bodies, some imprinted the mind and some did not imprint it — but here, neither kind of notion imprints the mind.

Chapter 25. When the demon of gluttony, having struggled much and often, is unable to corrupt the imprinted temperance, then he plunges the mind into the desire for the most extreme asceticism — from which he also brings into the midst the things concerning Daniel, that poor life and the seeds (Dan 1:12), and recalls certain other recluses who lived thus throughout, or who began thus — and he compels the monk to become an imitator of these: so that, pursuing immoderate temperance, he may fail even of the due measure, the body not sufficing because of its own weakness — truly blessing with the body and cursing with the heart. I do not think it right to obey him in this, nor to abstain from bread and oil and water. For the brothers have thoroughly tested this most excellent diet — and this not unto satiety, and once a day. For I marvel whether anyone, being sated with bread and water, will be able to receive the crown of dispassion.

But by dispassion I mean not the cessation of sin in act — for this is called temperance — but that which cuts off the passionate thoughts in the mind, which the holy Paul also named the spiritual circumcision of the hidden Jew (Rom 2:29). But if anyone is disheartened by what has been said, let him remember the vessel of election, the Apostle, who finished the course in hunger and thirst (2 Tim 4:7). And the adversary of the truth, the demon of acedia, also imitates this demon, suggesting the most extreme withdrawal to the enduring one, calling him to the zeal of John the Baptist and of Antony, the first-fruits of the recluses — so that, unable to bear the long and inhuman withdrawal, he may flee in shame, abandoning the place — and he himself may then boast and say, ‘I prevailed against him.’

Chapter 26. The unclean thoughts admit matter for increase, and are extended along with many things; for they cross great seas in the mind, and do not decline to travel long roads, because of the great heat of the passion. But those purified in any measure are narrower than these, being unable to be extended along with things because of the weakness of the passion — whence they are also moved more contrary to nature — and, according to the wise Solomon, wandering outside for a time, they gather stubble for the unlawful brick-making (Exod 5:12), so that they may be saved like a gazelle from snares and like a bird from the trap (Prov 6:5). For it is easier to cleanse an impure soul than to call back to health again one that has been purified and wounded again, the demon of sorrow not permitting it, but always presenting to the pupils, at the time of prayer, the image of sin.

Chapter 27. The demons do not know our hearts, as some men suppose; for He alone is the knower of hearts, who knows the mind of men and formed their hearts one by one. But from the uttered word and such movements of the body, they know most of the movements in the heart — which I had wished to declare clearly now, but I was held back by...

11a holy priest — who said it is unworthy for such things to be published and cast into the ears of the profane; for, he says, even the one who consorts with the adulterer becomes liable according to the law. Nevertheless, from such signs they know what is hidden in the heart, and from these they take occasions against us. Indeed, we have often reproved some who had reviled us, not being lovingly disposed toward them — wherefore we also fell to the demon of rancor, and immediately conceived evil thoughts against them, the same as we had formerly known to befall us.

Wherefore the Holy Spirit also rightly accuses us: ‘Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you laid a stumbling-block’ (Ps 50:20); ‘and you opened a door to the thoughts of rancor, and troubled the mind at the time of prayer, ever picturing the face of your enemy, and deifying him — for whatever the praying mind beholds, this it confesses worthy to be God.’ But let us flee, beloved, the sickness of backbiting; let us never remember anyone evilly, nor contort our faces at the memory of our neighbor.

For the evil demons scrutinize all our postures, and leave nothing against us unexamined — no reclining, no sitting, no standing, no word, no passing by, no glance; they scrutinize all, they disturb all, all day long they contrive craftiness against us, so that they may slander the humble mind at the time of prayer and extinguish its blessed light. Do you see what holy Paul also says to Titus? ‘In doctrine, an uncorrupt, sound, irreproachable word, so that the one from the opposite side may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say about us’ (Titus 2:8). And blessed David also prays, saying: ‘Deliver me from the slander of men’ (Ps 119:134) — calling the demons ‘men’ as well, because of the rational element of their nature. But the Savior also, in the Gospels, called ‘an enemy, a man’ the one who sowed among us the tares of evil (Matt 13:28). From him may we also be delivered by the grace of Christ our God, to whom honor and glory are due unto the ages. Amen.

Chapter 66. There are certain unclean demons who always sit beside those who are reading, and attempt to snatch away their minds, often taking occasions even from the divine Scriptures themselves and ending in evil thoughts. And sometimes, contrary to habit, they compel them to yawn, and impose a most heavy sleep, quite foreign to the usual — as some of the brothers supposed, by an ineffable natural contrariety; but I, having often observed, learned it to be thus: they touch the eyelids and the whole head, and chill it with their own body — for the bodies of the demons are exceedingly cold, and like crystal — whence we also feel the head being drawn as if by a cupping-glass, with a gnashing of the teeth. And they do this so that, drawing to themselves the heat stored up in the skull, the eyelids — slackened by the remaining moisture and cold — may overflow upon the pupils of the eyes. Indeed, I have often felt and found the eyelids hardened like crystal, and the whole face deadened and shivering. And yet natural sleep is by nature disposed to warm bodies, and renders the faces of the healthy blooming, as one may learn even from experience itself; but the unnatural and strained yawnings they bring about, thinning themselves and touching the inside of the mouth. But this I had not understood until today, although I have often suffered it; but I heard it from holy Macarius, who told me this and adduced as proof — according to an ineffable ancient tradition — the sealing of the mouth by those who yawn. And we suffer all these things because we do not attend soberly to our reading, nor remember that we are reading the holy oracles of the living God.

12Chapter 67. Since there are also successions of demons — the first having grown weak in the war and being unable to stir the passion dear to him — observing these, we find it thus: when the thoughts of some passion become rare over a long time, and there comes a sudden boiling and movement of it — we having given no occasion through negligence — then we know that a harsher demon than the former has succeeded to us, and, keeping the place of the one who fled, has filled it up besides with his own wickedness. But this one also understands our soul very well, being warred upon much more violently than usual, and having suddenly fallen away from the thoughts of yesterday and the day before, with no pretext from outside intervening.

Let the mind, then, seeing these things, flee to the Lord, having received the helmet of salvation, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having drawn the sword of the spirit, and having lifted the shield of faith; let him say, looking up with tears to his own heaven: ‘O Lord Christ, power of my salvation, incline Your ear to me, hasten to deliver me. Become for me a defending God, and a place of refuge to save me’ (Ps 71:3). And let him especially polish the sword with fastings and vigils. For in seven whole days he will be afflicted, being warred upon and struck by the fiery darts of the Evil One (Eph 6:16); and after the seventh he will recognize him as gradually becoming like what has been taught, and remaining thereafter for a whole year — for the most part being wounded rather than wounding — until the one who succeeds him also arrives; if indeed, for a time, as with Job, we fall under them, and our houses are laid waste by the lawless.

Chapter 68. Unclean thoughts often admit matter for increase, and are extended along with many things. For they cross great seas in the mind, and do not refuse to travel long roads, because of the great heat of the passion. But those purified in any measure are narrower than these, being unable to be extended along with many things because of the weakness of the passion — whence they are also moved more contrary to nature — and, according to the wise Solomon, wandering outside for a time, they gather stubble for the unlawful brick-making, no longer receiving straw (Exod 5:7, 12). One must therefore keep the heart with all guarding (Prov 4:23), so that it may be saved like a gazelle from snares and like a bird from the trap (Prov 6:5). For it is easier to cleanse an impure soul than to call back to health again one that has been purified and wounded again, the demon of sorrow not permitting it, but always leaping upon the pupils of the eyes, and at the time of prayer presenting the image of sin.

Chapter 69. Christ raises the rational nature, put to death by vice, through the contemplation of all the ages; but His Father raises the dead soul — through the death of Christ — by the knowledge of Himself. And this is what was spoken by the Apostle: ‘If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him’ (Rom 6:8).

Chapter 70. When the mind, having stripped off the old man, has put on the new man from grace, then it will also see its own state at the time of prayer, like sapphire or a heavenly color — which the Scripture calls the place of God, seen by the elders on Mount Sinai (Exod 24:10).

Chapter 71. The mind will not see the place of God within itself unless it has become higher than all things among things; and it will not become higher unless it has stripped off the passions that bind it through the notions to sensible things. And it will lay aside the passions through the virtues, and the bare thoughts through spiritual contemplation — and this contemplation again, when that light appears to it which, at the time of prayer, imprints the place of God.