The Malignant Thoughts and their Consequences

To 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.