Hesychios the Presbyter: A Word to Theodoulos on Watchfulness and Virtue (The Beginning and True Pledge of the Soul’s Illumination: Chapters in Answer and Chapters on Prayer)
1. Watchfulness is a spiritual art; practised long and attentively, with God’s help it delivers a man from passionate thoughts, words and evil deeds. It grants a certain knowledge of the incomprehensible God, so far as He may be apprehended; it makes clear the hidden divine mysteries, fulfils every commandment of the Old and the New Testament, and bestows every blessing of the age to come. It is, properly speaking, purity of heart, whose greatness and beauty — to tell the truth — has now grown very weak among monks through our negligence. Christ praises it, saying: «Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God» (Mt 5:8). Such it is, and so dearly does it cost. Watchfulness, once established in a man, becomes his teacher of a righteous life pleasing to God. It is also an ascent to contemplation; it teaches us to govern rightly the three powers of our soul and to keep the senses firmly guarded; and each day it renews the four principal virtues in whoever partakes of it.
2. The great lawgiver Moses — or rather the Holy Spirit — showing the blamelessness, purity, great comprehensiveness and lofty creative power of this virtue, and teaching us how we ought to begin it and bring it to completion, says: «Take heed lest a sinful thought arise in your heart» (cf. Dt 15:9). By a sinful thought he means the momentary image of some evil, God-hated thing; and the holy fathers call such a thought a provocation, which the devil brings into the heart. As soon as the provocation stands before the intellect, our own thoughts follow after it and converse with it passionately.
3. Watchfulness is the way of every virtue and of God’s commandment. It is also called stillness of heart; and when it is practised without imagining, it is called guarding of the intellect.
4. As one born blind does not see the light of the sun, so he who does not walk in watchfulness does not see the bright radiance of God’s grace and is not set free from evil, God-hated deeds, words and thoughts. Such a man will not pass freely, after death, by the princes of the abyss.
5. Attentiveness is unceasing stillness of the heart from every thought, together with the constant, unbroken and unceasing invocation of Christ Jesus alone, the Son of God and God; it is a manly standing with Him against the enemies, and confession to Him who alone has power to forgive transgressions. Calling upon the one Knower of hearts, such a soul often embraces Christ and strives to conceal from men all its sweetness and inner struggle, lest the evil one secretly bring malice into it and destroy the good work.
6. Watchfulness is the firm establishing of the thought and its standing at the door of the heart; it sees how the criminal thoughts draw near, and hears what these murderers say and do, and what image the demons trace and set up, so that the intellect may be led astray by its own imagining. If we acquire watchfulness through many labours, it will show us, when we wish, the experience of the intellect’s warfare in full detail.
7. A peculiar fear, God-forsakenness and instructive moments of temptation urge a man’s intellect to learn attentiveness, which dares to dam the source of evil thoughts and deeds. For its sake God-forsakenness comes about, and God permits sudden temptations, to set our life right — and most of all the life of those who have found rest in this good thing and are not vigilant. Frequency begets habit, and habit begets a natural frequency of watchfulness, and this in turn, according to its degree, gradually begets the vision of the warfare. Vision is followed by the unceasing Jesus Prayer, by the sweet imageless silence of the intellect, and by the state which comes from communion with Jesus.
8. When the thought stands firm and calls upon Christ against the adversaries and takes refuge in Him, it is like a wild beast surrounded by many hounds that hides itself in Christ as in a stronghold. From afar it sees with the mind the wiles of the invisible enemies, and because it always prays to peace-giving Jesus against them, they cannot wound it.
9. If you know, and it is granted you at dawn to stand before God, and not only does God see you but you see Him, then you know what I am speaking of. If not, be watchful and you will find out.
10. The gathering of the seas is much water; and the gathering and strength of watchfulness, of self-control and deep stillness of soul, and the abyss of wondrous and unutterable visions, and of intelligent humility, righteousness and love — this is perfect watchfulness and prayer to Jesus Christ without thoughts. This should be done persistently and often, and without agitation.
11. «Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father» (Mt 7:21). And this is the Father’s will: «Let him who loves the Lord hate evil». With prayer to Jesus Christ let us hate evil thoughts also — and so we shall fulfil God’s will.
12. The pattern of every virtue, the example for the human race, and the raising up from our ancient fall were given us by our Master and Lord when He became incarnate. He described His whole virtuous life in the body by all the good deeds which He showed us. After His baptism He went into the wilderness and, fasting, began the noetic warfare when the devil approached Him as an ordinary man. And by His victory He taught us, the unworthy, how we should wage war against the evil spirits — namely in humility, fasting, prayer and watchfulness — though He Himself had no need of this, being God and the God of gods.
13. How many ways of watchfulness there are, in my opinion, which can gradually cleanse the intellect of passionate thoughts, I shall not be too lazy to describe to you simply and without eloquence. I do not think that, in describing the warfare, one should hide behind fine words the profit of what is said, especially from the simplest. «And you, son Timothy, — says the Apostle — give attention to reading» (1 Tim 4:13).
14. There is one way of watchfulness: always to guard against imagining, that is, against the provocation. For Satan cannot insinuate thoughts without images, nor falsely display them to the intellect in order to lead it astray.
15. Another way is to keep the heart deeply silent, always mute, and, keeping stillness from every thought, to pray.
16. Yet another way is often to call in humility upon the Lord Jesus for help.
17. There is still another way: to hold unceasingly in the soul the remembrance of death.
18. All these works, beloved, block the road to evil thoughts like gatekeepers. And as to looking only at heaven and counting the earth as nothing — of that I shall speak elsewhere, if God grants me a word.
19. If, when we have cut off the causes of the passions and passed a little way into contemplation, we do not remain there long but return again to the passions of the flesh, we shall gain no fruit of dispassion; the intellect will only be darkened, and we shall go back to the things of sense.
20. He who struggles within himself must at all times possess these four virtues: humility, the greatest attentiveness, rebuttal of thoughts, and prayer. Humility — so that, waging war with the proud adverse demons, he may have Christ’s help in the hand of his heart, for the Lord hates the proud. Attentiveness — so that no thought whatever may be in the heart, even one that seems good. Rebuttal — so that when he sees some thought coming, he may at once with anger resist the evil one. «And to those who reproach me, — says the psalmist — I shall give an answer» (Ps 118:42). «Shall not my soul be subject unto God?» (Ps 61:2). And prayer — so that, having defended himself against the thought, he may at once cry out to Christ with a wordless sigh. And then the struggler himself will see how the enemy is shattered, and how the name of Jesus, whom he worships, drives the enemy away as wind drives dust, or as smoke that vanishes together with its fantasies.
21. He who has no prayer pure of thoughts has no weapon for the battle — the kind of prayer that always works within the soul, so that by the invocation of Christ the adversary, with whom the secret struggle goes on, may be conquered and consumed.
22. Look with the sharp and vigilant eye of the intellect, so as to recognise those who enter. And having recognised them, at once crush the serpent’s head by rebuttal. And at the same time, sighing, call upon Christ — and then you will receive the experience of divine invisible protection, and will clearly see the rightness of the heart.
23. He who holds a mirror in his hand and, standing among people, looks into it, sees his own face and also sees the others who look into that same mirror. So too he who always looks into his own heart sees in it his own state, and besides this sees the black faces of the noetic Ethiopians.
24. The intellect cannot by itself conquer demonic fantasy; let it not even hope so. The demons are crafty and pretend to be defeated, surrounding us on all sides with vainglory. But when you call upon Jesus Christ, they will not dare to harm you.
25. Take care that you do not fall to imagining, after the example of ancient Israel, and so be given over to the noetic enemies. When the God of all delivered Israel from the Egyptians, Israel invented for itself a helper — a golden idol.
26. The golden idol is our feeble intellect, which, so long as it prays to Jesus Christ against the evil spirits, easily drives them off and with skilful cunning overcomes the invisible fighting forces of the enemy. But when it begins mindlessly to rely upon itself, it is dashed to pieces like the bird called the swift-winged. «In God, — says the psalmist — my heart has hoped, and He has helped me; and my flesh has flourished» (Ps 27:7). And who but the Lord will raise me up and take arms with me against the countless evil thoughts? He who hopes in himself and not in the Lord falls a terrible fall.
27. Let the image, manner and example of stillness of heart always be for you, if you wish to struggle, a small creature — the spider. If it has not yet become a model for you, then you are not keeping stillness of intellect as you ought. The spider catches small flies; and you, if you wish to labour, keeping your soul in stillness, do not cease always to strike down the infants of Babylon — for which the Holy Spirit will praise you through the lips of David the psalmist (cf. Ps 137:8-9).
28. As it is impossible for the Red Sea to appear in the firmament of heaven among the stars, and impossible for a man walking on earth not to breathe this air, so it is impossible to cleanse our heart of passionate thoughts and to drive from it the noetic enemies without frequent invocation of Jesus Christ.
29. If with humility of mind, and remembrance of death, and self-reproach, and rebuttal of thoughts, and invocation of Jesus Christ you always labour in your heart, and soberly with these weapons walk each day the narrow but joyful and sweet noetic road, you will enter into the contemplation of the Holy of Holies, and Christ will enlighten you with deep mysteries — Christ, «in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge» (Col 2:3), in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells together with human nature. When He enlightens you, you will feel the Holy Spirit entering your soul, who enlightens the human intellect to behold «with unveiled face the glory of the Lord» (2 Cor 3:18). «No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit» (1 Cor 12:3).
30. But those who love instruction should also know this: the envious demons often hide and quieten the noetic warfare within us, because they envy us the profit that comes from the battle, and the understanding and ascent to God that come with it. Then, when we grow careless, they suddenly take our intellect captive and make us inattentive to thoughts. For they hold it their labour and the goal of their work not to let our heart gather itself, since they see that there we gather the riches of the soul. But we, remembering our Lord Jesus Christ, shall pass over to spiritual visions, and the warfare will come again to the intellect; let us do everything only by the counsel — so to speak — of the Lord Himself, and with great humility.
31. Those of us who live in community should of our own will and with a cheerful heart cut off all our own will before our superiors — and so, with God’s help, we become as it were willing captives, firmly bound. And we must in everything be careful not to be bitter, nor to have in us irrational and unnatural movements of anger, through which we may prove faint-hearted in the hour of battle. Our own will, when we do not cut it off voluntarily, is accustomed to grow angry with those who begin to cut it off by force; and through this, anger rises up raging and destroys the understanding of the warfare, which is barely acquired, and that only with great labour. Anger is by nature destructive: when it rises against demonic thoughts, it destroys and ruins them; but when it rises against men, it destroys the good thoughts in us. I see that anger destroys all thoughts, both evil and good. God gives it to us as a weapon and a bow, though it does not always remain such. Though it acts in different ways, its action is ruinous. And I know that a savage dog tears the sheep as does the wolf.
32. Therefore we must flee insolence as we flee the venom of a serpent, and turn away from much talking as from a snake and the brood of snakes; for very quickly they can bring us to complete forgetfulness of the inner warfare and drag the soul down from the high joy that comes of purity of heart. Accursed forgetfulness opposes attentiveness as water opposes fire, and wars against it every day. From forgetfulness we pass to negligence, from negligence to contempt and dejection and unseemly desire. And thus we return, as a dog to its vomit. Let us then flee insolence as a deadly poison. And this fierce forgetfulness, and all that comes of it, is healed by the most careful guarding of the intellect and by frequent invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ — for without Him we can do nothing.
33. It is unfitting and impossible to be friends with a serpent and to carry it in one’s bosom; and likewise one cannot in every way pamper the body, indulge it and love it. We must give it what it needs and what is useful, and together with it care for the heavenly virtue. It is proper to a serpent to bite the one who warms it, and to the body to defile the one who indulges it. When the body sins in something, it is often chastened with wounds, so that it may know its master who punishes it, as a runaway slave who has drunk his fill of sweet wine knows his punishment. Let corruptible anger and the slave acknowledge the incorruptible soul. Until death itself, put no hope in your flesh. For it is written that «the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But we are not in the flesh but in the spirit» (Rom 8:7-9).
34. It is the work of wisdom always to rouse the soul’s incensive power to the combats of the inner warfare and to self-reproach; the work of self-restraint is to raise the rational power to frequent and perfect watchfulness and spiritual vision; the work of righteousness is to direct the desiring power towards virtue and towards God; and the work of courage is to govern the five senses and to hold them in check, so that they may not defile our inner man, that is, the heart, nor the outer man, that is, the body.
35. «His majesty is over Israel» (Ps 67:35) — that is, over the intellect, which beholds the beauty of the glory of God Himself, so far as is possible. «And His power is in the clouds» — that is, in luminous souls, which at dawn contemplate Him who sits at the Father’s right hand and enlightens them as the sun does, which with its rays illumines the pure clouds and reveals their beauty.
36. «One fault, — says the divine Scripture — destroys much good» (Eccl 9:18). When the intellect goes astray, it destroys the immortal food and drink of which the preceding chapter spoke.
37. We are not stronger than Samson, nor wiser than Solomon, nor more understanding than the divine David, nor do we love God more than Peter the chief apostle. Let us then not rely upon ourselves. For Scripture says that he who relies upon himself will fall a terrible fall.
38. Let us learn humility of mind from Christ, repentance from David, and from Peter weeping over what has happened; but let us also learn not to fall into despair, looking at Samson, Judas and the most wise Solomon.
39. The devil goes about like a roaring lion with his powers, seeking whom he may devour. Therefore let our constant concentration of heart and watchfulness, and rebuttal of thoughts, and prayer to Christ Jesus our God never grow slack. In all your life you will find no help better than that of Jesus. For He alone is Lord, and as God He knows the demons’ snares, cunning and wickedness.
40. Let the soul, then, hope in Christ and pray to Him, and let it not be afraid at all. For it does not fight alone, but together with the awesome King, Jesus Christ, Creator of all that is, of all bodiless and bodily, visible and invisible creatures.
41. As rain, the more it falls upon the earth, the more it softens it, so the name of Christ makes the earth of our heart the more joyful and glad, the more often we call upon Him without thoughts.
42. It is good for the inexperienced also to know this: that our bodiless and invisible enemies, who wish us evil, who are clever in doing injury, swift and light, and experienced in warfare — for they have fought from Adam until now — cannot be conquered by us, who are heavy both in body and in mind and are drawn earthwards, by any other means than unceasing watchfulness of the intellect and the invocation of Jesus Christ, our God and Creator. Let these words be an instruction for those inexperienced in the Jesus Prayer, that they may test and understand what is good. For the experienced, the good teacher and model is practice, temptation, and good repose.
43. As a small and guileless child, seeing someone behaving strangely, is amused and out of innocence imitates him, so our soul, being simple and good — for the good Master created it such — delights in the imaginary provocations of the devil and, being deceived, takes up something worse, thinking it good; and so it mingles its thoughts with the fantasy of the demonic provocation. When it sees a beautiful woman’s face, or something else forbidden by Christ’s commandments, it desires to find a way to carry out in deed what this beauty suggests to it. And then, having joined itself to the devil, to its own condemnation it performs through the body the lawlessness that came to it in the thought.
44. Such is the cunning of the evil one, and with these arrows he always wounds every soul. And therefore it is dangerous to allow thoughts to enter our heart before the intellect that wages the warfare has tested them. This is especially dangerous at the beginning, for then our soul still takes pleasure in the demonic provocations and rejoices and follows after them. But one ought simply to recognise the thoughts and cut them off at once at their approach and provocation. And when the intellect is established, having learnt and understood this wondrous work, it will become accustomed to unceasing warfare, so as to discern the thoughts rightly and, as the prophet says, to catch easily «the little foxes» (Song 2:15); then it will be able easily to seize and expose them.
45. As it is impossible for water and fire to flow in one channel, so it is impossible for sin to enter the heart unless it first knocks at the door of the heart with the fantasy of an evil provocation.
46. First comes the provocation; second, coupling, that is, the mingling of our thoughts with those of the evil demons; third, assent, which takes place between two thoughts that take counsel together about evil; and fourth, the sensible act, that is, sin. But when the intellect is attentively watchful and by rebuttal and the invocation of the Lord Jesus drives off the provocation at its very coming, then nothing of what follows the provocation takes place. For the mind of the evil one is bodiless; it cannot lead the soul astray in any other way than by fantasy and thoughts. Of the provocation David says: «Every morning I destroyed all the sinners of the land» (Ps 100:8). Of assent the great Moses says: «You shall make no covenant with them».
47. Intellect wrestles invisibly with intellect — the demonic intellect with ours. Therefore we must at all times call upon Christ from the depth of the heart, that He may drive away the demonic intellect and grant us victory, as the Lover of mankind.
48. Let the model of stillness of heart be for you the man who holds a mirror in his hands and looks into it. Imitating him, you will see what is written noetically in your heart, both good and evil.
49. Always take care that no thought whatever be in your heart, neither senseless nor seemingly good, so that it may be easy for you to recognise the strangers, that is, the firstborn of Egypt.
50. How fair and sweet and bright and pleasant, how altogether good, clear and beautiful is the virtue of watchfulness when You, O Christ, govern it and when the vigilant human intellect passes through it with great humility. It stretches out its branches even to the sea and the abyss of contemplation, and its shoots to the sweet rivers of divine mysteries, and waters the intellect long parched by the impious salt thoughts of evil spirits and by the evil-minded reasoning of the flesh, in which is death.
51. Watchfulness is like Jacob’s ladder, upon which God stands and by which the angels ascend. It uproots from us all malice. It cuts off much speaking, contempt, slander, and everything evil and of the senses, without losing for a moment its own sweetness.
52. Let us then pass through it carefully, my brethren, and dwelling in its visions with a pure thought that is in Christ Jesus, let us compel ourselves to see our transgressions and our former life, so that, contrite and humbled by the remembrance of our sins, we may always have help in the invisible warfare from our Lord Jesus Christ. But if through pride, or vainglory, or self-love we lose the help of Jesus, we shall by that very thing lose purity of heart too, by which God knows a man. The first becomes the cause of the second, as the fulfilment of a promise.
53. When the intellect is not slothful in its hidden work, then, along with the other blessings it gains from constant vigilance, it will free the five bodily senses from external evils. For since watchfulness is the cause of its virtues, the intellect, wishing to delight in good thoughts, cannot bear to be robbed by the five senses when through them come thoughts of sense and vanity; but understanding their delusion, it carefully hides itself within.
54. Abide in knowledge — and you will not be wearied by temptations; but when you depart from knowledge, endure what comes upon you.
55. As bitter wormwood helps those who have no appetite, so it is useful for those of evil disposition to suffer some evil.
56. If you do not wish to suffer evil, then do not wish to do evil. For the one follows inseparably upon the other. What a man sows, that he will also reap. And so, sowing evil of our own will and reaping it against our will, we can only marvel at God’s justice.
57. Three passions blind the intellect: avarice, vainglory and sensual pleasure.
58. Reason and faith, the nurslings of our nature, have been blunted by nothing else than by these passions.
59. Rage and anger, wars and murders and every other evil have taken root in men precisely through them.
60. He who does not know the truth cannot truly believe, for knowledge by its nature precedes faith. For what is said in Scripture was said not only that we might know, but that we might act accordingly.
61. Let us then set to work. Growing little by little, we shall see that hope in God, and firm faith, and inner knowledge, and deliverance from temptations, and the giving of gifts, and heartfelt confession, and fervent tears come to the faithful from prayer. And not only these, but also the endurance of afflictions that come, and sincere forgiveness of the neighbour, and knowledge of the spiritual law, and the finding of God’s righteousness, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the giving of spiritual treasures, and everything that God has promised to give the faithful both here and in the age to come. In a word, the soul cannot become the image of God unless it abides in God’s gift and in faith with great humility of mind and attentive prayer.
62. Truly we have received a great blessing from experience — the unceasing invocation of the Lord Jesus against the noetic adversaries, to cleanse our heart. And see how the word I speak from experience agrees with the testimonies of Scripture. «Prepare, O Israel, — says Scripture — to meet your God». And the Apostle says: «Pray without ceasing» (1 Thess 5:17). And our Lord says: «Without me you can do nothing. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch» (Jn 15:5-6). Prayer is a great good and the container of all good things, for it cleanses the heart, in which God appears to the faithful.
63. Humility of mind is by nature exalting and beloved of God, and it destroys almost all the God-hated evil that is in us — and therefore it is plain that it is not easily acquired. In one man it is easy to find some separate workings of many virtues; but if you seek in him the fragrance of humility, you will hardly find it. Therefore much effort is needed to acquire it. Scripture calls the devil unclean because from the beginning he rejected this blessed humility of mind and loved pride. That is why everywhere in Scripture he is called an unclean spirit. Yet how can one who is bodiless, incorporeal and unstable commit any fleshly uncleanness, that he should be called unclean? Yet he was called unclean for his pride, for from a pure and radiant angel he became abominable. Everyone who is proud in heart is unclean before God. The chief sin is pride. For so said proud Pharaoh: «I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go» (Ex 5:2).
64. There are many activities of the intellect that can find for us the blessed gift of humility of mind, if we do not neglect our salvation: namely, the recollection of transgressions in word, deed and thought, and much else gathered in the mind — these serve for the acquiring of humility of mind when gathered by contemplation. True humility also leads us always to remember the successes of our neighbours, and to magnify their other natural advantages, and to compare the deeds of others with our own. And when the intellect sees its own weakness and how far it is from perfection, then a man feels himself to be as earth and ashes, and not even a man but some sort of dog, deprived of everything and destitute before all rational beings living on earth.
65. The mouth of Christ, the pillar of the Church, our great father Basil says: «It is a great help towards not sinning and not falling into the same thing the next day, that we examine ourselves each evening in our conscience, and all that is in us: in what we have sinned and what we have done rightly. So Job also did concerning himself and his children. Such daily scrutiny enlightens what happens to us at any hour».
66. And another divine sage says: «The beginning of fruitfulness is the blossom, and the beginning of practice is self-control. Let us then be self-controlled and do this by measure and weight, as the holy fathers teach, and let us live all the twelve hours of the day guarding our intellect. Doing so, we shall be able, with effort, to damp down malice a little and with God’s help to diminish it. For the virtuous life, for the sake of which the Kingdom of Heaven is given, is taken by force».
67. The road to knowledge is dispassion and humility, and without them no one will see the Lord.
68. He who unceasingly labours within himself is chaste; and not only this, but he also contemplates, and theologises, and prays. This is what the Apostle speaks of: «Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh» (Gal 5:16).
69. He who does not know how to walk the spiritual path does not care to correct his passionate thoughts, but does everything after the flesh: either he overeats, or gives way to lust, or grieves, or grows angry and bears grudges, and thereby darkens the intellect; or he undertakes excessive ascetic labour and troubles his mind.
70. He who has renounced worldly affairs, that is, wife and property and all the rest, has made a monk of the outer man, but not yet of the inner man, which is the intellect. But he who has renounced passionate thoughts is a true monk, and he will easily make a monk of the outer man too, if he wishes. It is no small struggle to make a monk of the inner man.
71. Who in this generation is such as to be wholly rid of passionate thoughts and to be counted worthy of unceasing pure and imageless prayer, which is the mark of the inner monk?
72. Many passions lie hidden in our souls, and they are revealed only when their causes appear.
73. Train yourself not only in the discipline of the body, but give the body such labour as it can bear and turn your whole intellect within: «For bodily training is of some profit, but godliness is profitable for all things» (1 Tim 4:8).
74. When the passions do not rise up — either because the causes that provoke them are absent, or because the demons cunningly withdraw — then pride is born.
75. Humility and the endurance of evil free a man from every sin, curtailing now the passions of the soul, now those of the body. Therefore the Lord says: «Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God» (Mt 5:8) — they shall see Him and the treasures that are in Him, when they are purified by love and self-control, and in proportion as they continue to be purified.
76. The place from which every virtue of instruction is surveyed is the guarding of the intellect, just as the ancient example of David once signified the circumcision of the heart. 1
77. When we see something harmful with the eyes of the body, we suffer harm; and the same happens when we see something harmful with the intellect.
78. If the core of a plant is damaged, the plant withers — and so it is with the human heart. We must be watchful, for robbers lie in wait.
79. When the Lord wished to show that every commandment is necessary, He granted men sonship by His Blood, saying: «When you have done all that you were commanded, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were bound to do» (Lk 17:10). Therefore the reward for our works is not the Kingdom of Heaven, but the Master’s grace prepared for faithful servants. A servant does not demand freedom as a reward, but gives thanks as a debtor and waits for it by grace.
80. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and grants freedom to those who serve Him well. For He says: «Good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master» (Mt 25:21). Not he is a faithful servant who leans upon high thoughts of himself, but he who believes Christ by obedience to His commandments.
81. He who honours the Master does what the Master commands. And he who has sinned and disobeyed endures what is due. If you love to learn, love also to labour, for a high opinion of oneself makes a man conceited.
82. Temptations that come unexpectedly teach us, by providence, to be industrious.
83. It is proper to a star to radiate light, and it is proper to the devout and God-fearing man to be unassuming and humble. For nothing else reveals and displays the mark of Christ’s disciples but humility of mind and an unassuming appearance, and of this all four Gospels bear witness everywhere. And if this is lacking — if a man does not live humbly — he falls away from his portion in Him who humbled Himself even to the cross and death, the active Lawgiver of the holy Gospels.
84. «Ho, all you who thirst, — says Scripture — come to the water» (Is 55:1). You who thirst for God, come with a pure mind. Yet let him who soars high look down with it upon the earth of his own weakness, for no one shall surpass the humble. All that is not in the light is in darkness and gloom; and so, when humility of mind is absent, all our efforts in God are vain and unprofitable.
85. «The end of the matter, when all has been heard, is this: fear God and keep His commandments» (Eccl 12:13) — both noetically and sensibly. And when you make the effort to keep them noetically, you will gradually begin to require of them the labours of the senses too. For David says: «I desired to do Your will, O God, and Your law is within my heart» (Ps 39:9).
86. If a man does not do God’s will and law in the midst of his belly, that is, in the heart, it will not be easy for him to do it outwardly either. Losing the divine illumination, the negligent man who is not watchful says to God: «I do not wish to know Your ways». But he who partakes of the divine illumination will know God’s law and will be sufficiently firm in divine things.
87. Natural salt gives savour to bread and preserves from spoiling every cooked dish and meat. The same may be said of the guarding of the intellect, of noetic sweetness and wondrous activity — it gives savour at once to the outer and the inner man, drives away the stench of evil thoughts, and keeps us whole in what is good.
88. From provocation come many thoughts, and from thoughts evil deeds. But he who abides with Jesus at once quenches the first, avoids the second, and grows rich in sweet divine knowledge, by which he finds God everywhere present; and looking into this noetic mirror he is always enlightened, like clear glass when the sun’s rays fall upon it. Then the intellect, having attained its highest desire, rests from every other contemplation within it.
89. Every thought enters the heart when a man imagines some object of sense. Therefore the blessed divine light illumines the intellect only when it is freed from thoughts and imagines nothing. For this radiance appears in the pure intellect only when all thoughts have vanished.
90. In the measure that you are attentive to your mind, in that measure will you pray to Jesus with desire; and in the measure that you are slothful about entering into your mind, in that measure will you be far from Jesus. And as the first wholly illumines the noetic space, so turning away from watchfulness and from the sweet invocation of Jesus usually darkens it on every side. So it always happens, as we have said, and not otherwise. And having tested it in experience, you will understand this. For virtue, and especially such a light-bearing and sweet activity, is learnt in no other way than by experience.
91. Frequent invocation of Jesus with desire full of joy and sweetness becomes the cause of the heart’s space being filled with joy and stillness, through the very greatest attentiveness. And the cause of the heart’s greatest purification is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God — the cause and Creator of all good: «I, the Lord, do all these things» (Is 45:7).
92. The soul to which Jesus does good and which He makes sweet renders praise to its Benefactor with gladness and love, in confession, giving thanks and joyfully calling upon Him who makes its peace; and it sees Him within itself, as He destroys the fantasies of the evil spirits.
93. «And my eye — says David — has looked upon my enemies, and my ear shall hear of the evil ones who rise against me» (Ps 91:12) — the noetic eye upon the noetic enemies. And he saw the recompense of sinners from God being wrought within him. And when there are no fantasies in the heart, then the intellect abides in its natural state, ready to move towards every sweet, spiritual and God-loving vision.
94. So then, as I have already said, watchfulness and the Jesus Prayer enter into the composition of each other: the greatest attentiveness belongs to frequent prayer, and prayer in turn to the utmost watchfulness and attentiveness.
95. A good teacher for soul and body is the unfailing remembrance of death, so that, surveying our life with the intellect, we may always see before us that bed on which we shall lie when the soul goes out of the body, and all the rest.
96. It is not possible, brethren, for one who wishes always to remain unwounded to sleep; one of these two must be chosen: either to fall and perish, stripped bare of the virtues, or always to stand armed in the intellect. For the enemy too always stands with his army.
97. Through unceasing remembrance and invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ a certain divine order arises in our intellect, if we take care always to pray to Him with the intellect, often to be watchful, and to labour. And truly the work of invoking our Lord Jesus Christ will always be the same and accomplished in the same way, when the heart, kindled, calls out to receive the holy name of Jesus. Frequent repetition is the mother of habit both in virtue and in sin, and habit then holds fast as though it were nature. When the intellect is in such a state, it seeks out the adversaries as a hunting dog seeks a hare in the bushes; the dog, finding it, devours it; the intellect consumes them with fire.
98. Always, when evil thoughts multiply in us, let us call upon our Lord Jesus Christ — and then we shall learn how they are destroyed and dissolve like smoke in the air, as we have already seen in experience. And when the intellect is left alone, let us pass again to unceasing attentiveness and invocation. And however often we are tempted, let us do the same again.
99. As it is impossible for an unarmed man to go into battle, or for one who is clothed to swim across a great sea, or to live without breathing, so it is impossible without humility and frequent prayer to Christ to learn the noetic and hidden warfare and skilfully to drive off and repel it.
100. The greatly active David said to the Lord: «My strength I will lay up in You». The strength of stillness of heart and intellect, from which all the virtues are born, is preserved in us because we receive help from the Lord whom we often call upon. He gives us His commandments and drives from us foul forgetfulness, which destroys stillness of heart as water destroys fire. Therefore, O monk, do not fall asleep out of sloth to your own death, but with the name of Jesus strike the adversaries; and as a certain wise man said: «Let the name of Jesus cleave to your breath, and then you will understand the profit of stillness».
101. When we, the unworthy, are counted worthy with fear and trembling of the Divine and Most Pure Mysteries of Christ our God and King, then let us show the greatest watchfulness, guarding of the intellect and circumspection, so that the divine fire, that is, the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, may burn up our sins and our defilements both small and great. For when the divine fire enters us, it drives the evil spirits from the heart and forgives us our former sins, and evil thoughts cease to trouble the intellect. And if after this we keep our intellect perfectly guarded and are again counted worthy of the Mysteries of Christ, the Divine Body will enlighten our intellect more and more and make it radiant.
102. Forgetfulness quenches the guarding of the intellect as water quenches fire. But frequent prayer to Jesus with firm watchfulness drives forgetfulness wholly out of the heart. And prayer needs watchfulness as a lampstand needs the light of the candle.
103. We must labour to keep what is precious to us. And precious to us is that which guards us from every sin of sense and of the mind, that is: the guarding of the intellect, the invocation of Jesus Christ, constant gazing into the depth of the heart, stillness of mind even from thoughts that seem good, and the effort to be free of thoughts, so that no robbers may lie hidden. Though it is hard for us to guard the heart, yet consolation is near.
104. A heart accustomed to unceasing vigilance and to receiving no images, forms or fantasies of the dark and evil spirits gives birth to bright-shining thoughts. As coal gives birth to flame, so much more does God, who dwells in the heart from holy baptism, kindle our intellect to contemplation as flame kindles wax, when He finds the space of our heart pure of evil winds and guarded by the keeping of the intellect.
105. We ought always to turn the name of Jesus Christ within the vessel of the heart, as lightning turns in the sky before rain. Those who have experience of the guarding of the intellect and of the inner warfare know this well. Let us wage this war as an army wages war. First let us use attentiveness; then, having recognised the enemy who has put the thought into us, let us with angry words drive him from the heart; and third, let us at once pray, turning the heart to the invocation of Jesus Christ, so that the demonic apparition may be destroyed at once, and the intellect may not follow after the fantasy, like a child to whom tales are told and who believes them.
106. Let us labour as David did, saying: «Lord Jesus Christ, let not our throat fall silent, nor our noetic eyes grow weak from waiting upon the Lord our God» (cf. Ps 68:4).
107. Let us always remember the parable of the unjust judge, in which the Lord says «that we ought always to pray and not lose heart» (Lk 18:1) — and we shall find profit and recompense.
108. As it is impossible for one who looks at the sun not to have his eyes filled with light, so it is impossible for one who always enters the space of the heart not to be enlightened.
109. As it is impossible to live without food and drink, so it is impossible, without guarding the intellect and purity of heart — which is watchfulness — for the soul to attain anything pleasing to God or to be freed from noetic sin, even if you force yourself not to sin out of fear of torment.
110. Yet even those who avoid the sinful act under some compulsion are blessed before God, angels and men, as those who take the Kingdom of Heaven by force.
111. There is something wonderful in the way stillness profits the intellect: the noetic and watchful virtue cuts off in our inner man all transgressions which at first knock as thoughts at the door of the intellect, striving to become, once the mind receives them, sensible and solid transgressions; and it does not let them come and become evil deeds, by the power and protection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
112. The symbol of outward, sensible, bodily instruction is the Old Testament. But the holy Gospel, that is, the New Testament, is the symbol of attentiveness, that is, of purity of heart. The Old Testament did not bring a man to perfection, nor did it move the inner man to godliness. «For the law, — says the Apostle — made nothing perfect» (Heb 7:19) — it only forbade grave transgressions. To cut off thoughts also from the heart, and evil intentions, as the Gospel commands, serves purity of soul more than the prohibition of tearing out a neighbour’s eye or tooth. Understand the same about bodily righteousness and discipline, about fasting and self-control, prostrations, standing, vigil and the other labours performed with the body — they quieten the passionate part of the body and do not allow it to come to the sinful act. What I have said about the Old Testament is good, for it instructs our outer man and guards him from the passions of action; but it does not guard him from noetic transgressions, that is, it does not forbid them so as to free us with God’s help from envy, anger and the other passions.
113. Purity of heart, that is, the guarding of the intellect and vigilance, whose symbol is the New Testament, when it is kept in us as it should be, cuts off from the heart all the passions and uproots them, and in their place brings into the heart joy, good hope, compunction, weeping, tears, knowledge of ourselves and of our sins, remembrance of death, true humility, boundless love for God and for men, and divine joy of heart.
114. As it is impossible for one who walks on the earth to cleave the air, so it is impossible for the demons not to assault the human heart, or not to work in it secretly, even if a man performs bodily labours.
115. If you wish not merely to seem good and gentle and united with God, but truly to be a monk in the Lord, pursue with all your strength the virtue of attentiveness, that is, the guarding and watching of the intellect and the attaining in the heart of sweet stillness; the blessed imageless state of soul is not found in all.
116. The virtue of attentiveness is called the philosophy of the intellect. Pursue it with great watchfulness and warm zeal, with the Jesus Prayer, humility, discernment, and with silence of the bodily and noetic lips, with abstinence from food and drink and from every sinful thing. Continue on the noetic path with wisdom, and it will, with God’s help, teach you what you do not know, and will inform you, and enlighten you, and give you understanding, and teach you what before you could not receive with the intellect, when you walked in the darkness of the passions and of dark deeds, plunged into the abyss of forgetfulness and confusion.
117. As valleys bring forth wheat, so the virtue of attentiveness brings forth in your heart every good. But most of all it is our Lord Jesus Christ who grants it to you, for without Him you can do nothing. At first you will find this virtue a ladder; then a book that you will read; and then, growing perfect, you will find the heavenly city Jerusalem, and you will clearly see with the intellect Christ, the King of hosts, the King of Israel, together with His consubstantial Father and the Holy Spirit whom we worship.
118. By lying fantasies the demons always bring us to sin. For by fantasies of silver and gain they urged wretched Judas to betray the Lord and God of all; and fantasies of worthless bodily satisfaction, and honour, and gain, and glory brought him to the noose and procured for him eternal death — the very opposite of what they had shown him in the provocations of fantasy. Thus did the evil ones repay him.
119. See how by fantasies and lies and empty promises the enemies of our salvation overcome us. Satan himself fell from on high like lightning when he imagined himself equal to God; and so he tore Adam away from God by suggesting to him the thought of divine dignity — and thus the lying and treacherous enemy is accustomed to lead astray all who sin.
120. The poison of evil thoughts brings bitterness into our heart when for a long time we abandon attentiveness and the Jesus Prayer, being negligent through forgetfulness. But we are made sweet by the sense of blessed joy when firmly and surely on the noetic field we accomplish all that is needed with divine love. Then we are ready to walk in stillness of heart for no other reason than that sweet sense and gladness in the soul.
121. The art of arts and the skill of skills is the restraining of the thoughts that work evil. This is the highest way and art: to recognise in the Lord the fantasy of their provocation, and to guard our thoughts as we guard our bodily eyes, watching everyone who comes to injure them, and turning aside from them even the smallest twig.
122. As snow does not bring forth flame, nor water fire, nor thorns figs, so a man’s heart will not be freed from demonic thoughts, words and deeds unless it is cleansed within, unless it joins watchfulness to the Jesus Prayer, acquires humility and stillness of soul, and unless it hastens and walks with great diligence. The inattentive soul remains barren of all good and perfect understanding, like barren mire in which there is no understanding of spiritual wisdom. Truly sweet are peace of soul, and the name of Jesus, and the wearing away of passionate thoughts.
123. When the soul takes counsel with the body about evil, the two together build the city of vainglory and the tower of pride, and impious thoughts settle in them. But the Lord, by the fear of hell, shakes and breaks their agreement, and moves the soul, their mistress, to speak and think what is strange and contrary to the body; and out of fear division comes about, «for the mind of the flesh is enmity against God» (Rom 8:7).
124. We must always weigh our daily deeds and watch over them and, where possible, lighten them in the evening by repentance, if we wish with Christ to conquer sin. And we must consider whether we perform all our sensible and visible deeds according to God, before God, and for God alone, so that the irrational senses may not rob us.
125. When with God’s help we gain something each day through our watchfulness, it is not fitting for us to turn thoughtlessly to other people, lest we be ruined by many dangerous conversations; rather it befits us to despise all vain things for the sake of the dear and sweet gain and beauty of this virtue.
126. Rightly, as God created them by nature, we must direct the three powers of the soul. Anger — against our outer man and against the serpent Satan. Be angry, it is said, at sin, that is, be angry at yourselves and at the devil, so that you may not sin before God. Desire should be directed towards God and towards virtue. And over these two, that is, over anger and desire, let us set reason, that it may instruct, teach, urge and govern, as a king governs his servants. And when we set reason to rule over them, then it will govern them according to God, even though the passions rise up against it. For the brother of the Lord says: «If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also» (Jas 3:2). For, to speak truly, all lawlessness and sin come about through these three powers of the soul, and every virtue and righteousness comes about through them.
127. The intellect is darkened and becomes barren when the monk either speaks worldly words, or holds converse with them in his mind, or when his body together with his intellect takes up something sensible in vanity, or when the monk gives himself to vanity. Then at once he loses warmth, compunction, boldness before God and knowledge. For in the measure that we watch over our intellect, in that measure are we enlightened; and in the measure that we do not watch over it, in that measure are we darkened.
128. He who each day desires and seeks the guarding and stillness of the intellect can easily despise everything sensible, so as not to labour in vain. But when a man despises his own conscience, he will fall bitterly asleep in the death of forgetfulness. About this the divine David prays — that he may not fall asleep (cf. Ps 12:4). And the Apostle says: «To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin» (Jas 4:17).
129. The intellect passes from sloth to its proper rank and to watchfulness when it burns with diligence and when with fervent zeal we renew the activity of our intellect.
130. The mill-ass will not outrun the stone it turns, nor will the intellect attain perfect virtue until it has cleansed its own inner ground. He who cannot see virtue and radiant Jesus is always blind in his inner eyes.
131. A strong, swift horse leaps nimbly, carrying its rider; and the intellect rejoices with gladness in the light of the Lord when at dawn it stands before the Lord free of thoughts, and passes from the power of active philosophy, looking upon itself, to the ineffable power that contemplates ineffable virtues. And when it receives into the heart the depth of lofty, endless and divine thoughts, then, so far as is possible, the God of gods appears to its heart. The intellect, in wonder, will lovingly glorify God, seen and seeing, who by these means saves those who thus contemplate Him.
132. Stillness of heart will behold a lofty depth, if it is kept with understanding, and the ear of the silent intellect will hear wondrous things from God.
133. When a traveller sets out on a long, hard and difficult road and fears to lose his way on the return, he leaves along the way certain signs and markers by which he may easily come home again. And a man who travels in watchfulness leaves words behind, for he too fears to lose his way.
134. But the return to the place from which he set out is joy for the traveller; while for the watchful man to turn back is the perdition of the rational soul and a sign of estrangement from deeds, words and thoughts pleasing to God. During the deadly sleep of the soul he will have thoughts sharp as a sting, reminding him of the great darkening and distress that came upon him through negligence.
135. When we fall into affliction, despondency and hopelessness, we ought to do as David did, that is, to pour out the sorrows of our heart before God, and to declare to the Lord our prayer and our affliction, whatever it may be. We confess to God as to Him who can wisely direct us, and make the affliction light when it is profitable for us, and free us from corrupting and destructive grief.
136. Anger against a man, not directed according to nature, and grief that is not according to God, and distress destroy good and reasonable thoughts. The Lord, scattering anger, grief and distress by confession, brings joy into the soul.
137. Thoughts that have entered our heart and have taken hold there against our will and remain must be destroyed by the Jesus Prayer with watchfulness, from the depth of the heart’s thought.
138. When we are grieved by many senseless thoughts, we shall find relief and joy if we reproach ourselves truly and dispassionately and tell everything to the Lord as to a man. Having done these two things, we shall find rest.
139. The fathers hold that Moses the lawgiver is an image of the intellect, which sees God in the bush, and is glorified in countenance, and is set as a god over Pharaoh by the God of gods; he strikes Egypt and leads Israel out and establishes the law. If you understand this not literally but according to the spirit, it speaks of the activity and pre-eminence of the intellect.
140. The image of the outer man is Aaron, the brother of Moses the lawgiver. Reproaching the outer man with anger, as Moses reproached Aaron for his sin, let us say: «What has Israel done to you, that you have turned him away from the Lord, the living God, the Almighty?» (cf. Ex 32:21).
141. Among all His other blessings, the Lord God, when He wished to raise Lazarus from the dead, showed us that we must restrain by prohibition the womanish weakness of the soul and be firm with ourselves; for self-reproach frees the soul from self-love, vainglory and pride.
142. As it is impossible to cross the deep of the sea without a great ship, so it is impossible to drive off the provocation of an evil thought without the invocation of Jesus Christ.
143. Rebuttal halts the thoughts, and the invocation of Jesus Christ drives them from the heart. When through the fantasy of some object of sense a provocation is formed in the heart — whether through the memory of a man who has offended us, or the thought of a woman’s beauty, or the memory of gold and silver, or if all these notions pass in turn through our heart — then at once the thoughts of resentment, unchastity and avarice which produced the fantasy in the heart are exposed. And if our intellect is experienced and trained, and accustomed to guard itself and to see clearly and distinctly the flattering fantasies and enticements of the evil ones, then at once it quenches the fiery arrows of the devil by rebuttal and by prayer to Jesus Christ, not allowing the passionate fantasy to go along with the thought, nor our thoughts to be joined with the reverie, nor to converse fondly with it, nor to gather many notions and unite with them — from which evil deeds would follow as day follows night.
144. When our intellect is inexperienced in watchfulness, it at once mingles passionately with whatever fantasy appears to it, and holds conversation with it, listening to unrighteous questions and answering them. Then our thoughts are mingled with the demonic fantasy, which grows and multiplies in order to appear dear and pleasant and attractive to the deceived and plundered intellect. Then our intellect suffers something like this: as if gentle lambs were grazing on a plain and a dog ran up, and the lambs ran to the dog as to their own mother, gaining nothing from that approach but filth and stench. So too our thoughts, in their inexperience, draw near to all the demonic fantasies in the intellect and, having united with them, take counsel to destroy Ilion, as Agamemnon and Menelaus took counsel. So these too take counsel as to what must be done in order to bring into deed through the body what the demonic provocation has shown them as fair and pleasant. And thus other sins of the soul gather within — and then, as though of necessity, what is hidden in the heart comes out.
145. The intellect is something so light and guileless that it easily yields to fantasies, and it is not easy for it to refrain from lawless fantasies when there is not within it a ruler of the passions — the thought that forbids it and always restrains it.
146. Contemplation and knowledge are teachers of the perfect life and its defenders; for when they raise up the mind, it begins to despise the passions and other pleasant things of sense in this life, as evil.
147. An attentive life passed in Christ Jesus gives birth to contemplation and knowledge; it gives birth also to divine ascent and to wise notions joined with humility, as the divine prophet Isaiah says: «They who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles and soar to the Lord» (cf. Is 40:31).
148. Men find it a hard and painful thing to keep stillness from every thought. And truly it is a heavy and painful work. It is painful not only for the inexperienced to receive and hold the bodiless within the bodily, but also for those experienced in the inner, imperceptible warfare. But he who through constant prayer has the Lord Jesus in his breast will not grow weary following after Him, and, in the prophet’s words, «will not desire the day of calamity» (Jer 17:16), because of Jesus’ beauty, pleasantness and sweetness. Nor will he be put to shame before his enemies, the impious demons who prowl about, speaking with them «in the gates» (Ps 126:5) of the heart and driving them away with the name of Jesus.
149. When after death the soul soars into the air, to the gates of heaven, having Christ with it and within it, it will not be put to shame before its enemies. Boldly, as now so then, it will speak with them in the gates. Only let it not cease, until its very end, to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, day and night, and He «will defend it speedily» (Lk 18:8), according to His true and divine promise, as He says concerning the unjust judge: «I tell you, He will defend it both in this life and after the soul’s departure from the body».
150. Sailing upon the noetic sea, hope in Jesus. For He says secretly in your heart: «Fear not, Jacob, my little worm, feeble Israel; I am helping you» (Is 41:14). And if God is for us, what evil one shall stand against us? God, who is for us, has glorified the pure in heart and has laid it down as a law that into pure hearts there enters the divinely sweet and uniquely pure Jesus, and that He wishes to dwell in them. Therefore let us not cease, as the divine Paul says, to train ourselves in godliness (1 Tim 4:7). Truly good godliness is found in those who tear up by the roots the sowings of the evil one. Such godliness is the road of the word, that is, the way of reason, or the way of thought.
151. «He shall delight in the abundance of peace» (Ps 36:11), according to David’s word, who does not respect persons, judging unrighteousness in his heart — that is, who does not receive the images of the evil spirits and, through these images, does not think of sin and evil, judging and reasoning in the land of his heart, and does not turn the righteous into sin. The great and wise fathers in some of their writings call the demons men, on account of their rational nature. Of this the Lord too spoke in the Gospel: «An enemy, a man, has done this» (Mt 13:28) — that is, has sown tares among the wheat. It is not easy to renounce quickly those who work evil, and therefore thoughts destroy us.
152. If we begin to live with attentiveness of the intellect and yoke humility to watchfulness, and join prayer to the rebuttal of thoughts, we shall walk well the noetic road, as with a bright lamp — with the name of Jesus Christ whom we worship — sweeping the house of our heart and clearing it of wickedness, adorning and cleansing it. But if we rely only on our own watchfulness and attentiveness, the enemy will soon overthrow us and we shall fall. The flatterers and the most treacherous will overthrow us, and we shall be entangled in the nets of their evil thoughts, and they may easily stab us, since we have not the mighty sword — the name of Jesus Christ. For this sword alone is honourable, which, often turned within a heart where there are no images, knows how to turn them back and cut them down, and to scorch and devour them as fire devours straw.
153. The work of unceasing watchfulness, profitable to the soul and fruitful, is to see at once how fantasies of thoughts are formed in the intellect; the work of rebuttal is to expose and reveal the thought that seeks to enter, through the fantasy of some object of sense, into the space of our intellect. And the invocation of the Lord is that which at once quenches and destroys every design of the adversaries, every word, every fantasy, every likeness, every evil apparition. For we ourselves see in the intellect how Jesus, our great God, overcomes them by His power and avenges us who are humble, unworthy and of no account.
154. Many do not understand that all thoughts are nothing else than fantasies of sensible and worldly things. But when we stand soberly in prayer, then prayer frees the mind from every sensible fantasy of evil thoughts, and delivers to it the words of battle against the adversaries; therefore prayer and watchfulness are a great possession. «With your eyes only shall you look, and you shall see the recompense of sinners» (Ps 90:8) — in the intellect, and understand it — says David the psalmist.
155. Let us remember death, if possible, unceasingly. Remembering it, we shall lay aside grief and all vanity. The guarding of the intellect and unceasing prayer, dispassion of the body — that is, loathing of sin — and almost every virtue that is in us, to tell the truth, come from this. Therefore let us remember death, if possible, with every breath we take.
156. The heart which has at last withdrawn from fantasies gives birth within itself to joyful, divine and mysterious thoughts — so do fish and dolphins play, plunging in a calm sea. Over the sea blows a light wind, and over the abyss of the heart the Holy Spirit. «And because you are sons, — says the Apostle — God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of His Son, crying: Abba, Father!» (Gal 4:6).
157. Every monk will hesitate and not dare to take up the spiritual work until his intellect becomes watchful — either because he does not know its beauty, or because he knows it but cannot take it up through negligence. He will be freed from his doubts when he begins to guard his intellect, which is called the noetic philosophy of the intellect. Then he will find the way of which the Lord said: «I am the way, the truth and the life» (Jn 14:6).
158. He will hesitate again, seeing the abyss of thoughts and the multitude of the infants of Babylon. But this hesitation too Christ destroys, when we stand upon Him with the noetic stronghold, as upon a rock. Dashing the infants of Babylon against this rock (Ps 136:9), we rebut them. «He who keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing» (Eccl 8:5). «Without me, — says Christ — you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5).
159. He is a true monk who trains himself in watchfulness, and he is truly watchful who is a monk in his heart.
160. Human life goes on, counting off years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. So too we should continue in virtuous activity — I mean watchfulness, and prayer, and sweetness of heart in pleasant stillness — until our end.
161. The hour of death will come upon us, it will come, and there will be no escaping it. Oh that the prince of the world and of the air, who will come then, might find our lawless deeds few and slight, that he might not truly convict us; for then our weeping will be in vain. «He who knew his master’s will and did not prepare, nor act according to his will, — says Scripture — shall be beaten with many stripes» (Lk 12:47).
162. Woe to you who have destroyed your heart; «what will you do when the Lord visits?» (Sir 2:14). Therefore let us struggle, brethren.
163. Ordinary and dispassionate thoughts are followed by passionate ones, as we have learnt from many years of experience and observation. The first are the entrance for the second, that is, the dispassionate for the passionate.
164. Truly a man must willingly cut himself in two and be torn asunder by a most wise resolve; he must become his own fierce enemy. As we regard a man who has fiercely insulted and slandered us, so, and far more, must we regard ourselves, if we wish to fulfil the great and first commandment, that is, to live as Christ did, in blessed humility, a divine life in the flesh. Therefore the Apostle says: «Who will deliver me from the body of this death?» (Rom 7:24). For it does not submit to God’s law. And showing that it is in our power to subject the body to God’s will, he says: «If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened» (1 Cor 11:31-32).
165. The beginning of fruitfulness is the blossom; the beginning of the guarding of the intellect is abstinence from food and drink, the rejection and abandonment of all thoughts, and stillness of heart.
166. When we begin our struggle, strengthened in Christ Jesus, with firm watchfulness, then there appears in our intellect something like a candle held in the hand of the intellect, which leads us along the noetic paths. Then there arises something like a bright moon, which turns in the firmament of the heart; and then the Sun appears to us — Jesus, who shines with righteousness, that is, who shows Himself and the most radiant light of His visions.
167. Such things Jesus secretly reveals to the intellect that abides in His commandment: «Circumcise your uncircumcised heart» (Dt 10:16). And, as has been said, diligent watchfulness teaches a man wondrous thoughts. The Godhead is no respecter of persons. Therefore the Lord says: «To him who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away» (Mt 13:12). «For those who love God, all things work together for good» (Rom 8:28). Therefore the virtues will hasten to his aid.
168. A ship will not sail many miles without water, and the guarding of the intellect will not last long without watchfulness, humility and constant prayer to Jesus.
169. The foundation of a house is stone; the foundation and roof of this virtue is the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we worship. When a storm breaks, an inexperienced helmsman easily wrecks his ship; he scatters the oarsmen, casts the oars and rudder into the deep, and himself falls asleep. Even more easily do the demons destroy the soul which is negligent in watchfulness and does not call upon the name of Jesus when the provocations come.
170. We write down what we know and what we have seen in walking this road, and we bear witness to you, if you will receive it; for the Lord Himself said: «If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and withers; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned» (Jn 15:6). But if anyone abides in the Lord, the Lord also abides in him. As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of foul and destructive thoughts without prayer with the name of Jesus. If this is true, as I see from experience, let us join the name of Jesus to our breathing. His name is light, and thoughts are darkness; the name of Jesus is the name of God and Master, and thoughts are the slaves of demons.
171. Let the guarding of the intellect fittingly and rightly be called light-bearing and lightning-bearing, radiant and fire-bearing. For it stands higher, to speak truly, than many bodily virtues. Therefore we ought to call this virtue by honourable names, since through it a bright-shining light is born. Those who love it — sinners and unworthy, foul and foolish, ignorant and unrighteous — may become righteous, pure, holy and understanding in Christ Jesus. And not only do they become such, but they may also behold hidden things and theologise. And when they learn to look into hidden things, they will pass over into this most pure and boundless light and touch it with ineffable touchings, and will live and abide with it, for they have known that the Lord is good. Therefore in these first-among-angels the word of the divine David is fulfilled: «And the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell before Your face» (Ps 139:14). Truly, these alone rightly call upon and confess God, and those who love Him always love to converse with Him.
172. Woe to the inner man because of the outer. For the outward senses greatly injure the inner man, and, being injured, he will inflict wounds upon the outward senses. But when a man has done what Scripture says, he has already understood what happens in contemplation.
173. If our inner man keeps watchfulness, he is able, as the fathers say, to keep the outer man as well. Yet both we and the malefactor demons work sin together: the demons, either by thoughts alone or by imaginary images, depict in the intellect the sin to which they wish to lead us; and we sin both by thoughts within and by deeds without. The demons, having no solid body, torment themselves and us only by thoughts, wickedness and flattery. But if they were not deprived of a solid body, they would sin unceasingly by deeds also, being always ready for impiety.
174. But single-minded prayer grinds their temptations to dust. Jesus, God and the Son of God, when we call upon Him often and without sloth, in no way allows them either to begin to enter (the beginning of their entry is called provocation), or to show the intellect any image in the noetic mirror, or to speak any words to the heart. And if no demonic image enters the heart, then, as we have already said, there will be no thoughts in it either. For the demons are accustomed through thoughts to hold converse with the soul and secretly to teach it sin.
175. And so by constant prayer the noetic space is cleansed of the dark clouds and winds of the evil spirits. And when the space of the heart is cleansed, it is impossible for the divine light of Jesus not to shine in it. But when we are puffed up with vainglory, pride and high-mindedness, and exalt ourselves to things beyond our reach, we become helpless without Jesus, for Christ, the pattern of humility, does not love such a man.
176. Let us then hold fast to prayer and humility — these two which, together with watchfulness, are armed against the demons like a flaming sword. If we do so, then every day and every hour a joyful and mysterious feast will be celebrated in our heart.
177. There are eight thoughts akin to malice; in them is contained every thought, and from them other thoughts are born, as from Juno and Jupiter every abominable demon, the god of the Danaans, as their myths relate. They all come to the door of the heart and, finding the intellect unguarded, enter in their turn, one after another. And each of the eight thoughts that has entered the heart brings in a multitude of foul thoughts and, having thus darkened the intellect, urges the body to foul deeds.
178. He who watches for the serpent’s head with fierce rebuttal, speaking angry words as though striking the body with his fist, conquers in the battle. For, having crushed the serpent’s head, he escapes many evil thoughts and wicked deeds. Then the mind remains undisturbed; God accepts its vigil in thoughts and grants it knowledge of how the enemies must be overcome, and how the heart must gradually be cleansed of the thoughts that defile the inner man, as the Lord Jesus says: «For out of the heart come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications… These defile a man» (Mt 15:19-20).
179. Thus can the soul that is in the Lord stand in its beauty and rightness, as God created it in the beginning, exceedingly good and upright, as the great servant of the Lord, Anthony, said: «When the intellect is such as it should be by nature, then the soul is as virtue itself». And he also said: «For the soul’s being righteous means that the intellect in it keeps its nature, such as it was created with». And again he said: «Let us purify our mind. For I believe that when it is wholly purified and has recovered its nature, it will be able, becoming clear-sighted, to see from afar many demons, for the Lord will reveal them to it». So spoke the glorious Anthony. Of this the great Athanasius wrote in the Life of Anthony.
180. Every thought calls up in the intellect an image of sensible things. For the Assyrian, the enemy, himself a noetic being, leads astray by no other means than by things of sense familiar to us.
181. As it is impossible for us men to chase winged birds through the air or to rise into the air as they do, since this is not proper to our nature, so it is impossible to overcome bodiless demonic thoughts, or zealously to raise the noetic eye to God, without watchful and frequent prayer. If such prayer is lacking, you are earthly and look upon the earth.
182. If you truly wish to cover your thoughts with shame and, keeping stillness, to be watchful in heart with good cheer and ease, let the Jesus Prayer cleave to your breathing, and in a few days you will see this come to pass.
183. As it is impossible to write signs in the air, but they must be traced on something in order to be preserved, so let us add to our honourable watchfulness prayer to Jesus Christ, that the good virtue of watchfulness may always abide with us wholly and, through Him, be preserved for us inseparable for ever.
184. «Commit your works to the Lord, and you will find grace», said the prophet. Let not the same prophet say of us also: «You are near in their mouth, but far from their heart» (Jer 12:2). No one will still the passion in your heart unless Jesus Christ Himself does it — He who has gathered into Himself what was far apart.
185. The conversations of thoughts in the intellect and outward talk and idle chatter darken the soul equally. Those who turn away from all that harms the intellect — that is, from idle talk and thoughts — must turn away from people too, lest the intellect be darkened and watchfulness be weakened. When we are darkened by forgetfulness, the intellect perishes.
186. He who with all diligence guards purity of heart will have as his Teacher Christ, the Lawgiver of purity, who will secretly declare to his heart His own will. Declaring this, David says: «I will hear what the Lord God will say in me» (Ps 84:9). And showing, during the noetic battle, the intellect’s dispute with itself and God’s protection, he says: «And a man shall say: Is there then a reward for the righteous?» (Ps 57:12). And then, revealing the decision taken by both after the contest, he says: «Surely there is a God who judges them» (Ps 57:12) — that is, the evil demons in the land of our heart. And elsewhere he says: «A man shall draw near, and a deep heart. But God shall be exalted» (Ps 63:7). And then the wounds they inflict will seem to us like scratches from a child’s arrow.
187. In wisdom let us always walk with those «untaught in heart» (Ps 89:12), as the sacred singer says, always breathing Christ Jesus, the power of God the Father and the Wisdom of God. And if some circumstance weakens us and we grow slack in the work of the intellect, then on the next day let us gird the loins of our intellect firmly and set to work strongly, knowing that we have no excuse, since we knew what was good and did not do the good.
188. If a man eats spoiled food, it will trouble his body; but if the one who has eaten, sensing the harm, vomits up what he has eaten more quickly than poison, he will suffer no harm. So too the intellect: when it receives evil thoughts and swallows them and feels their bitterness, then it easily casts them up with the help of the Jesus Prayer, which comes from the depth of the heart, and throws them far away, as the life according to God and the experience handed down by those who live in watchfulness teach.
189. Join watchfulness and the name of Jesus to your breathing and your nostrils, or the constant meditation on death and humility. Both the one and the other are of great profit.
190. The Lord said: «Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls» (Mt 11:29).
191. The Lord said: «Whoever becomes small like this child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven» (Mt 18:4) — and he who exalts himself will be humbled. «Learn, — He says — from me». You see what must be learnt: humility, for His commandment is eternal life. But the unhumble man will fall away from life and will find himself in the opposite state.
192. If every virtue is accomplished by soul and body, and if the soul and body which accomplish virtue are, as I have said, God’s creation, is it not madness on our part to boast of adornments that are not our own, neither of soul nor of body? Leaning upon pride as upon a reed, we draw down upon our head the wrath of our infinitely great God for our great lawlessness and folly, for «God opposes the proud» (Jas 4:6). We do not imitate God’s humility, but through vainglorious and proud reasoning we keep company with the enemy of the Lord — the proud demon. Therefore the Apostle says: «What do you have that you did not receive?» (1 Cor 4:7). Did you create yourself? And if you received from God the body and soul through which, and by which, and in which every virtue is developed, why do you boast as though you had not received? The Lord granted them to you.
193. The purification of the heart, through which come humility and every good that descends from on high and enters us, is attained by our not allowing the thoughts that approach to enter the soul at all.
194. The guarding of the intellect, with God’s help, established in the soul by God Himself, gives the intellect wisdom in the struggles according to God. It also gives him who partakes of it no small occasion to order his deeds and words at the favourable judgment according to God.
195. What was said in the Old Testament about the priesthood was a foreshadowing of the pure heart, so that we too might watch over the tablet of the heart and, when it grows black with sins, cleanse it with tears, repentance and prayer. Our intellect is very mobile; it is not easily restrained from lawless thoughts, and just as easily it yields to noetic fantasies both good and evil.
196. Truly blessed is he who has so cleaved in thought to the Jesus Prayer and unceasingly utters the name of Jesus in his heart, as the air cleaves to our bodies or flame to the candle. The sun, passing over the earth, brings the day; and the holy and honourable name of the Lord Jesus, shining unceasingly in the intellect, gives birth to countless sun-like thoughts.
197. When the clouds disperse, the sky becomes clear; and when the mirages of the passions are scattered by the Sun of righteousness, Jesus Christ, light-formed and star-like thoughts arise in the heart, for Jesus enlightens the space of the heart. For Ecclesiastes says: «Those who have trusted in Him shall understand the truth, and the faithful shall abide with Him in love» (Wis 3:9).
198. A certain saint said: «When you bear a grudge, bear it against the demons; and when you make war, make war always with your own body. The flesh is like a flattering friend: when you indulge it, it goes to war. Begin at once your enmity with the body and your battle against the belly».
199. In the preceding words, in the first and the second century, we have described the work of the sacred stillness of the intellect, not only from what we ourselves know, but from what the divine words of the God-wise fathers teach us about purity of the intellect. And now, having said a little to show the gain that comes from the guarding of the intellect, let us end our discourse.
200. Come then and follow me, that you may attain the blessed guarding of the intellect, whoever you may be that love to see good days in the spirit; and in the Lord I shall teach you the visible activity and the life of the noetic powers. The angels are never sated with hymning the Creator, nor is the intellect that purely imitates them. And as beings above nature take no thought for food, so let these beings of nature take no thought for it, when they ascend to the heaven of the intellect’s stillness.
201. And as the heavenly powers take no thought for riches or for accumulation, so let those who have cleansed the eyes of the soul and grown accustomed to virtue take no thought for the malice of the evil spirits. And as the former have great success in drawing near to God, so it is proper to the latter to yearn for God and to love Him, to look upon the Godhead and to ascend to Him. Moreover, beginning their ascents with great longing and insatiably, they will not stop, coming to know God and His wondrous love, until they attain to the seraphim and rest from the watchfulness of the intellect and from the desired exaltation, until they become as angels in Christ Jesus our Lord.
202. There is no poison worse than the poison of the asp and the basilisk, and there is no sin worse than the sin of self-love. And the offspring of self-love are flying serpents: boasting in the heart, self-indulgence, gluttony, unchastity, vainglory, envy, and the summit of all evils — pride, which drags down from heaven not only men but angels also, and covers them not with light but with darkness.
203. This I bring to you, Theodoulos, I who bear a name of stillness, though I am not still in deed. Perhaps I bring not everything, but what God has given — God whom, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, every rational being praises and glorifies, angels and men and all creation which the ineffable Trinity, the one God, has made. May we too receive His radiant Kingdom through the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God and of our venerable fathers; and to Him, the incomprehensible God, be glory for ever. Amen.
Note 1: This probably refers to the example of David’s watchman: «Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man running alone» (2 Sam 18:24).