The discourse of Nikephoros the Monk on sobriety and the guarding of the heart
A discourse full of great profit for you who desire to obtain the beautiful divine revelation of our Saviour Jesus Christ; for all who wish to receive heavenly fire in the hearing of the heart; for all who strive by experience and by feeling to be reconciled with God; for you who, in order to find and gain the treasure hidden in the dwelling place of your hearts, have left behind everything worldly; for you who wish your spiritual lamps to be lit from this moment on, and who therefore have renounced all things present; for you who wish to know and to receive by understanding and by experience the Kingdom of Heaven that is within you — come, and I shall tell you of the science, or art, of eternal and heavenly life, which without toil and sweat leads the one who practises it to the harbour of dispassion, where he need fear no temptation and no fall from the demons; and he falls only when, through disobedience, he finds himself somewhere far from the life I am teaching you. So it was once with Adam, who, disregarding God’s commandment, made friends with the serpent and, considering him truthful, filled himself to excess with the fruit of temptation, and fell into need, and cast all his descendants into the depths of death, darkness and corruption.
So let us come together, or rather let us return to ourselves, brethren, turning away completely from the counsels of the serpent and from all creeping inclinations. For in no other way shall we be reconciled with God and be changed, unless we first return to ourselves as far as we are able, or rather enter into ourselves. It is a glorious thing to break away from worldly affairs and vain cares and to hold fast unceasingly to the Kingdom of Heaven that is within us. That is why the monastic life is called the science of sciences and the art of arts: because this monastic life does not teach us corruptible things, so that we should bury our intellect in them, drawing it away from better things, but promises us certain strange and indescribable blessings, which «eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man» (1 Cor. 2:9). And therefore «our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the rulers of this world of darkness» (Eph. 6:12). Since the present age is darkness, let us flee from it, let us flee, considering that we have nothing in common with the enemy of God. Whoever wishes to be his friend becomes God’s enemy; and who will help the enemy of God?
Therefore let us imitate our fathers and seek the treasure that is in our hearts, as they too sought it. And having found it, let us hold it fast, labouring at it and guarding it. And if some other Nicodemus should appear and argue, saying: «How can a man enter into his heart and do something or remain there?» — just as the first Nicodemus contradicted the Saviour: «How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?» — he too will hear in reply that the Spirit «blows where it wills» (cf. John 3:4, 8). If we doubt about things that belong to practice and do not believe in them, how shall we understand things that belong to the intellect? For the ascent to contemplation is action. But since it is impossible to convince one who does not believe without written testimony, we shall include in this discourse the lives of the saints and their written teaching, for the profit of many, so that they may be convinced by reading and may cast away all doubt. Beginning with the greatest of our fathers, let us pass on, as far as possible, to those who follow, and having gathered here some part of their words and deeds, let us add them as assurance.
From the life of our venerable father Anthony
Once two brothers set out to visit Abba Anthony. When their water ran out on the way, one of them died and the other was near death. He could go no further and lay down on the ground, awaiting death. Anthony was sitting at that time on the mountain. He called two monks who happened to be there and ordered them: «Take a jar of water and go along the road to Egypt. Two men were walking there; one is already dead, and the other will die if you do not hurry. I had such a vision while I was praying». When the monks came, they found one lying dead and buried him, and the other they gave water to drink and brought to the elder. It happened at a distance of one day’s journey. And if anyone asks why Anthony said nothing before the death of that monk, his question is wrong. It is not Anthony who decides about death, but God, who so decided and revealed it to Anthony. The only miracle here that came through Anthony was that he sat on the mountain and kept his heart sober, and so the Lord showed him distant events. Do you understand that Anthony became a seer and a beholder because he was sober in heart? In the heart God appears to our state, as John of the Ladder says: first as a fire that purifies the one who loves God, and then as a light that illumines the intellect and makes it godlike. But it is time for us to pass to the next word.
From the life of Saint Theodosios, the founder of the cenobitic life
The divine Theodosios was so struck by the arrow of sweet love and so bound with its bonds that he fulfilled the lofty divine commandment: «You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind» (Luke 10:27). And this was possible only because the natural powers of the soul were directed not to the things of the present age but sought the Creator alone. And this is the state of true action. Therefore, even when he entreated, he was held in awe by many, and when he reproved, he was desirable and sweet to all. Who could so greatly benefit others by speaking with many, and who could so easily teach how to gather the senses together and set them in order within? Who, having lived for years in the midst of turmoil, had within himself as much stillness as those who live in stillness possess? And who remained the same whether he was among people or in solitude? Such was this great Theodosios, who gathered his senses together and drew them inward, because he had been struck with love for the Creator.
From the life of Saint Arsenios
This wonderful Arsenios avoided recording disputes and writing letters to anyone. He did this not because he was unable to. It was as easy for him to speak eloquently as it is for others to speak simply. The reasons were these: his habit of silence and his unwillingness to display himself to men. Therefore both in church and at gatherings he took great care not to see anyone himself and not to be seen by others, but stood behind a pillar or some other partition and so hid himself, and he never stood among the rest but concealed himself, because he wished to gather his intellect within and so ascend easily to God. This is what this divine man, an earthly angel, did: he gathered his intellect within, so that from there he might easily ascend to God.
From the life of Saint Paul of Latros
The divine Paul always lived in the mountains and in the desert, and his neighbours and table companions were wild beasts. Sometimes he came down to the Lavra and visited the brethren. He instructed and taught them not to be faint-hearted and to take care over the hard labour of acquiring the virtues, to hold to the life of the Gospel with all diligence and prudence, and to resist the spirits of wickedness with good-heartedness. Besides this, he spoke of the art that gives strength to fight against the wiles of passion and to turn aside the harvest of the passions. You see how this divine father teaches an art to disciples who do not know it, so that by this art they may turn aside the attachment of the passions. And this was no other art than the guarding of the intellect. This is the work of that art and of no other. But let our discourse continue.
From the life of Saint Sabbas
When the divine Sabbas saw a monk who had studied well the rules of monastic life, and who knew how to fight against opposing thoughts, and who was already able to guard his intellect, and who had completely banished the memory of worldly things from his thoughts, he would give such a man a cell in the Lavra if he was weak and sick; but when such a monk was healthy and strong, he ordered him to build a cell for himself. Do you see how the divine Sabbas required the disciples to guard their intellect, and only then allowed them to have their own cell, once they had learned this? What then are we to do, who sit idle in our cells and do not even know what the guarding of the intellect is?
From the life of Abba Agathon
A brother asked Abba Agathon: «Tell me, Abba, which is greater: bodily labour or the care of the intellect?» The Abba answered: «Man is like a tree: bodily labour is the leaves, and the care of the intellect is the fruit. And since, according to the Scripture, ‘every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’ (Luke 3:9), all our effort must be directed to the fruit, that is, to the care of the intellect. We have no need of leaves and adornments, that is, of bodily labour». O wonder! How well this saint spoke against all those who take no care of the intellect but boast only of outward action: «Every branch that bears no fruit — that is, care of the intellect — but has only leaves, that is, outward action, will be cut down and thrown into the fire». Fearful are your words, father!
Abba Mark to Nicholas
Since you wish, my child, to have within you the lamp of the noetic light of the spiritual intellect, so that without stumbling you may walk in the dark night of this age and the Lord may direct your steps — for you have greatly desired the way of the Gospel, according to His word, that is, with ardent faith and prayer to be a partaker of the perfect evangelical commandments of the Lord — I shall show you a wonderful art and a spiritual way that requires not bodily labour and struggle, but a spiritual intellect and attentive thought, accompanied by the fear of God and love for God. In this way you can easily defeat the regiment of the enemy. And when you wish to gain victory over the passions, then gather yourself with prayer and God’s help and, entering into the depths of the heart, examine these three giants: forgetfulness, despair and ignorance, which support the alien thoughts. And through them the other sinful passions enter the heart, and act, and live, and grow in souls that love pleasure. With great attentiveness and thoroughness of the intellect, with help from above, you will attain what is unknown to many, and you will be able to rid yourself of these fierce giants by prayer and attentiveness. Through the effort to acquire true knowledge and to remember the word of God, the trace of forgetfulness, ignorance and despair disappears from the heart of the one who strives to establish himself in the heart by active grace and to guard himself. Do you see how the spiritual words agree with one another? Do you see how clearly they explain what attentiveness is? Look also at the fathers who came before, and see what they say about it.
Saint John of the Ladder
He who keeps stillness is the one who strives to hold the bodiless soul within its bodily house, and this is a glorious deed. He who keeps stillness is the one who says: «I sleep, but my heart does not slumber» (Song 5:2). He is the one who shuts the door of the cell against the body, the door of the tongue against conversations, and the inner door against the evil spirits. Sitting on a height, watch, if you are experienced, how, when, from where, how many and what kind of thieves are coming to steal the grapes. When you grow weary of keeping watch, rise, pray, and sit down again, and courageously take up the same work. Guarding the thoughts is one thing, and guarding the intellect is another. As far as the east is from the west, so far does the second differ from the first, and it is more difficult. Just as robbers, when they see the royal weapons lying somewhere, attack by cunning, so the one who has joined prayer to his heart is robbed by cunning by the thieves of the intellect. Do you understand these words, which explain the wondrous work of this great father? Yet we, who walk as though in darkness, pass by these spiritual words that profit the soul, and like men fighting in the night we willingly become deaf, passing them by. But listen also to the words of other fathers, to what they write for us who are on our way to sobriety.
Abba Isaiah
When someone departs from those on the left hand and knows all the sins he has committed against God — for he does not see his sins until he is separated from them by a bitter separation — then, having reached this measure, he will find weeping and prayer, and will be ashamed before God, remembering his wicked friendship with the passions. So let us rise up, brethren, as far as we have strength, and God will help us according to the abundance of His mercy. And if we do not manage to guard our hearts as our fathers guarded theirs, let us at least try to keep our bodies sinless, as God commands. Let us believe that in the famine that will come upon us, God will show us mercy, as He did to His saints. Here this great father consoles us, saying to the weakest: «Even if we do not guard our hearts as our fathers did, let us at least keep our bodies sinless, as God commands. And He will have mercy on us». Great is this father’s mercy and condescension.
Macarius the Great
The most important thing for an ascetic is to enter into his heart and do battle with Satan, and to hate him, and, fighting against his thoughts, to attack him. When someone outwardly guards his body from corruption and unchastity, but inwardly commits adultery before God and fornicates with his thoughts, he will have no benefit from a virgin body. For it is written: «Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart» (Matt. 5:28). There is a fornication committed by the body, and there is a fornication in which the soul is united with Satan. It might seem that this great father contradicts the words of Abba Isaiah, but in fact he does not. For he too teaches us to take care of our bodies, as God commands. And God commands us to preserve not only bodily purity but also purity of soul, which is what the commandments of the Gospel tell us.
Diadochos
He who is always in his heart withdraws completely from the beauties of this life. He who walks in the Spirit cannot see the desires of the flesh, because he walks under the guard of the virtues; the virtues in him are like gatekeepers, and therefore the demons cannot trample him underfoot. This saint says well that the cunning of the enemy has no effect when we are in the depths of our heart, and the more firmly we establish ourselves there, the more we are protected from them. But you see, I would not have time enough to repeat the words of all the fathers on this matter. Therefore, having mentioned one or two more, I shall bring my discourse to an end.
Isaac the Syrian
Hasten to enter your inner treasury, and you will see the heavenly treasury. The first and the second are one and the same. Entering the first, you will see both the first and the second. The treasure of that Kingdom is hidden within you, that is, in your soul. So wash yourself of your sins, and you will find the steps by which you may ascend.
Karpathios
Great effort and labour is needed in prayer in order to find an untroubled thought — like a second heaven of the heart, where Christ dwells, according to the words of the Apostle: «Do you not know your own selves, that Jesus Christ dwells in you?» (2 Cor. 13:5).
Symeon the New Theologian
Ever since man was driven out of paradise through disobedience and became distant from God, the devil and the demons have gained the freedom to shake the intellect of every man by night and by day — one a little, another more, and another a great deal. The intellect will be protected from them by nothing else except the constant remembrance of God. When the remembrance of God is imprinted in the heart by the power of the Cross, then the intellect is firmly established. This leads to the noetic struggle towards which every Christian must strive. If he does not carry on the struggle in the intellect, his struggle is in vain. Everyone who endures suffering for the Lord’s sake undertakes various spiritual exercises in order to receive the mercy of God. Then the Lord will restore him to his original dignity, and Christ will be imprinted in his intellect, as the Apostle says: «My little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!» (Gal. 4:19).
Have you understood, brethren, what a spiritual mastery, or method of learning, this is, which quickly leads the one who practises it to dispassion and to the vision of God? Have you realised that God looks upon every outward action as the fruitless leaves of a tree, and that for every soul that does not guard its intellect everything is in vain? Let us hasten, then, so that we may not repent too late, when our life ends in barrenness.
Question: From this passage we learn what kind of action is pleasing to God, and what action quickly frees the soul from the passions and unites it with the love of God, which is necessary for everyone who fights for Christ. We have no doubt about this and are firmly convinced. What, then, is attentiveness, and how does one come to understand it? Teach us, we pray! We know nothing at all about it.
Answer: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said: «Without me you can do nothing» (John 15:5). Calling upon Him as helper and companion, I shall try to explain in an accessible way what attentiveness is and how it may be acquired with God’s help.
The same Nikephoros
Some of the holy fathers called attentiveness the guarding of the intellect, others the guarding of the heart, others sobriety, others noetic stillness, and others still by other names. All these words mean the same thing, just as the words «bread», «crust» and «slice» all refer to the same thing. Listen carefully, then, to what attentiveness is and what its signs are.
Attentiveness is the knowledge of pure repentance; attentiveness is the calling of the soul, hatred of the world and ascent to God. Attentiveness is the turning away from sin and the embracing of virtue. Attentiveness is unmistakable assurance of the forgiveness of sins. Attentiveness is the beginning of discernment, and indeed discernment itself; through it God bends down to the intellect and appears to it. Attentiveness is freedom from vexation of the intellect — or, in other words, its firmness — which the mercy of God gives to the soul. Attentiveness is the overcoming of thoughts, the temple of the remembrance of God, and the treasury of endurance in the sorrows that come. Attentiveness is the cause of faith, hope and love. If a man did not believe, he would not accept the sorrows that come from outside; and if he did not accept sorrows with love, he would not say to God: «My protector and my refuge» (Ps. 90:2). And if the soul had not taken the Most High as its refuge, it would not have found itself in the bosom of God’s love.
This greatest of all works is acquired by many, if not by all, through instruction. Few of the untaught receive it from God through intensified action and warm faith — and even this exception has its correction. Therefore we must seek an unerring guide, in order to learn to distinguish the errors and excesses, on the right hand and on the left, that befall us in keeping attentiveness through the wiles of the evil one. The teacher will instruct us from what he himself has experienced, and will undoubtedly show us this way of thinking, so that it may be easy for us to walk in it. When there is no guide, we must diligently seek one. And when none is found, call upon God with sorrow and tears, and in your poverty pray to Him and do what I tell you.
You know that we breathe air, and that we breathe it out with nothing else but the heart. The heart is the cause of the life and warmth of the body. The heart draws in air in order to give off its warmth with the breath and to remain in good order. The lungs support the heart in this and even serve it. The Creator made them loose, like a vessel, so that they might easily let air in and out. Therefore the heart, drawing in cool air and breathing out warm air, preserves the constitution of the living being. And so sit down, and gathering your intellect, lead it into the passage through which the air enters the heart, and urge it to descend with the air into the heart. When it enters there, it will not be sad and joyless as it was here. Just as a man who has left home and then returned is overjoyed to see his wife and children again, so the intellect, when it is united with the soul, is filled with a flood of inexpressible joy and gladness. Therefore, brother, train your intellect not to leave there quickly. At first it will find it tedious to be shut in and confined. But when it grows accustomed, it will no longer wish to go outside, for within us is the Kingdom of Heaven, and, contemplating it and finding it with pure prayer, it will regard everything external as vile and hateful.
When you first enter your heart with your intellect, as I have told you, give thanks to God, and praise Him and rejoice, and hold always to this work, and it will teach you everything you do not know. You must also learn this: that your intellect, when it is in the heart, must not stand idle and silent, but, saying the words «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me», must be occupied and endlessly instructed, and must never stop. Keeping your intellect in this way, so that it does not become proud, you make it impregnable and inviolable against hostile attachments, and raise it every day to love and divine desire.
And if, brother, after much effort you cannot enter into the region of the heart as I have commanded you, do as I tell you, and with God’s help you will find what you seek. You know that the reasoning of every man is in his breast. Inwardly, for it is in the breast that, when our lips are silent, we speak, take counsel, offer prayer and psalms and other things. Having banished every other thought from this reasoning, you can, if you wish, let it say this: «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me» — and compel yourself to call in this way instead of any other thought. When you have endured this for a time, your heart will open to you, as we have already written to you, having learned this without doubt from experience. Then the whole company of the virtues — love, joy, peace and the rest — comes to you together with this much-desired and sweet attentiveness, and through them all your requests will be fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory, dominion, honour and worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Editorial note (belonging to the following chapter): Theoleptos, a truly great luminary of Philadelphia, flourished in the time of Andronikos II Palaiologos, around 1325. At first he lived on the Holy Mountain in solitude, and later, having accepted the office of bishop in Philadelphia, he was the teacher of St. Gregory of Thessalonica and instructed him in the highest sciences. He taught Gregory holy sobriety and noetic prayer while he was still in the world, as is related in the life of the same Gregory, written by Patriarch Philotheos. And the Discourse which he composed with great care is the best-known example of the rule of the teaching hidden in Christ, together with the chapters that follow it, in which divine understanding and clarity of speech are fittingly combined. It is more useful than anything else, and it is a praiseworthy work to set out God’s wise teaching in summary for those who seek spiritual wisdom.