Ascetic Works 2-1

Of the demons that oppose the practical life, the first to take their stand in the war are those entrusted with the pleasures (or appetites) of gluttony, those who suggest the love of money to us, and those who call us toward the esteem of men.

All the others march behind these, and take over those who have been wounded by them.

For it is not possible to fall into the hands of the spirit of fornication unless one has first fallen through gluttony;

and it is not possible to stir up anger unless one is fighting for food, money, or glory, or for the desires of irrational things;

and it is not possible to escape the demon of sadness when one has been deprived of all these, or has been unable to obtain them;

nor will anyone escape pride, the first offspring of the devil, unless he has banished the root of all evils, the love of money, since indeed poverty humbles a man, according to the wise Solomon;

and to put it briefly, it is not possible for a man to fall into the hands of a demon unless he has first been wounded by those leaders in the front rank; therefore the devil also brought these three thoughts to the Savior:

first, urging that the stones become loaves, then promising the whole world if He would fall down and worship,

and third, saying that He would be glorified if He listened, suffering nothing from so great a fall; but our Lord, having shown Himself superior to these, ordered the devil to get behind Him, thereby teaching us also that it is not possible to drive away the devil unless we despise these three thoughts.

All demonic thoughts bring into the soul concepts of sensible objects, in which the mind, being stamped, carries about within itself the forms of those objects, and from the object itself it thereafter recognizes the demon that has drawn near;

for example, if the face of the one who has wronged or dishonored me arises in my mind, the thought of grudge-bearing is convicted of having intruded.

Again, if a remembrance of money or glory should arise, the one afflicting us will clearly be recognized from the object;

and likewise in the case of the other thoughts, from the object you will find the demon that stands by and suggests the fantasies.

But I do not say that all the memories of such objects come from demons;

since it is the nature of the mind itself, when moved by the man, to bring up the fantasies of past events; rather, I mean those memories that draw along with them anger or desire contrary to nature.

For because of the disturbance of these two powers, the mind commits adultery in thought and fights, being unable to receive the image of Him who gave it the law.

That radiance indeed appears to the ruling faculty at the time of prayer through the privation of all concepts arising from objects.

A man could not put away the passionate memories unless he took care of desire and anger, consuming the one by fasting, vigils, and sleeping on the ground, and taming the other by long-suffering, freedom from grudges, and almsgiving;

for from these two passions arise almost all the demonic thoughts that cast the mind into ruin and destruction.

It is impossible for anyone to overcome these passions unless he has entirely despised food, money, and glory, and moreover his own body too, because of those who often attempt to strike it;

there is then every necessity to imitate those who, in danger at sea, throw out the cargo because of the force of the winds and the rising waves.

But here one must take careful heed, lest in throwing out the cargo we do it to be seen by men;

for then we have our reward, and another shipwreck worse than the former will overtake us, when the demon of vainglory blows against us.

Therefore our Lord also in the Gospels, instructing the pilot-mind, says, Take heed that you do not do your alms before men to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. And again:

When you pray, He says, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men;

truly I say to you, they have their reward. And again He says:

When you fast, do not be gloomy like the hypocrites;

for they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear to men to be fasting;

truly I say to you, they have their reward. But here one must attend to the physician of souls, how through almsgiving He heals anger, through prayer He cleanses the mind, and again through fasting He withers desire, out of which is constituted the new man, who is being renewed according to the image of his Creator, in whom, because of holy dispassion, there is neither male nor female, nor, because of the one faith and love, Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all in all.

One must inquire how the demons in dreams stamp and shape our ruling faculty;

for such a thing seems to happen to the mind either when it sees through the eyes, or hears through the hearing, or again through some other sense, or from memory, which stamps the ruling faculty not through the body, but it sets in motion those things which it received through the body.

The demons, then, seem to me, by setting memory in motion, to stamp the ruling faculty;

for the bodily organ is held inactive by sleep.

How then, again, they set memory in motion must be inquired—perhaps through the passions? And this is clear from the fact that the pure and dispassionate no longer suffer anything of the sort.

There is also a certain simple movement produced by us, or by the holy powers, according to which we meet with the saints in our sleep, and converse, and feast together.

But one must take note that whatever images the soul receives together with the body, these the memory sets in motion without the body; and this is plain from the fact that we often experience this even in sleep while the body is at rest.

For just as it is possible to remember water both with thirst and without thirst,

so it is possible to remember gold with greed and without greed, and likewise in the case of the other objects.

But for the mind to find these or those differences of fantasies is a mark of their (the demons') malicious craft.

At the same time one must also know this, that the demons make use even of external objects for their fantasies, as in the case of those at sea with the sound of the waves.

...to give to those who make the suggestions.

This I know many often do, and more than is proper, being inflamed over small pretexts.

For tell me, on whose account do you quickly rush into a fight, if indeed you have despised food, glory, and money? And why do you feed the dog, while professing to possess nothing? But if it barks and attacks people, it is plain that you possess something within and wish to guard these things.

But I am persuaded that such a man is far from pure prayer, knowing that anger is the destroyer of such prayer.

Besides this I am astonished, as if the saints had been forgotten—David crying out, Cease from anger and forsake wrath; and Ecclesiastes commanding, Put away anger from your heart and remove evil from your flesh; and the Apostle enjoining, that in every place men lift up holy hands to the Lord without wrath and reasonings. Why do we not learn even from the mystical and ancient custom of men, which drives the dogs out of the houses at the time of prayer, hinting thereby that anger ought not to be present with those who pray? And again:

Their wine is the wrath of dragons. But the Nazirites abstained from wine.

One of the outside (pagan) sages declared that gall and loins are not to be eaten by (offered to) the gods, not knowing, I think, what he meant; of these, I for my part consider the one to be a symbol of anger, and the other of irrational desire.

Concerning not being anxious about clothing or food, I think it superfluous to write, since our Savior Himself in the Gospels forbade it, saying, Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, or what you shall put on. For this is plainly the way of the heathen and of unbelievers, who reject the providence of the Master and deny the Creator;

but such a thing is altogether foreign to Christians, who have once for all believed that even two sparrows sold for a farthing are under the dispensation of the holy angels.

Yet this too is a habit of the demons, to cast in, after the unclean thoughts, also the thoughts of anxiety, so that Jesus may slip away, there being a crowd of concepts in the place of the mind, and the word may become fruitless, choked by the thorns of anxiety.

Therefore, having put away the thoughts arising from anxiety, let us cast our care upon the Lord, being content with what we have at hand, living a frugal life, and let us strip off the garments of vainglory in broad daylight.

And if anyone thinks it unseemly to wear a poor garment, let him look at holy Paul, who in cold and nakedness awaited the crown of righteousness.

But since the Apostle called this world a theater and a stadium, let us see whether it is possible, having clothed oneself in the thoughts of anxiety, to run for the prize of the upward calling, or to wrestle against the principalities and powers, and against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age;

I for my part do not know, being instructed even from the sensible history itself.

For that wrestler will plainly be hindered by his tunic, and will easily be dragged about, just as the mind is by the thoughts of anxiety, if indeed He speaks truly who says that the mind clings to its own treasure: For where your treasure is, He says, there will your heart be also. CHAPTER.

Of the thoughts, some cut off, and others are cut off;

and the evil ones cut off the good, while again the evil ones are cut off by the good; the Holy Spirit, then, attends to the thought first set forth, and judges or accepts us according to that one. What I mean is this:

I have this thought for the Lord's sake, but when the tempter comes upon it, it is cut off by his suggesting that I show hospitality for the sake of glory.

I have the thought of hospitality in order to appear to men, but this too is cut off when a better thought comes upon it, one that directs our virtue rather toward the Lord and compels us not to do these things for the sake of men.

If then by our deeds we afterward abide in the former thoughts, while being tempted by the latter, we shall have the rewards only of the former thoughts that were first set forth, because, being men and wrestling with demons, we are not able always to keep the right thought incorruptible, nor again to have the evil thought untested, since we possess seeds of virtues.

But if one of the cutting thoughts lingers, it takes the place of the one being tempted, and the man, thereafter moved according to that thought, will act accordingly.

Of the angelic thoughts, the human, and those from demons, we have come to know, with much observation, this difference: that first, the angelic thoughts carefully examine the natures of things and search out their spiritual principles.

For instance, for what purpose was gold created, and why is it sandy and scattered down in the parts of the earth, and found with much toil and labor; and how, when found, it is washed with water and given over to fire, and so is put into the hands of craftsmen who make the lampstand of the tabernacle, the censer, the incense-cups, and the bowls, in which the king of Babylon no longer drinks, because of the grace of our Savior, while Cleopas bears a heart burning with these mysteries.

But the demonic thought neither knows nor understands these things;

it only suggests the acquisition of sensible gold, and foretells the luxury and glory that will come from it;

but the human thought neither seeks the acquisition, nor examines of what gold is a symbol, but only brings into the mind the bare form of the gold, separated from the passion of greed;

and the same account will be given concerning the other objects too, when one is mystically trained according to this rule.

There is a demon called the wanderer, who especially stands by the brethren toward dawn, and leads the mind of the anchorite about from city to city, from house to house, from village to village, at first making merely bare encounters and meeting with certain acquaintances and talking at length, and corrupting his own proper state toward those he meets, and gradually withdrawing far from the knowledge of God, from virtue, and from his profession, and falling into forgetfulness.

The anchorite must therefore watch this demon, where it begins and where it ends;

for not at random, nor by chance, does it make that long circuit, but, wishing to corrupt the state of the anchorite, it does these things, so that the mind, being inflamed by them and made drunk by the many encounters, may immediately fall into the demon of fornication, or of anger, or of sadness, which especially mar the brightness of his state.

But we, if indeed we have the aim of clearly knowing its craftiness, must not speak quickly to it, nor show what is happening, how it works the encounters according to the mind, and in what manner it gradually drives the mind toward death, since it will flee from us;

for it does not consent to be seen doing these things;

and then we shall learn nothing of what we were eager to learn.

But let us allow it yet another day, or even a second, to complete its task, so that, having accurately learned its scheme, we may afterward, refuting it by word, put it to flight.

But since it happens at the time of temptation that the mind, being troubled, does not accurately see what is taking place, let this be done after the demon's departure;

sitting by yourself, recall the things that happened to you, from where you began and where you went, and in what place you were captured by the spirit of fornication, or of anger, or of sadness, and how all that happened came to pass, and learn these things accurately, and hand them over to memory, so that you may have the means to refute it when it approaches, and to point out the place it hides, and you will no longer follow it.

But if you wish sometime to provoke it even to madness, refute it immediately when it stands by, and reveal the first place into which it entered, and the second, and the third; for it is greatly vexed, unable to bear the shame;

and the proof that you have spoken to it opportunely will be the flight of the thought from you;

for it is impossible thereafter for it to stand when it is openly refuted.

After this demon of wandering has been defeated, there follows a very heavy sleep, and a deadening with much coldness of the eyelids, and countless yawns, and shoulders that grow heavy and numb, all of which the Holy Spirit will dissolve by intense prayer.

Hatred against the demons contributes greatly to our salvation, and is well suited to the working of virtue;

but we are not strong enough to nourish this within ourselves like some good offspring, since the pleasure-loving spirits corrupt it and call the soul back again to friendship and familiarity;

but this friendship, or rather this hard-to-heal gangrene, the physician of souls heals by means of abandonment;

for He allows us to suffer something fearful from them by night or by day, and again the soul runs back to its original hatred, being taught to say to the Lord, according to David, I hated them with a perfect hatred; they became enemies to me. For he hates the enemies with a perfect hatred who sins neither in act nor in thought;

which is a token of the first and greatest dispassion.

But concerning the demon that makes the soul insensible, what need is there to speak? For I am afraid even to write about it, how the soul departs from its own proper state;

for at the time of its sojourn, the soul puts off both the fear of God and reverence, and reckons sin to be no sin, and does not regard lawlessness as lawlessness; it remembers eternal punishment and judgment as a mere word, but truly laughs at the fiery earthquake (of hell), and confesses God, as it were, yet does not know what He has commanded;

you beat upon your breast as it (the soul) is moved toward sin, and it does not feel it.

You discourse from the Scriptures, and it is wholly hardened and does not hear;

you bring upon it the reproach that comes from men, and it does not reckon the shame before men, and it understands nothing at all, like a pig that has shut its eyes and breaks through the fence;

this demon is brought on by lingering thoughts of vainglory, and unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.

For of those who rarely visit the brethren, the cause too is evident;

for upon the misfortunes of others—when they are pressed by sicknesses, or suffer in prisons, or fall into sudden deaths—this demon is put to flight, as the soul is little by little pierced with compunction and comes to compassion, and the demonic hardening is dissolved; from these things we are deprived because of the desert and the scarcity of the sick among us.

This demon especially the Lord puts to flight, when in the Gospels He commanded us to visit the sick and to look in upon those in prison;

For I was sick, He says, and you visited Me, and I was in prison and you came to Me. But this must be known, that if any of the anchorites, having fallen in with this demon, did not receive thoughts of fornication, nor abandoned his cell out of accidie, he has received chastity and endurance come down from heaven, and is blessed, having been counted worthy of such dispassion.

But as many as, of those professing piety, choose also to dwell together with worldly people, let them guard against this demon.

For I am ashamed to say or to write anything more about it, and ashamed before men.

All the demons teach the soul to love pleasure;

only the demon of sadness does not consent to do this, but even corrupts the thoughts of those who have entered, cutting off every pleasure and withering it by means of sadness.

Since the bones of a sorrowful man are dried up, and when it wars in moderation it makes the anchorite approved;

for it persuades him to admit nothing of this world and to avoid every pleasure; but pressing on more, it begets thoughts that counsel him to take himself away from the soul (i.e., suicide), or compel him to flee far from the place;

which holy Job once also reckoned and suffered, being harassed by this demon;

For would that I might be able, he says, to lay hands on myself, or having besought another, that he would do this for me. The symbol of this demon is the viper, the beast, whose nature, when given in love (in due measure), destroys the venoms of the other beasts, but when taken immoderately destroys the living creature itself.

To this demon Paul handed over the one who transgressed in Corinth, wherefore he also writes again earnestly:

Confirm, he says to the Corinthians, your love toward him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sadness. But he knows that this spirit, when it afflicts men, also becomes for them the procurer of a good repentance;

whence also holy John the Baptist (addressed) those goaded by this demon and fleeing to God:

Brood of vipers, he says, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father;

for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. But everyone who has imitated Abraham, and gone out from his land and from his kindred, has himself also become stronger than this demon.

If anyone has mastered anger, he has mastered the demons; but if anyone has been enslaved by this passion, he is altogether a stranger to the monastic life and alien to the ways of our Savior;

since indeed our Lord Himself is said to teach the meek His ways;

wherefore the mind of the anchorites also becomes hard to capture, fleeing into the plain of meekness;

for the demons fear almost none of the virtues so much as meekness;

for this also that Moses possessed, who was called meek above all men.

And holy David too declared this worthy of God's remembrance;

Remember, Lord, he says, David and all his meekness. But the Savior Himself also commanded us to become imitators of His meekness;

...(speaking) to our dog (i.e., the soul's spiritedness), and it must be taught to destroy only the wolves and not to devour the sheep, showing all meekness toward all men.

Alone among the thoughts, that of vainglory is rich in material, and embraces almost the whole inhabited world, and opens the doors to all the demons, like some wicked traitor of a good city.

Wherefore it greatly humbles the mind of the anchorite, filling it with many words and matters, and ruining his prayers, by which he is eager to heal all the wounds of his soul.

All the demons, when defeated, help to increase this thought, and again through it they all gain entrance into the souls, truly making the last things worse than the first.

And from this thought is begotten also that famous one of pride, which cast down from heaven to earth the seal of the likeness and the crown of beauty.

But leap away from this thought and do not linger, lest we betray our life to others and our manner of living to the merciless.

This demon is put to flight by persistent prayer, and by doing nothing willingly of the things that contribute to that accursed glory.

When the mind of the anchorites has laid hold of a little dispassion, then, having acquired a horse of vainglory, it immediately drives off to the cities, taking its fill of unmixed praise from glory; against this, by (God's) dispensation, the spirit of fornication meets it, and shutting it up in one of the pigsties, teaches it no longer to leave the bed before complete recovery of health, nor to imitate the undisciplined among the sick, who, still carrying about in themselves the remnants of weakness, give themselves over to journeys and untimely baths, and fall into relapsing illnesses.

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

I am not able to write all the evil deeds of the demons, and I am ashamed to recount their wicked devices, fearing for the simpler among those who will read.

Yet hear the craftiness of the spirit of fornication.

When someone has acquired dispassion of the concupiscible part, and the shameful thoughts have thereafter become rather cool, then it brings forward men and women playing with one another, and makes the anchorite a spectator of shameful acts and postures.

But this temptation is not among those that linger;

for intense prayer, and a most strict regimen with vigil, and the exercise of spiritual contemplations, drive it off like a waterless cloud.

There are times when it even touches the flesh, levering it up to irrational burning, and this all-wicked one contrives countless other things, which it is not necessary to make public and commit to writing.

But a boiling up of anger, stirred against the demon, contributes greatly against these thoughts, an anger which it especially fears when it is troubled over the thoughts and destroys its concepts;

and this is the meaning of, Be angry, and do not sin. This is a useful medicine, applied to the soul in such temptations.

...(cleanse) the mind of idols, so that, not lingering in them, it may not become at the time of prayer like a smoldering firebrand.

Into these temptations the irascible fall, and especially those easily kindled to anger, who are far from pure prayer and from the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The concepts of this age the Lord has handed over to man, the good shepherd, like certain sheep;

for, it says, He has set the age in his heart;

having yoked to him anger and desire for help, so that through anger he may put to flight the concepts of the wolves, and through desire he may cherish the sheep, though often struck by rains and winds.

And besides these He has given him also a pasture, that he may shepherd the sheep, and a place of green grass, and water of rest, and a psaltery, and a harp, and a rod, and a staff, so that from this flock he may both be nourished and clothed, and gather mountain hay.

For who, it says, shepherds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? The anchorite must therefore guard this flock night and day, lest any of the concepts become prey to beasts or fall among robbers; and if any such thing should happen in the glen, he must immediately snatch it from the mouth of the lion or the bear.

The concept concerning a brother becomes prey to beasts if it is pastured within us with hatred; and that concerning a woman, if it is turned about within us with shameful desire; and that concerning silver and gold, if it lodges with greed.

And the concepts of the holy gifts (of grace), if they are grazed in the mind with vainglory;

and in the case of the other concepts likewise it will turn out, when they are stolen by the passions.

And not only in the day must these things be guarded, but also keeping watch by night.

For it happens that one, fantasizing shamefully and wickedly, loses what is his own;

and this is what was said by holy Jacob:

I did not bring to you a sheep torn by beasts; from myself I paid back the thefts of the day and the thefts of the night, and I was scorched by the heat of the day and the frost of the night, and sleep departed from my eyes. But if from our labor accidie too should come upon us, running back a little to the rock of knowledge, let us converse with the psaltery, striking the strings of knowledge by means of the virtues, and let us again pasture our sheep under Mount Sinai, so that the God of our fathers may call us also out of the bush, and may grant to us too the words of the signs and the wonders.

A rational nature put to death by evil, Christ raises up through the contemplation of all the ages;

but His Father raises up the soul that has died this death of Christ, through the knowledge of Himself.

And this is what was said by Paul, If we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Him. When the mind, having put off the old man, puts on the one that is from grace, then at the time of prayer it will also see its own state, resembling sapphire or the color of heaven, which Scripture also names the place of God, seen by the elders under Mount Sinai.

When one of the enemies, attacking, wounds you, and you wish to turn his sword, as it is written, against his own heart, do thus, as we say.

Divide for yourself the thought cast in by it, whatever it may be, and of how many things it consists, and which of these especially is the thing that afflicts the mind.

What I mean is this:

a thought (of avarice)—divide this into the mind that received it, and into the concept of the gold, and into the gold itself, and into the passion of avarice;

and then ask which of these is sin: is it the mind? And how? It is the image of God.

But the concept of the gold? And who that has a mind could ever say this? But is the gold itself sin? And for what purpose was it made? It follows then that sin is what is neither a thing subsisting in essence, nor a concept of a thing, nor again an incorporeal mind, but a certain man-hating pleasure, begotten of free will, which compels the mind to use the creatures of God wrongly, and which the law of God is entrusted to circumcise.

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

But if you wish to use his sword, yet long first to overcome him by your own sling,

you too cast a stone from your shepherd's pouch, and seek the contemplation of this:

How is it that angels and demons draw near to our world, while we do not draw near to their worlds;

for we are not able to join the angels more closely to God, nor do we choose to make the unclean demons more unclean.

And how is Lucifer, who rose in the morning, cast down to the earth, and reckons the sea as a vessel of ointment, and Tartarus of the abyss as a captive, and makes the abyss boil up like a cauldron, troubling all things by his wickedness, and wishing to rule over all? For the contemplation of these matters greatly wounds the demon and puts to flight his whole camp.

But these things happen only to those who have been gently purified and who somewhat behold the principles of created things.

The unclean do not know the contemplation of these things, nor, if they learned it from others, would they be heard reciting it as an incantation, since much dust and tumult arise because of the passions during the war.

For the camp of the foreigners must by all means rest a little, so that Goliath alone may go out to meet our David.

In the same way let us use also this division and this kind of warfare against all the unclean thoughts.

Of the unclean demons, some tempt the man as a man, while others trouble the man as an irrational animal; and the first, attacking, cast into us concepts of vainglory, or pride, or envy, or accusation, which touch none of the irrational creatures;

but the second, drawing near, stir up anger or desire contrary to nature.

For these passions are common to us and to the irrational animals, being veiled over by the rational nature.

Therefore the Holy Spirit also says, to those falling into the human thoughts, I said:

You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High;

but you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. But to those moved irrationally, what does He say? Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding; with bit and bridle you must restrain their jaws, the jaws of those that do not draw near to you. But the soul that sins, it shall die.

It is plain that men dying as men will be buried by men, but those put to death as irrational, that is, falling, will be eaten by vultures or ravens, whose nestlings—some call upon the Lord, while others are befouled in blood.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

When some of the unclean thoughts are quickly put to flight, let us seek the cause, from where this has come about;

...(is it) because of the matter (of the object), the material being hard to obtain, or because of the dispassion present in us, the enemies were not strong against us? For example, if one of the anchorites should be prompted by a demon to be entrusted with the spiritual governance of the foremost city, it is plain that he will not linger fantasizing this thought, and the cause becomes known from what has been said;

but if it concerns even some ordinary city, and he reckons it in the same way (rejecting it), this man is blessed in his dispassion.

And likewise in the case of the other thoughts, such a manner (of examination) will be found upon scrutiny.

These things it is necessary to know with regard to our own eagerness and power, so that we may know whether we have crossed the Jordan and are near the city of palms, or are still passing time in the wilderness and being struck by the foreigners.

For the demon of avarice seems to me very versatile and ingenious for deception, who often, being straitened by the strictest renunciation, immediately plays the steward and the lover of the poor, and welcomes strangers not yet present more genuinely than (a true host), and sends service to others who are in want, and visits the prisons of the city, and ransoms, as it were, those being sold, and attaches himself to wealthy women, and points out those who ought to be treated well, and again admonishes others who possess a fat purse to renounce, and so, having little by little deceived the soul, he subjects it to the thoughts of avarice and hands it over to the demon of vainglory. CHAPTER.

How it brings in a multitude of those who glorify the Lord for these stewardships, and putting forward certain ones who little by little talk together about the priesthood, it thereafter prophesies the speedy death of the present priest, and adds that he will not escape, having done countless things; and so the wretched mind, bound up in these thoughts, contends with the men who do not accept this, while to those who do accept it, it readily lavishes gifts, and welcomes them for their goodwill;

and certain ones who hesitate, it hands over to the judges and orders to be banished from the city;

and while these thoughts are thereafter within and being turned about, immediately the demon of pride too stands by, stamping continuous lightning-flashes in the air of the cell, and sending winged serpents, and, the final evil, working the loss of reason; but let us, having prayed destruction upon these thoughts, live with thanksgiving in poverty: For we brought nothing into the world, and it is plain that we can carry nothing out;

but having food and covering, with these we shall be content, remembering also Paul, who said that the love of money is the root of all evils.

All the unclean thoughts, lingering in us because of the passions, bring the mind down to ruin and destruction;

for just as the concept of bread lingers in the hungry man because of hunger, and the concept of water in the thirsty man because of thirst, so also the concepts of possessions and money linger because of greed, and the concepts of food and of the shameful thoughts begotten of food linger because of the passions.

But this will be shown likewise also in the case of the thoughts of vainglory, and of the other thoughts.

It is not possible for a mind choked by such thoughts to stand before God and to bind on the crown of righteousness.

For dragged down by these thoughts, even that thrice-wretched mind in the Gospels declined the supper of the knowledge of Christ;

and again, the one bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness had a garment woven from these thoughts, which He who invited declared to be unworthy of such a wedding;

wherefore the wedding garment is the dispassion of a rational soul that has renounced worldly desires.

...but the cause why the concepts of sensible objects, when they linger, destroy knowledge, has been stated in the chapters On Prayer.

Of the demons opposing the practical life, there are three chief leaders in the front rank, whom the whole camp of the foreigners follows, who first take their stand in the war and call the souls toward evil through the unclean thoughts;

those entrusted with the appetites of gluttony, those who suggest the love of money to us, and those who call us toward the esteem of men.

Desiring, then, pure prayer, keep watch over anger; and loving chastity, control the belly, do not give bread to your stomach, and squeeze it with water, be vigilant in prayer, and put grudge-bearing far from you; let the words of the Holy Spirit not fail you, and knock at the doors (of Scripture) with the hands of the virtues.

Then dispassion of heart will dawn upon you, and you will see your mind, star-like, in prayer.

Of the concepts, some stamp and shape our ruling faculty, while others provide only knowledge without stamping or shaping the mind.

For the phrase, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, deposits indeed a certain concept in the heart, yet does not shape it, nor stamp it.

The phrase, Having taken bread, shapes the mind, while the phrase, to break, again stamps the mind.

The phrase, I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up, stamps the mind, apart from the phrase, I saw the Lord; and the literal expression seems to stamp the mind, but what it signifies does not stamp it.

For he (Isaiah) saw with the prophetic eye the rational nature exalted through the practical life, having received in itself the knowledge of God.

For God is said to sit there where He is known, wherefore a pure mind is also called the throne of God.

And a woman is also called a throne of dishonor, that is, a soul that hates righteousness; and the dishonor of the soul is vice and ignorance.

The concept of God, then, is not among those that stamp the mind, but among the concepts that do not stamp the mind.

Wherefore the one who prays must wholly separate himself from the things that stamp the mind.

And you will inquire whether it is, as in the case of bodies and their thoughts, so also in the case of incorporeal beings and their principles, and whether the mind will be stamped in one way when it sees a (created) mind, and disposed in another way when it sees the principle of it. From this we know how spiritual knowledge withdraws the mind from the concepts that stamp it, and presents it unstamped to God, because the concept of God is not among those that stamp;

for God is not a body, but rather is among the things that do not stamp.

Again, of the contemplations that do not stamp the mind, some signify the essence of incorporeal beings, while others signify their principles;

and it does not happen with incorporeal beings as it does with bodies;

for in the case of bodies, some stamped the mind, while others did not stamp it;

but here neither concept stamps the mind.

When the demon of gluttony, having striven much and often, is not strong enough to corrupt the ascetic self-control that has been formed, then it casts the mind into a desire for the most extreme asceticism, from which it also brings forward into the midst the things concerning Daniel, that frugal life and the seeds (pulse), and it makes mention of certain other anchorites who have lived thus continually, or who began so, and it compels (the monk) to become an imitator of these;

so that, pursuing immoderate self-control, he may also fail of due measure, the body not holding out because of its own weakness—truly blessing with the body while cursing with the heart;

to which (demon) I think it right that these men should not yield, nor abstain from bread, oil, and water.

For this regimen the brethren have proved most excellent, and that not to satiety, and once a day.

...(so as) to receive the crown of dispassion.

By dispassion I mean not the cessation of sin in act—for this is called self-control—but the cutting off, in the mind, of the passionate thoughts, which holy Paul also named the spiritual circumcision of the hidden Jew.

But if anyone is despondent over the things said, let him remember the chosen vessel, the Apostle, who finished his course in hunger and thirst.

And the adversary of truth, the demon of accidie, imitates this demon, suggesting the most extreme withdrawal to the enduring one, calling him to zeal for John the Baptist and for Antony, the first-fruits of the anchorites, so that, not bearing the prolonged and inhuman withdrawal, he may flee with shame, leaving the place, and he himself thereafter, boasting, may say, I prevailed against him. CHAPTER.

The unclean thoughts receive materials for growth, and extend themselves along with many objects;

for they cross great seas in thought, and do not refuse to travel long roads, because of the great heat of the passion;

but those who have been somewhat purified are narrower than these, unable to extend themselves along with objects because of the weakness of the passion; whence they are moved rather contrary to nature, and, according to the wise Solomon, wandering outside for some time, they gather even stubble for the unlawful brick-making, so that they may be saved like a gazelle from the snares, and like a bird from the trap.

For it is easier to purify an unclean soul than to recall to health a soul once purified and again wounded, since the demon of sadness does not permit it, but always presents to the pupils of the eyes, at the time of prayer, the image of sin.

The demons do not know our hearts, as some men suppose;

for He alone is the knower of hearts who understands the mind of men and who fashioned their hearts each one separately;

but from the spoken word, and from such movements of the body, they come to know most of the movements in the heart.

These things I now wished to make clear, but the holy priest restrained me, saying it was unworthy that such things be made public and cast into the ears of the profane;

for, he said, even the one who associates with a woman in her impurity becomes liable, according to the law.

But (it suffices to know) that from such tokens they recognize the things hidden in the heart, and take occasions from these against us; for instance, we have often reproved certain ones who spoke evil, not being disposed lovingly toward them, wherefore we also fell into the demon of grudge-bearing, and immediately received evil thoughts against them, the very ones we had earlier known to have befallen us.

Wherefore the Holy Spirit also rightly brings charge against us:

Sitting, you spoke against your brother, and against your mother's son you laid a stumbling-block, and you opened the door to the thoughts of grudge-bearing, and at the time of prayer you troubled the mind, always fantasizing the face of your enemy and making this into a god;

for whatever the mind looks at while praying, this it must by all means confess to be a god.

But let us flee, beloved, the sickness of evil-speaking, let us never remember anyone with evil, nor distort our looks at the remembrance of our neighbor.

For the wicked demons examine all our postures, and leave nothing of ours unscrutinized—not a reclining, not a sitting, not a standing, not a word, not a passing by, not a glance; they examine everything, they set everything in motion, all day long they devise treachery against us, so that at the time of prayer they may slander the humble mind and quench its blessed light.

And what does holy Paul say to Titus? In your teaching, (show) incorrupt speech, sound, beyond reproach, so that he who is of the opposing side may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. And the blessed David also prays, saying:

Deliver me from the slander of men, calling even the demons men because of the rational quality of their nature;

but the Savior also in the Gospels called the one who sowed in us the tares of evil an enemy man.

From whom may we also be delivered by the grace of Christ and our God, to whom belong honor and glory unto the ages.

There are certain demons among the unclean ones who always sit before those who read, and attempt to snatch away their mind, often taking occasions even from the divine Scriptures themselves, and ending up in evil thoughts;

and there are times when they compel one to yawn beyond his custom, and cast on a very heavy sleep, far different from the usual;

as some of the brethren imagined, by some unspeakable natural opposition;

but I, having observed it often, learned thus:

they touch the eyelids and the whole head, and chill it with their own body;

for the bodies of the demons are exceedingly cold, and resemble ice;

whence we also feel the head being drawn, as if by a cupping-glass, with a grinding (of the teeth).

This they do in order that, drawing to themselves the heat stored in the skull, the eyelids, thereafter slackened by the moisture and cold, may slide down over the pupils of the eyes.

At any rate, having often felt them, I found the eyelids frozen stiff like ice, and the whole face deadened and shuddering.

And yet natural sleep by its nature warms the bodies,

and makes the faces of the healthy fresh, as can be learned even from experience itself;

but those (yawns) that are contrary to nature and prolonged, they (the demons) produce by making themselves thin and touching the inner parts of the mouth.

But this I did not understand until today, though I have often suffered it;

yet I heard holy Macarius speaking this to me, and bringing as proof the practice of those who yawn sealing the mouth, according to an unspeakable ancient tradition.

All these things we suffer because we do not attend soberly to our reading, nor remember that we are reading the holy oracles of the living God.

And since there are also successions of the demons, when the first has grown weak in the war and is unable to stir its favorite passion, having observed these successions, we find them thus:

When for a long time the thoughts of some passion have grown scarce, and there comes a sudden boiling and stirring of it, while we have given no occasion through negligence, then we know that a more grievous demon than the former has succeeded us, and, keeping the place of the one that fled, has filled it up with its own wickedness.

But this one too understands our soul very well, being warred against far more violently than usual, and having suddenly fallen out from the thoughts of yesterday and the day before, with no pretext having intruded from outside.

Let the mind, therefore, beholding these things, flee to the Lord, having received the helmet of salvation, and put on the breastplate of righteousness, and drawn the sword of the spirit, and lifted the shield of faith, and let it say, looking up with tears to its own heaven:

Lord Christ, power of my salvation, incline Your ear to me, hasten to deliver me.

Be to me a protecting God, and a place of refuge to save me. But especially by fasting and vigils let it polish the sword.

...on the seventh (day) he will know it (the demon) to have become little by little like the one it was taught (by), and thereafter remaining for a whole year, being for the most part wounded rather than wounding, until the one who succeeds it also arrives;

if indeed for a time, like the things concerning Job, we fall under them, and our houses are plundered by the lawless.

Unclean thoughts often receive materials for growth, and extend themselves along with many objects.

For they cross great seas in thought, and do not refuse to travel long roads, because of the great heat of the passion.

But those who have been somewhat purified are narrower than these, unable to extend themselves along with many objects, because of the weakness of the passion;

whence they are moved rather contrary to nature, and, according to the wise Solomon, they wander outside for some time, and gather stubble for the unlawful brick-making, no longer receiving straw.

One must therefore guard the heart with all watchfulness, so that it may be saved like a gazelle from the snares, and like a bird from the trap.

For it is easier to purify an unclean soul than to recall to health a soul once purified and again wounded, since the demon of sadness does not permit it, but always leaps upon the pupils of the eyes, and at the time of prayer presents the image of sin.

A rational nature put to death by evil, Christ raises up through the contemplation of all the ages;

but His Father raises up the soul that has died this death of Christ, through the knowledge of Himself.

And this is what was said by the Apostle, If we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall also live together with Him. (70)