649. The brethren said, “On one occasion, when the brethren were sitting down and asking questions about the thoughts, one of them said, ‘It is not a great matter if a man seeth thoughts afar off.’ What did he want to say? Explain to us the words of the old men.” The old man said, “When the brethren drew nigh to the Fathers and asked them questions [wishing] to learn concerning the mode of action and thought in respect of the wars of the devils, the Fathers did not persuade those among them who appeared to possess subtlety of thought, and intelligence, and understanding, and to hate the passions, and to be fervent in the spirit, to cast out from themselves straightway the thoughts of the passions whensoever they stirred in them, and to make them to depart foolishly, but they ordered them to tarry with them, and to examine carefully how they arose, and then to contend against them; for in proportion as they were trained in the knowledge of strivings and contendings against the passions and against devils they would benefit not themselves only, but many other people also. And in this wise acted also Evagrius, that man of understanding, and Abbâ Poemen, and others who were like unto them. Therefore Abbâ Joseph said to Abbâ Poemen, ‘When the passions rise up in thee, give unto and receive from them, and understand carefully their crafty nature, and train thyself to contend against them.’ Now there are certain weak and foolish brethren whom in no way whatsoever doth it benefit to dally with the rise of the thoughts of the passions which are in the heart, on the contrary, it is far better for them, immediately they perceive the motions of the passions, to cast them forth from them by prayer, and with anger and hatred. Therefore, when several of the Fathers were gathered together and were discussing the conflicts of the thoughts, and whether it was right to dally with them because of knowledge [concerning them], or to suppress them by means of prayer through fear [of them], one of the Fathers said, ‘Even to understand the thoughts afar off is a great and excellent work, but it is a far greater work, and one which maketh a man to acquire practice, for him to understand the thoughts, and to wage war against them. When he hath gained experience of their crafty character, then he will suppress them and make them to disappear by the power of prayer and humility. Now the meaning of this question is this. When a man hath laboured in conflict and contest against the passions for a long time in seclusion, by the grace of our Lord his heart becometh purified, and rest and peace reign in his soul, and he hath relief from tribulation, and he rejoiceth in God at all seasons, and the devils have no power henceforth to stir up evil thoughts in his soul, because his heart is filled with divine thoughts, and the understanding of spiritual things, and he is never without the mind which is in God, and the remembrance of His fear and mercy. And should the demons dare to stir up thoughts in him, they will not [succeed] in rousing those which cause anguish and which bring to naught spiritual excellences, but only those which are of an ordinary nature, and which impede the vision, even as Evagrius said.’”
650. The brethren said, “How is it possible for a man to live in such a way as to be pleasing to God?” The old man said, “It is impossible for a monk to rise to the height of the love of God, unless he first of all regard with affection and love man, the image of God; for this is the end of all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as He Himself said, ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’”
651. The brethren said, “An old man said, ‘If there rise up in thy mind a thought about the need of the body, and thou castest it out once, and it cometh to thee a second time, and thou castest it out, should it come a third time, pay no regard to it, for it appertaineth to war’; explain to us these words.” The old man said, “If whilst thou art in seclusion, and art engaged in spiritual labour, Satan, being envious of thee, and wishing to drive thee out of the cell, or to impede thy spiritual progress, stir up in thee one of the thoughts which goad a man into sin, either to eat before the proper time, or to lie down and sleep, or to visit some one, or to do something else; and if he sheweth thee thy power of discretion [saying], ‘It is unseemly for thee to do this thing’; or again, should some evil devil constrain thee, and hinder thee, and wishing to make thee to cease from thy labour, should mock and scoff at thee; then stand thou up quickly, and bestir thyself boldly, and bow thy knee before our Lord, and pray, and ask, and entreat for help, and mercy, and protection. For that brother who soaked palm fibres in water, and who sat down to plait ropes and mats, was engaged in a similar war, and a demon roused up in him the thought to go and visit one of the brethren; and he cast the thought from him twice, and thrice. Now finally, because he did not understand that the war was of the Evil One, who sought to stop [his work] and drive him out of his cell, he was overcome by the war, and he left the palm leaves soaking in the water, and ran and hurried out in great haste. At length the matter was revealed unto one of the holy men who was a neighbour of his, and he cried out to him, saying, ‘Captive, Captive,’ and made him to come back to his cell, and afterwards the devils cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Ye have overcome us, O monks.’ For the demons are so wicked, and they are so envious of the monks when they remain constantly in seclusion for our Lord’s sake, that on several occasions they have, in an irregular manner, driven them out of their cells, as if for a good object, but their object was not a good one.”
652. The brethren said, “Why was it that Abbâ Ammon was not able to overcome the passion of wrath for fourteen years, although he said unto us, that he had entreated God, with anguish and tears, both by day and by night unceasingly, to give him the victory over it?” The old man said, “That passion probably overcame him to an excessive degree through the natural constitution of his body, but it is quite certain that the passions and the devils waged war against him like a mighty man and a warrior. For the devils made war upon the Fathers with intense fierceness and violence, upon each man according to his capacity, and in proportion to their power to triumph, through long-suffering, that is to say, through patient and persistent endurance, the battle against them was protracted.”
653. The brethren said, “Abbâ Dorotheus said, ‘Our lack of ability to distinguish between matters will permit us to acquire great excellence in the virtues’; explain to us what the old man [intended] to say.” The old man said, “He wished to say as follows:—‘Because of our lack of ability to distinguish between matters we do not make progress in the virtues, and our heart is not quickly purified, and we do not ascend to perfection, because we do not labour with the knowledge and power of discernment which it is right [for us to have]; but [we progress] painfully, and [only] for the sake of vainglory, and as the result of chance circumstances, and without discretion. And, as it cometh, this resembleth that which the blessed Evagrius spake, saying, “As it is not the material foods themselves which nourish the body, but the power which is in them, so it is not matters themselves which make the soul to grow, but the power of discernment which [cometh] from them.” And he also said, “As the feeding, and health, and growth of the body do not come through the actual materials of our foods, for these are cast out of the body in the draught, but from the hidden power which is in them, so also the nourishment and the growth of the soul take place through the fear of God. And the healthy state thereof which ariseth through impassibility, and the perfection thereof which is in righteousness, do not exist through the labours of the body only, but from the deeds and acts which [are performed] with knowledge, that is to say, with a straight object, and from the action of the mind which hateth passions, and from the prayer which is joined to humility, and from the mind which is in God.”’”
654. The brethren said, “Abbâ Arsenius said unto one of the brethren, ‘Lead the ascetic life with all the strength that thou hast, and the hidden labour which is within, and which is performed for God’s sake, shall vanquish thine external passions’; to what doth he give the name of ‘passions’?” The old man said, “In this case Arsenius calleth the labours of the body ‘passions.’ For labours are also called by the name of ‘passions,’ because they constrain those who toil, and make them feel pain, even as Abbâ Macarius said, ‘Constrain thy soul with pains and labours of every kind in ascetic excellence.’ And this is what Abbâ Arsenius said to that brother, Labour with all thy might in the work of righteousness, and toil with the labours of the mind more than with all the various kinds of work of the body. For the labours of the body only incite and gratify the passions of the body, but the labours of the mind, that is to say, the thought which is in God, and prayer without ceasing, and the suppression of the thought[s] with humility, liberate [a man] from all the passions, and they vanquish devils, and purify the heart, and make perfect love, and make him worthy of the revelations of the spirit.”
655. The brethren said, “What is the meaning of that which Abbâ Benjamin said, ‘Had Moses not been gathering the sheep into the fold he would not have seen Him that was in the bush’?” The old man said, “What he said was this:—As the blessed Moses, who was held worthy of the vision in the bush, first gathered together the sheep which he was tending into one company lest, when going to see that wonderful sight, his mind should be perturbed through anxiety about the sheep which were [wandering] in the desert, so also is it with the monk, for if he wisheth and desireth the purity of heart which looketh upon God in the revelation of light, it is right that first of all he should abandon every earthly possession, and his feelings, and his passions, and he should live in seclusion always, and should collect his mind and free it from all wandering and straying, and should have one object only to gaze upon, that is God. In this manner he will become worthy of purity of heart, and he will enjoy visions and revelations concerning Him.”
656. The brethren said, “Hieronymus said that the blessed Evagrius commanded the brethren who were with him not to drink their fill of water, and said, ‘There are always demons in the places wherein there is water’; what opinion is this?” The old man said, “The blessed Evagrius interpreted these words spiritually, as being suitable to our mode of life, and he said that which our Lord said, ‘The demon goeth round about in the places wherein there is no water, that he may seek for rest, and he findeth it not’; which saying maketh us to understand that when the unclean devil of fornication wageth war against the monk, if the monk afflicteth himself by eating food sparingly, and especially by drinking water sparingly, Satan will never be able to injure him by means of this passion. And the devil will never be gratified at the fulfilment of this passion by him, for there is nothing which will dry up the arteries, and prevent the accident of the night, and make a monk to possess chaste and quiet thoughts by day, so much as the restraining of the belly by thirst. Some fast the whole day until the evening, and some fast for [several] nights at a time, yet when they break their fast and eat a little food, because they drink much water, they benefit in no wise by their fasting and by the sparing use of food which they practise because of the war of lust. For the drinking of much water filleth the arteries [of the monk] with [excessive] moisture, and Satan findeth an occasion for exciting him by means of thoughts in the daytime, and he trippeth him up by means of dreams by night, and he depriveth him of the light of purity. Therefore, in another place, Abbâ Evagrius admonisheth the monk, saying, ‘If thou wishest for chastity make little thy food, and restrain thyself in the drinking of water, and then impassibility of heart shall rise upon thee, and thou shalt see in thy prayer a mind which emitteth light like unto a star.’”
657. The brethren said, “In how many ways doth Divine Grace call the brethren unto the life of the solitary ascetic?” The old man said, “In very many and different ways. Sometimes Divine Grace moveth a man suddenly, even as it moved Abbâ Moses, the Ethiopian, and sometimes by the hearing of the Scriptures, as in the cases of the blessed Mâr Anthony and Mâr Simon Stylites, and at others by the doctrine of the word, as in the cases of Serapion, and Abbâ Bessarion, and others who were like unto them. Concerning these three ways whereby Divine Grace calleth to those who would repent, I would say that Divine Grace moveth the conscience of a monk in the manner which is pleasing to God, and that through these even evil-doers have repented and pleased God. And there is, moreover, the departure from this world by the hands of angels, by terrors, and sicknesses, and afflictions, even as that which took place in respect of the blessed Evagrius; and sometimes God Himself calleth from heaven and taketh a man out of the world, as in the cases of Paul, and Abbâ Arsenius.”
658. The brethren said, “Wherefore is it that the beginning of the doctrine of the old men is laid down in the books from the choice (or election) of Abbâ Arsenius, and on [his] coming forth from the world into a monastery, and from a monastery of the brethren into the seclusion which is in a cell?” The old man said, “Because he was called by God to the monastery, and from the monastery to the cell, and because it is certain that these two calls were according to the Will of God, well was it that the beginning of the doctrine of the old men [was derived] from the history of this holy man.”
659. The brethren said, “Explain unto us these two calls of Abbâ Arsenius. What is the meaning of that which was said in the first call, ‘Flee from the children of men and thou shalt live,’ and what is the signification of that which was said at the second call, ‘Flee, keep silence and live a life of contemplation in silence, for these are the principal things which keep a man from sinning?’” The old man said, “The meaning of ‘Flee from the children of men, and thou shalt live,’ is this:—If thou wishest to be delivered from the death which is in sin, and to live the perfect life which is in righteousness, leave thy possessions, and family, and country, and depart into exile, that is, to the desert and mountains to the holy men; and cultivate with them My commandments, and thou shalt live a life of grace. And the meaning of ‘Flee, keep silence, and live a life of contemplation in silence’ is this:—Since when thou wast in the world thou wast drawn towards anxieties about the affairs thereof, I have made thee to come out from the world, and I have sent thee to the habitation of monks, so that after a short time of dwelling in the coenobium thou mayest be drawn, first to the cultivation of My commandments openly, and secondly to contemplation in silence. And now that thou art trained in the former sufficiently, thou mayest flee, that is to say, get thee forth from the monastery of the brethren, and enter into thy cell, just as thou didst go forth from the world, and didst enter into the monastery. And the meaning of ‘Keep silence, and lead a life of contemplation in silence,’ is:—Having entered into thy cell to contemplate in silence, thou shalt not give the multitude an opportunity of coming in to thee, and talking to thee unnecessarily, except on matters which relate to spiritual excellence; if thou dost not do this thou wilt benefit by sitting in silent contemplation. For through the sight, and the hearing, and the converse of the multitude who shall come in to thee, the captivity of wandering thoughts will carry thee off, and thy silence and thy contemplation will be disturbed. But do not imagine that the mere fact of having left the brethren in the monastery, or not bringing other men into thy cell to be disturbed by them will be sufficient to make thy mind to be composed, or to enable thee to meditate upon God, and to correct thyself, unless thou dost take good heed not to occupy thy mind with them in any way whatsoever when they are remote from thee. For until a man arriveth at a state of impassibility, and overcometh by striving both the passions and the devils, whensoever a monk remembereth any man in his cell, he remembereth him in connexion with some passion, that is to say, with desire (or lust), or with anger, or with vainglory. And if it should happen that the mind wandereth in respect of ordinary things (or means), unless he cutteth them off from him, his wandering inclineth through absolute necessity towards a remembrance which is allied to some passion. And it is also thus in the case of a neophyte, for whensoever during his contemplation in silence he remembered women he falleth into the lust of fornication; and whensoever he remembereth men, he is either wroth with them in his thoughts, and he maketh accusations against them, and blameth them, and condemneth them, or he demandeth from them vainglory, and he inclineth to passibility. Therefore when Abbâ Macarius was asked, ‘What is the right way for a brother, who is a neophyte, to live in his cell?’ he said, ‘Let no monk when he is in his cell have any remembrance whatsoever of any man, for he cannot profit in any way in restraining his feelings from the conversation of men, except he take care to withhold his thoughts from secret intercourse with them.’ This is the meaning of the words, ‘Flee, keep silence, and contemplate in silence.’”