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Philokalia-Theoliptos Metropolitan Philadelphia Theoliptos Metropolitan Philadelphia 19/12/2016 12:00 πμ
Introductory Note

In the past the full significance of Theoliptos in the development of fourfeenth-century Orthodox theology has  been underestimated, largely because most of his writings remain still unpublished.^ The texts included in The  Philokalia represent no more than a small part of his total output. Bom at Nicaea around 1250, Theoliptos was at  first married, but at an early age he separated from his wife and became a monk. He suffered imprisonment  because of his firm opposition to the union between the Orfhodox Church and the Church Of Rome, promulgated  at the Council of Lyons (1274) and upheld by the Emperor Michael Vlll Palaiologos. Following Michael's death,  Theoliptos was elevated to the see of Philadelphia in 1284, and held the position of metropolitan there for nearly  forfy years.




[V4] 175

Theoliptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia

(c. 1250-1322)

(Volume 4, pp. 175-191)

He led the heroic defence of the city against Turkish attack in 1310, and died in 1322. He was widely  respected as a spiritual father, and his work in this sphere is known to us above all through his letters of direction  to the nun Irene -Evlogia Choumnaina, abbess of the double monastery of Christ Philanthropos Sotir in  Constantinople. St Gregory Palamas, who in his early years was a disciple of Theoliptos, in the Triads singles him  out for mention as one of the leading teachers of hesy chasm who lived 'in our

' For a good survey ofTheoliptos' life and writings, with full references to the earlier studies by S. Salaville and V. Laurent, see Marie-Helene  Congourdeau, in Dictionnaire de Spiritualite xv (1990), cols 446-59. On his spirituality, see Antonio Rigo. 'Nota sulla dottrina ascetico-  spirituale di Teolepto Metropolita di Filadelfia (1250/51-1322)', Rmsto di Stiidi Bizantini e Neoellemci, n.s. xxiv (1987), pp. 165-200. In  English, consult Demetrios J. Constantelos, 'Mysticism and Social Involvement in the Later Byzantine Church: Theoleptos of Philadelphia - a  Case Study', Byzantine StudieslEtudes Byzantines vi (1979), pp. 83-94; Robert E. Sinkewicz, 'Church and Society in Asia Minor in the late  Thirteenth Centuiy: the Case of Theoleptos of Philadelphia', in M. Gervers and R.J. Bikhazi (eds). Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous  Christian Communities in Islamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries (Toronto, 1989). Critical editions of Theoliptos' works are being  prepared by R.E. Sinkewicz and Angela Hero.

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Introductory Note

own day', and describes him as 'an authentic theologian and a trustworthy visionary of the truth of God's  mysteries'.'

The main text included here. On Inner Work in Christ and the Monastic Profession, was addressed by Theoliptos  to Irene -Evlogia, but in the manuscript used by St Makarios and St Nikodimos all the expressions originally in the  feminine have been changed to the masculine. In our translation we have taken account of alternative readings  supplied by Fr Severien Salaville." On Inner Work in Christ is a brief but comprehensive survey of the monastic  vocation, offering practical advice on the outward ordering of daily life - on behaviour in church and the refectory,  on conversations within the community and with outside persons, on psalmody, spiritual reading, work and sleep -  but dealing above all with inner prayer. Theoliptos draws a close parallel between monastic life and the sacrament  of baptism.^ He is apophatic in his approach, emphasizing the need to lay aside 'all representational images',  thereby attaining 'an ignorance surpassing all knowledge'.'' He refers several times to the invocation of the name of  Jesus, and briefly mentions illumination by the divine light. ^^ Here, drawing on earlier tradition, he anticipates the  themes taken up by Palamas later in the fourteenth century.

' Triads 1, ii, 12: see below, p. 341.

^ Formes ou methodes de priere d'apres un byzantin du 14° siecle, Theolepte de Philadelphie', Echos d'Orient xxxix (1940), pp. 1-25.

'Seep. 178.

*Seep. 181.

'See pp. 182, 184, 189.  

Contents

On Inner Work in Christ

and the Monastic Profession VOLUME 4: Page 177

Texts 188

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The monastic profession is a lofty and fruitful tree whose root is detachment from all corporeal things, whose  branches are freedom from passionate craving and total alienation from what you have renounced, and whose fruit is  the acquisition of virtue, a deifying love, and the uninterrupted joy mat results from these two things; for, as St Paul  says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace and the other things he mentions (cf Gal. 5:22).

Flight from the world is rewarded by refuge in Christ. By 'world I mean here attachment to sensory things and to  worldly proclivities. If you detach yourself from such things through knowledge of the truth you are assimilated to  Christ, acquiring a love for Him that allows you to put aside all worldly matters and to purchase the precious pearl,  that is to say, Christ Himself (cf Matt 13:46).

You put on Christ through the baptism of salvation (cf. Gal. 3:27), being thus washed clean, illumined with  spiritual grace and restored to your original nobility. But what happened then as a result of your weakness of will?  Through over-attachment to the world you subverted your likeness to God, through coddling the flesh you rendered  the divine image within you powerless, and with passion-embroiled thoughts you beclouded your soul's mirror so  that Christ, the spiritual Sun, can no longer manifest Himself in it.
Now, however, you have transfixed your soul with the fear of God. You have recognized the world's benighted  abnormity and the mental dissipation and vain distraction which it generates, and you have been wounded by a  longing for stillness. Obedient to the precepts 'Seek peace and pursue it' (Ps. 34:14) and "Return to your rest, O my  soul' (Ps. 1 16:7), you have sought to bring peace to your thoughts. You have therefore resolved to regain the nobility  that you received

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through grace at baptism, but jettisoned by your own free choice through your self-indulgence in the world; and  accordingly you have entered this sacred school and set to work, donning the venerable habit of repentance and  vowing courageously to remain in the monastery until death.

This is now the second covenant you have made with God. The first you made when you originally entered into  this life; the second, as you swiftly approach its dose. Then through the profession of the trae faith you were  numbered among Christ's flock; now you are united to Him through repentance. Then you found grace; now you  have contracted an obligation. Then, still a little child, you were not aware of the honor conferred on you, although  later, as you grew up, you began to appreciate the greatness of the gift and restrained your tongue accordingly. Now,  having reached complete understanding, you fully recognize the significance of the vow you are taking. Beware lest  you fail to fulfill this promise as well, and are cast, like some shattered pot, into the outer darkness where there is  weeping and gnashing of teeth (cf . Matt. 8:12). No path other than that of repentance leads to salvation.

Listen to what David promises you: 'You have made the Most High your refuge' (Ps. 91:9) and, if on the model of  Christ you choose a life of tribulation, 'no plague will come near you' (Ps. 91:10) - no evil, that is to say, will be  inflicted on you because of your worldly life. Now that you have chosen to repent, you will not be shadowed by  avidity, self-indulgence, self-glorification, self-display or sensual dissipation. Distraction of the mind, captivity of  the intellect, the levity of successive thoughts, and every other kind of deliberate prevarication and confusion - from  all such aberrations you will be set free. Nor will you be constrained by the love of parents, brothers and sisters,  relatives, friends and acquaintances, and you will not waste time in pointless meetings and talks with them

If you thus give yourself soul and body to the religious life, no scourge of anguish will afflict you (cf. Ps. 91:10),  nor will distress pierce your heart or darken your countenance. Distress is muted in those who have renounced the  life of pleasure and are free from attachment to the things that 1 have mentioned, for Christ reveals Himself to the  striving soul and bestows ineffable joy on the heart. No worldly delight or suffering can take away this spiritual joy,  for holy meditation, the mindfulness of God that brings salvation, divine

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thoughts and words of wisdom nourish and protect everyone engaged m spiritual warfare. That is why such a  person treads upon aU mindless desire and headstrong anger as upon an asp or basilisk, quelling pleasure as though  it were a snake and wrath as though it were a lion (cf Ps. 91:13. LXX). This is because he has transferred all his  hope from men and from worldly things to God, has been enriched with divine knowledge and always calls  spiritually upon God to come to his aid. As the Psalmist writes, 'Because he has set his hope on Me, I will deliver  him; I will protect him, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: not only will  I deliver him from those who afflict him, but I will also glorify him' (cf. Ps. 91:15-16).

Do you see the struggles of those who lead a godly ascetic life, and the rewards granted them? Then put your  calling into action without more ado. Just as you have secluded yourself bodily, rejecting worldly things, so likewise  seclude yourself in soul by subjecting also the thoughts of all such things. You have changed your outward clothing;  make your monastic profession into a reality. You have separated yourself from crowds of strangers; distance  yourself also from the few who are related to you by birth. If you do not put an end to delusions prompted by  external things, you will not overcome those that ambush you from within. If you do not triumph over those who  fight against you with visible means, you will not repulse your invisible enemies. But when you have quelled both  external and inner distraction, your intellect will rise to spiritual labor and spiritual discourse. In the place of  conventional dealings with relatives and friends you will follow the ways of virtue; and instead of filling your soul  with vain words bom of worldly contacts, you will illumine and fill it with understanding through meditating upon  the meaning of Holy Scripture.

To give free rein to the senses is to shackle the soul, to shackle the senses is to liberate it. When the sun sets, night  comes; when Christ leaves the soul, the darkness of the passions envelops it and incorporeal predators tear it  asunder. When the visible sun rises, animals retreat into their lairs; when Christ rises in the heaven of the praying  mind, worldly preoccupations and proclivities abscond, and the intellect goes forth to its labor - that is, to meditate  on the divine - until the evening (cf. Ps. 104:19-23). Not that the intellect limits its fulfillment of the spiritual law to  any period of time or performs it according to some measure; on the contrary, it continues to fulfill it

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until it reaches the term of this present life and the soul departs from the body. That is what is meant in the  Psalms when it is said, 'How 1 have loved Thy law, Lord; it is my meditation all the day long' (Ps. 1 19:97) - where  'day' means the whole course of one's present life.

Suspend, then, your gossip with the outer world and fight against the thoughts within until you find the abode of  pure prayer and Christ's dwelling-place. Thus you will be illumined and mellowed by His knowledge and His  presence, enabled to experience tribulation for His sake as joy and to shun worldly pleasure as you would bitter  poison.

Winds rouse the Sea's waves, and until they drop the waves will not subside and the sea will not grow calm.

Similarly, if you are not careful evil spirits will rouse in your soul memories of parents, brothers and sisters,  relatives, acquaintances, banquets, celebrations, theatres and various other images of pleasure; and they will incite  you to seek for happiness in visual, vocal and corporeal things, so that you waste not only the present moment but  also the time that you sit alone in your cell, in bringing to mind what you have seen and spoken about. Preoccupied  in this way with memories of his worldly activities, the monk's life passes profitlessly: he is like a man who retreads  his own footsteps in the snow.
If we continue to nourish the demons, when will we slay them? If we let our mind dwell on actions and thoughts  related to meaningless friendships and habits, when will we mortify the will of the flesh? When will we live the  Christ-like life to which we have committed ourselves? The foot's imprint in the snow dissolves when the sun shines  or when it begins to rain. Mind-embedded memories of self-indulgence whether in thought or act are effaced when  as the result of prayer and tears of compunction Christ rises in the heart. But when will the monk who does not  practice what he has professed expunge passion-imbued memories from his mind?

Moral virtues pertaining to the body are effectuated when you give up commerce with the world. Holy images and  thoughts are imprinted on the soul when you efface memories of previous actions by frequent prayer and fervent  compunction. Heartfelt contrition and the illumination that comes from constant mmdfulness of God excise evil  memories like a razor.

Copy the wisdom of the bees; when they become aware of an encircling swarm of wasps, they remain inside their  hive and so escape

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the attacks with which they are threatened. Wasps signify commerce with the world: avoid such commerce at all  costs, stay in your cell, and there try to re-enter the innermost citadel of the soul, the dwelling-place of Christ, where  you will truly find the peace, joy and serenity of Christ the spiritual Sun - gifts that He irradiates and with which He  rewards the soul that receives Him with faith and devotion.

Sitting in your cell, then, be mindful of God, raising your intellect above all things and prostrating it wordlessly  before Him, exposing your heart's state to Him, and cleaving to Him in love. For mindfulness of God is the  contemplation of God, who draws to Himself the mtellect's vision and aspiration, and illumines the intellect with His  own light. When the intellect turns toward God and stills all representational images of created things, it perceives in  an imageless way, and through an ignorance surpassing all knowledge its vision is illumined by God's  unapproachable glory. Although not knowing, because what it perceives is beyond all knowledge, nevertheless the  intellect does know through the truth of Him who truly is and who alone transcends all being. Nourishing its love on  the wealth of goodness that pours forth from God, and fulfilling thereby its own nature, it is granted blessed and  eternal repose.

Such are the characteristics of true mindfulness of God. Prayer is the mind's dialogue with God, in which words of  petition are uttered with the intellect riveted wholly on God. For when the mind unceasingly repeats the name of the  Lord and the intellect gives its full attention to the invocation of the divine name, the light of the knowledge of God  overshadows the entire soul hke a luminous cloud.

Concentrated mindfulness of God is followed by love and joy: 'I remembered God, and I rejoiced', writes the  Psalmist (Ps. 77:3. LXX). Pure prayer is followed by divine knowledge and compunction; again the Psalmist writes,  'On whatever day I call upon Thee, behold, I shall know that Thou art my God' (Ps. 56:9. LXX); and. The offering  acceptable to God is a contrite spirit' (Ps. 51:17). When intellect and mind stand attentive before God in fervent  supplication, compunction of the soul will ensue. When intellect, intelligence and spirit prostrate themselves before  God, the first through attentiveness, the second through invocation, and the third through Compunction and love, the  whole of your inner self serves God; for 'You shall love your God with all your heart' (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37).

You should take particular notice of this lest, though you thmk you

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are praying, you wander far from prayer, and accomplish nothing. This is what happens during the chanting of  psalms when the tongue utters the words of the verses while the intellect is carried away elsewhere and is dispersed  among passion-charged thoughts and other things, with the result that comprehension of the psalms goes by the  board. The same thing also happens where we mind is concerned. Time and again, when the mind repeats the words  of the prayer the intellect does not keep it company and does not fix its attention on God, to whom our words of  prayer are being addressed; imperceptibly it is turned aside by one thought or another. The mind says the words as  usual, but the intellect lapses from the knowledge of God. As a result, the soul is devoid of understanding and  devotion, since the intellect is fragmented by fantasies, distracted by what has enticed it away or by what it has  deliberately chosen.

When there is no conscious understanding of prayer and when the suppliant does not put himself in the presence  of Him whom he invokes, how can the soul be gladdened? How can a heart find joy when it only pretends to pray  but lacks true prayer? "The hearts of those who seek the Lord will rejoice' (cf Ps. 105:3). To seek the Lord is to  prostrate yourself with your whole mind and with great fervor before God and to expel every worldly thought with  the knowledge and love of God that spring from pure and unremitting prayer.

In order to clarify the nature of the vision bom in the intellect as a result of the mindfulness of God and the status  of the mind during pure prayer, I shall use the analogy of the bodily eye and tongue. What the pupil is to the eye and  utterance is to the tongue, mindfulness is to the intellect and prayer is to the mind. Just as the eye, when it receives  the visual impression of an object, makes no sound, but acquires knowledge of what is seen through the experience  of sight, so it is with the intellect: when through its mindfulness of God it is lovingly assimilated to Him, cleaving to  Him exponentially and in the silence of direct and unalloyed intellection, it is illumined by divine light and receives  a pledge of the radiance in store for it. Or again, as the tongue when it speaks reveals to the hearer the hidden  disposition of the intellect, so the mind, when it repeats frequently and ardently the brief words of the prayer, reveals  the soul's petition to the all-knowing God. Persistence in prayer and unceasing contrition of heart enkindle God's  compassion for man and call down the riches of salvation; for 'God will not despise a broken and a contrite heart'(Ps.  51:17).

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Another illustration which may lead you to an understanding of pure prayer is that of the earthly king. When you  approach a king, you stand before him bodily, entreat him orally, and fix your eyes upon him, thus drawing to  yourself his royal favor. Act in the same manner, whether in church or in the solitude of your cell. When in God's  name you gather together with the brethren, present yourself bodily to God and offer Him psalms chanted orally;  and likewise keep your intellect attentive to the words and to God Himself, aware of who it is that your intellect  addresses and entreats. For when the mind devotes itself to prayer actively and with purity, the heart is granted  inexpressible peace and a joy which cannot be taken away. Again, when you sit alone in your cell, cleave to this  mental prayer with watchful intellect and contrite spirit. Then on account of your watchfulness the grace of  contemplation will descend upon you, knowledge will dwell in you by virtue of your prayer, and wisdom will repose  in you because of your compunction, banishing mindless pleasure and replacing it with divine love.
Believe me, 1 tell the tmth. If in all your activity you cleave inseparably to the mother of blessings, prayer, then  prayer itself will not rest until it has shown you the bridal chamber and has led you within, filling you with ineffable  glory and joy. By removing every impediment, prayer smoothes the path of virtue and renders it easy for those who  pursue it.

Consider now the effects of mental prayer. Dialogue with God destroys passion-imbued thoughts, while the  intellect's concentration on God dispels worldly preoccupations. Compunction of soul repels affection for the flesh,  and the prayer bom from ceaseless invocation of the divine name reveals itself as the concordance and union of  intellect, intelligence and soul; for 'where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them'  (Matt. 18:20). Thus by recollecting the powers of the soul dispersed by the passions, and by uniting them to one  another and to itself, prayer assimilates the tripartite soul to the one God in three hypostases.

By first removing the ugliness of sin from the soul through the practice of virtue, and then through sacred  knowledge renewing the divine beauty imprinted upon it, prayer presents the soul to God. At once the soul  recognizes its Creator, for 'on whatever day 1 call upon Thee, behold, 1 shall know that Thou art my God' (Ps. 56:9.  LXX); and in turn it is known by God, for "the Lord knows those that are His'

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(2 Tim. 2:19). It knows God because of the purity of His image within it, for every image leads one back to its  original; and it is known by God because its likeness to God has been restored through the practice of the virtues.  Thus it is by means of the virtues that the soul knows God and is known by God.  

The person who courts the favor of a king does so in one of three ways. He either entreats his possible benefactor  with words, or stands silently before him, or throws himself at his feet Pure prayer, uniting to itself intellect,  intelligence and spirit, invokes the divine name with the intelligence; with the intellect it concentrates its unwavering  attention on God whom it invokes; and with the spirit it manifests compunction, humility, and love. In this way it  entreats the unonginate Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the one God.

Just as variety in food stimulates the appetite, so the varied forms of virtue awaken the activity of the intellect.  Thus while you travel the path of the mind, repeat again and again the words of the prayer, hold converse with the  Lord, cry out ceaselessly, and do not give up, praying frequently and imitating the boldness of the widow who  managed to prevail upon the inexorable judge (cf Luke 18:1-5). Then you will walk in the path of the Spirit,  impervious to sensual desires, the flow of your prayer unbroken by worldly thoughts, and you will become a temple  of God, praising Him undistractedly. If you pray in the mind in this way you will be granted the privilege of  attaining mmdfulness of God and will penetrate the innermost sanctuary of the intellect, mystically contemplating  the Invisible and alone celebrating in solitude God alone in the unity of divine knowledge and in outpourings of  love.

When you see yourself, therefore, growing sluggish in prayer, take up a book and by paying careful attention to  what you read absorb its meaning. Do not read through the words in a cursory fashion, but examine them with depth  of understanding and treasure their meaning. Then meditate on what you have read, so that your mind in  comprehending it is mellowed and it remains unforgotten. Thus will your ardor for reflection on things divine be  kindled, for 'a fire shall be kindled during my meditation' (Ps. 39:3. LXX). just as you have to chew food before you  can savor its taste, so you have to ruminate in your soul on holy texts before they enrich and gladden the mind: as  the Psalmist says, 'How sweet Thy words are in my throat' (Ps. 119:103). Learn by heart the words of the Gospels  and me sayings of  

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the blessed fathers, and study their lives diligently, so that you may meditate on these things during the night. In  this way when your mind grows listless in prayer you can refresh it by reading and meditating on sacred texts and  rekindle its appetite for prayer.

When chanting psalms, do this in a low voice, with your intellect fully attentive: do not allow any phrase to go  uncomprehended. Should anything escape your understanding, begin the verse again, and repeat this as many times  as necessary, until your intellect grasps what is being said. For the intellect can attend to the chanting and  simultaneously can recollect God. You may learn this from everyday experience: you can meet and speak with  someone and also focus your eyes on him. Similarly, you can chant psalms and focus on God through  recollectedness.

Do not neglect prostration. It provides an image of man's fall into sin and expresses the confession of our  sinfulness. Getting up, on the other hand, signifies repentance and the promise to lead a life of virtue. Let each  prostration be accompanied by a noetic invocation of Christ, so that by faUing before the Lord in soul and body you  may gain the grace of the God of souls and bodies.

To dispel sleep and indolence while practicing mental prayer you may occupy your hands with some quiet task,  for this, too, contributes to the ascetic struggle. All such tasks when accompanied by prayer quicken the intellect,  banish listlessness, give youthful vigor to the soul, and render the intellect more prompt and eager to devote itself to  mental work.



When the wooden sounding-board is struck, leave your cell, your eyes lowered and your mind anchored in  mindfulness of God. When you have entered the church and taken your place in the choir, do not indulge in idle talk  with the monk next to you or let your intellect be distracted by vain droughts. Secure your tongue with the chanting  of psalms and your mind with prayer. After the dismissal, go back to your cell and begin the tasks prescribed for you  by your rule.

When you enter the refectory, do not look round to see how much food your brethren are eating and so fragment  your soul with ugly suspicions. Look only at what lies before you; with your mouth eat  [V4] 186

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your food, with your ears listen to what is being read, and with your soul pray. Nourishing body and spirit in this  way, with your whole being you may truly praise Him who 'satisfies your desire with blessings' (Ps. 103:5. LXX).  Then rise and enter your cell with dignity and silence, and like an industrious bee make virtue your labor of love.  When you work with the brethren, let your hands do the work while your lips keep silence, and let your intellect be  mindful of God. Should someone be prompted to speak idle words, to restore order rise and make a prostration.

Repulse evil thoughts and do not let than penetrate the heart and settle there; for when passion-imbued thoughts  persist they bring the passions themselves to life and are the death of the intellect. As soon as you sense that they are  attacking you, try to destroy them with the arrow of prayer. If they go on importuning you to be let in, confusing  your mind, now withdrawing, now assailing you again, you may be sure that a prevement desire for them on your  part is giving them strength. Because the soul's free will has been overcome in this way, they now have a lawful  claim against it, and so they perturb and pester it. Hence you should expose them through confession, for evil  thoughts take to flight as soon as they are denounced. Just as darkness recedes when light shines, so the light of  confession dispels the darkness of impassioned thoughts. The vanity and self-indulgence that provided an opening  for such thoughts are destroyed by the shame felt in confessing them and by the hardship of the penance imposed.  Evil thoughts See in confusion when they find the mind already free from passions as a result of continuous, truly  contrite prayer.

When a spiritual athlete tries by means of prayer to cut off the thoughts that agitate him, he is successful for a  while and, wrestling and fighting, controls his mental distraction. But he is not delivered completely, because he is  still attached to the things that cause these disturbing thoughts - to bodily comfort, that is to say, and to worldly  ambition. It is for this reason, indeed, that he is reluctant to confess his thoughts. Thus he is not at peace, for he  himself keeps hold of what properly belongs to his enemies. If you retain someone else's goods, will not the rightful  owner claim them back from you? And if you do not surrender what you wrongfully possess, how can you escape  from your adversary? But when the spiritual athlete, strengthened by mindfulness of God, willingly humiliates and  ill-treats his mortal self, and confesses his thoughts without shame, the enemy withdraws at
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once, and the mind - now free - enjoys ceaseless prayer and unintermpted meditation on things divine.

Reject completely every suspicion about someone else that rises in your heart, because it destroys love and peace.  But accept with courage any calamity that comes from without, since it provides an opportunity for exercising the  patience that leads to salvation, the patience that bestows an abiding-place and repose in heaven.

If you pass your days in this manner, you will spend this present-life in good heart, glad in the expectation of  blessedness; and at death you will leave this world with confidence and be translated to the place of repose that the  Lord has prepared for you, granting you as a reward for your present labors the privilege of reigning with Him in  His kingdom. To Him be all glory, honor and worship, as also to His unorigmate Father, and to His all-holy, blessed  and life-quickening Spirit, now, for ever, and through all the ages. Amen.  

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1 . When the intellect turns away from external things and concentrates on what is within, it is restored to itself; it  is united, that is to say, to the principle of its own consciousness, and through this principle naturally inherent in its  own substance it devotes itself entirely to prayer. By means of prayer it ascends with all its loving power and  affection to the knowledge of God. Then sensual desire vanishes, every pleasure-inciting sense becomes inert, and  the delectable things of earth cease to have any attraction. For once the soul has put behind it all that pertains and is  endemic to the body, it pursues the beauty of Christ, engaging in works of devotion and of mental purity. It sings  aloud, 'The virgins that follow Him shall be brought to the King' (cf Ps. 45:14. LXX). With Christ's image ever  before it, it exclaims, 'I have set the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand' (Ps. 16:8). It cleaves to  Christ with love and cries, 'Lord, all my desire is before Thee' (Ps. 38:9). It continually contemplates Christ, uttering  the words, 'My eyes are ever towards the Lord' (Ps. 25:15). Discoursing with Christ in pure prayer it is filled with  delight and joy, in accordance with the Psalmist's words, 'My discourse with Him will be full of delight, I will  rejoice in the Lord' (Ps. 104 : 34). For God welcomes the discourse bom of prayer, and when He is lovingly invoked  and called to our aid. He bestows inexpressible joy on the beseeching soul. For when the soul brings God to mind in  the discourse of prayer, it is gladdened by the Lord: again as the Psalmist says, 'I remembered God and was  gladdened' (Ps. 77:4. LXX).

2. Spurn the senses and you will quell sensual pleasure. Spurn mental fantasies of delectation and you will quell  self-indulgent thoughts. For when the intellect remains free from fantasy and image, not permitting itself to be  shaped or stamped either by the taints of sensual pleasure or by thoughts full of desire, then it is in a state of  

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simplicity; and transcending all sensory and intelligible realities, it concentrates its vision on God. Its sole activity  is to invoke the Lord's name in the depth of itself with continuous recollectedness, as a child repeats the name of his  father: as it is said in the Scriptures, 'I will invoke the name of the Lord before you' (Exod. 33:19). And as Adam,  molded by God's hand from dust, became through divine inspiration a living soul, so the intellect molded by the  virtues and repeatedly invoking the Lord with a pure mind and an ardent spirit, is divinely transformed, quickened  and deified through knowing and loving God.

3. If through sincere, continual prayer you stand aloof from desire for earthly things, if you repose not with sleep  but through abandoning concern with everything except God, being steadfastly rooted solely in mindfulness of God,  you will establish in yourself, like another helpmate, love for God. For the cry of the prayer that rises from within  you releases divine love; and divine love awakens the intellect, revealing to it what is hidden. Then the intellect,  united with love, gives birth to wisdom, and through wisdom proclaims the esoteric meaning of things. For the  divine Logos, invoked in the cry of the prayer that rises from within you, lays hold of the noetic power of the  intellect as though it were Adam's rib and fills it with divine knowledge; and in its place, bringing to perfection your  inner state. He confers the gift of virtue. Next He vivifies light-generating love and brings it to the enraptured  intellect as it sleeps a sleep free from all desire for. anything earthly. Love appears as another helpmate to the  intellect liberated from mindless attachment to sensory things; it is because of this that it awakens the intellect, now  in a state of purity that permits it to embrace the words of wisdom. Then the intellect, gazing on love and filled with  delight, speaks at length to others, disclosing to them the hidden dimensions of virtue and the unseen operations of  divine knowledge (cf Gen. 2:18, 21-23).  4. Stand aloof from all things sensory, abjuring the law of your unregenerate self, and the spiritual law will be  engraved on your mind. As, according to St Paul, the spiritually awakened do not implement the desire of the flesh  (cf. Gal. 5:16), so he who stands aloof from the senses and from sensory things - stands aloof, that is to say, from the  world and the flesh - is energized by the Spirit and meditates on the things of the Spirit. One can learn of this from  God's relationship with Adam prior to the fall.

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5. If you struggle to keep the commandments, persisting in the paradise of prayer and cleaving to God through  continuous recollection of Him, then God will release you from the self-indulgent proclivities of the flesh, from all  sensory impulsion and from all forms engraved upon your thought; and rendering you dead to the passions and to sin  He will make you a participant in divine life. A sleeping person looks like one dead so far as his bodily activity is  concerned, and yet he is alive thanks to the co-operation of his soul. Similarly if you abide in the Spirit you are dead  to the world and the flesh, but you live according to the spontaneity of the Spirit.

6. If you grasp the meaning of what you chant you will acquire knowledge. From such knowledge you will attain  understanding. From understanding springs the practice of what you know. From practice you will reap abiding  spiritual knowledge. Experiential spiritual knowledge gives rise to true contemplation. From true contemplation is  bom wisdom, filling the firmament of the mind with refulgent words of grace and elucidating what is hidden to the  uninitiated.

7. First the intellect seeks and finds, and then it is united to what it has found. The searching is effectuated by  means of the intelligence, the union by means of love. The search by means of the intelligence is undertaken for the  sake of truth, the union by means of love is consummated for the sake of sanctity.

8. If you transcend the flow of temporal things and detach yourself from desire for what is transient, you will not  notice mundane objects or crave for the delectable things of earth. On the contrary. Supernal visions will be  disclosed to you and you will contemplate celestial beauty and the blessedness of unfading realities. To the person  who hankers after material things and who steeps himself in sensual pleasure, the heavens are dosed, since his  spiritual eyes are shrouded; but he who scorns material things and who repudiates them exalts his intellect and  perceives the glory of eternal realities and the luminosity of the saints. Such a person is filled with divine love and  becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit; he aspires to do God's will and is guided by the Spirit of God, being granted  divine sonship, blessed by God and conforming to Him. 'For all who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of  God' (Rom. 8:14).

9. For as long as you live do not abandon prayer even for a single day on the excuse of illness. Heed St Paul, who  says, 'When I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Cor. 12:10). If you act in this spirit, your profit

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will be greater, and the prayer - grace assisting - will soon make you well. Wherever the Spirit brings solace,  illness and listlessness are short-lived.



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Το Εμποδιο Ειναι Το Εγώ
 
Το Εμποδιο Ειναι Το Εγώ
Το Εμποδιο Ειναι Το Εγώ
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Finding Peace in Awareness

YOUR MIND/EGO IS THE ONLY OBSTACLE TO YOUR HAPPINESS AND SALVATION

You are at the mercy of your thoughts and emotions because they trigger further reactions, leading to a cycle of negative thoughts and emotions. Reacting on autopilot only leads to misery, as the mind operates on a survival instinct that creates a sense of lack and fear. The key is to not react and find salvation from the mind's delusions. The truth lies in finding peace, letting go, forgiving, and living in the present moment.


Finding Peace in Awareness
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