God -loving clergy and faithful, the Christian
life, the robust, orthodox Christian life, we
all know involves acquiring the mind of Christ.
It all involves thinking about whatsoever things
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report. If there be any virtue and
if there be any praise, think on these things.
And it likewise means a deep awareness of the
revealed truth that out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication,
theft, false witness, and blasphemies. Whether
we live according to the commandments of Christ
or according to the deceptive thoughts that arise
in our mind, depends upon how we watch over our
thoughts. Thoughts are not insignificant. They're
a matter of spiritual life and death. They're
a matter of psychological life and death. And
in the end, they're simply a matter of life or
death. So the first basic lesson is that the
thoughts really matter. The way we interpret
the world really matters. is more powerful than
any ascetic activity and helps in a more positive
way. In fact, he maintains that the entire spiritual
life depends upon the thoughts. Of good reason,
the Church's liturgical texts frequently contain
engomia of martyrs, for those saints were able
to endure a most painful death by remaining courageous
in thought. Elder Paisius would remark, that
a person's salvation can be gained or lost quickly.
It's not just a matter of minutes, but it's a
matter of seconds, because it's only a matter
of seconds that the thoughts come to us. The
second basic lesson, after that they really matter,
is that there is a common theme to bad thoughts
and that there's a common theme to good ones.
And knowing that theme is central. It's really
a matter of the self or Christ as the love of
one's life. and as the center of one's life.
Whatever the passions, whatever the evil thoughts,
the fathers boil it all down to what they call
philophthia, the love of self. Saint Basil the
Great provides perhaps the simplest definition
of philophthia. He says someone with philophthia
supposedly loves himself. Whatever that person
does, whether it's in accordance or in conflict
with God's commandments, is done for himself
and with disregard for others. Filoftia thus
refers to a self -centered motivation, self -centered
intentions. But the word supposed is significant.
Filoftia is not even what it seems to be to the
person under its influence. presumably because
it ultimately fulfills to fail the basic aim
of bringing benefit to the self. St. Basil contrasts
philophthia with not being concerned about oneself
on account of a loving stance with respect to
Christ, a loving stance with respect to the brethren,
being philochristos or philadelphos. St. Maximus
the Confessor narrows St. Basil's definition
to that of an irrational love for the body. And
the key word, of course, for St. Maximus is irrational,
a logos, being without reason, being without
purpose, being like an animal, and most importantly,
being apart from the logos of God, God the Word.
For a human being created in the image of God,
to act contrary to the logos entails acting contrary
to one's nature. St. Theodore, the great ascetic,
he would define philophthia as an impassioned
disposition towards the love for the body and
fulfillment of carnal desires. Although philophthia
involves an irrational attachment to the body,
the person who would be acting under philophthia
considers his thoughts and actions to be quite
reasonable. Peter of Damascus even defines it
as a love of one's own will and thoughts, which
is equivalent to a love of pleasure and a love
of praise. If someone affectionately coddles
their own preferences, coddles their own opinions,
that person will naturally, albeit mistakenly,
consider his will to be right, her thoughts to
be accurate. because such a perspective is always
reinforced by the gratifying incentives of pleasure
and increased self -esteem. St. Theophon the
Recluse likewise locates Philoptia in a person's
deeply hidden thought about his own self -importance
and insistence that everything be as he desires
it. So, consistently interpreting all thoughts
through the prism, of love for one's will, love
for one's thoughts, it gradually makes abnormal
interpretations seem to be perfectly normal,
especially when the person fails to ask around
for feedback from others. Filoftia, for the fathers,
is an irrationality, but that is really adept
at appearing rational. Its logic, however, is
always at odds with the struggle for virtue,
for Christian virtue, and it leads the believer
to ascetic sluggishness. St. Gregory of Sinai
notes that philophthia induces us to choose bodily
ease rather than virtue -promoting hardship,
or to regard it as positively good sense not
to willingly burden ourselves with ascetic labor.
Irrational philophthia thus has considerable
persuasive power that appears to be reasonable
to the individual because it makes him forget
the deeper eternal meaning of life beyond this
world. But Philoptia not only obstructs the path
towards virtue, but it opens the road to vice.
For this reason, St. John of Damascus calls Philoptia
the begetter of the vices and the ultimate cause
of the eight bad thoughts. According to St. Ezekiel,
These thoughts are self -praise, self -satisfaction,
gluttony, unchastity, vainglory, jealousy, and
the crown of these pride. St. Maximus likewise
notes that Philatia, again this love for self,
begets the three core passions of gluttony, avarice,
and vainglory, always justifying their existence.
Love of body, makes the soul strive to please
the body by feeding it with a glut of food, by
protecting it with a surplus of money, and by
admiring it with an excess of praise. St. Gregory
of Sinai points out that someone who is ensnared
by his own philophthia loses his freedom and
becomes enslaved to sensual pleasures and vanity.
This dependence on his own enjoyment and status
in turn damages the relationships with others,
since his philophthia embitters him with an envy
over his brother's prosperity. In a similar manner,
St. Maximus, the confessor, observes that philophthia
makes a misuse of the reason to justify cutting
up human nature into many fragments. Once philophthia
has convinced a person to view others as thoroughly
different or separate from him, it makes him
insensitive as well. Insensitivity to others,
coupled with a hypersensitivity to satisfying
one's own desires, are the two aspects of Filoftia
that give the impression that it's reasonable
to hate those who thwart our own plans. According
to Abba Isaiah, Filoftia is what then twists
a man into an unsociable, even antisocial being,
bereft of friendship, justice and piety. So the
fathers, you know, go to great lengths to describe
this love of self, which of course seems so very
natural, to show how all the results, of course,
are actually far from natural, and the ultimate
result is they destroy friendship, they destroy
piety, they destroy everything that's good. And
so having, say, a deep understanding of what's
the source of, say, of evil thoughts will eventually,
of course, help the Christian, of course, to
be able to see the thoughts and to check the
thoughts. St. John Chrysostom notes that Philoftia
blindfolds us with blinders that can only be
removed by those who are hostile to us. Under
the influence of Philoftia, We do not see our
own failings, while those who are hostile to
us often see them quite accurately. Alongside
of this subjective blindness caused by philophthia,
there is also a broader forgetfulness that breeds
philophthia. St. Peter of Damascus observes that
concern with pleasing the body eventually entangles
us in worldly concerns, and in this way leads
us to a complete unawareness of God's gift and
of our own thoughts. And like matter, St. Maximus
locates the source of philophthia in the forgiveness
and forgetfulness of God. Philophthia is obviously
contrary to how we were meant to be created.
In a particularly beautiful passage, Abba Isaiah
writes, Nature did not fashion human beings to
be like solitary beasts, but rather like a flock.
of gregarious animals who share the same pastures,
so that each person would not live only for himself,
but also for his father and his mother, for his
siblings, for his spouse, for his children, for
his other relatives, for his friends, and then
for his townsmen, for his fellow countrymen,
then for those living in his part of the world,
then for all of humanity, and then for every
aspect of all things. and then for the entire
world, and then, of course, for God himself.
So you can see how you start from Filoftia, and
then you just, the need to expand, and why, of
course, being in a gathering such as this, where
we're all gathered together, we're as one body,
it's one of the antidotes to Filoftia, is, of
course, coming together as the church. Instead
of growing, into an ever -enlarging sphere of
love that eventually encompasses all humanity,
even as Christ's love embraces all mankind on
the cross, the soul, distorted by philophthia,
shrivels up into a pitiful ball of lust, greed,
and isolation. All the wonderful potential with
which man was endowed is smothered and distorted
by being directed to an unworthy aim, leaving
the human being trapped in a very small, a very
stifling, and an utterly subjective world of
their own body. For the holy ascetics, removing
the loftia transfigures the way a person reasons,
the way a person desires, the way a person struggles,
by allowing a worthy goal to be placed before
each of the soul's faculties. St. Maximus. would
write, by our intelligence we should be stimulated
to overcome our ignorance and to seek the one
and only God by means of a spiritual knowledge.
Through desire, through a passion of self -love
which has been purified, we should be drawn to
longing for the one God, and with a sense of
power divorced from all tyrannical propensity,
we should struggle to attain God alone. For these
three powers of the soul For through these three
powers, we should actualize the divine and blessed
love on account of which they exist. So, for
the fathers fighting Gileftia, it's not a negative
act, but it's a positive transfiguration of the
entire man, aimed at nothing less than God, who
himself is love. When all the soul's faculties
function naturally, a person is then able to
see reality as it really is. St. Paisios put
it in one letter, if we could come out of ourselves
from our own phileftia, our own love for self,
we would also break free from the earth's gravity,
and then we would see everything as it really
is, with a pure, divine, and penetrating eye.
When phileftia is absent, it becomes easy to
conquer the passions. for not the slightest trace
or form of evil can exist in any way. In place
of the shifting emptiness of Philoptia, the new
man in Christ is filled with goodness which is
stable, permanent, and always the same. So it
is of interest that Philoptia, love of self,
is not the same thing as being self -centered.
Being self -centered It's part of growing up
as a child and needing to attract the attention
of others and to provide for one's need and for
one's safety. In a fallen world that's full of
dangers, the interpretations of how dangers can
affect the self are normal. Everyone basically
responds to life by forming their own personal
frame of reference that makes connections between
the self and whatever the self experiences. in
the environment. Subjective connections then
coalesce into a person's understanding of what
the world is and how it operates. So filoftia
is necessarily egocentric, but egocentricity
is not necessarily an expression of filoftia.
In other words, You know, it's possible for someone
to be concerned with the self, but that's not
because of self -love. Secondly, egocentricity
is about a subjective way of relating events
and persons to the self that may lead to psychopathology,
whereas philophthia involves a particular kind
of affectionate relation to the self that leads
to the enslavement of the passions. And third,
egocentricity is treated by teaching someone
to test egocentric conclusions for accuracy and
to consider the perspectives of others, whereas
Philoptia is fought by adopting a new hierarchy
of values that transfigures the believer's relationship
to God, to himself, and to others. In other words,
it's about taking the gospel and making the gospel.
and the teachings of Christ really the center
of one's life. So if we return to the theme of
watching over the thoughts in Orthodox Christianity,
what matters most in terms of thoughts are thoughts
about what we love. Those are the central thoughts,
of course, that we're called to take care of.
And those thoughts can either be love for others,
love for Christ, or love for self. And when that's,
of course, based on primary love for self, that's
where, of course, we'll get into, we'll basically
be off the path. The Fathers really spell out
everything in order to show us the way towards
salvation. That's why they also single out eight
principal bad thoughts that encompass and engender
all the other sins that the mind can commit.
Every Christian, Orthodox Christian, should know
the eight evil thoughts if the Christian is to
be able to watch over them. The eight thoughts
are traditionally gluttony, unchastity, avarice,
anger, dejection, listlessness, vainglory, and
pride. Now this traditional order in which the
thoughts are listed is meaningful. For the Fathers
teach. That gluttony begets unchastity. That
unchastity begets avarice. That avarice begets
anger. That anger begets dejection. Dejection
begets listlessness. Listlessness begets vainglory.
And vainglory begets pride. Food, sex, greed,
feeling frustrated, feeling unhappy. Feeling
that nothing matters. Feeling the need for praise.
Feeling the need to be better than everyone else.
Those are the kinds of thoughts that the Fathers
instruct all of us to be on our watch for. Knowing
that these are the areas we need to watch over
shows us that we need to watch over the intake
of our food, a wandering eye, a desire for things.
getting our own way, life having to be on our
own terms. All of this awareness of these thoughts
helps us to become the kind of Orthodox Christians
that, of course, we're the saints. We strive
to follow. The eight thoughts are really conceptual
counterparts to specific behaviors. For, as the
Fathers teach, What the body acts out in the
world of things, the nous, the eye of the soul,
the heart, the mind does in the world of conceptual
images. Hence the thoughts can be also formulated
simply in terms of behavior, in terms of the
gluttonous behavior of someone overeating, the
unchaste conduct of someone having illicit relations,
the avaricious actions of someone gambling, and
so forth. Father's connection between thought
and behavior links kind of the subjective reality
of the thoughts that we have in our mind with
concrete actions that others can also observe.
Furthermore, if bad thoughts can be formulated
in behavioral terms, then, of course, their antidotes
can also be formulated in like manner. For example,
in a text attributed to St. John of Damascus,
the author notes that gluttony can be corrected
by self -control, unchastity by desire for God
and longing for future blessings, avarice by
compassion for the poor, anger by goodwill and
love for all men, worldly dejection by spiritual
joy, listlessness by patience. perseverance and
offering thanks to God, vainglory by doing good
in secret and by praying constantly with a contrite
heart, and pride by not judging or despising
anyone in the manner of the boastful Pharisee
and by considering oneself to be the least of
all. Also note that if the beginning is gluttony
and the end is pride, in terms of the list of
the eight thoughts, that means that with a life,
A simple life of fasting and humility is really
the perfect combination for success in the Christian
life. Now, the eight bad thoughts can also be
framed as mistaken judgments about concepts or
as misleading impressions about the pleasure
some perceivable object will bring. For example,
envy can also be defined as the misbelief that
it's best to prevail over others. Greed is the
misbelief that the highest good lies in owning
things for the sake of possessing them. If we
use St. Maximus' definition of mistaking judgment
about concepts to the eight bad thoughts, we
can similarly express the thoughts in terms of
particular errors. For example, gluttony, unchastity,
avarice, anger, vainglory, and pride. involve
obvious mistakes in judgment that respectively
transform themselves into excessive eating, sensuality,
possessions, revenge, one's image or one's self,
all of them into the highest good, instead of
the highest good, who is, of course, God himself.
Sorrow for a being created by a loving God, listlessness
for a being whose days are numbered, whose life
is numbered in days, are mis -evaluations at
an existential level. The value of this way of
looking at the evil thoughts lies in its emphasis
on basically personal choice, and that there
is, it's basically, if we have an improper hierarchy
of values, those improper values can actually
support the evil thoughts, so that the evil,
what the fathers always characterized as, Eight
evil thoughts actually become eight ways of getting
ahead in life, which is basically the way, of
course, the way of the world, which, of course,
orthodoxy is very much upside down from that
perspective. One thing that I always note, even
though the fathers have a beautiful, comprehensive
way of looking at the thoughts, the Christian
life. It all always comes down to actually just
the simple, simple teaching of Christ, loving
Christ, loving neighbor, and then simply living
humbly according to the gospel. Now, mistakes.
Mistakes happen when a person is not adept at
working with the appropriate standard, or when
interference prevents or distracts a person from
using it. Since the standard of the gospel is
a given for the ancients, they emphasize the
problem of what they call mixed signals, that
is, the coexistence of ideas that conceal the
eight bad thoughts so that the latter will slip
by unnoticed. For example, the thought of gluttony
is often camouflaged by the reasonable pretext
of preventing bodily illness. The thought of
avarice is disguised by prudent concerns about
old age. In other instances, the thought is not
camouflaged, but the attention shifts to another
issue that eclipses the bad thought that's already
present. For example, with the thought of fornication,
the conviction that fleshly impulses will not
subside make room for the belief that only by
satisfying them will a person have relief? In
all these examples, which are basically taken
from Evagrius, a person who has made the mistake
of acting on one of the bad thoughts has previously
accepted permission -giving beliefs that seem
to be reasonable, that feel compelling. So the
monastic fathers point out that these beliefs
are really sly self -dispensations. So the believer
will recognize, they point it out so the believer
will recognize them, be able to judge them with
increased objectivity, and by the grace of God,
avoid making such mistakes in judgment, not seeing
the evil sin, one of the evil sins that are present,
leading them to sin itself. The classical patristic
list of the eight evil thoughts, it's meant to
provide the believer with a set that's easily
remembered set of mutually exclusive but collectively
exhaustive categories that can be an aid or standard
for diagnosing our own thoughts. The additional
knowledge, in turn, should clarify the believer's
choice about accepting a thought, rejecting it,
or acting over it. Watching over the thoughts
means an awareness of the dangers of self -love.
And it means an awareness of the eight evil thoughts,
which could also be called the eight crafty thoughts.
It's also necessary, of course, to cultivate
good thoughts, that whatsoever things are true.
According to St. John Chrysostom, this entails
musing on virtue and on whatsoever is pleasing
to the faithful and to God. St. Isaac the Syrian
notes that the remembrance of the virtues is
a better way to elude the passions than resistance.
Conscientious reflection on virtues alters the
way people interpret and thus respond to situations.
For example, if Christians who often reflect
on the virtue of speaking truthfully encounter
a situation where it would be tempting to tell
a half -truth or lie to save face, the previous
reflection on the virtue of honesty will nevertheless
be enough to help them admit the truth. In like
manner, those who frequently ruminate on patristic
advice about fighting anger will be that much
more apt to apply that advice in a time of need.
By daily, for monks, for example, Often the fathers
will talk about how losing the first zeal. And
so there's a need for a monk, even all through
his life, to remember the zeal when he first
entered the monastery. Or for a priest to remember
the zeal that was present at that first liturgy
that the priest celebrated as a priest. And that
remembrance itself strengthens. That's basically
a watching over a good thought, a cultivating
a good thought, which then allows for... for
further faults that are pleasing to God. Fathers
say, by reflecting on the bold deeds of the fathers,
the martyrs discovered within themselves the
courage to fight in like manner for the brave
and steadfast mind riveted to religious meditations
endures. So the active cultivation of good thoughts
provides a believer with a corrective lens for
properly viewing the world, even as the passions
and the bad thoughts distort what a person sees.
According to St. Bartholomew, good thoughts are
like pigments that the believer applies to the
painting of the heart and thereby makes it difficult
for clashing colors to be added. Together with
musing on the beauty of virtue, the cultivation
of good thoughts also entails pondering just
on the basic truths of revelation and the human
predicament. St. John Chrysostom points out the
value of this kind of theoria is not merely intellectual
and didactic. Those who unremittingly remember
God not only choose to do what is right, but
are also remembered by God, who then gives them
the strength, gives them the grace to accomplish
it. As an aid to the faithful, the Holy Fathers
prepared lists of edifying topics to be sown
in the soil of the believers' hearts. For example,
St. Gregory of Sinai advises cultivating thoughts
about God, the angelic ranks, created being,
the incarnation, the universal resurrection,
the second coming, the eternal punishment, and
the kingdom of heaven. I recall nuns that I knew
in Greece, they would always be thinking about
their angels, and that their angels were watching,
and they found it extremely helpful in their
life as nuns. St. Peter of Damascus mentions
that the above subjects In his list, but he also
adds other topics such as the flux of time, the
trials of human life, the soul's plight after
death, our faults, and God's bounty towards us.
The finality of these considerations kind of
form a bedrock that helps stabilize the human
mind. They moreover establish firm beliefs about
human finitude, value. and responsibility that
powerfully shape the way people view themselves,
their world, and, of course, their future. Just
take the thought about, say, the soul's plight
after death. If you have that thought, then you
have a thought about gluttony. Automatically,
that thought of gluttony, or that thought of
avarice, or that thought of despair, it's weakened
by another thought that's actually... And you
can almost take any good thought, any thought
about the gospel, any thought about Christ's
mercy towards us, his love towards us, the closeness
of the mother of God to us, her protecting veil
that shelters us, even just hearing those words,
and then despair, anger, they don't have, they
kind of, that lack of kind of, It kind of gets
innerviated from within by these, of course,
this cultivation of good and blessed thoughts.
Although the subjects on the patristic lists
are worthy of cultivation, the particular needs
and spiritual maturity of individual Christians
dictate which thoughts should be emphasized.
For example, St. John Cashin prefers the love
of virtue, and the love for God, to the fear
of hell, as motives for the Christian life. Consequently,
he advised keeping the love of the Lord at the
immovable center of the mind. And, of course,
if you think of what was the opposite problem,
which is Philadelphia, the love of self at the
center of the mind, putting the love of, of course,
Christ at the center of the mind is the antidote.
St. John Climacus likewise praises the sublimity
of thinking about the love of God, the kingdom
of heaven, the zeal of the martyrs, but he also
notes that the universal effectiveness of reflecting
on one's departure, the last judgment, and eternal
retribution. In other words, although love of
God is the most exalted of subjects, the harsh
reality of death can soften even the most insensitive
souls. encouraging to turn away from arrogance,
from vain thoughts, from inordinate desires,
as well as to follow the ascetic life. St. Theophon
the Rectus advises the believer to reflect upon
the above subjects upon waking from sleep and
to repeat a scriptural verse, such as, Where
shall I go? It is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment. The daily cultivation
of good thoughts or theoria complements that
everyday practice of the virtues by further altering
the faithful's interpretation of the world around
them. When people ponder on virtue, patristic
advice for fighting the passions, the achievements
of the saints, and the history of salvation as
well as their own future death and judgment,
They make the image of God in the soul shine
with particular radiance. Not only is their inner
life nourished by the truth of the gospel, but
their inner vision is clarified by the light
of Christ that exposes the falsehood of the passions
as well as the treachery of beliefs stemming
from selfishness, irresponsibility, and ingratitude.
In watching over the thoughts, thinking upon
good thoughts, is greatly strengthened, of course,
by reading and the study of spiritual books.
Spiritual reading consolidates what the believer
learns during the divine services and the mystery
of confession. Spiritual reading is such an important
facet of the Christian life and the health of
the soul that St. Ignatius Branshaninov begins
his advice to monks with an exhortation on studying
the gospel and ingraining the commandments of
Christ in the mind so that the monastics might
put them into practice. St. Phaethon de Retrus
likewise emphasizes practical and purpose -laden
aspect of reading when he advised a believer
who has finished perusing a text to persuade
himself not only to think exactly like that,
but also to feel also so. We can see the difference
if you simply go online and read a news article.
Maybe read two pages of a news article and then
read two pages of something that's spiritual,
something about the soul. The kind of thoughts
that happen afterwards are very different. The
way the soul feels. Spiritual reading, it's not...
It's not really an option for the Orthodox Christian.
The Orthodox Christian always needs to have some
spiritual book by their bedside to at least something.
You can see, thoughts are simple. It could even
be a paragraph. It doesn't have to be 30 pages,
40 pages. Although generally it's true that actually
more is usually better. But you can say a paragraph
so that it doesn't sound so scary. So, for the
Holy Fathers, for the Holy Fathers, the spiritual
benefits of reading sacred texts are manifold.
The reading of Scripture protects the faithful
from sin, for it both makes them more sensitive
to spiritual matters, and it arms them with expertise
about how to withstand and overcome temptations.
It also strengthens faith. It steadies a wandering
mind. It gives rise to pious thoughts. It illumines
the heart, and it guides believers towards virtuous
behavior. St. Athanasius the Great notes that
constant rumination on the law of the Lord is
a necessary form of spiritual exercise that should
be practiced regularly so that good thoughts
might lead a person to acts of virtue. When believers
daily read familiar teachings with the same eagerness
and thirst for sanctifying knowledge that they
had when they encountered those teachings for
the first time, then even the purposes of their
hearts and the wanderings of their imagination
are sanctified. St. Niles the Ascetic said frequent
reminders of good examples carve similar images
within the soul. The ascetic fathers even maintained
that extensive spiritual reading can heal a person's
evil memories by imprinting in the mind the remembrance
of the good, thereby purifying memories of the
passions and distancing the soul from distressing
recollections. Spiritual reading, moreover, fills
the soul with incomprehensible wonder and divine
gladness. The Holy Fathers recommend reading
the saints' writings with the diligence of a
zealous student who pays attention to every word
to discover spiritual treasures embedded in sacred
texts. As St. John Chrysostom notes, one sentence
often supplies those who receive it with ample
provision for their entire life. Since the faithful
read Scripture and the writings of the saints
with an awareness that through these texts God
may be speaking to them, it follows that they
also read these texts humbly and prayerfully.
In terms of practical instruction, St. Theophany
of Recluse advises believers to empty their mind,
open their hearts, and pray to God before attentively
and slowly reading sacred texts. St. Ignatius
Francianino advises monks to study works for
those living in community, such as the Discourses
of Abba Dorotheus, the Catechetical Homilies
of St. Theodore the Studite, the Ladder of St.
John of Sinai, before reading texts written for
solitaries, such as the Ascetic Homilies of St.
Isaac the Syrian. the Philokalia of St. Nicodemus
and Macarius of Corinth. St. Nicodemus himself
advises those sick with the thoughts to read
sacred books, especially St. Ephraim, the Ladder,
the Evergetinos, the Philokalia, and other books.
Although the advice differs of these two saints,
both monastic masters emphasize that the selection
of spiritual books is neither a haphazard process
nor an academic exercise, but it's purposeful
and practical, and an endeavor that should ideally
be done under the direction of the believer's
spiritual father. So, knowledge about Filoftia,
knowledge about the eight evil thoughts, knowledge
about the cultivation of good thoughts, can be
helpful. But all this knowledge, of course, at
times, can be forgotten at the time of the struggle.
Knowledge is never enough. The human will needs
the support of divine grace. Monastic fathers
acknowledge the difficulty of the struggle against
the thoughts, but they assure the believer that
it's always a struggle towards salvation. Abba
Zosimus used to say that without the presence
of temptation and thoughts, one could not become
a saint. Sometimes the Father suggests a methodological
approach to this struggle. For example, St. John
Chrysostom recommends working for one month on
one set of virtues and next month on another.
A similar approach can be seen in St. Nicodemus
of the Haggirite, who advised about preparing
for confession in terms of recalling sins committed
in thought, word, and deed during the span of
a month, during the span of a week, and then
during the span of a single day. The Fathers
also stressed a streamlined approach to dealing
with the thoughts by focusing primarily on becoming
humble -minded. The virtue of humility is capable
of protecting the believer from sundry thoughts
that can damage the inner world. For example,
someone who feels humbled will avoid not only
getting the appearance of critical thoughts,
but also the temptation to weave such thoughts
at the instigation of others. If that person
happens to hear someone being criticized, he'll
use criticism to humble himself even further.
As a help to avoid ranting about what others
have done, the father suggests that the believers
striving for humility recall that such inner
tirades make him resemble the demons who in this
wise torment themselves and others. To avoid
acting with pride, the Christian should refrain
from reacting before reflection and prayer. A
further patristic counsel for acquiring a humble
outlook so crucial to the battle against the
thoughts consists in simply being skeptical about
one's initial judgment regarding another person
or regarding a situation. Elder St. Paisius suggests
saying to oneself, I don't always think correctly.
I often make mistakes. How about when I had this
thought, which turned out to be off the mark?
Or when I misjudged my number in this way, but
it didn't turn out to be such. Therefore, I shouldn't
listen to my thoughts. In monasticism, where
special opportunities for training and humility
are available, the novice learns to distrust
his thoughts by asking his elder about them.
Abba Dorotheos relates, how he would think about
doing something, but at times be disinclined
to bother his elder. In such times as this, he
would say to himself, curse you, your prudence,
your knowledge, and whatever you know, you know
from the demons. Then he'd go and he'd ask the
elder for his counsel, and the elder's counsel
would actually be just exactly what he had thought
about. But then he told himself, yes, he says,
now it's good and from the Holy Spirit, but earlier
it was from your passionate state. Obviously,
the issue is not the truth value or the utilitarian
benefit of a given thought, but about the acquisition
of humility that can transfigure the entire thought
process and open one to the grace of God. St.
Bartholomew and John situate this practice in
the biblical tradition, stating that to seek
the counsel before acting is to fulfill the law
and the prophets, because by so doing a person
manifests in his life humility of Christ, who
took on the form of the servant. You know, on
the Holy Mountain, they often stress about the
great importance of obedience. You know, obedience
is life, disobedience is death. But what does
obedience mean? And it simply starts with just
asking. Just asking, is this right? Just asking,
is this what I should do? And rather than simply
accepting the first thought that comes to oneself
and that this is truly good, I think this actually
applies for everyone. I mean, as a bishop, I
may think, well, maybe I should make this decision
at the diocese. But I ask someone. If it's a
big problem, I ask his beatitude. I may call
a brother bishop. But also in doing so, there's
a humility present. And when that humility is
present, then it's no longer all about the self.
And again, back to Philadelphia, and just the
self making the decision by itself. There are
some more distinctions to consider in watching
over the thoughts. But the primary one, the final
one I'd like to talk about tonight, is between
thought as a temptation to sin, and as a sinful
state. Following Stoic tradition, Origen calls
the initial response to temptation what he calls
a pre -passion, before something becomes a passion,
propachos. That is an involuntary and hence sinless
inclination towards an irritating stimulus. Without
pre -passion, temptation would be an impossibility.
For Didymus the Blind, Of course, the temptation
of Christ demonstrates that pre -passion is a
sinless state. But there is a point when a sinless
pre -passion becomes a sin of thought. St. Jerome
writes, God does not punish the first or the
second stimuli of thoughts that the Greeks call
propathias, and that no man can be without. But
he does inflict punishment if someone decides
to do what has been thought. In his commentary
on Matthew, St. Jerome notes that a person turns
a thought into an emotion when he assents to
a thought and wills it. In this way, the neutral
pre -passion becomes a blameworthy passion. Thus,
for St. Jerome, sin begins with the use of the
will in a mental act of decision and judgment.
But the decision is actually not always so straightforward.
According to Evagrius, a decision is made when
a person lingers on a harmful thought. Lingering
implies immoderately indulging on a bad thought
that should be spat out as soon as it touches
the mind. According to St. Mark the Ascetic,
if a person experiences pleasure or anger while
dallying with a thought, then there also exists
an attachment that stems from one's free choice.
He also views the appearance of images accompanying
thoughts as indicative of inner ascent. The saint
discerns that being emotionally distressed over
a bad thought, rather than being pleased by it,
indicates that the thought was generated against
the will and can easily be eradicated. Because,
of course, for the fathers, the three sources
of the thoughts are, of course, the thoughts
that simply arise just from... the human organism
and what they consider, of course, natural thoughts.
You know, you haven't eaten for four hours and
you'll think about eating. That's simply a natural
thought. But then there are demonic thoughts,
which, of course, are evil thoughts. And then
there are, of course, good thoughts, angelic
thoughts. One of the fathers talks about the
example of gold. You say the word gold, and gold
is just neutral. It can't be neutral. But if
someone looks at it and thinks of it, yes, with
gold I can acquire this and that, and it turns
into avarice, then, of course, that concept has
become, of course, an evil thought. Whereas if
you say this gold that God has providentially
strewn throughout the mountains so that we can
build, make, fashion a beautiful chalice for
the temple of the Lord is an angelic thought.
So, of course, it has to do with, you know, Basically,
the origin of the thought and kind of the direction
that the thought is moving. After the distinction
between temptation and sin and thought, the ancient
ascetics instruct the faithful to the obvious
but crucial difference between sin and thought
and sin and deed, as well as the need to prevent
the former from slipping into the latter. Origen
viewed sin in thought as tolerable and treatable,
but sin in word and deed is dangerous and difficult
to cure, if not incurable. For this reason, when
a wise person is disturbed by a storm of thoughts,
he keeps that tempest of the mind hemmed in,
neither uttering a word nor moving a muscle.
So the exemplary behavior of the wise demonstrates
that an initial sinful thought can be arrested
by an act of will. Origen suggests that by some
introspection, anyone can come to see the possibility
of such resistance. He writes, if someone says
that it's impossible to resist what comes from
the outside, then pay attention to his own passions
and movements in order to see if his governing
mind is somehow approving, consenting, or being
inclined to that thing. As an aid to self -observation,
The Church Fathers outlined in varying degrees
of detail the processes whereby a temptation
becomes a sin in thought and then a sin in deed.
Their ultimate aim was, of course, to help faithful
avoid sinful actions, acquire compunction, attain
purity of heart, and discover the kingdom. St.
Mark the Ascetic queries, If someone has not
perceived this general process of sinning, when
will he pray about it and be cleansed from it?
So that's why, of course, knowing the stages
leading from thought to the action is kind of,
I would say, the final piece of knowledge that's
needed to start watching over the thoughts. The
standard patristic account of the process of
sin is enshrined in Balastha, Bossomon's commentary
on the fourth canon of the Council of Neo -Caesarea,
the Fathers say that there are four degrees of
sin. Provocation, struggle, assent, and act.
The first two of these are not subject to punishment,
but the other two call for penance. In other
words, there are three stages in the mind before
turning to one in action. St. Augustine of Hippo
and Gregory of Rome provide... slightly different
descriptions of the three stages as being that
of suggestion, pleasure, and assent, with pleasure
replacing struggle. Blessed Augustine gives the
example of a person who's fasting. If that person
sees food, the suggestion, his appetite will
be aroused, the pleasure, and then he may decide
to go and eat the assent unless reason holds
him back. St. Maximus the Confessor describes
the three stages as a memory bringing a thought
into the mind. The arousal of a passion by lingering
on the thought and then the mental ascent to
the passion. Other fathers refer to these stages
but emphasize the interaction between the devil
who initiates the process and the individual
who mingles or couples with demonic provocation
for the sake of self -indulgence or vainglory.
St. John Climacus defines the first stage. pros
voli, as a simple conception or an image of something
encountered for the first time in the heart.
In a text attributed to St. John of Damascus,
we are given the scriptural example of a provocation
as a suggestion coming from the enemy, like,
do this, do that, as our Lord experienced when
he heard the words, command these stones become
bread. St. Maximus and Ilias the Presbyter notes
that provocation takes place in the imagination.
Thus the first stage involves the appearance
of thoughts, images, and possible courses of
action, real or imaginary, appearing or being
engendered in the heart. Because they appear
in the heart, provocations touch the core of
the human person, and because they are often
clothed in the imagination, they do so where
the heart is actually most vulnerable. St. John,
the abbot of Sinai, defined the next stage, the
struggle, as a conversation, what has been presented,
accompanied by the passion or dispassion. In
other words, an individual who converses with
a thought will either couple with it by deliberately
dallying with it in a pleasurable manner or wrestle
with it by resisting it. Although pleasure indicates
an initial movement towards assent and sorrow
suggests an initial movement towards rejection,
sometimes one's feelings are quite mixed. St.
Gregory the Dialogist puts it, often when the
heart is tempted, it experiences delight in the
sinfulness of the flesh, but resists this same
sinfulness in its judgment. Thus, in one's secret
thoughts, the heart is both saddened by what
pleases it and pleased by what saddens it. In
other words, The tempted feel torn in opposite
directions, self -indulgence, vainglory, clamor
for pleasure, whereas the wiser conscience exhorts
the tempted to preserve the soul as the dwelling
place of God. And so you can see in the midst
of the tempting thoughts, having the strength
of actually cultivating good thoughts, or simply
having an awareness of, well, this is phileftia,
or an awareness that this is one of the evil
thoughts. how that makes that struggle, which
is a struggle that everyone goes through anyway,
that much easier. Remaining in the stage of struggling
with a provocation for extended interval is not
without danger. Real time spent in an imaginary
world surrounding the thought gives the thought
the semblance of reality, and it grooves a channel
in the mind through which similar thoughts will
tend to flow. In this way, habit -forming passions
come into existence. At this point, the person's
thought can become the person's tyrant in a process
that the fathers call captivity, a forcible and
involuntary rape of the heart. The final stage,
consensus, can be defined as an approval of the
passionate aspect of the thought. in which the
mind enjoys bending down towards what it envisions.
At this point, a person plans how to commit sin
in practice and step -by -step transforms the
thought into deed. Although detailed planning
intimates decision -making and control, the person
may well feel like he's being captive and being
dragged to the act. St. Gregory the Dialogist
views this consent as a sin not of the thought,
but of deed. For although the circumstances bring
a delay that outwardly defers to sin, the will
has already accomplished it inwardly by that
act of the conscience. As thoughts become obsessional
and habitual, so behaviors become addictive and
unexamined, leading the unfortunate soul to a
lack of repentance that paves the way to hell.
Repelling bad thoughts from the start is like
driving out wild beasts, so that one's vineyards
and fruits can be protected. If a person converses
with the thoughts, even without experiencing
pleasure, the vineyard is placed in jeopardy.
And although the fruit of the vineyard is still
unharmed, wild boars have been allowed to enter
therein. If the individual enjoys conversing
with the thoughts, yet does not consent to them,
the boars not only come to the vineyard, but
also begin feeding on the grapes, those godly
thoughts of humility. gratitude, and love that
are the very spiritual aim of the vineyard of
the mind. And when a scent takes place, the more
the boars move about, freely devouring at will.
In terms of sin, according to the ecclesiastical
canons, a person will not be tried for being
provoked by a thought and struggling with it,
but he will be judged for consenting to a thought
and subject to punishment for putting it into
practice. Monastic literature often has a higher
standard for that. Given the detrimental effects
of following a provocation to its bitter end,
the Fathers advised cutting off the bud by rebutting
it or viewing it dispassionately, as well as
simply by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus,
St. John. Cassian suggests keeping watch over
the head of the serpent, the first inkling of
the pernicious thoughts by which the serpent
tries to creep into our soul and striking it
down. The earlier a person rejects a bad thought,
the less he will be harmed by it. Nevertheless,
rejecting the thought at any stage before putting
it into action has its value. The corollary to
this action is the principle that repentance
should be in accord with how far one proceeds
through the stages. Thus, St. Gregory Dialogist
counsels, those who mourn over transgressions
in thought are to be exhorted to consider carefully
to what extent they have fallen into sin, so
they may be lifted up by an amount of weeping
that is commensurate with their downfall that
they are already inwardly aware of. Otherwise,
if contemplated evils torment them too little,
they will be led on to the perpetration of deeds.
So, patristic instruction concerning the thoughts,
it's practical, it's theoretically consistent,
and it's readily understandable. But it's also
based on careful observations and time -tested
approaches that are known to bring results. Obedience
to Christ's commandments and the struggle to
attain humility by reproaching oneself, by questioning
one's thoughts. and seeking advice are actions
that weaken the hold the thoughts have over a
person. Knowledge about when and how a provocation
or suggestion becomes a sin of thought increases
the believer's introspective awareness, as well
as their sense of responsibility for the development
of thoughts. Thus, this knowledge increases the
probability that they will rest of that thought
at an early stage of development. Knowledge and
practice are inseparable. One learns in order
to do, and in doing, one learns. The examined
life for the Orthodox Christian is truly a life
worth living. As Orthodox Christians, we have
the tools, we have the teachings, and through
the Holy Mysteries, we have the grace for something
truly wonderful to take place in each of our
lives. For human beings, Love God and loving
neighbor with all one's heart, striving to be
free of filthia, striving to see bad choices
as bad choices, to see evil thoughts as evil
thoughts for what they are, is what can lead
us to actually make wise choices in life. Holiness
is not the prerogative of monks alone. Our treasures
are for all. We simply need to make use of them
with humility, with fasting, With love, above
all, with love.