On Watchfulness and the Guarding of the Heart

Nikephoros the Monk — On Watchfulness and the Guarding of the Heart — A Discourse Most Profitable for the Soul

[Prologue: Invitation to the Inner Life]

As many of you as ardently desire to attain the divine and majestic radiance of our Saviour Jesus Christ; as many as wish in perception and feeling to receive the heavenly fire in your hearts; as many as press forward to obtain by experience and sensation the reconciliation that is toward God; as many as have surrendered everything in the world in order to find and possess the treasure hidden in the field of your hearts; as many as desire the lamps of your souls to be lit brightly from the present time and have renounced all present things; as many as wish to know and perceive by knowledge and experience the kingdom of the heavens that is within you — come, and I will set before you the knowledge of eternal and heavenly life, or rather the method thereof, which leads the one who practises it into the harbour of dispassion without toil and without sweat, and which is terrified by no delusion or dismay from the demons — being troubled only when, through disobedience, we dwell afar from the life I am here setting forth, just as Adam of old, despising the commandment of God and befriending the serpent, trusting it and being sated to excess with the fruit of its deceit, pitiably cast himself and all his descendants into the abyss of death, darkness, and corruption. Let us therefore return — or rather, to speak more truthfully, let us return to ourselves, brothers, utterly abhorring the counsel of the serpent and all traffic with things that creep upon the earth. For there is no other way for us to attain reconciliation and intimacy with God unless we first return to ourselves, as far as lies within us, or rather enter within. For the paradox is this: we must cut ourselves away from the world’s wandering and from vain care, and lay relentless hold upon the kingdom of the heavens that is within us. For this reason the monastic life has been called the art of arts and the science of sciences, since it does not provide us with perishable things as its occasion — lest we divert our minds from greater goods toward them — but promises us certain strange and ineffable goods which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not ascended into the heart of man. Therefore our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age. If then the present age is darkness, let us flee it — let us flee it in mind, sharing nothing with the enemy of God. For he who desires to befriend him becomes an enemy of God; and who can help one who has become an enemy of God? Therefore let us imitate our fathers and seek, as they did, the treasure within our hearts; and having found it, let us hold it most firmly, working and keeping — for this is what we were appointed to do from the beginning.

[The Objection of a New Nicodemus]

If some other Nicodemus should appear, contending in these matters and saying, “How can anyone enter into the heart and labour and dwell there?” — as that man objected to the Saviour, “How can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, being old?” — he too shall be answered: “The Spirit blows where it will.” And if we are so doubtful and disbelieving about the works of the practical life, how shall the things of contemplation come upon us? For the practical life is the foundation of contemplation. Since it is impossible to satisfy one who doubts in this way without scriptural proofs, let us in the present discourse set forth the lives of the saints and the things they committed to writing for the benefit of many, so that the doubter, being convinced by these, may put away all uncertainty. Let us begin from the beginning, from our great Father himself, and thereafter, collecting in part the words and deeds of those who follow him, as far as I am able, let us lay them out for confirmation.

[From the Life of Our Holy Father Antony]

Once two brothers came to Abba Antony; and since water had failed them on the road, the one died, while the other was near death — unable to walk further, he lay upon the ground expecting to die. But Antony, sitting upon the mountain, called two monks who happened to be there and urged them, saying: “Take a vessel of water and run along the road toward Egypt; for of two who were coming, one has just died and the other is about to die, unless you hasten — for this has been revealed to me in prayer.” The monks went and found the one lying dead and buried him; the other they revived with water [...]

and brought him to the Elder, for the distance was a day’s journey. If someone asks why he did not speak before the other died — he asks wrongly. For the judgment of death was not Antony’s but God’s, who both decreed concerning the one and revealed it concerning the other. The wonder that was Antony’s alone was this: that, sitting upon the mountain, he kept his heart watchful, and the Lord was showing him things far off. Do you see that Antony became a seer of God and a prophet through watchfulness of the heart? For indeed God manifests himself in the heart to the mind — at first, as John of the Ladder says, as fire that purifies the lover, and then as light that illumines the mind and makes it godlike.

[From the Life of Saint Theodosios the Cenobiarch]

For the divine Theodosios was so smitten by the sweet arrow of love and so held fast by those bonds that this lofty and divine commandment — “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” — was fulfilled in him by works; which could not otherwise come about than by the natural powers of the soul being directed toward nothing else of present things, but solely toward longing for the Creator. Directing and encouraging these intellectual operations of the soul, he was both awe-inspiring and gentle in correction, most profitable and pleasant in all things. Who was so beneficial to the multitudes in his intercourse with them, or so capable of gathering the senses and directing them inward, so that those amid the tumult of the crowd lived in greater calm than those in the desert — and that the same man was both among a multitude and in solitude? Behold, this great Theodosios, by gathering the senses and turning them inward, became wounded by the love of the Most High.

[From the Life of Saint Arsenios]

This too was kept by the wondrous Arsenios: neither to propound scriptural questions nor to write letters — not because he was incapable; for to whom was it as easy to speak well as it was for others to speak simply? But the habit of silence and the distaste for display were the causes of the things mentioned. For this reason even in the churches and in the assemblies it was his great concern neither to look upon anyone nor to be seen by others; but to stand behind a column or some other screen and conceal himself, hiding himself from the intercourse of others — since he desired to attend to himself, to gather the mind within, and thus easily to be raised toward God. Again, this divine man, the earthly angel, gathers the mind within, so that from thence he may be easily lifted to God.

[From the Life of Saint Paul of Latros]

The divine Paul spent his days continually on mountains and in wildernesses, using wild beasts as neighbours and companions at table; and from time to time he would come down to the Lavra and deign to visit the brothers. He exhorted and taught them not to be faint-hearted, nor to grow slack from the laborious works of virtue, but with all attentiveness and discernment to hold to the evangelical life and to struggle bravely against the spirits of wickedness. Moreover, he introduced to them a method by which they would be able to unlearn passionate impulses and to turn aside the sowings of the passions. O wonder! How this divine Father teaches a method to his disciples who are ignorant of it, so that through it they may be able to turn aside the assaults of the passions. This method was none other than the guarding of the mind; for this is that achievement, and no other’s.

[From the Life of Abba Sabba]

When the divine Sabba saw that one who had renounced the world had learned accurately the rule of the monastic life and was now able to guard his own mind and to fight off contrary thoughts, and moreover had banished entirely the memory of worldly things from his understanding, then and only then did he provide a cell in the Lavra — if the body was weak and infirm; if however the person was among the strong and healthy, he permitted even the construction of a cell. Do you see how the wondrous Abba required guarding of the mind from his disciples, and only so permitted them to sit in cells? What shall we do, we who sit idly in cells and do not even know whether there is such a thing as guarding of the mind?

[From the Life of Abba Agathon]

A brother asked Abba Agathon, saying: “Tell me, Abba, which is greater — the bodily labour, or the guarding of the interior?” And he said: “The human being resembles a tree; bodily labour is the foliage, and the guarding of the interior is the fruit. Since, then, according to what is written, ‘Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire,’ it is evident that all our zeal is for the sake of the fruits — that is, the guarding of the mind; yet there is also need of the shelter and adornment of leaves, which is bodily labour.” O wonder! How this holy man has pronounced against all who lack guarding of the mind, saying of those who boast only in the practical: ‘every tree’ — meaning one who has guarding of the mind — ‘that does not produce fruit’ — meaning guarding of the mind — ‘but has only leaves’ — meaning the active life — ‘is cut down and cast into fire.’ Blessed is your verdict, Father!

[From Abba Mark to Nicholas]

If then you desire, my child, to acquire within yourself the proper lamp of the noetic light of spiritual knowledge, so that you may walk without stumbling in the deepest night of this age and have your ways directed by the Lord — so that you may greatly desire the way of the Gospel according to the prophetic word, that is, to become through longing and prayer a partaker of the perfect evangelical commandments of the Lord in burning faith — I show you a wondrous method and a devising of a spiritual manner, which requires not bodily toil or struggle but spiritual labour, and the use of the mind and attentive understanding, and the cooperation of fear and love of God; through which devising you will be able easily to rout the phalanx of the enemies. If then you wish to take the victory over the passions, enter into yourself through prayer and the cooperation of God and dive into the depths of the heart, and trace out those three mighty giants — forgetfulness, I say, and sloth and ignorance, the support of the noetic strangers, through whom the remaining passions of evil, lurking beneath, operate and live and have their power in the souls of those who love pleasure. And through much attentiveness and oversight of the mind, with the help of grace from above, finding what is unknown to the many, you will be able through much attentiveness and prayer to be delivered from the evil giants. For by the zeal for true knowledge and for the memory of the word of God and for good concord, through active grace striven after in the heart and carefully guarded, every trace of forgetfulness and ignorance and sloth is obliterated in it.

[From Saint John of the Ladder]

The hesychast is the one who strives to confine the incorporeal within the bodily dwelling — a paradox. The hesychast is the one who said: “I sleep, and my heart watches.” Close the door of your cell to the body, the door of speech to the tongue, and the inner gate to the spirit. Sit upon a height and keep watch — if indeed you know how — and then observe how, and when, and whence, and how many, and what manner of thieves come to enter and to steal the clusters of grapes. When the watchman grows weary, he rises and prays, and again sitting down he holds firmly to the same work. The guarding of thoughts is one thing, and the guarding of the mind is another; and by as much as the East is distant from the West, by so much is the second more laborious and toilsome than the first. As thieves, seeing royal weapons lying in a certain place, do not readily attack, so also the one who has joined prayer to the heart is not readily robbed by the noetic brigands.

[From Abba Isaiah]

When a man separates himself from the left, and knows accurately all the sins he has committed against God — for a man cannot see his sins unless he has separated from them with the bitterness of separation — those who have attained this measure have themselves found the weeping and the supplication and the shame before God, remembering the evil friendship with the passions. Let us therefore struggle, brothers, according to our strength, and God cooperates according to the multitude of his mercy. And if we have not guarded our heart as our Fathers, let us at least be zealous to keep our bodies blameless as God requires, and let us believe that in the time of the famine that has come upon us he will deal mercifully with us, as also with his saints.

[From Makarios the Great]

The principal task of the athlete is this: that entering into his own heart, he make war against Satan and hate him, and contending against his suggestions, fight with him. If someone guards his body outwardly from corruption and fornication but inwardly commits adultery before God and fornicates in his thoughts, he is profited nothing by having the body remain a virgin. For it is written: “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in the heart.” For there is fornication accomplished through the body, and there is fornication of the soul communing with Satan.

[From Diadochos]

Whoever dwells continually in his own heart departs entirely from the beautiful things of life. For walking in the Spirit, he cannot know the desires of the flesh. Since then such a person takes his walks within the fortress of the virtues, having the virtues themselves as it were as gatekeepers, therefore the devices of the demons against him become inoperative. The holy man has spoken well: that the devices of the enemies remain inoperative, namely when we dwell somewhere in the depths of our heart, and the more so the longer we abide there.

[From Isaac the Syrian]

Strive to enter the inner chamber that is within you, and you will see the heavenly chamber — for the two are one, and in a single entrance you behold both. The ladder of that kingdom is hidden within you, that is, in your soul. Immerse yourself from sin and you will find there the steps by which you may ascend.

[From Karpathios]

Much struggle and toil is needed in prayer, that we may find the undisturbed state of the understanding — another heavenly space within the heart, where Christ dwells, as the Apostle says: “Do you not know that Christ dwells in you? Unless indeed you are reprobate.”

[From Symeon the Theologian]

The devil found a means, along with the demons, after he had through disobedience worked to make man an exile from Paradise and from God, to shake the rational faculty of every human being, by night and by day, in noetic fashion — of one much, of another little, of another more — and there is no other way to fortify this faculty than by the unceasing memory of God; if the divine memory, signed with the power of the cross in the heart, should establish it unto unshakeableness. For to this end serve all the labours of the noetic contest which each Christian has stripped for in the arena of Christ’s faith; otherwise, all the manifold and various asceticism of every person labouring for God’s sake — in the cause of that contest — will be in vain, unless one bends the mercies of the Good One and he grants again this first dignity and seals Christ in the rational faculty, as the Apostle says: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Have you understood, brothers, that there is a spiritual art — that is, a method — that swiftly raises the one who practises it to dispassion and the vision of God? Have you been persuaded that all the practical life is reckoned by God as leaves on a tree, without fruit? And that every soul lacking the guarding of the mind will find all these things laid up in vain for it? Let us then hasten, lest we die fruitless and repent to no purpose.

[Question and Answer: What Is Attentiveness?]

Question: From the present writing we know both what was the practice of those who pleased the Lord, and that there is some [...] activity of the passions that swiftly frees the soul and binds it to [...] the love of God — which is necessary for every soldier of Christ, and we do not doubt it, but are very fully persuaded. But what is attentiveness, and how does one become worthy of it?

Answer: [...] Know that the breath we breathe — this very air — we draw in not for any other reason but for the heart; for the heart is the cause of life and of warmth to the body. The heart draws in the breath, so that it may thrust its own heat outward through the exhalation and provide itself with a temperate state. The agent and minister of this economy is the lung, which, being made porous by the Creator, draws in and expels the surrounding air without difficulty, like a bellows. Thus the heart, drawing in the cool of the breath and thrusting away the hot, maintains inviolably the order for which it was designed toward the constitution of the living being. You, therefore, sitting in a quiet cell and gathering your mind, lead it — the mind, that is — into the path of the nostril, where the breath enters into the heart; and press it, and force it to descend together with the inhaled breath into the heart. When it has entered there, what follows will no longer be joyless or without grace, but such as a man who has long been away from his own home, when he returns, cannot contain his joy because he has been counted worthy to meet his children and his wife — so also the mind, when it is united with the soul, is filled with unspeakable delight and gladness. Therefore, brother, accustom the mind not to depart quickly thence; for in the beginning it is greatly inclined to sloth, from the confinement and compression of the interior. But when it has become accustomed, it will no longer love the exterior wanderings; for the kingdom of the heavens is within us, and to the one who looks there and seeks it through pure prayer, all outward things appear hateful and loathsome. And after a short while you must also learn this: that when the mind is there, you must not leave it silent and idle, but give it the work and ceaseless meditation of: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” — and let it never cease from this. For this, holding the mind from distraction, renders it unconquerable and untouched by the assaults of the enemy, and day by day raises it to love and divine longing.

[On Those Who Cannot Enter the Heart at Once]

[...] attentiveness is sincere repentance [...]; attentiveness is the soul’s recalling to virtue [...]; attentiveness is the rejection of sin [...]; attentiveness is unfailing certainty of the forgiveness of sins [...]; the beginning of contemplation, or rather the basis of contemplation [...]; attentiveness is [...] made manifest to the mind [...]; attentiveness [...] by the mercy of God given to the soul [...] the palace [...] of thoughts and of the memory of God; attentiveness is the steward of faith, hope, and love.

[...] And if, having laboured much, O brother, you cannot enter into the regions of the heart as I have directed, do what I tell you and you shall find, by God’s cooperation, what you seek. You know that the rational faculty of every human being is in the breast; for within the breast, when our lips are silent, there we speak and deliberate and compose prayers and psalms and [...] other things. Therefore, from this rational faculty — having removed every thought from it, for you are able if you will — give it the: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”; and force it always to cry this inwardly in place of any other thought. If you maintain this for a time, through it the entry into the heart will be opened to you, as we have written — without any doubt; as we ourselves know by experience. And with it shall come to you, along with the much-desired and delightful attentiveness, the whole choir of the virtues — love, joy, peace, and the rest — through which all your petitions shall be fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord; to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honour, and worship, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[Colophon: On the Teaching of Words without Commandments]

The one who seeks the words of the commandments without the commandments, and desires to find them through learning or reading, is like one who imagines a shadow in place of the truth. For the words of truth are participated in by those who participate in truth.

[Short Life of Gregory of Sinai]

Gregory, our Father among the saints, who was tonsured a monk on Sinai and on account of this was surnamed the Sinaite, flourished in the reign of Andronikos Palaiologos, around the year one thousand three hundred and thirty. Having come to Mount Athos and having visited the monasteries and sketes there, he found many adorned with intelligence and moral dignity and devoted only to the active life, but so ignorant of the guarding of the mind, of the exactness of hesychia, and of contemplation that they could not even recognize these things by name. He encountered only three who were in some small measure occupied with the contemplative — at the skete of Magoulas opposite Philotheos (Isaiah, Cornelius, and Makarios were their names). Fired with divine zeal, he taught not only the solitaries but also all those in cenobia about watchfulness and the guarding of the mind and noetic prayer. Moreover, having built three great lavras in the regions of Macedonia and having traversed many places and provinces, he urged all in common by his divine teachings to the practice of noetic and unceasing prayer; and having converted many sinners through it and having shown the unworthy worthy, he became the cause of their being counted among the saved. The spiritual wealth hidden in it — how great and how much it is — the one who reads it not cursorily will discover, and will truly rejoice with unspeakable joy at its discovery.

Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos — Directions to Hesychasts — Chapters 20–28 (the section on the natural method of breathing and the Jesus Prayer)

[On the Second and Perfect Divine Fear]

Concerning the second, that is the perfect, divine fear, it is thus written: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments”; and, “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways”; and, “Fear the Lord, all his saints, for there is no want to those who fear him.” The holy Peter of Damascus writes: the sign of the first fear is to hate and be angry at sin, as one struck by a beast; but of the perfect fear, to love virtue and to fear change — and that no one is unchangeable — and in every matter of this present life we ought always to fear the fall. Wherefore, you also, hearing these things with understanding, be zealous, along with all the foregoing, to hold fast in yourself unceasingly the first fear as well; for it is by nature the most secure treasury of every good action. Having it thus, you will have your ways directed toward the practice of all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ; and advancing in the way, you will also acquire the perfect and pure fear, by the longing for the virtues and the mercy of our good God.

[Chapter 21: On Losing Life for the Commandments]

Now in addition to what has been said, it is necessary for you to know this as well: that for the sake of the life-giving commandments and the faith in them of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ought when the hour calls, even to lose the soul gladly — that is, to spare not even our own life — as the Lord Jesus Christ himself says concerning this: “He who loses his soul for my sake and for the Gospel’s, this one shall save it” — believing without doubt and without wavering that both resurrection and life and every saving thing is the God-man Jesus the Saviour himself, as he himself has said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Having this therefore — forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead — run without turning back your course with Christ Jesus our Lord, in this way.

[Transition: The Xanthopouloi Introduce Nikephoros’s Method]

And it seems to us well and very apt to set forth first the blessed Nikephoros’s own account of the natural method of entering into the inner heart through the inbreathing of the nostril, which tends in some way also toward the recollection of the understanding, so that thus in sequence, with God’s help, the present treatise may proceed fittingly.

[The Natural Method: Nikephoros’s Text as Quoted by the Xanthopouloi]

Know, brother, that the breath we breathe — this very air — we draw in not for any other reason but for the heart; for this is the cause of life and of warmth to the body. The heart draws in the breath so that it may thrust its own heat outward through exhalation and provide itself with a temperate state. The agent of this economy — or rather the minister — is the lung, which, being made porous by the Creator, like a kind of bellows, painlessly draws in and expels the surrounding air. Thus the heart, drawing in the cool of the breath and thrusting away the hot, maintains inviolably the order for which it was fashioned toward the constitution of the living being. You therefore, sitting in a quiet cell and having gathered your mind, lead it — the mind, that is — into the path of the nostril, where the breath enters into the heart; and press it and force it to descend together with the inhaled breath into the heart. When it has entered there, what follows will no longer be joyless or without grace; but as a man who has long been away from his own home, when he returns, cannot contain his joy because he has been counted worthy to meet his children and his wife — so also the mind, when it is united with the soul, is filled with unspeakable pleasure and gladness. Therefore, brother, accustom the mind not to depart quickly thence; for in the beginning it is greatly inclined to sloth on account of the confinement and compression of the interior. But when it has become accustomed, it will no longer love the exterior wanderings; for the kingdom of the heavens is within us, and to the one who looks there and seeks it through pure prayer, all outward things appear hateful and loathsome. And after a short while you must also learn this: that when the mind is there, you must not leave it silent and idle at any time, but give it the: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” — as its work and unceasing meditation, and let it never cease from this. For this, holding the mind from distraction, renders it unconquerable and untouched by the assaults of the enemy, and raises it day by day to divine love and longing.

[Chapter 21: Training the Mind through the Breath]

It is necessary to make this plain also to the lover of learning: that if we train our mind to descend together with the breath at its entrance, then we shall learn accurately that as the mind descends, it does not depart thence before it has set aside every thought and become single and naked, clinging to no memory of any kind save the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ; but returning thence and going outward to the manifold memory, it is divided against its will.

[That Chrysostom Also Ordained Prayer within the Heart]

The great Chrysostom also says: “I implore you, brothers, never to trample upon or despise the rule of prayer.” And a little later: “The monk — whether he eats, or drinks, or sits, or labours, or walks, or does anything else — ought without ceasing to cry: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.’” And shortly after: “That the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depths of the heart, might humble the dragon that holds the pastures, and might save and quicken the soul. Continue unceasingly with the name of the Lord Jesus, that the heart may swallow the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two may become one. Do not separate your heart from God, but abide and guard it always with the memory of our Lord Jesus Christ, until the name of the Lord is planted within in the heart and it thinks of nothing else, so that Christ may be magnified in you.”

[Chapter 22: The Memory of Jesus Joined to the Breath]

The Ladder-writer writes also: “Let the memory of Jesus be united with your breath, and then you shall know the benefit of hesychia.” And the holy Hesychios: “If you truly wish to clothe thoughts in shame, and to practise hesychia graciously, and to watch in the heart with ease, let the prayer of Jesus be joined to your breath, and in a few days you will see this come to pass.”

[Chapter 23: On Sitting in a Quiet and Darkened Room]

Therefore together with what has been set forth, there is added also this: that the one who takes care to watch noetically in the heart should sit in a quiet and unlit room — always indeed, but especially at the appointed time of prayer, and moreover in a dim corner — and more especially the beginner, as the divine Fathers and Teachers who have experience in this thrice-blessed work mystically initiate and ordain. For the sight and vision of the eyes is a natural cause of scattering and dividing the understanding toward visible and seen things; but when this is shut in, as has been said, in a quiet and dark chamber, it ceases to be divided and varied by vision and sight; and thus the mind also, willingly absent, is wont in some degree to grow calm and to gather itself, as the great Basil says: “The mind that is not scattered outward, nor poured upon the world through the senses, returns to itself.”

[Chapter 24: The Natural Method as Auxiliary Only]

And before these — or rather above all — this achievement in the mind is accomplished by the cooperation of divine grace through the single-worded, cardiac, pure, and undistracted invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ, occurring in faith; and not by the natural method alone — that of inbreathing through the nostril or of sitting in a quiet and dark room. Away with such a notion! For such things have not been devised by the divine Fathers for any other purpose than as being in some way auxiliary toward the recollection of the understanding and its return to itself from its habitual agitation, and toward attentiveness — as we said before — through which the mind is caused to pray unceasingly and purely and without distraction; as the holy Neilos says: “Attentiveness seeking prayer will find prayer; for prayer follows attentiveness, if anything does; toward which one must be zealous.”

[Chapter 25: The Evening Rule for the Hesychast]

At the setting of the sun, having invoked the supremely good and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ for aid, sit upon a low stool in a quiet and lightless cell; and gathering your mind from its accustomed exterior wandering and roaming, and pressing it gently into the heart through inbreathing of the nostril, take up the prayer — that is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” — bringing in together with the breath in a unified manner the words of the prayer; having together with the prayer also the other things said to you: the memory of judgment and of the recompense of good and evil actions; and considering yourself from the soul as more sinful than all human beings and more polluted than the demons themselves — and on this account expecting to be punished eternally. In whatever of the thoughts mentioned above compunction and mourning and tears may come upon you, remain in that, until these alone pass. But if you have not yet been counted worthy of the gift of tears, struggle and pray with humble mind, that you may acquire them. For through these we are purified of the passions and defilements, and come to share in things good and saving — as the Ladder-writer says: as fire is the destruction of stubble, so the pure tear is the destruction of every filth visible and noetic. But if tears do not come, sit attending to these thoughts together with the prayer for one hour; then arising, chant with attentiveness the short Compline; and sitting again, take up the prayer with all your strength, purely and without distraction — that is, apart from all care and thought of any kind and from any imagination whatsoever — with great sobriety, for half an hour: according to the one who says, “Without breath and food, apart from all else, be in prayer, if you wish to be with the mind alone.” Then making the sign of the precious and life-giving cross over yourself, and over your bed likewise, and sitting upon it — having brought to mind the coming enjoyments and punishments, and the transitory and deceptive nature of temporal things, and also the sudden and common debt, that is, death, and the fearful accounting before and after the end for everything you have done amiss — and having warmly begged forgiveness for these, and having examined yourself accurately regarding how you have passed the day that is gone, lie down, keeping the prayer also, as the one who says: “Let the memory of Jesus fall asleep with you” — sleep five or six hours.

[Chapter 26: The Rule at Matins, until Morning]

On waking, having glorified God, and again having invoked him for your assistance, begin first the first work — that is, to pray in the heart without distraction and purely, for one hour: for then as a rule the mind is in some measure calm and undisturbed, and moreover we are enjoined to offer the firstfruits and choice portions to God — that is, to direct the first thought as far as possible unswerving toward the Lord our Lord Jesus Christ through pure cardiac prayer. And the holy Neilos says: “He performs prayer who always offers to God his entire first thought.” After this, chant the Midnight Office. If however you are still unskilled in the more perfect hesychia and on this account cannot begin in this way — or for some other reason, as often happens to those still beginning such work — then arising from sleep and having recovered as much as your strength allows, chant first the Midnight Office with all attentiveness and understanding; then sitting thus, pray purely and without distraction in the heart, as has been made clear, for one hour — or rather, as the giver of good things grants you. For the Ladder-writer says: “By night give much to prayer, and little to the psalmody; by day again prepare yourself according to your strength.” And if even so struggling you still grow slack and listless, and your mind has become muddied by some occurrence, arise and rouse yourself, as you know, holding fast to the prayer; then sitting, be zealous to pray as is prescribed above, taking care always that through pure prayer you may converse with the pure God.

[Chapter 27: From Morning until the Meal]

Again from morning until the meal, according to what is possible for you — having offered yourself wholly, all of you, to God in totality, and having prayed to him with a contrite heart to cooperate with you who are weak and slack and without resolve — pass the time in pure cardiac and undistracted prayer; in reading, standing upright while reading what is appointed for you from the Psalter, the Apostle, and the Holy Gospel; doing likewise also in the prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the most pure Theotokos; sitting however for the remaining readings of the Holy Scriptures. After this, chant sensibly the usual Hours, which have been very wisely ordained by the nurslings of the Church — with your whole disposition of soul thrusting away idleness as the teacher of every evil; and together with the passions, their occasions as well, even if they seem small and appear to cause no harm.

[Chapter 28: Vigilance against Idleness]

As the holy Isaac says: “Guard yourselves, O beloved, from idleness; for a known death is hidden in it — because without it those who hasten to take the monk captive will not find occasion to fall upon him. God will not condemn us in that day on account of psalms or on account of the neglect of prayer; but because through the abandonment of these things, entry is made for the demons. And when they find room and enter in and shut the doors of our eyes, then they will fill us tyrannically and impurely with what keeps those who work for them under divine sentence, with most severe retribution; and we become their subjects on account of the abandonment of small things which are honoured for Christ’s sake.” So these things that seem small to you will be counted as walls before those who make us captive — the fulfilment of which has been wisely placed inside the cell by those who hold the order of the Church, for the guarding of our life, in the spirit of revelation; whose omission is counted small by the unwise, who do not reckon the harm done by them. Of these, both the beginning of the way and its middle is undisciplined freedom — which is the mother of the passions; for it is better to struggle not to abandon the small things than to give place to sin in their relaxation. For the end of this untimely freedom is sharp bondage.

“Oh, how sweet are the occasions of the passions! For sometimes one is able to put aside the passions, and grows calm through their remoteness, and rejoices as they cease; but one cannot leave their causes. On this account, though not wishing to, we are tempted; and in the passions we grieve, but we love the occasions remaining in us. We do not desire the sins, but the causes that bring them upon us we accept with pleasure. For this reason the second occasions become productive of the first in their operation. He who loves the occasions of the passions is their subject unwilling and unbidden, and has been enslaved to the passions; he who hates his own sins shall cease from them; and he who confesses them shall obtain forgiveness. But it is impossible for anyone to abandon the habit of sin before he acquires enmity with it; and to obtain forgiveness before confessing his transgressions; for the one is the cause of true humility, and the other of compunction that follows shame upon the heart.”