Elder Paisios The Athonite
Even Hearts Have Turned Into Steel
Because modern conveniences have exceeded all bounds,
they have become inconveniences. Machines have multiplied and so have distractions;
man has been turned into a machine. All kinds of machines and inventions now
rule over man. This is why human hearts too are turning into steel. All of
these modern comforts make the cultivation of conscience in people difficult.
In the old days, people used to work with animals and were more compassionate.
If you overloaded an animal and the poor thing kneeled down from the weight,
you felt bad for it. If it was hungry and looked at you sniveling, it broke
your heart. I remember, when a cow of ours fell ill, we suffered with it,
because we considered it a member of the family. Today people own lots of
devices made of steel, but, unfortunately, even their own heart have turned
into steel.
Is the equipment broke? It is welded together. Is the
car not running? It is taken to the repair shop. If it cannot be fixed, they
throw it away; they have no feelings for it. After all, it's just a piece of
iron. The heart does not take part in these decisions, and this is how
selfishness and pride find fertile ground and take root.
Today, we have so little consideration for our fellow
human beings. In the old days, if there was any leftover food, people would
find someone that needed it and would give it away before it spoiled. A
spiritually advanced person would even say, "Let the poor person eat first
and I will eat later." Nowadays, people put the food in the refrigerator
and don't even think of those in need. I remember, whenever we had a good yield
of vegetables or fruit, we would always share it with our neighbours. What
could we do with all that produce? It would spoil anyway. Now that we have
refrigerators people think to themselves, "Why, share it with others?
We'll put it in the fridge and keep it for ourselves." And I will not even
mention the tons of produce we throw away or bury in landfills, while millions
of people in other parts of the world are starving to death.
We Are Mad About Technology
Modern devices are endless. They run faster than the
mind of man, because the devil has a part in it too. In the old days, when we
did not have telephones, faxes, and all kinds of gadgets, we lived tranquil and
simple lives.
- Back then, Geronda, people would enjoy their lives!
- Yes, they did, unlike today when all these gadgets are driving them crazy!
All these conveniences make people suffer and suffocate with anxiety. I
remember how cheerful people were when I was at the Sinai Desert! I remember,
years ago, when I was at the Monastery of Sinai, what a cheerful people the Bedouin were! They
lived a simple life in a tent. They could not live in Alexandria or Cairo; they
found comfort in the desert, inside their tents. They drank some tea, if they
had any, and praised God. But now with the advent of civilization they too have
started to forget God. You see they have caught the European spirit. First the
Israelites constructed huts for them and then they sold them all the old cars
of Israel. Ah, those enterprising
Israelites! Each Bedouin now has a hut, a broken car parked outside and lots of
anxiety. The car breaks down and they go through all kinds of trouble to fix
it. And what do you think they gain out of all this? Nothing more than a
headache!
At least in the old days, things were well-built and
lasted a long time. Now you pay all this money to buy something and pretty soon
it breaks down. So the factories keep making new things and taking people's
money. People are working so hard trying to make ends meet. Machines are the
brainchild of the European scientists who spend their time with
"screwdrivers". Let's say, at first, they make a lid. Then, they
improve it by making it a screw-on lid, after that they may add a push-button
opening device to the lid to improve it even more. Each time, they try to
improve it more and more... In other words, they invent new and better
machines. And before the poor people have paid off the last model, they try to
buy the latest and best. They end up tired and in debt. Today, even a poor man
will sell whatever he has, oxen, horses, in order to buy a cheap car - pretty
soon, the way things are going, we will have to go to the zoo to see a donkey!
And so finally he buys a car. But then the car breaks down and there are no
parts for it, or so they say, and he is soon forced to buy another one. He
cannot afford the most expensive, so, he buys one that is better than what he
had before, putting the old one aside. We must be very careful not to fall into
this channel ourselves and try to keep up with the newest fashions!
Television Has Done Great Damage
Geronda,
nowadays telecommunications are so advanced that one can see live what is
happening at the other side of the earth.
Yes,
they see the entire world but they don't see themselves. That is the only
thing they do not see. Today it's the human mind not God that destroys people.
Geronda,
is television very harmful?
Of
course it is. Someone came and told me, "Television is good, Father."
"Eggs are good too," I replied, "but if you mix them with
chicken droppings, they become useless." The exact same thing happens with
radio and television. Today if you turn on the radio to listen to the news, you
must put up with listening to a song before you can hear the news. In the old
days, it was different. You knew the time the news would come on, and that when
you turn the radio on. Now you are forced to listen to the song as well;
otherwise, if you turn the radio off, you will miss the news.
Television has done us great damage. It's especially
destructive for children. A seven-year-old child came to the Kalyvi once. I saw
the demon of television speaking through the child's mouth, exactly as demons
speak through the mouth of the possessed. It was like a baby born with teeth.
It is not easy to find normal kids; they are turning into little monsters. And
you see they don't get to think for themselves, they only repeat what they have
heard and seen on television. That's why they have come up with television to
begin with; to make people numb and dumb, so that they will take what they hear
and see on television for a fact and act accordingly.
- Geronda, mothers are asking us how they can keep
their children away from television.
They must help them understand that
television dulls their children's minds. They lose the ability to think on
their own, to think critically - not to mention the damage it causes to their
eyesight. And we are talking about man-made television. But there is another
kind, a spiritual television. When people uproot their old self and the eyes of
the soul are cleansed, they can see into the future without the aid of any machines.
Have they told their children about this other kind of television? If they
won't, these boxes will make our children dumb. Adam and Eve had the gift of
foresight. But they lost it when they fell from Grace. If the Grace of the Holy
Baptism is preserved, children will get with it spiritual foresight. But this
requires watchfulness, vigilance and spiritual work. Today, so many mothers,
having lost their spiritual bearings and preoccupy themselves with worthless and frivolous things and then they come and ask me, "What am I
to do Father? I am losing my child!"
Monks and Modern Conveniences
Geronda,
how should a monk use modern conveniences?
He
should always have fewer and simpler things than the rest of the people. I feel
much better when I use wood for heating, cooking and handiwork. But when the
forests become obsolete, I will use the simplest and cheapest available
resources. An oil stove, for example, or some humble type of heating, and
petrol gas for handiwork.
How can
one determine whether something is really essential in a Coenobitic Monastery?
If they
think in a monastic way, it will be easy to figure it out. If a monk or nun
does not think in a monastic way, then everything becomes a necessity and he
becomes worse than those who live in the world. Monks must live in humbler
circumstances than they did when they lived in the world; never better. We
should not have better things here than we did at home. In general, the
Monastery must be poorer than the homes in which we were raised. This will help
the monk with his interior life and will also be of help to lay people. God has
provided that we do not find peace in possessions and comforts. If laymen are
troubled by all these modern comforts, you can imagine how much more they
trouble the monk. If I found myself in a rich house and the host asked where I
would like to stay, in the living room with the fancy furniture, or in a stable
with a couple of goats, I would honestly say that I prefer the stable with the
goats because I would find more peace there. When I left the world to become a
monk, I was not seeking a better house or a palace. My goal was to find
something worse than what I had been used to. Otherwise I am not doing anything
for Christ. But today's logic works like this: "How could living in a
palace harm your soul? If you stay in the stable, it's going to stink while the
palace will be full of sweet scents and it will be easier to make your
prostrations." We must have a spiritual sensor. You see in a compass, both
arrows have magnets that turn it in one direction or the other. Christ has a
magnet too, but we need one ourselves in order to turn towards Him.
In the old days, life in the Coenobitic Monasteries
was so hard! I remember in the kitchen they had a cauldron and used a crank to
lift it. And we used wood to light the fire in order to cook. The fire was
either too low or too high and the food would stick at the bottom of the
cauldron. When fish would get stuck, they used a steel broom to scrape the
bottom. Then we had to collect the ashes and place them in a clay jar with a
hole underneath to make lye and wash the dishes. This was so rough on our
hands! And we lifted the water with a windlass to the archontariki. Some of the
things that I see today in Monasteries are not justified.
In one Monastery, I saw the monks cutting bread with a
machine. That's not right! If someone is ill or not feeling well and cannot cut
the bread with a knife, and there is a need to cut it because there is no one
else to do it, then using a machine is justified. But when you see a healthy
man cutting the bread with a wheel, you know there's something wrong. This
fellow can work a jackhammer, but he uses a machine to cut bread, and considers
it an achievement!
Make sure that you advance in spiritual matters and
not in equipment and comfort. Do not delight in these things. If Monasticism
abandons the ascetic life, it will not be Monasticism anymore. If you put
convenience above Monasticism, above ascesis, you will not prosper. The monk avoids
conveniences, because they do not help him spiritually. In secular life,
excessive conveniences make life difficult for people. But comforts do not
befit a monk, even if he could find peace in them. We should not seek comforts.
During the time of Saint Arsenios the Great,
they did not have electricity or gas lights; only some fancy lamps in
the palace that used very fine oil. Couldn't he have brought these lamps with
him in the desert? Of course he could. But he did not do it. He used a cotton
fuse with whatever kind of seed oil was available at that time. In doing our
chores, we sometimes may justify the use of machines or other conveniences to
do our work faster and have more time for our spiritual life. As a result our
life becomes stressful and full of concerns and anxieties, and we come to
resemble lay people rather monks. When some young monks joined a Monastery, the
first thing they did was to buy pressure cookers in order to gain time for
their spiritual activities; they ended up sitting around and talking for hours.
It's not that modern conveniences help us gain time and apply it to spiritual
things. These devices do save us time, but we don't seem to have enough time to
dedicate to prayer.
- Geronda, I heard people say that Saint Athanasios the
Athonite was a progressive! - Yes, he was progressive, but not in the sense
that people understand the word today. Let them read the life of Saint
Athanasios and see the difference. The Monastery had eight hundred to one
thousand monks during his time and many people sought help there! There were
numerous poor and hungry people who gathered at the Lavra Monastery to find
food and shelter. The Saint had even purchased two oxen for the mill in order
to cope with all these mouths. Why don't they do the same today? He had to
create a modern type oven so that he would have bread to give to people. The
Byzantine emperors had endowed the Monasteries with a lot of property because
they served as Charitable Institutions. The Monasteries were established to
help people spiritually and materially, which is why the emperors endowed them
so well.
We must understand that if we carry on this way
(without discrimination), the day will come when this world will end, and we
will find ourselves standing before God, in debt. We monks should make use not
only of everything that people discard today, but also of all useless things
that the rich have thrown away in the past. You must remember two things: first
that we are going to die and secondly that we may not die from natural causes.
Either way, you should be prepared. If you remember these two things, all will
go well, spiritually or otherwise. And then everything else will fall into
place.
Deprivation Is Good For Us
- Geronda, why are there so many people suffering
today?
- It's simple: they refuse to strain themselves. There
is too much convenience and it's making people sick and miserable. Modern
comforts have stupefied people and the sloth we see in so many today has
brought on many diseases. In the past, it would take so much work to just
thresh the wheat! The labour was hard but then the bread was so sweet! You
never saw people throw bread away. If you found a small of piece of bread
somewhere, you picked it up and kissed it. Even today, those who lived through
the German Occupation will see a piece of bread and put it aside, while most
people will throw it in the garbage as worthless. They don't appreciate its
value. How often do you hear "Praise be to God" for all the blessings
we receive from Him? You see, everything today is done the comfortable way.
Deprivation helps a lot. When people are deprived of
something, they come to appreciate it more. When we deprive ourselves
voluntarily, with discernment and humility for Christ's love, we feel
spiritual joy. If, for example, someone says, "I will not drink water
today because so and so is sick and my God, I cannot do anything more than
that," and actually does it, God will refresh him not with water but with
spiritual lemonade, with divine comfort! The worn out person feels great
gratitude for even the smallest help. But take a rich, spoiled child; he does
not feel any joy even when his parents satisfy all his caprices. He may have
everything and still feel like his life is horrible; so he breaks and destroys
whatever he finds, whereas some poor child will feel great gratitude for even a
tiny bit of help. If a friend pays for their transportation to the Holy
Mountain, they are very grateful to him and to God. You hear rich children say,
"We have everything; why should we have everything?" They gripe
because they have everything they want instead of thanking God and helping some
poor person. There is no greater ingratitude than this. They feel a void
inside, because they have everything. They blame their parents, because' they
give them everything, and then they leave home and go hiking around with a
backpack. And the parents give them money to call home so that they will not
worry, but these young people don't even care. Eventually, the parents end up
looking for them.
A young man from a good family who had everything, but
did not find fulfilment and joy in anything, left home secretly and slept in
trains so that he could experience hardship. But if he had a job and lived with
his sweat and toil, his life would have meaning, he would have peace and would
praise God all the time.
Today most people are not deprived of anything and for
this reason they do not have philotimo. If one has not worked hard, he cannot
appreciate the hard work of others. What is the point of choosing a comfortable
profession in order to make money, and then start looking for hardship? The
Swede's, who receive state allowances for almost everything and do not need to
work for it, end up roaming the streets. They get tired doing nothing and feel
stressed because they are spiritually derailed like a wheel which leaves its
axle and then rolls aimlessly and falls over the cliff.
All These Conveniences Are Making Us Useless
Today people care for beauty more than anything else
and this keeps them preoccupied. This, of course, suits the European way of
life. With their screwdrivers hard at
work, Europeans are constantly creating beautiful new things, and supposedly
more practical, so that people will not have to move a finger. In the past,
people worked with tools that made them stronger. Nowadays, the tools that we
use at work make us need physiotherapy and massages. Doctors now have to be
trained in massage therapy! Today you see carpenters with pot bellies! There
was no such thing back in our days! There was no way you could keep a belly and
move that plane back and forth!
When conveniences become excessive, man is rendered
useless and lazy. Even though we can turn something by hand, we think to
ourselves, "No, I'll just press a button and it will turn by itself."
When someone gets used to doing things the easy way, he wants to have it easy
all the time. Today people want to work a little and get paid a lot. If they
could get away without working at all, even better! The same spirit has entered
spiritual life. We want to become saints without labouring for it. People who
live easy lives usually have bad health. They are so spoiled that, if a war
breaks out, they will not be able to endure. In the old days, even children
were tough and could endure a lot. Now we need vitamins B, C and D and a
Mercedes in order to make it. Do you see how an atrophic child's arms
strengthen the minute he starts working? Many parents come and tell me,
"Pray for my child, he is a paraplegic." The real question is who is paraplegic, the
child or the parents? I tell them to feed the child non-fattening foods and
make him walk. Once they lose weight, they start moving around with more ease,
like normal children; they may even get well enough to play soccer. God will
help the truly paraplegic children who cannot be helped by man. In Konitsa,
there was a very difficult child, who had been burned by a bomb. His leg had
shrunk and he could not stretch it out. But because he was very lively and
moved his leg constantly, it eventually stretched out. He even joined the
guerilla movement under Zervas.
Myself, when I had sciatica, I said the Jesus Prayer
while walking and my leg got stronger. Many times movement helps.
If I fall sick for a couple of days and cannot move, I
say, "My God, help me to get up and move a little and I will take care of
the rest. I will go fetch wood." Remaining in bed makes things worse,
which is why as soon as I gather the courage, even if I have a bit of a cold, I
force myself to get up and cut some wood. I dress warmly to sweat the cold off.
Of course I know that it's more comfortable to lie in bed, but I force myself
to get up and it all goes away. For example, I see that when I have company and
I sit on the log for a long time I become stiff. I could get a little rug to
place underneath but then I would have to find one for all the visitors. That
is why, after my visitors are gone, I go for an hour's walk and say the Jesus
Prayer while walking. And because I have some circulation problems in my lower
legs, I stretch my legs a lot. If I were to let myself go, I would need to be
served, while now I can serve others.
Geronda,
is comfort always harmful?
Look, in
some cases comfort is necessary. If you are in pain, for example, you must sit
on something soft. But why should it be made of velvet? It can be made of a
simpler fabric. If, of course, you are tough enough, you will not need to use
anything soft.
Geronda,
people use the expression, "He is an old bone."
Yes,
over there near the Kalyvi, there was a Cypriot monk, Elder Joseph of Carpasia.
He was one hundred and six years old, but he would take care of his needs by
himself. Where can you find people like him today? Some pensioners cannot even
walk. Their legs weaken and they put on weight, because they sit around all day
and become useless. But if they were active, their health would be so much
better. They took Elder Joseph to Vatopedi Monastery. They washed and bathed
him and took care of him. He told them, "The minute I got here I became
sick. You made me sick; take me back to my Kalyvi.''' They were forced to take
him back. I went to see him one day. "What's going on?" I asked him.
"I learned you went to the Monastery." "Yes I went," he
replied. "They took me down there by car, they washed and cleaned me up
and took care of me, but I got sick. 'Take me back,' I told Them. Aw soon as I
got here I became well. He cannot see well now and yet he is weavihg
Komboschoinia. Once I sent him some angel's hair pasta and he said, "Does
Elder Paisios believe that I am some sickly person and he sent me angel's hair
pasta?" He is in such good health that he can eat all kinds of beans:
garbanzo, white beans, and broad beans. He is fit and brave like a young man!
He walks with two canes and collects wild greens from the fields. He sows onion
seed; he carries water to wash his clothes and his head. Then he reads from the
Hours and the Psalter, he does his Canon and prays the Jesus Prayer. You should
have seen him when he hired some workmen to fix the roof! He climbed the ladder
with his two canes to watch the work in progress. "Get down," they
told him. "No, I will climb up to see how you are fixing it," he
said. He suffers for sure, but do you know how much joy he feels! His heart
flutters. The Fathers take his clothes secretly to wash them. I asked him once,
"What are you doing with your clothes?" "They take them secretly
and wash them," he told me, "but I wash them too. I put some
detergent and soak them in the washtub." Do you see how much trust this
Elder places in God while others who have everything suffer from phobias and so
forth? This man became ill when he was taken care of and got well when he was left
alone.
The easy life does not help. Comfort does not fit the
life of the monk; it's sheer dishonesty for those living in the desert. Perhaps
you were raised spoiled, but now, if you are in good health, you must get used
to hardship. Otherwise you are not a true monk.
Taken from the book,Elder Paisios ,Spiritual Counsels Vol 1 "With Pain And Love For Contemporary Man"
