Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite-Concerning the Mind

Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite

 

Why the Mind Is Enslaved to Physical Pleasures 

There are two reasons why the mind was enslaved to physical pleasures. The first and main reason is the fact that after the disobedience of Adam, his body received the whole of its existence and constitution from physical pleasure that is impassionate and irrational. Henceforth, man is sown with physical pleasure; he is conceived with physical pleasure and he grows and matures in the womb until the time of birth with physical pleasure. This is what the Prophet David was referring to when he wrote: “For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me.” (Ps 50:5). The second reason, which follows the first, is the fact that even after birth man is nurtured with physical pleasure. Throughout the early years of childhood (and to a greater degree even during the nine months of pregnancy), the power to reason is not developed and the mind is unable to utilize the senses of the body in order to activate its own energy and be preoccupied with its own rationality and spiritual delight. Consequently, only the body utilizes these senses, and not merely for its necessary nourishment, but also for its impassionate pleasure. And to make things worse, the body even draws the mind itself, being still imperfect and indiscreet, to the same physical pleasure, thereby enslaving the mind to physical plea­sure. The saintly Theodore of Jerusalem spoke to this point in his most philosophical treatise: 

Because the mind is prepossessed by sense perception, we have the duality of desire and anger. These are irrational tendencies and under the influence of nature and not of rea­son, becoming a habit in the soul that penetrates all the parts of our being and is difficult to uproot. Thus the order is reversed. In other words, the physical senses are complete and strong while the mind is not yet active. In fact the mind is observed to be imperfect although it is actually powerful. Consequently, the mind can be charmed to consider these physical things as good, in the very same way that they are considered by the bodily senses. Thus the faculty of reason, which is intended to rule, is made subservient to the senses and we have the better being enslaved by the worse. This is why evil is older than virtue.[i] 

St. Gregory of Nyssa seems to be in agreement with Theodore of Jerusalem: “The faculty of bodily sense comes into active being simulta­neously with the first birth, while the mind must await until the appropriate age to start up. . . . Because of this the senses rule over the mind even when it is somewhat developed. . . . This is why it is so difficult for us to acquire the understanding of what is truly good, for we first receive the experience of the criteria of the physical senses and thus perceive good on the basis of what is easy and pleasing.”[ii]

How bitter, tiresome, and painful this early use of the senses be­comes later for the unfortunate mind! During the childhood period of about fifteen years, when the mind is in a sort of stupor and led by the senses, the irrational and instinctive senses receive their fill of physical pleasure, as they are indulged without the restraints of reason. During this early stage the mind is unable to activate its own powers through the bodily organs that are not yet appropriately developed to receive it. Moreover, the senses have already become accustomed to the habit of physical pleasures by the time the faculty of reason has matured. If the passions deprived of reasonable controls direct the senses toward sin, who will then be able, tell me, to easily restrain them?

For example, once the eyes become accustomed to looking passion­ately upon the mature beauty of living bodies; once the eardrums are accustomed to the pleasing sounds of certain songs; once the sense of smell is delighted by the fragrances of myrrh and aromatic things; once the tongue and the mouth taste or rather become accustomed to the rich and tasty foods; and finally, once the sense of touch is accustomed to fine and soft clothing -who will be able after that, even if one is most eloquent and persuasive, to convince people that what they have up to now enjoyed is not a true and rational pleasure, but on the contrary an irrational and temporal one? Who will put a muzzle on the senses that silently contradict, disagree, and assert that the only plea­sure that is to be recognized is the one they have experienced and not any other that is immaterial and spiritual? Will the mind do that? Unfortunately, while the mind knows that such pleasures are appropri­ate to irrational animals and not to itself, it cannot bring about this change. Remember that the mind too, together with the senses, en­joyed during those early years the same pleasures, and because of its simplicity and immaturity was attracted by these pleasures and consid­ered them to be good. Thus the mind appears to be in a state of narcosis or rather bound by the five senses as by five steel cables. In this condition the mind suffers and is troubled because it sees that while it is really the ruler of the body, it has become its slave. And yet, whether it wants to or not, the mind tends to join the senses in enjoy­ing physical pleasures. Who then will be able to convince these physi­cal senses to change this situation? Can the constitution of our imagina­tion and inner understanding do this? But even this faculty of ours is painted over and filled with passionate images and idols which have over the years been impressed upon it. Thus it rather serves to excite through the memory both the mind and the senses to enjoy the same pleasures. Who then can help? Can the heart help? Unfortunately, even the heart is filled with desires and drives that have been accumu­lated there over many years. This causes the heart to force the mind, the imagination, and the senses and the entire body to enjoy the same physical pleasures. Not only this, but the devil himself, who rules over the carnal pleasures, in turn excites the mind and the heart and the senses even more. The holy Fathers have said that the devil, though bodiless, finds his pleasure in enjoying the bodily pleasures of men. And, metaphorically speaking, these are but the dirt and dust that he was condemned to eat through the serpent: “And dust you shall eat all the days of your life” (Gen 3:14). St. Gregory the Sinaite wrote on this point: “Humanly speaking, because the devils lost their angelic joy and were deprived of divine pleasure, they have acquired a sort of material­istic nature through their physical passions and suffer to eat, as we do, the dust of the earth.”[iii] 

How the Mind Is Freed from Physical Pleasure 

After this period of childhood and the full development of reason, the mind may learn on its own or may learn by hearing Holy Scripture and the holy Fathers that its natural and appropriate pleasure is some­thing altogether different. What happens then? The mind, being by nature rational and prudent and loving whatever is good, cannot suffer to see the senses of its body so enslaved to their pleasurable objects. The mind cannot continue to be a co-prisoner with the senses and a contradiction: the king becoming a slave; the ruler becoming the ruled; he who by nature is self-ruled and in authority becoming the obedient subject. The mind, finally, cannot bear to receive such harm that will gradually bring it to annihilation and to hell.

It is to this end then that the mind undertakes its entire struggle. At first it seeks to show that it was created by God to be the ruler and the king of the body. That is to say, it seeks through the assistance of divine grace and all of its courage, all of its will, and all of its knowl­edge to uproot out of the senses of its body those long standing and entrenched habits which they have acquired among physical things. And it does this in order to free them from the bitter tyranny of the death-bearing pleasures they have experienced. Moreover, the mind seeks to subdue with ease the physical things to its own will. This struggle is truly a mighty one because the mind comes to the knowl­edge of truth at a late point in life. For if the soul had not been overcome by anyone, our task would have been simply to keep it pure. But because it has now forged itself into a strong link with passions and tendencies, we all know how very difficult this struggle is to break this bond, to liberate the soul from the worship of matter and to have it acquire the habit of virtue. And how is this done? How indeed are the senses liberated from physical passions and in turn placed under the obedience of the mind?

When a certain king plans to subdue easily an enemy city that is fortified by strong walls, he cuts off the food supplies to those people in the city and thus causes them such hardship that they in time decide to surrender themselves. The mind uses the same strategy in subduing the senses. Little by little the mind deprives every sensory faculty of its customary bodily and pleasurable passions. It no longer permits them to indulge themselves and thus easily and in a short period of time brings them under its control. All the time that this method is being utilized to control the passions, the mind does not stand idle. Not at all. By receiving a certain ease and freedom from bodily concerns, the mind turns to its own natural and spiritual nourishment which is the reading of Sacred Scripture, the acquirement of virtues, the doing of the commandments of the Lord, the practice of prayer, the understand­ing of the purposes of the physical and spiritual creations, and all the other spiritual and divine thoughts and deeds which are to be found in the writings of the holy Fathers, especially those who are called the neptic Fathers in the anthologies of Philokalia and Evergetinos, and St. John Climacus and St. Symeon the New Theologian and others.[iv] 

As the Senses Attracted Originally the Mind to Physical Pleasures, the Mind Now Attempts to Bring the Senses Back to the Spiritual Pleasures 

In addition to its own efforts to nourish itself spiritually, the mind also attempts as much as possible to bring back the senses toward the mind so that they too may enjoy with it spiritual pleasures and thus become accustomed gradually to prefer them. This is how it happened before with the mind when it became accustomed through the senses to prefer physical pleasures. At first, generally speaking, the body attempted through the senses and the physical pleasures to make the mind and the spirit of man into flesh. On the contrary now, the mind seeks pur­posely through the enjoyment of the immaterial and spiritual realities to uplift the body also from its physical heaviness, and in a sense to make it into spirit, as St. Maximos has witnessed in many of his writings. Here is one example: 

When desire is added to the sense perception, it becomes a passion of pleasure procuring for itself a specific image. When the sense is moved by desire it ag,ain makes the percep­tion it receives into a passion of pleasure. When the soul is attracted against its very nature toward matter through the body, it insinuates upon itself the earthly form. Knowing this, the saints seek to move toward God through the natural tendency of the soul, while at the same time they try appro­priately to familiarize the body with God through the prac­tice of the virtues, hoping thus to beautify the body with divine outward appearances.[v] 

St. Gregory the Theologian too spoke about this important point, saying that this is the reason why the soul was joined to the body: to be for the body what God is for the soul, that is, to instruct and guide the body and to bring it home to God. 

The soul was joined to the body perhaps for other reasons which only God who joined them knows and anyone who has through God understood these mysteries. As far as I am able to know together with those who are with me, there are two reasons why the soul was joined to the body. One reason is that by struggling against the lower things, the soul may inherit the heavenly glory. . . . The other reason is so that by drawing the lesser unto itself and to a degree releasing it from its material thickness, the soul may draw the body upward toward God. Thus, that which God is to the soul, the soul becomes to the body, instructing and guiding through itself its fellow servant, the material body, to become familiar with God.[vi] 

There is an interaction and mutual influence of the soul toward the body and vice versa the body toward the soul, according to the meta­physicians. The attributes of each communicate with each other be­cause of the ineffable and natural bond which unites the soul and the body, even though the exact reason for this union remains essentially unknown to all philosophers and theologians. 

The Fall of Adam. The Reason for the Lord’s Coming. The Ascetics 

This then is the nature of that most renowned fall of our forefather Adam. He rejected the spiritual nourishment and pleasure and low­ered himself to the pleasures of the bodily senses, according to virtu­ally the entire tradition of the holy Fathers. From this original fall of Adam, we too have inherited that primordial drive toward the mate­rial. This is why Theodore of Jerusalem wrote: “Adam, by using the senses wrongly, marvelled at the physical beauty and considered the fruit to be beautiful to the sight and good for eating. By tasting of this fruit, he gave up the enjoyment of spiritual things.”[vii] “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Gen 3:6). According to St. Maximos, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the passionate perception of the visible creation. “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the visible creation, for participation in it produces naturally both pleasure and suffering. . . . The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is also the sense of the body, in which the activity of irrationality clearly abides, and which man has experienced. Although man received the divine command­ment, he was in practice unable to keep it.”[viii] This is also confirmed by Niketas Stethatos and others. St. John Damascene especially wrote: 

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil can be understood as the visible and pleasurable food which appears to be sweet but which in reality brings the partaker to a union with evil. For God said, ‘You must not eat from the tree of the knowl­edge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’ Naturally, physical food requires continual replenish­ment for it is subject to corruption. He then who partakes of physical food finds it problematic to attain incorruptibility.[ix] 

For as soon as the senses know and experience the good, that is, sensible pleasure, they also necessarily experience evil, for the sister of pleasure is suffering. This is why in general all the sensible pleasures are customarily called painful pleasures.[x]

In connection with this subject St. John Chrysostom wrote: “What is easier than eating? And yet I hear many saying that even eating is a wearisome toil.”[xi] In agreement with the above St. Gregory of Nyssa also wrote: “In the fruit of the forbidden tree there are two opposite elements comingled. God said that those who partake of it will die, just as one does who suffers the evil effects of poison that has been mixed with honey. By the same token, as far as the pleasing of senses is concerned, it seems good, but as far as the destruction of the partaker is concerned, it is the ultimate evil.”[xii] For this same reason, we have read in the history of the Romans that they worshiped two deities -joy and sorrow- at one and the same time. Even though they had dedicated to each a separate temple, they used to offer sacrifice simultaneously to both. This way they indicated enigmatically how very close joy and sorrow are united, just as pleasure and suffering are. When one deity gives joy the other creates fear, and when one harms and grieves us, the other gives us hope.

     From this point of view the reason for the coming of the New Adam, Jesus Christ, can be said to be our liberation from seeking and loving only the visible things, and at the same time our exaltation to love and enjoy the spiritual realities, thus indicating our true transfer­ence to what is indeed better. Those who wanted to achieve this very goal with ease, that is, the cutting off of worldly pleasures and the enjoyment of the spiritual ones, were the true philosophers and ascet­ics who abandoned the inhabited places where there are always so many causes for sinful attacks and went to live in deserts and caves. Not finding there the usual causes of worldly pleasures, they were more readily able to subdue the senses and in relatively short periods of time were able to rise up to the sweetest enjoyment of the spiritual and divine realities. 

The Natural and Unnatural Pleasure of the Mind 

I beseech you to do this, this very same thing. You have come to know precisely on your own, being prudent, and through Holy Scripture, being a lover of learning, that the natural pleasure of the mind is to always be preoccupied with and nourished by the beauty of spiritual realities. St. Maximos wrote: “Intelligible things are food for the mind.” You have also come to know that the tendency of the mind toward the pleasures of sensible things is contrary to the nature of the mind; it is a tendency that is forced, passionate, corruptive, and en­tirely foreign to the mind. St. Isaac wrote that “when the mind is attracted by the physical things, it partakes of the nourishment of the beasts and becomes, so to speak, beastly.” According to St. Kallistos, only the spiritual pleasure can be properly called pleasure and be primarily pleasure because during the course of enjoying it and after the enjoyment, it still brings us joy. On the contrary the sensible pleasure according to the flesh cannot be properly called nor in fact be a pleasure. Physical pleasure uses the name of pleasure falsely, for in the enjoyment of it and afterwards it brings sorrow to the heart. Again, St. Kallistos wrote: 

This is what should properly be called pleasure, namely that which by nature and reason cannot be condemned and which lasts and is ever more active, bringing joy and gladness to the heart even after it is fulfilled. Anyone therefore who would desire, let him seek the pure pleasure that is not mixed with sorrow, the intelligible and spiritual pleasure. For this is in­deed the true and main pleasure of the heart. . . . Carnal pleasure that is not of the mind and the spirit is even wrongly called a pleasure, for it is induced and as soon as it is done it creates a bitter regret. It is clearly a lie to call it a pleasure, for it is a spurious and counterfeit pleasure.[xiii] 

St. John Chrysostom wrote: “The pleasures are harsh execution­ers of the body, in fact they are worse than that, for they strain and force the body with bonds not made by hand.”[xiv] It seems to me too that pleasure is like a rough file smeared with oil, which when the cat licks it up, it also licks with it the blood of its own tongue. Or it is like a fly in the honey that tastes a certain sweetness but is at the same time entrapped in the honey and dies. Pleasure is also a bait that is superfi­cially sweet, but when swallowed brings about a painful death. This is why the wise Solomon wrote: “The lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as gall” (Prov 5: 3).

For a long period of time now your senses have become accustomed to charge after physical pleasure. They have been drawing with them your mind, not permitting it to be nourished by thoughts that are natu­ral, proper, and related to it. You have not been able to enjoy the appropriate spiritual growth in life and pleasure. What must you do? I have reminded you by what I have so far written that it is necessary to seek as much as possible to govern with great prudence your five senses. To those which are essential, that is those which sustain the body, give them what they need. Those which are not essential but only create pleasure must be cut off. In this will you prove yourself to be lord of your passions: when you will be able through your entire courage to liberate your senses from the corruptive, painful, and false pleasures, and when at the same time you will liberate your hegemonious mind from their distracting attempts, leaving it thus free to return to the desirable beauty of intelligible things which are really and truly good.

According to St. Basil the Great, it is truly inappropriate for man to allow the senses to be filled with sensible things and at the same time to block the mind from its own proper activity among the intelligible things. He wrote: “I consider it inappropriate to allow the senses unhin­dered to be filled with their own matter, while the mind alone is shut out of its own proper activity. For as the sense is to physical things so is the mind to intelligible things.”[xv] Our senses then have in a way be­come hooked to the physical pleasures, not only during the early years of our youthful life, as we have indicated thus far, but also during the later years. Our own mind and that of the entire human race has also been hooked upon the bait of the same physical pleasures. Conse­quently, we have been shamefully deprived and have all lost that blessed and true pleasure of ours. By the same token, if these senses of ours are not freed from the physical pleasures, the mind itself will not be able to be freed from them and to return to its natural pleasure. It is impossible for this to happen in any other way. It is indeed impossible. 

St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain - A Handbook of Spiritual Council – Chapter 2; Concerning the Mind pp. 76-85 (“The Classics of Western Spirituality” series.)

ST. MARK THE ASCETIC - On Fighting the Passions

         EPISTLE TO THE MONK NICHOLAS
                      by St. Mark the Ascetic
Beloved Son Nicholas . . . .

-- A man must, above all, strive after knowledge and reason, if he wants to take up his cross and follow Christ, constantly examining his thoughts, taking every care to gain salvation and adhering to God with all his strength. He should also question other servants of God, who are of the same mind and soul and who are doing the same work, in order to know how and where to direct his steps and not walk in the dark without a bright lamp. For a self-reliant man, walking without the knowledge and guidance of the Gospels, often stumbles and falls into many pitfalls and nets of the evil one, frequently goes astray and is subject to many calamities, not knowing where he will arrive in the end. Many have gone through great feats of self- mortification and endured much labor and seat for the sake of God; but their self-will, lack of good judgment and the fact that they did not deem it necessary to seek salutary advice from their brethren, made these labors useless and vain.
-- If you wish, my son, to acquire and possess within yourself your own lamp of mental light and spiritual knowledge, that you may walk without stumbling in the deepest night of this age and have your steps ordered by the Lord (Psalms 118:133), according to the words of the Prophet, you must greatly desire the path of the Gospels, that is, to practise the most perfect Gospel commandments with ardent faith and become a participant in the passion of Christ through desire and prayer; then I will show you a wonderful method to achieve this, consisting of an inner state of the spirit, which demands no physical work or effort, but the most painful labor of the soul, mastery of the mind (over all things within) and attentive thought, together with the fear and love of God. By this state you can easily turn to flight enemy hordes, as did the blessed David who, having slain one alien giant with faith and trust in God, by this very fact put to flight the hordes of the enemies with their peoples.
-- I speak of the three strong and powerful alien giants, on whom are founded all the hostile forces of the mental Holophernes. If they are cast down and slain, all the forces of the evil spirits will be finally defeated. These three giants of the evil one, who seem to be strong, are "ignorance," mother of all ills, "forgetfulness," her sister, aider and abettor, and "laziness" (indifference) which out of darkness weaves a dusky garment and cloak in the soul. This latter strengthens and affirms the former two, gives them substance and makes evil take firm root in a negligent soul and become an essential part of it. For through indifference (laziness), forgetfulness and ignorance the props of all other passions grow and strengthen. Since they mutually help one another and cannot exist independently of one another, they (in their totality) are powerful forces of the enemy and chief generals of the evil one. With their help the hordes of evil spirits fashion their snares in the soul and succeed in carrying out their plans.
-- If you wish to gain victory over passions and easily put to flight the hordes of mental aliens, collect yourself inwardly with God's help by prayer and, descending into the depths of your heart, find there those three strong giants of the devil -- I mean forgetfulness, indifference or laziness, and ignorance, the food on which all other passions feed and act, live and grow strong in self-indulgent hearts and unpunished souls. With strict attention to yourself and a sober mind, and with help from above, you will certainly find these evil passions, unknown and not even suspected by others, yet more pernicious than the rest; you will find them by the weapons of righteousness which are their contrary. These weapons are memory of the good, the source of all blessings, enlightened knowledge, by which a soul kept in sobriety chases away the darkness of ignorance, and a lively zeal, which rouses the soul and leads it to salvation. Thereupon, armed with these weapons of virtue, accompanied by every prayer and supplication, you will manfully and valiantly conquer (completely chase away) these three giants of mental aliens by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, with the help of an excellent godly memory always reflecting on "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" (Philippians 4:8), you will chase away wicked forgetfulness; by enlightened heavenly knowledge you will destroy the pernicious darkness of ignorance; and by a lively zeal, ready for every good action, you will drive away godless indifference (laziness), through which evil becomes firmly rooted in the soul. You acquire these virtues not merely by your own will alone, but by the power of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit, with much attention and prayer. Having thus acquired them you will be able, through them, to free yourself from the said three strong giants of the evil one. When through the power of active grace there is formed and carefully preserved in the soul a (tripartite) alliance of true knowledge, memory of the words of God and righteous zeal, then every trace of forgetfulness, ignorance and indifference will vanish from the soul. They will be resolved into nothing, and at last there will reign in the soul the grace of Christ Jesus, our Lord, to Whom be power and glory for ever and ever, Amen.

from E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, trans., Early Fathers from the Philokalia, (London: Faber & Faber, 1981), pp. 60 - 62.

St. John of Kronstadt-On Gluttony and Drunkenness

 

Be firmly assured that the evil is kindled in your heart by the enemy; he chiefly assaults the heart through a full stomach. This is from experience.

Excerpts from the diary of St. John of Kronstadt 

Sin is foolish and destructive. For instance, a drunkard, from the excessive use of spirituous liquors, becomes ill, and indulges in various dissipations and shameful acts, which he himself is ashamed to think of and remember afterwards. And yet he continues to give himself up to drink. A glutton, after excessive eating, feels a heaviness, his capabilities become obscured, his tongue is bound, and he himself sees that he has become like an animal or bestial in nature, because he often breathes malice and spite against those who live with him, or who daily ask alms of him. He is subjected to oppression and affliction; he is deprived of peace and tranquillity; he becomes incapable of meditating upon heavenly things, or of being a true Christian, of living for the highest purpose of existence. And yet he continues to be greedy after dainties and eating.

...Having lost their strength and health in dissipation and drunkenness, they become prematurely aged, decrepit, dull, fall ill and die.

If you wish to live long on the earth, do not hurry to live in a carnal manner, to satiate yourself, to get drunk, to smoke, to commit fornication, to live in luxury, to indulge yourself. The carnal way of life constitutes death, and therefore, in the Holy Scripture, our flesh is called mortal, or, " the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."[1381] If you wish to live long, live through the spirit; for life consists in the spirit: "If ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,"[1382] both here on earth and there in heaven. Observe temperance and simplicity in food and drink; preserve chastity; do not foolishly squander the balsam of your life; do not seek after riches, after luxury; strive to be contented with little; keep peace with all, and do not envy anyone — respect and love all; and, above all, strive ever to bear Christ in your heart, and you shall live in peace and felicity for many years.

And how a man lowers himself by gluttony and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created after the image of God, and becomes like unto the beast, and even worse. O, woe unto us for our attachments, for our iniquitous habits! They hinder us from loving God and our neighbours, and from fulfilling God's commandments; they implant in us criminal carnal self-love, the end of which is everlasting destruction. Thus the drunkard does not grudge money for the sake of gratifying his flesh and stupefying himself, while he grudges giving a few pence to the poor...

When your heart is struck by avarice, say to yourself: "My life is Christ, the Beloved of all. He is my inexhaustible wealth, my inexhaustible food, my inexhaustible drink. Our blind flesh dreams of finding life in food and in money, and bears ill-will against those who deprive it of these material means of life. But be firmly persuaded that your life is not money and food, but mutual love for the sake of love for God. Remember that God is Love, uniting all things animated by the laws of love, and bringing forth life from the union of love.

Take care; do not forget, Christian; never lose hearty faith in Him Who is your invisible Life, your Peace, your Light, your Strength, your Breath; that is, in Jesus Christ. Do not believe your heart when it becomes gross, darkened, unbelieving, and cold from plenteousness of food and drink, from worldly distractions, or finally when you live by the intellect, and not by the heart; that is, when you exercise the intellect and neglect the heart, or, when you enlarge and adorn the net, leaving the fisherman himself in poverty and need; for the heart, comparatively speaking, is the hunter or fisherman whilst the intellect is the fisherman's net.

Do not rejoice when your countenance is bright from pleasant food and drink, because then the inward face of your soul is hideous and deadly, and at that time the words of the Saviour Christ are applicable to you: "For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which, indeed, appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones"[520] — that is, of hypocrisy and iniquity.

You must pay most strict and active attention to this your daily action of eating and drinking, for from food and drink, from their quality and quantity, your spiritual, social, and family activity very greatly depends: " Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."[715] Tea and coffee also pertain to drunkenness if indulged in unseasonably and to excess. O, woe unto us who are full now, and frequently look neglectfully upon God's gifts.

The incorporeal enemy enters the heart of man through satiety and drunkenness — this can be felt by anyone who is observant. This is the reason why, with the growth of drunkenness, the inclination to drunkenness increases so terribly (because the power of the enemy over the man increases) — this is why you notice in drunkards a power involuntarily drawing them to satisfy their passion or their inward craving for wine. The enemy is in the hearts of these unhappy people. How can the demon of drunkenness be driven out? By prayer and fasting. The enemy enters the hearts of men because they have given themselves up to a carnal mode of life — to gluttony, and because they do not pray. It is, therefore, natural that he can be driven out from them by opposite means — that is, by prayer and fasting.

The Word of God says, "Be not drunk with wine"; [1350] whilst you builders of public-houses say, "Get drunk with wine," and have built thousands of public-houses to tempt your brethren. And yet you go to church and pray in your homes.

Those who go to attend the Divine service after having eaten much, voluntarily lay upon themselves an unnecessary and injurious burden, and deaden their hearts beforehand to prayer, obstructing the access of holy thoughts and feelings to it. We must be most careful not to eat before Divine service. We must remember that "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,"[1214] that is, that God cannot reign in the heart that is overburdened with surfeiting and drunkenness.

If you see a drunken man, say in your heart: "Lord, look mercifully upon Thy servant, allured by the flattery of the belly and by carnal merriment; make him understand the sweetness of temperance and fasting, and of the fruit of the spirit arising therefrom." When you see a man passionately fond of eating, and finding all his happiness in this, say: "Lord, Thou art our sweetest Food, that never perishes, but leads us unto life eternal! Purify Thy servant from the filthiness of gluttony, so carnal and so far from Thy Spirit, and grant that he may know the sweetness of Thy Life-giving, spiritual food, which is Thy Flesh and Blood, and Thy holy, living, and acting word. "In this or in a similar manner pray for all who sin, and do not dare to despise anyone for his sin, nor be vindictive, as through this you would only aggravate the wounds of those who sin; but rather correct them by means of such advice, threats, and punishments as may tend to stop or restrain the evil within the limits of moderation.

Do not believe, brethren, in the enemy's enticements, not for one single moment, when the matter concerns food and drink, however plausible they may apparently be.

By feeding largely, one becomes a carnal man, having no spirit, or soulless flesh; while by fasting, one attracts the Holy Spirit and becomes spiritual. When cotton is not wetted with water it is light, and if in a small quantity flies up in the air; but if it is wetted, it becomes heavy and at once falls to the ground. It is the same with the soul. O, how important it is to preserve it by fasting!

Unfortunate is he who is passionately fond of eating and drinking, cares for surfeiting and enjoyments: he will indeed find, when he begins to labour for the Lord, that food and drink, if we set our heart upon them, are a heavy burden for the body, affliction and destruction for the spirit, and that man can be really satisfied with very, very little and simple food.

One cannot eat and drink and smoke continually. One cannot turn human life into constant eating, drinking, and smoking (although there are men who do eat, drink, and smoke almost uninterruptedly); and thus the spirit of evil has turned life into smoking, and made the mouth, which ought to be employed in thanking and praising the Lord, into a smoking furnace. The less and lighter the food and drink you take, the lighter and more refined your spirit will become.

When during prayer the enemy suggests within you a craving for food, despise this material, nervous irritation, strengthen your heart more powerfully by prayer, inflame it by faith and love, and say to the tempter the following words of the Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."[328] Prayer is my best food, fortifying and enlightening both the soul and the body.

Do not let the enemy shame you for laying your hopes upon such earthly dust as money and food, more than upon God, but shame him himself by your firm trust in God and in His Holy Word. For "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."[463] Mark; "by every word." For every word of the Lord Creator can support your life, just as every word can create and transform thousands of creatures. "For He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast."[464]

We amuse ourselves with food and drink, gratifying ourselves by them, instead of only using them for the necessary nourishment of our body and the support of our bodily life.

What infinite nothingness our food and drink represent on the one side, and what infinite grandeur the man himself who is fed by them represents on the other side! Is it not the greatest insanity for man, for his image of God, for this partaker of the divine nature, for whom God may be all — "God may be all in all"[446] — to grudge food, drink, clothing, dwelling, and anything else earthly! Let the dust be dust — but let the immortal image of the immortal God be always exalted and preferred before everything earthly, corruptible and transitory! Therefore, do not let us be sparing of anything for our neighbour! O, what a great honour it is — to feed, to clothe, to give rest to the image of God! Most-gracious and Most-bountiful God! fill our hearts with mercy and bountifulness!

The corrupted man continually wishes to eat and drink, to continually satisfy his sight, hearing, smell, and feeling; carnal men satisfy themselves with dainty food and drink, fine sights, music, smoking, magnificent edifices, and outward splendor.

O, how fearful it is to use food and drink for amusement, to eat and drink in excess! A full stomach makes a man lose faith and the fear of God, and makes him unfeeling in prayer, thanksgiving, and praise to God. A satiated heart turns away from the Lord, and becomes as hard and unfeeling as a stone. This is why the Saviour carefully warns us against surfeiting and drunkenness: "And so that day come upon you unawares,"[873] because of the wrath of the Lord upon us for heedlessly and idly spending the time in eating and drinking.

Food and drink must only be used for strengthening our powers, and not as dainties, and we must not eat when nature does not require it. Many of us (and I myself the first), if we do not repent and correct ourselves, will be condemned for having eaten and drunk unseasonably, and thus for having lived, having understanding, like the brutes that have no understanding, and for having darkened our foolish hearts. You have amused yourselves with food and drink, and have often eaten and drunk when there was no need for you to eat and drink: "Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger."[713] "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter."[714]

The Devil takes captive and conquers man in this world by excessively exciting his natural spiritual and bodily needs, such as: the need of food and drink (and as everything has to be bought with money, therefore of money, too), the need of clothing, the need of pleasures, the need of honours or fame, and of a good name. All these and other similar requirements of man, which God has put into the very nature of man, are continually perverted by the Devil, who carries them to extremes, sometimes quite needlessly (for instance, with eating and drinking), and thus ruins both soul and body, and diverts the soul from God through its attachment to material things, and through its falling into sensuality and into the passions of malice, pride, envy, despondency, slothfulness, gluttony, fornication, drunkenness, covetousness, ambition, and so forth. And therefore fasting, chastity, disinterestedness, kindness, meekness, humility, faith, hope and love, prayer and meditation, are necessary.

Health and the belly, these are the two idols — especially with men of the present age, of whom I myself, a great sinner, am one — for which we live, and which we continually serve, even to the neglect of the duties of our Christian calling — for instance, to the neglect of the reading of the Word of God, which is sweeter than honey and honey-comb; to the neglect of prayer, that sweetest converse with God, and of the preaching of the Word of God. To walk a great deal for health, and to incite the appetite, to eat with appetite — such are the objects of the desires and aspirations of many of us. But through our frequent walks, through our fondness for food and drink, we shall find that one thing has been neglected, and another irrevocably missed, whilst others have not even entered into our minds; for can the time after a good dinner or supper be really a good time for any serious work! Even if we would like to occupy ourselves with work, the belly, full of food and drink, draws us away from it, and constrains us to rest, so that we begin to slumber over our work. What sort of work can it be? Indeed, there is nothing left, if it is after dinner, but to lie down and rest, and if it is after supper, after having prayed somehow or other (for a satiated man cannot even pray as he should), to go to bed and sleep — the miserable consequence of an overloaded stomach — until the next morning. And in the morning there is another sacrifice to your belly ready in the shape of a dainty breakfast. You get up, pray, of course not with your whole heart — since with our whole heart we can only eat and drink, walk, read novels, go to theatres, dance at evening parties, dress elegantly — and thus you pray, out of habit, carelessly, to save appearances, only as a form, without the essence of the prayer, without lively faith, without power, without any fervour in your petitions, praises, and thanks to the Lord God for His uncountable mercies, and then you hurry again to food and drink. At last, when you have eaten and drunk so much that now, scarcely able to move, you are ready to begin work, if it really is work, and not rather inactivity — such, for instance, as trading with some worldly vanities, accompanied by an abundance of swearing, lying, and cheating. In such or a similar way, with many and many of us, our present life passes away, and our days consume in vanity, [1361] whilst we care little for that which is the most important matter on earth — the salvation of our soul. Thus our life is spent mainly in the worship of two brittle idols — health and the belly — and then dress; so much so that many, by worshipping fashion, sacrifice even their health and food, thus going to the other extreme... Christian! it is not for your health, belly, dress, and money that you must care; you must strive after love for God and your neighbour, for these are God's two greatest commandments. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."[1362]

Do not fear bodily privations, but fear spiritual privations. Do not fear, do not be faint-hearted, do not be irritated when you are deprived of money, food, drink, enjoyments, clothes, dwelling, even of your body itself; but fear when the enemy deprives your soul of faith, of trust, and love for God and your neighbour; when he sows hatred, enmity, attachment to earthly things, pride, and other sins in your heart. "Fear not them [men] which, will kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." [470]

O, how low has our nature fallen through our passion for eating! O, thrice accursed Satan, who has precipitated us, and still precipitates us, through food, into thousands of evils! O, food and drink, that so powerfully tempt us! How long shall we be allured by you and place our life in you? When shall we engrave deeply upon our hearts the Saviour's words: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,"[474] and bring these words into our life and actions? How long will our greediness, self-indulgence, surfeiting, and drunkenness continue? How long will our abominable avarice and love of money continue? How long will our pride, animosity and malice against our neighbour, through money, dress, houses, food, and drink last? Thousands of Satan's deceits, by means of food, dress, and money, disclose themselves to our spiritual vision, and yet we still continue to be allured by his enticements as though by something real, useful to us, whilst in fact we are caring for neither more nor less than destructive illusions, and for that which is most pernicious both spiritually and bodily to our own selves. Do not believe, brethren, in the enemy's enticements, not for one single moment, when the matter concerns food and drink, however plausible they may apparently be. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."[475] "I spake not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which is hypocrisy,"[476] in matters of faith and piety. Pay the utmost attention to faith and piety. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you."[477] Give away even the last that you have, if there is need of it, remembering the words of the Saviour: "If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also"[478] — that is, give away the last that you have.

When hungry, do not throw yourself upon food — else you will overload your heart and body. Eat slowly, without avidity, with reflection to the glory of God, remembering the God Who feeds us, and above all His incorruptible food, His Body and Blood, that out of love He has given Himself to us in food and drink, remembering also the holy word of the Gospel.

The heart is refined, spiritual, and heavenly by nature — guard it; do not overburden it, do not make it earthly, be temperate to the utmost in food and drink, and in general in bodily pleasures. The heart is — the temple of God. "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy."[690]

Do not hasten to eat and drink, but rather hasten to perform God's service; and when performing God's service, do not think of food and drink. Think well before Whom you stand, with Whom you are conversing, to Whom you are singing praises; be wholly in God, belong wholly to Him alone, pray with all your heart, sing with all your heart, serve for your neighbour as you would serve for yourself, gladly, heartily, not with a divided heart and thoughts. Lord! help us; for without Thee we can do nothing. [710]

Footnotes
[328] St. Matthew iv. 4.
[446] 1 Corinthians xv. 28.
[463] St. Matthew iv. 4.
[464] Psalm xxxii 9.
[470] St. Matthew x. 28.
[474] St. Matthew iv. 4.
[475] St. Matthew vi. 33.
[476] St. Matthew xvi. 11; St. Luke xii. 1.
[477] St. John vi. 27.
[478] St. Matthew v. 40.
[520] St. Matthew xxiii. 27, 28.
[690] 1 Corinthians iii. 17.
[710] St. John xv. 5.
[713] St. Luke vi. 25.
[714] James v. 5.
[715] St. Luke xxi. 34.
[873] St. Luke xxi. 34.
[1214] Romans xiv. 17.
[1350] Ephesians v. 18.
[1361] Psalm lxxviii. 33.
[1362] 1 John iv. 16.
[1381] Ephesians iv. 22.
[1382] Romans viii. 13.

Excerpts compiled from: My Life in Christ or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-Amendment, and of Peace in God, St. John of Kronstadt.

Are Passions Natural?

What is a passion? They are impulses that move us to action by overcoming our will. Because of this we say they enslave us. They are powerful because they are also desires which cannot be satisfied. They act as a force that goes against what we know to be the proper action and lead us to actions which are counter to the commandments of Christ. There is no single list of these passions, but the following is a common list used in early Christian literature: gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, self-esteem and pride.


Their ultimate cause is the forgetting of God. Healing begins with faith.


Not all passions are bad. There are both natural and unnatural passions. Our natural passions are our appetite for food, enjoyment of food, fear and sadness. These are necessary for our the preservation of our nature. They are important animal aspect of our being given to by God. But we are more than animals as we are spiritual. Because of this we have an aspiration for the infinite. Often these natural passions which are intended for earthly preservation are transformed into unnatural passions. They are frequently transformed into a mistaken quest for the infinite in things of this material world. The soul loses control and the passions take over. Out task is to control them so they can be limited to their proper purpose. Then they can channeled to seek divine things.


Saint Maximus says,

The natural passions become good in those who struggle when, wisely unfastening them from the things of the flesh, use them to gain heavenly things. For example they can change appetite into the movement of a spiritual longing for divine things; pleasure into pure joy for the cooperation of the mind with divine gifts; fear into care to evade future misfortune due to sin and sadness into corrective repentance for present evil. So the natural passions are not necessarily bad. When we are thinking of God they are kept to their necessary biological functions. Our task is not to eradicate them but to control them, keeping them within the limits necessary for the preservation of the body. They must continually be watched and controlled. This is the basis of asceticism.


Thoughts from Fr. Dimitru Staniloae:

Asceticism means, in the spirit of Eastern thought, the restraint and discipline of the biological, not a battle for its extermination. On the contrary, asceticism means the sublimation of this element of bodily affectivity, not its abolition.... Natural passions can assume a spiritual character and give an increased accent to our love for God.... Now here is the most important point. By controlling them we increase our spiritual blessings.

Fr. Dimitru says,

By putting a bridle and a limit on the pleasure of material things, a transfer of this energy of our nature takes place, in favor of the spirit; pleasure in spiritual blessings grows. ... The challenge we face is not easy. Is difficulty is increased by our tendency to react in the wrong way. Once a pleasure leaves us we feel a loss. This can be painful. Pain or dissatisfaction always follows pleasure. This pain that follows does not lead us to take action to temper the pleasure, but does the opposite. We seek even more pleasure. The cycle continues without satisfaction.


Fr. Dimitru says,

The pain which follows pleasure, instead of making him avoid pleasure, as its source,...pushes his anew into pleasure as if to get rid of it, tangling him even more in this vicious chain. Asceticism is aimed at breaking this dysfunctional cycle of pleasure and pain, liberating us from the unnatural extension of passions that have a proper role in our bodily preservation. This bodily domination through uncontrolled passions is our main block to union with God.

Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp77 - 89