9

Thus, then, must we here understand the tree according to the spiritual interpretation that can apply to all, while the more mystical and superior meaning is reserved for those who are mystical in mind and is honored by us with silence. But I have now mentioned the tree of disobedience incidentally, wishing to show how ignorance of God deified creation, of which a clear worship is the self-love of the human race according to the body, around which exists, as it were, a mixed knowledge: the experience of pleasure and of pain. Through these, the entire mire of evils has been introduced into the life of men in diverse and various ways and, as no account could possibly describe, taking shape in many forms, inasmuch as each person who has partaken of human nature, according to quantity and quality, has within himself a living and active affection for his visible part, I mean the body, forcing him slavishly, through both the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, to contrive many forms of the passions, as the times and circumstances coincide, and as the nature of such things allows, in order that he might be able to choose pleasure always as a companion for life, while remaining completely untouched by pain, teaching him to practice what is impossible and what cannot be brought to its intended end. For since the entire nature of bodies is corruptible and subject to dissolution, by whatever means one practices to hold it together, one makes its corruption all the stronger, fearing and unwillingly always embracing what is loved, and against his judgment imperceptibly through what is loved embracing what is not loved, being dependent on things by nature unable to stand, and for this reason destroying along with the dissoluble things the disposition of the soul, which swims unstably along with flowing things and does not perceive its own destruction on account of the soul’s complete blindness toward the truth. But the release from all these evils and a short path to salvation is the true love of God according to full knowledge and the complete denial of the soul's affection for both the body and this world, by which, having cast off the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, we are freed from evil self-love, having been raised up to the knowledge of the Creator, and, having received a good, intelligible self-love in place of a wicked one, a self-love separated from bodily affection, we do not cease to worship God through this good self-love, always seeking the sustenance of the soul from God. For this is true worship and truly pleasing to God: the precise care of the soul through the virtues.

He, therefore, who does not desire bodily pleasure and is not at all afraid of pain has become dispassionate toward them; together with the self-love that gave them birth, 14Β_050 he has put to death with one accord all the passions that come through and from them, along with the foremost of evils, ignorance, and has become wholly of the good that by nature is established and abides and is always the same, remaining with it completely immovable and with an unveiled face reflecting the glory of God, beholding the divine and unapproachable glory from the luminous splendor within himself.

Therefore, since the right and easy path of the saved has been shown to us by the discourse, let us deny with all our strength the pleasure and the pain of the present life and with much exhortation teach those under us to do this, and we have been and have set free completely from every contrivance of the passions and demonic wickedness; and let us lay claim to divine love alone, and no one will be able to separate us from God, not tribulation, or distress, or famine, or peril, or sword, nor any of the things enumerated by the holy apostle in that passage, since through knowledge in action, love remains immovable in us, supplying the soul with eternal and ineffable joy and sustenance from him; having been deemed worthy of this, toward the

9

Οὕτω μὲν οὖν ἐνταῦθα ληπτέον περὶ τοῦ ξύλου κατὰ τὴν πᾶσιν ἁρμόσαι δυναμένην ἀναγωγήν, τοῦ μυστικωτέρου λόγου καὶ κρείττονος φυλαττομένου τοῖς μυστικοῖς τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν διὰ τῆς σιωπῆς τιμωμένου. Τοῦ ξύλου δὲ νῦν τῆς παρακοῆς ἐμνήσθην παροδικῶς, δεῖξαι θέλων ὡς ἡ περὶ Θεοῦ ἄγνοια τὴν κτίσιν ἐθεοποίησεν, ἧς ὑπάρχει λατρεία σαφὴς ἡ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων φιλαυτία, περὶ ἥν ἐστιν ὥσπέρ τις μικτὴ γνῶσις ἡ τῆς ἡδονῆς πεῖρα καὶ τῆς ὀδύνης, δι᾽ ἃς ἡ πᾶσα τῶν κακῶν ἐπεισήχθη τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἰλὺς διαφόρως τε καὶ ποικίλως καί, ὡς οὐκ ἄν τις ἐφίκοιτο λόγος, πολυμόρφως συνισταμένη, καθόσον ἕκαστος τῶν τῆς 14Β_048 ἀνθρωπίνης μετειληφότων φύσεως κατὰ τὸ ποσόν τε καὶ ποιὸν ἐν ἑαυτῷ ζῶσαν ἔχει καὶ πράττουσαν τὴν περὶ τὸ φαινόμενον αὐτοῦ μέρος, λέγω δὲ τὸ σῶμα, φιλίαν, ἀναγκάζουσαν αὐτὸν δουλοπρεπῶς διά τε τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς ἡδονῆς καὶ τὸν φόβον τῆς ὀδύνης πολλὰς ἰδέας ἐπινοῆσαι παθῶν, καθὼς οἵ τε καιροὶ συμπίπτουσι καὶ τὰ πράγματα, καὶ ὁ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιδέχεται τρόπος, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ τὴν μὲν ἡδονὴν ἑλεῖν δυνηθῆναι διὰ παντὸς πρὸς συμβίωσιν, τῆς ὀδύνης δὲ παντελῶς ἀνέπαφον διαμεῖναι, τὸ ἀμήχανον ἐπιτηδεύειν διδάσκουσαν καὶ εἰς πέρας κατὰ σκοπὸν ἐλθεῖν μὴ δυνάμενον. Φθαρτῆς γὰρ οὔσης τῆς ὅλης φύσεως τῶν σωμάτων καὶ σκεδαστῆς, δι᾽ ὅσων τις ἐπιτηδεύει τρόπων ταύτην συστήσασθαι, τὴν αὐτῆς φθορὰν ἰσχυροτέραν μᾶλλον καθίστησιν, δεδοικὼς καὶ μὴ θέλων ἀεὶ τὸ στεργόμενον καὶ παρὰ γνώμην περιέπων ἀνεπαισθήτως διὰ τοῦ στεργομένου τὸ μὴ στεργόμενον, ἐξηρτημένος τῶν φύσει στῆναι μὴ δυναμένων καὶ διὰ τοῦτο συνεξαλλοιῶν τοῖς σκεδαστοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν διάθεσιν συνδιανηχομένην ἀστάτως τοῖς ῥέουσι καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπώλειαν οὐ κατανοῶν διὰ τὴν παντελῆ τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν τύφλωσιν. Πάντων δὲ τούτων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἀπαλλαγὴ καὶ σύντομος πρὸς σωτηρίαν ὁδὸς ἡ ἀληθὴς τοῦ Θεοῦ κατ᾽ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀγάπη καὶ ἡ καθόλου τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν πρός τε τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον στοργῆς ἐξάρνησις, καθ᾽ ἥν, τῆς μὲν ἡδονῆς τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, τῆς ὀδύνης δὲ τὸν φόβον ἀποβαλόμενοι, τῆς κακῆς ἐλευθερούμεθα φιλαυτίας, πρὸς τὴν γνῶσιν ἀναβιβασθέντες τοῦ κτίσαντος, καί, πονηρᾶς ἀγαθὴν ἀντιλαβόντες νοερὰν φιλαυτίαν, σωματικῆς κεχωρισμένην στοργῆς, οὐ παυόμεθα λατρεύοντες τῷ Θεῷ διὰ ταύτης τῆς καλῆς φιλαυτίας, ἐκ Θεοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀεὶ ζητοῦντες τὴν σύστασιν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθὴς λατρεία καὶ ὄντως θεάρεστος ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς διὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀκριβὴς ἐπιμέλεια.

Ὁ τοίνυν σωματικῆς ἡδονῆς μὴ ἐφιέμενος καὶ ὀδύνην παντελῶς μὴ φοβούμενος γέγονεν ἀπαθὴς ταύταις, μετὰ τῆς τεκούσης 14Β_050 αὐτὰς φιλαυτίας πάντα τὰ δι᾽ αὐτάς τε καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν μετὰ τῆς ἀρχηγικωτάτης τῶν κακῶν ἀγνοίας ὁμοθυμαδὸν συναπέκτεινε πάθη, καὶ ὅλος γέγονεν τοῦ ἑστῶτός τε καὶ μένοντος καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος φύσει καλοῦ, παντάπασιν αὐτῷ συνδιαμένων ἀκίνητος καὶ ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κατοπτριζόμενος, ἐκ τῆς ἐν ἑαυτῷ φωτοειδοῦς λαμπρότητος τὴν θείαν καὶ ἀπρόσιτον δόξαν θεώμενος.

∆ειχθείσης τοιγαροῦν ἡμῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ὀρθῆς καὶ ῥᾳδίας ὁδοῦ τῶν σῳζομένων, τὴν ἡδονὴν τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς καὶ τὴν ὀδύνην ὅση δύναμις ἀρνησώμεθα καὶ τοὺς ὑφ᾽ ἡμᾶς τοῦτο ποιεῖν διδάξωμεν παρακλήσει πολλῇ, καὶ πάσης παθῶν ἐπινοίας καὶ δαιμονιώδους κακουργίας παντελῶς ἀπηλλάγημέν τε καὶ ἀπηλλάξαμεν· καὶ μόνης ἀντιποιηθῶμεν τῆς θείας ἀγάπης, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ χωρίσαι δυνήσεται, οὐ θλίψις οὐ στενοχωρία οὐ λιμὸς οὐ κίνδυνος οὐ μάχαιρα οὐδ᾽ ὅσα τῷ ἁγίῳ ἀπηρίθμηται ἀποστόλῳ κατὰ τὸν τόπον, διὰ τῆς κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν γνώσεως, τῆς ἀγάπης ἐν ἡμῖν ἀκινήτου μενούσης, τῆς ψυχῆς ἀΐδιόν τε καὶ ἄρρητον ἐξ αὐτοῦ χορηγούμενοι εὐφροσύνην καὶ σύστασιν· ἧς ἀξιωθέντες, πρὸς μὲν τὸν