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And if also according to the psalmist “all the glory of the king's daughter is within,” how shall we seek it somewhere outside? And if also according to the apostle God has given His Spirit crying in our hearts, Abba, Father, how shall we not pray together with the Spirit in them? And if also according to the Lord of prophets and apostles “the kingdom of heaven is within us,” how would not he who makes it his business to lead his mind out from within himself be outside the kingdom of heaven too? “An upright heart,” says Solomon, “seeks perception,” which the same author elsewhere called noetic and divine, toward which the fathers, exhorting all (p. 128), say, “a noetic mind is certainly clothed with noetic perception, which, being both in us and not in us, let us not cease to seek.” Do you see that whether one desires to stand against sin, or to acquire virtue, or to find the prize of the struggle for virtue, or rather the pledge of the prize for virtue, the noetic perception, it is necessary to lead the mind back within both the body and oneself? But to put the mind outside, not of the carnal mind, but of the body itself, so that it may encounter noetic spectacles there, is the very height of Hellenic error and the root and source of all false opinion, the invention and teaching of demons, productive of folly and the offspring of madness. And for this reason those who speak from the inspiration of demons are beside themselves, not even understanding what it is they are saying. But we send the mind not only within the body and the heart, but again inside itself.

Therefore let those who say accuse, “since it is not separate, but inherent in the soul, how could one send the mind inside again?” For they are ignorant, as it seems, that the essence of the mind is one thing, and its energy is another; or rather, knowing this, they have willingly enrolled themselves among the deceivers, using sophistry through homonymy. “For not accepting the simplicity of spiritual teaching, those sharpened for contradictions by dialectic,” according to the great Basil, “subvert the power of the truth by the oppositions of falsely-called knowledge with the speciousness of sophisms. For such must be those who are not spiritual and who deem themselves worthy to judge and teach spiritual things. For surely this has not escaped their notice, that the mind is not like the sight, which sees other visible things but does not see itself, but it both acts upon other things, surveying whatever it needs to (p. 130), which Dionysius the Great calls the straight motion of the mind, and it returns to itself and acts within itself, when the mind sees itself; and this again the same author calls its circular motion. And this energy of the mind is superior and most proper, through which, becoming at times even beyond itself, it is united with God. “For the mind,” he says, “not being scattered towards things outside” (do you see that it goes out? Going out, then, it requires a return; for this reason he says) “returns to itself, and through itself to God” as it ascends by an unerring path. For that unerring beholder of noetic things, Dionysius, says it is impossible for such a movement of the mind to fall into any error.

Therefore the father of error, always desiring to lead man away from this and to lead him toward the movement which admits his errors, had not yet, even today, as far as we know, found a collaborator striving through fair-sounding words to draw men to this. But now, as it seems, he has found those who assist him, if, as you yourself said, there are those who even compose arguments promoting these things and who attempt to persuade the many, even those who embrace the transcendent and hesychastic life, that it is better to hold the mind outside the body while praying, not even revering that which John, who constructed for us in words the ladder leading to heaven, definitively and declaratively stated, that “a hesychast is one who strives to confine the incorporeal within the body,” in accord with which also our spiritual fathers have taught

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Εἰ δέ καί κατά τόν ψαλμῳδόν «πᾶσα ἡ δόξα τῆς θυγατρός τοῦ βασιλέως ἔσωθεν», πῶς ἡμεῖς αὐτήν ἔξω που ζητήσομεν; Εἰ δέ καί κατά τόν ἀπόστολον ὁ Θεός ἔδωκεν αὐτοῦ τό Πνεῦμα κρᾶζον ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν, ἀββᾶ ὁ πατήρ, πῶς ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐν αὐταῖς συνευξόμεθα τῷ Πνεύματι; Εἰ δέ καί κατά τόν προφητῶν καί ἀπόστολον Κύριον «ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐντός ἡμῶν ἐστι», πῶς οὐκ ἔξω καί τῆς οὐρανῶν βασιλείας γένοιτ᾿ ἄν ὁ τῶν ἐντός ἑαυτοῦ τόν νοῦν ἐξάγειν διά σπουδῆς ποιούμενος; «Καρδία ὀρθή», φησίν ὁ Σολομών, «ζητεῖ αἴσθησιν», ἥν ὁ αὐτός νοεράν καί θείαν ἀλλαχοῦ προσείρηκε, πρός ἥν οἱ πατέρες πάντας (σελ. 128) προτρεπόμενοι, «νοῦς, φασί, νοερός πάντως καί νοεράν αἴσθησιν περιβέβληται, ἥν ἐν ἡμῖν καί οὐκ ἐν ἡμῖν οὖσαν ἐκζητοῦντες μή παυσώμεθα». Ὁρᾷς ὅτι κἄν πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἀντικαταστῆναί τις προθυμηθῇ, κἄν τήν ἀρετήν προσκτήσασθαι, κἄν τοῦ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἄθλου τό βραβεῖον, μᾶλλον δέ τόν ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ κατ᾿ἀρετήν βραβείου, τήν αἴσθησιν τήν νοεράν εὑρεῖν, ἐντός τοῦ τε σώματος καί ἑαυτοῦ τόν νοῦν ἐπαναγαγεῖν ἀνάγκη; Τό δ᾿ἔξω τόν νοῦν, οὐ τοῦ σωματικοῦ φρονήματος, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος ποιεῖν, ὡς ἐκεῖ νοεροῖς θεάμασιν ἐντύχοι, τῆς ἑλληνικῆς ἐστι πλάνης αὐτό τό κράτιστον καί πάσης κακοδοξίας ρίζα καί πηγή, δαιμόνων εὕρημα καί παίδευμα, γεννητικόν ἀνοίας καί γέννημα τῆς ἀπονοίας. ∆ιό καί οἱ λαλοῦντες ἐκ τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπιπνοίας ἐξεστηκότες ἑαυτῶν εἰσι, μηδ᾿ αὐτό τοῦτο συνιέντες ὅ τι λέγουσιν. Ἡμεῖς δέ, μή μόνον εἴσω τοῦ σώματος καί τῆς καρδίας, ἀλλά καί τόν αὐτόν αὐτοῦ πάλιν εἴσω πέμπομεν τόν νοῦν.

Κατηγορείτωσαν οὐκοῦν οἱ λέγοντες, «μή κεχωρισμένον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνόντα τῇ ψυχῇ, πῶς ἄν αὖθις εἴσω πέμποι τις τόν νοῦν;». Ἀγνοοῦσι γάρ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὅτι ἄλλο μέν οὐσία νοῦ, ἄλλο δέ ἐνέργεια, μᾶλλον δέ εἰδότες τοῖς ἀπατεῶσιν ἑαυτούς συνέταξαν ἑκόντες, διά τῆς ὁμωνυμίας σοφιζόμενοι. «Μή καταδεχόμενοι γάρ τό τῆς πνευματικῆς διδασκαλίας ἁπλοῦν, οἱ ἐκ τῆς διαλεκτικῆς πρός τάς ἀντιλογίας ἠκονημένοι», κατά τόν μέγαν Βασίλειον, «περιτρέπουσι τήν ἰσχύν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐκ τῶν ἀντιθέσεων τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως τῇ πιθανολογίᾳ τῶν σοφισμάτων. Τοιούτους γάρ δεῖ εἶναι τούς μή πνευματικούς καί τά πνευματικά κρίνειν καί διδάσκειν ἀξιοῦντας ἑαυτούς. Οὐ γάρ δή τοῦτο λέλεθεν αὐτούς, ὅτι οὐχ ὡς ἡ ὄψις τἄλλα μέν ὁρᾷ τῶν ὁρατῶν, ἑαυτήν δέ οὐχ ὁρᾷ, οὕτω καί ὁ νοῦς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνεργεῖ μέν καί τἄλλα, ὧν ἄν δέοιτο (σελ. 130) περισκοπῶν, ὅ φησι κατ᾿ εὐθείαν κίνησιν τοῦ νοῦ ∆ιονύσιος ὁ μέγας, εἰς ἑαυτόν δ᾿ ἐπάνεισι καί ἐνεργεῖ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν, ὅταν ἑαυτόν ὁ νοῦς ὁρᾷ˙ τοῦτο δ᾿ αὖθις κυκλικήν εἶναι κίνησιν ὁ αὐτός αὐτοῦ φησιν. Αὕτη δ᾿ ἡ τοῦ νοῦ ἐστιν ἐνέργεια κρείττων καί ἰδιαιτάτη, δι᾿ ἧς καί ὑπέρ ἑαυτόν γινόμενος ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε τῷ Θεῷ συγγίνεται. «Νοῦς γάρ», φησί, «μή σκεδαννύμενος ἐπί τά ἔξω» (ὁρᾷς ὅτι ἔξεισι; ἐξιών οὖν, ἐπανόδου δεῖται˙ διό φησιν) «ἐπάνεισι πρός ἑαυτόν, δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ δέ πρός τόν Θεόν» ὡς δι᾿ ἀπλανοῦς ἀναβαίνει τῆς ὁδοῦ. Τήν τοιαύτην γάρ κίνησιν τοῦ νοῦ καί ὁ τῶν νοερῶν ἀπλανής ἐπόπτης ἐκεῖνος ∆ιονύσις ἀδύνατον εἶναί φησι πλάνῃ τινί περιπεσεῖν.

Ταύτης οὖν ἀπάγειν ὁ τῆς πλάνης πατήρ ἐπιθυμῶν ἀεί τόν ἄνθρωπον καί πρός τήν χωροῦσαν αὐτοῦ τάς πλάνας ἄγειν, οὐδέπω καί τήμερον, ὅσα γε ἡμεῖς ἴσμεν, εὗρε συνεργόν διά χρηστολογίας ἀγωνιζόμενον ἐφελκύσασθαι πρός ταύτην. Νῦν δ᾿ ὡς ἔοικεν εὗρε τούς συλλαμβανομένους, εἴπερ, ὡς αὐτός εἶπες, εἰσίν οἵ καί λόγους συντιθέασιν ἐνάγοντας πρός ταῦτα καί τούς πολλούς πείθειν ἐγχειροῦσιν ὡς κάλλιον ἔξω κατέχειν τοῦ σώματος προσευχόμενον τόν νοῦν καί αὐτούς τούς τόν ὑπεραναβεβηκότα καί ἡσύχιον ἀσπαζομένους βίον, μηδ᾿ ἐκεῖνο αἰδεσθέντς ὅπερ Ἰωάννης, ὁ τήν πρός οὐρανόν φέρουσαν κλίμακα διά λόγων τεκτηνάμενος ἡμῖν, ὁριστικῶς καί ἀποφαντικῶς ἐξεῖπεν ὡς «ἡσυχαστής ἐστιν ὁ τῶν ἀσώματον ἐν σώματι περιορίζειν σπεύδων», ᾧ συνωδᾷ καί οἱ πνμευματικοί πατέρς ἡμῶν ἐδίδαξαν