68

It is clear, therefore, that there is no resemblance of these things to one another, I mean of causes and effects.

5.68 (68) It is necessary to know that our intellect has on the one hand a power for intellection, through which it sees intelligible things; and on the other hand a union that transcends the nature of the intellect, through which it is joined to the things beyond itself. According to this union, therefore, divine things must be understood, not according to ourselves; but as whole selves, going out of our whole selves, and becoming wholly of God. For it is better to be of God, and not of ourselves. For thus will divine things be given to those who become with God.

5.69 (69) The intellect, wishing to understand, descends from itself, going down into thoughts. For thoughts are inferior to that which thinks, as they are thought and comprehended, and are rightly a scattering and a division of the unity of the intellect itself. For the intellect is simple and without parts; but thoughts are manifold and scattered, and are, as it were, forms of the intellect. For this reason the intellectual, that is, the thinking things, are less than (15∆_298> the intelligible, that is, the things being thought. 1377 And he speaks of a union of the intellect, as he says more clearly in what follows, through which it is stretched out toward the things beyond itself, that is, it attains to the contemplation of God; namely, to go out of all sensible and intelligible things, and even of its own movement; and so then to receive the ray of divine knowledge.

5.70 (70) If the intellectual is moved intellectually according to its analogy, it certainly understands; and if it understands, it certainly loves what is understood; and if it loves, it certainly suffers ecstasy toward it as beloved; and if it suffers, it is clear that it also hastens; and if it hastens, it certainly intensifies the vehemence of its movement. And if it vehemently intensifies its movement, it does not stop until it becomes whole in the whole of the beloved, and is willingly encompassed by the whole, wholly accepting according to choice the saving circumscription [male edida δεδομένον]; so that the whole may be made like the whole that circumscribes it, so that henceforth the circumscribed whole is not at all able or willing to be known from itself; but from that which circumscribes it, as air is wholly illuminated by light; and iron, whole in whole, is made red-hot by fire, or if there is anything else of this sort.

5.71 (71) Great is the relation of thinking things to things thought, and of perceiving things to things perceived. But man, being composed of a soul and a perceptive body, through the alternating natural relation and property toward each of the parts of creation, both is circumscribed and circumscribes; the one, by his substance; the other, by his power. For he is naturally circumscribed by intelligible and sensible things, being soul and body, and he is naturally able to circumscribe these things by his power, as one who thinks and perceives; but God is simply and indefinitely beyond all beings, both those that contain and those that are contained, as being completely without relation to all things.

(15∆_300> 5.72 (72) Every forbidden pleasure naturally comes to be from passion through the medium of sense toward some sensible object. For pleasure is nothing else than a form of sensation, being formed in the faculty of sense by some sensible object; or a mode of sensory activity, constituted according to irrational desire. For desire, when added to sensation, turns into pleasure, bringing a form to it; and sensation, when moved according to desire, produces pleasure, having received the sensible object. Therefore the saints, knowing that the soul, being moved contrary to nature through the medium of the flesh toward matter, puts on the form of dust, themselves being moved rather according to nature through the medium of the soul toward God, also resolved to appropriate the flesh to God in a fitting manner, having fittingly adorned it with divine manifestations through the ascetic practice of the virtues.

5.73 (73) Magnanimously the saints according to the true and 1380 unerring mode of natural movement, have passed through the present age of struggles; sensation, on the one hand, simple through the medium of reason toward the intellect that has the principles of beings

68

Πρόδηλον οὖν, ὅτι οὐδεμία ἐμφέρεια τούτων πρός ἄλληλα, αἰτίων φημί καί αἰτιατῶν.

5.68 (ξη΄) ∆έον εἰδέναι τόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς νοῦν, τήν μέν ἔχειν δύναμιν εἰς τό νοεῖν, δι᾿ ἧς τά νοητά βλέπει· τήν δέ ἕνωσιν ὑπεραίρουσαν τοῦ νοῦ τήν φύσιν, δι' ἧς συνάπτεται πρός τά ἐπέκεινα ἑαυτοῦ. Κατά ταύτην οὖν τά θεῖα νοητέον, οὐ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς· ἀλλ᾿ ὅλους ἑαυτούς, ὅλων ἑαυτῶν ἐξισταμένους, καί ὅλους Θεοῦ γινομένους. Κρεῖττον γάρ εἶναι Θεοῦ, καί μή ἑαυτῶν. Οὕτω γάρ ἔσται τά θεῖα δοτά τοῖς μετά Θεοῦ γινομένοις.

5.69 (ξθ΄) Ὁ νοῦς νοεῖν βουλόμενος, κάτεισιν ἑαυτοῦ εἰς τάς νοήσεις καταβαίνων. Αἱ γάρ νοήσεις, κατώτεραί εἰσι τοῦ νοοῦντος, ὡς νοούμεναι καί καταλαμβανόμεναι, καί σκεδασμός εἰκότως καί μερισμός τῆς ἑνότητος τοῦ νοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ὁ μέν γάρ νοῦς, ἁπλοῦς καί ἀμερής· αἱ δέ νοήσεις, παμπληθεῖς καί σκεδασταί, καί οἷον εἴδη τοῦ νοῦ. ∆ιά τοῦτο τά νοερά, τουτέστι τά νοοῦντα, ἐλάττονά (15∆_298> ἐστι τῶν νοητῶν, ἤγουν τῶν νοουμένων. 1377 Ἕνωσιν δέ φησι τοῦ νοῦ, καθώς ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς σαφέστερον λέγει, δι᾿ ἧς πρός τά ἐπέκεινα ἑαυτοῦ ἀνατείνεται, ἤγουν τῇ περί Θεοῦ προσβάλλει θεωρίᾳ· τό, πάντων ἐκστῆναι τῶν αἰσθητῶν καί τῶν νοητῶν, ἔτι δέ καί τῆς οἰκείας κινήσεως· εἴθ᾿ οὕτως τῆς θείας γνώσεως δέξασθαι τήν ἀκτῖνα.

5.70 (ο΄) Εἰ κινεῖται ἀναλόγως ἑαυτῷ νοερῶς τόν νοερόν, καί νοεῖ πάντως· εἰ δέ νοεῖ, καί ἐρᾷ πάντως τοῦ νοηθέντος· εἰ δέ ἐρᾷ, καί πάσχει πάντως τήν πρός αὐτό ὡς ἐραστόν ἔκστασιν· εἰ δέ πάσχει, δῆλον ὅτι καί ἐπείγεται· εἰ δέ ἐπείγεται, καί ἐπιτείνει πάντως τό σφοδρόν τῆς κινήσεως. Εἰ δέ ἐπιτείνει σφοδρῶς τήν κίνησιν, οὐχ ἵσταται μέχρις ἄν γένηται ὅλον ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ ἐραστῷ, καί ὑφ᾿ ὅλου περιληφθῇ ἑκουσίως, ὅλον κατά προαίρεσιν τήν σωτήριον περιγραφήν δεχόμενον [male edida δεδομένον]· ἵν᾿ ὅλον ὅλῳ ποιωθῇ τῷ περιγράφοντι, ὡς μηδ᾿ ὅλως λοιπόν βούλεσθαι ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ αὐτό ἐκεῖνο ὅλον γνωρίζεσθαι δύνασθαι τό περιγραφόμενον· ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ περιγράφοντος, ὡς ἀήρ διόλου πεφωτισμένος φωτί· καί πυρί σίδηρος ὅλος ὅλῳ πεπυρακτωμένος, ἤ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων ἐστί.

5.71 (οα΄) Πολλή ἡ πρός τά νοούμενα τῶν νοούντων, καί πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθανομένων σχέσις. Ὁ δέ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος τυγχάνων αἰσθητικοῦ, διά τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπαλλαγήν πρός ἑκάτερα τά τῆς κτίσεως τμήματα φυσικῆς σχέσεώς τε καί ἰδιότητος, καί περιγράφεται καί περιγράφει· τό μέν, τῇ οὐσίᾳ· τό δέ, τῇ δυνάμει. Περιγράφεσθαι γάρ τοῖς νοητοῖς καί αἰσθητοῖς ὡς ψυχή τυγχάνων καί σῶμα, καί περιγράφειν ταῦτα κατά δύναμιν πέφυκεν, ὡς νοῶν καί αἰσθανόμενος· ὁ δέ Θεός ἁπλῶς καί ἀορίστως ὑπέρ πάντα τά ὄντα ἐστί, τά περιέχοντά τε καί περιεχόμενα, ὡς πᾶσι παντελῶς ἄσχετος ὤν.

(15∆_300> 5.72 (οβ΄) Πᾶσα ἡδονή τῶν ἀπηγορευμένων, ἐκ πάθους διά μέσης αἰσθήσεως πρός τι πάντως γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν αἰσθητόν. Οὐδέ γάρ ἄλλο τί ἐστιν ἡδονή, ἤ εἶδος αἰσθήσεως, ἐν τῷ αἰσθητικῷ τινος αἰσθητοῦ μορφουμένη· ἤ τρόπος αἰσθητικῆς ἐνεργείας, κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν ἄλογον συνιστάμενος. Ἐπιθυμία γάρ αἰσθήσει προστεθεῖσα, εἰς ἡδονήν μεταπίπτει, εἶδος αὐτῇ ἐπάγουσα· καί αἴσθησις κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν κινηθεῖσα, ἡδονήν ἀπεργάζεται, τό αἰσθητόν προσλαβοῦσα. Γνόντες οὖν οἱ ἅγιοι, ὅτι διά μέσης σαρκός πρός τήν ὕλην ἡ ψυχή παρά φύσιν κινουμένη τήν χοϊκήν μορφήν ὑποδύεται, διά μέσης μᾶλλον ψυχῆς κατά φύσιν αὐτοί πρός τόν Θεόν κινούμενοι, καί τήν σάρκα τῷ Θεῷ πρεπόντως οἰκειῶσαι διενοήθησαν, δι᾿ ἀσκήσεως ἀρετῶν ἐνδεχομένως αὐτήν ταῖς θείαις ἐμφάσεσι καλλωπίσαντες.

5.73 (ογ΄) Μεγαλοφυῶς οἱ ἅγιοι κατά τόν ἀληθῆ καί 1380 ἄπταιστον τῆς κατά φύσιν κινήσεως τρόπον, τόν παρόντα τῶν σκαμμάτων αἰῶνα διέβησαν· τήν μέν αἴσθησιν, ἁπλοῦς διά μέσου τοῦ λόγου πρός τόν νοῦν τούς τῶν ὄντων ἔχοντα