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an unchangeable disposition towards those who revile him to his face and slander and condemn and sentence and insult and spit upon him, but also towards those who outwardly behave with a pretense of friendship, but secretly do the same things, though they are not unnoticed. And incomparably greater than these things, again, I consider it to be, to come into complete forgetfulness of whatever one might suffer, and neither in the absence of those who afflicted him nor in their presence to remember any of the things that happened, but just like friends, to welcome these also without recalling the events, both in conversations and in meals together.

$γ'. To remember God is not the same thing as to love God; nor is to fear him the same thing as to keep his commandments; for these are one thing and those another, but both belong to the perfect and the dispassionate.

$δ'. Sinlessness is one thing and the practice of the commandments is another; for the latter belongs to those who are struggling and living according to the gospel, but the first belongs only to those who have acquired the first dispassion.

$ε'. Not everything that is inactivity is also stillness; nor is everything that is stillness also silence; these are one thing and another. For the first belongs to those who are unwilling to know what the participation in the good things of God is, nor to accomplish any good thing; the second, to those who always make leisure for the knowledge of God and who sit beside the word of the innate wisdom of God and who search the depths of the Spirit and are initiated into the strange mysteries of God. The third belongs to those who are engaged in (411) noetic work with the attentive and careful mind of thoughts.

$στ'. Withdrawal, the moving from place to place, is not the same thing as true and genuine exile, but they are one thing and another. For the first belongs to those who are boxing and are moved either by negligence by an unstable mind or by an excess of fervor of those who still desire greater struggles. But the other belongs to those who are crucified to the world and to the things of the world and who always long to be with God alone and the angels and do not turn back at all to human affairs.

$ζ'. To resist and make war against the enemies is one thing, and to completely defeat and subjugate and put them to death is another; for the first belongs to strugglers and those noble in asceticism, but the second, to the dispassionate and perfect.

$η'. All these are actions of the saints who walk in the light of dispassion; but let those who perceive themselves to be outside of these things not be deceived by anyone nor delude their own souls, but let them see that they are journeying in vain in darkness.

$θ'. Many, indeed, one for one reason and another for another, have hastened towards these things; but very few are they who have undertaken their practice with an innate fear and love of God, who also alone, being helped by grace from above, quickly achieve the practice of virtue and stretch forward to the things that have been said. But others are left to wander as "in a pathless place," according to what is said, "and not in a way"; according to, "I sent them away according to the desires of their hearts, they will go according to their own desires."

ρ'. (412) He who has come into the experience of these things through the finest diligence will know the power of what is said. But he who is otherwise will understand the things spoken of perceptibly, but concerning the things spoken of spiritually and noetically, he will have bare theories of the concepts, or rather he will fashion false imaginings in his own mind, and being greatly deceived, he will be far from the truth of what is said.

ρα'. Whenever you rise above the humiliation of the body through many labors and sweats, and having been stripped of its needs, you carry it about as light and as if spiritual, so that it feels neither fatigue nor hunger nor thirst, and then you see better than in a mirror him who is beyond mind and with unveiled eyes

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ἀναλλοιώτως διάθεσιν πρός τούς κατά πρόσωπον λοιδοροῦντας καί ἐνδιαβάλλοντας καί κατακρίνοντας καί καταδικάζοντας καί ὑβρίζοντας καί ἐμπτύοντας αὐτόν, ἀλλά μήν καί πρός τούς ἐν προσχήματι μέν φιλίας ἔξωθεν διακειμένους, λάθρα δέ τά ὅμοια διαπραττομένους μέν, μή λανθάνοντας δέ. Ἀσυγκρίτως δέ τούτων πάλιν μεῖζον εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνω τό ἐν λήθῃ παντελεῖ γενέσθαι ὧν ἄν πάθοι τις, καί μήτε ἀπόντων τῶν θλιψάντων αὐτόν μήτε παρόντως μενῆσθαί τινος τῶν γεγονότων, ἀλλ᾿ ὁμοίως τοῖς φίλοις καί τούτους ἀνεννοίως τῶν συμβάντων προσαποδέχεσθαι ἔν τε συνομιλίαις ἔν τε συνεστιάσεσιν.

$γ'. Οὐχ οἷον τό μεμνῆσθαι Θεοῦ, τοιοῦτον καί τό ἀγαπᾶν τόν Θεόν} οὐδέ οἷον τό φοβεῖσθαι αὐτόν, τοιοῦτον καί τό τηρεῖν τάς αὐτοῦ ἐντολάς} ἄλλο γάρ ταῦτα καί ἄλλο ἐκεῖνα, τελείων δέ ὅμως καί ἀπαθῶν τά ἀμφότερα.

$δ'. Ἄλλο ἡ ἀναμαρτησία καί ἕτερον ἡ τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐργασία} ἡ μέν γάρ ἀγωνιζομένων καί τῶν κατά τό εὐαγγέλιον ζώντων ἐστίν, ἡ δέ πρώτη μόνων τῶν τήν πρώτην κτησαμένων ἀπάθειάν ἐστιν.

$ε'. Οὐκ εἴ τι πάντως ἀργία, τοῦτο καί ἡσυχία} οὐδέ εἴ τι ἡσυχία, τοῦτο καί σιωπή} ἄλλο δέ ταῦτα καί ἄλλο. Ἡ μέν γάρ μή βουλομένων ἐστίν εἰδέναι τίς ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ μέθεξις μηδέ τί τῶν καλῶν κατορθῶσαι} ἡ δέ, τῶν εἰς τήν γνῶσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ ποιουμένων ἀεί τήν σχολήν καί παρακαθημένων τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἐμφύτου σοφίας Θεοῦ καί τά βάθη τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐρευνώντων καί ξένων μυστηρίων ἐν μυήσει γινομένων Θεοῦ. Ἡ δέ τρίτη, τῶν τήν (411) νοεράν ἐργασίαν ἐργαζομένων ἐστίν ἐν προσοχῇ ἐμμερίμνου διανοίας τῶν λογισμῶν.

$στ'. Οὐ ταὐτόν ἀναχώρτησις, ἡ ἐκ τόπου εἰς τόπον μετάβασις, καί αὐτή ἡ ὄντως ἀληθής ξενιτεία, ἀλλ᾿ ἕτερον καί ἕτερον. Ἡ μέν γάρ, τῶν πυκτευόντων ἐστί καί ἤ διά ὀλιγωρίαν ὑπό ἀστάτου μεταφερομένων νοός ἤ διά ὑπερβολήν θερμότητος τῶν ἐφιεμένων ἔτι τῶν κρειττόνων ἀγώνων. Ἡ δέ τῶν ἐσταυρωμένων ἐστί τῷ κόσμῳ καί τοῖς τοῦ κόσμου πράγμασι καί μετά μόνου Θεοῦ καί τῶν ἀγγέλων εἶναι ἀεί ἐπιποθούντων καί μή ἐπιστρεφομένων ὅλως πρός τά ἀνθρώπινα.

$ζ'. Ἕτερον τό ἀνθίστασθαι καί πολεμεῖν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς καί ἕτερον τό τελείως ἡττῆσαι καί ὑποτάξαι καί θανατῶσαι αὐτούς} τό μέν γάρ πρῶτον, ἀγωνιστῶν καί γενναίων τήν ἄσκησιν, τό δέ δεύτερον, ἀπαθῶν καί τελείων.

$η'. Ταῦτα μέν ἅπαντα πράξεις τῶν ἐν φωτί ἀπαθείας περιπατούτνων ἁγίων εἰσίν} οἱ δέ τούτων ἔξω ἑαυτούς εἶναι καταμανθάνοντες μή πλανηθῶσιν ὑπό τινος μηδέ τάς ἰδίας ἀπατῶσι ψυχάς, ἀλλ᾿ ἰδέτωσαν ὡς ἐν σκότει ματαίως διαπορεύονται.

$θ'. Πολλοί μέν, ἄλλος δι᾿ ἄλλο τι καί δι᾿ ἕτερον ἕτερος, πρός ταῦτα ἠπείχθησαν} ὀλίγοι δέ λίαν οἱ μετά ἐμφύτου φόβου καί ἀγάπης Θεοῦ τῆς πράξεως αὐτῶν ἐπεχείρησαν, οἵ καί μόνοι ὑπό τῆς ἄνωθεν χάριτος βοηθούμενοι συντόμως κατορθοῦσι τήν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐργασίαν καί πρός τά εἰρημένα προσεπεκτείνονται. Οἱ δ᾿ ἄλλοις ἀφίενται ὡς «ἐν ἀβάτῳ» περιπλανᾶσθαι, κατά τό εἰρημένον «καί οὐχ ὁδῷ»} κατά τό «Ἐξαπέστειλα αὐτούς κατά τά ἐπιτηδεύματα τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν, πορεύσονται ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν αὐτῶν».

ρ'. (412) Ὁ τούτων ἐν πείρᾳ γεγονώς διά σπουδῆς τῆς καλλίστης γνώσεται τῶν λεγομένων τήν δύναμιν. Ὁ δέ ἄλλως ἔχων τά μέν αἰσθητῶς λεχθέντα νοήσειε, περί δέ τῶν πνευματικῶς καί νοερῶς εἰρημένων, ψιλάς ἕξει τῶν νοημάτων τάς θεωρίας, μᾶλλον δέ ἀναπλάσει ἀναπλάσματα ψευδῆ ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ διανοίᾳ, τῆς δέ ἀληθείας τῶν λεγομένων μακράν ὡς ψευσθείς ἔσται σφόδρα.

ρα'. Ὁπόταν ὑπεράνω τῆς τοῦ σώματος ταπεινώσεως γένῃ διά πόνων καί ἱδρώτων πολλῶν, καί τῶν αὐτοῦ ἐκδύς ἀναγκῶν, κοῦφον αὐτό καί ὡς πνευματικόν περιφέρῃς, ὡς μήτε κόπου μήτε πείνης μήτε δίψης αἰσθόμενον, καί τηνικαῦτα κρεῖττον ἐσόπτρου βλέπεις τόν ὑπέρ νοῦν καί ἀνακεκαλυμμένοις τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς