346

8. Self-love is the passionate and irrational love for the body; its opposite is love and self-control. The one who has self-love, it is clear that he has all the passions.

9. "No one," says the Apostle, "ever hated his own flesh;" but he manifestly disciplines and subdues it, providing nothing more for it, except through food and covering; and of these only, what is necessary for living. Thus, therefore, one loves it without passion; and nourishes it as a servant of divine things, and cherishes it only with what supplies its need.

10. Whom one loves, him he certainly strives to serve. If therefore one loves God, he certainly strives also to do what is pleasing to Him; but if the flesh, to carry out the things that delight it.

11. To God are pleasing love and prudence, and contemplation and prayer; but to the flesh, gluttony and licentiousness, and the things that increase these. For this reason, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." But those who are of Christ "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

12. If the mind inclines toward God, it has the body as a slave, and provides it nothing more than what is necessary for living; but if it inclines toward the flesh, it is enslaved by the passions, always making provision for it unto desires.

13. If you wish to overcome thoughts, take care of the passions, and you will easily drive them out from the mind and from these [passions] [Fr. you drive out from the mind]. For example, against fornication, fast, keep vigil, labor, be alone. Against anger and grief, despise glory and dishonor and material things. Against remembrance of wrongs, pray for the one who grieved you, and you will be set free.

14. Do not measure yourself against the weaker among men, but rather stretch yourself to the commandment of love. For by measuring yourself against the former, you fall into the pit of conceit; but by stretching yourself to the latter, you advance to the height of humility.

15. If you keep the commandment (1021) of love for your neighbor at all, for what reason do you bear the bitterness of grief against him, or is it not clear that, preferring the transient things of this world and clinging to them, you make war on your brother?

16. Gold has become desirable to men not so much on account of need, as because through it many serve their pleasures.

17. There are three causes of the love of money: love of pleasure, vainglory, and faithlessness. Faithlessness is more grievous than the other two.

18. The lover of pleasure loves money so that he may live luxuriously by means of it; the vainglorious, so that he may be glorified by means of it; the faithless, so that he may hide and guard it, fearing famine, or old age, or sickness, or exile; and he hopes in it more than in God the creator of all creation, and its provider, even down to the last and smallest of living things.

19. There are four who acquire money: the three aforementioned, and the steward. Only the last, manifestly, acquires it rightly, so that he may never cease providing for the need of each one.

20. All passionate thoughts either excite the desiderative part of the soul, or disturb the irascible part, or darken the rational part; and from this it happens that the mind is blinded to spiritual contemplation and the rapture of prayer. And for this reason the monk, and especially the hesychast, ought to pay close attention to his thoughts, and to know and cut off their causes. One knows them thus: for example, passionate memories of women excite the desiderative part of the soul; and the cause of these is incontinence in food and drink, and frequent and irrational association with women themselves. One cuts these off by hunger and thirst and vigil and withdrawal. Again, passionate memories of those who have grieved one disturb the irascible part; and the cause of these is love of pleasure, vainglory, and love of material things. For through

346

η΄. Φιλαυτία ἐστίν ἡ πρός τό σῶμα ἐμπαθής καί ἄλογος φιλία· ᾗ ἀντίκειται ἀγάπη καί ἐγκράτεια. Ὁ ἔχων τήν φιλαυτίαν, δῆλον ὅτι ἔχει πάντα τά πάθη.

θ΄. Οὐδείς, φησίν Ἀπόστολος, τήν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα ἐμίσησεν· ἀλλ᾿ ὑποπιάζει δηλονότι καί δουλαγωγεῖ, μηδέν πλέον αὐτῇ παρέχων, πλήν διά τροφῆς καί σκεπασμάτων· καί τούτων μόνων, τῶν πρός τό ζῇν ἀναγκαίων. Οὕτως οὖν ἀπαθῶς τις ἀγαπᾷ αὐτήν· καί ὡς ὑπηρέτιν τῶν θείων ἐκτρέφει αὐτήν, καί θάλπει τοῖς τήν ἔνδειαν αὐτῆς ἀποπληροῦσι μόνοις.

ι΄. Ὅν τις ἀγαπᾷ, τοῦτον πάντως καί σπεύδει θεραπεύειν. Εἰ οὖν τόν Θεόν τις ἀγαπᾷ, πάντως καί τά ἀρεστά αὐτῷ σπεύδει ποιεῖν· εἰ δέ τήν σάρκα, τά ταύτην τέρποντα ἐκτελεῖν.

ια΄. Τῷ μέν Θεῷ ἀρέσκει ἀγάπη καί σωφροσύνη, καί θεωρία καί προσευχή· τῇ δέ σαρκί, γαστριμαργία καί ἀκολασία, καί τά τούτων αὐξητικά. ∆ιά τοῦτο, Οἱ ἐν σαρκί ὄντες, Θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται. Οἱ δέ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τήν σάρκα ἐσταύρωσαν σύν τοῖς παθήμασι καί ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις.

ιβ΄. Ὁ νοῦς ἐάν μέν νεύσῃ πρός Θεόν, ἔχει δοῦλον τό σῶμα, καί πλέον οὐδέν αὐτῷ παρέχει τῶν πρός τό ζῇν ἀναγκαίων· ἐάν δέ νεύσῃ πρός τήν σάρκα, δουλοῦται τοῖς πάθεσι, πρόνοιαν αὐτῆς ἀεί εἰς ἐπιθυμίας ποιούμενος.

ιγ΄. Εἰ θέλεις τῶν λογισμῶν περιγίνεσθαι, ἐπιμελοῦ τῶν παθῶν, καί εὐχερῶς αὐτούς ἐκ τοῦ νοῦ ἀπό τούτων ἐξελαύνεις [Fr.ἐκ τοῦ νοῦ ἀπελαύνεις]. Οἷον, ἐπί μέν τῆς πορνείας, νήστευε, ἀγρύπνει, κοπίασον, ἰδίασον. Ἐπί δέ τῆς ὀργῆς καί τῆς λύπης, καταφρόνει δόξης καί ἀτιμίας καί τῶν ὑλικῶν πραγμάτων. Ἐπί δέ τῆς μνησικακίας, προσεύχου ὑπέρ τοῦ λυπήσαντος, καί ἀπαλλάττῃ.

ιδ΄. Μή τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις ἑαυτόν παραμέτρει, ἀλλά τῇ ἐντολῆ τῆς ἀγάπης μᾶλλον παράτεινον. Τοῖς μέν γάρ παραμετρῶν, εἰς τόν βόθρον τῆς οἰήσεως ἐμπίπτεις· τῇ δέ παρατείνων, εἰς τό ὕψος τῆς ταπεινοφροσύνης προκόπτεις.

ιε΄. Εἰ ὅλως τῆς πρός τόν πλησίον ἀγάπης τήν ἐντολήν (1021) φυλάττεις, ὑπέρ τίνος τῆς πρός αὐτόν λύπης τήν πικρίαν ἐντίκτεις, ἤ δῆλον ὅτι ταύτης τά πρόσκαιρα προτιμῶν καί αὐτῶν ἀντιποιούμενος, τόν ἀδελφόν πολεμεῖς;

ιστ΄. Οὐ διά τήν χρείαν τοσοῦτον τό χρυσίον ζηλωτόν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γέγονεν, ὅσον τό δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τούς πολλούς τάς ἡδονάς θεραπεύειν.

ιζ΄. Τρία εῖσί τά αἴτια τῆς τῶν χρημάτων ἀγάπης, φιληδονία, κενοδοξία καί ἀπιστία. Χαλεπωτέρα δέ τῶν δύο ἡ ἀπιστία καθέστηκεν.

ιη΄. Ὁ μέν φιλήδονος ἀγαπᾷ ἀργύριον, ἵνα δι᾿ αὐτῦ τρυφήσῃ· ὁ δέ κενόδοξος, ἵνα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ δοξασθῇ· ὁ δέ ἄπιστος, ἵνα κρύψῃ καί φυλάξῃ, λιμόν φοβούμενος, ἤ γῆρας ἤ νόσον ἤ ξενιτείαν· καί ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ μᾶλλον ἐλπίζει, ἤ ἐπί τῷ Θεῷ τῷ πάσης κτίσεως δημιουργῷ, καί προνοητῇ, ἕως τῶν ἐσχάτων καί μικροτάτων ζώων.

ιθ΄. Τέσσαρές εἰσιν οἱ περιποιούμενοι χρήματα· οἱ προειρημένοι τρεῖς, καί ὁ οἰκονομικός. Μόνος δέ οὗτος δηλονότι ὀρθῶς περιποιεῖται, ἵνα ἑκάστῳ τήν χρείαν παρέχων μή διαλείπῃ ποτέ.

κ΄. Πάντες οἱ ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμοί ἤ τό ἐπιθυμητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐρεθίζουσιν, ἤ τό θυμικόν ἐκταράσσουσιν, ἤ τό λογιστικόν ἐπισκοτίζουσι· καί ἐκ τούτου συμβαίνει τόν νοῦν ὀφθαλμιάσαι πρός τήν πνευματικήν θεωρίαν, καί τήν τῆς προσευχῆς ἐκδημίαν. Καί τούτου χάριν ὀφείλει ὁ μοναχός, καί μάλιστα ὁ ἡσυχάζων, ἀκριβῶς τοῖς λογισμοῖς προσέχειν, καί τάς τούτων αἰτίας καί γνῶναι καί ἐκκόπτειν. Γινώσκειν δέ οὗτως· οἷον, ἐρεθίζουσι τό ἐπιθυμητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς αἱ ἐμπαθεῖς μνῆμαι τῶν γυναικῶν· τούτων δέ αἰτία, ἡ τῶν βρωμάτων καί πομάτων ἀκρασία, καί ἡ αὐτῶν τῶν γυναικῶν πυκνή καί ἄλογος συντυχία. Περικόπτει δέ ταύτας πεῖνα καί δίψα καί ἀγρυπνία καί ἀναχώρησις. Τόν δέ θυμόν πάλιν ἐκταράσσουσιν αἱ ἐμπαθεῖς μνῆμαι τῶν λυπησάντων· αἰτία δέ τούτων, φιληδονία καί κενοδοξία καί φιλοϋλία. ∆ιά γάρ