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the contemplative mind, but the practical reason, and the one wisdom, the other prudence. But if this is true, then the teacher has named action reason, likely from its cause and not from its matter, calling it a state that has no opposite. For the contemplative man abides in things that are true by reason and by knowledge, but not by warring and contending, and because of his pleasure in them, he does not endure to see anything other than them. But if it is necessary to make this clearer in another way, again, those who have laid bare the principles of perfection according to virtue say that those who have not yet become pure of communion with matter in respect to relation are occupied with practical matters, their judgment concerning realities being still mixed, and they are mutable, not yet having put aside their relation to mutable things; but those who through excellence draw near to God in relation, and who reap blessedness in the contemplation of Him, being turned only toward themselves and God by having genuinely broken the bonds of material relation, are completely alienated from practical matters and from matter, and are made akin to contemplation and to God. Therefore, they say, they also remain immutable, no longer having a relation to matter, according to which one who is held by matter in relation is by nature compelled to be unnaturally changed along with matter which is naturally changed; and knowing that the one who wishes to be freed from it needs the greatest power (1112) for the putting away of material passion, the teacher says, “To whom therefore it was granted, through reason and contemplation, having rent asunder matter and this fleshly thing, whether one should call it a cloud or a veil, to be with God, and the rest.”

How the flesh is a cloud and a veil. And why does the teacher say the flesh is a cloud and a veil? Because he knows that

every human mind that wanders and deviates from its natural movement moves about passion and sensation and sensible things, having nowhere else to be moved, having missed the movement that naturally leads to God, and he has divided the flesh into passion and sensation, for having indicated both of these things of the ensouled flesh through the cloud and the veil. For the fleshly passion is a cloud that casts a shadow on the ruling part of the soul, and the deception according to sensation is a veil, which rests it upon the appearances of sensible things and walls it off from passage to intelligible things, through which, receiving forgetfulness of natural goods, it turns its whole energy toward sensible things, inventing through the aforementioned things unseemly angers and desires and pleasures.

How pleasure comes to be. For every pleasure from forbidden things, out of passion through the medium of sensation toward something

is by all means naturally directed toward some sensible thing. For pleasure is nothing else than a form of sensation being shaped in the faculty of sensation through some sensible thing, or a mode of sensible energy constituted according to irrational desire. For desire, when added to sensation, turns into pleasure, bringing a form to it, and sensation, being moved according to desire, produces pleasure when it has taken hold of the sensible object. Therefore the saints, knowing that the soul, when moved unnaturally toward matter through the medium of the flesh, takes on an earthy form, they themselves rather, through the medium of the soul being moved naturally toward God, intended to fittingly appropriate the flesh to God, having possibly adorned it with divine manifestations through the practice of virtues.

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θεωρητικόν νοῦν, τό δέ πρακτικόν λόγον, καί τό μέν σοφίαν, τό δέ φρόνησιν. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο ἀληθές, ἐκ τῆς αἰτίας ἄρα τήν πρᾶξιν κατά τό εἰκός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐκ τῆς ὕλης ὠνόμασεν ὁ διδάσκαλος λόγον, τήν μηδέν ἔχουσαν ἀντικείμενον ἕξιν προσαγορεύσας. Λιογικῶς γάρ καί γνωστικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πολεμικῶς καί ἀγωνιστικῶς ἐμμέναι τοῖς ἀληθέσιν ὁ θεωρητικός, καί πλήν αὐτῶν ἄλλο τι ὁρᾷν διά τήν πρός αὐτά ἡδονήν οὐκ ἀνέχεται. Εἰ δέ χρή καί ἄλλως σαφέστερον τοῦτο ποιήσαθαι, πάλιν οἱ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τελειότητος τούς λόγους γυμνάσαντές φασι τούς μήπω τῆς πρός τήν ὕλην κατά τήν σχέσιν κοινωνίας καθαρούς γεγονότας περί τά πρακτικά καταγίνεσθαι, μικτῆς οὔσης αὐτοῖς ἔτι τῆς περί τά ὄντα κρίσεως, καί εἰσί τρεπτοί, μήπω τήν περί τά τρεπτά σχέσιν ἀποθέμενοι· τούς δέ δι᾿ ἀκρότητα τῷ Θεῷ κατά σχέσιν πλησιάζοντας, καί τῇ τούτου κατανοήσει τό μακάριον καρπουμένους, πρός ἑαυτούς μόνον καί τόν Θεόν ἐστραμμένους τῷ ῥῆξαι γνησίως τῆς ὑλικῆς σχέσεως τά δεσμά τῶν μέν πρακτικῶν καί τῆς ὕλης παντελῶς ἠλλοτριῶσθαι, τῇ δέ θεωρίᾳ καί τῷ Θεῷ προσῳκειῶσθαι. ∆ιό, φασί, καί μένουσιν ἄτρεπτοι, μή ἔχοντες ἔτι τήν πρός τήν ὕλην σχέσιν, καθ᾿ ἥν τῇ ὕλῃ φυσικῶς ἀλλοιουμένῃ παρά φύσιν συνεξαλλοιοῦσθαι ἐξ ἀνάγκης πέφυκεν ὁ τῇ ὕλῃ κατά τήν σχέσιν κεκρατημένος, καί μεγίστης εἰδώς δεῖσθαι δυνάμεως (1112) πρός ἀπόθεσιν τῆς ὑλικῆς προσπαθείας τόν αὐτῆς ἐλευθερωθῆναι βουλόμενόν φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, " Ὧ τινι μέν οὖν ἐξεγένετο διά λόγου καί θεωρίας διασχόντι τήν ὕλην καί τό σαρκικόν τοῦτο, εἴτε νέφος χρή λέγειν εἴτε προκάλυμμα, Θεῷ συγγενέσθαι, καί τά ἑξῆς."

Πῶς ἐστι νέφος καί προκάλυμμα ἡ σάρξ. ∆ιά τί δέ νέφος εἶναι καί προκάλυμμα τήν σάρκα φησίν ὁ διδάσκαλος; ὡς εἰδώς ὅτι

πᾶς ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς πλανώμενος, καί τῆς κατά φύσιν ἀπονεύων κινήσεως, περί πάθος καί αἴσθησιν καί αἰσθητά ποιεῖται τήν κίνησιν, οὐκ ἔχων ἄλλοθί ποι κινηθῆναι, τῆς πρός Θεόν φυσικῶς φερούσης κινήσεως διαμαρτήσας, καί διεῖλε τήν σάρκα εἰς πάθος καί αἴσθησιν, σαρκός γάρ ἐμψύχου ἀμφότερα διά τοῦ νέφους καί τοῦ προκαλύμματος ταῦτα δηλώσας. Νέφος γάρ ἐστι τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπισκοτοῦν τό σαρκικόν παθος, καί προκάλυμμά ἐστιν ἡ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀπάτη, ταῖς ἐπιφανείαις τῶν αἰσθητῶν αὐτήν ἐπερείδουσα καί τῆς πρός τά νοητά διαβάσεως ἀποτειχίζουσα, δι᾿ ὧν λήθην τῶν φυσικῶν ἀγαθῶν λαμβάνουσα περί τά αἰσθητά τήν ὅλην αὐτῆς ἐνέργειαν καταστρέφει, θυμούς καί ἐπιθυμίας καί ἡδονάς διά τῶν εἰρημένων ἀπρεπεῖς ἐφευρίσκουσα.

Πῶς ἡδονή γίνεται. Πᾶσα γάρ ἡδονή τῶν ἀπηγορευμένων ἐκ πάθους διά μέσης αἰσθήσεως πρός τι

πάντως γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν αἰσθητόν. Οὐδέ γάρ ἄλλο τί ἐστι ἡδονή ἤ εἴδος αἰσθήσεως ἐν τῷ αἰσθητικῷ διά τινος αἰσθητοῦ μορφουμένης, 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 χο«κήν μορφήν ὑποδύεται, διά μέσης μᾶλλον ψυχῆς κατά φύσιν αὐτοί πρός τόν Θεόν κινουμένης καί τήν σάρκα τῷ Θεῷ πρεπόντως οἰκειῶσαι διενοήθησαν, δι᾿ ἀσκήσεως ἀρετῶν ἐνδεχομένως αὐτήν ταῖς θείαις ἐμφάσεσι καλλωπίσαντες.