A Monastic Dialogue on Spiritual Vision

Concerning how one should abide in one’s cell, and concerning spiritual vision [θεωρία], in the form of questions and answers. [1]

 

1. Question: How should one keep silence in his cell?

Answer: One should have absolutely no remembrance of anything human when abiding in his cell.

2. Question: What kind of work should the heart perform?

Answer: This is the perfect work of a monk: always to be attentive to God without distraction.

3. Question: How, then, should the mind chase away evil thoughts?

Answer: It cannot do this entirely by itself, for it does not have the power. But when a thought attacks the soul, the soul should have recourse to its Maker with supplication, and He will dispel them like wax; for, our God is a consuming Fire (Hebrews 12:29).

4. Question: How did the Fathers of Sketis [the Desert Fathers] see the technique of rebutting evil thoughts?

Answer: As a great and exceptional work, and one that is laborious and not safe for everyone.

5. Question: Why is it not safe for everyone?

Answer: Because the mind has a tendency to wander.

6. Question: How so?

Answer: When a thought attacks the soul, and the latter, by struggling arduously, is able to expel it, another thought enters and takes hold of it. And so it is that the soul, by rebutting thoughts the whole day long, never finds time to enjoy the vision of God.

7. Question: By what technique does the mind take refuge in God?

Answer: If the thought of fornication comes to you, immediately retract your mind and make haste to raise it aloft to God, without tarrying; for tarrying is tantamount to assenting.

8. Question: If the thought of vainglory assails you, suggesting that you have attained to virtue, should the mind not rebut it?

Answer: Whenever one rebuts a thought, that thought becomes stronger and more vehement; for, it will find more ways of gainsaying you than you will of gainsaying it, and the Holy Spirit will not come to your aid so much. For, you will come across as saying, “I am sufficient unto myself to fight against the passions." Just as one who has a spiritual Father entrusts all of his cares to his Father and is completely free of anxiety, and no longer has to fear the judgment of God, so also he who has surrendered himself to God should not be at all concerned about thoughts and should neither rebut them nor afford them any means of entry. If a thought does enter, lift it up to your Father and say: “This is not my problem; look, here is my Father—He knows." And while you are still bearing it aloft, it will abandon you in the middle of the road and take to flight. For, it cannot come with you to your God and Father, or stand in His presence. There is nothing greater or more therapeutic in the entire Church than this activity

9. Question·. How is it, then, that the Fathers of Sketis pleased God by their rebuttal of evil thoughts?

Answer: It is because they did it with simplicity and fear of God that God helped them, and subsequently, by God's good pleasure, on account of their great toil and love for Him, the activity of spiritual vision came to them.

The Elder who expounded these teachings went on to say: “Once, when I went to Sketis, I visited a certain holy man who had lived there for many years. He merely greeted me and sat down, saying nothing else to me. I sat down and occupied myself with spiritual contemplation, while he plaited a rope, neither lifting his head at all to look at me nor inviting me to eat. Although he had not eaten for six days, he spent the entire day weaving. When it grew late, he again moistened palm leaves and spent the entire night weaving. The following day, around the tenth hour, he responded to me, saying: ‘Brother, whence did you learn this activity?' ‘We were taught this activity of ours from an early age by our Fathers,' I said to him. ‘How about you? Whence did you learn this activity of yours? The Sketiote said: ‘I did not receive any such teaching from my Fathers, but as you see me now, that is how I have passed my whole life, doing a little handiwork, a little meditation, and a little prayer, cleansing myself as far as possible of evil thoughts and rebutting thoughts that assailed me, and in this way did the spirit of Divine vision come upon me, without my knowing or even learning that some monks had a similar practice.' I replied: ‘This is how I was taught from my youth.'"

10. Question: In what way ought such a monk apply himself to spiritual vision?

Answer: As the Divine Scriptures teach us.

11. Question: How?

Answer: Daniel saw God noetically as the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9, 13), Ezekiel saw Him being borne upon the throne of the Cherubim (Ezekiel 10:18-19), Isaiah saw Him sitting upon a high and exalted throne (Isaiah 6:1), while Moses “endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).

12. Question: How can the mind behold what it has never seen?

Answer: You have never seen the Emperor sitting as he is represented in pictures.

13. Question: And ought the mind to depict the Divine?

Answer: Is it not better to depict God than to assent to unclean thoughts?

14. Question: Is this not perhaps considered a sin?

Answer: To begin with, retain in your mind the images which the Prophets saw historically, and perfection itself will come upon you, as the Apostle says: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12). In saying “then" he means that when the mind is perfected, then it will see freely.

15. Question: Does this not entail a wandering of the mind?

Answer: Not at all, if one truly struggles. “I spent an entire week," said one Elder, “without preserving the memory of anything human." Another Elder said: “I was once walking on a road and I saw two Angels walking with me, one on either side, and I paid no attention to them."

16. Question: Why did he pay no attention to them?

Answer: Because Scripture says: “Neither Angels nor spirits will be able to separate us from the love of Christ" (cf. Romans 8:38-39). [2]

17. Question: Is the mind always able to remain in a state of spiritual vision?

Answer: Even if not always, yet when the mind is overwhelmed by thoughts, let it not tarry in fleeing to God for refuge. I tell you, that if the mind is perfected in this, it is easier for a mountain to be moved than for the mind to descend from spiritual vision. For, just as a condemned man is imprisoned in darkness, but when he is released and sees the light, no longer wants to remember the darkness, so also is it with the mind, when it begins to see its own proper light. One of the holy Fathers said: “Once, I wished to test my mind, to see whether, if I let it go, it would wander in the world. After I released it, it remained in the same place, not knowing where to go; and I raised it back on high again. For, it knew that if it went off and wandered around, I would have to chastise it. This activity is accomplished by silence in conjunction with humility and mental prayer." He said also that unceasing prayer swiftly brings the mind to amendment. [3]

18. Question: How can one pray always (St. Luke 18:1)? For the body becomes weak at Divine services.

Answer: Prayer does not mean just standing in prayer at the time appointed for prayer, but praying always.

19. Question: How is one to pray always?

Answer: Whether you are eating, or drinking, or walking along the road, or doing some task (cf. I Corinthians 10:31), do not desist from prayer.

20. Question: If one is talking with somebody, how can he fulfill the commandment to pray always?

Answer. This is why the Apostle said: “With all prayer and supplication" (Ephesians 6:18). For, when you do not have time to pray while talking with someone else, pray by means of a supplication.

21. Question·. With what prayer should one pray?

Answer: “Our Father, Which art in the Heavens...."

22. Question: What measure should one observe in prayer?

Answer: The Apostle did not indicate any measure. For, no measure is implied in the statement, “Pray always and without ceasing" (cf. I Thessalonians 5:17). For if a monk prays only when standing at prayer, such a one is not praying at all. [4] He who wishes to accomplish this must see all men as one, and refrain from slander (cf. I St. Peter 2:1). [5]

 

Notes

1. Guy (p. 232) dates this dialogue to the latter half of the sixth century, though it was likely compiled at least a century, or even a century and a half, earlier than this.

2. Cf. Evagrios, On Prayer, §112.

3. Cf. Verba Seniorum, Book XII, §12; Εύεργετινός, Book IV, Hypothesis VIII, J.14.

4. “Histoires des solitaires egyptiens," ed. F. Nau, No. 104; Εύεργετινός, Book IV, Hypothesis VIII, A. 1.

5. “Histoires des solitaires egyptiens," ed. F. Nau, No. 105; Εύεργετινός, Book III, Hypothesis II, B.38; Book IV, Hypothesis VIII, A.17; cf. Evagrios, On Prayer, §§ 124-125.

Translated from the critical edition of the Greek text by Jean-Claude Guy, S.J., “Un entretien monastique sur la contemplation" in Recherches de Science Religieuse, Vol. L (1962), pp. 230-241. We know of no extant English translation of this dialogue, and believe this to be the first.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXII (2005), No. 2, pp. 31-34.