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Chapter 28FeofanPisma.1.28

Письмо 28

The Danger of False Visions

The author warns against seeking or trusting supernatural marvels, emphasizing that true spiritual life is found within the heart.

Save yourselves! Let's thank God for everything that's happened to you and for the matters currently at hand. Every good gift comes from Him—the Father of lights.✦ But what kind of phantoms have started appearing around you? Fear seizes me because of them. Do everything you can to put them out of your mind. How many people have been caught in the enemy's snares just this way—even among ascetics who are widely respected! It's a disaster! How long does it take to get tangled up? A man once needed to find something in his cell, but it was dark; a small light appeared and pointed it out to him. It started with that, and it went as far as exalting himself above the Lord Jesus Christ, and it ended in madness. Just look at the Lausiac History—there are so many examples!1 Then, too, the Fathers laid down a strict rule: do not believe marvels — any light of that kind, and so on. There is no sin in refusing to believe a true appearance out of caution, but there is great harm in believing a false one. For then the enemy will already seize hold and drag everything higher and higher — and from there cast you down. Pray that you aren't surrounded by any kind of marvels. You don't need them. They're needed where there's no faith. And as for you—what good are they to you?2 Pray to the Lord that He take away the memory of it. And always talk about it.3 May the Lord deliver you! Everything external in the spiritual life is of very little importance. The whole thing is in the heart.

The Necessity of Interior Presence

The soul must learn to stand consciously before God, moving from head-centered thought to heart-centered prayer.

As for the lesson, you have to put in the work. You ask, should I even begin? Is this really left up to whim?4 No. This is something you can't avoid. God is everywhere, and our whole soul stands bare before Him through and through.5 We must also stand before Him with our own awareness.6 Just as all the Angels and Saints behold Him and never take their eyes from Him, so we who are still in the body must behold Him. Just as the sun holds the planets and leads them in its wake, so the entire spiritual world—and our souls as well—must hold to God and be led by Him. And this is not for an hour or two, but unceasingly—from the moment you wake until the very forgetting that comes in sleep. You can't reach this state all at once. It requires spiritual struggle.7 And that is exactly what's required now. Take it up!8 There's nothing to fear. To make this clearer, read the articles on watchfulness in the Philokalia.9 You must keep your attention focused on your heart. You need to come down out of the head into the heart. Right now your thought of God is in the head, while God Himself is as if outside—and so it turns out this is exterior work. As long as you stay in your head, your thoughts won't settle calmly; they'll keep swirling around like snow or summer midges.10 As attention enters the heart, your thoughts will begin to settle, and eventually they will settle completely—and the atmosphere of the soul will become entirely pure. Once that happens, you'll notice even a fly buzzing past; but until then, everything is thick darkness.11 The beginning of the fruit is a concentrated and unceasing warmth in the heart. And that is all there is to it.

Reverence and the Path of Zeal

Cultivating a holy fear of God and listening to the conscience are essential for steady progress in the spiritual life.

— Only one thing must be left behind: familiarity with the Lord.12 A great fear is needed.13 Just as high-ranking nobles stand at attention before a king, so should the soul stand before God.14 Disordered thoughts in the soul before God are like an improper posture before a king; forgetting God, even for a minute, is the same as turning your back on Him. You once said that there is zeal in spiritual labors.15 There is—and a great deal of it! You'll see for yourselves. Saturate your soul with fear.16 It isn't painful; it's refreshing. It is the beginning, but it also never leaves you along the whole road—it only grows purer and purer. Solitude and reading are the two wings in this work. But begin—and you'll see it all for yourselves. It will become clear right away what helps and what ruins. But you also have to put what you've learned into practice strictly. Your conscience will claim its rights and begin to scold you. Listen to it. How many nitpicks there will be!17 Carry them out. After that, everything will even out and go smoothly. May the Lord help you! May your Guardian Angel shelter you! May the protection of Our Lady be with you.18

Read the original Russian

Спасайтесь! Воздадим благодарение Богу, за все бывшее с вами и за текущия дела! Всякое даяние благо от Него – Отца светов! Но какия это около вас начались призраки? Меня страх берет из-за них. Потрудитесь погашать память о них. Сколько подобным образом попались в сети вражии и из подвижников всеми уважаемых! Беда!

– Долго ли запутаться? Одному нужно было что-то найти в келлии, а темно было, – явился огонек, и указал вещь. С этого началось, а дошло до вознесения себя выше Господа Иисуса Христа, и кончилось сумасшествием. Посмотрите в Лавсаике, сколько примеров! За тем, у Отцев прописано строгое правило: не верь чудесностям, – какому либо свету и проч. Греха не будет, если из опасения не поверим истинному явлению; но беды много, если поверим ложному. Ибо тогда уже враг уцепится и потянет все к верху и к верху – и оттуда сбросит. Помолитесь, чтоб никаких около вас чудесностей не было.

Для вас они не нужны. Они нужны там, где нет веры. А вам, на что оне? Молитесь Господу, чтоб отвел память о том. А сказывайте всегда. – Избави вас Господи! Все внешнее в жизни духовной весьма не важно. В сердце – все дело.

– Что касается до урока, – надобно потрудиться. Вы говорите – уж начинать ли? Разве это на произвол оставляется? Нет. – Это дело неизбежное. Бог везде, и душа наша вся пред Ним насквозь. Надобно и сознанием своим стоять пред Ним. Как все Ангелы и Святые зрят Его, и очей своих от Него не отрывают; так и нам в теле еще сущим надобно зреть Его.

Как солнце держит планеты и водит их за собою: так весь духовный мир, стало и наши души, должны держаться Бога и водиться Им. И это не час или два, а непрестанно, с минуты пробуждения, до самаго забвения во сне. Вдруг поставить себя в это состояние нельзя. Нужен подвиг. – Вот он-то и требуется теперь. – Возмитесь! Бояться нечего. – Для пояснения дела, читайте в Добротолюбии статьи о трезвении.

Вниманием надо стать над сердцем. Надобно из головы сойти в сердце. Теперь у вас помышление о Боге в голове, а Сам Бог как бы вне, – и выходит, что это работа внешняя. Пока вы в голове, мысли не улягутся покойно и все будут мястись как снег или толкашки летния. По мере вхождения вниманием в сердце, мысли начнут улегаться, а потом и совсем улягутся, – и станет атмосфера души чистая-чистая. Тогда и муха пролетит, заметите, а до того все тьма-тмущая. Начало плода – сосредоточенная и непрестанная теплота в сердце. И все тут.

– Только фамилиарность с Господом надобно оставить. Страх великий потребен. Как пред Царем в струнку стоят великие вельможи, так пусть и душа будет пред Богом. Что неприличное положение тела пред лицем Царя, то неисправные мысли души пред Богом; а забвение о Боге, хоть на минуту – тоже, что стать спиною к Царю.

Вы когда то сказали, что ревнивость есть в духовных подвигах. Есть, – и великая! Узрите сами. – Страхом пропитайте душу вашу. Он не болезнен, а освежителен. Он есть начало; но и во всю дорогу не оставляет, только все чище и чище становится. Уединение, да чтение, два крыла в сем занятии. Но начинайте – и узрите сами все.

Что помогает и что разоряет, откроется сейчас. Но надо уже и строго исполнять узнанное. Совесть вступит в свои права, – и начнет журить. Слушайтесь. Сколько придирок будет! Исполняйте. После все уравняется и пойдет гладко. Помоги вам Господи!

Ангел Хранитель да осенит вас! Покров Владычицы буди на вас!

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Jas.1.17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Лавсаик is Palladius's Lausiac History, the classic collection of desert-father lives often cited for cases of demonic deception under the guise of wonders.
  2. 2 ↩Archaic Russian оне (= они) refers back to the marvels/wonders (чудесностям) of the previous section.
  3. 3 ↩Сказывайте implies reporting such experiences (to a spiritual father/confessor), not merely talking about them in general.
  4. 4 ↩на произвол can mean arbitrary discretion/whim or free choice; the rhetorical force is that this is not optional self-will.
  5. 5 ↩насквозь marks total exposure/transparency of the soul before God, not mere physical presence.
  6. 6 ↩сознанием is consciousness/awareness (сознание), not conscience (совесть).
  7. 7 ↩Russian подвиг (podvig) is the ascetic struggle of effort and endurance; rendered here as "spiritual struggle" rather than a bare generic "effort."
  8. 8 ↩Source spelling Возмитесь is archaic/orthographic for Возьмитесь; sense is the imperative "take hold / set to work."
  9. 9 ↩трезвение is the Russian for Greek nepsis: spiritual watchfulness/sobriety of mind; "watchfulness" is the usual Philokalia English term.
  10. 10 ↩Russian «толкашки летния» is an older/dialectal image for swarming summer midges (gnats); rendered as «summer midges» for natural sense.
  11. 11 ↩«тьма-тмущая» is an intensifying folk idiom for utter, thick darkness; rendered as «thick darkness».
  12. 12 ↩фамилиарность: casual over-familiarity / treating the Lord too familiarly, not mere friendliness.
  13. 13 ↩Страх here is holy fear / reverent awe before God, not panic; the next section calls this fear refreshing, not painful.
  14. 14 ↩в струнку: military/court idiom for standing ramrod-straight, at full attention.
  15. 15 ↩Russian «ревнивость» can mean jealousy or spiritual zeal; in this affirmative, formative context it is rendered as zeal (jealous zeal for God).
  16. 16 ↩«Страх» continues the previous section's fear of God before the King; not worldly panic.
  17. 17 ↩придирок = fault-finding / picky objections; conscience will pick at small failures, not merely offer general reproof.
  18. 18 ↩Покров (Pokrov) can mean covering, veil, or protection; rendered as Protection to keep the Marian-devotional sense. Владычица is the traditional title of the Theotokos, rendered as Our Lady.

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