Κεφ. ΜΑ'
Steadfastness Amidst the World
The monk must intensify his self-discipline when forced into worldly environments to protect the mind from demonic influence.
When we are forced to spend a short time in cities or villages, we should associate with worldly people while holding all the more firmly to self-discipline, lest our mind grow dull and, deprived for the time being of its usual care, do something reckless and turn fugitive under the demons’ attacks.
Read the original Latin
Ὅταν ἐν πόλεσιν ἢ ἐν κώμαις ἐπ’ ὀλίγον ἀναγκαζώμεθα διατρίβειν, τότε μάλιστα σφοδρότερον τῆς ἐγκρατείας ἐχόμενοι τοῖς κοσμικοῖς συνεσόμεθα, μήποτε παχυνθεὶς ἡμῶν ὁ νοῦς καὶ τῆς συνήθους ἐπιμελείας διὰ τὸν παρόντα καιρὸν στερηθεὶς πράξῃ τι τῶν ἀβουλήτων καὶ γένηται φυγάς, ὑπὸ τῶν δαιμόνων βαλλόμενος.
The Praktikos companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent