Unseen Warfare: Part II

-How to recognize whether a man acts without self-reliance-

It often happens that self-reliant men think that they have no self-reliance whatsoever, but in practice it is not so. They can ascertain it for themselves, if they judge by what is in them and what happens to them if they fall down. If, when they grieve at their downfall, reproaching and abusing themselves for it, they think: ‘I shall do this and that, the consequences of my downfall will be effaced and all will be well once more,’ this is a sure sign that before the downfall they trusted themselves too much. And the more gloomy and disconsolate their grief, the more it shows that they relied too much on themselves; and therefore the grief caused by their downfall is not tempered by any comfort. If a man does not rely on himself, when he falls he is not greatly surprised and is not overcome with excessive grief, for he knows that it is the result of his own impotence.

-On the wrong opinion of those who deem excessive grief a virtue-

It is wrong to regard as virtue the excessive grief, which men feel after committing a sin, not realizing that it is caused by pride and a high opinion of themselves and their own powers. For by thinking they are something important they undertake too much, hoping to deal with it by themselves. When the experience of their downfall shows them how weak they are, they are astounded, like people who meet with something unexpected, and they are cast into turmoil and grow feint-hearted. For they see, fallen and prone on the ground, that graven mage which is themselves, upon which they put all their hopes and expectations. This does not happen to a humble man, who expects nothing good from himself. Therefore, when he falls into some transgression, he also feels the weight of it and grieves, but is not cast into turmoil and is not perplexed, for he knows that it happened through his own impotence, to experience which in downfalls is nothing unexpected or new to him.

-On how we should exercise our mind, lest it be sick with the disease of ignorance-

If disbelieve is oneself, so indispensable in our spiritual warfare, remains alone in us, not only shall we never gain victory, but we shall fall into still greater evil. For in addition and accompanying this we must practice works of a special kind and perform exercises in spiritual instruction. First among these must be exercise of mind and will.

The mind should be freed and guarded from ignorance, which is most harmful, for it darkens the mind and prevents it from knowing the truth, which is its proper object and the aim of its aspirations. For this reason it should be exercised, to make it clear and lucid, able to discern correctly what we need to purify our soul from passions and to adorn it with virtues.

There are two means by which we may acquire such clarity of mind: the first and most necessary is to stay in thought. The second method of exercising the mind is always to examine things and probe deep for knowledge of them, in order to see clearly which of them are good and which bad. We should judge them not as the world and the senses do, but as they are judged by right reason. For if this examination and deepening of knowledge is right and proper, it will quite certainly enable us to understand clearly that we must with all our heart regard as valueless, vain and false, all that the blind and depraved world loves and seeks.

In particular, we shall then see that the honors, pleasures and riches of this world are nothing but vanity and death to the soul; that the slander and abuse, with which the world persecutes us, brings us true glory, and its afflictions-joy; that to forgive our enemies and to do good to them is true magnanimity; that a man who scorns the world shows greater strength and power than a man who rules over the whole world; that willing obedience is an action which shows more courage and strength of spirit than subjugating great kings and ruling over them; that humble self-knowledge should be preferred to all other kinds of knowledge, however high; that to overcome and kill one’s own evil tendencies and lusts, however insignificant, is more worthy of praise than the capture of many fortresses, or the defeat of powerful and well-equipped armies; more even than the power to perform miracles and to raise the dead.

-On reasons for our wrong judgment of things and how to form a right judgment of them-

The reason why we have wrong judgment of the things we mentioned earlier is that we do not look deeply into them to see what they are, but conceive a liking for them or a dislike of them from the very first glance, judging by appearances. These likes and dislikes prejudice our mind and darken it; and so it cannot form a right judgment of things as they really are. So, my brother, if you wish to be free of this in your mind, keep strict attention over yourself; and when you see a thing with your eyes, or visualize it in your mind, keep a firm grip on your desires and do not allow yourself at first glance either to conceive a liking for the thing or a dislike for it, but examine it in a detached way with the mind alone. Unobscured by passion, the mind then remains in a state natural to it, which is free and pure, and has the possibility to know the truth and to penetrate into the depths of a thing, where evil is often concealed under a deceptively attractive exterior and where good is sometimes hidden under a bad appearance.

But if desire comes first and at once either likes a thing or turns away from it, your mind no longer has the possibility to know it rightly as it should. For if this predisposition, or rather this passion precedes every judgment, it enters within, becomes a wall between the mind and the thing and, obscuring the mind, makes it form its judgment from passion. In other words, it sees it not as it really is, which strengthened still more its original predisposition. The further this predisposition runs ahead, or the more it likes or dislikes a thing, the more it obscures the mind in relation to it, until it darkens the mind completely. Then passion in relation to this thing reaches its ultimate limits, and it appears to a man either as the most desirable or the most hateful of all the things he ever liked or disliked. Thus it happens that when the rule I have indicated is not observed, that is, when the desire is not restrained from forming likes and dislikes before a thing is properly examined, then both these powers of the soul, mind and will, always work wrongly, plunging ever deeper and deeper from darkness to darkness.

So watch, my beloved, with all attention and protect yourself from liking or disliking a thing out of passion, before you have had time to examine it properly in the light of reason, otherwise you may win in taking evil for what is truly good, and for good what is truly evil. This mostly happens in the case of certain actions, which are good and holy in themselves, but which according to circumstances, namely that if they are done at the wrong time, or are out of place, or are not done in the right measure, cause considerable harm to those who do them. We know from experience what afflictions are suffered by some through such worthy and holy deeds.

-On protecting the mind from too much useless knowledge and idle curiosity-

Just as it is necessary to guard the mind from ignorance, so is it equally necessary to protect it from the opposite, namely from too much knowledge and curiosity. For if we fill it with a quantity of information, ideas and thoughts, not excluding such as are vain, unsuitable and harmful, we deprive it of force, so that it is no longer able to understand clearly what is useful for our true self-correction and perfection. Therefore in relation to the knowledge of earthly things, which is not indispensable, even if it is permissible, your attitude should be as of one already dead. Always collect your mind within yourself, with all the concentration you can, and keep it free of thoughts of all worldly things.

All other enquiry and investigation is the offspring and root of self-love and pride. They see the strength and firmness of will of those who pay attention to spiritual life, and strives to conquer the mind by means of such curiosity, in order to gain possession of their mind and will. For this purpose, he is wont to suggest to them thoughts that are lofty, subtle and wondrous, especially to those who are sharp-witted and quick to make lofty speculations. Attracted by the pleasure of possessing and examining such lofty thoughts, they forget to watch over their purity of heart and to pay attention to a humble opinion of themselves and to true self-mortification; and so they are enmeshed in the bonds of pride and conceit; they make an idol of their own mind and thus, little by little, without realizing it, they fall into the thought that they no longer need any advise or admonition from others, since they are accustomed in all cases to hasten to the idol of their understanding and judgment.

This is a very dangerous thing and not easily cured; pride of mind is much worse than pride of will. For pride of will, being visible to the mind, can sometimes be easily cured by forcing it to submit to the yoke of what is good. But when the mind is firmly grounded in the self-relying thought that its own judgments are better than all the others, who can cure it in the end? Can it never obey anyone, if it feels certain that the judgments of others are not as good as its own? When this eye of the soul is itself blinded by pride and remains uncured, who will cure the will? Then everything within is so disorganized that there is neither place nor person for applying a healing poultice. This is why you must hasten to oppose this pernicious pride of mind, before it penetrates into the marrow of your bones. Resist it, curb the quickness of your mind and humbly subject your opinion to the opinions of others. Be a fool, for the love of God, if you wish to be wiser than Solomon: ‘if any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise’.