How is stillness preserved?
he Life of Stillness by Mar Isaac, Bishop of Nineveh
“Stillness is the work of the monk. If he loses stillness, his life as a monk becomes disordered.” — Mar Isaac
The monastic life is the life of stillness. In previous issues we published Mar Isaac’s explanation of this subject. What remains is to touch upon an important point:
How is stillness preserved?
Mar Isaac says: “Stillness cannot be preserved without gathering the mind from its wandering and from the multitude of concerns and the diversity of thoughts, so that it may be concentrated in God alone.” But how is the mind gathered?
It is known that the senses are doors to thought. What a person hears brings him thoughts, as does what he sees, touches, smells, etc. Wandering senses bring to the mind thoughts, battles, concerns, and desires, distracting it from God. Therefore it has become a spiritual principle that the mind cannot be gathered without guarding the senses.
So we must ask: how can the monk guard his senses from wandering? Mar Isaac sees that the senses cannot be guarded without confinement in the cell or solitude. For the monk whose body wanders from place to place will have his senses gather for him from various locations many sights, sounds, news, and thoughts, so that his mind does not remain concentrated on God.
To gain benefit from solitude, one must avoid mixing with others. For as the body mingles, so the mind mingles and becomes distracted from its divine work.
But if the monk is compelled to mix with others for some reason, how does he preserve his stillness? He must then use silence, for abundant speech indicates that the mind is not occupied with prayer…
And if the monk—despite all this—cannot maintain his stillness, then nothing remains for him except distancing his dwelling, that is, living in the deserts and wastelands. For “the mere sight of the desert puts to death the worldly movements of the heart,” as Mar Isaac says.
These are the means by which the monk attains stillness. Yet he cannot do any of this without the virtue of detachment. For the detached person, whose heart has died to the world, is the one who can abandon everything, live a life of solitude, silence, and non-association, and thereby guard his senses, gather his mind, and devote himself entirely to worship. We shall attempt to address these points one by one:
Solitude and avoiding association
Exhortations to avoid association:
“In every place you are, be solitary in your conscience, secluded, a stranger at heart, unmixed.”
“My brother, love solitude, even if you are incapable of fulfilling all its obligations.”
“Be dead to all things, that you may be freed from the customs by which they conduct themselves.”
“Count yourself a stranger all the days of your life wherever you go, that you may escape the loss born of familiarity.”
“He who has died in his heart to his relatives and companions has died to the deceiver concerning him.”
“Do not seek consolation outside the heart, which is the knowledge of discernments. Keep away from every consolation arising through the service of the senses, so that you may be deemed worthy of that consolation acquired from within.”
“Blessed is the solitary whom sufferings press and demons afflict, yet he does not long for the consolation that comes from outside.”
“Blessed is he who distances himself from all through converse with his Master.”
“He does not live with people, for he no longer knows their language, having been made worthy of the language of angels, and with it he chants secretly in his mind.”
“Be a friend to every person, and be alone in your thought. Share with all their circumstances, and distance yourself from all in your body.”
“And do not bind yourself to anything or anyone without necessity.”
“If you cannot be solitary in thought, then at least be solitary in body.”
Examples of avoiding association
“All the Fathers who loved stillness honored stillness and solitude more than meeting people.”
“St. Arsanius would not even greet the one who came to visit him. For he had been told by a divine voice: ‘Flee from people and you shall live…’”
“And he was lovingly reproached for this by the blessed Macarius, who said to him: ‘Why do you flee from us?’ He answered with a reply full of praise: ‘God knows that I love you, but I cannot be with God and with people at the same time.’”
The meaning: he could not combine prayer with conversation.
“This wondrous instruction was not given to him by others; rather it was a divine voice he heard: ‘Flee from people and you shall live.’ And this was not said to him only about leaving the world, but after he had already left it and entered the monastery. He prayed: ‘How, O Lord, can I live properly? Direct me how I may live and be saved.’ And he expected something else to be said. But again he heard a divine voice: ‘Arsanius, flee, be silent, be still. And if the sight and conversation of the brethren benefit you, how much more will you benefit by being solitary from them.’”
And Abba Anthony was told by revelation: “If you want to live in stillness, go to the desert.”
“If God has so commanded us to flee from all, and has so loved stillness and those who persevere in it, who is he that excuses himself so as to remain in constant converse with people?”
“And if for Anthony and Arsanius caution and solitude were beneficial, how much more so for the weak?”
“If someone brings forth the saying of Paul the Apostle: ‘I could wish myself accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren,’ he who has received the strength of Paul may do the works of Paul… For Paul testified that he did not do this of his own will, but that ‘necessity is laid upon me.’ And so he said: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach.’ Thus the choice of Paul was not to practice stillness but to proclaim to the world, and great power was given to him.”
Avoiding association with laypeople, especially relatives
“When the devil sees the solitary has prepared himself for the struggle, he seeks by every means to bind his mind to laypeople, for he knows no snare stronger than this. Through it he can easily subdue him at all times in three great passions: envy, anger, and fornication.”
“Conversation with laypeople creates in the soul of the one who left them for God’s work a mingling.”
“A person cannot converse with God and converse with people. Nor can he remain close to his bodily kin and draw near to spiritual things. Estrangement benefits us greatly.”
Avoiding association with lax monks
Mar Evagrius said: “The diligent elders in the monastery are attacked by demons through the lax brethren.”
For Paul the Apostle said: “Do not quench the Spirit.” How do we quench the Spirit except by caring for earthly matters, neglecting meditation on God’s things, and continually listening to vain talk?
“Go, sleep in idleness, or wander aimlessly in the mountain alone, but do not listen to these things. Do not accustom yourself to frequenting those accustomed to them. Then you will know how idleness with solitude benefits more than vain hearing.”
“Do not condescend to the negligent, lest you lower yourself to the lowest degree.”
“Do not befriend a lover of laughter or one who delights in exposing people and shaming them, for he leads you to habitual laxity. Do not show a bright face to one who is lax in his conduct, but guard yourself from hating him. And if he wishes to rise, assist him and care for him unto death.”
“Frown at the one who begins to speak ill of your brother before you, for as you do this, you become guarded before God and before him.”
Avoiding association with monks of a different rule
“Beware of the fathers who wear your schema but do not share your conduct or discipline; do not converse with them, for they hinder your progress, cool your fervor, and slow your race. They are not blamed for walking another path to the kingdom in the appearance of monasticism.”
“And we refrain also from converse with our own brethren—not out of contempt or disdain, nor because they are not better than us, for we always seek their prayers—but because constant association with people deprives us of delight with our Master.”
“He whose aim does not resemble your conscience’s aim—avoid him peacefully and knowingly, and do not associate with him. For water from above easily flows downward, but that from below ascends only with great effort; for when you try to raise it upward, it quickly descends downward.”
“Do not consider it a small matter to bring friends into your cell merely out of habit, not even for the sake of virtue, but only those similar to you and equal in conduct, aim, and understanding. For if meeting those of the same garb—namely monks—harms the one still striving and battling his adversary when they do not share his intention or walk his path, in what pit will he fall, and how will he escape the mockery of enemies if laypeople see him?”
Avoiding association even in thought
“For the sake of continual remembrance of God and forgetting every thought, John the Theban said: ‘The one who sits in stillness should not have the memory of any person at all in his cell.’”
“He should strive that his conscience not converse inwardly with anyone whatsoever—not with friends nor with relatives—but should hold his love with affection without distinguishing one above another, and quiet his heart.”
“Beware the mixture of inner negotiations, which by nature move secretly and unwillingly without our desire.”
With whom, when, and how should you speak or associate?
“The conscience grows strong through beneficial hearing and through contemplating the works of the saints.”
“If one of the great fathers or a weary stranger knocks on your door, sitting with him is counted as prayer for you.”
“Love of neighbor is good and praiseworthy if it does not distract us from the love of God. And converse with spiritual brethren is sweet if we can preserve with it our converse with God.”
“The fathers instructed us that meeting many people is not beneficial until we are completely dyed with virtue and the power of stillness rests upon us.”
The harms of association
“Conversation with many hinders the godly sorrow that moves within us by natural discernment and by grace.”
“The fervent movements that were stirred in you when you tasted the sweetness of God by zealous labor in His matters, when they return, they find themselves cooled and their taste lost within you because of the meditation of a person who approached you, or because you favored bodily activity more than them.”
“Why scatter that vigilance and fervor you gained and lose your profit through conversation with people…?”
“And if a small meeting or merely seeing people causes such a loss of this kind and magnitude! And if an hour of converse creates all this corruption in the cautious solitary—what shall we say of continual and repeated meetings and habitual engagement in these many matters?!”
“As long as your associations are many, your thoughts will be scattered.”
“And as the body mingles, so does the mind mingle.”
“The solitary bound to one or to many must necessarily be moved with them, sorrowing and rejoicing—like branches of trees that move one another—and he does not advance toward God.”
“The solitary who plants in his heart a spiritual seed and is entrusted with a treasure, but does not make himself mute and deaf to all human negotiations and worldly actions and concern for visible things, loses the deposit entrusted to him.”
“Reliance on people completely prevents reliance on Christ God. And visible consolation prevents hidden consolation… And according to how much the monk is solitary and desolate, he is served by divine providence and by angels and saints.”
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Article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine, third year, issues 5 & 6, June & July 1967.
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