The Ladder of Ascent to
Spiritual Rebirth By St. Symeon the New Theologian
Above all else you should
strive to acquire three things, and so begin to attain what you seek. The first
is freedom from anxiety with respect to everything, whether reasonable or
senseless - in other words, you should be dead to everything. Secondly, you should
strive to preserve a pure conscience, so that it has nothing to reproach you
with. Thirdly, you should be completely detached, so that your thoughts incline
towards nothing worldly, not even your own body.
Then sit down in a quiet
cell, in a corner by yourself, and do what I tell you. Close the door, and
withdraw your intellect from everything worthless and transient. Rest your
beard on your chest, and focus your physical gaze, together with the whole of
your intellect, upon the center of your belly or your navel. Restrain the
drawing-m of breath through your nostrils, so as not to breathe easily, and
search inside yourself with your intellect so as to find the place of the
heart, where all the powers of the soul reside. To start with you will find there
darkness and an impenetrable density. Later, when you persist and practice this
task day and night, you will find, as though miraculously, an unceasing joy.
For as soon as the intellect attains the place of the heart, at once it sees
things of which it previously knew nothing. It sees the open space within the
heart and it beholds itself entirely luminous and full of discrimination. From
then on, from whatever side a distractive thought may appear, before it has
come to completion and assumed a form, the intellect immediately drives it away
and destroys it with the invocation of Jesus Christ. From this point onwards
the intellect begins to be full of rancor against the demons and, rousing its
natural anger against its noetic enemies, it pursues them and strikes them
down. The rest you will learn for yourself, with God's help, by keeping guard
over your intellect and by retaining Jesus in your heart. As the saying goes,
"Sit in your cell and it will teach you everything."
Question: Why cannot
the monk attain perfection by means of the first and second form of keeping
guard?
Answer: Because he
does not embark on them in the proper order. St John Klimakos likens these
methods to a ladder, saying, "Some curtail their passions; others practice
psalmody, persevering most of the time in this; others devote themselves to
prayer; and others turn their gaze to the depths of contemplation. When
examining this question let us use the analogy of a ladder" (The Ladder,
Step 27).
Now those who want to
ascend a ladder do not start at the top and climb down, but start at the bottom
and climb up. They ascend the first step, then the second, and so the rest in
turn. In this way we can ascend from earth to heaven. If, then, we wish to
attain the perfect stature of the fullness of Christ, like children who are
growing up we must start to climb the ladder set before us, until progressing
step by step we reach the level of a full-grown man and then of an old man.
The first age in the
monastic state is to curtail the passions. This is the stage of beginners.
The second rung or stage
whereby a person grows up spiritually from adolescence to youth is assiduously
to practice psalmody. For when the passions have been curtailed and laid to
rest, psalmody brings delight to the tongue and is welcomed by God, since it is
not possible to sing to the Lord in a strange land (cf. Ps. 137:4), that is to
say, from an impassioned heart. This is the mark of those who are beginning to
make progress.
The third rung or stage in
life, marking the spiritual transition from youth to manhood, is to persevere
in prayer. This is the stage of those who are already well advanced. Prayer
differs from psalmody just as the full-grown man differs from the youth and the
adolescent, according to the scheme that we are following.
In addition there is a
fourth rung or stage in spiritual life, that of the old man with grey hairs.
This signifies undeviating absorption in contemplation, and this is the state
of the perfect. So the journey is complete and the top of the ladder has been
reached.
Since this is the way in
which matters have been appointed and arranged by the Spirit, it is not
possible for a child to grow up to manhood and to attain old age except by
mounting the first rung of the ladder and so climbing up to perfection by the
four steps in succession.
For someone who desires
spiritual rebirth, the first step towards the light is to curtail the passions,
that is to say, to guard the heart; for it is impossible otherwise to curtail
the passions. The next stage is to devote oneself to psalmody; for when the
passions have been curtailed and laid to rest through the heart's resistance
against them, longing for intimate union with God inflames the intellect.
Strengthened by this longing the intellect repulses all distractive thoughts
that encircle the heart, attempting to get in, and it rebuffs them through
attentiveness. So it applies itself assiduously to the second stage, that of
attentiveness and prayer. This then stirs up the evil spirits, and the blasts of
passion violently agitate the depths of the heart. But through the invocation
of the Lord Jesus Christ they are utterly routed and all the tumult melts like
wax in the fire. But though they have been driven out of the heart the demons
continue to disturb the intellect externally through the senses. However,
because they can only trouble it superficially, the intellect soon regains its
serenity; none the less, it can never be completely free from the attacks of
the demons. Such freedom is to be found only among those who have attained full
manhood - who are totally detached from everything visible and who devote
themselves unceasingly to giving attention to the heart. After that, those who
have achieved attentiveness are raised little by little to the wisdom of old
age, that is to say, they ascend to contemplation; and this is the stage of the
perfect.
Thus if you practice all
this in due sequence, completing each phase at the right time, your heart will
first be cleansed of the passions, and you will then be able to concentrate
wholly on psalmody; you will be able to wage war against the thoughts that are
roused by the senses and disturb the surface of the intellect and you will gaze
heavenwards, if need be, alike with your physical and your spiritual eyes, and
will pray in true purity. Yet you should gaze upwards only occasionally because
of the enemies that lie in ambush in the air.
God asks only this of us,
that our heart be purified through watchfulness. As St Paul says, if the root
is holy, so also will the branches and the fruit be holy (cf Rom 1 1 : 16). But
if without following the sequence of which we have spoken you raise eyes and
intellect to heaven in the hope of envisaging noetic realities you will see
fantasies rather than the truth. Because our heart is still unpurified, as we
have said many times, the first and the second methods of attentiveness do not
promote our progress. When we build a house we do not put on the roof before
laying the foundations - this is impossible. We first lay the foundations, then
build the house, and finally put on the roof. We must do the same in relation
to spiritual matters.
First we must lay the
spiritual foundations of the house, that is to say, we must watch over the
heart and curtail the passions arising from it. Then we must build the walls of
the spiritual house, that is to say, through the second form of attentiveness
we must repulse the turbulence of the evil spirits that fight us by means of
the external senses, and must free ourselves as quickly as possible from their
attacks. Then we must put on the roof, that is to say, detach ourselves
entirely from all things and give ourselves wholly to God. In this way we
complete our spiritual house in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
throughout all the ages. Amen.
From The Philokalia, vol.
4, "The Three Methods of Prayer."
