Chapter LXII
That By The Thoughts Which Stir In A Man He Knows To Which Degree He Belongs And Which Thoughts Follow
As long as a man is negligent, he fears the hour of death; when, however, he comes near to God, the coming of Judgment. But when he proceeds firmly, both kinds of fear are taken away. How does this happen? While 1) his knowledge 4 3° and his behaviour are of a bodily nature, he is frightened by death. But when his knowledge is of a psychic nature, and his behaviour is steadfast, his mind is moved by the thought of Judgment every moment. In the first state he belongs wholly to nature; in the psychic state he is moved and guided by his knowledge and by his discipline. And he is happy in the neighbourhood of God. But when he reaches true knowledge by the motion of the apperception of God's mysteries and becomes confirmed in future hope, he is consumed by love. He that is bodily, fears as an animal fears being slaughtered; he who is rational fears the Judgment of God. He that has become a son, is pleasing to love, not to the staff of him who terrifies.,I and my house, we will serve the Lord' £). For love annihilates fear. It not only felars not but it even longs after departure. Love is the dissolver of temporary life. He that has reached the love of God, does not desire to stay here any more. My beloved ones, because I was foolish, I could not bear to guard the secret in silence, but am become mad, for the sake of my brethren's profit. For true love is not able to cling to the cause of love apart from friends. Oft when I was writing these things, my fingers paused on the paper. They could not bear the delight which had fallen into the heart and which made the senses silent. Blessed is he that is in constant intercourse with God and has withdrawn himself from worldly things, being with Him only, in intercourse founded upon his knowledge. And if he has to be patient, it will not be long before he sees fruits.
1) Introduction 2) Joshua 24, 1 5
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43 ' Gladness in God is tronger than earthly life. He that has found it, is not only free from the trial of the affections, but he does not even turn towards his life any longer. Furthermore he has no other apperception, if he really has been deemed worthy of this. Love is sweeter than life. And understanding concerning God, from which love is born, is sweeter than honey and honeycomb. What is the sweetness of love which excels life? Love is not spiteful if it has to undergo a myriad of deaths for the sake of its friends. Love is the child of knowledge, knowledge the child of health of soul. Health of soul is a power born from patient endurance. And what is knowledge? The apperception of immortal life. What is immortal life? Apperception in God. Knowledge concerning God is the highest of all desirable things. And the heart that has received it, does not want the sweetness of anything on the earth. Because to the sweetness of the knowledge concerning God nothing is to be compared. 0 Lord, fill my heart with life everlasting. Life everlasting is consolation in God. He that has found consolation in God, to him the consolation of the world is superfluous. How is it perceived in a man that he has received wisdom from the Spirit? Thereby, that wisdom teaches him kinds of humbleness, internally and by his senses; then it is revealed to him in his intellect, how humbleness is acquired. 432 How is it to be perceived that he has reached humbleness? Thereby that it is a vile thing to him to please this world by act or word, and thereby that the glory of this world is ugly in his eyes. What are the affections? The allurements that lie in the things and the stories of this world, evoking a bodily want, which never cease as long as the world exists. If a man however has been deemed worthy [to know] the divine intellect and to taste and perceive what is more profitable than those things, their allurements will not enter his heart, because their place has been taken by a desire which is better than those. Then the allurements of [worldly] things and those which are born from them, will no longer approach his heart. But they will stand outside idle. Not that the allurements of the affections do not exist any longer, but the heart which could
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receive them is dead to them and living to some other thing. Not that it desists from watchfulness and the labour of discrimination, but there is no longer any struggle in the mind, in as much as the inner being is satisfied by the delight of some other thing. So, when a man is satisfied with delicious and fat food, and his inner being with abundance and delight, and then he sees food which is unclean and steeped in its own filth, his inner being does not need care to check it from desire or to withhold it from gazing at it with lust; nay, the whole inner being is even shaken and troubled by the sight 4 33 of it. This does not happen on account of the uncleanness of the food, for possibly he had been accustomed to it before; but on account of the comparison with the excellence of that other food which had filled his inner being with every delight. So it is with the health of the soul. If the heart has really received the apperception of spiritual things and the contemplation of the world to be, its inner being will regard the affections in the way mentioned. And just as a man when he loses his riches and becomes poor and destitute of the glorious and excellent food in which he delighted in the royal palace, forgets its delicious taste, and those glorious dishes are no longer with him and his stomach is deprived of the delight of their abundance, and he has necessarily to turn towards food which is by far inferior -so it is with him that was deemed worthy of health of soul. If he is deprived of that divine delight because he neglects his duty and falls asleep and becomes neglectful he again turns towards that sordid food, that has been steeped in all filth and which is unclean; and his inner being does not examine, because the stomach of his soul is empty. For to the hungry soul even bitter things are sweet. And farther: no one to whom a treasure is entrusted will indulge in sleep. If he keeps the law of watchfulness and 434 clings to the labour of discernment, and through knowledge derived from these drinks in life, the struggle of the allurements of the affections will not approach his mind at all. And these allurements will not be held back with effort from entering the heart, but the satiety of the inner soul which is full of knowledge, and the desire of amazing visions which is found in it, restrain them from approaching to man with their intercourse. This does not happen, as I have said, while man
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desists from watchfulness and from the labour of discrimination which are the guardians of true knowledge and of psychic light; but it happens without the mind being involved in struggle, for the reasons which have been expounded. The food of the poor is despicable to the rich and the nutriment of the sick to the healthy. But riches and health are established through watchfulness and diligence. This is witnessed to by nature. As long as a man lives he needs watchfulness and diligence and alertness in order to guard his treasure. But if he leaves his territory, he becomes ill and is robbed [of his possessions]. For a long time even he will possess strength through his previous health, but.when this does not increase, he will become a prey to weakness and indigence. Does not even nature instruct us concerning these things? And is there any heavenly thing which cannot be discussed in a comparison which we find in our nature? Even our Lord used to confirm all spiritual things by examples from nature and in this way He used to establish their power in our souls; not only things relating to the shortliving earthly pawn, but also those belonging to the true body, and the 435 completion and the truth of our future. Do not wonder at
what I have said. There is not only work to be done till the fruit shows itself, but even till the time of gathering the fruit there is still work to be done. By the time of gathering the fruit I mean the grave. It may occur that, when the fruit has become ripe, hail of a sudden will strike it. He that mingles with things and proceeds to have intercourse, cannot be certain that his health will stay with him. I say: using and seeing [are the same]. 0 Jesus Christ, king of the worlds, make me worthy of desire in Thee. The man who adheres to intercourse with God, and who has mingled his life with it, is greater than any other man on the earth and [greater] than any service performed by rational creatures. When thou prayest unto God, say to Him only this: 0 Lord make me worthy of becoming dead to the intercourse with this world, in truth. - So thou canst comprehend the whole prayer. And try diligently to accomplish this in thyself in reality. If prayer is followed by practice, thou surely art standing in the freedom of Christ. Being dead to the world is not only this that a man keeps himself far from mingling with [worldly] things. But this is
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being dead to the world in truth: that a man in 1) his mind does not long after the goods of the world. If we are accustomed to beautiful meditation, we are ashamed of the affections when we come in contact with them (this is known by those who have experienced it in their soul), and so we shall be ashamed to approach unto their causes. 436 If thou desirest to cling to some work for the sake of the love of God, then set death as the limit of thy desire for it. So by practising it, thou wilt be elevated unto the degree of martyrdom through every suffering and injury which smites thee within the domain of death, if thou perseverest till the end without giving way. Meditating upon a feeble deliberation weakens the power of patience. But the confirmed mind imparts a strength which does not belong to nature, to him that adheres to its contemplation. 0 Lord, make me worthy of hating my life, for the sake of life in Thee. Dealings in this world resemble a copy of a book which is still in rough draft. What a man desires or whenever he wishes, something can be added to or taken from it, and so he may alter his writing. Future dealings resemble documents drawn up as bonds, provided with the seal of the king, to or from which it Is not allowed to add or subtract anything. As long as we are in the place where altering is possible, let us observe ourselves; and while we have authority over our lifebook and our book is still between our hands, let us zealously add [acts of] beautiful behaviour, and let us scratch from it the loss of the old behaviour without freedom. We are allowed to scratch out faults, as long as we are here. And God will take into account every alteration we make in it. May we be deemed worthy of life everlasting before we appear before the king, and He puts His seal on the book 2). As long as we are in this world, God will not put His seal 43 7 neither on our good works nor on our bad ones, before the
hour of departure, when we have completed the service of our country and we prepare to strike camp. So it is becoming for us, as the blessed Mar Ephraim says, that we make our soul resemble at all times a ship that is prepared [for sea]. When the wind [required] for her will blow,
I) The text has: in the intercourse or occupation of his mind 2) Cf. the Muslim doctrine of the �!,;>
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she does not know. And the army does not know when the trumpet will give the sign to start; and to the tenant it is not known when the landlord will give the command to depart. Now if these are thus prepared for the sake of a short absence, as they will soon turn perhaps and come back, how much more is it becoming for us to be prepared and ready before the long absence of the day of death. May Christ, the mediator of our life, grant us to reach that long bridge and the gate of the new world, in a state of preparation. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.