A Text attributed to Saint Symeon
The third way is indeed strange and difficult to explain, whilst, to those who are not aware of it, it is often incomprehensible, appearing unreal and impossible that any such thing can happen. This is because in these days the third way is not found in many, but rather in very few. As I understand, this virtue abandoned us together with obedience, since it is the obedience one shows to his spiritual father which makes one truly free, leaving all the cares to him and staying away from the struggles of this world, whilst being a diligent artisan of this third way. (That is, if one finds a real spiritual father who has no error!) Thus he who dedicates himself and all the care to God and the spiritual father, by real obedience is no longer living his own life where he does his own wishes, but is free from any struggle of the world or his body. By what ephemeral thing then, can this person ever be spiritually defeated or enslaved, or what care or concern could he ever have? It is therefore by this way, together with obedience, that the devices and machinations of the demons to distract the mind towards many and various thoughts, are all defeated and dissolved. One's mind then stays free, and has plenty of space and chance to examine the thoughts brought by the demons, having a greater dexterity to expel them and offer his prayers to God with a clean heart. This is the beginning of the true way of life and those who do not make such a start are struggling in vain, even without knowing it.
The beginning of the third way is not by looking up to the sky, raising the hands, having your mind in heaven and asking for help from there. As we have said, these are of the first way and they are false. Nor is it to guard the senses with the mind and concentrate exclusively on this, whilst neither being attentive nor seeing the inner wars of the soul conducted by the enemies. These are all of the second way. He who uses them is trapped by the demons and is unable to revenge those who trapped him, whilst the enemies are always fighting him both secretly and openly, making him proud and vain.
But you, my friend, if you seek your salvation you should start in this way: after the perfect obedience which we said you should have to your spiritual father, you should then conduct all your deeds with a clear conscience, as if you had God in front of you, for conscience can never be clear without obedience. You should keep your conscience clear towards these things: God, spiritual father, other people and earthly things. Towards God, it is an obligation to keep your conscience clear by avoiding the things you are aware that He neither likes nor give Him any joy. Towards your spiritual father you should do the things he orders you to do, doing nothing more and nothing less, living according to his plan and wish. As for the other people, you should keep your conscience clear by not doing to them any of the things you hate and do not wish them to do to you. Towards the earthly it is your obligation to restrain yourself from abuses, using them all appropriately, food as well as drinking and clothes. In short, you should do everything as if you had God in front of you, making sure that your conscience does not restrain nor condemn you for not doing something right. This is the beginning of the true and firm route of the third way of attention and prayer.
The third way of attention and prayer is then this: the mind should guard the heart in the time of prayer and always stay inside it. From there, from the depths of the heart, it should then lift up the prayers to God. For once it tries inside the heart and tastes and is soothed--as the Lord is good!--then the mind will never want to leave the place of the heart. It will there repeat the words of Peter the apostle: "It is wonderful for us to be here!" [Mt 17:4, Mk 9:5, Lk 9:33] Then it will always wish to look inside the heart, remaining there and pushing aside and expelling all the concepts which are planted by the Devil. To those who have not realized this work of salvation and remain unaware of it, this will most of the times seem very hard and unpleasant. But those who have tasted its sweetness and enjoyed the pleasure inside the depths of their hearts, they all cry together with Paul: "What could ever come between us and the love of God?" [Rm 8:38-39]
Our holy fathers have listened the Lord who said that from the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander [Mt 15:19] and how these are the things that make a man unclean. [Mt 15:20] Further, they have listened to the part of the gospel where we are ordered to clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well. [Mt 23:26] They therefore left aside any other spiritual work and concentrated exclusively on guarding the heart, being confident that through this they would easily achieve all other virtues, whilst without it no virtue can be preserved. This practice was called by some fathers 'serenity of the heart', whilst others named it 'attention', others 'sobriety' and 'detainment', others 'examination of the thoughts' and 'guarding of the mind'; for they were all absorbed in this, and by this they were found worthy to accept the divine virtues.
It is for this that the Ecclesiastes says: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart blameless and clear, and prevent your heart from thoughts. [Eccl. 11:9 (LXX)] The same is said in the Proverbs: If Devil makes an assault on you, do not let him enter your place, [Eccl. 10:4 (LXX)] where 'the place' means the heart. The Lord Himself tells us in the Gospel that we must not worry, [Lk 12:29] in other words not to scatter our minds here and there. Again, in a different passage He says: Happy are those poor in spirit, [Mt 5:3] meaning that happy are those who never acquired any concern of this world in their hearts and are free from all earthly thoughts. All our holy fathers wrote much on this, so may he who wishes to read their works look for those written by St. Mark the Ascetic, St. John of Klimax, St. Hesychios, Philotheos of Sinai, Abba Hesaites, Barsanouphios the Great and many others.
In short, he who is not attentive to guard his mind cannot be cleansed in his heart and be therefore worthy to see God. He who is not attentive can never be poor in spirit nor can he ever mourn and cry, or become gentle and peaceful, or hunger and thirst for justice, or become merciful, peacemaker, or persecuted in the cause of right. [Mt 5:3-10] It is quite impossible to acquire any virtue by any means other than attention. It is attention that you should mostly take care of, to be able then to understand the things I am saying. If now you wish to learn the way to achieve this, I will tell you.
There are three things you should preserve beyond anything else: disinterest in everything reasonable or unreasonable and vain, in other words detachment from everything; then clear conscience in everything, as we have said, by not causing its judgment for anything; finally complete peace, having your mind detached from anything earthly. When you have all these, find a place quiet, seat alone in a corner, shut the door [Mt 6:6] and cease your mind from anything ephemeral and vain. Press your chin on to your chest so that you can have your attention in yourself, with both eyes and mind. Hold your breath slightly to concentrate your mind and then, having all your mind there, try to find the place of your heart. In the beginning, what you will discover is darkness, much callousness and evil. But then, after having practiced this method of attention a lot, night and day, you will find--great wonder!--an incessant happiness! The mind, through struggle, will have finally reached the place of the heart, where you will see the things you have never seen or known. There you will see the heaven which is within you, inside the heart, and you will find yourself enlightened, full of all grace and virtue.
From there on, if any kind of evil thought ever appears from any direction, before even being considered or take shape, you will immediately push it aside and dissolve it by the name of Jesus with his prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." Hence forth the mind will begin to bear grudge and animosity against the demons, being in an incessant war. It will raise its justified wrath and hunt them, attack them, dissolve them. As for the things following beyond that, those you may find out yourself, with God's help, through your effort and the attention of your mind, keeping Jesus in your heart with His prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." That is why a Church-father used to say: "Stay in your cell and that will teach you everything!"
The beginning of the third way is not by looking up to the sky, raising the hands, having your mind in heaven and asking for help from there. As we have said, these are of the first way and they are false. Nor is it to guard the senses with the mind and concentrate exclusively on this, whilst neither being attentive nor seeing the inner wars of the soul conducted by the enemies. These are all of the second way. He who uses them is trapped by the demons and is unable to revenge those who trapped him, whilst the enemies are always fighting him both secretly and openly, making him proud and vain.
But you, my friend, if you seek your salvation you should start in this way: after the perfect obedience which we said you should have to your spiritual father, you should then conduct all your deeds with a clear conscience, as if you had God in front of you, for conscience can never be clear without obedience. You should keep your conscience clear towards these things: God, spiritual father, other people and earthly things. Towards God, it is an obligation to keep your conscience clear by avoiding the things you are aware that He neither likes nor give Him any joy. Towards your spiritual father you should do the things he orders you to do, doing nothing more and nothing less, living according to his plan and wish. As for the other people, you should keep your conscience clear by not doing to them any of the things you hate and do not wish them to do to you. Towards the earthly it is your obligation to restrain yourself from abuses, using them all appropriately, food as well as drinking and clothes. In short, you should do everything as if you had God in front of you, making sure that your conscience does not restrain nor condemn you for not doing something right. This is the beginning of the true and firm route of the third way of attention and prayer.
The third way of attention and prayer is then this: the mind should guard the heart in the time of prayer and always stay inside it. From there, from the depths of the heart, it should then lift up the prayers to God. For once it tries inside the heart and tastes and is soothed--as the Lord is good!--then the mind will never want to leave the place of the heart. It will there repeat the words of Peter the apostle: "It is wonderful for us to be here!" [Mt 17:4, Mk 9:5, Lk 9:33] Then it will always wish to look inside the heart, remaining there and pushing aside and expelling all the concepts which are planted by the Devil. To those who have not realized this work of salvation and remain unaware of it, this will most of the times seem very hard and unpleasant. But those who have tasted its sweetness and enjoyed the pleasure inside the depths of their hearts, they all cry together with Paul: "What could ever come between us and the love of God?" [Rm 8:38-39]
Our holy fathers have listened the Lord who said that from the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander [Mt 15:19] and how these are the things that make a man unclean. [Mt 15:20] Further, they have listened to the part of the gospel where we are ordered to clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well. [Mt 23:26] They therefore left aside any other spiritual work and concentrated exclusively on guarding the heart, being confident that through this they would easily achieve all other virtues, whilst without it no virtue can be preserved. This practice was called by some fathers 'serenity of the heart', whilst others named it 'attention', others 'sobriety' and 'detainment', others 'examination of the thoughts' and 'guarding of the mind'; for they were all absorbed in this, and by this they were found worthy to accept the divine virtues.
It is for this that the Ecclesiastes says: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart blameless and clear, and prevent your heart from thoughts. [Eccl. 11:9 (LXX)] The same is said in the Proverbs: If Devil makes an assault on you, do not let him enter your place, [Eccl. 10:4 (LXX)] where 'the place' means the heart. The Lord Himself tells us in the Gospel that we must not worry, [Lk 12:29] in other words not to scatter our minds here and there. Again, in a different passage He says: Happy are those poor in spirit, [Mt 5:3] meaning that happy are those who never acquired any concern of this world in their hearts and are free from all earthly thoughts. All our holy fathers wrote much on this, so may he who wishes to read their works look for those written by St. Mark the Ascetic, St. John of Klimax, St. Hesychios, Philotheos of Sinai, Abba Hesaites, Barsanouphios the Great and many others.
In short, he who is not attentive to guard his mind cannot be cleansed in his heart and be therefore worthy to see God. He who is not attentive can never be poor in spirit nor can he ever mourn and cry, or become gentle and peaceful, or hunger and thirst for justice, or become merciful, peacemaker, or persecuted in the cause of right. [Mt 5:3-10] It is quite impossible to acquire any virtue by any means other than attention. It is attention that you should mostly take care of, to be able then to understand the things I am saying. If now you wish to learn the way to achieve this, I will tell you.
There are three things you should preserve beyond anything else: disinterest in everything reasonable or unreasonable and vain, in other words detachment from everything; then clear conscience in everything, as we have said, by not causing its judgment for anything; finally complete peace, having your mind detached from anything earthly. When you have all these, find a place quiet, seat alone in a corner, shut the door [Mt 6:6] and cease your mind from anything ephemeral and vain. Press your chin on to your chest so that you can have your attention in yourself, with both eyes and mind. Hold your breath slightly to concentrate your mind and then, having all your mind there, try to find the place of your heart. In the beginning, what you will discover is darkness, much callousness and evil. But then, after having practiced this method of attention a lot, night and day, you will find--great wonder!--an incessant happiness! The mind, through struggle, will have finally reached the place of the heart, where you will see the things you have never seen or known. There you will see the heaven which is within you, inside the heart, and you will find yourself enlightened, full of all grace and virtue.
From there on, if any kind of evil thought ever appears from any direction, before even being considered or take shape, you will immediately push it aside and dissolve it by the name of Jesus with his prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." Hence forth the mind will begin to bear grudge and animosity against the demons, being in an incessant war. It will raise its justified wrath and hunt them, attack them, dissolve them. As for the things following beyond that, those you may find out yourself, with God's help, through your effort and the attention of your mind, keeping Jesus in your heart with His prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me." That is why a Church-father used to say: "Stay in your cell and that will teach you everything!"
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