The Divine Secret of Nothing by Vincent Morales

The
Divine Secret
of
Nothing
The
divine secret
of
Nothing
by
Vincent Morales
E-BookTime, LLC
Montgomery, Alabama
The Divine Secret of Nothing
Copyright © 2009 by the author
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009943668
ISBN: 978-1-60862-122-4
First Edition
Published January 2010
E-BookTime, LLC
6598 Pumpkin Road
Montgomery, AL 36108
www.e-booktime.com
To my family whose support and unconditional love helped to
give me the freedom of mind to write and the courage to
publish “The Divine Secret of Nothing.”
“Now John answered and said, ‘Master, we saw someone
casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him
because he does not follow with us.’ But Jesus said to him,
‘Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our
side.’”
Luke 9:49-50
“In the abundance of His Glory may He, through His Spirit,
enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner
self, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and
then, planted in love and built on love, with all God’s holy
people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the
length, the height and the depth; so that, knowing the love of
Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the
utter fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:16-19
“The winds of God are always blowing, but you must set the
sails.”
Unknown
THE DIVINE SECRET OF NOTHING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter ...................................................................................... 11
The Man who Fell Through Himself ..................................... 17
Part I
Believing in the Reality of Nothing
1. Seeing Beyond the Nature of Illusion .............................. 19
2. Finding Nothing within Oneself ...................................... 22
3. The Intellect in Relation to Nothing ................................ 29
4. Nothing is Jesus’ Mustard Seed ....................................... 38
Part II
Jesus Leads the Way to Nothing
5. Seeking the Truth is Striving after Jesus ......................... 45
6. The Work that Sin Fears .................................................. 50
7. Comprehending the Relevance of Attention.................... 59
8. Forsaking the Lower Natures Strengthens Spirituality .... 69
9. The Good of Gravity ........................................................ 75
10. Religious Motivation before Religion ............................. 80
11. The Six Spiritual Meditations .......................................... 86
12. Through the Grace of God ............................................... 93
13. Exposing the Danger of the Law ................................... 103
14. Beguiled ......................................................................... 111
15. The Bars of Love ........................................................... 121
16. Against Self-Indulgence ................................................ 126
17. I Am ............................................................................... 130
9
THE DIVINE SECRET OF NOTHING
Part III
Surmising the Cosmic Reason for Striving
18. The Good News ............................................................. 139
19. The Spiritual Universe ................................................... 142
20. The Material Universe ................................................... 146
21. The Children of God ...................................................... 151
22. The Kingdom of Heaven ................................................ 156
Part IV
Warrior Striving
23. The Heart of Obedience ................................................. 167
24. The Good Teacher.......................................................... 174
25. The Challenge of Perfect Recollection .......................... 183
26. The Serene Wisdom ....................................................... 199
Notes .................................................................................... 207
Bibliography ........................................................................ 225
10
The 8th Day
Dear Reader,
What would hinder you from fully bringing forth the Perfect
Light of Christ that is within yourself, but the darkness that is
within yourself (John 14:17). This stealthy darkness is often
comprehended as sin, and to oppose it perfectly you must
know yourself perfectly. St. Teresa of Avila shares this
thinking: “And self-knowledge with regard to sin is the bread
which must be eaten…without this bread we could not eat our
food at all.” ((A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality
(APSOCS), vol. I, p. 35) Life, xiii; Peers, I, p. 80) This food
being the supernatural food of Christ: “Whoever eats My flesh
and drinks My blood lives in Me and I live in that person.”
(John 6:56)
It is not wise to trust any feeling or thought which could
lead you to believe that you already know yourself perfectly
because sin hides itself well within feelings and thoughts.
Consequently, sin can manipulate feelings and thoughts to
influence the ‘I’ of oneself, which is the intellectual will, to
not amply eat the supernatural food that is Christ Himself. Sin
does not care if you know yourself well enough to think and
function in the world, but it does care if you know yourself
perfectly because to know yourself perfectly is to actively
embrace the Truth of Christ within yourself, by which, it is
exposed and expelled to make way for the kingdom of
Heaven. Before that profound time, the effort to peacefully
seek the Truth of Christ within yourself – by way of correct
teaching which leads to correct thought and action – can be
trusted because seeking Him is the inner-quest that sin does
not want people to undertake.
Besides this advice to be acutely aware of your feelings
and thoughts, you need not worry about my saying too much
11
that you might be held accountable before God – who is

Ultimate Truth – as having secret knowledge that would
obligate you to choose the narrow path, for reading about how
to get to an esoteric place that can only be abstractly
represented cannot justly obligate a person to seek it.
Nevertheless, a philosophical lens that can stimulate the eyes
of seeking can perhaps provide inspiration to break through
the egotistical clouds of love of material that hide the way to
the secret place where God is worshipped in Spirit and Truth;
scripture informs us:
“But the hour is coming – indeed is already here – when

true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and
Truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks. God
is Spirit, and those who worship must worship in Spirit
and Truth.” (John 4:23-24, italics mine)
We are not simply called to love God through empty

words, but we are called to live that love, thereby, showing
true love of Spirit which leads to life and not love of material
which leads to death. Jesus explains:
“You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But
you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
(Luke 5:39-40)
People should not at all believe that they are barred from
the extraordinary journey of seeking the Truth which leads to
worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. The path to this state of
being is available to all who can conceive of seeking the Truth
and have a desire to love God in the Perfect Light of His
Christ. No person should believe that there is not anything
new to be learned regarding this path, St. Teresa of Avila
informed her students: “You will think, sisters, that so much
has been said about this spiritual road that there cannot
possibly be any more to say. It would be a great mistake to
12
think that; just as the greatness of God is without limit, even

so are His works…” (VII Mansions, I; Peers, II, p. 329)
Additionally, if you find yourself troubled with concern
for people who cannot conceive of seeking the Truth, or for
yourself for whatever reason, or if you believe that God cannot
be entirely good, caste these thoughts aside for they are from
the powers of evil. These powers – the principalities and the
ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world,
the spirits of evil in the heavens (Ephesians 6:12) – always try
to undermine faith in God who is perfectly good and only
‘restrained’ from revealing the selflessness of the Love, that is
Himself, by creatures who use their freewill to choose
themselves before the selflessness of Himself. Scripture
informs us that God is Love: “Whoever fails to love does not
know God, because God is Love.” (1 John 4:8)
From my journey upon the narrow path, whereupon a
person learns to choose selflessness over self, I learned that
there were people from past ages who had experienced the
selflessness of God. This selflessness being the gift of
Himself. These experiences are carefully revealed to us by: the
writers of the Nag Hammadi texts, St. John of the Cross, St.
Teresa of Avila, influential Greek philosophers and others
who had risen above the debauchery of false-gods to discover
the Truth. St. Paul spoke to the Greeks:
“Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely

scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because, as I
strolled round looking at your sacred monuments, I noticed
among other things an altar inscribed: To the Unknown
God. In fact, the unknown God you revere is the one I
proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23)
I also learned that the majority of people in ancient times

opposed the relatively few individuals who tried to share their
experiences and knowledge on how to find the Truth of God.
These few individuals must have realized that the harvest was
much, but that there were few of themselves to reap the
13
harvest (Matthew 9:37). They must have hoped that by sharing

what they knew, a distinct path to the Truth would become
religiously etched into society so people in future generations
would find it more easily as it is a narrow path and few people
are able to find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
What these trail-blazing Christians made known was that
they had discovered what could not be discovered by sight
trained upon the world or flesh, but only by sight attentive to
the absolute selflessness within the innermost part of oneself,
that is, the hallowed center of one’s intellect – the enigma of
the soul. By the intellectual perception and nurturing of this
selflessness within oneself, a person could come to know the
Ultimate Truth and secure life to the highest degree as Jesus
called people to strive towards (John 10:34). What these
people practiced was nothing more, and nothing less, than the
seeking of the Truth that Jesus both encouraged and taught:
“To the Jews who believed in Him, Jesus said: ‘If you
make My word your home you will indeed be My disciples;
you will come to know the Truth, and the Truth will set
you free.’” (John 8:31-32)
In the light of Jesus’ calling that we should seek the

Truth, modern-age persons following Him by the echo of His
indoctrinated words can be nothing less than ‘thoughtful’
Christians. By ‘thoughtful,’ I mean in deed and/or in
contemplation; Jesus expressed this inclusive range of
thoughtfulness:
“Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet

will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes
an upright person because he is upright will have the
reward of an upright person.
“If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of

these little ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell
you, he will most certainly not go without his reward.”
(Matthew 10:41-42)
14
Unfortunately, in modern times as in ancient times, the

majority of people are swayed by the sinful forces within
themselves and they frequently take issue with the narrow path
because they do not want its personal sacrifices, but they want
the fullness of life that it promises. Consequently, people find
reasons to justify their personal beliefs in a futile effort to
bend the Truth to how they want it to be, but the bend that
they hold onto is not the Truth for the Truth does not bend.
Jesus confirms this aspect of the Truth with His words:
“Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who
does not gather in with me throws away.” (Luke 11:23)
Mercifully, what does bend is God’s grace which assists
thoughtful people as they try their best to return to Him what
belongs to Him (Mark 12:17). This ‘bending’ is possible
because God, who is Love, does not deviate from the Truth as
He is the Ultimate Truth, and therefore, remains ‘immovably’
true to Himself no matter the way that He chooses to assist
those who seek His will to the extent that they are able. “As
we hope in Him so shall we receive,” declares St. Therese of
the Child Jesus ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 393) Autobiography,
Epilogue, 213).
In the certitude of this hope, it is advantageous to believe
that just as there is no compromise in the perfect selflessness
of the soul, there is no compromise in the way that leads the
intellect to selflessly give to God what belongs to Him,
namely, the ‘I’ that is the intellectual will or sense of oneself.
The means to fulfill this act of self-sacrifice is the narrow
path, and it is the trustworthy path that Jesus has called us to
follow by His revelation that He is the Way, the Truth, and
Life (John 14:6).
It is sensible to let the information that I am going to
share with you be recollected every so often so your intellect
can adjust itself to amply comprehend and apply the new
information. It is not wise to refuse the new information
immediately, such as a sweet-toothed child might do with
vegetables, for a person’s intellect is so accustomed to sinful
appetites that it will impulsively reject that which is actually
15
good for itself. Jesus similarly explains this impulsive rejection:

“And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires the
new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:39) Remem-
bering that a lamp is not meant to be put undercover, but upon
a table for all to see its light, it is reasonable that I should
share what I have learned regarding the narrow path (Luke
8:16); but first, a short story to help our cause.
May the Light of Peace be with you,
Vincent M.
16
The Man who Fell Through Himself
To strive after the kingdom of Heaven is to be like a man

who, thinking beyond the limits of worldly reason, believes
that if he jumps with all of his heart, soul, body and mind that
he will be able to join the company of the stars because they
seem to be so near to him during crystal clear nights. At first
he jumps a couple of feet high, over and over again, and God,
seeing the man’s faithful and attentive effort, gives him
encouragement so he can not only jump a little higher each
time, but also so he can learn to recognize, listen to and
remember His supportive voice of selfless reason. The result is
that now the man is able to jump as high as an athlete – for a
while.
Overtime, the man becomes tired and although at one
time he was able to jump as high as an athlete, now he can
only jump a few inches, and in fact, he is near to giving-up
despite all the graces that God had given to him which had
enabled him to jump so high. God then says to the exhausted
and forlorn man, “Jump into that dark hole in the ground that
is now near you.” The man looks into the harrowing dark hole
and he knows not to where it leads, and never before would he
have had the courage to enter it, but he remembers, recognizes
and listens to God for he realizes that the powers of evil, who
had always opposed his jumping for the stars, will soon come
to lead him back under the blanket of city lights and that he is
too weak to resist their sticks of hopelessness and faithless-
ness. Thinking to himself, the man realizes that he has enough
hope and faith left to listen to God so long as he keeps none
for himself, consequently, this hope and faith is the most pure
that the man possesses. With courage unfamiliar to him, the
weak man crawls to the narrow hole and, leaving all behind,
he lets himself fall in, and down and down he falls into the
unknown.
Through the darkness, the man sees a point of light that he
is no stranger to; and, relative to his falling, his understanding
17
of the light increases as he falls nearer to it. The light is the

Spirit of Selfless Reason and It is the Living Word of God –
Who is the same Spirit of Love – as known in Christ Jesus.*
Through the Spirit of Selfless Reason, the man comes to
understand that the darkness that he let himself fall into is
really symbolic of his deepest hope, faith and trust in God.
The man continues to fall through the darkness and he soon
falls through a lofty and spacious opening that only moments
before was the point of light. The man falls through this bright
opening with the force and speed of a space rocket that is well
on its way to the stars.
Thus and so, what the man could not achieve through his
self-will of jumping, he achieves near effortlessly through his
self-surrender to God. Subsequently, the man comes to
understand that it was not really his jumping that God was
trying to improve, but his hearing so he may hear Him better
so as to make it to the everlasting kingdom of the stars where
He will justly transform him into a New Man who will know
Him in the Spirit and Truth of Himself (John 4:23-24). Of this
kingdom, Jesus tells us: “The kingdom of Heaven does not
come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See
there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
(Luke 17:20-21)
*Besides the name Spirit of Selfless Reason, Jesus has been described
by other names as well: the Word, Door, Rock, Anchor, Branch,
True Vine, Good Shepherd, Carpenter, Advocate, Redeemer,
Beloved, Master, Teacher, Mediator, Prophet, Savior, Wonderful
Counselor, Chief Cornerstone, Light of the World, the Resurrection
& the Life, Lamb of God, Lord of Lords, Man of Sorrows, New
Born King, Messiah, Faithful & True Witness, Bread of Life, Holy
One, I Am, Image of the Invisible God, the Alpha & the Omega,
King of Kings, Prince of Peace, Servant, Bridegroom, Son of Man,
King of the Jews, Bright Morning Star, the Way, the Truth & Life.
18
Part I
Believing in the Reality of Nothing
Chapter 1
Seeing Beyond the Nature of Illusion
The flatness of the earth, which is illusory, was in past times

held to be true by people who neither had the desire nor the
will to seek the truth of the earth’s spherical shape. People
believed that the world was flat because flatness was easily
proven by the simple observation of the flatness of the land
that was seen with one’s eyes. Although this observation was
correct from a limited perspective, it was not correct from the
encompassing perspective which reveals the spherical shape of
the earth that we know today.
Similarly, in the same way that people used to have a
limited perspective of the world, people currently have a
limited perspective of Nothing. This limited perspective is the
belief that Nothing is not anything at all. While this
observation is correct from the limited perspective, it is not
correct from the encompassing perspective which reveals that
Nothing is not simply nothing, but that it is essentially
everything as regards the world and oneself. St. John of the
Cross holistically explains the relationship of everything to
Nothing:
19
In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything,

Desire to have pleasure in nothing.
In order to arrive at possessing everything,

Desire to possess nothing.
In order to arrive at being everything,

Desire to be nothing.
In order to arrive at knowing everything,

Desire to know nothing.
((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 126) Ascent, Bk. I, xiii; Peers,
I, p. 59-60)
In much the same way that people used to have a limited

perspective of the world – and a limited perspective of
Nothing – people have a limited perspective of love. The
difference between the limited perspective of love and the
encompassing perspective of love is that the limited perspective
fulfills self with the rewards of the world, but the encompassing
perspective fulfills self with the reward of Spirit and Truth.
Jesus reveals that the reward of Spirit and Truth is not won
through the limited perspective of love:
“If you love those who love you, what credit can you
expect? Even sinners love those who love them. And if
you do good to those who do good to you, what credit can
you expect? For even sinners do that much. And if you
lend to those from whom you hope to get money back,
what credit can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners
to get back the same amount.” (Luke 6:32-34)
Few people come to comprehend the encompassing

perspective of love because they do not strive to abandon the
limited perspective of love by following the narrow path to
Nothing. The effort to abandon the limited perspective of love
to at least the beginning of the encompassing perspective of
love is a worthwhile undertaking and simply requires that one
20
love one’s enemies and do good without any hope of return

(Luke 6:35). Of course, the encompassing perspective of love,
being that it is encompassing, includes loving those who love
you and doing good to those who do good to you. Revealing
the ultimate dependability of God’s goodness, Jesus adds that
the effort to love one’s enemies and do good without any hope
of return will lead to a notable reward: “You will have a great
reward, and you will be children of the Most High, for He
Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” (Luke 6:35)
When a person seeks to find the encompassing perspec-
tive of love by way of Nothing he or she is orientated to
receive the greatest gift of God. This gift being the gift of
Himself. St. Teresa of Avila confirms the gift that God is
pleased to give when one desires to be Nothing: “And before
we have finished doing all that we can do in that respect, God
will take this tiny achievement of ours, which is nothing at all,
unite it with His greatness and give it such worth that its
reward will be the Lord Himself.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 184)
V Mansions, ii; p. 254)
21
Chapter 2
Finding Nothing within Oneself
A box is three dimensional; this understanding is to say that it

has length, width and height. In the physical realm that we live,
its three dimensions make it a material object. We will assume
that all particles, no matter how elementary, even the ones that
comprise atoms, are material objects although some people,
who are more inclined to scientific thinking, might think
otherwise. Back to our box; subtract all of it from your mind
except one side, pretend that this side is like a sheet of paper,
and observe that it has length and width as you view its surface.
Now slowly rotate the sheet of paper so one of its edges
comes into view, depending upon the depth of the sheet,
whether the depth be a micron or atomic, we can rationalize
that even though the paper seems to disappear for a moment, it
does not truly disappear because it is still a three dimensional
object having some measurement of depth. For the sheet of
paper to truly disappear during its rotation, its depth would
have to be zero or Nothing. If this condition were the case,
then the sheet of paper would be an example of the second
dimension; which we can take to be inclusive of the first
dimension because the second dimension innately possesses
both length and width, and either of these can be representa-
tive of the first dimension.
Interestingly, the first dimension cannot exist outside of
Nothing without invoking the reality of the second dimension.
Essentially, because length (or width) can only be represented
as a line and because the line itself innately possesses length
22
and width, the line itself would be second dimensional.

Accordingly, because the first dimension instantaneously
changes into the second dimension, it can be regarded as an
intrinsic and indivisible part of Nothing as it is nothing before
it changes into the second dimension. Due to this enigmatic
quality of the first dimension, it can be thought of as Nothing
giving reality to, and being adjacent to, the second dimension.
To use our sheet of paper as an example of the second
dimension is to say that it has length and width, but zero
depth. Consequently, it has the quality of both existing and not
existing to our perception, as is made evident during its
rotation where the flat view of length and width disappear by
the approach of a depth that equals zero. If you have difficulty
believing that anything with a depth of zero can scientifically
possess length and width at all – or even exist – try to believe
that it is philosophically possible.
In trying to understand the divine, philosophical
rationality will bring us nearer to the Truth than scientific
rationality because divinity is truly beyond science just as St.
John of the Cross asserts in his poem, The Living Flame of
Love. In the following stanzas, St. John of the Cross speaks of
the perfect knowledge that is beyond scientific rationality:
That perfect knowledge

was of peace and holiness
held at no remove
in profound solitude;
it was something so secret
that I was left stammering,
transcending all science….
He who truly arrives there

cuts free from himself;
all that he knew before
now seems worthless,
and his knowledge so soars
that he is left in unknowing
transcending all science….
23
This knowledge in unknowing

is so overwhelming
that wise men disputing it
can never overthrow it,
for their knowledge does not
reach
to the understanding of not
understanding,
transcending all science.
And this supreme knowledge

is so exalted
that no power of man or learning
can grasp it;
he who masters himself
will, with knowledge in
unknowing,
always be transcending….
(The Collected Works of St. John of the
Cross (CW); stanzas: 2, 4, 6 and 7; p. 53-4)
Without needing proof, philosophical rationality can bring

the intellect to increase its rational parameters to the abstract
and infinite so it can at least minimally comprehend the
‘impossible’ esoteric truths of Christianity. The importance of
being able to believe without needing proof is underscored by
Jesus: “Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and portents
you will not believe!’” (John 4:48) With the aforesaid in mind,
there are only two things that are second dimensional and they
are light and darkness.
Consider an empty room with a small window. When
sunlight shines through the window, it is going to show the
shape of the window upon the opposite wall. The shape of the
light upon the wall, being the shape of the window, will have
length and width – but because it is light, its depth will be
zero. Light, being second dimensional, both exists and does
not exist; this is to say that even though there is a part of it that
we can know, there is another part of itself that is a mystery –
24
this part being the Nothing of itself.

These same qualities are true with darkness and shadows,
though in an inferior way, because they only exist because
light gives them the opportunity to exist. We must be clear
that darkness does not give light the opportunity to exist, but
that it is light that gives darkness the opportunity to exist by
God’s infinite mercy. Besides the fact that light shines from
stars whose heat and light help to catalyze and sustain life on
planets, whenever light strikes a standing object, such as a
pole, it is a shadow that is formed behind the pole because of
the light that is striking the pole. The opposite effect of light
forming from the casting of a shadow upon an object never
happens. Furthermore, think about how easily a candle flame
can disperse darkness within an entire room – even from its
most remote corners – and how the darkness hides behind the
things in the room in the form of shadows.
Understandably, some people will argue that the presence
of black holes in the universe, from which light cannot escape,
demonstrates the power of darkness over light. This belief is
false and can lead a gullible person from persevering upon the
narrow path. For really, a black hole demonstrates the absolute
power of God over darkness, for no creature of darkness
would want to exist in such an abyss of darkness where all
sensory perception of itself, or anything else, is impossible.
This reality is confirmed in scripture: “Jesus asked him, ‘What
is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’ – because many devils had
gone into him. And these begged Jesus not to order them to
depart into the Abyss.” (Luke 8:30-31)
The implication of light being superior to darkness is that
light can exist without darkness, but darkness cannot exist
without light. The highest light being the Perfect Light of
Christ which is far beyond the natural light that we are
discussing here, for the Perfect Light of Christ is superbly
supernatural because it is divine. Thus, any notion that
darkness is a founding “second dimensional” component of
the material universe can be dismissed.
Essentially, Nothing exists invisibly within all objects –
25
supporting and sustaining them – through the dimensions,

consequently, we can systematically deduce that just as the
third dimension depends upon the second dimension to exist,
the second dimension depends upon Nothing to exist, but
Nothing does not depend on either the third or second
dimensions to exist because it is at the Beginning. The
existence of Nothing at the Beginning of material creation
places it at the thresh-hold of the enigmatic realm of Divine
Mystery which is the eternal source and sustenance of material
creation; hence, the enigmatic and immaterial nature of
Nothing.
Incomprehensibly, God, who is Divine Mystery, sustains
the material universe and He allows the selflessness of His
goodness and love to shine all the way into the elemental
building blocks of the universe, and thereby, into the dynamic,
manipulable and evolutionary bodies of material which
perceive His goodness and love according to their conscious
receptivity. Regarding conscious receptivity, St. Maximos the
Confessor says:
“God reveals Himself to each person according to each

person’s mode of conceiving Him. To those whose
aspiration transcends the complex structure of matter, and
whose psychic powers are fully integrated in a single
unceasing gyration around God, He reveals Himself as
Unity and Trinity. In this way He both shows forth His
own existence and mystically makes known the mode in
which that existence subsists. To those whose aspiration is
limited to the complex structure of matter, and whose
psychic powers are not integrated, He reveals Himself not
as He is but as they are, showing that they are completely
caught in the material dualism whereby the physical world
is conceived as composed of matter and form.” (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 186, #95)
The highest power of material receptivity to goodness and

love is a person’s intellect, but having this power, in and of
itself, does not guarantee the understanding that is needed by a
26
person to seek the Source of the encompassing perspective of

love that is the Light of Love. To a large extent, this reality is
because people frequently understand things differently due to
the different beliefs that they hold and these beliefs can affect
the mode by which they conceive God. It is possible that a
person’s mode can be enhanced through the following concept:
The sequential order of: the third dimension, to the

second dimension, to Nothing, to Divine Mystery
reflects the dimensional order of what is illusory by
nature to that which is superbly real and beyond
nature. God, of course, being that which is superbly
real and beyond nature. God revealed His superlative
nature to St. Catherine of Siena: “Do you know, my
daughter, who you are and who I am? You are she
who is not; I am He Who Is.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p.
39) Dialogue x) By way of the dimensional order, it
can be reasoned that the empirical relationship
between Nothing and Divine Mystery is the
correlative selflessness that is shared between the
two. Specifically, the selflessness of Nothing is its
non-existence and the selflessness of Divine Mystery
is Love (Colossians 3:12-14).
Regarding the selfless correlation between God and

mankind, St. Maximos says:
“We are told that God and man are exemplars of each
other. Man’s ability to deify himself through love for God’s
sake is correlative with God’s becoming man through
compassion for man’s sake. And man’s manifestation
through the virtues of the God who is by nature invisible
is correlative with the degree to which his intellect is
seized by God and imbued with spiritual knowledge.”
(The Philokalia, v. II, p. 278, #74)
Thus, through an intellect’s inborn knowledge of
27
Nothing’s selflessness, which is often perceived as love’s self-

forgetfulness, the personal ‘I’ of an intellect is rendered a
personalized beginning of Divine Mystery because God has
rendered the selflessness of Nothing to correlate with the
selflessness of Himself. Therefore, St. Augustine spoke
accurately when he said to God: “Let me know myself, Lord,
and I shall know Thee.” (APSOCS, vol. II, p. 68)
28
Chapter 3
The Intellect in Relation to Nothing
As with second dimensional light, the hallowed center of the

intellect’s innermost relationship with Nothing – the soul of
itself – exists and does not exist. The soul only eclipses the
outermost region of the intellect to the degree that it (the
intellect) selflessly embraces the selflessness of Nothing which
shares in the selflessness of Love. Consequently, some
persons are more selfless than others, though not perfectly,
because selflessness always fluctuates within a person until it
is perfected in the four regions of Nothing. These four regions
of Nothing are: the top which is humility, the bottom which is
faith, the front which is chastity, and the back which is
repentance-forgiveness. Figuratively, humility enables one to
listen, faith enables one to stand, chastity enables one to go
forward, and repentance-forgiveness enables one to not fall
back.
Humility is the crown of the other three because it is what
opens the selfless heart of the intellect (which is its soul) to
listen to God who then helps guide the intellect – through
selfless reason – to strengthen the other three regions of
Nothing. Pride, on the other hand, does the opposite; regarding
pride, St. Thalassios the Libyan says: “Pride deprives us of
God’s help, making us over-reliant on ourselves and arrogant
towards other people.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 327, #33)
It is helpful to regard selfless reason as a facet of mental
prayer. St. Teresa of Avila describes mental prayer for us:
“Mental prayer, in my view, is nothing but friendly inter-
29
course, and frequent solitary converse, with Him who we

know loves us.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 54) Life, viii; Peers, I, p.
50) Scripture reveals the effectiveness of prayer:
“A man answered Him from the crowd, ‘Master, I have

brought my son to you; there is a spirit of dumbness in
him, and when it takes hold of him it throws him to the
ground….And I asked your disciples to drive it out and
they were unable to….But if you can do anything, have
pity on us and help us.’ ‘If you can?’ retorted Jesus.
‘Everything is possible for one who has faith.’ At once the
father of the boy cried out, ‘I have faith. Help my lack of
faith!’ And when Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering,
He rebuked the unclean spirit. ‘Deaf and dumb spirit,’ He
said, ‘I command you: come out of him and never enter
him again.’ Then it threw the boy into violent convulsions
and came out shouting, and the boy lay there so like a
corpse that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took
him by the hand and helped him up, and he was able to
stand. When He had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him
when they were by themselves, ‘Why were we unable to
drive it out?’ He answered, ‘This is the kind that can be
driven out only by prayer.’” (Mark 9:17-29)
Shining through the selflessness of Nothing is the Perfect

Light of God which gives creative force to the intellect to
create whatever it wishes to create through the will-power of
itself. Without creative force, the intellect’s will is supremely
limited in power; whereas with creative force, the intellect’s
will is supremely unlimited in power. The intellect’s will,
which should be taken to be the intellect itself, has unlimited
power because of the creative force that it freely receives from
God due to its correlative relationship to Him.
Unfortunately, as God gives creative force to the intellect,
the powers of evil tempt it to create and fulfill vice. The
fulfillment of vice is very gradual and is camouflaged by the
fallen nature of the world. It is through the vices of pride and
lust that the powers of evil are enabled to exert the most
30
‘imaginative’ influence over an unsuspecting intellect – let us

say an adolescent intellect – and thereby, develop its taste for
these and many other vices within the context of the world and
flesh as it matures to adulthood believing that pride, lust,
anger, jealousy, greed and other vices are natural to itself and
humankind. As vice becomes a habit to the intellect, it gives
its creative force to the powers of evil becoming weak to them
as they use its own creative force against it.
Regarding pride and lust: Pride depends upon selfish
reason and selfish reason depends upon selfishness and
selfishness depends upon material which depends upon the
absence of Spirit; conversely, humility depends upon selfless
reason and selfless reason depends upon selflessness and
selflessness depends upon Nothing which depends upon Spirit.
As follows, pride leads to lust which depends upon material,
and humility leads to perfect chastity which depends upon
Spirit.
The extent of this control depends upon the amount of
intellectual will that the powers of evil absorb into. The
powers of evil achieve absorption by implanting themselves in
areas of the intellect that are unguarded by it due to its
ignorance; specifically, ignorance as it relates to the absence
of virtue and spiritual knowledge. However much the powers
of evil might absorb into an intellect, they can never absorb
into its innermost aspect that is the soul.
By way of absorption, the powers of evil secure the
systematic stealing of creative force from the intellect to not
only increase their power and influence over it, but also their
power and influence in the afterlife. The powers of evil try to
increase their power and influence without bringing the
intellect’s attention to themselves lest it take action to counter
its ignorance, and thereby, increase in virtue and spiritual
knowledge. The result of an intellect taking action is that the
powers of evil are prevented from absorbing into and stealing
creative force from it; consequently, it grows in power and
influence over them (Luke 11:21-22).
It is through absorption that the powers of evil are able to
31
keep the intellect from seeking the encompassing perspective

of love. They are able to accomplish this bad deed by keeping
the attention of the intellect focused upon the limited
perspective of the world by way of images and feelings that
originate from the violable imaginative/conscience-aspect
(violable ic-aspect) of the intellect which is outside the
selfless correlation of Nothing and Love. The violable ic-
aspect is ‘pooled’ creative force and it is from where the
imagination and conscience come; therefore, whenever I speak
of either the imagination or conscience, I am speaking of the
violable ic-aspect. The powers of evil do not always have the
control that they would like to have over an intellect’s violable
ic-aspect – but the intellect has control over it according to the
degree of virtue that it possesses. As you will learn in Chapter
21, at the highest degree of virtue the violable ic-aspect is no
longer violable, but it becomes inviolable and a godlike
weapon.
Just as images from the imagination and feelings from the
conscience can affect a person from the violable ic-aspect, a
person can also be affected by images and feelings that are
from either the world or flesh. Images from the world include:
people, situations, things of self, pictures, movies and so on;
and feelings from the flesh include: pleasure, pain, discom-
forts and other sensory feelings. Regardless of whether or not
images or feelings come from within or from without, they
can, despite their lower “illusory” placement in the dimen-
sional order, move a person to judgments or actions that do
not strengthen the soul, but rather, weaken it. Thus, a person
who depends upon images and feelings to determine his or her
judgments and actions, as opposed to depending upon God’s
Spirit of Selfless Reason, is unwise because images and
feelings do not necessarily point to either the correct judg-
ments or actions that should be taken.
For example, in Mark Twain’s story of Huckleberry Finn,
the boy wants to free his friend from slavery by helping him to
escape from the slave owner, but the conscience of the boy
causes him to feel guilty because if he were to do such a thing
32
then he would be stealing from the slave owner. Listening to

the Spirit of Selfless Reason, however, the boy decides to help
his friend escape even though he “reckons” that he will
probably go to hell for it. In view of this story, an intellect that
follows the Spirit of Selfless Reason overcomes the impres-
sions of the conscience, consequently, pooled creative force is
not only prevented from affecting the actions of the person,
but is also commandeered by the intellect and slowly
recollected into the inviolable selfless-aspect which is inside
the selfless correlation of Nothing and Love; this selfless
correlation being the skin of the soul. Incidentally, if
Huckleberry Finn were a real boy he might have felt better,
despite his conscience, if he knew this wisdom from scripture:
“…even if our own feelings condemn us, remember that God
is greater than our feelings and knows all things.” (1 John
3:20)
A person’s judgments and actions reveal his or her
relationship to the selflessness of Love. As seen in the story of
Huckleberry Finn, even though the conscience can misguide,
its misguidance can be surmounted by the Spirit of Selfless
Reason. Consequently, it can be deduced that if an intellect is
rooted in the selflessness of Love through its force of reason –
hence: selfless reason – then it will be less affected by the
conscience to do things that the Spirit of Selfless Reason
would not do.
The wayward actions that result from blindly following
the feelings of the conscience render people to be like ‘lost
sheep’ because their actions do not follow the way of Love’s
Spirit of Selfless Reason (John 10:7-10), but the way of the
violable ic-aspect. Thus, if a person ‘buys-into’ religious
beliefs that are estranged from the Spirit of Selfless Reason,
then those beliefs can provide fertile ground for the conscience
to affect the thinking of the intellect. Consequently, the
conscience can more easily affect the judgments and actions of
the person through the ‘justification’ that the estranged beliefs
offer whether they are religious or superstitious.
St. Paul exposes this dilemma: “If you have really died
33
with Christ to the principles of this world, why do you still let
rules dictate to you, as though you were still living in the
world? – ‘Do not pick up this, do not eat that, do not touch the
other,’ and all about things which perish even while they are
being used – according to merely human commandments and
doctrines!” (Colossians 2:20-22, italics his) Essentially,
beliefs that are not in accordance with the Spirit of Selfless
Reason can be used by the powers of evil (the “principles of
this world”) to undermine the selfless reason of the intellect
through the conscience – for it is through the conscience that
feelings of either guilt or non-guilt (among others) can be used
to affect the intellect’s judgments and actions.
Even feelings that are mistaken as faith can come from
the conscience and be used by the powers of evil to deceive.
We know this to be true as there are many people who follow
the Law and carry out its commandments with great faith – as
was just noted above – but their faith is from the violable ic-
aspect and not from the Spirit of Selfless Reason who
originates from within the inviolable selfless-aspect. In the
light of the aforesaid, beware that there are many religions –
even some that claim to be Christian (Matthew 7:21-23) – that
mislead people with faith from the violable ic-aspect, thereby,
keeping them from finding the good that the Spirit of Selfless
Reason wants for them. Regarding actions, which are bound to
our thoughts and judgments, St. Thalassios says: “Our actions
disclose what goes on within us, just as fruit makes known a
tree otherwise unknown to us.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 322,
#65)
Lest one be mislead by the conscience, attention should
always be faithfully directed to the Spirit of Selfless Reason.
A simple way to improve the health of one’s relationship to
the Spirit of Selfless Reason is as follows: if one feels guilty
then one should make sure that it is for the advancement of
selfless reason, and if one does not feel guilty then one should
make sure that it is also for the advancement of selfless
reason. This simple test is a good way to ensure that one does
not follow any feelings from the conscience which might lead
34
one away from the Spirit of Selfless Reason.

The result of an intellect habitually advancing its selfless
reason by the Spirit of Selfless Reason is that it inevitably
withdrawals from the violable ic-aspect – where the Spirit of
Selfless Reason is not – and recollects into the inviolable
selfless-aspect where the Spirit of Selfless Reason is. As the
intellect recollects into the inviolable selfless-aspect, the
conscience is displaced from it because the inviolable selfless-
aspect is the domain of the Spirit of Selfless Reason. Displace-
ment happens because the Spirit of Selfless Reason is one with
God who is Goodness Itself, and therefore, without conscience.
Thus and so, when an intellect is fully recollected in the
inviolable selfless-aspect, it too does not possess any distance
from God, and accordingly, the conscience becomes extran-
eous to it as its judgments and actions are determined by the
Spirit of Selfless Reason. St. Thalassios implicitly confirms
that the conscience can be displaced from the intellect: “Only
those who have reached the extremes of virtue or of evil are
not judged by their consciences.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 311,
#72)
Regarding people who are at the extreme of evil, they are
not judged by their conscience because they are too mentally
far from the Spirit of Selfless Reason as they do not practice
selfless reason; consequently, they do not reflect the Spirit of
Selfless Reason within themselves. Because of their distance
from the Spirit of Selfless Reason, the conscience is not
compelled to effect guilt for good not done, but it is free to
effect guiltlessness for evil done; thus, such people feel
justified in the evil that they do due to the feeling of
guiltlessness that they accept from the conscience or violable
ic-aspect. Essentially, the violable ic-aspect promises these
people worldly rewards – such as: fame, wealth, sex, power or
favor with God – if they comply with its suggestions. Notably,
the powers of evil – even without estranged beliefs with which
to collaborate – are able to affect an intellect to do evil
through internal stimuli that they present to it through the
violable ic-aspect; and if the intellect consents to the internal
35
stimuli by way of external actions, then it gives the powers of

evil leverage over itself.
For example, by feeling a feeling of hatred from the
powers of evil and consenting to an action of hatred, which
naturally contradicts the selflessness of Love, the intellect
weakens its bond to the selflessness of Nothing, consequently,
the powers of evil are able to further entrench themselves
between the intellect and Nothing to weaken the bond between
the two, and thereby, the intellect’s bond to the selflessness of
Love. Fully entrenched, the powers of evil are able to absorb
more into the intellect to effect guiltlessness because the
entrenched spaces – not secured by the intellect’s use of
selfless reason – cannot be guarded by the Spirit of Selfless
Reason. Thus, the powers of evil keep the intellect from
growing the inviolable selfless-aspect of the soul by keeping it
focused upon feelings and images – by way of the violable ic-
aspect – that correlate to and corroborate the world and flesh.
People have difficulty growing the inviolable selfless-
aspect of the soul, which lies within themselves like a
heavenly star (John 14:17), because they are inclined to
measure-out their judgments and actions through the violable
ic-aspect which reflects the limited perspective of the world
and flesh. A person’s deference to the pull of the world and
flesh is because the world and flesh do not truly reward
forgetfulness-of-self, which is what God rewards, but they
reward remembrance-of-self. Remembrance-of-self is supported
by the ‘predator versus prey formula’ of the world: if either a
predator or prey is forgetful of itself, it will not profit in the
world.
Along these lines, Nothing can be regarded as a movable
line that mystically divides the encompassing perspective’s
forgetfulness-of-self from the limited perspective’s remem-
brance-of-self to fulfill Jesus’ words: “Many who are first will
be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Luke 13:30)
Essentially, forgetfulness-of-self seeks to conquer the outer-
man that remembers self to profit by the world and flesh, and
remembrance-of-self seeks to conquer the Inner-man that
36
forgets self to profit by God. Regarding the outer-man and the

Inner-man, St. Maximos says: “…when the soul is fortified
and made resplendent with the divine beauty of the virtues and
with the illumination of spiritual knowledge, the outer-man is
weakened, because the flesh loses its natural vigor through the
indwelling of the Logos.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 283, #96)
37
Chapter 4
Nothing is Jesus’ Mustard Seed
Even though the selflessness of Nothing is one with the

selflessness of Divine Mystery it is prudent to say that it is not
actually Divine Mystery, but it is the perfect window through
which the Perfect Light of Divine Mystery shines into the
material universe. Remarkably, this window is the soul. St.
John of the Cross draws an analogy between a window and the
nature of the soul:
“A ray of sunlight shining on a smudgy window is unable

to illumine that window completely and transform it into
its own light. It could do this if the window were cleaned
and polished. The less the film and stain are wiped away,
the less the window will be illumined; and the cleaner the
window is, the brighter will be its illumination. The extent
of illumination is not dependent on the ray of sunlight but
on the window. If the window is totally clean and pure,
the sunlight will so transform and illumine it that to all
appearances the window will be identical with the ray of
sunlight and shine just as the sun’s ray. Although
obviously the nature of the window is distinct from that of
the sun’s ray (even if the two seem identical), we can
assert that the window is the ray or light of the sun by
participation. The soul on which the divine light of God’s
being is ever shining, or better, in which it is ever
dwelling by nature, is like this window, as we have
affirmed.” (CW, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, Ch.
5, p. 164)
38
Accordingly, because Nothing supports the second

dimension, which, in turn, supports the third dimension, its
selflessness is invisibly present throughout all forms. The
certainty of Nothing’s existence is subjectively confirmed by
an intellect that comprehends its paradoxical nature which is
that it both exists and does not exist. Due to this paradoxical
nature, Nothing is apprehended by the intellect in a circum-
scribed way. This circumscription can be thought of as a
sheath of pure light that surrounds Nothing, and this light is
the Perfect Light that is ‘reflected’ by the ‘reflective will’ of
an intellect that seeks to know the Truth within itself by the
attunement of its selfless reason to the Spirit of Selfless
Reason.
To know the Truth within oneself it is imperative to listen
to the Spirit of Selfless Reason Who is the Living Word:
“Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like
someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and, once
he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately
forgets it.” (James 1:23-24) It is the Living Word within
oneself that one must be attentive to: “You search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and
these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to
come to Me that you may have life.” (Luke 5:39-40) From the
aforesaid, it is clear that to have life one should go to Christ
Jesus, and to go to Him one should resolve to decrease
reliance upon the written word to increase reliance upon
Him…Who is the Living Word. Scripture makes known the
single nature of the Living Word and God:
“In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God
and the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning. Through Him all things came into being, not
one thing came into being except through Him. What has
come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of
men; and light shines in the darkness, and darkness could
not overpower it.” (John 1:1-5)
39
Unlike an earthly treasure map that can directly lead a

person to an earthly treasure, the written word cannot directly
lead a person to the Living Word because the written word is
earthly but the Living Word is unearthly due to its purely
spiritual nature; consequently, the written word can only mark
the Living Word with a “O” and not an “X” – if you know
what I mean. If the written word could lead one directly to the
Living Word, our savior would not have said: “You search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and
these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to
come to Me that you may have life.” (Luke 5:39-40)
Notably, the written word can lead us up to the Living
Word, as though up to a window, but it cannot take us to the
other side of the window to enjoy unabridged fellowship with
Him because of its earthly and abridged nature. Therefore, one
should practice transferring attention from the written word to
the Living Word until one no longer relies upon the written
word for virtue, but only upon the Living Word (that is the
Spirit of Selfless Reason) who leads one to the perfect virtue
of dispassion – also known as perfect chastity in this book –
which is the giving of self to God. In the light of the aforesaid,
the written word is good in so far as it inspires us – and
provides for us – to increase in virtue and decrease in vice.
There is no job more important than to increase in virtue and
decrease in vice. St. Peter of Damaskos informs us how
dispassion relates to virtue:
“Dispassion is not a single virtue, but it is the name for all

the virtues. A man is not merely one limb, for it is the
many limbs of the body that constitute a man; and not
merely the limbs, but the limbs together with the soul.
Similarly, dispassion is the union of many virtues…” (The
Philokalia, v. III, p. 252)
By the intellect reflecting God’s Spirit of Selfless Reason,

Nothing is substantiated as the sheath of a seed, and this
sheath is the pure will of the intellect that is its soul which has,
40
at the beginning of itself, the end of Divine Mystery (or vice

versa, if you prefer). Thus, a person who seeks to find the
beginning of himself or herself is a person who will find
Divine Mystery. Divine Mystery only imposes the selflessness
of Itself upon the intellect to the degree that the intellect
strives to know the Truth of Itself. In the Gospel of Thomas,
Jesus relates the beginning to the end:
“The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us how our end will be.’
Jesus said, ‘Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that
you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there
will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in
the beginning; he will know the end and will not
experience death.’” (The Nag Hammadi Library, p. 128,
saying #18)
The sheath of Nothing is the mustard seed that Jesus used

to describe the kingdom of Heaven: “He went on to say,
‘What is the kingdom of Heaven like? What shall I compare it
with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw
into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the
air sheltered in its branches.’” (Luke 13:18-19) The birds,
which take shelter in the branches of the growing seed,
represent the thoughts of the intellect which flee unholy
thoughts and enter, one by one, into the shelter of Nothing.
To the birds this shelter seems to bring about more evil,
but in reality, the evil that the birds perceive is evil that is
aroused by their faithful flight into Nothing; consequently, the
birds are forced to fight as they fly, hence – the good fight.
God gives timely encouragement to these brave little birds that
cannot see to where they are flying, but only that they are
trying to fly away from evil thoughts by entering into a place
where such thoughts cannot enter. St. Teresa of Avila carefully
reveals the destination of these birds: “…and a host of little
birds seem to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper
part of the head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be.”
((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 558) IV Mansions, i; Peers, II, p. 234)
41
The kingdom of Heaven is grown by God who sees the

effort of the little birds trying to flee the vampire bats of evil
by entering into the safety of Nothing. These vampire bats, no
matter how much they desperately want to impose themselves
upon the birds, cannot do so once the birds rest peacefully in
Nothing. In the absence of this contested peace, however, the
vampire bats can join themselves to worldly birds and, without
stirring suspicion, they can affect the birds to create ‘grounding’
and/or ‘disorienting’ emotional energies – by way of creative
force – so the birds are either grounded or disoriented, and
thereby, caused to fly into obstacles – including the ground
itself! The grounding energies include: greed, lust without
restraint, apathy, pride, hate, revenge, offensive violence, non-
forgiveness and non-guilt. The disorienting energies include:
doubt, guilt, melancholy, boredom, lust with restraint, the
sense of being wronged, anger, fear, defensive violence, grief,
slothfulness, worry, penetrative loneliness and bitterness.
It seems to me that the difference between the categories
is this: The first category lists energies that blind people from
seeing the good of striving so they will not strive. The second
category lists energies that challenge people who strive upon
the narrow path, thereby, strengthening them – like athletes
who are made stronger through their resisting opposing forces
– so they may complete the journey to dispassion; dispassion
being the dim worldly reflection of starlight spiritual perfection,
of which, Jesus spoke: “Then the upright will shine like the
sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears
should listen!” (Matthew 13:43)
Despite the hierarchy of these categories, some of these
energies can switch from one category to the other, thereby
having unexpected affects. Always be on-guard because – like
fire which can keep one warm during cold nights, and yet also
burn – some of them have advantages as well as disadvantages
so always be prudent. For example: slothfulness can help a
person rest and/or think about his or her spiritual journey, but
slothfulness can also cause the intellect to lower its defenses
against the powers of evil, whereby they could capture its
42
attention to dirty it with unholy thoughts.

Out of all these energies, I think penetrative loneliness
and bitterness should be addressed because they are rarely
addressed, and therefore, the least understood. Regarding the
energy of penetrative loneliness; there are times in life when
one finds oneself without the intimate company of another and
reflexively desires the particular companionship that could
assuage the loneliness. In such times, one should instead strive
with faithful might to direct one’s attention towards Jesus to
seek out His intimate companionship which is purely spiritual.
It is through Jesus that the venom of this loneliness is purged.
When this venom is purged, the birds of the intellect have
greater strength to strive into the encompassing perspective of
love because their attention is no longer focused upon, and
thereby feeding, the disorienting energy of this illusionary
loneliness. The illusion of this loneliness is exposed as one
opens-up to the Spirit of Selfless Reason and comes to realize
the godliness of perfect chastity.
St. Teresa of Avila sets down the two kinds of love that
are beneficial for striving into the encompassing perspective:
“There are two kinds of love which I am describing. The first
one is purely spiritual, and apparently has nothing to do with
sensuality or the tenderness of our nature, either of which
might stain its purity. The other is also spiritual, but mingled
with it are our sensuality and weakness; yet it is a worthy love,
which, as between relatives and friends, seems lawful.”
((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 262) Way of Perfection, iv; Peers, II, p.
19, italics hers) And she speaks of the one that strikes with
penetrative loneliness: “There is no need for us to ever take
such things upon our lips, sisters, or even to think of them, or
to remember that they exist anywhere in the world; you must
never listen to anyone speaking of such affections, either in
jest or in earnest.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 262) Way of
Perfection, vii; Peers, II, p. 31, first italics hers)
Regarding bitterness, which often stems from penetrative
loneliness, St. Paul tells us: “Seek peace with all people, and
the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. Be
43
careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no

root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this
can poison a large number.” (Hebrews 12:14-15, italics his)
Although I am sure that someone else could write more
extensively and knowledgeably about bitterness and the above
verse, I will simply write from my heart regarding my own
experience with bitterness.
Bitterness sometimes comes to a striver when he or she
sees people enjoying what he or she can no longer enjoy.
When faced with this feeling, the striver should remember that
he or she is making minor short-term sacrifices for major
long-term benefits and that it is better to suffer in this life than,
in the next life, to regret not having suffered enough.
A discerning person should not allow himself or herself to
believe that he or she need not seek the spiritual perfection
that is found through the Spirit of Selfless Reason. In fact, it is
God’s will that one should seek spiritual perfection as well as
one can despite the vampire bats of evil and the gravity of the
world. The call to seek spiritual perfection is advocated by
Jesus: “You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly
Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
44
Part II
Jesus Leads the Way to Nothing
Chapter 5
Seeking the Truth is Striving after Jesus
You might ask: “Of what importance is seeking the Truth that
we should be so obligated to it and perhaps we are altogether
relieved from seeking the Truth since Jesus died for our sins?”
It is unwise and careless to not seek the Truth because we
were instructed by Jesus to seek the Truth because it is the
Truth that sets a person free from the binds of sin. Jesus said
to the people who believed in Him: “If you make my word
your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to
know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-
32)
The essential purpose of Jesus’ life, crucifixion and
resurrection was to capture the love of people to bring their
attention to Himself and His word; His word being that the
Truth should be sought through Him by way of the narrow
path. As it has providentially turned-out, the reality is not so
much that we are seeking, but that we are striving to follow
Jesus, Who is the Spirit of Selfless Reason, upon the narrow
path so we may come to know the Truth that we would have
been seeking if we did not have Him, Our Savior, to follow.
The narrow path is not something for us to be idle upon,
but it is something for us to willfully move forward upon. St.
45
Teresa of Avila advises us: “So take my advice and do not

tarry on the way, but strive like strong men until you die in the
attempt, for you are here for nothing else than to strive…
always pursue this determination to die rather than fail to
reach the end of the road.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 479) Way of
Perfection, xx; Peers, II, p. 85-6)
The belief that Jesus’ sacrifice relieves you from His most
encompassing commandment, which is that one should strive
for spiritual perfection, is a belief that should be thoughtfully
examined because His encompassing commandment includes
the basic commandment that we should love one another just
as the Father loves us (Luke 6:36). St. Peter of Damaskos
supports Jesus’ encompassing commandment to strive for
spiritual perfection:
“It is now that the devil, having failed in all his other
schemes, tempts us with thoughts of despair: he tries to
persuade us that in the past things were different and that
the men through whom God performed wonders for the
strengthening of the faith were not like us. He also tells us
that there is now no need for such exertion. For are we not
now all of us Christians and all baptized? ‘He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved’ (Mark 16:16).
What more do we need? But if we succumb to this
temptation and remain as we are, we will be completely
barren. We will be Christians only in name, not realizing
that he who has believed and been baptized must keep all
Christ’s commandments…
“Everyone who is baptized renounces the devil, saying, ‘I

renounce Satan and all his works, and I join myself to
Christ and all His works.’ But where is our renunciation, if
we do not abandon every passion and desist from every
sinful act that the devil promotes? Rather, let us hate such
things with all our soul and show our love for Christ
through the keeping of His commandments….” (The
46
Further signifying the importance of striving for spiritual

perfection are Jesus’ words:
“It is not anyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will
enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the
will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many
will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name, drive out demons in your name, work many
miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their
faces: I have never known you; away from me all evil
doers!” (Matthew 7:21-23)
It would seem that if a person does not strive after Jesus

then His miracles have had little impact upon that person, for
His miracles were meant to open the closed minds of people
so they would believe in the selfless precepts that He was
teaching, and thereby, be inspired to follow Him. Scripture
brings to light the stubborn problem of closed-mindedness:
“Then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind dropped.
They were utterly and completely dumb-founded because they
had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds
were closed.” (Mark 6:51-52) Faith is Jesus’ cure for closed-
mindedness. Specifically, while closed-mindedness keeps a
person from seeing the ‘beckoning’ value of Jesus’ miracles,
faith leads a person to devoutly follow Him despite his or her
inability to see.
One can either follow Jesus from a distance or without
distance; it is preferable, however, that one should strive to
follow Him without distance. Whatever the case might be,
faith that leads a person to follow Jesus is faith that is made
alive through the work of following Him as well as one can.
Furthermore, in the work of following Jesus, all other works
are brought into the context of Himself wherein faith is
perfected (James 2:26). Regarding faith, St. Thalassios says:
“The intellect that begins to pursue divine wisdom starts with
faith; it then passes through the intermediate stages until it
arrives once more at faith, though this time of the highest
47
type.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 330, #78)

Jesus describes the two different ends that reflect a
person’s decision to either follow Him or not:
“Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine

and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his
house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew
and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not
fall: it was founded on a rock. But everyone who listens to
these words of mine and does not act on them will be like
a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came
down, floods rose, and gales blew and struck that house,
and it fell; and what a fall it had!” (Matthew 7:24-27)
In view of Jesus’ compelling words, would it not be wise

that you should ask Him: “What must I do to fulfill the will of
our Father in heaven?” I am certain, that if you listen, He will
answer your question with “Come, follow Me.”
In following Jesus, the wise intellect keeps faithful
‘shock-absorbers’ to give itself a journeyman’s cushion for
questions and experiences that are neither easily answered nor
explained while journeying upon the narrow path. For
example: it is profitable to accept by faith that you are better
off to neither consume meat nor alcoholic beverages nor too
much water or food before going to bed lest you waste
precious time upon the narrow path because of the failures that
these things, more often than not, bring about (1 Corinthians
8:13; Ephesians 5:18; The Philokalia, v. II, p. 327, #33). In
short, know what, and how much, you eat and drink and how
they affect you lest your will be weakened. Regarding will, St.
Teresa of Avila informs us: “Do not suppose that God has any
need of our works, what he needs is the resoluteness of our
will.” (The Interior Castle, the Third Mansion, Ch. 1)
Undoubtedly, during this journey you will experience
many failures and you will be tempted to give-up because of
them. But persevere by the power of conviction and break
away from the justification that condemns one to the prospect
48
of a second death in the afterlife. Remember that justification

is a repetitious exit along the narrow path, but in Nothing there
is not anything to justify.
Resist justifying sin even if your head becomes discom-
forted because the illusion of enjoying sin is only conquered
by resisting sin; and, if you feel sadness because of your
resistance, “Think of the way that Jesus persevered against
such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart
and come to grief. In the fight against sin, you have not yet
had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.” (Hebrews
12:3-4) In this fight there will come a time when you will have
traveled too far and struggled too hard to allow yourself to fall
back. When this time comes then the journey will be easier.
49
Chapter 6
The Work that Sin Fears
The highest parts of a ship are its sails that ‘capture’ the wind.
The sails can be seen from a far distance because of the
sunlight that they reflect as they tower grandly above the ship.
If the ship did not have its sails, it would only be able to move
by the slow and random currents of the ocean. The ship that
we are interested in is the one that is christened ‘Material.’
The ship’s sails are the sails of the intellect which capture the
whistling wind of Love by their second dimensionality, the
ship’s hull is the hull of flesh, and the sails are bound to the
hull by the ropes of instinct which are extensions of the sails –
but with a measurement of depth that increases as they
cascade to the hull of flesh. Specifically, the ropes of instinct
are: pleasure, pain, habits, slothfulness, curiosity and images
that are either from memories or fantasies. Lastly, the ship is
occupied by the stowaways of sin (Matthew 12:43-45).
In relation to the sails of the intellect, the violable ic-
aspect is the horizontal distance between the sails and within
this distance are the first dimensional strings that both invoke
and merge into the sails of the intellect making them second
dimensional; albeit more so at their edges. As noted earlier,
the first dimension – being either length or width to our
philosophical understanding – cannot exist outside of Nothing
without instantaneously invoking the reality of the second
dimension. To surmount the notion that something should not
be able to exist within Nothing – as such existence would have
to exist outside of Nothing lest it nullify the non-existent
50
nature of Nothing – we will need to employ philosophical

rationality to accept the first dimensional strings as enigmatic
fibers within Nothing that both create and merge into the
second dimensional sails of the intellect in much the same way
that threads form linen.
It is important to note that just as thread can form “second
dimensional” linen as well as balls of yarn, so too can the first
dimensional strings form not only refined second dimensional
sails, but also bulky hulls of flesh; thus, so far as we are
concerned, all objects in the universe are made from first
dimensional strings. Even though all objects in the universe
are made from first dimensional strings, only second dimen-
sional sails can comprehend the wind of Love in such a way as
to receive creative force and direct it as owner. This ownership
is due to the correlative relationship between the Nothing of
the sails and the wind of Love.
You might ask: How can anything with a depth of zero
make anything bulky, as zero plus zero and so on… equals
zero? I counter that zero plus zero and so on…will eventually
– at some point – add to one. I believe that this is possible
because even though the strings possess zero depth, the part of
their being which is not designated as depth – namely, their
length and width – must be able to effect mass as they
somehow must not be zero due to their proximate existence.
Even though proximate existence from zero might seem to be
impossible according to worldly logic, it is not impossible by
heavenly logic because nothing is impossible for God
(Matthew 19:26).
The idea that nothing is impossible for God is substant-
iated by the mysterious fact that energy can be transformed
into matter – and vice versa – as shown in Einstein’s equation:
E = mc². Moreover, regarding the impossible being possible,
consider the vast amount of energy that is contained within a
single hydrogen atom as observed from atomic explosions.
Essentially, there are many things that we would have
considered to be impossible only a few decades ago that we
now know are possible even though we might not understand
51
either the physics or mathematics involved, therefore, the idea

that zero plus zero and so on will eventually add to one should
not be considered impossible.
From within the wind of Love, the first dimensional
strings connect the sails of the intellect to each other; because
of the first dimensional strings – and because of the hull of
flesh which evolved the sails of the intellect to comprehend
Love – the sails of the intellect exist and are alive. For the
most part, the stowaways of sin effect the violable ic-aspect by
entrenching themselves in the sails’ distances to either affect
or effect: images, feelings and/or emotional energies through
the intellectually unguarded first dimensional strings. In
particular, the stowaways of sin like to use feelings of either
guilt or guiltlessness which, as illustrated in the story of
Huckleberry Finn, can be unreliable and even harmful if not
thoughtfully examined.
Due to the Selfless Origin of the first dimensional strings,
whenever the sails need selflessness to reason selflessly, the
distance between them decreases and they move upwards into
the wind of Love to receive selflessness; consequently, the
stowaways of sin have less space to promote unreliable
feelings by way of the violable ic-aspect. In the event of
having less space, guilt is the stowaways’ most effective
means to secure the distance between the sails. Whenever the
sails do not use selfless reason, the distance between them
increases and they move downwards towards ‘Material’;
consequently, the stowaways of sin have more space to
promote unreliable feelings by way of the violable ic-aspect.
In the event of having more space, guiltlessness is the
stowaways most effective means to maintain the distance
between the sails; thereby, keeping them near to ‘Material’
and far from the wind of Love. As illustrated, the horizontal
distance between the sails of the intellect inversely affects
their vertical distance from ‘Material.’ There are basically
three distances:
At the least distance from ‘Material,’ the sails have

52
the greatest distance between themselves and are

therefore weak in selfless reason. Specifically, they
are weak in selfless reason because they are nearer to
that which encourages remembrance-of-self; conse-
quently, the stowaways of sin have the greatest space
to promote unreliable feelings. At an average
distance from ‘Material,’ the sails have an average
distance between themselves and are therefore
average in selfless reason; consequently, the
stowaways of sin have an average space to promote
unreliable feelings. At the greatest distance from
‘Material,’ the sails have the least distance between
themselves – this distance being zero – and therefore,
they are superbly strong in selfless reason. Specific-
ally, they are superbly strong in selfless reason
because they are nearer to that which encourages
forgetfulness-of-self; consequently, the stowaways of
sin have no space to promote unreliable feelings. In
other words, when the sails are farthest from each
other and nearest to ‘Material,’ then the violable ic-
aspect is least guarded by them; but, when the sails
are nearest to each other and farthest from ‘Material,’
then the violable ic-aspect is most guarded by them
because they completely embrace the wind of Love
and are responsively embraced by It (James 4:8).
In accordance with St. Augustine’s iconic words

regarding the relationship between self-knowledge and
knowledge of God, the sails of the intellect – without the
distance of conscience – know themselves, and therefore, they
know the wind of Love. At this extreme of virtue a person is –
as we learned from St. Thalassios – not judged by his or her
conscience because his or her intellect has become a judge
over it by the Spirit of Selfless Reason. Appreciably, to rule-
over the conscience engenders freedom from the ‘guilt-traps’
that mark many religions.
By way of religion or superstition, the conscience can
53
affect people to passionately embrace nominal goods – such as

the desire to not kill animals – and by this means, it can
distract people from the maximal good of seeking dispassion
by giving the appearance that not killing animals is the
maximal good. The ability of the conscience to distract people
from the true maximal good of seeking dispassion seems to be
imbedded in the practice of Buddhism as many Buddhists will
go to great lengths to not harm even the smallest of animals,
such as bugs, lest they suffer from guilt induced by the
conscience. Ironically, these sufferings of conscience reveal
that the intellect has not mastered the conscience as can be
achieved through the maximal good of seeking dispassion
through the Spirit of Selfless Reason (Matthew 21:18-21).
Undoubtedly, if a Buddhist is kind to animals because the
Spirit of Selfless Reason determines his or her actions and not
the conscience, then he or she has more-or-less mastered the
conscience and is well-positioned to seek dispassion. Ironically,
the conscience has never caused a person to feel guilty for not
seeking the maximal good of dispassion. To seek the maximal
good of dispassion, God has given us His Spirit of Selfless
Reason by which we are enabled to master the conscience and
to fight the stowaways of sin within ourselves to fulfill
dispassion and to extend, whenever possible, mercy and
compassion to creatures – especially to creatures that
demonstrate gentleness and sensitivity to feeling. Along these
lines, remember that in the cosmos the perfect bond of love
between creature and Creator is not dependent upon the
creature’s shape or form, but upon the creature’s intellectual
will to seek the Creator who is Truth Itself.
If you have already found the path of dispassion from a
religion other than Christianity, then you need not read the rest
of this book lest you avail yourself to mental confusion and, as
a result of that, to spiritual confusion. It is certain that God,
being Love, selflessly offers Himself to be known through
human ‘formulas of religion’ (however imperfect or contam-
inated) to help people discover the Life, Light and Truth of
Himself.
54
The stowaways of sin enjoy riding upon the ship as it sails

upon the sea by the force of the wind. These stowaways
opportunistically try to steer the ship by pulling upon the ropes
of instinct to influence the sails of the intellect. Compre-
hending the divine nature of the wind, the stowaways of sin do
not want the sails of the intellect to have anything more than a
casual relationship with the wind lest the sails come to
comprehend the true power of the wind and try to take flight
into it, thereby abandoning ‘Material.’
Wicked as they are, the stowaways of sin desire to
influence the sails of the intellect to steer the ship into more
corrupted waters, but in so doing, they risk awakening within
the sails a desire to escape into the wind of Love which is
incorruptible. There is a Gnostic text, titled The Exegesis of
the Soul, which illustrates the intellect’s movement from
‘Material’ to Love because of its revelatory perception of the
world’s corrupted waters:
“As long as the soul keeps running about everywhere

copulating with whomever she meets and defiling herself,
she exists suffering her just deserts. But when she perceives
the straits she is in and weeps before the father and
repents, then the father will have mercy on her and he will
make her womb [the intellect] turn from the external
domain and will turn it again inward, so that the soul will
regain her proper character.” (The Nag Hammadi Library,
p. 194)
It is advantageous for the stowaways of sin to leave ships

in average waters lest they find selfless desire to escape into
the wind of Love due to their perception of the dire straits that
characterize more corrupted waters. Jesus revealed that a soul
need not be in dire straits to perceive that she is in straits
nonetheless:
Jesus said to them, “In truth I tell you, tax collectors and
prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of
Heaven before you. For John came to you, showing the
55
way of uprightness, but you did not believe him, and yet
the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing
that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.”
(Matthew 21:31-32)
Indeed, the stowaways of sin want the sails of the intellect

to fulfill their endless desires within the limited perspective of
the world lest they quench their desires within the encomp-
assing perspective of the wind which is endless as it goes
beyond the world (Luke 9:24-25).
To take flight into the wind of Love is to become one with
It and the Perfect Light that shines through the invisibility of
Itself. The stowaways of sin try to prevent this transformation
from happening by pulling upon the ropes of instinct to keep
the sails of the intellect divided in will and attached to
‘Material.’ The sail’s proclivity to submit to the stowaways of
sin is because they do not easily differentiate themselves from
either the ropes of instinct or the hull of flesh; consequently,
they remain disposed to these lower natures never seeking the
unity of will that is to be found in the wind of Love. The
inclination to remain in conformity with the worldly and
divisive pattern of ‘Material’ remains until the sails of the
intellect feel their way and strive up and into the wind of
Love, of which, the Perfect Light of Christ shines through.
To the intellect, this change is a movement from
Material’s ‘will-to-be-by-being’ to Nothing’s ‘will-to-be-by-
not-being.’ This movement requires the instinctive will to
survive; in the Gospel of Thomas, it seems that Jesus
expressed the importance of harnessing this will: “Jesus said,
‘That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from
yourselves. That which you do not have within you [will] kill
you if you do not have it within you.’” (The Nag Hammadi
Library, p. 134, saying #70)
Because of the divine treasure that the stowaways of sin
want to plunder, they are actually like pirates and if a person
is not mentally prepared to combat them, they can affect him
or her to not strive after Jesus. Regarding the pirates of sin, St.
56
John of the Cross says: “They invariably hinder the soul from
seeking its good, since they are opposed to its going forth in
freedom. These are they of whom Our Savior speaks in the
Gospel (Matthew 10:36), saying that they are the enemies of
man.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 484) Dark Night, Bk. II, xiv;
Peers, I, p. 419)
The pirates’ expertise in influencing human judgment is
evidenced in the way that people, from all walks of life, are
able to effortlessly judge and even hate others. As irrational as
hatred and unkindness are, how easily the pirates of sin are
able to sway otherwise rational people to fulfill these unloving
ends. By fulfilling these ends, people keep themselves from
finding the encompassing perspective of love because they
follow the limited perspective of the world which camouflages
the pirates of sin with animalistic/worldly patterns. Scripture
reveals to us that these patterns can affect the intellect: “Do
not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
Regarding animalistic/worldly patterns, an early Christian
named Silvanus said:
“But I say that God is the spiritual one. Man has taken
shape from the substance of God. The divine soul shares
partly in this One [God]; furthermore, it shares partly in
the flesh. The base soul is wont to turn from side to side
[…] which it imagines as truth.
“It is [good] for you, O man, to turn yourself toward the

human rather than toward the animal nature – I mean
toward the fleshy [nature]. You will take on the likeness
of the part toward which you will turn yourself.” (The Nag
Hammadi Library, The Teachings of Silvanus, p. 385)
In striving to not conform to the pattern of this world, it

helps to be aware that the pirates of sin are experts at reverse
psychology, therefore, do not mistake their thoughts as your
own – strive to know yourself. In truth, you should not even
57
trust yourself – even your astral self – until you are in the
habit of striving. To stress this point, St John of the Cross goes
so far as to say that “Those who trust in themselves are worse
than the devil.” (CW, p. 97, #166) Along these lines, many
people either feel or think that their lives are affected by the
movements of the stars, but in reality, their lives are affected
by the sin within themselves.
To encourage overcoming the materialistic order of the
limited perspective, which contradicts the spiritual order of the
encompassing perspective, I will add that striving can be
thought of as the ultimate challenge for the intellect that God
has put forth for it to solve. This challenge, which can be
understood as the effort to strive after Jesus, is a specific cross
to bear and it is not found anywhere else except upon the
narrow path. St. Paul illustratively explains the reason for this
specificity: “Someone who enters an athletic contest wins only
by competing in the sports – a prize can be won only by
competing according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:5)
It is phenomenally important to share the knowledge of
this cosmic contest, as well as its rules, with people who do
not know it lest they miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime
challenge and the divine prize that can be won. In the Spirit of
Selfless Reason, please share this book to inform others of this
cosmic contest.
58
Chapter 7
Comprehending the Relevance of Attention
The way to the Truth is within yourself, and when you go

towards what is eternal within yourself, you will find the Truth
both inside and outside yourself. When I drew near to the
world and its distractions, the intensity of disturbing thoughts
would subside, but when I would strive after the Truth, and
subsequently move nearer to it, the disturbing thoughts would
tempt me without mercy. By such temptations the pirates of
sin sought to alarm me back into the world by attempting to
make me feel uneasy about being in general solitude and
thinking about the Truth and its ‘opening’ questions.
It does not matter what these questions are, but that they
seek to know the Divine Mystery within oneself. St. Augustine
helps us to understand: “Men go abroad to wonder at the
height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long
courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the
circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves
without wondering.” (The Wisdom of the Saints, p. 31)
In a similar fashion, many people today wonder too much
about the end of the world and the so called anti-Christ,
consequently, they pass blindly by themselves without even a
thought to strive against the pirates of sin within themselves.
The same is true of conspiracy theorists; that is, they think too
much about minor conspiracies, but they do not think about
the major conspiracy of the pirates of sin to keep them from
finding, and nurturing, the Truth of God within themselves! It
would seem that the minor conspirators (such as: extra-
59
terrestrials, illuminati, reptilians and so on) are themselves

victims of the pirates’ conspiracy and this victimization is
evidenced by their sexual activities.
The pirates of sin – who are against Christ – do not care
if we are not striving, but they care greatly if we are striving;
for striving after the Truth effects the intellect to spiritually
move towards the Truth of God by way of selfless love for
Him as He is the Truth. By the intellect’s striving, God
reciprocally moves nearer to it by the grace of His love. This
mutual movement between the striving intellect and God is
why it is said: “Come near to God and He will come near to
you.” (James 4:8) Encouragingly, St. John of the Cross says:
“…it must be known that, if a soul is seeking God, its Beloved
is seeking it much more.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 208) Dark
Night, Bk. II, iii; Peers, I, p. 66) This movement of the
intellect is lead by attention.
Attention is the key of striving that must be mastered by
the intellect; for in order for anything to be accomplished or
‘unlocked’ by the intellect, it must first put attention to its
object by way of intellectual will. Attention can be easily
discerned, for example, if you put your attention to any object,
task or thought that same object, task or thought will
simultaneously draw your attention to itself. In the light of this
reality, it can be philosophically surmised that attention is a
spiritual extension of the intellect into the limited perspective.
Regarding attention, St. Maximos says:
“When the intellect gives attention to conceptual images

of physical objects, it is assimilated to the configuration of
each image. If it contemplates these objects spiritually, it
is transformed in various ways according to which of them
it contemplates. But once it is established in God, it loses
form and configuration altogether, for by contemplating
Him who is simple it becomes simple itself and wholly
filled with spiritual radiance.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 98,
#97)
60
In view of St. Maximos’ words, it is clear that attention

can stretch within the imagination as well as to objects that are
within the world – for both the imagination and the world are
outside the soul. But, as we have just learned, when attention
is focused within the soul, then the intellect is contemplating
God who is simple and the origin of spiritual radiance.
Understandably, some people might argue that intention is
the key rather than attention. In my thinking, however, this
view is not the case. For example: If I intend to look at a
bright star in the sky, then it is probable that I will direct my
attention to look at the star in the sky. My intention to do so,
however, does not guarantee the movement of my attention to
look at the star because exterior or interior variables may
distract me from doing what I intend to do – perhaps by even
forming new intentions! Jesus gave a parable showing the
difference between intention and attention:
He asked, “What is your opinion? A man had two sons.

He went and said to the first, ‘My boy, go and work in the
vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not go,’ but
afterwards thought better of it and went. The man then
went and said the same thing to the second who answered,
‘Certainly, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the
father’s will?” They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them,
“In truth I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are
making their way into the kingdom of Heaven before you.
For John came to you, showing the way of uprightness,
but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and
prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think
better of it and believe in him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)
It seems that there are two modes of attention and they are
analogous to the two modes of vision which, to my simple
understanding, are focused and peripheral. With vision, when
a person focuses on a particular object, all other objects within
the field of vision fade into what is called peripheral vision. In
the same manner, when a person has his or her attention
focused upon God, the world then fades into his or her
61
peripheral attention; but when a person has his or her attention

focused upon the world, then it is God who fades into the
person’s peripheral attention with the result that He is not fully
realized – if at all. Scripture expands upon the sensitive nature
of attention:
“I should like you to have your minds free from all worry.
The unmarried man gives his mind to the Lord’s affairs
and to how he can please the Lord; but the man who is
married gives his mind to the affairs of this world and to
how he can please his wife, and he is divided in mind. So,
too, the unmarried woman, and the virgin, gives her mind
to the Lord’s affairs and to being holy in body and spirit;
but the married woman gives her mind to the affairs of
this world and to how she can please her husband. I am
saying this only to help you, not to put a bridle on you, but
so that everything is as it should be, and you are able to
give your undivided attention to the Lord.” (1 Corinthians
7:32-35)
In view of the aforesaid, the monotony-of-monogamy is a

practical way for couples to give and strengthen undivided
attention to the Lord. By following this proclivity, couples can
pragmatically distance themselves from ‘Material’ to do some
meditative reading that will hopefully encourage them to the
chastity of charitable love, thereby, bringing their limited
perspective of love closer to the encompassing perspective and
even onward. As follows, parents should not only nurture
charitable love between themselves, but also between their
beloved children and other relationships as well for charitable
love connects everyone to each other in the selflessness of
uncontaminated love (Mark 10:13-16). Regarding husbands
and wives, St. John of the Cross says:
“Indeed it would also be vanity for a husband and wife to

rejoice in their marriage when they are uncertain whether
God is being better served by it. They should rather be
perplexed, for as St. Paul declares, matrimony is the cause
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of not centering the heart entirely on God, since the hearts

of the couple are set on one another (1 Corinthians 7:32-
35, see this verse above). He advises consequently: If you
are free from a wife [or husband] do not seek one, but if
you already have one, be as free of heart as if you had
none (1 Corinthians 7:27-29). (CW, p. 297)
Striving is essentially an interior action and one of the

signs of its beginning is contemplation which, in my view, is
attention that is either put directly into the selflessness of
oneself or upon Christian symbols of selflessness (such as the
charity and suffering of our Lord Jesus) which can then be
used to strengthen one’s desire to become habitually selfless in
the wind of Love. Many intellects are not able to sustain the
repose of contemplation because they do not strive to uphold
and strengthen their ‘forgetfulness’ of ‘Material,’ of which,
the pirates of sin are proficient at getting the intellect to
remember.
By tempting the sails of the intellect to remember
‘Material’ in a sensual way, the sails of the intellect – if they
provoke the temptation either mentally or physically – will fall
back into the sensual-nature of ‘Material.’ In falling back, the
sails of the intellect become disunited from the wind of Love
and they have to strive again until they find the will to keep
perfect unity with the wind of Love despite: the pirates of sin,
the hull of flesh, and the world. I think that it was for this
reason that St. John of the Cross said that the three enemies of
the soul are: the devil, the flesh, and the world (CW, p. 361).
For the most part, the sails of the intellect become disunited
from the wind of Love because their attention has yet to be
perfectly trained to focus upon the virtue of dispassion, and
therefore, they are easily distracted by the suffering of self-
sacrifice. It is through this suffering that the pirates of sin
incrementally move the sail’s focused attention from the wind
of Love to ‘Material,’ and by this means, hinders their
transformation into the wind of Love.
In The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A. Kempis, Jesus
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comforts the disciple that suffers from self-sacrifice:
“My child, I came down from heaven for your salvation

and took upon myself your miseries, not out of necessity
but out of love, that you might learn to be patient and bear
the sufferings of this life without repining. From the
moment of my birth to my death on the cross, suffering
did not leave me. I suffered great want of temporal goods.
Often I heard many complaints against me. Disgrace and
reviling I bore with patience. For my blessings I received
ingratitude, for my miracles blasphemies, and for my
teaching scorn.” (The Imitation of Christ, Ch. 18, p. 118-
19)
Like a child learning how to walk, the intellect will fall

many times until it learns how to walk perfectly by the many
falls that are endured. A child does not make itself fall on
purpose, but it falls while it desires to not fall, consequently,
when the child gets back up it has earned true learning. By this
method of learning, which is dependent upon the Spirit of
Selfless Reason, the will of the intellect matures and becomes
more stable in the four regions of Nothing (as mentioned
earlier, they are: humility, faith, chastity and repentance-
forgiveness) as its desire to fulfill dispassion becomes more
proficient through His grace.
Incidentally, it is no coincidence that Jesus fell three times
and got up three times while carrying the cross. Our Lord gave
us the example of His perseverance to inspire us to persevere
upon the narrow path despite our own falls and personal bouts
with suffering. In surrendering to Jesus we must necessarily
surrender to suffering (2 Timothy 2:3). Regarding suffering,
St. John of the Cross says: “Suffering for God is better than
working miracles.” (CW, p. 97)
The pirates of sin are sneaky and an immature intellect
will not realize their manipulations because the attention of
itself has yet to be adequately undivided from the pursuit of
materialistic self-love and worldly affairs by way of striving.
64
This dilemma is why it is so important to do one’s best to not

have a divided will while striving after the Truth, which is,
ironically, the effort to not have a divided will; for just as a bar
that is slanted is not balanced, a will that is divided is not
united (Mark 3:24-25). Through the words of St. Paul, we can
get an idea of the tireless athletic attention that is needed to
gain the prize that God wants for us:
“Not that I have secured it already, not yet reached my

goal, but I am still pursuing it in the attempt to take hold
of the prize for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers, I do not reckon myself as having taken hold of
it; I can only say that forgetting all that lies behind me,
and straining forward to what lies in front, I am racing
towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God’s
heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)
Attention to striving after the Truth of Christ is what

mends the divided nature of the intellect, consequently, if a
potential striver does not make the effort to strive, then he or
she will continue to be influenced by not only the pirates of
sin, but also by people who might affect him or her to rest
upon the narrow path – and to even forsake God’s heavenly
call in Christ Jesus. Jesus cautions us about these people:
“Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind; and if
one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.”
(Matthew 15:14)
To venture from the narrow path is to risk losing touch
with the feeling of God’s grace which helps to guide one along
the narrow path. The striver that continues onward and yet
feels that he or she has lost touch with the feeling of God’s
grace must keep faith and continue striving upon the narrow
path even though it feels like a desert. St. Teresa of Avila, who
knew well the hardships of this desert, wrote on her
bookmark: “Everything passes. Patience obtains all things.”
(APSOCS, vol. I, p. 247)
The striver must continue onward by faith despite the
65
feeling of losing God’s grace because this feeling can come

from the pirates of sin through the violable ic-aspect as a
clever means to get the striver off the narrow path of
dispassion. Nevertheless, a striver can feel the actual loss of
God’s grace if she gets off the narrow path because of her
desire to fulfill either an action or judgment that contradicts
selfless reason as it pertains to dispassion. Naturally, if a
striver moves from the narrow path because she was deceived
by the pirates of sin, she will soon feel the actual loss of grace
as she will have moved from the narrow path all the same.
Actions and judgments that fulfill self are possible because of
freewill, but actions and judgments that fulfill selflessness are
possible because of the grace of self-determination which can
be thought of as freewill being maximally used.
By using the grace of self-determination to journey upon
the narrow path, the striver eventually learns to walk with
perfect self-determination upon it. When perfect self-
determination is found then the ditches of temptation are
rendered useless because perfect self-determination is
determination that belongs not to self, but to selflessness
which belongs to the Spirit of Love. Thus, perfect self-
determination is the fulfillment of the intellect’s freewill to
escape into the wind of Love wherein it can be free from the
passions of ‘Material.’
Until the intellect finds perfect self-determination it will
continue slipping into the ditches of temptation which grow
deeper and darker as it progresses along the ever-narrowing
narrow path. Undoubtedly, ‘slipping’ attention is reflective of
an intellect that has yet to find the state-of-being where the
ditches of temptation are rendered useless to the pirates of sin.
The ditches of temptation are rendered useless when the
intellect finds its cure – this cure being, as St. John of the
Cross says, “…God Himself.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 482)
Dark Night, Bk. II, xvi; Peers, I, p. 425) Regarding a healthy
soul, St. Maximos says: “Once the soul starts to feel its own
good health, the images in its dreams are also calm and free
from passion.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 63, #89)
66
To gain a greater understanding of the aforesaid, consider

that if a man were to walk either on a plain or on a downward
slope the walk would be easy, therefore, this walk would be
indicative of freewill because there is little effort, if any,
exerted by the man to make this walk. But, if a man were to
walk upward on a mountain the walk would be difficult,
therefore, this walk would be indicative of self-determination
because there is great effort exerted by the man. In the light of
this illustration, we can see that self-determination is freewill
that is maximally used.
The “grace” in the grace of self-determination is indica-
tive of God’s assistance to a man to make his self-determined
walk less difficult so he will be able to complete it. It is by
grace that a man learns to walk with perfect self-determination
which is walking, so to speak, without a helping hand. The
walk is completed when the man makes it to the summit of the
mountain. At the summit, the man attains perfect freewill as
there is not anything easier or more free than resting upon the
summit of the mountain disentangled from the jungle that is
far below. While resting upon the summit, the man sees and
understands things that he could neither see nor understand
when he lived in the jungle. For example, before finding the
summit, the man thought that the blanket of clouds above the
jungle was the entirety of the night sky – in much the same
way that flesh is often thought to be the entirety of a human –
but now he understands that the clouds actually hid the night
sky which is eternally beautiful and mysterious.
While striving upon the narrow path, believe God’s
words: “In whatever proportion that ‘Material’ attracts your
attention to itself, you must give a greater proportion of your
attention to Me in order to conquer the lure of ‘Material.’
Focus your attention upon the fact that I am with you so that
when you are resisting you can know that I am resisting with
you to fulfill the degree of your desire to resist. This help is
the grace of self-determination.” Regarding this help, St.
Theodoros says:
67
“While we are oppressed and imprisoned by the passions,

we are often at a loss to know why we suffer from them.
We must, therefore, realize that it is because we allow
ourselves to be diverted from the contemplation of God
that we are taken captive in this way. But if a man fixes
his intellect without distraction on our Master and God,
then the Savior of all can Himself be trusted to deliver
such a soul from its impassioned servitude…What is
sweeter or safer than always to have the Lord at our right
hand, protecting and guarding us and not letting us be
moved? And to attain this is within our power.” (The
68
Chapter 8
Forsaking the Lower Natures

Strengthens Spirituality
Just as people can incorrectly believe that the earth is flat, so

too can people incorrectly believe that the flesh is spiritual.
Jesus tried to teach the correct differentiation between flesh
and true spirituality when He said that flesh is flesh and that
Spirit is Spirit (John 3:6). Jesus renounces the flesh further: “It
is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The
words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John
6:63) Confirming the unworldly direction of Jesus’ teaching,
St. Paul says:
“We are always full of confidence, then, realizing that as

long as we are at home in the body we are exiled from the
Lord, guided by faith and not yet by sight; we are full of
confidence, then, and long instead to be exiled from the
body and to be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians
5:6-8)
In order to sensibly comprehend that flesh is flesh and

that Spirit is Spirit, an intellect must move from being
mentally parallel to the flesh, to being mentally perpendicular
to the flesh. This change of orientation is a movement from
the limited perspective to the encompassing perspective. It is a
new pattern of mind. St. John of the Cross explains this
movement in a scientific manner:
“Wherefore, as in natural generation no form can be
69
introduced unless the preceding, contrary form is first

expelled from the subject, which form, while present, is an
impediment to the other by reason of the contrariety which
the two have between each other; even so, for as long as
the soul is subjected to the sensual spirit, the spirit which
is pure and spiritual cannot enter it.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p.
39) Ascent, Bk. I, vi; p. 34)
As the sails of the intellect oppose the hull of flesh they

are also opposing the pirates of sin, for the pirates abide
beneath the sails of the intellect trying to affect them to desire
the hull of flesh and they cleverly use all of the means that are
available to them. One example of the pirates’ cleverness is
when they tie the ropes of instinct to other ships so the
attention of the intellect is not directed towards the wind of
Love, but is directed along the instinctive ropes to fulfill the
nominal good of worldly loves as opposed to the maximal
good of loving God by giving Him all of oneself by way of
attention that is focused upon Him.
When a person practices this maximal good, all of his or
her worldly loves become correctly aligned as they are viewed
peripherally from the focus of the encompassing perspective
that is the wind of Love. Jesus sought to offset the potency of
the instinctive ropes to help the sails of the intellect find the
wind of Love: “Anyone who comes to Me without hating
father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his
own life too, cannot be My disciple. No one who does not
carry his cross and come after Me can be My disciple.” (Luke
14:25-27)
Due to the camouflage of the world, an intellect whose
attention is focused onto other ships of ‘Material,’ as opposed
to seeking the wind of Love, will not be able to discern either
the pirates’ presence or their operations, consequently, it is
important for an intellect to reason objectively so it can find a
watchman’s view from the height of Nothing. This height
being the soul-level height of the intellect that correlates to the
wind of Love. This height is both imageless and selfless.
70
The intellect – by moving its focused attention away from

worldly loves to love God through the imageless-selflessness
of itself – becomes spiritually healed as it recollects into His
Spirit of Selfless Reason. By way of recollection, the
intellect’s attachment to material things is severed and it no
longer experiences affliction since its state of mind no longer
depends upon things that are naturally changeable; essentially,
it does not alter when they do (St. Maximos, The Philokalia, v.
II, p. 162, #95). Regarding spiritual recollection from
‘Material,’ St. Maximos shares his scriptural insight:
“That is why the Lord says, ‘I have said these things to

you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you
will experience affliction; but have courage, for I have
overcome the world.’ (John 16:33) In other words, ‘In Me,
the Logos of virtue, you have peace, for you have been
released from the swirl and turmoil of material passions
and objects; in the world – that is, in a state of attachment
to material things – you are afflicted because of the
successive changes of these things.’ For both he who
practices the virtues and he who loves the world
experience affliction, the first because of the toil which
such practice entails and the second because of the futility
of material things. But the affliction of the first is
salutary,* that of the second corrupting and destructive.
The Lord gives release to both: in the case of the first He
allays the toil of ascetic practice with the contemplation
attained through dispassion, and in the case of the second
He rescinds attachment to corrupted things by means of
repentance.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 162, #95) *Salutary:
favorable to or promoting health; effecting or designed to
effect an improvement.
St. Teresa of Avila adds: “Recollection cannot be begun

by making strenuous efforts, but must come gently, after
which you will be able to practice it for longer periods at a
time.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 177) II Mansions, i; Peers, II, p.
218) She also notes that “His Majesty is quite prepared to wait
71
for many days, and even years, especially when He sees we

are persevering and have good desires. This is the most
necessary thing here; if we have this we cannot fail to gain
greatly.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 176) II Mansions, i; Peers, II, p.
214)
Discovered through faithful effort, spiritual recollection is
the meditative movement of focused attention from the limited
perspective of the world to the imageless-selflessness of the
soul that is the encompassing perspective of love. It is an
inversion of attention. Incidentally, meditation is not
dependent on sitting upright, but on actions and thoughts that
are upright; nevertheless, sitting upright can be a strong
reminder to keep one’s actions and thoughts upright. If you
cannot do ‘sitting’ meditation simply meditate laying down
because in whatever way you choose to meditate, meditation
facilitates mastery-over-self. Before meditating, consider that
the highest construction of alien technology is inconsequential
when compared to the divine construction of meditation – that
is the temple of God (Matthew 21:12-14) – which transcends
all: matter, energy, powers, space and time.
Unfortunately, many strivers – like the young man in the
Bible who decided to not follow Jesus because of the worldly
things that he desired (Mark 10:21-22) – fall prey to the
pirates of sin and they soon abandon the narrow path. It seems
that individuals who are frequently rewarded by the world
because of their physical looks, talents and other endowments,
are more vulnerable to the pirates’ deceptions, consequently,
these individuals will need to think more objectively about
following Jesus to overcome and abandon their jeweled
materiality. Nevertheless, many people whose materiality is
not jeweled by the world are similarly vulnerable because they
focus their attention upon the things that they do not possess,
but that they desire.
While people in both of these groups freely use the
power-of-belief that Jesus revealed to his followers, they use it
– with the ‘help’ of the pirates of sin – for material things that
keep their attention focused upon the limited perspective
72
instead of the encompassing perspective (Matthew 19:23-24).

When Jesus says: “I tell you, therefore, everything you ask
and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be
yours” (Mark 11:24); he is assuming that his audience is
attentive to the encompassing perspective and will therefore
ask God for the resources that are needed to make it there so
dispassion may be fulfilled – as opposed to wasting it upon
worldly pursuits that build-up foolish pride and its accom-
panying vices (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Regarding the resources
that are needed to move nearer to God, St. Maximos says:
“Many are the things of which the believer has need in

order to attain knowledge of God and virtue: deliverance
from passions, patient acceptance of trials, the inner
principles of virtues, the practice of methods of spiritual
warfare, the uprooting of the soul’s predilection for the
flesh, the breaking of the senses’ attachment to sensible
objects, the utter withdrawal of the intellect from all
created things; and, in short, there are countless other
things which help us to reject sin and ignorance and to
attain knowledge and virtue. It was surely because of this
that the Lord said, ‘Whatever you ask for in prayer,
believing, you will receive’ (Matthew 21:22), stating
simply that the devout must seek and ask with
understanding and faith for all those things, and for these
alone, which lead to virtue and knowledge of God. For all
these things are profitable, and unquestionably the Lord
gives to those who ask.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 191,
#17)
Jesus reveals what it is that God wants to give: “If you

then, evil as you are, know how to give to your children what
is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13) Regarding
the gift of the Holy Spirit, St. Maximos says:
“St. Paul refers to the different energies of the Holy Spirit

as different gifts of grace, stating that they are all
73
energized by the one and same Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11).

The ‘manifestation of the Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:7) is given
according to the measure of every man’s faith through
participation in a particular gift of grace. Thus every
believer is receptive to the energy of the Spirit in a way
that corresponds to his degree of faith and the state of his
soul; and this energy grants him the capacity needed to
carry out a particular commandment.” (The Philokalia, v.
II, p. 186, #96)
With the aforesaid words in mind, let us never forget that

to strive is to ask. Despite the seeming impossibility of being
able to strive into the encompassing perspective while being
caught in the gravity of the limited perspective, let us
remember Jesus’ optimistic words: “By human resources this
is impossible; but for God everything is possible.” (Matthew
19:26) St. Maximos explains:
“He who aspires to divine realities willingly allows

providence to lead him by principles of wisdom towards
the grace of deification. He who does not so aspire is
drawn, by the just judgment of God and against his will,
away from evil by various forms of discipline. The first, as
a lover of God, is deified by providence; the second,
although a lover of matter, is held back from perdition by
God’s judgment. For since God is goodness itself, He
heals those who desire it through the principles of wisdom,
and through various forms of discipline cures those who
are sluggish in virtue.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 218, #36)
74
Chapter 9
The Good of Gravity
Something that I observed one day might be useful in helping

the striver see, more clearly, the root dynamics that affect the
intellect’s ‘tug-of-war’ relationship between Spirit and flesh. I
have a rectangular hat rack and within the perimeter of its
rectangle are three different metallic decorations that are
placed equally across the length of the rack. Each decoration is
welded, by its top and bottom, to each of the two bars that
comprise the length of the rectangle. Under each decoration, a
large hook was welded onto the bottom bar so coats and hats
could be hung. Welded on top of the top bar are curvy designs
that are all symmetrical, making the entire rack artful and
balanced. Also, on each end of the top bar are two little iron
‘donuts,’ these donuts designate where the nails are suppose to
go so the rack can be horizontally secured on a wall.
One day I wanted to move the rack from one wall to
another because I wanted to rearrange some pictures. I did not
want the rack to hang slanted so I got a ruler and proceeded to
measure the distance from the ceiling to where the nails were
going to be hammered into the wall – one through each of the
two donuts. I made my two marks on the wall with a pencil,
hammered the nails in, and placed the rack onto the wall – and
it turned out to be slanted.
I thought I had made some mistake so I re-measured, and
the rack still turned out to be slanted. I soon realized that I was
not measuring wrong, but that the edge of the ceiling against
that particular wall was slanted and this imperfection was
75
making the rack slant. I thought about this situation and

realized that I would not be able to depend upon my ruler
because my point-of-reference, which was the ceiling, was
slanted and this imperfection was making the rack slant.
I decided that I would have to use the earth as my point-
of-reference and simply hammer in one nail underneath the
center of the top bar, and then hammer in the two nails that
would secure the rack onto the wall. By using the earth’s
gravity, I was able to hang the rack so it was not slanted, but
level. Interestingly, if the ceiling could think it would have
thought that the rack was slanted – but not itself.
Relating this story to our discussion: Nothing is
represented by the center nail, the intellect is represented by
the rack, the world and flesh are represented by the ceiling,
and the selflessness of Love is represented by the invisible
force of gravity. Essentially, by focusing upon Nothing and not
wanting anything except Nothing, does the intellect hammer in
the center nail so it can make itself level in accordance to
Love; in becoming level to Love, it is able to perceive the
slant of the world and flesh. Opposing the intellect’s efforts to
make itself level with the selflessness of Love are the
unrelenting pirates of sin who are like patches of rust upon the
rack.
The pirates of sin want the intellect to remain aligned with
the world and flesh so they can imprint the corrosive vice of
themselves upon it, thereby, keeping it from virtue and the
spiritual beauty that could be gained if it were to fulfill the
desire of God. God’s desire being that it should strive – to the
best of its ability – after the Selfless Love of Himself through
Nothing and His Spirit of Selfless Reason (John 14:6-7).
Regarding Spirit and flesh, St. Maximos says:
“Since man is composed of body and soul, he is moved by

two laws, that of the flesh and that of the Spirit (Rom.
7:23). The law of the flesh operates by virtue of the
senses; the law of the Spirit operates by virtue of the
intellect. The first law, operating by virtue of the senses,
76
automatically binds one closely to matter; the second law,

operating by virtue of the intellect, brings about direct
union with God. Suppose there is someone who…has
already become god through union with God by faith: then
it is quite natural that if such a person says to a mountain,
‘Go to another place,’ it will go (Matt. 17:20). The
mountain here indicates the will and the law of the flesh,
which is ponderous and hard to shift, and in fact, so far as
our natural powers are concerned, is totally immovable
and unshakable.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 189, #9)
Ironically, in setting oneself to be correctly aligned with

the selflessness of Love, the blind will often see the striving
individual as being misaligned because they themselves are
flatly aligned with the world and flesh (Matthew 6:24).
Accordingly, these people feel ‘at home’ in the world and
flesh while the proficient striver does not feel at home (John
15:18-19). When talking with people who are at home in the
world, it is important to not be swayed into their incorrect
alignment – which can happen quite easily – through
involvement in serious conversations that make worldly
concerns and desires more important and prominent than
spiritual concerns and desires. If you cannot avoid such
conversations, stand your ground in: faith, peace and truth. St.
John of the Cross has useful insight regarding the relationship
between people of the world and people of God, he says:
“…the wise people of God and the wise people of the

world are foolish in the eyes of each other; one group
cannot perceive the wisdom and knowledge of God, and
the other group cannot perceive the wisdom and
knowledge of the world. The wisdom of the world is
ignorance to the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of God
is ignorance to the wisdom of the world.” (CW, p. 578)
Understanding the dangers of the aforesaid, St. Teresa of

Avila advised strivers under her care: “Beware, my daughters,
of cares that have nothing to do with you.” ((APSOCS, vol. I,
77
p. 169) I Mansions, ii: p. 211)

Scripture reveals to us that even Jesus was perceived as
being misaligned: “He went home again, and once more such
a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. When
his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him;
they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” (Mark 3:20-21) Regarding
strivers who are thought to be misaligned, St. Maximos says:
“Spiritual knowledge unites knower and known, while

ignorance is always a cause of change and self-division in
the ignorant. Hence nothing, according to sacred scripture,
will shift him who truly believes from the ground of his
true faith, in which resides the permanence of his
immutable and unchanging identity. For he who has been
united with the Truth has the assurance that all is well
with him, even though most people rebuke him for being
out of his mind. For without their being aware he has
moved from delusion to the truth of real faith; and he
knows for sure that he is not deranged, as they say, but
that through Truth – simple and always immutably the
same – he has been liberated from the fluctuating and
fickle turmoil of manifold forms of illusion.” (The
If a striver is not vigilant against the pirates of sin and the

influence of the blind, he or she could regrettably slip back
into the sensual-nature of the world and flesh, even while
knowing the unveiled hunger of the pirates. To not slip back is
the striver’s tiresome struggle that Jesus was referring to when
He said that whoever wants to be a disciple of His must not
lose his or her saltiness, for what good is salt when it loses its
flavor? (Luke 14:34-35) Such an event of losing ground would
take solemn repentance and patient stamina to regain, for to
lose ground is to know that one is slipping back into the
limited perspective of the world and flesh. Regarding ‘slipping
back,’ St. Theodoros says:
78
“It is less difficult to cleanse an impure soul than to

restore to health a soul which was once cleansed but has
been wounded anew. For it is less difficult for those who
have recently renounced the confusion of the world to
attain dispassion, whatever faults they may have recently
committed, than it is for those who have tasted the blessed
words of God and walked in the path of salvation and then
gone back to sin. This is due partly to the influence of bad
habit and partly to the fact that the demon of dejection is
always dangling the image of sin before them. But, with
the co-operation of divine grace, a diligent and assiduous
soul may readily achieve even this difficult feat of regain-
ing its dispassion; for, long-suffering and compassionate,
grace invites us to repentance, and with inexpressible
mercy accepts those who return, as we have been taught in
the Gospels through the parable of the prodigal son.” (The
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Chapter 10
Religious Motivation before Religion
The saints comprise the chaste core of faith within the church,
and clearly, its rituals reinforced their resolve to strive after
Jesus to attain the perfect virtue of dispassion. Nevertheless,
the church (as well as other religious organizations) is
surrounded, if not immersed, in the limited perspective of the
world. The position of the church within the limited perspec-
tive affects many of its leaders to conform to the will of the
majority who desire the carnal passions of the limited
perspective.
The harmful result of conformity is that sex is ritual-
istically extolled and few people find their way from the
limited perspective to the encompassing perspective because
their leaders (perhaps because they themselves are blind) do
not encourage them to strive after the perfect virtue of
dispassion. Question: How can leaders – such as priests –
encourage their congregations to the perfect virtue of
dispassion when they themselves beseech and even argue with
those who know to allow them to marry in order to sanctify the
passions with which they struggle? Certainly, the church’s
historical field of vision – made possible through the life of
Jesus and the testimonies of the saints – includes the
beginning of the encompassing perspective, but beyond that, it
is up to the individual to look further to find the end of the
encompassing perspective which is the fulfillment of
dispassion. Looking further is the call of Jesus Christ – the call
to strive after perfection (Mathew 5:48).
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It is only through a person’s own effort that he or she can

follow the Spirit of Selfless Reason to attain the perfect virtue
of dispassion. The habit of always focusing upon things that
are outside the soul can be undone to help Christians become
less affected by the limited perspective’s pirates and more
affected by the encompassing perspective’s Spirit of Selfless
Reason who, being Selflessness Itself, effects the selflessness
of dispassion through the grace of self-determination. In The
Spiritual Combat by Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, which is a
Catholic book, the reader is informed in the beginning of the
first chapter:
“Christian Soul! If you seek to reach the loftiest peak of

perfection, and to unite yourself so intimately with God
that you become one in Spirit with Him, you must first
know the true nature and perfection of spirituality in order
to succeed in the most sublime undertaking that can be
expressed or imagined.
“Some, who judge only by appearances, make it consist in

penances, hair shirts, austerities of the flesh, vigils,
fasting, and similar bodily mortifications.
“Others, particularly women, fancy themselves extremely

virtuous when they indulge in long vocal prayers, hear
several masses, spend many hours in church, and
frequently receive Communion. Others, and this does not
exclude some of the religious who have consecrated
themselves to God, think that perfection consists in perfect
attendance in choir, observing silence and retirement, and
in a strict observance of their rule.
“Consequently, different people place perfection in

different practices. It is certain that they all equally
deceive themselves.” (The Spiritual Combat, Ch. 1, p. 1-2)
In view of the aforesaid, religious organizations often lay

the concrete of rituals and customs over the fertile soil of
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Jesus’ words to protect their meaning, but in so doing, the

organization inadvertently requires the striving seed, which is
the intellect, to grow its roots into the intricacies of rituals and
customs that comprise the methodology of the organization.
As a result, the intellect derives illusory nourishment from the
organization’s concrete and does not seek the fertile soil that is
hidden because the concrete of the organization is mistaken as
being the fertile soil. This debacle happens because the
intellect’s perceived need to grow its roots into the ‘firm
concrete’ of religious doctrine diminishes, or even strikes-
down, any need to discover the fertile soil that is the
selflessness deep within itself. Scripture reveals that pure
religion is doctrinally simple:
“Pure, unspoiled religion, in the eyes of God, our Father,

is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their
hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the
world.” (James 1:27, first italics his)
Similarly, St. John of the Cross says:
“…But God’s wisdom, to which the intellect must be

united, has neither mode nor manner, neither does it have
limits nor does it pertain to distinct and particular
knowledge, because it is totally pure and simple. That the
two extremes, the soul and Divine Wisdom, may be
united, they will have to come to accord by means of a
certain likeness. As a result the soul must also be pure and
simple, unlimited and unattached to any particular
knowledge, and unmodified by the boundaries of form,
species, and image. Since God cannot be encompassed by
any image, form, or particular knowledge, in order to be
united with Him the soul should not be limited by any
particular form or knowledge…” (CW, p. 201)
Many organizations keep people within a limiting and

‘self-maintained’ corral of religious ceremony that is
comprised of words and images. Even though this corral often
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lies near the encompassing perspective’s mountain of

selflessness, it is suspect because it does not – by itself –
encourage people to fervently strive after the spiritual
perfection that is to be found upon the summit of the
mountain; this summit being Nothing. Upon this summit, the
intellect dies to ‘Material’ to become alive in the selflessness
of Nothing which shares in the selflessness of Love.
Unhindered by these dry corrals, St. Francis of Assisi
eloquently revealed the way of striving to the summit of
selflessness:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
(Teachings of the Christian Mystics, p. 77)
In fond memory of St. Francis, many people are like

‘conscientious’ horses walking within the corral and they are
unable to see beyond its boards due to its words and images
that offer themselves to be interpreted literally and in a
worldly fashion; thus, by way of the corral, the horses justify
their worldly lives within it. Because the horses cannot see
beyond the boards of the corral, they have no desire to move
beyond it, and for that reason, beyond the limited perspective
of the world and flesh. Fortunately, the conscientious horses
can be taught to use selfless reason.
Selfless reason is important because it can instill
discriminatory vision within the horses so they can see beyond
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the worldliness of the corral via the ‘selfless spaces’ between

its boards. By way of selfless reason’s vision, the mountain of
selflessness can be seen and horses can judiciously move
beyond the corral if they desire to do so. Ironically, because of
the corral’s selfless spaces, the corral itself is sometimes
thought to be spiritual due to the view of the mountain that it
gives; consequently, some horses remain attached to it. No
matter how thick or wide the boards of the corral might be,
they can neither completely block the view of the mountain
nor keep determined horses from the mountain. This inability
is because both the mountain and horses possess the
selflessness of Love, which – because of Love’s preeminence
in the dimensional order – gives them preeminence over the
corral as well as the limited perspective of the world and flesh
(2 Corinthians 3:5-6).
From the mountain, the Great Spirit of Selfless Reason
beckons faithful horses to leap over the boards of the corral to
climb the mountain’s narrow path of self-sacrifice all the way
to the cloudless summit of Nothing. By climbing the ever-
narrowing mountain, a horse can move away from the flat-
earth illusion of the limited perspective to the encompassing
perspective of love where God reigns. This place is, in St.
Teresa of Avila’s words, “…the empyrean Heaven which we
must have in the depths of our souls…” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p.
516) VI Mansions, iv; Peers, II, p. 289)
Regarding churches and the presence of God within
ourselves, St. John of the Cross fine-tunes our understanding:
“…we should keep in mind that for beginners it is

permissible and even fitting to find some sensible
gratification and satisfaction in the use of images,
oratories, and other visible objects of devotion. With this
delight they are assisted in renouncing worldly things
from whose taste they are not yet weaned or detached.
This is what we do with a child when we desire to take
something away from it; we give it another thing to play
with so it will not begin to cry when left empty-handed.
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“But in order to advance, spiritual persons should divest

themselves also of all these satisfactions and appetites, for
the pure spirit is bound to none of these objects but turns
only to interior recollection and mental communion with
God. Although they derive profit from images and
oratories, this is very transitory, for their spirit is immed-
iately elevated to God in forgetfulness of all sensory
objects…
“The reason some spiritual persons never entirely enter

into the true joys of the spirit is that they never manage to
renounce their desire for joy in these exterior and visible
things. These persons should keep in mind that although
the place dedicated and suited to prayer is the visible
oratory or church and the motivating good is the image,
these means should not be so used that the satisfaction and
delight of the soul stems entirely from them, thereby
causing one to forget to pray in the living temple, which is
interior recollection of the soul.
“To remind one of this, the Apostle said: Behold, your

bodies are living temples of the Holy Spirit, who dwells
within you (1 Corinthians 3:16). This thought brings to
mind the affirmation of Christ that we quoted: The true
adorers should adore in spirit and truth (John 4:24). God
pays little attention to your oratories and places arranged
for prayer if through your desire and the delight you take
in them you become attached and, in consequence, have
less interior nakedness, that is, spiritual poverty, in the
renunciation of things that can be possessed.” (CW, p.
339-41)
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Chapter 11
The Six Spiritual Meditations
To be a willful striver upon the selfless mountain, one should

apply his or her attention to the six spiritual meditations of:
desire, need, selfless reason, hope, faith and effort. These six
spiritual meditations consolidate the will of the intellect to
strive upon the windy mountain and they can be thought of as
the sails of the intellect. Despite the order that I have listed
them here, they are all important as they relate to the ‘I’ of the
intellect, for a weakness in one depends upon the strength of
the others to strengthen it. In order for the spiritual meditations
to work they require pertinent objects upon which to meditate.
Using ‘faith’ as an example: if I am weak in faith, then
perhaps I have not correctly reasoned my need for faith. Using
‘prayer’ as another example: if I need to pray, but do not have
the desire, then perhaps I should reason that I should simply
apply a little effort to pray – if even for a short-while. God
always admires an intellect’s effort to pray, consequently, He
will be moved by His love to help the intellect in much the
same way that a parent helps a child learn how to walk. No
doubt, however, a good parent realizes that sometimes it is
best to let the child pick itself up; St. Teresa of Avila explains:
“Grace often does not lift up the soul, but leaves the soul to its
painful task of lifting itself up.” Such ‘abandonment’ helps the
soul realize perfect self-determination.
Objects of thought, and even self-learned variations of the
spiritual meditations, are endless and they are essential in
fostering religious motivation. For example, knowledge could
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be added as a sail or it could be thought of as an intrinsic part

of selfless reason. No matter the variations that a person may
create for himself or herself, it seems that desire and need are
always present. Desire and need are always present because
whenever a person feels any kind of desire or need, he or she
tends to put himself or herself into the perceived desire or
need so it can be fulfilled.
Notably, desire and need are not the same; for example: a
child needs to eat vegetables to maintain a healthy body, but
might desire to eat sweets instead. In the light of this example,
we should always try to use selfless reason to feel both a need
and a desire to strive after Jesus lest the pirates of sin keep us
from striving with deceptive needs and desires. It is deceptive
needs and desires that steal us away from the dispassion that
Jesus desires for us. Regarding illusory needs that are desired,
St. Maximos says: “The way by which the devil comes
consists of material things which seem to be needed for
sustaining the body.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 204, #79) With
our encouraging Jesus in mind, one possible way to jump-start
the spiritual meditations is as follows.
First and second, one must ‘desire’ to feel a ‘need’ to
follow Jesus. To feel a need for Jesus, one should not only
think about the suffering that He endured to lure our attention
to Himself, but one should also think about the forgiveness
that He offers when we repent for allowing the pirates of sin to
undermine our potential for virtue. Before Jesus left the world,
He said: “I shall not be with you much longer, because the
prince of this world is on his way. He has no power over Me,
but the world must recognize that I love the Father and that I
act just as the Father commanded.” (John 14:30-31)
Clearly, Jesus left us to battle the pirates of sin so we
could personally come to know our potential for virtue – as
well as the dominance of goodness over evil – through the
effort to resist and conquer the pirates of sin within ourselves.
Regarding the pirates of sin, St. Maximos says:
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“There are said to be five reasons why God allows us to be

assailed by demons. The first is so that, by attacking and
counter-attacking, we should learn to discriminate between
virtue and vice. The second is so that, having acquired
virtue through conflict and toil, we should keep it secure
and immutable. The third is so that, when making progress
in virtue, we should not become haughty but learn
humility. The fourth is so that, having gained some
experience of evil, we should ‘hate it with perfect hatred’
(Ps. 139:22). The fifth and most important is so that,
having achieved dispassion, we should forget neither our
own weakness nor the power of Him who has helped us.”
Third, one must ‘reason’ how to correctly follow Jesus

and this means loving one another by imitating the selfless
way that He loved. Jesus did not love sexually as many people
like to believe, but He loved selflessly and He revealed the
preeminence of this love by healing the infirmities of people
who suffered from the lowly nature of ‘Material.’ Some
people believe that Jesus loved sexually because in those days
if a man wanted to teach it was required that he be married.
The ‘marital pass’ to teach was a law that was meant to
guarantee the correct teaching of the Law, but any law that
says a person cannot teach unless he or she is married is a law
that is meant to discourage the teaching of dispassion. For,
most likely, anyone who is married will probably not teach the
way of dispassion – as taught by Jesus and the saints to
quicken pure charitable love – but he or she will teach the way
of worldly marriage which justifies passion. The result being
that pure charitable love is not quickened. Strive to nurture
pure charitable love between yourself and others. Jesus
revealed the importance of nurturing pure charitable love: “I
give you a new commandment: love one another; you must
love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for
one another, that everyone will recognize you as my
disciples.” (John 13:34-35)
Fourth, one should place ‘hope’ in Jesus because by
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placing hope in Him we recognize our weakness and

dependence upon Him. Jesus informs us: “I am the vine, you
are the branches. Whoever remains in Me, with Me in him
bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from Me you cannot do
anything.” (John 15:5) The pirates of sin especially try to tear
down the sail of hope with feelings of shame (especially, as St.
Teresa of Avila says, from past sins) but hope that depends
upon and abandons itself into the Truth and Love of Jesus is
quickly healed and it summarily energizes the other sails as it
is energized by Him ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 107) Way of
Perfection, xxxix; Peers, II, p. 169).
Regarding hope, St. Maximos says: “Hope is the
intellect’s surest pledge of divine help and promises the
destruction of hostile powers.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 201,
#68) And “…it assures those who are attacked by hostile
powers that God, in whose name and for whose sake the saints
go into battle, protects them and is in no way absent.” (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 202, #71) As for past sins, the pirates of sin
will remind you of them during your final hour to invoke
feelings of: shame, unworthiness, doubt, worry, despair and so
on, to distract you from the peace of recollection. Simply
ignore their nonsense and rest in the faithful knowledge of
God’s love for you, who, like the father of the prodigal son,
desires your return (Luke 15:20).
Fifth, one must keep ‘faith’ in the good of God as
opposed to doubting His goodness. A striver who doubts the
goodness of God can become instinctively fearful of finding
Him and come to believe that he or she is better off not
seeking Him. Because fear often possesses a certain weakness
to succumb to irrational thoughts, as we all have experienced
at sometime or another, the pirates of sin are able to sway the
thinking of the intellect to their advantage through this
vulnerability that frequently undermines sound rationality.
Ironically, whenever an intellect flees to God for fear of losing
Him, it is evil’s creation of fear backfiring on itself; for if it
had been God who created fear then the angels would never
have rebelled against Him.
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As it is now, the fallen angels – who are the primeval

pirates of sin – know fear because they fear the children of
God. They fear the children of God because they dirtied
themselves with it as they worked to create it to subjugate
humanity through it. While striving to follow Jesus it is a good
idea to frequently recall His words: “Do not be afraid; only
have faith.” (Mark 5:36) Regarding backfired or clean fear, St.
Theoretikon the Great Ascetic says: “If we are wounded by
divine love, the sting of fear exceeds that of a thousand threats
of punishment. For as nothing is more blessed than to attain
God, so nothing is more terrible than this great fear of losing
Him.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 43)
Similarly, St. Thalassios says that when the intellect
controls its passions “…it is doubtless out of fear that it does
so, for it believes in God’s threats and promises…” that it
risks losing Him if it does not control its passions. (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 329, #63) Thus, clean fear keeps people
away from the passions and near to God who – because He is
Spirit – is dispassionate to material. In the spiritual journey, it
can be said that fear of passion – and not fear of God – is the
correct fear; for fear of passion – that is, the clean fear of
passion – keeps one near to God, but fear of God keeps one
near to passion.
Lastly, one must maintain ‘effort,’ for the narrow path is
something like an escalator except that it always moves
downward to where you are instead of moving upward from
where you are. Consequently, the striver must consistently
move upward to the top of the escalator lest he or she be taken
to a lower level. Quite simply, what moves upward are the
sails of the intellect to the wind of Love, and what moves
downward are the ropes of instinct that are pulled by the
pirates of sin to dissuade the attentive movement of the
intellect into the wind of Love. Regarding this upward and
downward movement, St. Thalassios says: “You have the
power to incline either upwards or downwards: choose what is
superior and you will bring what is inferior into subjection.”
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A striver is taken to a lower level when his or her

inexperienced and immature sails are mercilessly torn down
by the pirates of sin and thrown onto the deck of the ship! At
this place of degradation, the striver finds the most devout
need for Jesus and, at last, begins to righteously and maturely
judge the sinfulness within himself or herself as opposed to
self-righteously and blindly judging the sinfulness of others;
hence, the counsel of Jesus:
“Why do you observe the splinter in you brother’s eye and

never notice the great log in your own? How can you say
to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out that splinter in
your eye,’ when you cannot see the great log in your own?
Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and
then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in
your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:41-42)
When an intelligent man (or woman) realizes his sinful

nature, it is unreasonable for him to regard other people as
‘infidels’ for he sees that he is the infidel most of all for falling
prey to the pirates of sin. In fact, there is not anyone whom he
would not either forgive or tolerate, for he realizes how much
he will depend upon the forgiveness and tolerance of God as
he tries to bring himself together for Him despite the pirates of
sin who abide within, and exploit, the materialistic nature of
himself. The intellect’s ‘bringing together’ of itself is its
turning the materialistic self-love of itself into selfless love for
Love. It is a correlative effort and it would not be possible if it
were not for God’s selflessness. St. Maximos reveals love’s
correlative work between man and God:
“The most perfect work of love, and the fulfillment of its

activity, is to effect an exchange between those it joins
together, which in some measure unites their distinctive
characteristics and adapts their respective conditions to
each other. Love makes man god, and reveals and
manifests God as man, through the single and identical
purpose and activity of the will of both. If we are made, as
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we are, in the image of God, let us become the image of

both ourselves and of God; or rather let us all become the
image of the one whole God, bearing nothing earthly in
ourselves, so that we may consort with God and become
gods, receiving from God our existence as gods. For in
this way the divine gifts and the presence of divine peace
are honored.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 170-71, #27, 28,
italics mine)
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Chapter 12
Through the Grace of God
Between the Living Waters of the Father and the Perfect

Light of Christ, the sails of the intellect must be perfectly
sewn into the wind of Love lest they become like a garment
with a loose thread that unweaves when the thread is pulled.
When this time-for-learning happens, the intellect has to begin
again until it makes its garment of selflessness perfect through
the grace of God. During this time, the intellect endures many
dire humiliations from the pirates of sin, all the while
discerning that it is under the omnipotent watch of the Father.
Realizing this fact only makes the intellect’s failures all the
more repugnant and shameful to itself as it strives to go on
despite the bothersome tugs and tears that are inflicted upon
its six sails by the pirates of sin. Nevertheless, the intellect’s
spiritual meditations of: need, desire, selfless reason, hope,
faith and effort uniformly strive to mend themselves (to the
horror of the pirates!) until its call to return to God what
belongs to Him is fulfilled (Luke 11:5-8).
In this state of purgation, the striving person repentantly
cries out to God for he realizes that he is the worst of all
sinners, and justifiably so, for he can only see his stain of sin
against the humbling goodness of God. This purgation is all
the more full of suffering if the striver has come to the point
where he or she is drawn to strive after God by the gentle
wounds of love that He emblazons into the soul through the
body of the intellect to draw it nearer to Himself. St. Teresa of
Avila explains: “…however hard a soul may have labored to
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perfect itself, once this Sun really strikes it, it sees that it is
wholly unclean. Just so the water in a vessel seems quite clear
when the sun is not shining upon it; but the sun shows it to be
full of specks.” ((APSOCS, p. 476) Life, xx; Peers, I, p. 129-
30) I must say that whenever I felt too guilty of sin to deserve
forgiveness from either the Father or the Son, I would beseech
Jesus’ mother to pray for me so I might find God’s forgiveness
and, ever so thankfully, I would find His forgiveness. The Hail
Mary is a prayer that one can use to ask for her help:
Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for this sinner now,
and at the hour of my death.
Amen
Touched by God in much the same way that a gardener

would gently touch the bowed stem of a flower to see its
blossom fully, the body of the intellect is touched by God.
However, where a gardener would be overwhelmed by the
beauty of a flower, it is the flower that is overwhelmed by the
beauty of the Gardener. Even though the Gardener is unseen,
His breath-taking beauty is seen through the selfless love of
His acquainting touches which He does not hide. The flower is
wounded by the Gardener because now it feels gentle pains of
heartsick love for Him and no other love in the whole garden
can supplant its need and desire for Him. The Gardener begins
His gentle work upon the flower and, in an incremental
fashion, He reveals Himself more fully to it as it seeks to
know Him through His Spirit of Selfless Reason.
From the intellect’s actions of selfless reason, which had
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captured God’s attention, His impressions of love direct the

way and the intellect strives more violently to abandon the
ship of ‘Material’ so it may be with Him (Matthew 11:12).
The intellect’s increasing need for God, which coincides with
its effort to strive, can only be assuaged by giving itself
completely to Him. This unworldly degree of selfless love is
what God desires for it is the greatest expression of creaturely
love that is enabled by Him as a means for the creature to
receive the Selfless Love of Himself to the capacity that it is
able to love Him selflessly.
The pirates of sin, who are like aphids upon the flower, do
everything that they can to keep the intellect from fulfilling
the desire of God. The regular tactic of the aphids is that they
try to get the flower to conjointly waste its seedling love on
itself by using the leverage of suffering. The aphids want the
flower to consent to this prodigality so it will not find the
strength of Selfless Love that is hidden within the Nothing of
itself. If the intellect were to find the strength of Selfless Love
within itself, then it would rise above all the particular
sufferings that the aphids inflict upon it; and as a result of its
rising, it would transform into an inviolate and unattached
blossom of pure selflessness for God.
This spiritual blossom of selfless love is what God
desires, for Love that loves selflessly desires to be loved
selflessly. St. Teresa of Avila clarifies this reasoning: “…And,
as He refuses to force our will, He takes what we give Him but
does not give Himself wholly until He sees that we are giving
ourselves wholly to Him. This is certain, and, as it is of such
importance, I often remind you of it.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p.
128) Way of Perfection, xxviii; Peers, II, p. 118)
Truly, no man (or woman) who cognitively struggles
against the pirates of sin can be self-righteous or judgmental
of others because he shamefully knows the wretchedness of
himself that God has seen whenever he has succumbed to the
indulgent desires of the pirates! To go on, the striver asks God
for His mercy and forgiveness despite the consensual aspect of
these sins; in accepting God’s mercy and forgiveness, the
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striver is trained in mercy and forgiveness. Thus and so, the

intellect, like a warrior in battle, strives onward knowing what
it must do to win the war against the enemy. Some feelings
that come from the pirates of sin that one should be on guard
for are: abandonment by God, hopelessness, despair, the
feeling of wanting to give-in, and the feeling of wanting to
give-up.
St. Teresa of Avila gave straight-forward advice to some
strivers regarding warrior discipleship: “Keep your eyes fixed
upon your Spouse…If you should do as I say and yet die of
hunger, then happy are the nuns of Saint Joseph’s.”
((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 81) Way of Perfection, ii; Peers, II, p. 5)
And she also said: “Unless we resolve to put up with death
and ill-health once and for all, we shall never accomplish
anything. Try not to fear these and commit yourselves wholly
to God, come what may. What does it matter if we die?”
((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 81) Way of Perfection, xii; Peers, II, p.
48) Such determination is necessary because the pirates of sin
are merciless in their attempts to kill the progress of warrior
disciples because they lose much whenever one is victorious.
Remember that it is good sense to never surrender to a
merciless enemy and to save your tears for when you will need
them most. Regarding surrender, Silvanus says: “O wretched
one, with the fire of lust. Do not surrender yourself to
barbarians like a prisoner, nor to savage beasts which want to
trample upon you…It is possible for you through reasoning to
conquer them.” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The Teachings of
Silvanus, p. 391)
In the process of combating negative feelings, a striver
must be intellectually on guard so he or she does not succumb
to these direct attacks upon his or her intellect to the point of
either foreplay or active lust. It is very sad when instead of
seeking God’s assistance to combat evil at the points of
insurrection, which are the imagination and the sensual
feelings of the flesh, a person is moved by the small steps of
temptation to the point of losing noble self-control. He or she
should think objectively and remember that the illusion of
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enjoying sin is only conquered by resisting sin; you can do it if

you put your mind to it! If a person comes near to this
avoidable point, then he or she should set more solitary and
thoughtful margins for striving until saintly perfection is
attained. The idea of being solitary within a room to learn self-
control should not be dismissed. In the Gospel of Thomas,
Jesus says: “Many are standing at the door, but it is the
solitary who will enter the bridal chamber.” (The Nag
Hammadi Library, p. 134, saying #75)
It is interesting, as well as significant, that self-control
corresponds to the forgetting of one’s hands; consequently, it
would seem that neither hands nor their constructions are
accurate measures of intelligence – but the intellect’s will to
surrender itself to God is an accurate measure as self-surrender
requires perfect intellectual will whether or not one has hands
(Matthew 5:30). Regarding self-control, St. Maximos says:
“When through self-control you have straightened the

crooked paths of the passions in which you deliberately
indulged – that is to say, the impulses of sensual pleasure
– and when, by enduring patiently the harsh and painful
afflictions produced by trials and temptations suffered
against your will, you will have made the rough ways
smooth and even, then you may expect to see God’s
salvation, for you will have become pure in heart. In this
state of purity, through the virtues and through holy
contemplation, you will at the end of your contest behold
God, in accordance with Christ’s words: ‘Blessed are the
pure in heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8). And
because of the sufferings you have endured for the sake of
virtue you will receive your gift of dispassion. To those
who possess this gift there is nothing which reveals God
more fully.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 199, #58)
Incidentally, as one draws nearer to God by the grace of

self-determination to receive the gift of dispassion, spiritual
wisdom flows forth from Him to encourage self-determ-
ination. Naturally, this wisdom is meant to be shared as “No
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one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a

bed. No, it is put on a lamp-stand so that people may see the
light when they come in.” (Luke 8:16) Regarding this wisdom,
Silvanus says: “Do not flee from the divine and the teachings
which are within you, for He who is teaching you loves you
very much. For He shall bequeath to you a worthy austerity.
Cast out the animal nature which is within you, and do not
allow a base thought to enter you.” (The Nag Hammadi
Library, The Teachings of Silvanus, p. 382)
Fortunately, all people who sincerely repent to God can
recover from their falls because the pirates of sin lose their
hold upon an intellect that is repentant to Him for the simple
fact that they never repent to Him. Regarding sin and
repentance, the First Letter of John tells us: “If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.
But if we confess our sins to God, He will keep His promise
and do what is right: He will forgive us our sins and purify us
from all wrongdoing.” (1 John 1:8-9)
The reality of sin’s hold is why repentance is necessary –
especially if we must repent again and again because of
repeated falls upon the narrow path. As inevitable as these
falls are, so too is it inevitable that we must repent to God to
make it to the end of the narrow path. Even though a prime
objective of repentance is to discipline the flesh to avail
oneself to the gift of dispassion, one should take care to
discipline the flesh by using the very least amount of violence
lest one fulfill the violence of sin.
If you believe that the pirates of sin make the suggestive
dimensions of ‘Material’ too difficult to discipline and master,
and that its somnolent cargo is too sweet to lockup, remember
what Jesus said: “By human resources it is impossible, but not
for God, because for God everything is possible.” (Mark
10:27) Regarding the cargo, remember: When the cargo seems
to be too much, do not worry about the ship lest you dirty
yourself with the cargo – the ship will take care itself and rid
what bothers you in one way or another; even so, try to keep
the cargo so it may be burned, as a saint once said, by divine
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fire – if that is what God wills. In other words: No matter what

imperfections you commit on the outside because of your
weakness, which is an imperfection in itself, strive to keep
hold of yourself on the inside to become strong and perfect
on the outside and the inside as well.
Repentance is God’s means to make everything – that is,
the kingdom of Heaven – possible for a person. Scripture tells
us that there is no time to repent like the present time: “The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent
and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:15) An obstacle that often
impedes the healing power of forgiveness is if a person is not
forgiving of others. Remember that sin is not forgiving, but
God, Who is the Good, is always forgiving according to the
person’s correlative use of forgiveness. Jesus illustrates the
importance of forgiveness: “If your brother does something
wrong, rebuke him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he
wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to
you and says, ‘I am sorry,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke
17:3-4)
Jesus reminds us that God is the Good: “One of the rulers
put this question to Jesus, ‘Good master, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me
good? No one is good but God alone.’” (Luke 18:18-19) This
statement by Jesus, which seems to contradict the belief that
He is the Christ of God, is not contradictory at all if one
believes that He is selflessly proclaiming the goodness of His
Father as any good son would do. The fact that Jesus is one
with the Father, and yet able to independently proclaim the
supreme goodness of Him, reflects something of God’s Divine
Mystery.
In relegating the relationship of the Father and Son to
Divine Mystery we find that God’s gift of faith fills in the gaps
of our questions that seek the continuity of perfect under-
standing which is really the possession of God. Faith can be
thought of as the set of wings that God gives to an intellect
when gaps are too wide and destinations too enigmatic for it to
build bridges of understanding; hence, the importance of
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having faith when going to Him (Ephesians 3:12).

Jesus revealed God’s goodness as regards judgment, he
confidently informed us: “Do not judge and you will not be
judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments that
you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard
used for you.” (Matthew 7:1-2) Lest we underestimate the
reliability of Jesus’ words, let us take to heart his declaration:
“Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in the

One who sent me, and whoever sees me, sees the One who
sent me. I have come into the world as light, to prevent
anyone who believes in me from staying in the dark any
more. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them
faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I
have come not to judge the world, but to save the world:
anyone who rejects me and refuses my words has his
judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be
his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken of my own
accord; but the Father who sent me commanded me what
to say and what to speak, and I know that His commands
mean eternal life. And therefore what the Father has told
me is what I speak.” (John 12:44-50)
Sadly, many people find it easy to justify judging others

because of the formalized judgment that religious
organizations often place upon different groups of people. In
this way, people in religious organizations are injurious to
potential strivers – namely, themselves – because they are
enticed to spend more time reflecting upon somebody else’s
sinfulness, rather than upon their own. I think that this sinful
habit is why many people never make it out of the corrals of
the limited perspective and into the perfect freedom of the
encompassing perspective. Regarding this perfect freedom,
scripture informs us: “But anyone who looks steadily at the
perfect law of freedom and keeps to it – not listening and
forgetting, but putting it into practice – will be blessed in
every undertaking.” (James 1:25)
Before we follow the call of a religious organization to
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judge other people, we should first follow Jesus’ call to not

judge. Time after time – except in cases where one must make
a rational judgment to preserve oneself from the evil of either
physical or emotional abuse (John 8:59) – it is the pirates of
sin that lead people to judge and be suspicious of others so
they will neither question nor examine the presence of unlit
thinking within themselves as their attention is focused upon
the people that they judge and are suspicious of. People feel
justified in judging through religion because they believe that
they are doing the will of God, but in reality, they are being
lead away from the will of God because they do not judge by
His Spirit of Selfless Reason, but by that which opposes His
Spirit of Selfless Reason.
Unfortunately, religious persons who direct attention to
the precepts of judgment, as opposed to the precepts of love,
accomplish this feat by either giving or ‘falling for’
appearances that magnify the imperfect humanity of other
people. Ironically, while these religious persons suffer from
their own imperfect humanity, which is effected by the pirates
of sin, they believe that they are less affected by sin even as
they meander in the corrals of the limited perspective!
Scripture informs us:
“It was just about this time that some people arrived and
told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this He said to
them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse
sinners than any others, that this should have happened to
them? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent
you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom
the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose
that they were more guilty than all the other people living
in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless
you repent you will all perish as they did.’” (Luke 13:1-5)
Jesus, risking the anger of those who welded judgment is

His time, taught us: “Do not keep judging according to
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appearances; let your judgment be according to what is right.”

(John 7:24) Regarding judging others, St. Maximos says:
“He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges

his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent
or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins,
which are truly heavier than a great lump of lead; nor does
he know why a man becomes heavy-hearted when he
loves vanity and chases after falsehood. That is why, like a
fool who walks in darkness, he no longer attends to his
own sins but lets his imagination dwell on the sins of
others, whether these sins are real or merely the products
of his suspicious mind.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 92, #55)
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Chapter 13
Exposing the Danger of the Law
Christians, who believe that the Father condemns and that the
Son saves, ignorantly allow their conception of God to be
divided within their minds, thereby, rendering their belief in
Him imperfect because they do not wholly believe in His
perfect goodness as exemplified and revealed by the Son. The
disparity between the condemning Father and the saving Son
is illogical because the Father and Son have never been
divided as the Son, also known as the Word, is One and
Eternally Undivided from the Father who is Love. Scripture
affirms this truth:
“In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God
and the Word was God. He was with God in the
beginning. Through Him all things came into being, not
one thing came into being except through Him. What has
come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of
men; and light shines in the darkness, and darkness could
not overpower it.” (John 1:1-5)
In view of this frequently unembraced Christian belief,

the depiction of Yahweh as the father of Jesus is incorrect
because Jesus’ love and compassion are incompatible with the
condemning anger and incompassion of Yahweh. Jesus
revealed that his Father is compassionate: “Be compassionate
just as your Father is compassionate.” (Luke 6:36) The Bible
reveals that Yahweh is not compassionate, and therefore, not
the father of Jesus: “Yahweh said to Moses, ‘This man must
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be put to death. The whole community will stone him outside

the camp.’” (Numbers 15:35) Any religious book that has God
ordering the death of people, for whatever reason, is not the
God of Jesus because the God of Jesus is the God of Life,
Peace, Love, Truth, Power and compassion – of this truth I
promise you.
The man was stoned to death because he was caught
gathering wood on the Sabbath. Before he was stoned,
however, he was kept in custody because the penalty for
gathering wood on the Sabbath had not yet been fixed
(Numbers 15:32-34). Jesus was not mindful of the Sabbath:
“Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘That man cannot be from
God: he does not keep the Sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How can a
sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was a division
among them.” (John 9:16)
Logically, if Yahweh and Jesus were ‘One,’ then to know
Yahweh would mean that one knew Jesus, but Jesus strongly
dispels any association between Himself and Yahweh: “They
asked Him, ‘Where is your Father then?’ Jesus answered:
‘You do not know Me, nor do you know My Father; if you did
know Me, you would know My Father as well.’” (John 8:19)
Jesus reveals the identity of Yahweh when the followers of the
Law insist that God (the Good) is their father: “If God were
your father, you would love Me, since I have My origin in
God and have come from Him; I did not come of My own
accord, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I
say? Because you cannot bear to listen to My words. You are
from your father the devil, and you prefer to do what your
father wants.” (John 8:42-44)
I mean no offense to anyone, but if you have taken
offense please realize that it is because the powers of evil are
invoking the feeling of offense within yourself through the
violable ic-aspect. Rationalize what I say and you will move
nearer to the Spirit of Selfless Reason and He to you, and you
will not partake in the offense invoked by the powers of evil,
but you will partake in the peace of Him – the Good – who
can neither be offended nor made angry or jealous.
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To lessen feelings of offence, regard yourself in the

following manner: Before I am anything I am a soul that
belongs to God and I am without country or tradition except
the country of God, that is the kingdom of Heaven, and the
tradition of humility that is servitude to His Spirit of Selfless
Reason. By regarding yourself in this manner, you will
overcome the mental and worldly/historical divisions set by
the powers of evil to foster: pride, sensitivity to offense, anger
and attachment to self.
In the light of Jesus’ words, it is confirmed that if a
person loves Him then he or she loves the Father. Scripture
strategically seals the relationship between the Father and the
Son through the Son – and not through Yahweh: “Whoever
denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever
acknowledges the Son has the Father too.” (1 John 2:23) Thus,
scripture reveals that the Father is not gained through the Law,
which is the brainchild of Yahweh, but through His Son, Jesus
Christ. This uncompromising distinction between good and
evil is important because there is neither any evil nor the least
amount of vice, whatsoever, in God, and therefore, no evil or
vice should be attributed to Him lest evil or vice be justified
through Him. Such justification is dangerous ignorance and
leads to confusion as to what is right and what is wrong –
especially in a cosmic sense. For, cosmically speaking, what is
taken to be right for the flesh is not so for the Spirit.
While Yahweh castes the darkness of unenlightened
thinking upon intellects through the Law and other ‘lawfully’
violent and promiscuous religions to keep people from finding
the Tree of Life, Jesus helps people find the Tree of Life by
calling humankind to strive after Him, for He is, in whatever
way one can conceive, the Tree of Life! (John 6:48-50) Jesus
calls us, just as He did with people when He lived on earth, to
make the journey of enlightened thinking – but our
participation requires us to forsake the baggage of unenlight-
ened thinking; in His words:
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“No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak;

otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the
old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine
into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the
skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New
wine into fresh skins!” (Mark 2:21-22)
The consistent and ironic weakness of the Law is that as it

tries to block the way to the Tree of Life, it inadvertently
reveals Its location. To overcome the pirates of sin who use
the Law to block human intellects from finding the Tree of
Life, one must take the opposite course of action that the Law
influences one to take. The spiritual direction of Jesus’
teachings – which he disconnects from his ‘lawful’ upbringing:
“My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me” (John 7:16) –
can be discerned in the following counter-actions of the Law:
Where the Law influences one to judge, one should

not judge; where the Law influences one to justify
violence, one should justify peace; where the Law
influences one to feel self-righteous, one should learn
to feel humble; where the Law influences one to keep
things clean on the outside, one should keep things
clean on the inside (that is, things of the mind); where
the Law influences one to fear God, one should love
God; where the Law influences one to hate one’s
enemies, one should love one’s enemies; where the
Law influences one to desire excessive material
possessions, one should desire the least amount of
material possessions; where the Law influences one
to punish, one should have mercy; where the Law
influences one to enslave, one should set free; where
the Law influences men to dominate women, men
should be kind helpers to women; where the Law
influences one to pray publicly, one should pray in
secret; where the Law influences one to kill, one
should let live; where the Law influences one to seek
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revenge (as encouraged through the saying: an eye

for an eye), one should seek forgiveness; and lastly,
where the Law influences one to justify sexual
activity, one should strive for dispassion.
Whatever need or desire the Law either influences you to

want to fulfill or feel justified in fulfilling, you should instead
try to feel either a need or desire to strive after Jesus. By
striving after Jesus, which is the ‘thoughtful’ way, the spiritual
meditations are conditioned to strive into the encompassing
perspective of love wherein rests the Glory of Christ.
Consequently, the intellect is moved from a life that revolves
around ‘Material’ and fantasies of ‘Material,’ to a life that
revolves around God and visions of spirituality. Regarding
visions, St. Thalassios says: “According to the degree to which
the intellect is stripped of the passions, the Holy Spirit initiates
the intellect into the mysteries of the age to be.” (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 329, #75) As for ‘Material’ and fantasies of
‘Material,’ it should be remembered that confidence born from
‘Material’ is illusory, but confidence born from the Spirit is
true. It is wise to oversee this confidence with the eyes of
prudence.
The Law can be self-contradictory in the sense that it will
uphold virtue, but this upholding of virtue is somewhat
deceptive because it is driven by the need to be near to the
intellect to prevent it from making any progress into the
selflessness of dispassion. An intellect is prevented from
making progress when it is coaxed into believing that it is
virtuous enough. More often than not, this deception is
achieved by getting the intellect to believe that it is justified or
reckoned upright through the Law, and thereby, more virtuous
than other intellects. The pirates of sin are adept at reinforcing
such blinding beliefs within an intellect by way of the Law.
St. Paul starkly informs us: “Once you seek to be
reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated
yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.”
(Galatians 5:4) Almost unnoticeably, this definitive warning
107
reveals God’s universal supremacy for the pirates of sin are

compelled to uphold some degree of virtue – albeit
imperfectly, just as the Law is imperfect – lest a child of God
be born from an intellect finding sufficient reason to seek the
Good despite the nominal good of the Law. By following the
Spirit of Selfless Reason an intellect can overcome the pirates
of sin and break through the ‘Material’ propensity of the Law
to bring forth the spirituality of Love.
To break through the Law is to break through the
religious falsehood of the pirates of sin. The Law is the
religious falsehood of the pirates of sin because it is through
the Law that they pretend to be God, through and with
Yahweh, to keep people from the Tree of Life. The beginning
of Genesis reveals Yahweh’s selfish nature and that he is not
the giver of eternal life: “Then Yahweh said, ‘Now that the
man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he
must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the
Tree of Life too, and eat and live forever!’” (Genesis 3:22)
St. Thalassios concisely explains to us why Yahweh
wanted to keep “Adam and Eve” from the Tree of Life: “The
Tree of Life is the knowledge of God; when, being purified,
you share in that knowledge you attain immortality.” (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 328, #56) Even though Yahweh was fearful
of Adam and Eve attaining immortality, he was more fearful
of their finding and nurturing the immortal immortality of
divinity at the soul-level of themselves – the soul-level that he
and the fallen angels are devoid – whereat the selflessness of
Nothing correlates to the selflessness of Love.
By pretending to be God, the pirates of sin and Yahweh
cleverly ensure – with the ‘guilty’ feelings of the conscience –
that “…the Law produces nothing but God’s retribution...”
(Romans 4:15) Thus, the scriptural authors say that “…it is
only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without
breaking the Law.” (Romans 4:15) In the battlefield of earth,
fear of God is the pirates’ most insidious weapon.
The Law – depending upon the extent of a person’s literal
belief in it – imprints the limited perspective’s pattern-of-fear
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upon the intellect and this fear is reinforced by the pirates of

sin through the violable ic-aspect, thereby, preventing the
person from fearlessly realizing the rational mentality that is
needed to strive into the encompassing perspective of love.
Generally, the Law causes the following cycle to happen:
People are taught false-knowledge about God;

namely, that He does not care about human
suffering and that He created suffering to punish
humankind.
People learn to either fear God or resent Him.
People are desensitized to the suffering of others
because they are trained, through fear, to uphold the
Law; subsequently, they are trained to enforce its
various punishments, such as: social estrangement,
lashings, whippings, cuttings, stonings, burnings
and beheadings.
People are disempowered from seeking God’s Spirit
of Selfless Reason because of their acquiescence to
that which challenges the common sense of love
which supports the basic virtues of: mercy,
forgiveness and compassion for all.
People, due to their fear of God, cannot bear the
divine fruit of Love that is the Holy Spirit.
Thus and so, the cyclical aim of the Law is fulfilled

because fear cannot abide in Love, of which, God is! Scripture
confirms this reality: “In love there is no room for fear, but
Perfect Love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment
and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in Love.” (1
John 4:18)
In view of the wicked punishments and the mentality of
war that the Law justifies, it does not have anything at all to
do with the God of Love who is also known as the God of
Peace (Philippians 4:9). In truth, the Law is profane and St.
Paul even describes it as filth (or “dung” in earlier versions of
the Bible), he says:
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“In the matter of the Law, I was a Pharisee; as for

religious fervor, I was a persecutor of the church; as for
the uprightness embodied in the Law, I was faultless. But
what were once my assets I now count as my losses. Yes, I
will go further: because of the supreme advantage of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as
loss. For Him I have accepted the loss of all other things,
and I look upon them all as filth if only I can gain Christ.”
(Philippians 3:6-8)
Like a ray of sunlight trying to break through dark clouds

to reach flowers in a garden, the Living Word (through St.
Paul) tries to break through the dark clouds of the Law to
reach intellects in the world: “The sting of death is sin, and the
power of sin comes from the Law.” (1 Corinthians 15:56) I
say through St. Paul because of his victorious testimony: “My
old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me….” (Galatians 2:20)
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Chapter 14
Beguiled
The scriptural authors reveal that they had mistakenly opened

the world to the Law not realizing the evil that it concealed:
“Once, when there was no Law, I used to be alive; but when
the commandment of the Law came, sin came to life and I
died. The commandment was meant to bring life but I found
that it brought death, because sin, finding its opportunity by
means of the commandment, beguiled me and, by means of it,
killed me.” (Romans 7:10-11, italics his) It should be known
that although sin already existed in the world before the Law
was created (Romans 5:13), it became a greater obstacle to
overcome – from what it already was – in the search for
eternal life as the Law gave cover to it and religiously justified
the passions that it arouses (1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 7:5).
To correct what they had loosed, the authors of scripture
tried to bring the Law and its blind followers into harmony
with the Spirit of Selfless Reason by getting its followers to
think in accordance with the thinking of Jesus Christ. The
scriptural authors knew that they would be successful
whenever the Law was rejected – and Jesus Christ accepted –
by a person if they could get him or her to understand that the
Law brings death whereas Jesus Christ brings eternal life; in
their words:
“When law came on the scene, it multiplied the offences.

But however much sin increased, grace was always
greater; so that as sin’s reign brought death, so grace was
to rule through saving justice that leads to eternal life
111
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
It is important to understand that the beguilement of the

Law is due, in part, to the fact that it uses bits of truth to get
people to buy into the poisonous lie of itself; for naturally,
something bad-tasting – such as poison – needs good-tasting
ingredients mixed-in to make itself more palatable and
acceptable. Even if the poison is tasteless, it still needs good-
tasting ingredients to comprise the medium by which it is
delivered. One good ingredient is the law to not kill. While
this law is good in itself, the Law has inspired and justified
more killings than I can say. It is able to have this bad affect
because the law to not kill – as well as the Law’s other laws –
acts as a ‘wedge’ to deepen and strengthen the violable ic-
aspect through feelings of guilt that are used against people as
they break commandments of the Law; hence, the testimony
of the scriptural authors:
“…for the Law produces nothing but God’s retribution,

and it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to
live without breaking the Law.” (Romans 4:15, italics
mine)
Conversely, when people keep commandments of the

Law – let us a say a commandment to stone or socially
estrange someone because he or she has broken a command-
ment of the Law – they receive feelings of guiltlessness from
the violable ic-aspect which can easily lead to feelings of self-
righteousness; hence, St. Paul’s stark words: “Once you seek
to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have
separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from
grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
Notably, just like the aforementioned feelings, “God’s
retribution” is a feeling that the pirates of sin create from the
violable ic-aspect to keep people from finding independence
from the Law lest they begin to judge and act in ways that
strengthen the soul instead of weakening it. When a person
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feels feelings of retribution for breaking a commandment of

the Law – believing that it is God’s retribution – how likely is
it that he or she will break from the Law and all of its
commandments? It is not likely until he or she trusts and
follows the Spirit of Selfless Reason.
When people follow the Law they demonstrate trust in it
rather than the Spirit; consequently, they weaken their
connection to the Spirit as they become less dependent upon It
and more dependant upon and vulnerable to what is not Spirit.
Specifically, people become less dependant upon what is
inside the soul, namely the Spirit of Selfless Reason, and more
dependant upon and vulnerable to impurities that are outside
the soul, namely: the violable ic-aspect, the pirates of sin, the
Law and other belief-systems that deter seeking the perfect
virtue of dispassion by leading people to seek nominal goods
before the maximal good of dispassion – if it is even
acknowledged – which leads to the kingdom of Heaven.
Scripture shares Jesus’ unfailing wisdom:
“Seek the kingdom of God [Heaven] and His righteousness.

Singly aim at this, that God, reigning in your heart, may
fill it…And indeed, whosoever seeks this first will soon
come to seek this only.” (Matthew 6:33)
Even though people killed each other in times when the

Law did not exist, when people sought the Truth in those
times it was easier for them to close the violable ic-aspect
because they did not hold onto any belief that impeded the
Spirit of Selfless Reason from working within themselves – at
least not any belief that was effective against It. Conversely,
although people continue to kill each other in the present time
of the Law – whether or not they know about the Law – it is
more difficult for followers of the Law to close the violable ic-
aspect because they hold onto a belief that impedes the Spirit
of Selfless Reason from working within themselves – a belief
that is effective against It.
The Law is effective against the Spirit of Selfless Reason
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because it affects its followers to have feelings such as guilt

and fears of retribution from ‘God’ if they let it go. Moreover,
people are also deterred from letting go of the Law through the
‘positive’ feelings of uprightness that they get whenever they
judge others by it; hence, the important words of St. Paul
which I will share again: “Once you seek to be reckoned as
upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself
from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
The Law is able to have this affect on its followers because of
its deep penetration into the violable ic-aspect.
The Law acts like a massive wedge set deep in the
violable ic-aspect, thereby, making it more difficult to close
because a person first has to bravely reject ‘the one angry
God’ who keeps it open. Of course, the one angry ‘God’ is
Yahweh and he keeps the violable ic-aspect open by the
wedge of the Law so he can actively steal a person’s creative
force and simultaneously use it against him or her by creating
various images, feelings and thoughts to maintain his
influence. It is possible that in either Jesus’ time or before,
people who had followed the Law discerned that it was not the
Truth because they were either persecuted by it or empathized
with people who were persecuted by it.
Or perhaps, some people thought it was strange that they
should feel guilt for not wanting to either stone a person or do
some other malicious deed to fulfill the Law. Whatever the
case, people – by the Spirit of Selfless Reason – began to
search for the Truth and the Truth, in a personable fashion,
broke into the world as Jesus. To summarize the aforesaid:
even though people do bad things whether or not there is a
wedge in their violable ic-aspect, when there is a wedge, the
violable ic-aspect is more difficult to close.
As you will learn, the critical hope of the scriptural
authors was that the Law would become universally
condemned as more people came to know and love Jesus
Christ. Admirably, the scriptural authors selflessly acknow-
ledged the Law so that those who were seduced by its
beguiling spirit would not be theologically divided from the
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Truth of Christ. Undoubtedly, the scriptural authors were

hoping that by remaining ‘connected’ to the Law, followers of
the Law would find their way to the Truth of Christ.
Unfortunately, the result was a composition that had
theological concessions within itself.
The theological concessions are dangerous because not
only do they help people justify their allegiance to the Law
and passion, but they are also used by the pirates of sin to
recruit ‘thoughtfully weak’ Christians into their lair of
judgment. The success of this recruitment is made evident
when people, not realizing the gravity of sin within
themselves, use the Law to judge others. The Law affects
people to judge others lest they judge themselves and come to
discern sin within themselves, and thereby, become self-
motivated to take action against it. The least action being to
not judge others but to seek friendship with others, and the
greatest action being to seek dispassion – both of which are
supported by the Spirit of Selfless Reason. People remain
thoughtfully weak when they take no action to oppose the sin
within themselves.
Considering the vast number of incorrect judgments that
undermine charitable love and dispassion, it is obvious that
more people are delivered into the Law than are taken out.
This ratio reveals the danger of having theological concessions
within the composition of the New Testament.
In so far as the New Testament is concerned, the
following is what has happened: Christ’s words, which can be
thought of as food for the intellect, were put on the same plate
as the poisonous food of the Law that is the Old Testament.
The Jewish mystics who put these two foods on the same plate
did so because they hoped that the poisoned followers of the
Law would eat Christ’s words, and thereby, learn to follow
Him and be healed from the poison that secretly afflicted
them.
The poison of the Law spreads because it blinds people to
evil, and as people are blinded they lose their ability to tell the
difference between good and evil. Furthermore, blind people –
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believing that what is bad is good and what is good is bad –

teach their children the same and the Law is empowered to
poison more people as they believe it to be good when actually
it is bad. In this way the cycle of poisoning continues through
the generations.
An example of people mistaking evil for good is when
people stone people for breaking laws; the people stoning
think that they are doing good, but they are doing evil. The
same is true of passion, people think that it is good, but it is
evil; its evil is revealed as a person strives after the good of
dispassion. Remember: Just as the Law can make a person
blind to the evil of stoning, it can – even more easily – make a
person blind to the evil of passion.
Some people might argue that passion is less evil than
stoning because stoning always has a victim, whereas passion
is consensual and has no victim. I counter that passion has
many more victims because it is like electricity running
through a prison-fence wherein people are corralled. In this
corral prison, the guards/captors encourage bad things to
happen amongst the people – as well as things that seem to be
good – to ensure that they do not gather their wits and realize
their predicament, and thereby, escape from the prison by
climbing the conquerable fence.
From this example, we see that even though a person can
be a victim of stoning, many more people are victims of
passion because of the imprisonment that it reinforces to keep
people from finding the kingdom of Heaven. It is for this
reason that passion is regarded as the greatest evil by people
who strive to become dispassionate to escape from the
imprisonment of the limited perspective. In finding the
kingdom of Heaven, a person comes to know clean fear;
namely, the fear of losing the kingdom of Heaven if he or she
stupidly falls back into the passions of material because of
carelessness. It is one thing to fall while learning to climb the
fence of passion, and another thing to fall back to it when one
has already climbed over it. Nevertheless, no matter how one
falls, grace is always ready to forgive the repentant person so
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he or she may get back up.

Furthermore, even though a man might be a rich prisoner
and not a poor prisoner, he is a prisoner just as much as the
poor prisoner. The rich man might even be more of a prisoner
because of his stronger attachment to material. Scripture gives
us insight as to why attachment to material can be problem-
atic:
“Jesus said to the young man, ‘If you wish to be perfect,

go and sell your possessions and give the money to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come,
follow Me.’ But when the young man heard these words
he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.”
Jesus then said to His disciples: “In truth I tell you, it is
hard for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter
the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:21-24)
The moral of the story: Be prepared to let go to live anew

– if, as Jesus said, you wish to be perfect.
When a person, by way of correct teaching, realizes that
the Law encourages passion to imprison souls in the material
universe, then he or she has already become more enlightened
and will eventually become free from sin if he or she takes
consistent action to resist passion. St. Paul reveals a way to
understand the beginning and the end of the narrow path; the
beginning being the comprehension of imprisonment, the
ending being the following of correct teaching to gain
freedom:
“…but I see that acting on my body there is a different law

which battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought
to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my
body.” (Romans 7:23, italics mine)
“Once you were slaves of sin, but thank God you have
given whole-hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching
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to which you were introduced; and so, being freed from

serving sin, you took uprightness as your master.”
(Romans 6:17-18, italics mine)
Some blind people, by the grace of self-determination,

learn to tell the difference between the good food and the bad
food; consequently, they begin to eat less of the bad food and
more of the good food and they slowly regain their sight
becoming more enlightened. These people, in regaining their
sight, eat more of Christ’s words and they learn to follow His
calling to fulfill the perfect-health of dispassion. They follow
Christ’s calling to Himself and they abandon, in one way or
another, the poison-laden plate of food; for who would want to
eat from a poisonous plate of food when he or she can eat
from what is pure and good? Namely, the Living Word (John
6:52-58).
Christ, who, as we know, can be understood as either the
Living Word or the Spirit of Selfless Reason, tries to lead
people from the poisonous food of the Law to the food of
Himself – often by way of His followers. As a Christian,
leading people from the Law is a tug-of-war and even though
the war ends in minds, it begins in the Bible. For at one end of
the Bible, the New Testament, there is Christ who calls
humanity to Himself; and at the other end, the Old Testament,
there is Yahweh who seeks to hide Christ – Who is the Tree of
Life – from humanity! (Genesis 3:23-24, see below) Thanks
be to God that Christ will never give-up and never lose the
war. Be with Christ and pull on the tug-of-war rope with Him
to gain your health, and thenceforth, the health of your friends
and family (Luke 6:41-42).
In accordance with God’s wisdom and mercy it should be
known – and never forgotten – that a non-Christian who loves
is nearer to Him than a Christian who hates for it is the love
within a person that is the main indicator of his or her
relationship to Him. Scripture explains: “My dear friends, let
us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who
loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever fails to love
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does not know God, because God is Love.” (1 John 4:7-8)

Nevertheless, even though a non-Christian who loves is nearer
to God than a Christian who hates, it is the Christian who will
more easily find the Tree of Life because of the unrestricted
grace of repentance-forgiveness that God’s Spirit of Selfless
Reason offers. Whereas the loving non-Christian – because of
his or her impassioned commitment to the Law – will not find
the Tree of Life because the Law exists to restrict people from
the Tree of Life. This restriction is unmistakable:
“So Yahweh expelled him from the Garden of Eden, to till

the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the
man, and in front of the Garden of Eden he posted the
great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to
guard the way to the Tree of Life.” (Genesis 3: 23-24)
How quickly this restriction can be over-ruled when a

person decides to follow Jesus! In deciding to follow Jesus a
person increases the strength of his or her intellect because He,
as the Spirit of Selfless Reason, will be reflected more
strongly within the intellect.
Here are a few examples of the scriptural authors’ noble
and concessionary efforts to ‘graft’ the Spirit of Selfless
Reason to the Law; the ultimate goal being to lure “beguiled”
followers of the Law to the Spirit of Selfless Reason so He
will be reflected more strongly within their intellects: “But the
Law has found its fulfillment in Christ so that all who have
faith will be justified” (Romans 10:4); “Love can cause no
harm to your neighbor, and so love is the fulfillment of the
Law” (Romans 13:10); “Anyone who slanders another or
condemns is speaking against the Law” (James 4:11); “As
soon as a person makes a class distinction – they are breaking
the Law” (James 2:8); “The only thing you should owe to
anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is
to fulfill the Law” (Romans 13:8); and lastly, a verse which
was written with Jesus in mind: “So always treat others as you
would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the
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Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

Pragmatically cautious, the ‘eagle-eyed’ authors of
scripture do not let the unseen danger of the Law escape from
the view of perceptive Christians lest, through the graft, they
become beguiled and ensnared by it: “The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin comes from the Law. Thank God, then,
for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1
Corinthians 15:56-57); “Indeed, what was once considered
glorious [the Law] has lost all claim to glory, by contrast with
the glory which transcends it [that is, Christ]” (2 Corinthians
3:10); “He [Christ] has given us the competence to be
ministers of a new covenant, a covenant which is not written
of letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the
Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6); “For He [Christ] is the
peace between us, and has made the two into one entity and
broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, by
destroying in His own person the hostility, that is, the Law of
commandments with its decrees” (Ephesians 2:14-15); and
finally, the verse that reveals the secret hope of the scriptural
authors: “Brothers [and sisters], do not slander one another.
Anyone who slanders a brother, or condemns one, is speaking
against the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn
the Law, you have ceased to be subject to it and become a
judge over it.” (James 4:11, italics mine).
Question: Why would a person condemn the Law if it
worked for God? Answer: A person would not condemn the
Law if it worked for God, but a person condemns the Law
when he or she realizes that it actually works against Him.
When a person condemns the Law to follow Christ, its root of
deception disappears from the person.
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Chapter 15
The Bars of Love
St. John of the Cross comprehended the impact that

condemning the Law could have upon Christianity and the
world, therefore, he tried to share this truth with others; but the
repercussions from opposing the Law – just as in Jesus’ time –
led to punishment from the Law by way of its thoughtfully
weak followers. While Jesus’ punishment was crucifixion, St.
John of the Cross’ was a ‘good whipping’ – at least in the eyes
of those who did the whipping. Thus, while St. John of the
Cross seems to be endorsing the Law through his writings, in
reality, he is covertly condemning the Law by imposing upon
it the highest aspiration of Selfless Reason – an aspiration that
the pirates of sin do not want fulfilled; namely, that one will
love God without love of self. Selfless reason is the means by
which St. John of the Cross cuts through the sensual
beguilement of the Law: “For where there is true love of God
there enters neither love of self nor that of the things of self.”
((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 488) Dark Night, Bk. II, xxi; Peers, I, p.
445) Strength is in the doing and doing is resisting.
Thus, when one reads the ‘lawful’ writings of St. John of
the Cross, one is not truly learning from the Law – at least not
in the way that Yahweh intends for it to be learned – but one is
learning from St. John’s own composition which reveals the
way to strive into the encompassing perspective of love.
Righteous learning from the Law is possible, despite the
killing words of itself (2 Corinthians 3:6), because the Spirit of
Selfless Reason is the penetrating and sagacious means of
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spiritual interpretation that is able (as the saying goes) to

extract water from stone.
St. Maximos, a forerunner of St. John, understood the
importance of understanding the Law through spiritual
interpretation:
“As soon as anyone practices the virtues with true intelli-

gence, he acquires a spiritual understanding of scripture.
He worships God actively in the new way of the Spirit
through the higher forms of contemplation, and not in the
old way of the written code (Rom. 7:6), which makes man
interpret the Law in an outward and sensual manner and,
Judaic-like, fosters the passions and encourages sin. As
soon as a person stops interpreting scripture in an outward
and sensual manner, his intellect reverts to its natural
spiritual state: he accomplishes spiritually what the Jews
performed in a purely external and physical manner…”
(The Philokalia, v. II, p. 273, #53, 54)
In the following passage by St. Maximos, we can see how

different an outcome can be when one interprets scripture
spiritually as opposed to literally:
“If God rejoiced simply in bloody sacrifices, this would

imply that He is governed by passion and wishes those
who offer sacrifice to Him to value the passions…But the
sacrifices of which scripture speaks are rather the slaughter
of the passions and the offering up of our natural powers.
Of these powers, the ram typifies the intelligence (Lev.
5:15), the bull the incensive power (Exod. 29:36), and the
goat represents desire (Num. 15:27). (The Philokalia, v. II,
p. 273, #50)
Thus, where a literal observance of the Law would require

the bloody sacrifice of animals, a spiritual observance of the
Law requires the ascetic sacrifice of self. Indeed, by the means
of spiritual interpretation, St. Maximos helps us to rethink our
understanding of the Sabbath:
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“The Law instituted the Sabbath, says scripture, so that

your ox and your servant might rest (Exod. 20:10). Both
of these are symbols for the body…The man who attains
virtue together with a consonant spiritual knowledge treats
his body as an ox: with his intelligence he steers it to do
what has to be done. The life of active virtue is his servant
– the life which naturally gives rise to virtue and which is
acquired through the exercise of discrimination as if
bought with money. The Sabbath is a virtuous, dispassion-
ate and peaceful condition of both body and soul. It is an
unchanging state.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 152-53, #64,
65)
For the sake of propriety, here is an example of St. John

of the Cross using spiritual interpretation:
“…we read that God commanded Joshua, who was about

to enter into possession of the promised land, to destroy
everything in the city of Jericho without leaving anything
alive, neither men nor women, young nor old, nor any
animals. God ordered him to not covet or seize any of the
booty (Jos. 6:18-19, 21). The lesson here is that all objects
living in the soul – whether they be many or few, large or
small – must die in order that the soul may enter divine
union, and it must bear no desire for them but remain
detached as though they were nonexistent to it, and it to
them.” (CW, p. 145)
St. John of the Cross reveals that spiritual interpretation

can be used to not only penetrate the written word, but other
forms of communication as well; moreover, he reveals the
ultimate dependability of faith:
“In this and many other ways souls are misled by

understanding God’s locutions and revelations according
to the letter, according to the outer rind. As has been
explained, God’s chief objective in conferring these
revelations is to express and impart the spirit that is
enclosed within the outer rind. This spirit is difficult to
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understand, much richer and more plentiful, very

extraordinary and far beyond the boundaries of the letter.
“Anyone bound to the letter, locution, form, or figure

apprehensible in the vision cannot avoid serious error and
will later become confused for having been led according
to the senses and not having made room for the spirit
stripped of the letter. Littera, enim, occidit, spiritus autem
vivificat (The letter kills and the spirit gives life) [2 Cor.
3:6]. The soul should renounce, then, the literal sense in
these cases, and live in the darkness of faith, for faith is
the spirit that is incomprehensible to the senses.” (CW, p.
215)
To live in the “darkness of faith” is to blindly and

trustfully follow the Spirit of Selfless Reason to dispassion
despite the visual and habitual enticements of sensuality
(Romans 8:12-13).
Unfortunately, St. Maximos’ and St. John’s compositions
are not able to dissuade people from the Law who are
thoughtfully weak as there is still a slight degree of concession
within their writings. This concession is due to the apparent
reverence that is given to the Law because of the inevitable
handling of its ‘tombstone’ words to extract ‘life-giving’
water. This misdirected reverence can be corrected to gain
important insight into the saints’ compositions and their
wisdom (Matthew 10:16). Quite simply, it is illogical to give
reverence to that which kills (2 Corinthians 3:6). In other
words, if a man is viewing a deadly monster in a cage – even
if it is a ‘decent-looking’ monster – reverence should not be
given to the monster that would kill him if it could escape, but
reverence should be given to the compositional ‘bars of love’
that protect him from the monster; and better yet, reverence
should be given to the one who constructed the bars of love,
which for us is the Spirit of Selfless Reason.
Without any doubt, Jesus – the Living Word made into
flesh – understood that the Law worked against Love, con-
sequently, He used non-contradictory and non-concessionary
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language to encage it within His immutable bars of love,

which exist and persist to this day, to save people from being
stung by it due to belief in it (1 Corinthians 15:56). In law-
breaking terms, Our Savior unscrupulously offended the
Law’s kosher doctrine, which is its ‘decent-looking’ disguise
of cleanliness and uprightness:
“In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the
Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has
eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me
and I live in that person. As the living Father sent me and I
draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also
draw life from me. This is the bread which has come down
from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live
forever.” (John 6:52-58, italics mine)
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Chapter 16
Against Self-Indulgence
To eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood is to
follow His commandment to strive after perfection – the
perfection of dispassion – which is, as we learned from St.
Peter of Damaskos: “…desisting from every sinful act that the
devil promotes.” Regarding dispassion, let us recall a quote
from St. John of the Cross:
“Indeed it would also be vanity for a husband and wife to

rejoice in their marriage when they are uncertain whether
God is being better served by it. They should rather be
perplexed, for as St. Paul declares, matrimony is the cause
of not centering the heart entirely on God, since the hearts
of the couple are set on one another (1 Corinthians 7:32-
35). He advises consequently: If you are free from a wife
[or husband] do not seek one, but if you already have one,
be as free of heart as if you had none (1 Corinthians 7:27-
29). (CW, p. 297)
In a politically correct fashion, so to speak, the saints

promote celibacy despite the command of the Law: “Yahweh
blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the
earth and subdue it.’” (Genesis 1:28) Supporting this
command we are told that the Law will never disappear: “It is
easier for Heaven and earth to disappear than for one little
stroke to drop out of the Law.” (Luke 16:17) When we
consider the words of the saints, we cannot help but see that
they uniformly contradict the command of the Law to be
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fruitful and multiply as celibacy is the nullification of sex,

which is a requirement if one is going to be fruitful and
multiply. Additionally, because of the verse: It is easier for
Heaven and earth to disappear than for one little stroke to
drop out of the Law, we cannot help but also see that their
words are judgments against the Law to make one little stroke
drop out. The little stroke that they want to drop out is not a
small one, but it is a big one that is for many people the
foundation of the Law; namely, the command of Yahweh to be
fruitful and multiply. The saints’ judgment against the Law
makes them judges over it: “But if you condemn the Law, you
have ceased to be subject to it and become a judge over it.”
(James 4:11)
Regarding the verse: It is easier for Heaven and earth to
disappear than for one little stroke to drop out of the Law, we
are expected to believe that Jesus spoke it, but He did not
speak such words as He would never teach – for whatever
reason – that Heaven, the divine goal that He dutifully
encouraged people to strive towards, could disappear. The
idea of Heaven disappearing is absurd because It is the
kingdom of God and, assuredly, the kingdom of God will
never disappear. Whoever wrote, or instructed to be written,
that the kingdom of God would disappear before the Law was
used by the pirates of sin who want not only to perpetuate it,
but also to put it before and above the kingdom of God! In the
light of the saints’ condemnation of the Law, it is certain that
Jesus condemned it first for the benefit of humanity. The
pirates of sin are determined to perpetuate the Law because:
“…no one who is under the Law will be able to look up to

the Truth for they will not be able to serve two
masters…The Law commands (one) to take a husband (or)
to take a wife, and to beget, to multiply like the sand of
the sea. But passion which is a delight to them [the pirates
of sin] constrains the souls of those who are begotten in
this place [the limited perspective]…in order that the Law
might be fulfilled through them [to fulfill passion at the
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expense of souls].” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The

Testimony of Truth, p. 450)
Despite the aforesaid, we should remember that God

works in mysterious ways and that He can make evil work for
good, thus, in His wisdom, children are born innocent from
evil to remind us to strive after the virtue of dispassion which
brings us back to innocence from evil; hence the words of
Jesus:
“People were bringing little children to Jesus, for Him to

touch them. The disciples scolded them, but when Jesus
saw this He was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little
children come to Me; do not stop them; for it is to such as
these that the kingdom of Heaven belongs. In truth I tell
you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of
Heaven like a little child will never enter it.’ Then He
embraced them, laid His hands on them and gave them
His blessing.” (Mark 10:13-16)
Just as we are called to love children as Jesus loved

children, we are called – even more so – to not forget the
importance of dispassion. Dispassion is important because it
breaks sin’s grip on a person so he or she can be with God in
the kingdom of Heaven which is eternal and will never
disappear. In the light of the aforesaid, any religion that
discourages celibacy – which is a step away from dispassion –
is a religion that serves the interests of the pirates of sin who
would even have people believe that celibacy and dispassion
are sinful.
If you are too weak to resist indulging in sensuality, or to
even conceive of dispassion, you should at least, by the power
of faith, reject the Law to open yourself to guidance from the
Spirit of God to receive His grace more strongly; St. Paul tells
us:
“Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will

no longer yield to self-indulgence. The desires of self-
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indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the

desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence:
they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you
are prevented from doing the things that you want to. But
when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious:
sexual vice, impurity and sensuality, the worship of false
gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad
temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions and malice,
drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I
tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people
who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of
Heaven. On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things
as these.” (Galatians 5:16-23, italics mine)
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Chapter 17
I Am
By the light of faith, a person is enabled to follow Jesus to

find the Truth of God. Fearlessly, the scriptural authors
encourage people to nurture the light of faith without the Law:
“…faith is what counts, since, as we see it, a person is justified
by faith and not by doing what the Law tells him to do.”
(Romans 3:27-28) True to their style, however, the scriptural
authors then try to bring the followers of the Law into the
‘new’ mystery of faith – that is Christianity – by yielding to
their belief in the Law: “Are we saying that the Law has been
made pointless by faith? Out of the question; we are placing
the Law on its true footing.” (Romans 3:31) Unfortunately, the
only “true footing” of the Law is its beguilement that people
experienced back then and still experience to this day
(Romans 7:10-11).
In considering this beguilement, it would seem that
although the scriptural authors tell us that they had created the
Law, it is possible that it was clandestinely put into their
minds by the pirates of sin, under the guise of being good, to
bring about more death and not immortal life; hence, the
surprise of the scriptural authors as expressed in their words:
“The commandment was meant to bring life but I found that it
brought death…” (Romans 7:10-11) Despite the death that the
Law brings, it remains because it is empowered through the
thoughtfully weak minds of its followers who embrace its
teachings of judgment and ‘sanctified’ passion.
The judgments and passions that the Law arouses are not
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only used by the pirates of sin to affect people to judge others

and engage in passion, but to also believe, at some level, that
God is not complete goodness as it depicts Him, by way of
graphic stories, as having violent and uncompassionate
tendencies. The Law’s depiction of God is not a compli-
mentary reflection of Him because He is not a combination of
good and evil – He is only good – consequently, the Law is
neither a reflection of God nor of the soul’s divine purity, but
rather, it is a reflection of the devil and the impurity that is
outside the soul, to which the pirates of sin direct intellects so
they will not find God who is Complete Goodness.
The critical result of the Law is that it does not encourage
people to seek the complete goodness of dispassion within
themselves – as can be freely sought because of God’s
complete goodness – by the effort to abandon the incomplete
goodness of passion that is without themselves. Because God
is Complete Goodness, He is inherently fair and just; so if a
man resists passion in this life to find dispassion then he will
be given the reward of divinity, but if a man does not resist
passion in this life then he cannot be given the reward of
divinity as he would not have returned to God what belongs to
Him – but he will be given what he desires; hence, the
aforementioned words of St. Maximos:
“God reveals Himself to each person according to each

person’s mode of conceiving Him. To those whose
aspiration transcends the complex structure of matter, and
whose psychic powers are fully integrated in a single
unceasing gyration around God, He reveals Himself as
Unity and Trinity. In this way He both shows forth His
own existence and mystically makes known the mode in
which that existence subsists. To those whose aspiration
is limited to the complex structure of matter, and whose
psychic powers are not integrated, He reveals Himself not
as He is but as they are, showing that they are completely
caught in the material dualism whereby the physical world
is conceived as composed of matter and form.” (The
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Now is the time to resist passion to find dispassion and its

reward of divinity, because if a man does not resist passion in
this life, due to his love for ‘Material,’ then he will not be able
to resist passion in the next life as passion will be stronger to
fulfill his love for ‘Material.’ Even though it is fair and just
that one should reap what one sows, do not lose heart because
of your weakness that leads you to sow passion; for as you
will learn, God – being Goodness Itself and the Creator
without which not anything can exist – has made fairness and
justice so they work for the benefit of humankind. It is a wise
person who understands that God has chosen her or him to
work, to the best of her or his ability, for the benefit of
humankind.
St. Paul informs us about people who adhere to the Law:
“But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the
same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is
not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with.” (2
Corinthians 3:14) From these momentous words we can
conclude that people who whole-heartedly accept Jesus Christ
do not embrace the Law, but they reject it as filth just as St.
Paul did (Philippians 3:6-8). Furthermore, because of their
rejection of the Law and acceptance of Jesus Christ, they
actually accept God – who is Complete Goodness – because
Jesus Christ is one with Him. The Law and Jesus Christ are
mutually exclusive, therefore, a person cannot truly accept
Jesus Christ – who is Complete Goodness – if he or she
believes that Yahweh – who is not complete goodness – is
God.
Jesus reveals that He is one with God, and therefore, the
true footing of religion: “The Jews then said, ‘You are not
fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!’ Jesus replied: ‘In all
truth I tell you, before Abraham ever was, I am.’” (John 8:57-
58) Furthermore, the scriptural authors proclaim: “But to those
who did accept Him, He gave power to become children of
God, to those who believed in His name who were born not
from human stock, or human desire, or human will – but from
God Himself.” (John 1:12-13, italics mine) Only God can give
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a person the power to become a child of God, thus, scripture

reveals that Christ is God. Regarding the power to become a
child of God, St. Thalassios says: “Although we have received
the power to become the children of God, we do not actually
attain this sonship unless we strip ourselves of the passions.”
(The Philokalia, v. II, p. 316, #57; Galatians 5:24)
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus clearly affirms His eternal
availability to all who seek Him: “He who will drink from my
mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the
things that are hidden will be revealed to him.” (The Nag
Hammadi Library, p. 137, saying #108) To help a person find
this sublime end, a spiritual master should keep in mind that
the proper function of a spiritual master is to help a student
interiorly connect with the Spirit of Selfless Reason. To
achieve this connection, the spiritual master should not draw
attention to himself or herself, but should selflessly encourage
the student to focus attention upon the imageless-selflessness
within himself or herself.
Even though a spiritual master may be fully connected to
the Spirit of Selfless Reason, he or she should remember that
the narrow gate that the student needs to pass through is not
without, but within. Jesus establishes His eternal presence
within: “I am the gate. Anyone who enters through Me will be
safe: such a one will go in and out and will find pasture.”
(John 10:9) Regarding the interior presence of Christ, St.
Maximos says:
“Those who seek the Lord should not look for Him
outside themselves; on the contrary, they must seek Him
within themselves through faith made manifest in action.
For He is near you: ‘The word is…in your mouth and in
your heart, that is, the word of faith’ (Rom. 10:8) – Christ
being the word that is sought.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p.
146, #35)
Even though a spiritual master can be helpful, a person

should not feel constrained to follow one to find eternal life if
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he or she follows the Spirit of Selfless Reason Who is the

Spiritual Master within. In the Gospel of Thomas, which is a
compilation of sayings that Jesus spoke, we learn that a
solitary intellect has the capability to find eternal life: “And
He said, ‘Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings
will not experience death.’” (The Nag Hammadi Library, p.
126, saying #1) Of course, we no longer need to go through
the trouble of interpreting sayings because we can now – by
the darkness of faith – follow the Spirit of Selfless Reason
upon the narrow path to divine eternal life!
Through faith in Jesus Christ, who “…is the same today
as He was yesterday and as He will be forever (Hebrews
13:8),” the thoughtful Christian rejects the Law because he or
she understands and acknowledges that “There is only one
lawgiver and He [the Good] is the only judge and has the
power to save or destroy. Who are you to give a verdict on
your neighbor?” (James 4:12, italics mine) Only the Son of
God can judge: “You judge by human standards; I judge no
one, but if I judge, my judgment will be true, because I am not
alone: the one who sent me is with me.” (John 8:15-16) Our
God of Divine Mystery, revealing His goodness and serious
relationship with sentient minds, bestows the power of
forgiveness in this life to the individual; Jesus assures all of
His followers:
“Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be
forgiven. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full
measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use
will be the standard used for you.” (Luke 6:36-38)
Considering the contradictions between Jesus’ teachings

and those of the Law, it is reasonable to conclude that the Law
and Jesus’ ‘unlawful’ teachings were skillfully interwoven.
Unfortunately, the interweaved doctrine of the New Testament
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has confused and undermined the selfless reason of innum-

erable Christians as they try to reconcile two extremes that can
only be reconciled through the process of spiritual interpre-
tation. Moreover, it is only through spiritual interpretation that
darkness in the Old Testament can be turned to light; but,
superbly, the unspoiled teachings of Christ do not require
spiritual interpretation to remedy darkness as they are already
light, and therefore, do not threaten to overcome people with
darkness.
If it were not for the Bible’s beguiling contradictions, the
pirates of sin would not be able to tempt people to pass
verdicts upon others through their Law, thereby stealing their
souls into their judgment because of their conjoined
participation in ‘spiritualized judgment’ which supplants the
benevolent judgment of God who is Spirit, and therefore, the
only one who can pass spiritualized judgment. His judgment
being: “The standard you use will be the standard used for
you.” (Luke 6:38)
Lest a man think about exploiting the aforesaid judgment,
he should not believe that he can purposefully do evil without
consequence so long as he does not judge others. For clearly, a
person is still subject to the common sense of love to the
degree that he or she understands the selflessness of Nothing
which, as we know, is bonded to the selflessness of Love.
Recall that the common sense of love supports the basic
virtues of: mercy, forgiveness and compassion for all. To
reject the common sense of love is to risk being divided from
the Spirit of Selfless Reason. Jesus explains this division: “I
am the vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in
me that bears no fruit, He cuts away, and every branch that
does bear fruit, He prunes to make it bear even more.” (John
15:1-2)
If a religious leader does not either reject the dogmatic
infringement of the Law into Christianity, or at least repudiate
its literal observance, that is an indication that the leader is
blinded by the Law. St. Maximos informs us:
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“In the case of the person who confines himself to a literal

observance of the Law, the matter which he engenders is
the act of sin that he commits, while the form that he
devises in a materialistic fashion is the intellect’s assent to
the sensual pleasures that attract him to the act of sin. He
who understands Scripture in a spiritual way puts to death
both the act of sin, which corresponds to matter, and the
assent to it, which corresponds to form; and he also puts to
death the misuse of the senses for the sake of pleasure. He
does this by means of thoughts that by nature pertain to
higher levels of contemplation.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p.
268, #33)
In view of the saint’s wisdom, we can surmise that a

religious leader who follows a literal interpretation of the Law
is not effectively empowered to lead his or her followers to
freedom from the Law; for as we have learned: the power of
sin comes from the Law (1 Corinthians 15:56). As follows, if a
religious organization is unable to theologically condemn the
Law, thereby becoming a judge over it, then, logically, the
likelihood of its followers being able to condemn the Law to
become judges over it is considerably lessened (James 4:11).
One can only speculate how many more saints there would be
if it were not for blind ‘religious’ leaders who lead the
suggestible attention of their followers to the Law as opposed
to the Spirit of Selfless Reason Who is the antithesis of the
Law.
Accepting the strong possibility that Jewish mystics
formed the New Judaism of Christianity to countermand the
imperfection/contamination/Trojan Horse of the Law, they
certainly hoped to convert followers of the Law to
Christianity. Jesus realized the urgency for a new and fresh
Judaism:

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skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New
wine into fresh skins!” (Mark 2:21-22)
Unfortunately, this hope has been meagerly fulfilled as

many Jewish and Muslim people continue to be followers of
the Law – or versions of it such as Islam – as well as many
Christian people despite their assertions that they are followers
of Christ. Considering the vast number of potential saints that
have been lost to the Law – because people cannot see past its
literal interpretation – it is right to reject it just as St. Paul did.
This rejection is necessary because to accept the Law, even
through the filter of spiritual interpretation, is to risk being
taken by sin’s beguilement which sensually blinds the spiritual
sensibilities of the intellect to keep it from concretely finding
the summit of selflessness within itself.
Despite my condemnation of the Law, it is not sinful for
people to spiritually interpret it to excavate good from it, but
when they do they risk harming themselves because of the
beguilement that it panders to fulfill passion and not
dispassion. St. Peter of Damaskos had first-hand experience of
the Law’s beguilement even though he used the filter of
spiritual interpretation:
“In my ignorance all things seem contradictory and I cannot

reconcile them….I flee from stillness because of my evil
thoughts, and so I find myself beset by the passions that
tempt me through the senses.” (The Philokalia, v. III, p.
268)
Despite St. Peter’s confusion, he still recognized his

ultimate need for Christ to conquer the passions:
“But even if we do not have a visible guide, we do have

Christ…We should therefore put questions to Him
through prayer from the heart, in faith hoping His answer
will manifest itself in our thoughts and actions.” (The
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Because it is certain that Christ never gives-up on His

followers as long as they do not give-up on Him, I believe that
St. Peter, despite the power of sin, was eventually victorious
over the Law and the passions that it arouses especially as he
knew the way that he needed to go. Nevertheless, if you are
like St. Peter – not completely condemning the Law in your
heart because you do not believe St. Paul’s warning that the
power of sin comes from it – please remember that the only
way, truth and life you need to know is Christ’s and that He
will never beguile you to lead you astray to death as He is the
Way, Truth and Life.
When a person does not condemn the Law to expel the
wedge of its influence, he or she remains affected by its
influence; the influence that opposes Christ – from within the
person – to keep him or her from completely surrendering to
Him. The result being that the person has a split allegiance
between the blinding Law of Yahweh and the illumination of
Christ; this split allegiance – as seen in St. Peter – leads to
contradictions in the mind that allow evil thoughts to
strategically undermine the person’s quest for dispassion. In
short, dispassion takes longer and is more difficult to attain
when a person carries the old baggage of the Law; hence, the
decisive words of Jesus that I will share again:

skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine
into fresh skins!” (Mark 2:21-22, italics mine)
Christ being the new wine and the fresh skins being new
hearts – that is, hearts cleansed of the Law by way of heart-felt
condemnation of it – that are ready to receive Him.
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Part III
Surmising the Cosmic Reason for Striving
Chapter 18
The Good News
To more confidently return to God what belongs to Him, it is

useful to have a ‘fine-tuned’ idea as to what we are returning
and a reason as to why we are returning it. To appreciably
answer what and why, one should take to be true the
fundamental belief that God’s plan is that His children will be
born from humanity. Scripture confirms this plan: “God
decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be molded
to the pattern of His Son, so that He should be the eldest of
many brothers.” (Romans 8:29) Regarding God’s plan, St.
Maximos says:
“The outcome of every affliction endured for the sake of

virtue is joy, of every labor rest, and of every shameful
treatment glory; in short, the outcome of all sufferings for
the sake of virtue is to be with God, to remain with Him
forever and to enjoy eternal rest. Because He wishes to
unite us in nature and will with one another, and in His
goodness urges all humanity towards this goal, God in His
love entrusted His saving commandments to us, ordaining
simply that we should show mercy and receive mercy
(Matt. 5:7).” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 173, #45)
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Knowing the repercussions whenever a child of God is

born, the pirates of sin try to ensure that the siblings of Jesus
are prevented from being born, consequently, the world
suffers from the pains of divine childbirth because of their
efforts to hinder God’s plan. St. Paul explains:
“…for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the

children of God to be revealed. It was not for its own
purposes that creation has frustration imposed upon it, but
for the purposes of Him who imposed it – with the
intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from
its slavery to corruption and brought into the same
glorious freedom as the children of God. We are well
aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been
groaning in labor pains.” (Romans 8:19-22)
Because the pirates of sin operate within the neutral

parameters of God’s material universe, there can be no truth,
whatsoever, to any allegation that is made by them that an
intellect has not fairly earned its divine reward. The reason for
this certainty is because a striving intellect not only carries the
common burdens and risks of humanity, but also the burdens
and risks of the narrow path as it seeks the Perfect Light of
Christ despite the cunning and merciless obstacles that are set
by the pirates of sin. Consequently, any allegation that the
pirates of sin might claim against the legitimacy of a child of
God being born will fall back into the darkness of themselves
because God has created the mutable strengths and
weaknesses of ‘Material’ and intelligence so there can be no
light of truth in whatever injustice they might claim against an
intellect that fights the good fight and wins.
For many years I had sought to find the most reasonable
explanation for humankind’s worldly predicament. The
explanation that I found is a strong staff that has helped me
upon the narrow path and I uphold it by the freedom of Jesus’
latitudinal words that one should “be as wise as serpents and
as harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) Considering that the
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father of the prodigal son did not care what type of shoes his
son wore to make his way back home, but simply that he did
make his way back home (Luke 15:20), the forecoming
rationale is meant to give the striver additional traction upon
the narrow path as he or she strives after the Truth. If this
rationale does not appeal to you, you need not use it; but
neither should you keep it from others as it might help them
find the Spirit of Selfless Reason (Luke 9:49-50).
The rationale can be regarded as an ‘alphabetic formula,’
such as the one that is used to describe the composition of
water as H20. While the formula helps scientists comprehend
the nature of water so it may be used to fulfill scientific
experiments, the formula is innately limited because it cannot
penetrate through the mystery of a water molecule. Similarly,
while a person might be inspired to strive after the Truth by
way of this philosophical formula, it will still be impossible
for him or her to penetrate into the Divine Mystery of God.
The effort to do so, however, is pleasing to God; for whenever
we devoutly think of Him, Who is the Good, we strengthen
our intellects to resist the pirates of sin. Regarding this effort,
St. Maximos says:
“A man keeps his soul undefiled before God if he compels

his mind to mediate only on God and His supreme
goodness, makes his thought a true interpreter and
exponent of this goodness, and teaches his senses to form
holy images of the visible world and all the things in it,
and to convey to the soul the magnificence of the inner
principles lying within all things. (The Philokalia, v. II, p.
116, #14)
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Chapter 19
The Spiritual Universe
Before evil came into existence there was a Spiritual

Universe that existed without evil. In this evil-less universe
that was illuminated by the Perfect Light of God, the hidden
presence of God was felt throughout; for God, neither male
nor female, was the Universe. Specifically, what was felt was
an inexplicable feeling of Charitable Love. Within the
Universe, angelic creatures existed with perfect freewill and
they existed peacefully in the Universe, wherein each angel
possessed different degrees of creative force and influence.
However, the more powerful angels began to willfully nurture
unloving thoughts against the angels which possessed less
power and influence.
Slowly, a divide between the angels began to form and
this division was disharmony against harmony. The disharmony
was unloving darkness that was contrived within the powerful
angels by their own thoughts because of their prideful self-
love and desire to dominate – these being the ingredients of
greed. Of greed, scripture informs us: “That is why you must
kill everything in you that is earthly…especially greed, which
is the same thing as worshipping a false god.” (Colossians 3:5)
Regarding greed, St. Maximos says:
“St. Paul in his wisdom orders them [converts from

paganism] first to eliminate the actual sin and then
systematically to work back to the cause. The cause, as we
have already said, is greed, which generates and promotes
passion. I think that greed in this case means gluttony,
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because this is the mother and nurse of unchastity.” (The

It should be remembered that the practical remedy for

gluttony is fasting. Of fasting, St. Thalassios has important
advice to share: “After fasting until late in the day, do not eat
your fill, lest in so doing you build up again what you have
pulled down.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 327, #32)
The result was that the most powerful angels did not
remain with the harmony of the Universe, whereas the least
powerful angels did because they retained the reflection of
Charitable Love within themselves for the disharmonious
angels. The angels that remained with the harmony of the
Universe, however, were far outnumbered by the dishar-
monious angels, consequently, they became enslaved by the
disharmonious angels who had come to enjoy flaunting their
unloving darkness within the Universe, thereby, becoming
wicked. The good angels were trapped because if they were to
hate the wicked angels, then they too would create the
unloving darkness within themselves, and if they were to
remain with the harmony of the Universe, then they would
remain enslaved.
Incidentally, isn’t it ironic how human life frequently
reflects the dilemma that the good angels faced. That is, when
somebody injures us we want to injure them back to fulfill our
own anger from being either injured or wronged. How much
faith a person must have in God to be able to forgive and not
be revengeful so he or she does not grow the unloving ‘eye for
an eye’ darkness as well – the darkness that had originally
affected his or her neighbor to either injure or do wrong. If a
person does succumb to unloving darkness he or she should
not despair, but should remember the forgiveness that God
offers through sincere repentance. Regarding forgiveness, St.
Francis of Paola says:
“Pardon one another so that later on you will not

remember the injury. The recollection of an injury is in
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itself wrong. It adds to our anger, nurtures our sin and

hates what is good. It is a rusty arrow and poison for the
soul. It puts all virtue to flight.” (The Wisdom of the
Saints, p. 142)
The Universe was keenly aware of the disharmony that

the wicked angels were causing through the misuse of the
power that It had generously given to them – without even a
‘governing force’ of fear or punishment. The Universe had
decided, before the angels ever were, that It would never
impose Its will upon creatures. If the Universe were to directly
impose the will of Itself upon the wicked angels to make them
undesire wickedness, then It would have been infringing upon
the perfect gift of freewill that It had given to them.
Nevertheless, the Universe knew that the angelic abuse of
freewill within Itself was a disharmony that had to be
corrected for the sake of the faithful angels. The correction
was to be a new universe that still possessed creaturely
freewill, but one in which the creative force of Itself could
justifiably be set against the powers of unloving darkness, also
known as the powers of evil, so they would know the true
power and prerogative of Love.
In no way should one infer that because the good angels
were enslaved by the wicked angels that the forces of good are
weaker than the forces of evil. The only reason that the good
angels were able to be enslaved was because they willfully
remained in-sync with the harmony of the Universe. This
decision was an act of great bravery and faith.
Similarly, the wicked angels departed from goodness not
because of any weakness in the Universe, but because of Its
perfection of freewill which had enabled the angels to rebel
against It. Perfect Freewill, because it exists in God and is of
God who is perfectly free being God, would not enter into the
wicked angels’ self-created evil, which they grew from within
themselves, for the simple reason that they grew it to exclude
God who was the Universe and the embodiment, so to speak,
of Perfect Freewill. Consequently, the angels’ decision to do
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wicked things, while in the Universe, lead to the willful

abandonment of Perfect Freewill, and therefore, the Universe.
Climaxing this willful abandonment, the wicked angels
created an ‘anti-good’ that diametrically opposed the Universe
which – because It was God – was the Good. This anti-good
was the devil, of which, Jesus said: “He was a murderer from
the start; he was never grounded in Truth; there is no Truth in
him at all. When he lies he is speaking true to his nature,
because he is a liar, and the father of lies.” (John 8:44, italics
mine) At the moment the wicked angels created the devil, their
darkness was consummated and they fell from the Spiritual
Universe and the material universe was simultaneously created
with a ‘Big Bang!’
The wicked angels were able to create the devil because
the Universe had originally given them immense power to
create. The Universe permitted the angels to create the devil
because it coincided with their abandonment of Perfect
Freewill which was the deliverance of themselves into the
slavery of their self-created evil. Briefly, the devil is limited in
strength because it is strictly empowered by those who desire
its evil; consequently, it is always angry because it can never
fulfill its total hunger for creatures lest it devour itself into
oblivion by consuming all those who would desire to be
consumed by the pure evil of itself.
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Chapter 20
The Material Universe
The material universe was brought into existence so the fallen

angels would have a place to breathe and live for they could
no longer breath or live in the purity of the Spiritual Universe.
The material universe was created from the Charitable Love of
the Spiritual Universe because Charitable Love was the
wicked angels’ object of mockery, hatred and intentional
disharmonization. The Spiritual Universe, being Love, chose
not to set the evil angels in absolute darkness because that
would have been an indirect act of taking back the gift of
freewill.
The rationale being that anything set in absolute darkness
can have no perception of itself, therefore, setting the wicked
angles in such a darkness would have been a form of
punishment for exercising the gift of freewill – even if the use
of freewill lead to the abandonment of Perfect Freewill.
Consequently, the wicked angels would have been forced to
reconsider their choice of wickedness and that would have
contradicted the authentic perfection of freewill which enabled
the angels to defy the perfect harmony of the Spiritual
Universe.
We should make no mistake to think, for even a moment,
that the Spiritual Universe approved of evil for It most
certainly did not approve. Although God permits evil, the
evitable cost is separation from Him because the Good that is
Himself has no part in evil. Despite this separation, God’s
omnipotence and cosmic order extends throughout the
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material universe, wherein evil also resides, for the profound

reason that He is the Supreme Creator, and therefore,
“…causes His sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and
sends down the rain to fall on the upright and the wicked
alike.” (Matthew 5:45)
As regards the ‘rainy’ occurrences of our world, such as:
injuries, sickness, physical blindness and other burdens that
people bear, these should not be dwelled upon as being
worldly disadvantages, but they should be dwelled upon as
being spiritual advantages. The reason that one should nurture
this point-of-view is because worldly disadvantages reveal the
fallibility of ‘Material,’ and therefore, they can be used as
‘steps-of-knowledge’ for the burdened person to seek the
infallibility of Spirit that other people are not able to see
because of their worldly advantages. St. Paul helps us to find
strength in our burdens: “Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I
strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)
Many people do not even think about seeking the
infallibility of Spirit because they instinctively and blindly use
the worldly advantages that they possess to fulfill self as
opposed to selflessness which is forever aligned with the Spirit
and Truth of God. Even though it might be difficult at first,
worldly disadvantages should be accepted with thanksgiving
because of the spiritual advantage that they offer. The spiritual
advantage that I am speaking of is the gift of assisted humility
which will help fulfill the prophesy: “Many who are first will
be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Luke 13:30)
However, this prophesy should not be taken to mean that an
individual who possesses worldly advantages cannot abandon
pride to track the stepping stones of humility to the
selflessness of Nothing. Regarding the sufferings of flesh that
people endure, St. Maximos says:
“The patient endurance of the saints exhausts the evil

power that attacks them, since it makes them glory in
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sufferings undergone for the sake of truth. It teaches those

too much concerned with a life in the flesh to deepen
themselves through such sufferings instead of pursuing
ease and comfort; and it makes the flesh’s natural
weakness in the endurance of suffering a foundation for
overwhelming spiritual power. For the natural weakness
of the saints is precisely such a foundation, since the Lord
has made their weakness stronger than the proud devil.”
The Spiritual Universe’s sacrifice of Charitable Love

from Itself was an act of perfect selflessness. Regarding this
act, I believe that in moments the Spiritual Universe revealed
the blue Living Waters of Itself, and thus, the “Father” was
revealed; and simultaneously, the Spiritual Universe revealed
the Perfect Light of Itself (the Christ), and thus, the “Son” was
revealed. Upon the Spiritual Universe’s relinquishment of
Charitable Love, It (Charitable Love) transmogrified into the
aforementioned “first dimensional strings” as the Son
withdrew ‘within’ – beyond space and time – and the Father
withdrew ‘without’ – beyond space and time. In the moment
of withdrawal, space and time were created for the first
dimensional strings to begin forming the innumerable and
dynamic bodies of the material universe.
Through the revelation of the Father and Son, Charitable
Love was revealed as being the feminine force of the Spiritual
Universe, which to this day – in its more obvious
manifestations in women and in some men – is oppressed by
the Law and other systems within the limited perspective lest
it find the clarity of mind to seek the unified masculine force
of the Father and Son who is God. The feminine force of the
material universe is able to be oppressed because of the
perfect extent of Charitable Love’s transmogrification which
enabled the material universe to exist despite having the least
amount of Spirit. This least amount of Spirit is Nothing, of
which, the first dimensional strings give presence to within the
material universe without subtracting from its selflessness. As
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explained in Chapter 2, the first dimensional strings, because

they are first dimensional, instantaneously change into the
second dimension; consequently, they should be regarded as
an intrinsic and indivisible part of Nothing as they are nothing
before they change into the second dimension.
Conversely, because of Nothing’s correlative relationship
to Love, it (Nothing) also possesses the greatest amount of
Spirit. This paradox is easily explained. Essentially, if a
person has no humility, but only pride, then Nothing equates
to the least amount/strength of Spirit. On the other hand, if a
person has no pride, but only humility, then Nothing equates
to the greatest amount/strength of Spirit. As follows, people
should want to increase the correlative relationship between
Nothing and Love within themselves lest they miss out on the
spiritual gifts that God wants to give. Scripture reassures us
that God wants to give spiritual gifts:
“…love your enemies and do good to them, and lend

without any hope of return. You will have a great reward,
and you will be children of the Most High, for He Himself
is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” (Luke 6:34-35)
The masculine force of the Spiritual Universe – which is

the aspect of God that we seek because we, as men and
women, are comprised of the feminine force – is simul-
taneously outside all things and within all things. St. Paul
writes of the Father: “…since it is in Him that we live, and
move, and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have
said: We are His children.” (Acts 17:28) The Son of the
Father, Jesus, in the Gospel of Thomas says: “It is I who am
the Light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From
Me did the all come forth, and unto Me did the all extend.
Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and
you will find Me there.” (The Nag Hammadi Library, p. 135,
saying #77)
Even though Charitable Love ‘fell’ by becoming
‘Material,’ Its divine perfection is retained by God through
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His presence within and without the material universe. Thus,

even though the divinity of Charitable Love seems to be lost to
‘Material,’ it is not lost as it can be found when the intellect
recollects into the wind of Love through its willful subjugation
of ‘Material.’ When an intellect strives to subjugate ‘Material’
to the dispassion of pure charitable love, it is striving in
accordance to the will of God. Considering the mystical
locations of the Father and Son, striving can be thought of as
the intellect cooperating with the masculine force of the Son,
who is within, to surrender to the masculine force of the
Father, who is without. In this surrendering, the intellect’s
correlative relationship to Love increases.
Through the same Selflessness of the Spiritual Universe
that enabled the material universe to be born, the fallen angels
were forgiven by the Spiritual Universe. By this forgiveness,
the Spiritual Universe demonstrated Its perfect goodness and
that It is never deficient in the Goodness of Itself upon which
everything depends. As Fate would have it, however, the
fallen angels are still subject to righteous judgment, but not for
evils committed in the Spiritual Universe, but for evils
committed in the material universe. This righteous judgment is
welded by the children of God.
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Chapter 21
The Children of God
The paradigmatic shift (or fall) of Charitable Love into the

material universe requires a second paradigmatic shift (or rise)
to re-establish Its divine perfection. The second paradigmatic
shift, however, is not intended to fulfill another universal
manifestation of Charitable Love, but it is intended to fulfill
personal manifestations of Charitable Love within the material
universe which holds both the physical and metaphysical
realms within itself. The personal manifestations of Charitable
Love exist as the children of God – also known as the
Communion of Saints – and they are intimately and centrally
united to God, appropriately knowing and recognizing the
Love of the Father as a father’s love, and the Love of the Son
as a spouse’s love.
The relationship of the paradigmatic shifts to self-
sacrifice – specifically: Charitable Love’s self-sacrifice, Jesus’
self-sacrifice, and the striver’s self-sacrifice – is that God
establishes the salutary independence of His fundamental
creations through the fulfillment of inviolable self-sacrifice.
God’s fundamental creations, in so far as striving is
concerned, are: freewill, the material universe, and the
personal manifestations of Charitable Love. In view of these
fundamental creations, Charitable Love’s self-sacrifice
confirmed the independence of freewill as the angels rebelled
against It, Jesus’ self-sacrifice confirmed the independence of
the material universe as material creatures crucified Him, and
the striver’s self-sacrifice to strive, in accordance with the
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Spirit of Selfless Reason, confirms the independence of a soul

to be reborn as a personal manifestation of Charitable Love.
In view of God’s self-sacrifice, it can perhaps be said that
all suffer and benefit from freewill in one way or another,
however, the nature of Love gives a mysterious immunity to
suffering, and this immunity foils the pirates of sin and the
devil. St. Therese of the Child Jesus expressed this immunity:
“I will sing…I will sing always, even if my roses must be
gathered from amidst thorns; and the longer and sharper the
thorns, the sweeter shall be my song.” (APSOCS, vol. II, p.
416) Autobiography, xi, p. 186)
It is possible that God suspended this immunity for
Himself during His life on earth. The reason for this
suspension is because God made the material universe
perfectly material – perhaps, some might say, ‘to a fault.’
Essentially, in the same way that freewill was made so perfect
that it enabled the angels to rebel, so too was the material
universe made so perfect that it was necessary for Christ to
incarnate upon earth to effectively reveal the narrow path for
the sake of humanity lest individuals not find the Spirit and
Truth of Himself. God determined that the fair barter for His
intervention – which would forever silence any accusations of
foul-play by the pirates of sin – was to be the unmitigated
suffering of His crucifixion which would embolden His
followers to suffer the crucifixion of the outer-man’s love for
material, by way of the narrow path of dispassion, so
Charitable Love may live anew (Romans 6:5-6, 17-18, 20-23,
12-14). Regarding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, St.
Maximos says:
“If the Lord’s being appointed for the fall and resurrection
of many is understood in the right way, then the fall will
refer to that of the passions and of evil thoughts in each of
the faithful, and the resurrection to that of the virtues and
of every thought that enjoys God’s blessing.” (The
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A child of God, by the unclouded presence of Christ

within itself, is able to combat creatures of evil within the
metaphysical realm which, for all intents and purposes, is a
universe of thought. The decisions and actions of a child of
God will always be its own, and therefore, human to some
degree according to his/her uniqueness. Creatures of evil fear
a child of God’s intimate relationship with humanity, for it is
through a child of God that humanity is enabled to protect
itself within the metaphysical realm and dispense righteous
judgment upon creatures of evil for evils committed against
humanity therein.
Jesus, in the Gospel of Thomas, reveals the dangerous
‘jungle-like’ nature of the metaphysical realm:
“[They saw] a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to

Judea. He said to his disciples, ‘That man is round about
the lamb.’ They said to him, ‘So that he may kill it and eat
it.’ He said to them, ‘While it is alive, he will not eat it,
but only when he has killed it and it has become a corpse.’
They said to him, ‘He cannot do so otherwise.’ He said to
them, ‘You too, look for a place for yourselves within
repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten.’” (The Nag
Hammadi Library, p. 133, saying #60)
A lay Christian, Dag Hammarskjöld, also alluded to the

metaphysical realm’s jungle-like nature in his journal: “If you
fail, it is God, thanks to your having betrayed Him, who will
fail mankind.” (Markings, p. 156) Evidently, being jungle-
like, the metaphysical realm is both a beautiful and a
dangerous place. In the light of the aforesaid, an important
question must be asked: When a human fails God who wants
to help humankind through His correlative relationship with
humankind, is it not humankind failing humankind? This
question I leave to the reader to answer for himself or herself.
God’s preservation from any controversial decisions or
actions that His children might make is due to His
‘detachment.’ This detachment is justified because the
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recollected creative force that the divinized intellect possesses

within the metaphysical realm is the same power that it
possessed while in the physical realm; whereat, God was also
detached no matter its decisions or actions – even if its
decisions and actions were terribly affected by sin.
Paradoxically, the detachment of God from the self of the
intellect is countered by His attachment to the selflessness of
the intellect that is its soul. Consequently, the soul transcends
both the physical and metaphysical realms even while being
within them.
The intellect masters itself when it recollects creative
force from the pirates of sin who weld its un-mastered creative
force against it lest it become wholly perfect in second
dimensionality – and not just at its edges, as pointed out in
Chapter 6. The intellect must strive after perfection despite the
contrary efforts of the pirates of sin who have foreknowledge
regarding the mutable strengths and weaknesses of ‘Material’
and intelligence. Due to this foreknowledge, the pirates of sin
have prodding influence – or power of temptation – upon
human beings. Undoubtedly, this influence is already enough
without the electricity of the Law.
By the intellect recollecting first dimensional strings into
the selflessness of Nothing, its second dimensionality
increases beyond its edges. As the intellect’s second
dimensionality increases, it is simultaneously delivered into
the correlative selflessness of Love – as it itself is comprised
of first dimensional strings. Thus, the most challenging will of
God, as well as the greatest fear of the pirates of sin, is
fulfilled as the violable ic-aspect is sealed through “…the
single and identical purpose and activity of the will of
both….”; namely, the correlated will of the intellect and God
(St. Maximos, The Philokalia, v. II, p. 170-71, #27, 28 (the
complete verse is at the end of Chapter 11)).
In overcoming the influence of the pirates of sin, the
intellect demonstrates self-mastery – as well as mastery over
creative force – and is able to devote itself to divine realities.
Regarding this devotion, St. Thalassios says: “When the
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intellect devotes itself continually to divine realities, the soul’s

passable aspect [or creative force – as it is what is passable]
becomes a godlike weapon.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 315,
#49)
The work of the intellect to recollect the first dimensional
strings is feminine force delivering itself back to the masculine
force of the Father and Son. This mystical deliverance is why
it is said that there is neither male nor female in Christ
(Galatians 3:28). The Gospel of Thomas reveals Jesus’ deep
view of this mystery:
“Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples,

‘These infants being suckled are like those who enter the
kingdom.’ They said to him, ‘Shall we then, as children,
enter the kingdom?’ Jesus said to them, ‘When you make
the two one, and when you make the inside like the
outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like
the below, and when you make the male and the female
one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the
female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of
an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the
place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then
you will enter [the kingdom].’” (The Nag Hammadi
Library, p. 129, saying #22)
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Chapter 22
The Kingdom of Heaven
In order to personally complete the paradigm shift of

Charitable Love to a personal manifestation, one must oppose
the sin within oneself despite the propensity to remain in-line
with the two realms of the material universe which are
manifested to the will of the intellect as flesh and imagination.
Respectively, flesh is the intellect’s bond to the physical
realm, and the imagination is the intellect’s bond to the
metaphysical realm. Amazingly, the metaphysical realm is
more materialistically real than the physical realm due to its
higher placement in the dimensional order. The metaphysical
realm is mainly perceived through dreams, but sometimes God
opens the eyes of strivers so they can wakefully compare it to
the physical realm, of which, it is adjoined.
Through such revelations, it seems that the physical realm
is a barrier that has a jungle at the outer-side of itself, and at
the inner-side of itself a room of imagelessness that is the
humble prelude to the kingdom of Heaven. In modern terms,
imagelessness can be thought of as a firewall that protects the
intellect from the snares of fantasy so it may nurture
dispassion and find its way to the kingdom of Heaven. Briefly,
the jungle is able to exist because God made room within
Himself so the fallen angels could exist without Him. In
existing without God, the fallen angels do whatever it is that
they want to do, and what they want to do is be cruel and
hedonistic giants within the jungle.
The room of imagelessness resonates with the tonal
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harmony of angelic music as it is within the uncreated and

selfless nature of heaven wherein God reigns; thus the room is
both imageless and selfless – it is the room of Nothing and its
music brings peace not only during meditation, but also during
a person’s final hour. St. John of the Cross describes this
music as a whistling breeze:
“As we have said, God’s attributes are lovingly and

sweetly communicated in this breeze, and from it the
intellect receives the knowledge or whistling.
“She [the soul] calls the knowledge a “whistling” because

just as the whistling of the breeze pierces deeply into the
hearing organ, so this most subtle and delicate knowledge
penetrates with wonderful savoriness into the innermost
part of the substance of the soul…
“This [whistling breeze] is almost identical with silent

music, for even though that music is silent to the natural
senses and faculties, it is sounding solitude for the
spiritual faculties. When these spiritual faculties are alone
and empty of all natural forms and apprehensions, they
can receive in a most sonorous way the spiritual sound of
the excellence of God, in Himself and in His creatures.
We have said above that St. John speaks of this spiritual
vision in the Apocalypse, that is: the voice of many harpist
playing on their harps [Revelations 14:2]. This vision was
spiritual and had nothing to do with material harps. It
involved a knowledge of the praises that the blessed, each
in an individual degree of glory, give continually to God.
This praise is like music, for each one possesses God’s
gifts differently, each one sings God’s praises differently,
and all of them together form a symphony of love, as of
music.” (CW, p. 530-31, 536)
In a sense, the whistling of the breeze is also silence to the

intellect. It is silence to the intellect because just as a
symphony affects its audience to rest in stillness and silence as
they listen, so too does this “symphony of love” affect the
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intellect to rest in stillness and silence as it listens. Such is the

wind of Love.
To protect intellects that are born into the jungle because
of their blind and blinding desire for ‘Material,’ seeing
intellects – by the grace of self-determination, and in the
darkness of faith – strive to be born into the kingdom of
Heaven to justly receive power to protect humans in the
jungle. The giants, violently and seductively, try to lure the
attention of these intellects to the fleshy outer-side of the
barrier, but the intellects fight back by retreating into the room
of Nothing to be encompassed by its imageless-selflessness.
To embolden intellects that give-in to the imaginary
giants as they rise up against them through the passions, Jesus
says: “When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you
see your images which came into being before you, and which
neither die nor become manifest, how much you will have to
bear!” (The Nag Hammadi Library, p. 135, saying #84)
Silvanus emboldens intellects as well:
“O wretched man, what will you do if you fall into their

hands? Protect yourself lest you be delivered into the
hands of your enemies. Entrust yourself to this pair of
friends, reason and mind, and no one will be victorious
over you. May God dwell in your camp, may his Spirit
protect your gates, and may the mind of divinity protect
the walls. Let Holy Reason become a torch in your mind,
burning the wood which is the whole of sin.
“And if you do these things, O my son, you will be

victorious over all your enemies, and they will not be able
to wage war against you, neither will they be able to resist,
nor will they be able to get in your way...” (The Nag
Hammadi Library, The Teachings of Silvanus, p. 382)
St. Maximos gives us insight regarding guardian angels

and their place in the good fight:
“When any philosopher – any devout philosopher –
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fortified with virtue and spiritual knowledge, or with

ascetic practice and contemplation, sees the power of evil
rising up against him through the passions…he is aware
that only with God’s help can he escape. He invokes
God’s mercy by crying out silently and by striving to
advance still further in virtue and knowledge; and he
receives as an ally, or rather as his salvation, an angel, that
is, one of the higher principles of wisdom and
knowledge…” (St. Maximos, The Philokalia, v. II, p. 210,
#2)
Similarly, Silvanus says: “…They [the enemy] will speak

with you, [cajoling] you and enticing [you], not because they
are [afraid] of you, but because they are afraid of those who
dwell within you, namely, the guardians of the divinity and the
teaching…” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The Teachings of
Silvanus, p. 382) Beyond belief, what is within is, as St.
Teresa of Avila says: “…the empyrean Heaven which we must
have in the depths of our souls…” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 516)
VI Mansions, iv; Peers, II, p. 289) Regarding the kingdom of
Heaven, Jesus informs us:
“If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in
the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they
say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of
you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will
become known, and you will realize that it is you who are
the sons of the Living Father. But if you will not know
yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that
poverty.” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The Gospel of
Thomas, p. 126, saying #3)
Striving intellects, after they have won the good fight by

way of faith and perseverance, fully realize the reward of self-
sacrifice when they enter into the jungle. The reward of these
intellects, as avowed by saints and devout philosophers, is
God Himself Who is the Divine Wealth of the soul.
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Accordingly, because God makes room within Himself so the

jungle can exist, He justly makes room within the jungle so
His children can exist within it at the threshold of space and
time; thus, even though the children of God are three
dimensional and exist in the metaphysical realm, they are not
of the metaphysical realm, but are of the kingdom of Heaven.
As a result of the children’s formidable presence within
the metaphysical realm, the true power and prerogative of God
is made known to all within the jungle as the children of God
save and protect the weak from giants and other astral-
creatures of evil that inhabit the jungle (John 8:33-36). By
welding God’s power through themselves, the children of God
establish and protect heavenly kingdoms within the meta-
physical realm wherein their adopted brothers and sisters can
live in glorious freedom alongside other astral-creatures of
good. In this manner Heaven is manifested in the metaphysical
realm – just as the sun is manifested on earth as light which
brings life – and God’s plan is fulfilled: “…that the whole
creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption
and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of
God.” (Romans 8:21)
Because the freedom and protection of humans in the
metaphysical realm is dependent upon the children of God, it
is imperative that people cultivate charitable love between and
within themselves while in the physical realm to help birth and
foster the children of God. Accordingly, it is important to
neither judge nor be intolerant towards others as judgment and
intolerance undermine charitable love which is the formula for
the children of God to be born and to live. Definitely, the more
children of God exist the better off humanity is, therefore,
strive to keep peace with one another and with other nations
by way of the Spirit of Selfless Reason; moreover, always
strive to resist temptation because when sin tempts it risks
injury to itself if it awakens a child of God. St. Paul gives us
hope for what is to come:
“In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is
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nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to

be disclosed for us, for the whole creation is waiting with
eagerness for the children of God to be revealed…In
hope, we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly
present, or we should not be hoping – nobody goes on
hoping for something which is already visible. But having
this hope for what we cannot yet see, we are able to wait
for it with persevering confidence.” (Romans 8: 18-19, 24-
25, italics mine)
Regarding the related nature of the physical and

metaphysical realms, St. Maximos says:
“As the world of the body consists of things, so the world

of the intellect consists of conceptual [or metaphysical]
images. And as the body fornicates with the body of a
woman, so the intellect, forming a picture of its own body,
fornicates with the conceptual image of a woman. For in
the mind it sees the form of its own body having
intercourse with the form of a woman. Similarly, through
the form of its own body, it mentally attacks the form of
someone who has given it offence. The same is true with
respect to other sins. For what the body acts out in the
world of things, the intellect also acts out in the world of
conceptual images.
“One should not be startled or astonished because God the

Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son
(John 5:22). The Son teaches us, ‘Do not judge, so that
you may not be judged’ (Matt. 7:1); ‘Do not condemn, so
that you may not be condemned’ (Luke 6:37). St. Paul
likewise says, ‘Judge nothing before the time, until the
Lord comes’ (1 Cor. 4:5); and ‘By judging another you
condemn yourself’ (Rom. 2:1). But men have given up
weeping for their own sins and have taken judgment away
from the Son. They themselves judge and condemn one
another as if they were sinless.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p.
91, #53, 54)
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Regarding offences, it should be remembered that the

body’s actions are third dimensional and the intellect’s actions
are second dimensional. Thus, because of the dimensional
order, the intellect’s actions are more real than the body’s
actions, and undeniably, the body will not pursue violence
unless the intellect first conceives and consents to violence.
Therefore, whenever a man takes offense from another man
and wants to fight him, he should first look within himself and
rationalize that the true fight is not against his fellow man, but
against the pirates of sin who fight him from within himself
(Luke 11:24).
A man should also consider that the energy of anger,
which can lead him to act and think incorrectly, can be
controlled by the virtue of self-control. This virtue – which is
indicative of a healthy intellect – is greatly feared by demons
because of the power it welds over energies that can be created
from creative force. The energy of anger – which is one of the
three energies or powers of the soul according to Plato and
accepted by the Greek Christian Fathers (The Philokalia, v. II,
p. 356) – is a formidable energy that demons often get men to
unleash into the world to injure other men (and even women
and children!) lest it be focused and used against them by the
virtue of self-control! Besides the energy of anger, which Plato
called the incensive aspect, the two other energies that he
identified are the intellectual aspect and the desiring/appetitive
aspect, of which, I think are self-explanatory.
In the light of the aforesaid, many men who fight other
men end up losing the spiritual fight which is the fight that
they ought to be fighting! If you know men who fight, please
explain to them that when they are at war with their brothers
they are at peace with demons, and that when they are at peace
with their brothers they are at war with demons. This wisdom
from St. Maximos is invaluable. Along these lines, demons are
clever in that they provoke men to fight each other for the
benefit of their countries lest they fight them for the country of
God that is the everlasting and glorious kingdom of Heaven!
Unfortunately, both the pirates of sin and the illusory
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nature of the limited perspective lead many men to believe

that fighting other men is an art that should be mastered in
order to master themselves, but in reality, the art that should
be mastered is the peace of the encompassing perspective
which is forever bound to the Truth of God who is Peace
Itself. Help these men to rationalize that they should strive to
be at peace with their brothers, and in so doing, they will fight
demons and truly master themselves as they will be fighting
for God in the good fight which transforms imperfect men into
perfect men (Ephesians 4:22-24). Encourage them to “Seek
peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one
can ever see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14, second italics mine)
Regarding the discipline needed to master oneself, St. Paul
says:
“Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief,

not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears
fruit in peace and uprightness. So steady all weary hands
and trembling knees and make your crooked paths
straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will
get better instead.” (Hebrews 12:11-13, italics his)
The weakness by which the pirates of sin steal creative

force from the intellect can be overcome by the Inner-man’s
spiritual embracement of the outer-man; the outer-man being
the intellect’s personal space of occupation. Spiritual
embracement by the Inner-man is necessary because the
weakness is, if truth be told, the outer-man himself.
Specifically, the weakness is the outer-man’s ‘Material’
nature, and the sensuality of this nature – as well as the
intellect’s spiritual ignorance – is what the pirates of sin
exploit to steal creative force in order to prevent God from
finding personal space in the metaphysical realm.
When the intellect recollects creative force and practices
correct action without failing, then God knows that He has the
intellect’s full permission to recollect first dimensional strings
to fashion a body of Spirit and Truth by which He can
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personally exist in the metaphysical realm. In agreement with

St. John of the Cross, even though the intellect might feel like
it is not doing any work to improve itself much work is
actually being done, but it is God who is doing the work –
namely, the work of recollecting first dimensional strings –
and all the intellect needs to do is stay still as if it were a
model posing for a master artist. If the intellect were to move
by succumbing to an incorrect thought and then to an incorrect
action, then it would disrupt God’s work (CW, p. 382).
Spiritual embracement by the Inner-man is prevented
when the intellect consents to sensual images. Consent to
sensual images is primarily evidenced through the actions of
the outer-man, but consent can also be evidenced through the
intellect’s enjoyment of fantasies – even if they stop short of
affecting the actions of the outer-man (Matthew 5:28). By
consenting to sensual images, which are created by the pirates
of sin and the instinctive propensity of ‘Material,’ the Inner-
man is deterred from spiritually embracing the outer-man lest
the intellect’s prerogative to choose ‘Material,’ through the
outer-man of itself, be compromised. When faced with
temptations of materialistic beauty, make such beauty
meaningless to yourself by thinking about how radiantly
beautiful God must be as He is Beauty Itself.
Creative force that was absorbed by the pirates of sin is
returned to the Inner-man as the intellect recollects into the
soul of itself. Incidentally, creative force that has already been
stolen by the pirates of sin cannot be returned – and while this
loss may be grieved, it is important to not grieve too long lest
more creative force be stolen due to the disorientation that
grief effects. Remember: A warrior that grieves too long on
the battlefield is a warrior that is more likely to be caught off-
guard by the enemy (Luke 11:21-22).
As creative force is delivered to the Inner-man from the
violable ic-aspect and kept within the inviolable selfless-
aspect, He grows within the outer-man. As the Inner-man
grows within the outer-man, the prideful ego, which is used by
the pirates of sin to edge God out, is edged out by God.
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Complete deliverance is the Inner-man embracing the outer-

man and adopting him into His perfection. Scripture foretells
the weakness of the outer-man without the ‘armor’ of the
Inner-man:
“Put on the full armor of God so as to be able to resist the

devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we
have to struggle, but against the principalities and the
ruling forces who are the masters of darkness in this
world, the spirits of evil in the heavens. That is why you
must take up all God’s armor, or you will not be able to
put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground
even though you exert yourselves to the full.” (Ephesians
6:11-13)
Regarding the armor of God, Nothing can be thought of

as a shield of forgetfulness. The problem for the intellect is
that in the beginning of its fight against sin, forgetfulness-of-
self is extremely heavy and the intellect, not yet exercised by
battle, is very weak. The intellect will fall many times before it
can weld forgetfulness-of-self as an unconquerable shield.
Besides the common characteristics of strivers, such as:
mercy, forgiveness, compassion for all, courage and determin-
ation; it is particularly important to God that His children be
generous. The importance of generosity becomes more
obvious when one considers that generosity is the opposite of
greed. Sprouting from the seed of selflessness, generosity’s
root of unselfishness works to break-through, weaken and
aerate the outer-man’s proclivity to remember himself so the
Inner-man may grow and become stronger in forgetfulness-of-
self. Jesus gave us an example of generosity’s root of
unselfishness:
“Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the

people putting money into the treasury, and many of the
rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in
two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then he called
his disciples and said to them, ‘In truth I tell you, this poor
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widow has put more in than all who have contributed to

the treasury; for they have all put in money they could
spare, but she in her poverty has put in everything she
possessed, all she had to live on.’” (Mark 12:41-44)
By way of striving, the intellect must commandeer itself

from the sensual bonds of the material universe to bring to
fruition the second paradigmatic shift within itself to exist
within the metaphysical realm as an everlasting and
magnificent being of good intentions. To be such a being is to
be an immovable adversary to creatures of evil and a faithful
friend to humans in the metaphysical realm. St. Therese of the
Child Jesus was given insight into this reality, she said: “The
saints encourage me also in my prison. They say to me: ‘As
long as you are in chains, you cannot fulfill your mission; but
later on, after your death, then shall come the time of your
conquests.’” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 622) Novissima Verba,
August 10, 1897, p. 94)
The effort to fulfill the paradigm shift cannot be done
without God’s help for the intellect cannot be removed from
the ‘self-constraints’ of the material universe until it
surrenders itself to His Spirit of Selfless Reason. To prevent
this chaste, imageless and egoless end the pirates of sin are
tirelessly committed to keep human beings from returning the
‘fallen’ will of Charitable Love – which is the intellect’s sense
of ‘I’ – to God lest the outer-man of the intellect become
securely and entirely united to His will by submitting to the
Inner-man that is the Logos. Regarding this unity, St. John of
the Cross says: “The devil fears a soul united to God as he
does God Himself.” (CW, p. 95)
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Part IV
Warrior Striving
Chapter 23
The Heart of Obedience
During the spiritual combat, the striving intellect will fall out
from and gather itself back into Nothing many times, effecting
the parameter of Nothing to decrease and increase just as
many times until the pirates of sin are displaced from the
thoughts of the intellect because of its stability within
Nothing; that is, the Nothing within the second dimensionality
of itself that correlates to the selflessness of Love. These
decreases and increases are the after-effects of attacks by the
pirates of sin to minimize the Inner-man, and counter-attacks
by the intellect to maximize the Inner-man. It is through these
decreases and increases that the intellect learns what it is
without obedience to the Logos, and what it is with obedience
to the Logos. St. Teresa of Avila speaks of these decreases and
increases of the soul:
“As I have already said – and I should not like this to be

forgotten – in this life of ours the soul does not grow in
the way the body does, though we speak as if it did, and
growth does in fact occur. But whereas a child, after
attaining to the full stature of a man, does not diminish in
size so that his body becomes small again, in spiritual
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matters the Lord is pleased that such diminution should

take place – at least, according to my own observation, for
I have no other means of knowing.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p.
504) Life, xv; Peers, I, p. 94)
These decreases and increases reflect the intellect’s

vacillating degrees-of-will to immolate itself into the
selflessness of Nothing to surrender itself to God. There are
six degrees-of-will that the intellect exhibits and, in order of
intensity, they are: the spark of desire, the flame of selfless
reason, the fire of attention, the blaze of faith, the inferno of
endurance, and lastly, the starlight of perfect obedience.
Basically, one first desires to reason selflessly so one may
escape into the wind of Love to become selfless to oneself,
then one puts attention to the faith that is needed to resist the
‘Material’ of oneself, then one endures the good fight against
the pirates of sin to secure perfect obedience to the Perfect
Light of Christ that shines through and sustains the
selflessness of Nothing through the correlative selflessness of
Love. St. James gives us insight regarding the relationship
between faith and endurance:
“My brothers and sisters, consider it a great joy when

trials of many kinds come upon you, for you know well
that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and
endurance must complete its work so that you will become
fully developed, complete, and not deficient in any way.”
(James 1:2-4)
Similarly, Jesus says: “You will gain possession of your

souls through your patient endurance.” (Luke 21:19)
Opportunistically, the pirates of sin try to extinguish the
intellect’s desire to substantiate perfect obedience to God by
extinguishing the spark of its striving desire; this spark being
desire itself. On the subject of obedience, Saint Gregory
explains: “Obedience is the only virtue which causes the other
virtues to germinate in our souls and which maintains them
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after having implanted them.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 150)

Saint Gregory, Morals, Bk. xxxv, Ch. xxxiv, n. 28) In the
book A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, P. Marie-
Eugene fine-tunes our understanding of obedience:
“Obedience walks always in the light. It imposes submission
on the intellect only to make it pass beyond its own lights, at
best limited, and enter into the resplendent light of God.” (vol.
II, p. 155)
The pirates of sin try to extinguish the intellect’s desire to
strive by both physically and metaphysically luring desire to
‘Material’ as opposed to the wind of Love. If the intellect is
‘hooked’ by this lure then a flaw in its sail of desire is
revealed, and if not immediately corrected by its other sails, its
degrees-of-will will soon flicker as its sails incrementally
consent to the pirates’ watery manipulations – until they crash
onto the slimy deck of the ship! Thus, because of desire that
was not burning perfectly for the selflessness of Nothing,
thereby being perfectly obedient to the selflessness of Love,
the sails of the intellect are divided from the supernatural wind
of Love.
Reflecting the intellect’s toil with the sail of desire, St.
John of the Cross says: “Wherefore the night which we have
called that of sense may and should be called a kind of
correction and restraint of desire rather than purgation.”
((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 469) Dark Night, II, iii; Peers, I, p. 378)
In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates similarly explains how the pirates
of sin, by way of ‘Material,’ use desire against the sails of the
intellect: “…and philosophy sees that the body-prison in its
cunning works through desire, contriving to make the prisoner
aid and abet his own imprisonment as much as possible.” So
as to deny the intellect “…the privilege of dwelling with what
is divine and pure and of single nature.” (The Dialogues of
Plato, p. 95-6)
Let us take a moment to impress upon ourselves that
Selfless Reason is the correct philosophy, St. Maximos tells
us:
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“He who yields to the pleasures of the body is neither

diligent in virtue nor readily receptive of spiritual
knowledge. For this reason he has no one – that is, no
intelligent thought – to put him into the pool when the
water is disturbed (John 5:6-9), that is, into a state of
virtue capable of receiving spiritual knowledge and of
healing every sickness. On the contrary, although sick, he
procrastinates because of laziness and is forestalled by
someone else, who prevents him from being cured…. He
remains paralyzed until the Logos comes to teach him
how he can obtain prompt healing, saying to him, ‘Rise,
take up your bed and walk’ (John 5:6-9); that is to say, the
Logos commands him to upraise his intellect from the
love of pleasure which dominates him, to shoulder the
body of virtues and to go home, that is, to heaven.” (The
As regards these decreases and increases, when a person

responds to another person’s pride and meanness with
humility and forgiveness, the soul increases within the
victimized person and it sometimes happens that an
unsuspecting pirate of sin will literally be knocked off the ship
of ‘Material’ – to the extent that the person is able to see the
displaced ‘yellow and shivering’ pirate against the ocean of
the world. This reflexive and fair movement of the soul is why
it is so important to let humility and forgiveness be the
reflexive reactions of oneself as opposed to pride and revenge
– even if the revenge is ‘justified’ by an eye for an eye as
taught by the Law. Unfortunately, a religious experience such
as this kind does not necessarily lead to stability within
Nothing, but often becomes a memory that is neither
understood by the person nor by spiritual directors.
At worst, the memory becomes a source of spiritual pride
for the person as the pirates of sin use creative force to
‘imaginatively’ reassert the vice of themselves to exploit the
person’s ignorance and instinctive desire for ‘Material’ and
largeness. St. John of the Cross gives evidence of the good
fight’s spiritual authenticity:
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“…there arise within it [the intellect] contraries against

contraries [sin against soul], some of which, as the
philosophers say, become visible in the reacting…and they
make war…striving to expel each other in order that they
may reign within it…” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 378) Living
Flame, st. I; Peers, III, p. 26-8, italics mine)
Appreciably, the pirates of sin will sometimes cease

attacking an intellect as it strives to be perfectly obedient. This
‘cease-fire’ of the night is not because they are being merciful,
but it probably happens for one of the following reasons: (1)
they are tired of attacking; (2) during the attack the intellect
made an intelligent decision that repelled them, such as
changing sleep positions to re-invigorate recollection; or (3)
God intervened. Whenever a cease-fire happens the striver
should recollect his or her will – if he or she has not already
done so – lest he or she be mentally unprepared if the attack
resumes in either minutes or hours. A cold shower is an
effective means to re-invigorate recollection if changing sleep
positions does not work.
If you live in a household with other people, do not let
fear of their judgment keep you from doing what you need to
do to re-invigorate recollection. It is possible that you might
inspire them to be warriors in the good fight as they become
aware of your beliefs through casual conversations with you.
Incidentally, the fight against the pirates of sin within oneself
leads to the fight against shadow people for freedom
unknown, but that can be known. When a person encounters
shadow people they are like mountains that cannot be moved –
but, because faith can move mountains, if you remain
faithfully upon the narrow path you will become like a
mountain to them.
Stability within Nothing is when the sails of the intellect
possess constant desire for the Good, need for the Good,
selfless reason for the Good, hope in the Good, faith in the
Good, and effort for the Good – which is effortless (Matthew
11:28). This stability is achieved by the intellect forgetting
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what it needs to forget and remembering what it needs to

remember. If the intellect does not take care as to what it
needs to either forget or remember, then it risks falling out
from the refined memory of Love, which is forgetfulness-of-
self, and into the coarse memory of ‘Material,’ which is
remembrance-of-self. Regarding the memory, St. Thalassios
says: “While controlling your senses, control your memory as
well; for when its prepossessions are roused through the
senses they stir up the passions.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 326,
#16) Considering the memory’s capability to retain images, it
is a practical matter to not view cinematic, internet or televised
images that could potentially stir up the passions. A person of
vision utilizes foresight to avoid the traps of sin.
For the intellect to master its will into the selflessness of
its purest being, it must master self-forgetfulness through the
paradox of remembering to forget. Mastery of self-forgetfulness
is important because it is what is needed to forget ‘Material’ to
the extent that the pirates of sin grudgingly find that they are
unable to divide the ‘I’ of the intellect from the selfless ‘I’ of
God who holds the intellect within the correlative selflessness
of Nothing – which is of Himself – through the grace of self-
determination. By fulfilling self-forgetfulness, the intellect
brings ‘Material’ to the least remembrance of itself; this least
remembrance is the second dimension which is length and
width with a depth of Nothing.
It is God’s desire that an intellect should strive after,
strengthen and appreciate stability within Nothing, therefore,
He gives the pirates of sin many opportunities in this life to
unweave the sails of the intellect from the wind of Love. To
give the pirates of sin fair opportunity, God allows them to
find and exploit any exhibited weakness in the sails of the
intellect by way of the predictable and reflexive nature of
‘Material.’ Thus, by tempting the intellect through the
imagination and the sensuality of the flesh, the pirates of sin
help the intellect achieve greater harmony with God – despite
their desire to not do so – as the sails of the intellect resist
their temptations. Despite God’s allowance to the pirates of
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sin, one should not think that it is God who is tempting;

scripture explains:
“Never, when you are being put to the test, say, ‘God is
tempting me’; God cannot be tempted by evil, and He
does not put anybody to the test. Everyone is put to the
test by being attracted and seduced by that person’s own
wrong desire. Then the desire conceives and gives birth to
sin, and when sin reaches full growth, it gives birth to
death.” (James 1:13-15)
The intellect toils to be perfectly obedient to God because

it does not want to be divided from His will as His will is the
fountain of perfect goodness and perfect life. Shrewdly, the
pirates of sin play the ropes of instinct off each other to
increase the particular suffering that is the hallmark of the
good fight. It is because of this particular suffering that effort
often becomes a matter of endurance whenever the intellectual
will to maintain perfect obedience to God wavers (James 1:2-
4). Humorously truthful, Joseph of Copertino describes
obedience as “a little dog that leads the blind.” (The Wisdom
of the Saints, p. 134)
The wonderful irony of this situation is that God has
arranged the dynamics of the good fight so the pirates of sin
play an instrumental role in perfecting striving intellects. How
unimaginably powerful God must be that He is able to
passively cause His most evil and rebellious enemies to do a
good service for Him despite their desire to not do so! As the
pirates of sin try to thwart the intellect’s effort to strive, it is
taught by God as it learns to recognize, listen to and remember
His voice of selfless reason which urges it to resist the pirates
of sin. As the intellect resists the pirates of sin through selfless
reason, it inevitably and incrementally surrenders to God’s
Spirit of Selfless Reason to the extent that it is able to reason
selflessly.
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Chapter 24
The Good Teacher
It is through the Spirit of Selfless Reason that an intellect is

made perfect by God. Perfection is slowly realized by the
intellect as it learns, through trial and error, to decrease from
‘Material’ so God may increase in it through the wind of
Love. Although it can take time to mentally process, the
highest teaching is when the body of the intellect is cradled in
the love of the Father and bears the movement of His Perfect
Light that is the Christ (John 14:21).
Despite the reality of invisible and visible graces, it is best
to not desire them lest the pirates of sin deposit deceptive
visions or vibes that could cause one to either doubt the
goodness of God or lead one from the narrow path. P. Marie-
Eugene gives additional insight as to why it is advantageous to
not desire graces: “Desire blinds: it makes one accept any
communications too readily and opens the way to all the
snares of the devil.” (APSOCS, vol. II, p. 296) Regarding
graces, St. John of the Cross says:
“Usually God does not manifest such matters through

visions, revelations, and locutions, because He is ever
desirous that insofar as possible people take advantage of
their own reasoning powers. All matters must be regulated
by reason save those of faith, which though not contrary to
reason transcend it.” (CW, p. 235)
He also says:
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“…all heavenly visions, revelations, and feelings – or

whatever else one may desire to think on – are not worth
as much as the least act of humility. Humility has the
effects of charity: It neither esteems nor seeks its own, it
thinks no evil save of self, it thinks no good of self but of
others. Consequently, souls should not look for their
happiness in these supernatural apprehensions, but should
strive to forget them for the sake of being free.” (CW, p.
282)
Regarding humility, remember: Humility depends upon

selfless reason and selfless reason depends upon selflessness
and selflessness depends upon Nothing which depends upon
Spirit.
No matter the intellect’s level of teaching, it must
continue to get up whenever it falls until it no longer falls. By
the intellect feeling a desire to get up it reflects God’s desire,
for it is His desire that the intellect should feel a desire to get
up. For the nurturing of this desire, we should heed the words
of St. Paul: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are
in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”
(Hebrews 10:25)
It is important to encourage one another to habitually
recollect into the place of imageless-selflessness (even if
encouragement must be conveyed through writing), for
whenever the intellect recollects into this secret place through
the grace of self-determination, it is also learning how to strip
the passions of ‘Material’ from itself. Regarding the stripping
of the passions, St. Thalassios says: “According to the degree
to which the intellect is stripped of the passions, the Holy
Spirit initiates the intellect into the mysteries of the age to be.”
(The Philokalia, v. II, p. 329, #75) He also says that “The
person who is not affected either by material things, or by his
memories of them, has attained perfect dispassion.” (The
Whenever you fail in a spiritual combat against the
passions, remember to neither be too angry nor upset with
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yourself lest you give the pirates of sin undue leverage over
yourself. Simply repent to remedy the failure and remember
that God is on your side and that you will not lose so long as
you do not give-up; remember: Love never fails (1 Corinthians
13:8). Ask yourself: Is the glass of water half-empty or is it
half-full, have I given-up or have I learned how to fight better?
To fight better, it is advantageous to remember that there
are two depths of imageless-selflessness. The first depth is the
intellect withdrawing from ‘Material’ by recollecting its
focused attention into the imageless-selflessness of Nothing –
which, as we know, can be thought of as an inner room –
while leaving the peripheral attention of itself outside of
Nothing. Even though peripheral attention is outside of
Nothing and still aware of ‘Material’ and the world, it – by
itself – has no creative force. Consequently, the pirates of sin
cannot directly unweave the intellect from Nothing as no
creative force is available to them to fashion sensual images.
Be that as it may, an intellect with its focused attention
recollected is still vulnerable to temptation because the
peripheral attention of itself is outside of Nothing,
consequently, the pirates of sin can indirectly unweave it if it
can be coaxed to transfer its focused attention to the world
because of what it perceives peripherally.
The second depth is deeper and it is an active movement
by God to eclipse the intellect. Essentially, the second depth is
the intellect completely recollected into the selflessness of
Nothing. Complete recollection is when focused attention and
peripheral attention are both within the selflessness of
Nothing, consequently, the intellect is completely turned away
from ‘Material’ and the world, and for that reason, it is
invulnerable to temptation.
Specifically, the intellect has risen above body conscious-
ness, which is also its sensual connection to the world, and in
this state of being the pirates of sin have no leverage over it at
all. Ineffably, the intellect is only aware of being in a vast and
silent desert of exquisite peace that possesses no end. This
desert is peace to the intellect because neither focused nor
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peripheral attention are either extended or exercised as both

are within the place of their beginning that is, in fact, the
Beginning – wherein there are no images or things to be
sensed except Peace Itself (Philippians 4:9). St. Teresa of
Avila shares her insight regarding these two depths:
“It is called recollection because the soul collects together

all the faculties and enters within itself to be with its God.
Its Divine Master comes more speedily to teach it, and to
grant it the Prayer of Quiet, than in any other way…Those
who are able to shut themselves up in this way within this
little Heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of
Heaven and earth, and who have formed the habit of
looking at nothing and staying in no place which will
distract these outward senses, may be sure that they are
walking on an excellent road and will come without fail to
drink of the water of the fountain.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p.
213) Way of Perfection, xxvi; Peers, II, p. 115)
It is important to remember that although one can safely

view the world peripherally, it is not safe to view the
imagination peripherally lest focused attention slip – because
of the continuity between itself and peripheral attention – from
its peaceful repose into the hell of incorrect action that the
imagination proffers through the limited perspective’s reward
of sensuality. Recall that the imagination is more real than
‘Material’ because of its placement in the dimensional order;
thus, the intellect suffers greater temptations from it (the
imagination) than it would from ‘Material’ alone. Essentially,
while viewing the world peripherally, the intellect must ignore
and overlook the imagination – as if it does not exist – to
avoid the temptation to indulge in ‘Material.’ Regarding self-
indulgence, St. Paul says:
“Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will

no longer yield to self-indulgence. The desires of self-
indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the
desires of the Spirit are always in opposition to self-
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indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that

is how you are prevented from doing the things that you
want to. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not
under the Law.” (Galatians 5:16-18)
A way to overlook the imagination is through physical

work because it can have the effect of distracting us from
harmful thoughts and images if we give full attention to the
tasks that must be completed. In the light of this truth, if you
suffer from the imagination, but are not interested in working
or cannot work, simply recollect and ignore your thoughts as if
you were working. If this strategy does not work for you then
find some other type of work to do, such as reading or writing,
as such work is still an exercise in recollection if we use it to
give ourselves to God. Regarding reading, St. Teresa of Avila
shares her thoughts:
“During all these years, except after communicating, I

never dared to begin to pray without a book…With this
help, which was a companionship to me and a shield with
which I could parry the blows of my many thoughts, I felt
comforted. For it was not usual with me to suffer from
aridity: this only came when I had no book, whereupon
my soul would at once become disturbed and my thoughts
would begin to wander. As soon as I started to read they
began to collect themselves and the book acted like a bait
to my soul. Often the mere fact that I had it by me was
sufficient. Sometimes I read a little, sometimes a great
deal, according to the favor which the Lord showed me.”
((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 193) Life, iv: Peers, I, p. 24)
Incidentally, a book is good for meditative reading when

it inspires: love for God, love for neighbor, and love for
striving; if it does not, then these key elements can be
extracted from within its pages by way of spiritual interpreta-
tion. One-line prayers – such as the Jesus prayer: Jesus have
mercy on me a sinner – are also good for meditation;
meditation being the gathering of the mind from sinful
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thoughts to foster the imagelessness of recollection which, in

turn, fosters dispassion.
While having mystical knowledge of God is helpful to
those people who need the most help, as is evidenced by the
toil of their effort, it is equally important to love Him through
simple faith. Simple faith can be nurtured through the secret
dialogue of repentance and forgiveness as it takes faith to both
repent and to receive forgiveness. Moreover, through
repentance and forgiveness, love is nurtured as well:
“One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to a meal. When He

arrived at the Pharisee’s house and took His place at the
table, a woman suddenly came in who had a bad name in
the town. She had heard He was dining with the Pharisee
and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. She
waited behind Him at His feet, weeping, and her tears fell
on His feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then
she covered His feet with kisses and anointed them with
the ointment.
“When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said
to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know
who this woman is and what sort of person it is who is
touching him and what a bad name she has.’ Then Jesus
took him up and said, ‘Simon, I have something to say to
you.’ Simon replied, ‘Say on, Master.’ ‘There was once a
creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five
hundred denarii’s, the other fifty. They were unable to
pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him
more?’ Simon answered, ‘The one who was let off more, I
suppose.’ Jesus said, ‘You are right.’
“Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘You

see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured
no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears
over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You
gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with
kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my head
with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For
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this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have
been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love.
It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.’
Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Those who
were with Him at the table began to say to themselves,
‘Who is this man, that even forgives sins?’ But Jesus said
to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’”
(Luke 7:36-50)
Regarding sin and repentance-forgiveness, it is important

to remember that a fuzzy memory of sin will prompt one to
move forward, but a clear memory of sin will often tempt one
to move backward; therefore, make sin a fuzzy memory
through the grace of repentance-forgiveness and move
forward. When repenting, we should follow Jesus’ counsel:
“…when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in,
and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your
Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”
(Matthew 6:6, italics his)
Like a teacher in a classroom, what is most important to
Jesus, our Divine Teacher, is not so much the grade that the
student is in or the test scores that the student is making, but
that he or she is in class and trying to do his or her best.
Silvanus says that “The Divine Teacher is with [you] always.
He is a helper, and He meets you because of the good which is
in you.” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The Teachings of
Silvanus, p. 386) Naturally, the good that is in you is Christ:
“The Spirit of Truth…He is with you, He is in you.” (John
14:17)
Even though the good that is in you is Christ, the good is
also your intellectual will to nurture correct thought and
action. With this fact in mind, it is encouraging to know that
the Father, who is without all, will see Christ more clearly in
you as you strive to clean the window of your soul by way of
correct thought and action; namely, the correct thought of
imagelessness – which leads to the encompassing virtue of
dispassion – and the correct action of self-control which leads
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to the same virtue. As you do so with perseverance, the Father

will hold you and make you cognizant that He and Christ are
the One True God, and that, as God, He is both without and
within you and that you are a part of Himself even though you
are weak because you have yet to understand and utilize the
divine will within yourself. Regarding our Divine Teacher, St.
Therese of the Child Jesus says: “What joy to think that Our
Lord is just, that is to say, that He takes our weakness into
account, that He knows perfectly the frailty of our nature! Of
what, then, need I be afraid?” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 389)
Autobiography, xi; I, p. 32)
Ever mindful of scripture’s teaching: “While you still
have the Light, believe in the Light so that you may become
children of the Light” (John 12:36); students should teach each
other by being examples of selfless reason to each other. Even
if no immediate learning is discerned, it is certain that by
using humility and patience against the temptations of pride
and impatience, which always work against the perfection of
selfless reason, one’s own light of selfless reason will be
strengthened by the Divine Teacher’s correlative Light of
Selfless Reason that is Himself. By the Light of Selfless
Reason, and our receptivity to It, we are able to learn from our
mistakes and from other people. Regarding the importance of
listening to others, St. Maximos says:
“Just as parents have a special affection for the children

who are the fruit of their own bodies, so the intellect
naturally clings to its own thoughts. And just as to
passionately-fond parents their own children seem the
most capable and most beautiful of all – though they may
be quite the most ridiculous in every way – so too a
foolish intellect its own thoughts appear the most
intelligent of all, though they may be utterly degraded.
The wise man does not regard his own thoughts in this
way. It is precisely when he feels convinced that they are
true and good that he most distrusts his own judgment. He
makes other wise men the judges of his thoughts and
arguments – lest he should run, or may have run, in vain
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(Gal. 2:2) – and from them receives assurance.” (The

Astutely, P. Marie-Eugene relays St. John of the Cross’

caution regarding ‘wise men’: “The Saint profits by…God’s
transforming action in the soul to point out the enemies that
set for it snares and obstacles. These enemies are – who would
have believed it! in the first place spiritual directors; then
come the devil and the soul itself.” (APSOCS, vol. II, p. 563)
Evidently, spiritual directors who follow a literal observance
of the Law are harmful to striving intellects – for beguiled by
the pirates of sin through the matter and form that the Law
engenders – they blindly discourage others from abandoning
matter and form (Matthew 7:15).
If ever a spiritual director discourages you from abandon-
ing matter and form, remember these words: “Run from
anything that stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that
makes you want to do right. Pursue faith and love and peace,
and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord
with pure hearts.” (2 Timothy 2:22, italics mine) Be cautious
and remember that a cocoon that is unseen by children is a
cocoon that is neither disturbed nor destroyed.
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Chapter 25
The Challenge of Perfect Recollection
To an intellect that is striving to move beyond Material’s

threshold of gravity, the gravity causes ‘sweet suffering.’ The
sweetness is the intellect’s knowledge that it is making
progress into the wind of Love by the virtue of obedience, and
the suffering is caused by the pirates of sin exploiting
‘Material’ to impede this progress because they do not want to
lose the sails of the intellect to the wind of Love. Specifically,
the suffering is effected by the outer-man’s effort to not fulfill
the reflexive sweetness of ‘Material’ despite the temptations of
the pirates of sin who use absorbed creative force to create
seductive images. In order for the intellect to keep the spiritual
sweetness of perfect obedience it must not give-in to the
reflexive-sweetness of ‘Material’ even though it suffers
because of its effort to not give-in (Romans 8:12-13).
In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates describes sexual pleasure and
pain as the worst of all evils:
“What is the worst of all evils, Socrates?” asked Cebes.
“That the soul of every man is compelled, through exper-

iencing some extreme pleasure or pain, to imagine that
whatever most strongly arouses such feelings is most vivid
and real – although, of course, it is not; and these things
are chiefly the things that can be seen. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes.”
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“Then the soul is more particularly bound fast by the body

when undergoing this sort of experience?”
“How do you mean?”
“Every pleasure and pain fastens it as with a nail to the

body, and pins it down, and makes it similar to the body,
since it imagines to be true whatever the body declares to
be so. From holding the same opinions as the body and
taking delight in the same things…it can never reach the
other world in a state of purity…” (The Dialogues of
Plato, p. 95-6)
St. Maximos explains sexual pleasure and pain in a

scientific manner:
“The natural energies of the intellect and those of the

senses are opposed to one another because of the extreme
dissimilarity between their objects. The intellect has as its
object noetic and incorporeal beings, whose essence it is
by nature fitted to apprehend; the senses have as object
sensible and corporeal entities, which they likewise
apprehend by virtue of their natural powers…
“When the intelligence takes precedence over the senses

in the contemplation of visible things, the flesh is deprived
of all natural pleasures, because the senses are then kept
under control by the intelligence and so are not free to
pursue their own pleasures. Once the intelligence is
dominant in us, the flesh necessarily suffers, because the
intelligence compels it into the service of virtue.” (The
Philokalia, v. II, p. 235, #2 and 4)
St. Maximos encourages us to overcome sexual pleasure

and pain:
“Since distress and pleasure each affect both the soul and
the senses, he who cultivates the soul’s pleasure and
patiently accepts the distress of the senses becomes tested,
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perfect and entire. He is tested by experiencing the

contrasting effects of pleasure and distress in the senses.
He becomes perfect because he fights unremittingly
against pleasure and distress in the senses with self-control
and patience. He becomes entire because, through
constant obedience to the intelligence, he maintains the
conditions that combat the mutually conflicting exper-
iences of pleasure and distress in the senses. By these
conditions I mean the practice of the virtues and
contemplation, which he holds together without allowing
the one to be in the least disjoined from the other: his
actions manifest his contemplative knowledge and his
contemplation is protected equally by the intelligence and
by the practice of virtues.
“He who has had experience of the distress and pleasure

of the flesh may be described as tested because he has
experienced both the pleasant and the unpleasant aspects
of the flesh. A perfect man is one who with the power of
his intelligence has struggled against the pleasure and pain
of the flesh and has overcome them. An entire man is one
who keeps both his practice of the virtues and his
contemplative life unvarying through the intensity of his
longing for God.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 233-34, #95,
96)
Remember: Follow Intelligence Not Desire to FIND what

you seek.
Until pleasure and pain have been overcome, the student
should receive the suffering as ‘thought-provoking’ inspiration
to follow Jesus who endured the greatest of sufferings so we
“…might learn to be patient and bear the sufferings of this life
without repining.” (The Imitation of Christ, Kempis, p. 118)
The striving student should never forget that letting Christ lead
in her or his life leads to a wonderful dance of movement and
repose as she or he becomes a better follower. In essence, a
person becomes a better follower of Christ by learning how to
endure the comparatively little sufferings of the narrow path.
Fortunately, God is not dismayed by human weakness; St.
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Teresa of Avila reassures us:
“When once I had seen the great beauty of the Lord, I saw
no one who by comparison with Him seemed acceptable
to me or on whom my thoughts wished to dwell…Once I
had seen this Lord, I was so continually in converse with
Him that my love for Him and trust in Him began to
increase greatly. I saw that, although God, He was also
Man, and is not dismayed at the weaknesses of men.”
(Life, Peers, p. 262-63)
St. Catherine of Siena encouraged a widow, who was

going to get remarried until her fiancé died, to run to the Lord
to let Him lead in her life:
“Love this gracious and glorious Bridegroom who has

given you life, and who will never die. Other husbands die
and pass away like the wind – and often they are the cause
of death to us. You have experienced how constant they
are, for in a short time the world has kicked you twice, and
divine Goodness permitted this to make you run from the
world and run to Him as your Father and Bridegroom.
“Run away, then, from the world’s poison, which it offers

you in a flower. It shows itself as a child, when it really is
old. It pretends that life is long, when it really is quite
short. It seems to have some stability, when in reality it is
as changeable as a leaf whirling in the wind. You have
seen clearly that it has no stability in your regard, so
realize that if you trust it again it will do the same thing to
you. The next one will be as mortal as the first.” (Letters,
2: p. 335-36)
In the perfection of this eternal dance, which can be

comprehended in this life, the intellect surrenders the entirety
of itself to God. The blessed result of self-surrender is that the
vulnerable distance of doubt between the believer and the
Believed is lost. Moreover, the intellect finds – through the
perfection of faith – that the imagination can finally be willed
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into imagelessness and sensuality into the selflessness of

dispassion. To strengthen one’s will to maintain the selfless-
ness of dispassion, it is important to practice falling asleep in
imagelessness despite the dispassioned feelings of flesh that
seek to fulfill self. It is enough to say that these feelings stem
from the flesh reflexively desiring passionate satiation.
When ‘Material’ completely ‘sinks’ into the unworldliness
of the encompassing perspective, the pirates of sin are
displaced from it like bowling ball pins being struck down by
a fast and well-aimed bowling ball – despite their formidable
effort to stay on board. This dramatic description of the
pirates’ displacement is accurate because they are instantan-
eously made powerless as the Logos, Who is the Inner-man,
completely takes the outer-man into His inviolable embrace.
Embracement, which is mutual, would not be possible if it
were not for the intellect’s obedience to God’s Spirit, or
Logos, of Selfless Reason Who is the Living Word. It is
through embracement that a New Man comes into being:
“You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to

your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory
desires. Your mind was to be renewed in spirit so that you
could put on the New Man that has been created on God’s
principles, in uprightness and holiness of the truth.”
(Ephesians 4:22-24)
“…So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation:

the old order is gone and a new being is there to see.” (2
Corinthians 5:17)
At this juncture, the only chance that the pirates of sin

have to regain the ship of ‘Material’ is if the intellect’s
focused attention can be distracted from the Spirit of Selfless
Reason – by what it perceives peripherally – before it makes
the feeling of focused attention a habit natural to itself. When
imagelessness and selflessness are secured in the Spirit of
Selfless Reason by way of focused attention, the illusory
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nature of the world is brought into focus because the things

that were formerly ‘out’ making it more real than it really is –
namely, creative force and passion – are now ‘in’ and given to
God.
Embracement purifies the intellect’s thoughts – and, as
follows, the flesh’s actions – to fulfill dispassion. Altern-
atively, it can also be said that purification proceeds from
correct actions and then to correct thoughts, but more often I
think that it is correct thoughts that lead to correct actions;
hence, Jesus’ words to Martha:
“In the course of their journey Jesus came to a village, and

a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the His feet
and listened to Him speaking. Now Martha, who was
distracted with all the serving, came to Him and said,
‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do
the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But
Jesus answered, ‘Martha, Martha,’ He said, ‘you worry
and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed,
indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part,
and it is not to be taken from her.’” (Luke 10:38-42)
Nevertheless, a correct action of chastity for the love of

Christ can lead to the purification of thoughts if one has the
faith to transcend the doubts that would reflexively question
the unworldly logic of nurturing chastity and pure thoughts for
the sake of dispassion. Essentially, faith is what can apply
teaching without going through the process of being taught
because it is the silent application of pure intellectual will that
is of God, and therefore, it neither doubts nor questions the
unworldly logic of nurturing correct actions and thoughts for
the sake of dispassion.
Regarding logic, even though God made it so we could
find our way in the limited perspective of the world; He also
made it so we could climb the mountain of selflessness to find
the encompassing perspective of love. It seems, however, that
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the logic to climb the mountain of selflessness is illogical to

the logic of the world. This difference is due to the contrariety
between matter and Spirit.
In the light of the aforesaid, it is a test of true intelligence
to climb the mountain of selflessness because one must
intellectually tailor worldly logic to accept the heavenly logic
of faith. It can be difficult to abandon worldly logic especially
when it is used by the pirates of sin to undermine faith in
God’s power and goodness. One example of a particular
worldly logic that is used to undermine faith in God’s power
and goodness is the following string of words: If God is all
good, powerful and the creator of everything – and yet evil
exists and people suffer – then actually, God is neither all
good as He created evil and people suffer, or He is good but
not all powerful.
Even though God created logic for the sake of intelligent
creatures, how they choose to organize or use it is up to them.
Thus, we should ignore all worldly logic, such as the above,
that can be organized and used by the pirates of sin to
undermine faith in God’s power and goodness lest we be
discouraged from seeking Him. We should recall that just
because people might deductively rationalize the nature of
something due to its appearance to them – just as people
rationalized the earth to be flat due to its appearance from their
vantage point – their rationalization might not reflect the truth
if they do not have a truth-revealing vantage point.
The truth is that God is all good and powerful and this
truth is discovered by striving to the truth-revealing summit of
the spiritual mountain. When striving, remember that the true
spiritual value of a: book, ceremony, coincidence, déjà vu,
dream, feeling, number, paradox, song, sound, verse, vision,
word or any other thing or experience, is discovered through
the inspiration that it gives to strive. For the sake of caution,
one should always second guess one’s thoughts on the thing or
experience to determine if it will truly inspire one to journey
upon the narrow path or inspire one to journey upon the wide
path.
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Logic does not have any influence upon God less what He
allows by His volition for the sake of creatures. Volition is not
unfamiliar to you, for you know that even though you might
set rules for yourself to follow you can overrule the rules if
you choose. And so it is with God.
Regarding rules that one sets for oneself, I would like to
say that there was a draft of The Divine Secret of Nothing that
I had sent out to scholarly people some years ago for safe-
keeping (under the acronymic pen name Nbarakan) because I
thought that I was going to die and I did not want what I had
written to be lost to chance as it was at least a wooden arrow,
so to speak, pointing the way to the summit of the mountain.
In the draft, I had set a rule that said The Divine Secret of
Nothing was not to be copyrighted. I set this rule because to
copyright something implies ownership over it and I believe
that the divine secret of Nothing should not be owned, but that
it should be freely given to anyone who cares to know it.
Despite the implications of copyrighting, I, the author,
have rescinded my rule by copyrighting The Divine Secret of
Nothing. I have copyrighted The Divine Secret of Nothing not
to claim ownership over it, but to ensure that no organization
or person in the super-distant future can claim ownership over
it, and thereby, either inadvertently or purposefully keep
people from sharing it freely because of copyright laws. Please
share The Divine Secret of Nothing and do not worry about
infringing upon any copyright as I have given it to you to
share and support in peace.
Upon the summit of the mountain, the striver finds herself
between the world, which is below, and the Creator, who is
above – who is able to bend, break, change or dispel the rules
of logic if He chooses. At this summit the striver is at the
paradox of man being God and God being man. Even though
some people might consider this paradox impossible, it was
not so for Jesus: “Is it not written in your law: ‘I said you are
gods’?” (John 10:34, italics His)
So people may become gods in the metaphysical realm,
God – who is Correct Thought – seeks union with people as
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they strive to correct their actions by way of His Spirit of

Selfless Reason who is Correct Thought all the same. To be a
god in the metaphysical realm means that one is a child of
God, and therefore, an awake dreamer in God’s autonomous
dream that is the metaphysical realm. Nothing is impossible
for a person when he or she is awake in his or her dreams: “In
truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you
will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
will move; nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew
17:20, italics mine)
Embracement brings about true rest for the intellect
because its creative force can no longer be absorbed and stolen
by the pirates of sin to captivate it within the circular frontier
of the limited perspective. The intellect is safe so long as its
attention remains focused in the singular clarity of the
encompassing perspective which rests above the eyes of
illusion (Matthew 6:22). This focus is effortless for the
intellect as it has learned to surrender itself into the strength of
God by way of perfect obedience to Him through the grace of
self-determination.
In essence, perfect obedience is the intellect existing with
the least amount of effort because it exists in the will of God
without love of material. Due to the fact that God is Love, the
perfect obedience of the intellect is rewarded by a high feeling
of selflessness – or emptiness of self – that is Love giving
majestic freedom to the intellect through the immanence of Its
presence that is the Perfect Freedom of Itself. This high
feeling of emptiness is also a feeling of fullness. Regarding
this freedom, scripture tells us: “After all, brothers [and
sisters], you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as
an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another
in love…” (Galatians 5:13)
In this freedom – and by freewill in general – you are not
bound to be led by another person’s conscience or to adjust
your judgments and actions to fit hers, but you are bound, by
the Spirit of Selfless Reason, to not intentionally harm her (1
Corinthians 10:29; Romans 14:14-21). Ignore qualms of
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conscience because the pirates of sin will take every

opportunity to effect such qualms in everything you do and
see, therefore, in everything you do and see, do it and see it in
the Spirit of Selfless Reason and with the feeling of
dispassioned faith which is one of the many sensitivities of the
soul that the devil curses (Romans 14:22-23). If you have any
qualms of conscience, even if such qualms were to condemn
you to hell, remember that God – who is Goodness Itself – is
greater than your feelings and all powers and that He knows
all things (1 John 3:20).
In the perfect freedom of selflessness, Love commun-
icates sublime feelings and thoughts to the intellect to preserve
it from occasions of sin – for unrelenting, the pirates of sin
hope to destabilize it from the encompassing perspective of
love by transmitting erogenous feelings and thoughts from the
limited perspective of materiality. But experience has taught
the intellect well and it knows to not forget the lessons that it
has learned lest it succumb to either the pirates of sin or the
distractions of the world and lose the pleasure of perfect
obedience that increases with time. If a person wavers from
perfect obedience he or she should pay attention to the rhythm
of his or her breathing using it as a foothold, so to speak, to
regain perfect obedience lest his or her wavering become a fall
from perfect obedience.
Perfectly obedient, the intellect continually senses and
keeps itself awake in God’s gentle embrace that is the
knowledgeable silence of Peace. Regarding the embrace of
Peace, St. Maximos says:
“When the intellect is in direct union with God, that

quality in it by virtue of which it apprehends and is
apprehended is completely in abeyance. As soon as it
activates this quality by apprehending something sequent
to God, it experiences doubt and severs the union which is
beyond intellection. So long as the intellect is joined to
God in this union, and has passed beyond nature and
become god by participation, it will have transposed the
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law of its nature as though shifting an immovable

mountain.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 190, #13)
St. Theodoros adds:
“There is no gainsaying what the fathers have so well

affirmed, that a man does not find rest except by acquiring
inwardly the thought that God and he alone exist; and so
he does not let his intellect wander at all towards anything
whatsoever, but longs for Him, cleaving to Him alone.
Such a man will find true rest and freedom from the
tyranny of the passions.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 34, #91)
To impress upon ourselves the wisdom of the saints, let us

remember that when a man knows God there is not anything
that he really needs to know because to know Him is to know
everything, and therefore, knowledge is fulfilled in the
Quieting Mystery of Himself. Thus, when a man has full
knowledge of God within himself, his intellect should not run-
about looking for knowledge or information, in so far as it
pertains to Him, as such knowledge or information is
redundant when one possesses knowledge of Him. To an
intellect that possesses such knowledge, all of humanity’s
information and knowledge possesses, to some degree, a
certain redundancy. When an intellect runs-about it shows that
it has not yet learned to rest in the inviolable selfless-aspect –
or soul – of itself.
Running-about is the habit of thinking continuously – like
people normally do – but it seems to be the habit at a faster
pace and the faster pace can tend to be tiresome after a while. I
think that the pace of the intellect is faster because the focal-
point of its focused attention, being nearer to the inviolable
selfless-aspect – but not yet within – vibrates or moves faster
in much the same way that planets nearer to the sun orbit
faster than planets that are farther away. Running-about is
generally harmless, despite its tiresomeness, so long as the
intellect does not stray from the obedience of dispassion.
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Recall that when an intellect feels either a need or desire

it tends to put itself into the need or desire so it can be
fulfilled. Consequently, it sometimes happens that when an
intellect discovers the path to the Truth it feels a need and
desire to gather and organize information to explain the path
that it has found to encourage people to follow the path as
well. Although this need and desire is helpful when an
intellect is striving upon the path, it can be a hindrance when
the intellect knows that it has found the end of the path, but is
unable to rest even though God desires that it should rest. An
intellect is not able to find rest in God because it finds that its
thoughts will not stop running-about because of extraneous
needs and desires that forestall it from finding a need and
desire to rest stably in Him – a focused need and desire that
will not be destabilized or unfocused by extraneous needs and
desires.
An illustration of the aforesaid: Striving for dispassion is
what causes a man to grow wings as he runs from pursuers
who depend upon the land (violable ic-aspect), and although
he might make great leaps into the sky (inviolable selfless-
aspect) with the help of his wings to escape from his pursuers
for a time, he always falls back to the land because he has not
yet learned how to truly fly. The man will not truly fly and
escape from his pursuers until he attains the obedience of
dispassion; the flapping of his wings – that is to say, the
continuity of his rational thinking – help him to attain this
obedience. By such flight, the man gives himself completely
to God and he looks ever upward and forward – but neither
downward nor backward – because where he looks there he
goes.
Free in the sky, and free from his pursuers who cannot
fly, the man continually flaps his wings and he flies higher,
but flapping his wings is a lot of work for him and he grows
weary. Sometimes he notices that when he refrains from the
habit of flapping his wings, the silent wind carries him and he
soars without any effort on his part – but then, out of habit, he
begins to flap his noisy wings again. The wind wants the man
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to not labor any longer for he has worked very hard to attain
flight and escape from his pursuers, but he, by himself, must
learn to trust it faithfully in order to let go of extraneous needs
and desires that distract him from the inner-quietude that he
needs to soar. In soaring, the man does not grow tired and he
rests in a most excellent and still fashion in the peace of the
whistling wind that is knowledgeable silence to him.
It is important to remember that God’s way is such that if
a woman (or man) were to form a picture of her past sins to
remember her sinfulness – for even a moment – she would feel
her attention slip from the protection of His grace for that
moment. God’s way is profoundly merciful because His
forgiveness of sins is so complete that He does not want the
repentant person to remember the darkness of her sins, but
only to remember and know the Light of Himself. Regarding
the Light of God, it should be remembered that peace and
happiness reign in an intellect when it lets God’s Light of
Selfless Reason shine through itself throughout the long nights
lest it fall into the tyranny of the passions.
Freedom from the tyranny of the passions is achieved
when one no longer chooses self, but chooses the selflessness
of God as directed by the Spirit of Selfless Reason. Dag
Hammarskjöld gives us personalized insight into the effort and
reward of the good fight:
“So once again, you chose for yourself – and opened the
door to chaos. The chaos you become whenever God’s
hand does not rest upon your head. He who has once been
under God’s hand, has lost his innocence: only he feels the
full explosive force of destruction which is released by a
moments surrender to temptation. But when his attention
is directed beyond and above, how strong he is, with the
strength of God who is within him because he is in God.
Strong and free because his self no longer exists.”
(Markings, p. 104)
Moving away and practically free from the gravity of the
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world’s limited perspective, the ‘orbiting’ intellect learns that

it is better to suffer in this life than to regret not having
suffered enough. St. Paul clarifies this reasoning: “As Christ
has undergone bodily suffering, you too should arm yourselves
with the same conviction, that anyone who has undergone
bodily suffering has broken with sin, because for the rest of
life on earth that person is ruled not by human passions but
only by the will of God.” (Peter 4:1-2) St. Maximos shares this
view as well, he says that “A man no longer experiences
pleasure and pain when, freeing his intellect from its
relationship with the body, he binds or rather unites it to God,
the real goal of love, longing and desire.” (The Philokalia, v.
II, p. 175, #54)
By way of this unity, the intellect comes to realize that the
feeling of recollection is the feeling of being with God.
Accordingly, when the intellect senses that the enemy is near,
it does not fear, but it confidently draws nearer to God – away
from the window of illusion – to embrace He Who Is, the
Eternal King infinitely above all kings and powers, in His
room of peaceful reciprocity.
A Gnostic treatise, called The Book of Thomas the
Contender, also has important information regarding the
suffering and passions of the body, it begins:
“The secret words that the savior spoke to Judas Thomas

which I, even I Mathaias, wrote down, while I was
walking, and listening to them speak with one another….
Jesus said: “Watch and pray that you do not come to be in

the flesh, but rather that you come forth from the bondage
of the bitterness of this life. And as you pray, you will find
rest, for you have left behind the suffering and the
disgrace. For when you come forth from the suffering and
passions of the body, you will receive rest from the Good
One, and you will reign with the King, you joined with
Him and He with you, from now on, for ever and ever.
Amen.” (The Nag Hammadi Library, The Book of
Thomas the Contender, p. 201, 207)
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Without a doubt, whatever religious formula one may use

to break with sin, the Spirit of Selfless Reason is needed. It is
only with the Spirit of Selfless Reason that an intellect is able
to rationally endure and faithfully conquer the distractions
and discomforts of suffering that the pirates of sin inflict upon
it, through the ropes of instinct, as it strives to die to ‘Material’
to wholly unite with the wind of Love. As mentioned in
Chapter 6, the ropes of instinct are: pleasure, pain, habits,
slothfulness, curiosity and images that are either from
memories or fantasies.
Religions that discourage people from seeking holy union
with the Spirit of God – as made possible through His Spirit of
Selfless Reason – are false. Typically, these false religions: (1)
discourage celibacy, and thereby, dispassion, (2) justify
violence against humanity (which, as we learned from St.
Maximos, reflects being at peace with demons), (3) encourage
sex, and (4) promise the fulfillment of sexual fantasies in the
afterlife. These false religions, by way of their blind leaders
and followers, deceive people into believing that their
doctrines are like bars of solid gold due to the nominal goods
that plate them, but in reality, they are like bars of gold-plated
lead.
Educate yourself on how to discern gold-plated lead from
solid gold lest your heart attach itself to doctrines that are
gold-plated and not solid gold; namely, the solid gold of
dispassionate doctrine (Luke 12:34). Even if you do not strive
after dispassion in the active way of a warrior, it is better to
hold-on to what heralds solid gold than to what heralds lead;
for the solid gold of dispassionate doctrine orients one to
knowledge, virtue and Christ, but the lead of false religion
orients one to ignorance, vice and death. Scripture informs us:
“The good man out of his good treasure brings out good
things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil
things.” (Matthew 12:35)
Christianity may be humanity’s best hope because as it
encourages people to fulfill nominal goods, such as loving
one’s enemies and taking care of the helpless, it also provides
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the means – the means being Christ – for people to fulfill the
maximal good of dispassion, if and when they choose to do so
(Matthew 10:41-42). When an intellect chooses to strive after
the maximal good of dispassion, without question Christ is
with it because without Him it has not the spiritual strength to
rise above flesh and fantasy (John 5:15).
As an intellect rises above flesh and fantasy by the Spirit
of Selfless Reason, it is also rising above the two scientific
realms of materiality that give context to all suffering and
deceptive pleasures. When the intellect has risen above these
realms – namely, the physical realm of flesh and the
metaphysical realm of fantasy – it contemplatively awaits,
with a watchman’s patience and vigilance, to shed the
chrysalis of the physical body to be with God in unequivocal
unity (Philippians 1:23-25).
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Chapter 26
The Serene Wisdom
The intellect, recollected in the selflessness of Nothing, has

found peace in God; the reflective gem of the Bhagavad-Gita
describes this state: “When in recollection he withdraws all his
senses from the attractions of the pleasures of sense, even as a
tortoise withdraws all its limbs, then his is a serene wisdom.”
(Ch. 2:58 (p. 14)) St. Teresa of Avila shares the same thought,
she says: “I think I read somewhere that the soul is then like a
tortoise or sea-urchin, which retreats into itself. Whoever said
this no doubt understood what he was talking about.” ((The
Bhagavad-Gita, xxviii) (APSOCS, vol. II, p. 94) IV Mansions,
iii, Peers, II, p. 241) Of this withdrawal, St. John of the Cross
says of the intellect:
“When it feels the disturbing presence of the enemy, then

– wondrous thing! – without knowing how it comes to
pass, and without any efforts of its own, it enters farther
into its own interior depths, feeling that it is indeed being
set in a sure refuge, where it perceives itself to be most
completely withdrawn and hidden from the enemy. And
thus its peace and joy, which the devil is attempting to
take from it, are increased.” ((APSOCS, vol. I, p. 120)
Dark Night, Bk. II, xxiii; Peers, I, p. 477)
Socrates, through the writing of Plato, says that the

intellect’s withdrawal into the soul of itself expresses spiritual
purification:
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“And purification – isn’t it just what has long been said to

be, according to the old accounts, the separation (so far as
is possible) of the soul from the body, and the attempt to
habituate her to collecting herself up and gathering herself
together, away from the body, into herself – and to living,
so far as is possible, both now and in the future, alone by
herself, freeing herself from the body as though from
bonds?” (Phaedo, The Dialogues of Plato, p. 76, italics
mine)
St. Maximos illuminates our understanding of withdrawal

as well, he says:
“If during periods of temptation and trial you refrain from

natural contemplation and hold fast to prayer –
withdrawing your intellect from all things and focusing it
on itself and on God – you will put to death the inward
disposition which produces evil and you will send the
devil packing with his tail between his legs. For it was the
devil who insinuated this habit into you and, relying on it,
he boastfully approached your soul, vilifying truth with
proud thoughts. (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 205, #82)
It is through this kind of prayer – where not even a

geometric shape is allowed to breach the purity of imageless-
ness – that one can nurture a saintly relationship with God.
St. Maximos reveals a natural tendency of the intellect
that can jeopardize its withdrawal into itself:
“When faced with the eruption of the passions, you should

courageously close your senses and totally reject the
images and memories of sensible things, and in every way
restrict the intellect’s natural tendency to investigate things
in the external world. Then, with God’s help, you will
abase and overcome the cunning tyrannical power which
rises up against you.” (The Philokalia, v. II, p. 203, #76)
Clearly, what can jeopardize the intellect’s withdrawal

into the empyrean Heaven within itself is its loose rope of
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curiosity that the pirates of sin pull, often in conjunction with

the rope of slothfulness. The Our Father, which is the prayer
of the Spirit, is a powerful prayer that can help recollect these
ropes from the pirates of sin whenever they pull upon them. It
is helpful to also remember that much less energy is needed to
keep a wild animal out of a locked house than in fighting to
get it out because ‘curiosity’ foolishly let it in. Instead,
commandeer curiosity and be curious about imagelessness and
the kingdom of Heaven!
It cannot be stressed enough that whenever the pirates of
sin move either a thought or an image past your sense of
awareness, do not be fooled into ‘unraveling’ from the
fortification of Nothing believing that you have fallen-out
from its protection due to your perception of the unsettling
thought or image; simply confirm that you are recollected and
continue onward. The aforesaid is also true of speech; that is,
do not unravel from the fortification of Nothing because of an
ill-spoken word. Regarding speech, St. Paul tells us:
“Only a few of you, my brothers [and sisters], should be

teachers, bearing in mind that we shall receive a stricter
judgment. For we all trip up in many ways.
“Someone who does not trip up in speech has reached

perfection and is able to keep the whole body on a tight
rein. Once we put a bit in the horse’s mouth, to make it do
what we want, we have the whole animal under our
control.” (James 3:1-3)
When the intellect is fully withdrawn, the pirates of sin

can only manifest themselves to it as estranged images and
thoughts. Regarding these images and thoughts – which are
actually outside the body even though they seem to be inside –
St. Teresa of Avila says “It is not good for us to be disturbed
by our thoughts or worry about them in the slightest.” (The
Interior Castle, the Fourth Mansion, Ch. 1) By not allowing
the pirates of sin to disturb its peace through worry, the
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intellect is not drawn-out from the worriless peace of God.

The will to ignore the pirates of sin is especially important
during a person’s final hour lest he or she be tricked by them
to leave the safety of recollection.
Accordingly, it is important to ignore all voices and
visions whether they be: loving, familiar, angry, beautiful,
ugly or any other variety. Moreover, a saint once said to
beware when angels appear to rescue you from demons
because they might actually be demons from the group of
demons that were attacking, but disguised as ‘angels of light’
to make you feel safe in their presence so you will leave the
safety of recollection! As scary as that might sound, an
intellect may very well discover the propensity to laugh at the
pirates of sin as their foolishness is made evident in their
desperation to draw it from the worriless peace of God which
often exhibits itself in a peaceful and recollected face.
Regarding peace, St. John Climacus says:
“There is one sort of temperance for those of good

conduct and another for those inclined to particular
weaknesses. Among the former any kind of bodily stirring
evokes an immediate urge to restraint, while among the
latter there is no relief or relaxation from such stirrings
until the very day that they die. The former strive always
for peace of mind, while the latter try to appease God by
their contrition.” (The Wisdom of the Saints, p. 152)
In the peace of God, which is secured through faith in

Him, the intellect finds that it has no need to fatigue itself with
meditative effort; St. Teresa of Avila explains: “…the whole
aim of meditation is to seek God, and once He is found, and
the soul grows accustomed to seeking Him again by means of
the will, it has no desire to fatigue itself with intellectual
labor.” (The Interior Castle, the Sixth Mansion, Ch. 7) As the
intellect improves its obedience to God, St. Teresa of Avila
says that its relationship with Him grows:
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“God begins to make such a friend of the soul that not

only does He restore its will to it but He gives it His own
also. For, now that He is making a friend of it, He is glad
to allow it to rule with Him, as we say, turn and turn
about.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 664) Way of Perfection,
xxxii; Peers, II, p. 139)
Racing against the crescendo of Freedom’s thunder that

sounds from heaven, the pirates of sin circle around the
intellect’s soul-body to attack it, but they are like naked armies
circling around a brilliant mountain fortress that can neither be
conquered nor even soiled (Matthew 5:14). The soul-body of
the intellect is brilliant because the Perfect Light of Christ
shines through the selfless skin of itself like spring sunlight
shining through a depthless window (Matthew 13:43). The
intellect knows to watch over itself zealously lest it fall away
from God and into ruin by choosing itself over the selflessness
of Himself; summarily bringing its years of perseverance to
naught. To keep itself from falling, the intellect remembers an
important lesson that it learned during the good fight, namely:
the more an intellect is in the kingdom of Heaven the stronger
it is so long as it guards itself – and the weaker it is if it does
not. St. John of the Cross alludes to Freedom’s thunder:
“This clamor, or resounding of these rivers…is such an

abundant plenitude that she [the soul] is filled with goods,
and it is so powerful a force that she is possessed by it, for
it seems to be not merely the sound of rivers but the sound
of roaring thunder….It is like an immense interior clamor
and sound that clothes the soul in power and strength.
(CW, p. 528-29, italics mine)
Emanating Freedom’s unworldly thunder, the soul is

clothed in power and strength and can no longer be enslaved;
but, poetically, it becomes the master of those who enslaved it.
The pirates of sin, unable to string-out either an illicit
image or thought of pride from the intellect to destabilize it
from Nothing, cry out to God that they have been cheated. But
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there is no truth in this allegation and it falls back into their

darkness as they cannot even string-out a feeling of guilt. This
inability is due to the preeminence of Selfless Reason.
Selfless Reason is preeminent in the intellect because it
thinks and creates not from without, but from within
Nothing’s selflessness that is the selflessness of Love. This
selflessness was advanced by the intellect through the grace of
self-determination, consequently, the pirates of sin can no
longer affect either the judgments or the actions of the intellect
as its bodily sense of ‘I’ has been transposed into the soul of
itself. The intellect would not have been able to transpose the
outer-man of itself into the soul’s Inner-man of Selfless
Reason, that is the Logos, had it not been for its intense labor
and faith to follow Him into the selflessness of Love by
becoming Nothing to itself.
Truly, the intellect’s self-surrender to the selflessness of
Nothing is a self-surrender to the selflessness of Love through
the correlative work of repentance and forgiveness which
ultimately seals the violable ic-aspect to stabilize correct
thought and action in the Spirit of Love. To stabilize correct
thought and action in the Spirit of Love is to actively
demonstrate love of Spirit. Stabilization is the fulfillment of
dispassion for the flesh to fulfill passion for the Spirit; it is a
turning-around that is enabled by God in His unfathomable
mercy. A mercy by which a man clearly realizes his utter
weakness and that his strength lies in his complete self-
surrender to God. By the man’s complete self-surrender to
God – Who is the God of Life, Peace, Love, Truth, Power and
compassion – he is comfortably fitted to the crown of
humility.
Self-surrender is ‘repentance’ sincerely surrendering to
‘Forgiveness’ and accepting Forgiveness so its incorrect
thoughts and actions may be corrected and perfected by the
perfect action of Forgiveness that is God giving the perfection
of Himself. In this knowledge, it is prudent to ignore any voice
that – with every little thing – tries to generate the conscience
based on actions that you might or might not take. At these
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moments – in silent knowledge of the Spirit of Selfless Reason

and with heaven bearing witness to your growing dispassion –
do what it is that you want to do; you are not under any law.
Hence, the words of St. John of the Cross describing the end
of the narrow path that is the summit of creature perfection:
“Here there is no longer any way because for the just man
there is no law, he is a law unto himself.” (CW, p. 112)
Regarding the intellect’s habitual self-surrender to the
selflessness of Love, by which its scientific rationality is
utterly overcome by Divine Mystery, St. John of the Cross
says:
“When it has the habit of union, which is a supernatural

state, memory and the other faculties fail it completely in
their natural functions, and pass beyond their natural
limitations, even to God, Who is supernatural. And thus,
when the memory is transformed in God it cannot receive
impressions of forms or kinds of knowledge. Wherefore
the functions of the memory and of the other faculties in
this state are all Divine; for, when at last God possesses
the faculties and has become the entire master of them,
through their transformation into Himself, it is He Himself
Who moves and commands them divinely, according to
His Divine Spirit and will; and the result of this is that the
operations of the soul are not distinct, but all that it does is
of God, and its operations are Divine, so that, even as
Saint Paul says, he that is joined unto God becomes one
spirit with Him.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 482) Ascent, Bk.
III, ii; Peers, I, p. 215)
Additionally,
“…in this state the virtues are bound together, united, and
fortified by each other, and fitted to the full perfection of
the soul, sustaining one another in such a way that no part
remains open or weak. They are so fastened that not only
does the devil fail to find entry, but nothing in the world,
high or low, can disquiet, molest, or even move the soul.
Liberated from all of the disturbance of the natural
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passions, and estranged from and stripped of the torment

and variety of temporal cares, she enjoys in security and
quietude the participation of God.” (CW, p. 567)
This faithful and passionate self-surrender to God is true

worship of God, scripture informs us: “But the hour is coming
– indeed is already here – when true worshippers will worship
the Father in Spirit and Truth: that is the kind of worshipper
the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and those who worship must
worship in Spirit and Truth.” (John 4:23-24, italics mine) St.
Therese of the Child Jesus encourages us to this divine end
that is the Beginning wherein a man, eclipsed by perfect faith
that he does not deny, ponders in his heart the reality of the
impossible that is God’s gift of Himself, she says: “How many
souls plead: ‘I have not enough fortitude to accomplish such
an act?’ But let them put forth some effort! The good God
never refused the first grace which imparts courage to act.
After that, the heart is strengthened and the soul goes on from
victory to victory.” ((APSOCS, vol. II, p. 409) Novissima
Verba, August 8, 93)
“It may be said that these things seem impossible and that it is
better not to scandalize the weak. But less harm is done by their
disbelieving us than by our failing to edify those to whom God
grants these favors, and who will awaken others to a fresh love of
Him who grants such mercies, according to the greatness of His
power and majesty.” (The Interior Castle, the First Mansion, Ch. 1)
St. Teresa of Avila
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Notes
Letter
John 14:17
“…the Spirit of Truth whom the world can never accept since it
neither sees nor knows Him; but you know Him, because He is with
you, He is in you.”
Matthew 9:37
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the
laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
to His harvest.’”
Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is
wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a
hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
John 10:34
Jesus answered: “Is it not written in your law: ‘I said, you are
gods’?” (Italics his)
Mark 12:17
“Jesus said to them, ‘Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and God
what belongs to God.’ And they were amazed at Him.”
John 14:6
“I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father
except through Me.”
Luke 8:16
“No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a
bed. No, it is put on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light
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when they come in.”
The Man who Fell Through Himself
John 4:23-24
“But the hour is coming – indeed is already here – when true
worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: that is the
kind of worshipper the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and those who
worship must worship in Spirit and Truth.”
Chapter 1
Luke 6:35
Jesus said: “…love your enemies and do good to them, and lend
without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you
will be children of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the
ungrateful and the wicked.”
Chapter 2
Colossians 3:12-14
“As the chosen of God, then, the holy people whom He loves, you
are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and
humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive
each other if one of you has a complaint against another. The Lord
has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes,
put on love, the perfect bond.” (Italics mine)
Chapter 3
Luke 11:21-22
“So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his
goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than himself
attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the
weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.”
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John 10:7-10
“In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have
come before Me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no
notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through Me will
be safe: such a one will go in and out and will find pasture. The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that
they may have life and have it to the full.”
Matthew 7:21-23
“It is not anyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the
kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father
in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name,
work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their
faces: I have never known you; away from me all evil doers!”
John 14:17
“…the Spirit of Truth whom the world can never accept since it
neither sees nor knows Him; but you know Him, because He is with
you, He is in you.”
Chapter 5
Luke 6:36
“Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.”
James 2:26
“As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.”
1 Corinthians 8:13
“That is why, if food can be the cause of a brother’s downfall, I will
never eat meat any more, rather than cause my brother’s downfall.”
Ephesians 5:18
“Do not get drunk with wine; this is simply dissipation; be filled
with the Spirit.” (Italics his)
The Philokalia, v. II, p. 327, #33

“If you do not drink wine, do not glut yourself with water either; for
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if you do you will be providing yourself with the same fuel for
unchastity.”
In the light of the aforesaid, gluttony is often the first

attack by the powers of evil to stage for the second attack
of unchastity which, ironically, is often perceived as being
the first attack due to its more obvious nature as compared
to the subtle nature of gluttony. Accordingly, resist the
first attack of gluttony (by controlling your appetite) to
weaken the second attack of unchastity and, in so doing,
you will gain an advantage in the good fight for
dispassion. Along these lines, the saints have said that
when people fast for many days they tend to glut as soon
as their fast is over, therefore, they recommend: (1)
partial-fasting each day by eating with self-control so one
is still a little hungry after eating and (2) fasting each day
by neither eating nor drinking late in the day until the next
morning.
Chapter 6
Matthew 12:43-45
“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through
waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one.
Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I came from.’ But on arrival,
finding it unoccupied, swept and tidied, it then goes off and collects
seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up
house there, and so that person ends up worse than before...”
Matthew 19:26
“By human resources this is impossible; but for God everything is
possible.”
James 4:8
“Come near to God and He will come near to you.”
Matthew 21:18-21
“Early in the morning, as Jesus was on His way back to the city, He
was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found
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nothing on it except leaves. Then He said to it, ‘May you never bear
fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw
this, they were amazed. ‘How did the fig tree wither so quickly?’
they asked. Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, if you have faith and
do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but
also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’
and it will be done.’” – This verse shows that the conscience had no
power over Jesus, but only Selfless Reason as he used the fig tree to
teach his disciples an important lesson.
Luke 9:24-25
“Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who
loses his life for My sake, will save it. What benefit is it to anyone
to win the whole world and lose his very soul?”
Matthew 10:36
“…a person’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”
Chapter 7
Mark 10:13-16
“People were bringing little children to Jesus, for Him to touch
them. The disciples scolded them, but when Jesus saw this He was
indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me; do
not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of Heaven
belongs. In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the
kingdom of Heaven like a little child will never enter it.’ Then He
embraced them, laid His hands on them and gave them His
blessing.”
2 Timothy 2:3
“Take your share of the hardships and suffering as a good soldier of
Christ.”
Mark 3:24-25
“How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is divided
against itself, that household can never last.”
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Chapter 8
John 3:6
“…what is born of human nature is human; and what is born of the
Spirit is spirit.”
Matthew 21:12-14
“Jesus then went into the Temple and drove out all those who were
selling and buying there; He upset the tables of the money-changers
and the seats of the dove-sellers. He said to them, ‘According to
scripture, my house will be called a house of prayer; but you are
turning it into a bandits’ den.’ There were also blind and lame
people who came to Him in the Temple, and He cured them.”
Mark 10:21-22
“Jesus looked steadily at him and He was filled with love for him,
and He said, ‘You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you
own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven; then come, follow Me.’ But his face fell at these words and
he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.”
Matthew 19:23-24
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘In truth I tell you, it is hard for
someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Yes, I tell you again,
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for
someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.’”
1 Timothy 6:9-10
“People who long to be rich are a prey to trial; they get trapped into
all sorts of foolish and harmful ambitions which plunge people into
ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all evils’ and
there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith
and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.”
1 Corinthians 12:11
“But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing
them at will to each individual.”
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1 Corinthians 12:7
“The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to
be used for the general good.”
Chapter 9
John 14:6-7
“I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father
except through Me. If you know Me, you will know My Father too.
From this moment you know Him and have seen Him.”
Romans 7:23
“…but I see that acting on my body there is a different law which
battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought to be a prisoner
of that law of sin which lives inside my body.”
Matthew 17:20
Jesus answered, “Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you,
if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will
be impossible for you.”
Matthew 6:24
“No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first
and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the
second. You cannot be the slave of both God and of money.”
John 15:18-19
“If the world hates you, you must realize that it hated Me before it
hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you
as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My
choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world
hates you.”
Luke 14:34-35
“Salt is a good thing. But if salt itself loses its taste, what can make
it salty again? It is good for neither soil nor manure heap. People
throw it away. Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!”
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Chapter 10
Matthew 5:48
“Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be
perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
2 Corinthians 3:5-6
“…all our competence comes from God. He has given us the
competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant which is
not written of letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but
the Spirit gives life.”
Chapter 11
Luke 15:20
“So he [the son] left the place and went back to his father. While he
was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with
pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him.”
Chapter 12
Luke 11:5-8
“Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of
the night to say, ‘My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend
of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have
nothing to offer him;’ and the man answers from inside the house,
‘Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children are
with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you.’ I tell you, if the
man does not get up and give it to him for friendship’s sake,
persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants.”
(Italics mine)
Matthew 11:12
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of
Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.”
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Matthew 5:30
“And if your right hand should be your downfall, cut it off and
throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of
yourself than to have your whole body go to hell.”
Ephesians 3:12
“We can go to God with bold confidence through faith in Christ.”
John 8:59
“At this they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid
Himself and left the temple.”
Chapter 13
Numbers 15:32-34
“While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was caught gathering
wood on the Sabbath day. Those who caught him gathering wood
brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community. He
was kept in custody, because the penalty he should undergo had not
yet been fixed.”
John 6:48-50
“I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and
they are dead; but this is the bread which comes down from heaven,
so that a person may eat it and not die.”
Philippians 4:9
“Keep doing everything you learnt from me and were told by me
and have heard or seen me doing. Then the God of Peace will be
with you.”
Chapter 14
Romans 5:13
“Sin already existed in the world before there was any law, even
though sin is not reckoned when there is no law.”
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1 Corinthians 15:56
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin comes from the
Law.”
Romans 7:5
“While we were still living by our natural inclinations, the sinful
passions aroused by the Law were working in all parts of our bodies
to make us live lives which were fruitful only for death.” (Italics
mine)
John 6:52-58
“In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man
and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Anyone who does eat
my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that
person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is
real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me
and I live in that person. As the living Father sent me and I draw life
from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me.
This is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not like
the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this
bread will live forever.”
Luke 6:41-42
“Why do you observe the splinter in you brother’s eye and never
notice the great log in your own? How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye,’ when you cannot
see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your
own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the
splinter in your brother’s eye.”
Chapter 15
2 Corinthians 3:6
“He [Christ] has given us the competence to be ministers of a new
covenant, a covenant which is not written of letters, but of the
Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life.”
Romans 7:6
“But now we are released from the Law, having died to what was
216
binding us, and so we are in a new service, that of the Spirit, and not
in the old service of a written code.”
Leviticus 5:15
“If someone is unfaithful and sins inadvertently by infringing on
Yahweh’s sacred rights, as a sacrifice of reparation he must bring
Yahweh an unblemished ram from his flock, the value of which will
be decided by you [Moses] in silver shekels according to the rate of
sanctuary shekel.”
Exodus 29:36
“On each of the days you will also offer a young bull as a sacrifice
for sin, in expiation. You will offer a sin sacrifice for the alter when
you make expiation for it; then you will consecrate it by anointing
it.”
Numbers 15:27
“If it is an individual who has sinned by inadvertence, he will offer
a yearling kid as a sacrifice for sin.”
Exodus 20:10
“…but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your god. You shall
do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor
servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the alien living with
you.”
Joshua 6:18-19, 21
“But beware of the curse of destruction, yourselves, for fear that,
moved by greed, you take something lying under the curse; that
would put the camp of Israel under the same curse and bring
disaster on it. All the silver and all the gold, everything made of
bronze or iron, will be consecrated to Yahweh and put in his
treasury….
“They enforced the curse of destruction on everyone in the city:

men and women, young and old, including the oxen, the sheep and
the donkeys, slaughtering them all.”
Romans 8:12-13
“So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be
217
dominated by it. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the
body, you will have life.”
Matthew 10:16
“Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be
cunning as snakes and yet innocent as doves.”
2 Corinthians 3:6
“He [Christ] has given us the competence to be ministers of a new
covenant, a covenant which is not written of letters, but of the
Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life.”
1 Corinthians 15:56
Law.”
Chapter 17
Romans 7:10-11
“Once, when there was no Law, I used to be alive; but when the
commandment of the Law came, sin came to life and I died. The
commandment was meant to bring life but I found that it brought
death, because sin, finding its opportunity by means of the
commandment, beguiled me and, by means of it, killed me.” (Italics
his)
Philippians 3:6-8
“In the matter of the Law, I was a Pharisee; as for religious fervor, I
was a persecutor of the church; as for the uprightness embodied in
the Law, I was faultless. But what were once my assets I now count
as my losses. Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme
advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else
as loss. For Him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and I
look upon them all as filth if only I can gain Christ.”
Galatians 5:24
“All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all of its
passions and its desires.”
218
1 Corinthians 15:56
Law.”
James 4:11
“Brothers [and sisters], do not slander one another. Anyone who
slanders a brother, or condemns one, is speaking against the Law
and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you have
ceased to be subject to it and become a judge over it.”
Chapter 18
Matthew 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.”
Luke 15:20
“So he [the son] left the place and went back to his father. While he
was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with
pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him.”
Luke 9:49-50
“Now John answered and said, ‘Master, we saw someone casting
out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not
follow with us.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not forbid him, for he
who is not against us is on our side.’”
Chapter 21
Romans 6:5-6, 17-18, 20-23, 12-14

“If we have been joined to Him by dying a death like His, so we
shall be resurrected like Him; realizing that our former self was
crucified with Him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be
destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin (5-6).
“Once you were slaves of sin, but thank God you have given whole-
hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching to which you were
introduced; and so, being freed from serving sin, you took upright-
ness as your master (17-18).
219
“When you were the servants of sin, you felt no obligation to

uprightness, and what did you gain from living like that? Exper-
iences of which you are now ashamed, for that sort of behavior ends
in death. But now you are set free from sin and bound to the service
of God, your gain will be sanctification and the end will be eternal
life. For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (20-23).
“That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal
bodies and make you obey their desires; or give any parts of your
bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give
yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give
every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness;
and then sin will no longer have any power over you – you are
living not under law, but under grace.” (12-14, italics mine)
Galatians 3:28
“There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor
freeman, there can be neither male nor female – for all are one in
Christ Jesus.”
Chapter 22
John 8:33-36
They answered, “We are descended from Abraham and we have
never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, ‘You will be
set free?’” Jesus replied: “In all truth I tell you, everyone who
commits sin is a slave. Now a slave has no permanent standing in
the household, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you
free, you will indeed be free.”
John 5:22
“…for the Father judges no one; He has entrusted all judgment to
the Son…”
Luke 11:24
“When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through
waterless country looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it
says, ‘I will go back to the home I came from.’”
220
Ephesians 4:22-24
“You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way
of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind
was to be renewed in spirit so that you could put on the New Man
that has been created on God’s principles, in uprightness and
holiness of the truth.”
Matthew 5:28
“But I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has
already committed sin with her in his heart.” – Whenever you have
a bad thought, crumple it up like paper and throw it away from your
mind if you are not yet proficient at recollection; persevere by the
power of conviction!
Luke 11:21-22
“So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his
goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than himself
attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the
weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.”
Chapter 23
John 5:6-9
“…and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in
that condition for a long time, He said, ‘Do you want to be well
again?’ ‘Sir,’ replied the sick man, ‘I have no one to put me into the
pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way,
someone else gets down there before me.’ Jesus said, ‘Get up, pick
up your sleeping-mat and walk around.’ The man was cured at once,
and he picked up his mat and started to walk around.”
Mathew 11:28
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will
give you rest.”
James 1:2-4
“My brothers and sisters, consider it a great joy when trials of many
kinds come upon you, for you know well that the testing of your
faith produces endurance, and endurance must complete its work so
221
that you will become fully developed, complete, and not deficient in
any way.”
Chapter 24
John 14:21
“Whoever holds to My commandments and keeps them is the one
who loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father,
and I shall love him and reveal Myself to him.”
Philippians 4:9
“Keep doing everything you learnt from me and were told by me
and have heard or seen me doing. Then the God of Peace will be
with you.”
Galatians 2:2
“My journey was inspired by a revelation and there, in a private
session with the recognized leaders, I expounded the whole gospel
that I preach to the gentiles, to make quite sure that the efforts I was
making and had already made should not be fruitless.”
Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep, but
underneath are ravenous wolves.” – Wolves enjoy flesh, but sheep
abhor flesh; the way of passion has not changed and the blind do not
see any better.
Chapter 25
Romans 8:12-13
“So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be
dominated by it. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the
body, you will have life.”
Matthew 6:22
“If, therefore, thine eye be ‘single,’ thy whole body shall be full of
light.”
222
1 Corinthians 10:29
“Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else’s
conscience?”
Romans 14:14-21
“I am sure, and quite convinced in the Lord Jesus, that no food is
unclean in itself; it is only if someone classifies any kind of food as
unclean, then for him it is unclean. And indeed, if through any kind
of food you are causing offense to a brother, then you are no longer
being guided by love. You are not to let the food that you eat cause
the ruin of anyone for whom Christ has died. A privilege of yours
must not be allowed to give rise to harmful talk; for it is not eating
and drinking that make the kingdom of Heaven, but the saving
justice, the peace and the joy brought by the Holy Spirit. It is the
person who serves Christ in these things who will be approved by
God and respected by everyone. So then, let us always be seeking
the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support
one another. Do not wreck God’s work for the sake of food.
Certainly all foods are clean; but all the same, any kind can be evil
for someone to whom it is an offence to eat it. It is best to abstain
from eating any meat, or drinking any wine, or from any other
activity which might cause a brother to fall away, or be scandalized,
or to weaken.”
Romans 14:22-23
“Within yourself, before God, hold on to what you already believe.
Blessed is the person whose principles do not condemn his practice.
But anyone who eats with qualms of conscience is condemned,
because this eating does not spring from faith – and every action
which does not spring from faith is sin.”
Recall from Chapter 3: “Even feelings that are mistaken as

faith can come from the conscience and be used by the
powers of evil to deceive. We know this to be true as there
are many people who follow the Law and carry out its
commandments with great faith…” In the light of the
aforesaid, follow the faith that leads you to strive after the
correct thought of imagelessness – which leads to the
encompassing virtue of dispassion – and the correct action
of self-control which leads to the same virtue. Faith that
223
leads one to do otherwise is from the violable ic-aspect

and serves the Law – it is not from the Holy Spirit.
1 John 3:20
“…even if our own feelings condemn us, remember that God is
greater than our feelings and knows all things.”
Luke 12:34
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Matthew 10:41-42
“Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have
a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes an upright person
because he is upright will have the reward of an upright person.
“If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little
ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will most
certainly not go without his reward.”
John 5:15
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me, with
Me in him bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from Me you cannot do
anything.”
Philippians 1:23-25
“I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and to be with
Christ, and this is by far the stronger desire – and yet for your sake
to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need. This much I know
for certain, that I shall stay and stand by you all, to encourage your
advance and your joy in the faith…”
Chapter 26
Matthew 5:14
“You are light for the world. A city built on a mountain-top cannot
be hidden.”
Matthew 13:43
Jesus said: “Then the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom
of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!”
224
Bibliography
y A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality (APSOCS), P.
Marie-Eugene, O.C.D., Christian Classics, 1997.
y The Bhagavad-Gita, Translated by: Juan Mascaro, Penguin
Books, 1962.
y The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross (CW), Translated
by: Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D.,
ICS Publications, 1991.
y The Dialogues of Plato, Intro by: Erich Segal. Bantam Books,
New York, 1986.
y The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A. Kempis; Translated by:
Aloysius Croft and Harry F. Bolton, The Bruce Publishing
Company, 1962.
y The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena; Translated with introduc-
tion and notes by Suzanne Noffke, Medieval & Renaissance
Texts & Studies; v. 202, 203, 32; Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center
for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000-2007.
y Markings, Dag Hammarskjöld, New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., 1969.
y The Nag Hammadi Library, James M. Robinson (General
Editor), Harper San Francisco (A Division of Harper Collins
Publishers), 1990.
y The Philokalia, The Complete Text, Vol. II and III; Compiled
by: St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of
Corinth; Translated by: G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and
Kallistos Ware; Faber and Faber Limited, 1990.
y The Spiritual Combat, Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, Tan Books and
Publishers, Inc., 1990.
y Teachings of the Christian Mystics, Edited by: Andrew Harvey;
Shambhala, Boston and London, 1998.
y The Wisdom of the Saints (An Anthology), Jill Haak Adels,
Barnes and Noble Books by arrangement with Oxford Univer-
sity Press, Inc., 1987.
225

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The Man who Fell Through Himself ..................................... 17

Notes .................................................................................... 207

Bibliography ........................................................................ 225

that you might be held accountable before God – who is

“But the hour is coming – indeed is already here – when

We are not simply called to love God through empty

think that; just as the greatness of God is without limit, even

“Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely

I also learned that the majority of people in ancient times

harvest (Matthew 9:37). They must have hoped that by sharing

In the light of Jesus’ calling that we should seek the

“Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet

“If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of

Unfortunately, in modern times as in ancient times, the

good for itself. Jesus similarly explains this impulsive rejection:

May the Light of Peace be with you,

To strive after the kingdom of Heaven is to be like a man

of the light increases as he falls nearer to it. The light is the

Believing in the Reality of Nothing

Seeing Beyond the Nature of Illusion

The flatness of the earth, which is illusory, was in past times

In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything,

In order to arrive at possessing everything,

In order to arrive at being everything,

In order to arrive at knowing everything,

In much the same way that people used to have a limited

Few people come to comprehend the encompassing

love one’s enemies and do good without any hope of return

Finding Nothing within Oneself

A box is three dimensional; this understanding is to say that it

and width, the line itself would be second dimensional.

That perfect knowledge

He who truly arrives there

This knowledge in unknowing

And this supreme knowledge

Without needing proof, philosophical rationality can bring

this part being the Nothing of itself.

supporting and sustaining them – through the dimensions,

“God reveals Himself to each person according to each

The highest power of material receptivity to goodness and

person to seek the Source of the encompassing perspective of

The sequential order of: the third dimension, to the

Regarding the selfless correlation between God and

Thus, through an intellect’s inborn knowledge of

Nothing’s selflessness, which is often perceived as love’s self-

The Intellect in Relation to Nothing

As with second dimensional light, the hallowed center of the

course, and frequent solitary converse, with Him who we

“A man answered Him from the crowd, ‘Master, I have

Shining through the selflessness of Nothing is the Perfect

‘imaginative’ influence over an unsuspecting intellect – let us

keep the intellect from seeking the encompassing perspective

then he would be stealing from the slave owner. Listening to

one away from the Spirit of Selfless Reason.

stimuli by way of external actions, then it gives the powers of

forgets self to profit by God. Regarding the outer-man and the

Nothing is Jesus’ Mustard Seed

Even though the selflessness of Nothing is one with the

“A ray of sunlight shining on a smudgy window is unable

Accordingly, because Nothing supports the second