The provocation comes first, then our coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons. Third comes our assent to the provocation, with both sets of intermingling thoughts contriving how to commit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete action – that is, the sin itself. If, however, the intellect is attentive and watchful, and at once re-pulses the provocation by counter-attacking and gainsaying it and invoking the Lord Jesus, its consequences remain inoperative; for the devil, being a bodiless intellect, can deceive our souls only by means of fantasies and thoughts. (The Philokalia, Vol. I, 170)
Straightforward as it is, Hesychios' description needs very little commentary. He begins by reminding us that temptation comes to us through our thoughts, their attachment to our imagination, and subsequent development:
Just as it is impossible for fire and water to pass through the same opine together, so it is impossible for sin to enter the heart without first knocking at its door in the form of a fantasy provided by the devil.Knowing this, we must be ever on guard for the first sign and provocation to sin and ceaselessly invoke the Lord through the Jesus Prayer. If we give ourselves over to the provocation, then comes our "coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons." Third, comes our assent to the provocation, with both sets of intermingling thought contriving how to commit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete actions--that is, the sin itself. Once the provocation is engaged, that is, once the serpent get his head in the doors, the battle is almost assuredly lost and the unholy minting of our own thoughts with those of the demons draws us quickly down the path to full consent.
St. Hesychios the Priest
provides numerous insights as to how we may effectively “watch” our
thoughts. Among his suggestions are the following two which are
especially helpful. First, do some “thought watching” at dawn. In
other words, get up a bit early and quietly, before you do your Centering
Prayer, allow yourself to see what you are thinking. That practice, begun
at dawn, can then be carried on periodically during the day. One stops and
looks as his or thinking and thereby get to know something true about one’s
self. Second, St. Hesychios recommends that we couple our
watchfulness with fasting. Strongly encouraged by Jesus himself, fasting
(perhaps by not eating till satiation, but being just a bit hungry after
eating) is to accompany prayer (see Matthew 6.5-18); the two complement each
other.
In his recently published Mountain of Silence, Kyriakos Markides' tells us how Father Maximos of Mount Athos describes five stages of logismoi as detailed in the teachings of the Fathers of the Church:
- Assault - the logismoi first attacks a person's mind
- Interaction - a person opens up a dialogue with the logismoi
- Consent - a person consents to do what the logismoi urges him to do
- Defeat - a person becomes hostage to the logismoi and finds it more difficult to resist
- Passion or Obsession - the logismoi becomes an entrenched reality within the nous of a person
Father Maximos carefully explains that no sin is committed until the third stage of Consent, though he warns that if a person is of weak temperment, they are unlikely to be able to resist the logismoi at this Interaction stage. Father Maximos also teaches that the best way to combat logismoi is to be indifferent, to ignore them. He suggests that a person should pray to combat logismoi, but only when not overcome by fear.
The provocation comes first, then our coupling with it, or the mingling of our thoughts with those of the wicked demons. Third comes our assent tothe provocation, with both sets of intermingling thoughts contriving how tocommit the sin in practice. Fourth comes the concrete action – that is, thesin itself. If, however, the intellect is attentive and watchful, and at once re-
