The Governance of the Senses

Many things please and nourish, but lordship belongs only to God, who possesses life incorruptibly and imperishably. I saw an inn, where a traveler stayed; he took many things from there without owning any: a bed, a table, vessels, a plate, and other various utensils. No one has ever used them for self-sufficiency, but rather someone comes, becomes greedy, acts impetuously, plunders the inn, and seeks what belongs to others as if it were his own.

Such is our life, brothers, and if anything of what has been said is more temporary. I marvel at those who say, 'my place' or 'my house,' so that they in vain claim ownership of what does not belong to them, and they embrace foreign things with three deceptive elements. Just as the masks of those performing wonders belong to no one in particular, but all the actors in the plays wear them, so others clothe themselves with the earth and its materials from others as if they were clothing.

Tell me, is there anything more powerful than a kingdom? Yet search the kingdoms; seek royal robes, and you will find them sufficient, though they have clothed many kings. Likewise, the crowns, the purple robes, and the belts—all are an unstable inheritance, a common use passing from those traveling to those staying.

What of the value of the possessor—the tent, the silver chariot, the golden reed? The possessor does not always have these, nor always the same, except for a short time for each. Just as the bed of the journey receives different bodies at different times, so the symbols of rulers change for those using them.

From this, the apostle cried out many instructive voices regarding this mindset: he presents the form of this world, namely, 'as having nothing and possessing all' (1 Tim 6:7), and 'those using as if not using' (1 Cor 7:31). For all these tend toward one aim: that it was fitting for us to live as sojourners, remembering the covenant of the exodus.

And so that you may learn accurately that you are subject to laws and masterly canons, according to which it is fitting for you to live accurately, first understand from yourself that both your body and your soul are subject everywhere to the commands of virtue, and you are not even master of yourself; rather, it is fitting for you to manage both word and deed and all...

The movement of your life. You received a body from the Creator, composed of many parts and being managed by five senses for the needs of life. But even these are not free and autonomous, but each is a slave to laws.

And first, the eye hears; look at nature and behold what is beautiful to see: the sun, lighting the whole inhabited world; the moon, illuminating the dark and gloomy night; the other stars, which are not many, nor sufficient for us, providing the light from themselves, except for the beauty they reflect. Behold the earth, adorned with all kinds of plants and herbs; the sea lying flat like a level plain, when it is in a pure calm. To these and such things you have been accustomed to seeing; but the other sights, as many as introduce harm to the soul through sight, flee from them and run away, and impose a covering upon yourself so that you may not see. For it is better to darken the sense when it holds the cause of the works of darkness. For this reason, the Lord said to us yesterday through Matthew: 'Every man who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matthew 5:28); and it is better to cut it off when it looks disordered and with injury.

Hearing also has prohibitive commands against bad listening. For it is necessary that when it hears of certain good things, it should be uplifted and send the sense to the soul through the beneficial words. But if a companion of wickedness, a plague and a corruption, approaches it, it must repel the filth of sin like a venomous beast.

Let the tongue also be temperate with the mouth; let it speak the righteous things; and let it abstain from the forbidden: reviling, slandering, unjust accusation, backbiting against brothers, and blasphemy against God. But let it utter whatever is well-spoken, whatever is pious, whatever has the counsel of good deeds; and let every man say the things of the Psalmist: 'I said: I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue' (Psalm 119:11); and that, 'Their tongues were a stumbling block' (Psalm 57:4); and that, 'What boasts a strong man in wickedness, the power of lawlessness?' (Psalm 73:4). All the day your tongue reckoned injustice; you made a snare like a sharpened razor.

Let the taste be of those things which benefit the stomach. Let the nose also be temperate, not always smelling luxury, nor the vapors of expensive myrrh.