Silence and the Peace of the Triad

Having conquered suffering, but being passion-driven, he calls virtue an invincible possession; for according to the arrangement of the strategy of virtuous labors, the vice of opposites is set in opposition. To be in virtue, the heart must not have war. For virtue is called a name of excellence in practice. Virtue does not seek the praises of men, for it is not delighted by honor, which is the mother of evils. The beginning of honor is people-pleasing, and its end is pride. For he who demands honor does not know that he exalts himself and brings himself to nothingness; the desire for honor is a fantasy, for he who loves it fantasizes about its inheritance.

Let honor to you be the labor of virtues, and let dishonor be the praise according to human will; do not seek glory from the flesh, he who destroys the sufferings of the flesh, but seek the better thing, and glory will be to you. He who wishes to be honored envies the one who succeeds. And by this, the one defeated by excessive honors accumulates hatred toward jealousy; he does not want anyone to be preferred over himself, but he snatches away the first things, lest he appear inferior; he does not bear the one who succeeds in honoring him away, but even in his own labors, he treats the low-aiming glory like a nurse, and insolence is a very sharp slaughter for the glory-seeker, and he does not entirely escape the wrath from this.

Chapter 4. Such a person serves a barbarian mistress and was sold to many masters; he will be lifted up by pride, and by envy, and by jealousy, and by the words previously spoken of the spirits; but he who, pouring out the spirit of honor, will humble the one speaking of demons, will utterly destroy the whole. He who, making himself a slave to all through humbling, will be conformed to the one who humbled himself, having received the form of a slave. If you measure yourself by the smallest measure, you will not measure yourself against a companion, and he who reveals the weakness of the soul through lamentations will not think much of those laboring over themselves.

Demons lead those with low minds toward ease and insolence, so that, not bearing their own nothingness, they flee from humility; but he who bravely bears dishonors through humbling is raised more to the height of philosophy through them. David, being insulted, did not retaliate, but even checked the vengeance of Abyssinia. And you, being insulted, do not respond with insolence, but let the one avenging you rightly restrain you; bear insolence, meaning your own progress, and with lips close the door of the mind; you will answer those who threaten.

Nor at all, so that by silence you may lull the smoking lips, who then threaten and insult when you put bridles on the jaws. For you, by being silent, will not be consumed by insult, but he is all the more bitten by your silence, if you long-sufferingly endure the insolence of the insolent; so as to gain the praise of men from the inner part of the secluded one, so that you may shake off the litigious thought before it. And being content also, especially in stillness, let no one magnify you beyond the insolent one, lest you dishonor him. Some of the brothers are insolent toward the pious, and having endured injustice, he departs divided between joy and grief: the one grief because, being wronged, he was insulted and was not provoked in return, and the other joy because the pious one was deceived and, having deceived, rejoiced. But consider for me also the deceiver, having suffered both: on the one hand, having been disturbed, he rejoiced at having disturbed, and on the other hand, having not been provoked in return, he was more grieved.

Chapter 5. When the demons see us in the same state, the insolence not having been exhausted, then, standing by in stillness, they stir up the ruling faculty, so that we, having made peace with those present, may depart by breaking it. Therefore, if you commit a dispute or an insult toward a brother, consider yourself having failed, so that you may not find a battle of thoughts in your heart while being still, one reproaching the manner of the insolent, and the other reproaching you as to how the terrible things happened and you did not respond to the insult. When a provocation embitters the brothers in the community, then the thoughts cast in the suggestion to bless only the one, so that, having emptied long-suffering and having separated love. But he who overturns anger with long-suffering, and grief with love, overturns two evil beasts with twofold manliness, fighting the passions; he who exhorts, and even falls on his knees, so that he may drive away the anger, drives away both the provoked one and the provocateur from himself, because he who makes peace with those who are angry wages war against the spirit of anger; but he who is of the same kind will be angered at him for being insolent, because he took the fight of his neighbor upon himself, the one bearing the impudence for the sake of peace, who is compelled to become a son of peace; but the bond of peace is to be sought not only toward men, but also in your body, and in your spirit, and in your soul.

Chapter 6. For when you unite the bond of this your triad to the...