Thus, with the rules, under the guidance of the father, the zealous, striving in self-compulsion and self-resistance, or remaining in an unremitting struggle, will day by day grow in perfection, approach purity, through the eradication of his passions and the acquisition of virtues. But one must know that this ascent to perfection is invisible to him: he labors in the sweat of his brow, but as if without fruit, grace builds its work under cover. A human vision, the eye, eats up the good. Man himself is left with only one thing - the vision of his obscenity. The path to perfection is the path to the realization that I am blind, and poor, and naked, in constant connection with which stands contrition of spirit, or illness and sorrow for my impurity, poured out before God, or, what is the same thing, unceasing repentance. Repentant feelings are the distinguishing signs of true asceticism. Whoever deviates from them and avoids them has deviated from the way. In the position of beginning a new life there was repentance; it must also be in growth and mature with it. The one who matures matures in the knowledge of his corruption and sinfulness and deepens into the contrite feelings of repentance. Tears are a measure of maturity, and incessant tears are a sign of imminent purification. That this is how it should be is evident from the fact that we are in the fall, in exile, out of the hearth, and moreover because of our own fault. The exile weeps and regrets his homeland; In the same way, those who have begun to purify themselves should grieve and lament, and seek in tears a return to the paradise of purity. Moreover, he who strives is constantly in struggle with unwillingness, now with diswillingness; now thought, now desire, now passion, now sin, now sin, though unintentional, minute by minute muddy the purity of his mind and remind him that he contains in himself only impurity, sinful, contrary to God. He sees himself as like a stinking corpse, lying before his face and tormenting his sense of smell until his head darkens. "Lay thy sins before thee," says Anthony the Great, "and see through them to God. Finally, frequent falls and misdeeds in beginners, due to inexperience, ignorance, lack of skill, and sometimes even weakness, fall as a heavy burden on his conscience, and, perhaps, heavier than before: in carelessness the sins are greater. He is like a child learning to walk and falling. And falls require purification, consequently - contrition, repentance, tears; That is why everyone is commanded daily and even every minute to repent. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! this should be the unceasing prayer of the ascetic.

Thus, the beginner with ardent and quick zeal devotes himself to the most decisive feats, expecting, however, everything from the power and help of God, and devoting himself to Him, in the hope of success, but not seeing it, and therefore in unceasing undertaking, under the guidance of his father, among the rules, always keeping to the humblest part.

In such a spirit and structure, the ascetic can reliably begin his work - the work of eradicating passions, or purifying his nature from the admixture of unnatural passion. In his spirit there is a zeal as strong as death; But even the strongest zeal has need of a plan in order to go correctly towards the intended goal. In explaining it will consist all the rules for one who enters upon podvig. This will be nothing more than an exposition of those rules, the necessity of which has been shown before. The leader of a general theory must know this most of all, and, when applied to the person being guided, he can also change them in accidents that are subject to change.

In order to construct such rules, let us again affirm the thought on the state of the repentant-ascetic. The spirit in him is resurrected and enlivened by the action of grace received in the Sacraments. But it alone is the healed part, hidden in the very depths of our being. This is the same as a healing medicine taken on a part of the body that is completely decaying. Then, outside, his soul, in all its powers, and the body, in all its functions, and the man himself, in all external relations, are overflowing and saturated with passion, not dead, but active in them, living. The main task of labor is to kill passion in all its shades and to restore nature to its proper purity, so that in this way grace from within, in the process of purification, appears, as if penetrating in man one part after another, with wise gradualness and purposefulness. From here the whole order of the rules to be built is immediately visible, or the measuring thread for the wire and drawing them is visible. Thus:

1) The seed of life has been sown: keep it with all your keeping; otherwise there is nothing to apply to and labor, and there is nothing with which to bear them. If you have received the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit; if you are jealous, be jealous of more. Guard what is given, what is acquired, this acquired is a coin for the purchase of treasures. It will disappear - and the whole thing will be lost. Just as in time of war one is very anxious to maintain one's position in every possible way, so it is here.

2) It is necessary to tear away the passion that has grown together and dissolved with the forces of our nature. Since this coalescence is similar to the coalescence of chemical compositions, the methods of its separation must be applied to the methods of chemical decomposition. Namely, in order to liberate the element from its coercive state in connection with another, it is brought into contact with a third, external, external, with which it would be in a stronger affinity than with the former. When this is true, the element that bound it falls away, and with this new element it unites and acquires a new form with it. Applying ourselves to this, it is necessary to apply to all the powers of soul and body and all our activity, captivated by passion and kept in a compulsory, unnatural state, something with which they would be in close affinity and co-naturalness, so that in this way, being attached and as it were growing to it, in proportion to be freed from the bonds of passion and assume a new natural form of being. This will be the rule of deeds or occupations imposed on the forces. Walking in them, while preserving that inner acquisition of the Spirit of grace, akin to them and to the forces of our nature, man will be more and more filled with this Spirit, the fire of Whom, thus receiving more freedom to pass inside, the more quickly will it burn impurity, the more it meets the expansion of naturalness.

3) These two points exhaust the structure of the ascetic's positive deeds, or, what is the same thing, the exercises of self-compulsion.

The definition of the rules pertaining to this will form a picture of the internal or spiritual battle, both in its general outline and in parts. These are feats of self-resistance.

Thus, all the rules should be reduced to one as follows, the initial one: preserve the inner spirit of life, diligence and zeal, walk in deeds or exercises, on the one hand contributing to the revival of the mortified forces, and on the other hand, mortifying or stifling the passions. Therefore, everything related to this must be concluded in these three points:

1) the rules for keeping the inner spirit of jealousy,

2) the rules for the exercise of forces in goodness, or self-compulsion, and

3) the rules of warfare with passions, or exercises in self-resistance.

1. ON GUARDING THE SPIRIT OF ZEAL FOR GOD

It is necessary to fulfill the commandments, and to fulfill everything; but we do not naturally have the desire, diligence and zeal for this. In repentance, for the sake of a contrite spirit and a vow to do the will of God, by God's grace this fire was kindled in our spirit; He is the power to create the commandments, and He alone is able to lift all this burden. If the fulfillment of the commandments is the foundation of salvation, then the spirit of zeal is the only saving force for us. Where he is, there is diligence, diligence, readiness, liveliness for deeds pleasing to God. Where it is absent, everything ceases and falls: there is no life of the spirit - it grows cold, freezes. Let there also be the creation of good deeds - they will be good only in form, and not in strength and spirit. This is the fire that our Lord Jesus Christ came to kindle on earth and which is kindled by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers, descending in the form of tongues of fire.