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.

Of this spirit of jealousy the Lord says: "Fire has come to bring in" (Luke 12:49). The Apostle commands not to quench the spirit (1 Thess. 5:19) and testifies of himself: "With zeal I persecute" (Phil. 3:14). And the Holy Fathers call it variously: seeking, offering, diligence, diligence, warmth of spirit and burning, and simply zeal.

Judging by this great importance and great significance of zeal, the first task of a Christian ascetic should be to preserve this zeal and zeal as the source of a God-pleasing life. To preserve, therefore, to use a special kind of methods and exercises that contribute to this. Which ones? Zeal must be preserved in the same way as it was born, and it was born of an inner change of heart, under the invisible action of God's grace.

The inner, invisible ascent of our spirit to zeal began with a grace-filled awakening and ended with a resolute vow to walk unswervingly in the will of God. In this ascent, the strictest gradualness was observed. The sinful man, who lives entirely outside and is therefore called external, is squeezed within himself by the grace that has come, and here, as if awakened from a dream, he beholds a completely new world, hitherto unknown to him. This is the first impulse, after which, with the help of God, through various thoughts and feelings, he is gradually freed from the first world, passes into the next, and prostrates himself before his King and Lord, offering Him an oath to be His servant forever. Thus, he who wishes to keep his zeal unquenchable must: a) dwell within, b) behold the new world, and c) stand in those feelings and thoughts through which, as it were, he ascended to the foot of the Throne of the Lord, as if on the steps of a ladder.

This is what should be the unceasing exercise, podvig and work of a Christian ascetic!

A. Inward-abiding

When a hen, having found grain, lets her cubs know about it, then they all, wherever they are, fly to her and gather with their beaks to the point where the beak is. In the same way, when Divine grace acts upon a person in his heart, then his spirit penetrates there with its consciousness, and after it all the powers of the soul and body. Hence the law for inward-dwelling: keep your consciousness in your heart and gather there by exertion all the forces of soul and body. Inward-dwelling, in fact, is the confinement of consciousness in the heart, and the intense gathering of the forces of the soul and body there is an essential means, or work, podvig. However, they mutually generate and presuppose each other, so that one does not exist without the other. He who is imprisoned in the heart is gathered; and he who is gathered is in the heart.

Around the consciousness in the heart one must gather with all one's strength—the mind, the will, and the feelings. The gathering of the mind in the heart is attention, the gathering of the will is alertness, the gathering of feeling is sobriety. Attention, alertness, and sobriety are the three inner deeds by which self-assembly is accomplished and inward-abiding acts. Whoever has them, and moreover all of them, is within; Whoever does not have one, and moreover at least one, is outside.