About how we should exercise our minds,

If disbelief in ourselves and hope in God, so necessary in our spiritual warfare, remain in us alone, then not only will we not gain victory, but, on the contrary, we will plunge into even greater evil. Therefore, together with them and with them, we must conduct a special kind of work, or spiritual instructive exercises.

Among these exercises, exercises of the mind and will should be in the first place.

The intellect must be delivered and preserved from ignorance, which is so hostile to it, since it, by darkening it, does not allow it to know the truth, which is its own object and the goal of its strivings. For this it is necessary to exercise him, so that he is bright and pure and can clearly discern what is required for us in order to cleanse the soul of passions and adorn it with virtues.

We can attain such brightness of mind in two ways: the first, and more necessary, is prayer, by which we must beseech the Holy Spirit to pour out divine light into our hearts, which He will probably do, if we truly seek the one God, if we are sincerely zealous to act in all things according to His will, and if in every matter we willingly submit ourselves to the advice of our experienced spiritual fathers and do nothing without asking them.

The second way of exercising the mind is to constantly examine things and delve into their knowledge, in order to see clearly which of them are good and which are bad; not as the senses and the world judge them, but as the right reason and the Holy Spirit judge, or the true word of the divinely inspired Scriptures, the Spirit-bearing Fathers and teachers of the Church. For when such consideration and deepening is right and proper, it will certainly give us a clear understanding that we must from the heart impute to nothing and consider vain and false everything that the blind and corrupt world loves and seeks in every way.

Namely, that the honors, pleasures, and riches of the world are nothing but vanity and death of the soul; that the reproaches and blasphemies with which the world persecutes us bring us true glory, and its sorrows bring us joy; that forgiveness of our enemies and doing good to them is true generosity – one of the greatest features of likeness to God; that he who despises the world is more powerful and powerful than he who rules over the whole world; that willing obedience is an act that reveals more courage and firmness of spirit than subduing and commanding great kings; that humble self-knowledge should be preferred to all others to the highest knowledge; That to conquer and mortify one's evil inclinations and lusts, however insignificant, is more praiseworthy than the capture of many fortresses, than the defeat of strong hordes, well armed, than even the working of miracles and the resurrection of the dead.

On why we judge wrongly about things and

The reason why we judge wrongly of the things of which we have spoken is that we do not look into their depths in order to see what they are, but we perceive love or aversion to them at once at the first glance and from their appearance. This love or aversion to them predominates our mind and darkens it, which is why it cannot have the right to judge them as they truly are. And so, my brother, if you wish that such delusion should not find a place in your mind, take heed to what is good; and when you either see with your eyes or imagine in your mind what is a thing, hold on to your desires as long as you can, and do not allow yourself at first to be lovingly disposed to this thing, nor to have an aversion to it, but consider it detachedly with your mind alone. In such a case, the mind, not being darkened by passion, is free and pure in its nature, and has the opportunity to know the truth, to penetrate into the depths of things, where evil often hides under a deceitfully attractive appearance, and where good is hidden under an evil appearance.

But if your desire goes ahead and immediately either loves a thing or turns away from it, then your mind will no longer be able to know it well, as it should. For such a disposition, which precedes all judgment, or, rather, this passion, having entered in, becomes a wall between the mind and the thing, and, darkening it, does what it thinks of this thing according to passion, i.e. otherwise than it is in fact, and thereby strengthens the original disposition still more. And the more it stretches forward, or the more it loves and hates a thing, the more it darkens the mind in relation to it, and finally completely obscures it. And then the passion for that thing grows to the utmost limit, so that it seems to a person to be more amiable or hateful than any thing that he has ever loved or hated. In such a way it happens that when the rule I have shown is not observed, i.e., in order to restrain the desire from loving or hating a thing before discussing it, then both these powers of the soul, i.e., the mind and the will, always succeed in evil, sinking more and more from darkness to darkness and from sin to sin.

Therefore, beloved, be careful not to love or disgust any thing out of passion, before you have time to examine it well, in the light of reason and the right word of the Divine Scriptures, in the light of grace and prayer, and with the help of the reasoning of your spiritual father, so that you do not sin and do not count the truly good for the evil and the truly bad for the good; as is the case for the most part with certain works of this kind, which in themselves are good and holy, but because of the circumstances, namely, because they are done either at the wrong time, or at the wrong place, or in the wrong measure, cause no small harm to those who do them. And from experience we know what misfortunes some have suffered from such laudable and holy deeds.

On Guarding the Mind from Useless Polyphony

and idle inquisitiveAs it is necessary, as we have said, to guard the mind from ignorance, so it is equally necessary to guard it against the opposite ignorance of polygnance and curiosity. For as soon as we fill it with a multitude of knowledge, notions, and thoughts, not excluding vain, useless, and harmful ones, we will make it impotent, and it will no longer be able to comprehend what is suitable for our true self-correction and perfection. Why should you behave in this way in relation to the knowledge of earthly things, although sometimes permissible, but not necessary, as if you were already dead; and always gathering one's mind within oneself, as concentrated as possible, leave it idle from thoughts about all the things of the world.

Let the tales of the past and new information about what is happening pass you by, and let all the revolutions in the world and kingdoms be for you as if they had not existed at all, and when someone brings them to you, turn away from them and cut them away from your heart and imagination. Listen to what St. Basil says: "May it be a bitter taste for you to hear worldly news, and to hear the stories of the venerable men with a honeycomb" (part 5, p. 52); hearken also to what the Prophet David says: "Thou hast told me the transgressors of mockery, but not as Thy law, O Lord" (Psalm 118:85). Love to pay attention only to spiritual and heavenly things and study them, and want to know nothing in the world except the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), except His life and death, and besides what He requires of you. By acting in this way, you will act pleasing to God, Who has as His chosen and beloved those who love Him and strive to do His will.