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 indwelling is effected. Whoever has them, and all of them, is within; Whoever does not have, and at the same time at least one, is outside. In the wake of such spiritual activities, the bodily organs corresponding to them should also be directed there: thus, for attention, turning inwards to the eyes, for alertness, the tension of the muscles throughout the body, in the direction of the Persians, for sobriety, the pushing aside of phlegm, as Nicephorus puts it, some kind of relaxing movements that come to the heart from the lower parts of the body, the suppression of pleasure and peace of the flesh. Such bodily deeds, actions inseparable from spiritual ones, are the most powerful, helping those spiritual means, without which they cannot exist.

Thus, all work within the abiding through self-gathering consists of the following. In the first minute, after waking up from sleep, as soon as you become conscious of yourself, descend inward to your heart, into these bodily forces, after that summon, attract, strain all your spiritual and bodily forces there with the attention of your mind, with the eyes turned there, with cheerfulness of the will, with the tension of the muscles and sobriety of feeling, with the suppression of the pleasure and peace of the flesh, and do this until until the consciousness is established there, as in its place – the seat; it will not stick, it will not be tied like sticky something to a strong wall, and then remain there without origin, as long as you use your consciousness, often repeating the same act of self-assembly both for its renewal and for its strengthening, because it is now relaxed and then disturbed.

It is necessary to know that this indwelling and gathering is not the same as deepening in meditation, or thought (from the word "to ponder"), although it bears much resemblance to it. The latter stands only at the source of the mind, leaving other forces unoccupied, and is kept in the head; or it stands in the heart, at the source of all movements, lower and deeper than everything that is and happens in us, or it happens in such a way that all this is done above it, before its eyes, and now it is allowed, now it is forbidden. From this it is self-evident that inward dwelling is, in its true form, a condition for man's true domination over himself, and consequently for true freedom and rationality, and therefore for a truly spiritual life. This is similar to how in the external world the owner of a city is considered to be the one who occupies a fortress, therefore any spiritual work and any podvig in general must be accomplished from here, otherwise it is not spiritual, below asceticism, and must be rejected. The Kingdom of God is within you, – says the Lord, and then for one spiritual activity He commanded: "Enter into your cell and shut the doors..." This is the cage of the heart, according to the understanding of all the Holy Fathers. For this reason, the spiritual man, who is saved, who struggles, is called inward.

That the gathering within is the most suitable means for the preservation of jealousy, this is now seen:

(1) The one who is gathered must burn, for he gathers all the forces into one, just as the scattered rays, when gathered in one point, reveal intense heat and kindle. And indeed, warmth is always connected with the assembly; the spirit here sees itself, as Nicephorus says, and plays with joy.

2) The assembled one is strong like an army arranged, or bundles of weak reeds bound. Like the girdling of the loins, it signifies readiness and strength to act. The undisciplined is always weak and either falls or does not do.

3) The collected one sees everything in himself. Those who are in the center see along all radii, see everything in the circle evenly and as if at once, and those who come out of the center see in the direction of only one radius; In the same way, he who is gathered within sees all the movements of his forces, sees and can control.