The old man said, “In this case Arsenius calleth the labours of the body ‘passions.’ For labours are also called by the name of ‘passions,’ because they constrain those who toil, and make them feel pain, even as Abbâ Macarius said, Constrain thy soul with pains and labours of every kind in ascetic excellence.’ And this is what Abbâ Arsenius said to that brother, Labour with all thy might in the work of righteousness, and toil with the labours of the mind more than with all the various kinds of work of the body. For the labours of the body only incite and gratify the passions of the body, but the labours of the mind, that is to say, the thought which is in God, and prayer without ceasing, and the suppression of the thought[s] with humility, liberate [a man] from all the passions, and they vanquish devils, and purify the heart, and make perfect love, and make him worthy of the revelations of the spirit.”
655. The brethren said, “What is the meaning of that which Abbâ Benjamin said, ‘Had Moses not been gathering the sheep into the fold he would not have seen Him that was in the bush’?” The old man said, “What he said was this:—As the blessed Moses, who was held worthy of the vision in the bush, first gathered together the sheep which he was tending into one company lest, when going to see that wonderful sight, his mind should be perturbed through anxiety about the sheep which were [wandering] in the desert, so also is it with the monk, for if he wisheth and desireth the purity of heart which looketh upon God in the revelation of light, it is right that first of all he should abandon every earthly possession, and his feelings, and his passions, and he should live in seclusion always, and should collect his mind and free it from all wandering and straying, and should have one object only to gaze upon, that is God. In this manner he will become worthy of purity of heart, and he will enjoy visions and revelations concerning Him.”
656. The brethren said, “Hieronymus said that the blessed Evagrius commanded the brethren who were with him not to drink their fill of water, and said, ‘There are always demons in the places wherein there is water’; what opinion is this?” The old man said, “The blessed Evagrius interpreted these words spiritually, as being suitable to our mode of life, and he said that which our Lord said, ‘The demongoeth round about in the places wherein there is no water, that he may seek for rest, and he findeth it not’; which saying maketh us to understand that when the unclean devil of fornication wageth war against the monk, if the monk afflicteth himself by eating food sparingly, and especially by
