Dispassion
The Soul’s Rest in God

“Dispassion is the abstinence that uproots passionate thoughts from the mind, and it is also called purity of heart. When the intellect has not yet reached dispassion, it rises toward heavenly knowledge but is held back by the passions and dragged down to earth. The passions bind the intellect to material things and press upon it like a heavy stone pulling it downward. But when the intellect is pure, entirely free from passions and conceptual images of worldly things, it moves undistracted toward the contemplation of created beings and into the knowledge of the Trinity.”

“If you do not crave bodily pleasure, you have attained dispassion. You have struck down at a single blow all the passions—the very source of all passion, all sin, and all evil, namely, ignorance. You have been filled with that goodness which is stable and permanent, always remaining the same, and in that goodness you stand reflecting the divine glory of the Lord.”

“When the intellect turns away from external things and concentrates on what lies within, it is restored to itself. It is united, that is to say, with the principle of its own consciousness, and through this principle—which is naturally inherent in its own substance—it devotes itself entirely to prayer. Through prayer it ascends, with all its loving power and affection, to the knowledge of God. Then sensual desire vanishes, every pleasure-stirring sense becomes inert, and the delectable things of earth cease to attract.”

“When the ceaseless prayer of the heart has led you beyond desire for earthly things, and when your thoughts sleep with regard to everything lower than God, resting from foolish attachment to earthly concerns, you will be firmly grounded in the memory of God alone. Then love of God will arise like a helper within you, causing you to rest from every earthly lust. For the cry of the heart born of prayer brings forth divine love; divine love removes discursive reason and prepares the mind for understanding what is hidden.”

“For the person who has seen the Kingdom of God within, having found it through pure prayer, everything outside loses its attraction and value. It is no longer unpleasant or wearisome to remain within. When the mind reunites with the soul after having been dispersed, it is filled with unspeakable sweetness and joy.”

“When the senses are stirred by sensible beauty, a person becomes spellbound by that beauty and forsakes the enjoyment of intelligible things. The intellect is then drawn downward toward earthly things, and God makes darkness His secret place. In his pursuit of sensory beauty, a person becomes unworthy to contemplate God and is deprived of immaterial realities.”

“The intellect that dallies with some sensible thing is clearly attached to it by some passion, and unless it becomes detached from that passion it will not be free. Spiritual reading and contemplation detach the intellect from form and matter, giving rise to undistracted prayer. Freedom from sense perception belongs to the contemplative who loosens the natural bond linking the soul to the flesh and concentrates it on God.”

The Four Types of Dispassion

“The first type of dispassion is complete abstention from the actual committing of sin. The second is the complete rejection in the mind of all assent to evil thoughts. The third is the complete quiescence of passionate desire in those who contemplate the inner essences of visible things through their outer forms. The fourth type of dispassion is the complete purging of the intellect of images.”

“If then you have cleansed yourself from acts prompted by the passions, freed yourself from mental assent to them, put a stop to the stimulation of passionate desire, and purged your intellect of even the passion-free images of what were once objects of passion, you have attained the four general types of dispassion. You have emerged from the realm of matter and material things and entered the sphere of intelligible realities—noetic, tranquil, and divine.”

“There is scarcely any virtue in a person unless it is first generated by the soul's deliberate detachment from the senses. Likewise, there is scarcely ever any sin in a person that is not first generated by the soul's witless attachment to the senses for the sake of pleasure.”

“When the soul slackens its vigilance and is no longer strengthened by the fear of God, the pleasures which deceive it are many. Countless bodily pleasures surge to and fro, attracting the eyes of the soul. These pleasures have a glittering and attractive appearance which, though deceptive, readily seduces those who do not have a great love for virtue and are not willing to endure hardship for its sake.”

“Just as the eye is attentive to sensible beauty and is fascinated by what it sees, so the purified intellect attends to intelligible realities and becomes so rapt by spiritual contemplation that it is difficult to tear it away. The intellect is perfected when it transcends knowledge of created things and is united with God. Having then attained royal dignity, it no longer allows itself to be impoverished or aroused by lower desires, even if offered all the kingdoms of the world. When one's intellect is completely pure, God reveals to him the visions granted to ministering powers and angelic hosts.”

“When his mind is stripped of every passionate thought and is even a stranger to lusting after them, it freely soars above the heavens as it wills, reaching beyond the limits of the visible and the sensory. When the senses are completely closed, it is as if the mind floats upward into the domain of the supersensory.”

“Prayer of the heart is a sweet rest of the mind and heart in God. Purity of heart is a heart free from every attachment, not only evil ones, but even those we call innocent, because in truth these can never be fully innocent, since the heart, which is made for God alone, leaves room for creatures. How will such a divided heart succeed in entering fully into prayer? How can a heart accustomed to letting its thoughts and affections rest on the objects to which it is attached really rest in God, unless it has killed off its initial attachments in order to carry itself to God and rest there, as it formerly rested on its deeply cherished attachments? Purity of heart is a gaze fixed on God, but how can this gaze of pure faith be sustained through the thick clouds of ideas and sensible images, when even one attachment fills the mind and the imagination?”

Quotes from The Philokalia