Alexander Rahm
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III
A SKETCH OF ISAAC’S MYSTICAL IDEAS
It will always be difficult to describe mystical ideas in a systematic form; a mystical system can hardly be spoken of in Isaac’s case; and we have already said, that his book is as unsystematic as any book can be. Still, the chief ideas of its author are expounded in it some repeatedly and sometimes very explicitly. This enables us to give a short characteristic of its contents.
There is a special reason why such a characteristic can be short. In the Introduction to the translation of Bar Hebraeus’s Book of the Dove the attempt has been made to give a survey of the mystical type to which Bar Hebraeus belongs; from that it would appear that he is of a type with Isaac. So I may refer the reader in the first place to the Introduction mentioned. But there remain ideas enough which are Isaac’s peculiar property and which have to be discussed here for Isaac’s readers in particular. His relation to his predecessors and to Muslim mysticism will be treated in the following section.
Isaac devides the mystic way into three sections: repentance, purity or purification, and perfection J). This sequence is of a logical nature in the first place; it will appear that it cannot be taken as a temporal distinction in the strict sense; he that has reached the state of perfection will often want purification again, and even repentance. In this respect he is less systematic than Bar Hebraeus, who makes these states to coincide with the abode in the monastery, with that in the cell, and with the state of spiritual consolation.
We may keep Isaac’s division in describing his ideas. But beforehand it is necessary to say a few words concerning the general position of his mysticism.
Just as other mysticss) he shrinks from divulging his most intimate experiences. ,As to the question of the cause of that other prayer3) and its duration without compulsion, it seems to me that it is not becoming for us to treat such things in detail, or to describe their nature in speech or writing, lest the reader, being unable to understand anything of it, should judge it to be something insipid; or, if he should be acquainted with these things, should despise him who is not able to cross the border of certain things’ *). – Isaac’s textbook, the use of which is prescribed to all those who walk the ,way’, is the Bible. But he interprets it as well as the chief dogma’s of Christianity in an allegorical way. Speaking of the thorns and thistles which the earth brings forth since Adam’s fall, he says: ,In reality the thorns are affections which grow in Xis from bodily seed’5).
Mysticism, though dualistic in its deep conscience of good and evil, body and soul, matter and spirit – is monistic in its highest view of God and the world. As a matter of fact the only real Being is God. So Isaac does not acknowledge
i) p. 507 2) The Book of the Dove, p. XXVII sqq.
7)viz. pure or even spiritual prayer
8)P– 129 5) P– 2°4
Satan at His side as a kind of second God. ,Satan is the name of the deviation of the will from the truth, but it is not the designation of a natural being’ 1).
Equally the eschatological and cosmological scheme of Oriental positive religion is dissolved by allegorical interpretation. ,Fear is the paternal rod which guides us up to the spiritual Eden, when we are arrived there, it leaves us and returns. Eden is the divine love wherein is the paradise of all good, where the blessed Paul was sustained by supernatural food’ *). ,The many mansions in the house of the Father denote the spiritual degrees of the inhabitants of that place. This means: the different gifts and the spiritual ranks in which they rejoice spiritually, and the variety of the classes of gifts’8). And ,the kingdom of heaven is spiritual contemplation’4).
Hell is equally of an intelligible nature ~°). Speaking of those who do not enter the kingdom but go into the darkness, Isaac says with a variation on the well known word from the Gospel: ,There will be psychic weeping and grinding of teeth, which is a grief more hard than the fire. Now thou understandest, that to remain far from that elevation, means torturing hell’6). To the same purport are the words7): ,If the apple of thy soul’s eye has not been purified, do not venture to look at the sun, lest thou be bereft of the usual visual power and thou be thrown into one of those intelligible places which are Tartarus and a type of hell, namely darkness without God, whither those who with the impulses of their mind leave nature, wander by the cognitive nature which they possess. Therefore he that ventured to go to the banquet in sordid garments, was ordered to be thrown out into that outer darkness. By the banquet is designated the sight of spiritual knowledge. The institutions in it are the manifold divine mysteries, full of joy and exultation and delight of the soul. The garment of the banquet he calls the mantle of purity; the sordid garments the emotions of the affections which are defiled in the soul; the outer darkness, the state without any delight of true knowledge and communion with God’.
It is clear that Isaac simply uses the Bible and Christian dogmas as a means to support his own ideas by an outward
I) p. 189 2) p. 315 sq.
4) P– 528 5) P– 456 7) P– 521 sq., cf. p. 16 sq., 50
authority. But it is again to be borne in mind that it was not only Isaac among the mystics, nor only the mystics among the intepreters of the Bible in early Christian times who followed such a method. Muslim mystics have submitted the Kor’an to a similar treatment1). We may even ask: Was there any interpreter or school of interpreters of the Bible which did not in the first place seek after their own ideas in the holy writ?
These facts correspond with the mystics’ aversion to dogmatical schisms; they were not interested in them, because there was no place for dogmatics in their system. And it may be said that mysticism is an exponent of the unity of Hellenistic monotheism. This is the catchword which covers all these mystics of Western Asia, the early Christian – John Climacus, Basil, Gregory Na–zianzen, Euagrius –, the later Christian ones – Stephen bar Sudaile, Dionysius the Areopagite, Isaac, Bar Hebraeus –, and the Muslims: Abu Talib al–Makkl, al–Kushairi, al–Ghazall. And in this unity the Eastern Church in its chief representatives is remarkably different from the great Western Fathers.
One general point may still be mentioned in connection with the foregoing remarks. Mysticism is said to be essentially pantheistic everywhere. Of Eastern mysticism this is certainly true. Its highest aim, – the unification of God and the mystic – is pantheistic; and, as a matter of fact, they go far in asserting that, in the deepest sense, God is the only Being.
Still, the place of this thought ’and its prominence, is very different in the different authors. In Dionysius’ and Stephen bar Sudaile’s works the transition of man into God, is described at length and with delight. Bar Hebraeus quotes such passages, but scarcely. In Isaac’s works they occur very seldom. In this connection may be cited what Isaac says on p. 170: As the saints, in the world to come, do not pray, when the mind has been engulfed by the [divine] Spirit, but dwell in ecstasy in that delightful glory, so the mind, when it has been made worthy of perceiving the future blessedness, will forget itself and all that is here etc. In a similar way he speaks on p. 194: Now when the intellect withdraws itself from this and is exalted unto the unique Essence, by the contemplation of
l) Cf. the highly instructive chapter on mystical interpretation of the Kor3an in Gold–ziher’s Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung.
the properties of that good Nature. When the intellect descends again from that place and returns again to the worlds and their distinctions etc. Generally speaking, Isaac is much more concerned with the state of purification and illumination than with that of perfection and unification. In this respect he belongs rather to the early than to the later type of Oriental mystics.
These general remarks may be sufficient as an introduction to a description of Isaac’s way in its three stages.
Of repentance Isaac gives the usual definition .: . . ata) every moment of the four and twenty hours of the day, we are in want of repentance. The explanation of the denotation of repentance, in its real practical sense, is continual mournful supplication in contrite prayer, offered to God for the forgiveness of preceding sins; and petition to be guarded against future ones. A similar definition occurs in many later mystical works2). Of course this does not imply that Isaac is their direct or indirect source; perhaps Isaac himself is citing a well known predecessor. But the passage contains a proof of what has been said above: the three mystical stages cannot be clearly separated in the mystic; repentance is the foundation of the whole; but as little as the foundation of a building looses its practical value when the whole has been finished, so little does repentance become useless when the second and third stages have been reached. Now repentance does not especially belong to mysticism; it stands at the beginning of the way of every Christian. But Isaac does not separate it from his special thoughts and method. ,Repentance is the constant sorrow of the heart at the meditation of that inexplicable statute: how shall I reach that unspeakable entrance? If thou lovest repentance, then love also solitude. For without this, repentance cannot be completed. If there is any one who disputes this, do not dispute with him, for he does not know what he says. If he did know what repentance is, he also would know its place, and that it is not to be disturbed by trouble. If thou lovest solitude, the father of repentance, then love also to accept’ etc.3). And to the same purport is what he says in another chapter 4): Repentance is the mother of life. It opens its gate to us, when we
I) p. 502 2") Cf. Book of the Dove1 p. 6, note 3
3) p. 462 4) p. 443
flee from all things’. – This means that true repentance is only to be practised by the methods which are at the base of mysticism: renunciation, asceticism and solitude.
The connection between repentance and spiritual gifts is expounded in the following passage ’): When thou enquirest well, thou wilt find that the service of the fear of God is repentance. And spiritual knowledge is, as we have said, that of which we have received the pledge in baptism and which we receive really by repentance. The gift of which we have said, that we receive it by repentance, is spiritual knowledge, which is given gratuitously for the service of the fear of God.
The transition from the stage of repentance to that of purity takes place by purification. ,If the small pupil of thy soul has not been purified, do not venture to look at the globe of the sun, lest thou be bereft even of the usual sight’8) etc. What is that from which man has to be purified? The question cannot be answered by one term, but needs a longer exposition. Mysticism is spiritualism, it endeavours to make the spirit free. In the most general sense from its contrary: matter. The origin of the conception may be illustrated by the fact that the Syriac term for it is Greek (uX>j). ,So long as the soul has not become drunk by the faith in God, in that it has received an impression of its powers, the weakness of the senses cannot be healed and it is not able to tread down with force visible matter, which is the screen before what is within and unperceived [by the senses]’8). It is necessary to free one’s self from matter, for freedom from matter precedes the bonds in God4).
It goes without saying that such sentences on the nature of matter are to be applied in the first place to the body. Matter is called a screen, the flesh a curtain6). ,One of the saints says: The body becomes a comrade of sin; for it is afraid of troubles, thinking it may receive an injury and have to give up its life. For the spirit of God oppresses the body so that it dies; it is well known that it cannot vanquish sin unless it die. Who desires that our Lord should dwell in him, will oppress his body and minister unto his Lord those spiritual fruits which the Apostle describes; and he will guard his
soul against the works of the flesh which Paul describes. For the body that is mingled with sin, takes pleasure in the works of the flesh. And the spirit of God takes pleasure in its own fruits. When the body is weak by fasting and mortification, the soul is spiritually strong through prayer. When the body is vehemently oppressed by solitude and penury and its life is near its term, it will beseech thee: Leave me a while to behave with –moderation’ l}.
In other words: the spiritual part of man has to live at the expenses of the body systematically.
As matter is represented by the body, so the latter by the senses. ,Without quiescence of the senses, peace of mind cannot be perceived’3). It is worth while to observe, that Isaac does not always use the term (rdx^ji) in its relation to the body. He speaks also of the senses of the soul; and he calls the heart the central organ of the inward senses 3). He even uses the expressions ,the spiritual senses of the mind’ 4) and ,the spiritual senses of the soul’’6).
Man’s purification, however, is more often expressed by Isaac as a purification from the affections (r<£»»). As a matter of fact, it is these which are considered as the more fearful and subtle enemy of the spiritualizing process of mysticism.
Isaac quotes Euagrius: ,A purifying drug is the hot contrition of the soul, the which is given by the Lord through the angels to those who repent, that through diligence purification from the affections may be granted’6). And parallel to this is what he says himself7): ,As dissolving drugs purify the body from bad humours, so does the force of troubles purify the heart from affections’.
What are the affections? ,Parts8) of the usual current of the world. Where they have ceased, there the world’s current has ceased. They are: love of riches; gathering of possessions; fatness of the body, giving rise to the tendency towards casual desire–, love of honour which is the source of envy; exercising government; the pride and haughtiness of magistrates; folly; glory among men, which is the cause of cholar; bodily fear. When their current has been dammed, there the world, after their example, has to some extent ceased to be maintained INTRODUCTION
and to exist’. A very vigorous description of the affections he gives in the following passage *): Now, if the bosom of the earth, when the sunrays have ceased, preserves their heat for a long time, and if an aromatic smell and the odour of perfumes which spread through the air, remain a long time before they are dissipated and become effaced – how much more certain it is, that the affections, like dogs accustomed to lap up blood at the butcher’s, will stand at the door barking when the usual food is withheld from them, till their old force has abated.
Isaac repeatedly speaks of the affections of the body and the soula). He expressly utters his opinion concerning their nature. ,The affections of the body, are they naturally inherent in it, or of a secondary nature? And those which affect the soul, by the intermedation of the body, are they secondary or natural? To call those of the body not natural, is impossible. As to the soul – because it is known and universally confessed that purity belongs to its nature – no one will venture in view of this fact to maintain, that it is primarily affectable; for it is generally conceded that ailment is secundary to health and it is not possible that one and the same thing should be of a good and an evil natures).
This theory is closely connected with Isaac’s – and the general mystical – theory about the soul, which is originally pure, but defiled by matter, the body, the senses4). It is necessary to recur here to this view, because it explains Isaac’s bifold view of the soul and the psychic domain: it is above the body, but connected with it and holding a middle position between body and spirit. This appears especially in Isaac’s division of knowledge into three kinds. ,While his [viz. man’s] knowledge and his behaviour are of a bodily nature, he is frightened by death. But when his knowledge is of a psychic nature and his behaviour is steadfast, his mind is moved by the thought of Judgment every moment. In the first state he is moved and guided by his knowledge and by his discipline. And he is happy in the neighbourhood of God. But when he reaches true knowledge by the emotion of the apperception of God’s mysteries and becomes confirmed in future hope, he
INTRODUCTION
is consumed by lovel). When he however speaks from his spiritual height, his contempt for the psychic state, is manifest at once. ,He that has been deemed worthy of the taste of faith and then turns towards psychic knowledge, is the equal of him that has found a pearl of great price and changed it for a copper coin; for he has left authoritative freedom and turned towards the means of poverty which are full of the fear of bondship’3).
This estimation is to be compared to Paul’s discrimination between psychic and pneumatic man 3).
As a matter of fact, the Old Testament, in its tripartite division of man, holds nearly the same view. The spirit has been given by God and breathed into Adam’s nostrils; it returns unto God when man dies. But his soul returns to the nether world whence it apparently comes; consequently it is ungodly, demoniacal.
It is however, not very likely, that Isaac’s psychology is inspired by the Old Testament or even by Paul. His ideas concord with those of Hellenism, as it will be shown beneath.
But we have to return to the affections. Isaac is aware of the fact that they cannot wholly be purified away4); still the state of being freed from them, apathy, the boon of martyrs and apostles, is one of the highest aims of the mystics. But here again it is to be kept in mind, that the three states in their pure form do not occupy three separate periods in the life of the mystic.
It may be added here that the terms impulses, emotions (relict), though often used in a sense similar to that of affections, cover a much wider field and have not always an evil meaning; they denote the whole activity of the invisible part of man, and even a single time even the ,emotions of the body’ occur. A glance at the catchword ,impulses’ in the Register will give a survey of the various connections in which it is used. It is not necessary to give a sketch of Isaac’s views on anthropology and psychology; it would scarcely contain anything which is not to be found in the mystic sphere to which he belongs. It has been tried to characterize these views in the Introduction to the Book of the Dove, to which I may refer the reader1). Here there must be added that Isaac is an adherent of the theory of free will. ,Reason is the cause of freedom; and the fruit of both is liability to err. Without the first, the second would not be. And where the second is lacking, there the third is bound as it were with halters’3). If there were no freedom, their would be no retribution: ,Good and evil are the offspring of freedom. Where the latter is lacking, practising the former is superfluous in view of remuneration. For nature knows no remuneration. Reward is destined for strife. Victory cannot be spoken of where there is no struggle. When opposition is taken away, freedom vanishes at the same time. Then nature remains without struggle. A time is preserved for the annihilation of freedom; then a limited rationality comes into existence, among men as well as among the angels’8). The last thought is explained by another passage: Man, therefore may freely go so far as to say: all excellence whatever, in body or in spirit, is in the realm of free will, as well as the mind that dominates the senses. But when the influence of the spirit reigns over the mind that regulates the senses and the deliberations, freedom is taken away from nature, which no longer governs, but is governed 4).
This freedom is co–existent with ,the liability to err’ (re&cu–i\\,–=*>). ,Nor has He [God] made thee incapable of error, lest thou shouldst be like the beings which are bound, and thou shouldst receive thy good and thy evil without profit or remuneration, as the other corporeal beings on earth. How many blows and humiliations together with thanksgivings are born from the capacity for affections and fear and also of error, is manifest to every one; so that it should be known that our zeal for righteousness and our turning aside from evil are of our own will, and that the honour and disdain, caused thereby, should be put to our credit’ B).
This liability of deviation incites us unto prayer: ,And as our Lord knows that He does not take away liability of deviation before the cup of death [is drunk], and this being so, that man is near to a change from excellence to deterioration, and nature susceptible of accidents – therefore He urges us to continual beseechings’6).
Even the perfect remain liable to deviation. This view is maintained against the Mesalleyane in another place: ,Varying states happen to every man like [changes of] the air. Understand it: to every man; for nature is one. Do not think that he *) is speaking to insignificant men only and that the perfect are exempt from varying states and that they stand in one class, without liability of deviation and without the impulse of the affections, as the Mesallayane say’ 3).
Still, man as the possessor of freedom could be a sovereign, if it. were not that he has not only connection with his own inner world, but also with the impressions coming from without, with accidents and circumstances (rdx–ii^). ,Every apperceptible thing, be it action or word, is the revelation of what is hidden within, if its cause be not entirely accidental, but return constantly. The latter element only is considered in connection with reward; the former is taken into consideration to a small extent only. For the strength or the weakness of will is evidenced in the doing of evil or of good things, not by anything that happens accidentally; but the proof of its freedom is the constant repetition. To fate is given power; sometimes even so as to dominate freedom of will’3) etc. And: . . . ,that after these chaste and peaceful deliberations, accidents will befall the mind, that we should not be sorry or despair or, at the time of rest caused by grace, be puffed up, but that, at the time of joy, we should look at trouble. He4) says, that we should not be sorry when accidents happen; not that we should not resist them, nor that the mind should accept them joyfully as something natural belonging to us, but that thou shouldst not despair even as the man who expected what is exalted above strife, and perfect rest’ 5) etc.
Consequently man, who is clad with the body and endowed with a soul and a spirit, has to oppress his material part, to forget his relations with the world, to strip off his old customs, and to polish the mirror of his spirit so that it becomes a pure reflection of the Divine; for more than a reflector it is not.
How can this take place? In general by asceticism. Possessions, refinement in dress, copious food, frequent rest, a comfortable dwelling–place are the outward things the mystic has to renunciate. But there is more. The life of discipline or behaviour (pi’vsoa or r^irao.i) has to be arranged on a basis, in which recitation of the Scriptures, the service of prayer, fasting, and vigils have a dominant place.
This service, however, is not an opus operatum; it has to take place under peculiar circumstances and according to a strict method which has to be expounded according to Isaac’s chief points of view.
The first condition for reaching spiritual life is solitude, for it purifies the soul from the affections. ,Labours cause apathy and mortify our limbs on the earth and give rest on the part of the deliberations, only if they are combined with solitude. For solitude – the blessed Basil, the shining torch of the whole world, says – is the beginning of the purification of the soul’1). And: ,When a man has found solitude, the soul is able to expel the affections and to test its own wisdom. Then the inward man will be stirred unto spiritual service and day by day he will perceive the hidden wisdom moving in his soul’ 3).
Solitude not only purifies the soul, but it is the entrance to the higher world. ,Let us look at ourselves at the time of service and prayer. If we possess contemplation regarding the words of the Psalms and of prayer, this has its origin in veracious solitude’ 3). And: ,Constant solitude, with recitation and moderate food, easily arouse in the spirit a state of ecstasy, if perpetual solitude be not broken for any cause. Insight brought about by works performed in solitude, will of itself automatically, and suddenly, impart to these two eyes a kind of baptism, by tears which burst forth and moisten the cheeks by their profuseness’ 4).
It is well known that regarding solitude the opinions of the Christian ascetics were divided. From of old there were SgwpjTocot and Kpayiumxoi, the former adherents of a purely contemplative life, the latter of monkish life combined with works 5). Isaac is a partisan of the former method which he advocates in his book. ,Compare all powers and signs that are worked in the whole world with a man’s consciously sitting in solitude. Love the ease of solitude rather than the satisfying of the hunger
0 P– 243 2) p. 244 3) p. 339
4) P* *39 5) T/ie Book of the Dove, Introduction, p. XXIII sqq.
of the world and the converting of the multitude of heathen peoples from error unto adoring God. Let it be more excellent in thy eyes to detach thyself from the bonds of sin than to detach the subject unto liberty from those who hold their bodies’J).
It appears – as can be understood – that not all brethren could bear solitude without work. To those it is allowed to perform some light work: ,If anyone is not able to bear solitude without service, he must necessarily have recourse to it. But he shall take it as a helpful means only, without eagerness and as a secondary thing, not as a principal commandment. This applies to the weak. Manual work is called by Euagrius an impediment to the recollection of God’ 2).
We have seen that Isaac so decidedly clung to solitude that he even was not willing to go to visit his dying brother. Still, in a rather long exposition in the end of his book, he declares that there are cases in which the feeling of mercy can abrogate the commandment of solitude; this holds good especially for those who have not yet climbed the highest summits of the mystic life 3).
Solitude is especially considered as a means to forget the world, to extinguish the recollections of it in the heart, to banish distraction, and to reach concentration. ,For when thou risest for prayer and service instead of meditating worldly things, scriptural thoughts will be pictured in the mind. And thereby the recollection of that which it saw and heard before, will be forgotten and effaced in it. So thy mind will reach purity’4).
Still, recollections cannot wholly be effaced; they only loose their sharp character. ,Works performed carefully by the pure, do not remove the impression of the recollection of previous reprehensible things; but they abolish in the mind the painful nature of recollection, so that what has passed through the mind often enough, now becomes something excellent’ 6). Further the mind has to give up distraction aad occupations. ,That a man, who is beset with care, should be quiet and in a state of peace, is impossible. For the necessary things which cohere with those things, upon he which expends his labour, cannot but have the effect that he be shaken; and they will bereave him of his rest and quiet. For the only opportunity
0 P– 45 4) p. 53
for Satan to enter the soul is distraction’:). For distraction is obnoxious to chastity: ,If thou lovest chastity, do not love distraction. Things which happen to thee through distraction do not allow thee bo cling to chastity with watchfulness.
No one who loves distraction, is chaste That a man who is given to distraction, should guard truth in his soul without a stain, is impossible’2). Moreover it gives birth to dejectedness, one of the most fearful enemies of the mystic: ,Dejection is caused by distraction of mind; distraction by neglect of labours and recitation and by intercourse left to chance’ 3).
So the mind has to be concentrated. Strikingly, in a way which shows his personal experience, Isaac has described the first tentative passes of the mind towards concentration and spiritual behaviour. ,A young bird without wings is the mind that has lately left the bonds of the affections, by means of the works of repentance. At the time of prayer it strives to exalt itself above earthly things, but it cannot. For it creeps still on the surface of the earth, where also the serpent crawls. But it concentrates its deliberations by recitation and works and fear and care for excellent qualities. For beyond these it does not yet know anything. And these keep the mind pure for a short time. But then recollections will return, troubling and defiling the heart. For he does not yet perceive the air of peace and liberty, which concentrates the heart for a long time, [keeping it] quiet without the recollection of [worldly] things’ 4). It is especially prayer which is a cause of concentration. ,If anyone asks: How is it that only at this time [viz. the time of prayer] these great and unspeakable gifts are granted? We answer: Because at this time, more than in any other hour, man is concentrated and prepared to look unto God and to desire and to expect compassion from Him’ 5).
How necessary a condition for mystical life perpetual concentration is, appears from the following passage. ,Above all he [viz. the mystic] chooses concentration and reclusion with himself alone, to be quiet and shut off and lonely and left to himself in a solitary place, void of all beings and separated from the whole creation’ 6).
Mortification, solitude, service and concentration produce in the mystic the state favourable for mystic progress. This state can be characterized in several ways. But it is usually considered from the point of view that the soul (heart, spirit mind) has recovered the purity and clearness which is its peculiar property. ,Perpetual tears during prayer are a sign of divine mercy of which the soul is worthy because of its repentance which has been accepted; and with tears it begins to enter the plain of serenity’J).
In a characteristic way this state is described in the following passage: ,One of the saints who was then an old ascetic, had become so pure and simple and had reached such a perfection and serenity, that he was nearly as a babe, having forgotten all worldly things. And perhaps many will not believe what we say (for it is a real wonder) that even at the time of the oblation of the Eucharist he could not observe [the fast] so as to receive the Eucharist; he did not even know whether he had observed [the fast] or not, till his disciples kept watch on him in his cell and brought him to the sanctuary as a little boy. So very serene and pure was this blessed man. And being thus in worldly things, in his soul he was perfect with God’ ~).
In the following passage the serene soul is compared with a mirror, one of the metaphorical designations beloved with the Eastern mystics: ,Also this I advise thee, o my brother, that in all thy dicipline the scale of mercy be preponderant; through this thou wilt perceive God’s mercy for the world. Our own state becomes to us a mirror in which we behold the true Prototype in those things which naturally belong to that Essence. By these things and the like we become illuminated so as to be in motion unto God, with a serene mind. A heart wicked irom of old, cannot become serene’3).
More frequent than serenity is the term purity, which is also used in connection with the mirror. Isaac tells how Pachomius had asked from God the gift, that he could do without sleep. ,Then this gift was granted him, as he had asked, for a long time. And because his heart was pure – the sight of his soul having been purified through vigils and solitude and prayer – he saw God, who is invisible, as in a mirror’4). Purity is the necessary condition and at the same time the soil for spiritual gifts. ,When a man has reached purity from the affections, what no eye has seen and no ear has heard what has not entered into the heart of man to ask in prayer, is revealed to him by purity, which ceases not any moment from mysteries and spiritual visions. And what the force of spring is wont to work unto the nature of the earth, this grace works unto the soul by purity’ 1). And ,it has been said that the things of God come of their own, if there is a pure and undented place. That they come of their own, means that it naturally belongs to purity that heavenly light shines in it, without investigation and labour on our part. For in the pure heart, the new heaven is stanped; of which the sight is light and the room is spiritual. As also in another place it is said: As the magnet–stonen has the natural faculty to attract atoms of iron, so has spiritual knowledge [the faculty to attract] the pure heart’2).
It need hardly be said that the term ,the pure in heart’3) (Matthew 5, 8) acquires an especially mystical exegesis. When the soul has been purified, its original nature becomes visible; and as this nature is divine, it appears in the divine aspect of serenity; so it enters the state of illumination. This term is frequently found in mystical works, and the mystics themselves are often called the illuminate. ,As the face of the earth is gladdened by the rays of the sun when the dense atmosphere is torn asunder, so the words of prayer are able to tear away and to remove from the soul the dark cloud of the affections and to gladden and to illuminate the spirit by the rays of joy and consolation, which is born in our deliberations’ *).
Gradually, by constant purification, concentration, solitude and service, the mystic has reached the third state, that of perfection; the bodily and psychic stages have passed away, and the spirit has become free and monarchic. The spiritual is the element of the mystic; in this sphere divine gifts are granted to him. This however does not induce him to give up his feeling of humility. Humility stands at the beginning of his course; it remains his constant attitude till the end. How highly Isaac estimates humility, may be seen in his beautiful last chapter, which is wholly devoted to it. The spiritual state can also be styled as that of sight; for Isaac, like
3) p. 5°, 564
other mysticsa), considers true mystic life as one of sight as opposed to hearing, which belongs to a lower state. So it is not amazing that frequent use is made of the term contemplation, which in general means the spiritual attitude of the mind regarding things which its meets, but also denotes the outlook on mystical scalities. .Because such men have reached the summit of purity and because at all times their inner emotions are stirring in prayer, – as I have said before – the Spirit, whenever it looks at them, will find them in prayer; and from there it will conduct them by contemplation, which is interpreted spiritual sight’ 3). So high is the value of spiritual contemplation that it is identified with the kingdom of heaven3).
That, however, contemplation even extends to cosmic sight, appears from Isaac’s sentence: ,For the Father quickens the soul that has died the death of Christ, in contemplation of all the worlds’4). This is not amazing in view of the fact, that the elevation of the mind is often described as a voyage through the Universe6).
That contemplation and sight partake of the character of revelation, is taught by the following passage: ,There is a difference between vision and revelation. The name of revelation covers the two, because it denotes the revealing of a thing that hitherto was hidden and now becomes manifest in any way. But not all that is revelation, is at the same time vision. But what is vision, is also called revelation, because it is a hidden thing which is revealed. But not all that comes to be revealed and known, is vision’ 6).
States of spiritual intensity usually rise during prayer. Prayer has a mighty purifying power, it drives away the cloud of the affections 7). .Therefore, my brother of this thou mayest be sure: that the power of the mind to use the emotions with discernment, has its limit in purity during prayer. When the mind has reached this point, it will either turn backwards, or it will desist from prayer; so prayer is, as it were, a mediator between the psychic and the spiritual state’8).
Prayer becomes an occasion for receiving spiritual gifts. ,What time is so holy and fit for sanctification and the receiving of gifts as the time of prayer, in which man speaks with God?
l) Book of the Dove, Introduction, p. 53 2) p. 260 3) p. 528
4) P– 544 5) See Philo I, 16; Book of the Dove, p. 53
6) p. 249 7) p. 124 8) p. 169
At this time man utters his desires unto God, beseeching Him and speaking with Him and his whole emotion and thought are concentrated from all sides upon Him with compulsion; of God alone he thinks and Him alone he supplicates; his whole thought is absorbed in discourse with Him and his heart is full of Him. It is in this state, therefore, that the Holy Ghost joins to the things which man prays some unattainable insights, which it stirs in him in accordance with his aptitude of being moved’ J).
So prayer may pass into sight. ,Sometimes from prayer a certain contemplation is born which also makes prayer vanish from the lips. And he to whom this contemplation happens, becomes as a corpse without a soul, by ecstasy. This we call sight during prayer and not an image or form forged by phantasy, as fools say. Also in this contemplation during prayer there are degrees and differences in gifts. But till here there is still prayer. For deliberation has not yet passed into the state where there is no prayer, but rather a state superior to it. For the motions of the tongue and the heart during prayer, are keys. What comes after them, is entering into the treasury. Here then all mouths and tongues are silent, and the heart, the treasurer of the deliberations, the governer of the senses, the daring spirit, that swift bird, and all the subsidiaries and the use which is in them, and the persuasions, have to stand still there: for the master of the house has come’.
,For as the whole force of the laws and the commandments which God has laid down for mankind, have their term in the purity of the heart, according to the word of the Fathers, so all kinds and habits of prayer with which mankind prays unto God, have their term in pure prayer. Lamentations and selfhumiliations and beseechings and inner supplications and sweet tears and all other habits which prayer possesses – as I have said: their boundary and the domain within which they are set into motion, is pure prayer. As soon as the spirit has crossed the boundary of pure prayer and proceeded onwards, there is neither prayer, nor emotions, nor tears, nor authority, nor freedom, nor beseechings, nor desire, nor longing after any of those things, which are hoped for in this world or in the world to be. Therefore there is no prayer beyond
I) p. 173 sq.
pure prayer, and all its emotions and habits conduct the spirit thus far by their authority with freedom 1).
It seems that Isaac uses the term spiritual prayer in nearly the same sense as the term pure prayer. He argues with some fervour, that spiritual prayer cannot be prayed at all, nay that it is blasphemy to say so3). Significant for the distinction, between prayer and spiritual prayer is Isaac’s exposition on p. 519. ,If a man asks in prayer for deliverance from temptations, rest from struggles, victory over the affections, consolation and so on, and if he asks these things with the right intention and a mournful heart, God will condescend to grant him his wish. ,As to the mysteries which belong to the spirit, namely the emotions during spiritual prayer, and the entering of the mind behind the curtain of the holy of holies, and the apperception of the indestructible inheritance – if a man does not pay their dues, God is not willing to grant them, even if the whole creation should beseech in behalf of him. Their dues are purity of soul’3).
Prayer is one of the favourite subjects of Isaac. It seems (even) that he uses the term, constant prayer’ as a designation of the spiritual state. ,What is the acme of all the labours of asceticism, which a man, when he has reached it, recognises as the summit of his course? When he is deemed worthy of constant prayer. When he has reached this, he has touched the end of all virtues and forthwith he has a spiritual dwelling–place. If a man has not received in truth the gift of the Comforter, it is not possible for him to accomplish constant prayer in quiet. When the spirit takes its dwelling–place in a man, he does not cease to pray, because the spirit will constantly pray in him. Then, neither when he sleeps, nor when he is awake, will prayer be cut off from his soul; but when he eats, and when he drinks, when he lies down, or when he does any work, even when he is immersed in sleep, the perfumes of prayer will breathe in his soul spontaneously. And henceforth he will not possess prayer at limited times, but always; and when he has outward rest, even then prayer is ministered unto him secretly. For the silence of the serene is prayer, says a man clad with Christ’4).
Isaac considers the mystic way as one of knowledge, and
I) p. 165 sq.
his whole system is one of knowledge. But – as is the case with the other mystics of his type – the term knowledge is a kind of disguise. As the whole way is divided in three parts, so knowledge is of three kinds l) and reaches its summit in spiritual knowledge. ,How knowledge is subtilized and acquires spirituality so that it resembles the discipline of those invisible forces, the service of which is not performed by the apperceptible practice of works but by the thoughts of intellect – hear this now. When knowledge elevates itself above earthly things and the thought of service and begins to try its impulses in things hidden from eyesight, and when it partly despises the recollection of [worldly] things from which proceeds the perversion of the affections, and when it stretches itself upwards and clings to faith by the thought of the world to be, and the love of the promises and investigation concerning the hidden things – then faith swallows knowledge, gives anew birth to it, being wholly spiritual. Then it is able to direct its flight towards non–bodily places and to scrutinize the depths of the unscrutable ocean of wonderful and divine government which directs intelligible and apperceptible beings, and to examine, spiritual mysteries which are attained by the simple and subtle intellect. Then the inner senses awake to spiritual service, as the order of things which will be in the state of immortality and incorruptibility. For from here onwards they have received intelligible resurrection, symbolically, as a true sign of that universal renewal.
These are the three degrees of knowledge, in which the whole course of man is contained, that of body, soul and spirit. From the time that a man begins to distinguish between good and evil, till he leaves the world, in these three degrees is contained the knowledge of himself and the accomplishment of all iniquity and wickedness and the summit of all righteousness; and the scrutiny of the depths of all spiritual mysteries is worked by one knowledge in these three degrees’ 2).
Knowledge gives birth to love. ,The flower of spiritual knowledge is divine love, which has its origin in radiant insights which are found by the spirit during prayer. Love is the fruit of prayer, which, through contemplation arising in it, draws the mind towards a predilection which never becomes satisfied’&).
,When he [viz. man] reaches true knowledge by the motion of the apperception of God’s mysteries and becomes confirmed in future hope, he is consumed by love. Love is the dissolver of temporary life. He that has reached the love of God, does not desire to stay here any more’ *).
,What is the perfection of all spiritual fruits? This is when man is deemed worthy of the complete love of God. And how can he that has reached this point, acquire certainty? Every time when the thought of God is stirred in his spirit, the heart will become hot with love at once, the eyes will shed multitudinous tears; for love is accustomed to shed tears at the recollection of the beloved. He that is in this state, will never be found destitute of tears, because he is never without abundant recollection of God, so that even during sleep he speaks with Him. Love is accustomed to practise these things and this is the accomplishment of man in this life ’ 2).
This high spiritual state is often described through the image of drunkenness. ,Then there arises in him that sweetness of God and the flame of His love which burns in the heart and kindles all the affections of body and soul. And this power he will perceive in all the species of the creation and all things which he meets. From time to time he will become drunk by it as by wine; his limbs will relax, his mind will stand still and his heart will follow God as a captive. And so he will be, as I have said, like a man drunk by wine. And according as his inner senses are strengthened, so this sight will be strengthened. And according as he is careful about discipline and watchfulness and applies himself to recitation, so the power of sight will be firm based and bound in him. In truth, my brethren, he that reaches this from time to time, will not remember that he is clad with a body, nor will he know that he is in this world’ 3). And: ,How is it that the service of hope is so delightful, and its labours so few and its work so easy to the soul? This is because it excites the natural longing in the soul and gives them this cup to drink and makes them drunk. And from this moment they nevermore perceive fatigue but become apathetic against troubles. And during the whole of their course it is to them as if they were moving in the air without bodily motion, without seeing anything of the difficulty of the road or the streams and hills that are before them; but rough places become to them smooth and difficult places level, because they always see the bosom of their Father’*),’
Such states come near to ecstasy which is often described by Isaac. ,Sometimes from prayer a certain contemplation is born, which also makes prayer vanish from the lips. And he to whom this contemplation happens, becomes as a corpse without soul, by ecstasy. This we call sight during prayer’2). Also in other passages there appears to be a close connection between prayer and ecstasy3). One of the saints is reported by Isaac to have told him: ,When I desire to stand performing service, I am allowed to accomplish one mar mil a (one fifteenth part of the Psalter). Further, even if I remain standing during three days, I am in ecstasy with God; without perceiving fatigue’ *). And another Father tells this: ,On one day, such as this in which I was wont to take food (and since four days I had not eaten), when I rose in order to perform evening service and to eat afterwards, I stood in the room of my cell in full sunlight. I perceived only that I began with the marmita which is the beginning of service; but till the next day when the sun rose before me, and the clothes on my body became warm, I did not perceive where I was. As the sun troubled me by burning my face, my mind came back to me and behold, I saw that it was a new day’ 5). And concerning another of the saints it is said that he remained in ecstasy during four days6). And it is probably Isaac himself who experienced ecstasy during sleep, caused by his recitation the foregoing night7).
As I have said, the state of unification is very seldom mentioned by Isaac. The passage cited above on p. xxvi refers to the unification in the world to be. ,The incomprehensible unification’ mentioned on p. 169 occurs in a passage borrowed from Dionysius the Areopagite; and ,union with God’, p. 462, is a quotation from Euagrius. It is to be remembered, however, that Isaac very often speaks of the state of transition and forgetting of the world, a state which, if not identical, still bears a strong likeness with that of union.
The mystic, when he has reached the height of spiritual life,
I) p. 511 sq. 2) p. 164 3) P– 166, 174, 261 4) p. 388
5) P– 389 6) P– 201 7) P– 492– Cf– above p. XXI
has not reached the mystic ideal of spiritual rest. For he remains exposed to changes. They are considered by the mystics in two ways. In themselves they are of an inferior naturel).
Isaac has a chapter2) with the title: ,On the many varying states which cling to the mind and are purified by prayer’. And chapter 48 bears the inscription: ,On the varying states of light and darkness to which the soul is subject at all times, and on the training it acquires in things of the right and of the left hand’. God sends them for the sake of education, and by the mystic they can be used as a criterium of his degree in behaviour 3).
It is the mystic’s fate that, as long as he is in this world, varying states will accompany him. ,That the whole rational nature is liable to deviation without discrimination, and that varying states pass through every man at all times, the discriminate is able to understand from many [symptoms]; moreover the experiences of every day are wholly sufficient to make him prudent, if he is cautious and keeps to what is his domain. [They also show him] how many varying states of rest and unrest work upon the mind every day, so that it suddenly passes from peace to perturbation without any reason at all
and comes into unspeakable danger’ And, citing Euagrius:
,There are states of cold, and soon there–after of heat; and perhaps of hail, and soon there–after of serenity. It is thus for our instruction. Strife, then the help of grace. And sometimes the soul runs into storm, and heavy billows assail it; then there comes a different state and it is visited by grace; then joy fills the heart and peace from God and chaste, peaceful deliberations’4).