Stages in the Development of Passions

I don’t normally do this, but this chapter was so good I wanted to share it in its entirety….




Stages in the Development of Passions

Letter 57 in The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It, by Saint Theophan the Recluse



That the passionate shows itself within us in not an inescapable misfortune. It signifies that we are impure, but it does not make us guilty. Our guilt begins from the point when we favorably incline ourselves toward a passion that has been observed; that is, we do not rush to acknowledge the enemy and do not arm ourselves against it with anger. On the contrary, we accept it and begin liking it, delighting in the impulse in which it appeared. This already shows that we have no objection to being familiar with the passionate, and, subsequently, enemies of God. “Because the carnal mind – [the passionate] – is enmity against God.” (Romans 8.7)



Where assent begins, there also begins guilt, which increases by measure of its involvement in the passionate. I will describe for you how all of this happens. Our usual state is this: The thoughts wander about every which way; the emotions and desires, although they go back and forth, are without definite direction. This is how it is most of the time. Sometimes entire days pass like this. These thoughts are for the most part vain, being attached to routine everyday affairs and tasks at hand. Among these empty thoughts or daydreams about nothing often erupt. Both empty and vain thoughts throng, for the most part, on the surface of the soul. You have been told more than once how to subdue and regulate this disarray of thoughts that impeded remembrance of God and Godly things.



But look here, some object with a certain peculiar form has come among the others and demands attention. Note this point specifically: It has come and demands attention. Never let it pass without attention. Conduct an interrogation at once: Who is this, where is it from and what does it want? You yourself will find the answers to these immediately, after a mere glance at this object that has presented itself. Let us suppose that it is a person who has offended you at some time. It is obvious that by engaging your attention with this person and the association you have with him, someone desires to create within you indignation, anger and even the desire for revenge. This is what will happen if you do not adopt the necessary measures. What measures should you adopt so as to drive away this idea? It wants to bring you to a bad state. Consequently, it is your enemy. You will treat it, then, in a hostile manner, that is, not with respect, but in the way which we spoke about last time, namely, with scornful rejection.



If you do this, you will completely thwart the enemy’s ruse or trap. If, however, you focus your attention on the person who has come to your imagination, then this idea, though ordinary and isolated at first, will become surrounded by a number of other thoughts and images that will paint a very vivid picture in your imagination as to how that person offended you, with all the details of the incident. Along with this, the previous feeling of offense, indignation and anger will arise in the heart. The passionate object or thought about it engendered the passionate feeling. The passionate became more entrenched. If you come to your senses and acknowledge that it is bad to allow yourself to be roused by passion, then, of course, you will see the enemy in this and treat it with hostility, after having expelled the wicked feeling from your heart and driven the very object that engendered it from your thoughts. The confusion will pass and peace of mind will be restored.



If you do not do this, however, then other passionate feelings will gather around the one that has already arisen and exacerbate it. These feelings will begin rationalizing to you, “How dare he do that? Who does he think he is, someone important? I am no worse than he is. It is impossible to ignore this. I do not know how I let it slip by me. If I were to allow everyone to treat me like that, I could not live. I will certainly have to prove to him that he cannot act like that and get away with it.” Your desire for revenge, whether that vengeance is great or small, it is all the same, is at the ready. The passionate become even more deeply entrenched within. This is already the third stage. If you come to senses at this point, you can drive off the desire. For the desire does not yet signify resolution. It arrived one moment, and it can leave the next. If you take proper action, it will be for the better; if you do not, then your torment will continue further.



Observe how the thought engendered the feeling, and the thought with the feeling engendered the desire. The mind is filled with passion. All this, however, is still mental impurity and sinfulness. It is still a long way to the act. Between the desire and the act there is always the resolution to act, and premeditation as to how to carry it out. How the resolution takes shape is not always apparent. It is already within the desire in a weak form; it then grows along with premeditation of the act, that is, with the selection of the means and establishment of methods and circumstances. When everything has been premeditated, the resolution is complete. Then the act has already been accomplished within. The sin has already been committed in front of God and the conscience; the commandments have been disregarded, the conscience violated. Sometimes a lot of time passes between the desire and the resolution with the premeditation of the act. The fear of God takes hold, the commandments are remembered and the conscience is not silent. But all of their saving suggestions are rebuffed by disregard. That is why there is already transgression and sin in the resolution. The thought, feeling and desire, although they have already occupied the entire soul, seemingly take place on the surface of the soul. There is still no strong inclination toward sin, only an urge. Strong inclination begins from the point when the soul begins deliberating whether it should satisfy the passion and how it do so. Here the soul has already set out on the path of sin.



While the resolution is forming, freedom is checked, the soul feels as if it were absolutely obligated to do what it intended. But there is no such obligation. It is a sort of inner self-delusion that is taking place. What has been decided may remain unfulfilled because of some obstacle that is suddenly encountered. Perhaps it is abandoned because the person himself has second thoughts about carrying it out, because of some consideration or because of the conscience and fear of God, if they should happen to rise up in full force.



At last, everything has been arranged and the deed done. You got your revenge as planned. The passion has been satisfied, the sin finally committed. What more could be added to the resolution that developed at first? Seemingly nothing, for here the premeditated plan has only been carried out. That is how it seems; but, in the essence of the act, the wrongdoing increases up to the last step. First. Up to this point, the fear of God and the conscience were merely dismissed and disregarded, now they are violated. Up to now, the situation has been like a mother who is trying to persuade her son not to do something wrong, and he brushes her aside or runs away from her. Now the son answers his mother’s pleas by hitting her or slapping her in the face. Second. Now inner activity has been introduced into the course of outward events and is bound to be accompanied by the consequences, which are also outward and worldly. You will not cross it out of the circle of events by a stroke of the pen or verbal denial. It will remain there forever and will always be attached to the person who did it, forcing him to taste its fruits. Third. The Divine grace deserts him, and the person leaves the realm of God and enters the realm of the enemy of God. He drops down, is burdened and feels himself crushed under a kind of weight. The parable about the unclean spirit returning with seven more is fulfilled in him. [Matthew 12.43-45] Gloom, uneasiness, burden – this is the reward of any satisfied passion. Amazing! Until the passion is satisfied by the act, the person expects Paradise from its satisfaction: For you shall be God. [Genesis 3.5] As soon as the passion is satisfied, however, the delusion falls from his eyes, the phantom dissipates, and there is left only emptiness, anguish, upset and burden; the person sees that he is impertinent. He took revenge on his enemy; he expected to be rejoicing, but things have turned out quite differently.



You see what the path is of tormenting yourself with some passion and falling into sin on account of it. Now we shall turn to you. What is possible in you from all that has been said? If your resolution to work for the Lord is sincere; if, having made this decision, you follow the advice given to remember God at all times with fear and reverence; if you watch after yourself strictly; then any inclination within you toward the satisfaction of passionate desire, and all that follows it, will be impossible. However, thoughts, feelings and desires are possible. These are objects of your inner struggle.



Passionate thought, feeling and desire sometimes pass through the soul in a single instant before we know what has happened. In this case they do not make us guilty, if as soon as we recover our senses at the appearance of what is by now desire, we banish them through hostile anger toward them. Our guilt in the intention, feeling and desire is dependent on our procrastination; that is, after observing them we have failed to drive them away, and we dwell on them instead. Drive away the thought, and there will be no feeling or sympathy. Drive away the feeling and with intention, and there will be no desire. Drive away the desire, and there will be no danger or inclination toward the passionate. If, after observing a passionate intention, you dwell on it with attention voluntarily, you are guilty. Why did you occupy yourself with something that you know is God’s enemy and yours? If, however, your attention is involuntarily attracted to the intention, you are not guilty, as long as you immediately turn your attention away from it and drive it out. If, as a result of your willful attention toward a passionate intention, a passionate feeling is engendered, then your guilt is increased a little. But if after detecting the birth of a passionate feeling, you continue to be occupied with the passionate intention, and, consequently, voluntarily provoke the feeling, then your guilt increase to twice what it was previously. If, after detecting a passionate feeling, you rouse yourself and drive it out along with the intention, then you would be guilty only in the fact that you voluntarily occupied yourself with a passionate thought; you are not guilty of the feeling, because such feelings are created through the action of the thoughts. If through the actions of the passionate thought and feeling that have been voluntarily allowed, there is born within you the desire for a passionate action (for example, revenge), then your guilt is increased a little, because desire is created involuntarily from thought and feeling. Your previous guilt remains; why were you occupied with the passionate object, and when a passionate feeling was born from this, why did you allow the feeling to persist and the thought that gave rise to it? Therefore, your guilt is twofold. But if after detecting the passionate desire, you allow it to linger inside you, and do not immediately arm yourself against it, then your guilt increases by one more step; it will be threefold.



I will not go further, because I suppose this is sufficient to warn you.



You see for yourself that if you immediately drive away the passionate thought, then you put and end to the entire struggle. There will be neither feeling, and even more, there will be no desire. Make the decision to act in this way. Why would you draw on yourself the unnecessary labor of struggle, and sometimes even danger, when you have already decided not to allow the passionate being ungodly? If the feeling begins to stir involuntarily along with the thought, immediately chase out the feeling with the thought. If desire involuntarily clings to them, immediately chase out the desire along with them. The moment you discover a passionate impulse within yourself, chase it out. Make this your rule: Do not voluntarily praise either passionate thought, feeling or desire, and immediately chase them away with complete hatred as soon as you detect them. You will always be innocent before God and before your own conscience. There will be within you the impurity of the passions, but also innocence. You will carry out the act of purification (cleansing), laboring diligently at the purifying of your soul.



May the Lord bless you!



The preceding was taken in its entirety from “The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to It” by Saint Theophan the Recule, as translated by Alexandra Dockham. St. Herman of Alaska Press. 1995.