I have already posted twice about my favorite desert mystic, Amma Syncletica. She offers an amazing, no-nonsense voice for spiritual practice - with heart. So here are few more of her sayings. For background go to Amma Syncletica, Part I. The Story, and I posted others of her sayings in the context of my experience at Amma Syncletica, Part II. Some Sayings.
You’ll notice that Syncletica (like Antony & Evagrius and other early Christian, desert hermits) described the struggle to detach from desires (or ego) as a fight with demons. The Enemy, of course, was Satan. As a good little Universalist, I don’t buy the whole Satan theory, yet there is still something apt in this.
I often feel like something has got hold of me and is dragging or tricking or seducing me into places I don't want to go. No matter what practices I do, I am still blindsided by waves of bitter resentment or preening pride. I may assume these “demons” all arise from inside me, but they sure can feel like an external attack. Also, it’s sort of comforting to imagine they are demon attacks. Then rejection has no if, ands or buts to it.
O.k. enough of my thoughts. Here are some sayings, uninterrupted except that I extracted bits from longer text. If you read the original, you might find other meanings by making different emphases. (All from the translation of Syncletica's Life by Elizabeth Bryson Bongie.)
# 22 “Whatever people say …that is useful springs from love and ends in it. Salvation, then, is exactly this – the two-fold love of God and of our neighbor.”
#23 “The person who has once given assent to what is less than good is unable to stand firm even in little matters, but is carried off, so to speak, into the pit of destruction… [and] is judged like a soldier that deserts; he is not awarded pardon because he left for a less strenuous campaign.”
#25 “Through our senses, even if we are unwilling, ‘thieves’ enter. How indeed can a house not be blackened if smoke from outside is wafting about and the windows are open?”
#26 “The more athletes make progress the more they are matched with stronger opponents… Were you victorious over actual, physical sexual impurity? …[The Enemy] continues to lurk in the crannies of your mind … conjuring up handsome faces and old relationships… [do] not give your assent to these fantasies.”
#30 “Just as heavy clothing is washed and bleached by treading and vigorous wringing, so also the strong soul is strengthened by voluntary poverty. But those with a weaker disposition have the opposite experience… When they are rubbed a little, they disintegrate like torn garments, not lasting through the wash… Although the fuller may be the same, the outcome for the clothes is different; some are torn and perished while another is bleached and renewed.”
#31 “It is essential to be trained in austerities… For those who have… suddenly rushed into rejecting their possessions are generally seized with regret.”
#32 “possessions are the ‘tools’ of a life devoted to pleasure. Take away first the ‘trade’ (soft living) and you will also be able easily to dispense with the material aspect… possessions; it is difficult… if the ‘trade’ is going on for the ‘tools’ to be absent.”
#34 “Just as domestic animals in the performance of their particular tasks are satisfied only with the nourishment needed to sustain life, so also those who practice poverty consider the use of silver worthless and they do their manual work in return for their daily nourishment alone. These people possess the foundation of faith… [by] not taking thought for the morrow.”
#35 “[To] those who live without possessions [the Enemy] lacks the means to do harm, since the majority of our griefs and trials originate in the removal of possessions. Can he burn their estates... lay hands on their dear ones? To these too they long ago said good-bye.”
#36 “[Vices] bring about their own destruction out of their very nature. For in bringing evil that is insatiable… their wound is incurable. The one who has nothing desires little, and on acquiring this little reaches for more. One has a hundred gold coins and longs for a thousand, and after acquiring these raises his sights, ad infinitum… Unable to establish their limit, they constantly lament their poverty.”
#37 “It would be a great advantage if, in our search for genuine wealth, we could endure as many tribulations as those hopelessly damaging ones that ‘hunters’ of empty worldliness encounter… But if ever we… do experience some little gain, we puff ourselves up, pointing it out to the people… In addition, we fail to include in our account what really happened. Those people… keep going after more; they count as nothing what they already have… Even though we possess nothing of what was being sought, we call ourselves rich.”
#38 “We must make every effort, then, to keep our gain hidden. Those who are describing their own successes should also try to mention the weaknesses that go with them… Those who live in virtue act in the opposite way; they describe their small lapses along with some extras they did not commit, thus rejecting the good esteem of people while concealing their good acts… Just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so also does the soul disintegrate in the face of praises and loose its vigor.”
#39 “If praise removes the vigor of the soul, then assuredly, censure and insult lead the soul to heights of virtue.”
#41 “We should not think that anyone in life is free from care… Every sprig of virtue grows straight as a result of pains… [in secular life] When they are not honored, they are sad; when they yearn for what belongs to another, they pine away; when they are poor, they feel distressed; when they are rich, they become obsessed; unable to sleep for watching over their possessions.”
#42 “Let us [hermit] women not be misled… Perhaps in comparison [those in the world] struggle more than we do. For towards women generally there is great hostility in the world… Let us not be deluded… that their life is easy and carefree.”
#43 “Just as one diet is not suitable for all animals, the same instruction is not suitable for all people. Those who find satisfaction in contemplation and gnosis are nourished in one way, while those who have a taste for asceticism and ascetic practice are nourished in another way, and similarly those in the world who practice good works to the best of their ability.”
#45 “Like a ship our soul is sometimes engulfed by the waters without and is sometime swamped by the bilge-water within… And so we must guard against onslaughts of spirits from outside us, and bail out impurities of thoughts inside us… Against the storm waves outside salvation often comes from ships nearby when the sailors cry out for help; but bilge-waters overflow and frequently kill the seamen, often when they are asleep and the sea is calm.”
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