Man as a Second World

Man is like another or second world — a new world, as he is called by St. Paul when he states, “Whoever is in Christ is a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17). For through virtue man becomes a heaven and an earth and everything that a world is.

~ On Commandments and Doctrines, Nr. 122, as quoted in Philip Sherrard, editor and translator, The Philokalia, Vol. IV, Faber and Faber, 1995, p. 242.

Finding Divine Wisdom in Creation

If your speech is full of wisdom and you meditate on understanding in your heart (cf. Psalm 49:3), you will discover in created things the presence of the divine Logos, the substantive Wisdom of God the Father (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:24); for in created things you will perceive the outward expression of the archetypes that characterize them, and thus through your active living intelligence, you will speak wisdom that derives from the Divine Wisdom.

~ On Commandments and Doctrines, Nr. 134, as quoted in Philip Sherrard, editor and translator, The Philokalia, Vol. 4, Faber and Faber, 1995, p. 250

Knowledge of God through Knowledge of Creation

A true lover of wisdom is he who, through natural things, has learned to know their Creator, and from the Creator, has understood natural things and things Divine; and such as knows not from teaching only, but from experience. Or, a perfect lover of wisdom is he who has perfected himself in the moral, natural and Divine love of wisdom, or rather, in love of God.

~ Philokalia, Vol. IV, “Texts of Commandments and Dogma,” Nr. 127, p. 245-246.

Who is the True Spiritual Teacher?

A true teacher is he who through his all-embracing cognitive thought comprehends created things concisely, as if they constituted a single body, establishing distinctions and connections between them according to their generic difference and identity, so as to indicate which possess similar qualities…. Or again, a true spiritual teacher is he who distinguishes and relates the general and universal qualities of created things — classified in accordance with formulation that embraces everything….

A true philosopher is one who perceives in created things their spiritual Cause, or who knows created things through knowing their Cause, having attained a union with God that transcends the intellect and a direct, unmediated faith. He does not simply learn about divine things, but actually experiences them.

A student of spiritual knowledge, though not properly speaking a philosopher, is he who esteems and studies God’s wisdom mirrored in His creation, down to the least vestige of it; but he does this without any self-display or any hankering after human praise and glory, for he wishes to be a lover of God’s wisdom in creation and not a lover of materialism.

~ On Commandments and Doctrines, Nr. 127, Philokalia, Vol. IV, 1995, p. 245

The Initiated Teacher

Or again, a teacher initiated into things divine is one who can distinguish principial beings from participative beings, or beings that have no autonomous self-subsistent reality…. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he perceives the essences of principial beings embodied in participative beings.

In other words, he interprets what is intelligible and invisible in terms of what is sensible and visible, and the visible sense-world in terms of the invisible and supra-sensory world, conscious that what is visible is the archetype of what is visible. He knows that things possessing form and pattern are brought into being by what is formless and without pattern, and that each manifests the other spiritually; and he clearly perceives each in the other and conveys this perception in his teaching of the truth. His knowledge of the truth, with all its sun-like radiance, is not expressed in allegorical form; on the contrary, he elucidates the true underlying principles of both worlds with spiritual insight and power, and expounds them forcefully and vividly. In this way the visible world becomes our teacher, and the invisible world is shown to be an eternal divine dwelling-place….

~ Philokalia, Vol. IV, “Texts of Commandments and Dogma,” Text Nr. 127:3, p. 246.

A Right View of Created Things

To try to discover the meaning of the commandments through study and reading without actually living in accordance with them is like mistaking the shadows of something for its reality. It is only by participating in the truth that you can share in the meaning of truth. If you search for the meaning without participating in the truth, and without having been initiated into it, you will find only a besotted kind of wisdom (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:20)…. [and this gives true spiritual knowledge].

A right view of created things depends upon a truly spiritual knowledge of visible and invisible realities. Visible realities are objects perceived by the senses, while invisible realities are noetic, intelligent, intelligible and divine.

~ On Commandments and Doctrines, 22, 25. Alternate translation in The Philokalia on Prayer and the Heart, Trans E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer. Faber and Faber, 1979, p. 42.

Instructions for Monks on Maintaining Thanksgiving

A man who strives after salvation and forces himself, for the sake of the Lord, to lead a life of silence, should be satisfied, in my opinion, with a small portion of bread, three or four cups of water or wine a day, and a little of any of the other victuals which may be at hand. He must not let himself eat to satiety; so that, through such wise use of food, that is through eating all kinds of food, on the one hand he may avoid boastfulness, and on the other he may not show disdain for God’s creations, which are most excellent. And he thanks God for everything. Such is the reasoning of the wise!

~ “Instructions to Hesychasts,” Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber and Faber, London, 1951, 1970, tenth edition, p.79.