Monthly Archives: January 2024

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | January 31, 2024

The Ladder of Divine Ascent | by St. John Climacus (579 – 649) died ~age 70; born in Syria

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Step 1: On Renunciation of the world (7)
Step 2: On detachment (12)
Step 3: On exile of pilgrimage (14)
              – Concerning dreams that beginners have (17)
Step 4: On blessed and ever-memorable obedience (18)
               – About a robber who repented (20)
               – About Isidore (23)
               – About Laurence (24)
               – About a bursar (24)
               – About Abbacyrus (25)
               – About Macedonius the archdeacon (26)
               – About a certain other brother (27)
               – About Saint Menas (27)
               – The first snare (31)
               – The second snare (32)
               – About Saint Acacius (37)
               – About John the Sabbaite, or Antiochus (38)
Step 5:  On painstaking and true repentance which constitute the life of the holy convicts; and about prison. (41)
Step 6: On remembrance of death. (49)
Step 7: On mourning which causes joy. (52)
Step 8: On freedom from anger and on meekness. (59)
Step 9: On remembrance of wrongs. (63)
Step 10: On slander or calumny. (65)
Step 11: On talkativeness and silence. (67)
Step 12: On lying. (68)
Step 13: On despondency. (69)
Step 14: On the clamorous, yet wicked master – the stomach. (70)
Step 15: On incorruptible purity and chastity to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat. (74)
Step 16: On love of money or avarice. (85)
Step 17: On poverty that hastens heavenwards (86)
Step 18: On insensibility, that is, deadening of the soul and the death of the mind before the death of the body. (87)
Step 19: On sleep, prayer, and psalm-singing in chapel. (89)
Step 20: On the bodily vigil and how to use it to attain spiritual vigil and how to practice it. (90)
Step 21: On unmanly and puerile cowardice. (91)
Step 22: On the many forms of vainglory. (93)
Step 23: On mad pride, and, in the same Step, on unclean blasphemous thoughts (97)                –                – Concerning unmentionable blasphemous thoughts (100)
Step 24: On meekness, simplicity, guilelessness which come not from nature but from habit, and about malice. (102)
Step 25: On the destroyer of the passions, most sublime humility, which is rooted in spiritual feeling. (104)
Step 26: On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues. (112)
               – On expert discernment (123)
Brief summary of all the previous steps (132)
Step 27: On holy solitude of body and soul. (136)
– Different aspects of solitude and how to distinguish them (139)
Step 28: On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer. (145)
Step 29: Concerning heaven on earth, or godlike dispassion and perfection, and the resurrection of the soul before the general resurrection. (151)
Step 30: Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues. (153)
A BRIEF EXHORTATION SUMMARIZING ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID AT LENGTH IN THIS BOOK (157)

by St. John Climacus (579 – 649) died ~age 70; born in Syria

Christian Orthodoxy Reading List

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | January 29, 2024

A Christian Orthodoxy Reading List…

  • The Ladder of Divine Ascent
  • Monastic Wisdom, letters of St. Joseph the Heyschast
  • Wounded by Love, teachings of St. Porphyrios
  • Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Serbia
  • The Life of St. Anthony by St. Athanasius
  • On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius
  • Counsels from the Holy Mountain, by Elder Ephraim of Arizona
  • A Night on the Desert of the Holy Mountain, by Vlahos
  • The Mountain of Silence, novel about teachings of Bishop Athanasios of Cyprus
  • Early Fathers from the Philokalia, esp. the writings from St. Dorotheus of Gaza
  • St. Nicholas Cabasilas, Life in Christ and Commentary on the Divine Liturgy
  • The various volumes of teachings of St. Paisios the Athonite
  • An Ascetic Bishop (life of St. Niphon)
  • On the Prayer of Jesus, by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
  • The Garden of the Holy Spirit, life of St. Iakovos of Evia
  • Words of the Heart, life and teachings of Eldress Macrina of Portaria
  • The Art of Salvation, sermons of Elder Ephraim of Arizona
  • The Philokalia: Volumes 1 – 5
  • The City of God – Complete Books I – XXII by Saint Augustine of Hippo (Marcus Dods)
  • The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky
  • What is Theology |an Orthodox Methodology by Jean-Claude Larchet
  • Nihilism | The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age by Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose
  • Thinking Orthodox | Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mindby Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou
  • The Whole Counsel of God – An Introduction to your Bible by Stephen De Young
  • The Lord of Spirits: An Orthodox Christian Framework for the Unseen World and Spiritual Warfare by Andrew Stephen Damick
  • The Prologue From Ohrid
  • The Orthodox Study Bible

And also so many of the books published by:

 

What is Logismoi?

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | January 26, 2024

Logismoi is assaultive thoughts or thought forms, not your everyday thoughts. We swim in a sea of thoughts; the Zeitgeist or the culmination of the culture.  Thought forms which are within this Zeitgeist can be assaultive.  They are not harmless.   Thoughts and thought images.  Logismoi are caused by battle with the devil.

There are 5 stages:

  1. Assault – ignore – turn away from it. Don’t have to fight it…swat them like flies buzzing around.   A thought enters our mind… for example to steal some money, lust, etc.  We are not accountable for the strike or the assault.   We have not committed a sin.  We have not done anything except being assaulted.
  2. Interaction – we open a dialogue with the logismoi .. Should I do this or should I do that? Should I steal this money or not? We analyze the risk vs. reward. Slap it down.  No accountability; no sin yet committed.
  3. Consent – defeat … we are accountable. Consent to what the logismoi tempted you to commit. This is the beginning of sin. Guilt.
  4. Captivity – if you can’t free yourself from the previous stage, then there is defeat. You become hostage to the logismoi, next time it comes around with greater force. Becomes a habit that is repeated time and again.
  5. Passion – it takes the grace of the Holy Spirit…prayer, passions to recover who you are. An entrenched reality. You are a captive to destructive acts to yourself and others.  You get rewired and reoriented.  Not a simple matter to deal with.  Capable of reasoning with the mind but the heart can’t escape and you descend into sin.

Assault > Interaction > Consent > Captivity (you become hostage to the logismoi); thus it becomes more and more difficult to resist > Passion / obsession / addiction  – you then participate in ongoing destructive acts … you give a key to your heart to Satan so he can get in and out without effort … Obsessive / Compulsive  – clouds and darkens the nous.  Takes the grace of the Holy Spirt to recover who you are.  Obey His commandments.  This is spiritual warfare.

Note: When the nous is illuminated it means that it is receiving the energy of God which illumines it. Nous refers to our highest faculty… the “I” that perceives God.

Seven (7) Deadly Sins and their remedy:

More on this topic: Time marker 54:04 in this video: Orthodox Catechism: Part 11: Spiritual Life and Spiritual Warfare

12 Degrees of sins – St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain 

  1. Does good, but not in a good manner – mixture of the good with the bad. For example you practice Lent perfectly but only so you can show off.
  2. Idleness in regard of good… not engaged in  actively doing good
  3. Assault of evil because of our carelessness
  4. Coupling with the assault – this is where sin starts – we start playing with sinful thoughts
  5. The struggle which is no struggle
  6. Consent
  7. Sin of the mind
  8. The deed itself
  9. Habit of committing the sin often
  10. Addiction to it
  11. Despair and hopelessness
  12. Suicide – being conquered by despair

NIHILISM by Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | January 26, 2024

NIHILISM by Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose | The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age; Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose (1934 – 1982); St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood; Paperback, 123 pages; First printing: 1994

In this short, insightful book, Eugene Rose convincingly dispatches the philosophy of Nihilism to the existential trash bin by exposing its many contradictions, errors and self-imposed limitations.  This book helped me understand how Nihilism and its progeny have permeated today’s culture clouding the inner eye of the soul, thus blocking the “I” that perceives God from God’s energy and illumination.

Note: Since Eugene Rose was deceased in 1982, this book was obviously written close to the end the Soviet Union’s reign of terror (1922–1991) against the Russian people.  From my reading of this book, Rose was likely unaware the role Wall Street and the International Bankers played in the October Revolution, WW1, and WW2 as exposed by Antony C. Sutton, Carroll Quigley, James Perloff and many others.  What this means to me is that –like Communism and so many other ism’s– Nihilism may yet be another tool used to gain advantage over the sleeping masses.  Also, it is interesting to note the harmonic resonance between this book, and: Technocracy, Materialism, and Ted Kaczynski’s desperate warnings on the advance of technology.    

NIHILISM |The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age
Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose (1934 – 1982)
St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood
Paperback, 123 pages
First printing: 1994

CONTENTS

Editor’s Preface…

I. Introduction: The question of Truth

II. The Stages of the Nihilist Dialectic

  1. Liberalism
  2. Realism
  3. Vitalism
  4. The Nihilism of Destruction

III. The Theology and the Spirit of Nihilism

  1. Rebellion: The War against God
  2. The Worship of Nothingness

IV. The Nihilist Program

  1. The Destruction of the Old Order
  2. The Making of the “New Earth”
  3. The Fashioning of the “New Man”

V. “Beyond Nihilism”

Eugene’s Proposed Outline for The Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom of God
Appendix: The Philosophy of the Absurd
Index

Paperback: NIHILISM by Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose:  Saint Herman Press
Free PDF version: (Fr Seraphim Rose) Nihilism – The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age

Also of interest: Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future by Fr. Seraphim Rose