On the Governing and Good Use of the External Senses

For those who are zealous in piety, the strict governing and proper direction of the use of our five external senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—must be an ever-present and unceasing labor. Our heart unceasingly thirsts and seeks consolations and delights. It ought to find these in an interior way, containing and bearing within itself the One in whose image man was created—the very source of all consolation. But when in the fall we departed from God for our own sake, we did not remain even within ourselves, but fell into the flesh, went outward through it, and there began to seek our joys and delights. Our senses became the conductors and guides in this. Through them the soul goes outward, tastes the things that are subject to the experience of each sense, and is itself delighted by those which gratify these senses—and from their combined effect composes for itself a circle of pleasures and delights, in the tasting of which it places its chief good. The order has thus been perverted: instead of God within, the heart seeks pleasures without, and satisfies itself with them.

Those who have heeded the voice of God — ”Repent” (Matt. 3:2)—repent and resolve as a law for themselves to restore in themselves the original order of life: that is, to return from without to within, and from within to God, so as to live in Him and by Him and to have therein their chief good, and to bear within themselves the source of consolation. The restoration of such an order, although taken up with strong desire and firm resolve, is not achieved all at once. For the one who has resolved upon it there lies ahead a long labor of struggle with former habits of consoling, pleasing, and gratifying oneself—until these habits fall away and are replaced by others befitting the new life. And here the governing and use of the external senses is of great importance.

Each sense has its own range of pleasing and displeasing objects. The soul is delighted by the pleasing ones, and having grown accustomed to this, forms within itself a desire for them. From each sense there is thus implanted in the soul several desires, or inclinations and attachments. They all lie hidden in the soul and are silent when there is no occasion to arouse them. They are aroused sometimes by thoughts about their objects, but chiefly and most powerfully when the objects are present to the senses and are being experienced by them. In this case the desire for them rises irresistibly, and in one who has not yet resolved not to yield to it, ”desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15)—and in him is fulfilled the prophetic word: ”death has entered through your windows” (Jer. 9:21)—that is, through the senses, which are the windows of the soul for communication with the outer world. In one who has resolved to resist, however, it stirs up a struggle not without danger of falling. Therefore for such a person it must be an unbreakable rule to govern and use the senses in such a way that through them sensual lusts are not aroused, but on the contrary, such impressions are received as would suppress them and arouse the feelings opposite to them.

You see, brother, into what danger your senses may place you. Be attentive to yourself, therefore, and learn wisdom in preventing it. Strive with every effort not to allow the senses to wander this way and that as they wish, and not to turn them to the tasting of sensual pleasures alone—but on the contrary, direct them toward what is good, or useful, or necessary. And if until now your senses have sometimes broken through to sensual gratifications, from now on labor with all your might to bridle them and to bring them back from such impulses. Govern them well, so that where formerly they were enslaved to vain and soul-harmful pleasures, they may henceforth receive soul-beneficial impressions from every creature and every object, and bring these into the soul. Such impressions, engendering spiritual thoughts in the soul, will gather it into itself, and on the wings of spiritual contemplation will lift it to the vision of God and to glorifying Him—as Blessed Augustine says: “However many creatures there are in the world, they all hold converse with devout men in a silent and wordless language, yet none the less effective, and for them easy to think on and understand; from this they receive good and reverent thoughts and are moved to a most fervent love for God.”

This you too can do in the following way. When any sensory object presents itself to your external senses—whether seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched—separate in your thought what is sensory and material in it from what is in it of the creative Spirit of God, and reflect that it cannot possibly have its existence and all else that is in it from itself, but that all of this in it is the work of God, Who by His invisible power grants it this existence and this goodness, and beauty, and wise structure, and this power to act upon others, and this capacity to receive their action in return, and all else that is good in it. Then carry such reflections over to all other visible things as well, and rejoice in your heart that God alone is the cause and source of so varied, so great, and so wondrous a multitude of perfections revealed in creatures—that He Himself encompasses within Himself in boundless measure all manner of perfections, and that the perfections visible in creatures are nothing other than a faint reflection and shadow of God’s infinite perfections. Train your mind with such reflections at the sight of every creature, and you will grow accustomed, when looking at visible things, not to linger in attention on their outward appearance alone, but to penetrate within—to what is divine in them, to their invisible, hidden, contemplative beauty. As a result, all that is externally attractive to your sensory side in things will pass by your attention and feeling without a trace, and only their inner content will take hold of your mind, stirring and nourishing in it spiritual contemplations and moving it to glorify the Lord.

Thus, looking upon the four elements—fire, air, water, and earth—and meditating on their essence, power, and action, you will call out in great spiritual consolation to their supreme Creator Who ordered them so: “O great God, boundless Power and most desirable Act! I rejoice and exult that You alone are the beginning and cause of all created essence, power, and act!” Gazing upon the sky and the luminaries of heaven—the sun, moon, and stars—and reflecting that they have received their light and radiance from God, you will exclaim: “O Light brighter than all light, from Whom every material and immaterial light was created! O most wondrous Light, the first object of the rejoicing of the Angels and the rapture of the blessed, into whose unwavering contemplation the eyes of the Cherubim are plunged in amazement, and in comparison with Whom all sensory lights seem deep darkness! I glorify and exalt You, O true Light, Who enlightens every man who comes into the world! Grant me always to behold You with the mind, that my heart may rejoice with complete joy!” Likewise, looking upon trees, grasses, and other diverse plants, and perceiving with the mind how they live, are nourished, grow, and reproduce their like—and that they do not have life and all else that is in them from themselves but from the creative Spirit, Whom you do not see and Who alone gives them life—you may cry out: “Here is the true Life, from Whom, in Whom, and by Whom everything lives, is nourished, and multiplies! O life-giving Delight of my heart!” In a similar way, when gazing upon irrational animals, you may lift your mind to God Who gave them senses and the power to move from place to place, and say: “O first Mover of all, Who, setting all in motion, Yourself remain unmoved within Yourself! How greatly do I rejoice and exult over this supreme mobility of Yours and Your firm self-identity!”

And looking upon yourself or upon other people, reflecting that to you alone is given the high position that you alone among all living beings on earth are gifted with reason and serve as the point of union and bond between material and immaterial creatures, be moved to glorify and give thanks to your Creator and God, and say: “O most exalted Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Be supremely blessed forever! How much ought I always to thank You—not only because You created me from the earth and set me as king over all earthly creatures; not only because You have by nature honored me with Your image, with reason, with speech, with a living body; but above all because You have granted me the power by my free will to make myself like You through the virtues, so that thereby I may have You in myself eternally and be blessed in You!”

Now I turn to each of the five senses individually and say to you: when you behold the beauty and comeliness of creatures, separate in your mind what you see from their spiritual significance which you do not see—and having reflected that all this comely beauty, visible outwardly, is the work of the invisible and all-beautiful creative Spirit, in Whom lies the cause of all such external beauty, say, filled with joy: “Behold abundant streams from the uncreated source! Behold the all-refreshing rain from the boundless sea of every good! How gladdened I am in the depths of my heart, reflecting on the ineffable beauty of my Creator—the beginning and cause of all created beauty! With what spiritual sweetness am I filled when I hold in my mind the thought of the unspeakable and incomprehensible beauty of my God, in Whom is the source of all beauty!”

When you hear a pleasant voice or the harmony of voices and songs, turn your mind to God and say: “Harmony of harmonies, O my Lord! How I rejoice in Your infinite perfections, which, gathered together in You in a supranatural harmony and then reflected in the hosts of the Angels in heaven and in the innumerable creatures beneath heaven, compose one inconceivably harmonious symphony!” And further: “When will my hour come, O Lord, to hear with the ears of my heart Your most sweet voice saying: ‘My peace I give to you’—peace from the passions! ”For your voice is sweet,” as the bride sings in the Song of Songs” (Song 2:14)!

If it happens that you smell some myrrh or the fragrance of some flower, pass in thought from this outward fragrance to the hidden fragrance of the Holy Spirit and say: “Behold the breath of that all-fragrant Flower and that inexhaustible Myrrh, which is poured out upon all the creatures of God, as it is sung in the Song of Songs: ”I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys” (Song 2:1)—and again: ”Your name is as ointment poured out” (Song 1:2). Behold the diffusion of the primordial fragrance, which most bountifully breathes forth its divine exhalations upon everything—from the highest and most pure Angels down to the lowest creatures, and all things are filled with fragrance.” So once did Isaac, smelling the scent of his Jacob, say: ”See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed” (Gen. 27:27).

Again, when you eat or drink, reflect that it is God Who gives to all edible things their taste pleasant to us, and, finding delight in Him alone, say: “Rejoice, O my soul, that while outside of God there is for you no satisfaction, no sweetness and no consolation, you, having come to know Him and having cleaved to Him, can find in Him alone all delight—as David invites you to this, saying: ”Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9)—and as Solomon attests the truth of this, saying: ”His fruit is sweet to my taste” (Song 2:3).”

Likewise, when you extend your hands to perform some task, bring to mind that God, Who has granted you the power and ability to act, is the first cause of all movement, and that you are nothing other than a living instrument in His hands—and, lifting your thought to Him, say: “What joy I experience within myself, O most high God of all, reflecting that without You I can do nothing, and that You are the first and primary Agent in every deed!”

And when you see in others goodness, or wisdom, or justice, or any other virtues, then in this case too, separating the invisible from the visible, say to your God: “O most rich treasure of every virtue! What great joy it is for me to know and see that all good comes from You alone, and that all our good in comparison with Your divine perfections is nothing! I thank You, my God, for this and for every other good that You do for my neighbor; but remember, O our Benefactor, also my own poverty and my great deficiency in every virtue.”

And I will say in general: every time you feel in God’s creatures something attractive and delightful, do not linger in attention on them alone, but passing through them, move in your thought to God and say: “If Your creatures, O my God, are so beautiful, so joy-giving and delightful, how immeasurably beautiful, how immeasurably joy-giving, and how immeasurably sweet are You Yourself, O Creator of all!”

If you act in this way, my beloved, then even by means of your five senses you can learn the knowledge of God, always ascending in your mind from creatures to the Creator, so that the existence and the good ordering of all that is created will become for you a book of Theology—and you, while still in this sensory world, will become a partaker of the knowledge proper to the world above. For in truth the whole world and all of nature is nothing other than a certain instrument in which, beneath the visible, the very Architect and Artisan of all invisibly yet presently dwells, acting and visibly displaying His artistry—or in the visible and material presenting to the gaze of rational creatures His invisible and immaterial perfections and operations. Therefore, on the one hand, the wise Solomon says that ”from the greatness and beauty of created things their Author is seen in analogy” (Wis. 13:5), and on the other hand, Blessed Paul attests that ”the invisible things of God, His eternal power and Godhead, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made” (Rom. 1:20). In God’s world, on the one side are placed all God’s creatures, wisely ordered; on the other—human beings, endowed with rational power—with this purpose: that by their rational power, examining creatures and beholding in their creation and ordering the boundless wisdom, they should ascend to the knowledge and contemplation of the pre-eternal and hypostatic Word, by Whom ”all things were made” (John 1:3). And we naturally come to know the Agent from His actions—so that one need only reason rightly and soundly in order to find faith in creation (eiz th ctisei thn pistin) and in the created to behold God the Creator.