Secular Life Robs One of Freedom and Holds its Devotees in Heavy Bondage. Hypocrisy and Self-interest as the Constant Marks of Secular Life

Last time I did not address everything that you touched upon in your letter. I send you this as a supplement. You write: «Here is something else I observe: everyone is rushing headlong, chasing after something they want to catch, and no one manages to catch anything. I happened to walk along a crowded street or through a crowded place—what commotion and bustle there was! But then I look, and it is the same indoors, and very likely the same in their souls. And I cannot make sense of it: can one really live this way? And here is something else I see: they press against one another, constrain and tyrannize one another, and no one has any will or freedom of his own. You dare not dress as you wish, dare not step as you wish, dare not speak as you wish—dare not do anything as you wish. Everything is subject to some law no one knows who wrote; it oppresses everyone, but no one dares break it. And so they themselves become tyrants to one another. Dare to disobey someone—and woe to you. I, for example, sing when I feel like singing. That, surely, is bliss: pleasant for me and pleasant for those who listen. But here, willing or not, you must sing. It is put to you very politely, but to refuse is considered a violation of the law. And so you sing. The burden is unbearable—your chest is fit to burst—yet you puff up to show that you sing from the soul. I noticed this in others as well. There is your freedom! And yet, to look from the outside, everyone appears to be at liberty. Liberty with hands and feet bound! On this account I began to observe: do they do everything else from the soul as well? And what did I find? Perhaps I am mistaken, but I saw nothing that came from the soul. The affection is affected, the readiness to be of service—likewise, the mutual respect—likewise. Everything is put on. Behind a smooth and elegant exterior a completely different soul is hiding, which, if it were dragged into the light, no one would find not only elegant, but even tolerable. And so it turns out that when we gather together, we present a collection of actresses and actors. A comedy! And something else that astonishes me is this: from everyone there breathes a coldness. How can this be?! Everyone seems ready to give their soul to one another, and yet cold walks all around!»

Perfectly accurate. There is nothing to add to your description. All of this was noticed and pointed out as a warning long ago. St. Macarius the Great depicted the commotion and chasing after something that you have observed in these words: «The children of this age are like wheat poured into the sieve of this earth, and are sifted amid the unstable thoughts of this world, amid the incessant agitation of earthly affairs, desires, and the manifold entanglements of material preoccupations. Satan shakes souls and, as with a sieve—that is, with earthly affairs—sifts the entire sinful race of mankind. From the time of the fall, when Adam transgressed the commandment and subjected himself to the evil prince who seized power over him, that prince, with incessant seductive and disturbing thoughts, sifts all the sons of this age and brings them into collision in the sieve of the earth. As wheat in a sieve beats against the one who sifts it and is continually tossed and turned within it, so the prince of wickedness, through earthly affairs, occupies all people, shakes them, brings them into confusion and anxiety, causes them to collide with vain thoughts, impure desires, earthly and worldly attachments, ceaselessly taking captive the whole sinful race of Adam. And the Lord foretold to the Apostles the future assault of the wicked one upon them: «Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed to My Father that your faith fail not» (Lk. 22:31–32). For this word and decree, uttered openly by the Creator to Cain: «groaning and trembling, in turmoil, thou shalt be upon the earth» (Gen. 4:12), serves secretly as a figure and likeness for all sinners, because the race of Adam, having transgressed the commandment and become sinful, took this likeness upon itself in secret. People are shaken by unstable thoughts of fear, dread, all manner of disturbance, by desires, and by manifold pleasures of every kind. The prince of this world agitates every soul not born of God, and, like wheat revolving ceaselessly in a sieve, diversely agitates human thoughts, bringing all into confusion and ensnaring them with worldly enticements, fleshly pleasures, terrors, and disturbances» (Homily 5, §§ 1–2).

Here is a supplement to your own observation! You noted what is and what occurs. And St. Macarius pointed out both the cause of it and its original source. In the circle of which we are speaking, this view of things is not accepted, and one must not introduce it in conversation there. You, however, I ask to make this view your own and always to hold it in mind. It expresses the essence of the matter, and, being accepted by you with conviction, it will serve as a protection for you against the allurements of society life. To think about it more deeply and to grow more at home with this way of thinking, I ask you to read the whole of that fifth homily of St. Macarius. I gave this book to your mother, and she wished to acquire it.

On my own part I will add that this chasing after something and this inability to be satisfied by anything depend on the same thing I wrote about last time: namely, that this way of life does not nourish the whole of human nature and does not satisfy all its needs. The unsatisfied aspect, like a starving creature, demands food to appease its hunger and thirst, and drives a person to seek it. And the person runs to seek it—but since he moves always within the same circle, which does not satisfy the starving aspect, no satisfaction is achieved, the hunger and thirst are not cut off, the demand for food does not cease, and the chase does not cease either. And it will never cease in those who live according to the spirit of this world. The enemy holds them in a blindness by which they do not notice their mistake—that they are running along the wrong road and striving toward the wrong destination—and in this darkness he torments and stifles these souls, the poor things. And so thoroughly has the enemy beclouded them that no one dare speak to them of their error. They will snarl like wild beasts. Is this not the roaring of that lion who roams everywhere «seeking whom he may devour» (1 Pet. 5:8)!

As for the other aspects of society (worldly) life that you have noticed, I will say only that it could not be otherwise. For such a life is the life of fallen mankind, whose foundational mark is self-love, or egoism, which sets itself as the end and all things and all persons as the means. This is the reason why everyone wants to impose his desires upon another, or to bind the other with those desires—what you very aptly called tyranny. However much anyone adorns his desires, behind everything stands egoism, wishing to turn you to its own purposes or to make of you an instrument. This is also the reason for the play-acting, the essence of which is a strained art of concealing one’s bad sides in every possible way without correcting them—for otherwise one’s influence on others will cease, and consequently so will one’s use of them as instruments. This is also the reason why cold breathes from everyone—for each person is enclosed within himself and radiates no warmth of living life around him.

True, you will no doubt encounter several persons of a sympathetic disposition of heart: they draw close and go straight to the heart. Such a quality is a remnant of the brotherly feeling with which a human being was created in relation to others; but here it is in the service of egoism, which makes use of it as the best means of arranging its own affairs. I know one such person. A frank egoist or egotistical woman is better than these sympathists, male or female. In the former one can at least notice where the business is tending; in the latter, few people manage to perceive it.

True, you almost constantly encounter acts of service, but they are performed so that later, in return for one small favor, you may be harnessed to ten tasks for someone else’s benefit. You may say: «But how can that be? Here everyone insists on honesty, and to show any dishonesty in anything means to ruin oneself.» True, it is so—but this honesty is a mask of egoism; the whole point is not to lose face, and to that end the most dishonest acts are often permitted, as long as they can be concealed from others. You will even hear, or may already have heard, verdicts such as: «He is an egoist, she is an egotist!» Do not think that those who say this are themselves free from egoism. No—this verdict is aimed at those who do not allow themselves to be manipulated or used as an instrument for the egoistical ends of those passing judgment. And consequently it directly exposes these latter as egoists themselves. I have heard that such persons even reproach monks for egoism—saying they live only for themselves. Poor monks! No proper food, no proper drink, no proper sleep, on their feet day and night, under obedience, without a will or desires of their own—and they have been branded egoists! By this alone you can judge what the reproaches of egoism you encounter or will encounter in society are worth. They mean: «The scythe has met its stone.»

Reviewing what I have written, I see that I have rendered a very harsh judgment on society life, but I do not take the words back. Perhaps I might not have written what came to be written—but since you yourself noted quite a few dark spots in the social world, I was tempted to join in singing on the same note, and I do not think this will in any way offend you, after what you said yourself. But I expect a question from you: «Well, what is one to do?» That is what we shall be working out throughout all of our correspondence. For now I will say only this: you cannot of course withdraw entirely from everyone, but as much as possible make excuses to avoid entering the circle of that society life, and when you are drawn into it against your will, conduct yourself as though you were not there: seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not. Let what is seen pass before your eyes and what is heard pass by your ears. Outwardly act as everyone else does, as though you were open-hearted—but guard your heart from sympathies and infatuations. That is the main thing: guard your heart—and you will be there only in body, not in soul, faithfully fulfilling the Apostle’s commandment that those who «use this world be as not abusing it» (1 Cor. 7:31). The world here means the same as what we call society and society life. You will be one who «uses the world,» that is, who has need of contact with society life; but when you keep your heart far from everything, you will be «as not using» such a life—that is, not participating in it out of sympathy and desire, but compelled to do so by your present circumstances.

I have worn you out with my much writing, but you yourself compelled me to it. I ask you not to let what is written pass by without attention, especially the last lines.