When Radical Mystics Spark the Muse!

I think it could eventually, but I think what they came across, what everybody comes across, and this is why Evagrius wrote to it with the students, he would say, "You're gonna have these nine afflicting thoughts." So first are the, the, the temptations of the body, then the temptations of the mind, and then the temptations of the spirit.

And there were...

And they all come at us.

You know, they w- no, none of us even in our modern time are immune.

We all wind up pushing against lust or gluttony or avarice or acedia.

And, and then the ones of the s- the spirit, the final three, are the ones that sneak up in the back door when you think you've got your life straightened out, and you think you're doing pretty good, and you're not like this schmuck over here, you know, the, who just arrived.

[laughs]

You know, I'm doing way better.

And then s- that's when envy and pride and, um, what's the other one? Um, oh, vainglory, where you-

Vainglory

... begin to kind of, "Uh, I'm kind of impressive, and maybe I'm..." Because, because these things that we develop spiritually speaking aren't...

Like, other things are rewarded maybe physically, you know? Like, if you're, if you're really ambitious, you can get money, right, and status and things.

But if you're really holy, people wanna at least get social clout, you know? [laughs] Like-

Mm-hmm

... and so Evagrius saw all this.

He was such a genius of the, the human condition.

And, and this was all part of like, yeah, it could lead to all those things, but he had a lot of warnings.

Like, so you're gonna get bored from 10:00 to 2:00.

Probably the, the worst is gonna be this noonday demon called acedia, and it's gonna be...

You're gonna be looking out the window, wandering around.

Well, I'm so bored.

I wish I could go back to my old life.

And you're not gonna be enjoying stillness, solitude, and silence.

[laughs] You know, you're gonna be pushing up against it.

So everything came out.