神父马克西姆：无形的争战，论基督里的属灵生活
目录
- 按：这是无形的争战，论基督里的属灵生活，讲稿由阿甲整理。
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[English] Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Father Marcus, for the nature of the day. I think it’s a huge place for the Chinese audience to have a nature about Orthodoxy’s spiritual traditions. Father Maximus is a famous gunner about orthodoxy and the more general Byzantine church fathers and the spirituality studies. It is our honor to have you here today. Next, we’ll introduce the Mandarin about Father Maximus. Maka Shimono. Thank you, Father Maximus. I think you can begin your lectures for the majority of the people here.
[中文] 好的。谢谢。马库斯神父，非常感谢您今天带来的分享。 我认为，对于中国听众而言，了解东正教灵性传统的本质具有重要意义。马克西姆斯神父是东正教、更广泛的拜占庭教父以及灵性研究领域的著名专家。今天能邀请您莅临，我们深感荣幸。接下来，我们将请马克西姆斯神父进行主讲。下场的是马克西姆斯神父。感谢您，马克西姆斯神父。我想您可以开始为在场的各位进行讲授了。
[English] Okay, thank you for that kind introduction. Before I begin, I wanted to thank you, Jason, for the good work that you’re doing with this broadcast and making this material available to a larger audience. I also wanted to say that today, on the calendar, May 20th, this year is the… what we call in the Orthodox Church, Pascha. So just as Pascha or Easter is preceded by a 40-day period of preparation, there is also a forty-day period of Celebration. There’s the forefeast and the afterfeast. Today is the last day of the afterfeast. And it’s the last time that… in the Orthodox Church, we are able to greet each other with the traditional greeting of Christos Anesti. Christ is risen. Today’s the last day to say. So I thought I would start. I think that’s… Christos Anesti.
And let me just add to that, the church doesn’t just sort of throw things at us suddenly. It doesn’t just drop us in the middle of something. It very gently and very patiently prepares us for the great feast. And then once we’ve reached or arrived at the feast, there’s a period of lengthy celebration. So, I think it says something about the way the church cares for us and is sensitive to our needs as human beings. We can’t just… We don’t have buttons that we can turn on and turn off. We need time to prepare ourselves physically and spiritually. And then after we do all of that work, we need time to enjoy and celebrate what we have. Just so.
[中文] 好的，感谢您如此热情的介绍。在开始之前，我想感谢你，杰森，感谢你为这次直播所做的出色工作，以及让这些内容能够触达更广泛的受众。 我还想提一下，今天是5月20日，在今年的东正教历法中，这一天被称为”帕斯哈”（Pascha）。正如帕斯哈（复活节）前有为期40天的准备期一样，复活节后也有为期40天的庆祝期，即”节前期”和”节后期”。 今天是节后期的最后一天。这也是东正教会中，我们最后一次能够用”基督复活了”（Christos Anesti）这一传统问候语互相问候的日子。今天是说这句话的最后一天。所以我决定先来开个头。我想说的是……基督复活了。
此外我想补充一点：教会并非突然向我们抛出各种要求，也不会让我们直接置身于某种境地之中。它总是极其温柔且耐心地引导我们，为这一盛大节日做好准备。而当我们真正迎来节日时，又有一段漫长的庆典时光。因此，我认为这体现了教会对我们的关怀，以及它对我们作为人类需求的体贴。 我们不能……我们并非像开关一样可以随意开启或关闭。我们需要时间在身体和精神上做好准备。而在完成这一切准备之后，我们还需要时间来享受并庆祝我们所拥有的。正是如此。
[English] So today, this evening, I suppose. I would like to share with you a few words about a recent translation that I completed. It’s the first English translation of a work known as Unseen Warfare. This is the final copy, it’s now at the printers, at the manufacturer. And since this is a new publication, I wanted to share it with you and tell you something about it. Is it Synonychidimus? Yes, St Nicodemus, yes. Congratulations. Thank you. And this volume that we’re talking about, Unseen Warfare, is going to be published in the series called the Philokalic Library, of which two volumes have been published. This is the first one, which is the Lives of… So there’s a series. Yeah, so it’ll be published in this series. Okay, so let’s begin.
[中文] 那么今天，或者说今晚吧。 我想跟大家聊聊我最近完成的一部译作。 这是名为《无形之战》的作品的首部英文译本。这是最终定稿，目前正在印刷厂印制。既然这是一部新出版的著作，我想与大家分享，并向大家介绍一下。 是《西诺尼基迪莫斯》吗？ 是的，圣尼科德莫斯，没错。 恭喜。 谢谢。我们正在谈论的这本《无形之战》，将收录在名为”菲洛卡利库斯文库”的丛书中，该丛书目前已出版两卷。这是第一卷，即《……传》…… 所以这是一个系列。是的，它将收录在这个系列中。 好的，那我们就开始吧。
[English] Some of you maybe familiar with the book called Unseen Warfare, which was first published in Greek by St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in 1796. I’m saying that some of you might be familiar with it based on an English translation that was prepared by Karl Lubavsky and published by Faber and Faber in 1952. That’s this volume here, published now by St. Vladimir’s. And Steve Lattimer has just published an updated sort of version of it, which is very nice. But the original version was 1952, and the same translators—I don’t see where their names are here. Karl Lubavsky and Palmer. In 1951, they published a book called, it’s right here, Writings from the Philokalia on the Prayer of the Heart. Oh, yeah. This is the first collection of writings about the Jesus Prayer that appeared in English back in 1951, and a couple of years after that, they published a second follow-up volume. Thank you. Early Fathers from the Philokalia. So again, the work Unseen Warfare is familiar to people. Okay, so. Karl Lubavsky and Palmer. So, all of these books that Karl Lubavsky and Palmer published were published by a well-known publishing house in the UK known as Faber and Faber. And the reason that Faber and Faber is a famous publishing house is because they typically publish the works of poets and literary writers. People like W.H. Auden, William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Milan Kundera, many others. So it was very unusual that Faber and Faber, which did not publish religious books, would publish The Unseen Warfare and a book on the Jesus Prayer. Now, why did they do that? Well, at the time, back in the 1950s, an American poet, T.S. Eliot, happened to be a very famous American poet who moved to the UK and spent most of his life there. T.S. Eliot happens to be on the board of Faber and Faber. And he told them, because they did not want to publish it. They said, no, we don’t publish religious books. And T.S. Eliot said no. He said, you need to publish these books because they are important. I mean, he knew, you know, he was, he was interested in Eastern religion and mysticism generally, and he knew the Philokalia, and he said it was great. And so on his word, they published the Philokalia, which is why the full five-volume English Philokalia is published by Faber and Faber to this day. So there’s just a little footnote.
[中文] 你们中有些人可能读过一本名为《无形之战》的书，该书最初由圣山圣尼科德姆于1796年用希腊语出版。我说”你们中有些人可能读过”，是因为你们可能读过卡尔·卢巴夫斯基翻译的英文版，该版本由法伯与法伯出版社于1952年出版。这就是眼前这本，现在由圣弗拉基米尔出版社出版。 史蒂夫·拉蒂默（Steve Lattimer）刚刚出版了该书的一个更新版本，非常不错。但原版是1952年出版的，译者也是同一人——我没看到他们的名字在这里。卡尔·卢巴夫斯基和帕尔默。1951年，他们出版了一本书，就在这里，名为《〈爱神集〉中的心祷文》。 哦，对。这是1951年首次以英文出版的关于耶稣祷文的文集，几年后，他们又出版了第二卷续篇。谢谢。即《《爱经》中的早期教父》。所以，再次强调，《无形之战》这本书大家都很熟悉。好的，那么。卡尔·卢巴夫斯基和帕尔默。 卡尔·卢巴夫斯基和帕尔默出版的所有这些书，都是由英国一家名为法伯与法伯（Faber and Faber）的知名出版社出版的。法伯与法伯之所以是一家著名的出版社，是因为他们通常出版诗人和文学作家的作品。比如W.H. 奥登、威廉·戈尔丁、塞缪尔·贝克特、西尔维娅·普拉斯、西默斯·希尼、米兰·昆德拉，还有许多其他人。 因此，向来不出版宗教书籍的费伯与费伯出版社，却出版了《无形之战》以及一本关于耶稣祷文的书，这实属罕见。那么，他们为何要这么做呢？其实，在20世纪50年代，一位名叫T.S.艾略特的美国诗人恰好移居英国，并在那里度过了大半生。 T.S.艾略特恰好是费伯与费伯出版社的董事会成员。当时出版社原本不愿出版这些书，他们表示：“不，我们不出版宗教书籍。“但T.S.艾略特坚决反对。他说：“你们必须出版这些书，因为它们非常重要。” 我的意思是，他了解……他对东方宗教和神秘主义很感兴趣，也知道《爱神集》，并称赞它很棒。凭着他的话，他们出版了《爱神集》，这就是为什么今天《爱神集》的全部五卷英文版都是由费伯与费伯出版社出版的。这只是个小小的注脚。
[English] Usually, the publisher doesn’t publish it. All right, so we do have what appears to be an English translation of Unseen Warfare, published in 1952, as I told you. However, this is not an English translation of the original Greek work by Saint Nicodemus published in 1796. So what this is… is a translation of St. Theophan the Recluse, who was a Russian theologian. This is a translation of St. Theophan’s revision of Unseen Warfare. So we’ll talk more about how Saint Theophan reworked and revised Saint Nicodemus’ book, which he published in 1885. But the point I want to make now is that the new translation is based directly on the original Greek of Saint Nicodemus, whereas this is based on a 19th century Russian revision of the original Greek work. Okay, thank you. That’s the good news. Yeah. It is Nicodemus and the Recluse. It’s another conversation, but just to give you an idea of the changes that St. Theophan made: He eliminated entire chapters. He wrote new chapters of his own that he included. The original Greek work has a couple hundred footnotes; he eliminated all of the footnotes. He made all kinds of changes. So they’re… The two books are similar, but they’re not the same.
[中文] 通常，出版社不会出版这本书。好吧，正如我告诉你们的，我们确实有一本看似是《无形之战》的英文译本，出版于1952年。 然而，这并非圣尼科德莫斯1796年出版的希腊文原著的英文译本。所以这实际上是……由俄罗斯神学家隐士圣西奥凡所作的译本。这是圣西奥凡修订版《无形之战》的译本。 接下来我们会详细讨论圣西奥凡如何改写并修订了圣尼科德姆的著作，该版本于1885年出版。但我现在想强调的是：新译本直接基于圣尼科德姆的希腊文原著，而这本则是基于19世纪对希腊文原著的俄文修订版。好的，谢谢。这就是好消息。 是的。书名是《尼科德莫斯与隐士》。这虽是另一个话题，但为了让大家了解圣西奥凡所做的改动：他删除了整章内容，并亲自撰写了新的章节加入其中。原版希腊文著作中有几百条脚注，他删除了所有脚注。他进行了各种各样的改动。所以这两本书……虽然相似，但并不完全相同。
[English] Okay, now I have to say something else that will further complicate the book Unseen Warfare. The source… I have one more. Okay, so the main body of the original Greek Unseen Warfare, the sort of the main body of the text, was not written by Saint Nikodimos. It was not written by Saint Nicodemus. It was written by a 16th century Italian priest. Saint Nicodemus is 18th century. But he was using a 16th century Italian source by a priest named Lorenzo Scupoli. And Scupoli’s work was called Combatimento Spirituale, which means spiritual combat. Scupoli’s work had been translated into Greek. St. Nikodimos got a copy of that translation and he adapted it for Orthodox readers because it was a Roman Catholic work, obviously, from the Italian Renaissance. That’s it. A Greek translation, and then revised for Orthodox readers. It is really interesting. So this means then that Unseen Warfare, which has become a sort of spiritual classic in the Orthodox Church, has the unique status of being really the only book that is a spiritual classic in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Western Church as well. I can’t think of another book that has this sort of unique kind of double status in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. I’m not going to say anything more about that right now, but if you have questions about that, we can talk about that in the question and answer period. But note the double status of the book.
[中文] 好的，现在我得再说点会进一步让《无形之战》这本书变得更复杂的内容。关于来源……我还有一处。好的，所以《无形之战》希腊原文的主体部分——也就是文本的主要部分——并不是圣尼科迪莫斯写的。也不是圣尼科德穆斯写的。它是16世纪一位意大利神父写的。圣尼科德穆斯是18世纪的人物。 但他当时参考的是一部16世纪意大利神父洛伦佐·斯库波利（Lorenzo Scupoli）的著作。斯库波利的作品名为《Combatimento Spirituale》，意为”属灵争战”。斯库波利的作品曾被译为希腊文。圣尼科迪莫斯获得了一份该译本，并将其改编为适合东正教读者的版本，因为这显然是一部源自意大利文艺复兴时期的天主教作品。就是这样。 先是希腊语译本，随后又为东正教读者进行了修订。这确实很有意思。这意味着《无形之战》——这部已成为东正教会某种精神经典的著作——拥有独特的地位：它实际上是唯一一部在东正教会和西方教会中都堪称精神经典的书籍。 我想不出还有哪本书能在罗马天主教会和东正教会中都拥有这种独特的双重地位。我现在就不多说了，但如果你对此有疑问，我们可以在问答环节讨论。不过请注意这本书的双重地位。
[English] All right, so for the rest of my talk, I would just like to focus on some of the major themes of unseen warfare. In general, we can say that unseen warfare is a kind of handbook or manual for the spiritual life. It’s sort of a handbook on how to be pious, or actually how to live a life of virtue. It’s really an instruction manual, in a sense, on how to live a life of virtue.
So let’s start with the title, unseen warfare. The title is directly inspired by Saint Paul’s use of military terminology as a metaphor for the Christian life. In particular, St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 6, where he says, and I quote, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So for Saint Paul, Christians are soldiers fighting in a war. But unlike Earthly soldiers, their victory is guaranteed by the unsurpassable abilities of their supreme commander Jesus Christ, who Paul says disarmed the principalities and powers and triumphed over them in himself.
Now, because today is May 20th, 2026, it might seem ironic, or maybe even unpleasant, to talk about war and military things and fighting and so forth, because there are so many wars going on right now in the world.
But I think the message of the book is that we have external wars because we’re not fighting the internal war.
The reason there is visible warfare is because there’s no unseen world. If each of us were fighting that internal struggle against our sins, against our ego, against our pride, against our disordered desires, if we were each taking up that fight, then maybe the world would be a more peaceful place. So I just want to underline the fact that we’re talking about unseen warfare at a time of visible warfare. But I think the visible warfare is the result of a lack of inner peace and a lack of inner struggle.
That is true, Father. Yeah, let me translate.
Thank you.
All right.
[中文] 好的，在接下来的演讲中，我想重点探讨《看不见的战争》中的几个主要主题。总体而言，我们可以将《看不见的战争》视为一本关于灵性生活的指南或手册。它可以说是一本关于如何虔诚、或者更确切地说，如何过一种美德生活的指南。从某种意义上说，它确实是一本关于如何过美德生活的指导手册。
那么，让我们从书名《无形之战》说起。这个书名直接源自圣保罗将军事术语用作基督徒生活的隐喻。特别是圣保罗在《以弗所书》第六章中所说的话，我引用如下：“要穿戴神全副的军装，好叫你们能抵挡魔鬼的诡计。 因为我们并不是与属血气的争战，乃是与那些执政的、掌权的、管辖这幽暗世界的，以及天空属灵气的恶魔争战。“因此，在圣保罗看来，基督徒是征战在战场上的士兵。但与世俗士兵不同，他们的胜利有至高统帅耶稣基督无与伦比的能力作为保障——保罗说，基督已使那些执政的、掌权的失去武装，并在自己里面战胜了他们。
如今，正值2026年5月20日，谈论战争、军事事务及战斗等话题，或许显得有些讽刺，甚至令人不快，因为当今世界正有太多战争在进行。
但我认为，这本书传达的信息是：我们之所以面临外部战争，正是因为我们没有打赢内心的战争。
之所以会有可见的战争，是因为缺乏看不见的世界。如果我们每个人都在与自己的罪、自我、骄傲以及紊乱的欲望进行内心的斗争，如果我们每个人都投入这场战斗，那么世界或许会变得更加和平。 所以我只想强调一点：在可见的战争时期，我们正在谈论的是看不见的战争。但我认为，可见的战争正是源于内心缺乏和平与内心的抗争。
确实如此，神父。好的，让我来翻译。
谢谢。
好的。
[English] According to St. Paul, all Christians are involved in a spiritual war. We sign up for that war, we enlist in that war at the time of our baptism, when a person is baptized or chrismated. When a person begins their life in Christ, that’s when the war begins. And the language that we use in the service of holy baptism actually contains something like military imagery, because before the candidate is baptized there’s a series of renunciations that have to take place. And the priest or the Bishop will say to the person, “Do you renounce Satan?” And they’re asked this question three times. And of course, the response should be, “Yes, I have renounced Satan.” Now the word there for renounced is Apotasome. That’s a word that comes from military usage, because it’s a word for someone who is abandoning their allegiance to the other, the devil’s army. They are renouncing the devil’s army. And then after that, it says, “Do you bind yourself to Christ?” And that language too, yes, sindasurmer is the word. So even the very language of the baptismal service moves from a kind of rejection of the Devil’s Army to signing up, joining up with the spiritual army of. It might seem obvious that our enemies in this battle are the demons.
[中文] 据圣保罗所言，所有基督徒都身处一场属灵的战争之中。我们在受洗之时——无论是接受洗礼还是圣油礼——便已投身于这场战争，加入了这场战争的行列。当一个人开始在基督里的生活，战争便随之开始。 我们在圣洗礼仪中使用的语言实际上蕴含着某种军事意象，因为在受洗者接受洗礼之前，必须进行一系列的弃绝宣誓。神父或主教会对受洗者说：“你是否弃绝撒旦？“这个问题会被问三次。当然，回答应该是：“是的，我已弃绝撒旦。” 这里”弃绝”一词是”Apotasome”。这是一个源自军事用语的词，因为它指的是某人放弃对敌方的效忠——即魔鬼的军队。他们正在弃绝魔鬼的军队。随后，仪式又问：“你是否立志归向基督？“这个词也是如此，没错，“sindasurmer”就是这个词。 因此，洗礼仪式的语言本身，正是从一种对魔鬼军队的拒绝，转向了加入、投身于属灵大军的行列。在这场争战中，我们的敌人显然是那些恶魔。
[English] But the reality is more complex. For Saint Nicodemus, our unseen warfare is first and foremost a battle against ourselves. “Be on guard against yourself,” he warns us, because you are your own worst enemy. This also explains why he says spiritual warfare is more difficult than any other kind of war, because it is from ourselves that we encounter opposition and resistance. He quotes the book of Sirach. He says, the wise Sirach says: “Never trust your enemy.” And he says, “You should never trust yourself.” For just as iron by itself produces rust, so too does your fallen nature by itself produce evil. So I tell you again: “Never trust yourself.” And again, he says: “You must therefore acknowledge your own nothingness and understand that by yourself, you can do nothing that would make you worthy of the kingdom of heaven.”
This is sort of, you can call this, a kind of radical self-negation, which some people find troubling. Rather than contract or diminish the horizon of the self, what Saint Nikodimos is recommending actually opens the self. It expands the self to an infinite horizon that is able to receive the grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He says that it’s only the knowledge of our own nothingness, our own nullity, our own incapacity, our own inability. It’s only this that enables us to see the goodness and the greatness of God. And here’s a quotation: “It is necessary for you first to hold within yourself the thought of your weakness, followed by the thought of God’s infinite power.” So it’s not just a question of being weak. The weakness comes together with the idea of God’s strength. Here’s another quotation: “Neither all our good qualities, nor all the gifts of grace freely given to us, nor all the knowledge of Holy Scripture, nor all the years we may have labored for God, nor all of these things together, can enable us to fulfill God’s will, which will only happen when, together with these things, God himself gives us special help and the strength to do his will. For as the Lord said, ‘Without me, you can do nothing.’”
[中文] 但现实要复杂得多。 对圣尼科德莫而言，我们这场看不见的战争，首先是一场与自我的斗争。 “要提防自己，“他告诫我们，因为你自己才是自己最大的敌人。 这也解释了为何他说属灵争战比任何其他形式的战争都更为艰难，因为我们所遭遇的阻力与抗拒，正是源于我们自身。 他引用了《德训篇》。他说，智慧的德训者曾说：“切勿信任你的敌人。“他还说：“你更不应信任自己。” 正如铁本身会生锈，你那堕落的本性本身也会滋生邪恶。所以我再次告诉你：“切勿信任自己。“他还说：“因此，你必须承认自己的虚无，并明白仅凭自己，你无法做任何配得天国之事。”
这可以称作一种彻底的自我否定，有些人对此感到困扰。 圣尼科迪莫所倡导的，并非要收缩或缩小自我的疆界，而是实际上在开启自我。它将自我拓展至无限的疆界，使之能够领受上帝的恩典和圣灵的恩赐。 他说，唯有认识到我们自身的虚无、空无、无能与无力，唯有如此，我们才能看见上帝的美善与伟大。 这里有一段引文：“你首先必须在心中铭记自身的软弱，继而铭记上帝无限的大能。“因此，这不仅仅关乎软弱本身。软弱必须与对上帝大能的认知相伴而生。 还有一段引文： “无论是我们所有的美德，还是白白赐予我们的恩典，无论是对圣经的全部认知，还是我们为上帝劳苦的岁月，抑或这一切的总和，都无法使我们成就上帝的旨意。唯有当上帝亲自赐予我们特别的帮助和力量，与这些条件相配合时，我们才能成就祂的旨意。正如主所说：‘离开我，你们就不能做什么。’”
[English] Okay, Saint Maximus the Confessor says something similar. He says that in order to achieve or attain virtue, you need two things. You need to have knowledge of your own weakness, but you also need to have knowledge of God’s power. If all you have is knowledge of your own weakness and your own inability, well, you’ll probably just be sad or depressed. You can’t just see the negative side. You need to have the positive side. The positive side is not your weakness, but it’s God’s strength, God’s power, which becomes available to us when we acknowledge honestly our weakness. And this is nothing different from what St. Paul says when he says, When I am weak, that’s when I am strong. In other words, when I acknowledge before God my weakness, that’s when I humble myself before God. That’s when God gives me his strength. But if I think that I am something, if I think that I have strength, if I think that I am powerful, well, then God just leaves me alone. And so I figure out that I don’t have those things. And by the way, when we say that, when the Lord says, without me, you can do nothing. It doesn’t mean that you can’t write books or build airplanes or build a house or something like that. That’s not what he means. He’s talking about spiritual things. He’s talking about the life of virtue. Because virtue is the grace of God. And that’s not something we can do without him.
[中文] 好的，圣马克西姆·殉道者也说过类似的话。他说，要想获得或达到美德，你需要两样东西。你需要认识到自己的软弱，但同时也需要认识到上帝的大能。如果你只认识到自己的软弱和无能，那么你很可能会感到悲伤或沮丧。你不能只看到消极的一面。 你必须看到积极的一面。积极的一面并非你的软弱，而是上帝的力量，是上帝的大能——当我们诚实地承认自己的软弱时，这份力量便向我们敞开。这与圣保罗所言并无二致：“我软弱的时候，就是我刚强的时候。” 换言之，当我在上帝面前承认自己的软弱时，我便在祂面前谦卑自己。此时，上帝便赐予我祂的力量。但若我自以为是，自以为有力量，自以为强大，那么上帝便会离我而去。于是，我便明白自己并不具备那些东西。 顺便提一句，当我们说，当主说”离开我，你们就不能做什么”时，这并不意味着你们不能写书、造飞机、盖房子，或是做类似的事情。这不是他的意思。他谈论的是属灵的事。他谈论的是美德的生活。因为美德是神的恩典。而这是我们离开他便无法做到的。
[English] Let’s move a little forward now. So according to St. Nicodemus in Unseen Warfare, the human person is a creature of the boundaries, which means that the human person stands, and I quote, midway between the will of God and the will of his carnal desires, feeling the force both of the divine will on high and the carnal will below it, each seeking, as it were, to wage war on us and pull us in its own direction. But despite these pressures, the human will remains free. This is what he says. If the will itself does not wish to incline toward evil, then it cannot be compelled to do so; it cannot be compelled to do so if it doesn’t want that. Why? God endowed the human will with freedom and power, so that even if all our senses and all the demons and the entire world should join forces and attack us with all the strength that they can muster, nothing can deprive our will of its freedom. But even though God does all the work here, we too must nevertheless cooperate and conform our will to His will, because as Saint Nicodemus says, the moment we abandon the fight is the very moment we die. And he says, whoever does not fight will remain dead forever. But I like this idea of the freedom of the will because it’s very hopeful. He says that nothing in the world can compel a person to do evil.
[中文] 现在让我们稍微向前推进一点。根据圣尼科德莫斯在《无形之战》中的观点，人是一种处于界限之中的受造物，这意味着人——我引用原文——处于上帝的旨意与肉欲的旨意之间，既感受到来自高处的神圣旨意的力量，也感受到来自下方的肉欲旨意的力量，二者仿佛都在试图向我们宣战，并将我们拉向各自的方向。 但尽管面临这些压力，人的意志依然保持着自由。这就是他的论述。 若意志本身不愿倾向于恶，便无法被强迫如此；若其不愿，便无法被强迫。为何？因为上帝赋予了人类意志以自由与力量，以致即便我们的所有感官、所有恶魔以及整个世界联合起来，倾尽全力攻击我们，也无法剥夺我们意志的自由。 但尽管上帝在此事上承担了一切工作，我们仍必须予以配合，并将我们的意志顺服于祂的意志，因为正如圣尼哥底母所言，我们放弃抗争的瞬间，正是我们死亡的瞬间。他还说，凡是不抗争的人，将永远处于死亡之中。但我喜欢这种关于意志自由的观点，因为它充满希望。他说，世上没有任何事物能强迫一个人行恶。
[English] So, at the heart of this unseen warfare is the struggle to overcome the passions and, in their place, acquire the virtues. The particular passion that dominates the soul is overcome by acquiring the particular virtue opposed to it. The objective of the battle is nothing less than Christian perfection in Christ, in obedience to the commandment of God to be perfect. The strategy is to conform the human will to the will of God, again following the example of him who surrendered his human will to the Father. This was in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion, where he said, “Not my will, but your will be done.” As St. Nicodemus points out in his prologue, the chief weapons that we carry into this battle are distrust of the self, Hope in God, Spiritual exercise, ascesis, Prayer, and the reception of the Eucharist.
[中文] 因此，这场无形战争的核心，在于战胜情欲，并以此获得美德。支配灵魂的特定情欲，可通过培养与其相对的特定美德来战胜。 这场战斗的目标，无非是在基督内达到基督徒的完美，遵行上帝”要你们成为完全”的诫命。其策略在于使人的意志顺服于上帝的意志，再次效法那位将自己的人性意志交托给天父的主。这发生在他被钉十字架前的客西马尼园，当时他说：“不要照我的意思，只要照你的意思。” 正如圣尼科德莫斯在其序言中所指出的，我们投入这场战斗的主要武器是：不信赖自我、对天主的希望、灵修操练、苦修、祈祷以及领受圣体。
[English] For the time that I have left, I would like to share with you a number of passages from the text. So the first one is a passage from chapter two on not putting trust in ourselves.
So here’s the quotation. That you must never trust in yourself, Dear reader, is something that is absolutely necessary for the effective waging of spiritual warfare. Without this virtue, you can be sure that you will not only fail to attain the victory you desire, but you will also be unable to stand up against even the smallest attack of the enemy. And this is something that you must never forget. Since the fall of Adam, we have held ourselves in high regard, which, when compared with the truth, is nothing but a lie. Yet, because of our prejudicial and deceitful self-love, we continue to believe that we are something. This is a spiritual defect that is extremely difficult to perceive and which is not pleasing in the eyes of God, who loves nothing more than for us to possess sincere knowledge of this questionable truth.
Did you get all that? That’s a lot to remember. It’s probably just a general translation. So it’s a long text. Yeah, it’s okay.
Okay, now a second quotation. And it’s a little longer, so I’ll divide it into two.
[中文] 在剩下的时间里，我想与大家分享书中的一些段落。首先是第二章中关于”不可倚靠自己”的一段话。
以下是引文：亲爱的读者，你绝不可倚靠自己，这是有效进行属灵争战的绝对必要条件。若缺乏这一美德，你可以确信，你不仅无法获得所渴望的胜利，甚至连抵挡敌人最微小的攻击都力不从心。这一点，你绝不可忘记。 自亚当堕落以来，我们便过分自视甚高，而与真理相比，这不过是谎言。然而，由于我们偏见且虚伪的自爱，我们仍坚信自己有所作为。这是一种极难察觉的属灵缺陷，在神眼中并不蒙悦纳——祂最渴望的，莫过于我们能真诚地认识这一值得商榷的真理。
你都听明白了吗？要记住的内容可真不少。这大概只是个概括性的译文。所以篇幅挺长的。嗯，没关系。
好，现在是第二段引文。这段稍长一些，所以我把它分成两部分。
[English] How to tell if someone relies on himself, if someone trusts in himself. How to tell. It is often the case that people who are especially self-willed and stubborn think that they do not rely on themselves and believe that all of their trust and confidence is in God alone. But this is not true. The truth is otherwise, and one can be certain of this when you see how they react after they sin. How do they react? They grieve. They are saddened beyond measure. And they often fall into something like despair. But at the same time, they think that next time, they will do better, which is a sure sign that before they fell, their trust was not in God but in themselves. And the greater their sorrow is, the greater their sadness is, the more you can be certain that they trusted too much in themselves and too little in God. That’s the first half. Here’s the second half. On the other hand, if a person does not rely on himself but instead places his hope in God, then when he falls, he is not greatly surprised, neither is he overcome by excessive grief or sadness, because he knows that he fell because of his weakness and his lack of trust in God. Indeed, such a man will take his downfall as an opportunity to rely on himself even less. And being humbled, he repents and tries all the more to place his hope entirely in God. And more than anything else, he comes to despise his disordered passion which caused him to fall, and he endures the pain of his remorse peacefully and calmly, knowing that he has offended God. No longer relying on himself, and having placed his hope in God, he resumes. He continues his struggles with greater courage and greater determination onto his last breath.
[中文] 如何判断一个人是否倚靠自己，是否信靠自己？如何判断呢？通常，那些特别任性固执的人往往认为自己并不倚靠自己，坚信自己所有的信靠都唯独在神身上。但事实并非如此。真相恰恰相反，当你看到他们在犯罪后的反应时，便能确信这一点。他们会作何反应？他们会感到悲伤。 他们悲痛欲绝，常常陷入近乎绝望的境地。但与此同时，他们却认为下次会做得更好——这正是确凿的证据，表明他们在跌倒之前，所倚靠的并非上帝，而是自己。他们的悲痛越深，哀伤越重，你就越能确信他们过分倚靠自己，而对上帝的倚靠却太少。这是前半部分。 以下是后半部分。另一方面，若一个人不倚靠自己，而是将希望寄托在神身上，那么当他跌倒时，既不会大感惊讶，也不会被过度的悲伤或忧愁所压倒，因为他知道自己跌倒是因为软弱，以及对神的信靠不足。事实上，这样的人会将自己的跌倒视为一个契机，从而更少地倚靠自己。 他谦卑地悔改，并更加竭力将希望全然寄托于上帝。最重要的是，他开始鄙弃那导致自己跌倒的紊乱情欲，并平静安然地承受着悔恨之痛，深知自己得罪了上帝。不再倚靠自己，将希望寄托于上帝之后，他重新振作。他怀着更大的勇气和更坚定的决心，继续奋斗直至生命最后一息。
[English] Here’s another quotation from chapter 9. This is about guarding your mind from useless knowledge. And here’s the quotation. As it is necessary to guard our minds from ignorance, as we said a moment ago, so too it is equally necessary to guard our minds from idle curiosity. Because if we fill our mind with foolish, profane, disorderly, and harmful thoughts, we will render it incapable of understanding what is required for general self-correction and perfection when it comes to idle curiosity and inquiry. You must conduct yourself as one who is already dead. And this applies even to those matters that may be permissible but which are not necessary. Instead, and as much as you can, you must always strive to keep your mind collected and concentrated within yourself, free of all thoughts about the things of the world. Part one. Here’s the second part. Let idle tales, the news of the day, and all the disturbances and changes of the world and its kingdoms, both great and small, be for you as though they did not exist at all. If such news should come to you from others, pay no attention to it and cast it far away from your heart and imagination. Instead, be an attentive lover of spiritual and heavenly things, desiring to know nothing in the world except the life and death of Jesus Christ and what he asks of you. To be sure, you must desire to act in a manner pleasing to God. Chosen and beloved ones are those who love him and strive always to do his will. And here there’s actually a footnote that St. Nicodemus has included. And the footnote is from St. Basil. And Saint Nicodemus says St. Basil teaches us that we should regard worldly news as bitter food. Quote St. Basil: St. Basil says, “Let the hearing of worldly tales be to you as a bitter taste in your mouth, but let the discourse, the speech, of holy men be as honey.” And St. Basil says… Prophet David says, “Lawless men told me their idle tales, their useless tales, but they are not like your law, O Lord.”
[中文] 以下是第九章的另一段引文。这段内容讲的是要保护自己的心智，免受无用知识的侵扰。引文如下： 正如我们刚才所说，保护我们的心智免受无知之害是必要的，同样，保护我们的心智免受无谓的好奇心之害也是同样必要的。 因为如果我们让心灵充斥着愚昧、亵渎、杂乱无章且有害的念头，那么当涉及无谓的好奇与探究时，我们的心灵便会丧失理解自我修正与完善所需之事的能力。 你必须像一个已经死去的人那样行事。即使对于那些虽可为却非必需之事，亦当如此。 相反，你必须竭尽所能，时刻努力让心神安住于自身，远离世间万物的思虑。第一部分。 以下是第二部分。 让闲言碎语、时事新闻，以及世间大小王国的一切动荡与变迁，于你而言仿佛根本不存在。 若此类消息由他人传至你耳中，切勿理会，当将其从你的心与意念中彻底驱逐。相反，你要成为灵性与天国之事的热忱追求者，除耶稣基督的生与死，以及祂对你的要求之外，不愿知晓世间任何事。诚然，你必须渴望以讨神喜悦的方式行事。 那些爱祂并时刻竭力遵行祂旨意的人，才是蒙拣选、蒙眷爱的。 这里实际上有一条圣尼科德姆添加的脚注，该脚注引自圣巴西尔。 圣尼科德姆指出，圣巴西尔教导我们应当将世俗消息视为苦涩的食物。引用圣巴西尔的话：圣巴西尔说：“听闻世俗故事于你，当如口中苦味；而圣徒的言谈，当如甘露。” 圣巴西尔还说……先知大卫说：“恶人向我讲述他们的无稽之谈，那些无益的言语，但它们不像你的律法，耶和华啊。”
[English] All right. One last quotation from Chapter 24. Chapter 24 is about how to control the tongue. And again, this is it. Yeah, in two parts. Here’s the first one. It is of the utmost necessity that you learn to govern and restrain your tongue. Most of us are greatly inclined to talk without restraint about things that please and gratify the senses. But excessive talking is usually due to pride, from which we imagine that we know many things and are pleased with our own ideas. We strive to convey this impression to others with much repetition, playing the part of the teacher, as if they needed to learn from us. And we reveal the same pride when we presume to teach them when they have not even asked us to do so. It is impossible to describe in a few words the evil things born from excessive talking. Excessive speech is the mother of sorrow. It is an occasion for ignorance and foolishness. It is the gateway to slander. It is the servant of lies. It is the chilling of the warmth of the faith. Excessive speech strengthens the passions, which easily move the tongue to inappropriate and indiscreet conversations. And here’s the second part. Do not prolong your conversation with a person who is not listening to you with a good disposition. Otherwise, you will displease and disgust him, making him detest you. As it is written, the one who abounds in words will be despised. Avoid speaking harshly. Avoid raising your voice. Avoid speaking in a superior manner because these things are offensive, and they make your listeners think that you are vain and conceited. Try never to talk about yourself, or about your affairs, or about your relatives, except when this is necessary. And when it is necessary, be brief. If it seems to you that others speak of themselves excessively, force yourself not to imitate them, even if their words seem humble. As far as anything regarding your neighbor and his affairs, speak of these as little as possible. Instead, speak of God with all your heart, and especially of His love and goodness, but do so with the reverence that is due, because even in this, if done carelessly, one can err. And learn to take pleasure in hearing others speak of divine things, and store their words within your heart.
[中文] 好的。最后再引用一段第24章的内容。第24章讲的是如何控制舌头。再次重申，就是这一段。是的，分两部分。 这是第一段。学会管束和克制自己的舌头，是至关重要的。我们大多数人都有强烈的倾向，会毫无节制地谈论那些取悦感官、满足感官的事物。但喋喋不休通常源于骄傲，这种骄傲让我们自以为知晓许多事情，并对自己的想法感到自得。我们竭力通过反复强调向他人传达这种印象，扮演起老师的角色，仿佛他们需要向我们学习似的。 当对方尚未求教，我们却妄自教导时，同样暴露了这种骄傲。冗言所生的恶果，绝非三言两语能尽述。多言是忧愁之母，是无知与愚昧的肇因，是诽谤的门户，是谎言的仆从，更是信仰之火的冷却剂。 言语过多会助长情欲，使舌头轻易陷入不当且不慎的谈话。这里还有第二点：不要与那些没有善意倾听的人喋喋不休。否则，你会令他反感厌恶，使他憎恶你。正如经上所记：“多言的人必受轻视。“要避免言辞尖刻。 切勿提高嗓门。切勿以居高临下的姿态说话，因为这些举动令人反感，会让听者认为你虚荣自负。尽量不要谈论自己、自己的事务或亲属，除非确有必要。即便有必要，也要言简意赅。若你觉得他人过分谈论自己，务必强迫自己不要效仿，即使他们的言辞看似谦逊。 至于邻人及其事务，应尽可能少谈。相反，要全心全意地谈论上帝，特别是祂的慈爱与良善，但务必怀着应有的敬畏之心，因为即便在此事上，若言辞不当，亦可能犯错。学会乐于倾听他人谈论神圣之事，并将他们的言语深藏于心。
[English] Yeah, so… That brings me to the end of my remarks. I just wanted to give you a very brief introduction to Unseen Warfare. I want you guys to sort of have a taste of it and to hear the voice. I’m certainly going to read most, but really one needs to read the whole book. And I hope that maybe one day God will give Jason the time and the energy to translate Unseen Warfare. It’s in Chinese so that Chinese readers can read the book themselves and enter into the spirit of it.
Oh, yeah, I read… First by myself, I think I can… If God wills, I will.
Well, maybe you can even do a selection, because some of the chapters are short and you can probably translate.
This is very beautiful. I’m just hearing your words about some of the most words, and I think it’s very, very good for spiritual practice and it’s practical. I really practice them, yeah.
Yes, yeah.
Ah, hey.
So I think we can move on to the next session about question and answer.
Yes.
Okay.
[中文] 是的，所以……我的发言就到这里。我只是想给大家简单介绍一下《无形之战》。我想让大家先领略一下它的风味，感受一下其中的声音。虽然我会朗读大部分内容，但其实还是需要大家亲自读完整本书。 我希望有一天，上帝能赐予杰森时间和精力，将《无形之战》翻译成中文。这样，中国读者就能亲自阅读这本书，领会其中的精髓。
哦，是的，我读过……起初是自己读的，我想我应该……如果上帝愿意，我会去做的。
嗯，也许你可以选译一部分，因为有些章节很短，你应该能翻译出来。
这非常美妙。我刚刚听到你提到书中的一些精髓，我觉得这对灵修非常、非常有益，而且很实用。我确实在实践这些，是的。
是的，没错。
啊，嘿。
所以我想我们可以进入下一环节，进行问答。
是的。
好的。
[English] Let me see if you have any questions. You can ask the questions. Chad? Yeah, sorry, Maximus. When you’re quoted? A little long. And I have to… kind of be concise. To a shorter version for Chinese, yeah. Okay, so, Dorsin, you… Okay. But… Father Maximus. Christos Anesti. He asked a question about why Saint Nicodemus chose to kind of modify… They spoke from a Latin priest from Catholic traditions about spiritual combat. And what he considered at that time… about the background about this decision, yeah. Yeah, I think there are two things that we should say. The first thing is that we need to see this in the larger historical context of the Philokalic revival, when St. Nikodimos and his colleagues were publishing spiritual books for Orthodox readers because at the time in the 18th century, the Orthodox were living under the Ottoman Turks and they did not have printing presses. So people did not have books. So there was a need to find to give to people. And this book seemed important. Why? Because it was written for lay people. A lot of patristic books are very difficult. They’re very complicated. Yeah. They’re not always easy to read for regular people. So this book was very good for that. You could maybe translate that, and then I’ll say one more thing. Okay. Okay, and the original author, Lorenzo Scupoli, was a spiritual director. He was a spiritual father. And he originally wrote this book in response to a nun who was seeking spiritual direction from him. So this book, the original Spiritual Combat, does not contain Roman Catholic dogma or doctrines. It’s really about the inner life, the spiritual life, the practical life. And where Saint Nicodemus found Roman Catholic language and Roman Catholic ideas, he simply deleted them or modified them to reflect Orthodox practices. So to give you a couple of examples: Scupoli references Roman Catholic images. St. Nicodemus translates those as icons. Or where the Catholic text talks about the Virgin Mary, he replaces that with the Theotokos. So Spiritual Combat is not a Catholic theological work. It’s really more about the moral life and about the struggle against the passions. And where Saint Nicodemus found Catholic material, he just deleted or modified it. Okay. Okay, one more thing. You’re welcome. One more thing. Scupoli was writing after the Council of Trent. And this means that Scupoli was a post-Tridentine, or a Counter-Reformation writer. And so his work is actually part of the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation. In response to the Protestant Reformation, many Roman Catholic thinkers like Scupoli were actually closer to the Orthodox tradition. And so they emphasized repentance, they emphasized participation in the sacraments, they emphasized asceticism. So Scupoli is actually — not in everything, but in many things — closer to a kind of traditional Christianity, closer to the Orthodox ascetical tradition. And that’s why… St. Nicodemus could easily adopt him. Because it’s post-Tridentine counter-reformation theology. Yes, the Council of Trent was 1545 to 1563. 1545… is 1563, if anyone’s interested. You… you were quite sure about that. You would do that. You’ll do that.
[中文] 我来看看大家有没有问题。可以提问。查德？嗯，抱歉，马克西穆斯。当你被引用时？有点长。而且我得……尽量简明扼要。为了中文版本，得缩短一下，对。 好的，那么，多尔辛，你……好的。但是……马克西姆斯神父。基督复活了。他问了一个问题，关于圣尼科德莫斯为什么选择修改……他们引用了一位来自天主教传统的拉丁神父关于属灵争战的言论。以及他当时认为……关于这个决定的背景，是的。 是的，我认为有两点需要说明。首先，我们需要将其置于”爱德书”复兴这一更广阔的历史背景中来理解。当时，圣尼科迪莫斯和他的同事们正在为东正教读者出版灵修书籍，因为在18世纪，东正教徒生活在奥斯曼土耳其人的统治下，他们没有印刷机。所以人们没有书可读。因此，有必要为人们提供书籍。 而这本书显得尤为重要。为什么？因为它是为平信徒写的。很多教父著作非常艰深，内容极其复杂。是的，普通人往往难以读懂。所以这本书在这方面非常出色。你可以先把这句话翻译一下，然后我再说一点。好的。好的，原著者洛伦佐·斯库波利是一位灵修指导者，他是一位属灵的父亲。 他最初写这本书是为了回应一位向他寻求灵性指导的修女。因此，这本原版的《属灵争战》并不包含罗马天主教的教义或信条。它真正探讨的是内在生活、属灵生活以及实际生活。当圣尼科德姆发现书中出现罗马天主教的语言和观念时，他会直接删除或加以修改，以反映东正教的实践。 举几个例子：斯库波利提到天主教的图像，圣尼科德莫斯将其译为圣像。或者当天主教文本提到圣母玛利亚时，他用”神之母”（Theotokos）一词代替。所以，《灵性战斗》并非一部天主教神学著作，它更多地关乎道德生活以及对抗情欲的斗争。 而当圣尼科德姆发现天主教内容时，他会直接删除或加以修改。好的。好的，再补充一点。不客气。这里还需补充一点：斯库波利写作时正值特伦托大公会议之后。这意味着斯库波利是一位反宗教改革时期的作家。因此，他的著作实际上是天主教会为回应新教改革而兴起的运动的一部分。 面对新教改革，许多像斯库波利这样的罗马天主教思想家实际上更接近东正教传统。因此，他们强调悔改，强调参与圣事，强调苦修。所以斯库波利实际上——并非在所有方面，但在许多方面——更接近某种传统的基督教，更接近东正教的苦修传统。这就是为什么…… 圣尼科德姆很容易接纳他。因为这是特伦托会议后的反宗教改革神学。是的，特伦托会议是1545年到1563年。1545年……是1563年，如果有人感兴趣的话。你当时……你当时很确定。你会这么做的。你会这么做的。
[English] Okay, I think this is a question. There’s another question, I think. Thank you. Nairi: You mentioned earlier that we need the words of the Fathers to become like honey. Could you recommend some writings of the Church Fathers for us to read? Thank you. Sure. I think, first of all, in general, it makes sense to start with earlier Church Fathers, because the later Church Fathers already have the early Church Fathers. So if you start with a very late author, you’re unaware of or missing all the things that he’s incorporated. So it’s always good to start with some of the earlier texts, some very basic texts. It’s not quite a patristic work, but it’s something, it’s a classic. It would be something like the Martyrdom of… which is the first martyrdom story. It’s also very theological. We also have something like the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch, which are very early. Ignatius was a disciple of John the Evangelist. So it’s good to read these. These were disciples of the apostles. So it’s good to read these writers. After that, I mean, you know, I think spiritual classics are classics for a reason. So if you haven’t read something like St. Athanasius on the Incarnation, that’s a little work to read. I think St. Basil is a good writer to read because he’s very practical, very practical and very straightforward. People like to read very philosophical things like Gregory of Nyssa, for example. But Gregory of Nyssa gets complicated. Better to start with simpler things. And then I think, I should also say to that, we have some modern elders in the Orthodox Church who are deeply immersed in the patristic tradition. And they’re good to read too, because they interpret the Fathers for us. Also, if you like reading scripture, then you should try to read the scriptural commentaries of St. John Chrysostom, because those are all straightforward, and they provide very good commentary on the scriptures. Okay.
[中文] 好的，我觉得这是个问题。还有另一个问题，我想。谢谢。 奈里：您刚才提到，我们需要让教父们的言论变得像蜂蜜一样。您能推荐一些教父的著作供我们阅读吗？谢谢。 当然。我认为，首先，总体来说，从早期的教父开始读是有道理的，因为后期的教父著作中已经包含了早期教父的思想。 所以，如果你从一位非常晚期的作者开始读起，你就会忽略或错过他所吸收的所有内容。因此，最好还是从一些较早的文本、一些非常基础的文本开始。这虽不算严格意义上的教父著作，但也是一部经典之作，比如《……殉道记》——这是最早的殉道故事，同时也具有很强的神学内涵。 我们还有像《安提阿的伊格纳提乌斯书信》这类非常早期的著作。伊格纳提乌斯是福音书作者约翰的门徒。因此阅读这些作品很有益处。他们都是使徒的门徒，所以阅读这些作家的作品很有价值。之后，我想，你知道的，灵修经典之所以成为经典，自有其道理。 所以，如果你还没读过圣亚他那修关于道成肉身的论述，那读起来可能有点难度。我认为圣巴西尔是个值得阅读的作家，因为他非常务实，非常务实且直截了当。有些人喜欢读像尼撒的格雷戈里那样非常哲学化的作品。但尼撒的格雷戈里写得比较晦涩。最好还是从更简单的内容开始。 此外，我还想补充一点：东正教会中有些现代长老深深浸润于教父传统之中。他们的著作也值得一读，因为他们为我们阐释了教父们的思想。另外，如果你喜欢读圣经，不妨试着读一读圣约翰·金口对圣经的注释，因为那些注释通俗易懂，对经文的阐释非常精辟。好的。
[English] Okay, thank you very much. And say, well… I think there’s one more question. How can I work hard when I’m not trusting? You may be a Benedictine. This is a simple question. It says, how can I work hard while not trusting in my own ability? How can I work? Pardon? To do that, you mean? How do I… I think it’s a kind of spiritual practice. Yeah, I’m not quite sure what he asked, but it’s in a sense of spiritual practice. And work hard in spiritual practice. But at the same time, I do not trust my ability, that kind of fasting and prayer five days a week, from day to day. And at the same time, I do not trust in myself. How could it happen? Because the only people think when fasting three days I believe I can do something and can foster something like that. I think it’s a… What is your general idea about this? Yeah, I understand this could be confusing, right? And I think sometimes you can… It can paralyze people. Right. Don’t trust yourself. Don’t put confidence in yourself. It sounds like, well, okay. I don’t know. But we have to make a distinction here. I mean, I… It doesn’t mean to say that. You can’t do anything. We need to do things. We need to work. We need to plan. We need to organize. If you’re married, you need to take care of your spouse. If you’re a father or a mother, you need to work very hard and do lots of things to take care of your children. Talking about practical matters like that. We’re not talking about practical matters. It’s really about being humble. And what does humble mean? Humility simply means to have an honest and accurate sense of who you are. If you don’t know yourself, you can’t… God is about reality. If God is not about reality, then it’s some sort of a fantasy. So if we’re not living in reality, if in our own minds we’re not living in reality, how can we connect to God? So the distrust of ourselves is to distrust ourselves… …when we think that we can actually… …grow spiritually based on our own strength. It’s sort of like, I’ll give you an example. It would be like somebody who struggles with alcohol. Maybe let’s say this person is an alcoholic. And they have a terrible drinking problem. So if that person trusts themselves and thinks they can go into a bar or a pub without drinking, well, they’re probably putting themselves at risk, or if they think I can just take a little bit of alcohol without having a problem… …that could be a disaster. So we shouldn’t trust ourselves… …in those areas that we know where we have weakness. We shouldn’t pretend that everything is fine and we can just do whatever we wish without being fully cognizant… …of who we actually are. Does that make sense? Let me translate it. Look, I think it’s not a question of something that we work for. In other words, it’s not something we work to acquire. It’s more about surrendering ourselves to God. It’s not about the virtue. And I think, look… The best way to see this is through the story in the Gospel of Luke about the publican and the Pharisee. Because two men go into the temple to pray. And the Pharisee actually boasts. He brags. He says, I thank you, God, that I am not like other people who are sinful and extortionists, and et cetera, et cetera. The publican. On the other hand, it’s as if he doesn’t even… He doesn’t even have the courage to lift his eyes to heaven. But he bows down and all he says is, “O Theos, Eleison me, ton amartolon.” God have mercy on me, the sinner. That’s really the idea here. Which is why St. Isaac says here: Better is the man who sees his own sins than the man who raises the dead. Hi, dude. Okay. Do you have more questions? Sorry. It’s okay.
[中文] 好的，非常感谢。话说回来……我想还有一个问题。如果我不信任自己，该如何努力工作呢？你可能是位本笃会修士。 这是一个简单的问题。 问题是：在不依赖自身能力的情况下，我该如何努力工作？ 我该如何工作？抱歉？你是说要做到这一点吗？我该如何…… 我认为这是一种灵修实践。 是的，我不太确定他问的是什么，但这在某种意义上是一种灵修。在灵修中努力工作。但与此同时，我不相信自己的能力，那种每周五天、日复一日的斋戒和祈祷。同时，我也不相信自己。这怎么可能呢？因为人们通常认为，斋戒三天后，我相信自己能做些什么，能培养出某种东西。 我觉得这……你对此有什么总体看法？ 是的，我明白这可能会让人困惑，对吧？而且我觉得有时候……这会让人陷入瘫痪。对。不要相信自己。不要对自己有信心。听起来好像……好吧，我也不确定。 但我们必须在这里做出区分。我的意思是……这并不是那个意思。 你什么都做不了。我们需要采取行动。我们需要工作。我们需要规划。我们需要组织。 如果你已婚，你就需要照顾你的配偶。如果你是父亲或母亲，你就需要非常努力地工作，做很多事情来照顾你的孩子。这就是在谈论此类实际事务。 我们现在谈的不是这些实际事务。这其实关乎谦卑。那么谦卑是什么意思呢？谦卑简单来说，就是对自己有一个诚实而准确的认知。如果你不了解自己，你就无法……上帝关乎现实。 如果神不关乎现实，那祂就成了某种幻想。所以，如果我们不活在现实中，如果在我们自己的思想里不活在现实中，我们怎么能与神连接呢？所以，不信任自己就是不信任自己…… ……当我们以为我们实际上…… ……能靠自己的力量在灵性上成长。 这就像……我举个例子。 就像一个与酒精作斗争的人。 假设这个人是个酒鬼，有严重的酗酒问题。如果他相信自己，以为可以走进酒吧却不喝酒，那他很可能是在拿自己冒险；或者如果他觉得”我只要喝一点点酒就不会有问题”…… ……那可能会酿成大祸。所以，在我们清楚自己有弱点的领域， 我们不该自以为是…… 不该假装一切安好，以为可以随心所欲，却完全不自知…… ……我们真实的本相。 这样说有道理吗？ 让我来解释一下。 你看，我认为这不是靠努力就能得来的。换句话说，这不是靠努力去获取的。这更多是关于向神降服自己。这不是关于美德。而且我觉得，你看…… 理解这一点最好的方式，就是通过《路加福音》中那个关于税吏和法利赛人的故事。因为有两个人走进圣殿祷告。 法利赛人实际上在自夸。他在炫耀。他说：“神啊，我感谢你，我不像那些罪人，也不像那些勒索人的人，等等，等等。“至于那税吏。 另一方面，他似乎甚至……他甚至没有勇气抬眼望天。 但他俯身跪下，只说：“哦，神啊，可怜我这个罪人吧。” 这才是这里真正的要义。正因如此，圣伊萨克在此说：能看清自己罪过的人，比能使死人复活的人更可贵。 嗨，老兄。 好的。你还有其他问题吗？抱歉。 没关系。
[English] So he basically asked a question about free will. He asked a question about the free will before and after baptism. It is a saying, “Oh, they are different.” Well, it’s the same will, right? After baptism. It’s sort of freed or liberated from its bondage to sin. But because it remains free, one can sin after baptism. But with that becomes the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the gift of uncreated grace. And of course, this sort of grace. It’s the will that restores the will, it heals the will. And it returns it to its original sort of abilities. But of course, because it remains free. Each person is free to do what they want. Which is why St. Maximus says the only thing that God asks from us is the good disposition of our will. To have a good intention. And if the will has a good intention, God will honor that. This does not mean the free will before baptism means one has nothing to lose but only to do sin, same fallen state. No, I mean, a non-baptized person is capable of doing good things. But we’re not just talking about good things. We’re talking about entering into the life of God. It’s just about it. If I help someone or if they’re hungry and I give them food, those are good things. And God, of course, will honor that. But we’re not simply talking about external actions. We’re talking about an inner transformation through the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is different. In my country, the government gives food and money to poor people. But that doesn’t mean that the people in the government are spiritually transformed by doing that. That’s just some sort of mechanical, bureaucratic process. It’s not being done in the light of the Holy Spirit. Doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s just different. Yeah, I think we should say a little more about this because it’s important. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul talks about, it’s a very famous passage, what he calls the fruits of the Spirit. Which means these are things that come from the Spirit. And what are these? He tells us, right? Love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. These are the fruits of the Spirit, he says. Now think about this. He says one of the fruits is love. So, anyone, even an animal, can have affection for their offspring. Animals have affection for their children. If they’re normal, they have a love and an affection for their kids, so to speak. And many people… Well, not just for their own children, but for… they love other people too. If they try a little bit, they can have more love. Patience is another fruit of the Spirit. Okay, I might be a little impatient, but maybe I can try to be a little more patient with somebody. So we could call these lesser forms or secondary forms of the virtues. Everybody can try to be more patient. Everybody can try to be more gentle. Everybody can try to do better. But that’s not what St. Paul is talking about. St. Paul is talking about… the fruits of the Spirit. These are the higher forms of the virtues. What does that mean? That means that they are actually… they are actually the virtues of God himself. They are the attributes or the qualities of God himself, because God is love. God is gentle. God is patient. God is forgiving. So in a sense, we have two levels. But God’s love is not the same as my love. Or human patience is not the same as divine patience. And so what God does is he takes our natural virtues and he elevates them and in a sense infuses them with his own energy and grace. So there’s a continuum. But there’s also an important distinction. Does that make sense? So essentially… virtue in its nature somewhat is also from the grace of God as well. If one becomes more patient or more loving. But the extent of it… one is small and the other is great and perfect. Is that right? We all have the capacity to love. Oh, yes. I mean, I see. I love, I love money too. Oh, I love good food. I do that for sure. But genuine love, pure love, is participating in the love of God. It transforms my love, it elevates my love, it makes my love more like God’s love. Because God’s love is the salvation of human love. Yes, I understand. But that’s why in Genesis, you have the idea of the image and likeness of God. As human beings, we are from God. God is our creator. God is our father. Everyone has the image of God in their heart. However, not everyone has the likeness. We are all, so to speak, made by God. But because we have sinned, because we’ve fallen, because we’ve gone astray, we are no longer like God. If God is love and my heart is full of anger, I am not like God. And that’s why St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “How can you pray ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ if you are not like… how can he be your father if you have no resemblance to him?” So what we’re talking about… from human love and human patience to divine love and divine patience, that’s what we call growth — growth in the likeness of God. Oh, I see.
[中文] 所以，他基本上是在问一个关于自由意志的问题。他问的是受洗前后自由意志的区别。人们常说：“哦，这两者是不一样的。” 其实，这仍是同一个意志，对吧？受洗之后，它某种程度上从罪的捆绑中得到了释放。但正因为它依然自由，人受洗后仍可能犯罪。不过随之而来的便是圣灵的恩赐，即非受造之恩的恩赐。当然，这种恩典能使意志恢复本来的能力，治愈意志。 它使意志恢复到原本的能力。但当然，因为意志依然是自由的。每个人都有自由去做自己想做的事。这就是为什么圣马克西姆说，上帝唯一要求我们的，就是我们意志的良好倾向。要有良好的意图。如果意志有良好的意图，上帝就会尊重这一点。这并不意味着受洗前的自由意志意味着人除了犯罪别无他途，仍处于堕落的状态。 不，我的意思是，未受洗者有能力行善。但我们讨论的不仅仅是行善。我们谈论的是进入上帝的生命。仅此而已。如果我帮助某人，或者有人饥饿而我给予食物，这些都是善行。当然，上帝会悦纳这些。但我们讨论的不仅仅是外在的行为。 我们谈论的是通过圣灵的恩典实现的内在转变，这是截然不同的。在我国家，政府会向穷人提供食物和金钱。但这并不意味着政府官员通过这些行为在灵性上得到了转变。那只是某种机械的、官僚式的流程。它并非在圣灵的光照下进行的。这并非说它不好，只是性质不同。 是的，我觉得我们应该多谈谈这一点，因为这很重要。在致加拉太人的书信中，圣保罗谈到了一个非常著名的段落，即他所说的”圣灵的果子”。这意味着这些是来自圣灵的事物。这些是什么呢？他告诉了我们，对吧？ 那就是仁爱、喜乐、忍耐、恩慈、良善、信实和温柔。他说，这些就是圣灵的果子。现在想想看。他说这些果子之一就是仁爱。所以，任何人，甚至动物，都能够对自己的后代怀有爱意。动物对自己的后代也有亲情。如果它们是正常的，就会对自己的孩子怀有爱和亲情，姑且这么说吧。而许多人…… 当然，不仅是自己的孩子，还有……他们也会爱其他人。如果他们稍微努力一下，就能拥有更多的爱。忍耐是圣灵的另一种果子。好吧，我可能有些不耐烦，但也许我可以试着对别人更耐心一点。所以我们可以称这些为美德的较低形式或次要形式。所有人都可以试着变得更耐心。 所有人都可以尝试变得更温柔。所有人都可以尝试做得更好。但这并非圣保罗所指。他所谈论的是……圣灵的果子。这些是美德的更高形式。这意味着什么？这意味着它们实际上……它们实际上是上帝自身的德行。它们是上帝自身的属性或特质，因为上帝是仁爱的。 上帝是温柔的。上帝是忍耐的。上帝是宽恕的。所以从某种意义上说，我们有两个层次。但上帝的爱与我的爱并不相同。或者说，人的忍耐与神的忍耐并不相同。因此，上帝所做的是建立我们的天然美德，并提升它们，在某种意义上将祂自己的能量和恩典注入其中。所以这是一种连续体。 但其中也存在一个重要区别。这样说有道理吗？所以基本上……美德的本质某种程度上也源于神的恩典。如果一个人变得更有耐心或更富有爱心。但两者的程度……一个微小，另一个则更为宏大且完美。是这样吗？我们都有爱的能力。 哦，是的。也许我明白。我爱，我也爱钱。哦，我爱美食。这点我确实做到了。但真正的爱、纯粹的爱，其实是参与到上帝的爱中。它转化我的爱，提升我的爱，使我的爱更接近上帝的爱。因为上帝的爱是人类之爱的救赎。 是的，我明白了。但这就是为什么《创世记》中会有”按上帝的形象和样式”这一概念。作为人类，我们源于上帝。上帝是我们的创造者。上帝是我们的天父。每个人心中都拥有上帝的形象。然而，并非每个人都拥有那样的样式。 可以说，我们都是出自上帝之手。但正因我们犯了罪，正因我们堕落了，正因我们迷失了方向，我们不再像上帝。如果上帝是爱，而我的心中却充满愤怒，我就不像上帝。这就是为什么尼萨的圣格雷戈里说：“你怎么能祷告说’我们在天上的父’呢？如果你不像…… 他怎能成为你的父亲？如果你与他毫无相似之处。所以，我们所谈论的……从人的爱与人的忍耐，迈向神的爱与神的忍耐，这就是我们所说的成长——在神形上的成长。哦，我明白了。
[English] Okay, I think the time is… They have no other question, I think, yeah. Okay. So you didn’t mention denying self and not trusting our flesh. I don’t know. Okay, one more question. I think this is the last one. Could go further. He asked the question, can you? I think it’s a question or not a question. Yeah. Thank you. Did you mention denying oneself a not-so-good life? Not trusting our flesh. Okay. Can you speak? Oh, I don’t understand this question. I’m going to find your servers. Clarification in response to the Father’s answer to one of the former questions, so I’m not trying to ask anything. Let’s just have further clarification. Oh, okay, okay. I’m just out of the water. Okay, it’s another question. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, I think there’s no question anymore. Yeah.
Well, maybe I can say something, though, because it is important. When we use the language of sort of denying the flesh, for St. Paul, this is very well known among New Testament scholars. When St. Paul talks about the flesh, He’s not talking about our biological tissue. He’s talking about the spirit of carnality. Which is why he says the mind of the flesh. The mind of the flesh, it’s a fleshly carnal mind, which he says is opposed to the spirit. It’s not the human body that’s opposed to the Holy Spirit. It’s the fallen human mind that has been lowered and fallen into sin, and it is inherently, in a sense, now opposed to the spirit. Which is why the Lord tells us to take your cross, whatever your cross is. You need to pick that cross up. And the Gospel of Luke adds, every day. Take up your cross every day, whatever your weakness is, whatever your problems are. You’ve got to pick them up with the grace of God and keep moving forward.
So you do not take care of your body, but you just do not follow the way of your body, something like that. As much as you can, as best you can, knowing that you are likely to fall or you are likely to wander off the path. I mean, this is the whole struggle. There is the famous saying in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. They said, “What do you monks do in that monastery all day?” And they said, “Well, we fall down and we get up. And then we fall down again. And we get up again. That’s what we do.” So life is a struggle. And the point is to not give up. You look at successful people. Successful people are people who have had more failures than anybody else, but they just didn’t give up. Okay, I see. We shouldn’t have faith in ourselves, but we should have every faith in the power of God who called us. We need to trust in the One who called us to the spiritual path. He will always be faithful to us. He will always give us the strength we need. He will never betray us or abandon us. We’re the ones who abandon Him. Yeah, right. So, yeah, I knew them. Okay.
Thank you very much for the maximum support. I think it’s very helpful for the Chinese audience if they have English people. I think it’s also very helpful. And yeah, hopefully we can have one next year or in the near future, yeah. Very nice. Very good to be with you all. God bless you all, and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Okay, thank you very much. Christ is risen. Truly He is risen. I hope so. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your patience.
[中文] 好的，我想时间到了……他们应该没有其他问题了，是的。好的。所以你刚才没提到”舍己”和”不倚靠肉体”。我也不太清楚。好的，最后一个问题。我想这是最后一个了。其实还可以继续问。他问了这个问题，你能回答吗？我觉得这算不算一个问题。是的。谢谢。你刚才提到过”舍弃不那么好的生活”吗？ 不倚靠肉体。好的。你能说吗？哦，我不明白这个问题。我要去找你们的侍者。这是针对神父对之前某个问题的回答所做的澄清，所以我并不是在问什么。我们只是进一步澄清一下。哦，好的，好的。我只是刚上岸。好的，这是另一个问题。好的，非常感谢。 好的，我想没有问题了。是的。
不过，也许我可以说几句，因为这很重要。当我们使用”否认肉体”这样的语言时，对于圣保罗来说，这一点在新约学者中是众所周知的。当圣保罗谈论”肉体”时，他指的不是我们的生物组织。他指的是属肉体的灵。这就是为什么他说”属肉体的思想”。 “属肉体的思想”，即一种世俗的、属肉体的思维，他指出这种思想与圣灵相对立。与圣灵相对立的并非人的身体，而是那堕落的人心——它已被贬低并陷入罪中，从某种意义上说，它本质上已与圣灵相对立。正因如此，主才告诉我们要背起自己的十字架，无论你的十字架是什么。 你必须背起那十字架。而《路加福音》补充道，要每天如此。无论你的软弱是什么，无论你的问题是什么，都要每天背起你的十字架。你必须靠着神的恩典背起它们，并继续向前迈进。
所以，你不要只顾自己的身体，而是不要随从身体的意愿，大概就是这个意思。 尽你所能，竭尽全力，明知自己可能会跌倒，或可能偏离正道。我的意思是，这就是整个挣扎的过程。《沙漠教父箴言》中有句名言。有人问：“你们这些修士整天在修道院里做什么？“他们回答：“我们跌倒，然后站起来。接着又跌倒。 然后我们再站起来。这就是我们在做的事。“所以生活就是一场挣扎。关键在于不要放弃。看看那些成功的人。成功的人往往比任何人都经历过更多的失败，但他们就是没有放弃。好的，我明白了。我们不应该信靠自己，而应该全然信靠那位呼召我们的上帝的大能。 我们需要信靠那位召我们走上属灵道路的主。祂必永远信实于我们。祂必赐给我们所需的力量。祂绝不会背叛我们或抛弃我们。是我们自己背弃了祂。是啊，没错。所以，是的，我认识他们。好的。
非常感谢大家的大力支持。我认为，如果有英国人参与，这对中国观众会很有帮助。 我也觉得这很有帮助。是的，希望明年或不久的将来我们还能举办一次，是的。非常棒。能和大家在一起真好。愿上帝保佑你们，期待很快再见。好的，非常感谢。基督复活了。祂确实复活了。我希望如此。谢谢您，神父。感谢您的耐心。