Freedom from Thoughts 3
The Demon of Impurity: Mental Lust
Part Two in this series can be found here.
As we explore Evagrius’ teaching on mental preoccupations that inhibit spiritual growth, it is important to recall that his instructions were written for monks. This is particularly true with respect to the demon of “impurity” or sexual lust. The monks were committed to chastity, and so mental preoccupation with sex was a real concern for them as it could lead to action in violation of their vows. We must exercise caution in concluding that Evagrius understood bodies per se to be sinful.
In fact, Evagrius argues that those who
“take thought for the flesh to satisfy its lusts” have only themselves to blame and not their bodies. For those who have attained to purity of heart by means of the body and who in some measure have applied themselves to the contemplation of created things know the grace of the Creator (in giving them a body).1
Given Evagrius’ neo-Platonic leanings, this it not to say that he isn’t highly suspicious of sexual impulses. It is to say that he understood the body to be part of God’s good Creation, and that it is in fact the means whereby we cultivate the capacity to perceive reality clearly (“purity of heart”). As he makes clear, the problem is not that we have bodies or bodily impulses. The issues is how we respond to them.
Evagrius invites his fellow monks (and us) to examine and address mental preoccupations before they give rise to action. With regard to sexuality, he is concerned about mental lust or obsessive sexual fantasies. He states simply, “The demon of impurity impels one to lust after bodies.” He counsels them not to give themselves over “to thoughts of fornication, imagining the pleasure vividly.”2 He has no illusions that this is easy:
Just as it is easier to sin by thought than by deed, so also is the war fought on the field of thought more severe than that which is conducted in the area of things and events. For the mind is easily moved indeed, and hard to control in the presence of sinful phantasies.3
Evagrius intuitively recognized the way in which repeated thoughts and behaviors shape and embed particular neurological configurations and related emotional states. For example, the repeated act of smoking creates a neuro-physiological association between thoughts of smoking, the sensation of craving, and the act of smoking to temporarily relieve the craving. A similar dynamic obtains with respect to mental obsession with sexuality as evidenced by the growing problem of compulsive viewing of online pornography.
Evagrius, of course, never uses the language of addiction, but that seems to be his concern with sexual fantasies. They can cause people to be stuck in thought-loops, passions to which they become attached to the point that it limits their capacity to perceive and respond to reality. Addiction makes one’s world small and gives the illusion of relief from uncomfortable feelings. It is a form of self-medication.
Evagrius also relates fantasy to memory: the “euphoric recall” of past events that impedes contemplative prayer (which is always a means to the perception of reality in the present moment).
When you pray keep your memory under close custody. Do not let it suggest your own fancies to you, but rather have it convey the awareness of your reaching out to God . . .
When you are at prayer the memory activates fantasies of either past happenings or of fresh concerns or else of persons you have previously injured.
The devil so passionately envies the man who prays that he employs every device to frustrate that purpose. Thus he does not cease to stir up thoughts of various affairs by means of the memory. He stirs up all the passions by means of the flesh. In this way he hopes to offer some obstacle to that excellent course pursued in prayer on the journey toward God.4
The language of “the devil” and of “demons” vividly evokes the sense of being in bondage to a power over which one has no control and that is in a sense both external and internal to one’s self. Whatever one may think of the metaphysics of demonology, it expresses a psychological reality of compulsion and powerlessness. We (post) modern people can relate to the ways in which the preoccupation with sexual fantasy permeates our culture and colonizes our consciousness, from advertising to popular music to video games. It easily becomes a means to numb ourselves to genuine feeling and renders us insensate to the boundaries, needs, and dignity of actual bodies.
When one notices a preoccupation with sexual thoughts arising, Evagrius gives the following counsel:
Readings, vigils and prayer - these are the things that lend stability to the wandering mind. Hunger, toil, and solitude are the means of extinguishing the flames of desire . . . But all these practices are to be engaged in according to due measure and at the appropriate times. What is untimely done, or done without measure, endures but a short time. And what is short-lived is more harmful than profitable.5
Notice that Evagrius suggests a program of replacement rather than simply renunciation. Give the mind another and more spiritually nourishing focus of attention: embed some alternative neural pathways! This is why all 12-step programs of recovery include prayer and meditation as part of the treatment of addiction.
He also basically says, “take a cold shower!” Give the body as well as the mind something else to do. Fasting (not just from food, but from media, toxic images of masculinity and femininity, and the commercialization of bodies), manual labor, and solitude make use of the body to alter our mental states and minimize opportunities to stimulate the mental obsession. Interestingly, Evagrius also encourages the chanting of the Psalms.
The singing of Psalms quiets the passions and calms the intemperance of the body. Prayer, on the other hand, prepares the spirit to put its own powers into operation.6
Singing generally is an embodied experience, and creates a vibrational resonance that can calm and integrate bodily energies. Singing the Psalms in particular gives expression to a whole range of genuine human feeling, and allows it to be experienced and released rather than denied and avoided. Chanting the psalms puts us in touch with embodied reality and genuine embodied feeling. Chanting fosters the integration of our bodies with our spiritual faculties, and prepares the body for prayer.
It would be ironic, if it were not so tragic, that our sexually obsessed society is at the same time so emotionally numb and afraid of intimacy. The antidote to his preoccupation is engagement with spiritual practices that integrate our bodies (rather than objectifying them), foster authentic feeling (rather than stuck emotion), and invite us into relationship (with God and all things in God). Here, we might do well to learn from our siblings in other traditions, who have cultivated embodied practices such as yoga, tai chi, and sacred dance.
Indeed, our society is much more preoccupied with sex than was that of Evagrius. As we will see, the demon of impurity was not his primary concern.
Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer translated by John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO (Trappist, KY: Cistercian Publications, 1972), p. 30.
Evagrius Ponticus, p. 22
Evagrius Ponticus, p. 29.
Evagrius Ponticus, p. 62.
Evagrius Ponticus, p. 20.
Evagrius Ponticus, p. 69.