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“Evagrius of Pontus - Eight Logismoi (thoughts)- original Greek Text with English translation”

From the Praktikos. These "thoughts" were taken by later writers and used in the development of the tradition about seven deadly sins.

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Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Greek (with dictionary lookup links). The English translation below (public domain) is by Luke Dysinger O.S.B.

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There are eight generic [tempting-] thoughts (logismoi), that contain within themselves every [tempting-]thought: first is that of gluttony; and with it, sexual immorality; third, love of money; fourth, sadness; fifth, anger; sixth acedia; seventh, vainglory; eighth, pride. Whether these thoughts are able to disturb the soul or not is not up to us; but whether they linger or not, and whether they arouse passions or not; that is up to us.
The [tempting]-thought of gluttony suggests to the monk the quick abandonment of his asceticism. The stomach, liver, spleen, and [resultant] congestive heart failure are depicted, along with long sickness, lack of necessities, and unavailability of physicians. It often leads him to recall those of the brethren who have suffered these things. Sometimes it even deceives those who have suffered from this kind of thing to go and visit [others] who are practicing self-control, to tell them all about their misfortunes and how this resulted from their asceticism.

The demon of sexual immorality compels desiring for different bodies. Especially violently does it attack those who practice self-control, so that they will cease, as if achieving nothing. Contaminating the soul, it bends it down towards these sorts of deeds: it makes it speak certain words and then hear them, as if the thing were actually there to be seen.

Love of money suggests: a long old age; hands powerless to work; hunger and disease yet to come; the bitterness of poverty; and the disgrace of receiving the necessities [of life] from others.
Sadness sometimes arises from frustrated desires; but sometimes it is the result of anger. When desires are frustrated it arises thus: certain [tempting-]thoughts first seize the soul and remind it of home and parents and its former course of life. When they see the soul following them without resistance, and dissipating itself in mental pleasures, they take and dunk [lit baptize] it in sadness, since it is the case that these earlier things are gone and cannot be recovered due to the [monk's] present way of life Then the miserable soul, having been dissipated by the first [tempting-]thought, is humiliated all the more by the second.

Anger is the sharpest passion. It is said to be a boiling up and movement of indignation (thumos) against a wrongdoer or a presumed wrongdoer: it causes the soul to be savage all day long, but especially in prayers it seizes the nous, reflecting back the face of the distressing person. Then sometimes it is lingering and is changed into rancor: [thus] it causes disturbances at night; bodily weakness and pallor; and attacks from poisonous beasts. These four things associated with rancor may be found to have been summoned up by many other tempting- thoughts.

The demon of acedia, which is also called the noonday demon, is the most burdensome of all the demons. It besets the monk at about the fourth hour (10 am) of the morning, encircling his soul until about the eighth hour (2 pm). [1] First it makes the sun seem to slow down or stop moving , so that the day appears to be fifty hours long. [2] Then it makes the monk keep looking out of his window and forces him to go bounding out of his cell to examine the sun to see how much longer it is to 3 o’clock, and to look round in all directions in case any of the brethren is there. [3] Then it makes him hate the place and his way of life and his manual work. It makes him think that there is no charity left among the brethren; no one is going to come and visit him. [4] If anyone has upset the monk recently, the demon throws this in too to increase his hatred. [5] It makes him desire other places where he can easily find all that he needs and practice an easier, more convenient craft. After all, pleasing the Lord is not dependent on geography, the demon adds; God is to be worshipped everywhere. [6] It joins to this the remembrance of the monk’s family and his previous way of life, and suggests to him that he still has a long time to live, raising up before his eyes a vision of how burdensome the ascetic life is. So, it employs, as they say, every [possible] means to move the monk to abandon his cell and give up the race. No other demon follows on immediately after this one but after its struggle the soul is taken over by a peaceful condition and by unspeakable joy.

The thought of vainglory is especially subtle and it easily infiltrates those whose lives are going well, [A] wanting to publish their efforts, [B] and go hunting for glory among men; [1] it raises up a fantasy of demons shouting, [2] and women being healed, [3] and a crowd of people wanting to touch the monk’s clothes. [4] It prophesies priesthood for him, and sets the stage with people thronging at his door, calling for him, and even though he resists he will be carried off under constraint. Then, having raised him up with empty hopes like this, it suddenly leaps away and leaves him, abandoning him to be tempted either by the demon of pride or by the demon of gloominess, which brings on thoughts contrary to the previous hopes. Sometimes it also hands over to the demon of sexual immorality the man who, a moment before, was being carried off forcibly to be made a holy priest.

The demon of pride conducts the soul to its worst fall. It urges it: [1] not to admit God’s help, [2] and to believe that the soul is responsible for its own achievements, [3] and to disdain the brethren as fools because they do not all see this about it. This demon is followed by: [1] anger and [2] sadness and the final evil, [3] utter insanity and madness, and visions of mobs of demons in the air.

 



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Greek Text
Evagrius Ponticus
Guidance for Monks
Life in the Desert
7 deadly sins
De Octo Vitiosis Cogitationibus
Migne Greek Text

 

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