One face

John Climacus begins with an image: the light of dawn comes before the sunrise, and meekness is the dawn of humility. Meekness is a state of spirit that stays the same in humiliation and in honour, a rock above the sea on which the waves break. And he gives one of the most practical definitions in the book: meekness is when you pray sincerely and without agitation for your neighbour, even while he insults you.

Simplicity and guilelessness go with meekness. Simplicity is a state of soul into which no evil intention can creep. Guilelessness is the serenity of a soul without cunning thought. Some have them by nature, but John gives greater worth to the one who has reached them through effort, transforming his own cunning. And he warns: it is easy for a sincere man to become cunning, and hard for a cunning man to become sincere.

The opposite is cunning, and today it is easy to see. One face before those above you, another before those below. Planning how to get something out of people, instead of telling them honestly what you want. Distrust of everyone, and looking for a hidden motive in every word. And the sentence “everything’s fine” when it is not.

The practice begins with one week in which you try to behave the same towards everyone: towards the one above you, towards the one below, towards your neighbour. Write down where it was hardest. Speak simply, without hidden meanings or threats between the lines. John describes sincerity as unaffected thought and a natural, unrehearsed word. Stop reading other people’s minds: a cunning man, he says, is a false prophet who imagines he knows from outward signs what is in another’s heart. Do not assume the worst about people. Pray in your own words, like a child. And watch your children: how quickly they forgive, how they trust, how they say what they think.

A simple man is not one whom anyone can deceive, but one who deceives no one.

There are two traps. The first is mistaking simplicity for naivety. John describes simple elders who were not foolish, but serene and pleasant outwardly and watchful within. The second is cunning in the name of prudence: “that’s how it’s done in this business”. That is the excuse by which cunning justifies itself. Where everyone is working an angle, decide that you will not. John adds that knowledge puffs many up, so do not use it to outplay people.

The sign that you have climbed: people know where they stand with you, you do not have to remember what you told whom, and you can calmly pray for the one who hurt you today.

The question remains: if meekness is the dawn, what is the sun?

N. Ž.