Remedy and poison

This is the second longest teaching in the Ladder, and a handbook for all the others. John Climacus calls discernment the light of all the virtues, as the eyes are the light of the whole body. In beginners it is accurate knowledge of oneself. In those who have advanced, it is a sense that tells true good from apparent good. And in general, it is understanding what is right at every moment, in every place and every matter.

John gives several tools that are useful outside the monastery too. The first: when something weighs on you, first find where the wind is blowing from, and only then set your sails. The cause may be your own negligence, your own pride, or plain misfortune that is not your fault, and each calls for a different answer. The second: every good deed has three pits. First something hinders you from doing it. If you do it anyway, it tries to make you do it for the wrong reason. And if that fails too, it starts praising you in your thoughts. The third: evil weaves itself into good. With hospitality comes the belly, with discernment cunning, with joy pride, and over everything vanity sticks.

The fourth tool connects with what was said earlier about sowing and reaping. There is a time for everything: for fasting and for eating, for struggle and for peace, for obeying and for commanding. Do not look for summer in winter, nor for the harvest at sowing time. And the fifth, the most important for anyone who leads other people:

What is a remedy for one is poison for another.

The same advice, the same stern word, the same discipline lifts one person up and knocks another down. Even for the same person, the same thing helps at one time and harms at another. John saw a bad physician who threw a weak man into despair by humbling him, and a good one who cured a proud man with the same humbling. Whoever is a parent or leads people does not use the same approach for everyone.

For important decisions John gives an order. First separate yourself from your own wish: write down what you want and admit how strongly that wish pulls you. Then for several days bring the matter into silence, until one of the options fades from the soul. Ask the experienced and accept their advice, even when it goes against your own opinion. Watch the fruits, but not as the only proof. Check your humility: if a deed does not increase your humility, it is probably not right. And when you have done all this, do not hesitate too long, because long wavering, John says, is the sign of an unenlightened and vain soul. Decide and go. And remember one rule above the rules: when a child or your wife needs you and you have a plan, love comes first.

John adds advice about the morning: the day belongs to whoever takes it first. Do not give your first thoughts after waking to the phone. An ascetic told him: from the early morning I already know how my whole day will go.

The sign that you have climbed: you make decisions calmly and in good time, you can recognise what each person needs, and you see the motive of your own deeds before it takes you by surprise.

The question remains: where is the silence heard in which discernment happens?

N. Ž.