A joyful heart & the struggle to see goodness in all: gifts from St Paisius & St John of the Ladder

Summary

In this heartfelt video script, the speaker, despite facing a migraine and being late, shares a profound reflection on spiritual growth amidst adversity. Drawing from the teachings of Saint Paisius and Saint John of Sinai, the speaker illustrates the metaphor of bees and flies to differentiate between positive and negative attitudes towards life's challenges. The script emphasizes the importance of training our minds to perceive goodness in others and situations, even when faced with less virtuous individuals or environments, as a means to spiritual maturity and the nurturing of divine love within.

Takeaways

• 🕊️ The speaker emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive outlook and connection with the audience despite personal struggles like a migraine.
• 🐝 The concept of being like a bee or a fly in life is introduced, with bees symbolizing those who seek out the good and virtuous, while flies are attracted to the less virtuous.
• 🌿 The idea that one's environment and the people around them can significantly impact their spiritual journey is highlighted, suggesting that we may not always have control over these factors.
• 🏰 A monastery is used as an example of a place where one cannot choose their companions, and the necessity to love, pray for, and do obedience to everyone, regardless of their virtues.
• 📚 The story from 'The Ladder of Saint John of Sinai' illustrates the power of positive thinking and the ability to interpret situations in a constructive light, even when faced with contrasting realities.
• 🧘‍♂️ The monk's ability to see the spiritual dedication in both a messy and a tidy cell demonstrates the spiritual wisdom of finding the good in every situation.
• 🤔 The contrast between the wise monk and the speaker's own initial negative reactions to the same situations underscores the importance of training one's mind to perceive the positive.
• 🌼 The speaker encourages the audience to develop the spiritual wisdom to find 'nectar' in every person and situation, promoting personal and communal growth.
• 💔 The potential negative consequences of judgment and condemnation are discussed, such as causing harm to oneself and others, and hindering spiritual progress.
• 🌱 The necessity to train our minds to control our thoughts, similar to how strong winds can alter the course of a waterfall, is presented as a means to cultivate a positive and forgiving mindset.
• 🙏 The script concludes with a prayer for God's grace, love, and tenderheartedness towards all, reinforcing the theme of forgiveness and spiritual growth.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video script?

The main theme of the video script is about finding positivity and spiritual growth in difficult situations and learning not to judge others by their outward appearances or circumstances.

What is the story from Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain mentioned in the script?

The story from Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain is about the natural inclination of people to become either flies or bees, with bees collecting good and virtuous traits from others for spiritual growth, while flies collect negativity.

Why does the narrator mention the difficulty of being in a monastery?

The narrator mentions the difficulty of being in a monastery to illustrate the challenge of not being able to choose the people one interacts with and having to find a way to see the good in everyone, despite their differences.

What is the story from the Ladder of Saint John of Sinai about?

The story from the Ladder of Saint John of Sinai is about a monk who has trained his mind to always think positively, interpreting both a messy and a clean cell as signs of spiritual dedication and discipline in his fellow monks.

How does the narrator differentiate between the two monks in the story from Saint John of Sinai?

The narrator differentiates between the two monks by their approach to interpreting the same situations. One monk finds spiritual wisdom and positivity in both scenarios, while the other monk judges and condemns, finding negativity.

What is the spiritual lesson the narrator wants the audience to learn from the script?

The spiritual lesson the narrator wants the audience to learn is to train their minds to find the good in every situation and person, to avoid judgment and condemnation, and to let go of negative thoughts.

What does the narrator mean by 'finding nectar in every situation'?

By 'finding nectar in every situation,' the narrator means discovering the spiritual or positive aspects in every circumstance, regardless of its outward appearance, to aid in one's personal growth and spiritual development.

How does the narrator relate the story of the waterfalls to the spiritual journey?

The narrator relates the story of the waterfalls to the spiritual journey by comparing the strong winds that can change the course of the water to the strength needed to change one's natural tendency to judge and condemn, and instead, to find positivity.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Embracing Life's Challenges with Spiritual Insight

The speaker begins with a personal note on being late and having a migraine but still wanting to connect with the audience. They delve into a story about becoming either 'flies' or 'bees' in life, highlighting the importance of seeking out virtuous people for spiritual growth. The narrative then shifts to the unpredictability of life, where one might find themselves in less than ideal circumstances with people of varying virtues. The speaker uses the example of monastic life to illustrate the difficulty of choosing one's company and the necessity of learning to find the good in all situations, referencing Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain and the challenges of communal living.

05:07

🔍 The Monk's Wisdom: Finding Positivity in All Circumstances

This paragraph continues the spiritual theme, introducing a story from the Ladder of Saint John of Sinai about a monk who maintains a positive mindset regardless of what he encounters. The monk perceives a messy cell as a sign of deep spiritual dedication and an orderly cell as evidence of obedience and discipline. The speaker contrasts this with their own potential negative reactions to the same situations, emphasizing the importance of spiritual wisdom in interpreting life's events positively and the transformative power of a positive outlook on oneself and others.

10:08

🐝 Spiritual Growth Through Constructive Interpretation

The speaker further explores the concept of spiritual bees, individuals who can extract 'nectar' or spiritual nourishment from any situation, even those that initially appear negative. They discuss the potential benefits for both the monk with the messy cell and the one with the tidy cell, suggesting that the positive interpretations could lead to repentance and improvement. The speaker contrasts this with their own hypothetical negative judgments, which could harm both themselves and their brethren, highlighting the importance of training one's mind to see the good in others and in all situations.

15:15

🌪️ Redirecting Thoughts to Foster Spiritual Health

In the final paragraph, the speaker uses the metaphor of a strong wind altering the course of a waterfall to illustrate the need to redirect our thoughts away from judgment and condemnation. They emphasize the Christian teachings of forgiveness and carrying each other's crosses, suggesting that our natural instincts have been corrupted by a fallen world. The speaker encourages the audience to catch and redirect negative thoughts, to cultivate a mindset of love, forgiveness, and understanding, and to emulate the examples set by holy monastics and saints throughout history.

Keywords

💡Migraine

Migraine is a severe headache often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. In the video script, the speaker mentions having a migraine, which sets the context for their determination to record the video despite physical discomfort, illustrating their commitment to staying connected with the audience.

💡Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain

Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain is referenced as the originator of a parable about being either a 'fly' or a 'bee' in life. This concept is central to the video's theme, suggesting that individuals should seek out and emulate the positive and virtuous aspects of others, akin to a bee collecting nectar, rather than dwelling on negativity, like a fly.

💡Virtue

Virtue, in the context of the video, refers to moral excellence or righteousness. The script encourages viewers to focus on the virtuous aspects of life and people, as a means of personal and spiritual growth, drawing a contrast with the negative aspects that one might otherwise focus on.

💡Monastery

A monastery is a place where individuals, known as monastics, live in a community under religious vows. The script uses the monastery as an example of a challenging environment where one cannot choose their companions, emphasizing the necessity to find virtue and growth in all circumstances.

💡Ladder of Saint John of Sinai

The 'Ladder of Saint John of Sinai' is a spiritual classic that the speaker references to illustrate a story about interpreting situations positively. This concept is integral to the video's message, which is about finding the 'nectar' or good in every situation, regardless of its outward appearance.

💡Spiritual Life

Spiritual life, as discussed in the script, pertains to the aspect of an individual's existence that is concerned with their relationship with the divine or the ultimate meaning of life. The video emphasizes the importance of nurturing one's spiritual life by focusing on the positive and virtuous, even in difficult circumstances.

💡Obedience

Obedience in the script is portrayed as a monastic virtue, where one submits to the rules and guidance of the spiritual community. It is used to illustrate the idea that true obedience and discipline can be reflected both internally in one's spiritual life and externally in one's environment.

💡Repentance

Repentance is the act of feeling regret or remorse for one's wrongdoings and seeking to make amends. The speaker uses the concept of repentance to suggest that recognizing and acknowledging one's faults can lead to spiritual growth and transformation.

💡Judgement

Judgement, in the context of the video, refers to the act of forming an opinion or conclusion about someone or something. The script warns against hasty judgement and condemnation, advocating instead for understanding and forgiveness as a means of spiritual development.

💡Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the act of pardoning someone for their wrongdoings. The video script emphasizes forgiveness as a key aspect of spiritual maturity and as a means to cultivate a loving and supportive community.

💡Spiritual Wisdom

Spiritual wisdom is the ability to perceive and understand spiritual truths and to apply them in one's life. The script describes a monastic who embodies spiritual wisdom by interpreting different situations in a positive light, which contributes to his own and others' spiritual growth.

💡Nectar

In the metaphor used in the script, 'nectar' symbolizes the positive and virtuous elements that one can extract from life's experiences, even from those that may initially seem negative or challenging. The video encourages the audience to be like 'bees,' seeking out and collecting this 'nectar' from all aspects of life.

Highlights

The speaker is late and has a migraine but still wants to record the video to stay connected with the audience.

The story from Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain about naturally becoming either flies or bees in life.

Bees collect good and virtuous things from people to aid their path to salvation.

Flies surround themselves with less virtuous people and collect negativity.

Life sometimes forces us into situations with people we can't choose.

Entering a monastery means not being able to pick fellow monastics.

Monasteries gather people from different backgrounds and interests, making it challenging.

The story from the Ladder of Saint John of Sinai about a monk who thinks positively no matter what.

The monk sees a messy cell as a sign of dedication to spiritual life.

The monk sees a clean cell as proof of obedience and discipline in spiritual life.

We can train our minds to find the good in every situation like the wise monk.

Judging and condemning others harms our spiritual growth and relationships.

The speaker contrasts the wise monk with their own judgmental thoughts.

Finding the good in others can lead them to repentance and spiritual growth.

We must train our minds to control our thoughts and not condemn others.

Christ teaches us to forgive, not judge, and carry each other's crosses.

We are naturally inclined to love and forgive, but our fallen nature corrupts this.

We must catch our condemning thoughts and turn them back like a strong wind.

The speaker prays for God's grace, love, and tenderheartedness towards all.

Transcripts

Hello, my dear ones! It is one of those days  when I am dreadfully late---in about two hours  

I should post this video for you---and also I've  been blessed with a full-blown migraine today,  

but by the grace of God I still want to record  this, I still want to keep in touch with you, and  

I pray God gives me something to tell you, and I  had in mind to talk to you precisely about this,  

about this sort of context when you find yourself  in a dreadful moment, in a dreadful situation or  

facing someone who's not particularly the nicest  kindest creation of God, and of course the first  

thing that comes to my mind is that story from I  think Saint Paisius of the Holy Mountain who says  

that we are naturally inclined to become either  flies or bees, in the sense that someone who is  

like a bee will go through life finding  everything and everyone that is good and virtuous  

and could potentially help one on one's path to  salvation, and like a bee he or she will just  

collect nectar from these beautiful people, these  wonderful people; whereas those people who are  

naturally inclined to be like flies will do the  opposite and we'll find ourselves surrounded by  

less virtuous, less beautiful people and we are  going to end up collecting what flies usually  

collect from the things on which they usually  rest. But there is a problem there: there's  

the problem that sometimes in life you don't get  to pick and choose the people who surround you,  

sometimes life just throws you into a  context, into a given situation, with given  

people who are either beautiful or not, either  virtuous or not, and you can do very little,  

at least for some time, to get yourself  out of that place and find more beautiful,  

nectar-filled people from whom you can learn.  At least in my life that's been the situation  

most of the times, I mean, when you enter  a monastery, for instance, you don't quite  

pick and choose who are your fellow monastics: a  monastery is a very difficult place to be from the  

very beginning, from the outset, because it's  not a place where people have grown together,  

it's not a family in which one's children  are at least to some degree shaped by the  

same values and the same ideas as their parents; a  family, a family unit is somehow naturally alike,  

whereas in a monastery, very much like in an  office, people from all walks of life and with all  

sorts of interests are gathered together, and they  are already grown-ups and they are already formed  

more or less, so it is a very difficult place  and you don't really get to choose with whom you  

interact, you're supposed to pray for everyone,  love everyone, do obedience to everyone,  

and what do you do in a monastery or in an  office or, again, in any situation of life  

when you don't get to select the people  who surround you? There's another story  

in the Ladder of Saint John of Sinai, the great  Saint and the great monastic, who tells the story  

of a monk who had trained his mind to always think  positively no matter what he saw, and Saint John  

of the Ladder gives this example of this same  monastic passing by two cells of his brothers,  

and the doors to these cells were open so he  could see clearly the state of each cell, and  

our monk passes the first cell and  through the open door he sees this  

incredible mess, you know, a pigs place with  everything thrown about and completely dirty and  

lacking any sense of order or cleanliness, and  the mind of our monk immediately translates what  

he sees as a sign of his monastic brother's  complete dedication to the spiritual life,  

'Oh,' he thinks to himself, 'my brother is so  given to prayer, so given to to his life in  

Christ, so absorbed by the Kingdom that he has  completely forgotten about his surroundings,  

he is so wholly raptured into the reality of  the life to come that the reality of this life,  

the cell in which he lives and everything  in that cell, is completely lost to him';  

and then he moves further and he passes the second  cell and through the open door of this second cell  

he sees perfect order, perfect cleanliness and  discipline in everything, and the mind of our monk  

immediately decodes this new situation as proof  of his fellow monastic's complete obedience,  

complete dedication and discipline in his  spiritual life, in matters of the spiritual life;  

'Oh,' he says again to himself, 'my brother is  so exact in his spiritual life, his repentance  

must be so striking and so deep, his obedience  must be to the most minute detail towards his  

spiritual father that this interior reality, this  interior spiritual reality of his is reflected  

onto this life by this outwardly discipline and  cleanliness that I perceive and I see in his cell,  

because naturally what we have inside will  overflow on the outside, naturally if you  

are someone who is ordered and disciplined on  the inside in your spiritual life, that will  

be reflected into the reality of your cell,  of your monastery, of your office and so on';  

and Saint John of the Ladder places before  our eyes the example of this monastic  

who sees two completely opposite situations,  two completely opposite realities,  

and yet we see in him the wisdom that he has  acquired to translate, to decode both of these  

opposing and contrasting realities into something  good, into something positive, into something that  

benefits him and benefits his growth spiritually.  A different kind of monastic, someone like me for  

example, would have passed that first cell and  I would have thought, 'Oh, my God, what a dump!  

My, my brother is, is a complete pig!  He cannot clean his cell, he cannot pay  

attention to anything around him; this is clearly  a reflection of how careless and how chaotic his  

spiritual life is as well', and I would have  judged him and I would have condemned him.  

And then moving forward when I see the  cell of my second brother and the perfect  

order and discipline in that cell, I  would have said, 'Oh, my God, this monk,  

he has absolutely no time left in his mind to give  himself, to give his heart and mind to Christ!  

He is obsessive about everything in his cell:  look how the, all the books are perfectly stacked,  

perfectly ordered; look how there isn't one sign  of dust anywhere in his cell. This brother of mine  

is completely taken with the outside world and  he probably is completely dry on the inside.' Now  

what do you see, the difference between the  monk put before our eyes by Saint John of  

the Ladder and the other monk which is  an expression of someone like myself:  

the first one has seen two completely opposite  situations and has managed to train his mind,  

he found the spiritual wisdom to find nectar no  matter what he has before himself, a good person  

or a bad person, a clean cell or a dirty cell,  a good situation or a challenging situation;  

he's trained himself and God has blessed  him for his effort with the wisdom to decode  

everything into a positive note and to find  the good, the nectar in every single person,  

every single situation: this is a proper bee,  a proper spiritual bee who can gather nectar  

from the most beautiful flowers and the most  foul realities of this world; he has faced two  

different realities and he has grown from both  by blessing his brothers and interpreting his  

brother's behaviour as examples for himself,  by the end of this walk of his he has grown,  

he has not condemned his brothers, and if  he voiced out loud what he said, he has not  

damaged or harmed his brothers either, quite the  contrary. If the first monastic was indeed more  

of a careless, sloppy sort of man, hearing his  brother finding the good in his unclean cell,  

that might bring him to repentance and that might  bring him to clean his cell, the outside cell  

and the inside cell of his heart; and similarly  the second brother could also benefit from  

hearing the thoughts of this good monastic,  because maybe indeed he is so obsessed with  

life in this world that he had forgotten to pay  attention to his spiritual life, but when he sees  

his life reflected onto such a beautiful  mirror, that can bring him to repentance as well  

and that can also bring him closer to a real  spiritual life. Our good monk has found nectar in  

two completely opposite situations and he has also  benefited his brethren; whereas someone like me,  

I've managed to gather nothing except condemnation  upon my soul for judging and condemning my  

brothers, I found nothing good in the same places  in which my brother has found nothing but goodness  

and spiritual nectar, and if I dare to voice my  thoughts, to say my thoughts out loud, I've also  

damaged both my brothers, throwing both into  despondency or bringing them to anger and  

making them speak bad words against me and thus  pushing them into my sin, the sin of condemning  

and judging. There is a way in which we can  train our minds not not to see the reality,  

because the monk of Saint John of the Ladder saw  reality for what it was, he saw the the dirty  

cell as a dirty cell and the obsessively clean  cell as an obsessively clean cell, it's not that  

he no longer perceived reality for what it was,  but he made the choice and he used his free will  

and he used his wisdom to decode reality  in a way that benefits him and his brother,  

whereas the second monk has used the same  realities to decode nothing but condemnation, sin,  

and passion, gathering condemnation upon himself  and potentially upon his brethren as well.  

The same situations, the  same people, the same place,  

two different people can grow in their spiritual  life or can collapse in their spiritual life,  

depending on how we train our thoughts  to decode what we see in our lives.  

If we are ready to always judge and condemn,  if we are always ready to see what is bad  

and condemnable in our brothers and  our sisters, then we do nothing but to  

feed the seeds of condemnation, the seeds that  the evil one has planted in us, and we slowly but  

certainly become this horrible spiritual being;  but if we learn to let go, if we learn to hide the  

mistakes of our brothers and our sisters, if we  learn never to judge or to condemn, if we learn to  

turn everything to the good, then we  are going to slowly feed the image of 

the Good One in us, of the Forgiving One  in us, the divine Image of God in us.

You know on our island there are these waterfalls,

and sometimes---in winter in particular when  the winds are so strong, when they get to 60-70  

miles per hour---the water of the  waterfall, there's one just close to us,  

the water of the waterfall falls down from the  cliff onto the ocean, and just before the water  

falls into the ocean, the wind is so strong  that it catches the water just before it hits  

the ocean and it catches the water and just  throws it back, it just turns it back, it  

detours its natural course, and this is what  we have to train our minds to do as well:  

we are naturally created to think good about  our brothers and our sisters, we are naturally  

created to love and to forgive and to cover each  other's sins and to carry each other's crosses,  

and this is a given fact this is the  truth that was revealed to us by Christ,  

because when Christ tells us: 'Forgive  each other. Do not judge so you are not  

judged. Carry each other's crosses. Turn the  other cheek and do not take further the evil of  

your brother', He's simply describing to us Who He  is and who we truly are; but because we've fallen  

and because we live in a fallen world, a  fallen culture and society, these natural  

instincts of ours have been corrupted, and instead  of naturally seeing the goodness in each other,  

instead of naturally decoding everything  to the good so we grow through this  

decoding, we now naturally see the evil in each  other, we naturally see where we make mistakes and  

we naturally condemn and judge each  other. So we have, with the same strength  

of those winds, we have to learn how to  catch our thoughts before they collapse  

into the ocean, we have to catch them and throw  them back, and when we notice our thoughts  

condemning our brother, immediately cut them  short, immediately cut them short and turn  

that weight of the water, of the waterfall of  condemnation, which is unleashed in us by the  

evil one, catch it and turn it back until we learn  how to control these courses of our thoughts;  

and it can be done, my brother, it can be done,  my sister, we see it in all the holy monastics  

and the holy people in the world from the time  of the Holy Apostles all the way to Saint Paisius  

of the Holy Mountain and the Saints who live  among us today as we as we live and breathe.

Oh, may God bless all of us,  my brothers and my sisters,  

by His grace and His love and  His tenderheartedness towards us.

Amen, amen, amen.