Letter 432

To Reginus the Archimandrite. [an archimandrite: the head of a monastery] You are a world within the world [a microcosm]. Therefore contemplate the whole of creation within yourself, and conceive all things in relation to yourself. Do not look toward the things outside; incline toward the things within; draw your whole mind together into the intellectual storehouse of the soul; make ready for the Lord a mind free of every image.

Κόσμος κόσμου ὑπάρχεις· τοιγαροῦν ἐν σεαυτῷ τὴν κτίσιν πᾶσαν κατόπτευε, καὶ τὰ πάντα εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐννόει. Μὴ βλέπε πρὸς τὰ ἔξω, σύννευσον πρὸς τὰ ἔσω, σύστρεψον τὸν νοῦν ὅλον εἰς τὸ νοερὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ταμιεῖον, ἀνείδωλον τῷ Κυρίῳ τὸν νοῦν εὐτρέ- πισον.