Letter 851

To Albinus the Monk. Having lately withdrawn from the tumults of worldly affairs, you ought to keep great stillness [hesychia, the contemplative quiet of the monastic life], and not, by too frequent goings-out, to reopen the wounds that come upon the mind through the senses, but rather to turn aside from the assault of new ones, and to devote all your zeal to blotting out and effacing the impressions already taken in beforehand.

Ἔναγχος τῶν βιωτικῶν ἀποστατήσας θορύβων, μεγάλην ἄγειν ἡσυχίαν ὀφείλεις, καὶ μὴ ταῖς πυ- κνοτέραις προόδοις τὰ διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων τῇ διανοίᾳ ἐγγινόμενα τραύματα ἀναζαινεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκκλίνειν μὲν τὴν τῶν νεαρῶν προσβολήν, πᾶσαν δὲ σπουδὴν ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ ἐξαλεῖψαι καὶ ἀμαλδῦναι τὰς φαντασίας τὰς προειληφυίας.