#MastersofSocialIsolation #7. Evagrius Ponticus, a 4th-cen desert ascetic, wrote a manual of practical counsel for those living in solitude. The desert monks did not so much flee people, but the deadness of a world consumed with the quest for power, wealth, and passing pleasure.
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In the desert they could learn to uproot their own acquisitive ego and find their true selves. But in doing so they were subject to various “demons of sadness,” of which the most difficult was “acedia,” or the “noonday demon.”
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“He presses his attack upon the monk about the 4th hour and besieges the soul until the 8th hour. First of all he makes it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and that the day is 50 hours long. Then he constrains the monk to look constantly out the windows, ...
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... to walk outside the cell, to gaze carefully at the sun to determine how far it stands from the 9th hour, to look now this way and now that to see if perhaps one of the brethren appears from his cell...He depicts life stretching out for a long period of time, and ...
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...leaves no leaf unturned to induce the monk to forsake his cell and drop out of the fight.” Not just desert monks but writers, artists, parents, and many others are familiar with this demon. Evagrius is compassionate:
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“When we meet with the demon of acedia, then is the time with tears to divide our soul in two. One part is to encourage; the other is to be encouraged.” When the demon strikes, be compassionate with yourself.
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Evagrius counselled the cultivation of Apatheia. Translated as unshakable-calm. Also the absence of the (9) passions & of suffering. Bourgeois consumption & comfort the opposite of Apatheia. "Peace be with you" the greeting wishing the other the peace of Apatheia. #PaxVobiscum.
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I appreciate this memorial about my father by @ggrenwald above any I have read today--for his comprehensive review of his bio & history, for his attention to themes generally overlooked about his post-Vietnam life, but particularly for deep appreciation of his human qualities.🙏
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Here's my @RollingStone article on Daniel Ellsberg, the heroic Pentagon Papers leaker who died today at 92:
"We’re Told Never to Meet Our Childhood Heroes. Knowing Daniel Ellsberg Proved That Wrong"
rollingstone.com/politics/polit
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