Spiritual Counsels by Fr Paisios

True happiness is found only with Christ. If you join with Him through prayer, your soul will be fulfilled and satisfied. The worldly seek happiness by always trying to find ways to enjoy themselves. On the other hand, some spiritual people seek happiness and fulfilment through theological discussion, spiritual talks, etc. When these finish, they are left feeling empty and they wonder what they can do next. Whether they are occupying themselves with something sinful or something neutral, it results in that same feeling of emptiness. Why don’t they at least go to sleep, so that they can go to their work in the morning clear-headed?

Happiness does not come by fulfilling the worldly desires of the heart - stress comes instead. Worldly happiness brings stress to spiritual people also. Worldly happiness is not permanent, true happiness - it is a happiness that is temporary or momentary. This is materialistic happiness, not spiritual happiness. Materialistic happiness, however, cannot fulfil the soul. On the contrary, it causes the soul to be filled with impurity. When we feel spiritual happiness, we will not want or seek materialistic happiness - “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness”. Worldly happiness does not relax the spiritual person, instead it tires him out. Put a spiritual person in a worldly house. He cannot rest. Even the worldly person only thinks he is relaxing, but in reality he is suffering. He is happy on the surface, but inside he is not satisfied, he is miserable.

They feel suffocated, but they also want these worldly things, just like the frog is attracted to the mouth of the snake. The snake sits across from the pond and watches the frog continuously. If the frog is tricked and looks at the snake, he becomes mesmerised and goes straight toward the mouth of the snake. The snake then bites and poisons the frog, so that it does not struggle. Then the frog begins to shout, but it is too late, even if it is rescued it will surely die because it has been injected with poison.

Today’s people do not think of eternity. Their self-centredness causes them to forget that one day, everything will be lost. They have not grasped the deeper meaning of life. They have not felt other, heavenly joys. Their heart does not leap for something higher. For argument’s sake, you give a zucchini to someone. “What a nice zucchini!” he says. Then you give him a pineapple. “The pineapple has ugly, hard scales,” he says and he throws it away, because he has never eaten a pineapple to know about the sweetness it hides underneath its scales. Or tell a mole, “How beautiful is the sun!” But he will burrow down into the ground again. Those that feel comfortable in the materialistic world, are like those foolish little birds who do not struggle within the egg, in order to be able to break the shell and come out to enjoy the sun - the heavenly flight to a life in Paradise - but wait without moving and eventually die within the egg.

This passage has been translated from the Greek and is a section of the following book: