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Sin, passion, affect – is there a difference between them and who to turn to for help if we cannot cope with our strong emotions? Commentary by Priest Peter Kolomeitsev.
“Sin, according to the teaching of the church, is a mistake or a mistake, and not a crime at all, as some people think. It is not sin itself that leads to the death of a person, but the disease of the soul, its damage, which is the source of all sins. In Orthodox terminology, these deadly diseases are called destructive passions.
eight passions
Evagrius of Pontus first defined the eight main passions: Gluttony, Fornication, Love of money (passions of the flesh). Anger, Sadness, Despondency (mental passions). Vanity, Pride (spiritual passions).
St. John Cassian the Roman describes three types of anger: internal anger, external – in words and assault, and vindictiveness; two types of sadness: for losses and unfulfilled dreams, because of fears, fears and many worries; and two kinds of despondency: apathy and despair. One drives you to sleep, and the other – from the cell. In spiritual passions, he notes two types of vanity: carnal advantages and spiritual merits; and two types of pride: carnal arrogance and spiritual arrogance, which is more fatal than all other passions, because it lies in wait for those who have succeeded in the struggle with passions.
Passions do not appear immediately, but gradually. In the beginning, a certain sinful thought appears, an offer of sin with a hint of some sweetness, a promise of pleasure. The Holy Fathers call this “attachment”, that is, that which wishes to join us, to enter our life. It can be said that a person has no power over the appearance of adjuncts, and therefore this stage, the stage of the emergence of temptation, is still sinless in itself. Similarly, strong emotions that suddenly take possession of a person have every right to arise. “We cannot forbid birds to fly over our heads, but it is in our full power to forbid them to build a nest on our head, and even more so, to hatch chicks there”– so wrote one of the teachers of the church. Therefore, what a person will do with these emotions and how he will act under their influence is much more important. We begin to figure out whether this is definitely a good proposal or whether it is still an invitation to sin, and we argue with it and condemn it – that is, we enter the second stage, the struggle with the thought, and can still end in victory over the thought.
Read more:
- Linor Goralik: “Our childhood is a story of refusing temptations”
The third stage is a turning point. Carried away by a controversy with a thought, one can imagine oneself as an actor who overcomes this sin, and not notice how this thought will be carried away, a sweet dream of a forbidden situation, savoring possible details … Then the fourth stage will follow, “captivity”, that is, a strong passion an attachment that becomes a passion for a person when he loses control over it. This leads to the final dependence of a person, to the loss of control over his actions, to obsession, when sin itself rules over a person and over his life.
Leonid Vinogradov “On passions and temptations. Answers of Orthodox psychologists»
What do gluttony and bulimia, discouragement and depression have in common? Are sadness and anxiety the same thing? The holy fathers say that passions are not a crime, but an illness, a disease. Psychologists see behind them psychological problems that need therapy. Psychologists Natalia Inina, Denis Novikov, Boris Voskresensky, Tatyana Gavrilova and others reflect on pride, anger, vanity and their psychological causes. (Nicaea, 2016)
The one who is already at the first stage attentive to temptation acts wiser, because with each subsequent stage the struggle with passion becomes more and more difficult. A modern person usually skips the first stages at lightning speed, finding himself already deeply mired in bad dreams and desires, or doing ugly things that he really does not want to do at all.
Read more:
- 30 Life Principles of Mahatma Gandhi
The fight against passions must begin with the beloved, that is, the greatest, but it often happens that awareness of sin and condemnation of it is still not enough for victory over sins. The fact is that each passion, taking root in a person, is associated with many other things that are vital for a person. A psychologist is able to unravel this tangle. The grace of God supplants passion, and psychological help finds those injuries that this passion served. Often, our addictions are nothing more than a kind of anesthesia, an analgesic that muffles mental pain, never curing it. This pain is sometimes repressed and is commonly referred to as “psychological trauma.” Especially often a person receives such injuries in childhood, and their consequences affect adulthood. The roots of alcohol or drug addiction lie not in bad character or in genes, but in unhealed injuries. With the help of a psychologist, a person can discover in himself those weak points to which the passion that has taken possession of him clings. Thus, without replacing each other, a priest and a psychologist help a person to embark on the path of spiritual health.”
Petr Kolomeytsev, priest, psychologist, teacher of the deaf, co-founder of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Children of the DEC “Zhivaya Thread” and confessor of the Educational Center for Equal Opportunities for Orphans “UP”.
Read the opinion of psychologist Boris Bratus here.