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Cutting off bad thoughts is a necessary condition for combating the passions.
Passion isn’t immediately born in the soul of a man. The Holy Fathers say that it begins with a suggestion or assault.
A suggestion arises in a man’s consciousness from impressions of what he’s seen, for some other reason, or as an image imposed by the enemy, the devil. But this suggestion comes regardless of a man’s will, without his consent or participation. A man is free to either accept or reject it. If he accepts the suggestion, he begins to ponder it and make it his own. The Fathers call this coupling or conversation with the thought.
The third stage is the inclination to the thought, or consent, when the will is so influenced by the sinful thought, has become so intertwined with it, that a man is ready to move on to action. The sin is already half committed in thought. As the Lord says in the Gospel: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matt. 15:19), thus showing that sin begins with an evil thought. And the Apostle James writes: Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (Jas. 1:15).
The sinful soul that has settled in the heart and soul is bound to turn into action at some point. A man who allows himself immodest glances, who doesn’t guard his sight and hearing from tempting scenes, who has impure, lustful thoughts in his mind, can’t remain chaste.
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? asks the wise Solomon (Prov. 6:27–28).
Therefore, those who want to lead a spiritual life must remember that evil thoughts must be nipped in the bud—we must dash [their] infants against the rock (Ps. 136:12). And the “infant” of a thought is (as stated above), a suggestion—something that absolutely doesn’t belong to us, but like some harmful insect seeks to fly through the slightly opened window of our consciousness.
I once read in a psychology book that our thoughts aren’t “our property” or the product of our mind at all. What we think comes as the result of many causes and circumstances: upbringing, living conditions, the time in which we live, the country in which we were born, and so on. For example, if we were born in another country, in another time, or we had a different upbringing, we’d think differently. Thus, what we think isn’t completely our thoughts; they can arise in us for many reasons beyond our control. (I should add that Orthodox people are well aware that bad, sinful thoughts can come from another source, and this source is well known.) Of course, these remarks about thoughts relate only to those that aren’t yet rooted in our consciousness; if a man accepts a thought and begins to dwell on it, he’s already coupled with it; it becomes his own.
Psychologists advise to separate bad thoughts from good ones and arrange a “divorce” with the bad ones, that is, to not let them into your consciousness, not consider them your own; and conversely, to “court” the good ones and do everything to make friends with them, replacing the bad, dark, aggressive thoughts with bright, good, and positive ones. I really liked this idea, but how surprised I was when I read very similar advice in St. Theophan the Recluse:
It’s a great and universal mistake to regard everything that arises in us as our own, as something we must defend as we would defend ourselves. All that is sinful is alien to us, therefore we must always separate it from ourselves, otherwise we’ll have a traitor within ourselves. Whoever wants to wage war with himself must divide himself into himself and the enemy hidden within. Having separated a familiar wicked movement from yourself and having recognized it as an enemy, then transfer this awareness to feeling, and rekindle hostility toward it in your heart. This is the most saving means for driving away sin. Every sinful movement is maintained in the soul through the sensation of some pleasure from it; therefore, when hostility toward it is aroused, then being deprived of all support, it disappears by itself.
Indeed, sin and impurity can’t be part of the soul; they’re not inherent or natural to us; we’re created pure, radiant, cleansed by the waters of holy Baptism. Here lies a child, just baptized—he’s pure, he’s like an angel of God. And “all that is sinful is alien to us”—it only comes afterward. And only by accepting it into ourselves, by agreeing with it, do we ourselves plant sin in our soul. And then driving it out becomes oh so difficult.
Shield of faith
We need to set up a kind of filter in our minds, deciding which kinds of thoughts are desirable for us and which shouldn’t be allowed to come anywhere close; we have to act like parents who can block children’s access to certain websites or TV channels. I can give another analogy. When the doorbells rings, we don’t immediately open it without asking who’s there. No, first we look through the peephole and we let them in only after we’re sure it’s someone we know.
We needn’t fear the thoughts, but we shouldn’t converse with them either.
I once confessed to an experienced priest that sinful thoughts were torturing me, and this is what he advised me: “Think of the thoughts as something external that have nothing to do with you. The mind can monitor the thoughts that come to us, but it’s up to us to accept them or not.” Let’s say a man is sitting at home. The windows and doors are closed; outside there’s a storm, a snowstorm, bad weather, but it doesn’t hurt him as long as he doesn’t open the window. But if he opens it, the bad weather will burst in, which will be quite cold and uncomfortable. Thoughts are the same: They’re inevitable, but they mustn’t enter the soul and defile it.
It's very important not only to get rid of sinful thoughts and not allow them into your soul, but also to fill it with bright, spiritual, kind thoughts. After all, there’s a law that nature abhors a vacuum. And spiritual nature too. Remember the parable of how an impure spirit leaves a man and, having been driven out, walks through deserted places, then returns and, finding his place unoccupied, brings seven demons eviler than himself. A holy place, as they say, is never empty.
St. Theophan advises putting up a shield at the very entrance to the soul after exorcising evil thoughts and not letting them back in: “And to this end, hasten to establish convictions in the soul that are opposite to those upon which the disturbing thought rests.”
We’ve already said that every passion has its opposite virtue. So every sinful thought can be contrasted with an opposing, virtuous one. For example, a lustful thought with a chaste, pure one; an angry thought with a benevolent one; thoughts of condemnation with thoughts of justification, pity for your neighbor, and so on.
In conclusion, here’s another piece of advice from St. Theophan: Begin the battle with the thoughts with prayer to the Lord, the saints, and your guardian angel, so we might attribute the successes of our spiritual battle not to our own efforts, but to God’s help alone.
You have to find your main passion and fight it both in thought and deed. This battle will never cease. “But it becomes easier and easier... or more and more manageable to overcome. And experience will increase, so that it won’t be difficult to notice and repel.”
