Part
1 of the interview with Archimandrite Dionysios, Orthodox elder from
Mount Athos and a modern mystic. Interview by Craig Hamilton. For
background see the introduction
also published on WRITERsite.
Reproduced by permission of the copyright owners - Moksha Press -
http://www.wie.org
The Enemy Within
(1)
INTERVIEWER (Craig Hamilton): What is the ego?
ARCHIMANDRITE DIONYSIOS: When Satan, who was the first and highest
angel, looked away from God and turned his attention to himself,
there we had the first seed of ego. He took his spiritual eyes from
the view of the Holy Trinity, the view of the Lord, and he looked
at himself and started to think about himself. And he said, "I
want to put my throne in the highest place, and to be like Him."
That moment started the history, the reality and the existence of
ego-which is not in fact a reality, but the refusal of reality.
Ego is the flower that comes out from the death of love. When we
kill love, the result is the ego.
INTERVIEWER: What is the character of the ego? How does it manifest
within a human being?
ARCHIMANDRITE DIONYSIOS: When we don't trust. Ego is born when
we don't trust others. When we're afraid of others, when we need
guns against others, then we need to have an ego because we are
in the wrong way of life. We think only of ourselves, and we see
only our ego. But when we see each other, when we trust each other,
there is no need for ego, no reason for ego, no possibility for
ego.
INTERVIEWER: So in the way you're speaking about it then, ego is
the insistence on our separation, our independence?
ARCHIMANDRITE DIONYSIOS: Yes, on our solitude. Our need to be alone,
to have our own way of thinking that satisfies us and preserves
our personality in the wrong way.
INTERVIEWER: Putting ourselves first and foremost?
ARCHIMANDRITE DIONYSIOS: Yes. And Christ said, "The last is
the first." Because when you want to be the last and you choose
the last seat, only then may you call the others friends of yours.
INTERVIEWER: The ego, this sense of self-importance you've been
speaking about, is often described in The Philokalia and other writings
of the Christian mystics as the primary enemy with which the spiritual
aspirant must wrestle in their quest for union with God. Why is
the ego considered to be such a formidable adversary on the path?
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