Your mind is a combat zone. Prepare to be attacked by arrows, that is, by bad thoughts. These thoughts may distract you from a spiritual mindset, lead you into despair, or tempt you to sin in your heart and, sometimes, with your body.
If you focus on a bad thought, you place yourself within the arrow’s target zone. When it captivates your attention, you forget your vigilance. It flies straight at you, but you lose the sense of danger. You allow the arrow to hit you because of your carelessness. Protect yourself from oncoming arrow, instead of becoming fascinated by it. If this happens, instead of using your energy to protect yourself, you will allow the thought to take hold you.
Carefully look out for thoughts when they are far across the field so you can deal with them before they get too close to your heart. Cut off the thought immediately. Avoidance is the best defense for tempting thoughts. Do not stand in front of the arrow, staring at the arrow as it approaches you, but move out of its way. When you reject and dismiss a bad thought from the moment it enters the field of your mind, it will fly past you.
If the bad thought is already firmly and clearly in the forefront of your mind, deflect the arrow by focusing your mind on something else. Quickly, turn your attention to God and to good, virtuous thoughts. This is simple. The mind can only focus on one thought at a time, so if you have a bad thought, think about something good.
Avoid attempts to psychoanalyze yourself, asking, “Why am I having these bad thoughts.” Why you have the thought doesn’t matter. You don’t need to find a reason. Thinking about the bad thought focuses your mind on the bad thought, which is harmful, not helpful. Simply reject the bad thought.
If you drive away a thought, it may return quickly, again and again and again. Do not surrender as though you are losing the fight. If you had lost, you would not still be in the fight. A bad thought is like a fly that keep returning to the food in your bowl after you swat it away. Keep swatting the thought away until it finally leaves you alone.
It is easier to deal with an arrow flying toward you at a distance, than to wait so that you have to deal with the arrow when it has become lodged in your body. Likewise, it is better to deal with persistent bad thoughts in the rational mind than to solve the problem when the tempting thought is lodged in your heart. These are drugged arrows, full of poison, that cause suffering in your soul. They produce delusion and influence you to sin.
The poison in the arrows may produce an initial feeling of pleasure, but it seeps in deep to confuse and sicken you. Under the influence of the poison, you may choose to sin. You may believe that your choice to sin makes perfect rational sense and is good for you. While you justify your sin, imagining yourself as reasonable person, you have relinquished clarity of mind and goodness of heart to because like an irrational, instinctual animal. The drugged arrow of tempting thoughts can turn you into a mindless zombie, but only if you allow it.
Remember, do not fight bad thoughts by standing in front of them out of curiosity or to test your strength, but reject and ignore them to win. If you do allow the tempting thought to enter into you in a moment of weakness, the ready cure is repentance. Wake up and remove it immediately to stop the deepening influence of the temptation.
As you have learned, be watchful. Prepare for tempting thoughts and guard your heart from their destructive, poisonous influence. Continually practice these tactics to sharpen your skill and keep yourself on the path of salvation.
Text copyright © 2017 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees