Extracto entrevista con Archimandrite Dionysios, cristiano ortodoxo.
WIE: In Christian writings, the enemy of the spiritual path is often referred to in dramatic terms as Satan, Lucifer, the devil. Is Satan simply a metaphor for the human ego? Or is it something independent of us?
AD: Satan is the teacher. And the ego is the means by which we fulfill his theory. Living from our ego is like burning incense to him. When he smells it, he comes. It is familiar to him; it's his relative, his tongue, his dialect. He likes it. So he comes, and then he starts to open company with our ego. Then he starts to be related to us.
WIE: So would you say that Satan exists in this sense as an impersonal force of evil that operates within each of us as the ego? Or would it be more accurate to say that the ego is already there in us and Satan is the voice of temptation to which the ego listens?
AD: The second. He doesn't have the authority to work through our ego. We're free all the time to decide.
WIE: There are many spiritual authorities in the modern West who are attempting to bring the ideas of Western psychology to bear on the spiritual path. In fact, it is now commonly held that in order to withstand the difficulties of the spiritual path, one has to first develop a strong ego, a strong sense of self. One statement that has become almost a credo in many spiritual circles is: "You have to become somebody before you can be nobody." What do you think of this idea?
AD: That's like saying, "We first have to be the head of the Mafia and then we can become president." Or, "I will first work together with the devil; I shall make common company with him so that he will give me whatever I need, but because I am more clever than he is, I will then use my power for good."It's good to send children out to study, to learn to sing, to learn athletics, to be well educated, to have an economic basis from which to start their life. But how often do we see that the dreams of all the rich men and their children are broken? The Bible says that "if the builders are working very hard to build a tower that the Lord does not bless, they have worked for nothing."This ego is the modern god of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. And the idea you referred to in your question is the modern religion. But we know this temptation. Ego means, "I don't believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit does not exist." But this is a lie. The Holy Spirit guides the world and blessed are they who want it, who see it, who breathe in it, who move in it, who inspire through it, who love it, who are uniting with it.
WIE: There are also many spiritual authorities today who insist that the ego is an inherent and irreversible fact of our humanity and that any attempt to give up the ego, to transcend our lower nature in pursuit of perfection, is itself an expression of the greatest hubris. Jungian psychologist Marion Woodman goes so far as to say that the very notion of perfection "rapes the soul." How would you respond to those who assert that we are, by nature, flawed and incapable of reaching perfection?
AD: Christ said, "Be perfect. Become perfect. And when you will be and you will do everything perfectly, saying within yourself and believing that you are miserable, terrible lost sinners, servants, there you will find humility and glory." It's possible to be perfect because He is perfect, because He received our nature. So if He did this, we can do it; we can be with Him. It's possible to be perfect because of this gift. And it's possible to not be perfect because we have the authority to refuse the gift, to refuse the love. And when we refuse it, then we need theology, then we need philosophy, then we need to create new books and new theories that say that the ego cannot be transcended.It is possible to be free of the ego. It has to be. It's necessary. It's only because people don't know of this possibility, don't want this possibility, and don't permit this possibility to exist that they need to create all these ideas. But they know that they are speaking lies. This is the craziest thing we can hear. What doctor says to a sick man, "Look, sickness is a part of our nature. We have to be with it. So we don't have to cut our nails. We don't need to wash our face, because we shall be dead tomorrow anyway"? What kind of teaching is this? Yes, it is possible to be free of the ego, but it's a mystery.
