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Prelest (from (ロシア語:прелесть), from (ロシア語:лесть) - cajolery; (charm, seduction), (ギリシア語:πλάνη - ''plani'')), also known as: spiritual delusion, spiritual deception, delusion, illusion, – according to Holy Fathers of Eastern Orthodox Church, a false spiritual state, a spiritual illness, "a wounding of human nature by falsehood" (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).〔(On Spiritual Deception. Orthodox Life, July-August 1980. )〕 The concept of prelest should not be confused with somatic mental illness of any kind; prelest is rather a spiritual illness,〔 Jean-Claude Larchet, Thérapeutique des maladies mentales. L’expérience de l’Orient chrétien des premiers siècles (1992, 3rd edition 2008) ISBN 2204045187 (Жан-Клод Ларше, Исцеление психических болезней. Опыт христианского Востока первых веков ) Jean-Claude Larchet writes in his book about mental illnesses and sets apart 3 kinds of them: natural, demonic and spiritual based on the words from many Holy Fathers. Natural illness is associated with body (brain) malfunction, demonic one - with action of demons, and spiritual illness in the first place depends on the person's free will (though free will and demons can also partially participate in the first 2 kinds).〕 an illness of the soul in its personal relation to God, an illness that originates from vainglory, pride and demonic suggestion and that is to be cured by humility and Holy Sacraments and under the guidance of the spiritual father. In the broadest sense, everyone in prelest: everyone has some wrong thoughts and views, everyone does not fully understand the meaning of life, the degree of own sinfulness etc. When the word "prelest" is used in the narrow sense, i.e. that some particular person is in the state of prelest, that usually means that this person, initially being on the path of pious christian life, became possessed with the strongest pride and self-conceit right up to the thought about personal sanctity. The state opposite to prelest is spiritual sobriety. ==General information== Strictly speaking, any human error i.e. any acceptance of a false thought as truth can be the beginning of prelest: "The source of self-delusion and demonic deception is the false thought" (St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)). But Holy Fathers wrote mainly about the errors in the human judgement about spiritual matters and especially about the errors in understanding of the personal spiritual state. True view of oneself (of own spiritual condition, position relative to God, sinfulness etc.) is tightly connected with the passions of pride and vainglory and is distorted by these passions. The degree of prelest is the degree of such distortion, i.e. the amount of falseness in the view of oneself and the degree of difficulty of change from the false view to the true one. Different kinds of prelest are described by many Holy Fathers, including the Fathers of Philokalia: St. Gregory of Sinai, St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Symeon the Metaphrast, St. Symeon the New Theologian and others. Even when some Holy Father does not use the term "prelest" explicitly, writing about acetic life implies writing what spiritual practice is true, i.e. leads to salvation, and what is false, i.e. leads to the opposite and, therefore, accepting it as true is prelest. A modern reader can find the most thorough explanation of prelest in the writings of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) where he relentlessly keeps the traditions of Holy Fathers. Some of these writings were incorporated into a book "On prelest"〔 (St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov). On prelest. )〕 dedicated solely to different forms of delusion (wrong way of prayer, trust to dreams, excessive zeal, false humility etc.), which St. Ignatius explains on the basis of the words from Holy Fathers of the first centuries and provides information about different recent cases of delusion. Some modern ascetics such as elder Joseph the Hesychast,〔(Elder Joseph the Hesychast, Monastic Wisdom, From letter 55. ) Elder Joseph writes in a letter to a priest about true and false visions and pride. If the person becomes proud - the demons can start to made a mock of him, showing their own visions that imitate the true ones.〕 elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain,〔Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3. Spiritual Struggle. Large part of volume 3 is dedicated to different cases of delusions.〕 elder Daniel Katounakiotis〔 (Elder Daniel Katounakiotis. Angelic living. ) Elder Daniel had a spiritual gift of counsel allowing him to guard or cure people from delusion. The book contains several his letters about it.〕 also wrote about prelest. The concept of prelest is very important in Orthodox spirituality and ascetics. It is one of the main dangers for a Christian (especially monastic) starting to pray with the Jesus prayer.〔(Interview with prof. A.I. Osipov. "The Way of a Pilgrim" and Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov’s) Teaching on Prayer". )〕 Identifying prelest in its particular manifestations is called discernment (or discrimination) of spirits. The virtue of discrimination "is greater than any other virtue; and is the queen and crown of all the virtues".〔Philokalia, Vol.2, St. John of Damaskos, On the Virtues and the Vices.〕 It corresponds to a very high degree of spiritual age and requires "three renunciations" (St. John Climacus): of the worldly concerns, selfishness and vainglory.〔St. John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Step 2.〕 True discrimination comes after a long previous experience of fighting with passions. The source of discrimination is in the action of Divine grace and the virtue of humility. Professor N.E. Pestov in his book〔(N.E. Pestov. Practice of Orthodox Devoutness. )〕 writes that in general, the safest spiritual path in relation to prelest is to live in obedience to an experienced and holy elder, or at least to live on the advice of others. The fastest way to fall into prelest is the opposite - to trust own thoughts and not to listen to any advices. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prelest」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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