With a spiritual rule in hand, all that one now needs is the focus of will to follow it. What and how to fast, pray, read and worship should be pretty clear (at least clear enough for where a person is in their stage of spiritual growth). To carry out a rule requires the work of the Spirit within us. We need the help of the sacraments of the Church. But we also must exert our own efforts to overcome the forces and demands that come from our physical body. These are referred to as the "passions." Our main effort is to quench these passions so that grace can work from deep within outward guiding our every movement.
With our Baptism the seed has been planted along with the zeal that has led us to this point and this needs to be protected. We must carefully proceed in a way that does not extinguish this zeal.
Saint Theophan says,
The seed of life has been planted––guard it with everything you have. ..You have received the Spirit––do not extinguish it. If you are zealous be zealous for what is great.
Our work to implement our rule is a labor of "self-opposition." This is what Saint Theophan calls "self-forcing." We are undertaking efforts that will oppose the passions of the body. The forces we must oppose are both from our physical nature and from the devil. One reinforces the others to distract us on our path of spiritual growth. We need to be prepared to fight them with all our effort.
Saint Theophan says,
It is necessary...to work against the passions directly, to oppose them to their faces, fight them and win––in ourselves and in their sources and supporters. To determine the guidelines for this we must envision inner, or spiritual, warfare––in the larger scheme, as well as piece by piece. This is the ascetical labor of self-opposition.
We have to make sure the battle is not lost because we lost our motivation and inner power, our zeal. Our rules are intended to preserve our zeal o we can engage in"self-forcing." Our rule needs to allow for the renewal of the powers we expend in this effort and to assure they are strong enough to overcome the passions.
Saint Theophan says,
Everything related to this should be contained in the following sets of rules:
1. Rules for preserving the inner spirit of zeal
2. Rules for exercising the powers for the good, or self-forcing
3. Rules for warring with the passions, or exercising self-opposition.
The most common mistake of a beginner is thinking they are capable of more than they can sustain. A spiritual guide may support a rule that includes only 5o repetitions of the Jesus prayer and three prostration. But the over eager beginner will think that they can do 300 repetitions of the prayer and 20 prostrations (You can think of similar efforts in relation to other practices such as fasting and reading). Well, from personal experience, I can assure you that this over-zealousness will last not longer than two weeks before you find that your inner strength is drained and you can no longer sustain it. The danger is that you give up all together and fail to continue along the path determined by your rule.
All efforts must be combined with full participation in the sacraments of the Church and ongoing support from a spiritual father.
"Self-forcing" is key to "self-opposition" for our progress, but our approach must be balanced and tailored to our capability.
Ref: Path to Salvation, pp 218-120
A rule is a written set of directions to follow. It specifies the activities that we are to engage in for our spiritual development. It is like a plan one receives at a fitness center for building the health of our physical body. The reason we need such a rule is to give us direction, because we are embarking on a path into the future that is unknown to us. Spiritually, we are headed into a territory that is at the moment unknown to us.
Saint Theophan says, the following:
"The rule should be specific: which books to read, when to read them, how much to read, how to prepare to read, how to begin, continue and end the reading, what to do with what has been read. It is the same for prayer, contemplation and other works. We can see that rules encompass all activities and comprise their outer shell like a body. We must apply them with all our powers, all the expressions of our activities so that no action would be taken without the application of its respective rule."
As we begin to adopt an Orthodox Way of Life we are trying to change our way of life. We want to change patterns of behavior. We want to incorporate new priorities and allocate our time in new ways. We want to engage in practices that we have not engaged in before. We want to do it in a way that helps us grow and does not discourage us. Just like in body building, we need a program that builds our strength gradually but consistently.
Saint Theophan advies:
"If the beginner has no rule of prayer, he will not know how to pray; and without a rule for fasting, he will not know how to fast. In general, anyone who has no rule will not know how to do anything as he should, and consequently his life will be patterned after his won activities."
A good rule protects us from all the other forces that influence and vie for out attention. The rule is a way to counteract these forces.
Saint Theophan says,
"A young plant is trellised or tied to a stronger one so that it would stand and grow straight. Anyone who develops himself without a rule is unlearned and untested... when there is no rule, there will inevitably be omissions, mistakes, and pauses."
Your rule should be developed by your efforts, specific to your needs, in conjunction with and approval of your spiritual father.
The path to an Orthodox Way of Life requires certain level of humility. We must see ourselves as weak and poor. We must have a degree of sorrow, contriteness, about our present condition.
The first thing Christ said when he began His earthly teaching was, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" Repentance must become a central theme of our daily life.
"Therefore we are commanded to repent every day and even every minute. God, be merciful to me a sinner! This should be the ascetics ceaseless prayer."
Reference: Path to Salvation, pp 214-217
