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Saint Paisios on Bad Thoughts: Do Not Build an Airport in Your Head
What the video says
The speaker shares a struggle with intrusive bad thoughts and recalls a saying of Saint Paisios recorded by his disciple: thoughts are like airplanes flying in the sky. If you ignore them there is no problem, but if you pay attention to them you build an airport inside your head and let them land. The speaker says most people fight bad thoughts by arguing with, analyzing, and worrying about them, and this builds the runway.
A passing thought is not a sin; the Fathers teach the problem starts when you invite the thought, talk with it, and agree with it. The advice is to not argue with a bad thought, let it fly past, and turn your mind to Christ with a simple prayer such as 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.'
Key moments
- The speaker admits to struggling with shameful bad thoughts that will not go away.
- Saint Paisios, recorded by his disciple, compared thoughts to airplanes flying in the sky: ignore them and there is no problem, pay attention and you build an airport inside your head.
- Most people try to fight a bad thought by arguing with it, analyzing it, and worrying about it, which builds the runway for it to land.
- A thought passing by is not a sin; the Fathers teach the problem starts when you invite it, talk with it, and agree with it.
- Instead of arguing with a bad thought, let it fly past and turn your mind to Christ, even with the simple prayer 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.'
- The speaker asks viewers whether bad thoughts keep trying to land in their heads.
The speaker opens by admitting a personal struggle with shameful bad thoughts that keep returning and asks how to deal with them. The answer comes from a saying of Saint Paisios recorded by his disciple: thoughts are like airplanes flying in the sky. If you ignore them, there is no problem. If you pay attention to them, you build an airport inside your head and let them land.
The speaker applies this image to the usual way people respond to bad thoughts. Most people fight them by arguing with them, analyzing them, and worrying about them, and in doing so they build the runway that lets the thought land and stay. The speaker then draws on the teaching of the Fathers about the stages of a thought.
A thought that simply passes by is not a sin. The problem begins when you invite the thought, start talking with it, and agree with it. The practical advice follows from the airplane image: do not argue with a bad thought, because arguing is exactly the attention it needs. Let it fly past, and turn your mind to Christ instead. Even a short prayer works, such as 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.' The speaker closes by asking viewers whether bad thoughts keep trying to land in their heads, inviting them to reflect on their own experience with the struggle described.
Main points
- The speaker struggles with shameful bad thoughts that will not go away.
- Saint Paisios compared thoughts to airplanes: ignore them and there is no problem, pay attention and you build an airport inside your head.
- Arguing with, analyzing, and worrying about a bad thought builds the runway for it to land.
- A passing thought is not a sin; the problem starts when you invite it, talk with it, and agree with it.
- Let the thought fly past and turn to Christ with a simple prayer such as 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.'