The Difficulty of Eating Evenly, and Brother Benjamin’s Gluttony

And this is so far from being done without difficulty that those who know nothing of perfect discernment would rather prolong their fasts for two days, and keep back for tomorrow what they should have eaten today, so that when they come to take food they may enjoy as much as they want. And finally, you know that your fellow citizen Benjamin clung most obstinately to this. He would not take his two biscuits every day, nor always take his meager fare with the same steady self-discipline. He preferred always to prolong his fasts for two days, so that when he came to eat he might fill his greedy stomach with a double portion. By eating four biscuits he enjoyed a comfortable sense of fullness, and so managed to fill his belly by means of a two days’ fast. And you no doubt remember what kind of end the life of this man had, who obstinately and stubbornly relied on his own judgment rather than on the traditions of the elders. He forsook the desert and went back to the empty philosophy of this world and to earthly vanities. So by the example of his downfall he confirmed the opinion of the elders we have mentioned, and by his ruin he teaches the lesson that no one who trusts in his own opinion and judgment can possibly climb the heights of perfection, or escape being deceived by the dangerous tricks of the devil.