Or, conversely, obedience is the mortification of the limbs while the mind remains alive. Obedience is unquestioning movement, voluntary death, a life free of curiosity, carefree danger, unprepared defence before God, fearlessness of death, a safe voyage, a sleeper's progress. Obedience is the tomb of the will and the resurrection of humility. A corpse does not argue or reason as to what is good or what seems to be bad. For he who has devoutly put the soul of the novice to death will answer for everything.
Obedience is an abandonment of discernment in a wealth of discernment.
The middle is sometimes laborious and sometimes not laborious. But the end is insensibility and insusceptibility to toil and pain. He will join the chorus of the martyrs, and boldly converse with the angels. Blessed is the monk who regards himself as hourly deserving every dishonour and disparagement. He who will not accept a reproof, just or unjust, renounces his own salvation.