St. Theophan the Recluse (in the world Georgy Vasilievich Govorov; 1815–1894) – theologian, publicist-preacher. He occupies a special place among Russian preachers and saints of the 19th century. The saint saw his service to the Church of God in the feat of spiritual and literary creativity. “Writing,” he said, “is a necessary service to the Church.” He devoted all his pastoral activity to explaining the path of a truly Christian life based on spiritual composure. Theophan the Recluse left a huge theological legacy: works on the interpretation of the word of God, translations, writings on asceticism and psychology. His works are striking in their encyclopedic breadth and diversity of theological interests. The main theme of St. Theophan's creations is salvation in Christ. This topic also became decisive in the teachings that made up the book “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it?”.
- Collection of letters
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The following excerpt from the book What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it (St. Theophan the Recluse) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.
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The publication was prepared according to: “What is the spiritual life and how to tune in to it? Letters from Bishop Theophan. The seventh edition of the Athos Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. Moscow, 1914.
Collection of letters
1. An introductory reminder of the promise made to correspond about the spiritual life. Benefits expected from this
After we had agreed before your departure for Moscow to have a conversation about the things you needed in writing, it was natural for me to expect that upon your arrival at the place you would let me know about yourself and the new situation for you. I waited and waited, but for how long I have not been waiting for anything. What happened? Are you healthy? God bless you Mother of God. Or has the intention changed? Anything can happen - and it's possible. In this case, I am writing now, so that if this is the case and there is some kind of apprehension about me involved - something to burden not a trace or something else - you put it out of your head. Writing to you, and moreover about such subjects, will not be a burden for me - on the contrary, it will be a considerable pleasure, introducing a certain variety into my usual occupations. I will say something more: that if what we have conceived does not take place, then I will feel myself the way I feel if I have suffered some kind of loss or lost something. How it is, I will not explain to you, but I repeat that this is how it will be and that this is how it should be. So it is not necessary to give you advice, but to apply a petition: write. Although you have nothing to expect from me for great wisdom, one review of everything that is worthy will bring you considerable benefit, reviving this entire area in your memory and focusing your attention on it, perhaps with enthusiasm and special energy. And what a blessing this last one is! For if we have awkwardness in life, then it almost always comes not so much from thinness of mind and thinness of heart, but from a lack of zeal and jealousy for what is worthy.
So write.
2. Feedback on the reason for the silence. Necessary frankness and simplicity in correspondence. The bustle of secular life
And I was confused in conjectures: what would it be? And that's what! Grandma was a little sick. Well, grandma is a victorious word. There is no warmer place for granddaughters, like grandmothers, and for grandmothers, faces are dearer than good granddaughters. And for this we must thank God. And you console your grandmother more often and listen more carefully to what she says. The old women have wisdom, acquired by experiences and labors of life. And they often by chance, in simple phrases, express such wise lessons that you will not find in books.
Although you have presented a very satisfactory explanation for why you have not written for so long, you should still have at least a small penance imposed on you, in the form of corrections. I think, however, that maybe you will be better disposed towards serviceability if I thank you for writing, and for what you wrote. And thank you.
Promise to be honest. Dobre! Frankness is the first thing in correspondence, otherwise there was nothing to start it. And always write with a shrug - everything that is in your heart, and especially more fully state the questions that stir in your head and begin to insistently demand a solution. Then decisions will be made, just as a thirsty earth receives water. And this is the best way to both acquire and consolidate in the soul concepts that explain the essence of objects and deeds, which we consider necessary for ourselves to see through the eyes of the mind. What would be the point if I wrote to you about one thing, and your soul would be occupied with another? It would be empty talk, as if two faces were talking to each other, turning their backs to each other and each talking about what was before his eyes. It seems that we have agreed with you that we will not deal with abstractions and draw plans and theories, but we will conduct our speech in the way that the current phenomena of life will force us to conduct it. So we will go step by step.
Write that you "dazzle in the eyes." “About two days,” you say, “it happened to me to stay in the usual public amusements here: either I sat in the theater, then took a walk, then I was at the evening. And what kind of crush is this, what kind of speeches, what intricate judgments about everything, what methods of address? All this is wild to me, but I can’t get rid of the crush of thoughts. ” This is the first time you thought so, and then take a closer look. The impression you experienced after the late, simple family life in the village is completely in the order of things. I would say to you: judge by this, where is the truth of life and where is the lie - but I don’t know what has stuck in your soul from all the past. For it is possible that on the surface there seems to be disapproval of such orders, but deeper - sympathy for them and a desire for repetition. Life, which is a part.
You have seen that it has a stupefying property: so they see that all this is not what it is, but everyone is reaching out, as one who is accustomed to opium knows that it will be like crazy, and everyone accepts it, or therefore accepts it. So how do you feel? Does it still pull you there? Would you like to live your life this way? I ask you to write it down well for me - and in truth.
3. Emptiness and one-sidedness of secular life
How you made me happy with your answer! “It does not pull, on the contrary, it repels. Not one day after that I was as if broken, my soul languished and yearned, and I could not control myself. Violently, violently relieved. ” Why didn't you write it down last time? It seemed to me that, silent, you are hiding a sweetheart or a splinter. May God grant that such a feeling of detachment from secular life and secular amusements is forever preserved in you. But it is also possible that you will fall in love. As you can see, you can not help but come into contact with such a life. The second time it will not be so destructive and embarrassing, the third - even less, and then wow, as they say about vodka: the first cup is a stake, the second is a falcon, and then just serve it. Who have to go into a tobacco workshop, what do they experience? And he eats his eyes, and sharpens his nose, and you can’t breathe. And those who rub something, so nothing at all; and these fresh ones, after standing for a while, no longer squint, sneeze and puff, and then completely these inconveniences cease. Look, the same would not have happened to you with respect to the order of life that disturbed your peace so much.
It’s as if you anticipated my question and say: “And I don’t think that I will ever reconcile myself with such a life. I look closely and find that this is not life. I don't know how to explain it, but I affirm myself in the thought that this is not life. There is a lot of movement, but no life. Look, my sewing machine is in a lot of trouble, but what kind of life is in it? Your bright head gave rise to a wonderful idea. Now I can consider your position more reliable. One feeling is fragile: it can change. But when a solid thought comes to its aid, it is strengthened and by itself again strengthens the thought. Together they look like a fortress. But in order for this fortress to be stronger, you need to understand why there is no life in that life. If our conversations continue, then in time this will become clear in detail; now I will only say: because there is no life in that life, because it does not occupy all aspects of human life, nourishes it, but only a small particle, and moreover, one that stands in last place, or rather, on the outskirts of life, without touching its center. Human life is complex and multifaceted. It has a physical side, a spiritual side, and a spiritual side. Each has its own strengths and needs, and its own ways of exercising and satisfying them. Only when all our forces are in motion and all needs are satisfied, does a person live. And when he has only one particle of strength in motion and only one particle of needs is satisfied, then this life is not life: everything is the same, as in your sewing movement, it is due only when all its parts are in motion. Stop the action of any part - the machine has become: it does not live. A person does not live like a human when not everything in him is in motion. Only in the typewriter is the cessation of its life—movement—visibly seen, while in man the inactivity in him of a full human life, with the action of one side and the satisfaction of a few needs, is accomplished invisibly, although there is really, how real the immobility of the said typewriter is. Such is the law of human life! Let's apply it to what we are talking about. What forces are employed there and what needs are satisfied? Hands, feet, tongue, eyes, ears, smell, touch, memory, imagination, fantasy and sharpness are occupied, all together - the lowest side of man, which is the same with animals; and only one need of animal life is satisfied, or, better, the play of this life, which also works in young lambs and lambs when they are driven out into a green meadow. In addition to these forces, a person has two or three more tiers of them and also their main center.
Judge now, can such a life be life? Your feeling told you that there is no life here. I give you the main reason why not. Perhaps the effect of this cause is not so clear to you now, but the general idea cannot but be understood; the details will become clear with time. For I intend to deduce everything worthy of the structure of human nature. We need to live the way God created us, and when someone does not live like that, we can safely say that he does not live at all. Please be satisfied with this.
4. Secular life deprives of freedom and keeps those who are devoted to it in heavy slavery. Hypocrisy and selfishness as constant qualities of secular life
Last time, I did not talk about everything that you touched upon in your letter. I'm sending an addition. You say: “Another thing I see is that everyone is in a hurry, chasing after something in order to catch it, and no one has time to catch anything. I happened to pass through a crowded street or place - what turmoil and fuss there is! But then I look: the same is in their houses, the same, probably, in their souls. And I can’t imagine: is it really possible to live like this? And here's what else I see: that here they crowd each other, knit and tyrannize, no one has his own will and freedom. Don't dare to dress as you like, don't dare to walk as you like, to speak too - and don't dare to do anything as you like. Everything they have is subject to some kind of law, which they do not know by whom it was written; he crushes everyone, but no one dares to break him. But they themselves become tyrants for each other. But you dare not listen to anyone - grief. For example, I sing when I want to sing. After all, this is paradise: both the most pleasant and the listeners. And here you want it or not - sing. It is offered very politely, but it is considered illegal to refuse something. And eat. The burden itself is unbearable - you almost crack your chest, but you puff up - to show that you sing from the heart. I have noticed this in others as well. Here is your freedom! But look outside - all freemen. Freemen, entangled hand and foot! On this occasion, I began to look closely, but whether they do everything from the heart and everything else. And what? Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't see anything that was from the heart. Weasels are feigned, readiness for services - too, mutual respect - too. All pretense. Behind the appearance, smooth and elegant, hides a completely different soul, which, if it were pulled out, no one would find not only elegant, but also tolerable. And it turns out that when we gather, we represent a bunch of hypocrites and hypocrites. Comedy! And what’s even more amazing to me is that everyone smells cold. How is it so?! After all, everyone, friend to friend, seems ready to give their souls, and the cold is walking around!
Quite right. There is nothing to add to your description. All this has long been noticed and indicated as a precaution. This is how Macarius the Great depicted the turmoil you saw and the pursuit of something: “The children of this age are likened to wheat poured into the sieve of this land, and are sifted among the fickle thoughts of this world, with the unceasing excitement of earthly affairs, desires and many intertwined material concepts. Satan shakes souls and with a sieve, that is, earthly deeds, sift through the entire sinful human race. From the time of the fall, when Adam transgressed the commandment and submitted to the wicked prince who took power over him, with unceasing seductive and restless thoughts of all the sons of this age he sifts and brings him into conflict in the sieve of the earth. As wheat beats in a sieve of a sifter and, thrown up incessantly, turns over in it, so the prince of wickedness occupies all people with earthly affairs, shakes, leads to confusion and anxiety, makes them indulge in vain thoughts, impure desires, earthly and worldly ties, incessantly captivating the whole sinful generation of Adam. And the Lord foretold the apostles the future uprising of the evil one against them: Satan asks you to sow like wheat. I prayed to my father, let faith not fail yours (Luke 22:31-32). For this word and definition, pronounced by the Creator to Cain explicitly: groaning and shaking, in anxiety you will on earth (Gen. 4:12), secretly serves as an image and likeness for all sinners, because the race of Adam, having transgressed the commandment and made sinful, secretly assumed this likeness. People are driven to sway by fickle thoughts of fear, fear, all kinds of embarrassment, desires, all sorts of pleasures. The prince of this world agitates every soul that is not born of God, and, like wheat, constantly revolving in a sieve, agitates human thoughts in various ways, shaking everyone and trapping worldly seductions, carnal pleasures, fears, embarrassments ”(Conversation 5, 1, 2 ).
Here's to you in addition to your observation! You noticed that there is and happens. And Saint Macarius indicated both the reason for this and the first outcome. This view of the matter in the circle about which we are talking is not accepted, and it is impossible to start talking about it. I ask you to assimilate this view and always keep it in your thoughts. It expresses the essence of the matter and, being accepted by you with conviction, will serve as a barrier for you from the charms of secular life. In order to think more about this and become more in tune with this way of thinking, take the trouble to read this entire fifth discourse of St. Macarius. I gave this book to your mother, and she wanted to buy it.
For my part, I will add that this pursuit of something and dissatisfaction with nothing depend on the same thing that I wrote about last time: namely, on the fact that not all human nature is nourished by this way of life and not all of its needs are satisfied. The unsatisfied side, like a hungry one, demands food to quench its hunger and thirst, and drives a person to seek it. The man runs to search; but as it revolves in the same circle that does not satisfy the starving side, then there is no satisfaction, hunger and thirst do not stop, the demand for food does not stop, and the chase does not stop either. And it will never stop in those who live in the spirit of the world. The enemy keeps them blinded, by which they do not notice the mistake, that they are running along the wrong road and striving in the wrong direction, and in this darkness it torments and suffocates these poor souls. And they were so misled by the enemy that no one dares to tell them about their fallibility. They will roar like wild beasts. Is it not the roar of that lion that roars everywhere, who to devour? (1 Peter 5:8).
As for the other aspects of secular (worldly) life that you have noticed, I will only say that it cannot be otherwise. For such a life is the life of fallen humanity, whose initial feature is self-love, or egoism, who sets himself as an end, and everything and everyone as a means. This is the reason why everyone wants to impose his desires on another or bind him with them, which you very aptly called tyranny. No matter how someone brightens up their desires, egoism stands behind everything, wanting to turn you in its own way or make you a means. Here is the reason for the hypocrisy, the essence of which is an intense trick in every possible way to hide one's bad sides without correcting them; otherwise, the influence on others and, consequently, the use of them as means will be cut off. This is also the reason for the fact that coldness blows from everyone - for everyone is closed in himself and does not shed the rays of warm life around him.
True, you certainly meet several persons with a sympathetic heart structure: they cling to you and take them right by the heart. This disposition is a remnant of the kindred feeling with which man is created in relation to others; but here it consists in the services of selfishness, which uses it as the best means for arranging its affairs. I know one such face. Better a direct egoist or egoist than such sympathizers and sympathizers. In those, although it is possible to notice where the case is being led, but here rarely anyone manages to achieve this.
True, you almost incessantly meet favors, but they are done in order to then harness you for ten deeds in your favor. You say, “How is it? Here everyone beats on honesty, and to show dishonesty in anything means to ruin yourself. It is true that this is so, but this honesty is a mask of selfishness; the whole point here is not to lose face, for which the most dishonorable acts are often allowed, as long as you can hide them from others. You will even hear or have already heard sentences: this is an egoist, this is an egoist! Do not think that those who say this are themselves strangers to selfishness. No, this sentence applies to those who do not allow themselves to be turned or used as a means for the selfish ends of those who judge them in this way. And consequently, he directly denounces the latest egoists and egoists in these. I heard that such persons reproach even monks with selfishness: they live for themselves alone. Poor monks! No food, no drink, no sleep; day and night on their feet, in obedience, not having their own will and their desires - and they fell into egoists! By this alone, you can judge what dignity and generally the denunciations of egoism that you meet or will meet among the secular. They mean: I found a scythe on a stone.
Having reviewed what was written, I see that it was I who pronounced judgment on secular life in a very rude way, but I do not take my words back. Maybe I wouldn’t have written what I wrote, but as you yourself noticed rather dark spots in the light, then I got sick of singing to the same note; and I don't think that this has put you off in the slightest after what you yourself have said. But I expect a question from you: “How can it be?” This is what we will decide in the course of our entire correspondence. Now I will only say: of course, you cannot completely lag behind everyone, but as much as possible refuse to enter the circle of this secular life, and when you are drawn against your will, behave as if you were not there: seeing, do not see and hearing, do not hear . Let the visible pass by the eyes and the audible pass by the ears. Outwardly, act like everyone else, as if wide open, but take care of your heart from sympathy and hobbies. This is the main thing: take care of your heart - and you will be there only in body, and not in soul, faithfully fulfilling the commandment of the apostle: let them be demanding peace… like it's not required(1 Corinthians 7:31). Peace here also means that we have light and secular life. You will be the one demanding the world, that is, having the need to come into contact with secular life; but when you keep your heart away from everything, then you will be as if not demanding such a life, that is, not participating in it out of sympathy and desire, but forced by being your present position.
I bored you with many writings, but you compelled me. I ask you not to ignore what has been written, especially the last lines.
5. Three aspects of human life. First side: bodily life, its organs and needs; normal and excessive concern for the body
How many questions you have raised about the previous two letters! This shows in you a diligent, lively and receptive student and promises success. The more willing I am to write. But I will not answer you all now, leaving the answers until next time. I'll take care of what interests you the most. You write: “Your words about the sides, forces and needs of human nature introduce me into myself. I enter. I see something, but most of it is either foggy or completely invisible to me. I strongly desire to know what is the spiritual, mental and physical side in a person, what are the needs in each and how they are satisfied. I would very much like to keep myself at the level of human dignity - true, as we are appointed to be the Creator.
Good with! You touch the very foundations of our life, the explanation of which will give us the basis for all subsequent reasoning. How else can a person live, if not the way he is arranged. Having established sound concepts about how a person works, we will receive the surest indication of how he should live. It seems to me that many do not live as they should because they think that the rules about this worthy life are imposed from outside, and do not come from the very nature of man and are not required by them. If they were sure that this is the case, they would not cross them and retreat from them. So, please listen.
Body ours consists of different organs, from which each performs its own function, which is essential for bodily life. There are three main organs: 1) stomach with the lungs, the heart, the arteries and veins, the lymphatic vessels, and a multitude of other vessels, vessels, and glands, which serve for the various departments of the blood and juices of the body; sending them all nutrition bodies, or incarnation; 2) muscle and bone system, the departure of which is movement inside and out, and 3) nerve system, the center of which - the head, the spinal cord and the ganglia system - is somewhere under the abdominal and thoracic barrier, and the ramifications penetrate the whole body; sending it - sensitivity. When the course of these functions and their mutual relation are in order, the body is healthy and life is out of danger; and when this order is disturbed, the body becomes ill and life is in danger. Each departure has its own need, which makes itself felt alive by the living, demanding satisfaction. The needs of the stomach, or nourishing and fruitful, parts are food, drink, air, sleep; musculoskeletal need parts have a need tense muscles, which everyone feels after sitting for a long time, and directly need for movement forcing to walk, walk, work something; the need of the nervous part is a pleasant irritation of the nerves of the whole body, as the dimension of heat and cold and the like, and especially pleasant irritation of our five senses, in which the nervous system went outside to communicate with the outside world.
All this, as you see, is bodily, the soul does not care about all this. But as she, in the closest combination with the body, accepted it into her personality, she considers all bodily needs to be her own. That is why we say: I want to eat, drink, sleep, I want to walk, walk, work, I want to see different colors, hear different voices, smell different sounds, and so on. Having assimilated all the needs of the body, the soul considers their satisfaction to be its own business and takes care of food, drink, sleep, clothing, shelter and everything else, wishing in every possible way to ensure that the body is calm and does not disturb it with its annoying demands. This relation of the soul to the body, which it holds without learning, but by itself, by some inner compulsion, is found in it like some kind of instinct - love of life, philanthropy, desire to rest the body and get everything you need.
The totality of all this is the bodily side of human life. But not everything here is equally bodily, or carnal and sensual. Only the nutritious part is firmly fleshed out, but even it is ennobled by adapting its satisfaction to the needs and goals of the soul proper. The organs of motion and feeling serve the needs of the soul more than the needs of the body. And one organ, as if standing outside the system of other organs, namely the organ of the word, is exclusively an organ of the soul, appointed to serve it alone.
A bodily, carnal, sensual life, morally disapproving, is that when a person, carried away by extreme animalism and love of the body, sets the main goal and concern for himself is the peace of the body, or the comprehensive satisfaction of the needs of only the bodily, forgetting about the soul, and even more so about the spirit. At the same time, each bodily need, naturally simple, settles into a multitude of grafting needs through habit and addiction to various ways of satisfying it. Take food or drink or clothes. What seems to be the easiest thing to do here? And meanwhile, how many needs are inseparable: at least die, but give! That is why we see that some minutes do not have free time, running after what is necessary to satisfy them, despite the fact that dozens of other people are busy doing the same for them. Such souls and spirits must inevitably starve, if they are not yet completely drowned out, clogged and immersed in sensuality.
Let me think about all this. About the soul - until the next letter.
6. The second side of human life: spiritual life. Its three main branches. First departure: the mental side with its views. Knowledge and science. Normal functions of reason and empty wandering of thoughts
You went inside; let's go in there again. See what a lot and variety of actions and movements there are! Now one thing, then another, now enters, now goes out, now accepted, now rejected, done and remade. For the soul is ever-moving and cannot stand on one thing. If we begin to look into the soul together, then we will not make out anything - it is necessary to distribute its actions according to the genera and then consider each genera separately. Yes, they have looked closely for a long time and divided all the actions of the soul into three categories - thoughts, desires and feelings, calling each a special side of the soul - mental, desirable and feeling. Let's take this division and start looking at each side.
The thinking side. If confusion is seen within us, then it has the greatest scope in thoughts, while desires and feelings are already turbulent under the influence of thoughts. But in the range of thoughts not everything is disorderly movement; there are a number of serious occupations among them. They, in fact, constitute the real work of the life of the soul from the side of thoughts. Here are the lessons:
1) As soon as you noticed something outside through your feelings or listened to the story of others about what they noticed with their feelings, immediately everything imagination imagines and memory remembers; and nothing can enter the soul except imagination and memory. Then the subsequent mental activity is based on imagination and memory. What memory has not retained, you cannot imagine, you will not even think about it. It happens that thoughts are directly born from the soul, but they are immediately clothed in an image. So the thinking side of the soul is all there figurative.
2) But imagination and memory produce and store only material for thoughts. The very movement of thoughts comes from the soul and is conducted according to its laws. Remember how your younger brother, seeing some new thing, immediately turned to you or others with questions: “What is this? And who did it? And what is it from? - and did not calm down until they solved all these questions for him and satisfied him. The thinking of the soul begins precisely with the generation of these questions and gives rise to thoughts in response to them or accepts thoughts already prepared about this from others. Imagination and memory do not think. They are unskilled laborers, under the yoke. The faculty of the soul from which such questions arise, and by which thoughts are searched for and generated in response to them, is called reason, whose business is to reason, think and find the required solutions. Watch yourself and you will find that nothing is done without reflection and reflection. Every little thing has to be discussed. No matter how instantaneously this is done, consideration enters everywhere and goes on the questions indicated before.
3) When you think about it, there is no definite thought yet. A certain thought is established when you find a solution to any of the questions. Your mind is always rummaging, looking for what a thing is, where it comes from and what it is for, and so on. When you find such a solution yourself or, having heard it from others, agree with it, usually say: “Now I understand, there is nothing more to interpret, the matter is settled.” This decision gives you peace of mind regarding the subject that occupied you. Then your reason turns to other objects, and the thought that has been formed is handed over to the spiritual archive - memory, from where, at the request of need, it is taken as an aid to solving other problems, as a means to compose other thoughts. The totality of all the concepts that have developed in this way constitutes the image of your thoughts, which you discover in any case in your speeches. This is your area knowledge, obtained by you mental labor. The more questions you have resolved, the more certain thoughts or concepts about things; the more such concepts, the wider the circle of your knowledge. Thus, as you see, above memory and imagination you have reason, which by its mental labor gets you certain things concepts or knowledge.
We don't get a definitive answer for every question. Most of them remain unresolved. They think and think, and nothing definite comes up. Why do they say: maybe this way, but maybe that way. This gives opinions And assumptions, of which, in total, we have no more than how many definite knowledges there are.
When someone, discussing a certain class of objects, gets himself and borrows from others so many thoughts and concepts defined about them, and manages to supplement the unresolved in them with such successful opinions and assumptions that he can consider this circle of objects to be sufficiently known and understood, then he cites everything obtained in order, lays out in connection and sequence, and gives us science about those items. Science is the crown of the mental work of the mind.
I am telling you all this in order to make it clearer to you what the natural, lawful activity of our mental power should consist of. She should laboriously discuss what is still unknown in order to know that. Very few people can be scientists, not everyone can study the sciences, but to discuss the things around us in order to get certain concepts about them, everyone can and should. This is what should have been the busy thinking power of all. How much she will get is judging by her strength, but she must always be occupied with the serious business of pondering and discussing reality. Meanwhile, what do we see in our mental realm? The continuous movement of images and ideas without any definite purpose and order. Thoughts after thought rise up and then go in a row, then cross each other, then run ahead, then come back, then run away to the side, stopping at nothing. This is not reasoning, but wandering and scattering of thoughts; consequently, a state quite opposite to what our thinking power should be - its disease, so rooted in it and common to everyone that you will not find a single person who could constantly carry out a serious work of thinking without being scattered and wandering. thoughts that tear him away from business and carry him in different directions. Often we think. What is this state? Here's what: thought descends into the archive of memory and, with the help of the imagination, sorts through all the rubbish that has collected there, passing from history to history according to the known laws of the chain of ideas, weaving the unprecedented, and often even the impossible, to the experienced, until it comes to its senses and returns to the surrounding reality. They say deepened. Deepened, but into the void, and not into a serious discussion of the case. This is the same as sleepy daydreaming - idle thought and idle thought. Watch yourself and you will see that we spend most of our time in just such empty thinking and wandering thoughts. Some day (and perhaps more such) not a single serious thought will fall into the mind. I ask you to pay attention to this and address the question: is it appropriate for a rational creature to act like this? In the meantime, I will turn to other categories of psychic activity.
7. Desirable side of mental life. Her departures. Correct and disordered state of desirable faculty
desired side. The force at work here is will, which wills - wants to acquire, use or do what it finds useful for itself, or necessary, or pleasant, and does not will - does not want the opposite. The agitations of the will require a corresponding action, therefore the will is more directly an active force, whose essential need is to live and act. She keeps in her charge all the forces of the soul and body and all the methods at hand, which she puts into play when necessary. It is based on jealousy, or zeal - a thirst for work, and the stimulants stand with it - pleasant, useful And right, which, when absent, jealousy sleeps and active forces lose their tension, sink. They support desire, and desire fuels jealousy.
The course of disclosure of this side of the soul is as follows. There are needs in the soul and in the body, to which the needs of life, both family and social, have been grafted. These needs in themselves do not give a certain desire, but only force them to seek satisfaction. When the satisfaction of the need in one way or another is given once, then after that, together with the awakening of the need, the desire for that which has already satisfied the need is born. Desire always has a certain object that satisfies the need. A different need was satisfied in various ways, therefore, with its awakening, different desires are born: either one, then another, then a third object that can satisfy the need. In the revealed life of a person, needs are not visible behind desires. Only these last swarm in the soul and demand satisfaction, as if for themselves.
What should the soul do with these desires? She is to choice, which object of the desired to give preference. By choice happens solution- make, or get, or use favorites. By decision, selection is made funds and determine the method and order of execution. This is followed, finally, by a matter in its own time and place. Every, even the smallest business goes this way. You can check this in any of your cases. By habit, sometimes all these actions are performed instantly, and a deed immediately follows the desire. Choice, decision and means are then taken from previous cases and do not require special proceedings.
In an older person, almost everything is done by skill. Rarely does any enterprise or undertaking come out of the usual order of affairs and knowledge. It just so happens that the current life requires corresponding deeds. As they are often repeated, they naturally turn into habit, disposition, rule of life and character. From the totality of all such skills, rules and procedures, the way of life of a famous person is established, just as the image of his thoughts and views is compiled from the totality of established concepts. Knowing someone's way of life, one can guess what he thinks at one time or another and how he will act in certain circumstances.
The ruler of active life was appointed prudence, which is the same reason, only in the service of the will. In the mental realm, the mind decides how what is of the existing, and in the desirable and active realm, it determines how what should be done so that what is legitimately desired is truly achieved. When he learns to determine this properly, so that a person conducts his affairs always or for the most part with success, then prudence is justly attributed to him - the ability to successfully conduct business, correctly considering means with ends and affairs with external circumstances.
From what has been said, it will not be difficult for you to draw a conclusion about the natural lawful activity of the will, which, as you see, is the mistress of all our forces and all life. Its task is to determine the image, method and measure of satisfying desires generated by needs or replacing them, so that life flows properly, bringing peace and joy to the living. We have, as mentioned, needs and desires - spiritual, bodily, worldly and social. They do not manifest themselves in the same way for everyone, because not everyone has the same life, but for one this way, for another it is different. It is the business of man to determine how, in his position, he can and must satisfy his needs and desires, to adapt methods suitable to this, and to lead his life according to this. To lead our life sensibly according to the established norm, with all its deeds and undertakings - this is the task of the desirable or active side of our life. It should have. But look inside and see what happens.
In the mental side we have confusion, scattering and wandering of thoughts, and in the desirable side - inconstancy, disorder and willfulness of desires, and after them deeds. How much time passes with us in idleness and idleness: we stagger back and forth, we ourselves do not know why; we do and remake, not being able to give a sound account of it; We go undertaking after undertaking and case after case, but only hustle and bustle comes out of everything - vanity. Desires are born - and nothing can be done about them: come on and come on. And it would be good once so, otherwise it’s almost an hour. Why is this? Blurred our lady - will. See also how many alien desires we have: anger, hatred, envy, avarice, vanity, pride, and the like. The source of desires should be the natural needs of the existing family and social life, and in all of these, what is natural? They only upset the nature and all the orders of life. Where did this barbarian invasion come from? I'll leave that to you to decide, and I'll hasten to the end myself.
8. The side of feeling is the heart. The importance of the heart in human life. The influence of passions on the heart
The side of feeling is the heart. Who does not know how important our heart is in life! Everything that enters the soul from outside and that is worked out by its thinking and active side is precipitated in the heart; but through the heart everything passes that is revealed by the soul outside. That is why it is called the center of life.
The business of the heart is to feel everything that touches our face. And it feels constantly and relentlessly state of mind and body and at the same time varied experiences from private actions of the soul and body, from surrounding and encountered objects, from the external situation and in general from the course of life, forcing and forcing a person to give him pleasant things in all this and turn away unpleasant things. The health and ill health of the body, its liveliness and lethargy, fatigue and strength, cheerfulness and drowsiness; then what is seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, what is remembered and imagined, what is considered and pondered, what has been done, is being done and is to be done, what has been obtained and is being obtained, what can and cannot be obtained, what favors us or does not favor us - whether this is a person or a combination of circumstances - all this is reflected in the heart and irritates him pleasantly or unpleasantly. Judging by this, it would be impossible for him to be at rest even for a minute, but to be in continuous agitation and anxiety, like a barometer before a storm. But he felt it, and much passes without a trace, as you can verify by the cases that when for the first time we happen to be somewhere, then everything occupies us there, and after the second and third time, perhaps.
Every action on the heart produces a special feeling in it, but there are no words in our language to distinguish them. We express our feelings in general terms: pleasant - unpleasant, like - dislike, fun - boring, joy - grief, sorrow - pleasure, peace - anxiety, annoyance - contentment, fear - hope, antipathy - sympathy. Observe yourself and you will find that one thing or another happens in the heart.
But the significance of the heart in the economy of our life is not only to passively stand above impressions and testify to our satisfactory or unsatisfactory state, but also to maintain the energy of all the forces of the soul and body. See how hastily the work that you like, to which the heart lies, is done! And before the one to whom the heart does not lie, the hands fall and the legs do not move. That is why those who know how to govern themselves, when they meet a necessary task, which, however, the heart does not like, they hasten to find a pleasant side in it, and that, having reconciled the heart with it, maintain in themselves the energy necessary for the task. Jealousy - the driving force of the will - comes from the heart. The same is true in mental work: the subject that has fallen on the heart is discussed more hastily and comprehensively. At the same time, thoughts swarm by themselves, and labor, no matter how long it may be, is not labor.
Not everyone likes everything and not everyone has the same heart for everything, but some have more for one, while others have more for the other. It is expressed like this: everyone has their own taste. It depends partly on the natural predisposition, partly - and is not it more? - from first impressions, from the impressions of upbringing and the accidents of life. But no matter how tastes are formed, they force a person to arrange his life in such a way, to surround himself with objects and relationships such as his taste indicates and with which he is peaceful, being satisfied with them. Satisfying the tastes of the heart gives him peace - sweet, which is its own measure of happiness for everyone. Nothing disturbs - that's happiness.
If a person always kept to sanity in the mental part, and prudence in action, then he would meet in life the smallest share of accidents that are unpleasant to his heart, and, consequently, would have the greatest share of happiness. But, as has been pointed out, the mental part rarely behaves properly, indulging in dreams and absent-mindedness, and the active part deviates from its normal direction, being carried away by fickle desires, excited not by the needs of nature, but by alien passions. That is why the heart does not have peace, and while those sides are in such a state, it cannot have it. Most of all tyrannize the heart of passion. If there were no passions, of course, troubles would occur, but they would never torment the heart as much as passions torment. How anger burns the heart! How tormented by his hatred! How evil envy sharpens! How many anxieties and torments unsatisfied or disgraced vanity causes! How grief presses when ambition suffers! Yes, if we take a closer look, we will find that all our anxieties and pains of the heart are from passions. These evil passions, when satisfied, give joy, but short-lived, and when they are not satisfied, but, on the contrary, meet the opposite, they cause prolonged and unbearable sorrow.
Thus, it is clear that our heart is definitely the root and center of life. It, letting you know about the good or bad state of a person, excites other forces to activity, and the aftermath of their activity again takes into itself, to strengthen or weaken the feeling that determines the state of a person. It would seem that he should have been given full power over the management of life, as is the case with many, many completely, but with all others a little. It would seem so, and, perhaps, by nature it had just such a purpose, but passions arose and clouded everything. Under them, our state is indicated by the heart incorrectly, and impressions are not what they should be, and tastes are perverted, and excitations of other forces are directed in the wrong direction. Therefore, now the law is to hold the heart in the hands and subject the feelings, tastes and inclinations to its strict criticism. When someone is cleansed of passions, let him give free rein to his heart, but as long as the passions are in power, to give free rein to the heart means clearly dooming yourself to all sorts of wrong steps. Worst of all are those who, as the goal of life, set the sweetness of the heart and the enjoyment, as they say, of life. Since the sweetness and pleasures of the flesh and the senses make themselves felt more strongly, such persons always fall into coarse sensuality and become below the line that separates man from other living creatures.
So here is your soul and spiritual life from all its sides! I pointed out on purpose what naturally should be on each side and what should not. And without reminding you, I see in you a willingness to follow the former and avert the latter. And bless, Lord!
9. The third side of human life: spiritual life. The main manifestations of spiritual life: the fear of God, conscience and thirst for God. Human Dignity
You write: “I tried to keep my thoughts on a serious one and could not do it. I thought that it depended on my unaccustomed to reasoning, and I took a good book to keep my mind on the sensible reasoning with it - and here the same thing. The mind always runs off to the side and everything to trifles. Finally, I completely thought about it - and where and where I was and what stories I didn’t tell. One of our people brought me to my senses with the question: “What are you philosophizing about? About what?" And I did not philosophize at all, but dreamed. It's always been that way, but I never paid attention to it before. Now I see, and I see that this should not be. But how to be? You can't manage your thoughts."
How to deal with this, I will tell you later, and now I ask you to add something else to that observation of yours: try to stay at least one day without getting angry and annoyed and tell me how you manage to do it.
Then you ask me a question: “You have concluded: here is your soul and spiritual life. But you have not indicated everything that happens in the soul. Not about virtues, not about piety - not a word. And I see that in our family, among relatives and among many acquaintances, they are in the first place not only in word, but also in deed. How come they are not mentioned?
I was just about to write about this. Last time I wanted to say what I will say now, but I thought to wait and see how you look at everything that has been said. And here is your question. Thank you for your serious consideration. This is worthy of your so well-built head. The omission that you noticed is not a omission, but it was completely out of place here to talk about what seemed to you omitted. It is not the business of the soul to deal with those subjects. That is spirit, and the whole soul is turned exclusively to the dispensation of our temporary life - earthly. And her knowledge is all built only on the basis of what experience gives, and her activity is directed to the satisfaction of the needs of temporary life, and her feelings are generated and held only from her states and visible positions. Anything above that is none of her business. Although there is something in it that is higher than what has been said, but these are the guests who come to it from another, higher region - namely, the region of the spirit.
What is this spirit? This is the power that God breathed into the face of man, completing his creation. All kinds of terrestrial creatures were persecuted by the command of God by the earth. Every soul of living creatures also came out of the earth. The human soul, although similar to the soul of animals in its lower part, is incomparably more excellent in its higher part. What it is in man depends on its combination with the spirit. The Spirit, breathed in by God, combined with her, raised her so much above every non-human soul. That is why within ourselves we notice, in addition to what is seen in animals, also what is characteristic of the spiritual soul of a person, and even higher, what is characteristic of the spirit proper.
The Spirit, as a force that has come from God, knows God, seeks God, and finds rest in Him alone. Convinced by some kind of spiritual innermost instinct that he comes from God, he feels his complete dependence on Him and recognizes himself obliged to please Him in every possible way and live only for Him and Them.
The more tangible manifestations of these movements of the life of the spirit are: 1) Fear of God. All people, no matter what stage of development they are at, know that there is a supreme being, God, Who created everything, contains everything and governs everything, that they depend on Him in everything and must please Him, that He is the Judge and Giver to everyone according to his works. Such is the natural creed, written in the spirit. Confessing it, the spirit reveres God and is filled with the fear of God. 2) Conscience. Conscious of being obliged to please God, the spirit would not know how to satisfy this duty if it were not guided by conscience in this. Having communicated to the spirit a piece of his omniscience in the indicated natural creed, God also inscribed in it the requirements of His holiness, truth and goodness, instructing him to observe their fulfillment and judge himself in serviceability or malfunction. This side of the spirit is conscience, which indicates what is right and what is not right, what is pleasing to God and what is not pleasing, what should and should not be done; pointing out, he imperiously compels him to do that, and then rewards him with consolation for his performance, and punishes him with remorse for non-performance. Conscience is the legislator, the guardian of the law, the judge and the vindicator. It is the natural tables of the covenant of God, which extends to all people. And we see in all people, along with the fear of God, the actions of conscience. 3) Thirst for God. It is expressed in the general striving for the all-perfect good and is also more clearly seen in the general dissatisfaction with anything created. What does this dissatisfaction mean? That nothing created can satisfy our spirit. Having come from God, he seeks God, he desires to taste Him, and, being in a living union and combination with Him, he calms down in Him. When he reaches this, he is calm, but until he reaches it, he cannot have rest. No matter how many created things and blessings anyone has, everything is not enough for him. And everyone, as you have already noticed, is looking and looking. They seek and find, but, having found it, they abandon it and begin to search again, so that, having found it, they also abandon it. So endless. This means that they are looking for the wrong thing and the wrong place, what and where to look for. Doesn't this tangibly show that there is a power in us, from the earth and earthly things that draws us to grief - to the heavenly?
I am not explaining to you in detail all these manifestations of the spirit, I am only directing your thought to its presence in us and I ask you to think more about this and bring yourself to the full conviction that there is definitely a spirit in us. For it is the mark of a man. The human soul makes us a small something higher than animals, and the spirit shows us a small something reduced from the Angels. You, of course, know the meaning of the phrases we use: the spirit of the writer, the spirit of the people. It is a collection of distinguishing features, real, but in some way ideal, intelligible to the mind, elusive and intangible. The same is the spirit of man; only the spirit of the writer, for example, is seen ideally, and the spirit of man is inherent in him as a living force, testifying to his presence with living and tangible movements.
From what I have said, it would be desirable for you to draw the following conclusion: in whom there are no movements and actions of the spirit, he does not stand on a level with human dignity.
10. The universality of faith in the existence of God as a manifestation of spiritual life
You ask: “But how can you say that everyone has a spirit with the aforementioned manifestations, and meanwhile, how many nations do not know God?” Those nations do not know what the true God is, but what He is, they all confess. Believing that there is a God, and wanting to determine more precisely what He is, they were mistaken and called God that which is not God: who is the sun, who is the moon or the stars or something else. Not everyone, however, was so grossly mistaken. When God scattered the peoples over the face of the earth after the pandemonium, they all carried with them the hitherto betrayed sound concepts of God as an invisible Spirit, Creator, Provider, Judge and Retributor.
That He is the Creator, Provider and Retributor, this is preserved by everyone, but that He is an immaterial Spirit, this is not preserved by everyone, but changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of the perishable man and birds and quadrupeds and creeping things(Rom. 1:23). They understood God, that is, they knew that there is a God, but they did not glorify Him as God (v. 21). Of the Eastern peoples, the Persians, Indians, Asians, and Americans have more exalted concepts of God. The Greeks and Romans crushed, so to speak, God. American, for example, Indians call God the universal spirit - invisible, all-encompassing. This is a very lofty idea, and a spirit left to itself cannot go further than this. The Asian Indians went deeper into the comprehension of God, but, having retained the concept of His invisibility, omnipotence and omnipotence, when they decided to more accurately define His creative and providential actions, they confused a lot of inconsistencies and wrote many fabulous stories.
So in what sense there are those who do not know God! And not in the fact that there are peoples who do not confess the existence of God. Some travelers testified that they met peoples and peoples who did not know God at all and did not worship Him. The only thing that is true in this testimony is that they did not hear the confession of faith and did not see the worship of God - but that neither one nor the other was ... For this they should have lived longer among those peoples. Becker in our days lived for a whole month among some people - near the lakes through which the Nile flows - and did not see the reverence for God. But, he says, the new moon has come - I look, the king is going somewhere, all the foremen are gathering, preparing a bull. A certain day came - they went to some hillock and sacrificed a bull. If I left, says Becker, two or three days earlier, I could testify with all sincerity that this people does not honor God.
So completely throw it out of your head, as if there are those who do not recognize the existence of God. There are some scholars who think of doing without God, and talk and talk about it, and write books, but when their tongue and pen grind such empty talk, their heart speaks differently. They are puffed up to show themselves as not believing in God, but it is very doubtful that they will finally succeed in this before their own conscience.
Knowing God, everyone shows conscience, and honors God, and prays to Him, and looks forward to the future life, in which everyone will be rewarded according to his deeds. The power containing all such beliefs and beliefs is spirit. Let us suppose that in every person there is a spirit - the highest side of human life, a force that draws him from the visible to the invisible, from the temporal to the eternal, from the creature to the Creator, characterizing the person and distinguishing him from all other living creatures on earth. This force can be weakened to varying degrees, its demands can be misinterpreted, but it cannot be completely silenced or destroyed. It is an integral part of our human nature and manifests itself in everyone in its own way.
These are the speeches you led me to with your question. But not bad. I wanted to write to you not about this, but about what happened and is happening in the soul from the influence of the spirit by its combination with it. But more on that until next time.
11. The influence of the spirit on the human soul and the phenomena occurring from here in the field of thought, activity (will) and feeling (heart)
I take up what was interrupted - namely, what entered the soul as a result of its union with the spirit, which is from God. From this, the whole soul was transformed and from an animal, as it is by nature, became human, with the forces and actions that are indicated above. But that's not what we're talking about now. Remaining as described, she reveals, in addition, higher aspirations and ascends one degree higher, being a spiritual soul.
Such inspirations of the soul are visible in all aspects of its life - mental, active and feeling.
IN mental striving for perfection. As such, mental thinking rests entirely on experience and observation. From what is learned in this way fragmented and without connection, it builds generalizations, makes inferences and thus extracts the basic provisions about a known range of things. On this she would stand. Meanwhile, she is never satisfied with this, but strives higher, seeking to determine the meaning of every circle of things in the totality of creations. For example, what a person is is known through observations of him, generalizations and inductions. But not satisfied with this, we ask ourselves the question: “What does a person mean in the totality of creations?” Looking for this, another will decide: he is the head and crown of creatures; different: he is a priest - in the idea that the voices of all creatures, praising God unconsciously, he collects and praises the Supreme Creator with a reasonable song. This kind of thoughts about every other kind of creatures and about their entire totality, the soul has a desire to generate. And it gives birth. Whether they answer the case or not is another matter, but it is certain that she has the urge to look for them, seeks them and gives birth. This is the striving for ideality, for the meaning of a thing is its idea.
This desire is common to all. And those who do not give a price to any knowledge, except for experienced ones - and they cannot refrain from becoming idealistic against their will, without noticing it themselves. Ideas are rejected with language, but in practice they are built. The conjectures which they accept, and without which no circle of knowledge is complete, are the lowest class of ideas.
The image of the ideal view is metaphysics and true philosophy, which, as they have always been, will always be in the field of human knowledge. The Spirit, which is always inherent in us as an essential force, contemplating God himself as the Creator and Provider, and beckons the soul into that invisible and boundless region. Perhaps the spirit, in its likeness to God, was destined to contemplate all things in God, and it would have contemplated if it had not been for the fall. But in every possible way, even now, whoever wants to contemplate everything that exists ideally, should proceed from God or from that symbol that God has written in the spirit. Thinkers who do not do this are, for that very reason, no longer philosophers. Not believing in the ideas built by the soul on the basis of the suggestions of the spirit, they act unjustly when they do not believe what constitutes the content of the spirit, for that is a human product, and this is Divine.
IN active parts from the action of the spirit is desire and production of selfless deeds or virtues or even higher - the desire to become virtuous. Actually, the work of the soul in this part of it (the will) is the arrangement of the temporary life of a person, may it be good for him. Fulfilling this appointment, she does everything according to the conviction that what she does is either pleasant, or useful, or necessary for the life she arranges. Meanwhile, she is not satisfied with this, but leaves this circle and accomplishes deeds and undertakings not at all because they are necessary, useful and pleasant, but because they are good, kind and fair, striving for them with all zeal, despite the fact that that they do not give anything for a temporary life and are even unfavorable to him and are led at his expense. In another, such aspirations are manifested with such force that he sacrifices his entire life for them in order to live detached from everything. Manifestations of this kind of aspirations are ubiquitous, even outside of Christianity. Where are they from? From spirit. The norm of a holy, good and righteous life is inscribed in the conscience. Having received knowledge about it through a combination with the spirit, the soul is carried away by its invisible beauty and grandeur and decides to bring it into the circle of its affairs and life, transforming it according to its requirements. And everyone sympathizes with such aspirations, although not everyone completely surrenders to them; but there is not a single person who does not from time to time devote his labors and his property to works in this spirit.
IN feeling part of the action of the spirit is in the soul desire and love for beauty, or, as is commonly said, to graceful. The proper business of this part in the soul is to perceive by feeling its favorable or unfavorable states and influences from outside according to the measure of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of mental and bodily needs. But we see in the circle of feelings, along with these selfish - let's call it that - feelings, a number of selfless feelings that arise completely apart from the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of needs - feelings from the delight of beauty. One does not want to tear one's eyes away from the flower and turn one's ears away from singing, simply because both are beautiful. Everyone arranges and decorates his dwelling one way or another, because it is more beautiful that way. We go for a walk and choose a place for that alone, because it is beautiful. Above all this is the pleasure that comes from paintings, sculptures, music and singing, and above all this is the pleasure from poetic creations. Graceful works of art delight not only with the beauty of the external form, but especially with the beauty of the inner content, the beauty of the intelligently contemplated, ideal. Where do such manifestations in the soul come from? These are guests from another area, from the area of the spirit. The Spirit, knowing God, naturally comprehends the beauty of God and seeks to enjoy it alone. Although he cannot definitely indicate that she exists, but, having secretly carried her predestination in himself, he definitely indicates that she do not eat, expressing this testimony by not being satisfied with anything created. To contemplate, taste and enjoy the beauty of God is the need of the spirit, there is its life - and the life of paradise. Having received knowledge of it through a combination with the spirit, and the soul is carried away after it and, comprehending it in its own spiritual image, then in joy rushes at that which in its circle seems to it to be its reflection (amateurs), then it itself invents and produces things in which wants to reflect her, as she introduced herself to her (artists and artists). That's where these guests come from - sweet, detached from all sensual feelings, elevating the soul to the spirit and inspiring it! I note that of the artificial works, I include in this class only those whose content is the divine beauty of invisible divine things, and not those that, although beautiful, represent the same ordinary mental and bodily life or the same terrestrial things that constitute the eternal environment of that life. The soul, guided by the spirit, is not only looking for beauty, but the expression in beautiful forms of the invisible beautiful world, where the spirit beckons it with its influence.
So this is what the spirit gave to the soul, being combined with it, and this is how the soul is inspired! I don’t think that any of this will make it difficult for you, but I ask you, however, not to skim through what has been written in passing, but to discuss it thoroughly and attach it to yourself. Is your soul inspired? After all, you sing and play music! Someday you and I will criticize this aspect of yours on the demand that the fine arts should represent.
12. Conclusions from what has been said about the three aspects of human life. The possibility of transition from one state to another and the predominance of one or the other side of life. The predominance of soulfulness and carnality as a sinful state. The dominance of spiritual life as the norm of the true life of man
Now let's settle scores with you or draw conclusions from everything that has been said. See how many sides or, better, degrees of life we have! There is a spiritual side and degree of life, there is a spiritual-spiritual one, there is a proper spiritual one, there is a mental-bodily one (it seems that I did not shade it properly - here belong observations with imagination and memory, desires from the needs of the body and feelings of bodily states and impressions), there is bodily. There are five tiers, but the person’s face is one, and this one person lives first one, then another, then a third life and, judging by the kind of life he lives, receives a special character, reflected in his views, and in his rules, and in his feelings, that is, it can be either spiritual - with spiritual views, rules and feelings, or spiritual - with spiritual concepts, rules and feelings, or carnal - with carnal thoughts, deeds and feelings. (I do not take into account the middle states - the mental-spiritual and the mental-corporeal ones, so as not to split up too much.) This does not mean that when a person is spiritual, soulfulness and corporeality no longer have a place in him, but the fact that then spirituality in him is dominant, subjugating and penetrating soul and body; it is equally not that when a person is soulful, his spirituality and corporeality no longer exist, but the fact that then soulfulness is dominant, rules everything and gives everything its tone, and covers spirituality itself with a veil of soulfulness; it is also not that when a person becomes carnal, his spirituality and soulfulness disappear, but the fact that then everything is embodied in him and spirituality and soulfulness become carnal, subject to the flesh and trampled under it and held in slavery to it.
Since no matter what degree a person is, other aspects of his life remain inherent in him, then at no degree is he enslaved so that he cannot even free himself from this bondage, but always has the opportunity to move from one degree to another. by weakening one side of your life and strengthening the other. Similarly, a spiritual person can fall into soulfulness and corporality, and a carnal person can rise to spirituality, when he loves the spiritual and the carnal, and this one seeks the spiritual. Man is always free. Freedom is given to him along with self-consciousness and together with it constitutes the essence of the spirit and the norm of humanity. Extinguish self-consciousness and freedom - you extinguish the spirit, and a person has become not a person.
But in affirming that a man has the freedom to move up and down the degrees of his life, I do not affirm with this that it is equally easy and convenient for him to move, whether he goes from above downwards or from below upwards, or that these movements can be performed in him in the same way. quickly and often, like going from one room to another several times a day. I only wanted to say by this that a person who is self-conscious and free is the culprit of his inner state, and that if he, having fallen into a state that cannot be approved, remains in it, then he himself is to blame for this and is responsible before God and people.
Each of the degrees or manifestations of our life shown is natural in us and, therefore, cannot be disapproved of in itself. It is not natural and, therefore, in itself it is not approving that state in which thoughts wander, soar and seeth, desires are impermanent, aroused by being passions - not natural to us, but foreign ones - and the feelings of the heart are agitated and turbulent because of the same passions. I deliberately emphasized these unnatural things within us, speaking of spiritual life, in order to draw your attention to them. I deliberately remember this even now, in order to also force you to better understand this matter and treat it according to its dignity. The wandering of thoughts, the inconstancy of passionate desires and the anxieties of the heart incessantly disturb us, not allowing us to do a single thing as it should, and almost always leading us astray. This disease, although universal and ubiquitous, is not natural, but acquired by us arbitrarily. The enemy knows how much she is at hand to him, and, trying to tempt someone, first of all he tries to push him into this pool - it first introduces him into the stream of thoughts, then under them he kindles passionate desires, and with these he excites the heart.
Whoever is brought to this, the temptation is ripe for him. If he does not come to his senses, he falls and, having fallen, is carried away into a whirlpool of turbulent movements of thoughts, wishes and feelings, sometimes not for long, sometimes for a long time, and often forever. That life, a part of which, remember, you experienced, all passes in this whirlpool and happens, judging by the circles, where it is busier, where it is quieter, where it is more modest, where it is wide open - in all its nakedness and shame. But besides this, rarely is anyone free from those seethings inside. No, no - and break through. From the wanderings of thoughts and ideas, I don’t know if anyone is free. So, if you please, notice this disease of ours (yes, you already noticed it in part, complaining about the uncontrollability of thoughts) - and, having noticed, take up the work of healing. Never let go of the thought that something evil is always inherent in you, which is always ready to lead you astray and direct you to the wrong.
As for spirituality and corporality, they in themselves, as already noted, are sinless, as natural to us; but a person who has been formed according to soulfulness or, even worse, according to carnality, is not without sin. He is guilty of giving dominion in himself to that which is not destined to dominate and must occupy a subordinate position. And it turns out that, although spirituality is natural, it is not natural for a person to be spiritual; likewise, being carnal is natural, but it is not natural for a man to be carnal. The error here lies in the exclusive predominance of what should be subordinated.
But when spirituality dominates in someone, then, even though this will be his exceptional character and mood, he does not sin, firstly, because spirituality is the norm of human life and that, consequently, being spiritual, he is a real person, while a natural and fleshly man is not a real man; and secondly, because, no matter how spiritual someone is, he cannot help but give due sincerity and carnality, he only keeps them not fat and in subjection to the spirit. Even if his soulfulness is not wide (in scientific knowledge, arts and other matters) and his fleshly nature is tightly constrained - he is all a real, complete person. And the sincere (many-knowing, expert, businessman), and even more so carnal - is not a real person, no matter how red he may be outside. He is headless. Hence the simple man, fearing God, is higher than the multi-educated and elegant, but not having in his goals and aspirations to please God. Accordingly, judge the works of literature and art. Works in which everything is carnal are out of hand; but even those in whom spirituality dominates do not meet their purpose, although they are higher than the flesh. Such is the judgment only of those works that are alien to spiritual elements; those who are openly hostile about everything spiritual, that is, about God and divine things, are directly the essence of enemy suggestions and should not be tolerated.
From this you see that, according to the natural purpose, a person must live in the spirit, subordinate to the spirit and penetrate everything of the soul, and even more so of the body, and after them all of his external, that is, family and social life. Se is the norm!
I do not apply the conviction to you to live in the spirit and to subordinate everything to it, believing that if you have well analyzed everything that has been said, then the decision to live in this way is already inherent in you. You have already expressed your resolute desire: to stand at the level of human life, as it is meant to be. See now what it is intended to be, and, of course, you want to show it like that. Why, you have lived hitherto in your family and in the circle of your relatives as depicted, that is, in spirit, although you passed the sciences, and you know the economy, and a master in music and singing. You are not supposed to start spirituality in yourself, but to maintain and preserve it, protecting yourself from the influences and attractions of the soul-carnal life, into the whirlpools of which you have begun to fall. This is what you and I agreed to talk about. And of course, you are waiting for a decision as soon as possible: so what to do?
13. The true happiness of a person is life in the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication between souls and with the world of saints and angels. Light and dark state of the shell of the soul
I wanted to answer the question placed at the end of the last letter, but the day of your Angel came, and it occurred to me to express my good wishes to you on this occasion.
First of all, I wish you health, because it is a condition for the acquisition of all the blessings that a person considers a blessing, and enjoying them, or tasting them. What comforts are possible for a sick and relaxed person when all the senses are in an abnormal state. An exception must be made only for spiritual consolations. They are not subject to such dependence on the state of health and may be inherent in spite of bodily suffering. The martyrs, during the very torments, truly rejoiced, truly, and not with their tongues only said that they were rejoicing.
And what is there to wish for? They usually want to be happy. I wish you happiness too. But what exactly is desired here? After all, no one has yet determined what happiness is or who is truly happy. I understand that happy is the one who feels happy. So this is what I wish you, wishing happiness! I wish you always feel happy. Why and how? People have so many different concepts and tastes about this that you can’t make out. I'll slowly tell you that while you are not in the spirit of living, do not expect happiness. Mental and bodily life, with a favorable course, give something like happiness, but this is a fleeting ghost of happiness, soon disappearing. In addition, with them that turbulent environment, which is formed between the soul and body and is swept up by passionate thoughts, desires and feelings, is always strong, and with it, due to the poison of passions, only intoxication is possible, forgetting suffering, as happens from opium, but not the absence of suffering and pains of the heart. The pains of the heart are an integral part of that life. The Spirit, however, hovers beyond all disturbances and carries away the one who lives in him there and, giving him a taste of his blessings, always abiding, makes him truly and lastingly happy.
What? That's the end of goodwill? No, I don't think it's enough. If our life ended with this life, then, of course, it would be enough to say: be healthy and happy. But since it does not end like this, but continues beyond the grave, and there it is only a decisive life, then, for the fullness of good wishes, I cannot help but wish you that you are worthy to be blessed there too. Wake you and be blessed there. I wish you this with all my heart and most of all, and pray earnestly to the Lord, may He lead you comfortably through the path of real life and after it instill in His all-blessed Kingdom.
At the same time, of course, very harsh conditions appear in your mind. There are, of course, decisive conditions, but are they severe? To this I will say for the time being in general: yes and no, judging by the way someone is placed from childhood; and, judging by this, I present that they are not severe for you. You are already doing them. Just be careful and don't back down.
It also comes to my mind to send you candy for your holiday, but I don’t know if I can make it. I'll try.
If you have not forgotten, once I started talking with you about some subtle, pre-thin element, which is thinner than light. Her name is ether. And let it be: it's not about the name, but about recognizing that it exists. I admit that such a subtle element exists, everything penetrates and passes everywhere, serving as the last facet of material existence. I believe at the same time that all blessed spirits hover in this element - Angels and saints of God, themselves being clothed in some kind of clothes from the same element. From the same element is the shell of our soul (understand with this word the spirit, which is the soul of our human soul). The soul itself - the spirit - is immaterial, but its shell is made of this subtle immaterial element. Our body is rough, but that shell of the soul is the thinnest and serves as an intermediary between the soul and the body. Through it the soul acts on the body and the body on the soul. But I am talking about this in passing. Keep only in the thought that the soul has the thinnest shell and that this shell is the same for our soul as it is for all spirits. From this it is not difficult for you to draw the conclusion that that universal subtlest element, from which these shells and in which all spirits soar, is also a mediator for the mutual communication of our souls and those spirits.
Now break away from this idea and turn your attention to the usual affairs between us. You now live in Moscow, you are sitting within the walls of your apartment, surrounded by buildings from everywhere, and wherever you turn your eyes, you meet obstacles everywhere: many objects block the sharp-sightedness and far-sightedness of your eyes. But if you were to rise above Moscow on some balloon, you would see without hindrance not only all of it, but also its surroundings. If you had climbed even higher, then you would have seen what is further around. Strengthen your eyesight and raise you even higher and higher, you can see St. Petersburg, Paris, London, etc. All this because your eyesight has become sharper and there are no obstacles to see.
Now go back to the saints of God. That element, about which we are talking, passes everywhere and does not encounter any obstacle anywhere. A ray of the sun passes through glass, and that element passes through glass, and through walls, and through the earth, and through everything. But just as it passes through everything, so those who hover in it can pass through everything when necessary (just as the Savior went into the upper room where the apostles were, closed door). They live in a certain place, but when they are commanded or allowed, they are immediately transferred to the right place according to that element and not only do not meet any obstacles, but do not see them. When necessary, they are transferred, and when there is no such need, staying in their place, they see in all directions what is where and what is happening where. And when they turn their eyes to the earth, that is, to us sinners, they clearly see us too ... only not this rough body of ours, which they don’t care about, but they see our very soul as it is, not directly, but through the shell of the soul, akin to their shell and the element in which they live, for the state of the soul is correctly reflected in its shell.
Let me now imagine: two people are sitting and talking, while the soul of each is tuned in its own way. Each of them does not see what is in the soul of the other, because of the coarse curtain of the body behind which the soul hides; and the angels and saints, if they look at them, will see their soul as it is and what is in it, for what it is and what is in it is reflected in its shell. If there are holy thoughts and feelings in it, its shell is light, and with each holy feeling it is light in a special way. And if her thoughts and feelings are not entirely pure, then her shell is not bright either, and from each impure feeling it is darkened in its own way, appearing now like fog, now like the darkness of the night. If you ascended to heaven and perceived the vision of an angel, depriving, of course, of this body, then, looking at the earth, you would see instead of a diverse mass of people some shadows of light, half-light, foggy, gloomy, and it’s not surprising that lightly dressed ones appeared would you be gloomy if their soul is bad, and dressed in rags - bright if their soul is pure. And this is how the celestials see us and, judging by how they see us, they rejoice over us or mourn.
Let me ask you: how does the saint, whose name you bear, see you, and especially now, when she looks at you more closely for the sake of the fact that you turn to her more diligently? How does the Guardian Angel see you, who is always with you, and the Lord Himself, sitting with the body at the right hand of the Father, but also promising to be with us all the days? The way they see you, that's how you really are. I warn you that with such a question I do not think to embarrass you and thereby overshadow your holiday; on the contrary, tea will bring you spiritual consolation and joy. For I cannot expect to be seen from the sky gloomy or misty. You have not yet had time to fog up, therefore you are visible light. At least I have my sincere good wishes to you on the day of your Angel: may you always be and remain such that the celestials always see you bright. Then from this life you will go straight to them there. This is what I wish you with all my heart.
14. The shell of the soul is either light or dark according to the inner mood. Examples. The darkened soul is seen by demons
In addition to the previous speech, I would like to say something else about the same. I will tell you a few experiences that the soul in its shell exactly takes on a form corresponding to its inner mood. During the life of St. Andrew, Christ for the sake of the holy fool, there was a priest in Constantinople (from among the unmarried), a fast, a solitude, a man of prayer. Everyone honored him, that is, revered him. But St. Andrew met him and sees that he is dressed in some kind of dark fog, and around his neck a snake with the inscription “the snake of avarice” is wrapped around his neck. That's what his soul was like! And meanwhile, no one saw it. The enlightened spiritual eyes of St. Andrew saw. But among the celestials they are even more enlightened. Thus, while we think that no one sees us, what we are, we are seen by a myriad of eyes. See how many stars are in the sky! There are even more eyes on us.
Why, we ourselves can, if not see, then determine what we are. This tells us conscience - an incorruptible judge. It can be drowned out for a while, but it always manages to free itself from oppression and raise its voice, even among those who are not entirely conscientious. And for those who have not been defaced, her voice is always clear and ringing. It is and is called the voice of God in the spirit of man. It also reflects what opinion about us or what view the celestials have on us. So, when conscience says that we are pure in everything before God and people, then this testimony of conscience is reflected with light around our soul - and everyone from heaven sees us bright. And if conscience reproaches that we are unclean, then we are visible to be dark. But guardian angels always see us closer than those, some dark, some light, judging by the inner mood, constant or random.
In addition to Angels and saints, dark forces also see us invisibly to us. Only they, when the soul is bright, cannot look at it, being afraid, like bats, of the light, and look at it only when it begins to darken. They scurry everywhere in flocks and, as soon as they notice where the darkened soul is, they immediately attack it indiscriminately and begin to turn it back and forth with thoughts, passionate desires and agitation of feelings. That turbulent region, about which I spoke, that between the soul and the body is lawlessly arranged, there is a place where demons sit down to the soul and begin to sweep it up like dust with the wind. They try to sneak up on bright souls, but they are reflected and hit, like an arrow, by rays of light. In Antioch there was a sorcerer Cyprian. One young man asked him to incline Justina, a beautiful Christian woman, whom he wanted to take as his wife, but she did not even want to look at him. Cyprian sent to her several times the demons who were in his service, so that in their own way they would stir up in her love for the young man, but they approached her dwelling, but could not enter inside and, returning, said that from there, from within, they were reflected and the light scorches, for that Justina, like a cloud, is clothed with light, and they did not manage to look at her.
Here is the best example of how bright the soul is when she is a Christian, pure in her conscience and devoted to the Lord. With a clear conscience, the fear of God fills the soul and keeps it inviolable. Then the Lord, who is everywhere and fulfills everything, visits that soul, and it all becomes light and shines like a star.
Having remained so pure and bright, the soul passes to the other world after leaving the body, just as bright. Saint Anthony was once talking with his disciples and saw a streak of light rising to the heavens. Looking at it and discerning what it was, he said: “It is the holy Ammon ascending to heaven, accompanied by angels.”
So here's what to be jealous about. Do not rely on your external appearance, for it is possible that something else is seen in us, and something else we actually do. But, of course, to be better than to seem. I recall the words of Basil the Great, who says: the body is ours; what, besides the body, we have, starting with clothing, is surrounding us. What are we? We are the soul (with the spirit). It is there, distracted from everything that exists outside of us, and from the body itself, we must gather ourselves, enter into ourselves, consider everything and decide: what are you, mother, our soul?
This brings us back to what we slightly deviated from - namely, to the decision: what to do in order to live in the spirit and spiritualize the soul and body and everything external with it? But more on that until another time.
15. How the saints hear our prayers. Application about prayer
I am very glad that you liked my speech about that element. Accept it, imprint it firmly in your head and always keep it in your thoughts. See how she will help you in everything. How much she clarifies subjects and how much she brings consolation! You have probably heard the question of how the saints hear our prayers, or perhaps you yourself have asked it to yourself. In response, they interpret it, interpret it, but the question still remains a question. In my opinion, with the assumption of that element, it turns out: how can the saints not hear our prayers? Do you know how the electric telegraph works? In St. Petersburg, for example, a well-known apparatus is set up - at the same moment that Petersburg action is reflected in Moscow in a similar apparatus and in the same meaning in which the movement takes place there. Why does it happen? Because those devices are homogeneous, and the wire connecting them is adjusted to them. So the operation of such a telegraph is our prayer. We and the saints are, as it were, two homogeneous apparatuses; the medium in which the saints and in which our souls are surrounded is the wire. When true prayer - heartfelt - moves in the soul, then it, by that element, acting on it, like a ray of light, flies up to the saints and tells them what we want and what we are praying for. There is no gap between our prayer and hearing, only it is necessary that prayer come from the heart. We have it and there is a telegraph projectile for the sky. The same prayers, which do not come from the heart, but only from the head and from the tongue, do not give a ray that ascends to heaven, and are not heard there. Yes, this is not a prayer, but only prayer methods.
Maybe without noticing it, you wrote an experimental certificate in what was said. You write that you prayed earnestly - and immediately calmed down, having received an assurance from within that you would be removed from what tormented you; and then it worked itself out. So it turns out that my comparison of heartfelt prayer with a telegraph is true, invisibly drawn to heaven through that element. From your heart a blow or a beam went to the sky, along the same line or the same beam from the sky, what you needed came to your heart in response. This is how it always happens with all the prayers that come out of the heart. The fulfillment of such a prayer does not always follow immediately, but its hearing takes place immediately.
I'm not happy that this happened to you. Grant, Lord, that this happens to you more often. Remember how you prayed here, and always try to pray in such a way that the prayer comes from the heart, and not only pronounced with the tongue and thought with the mind.
If you arrange yourself in this way, then you will have a business-like solution to the question of how to be in order to live in the spirit. For such prayer is the life of the spirit. Here the spirit abides in God and unites with Him, and this is the whole strength of his life. Know that only then does it mean that the spirit lives when it prays the way you prayed. When there is no such prayer, it means that he is frozen, if not completely muffled.
I will not hide from you that at least you prayed like this, but you will hardly be able to always pray like that. God gives such a prayer or the Guardian Angel excites. And she comes and goes. It does not follow from this, however, that it is permissible for us to leave the work of prayer. It comes when someone labors in prayer, and whoever does not labor will not come to him. And we see that the holy fathers labored a lot in prayer, and with these labors kindled the spirit of prayer within themselves. As they came to this, they left the image of that to us in their writings. All that they have said on this subject constitutes the science of prayer, which is the science of sciences. The time will come, we will go through this science, and now I touched on that only in passing: I had to say a word. And I will add: there is nothing more important than prayer. Therefore, one must work on it more diligently, and most of all. Grant you, Lord, zeal for such work.
Your humble thoughts and feelings about yourself are angelic feelings. How perfect and how bright are the Angels! And they are all humble, more humble than all people. A humble soul is always bright. The darkening of the soul begins when it begins to think a lot about itself, for this is the work of the dark forces. Grant you, Lord, never lose such feelings, so that you can always be in the light.
Here again we have strayed from our question. Be patient and more.
16. The true purpose of life. Lifestyle according to purpose
What happened to you? And what are these questions: “I don’t know what to do with my life. Something must be done. Do you have to set a goal for yourself? I read and wonder where such intricate thoughts came from. After all, you have already decided all this by expressing your desire to stand on a level with the dignity of a person, which he should be according to God's definition. And we are talking about what is going on, if not about this! Where do these tasks come from? I guess that among your acquaintances there are progressives or you ended up in a society where there were such people and dismissed their sophistication. They usually rave like this. They have incessantly in their language the good of mankind, the good of the people. And now, having probably heard enough of such lofty ideas, you were captivated by them and, turning your eyes on your real life, saw with regret that you were vegetating in the circle of your family and relatives without use and purpose. Alas! and ah! How is it that no one has opened your eyes until now!
If my guess is correct, then bows follow you, which is why you did not say this, having given your word to write frankly about everything. Whether this is so, however, or not, I cannot leave your problems unsolved. Our whole conversation will serve as a complete solution to them; now I will briefly express only a general idea, so that you can see that the life that you have led and are leading up to now is a real life and there is nothing to change in it.
The purpose of life must be definitely known. But is it smart? And isn't it already defined? The general situation is such that, as there is an afterlife, the goal of this life, all, without exception, should be there, and not here. Everyone knows this position, and there is nothing to talk about it, even though it is the least remembered in practice. But make it your law for your life to pursue this goal with all your might - you yourself will see what kind of light will be shed because of your temporary stay on earth and on your deeds. The first thing that will be revealed will be the conviction that, therefore, everything here is only a means for another life. As for means, there is only one law: to use them and use them in such a way that they lead to the goal, and do not deviate from it and do not cross it. Here is the solution to your bewilderment: “I don’t know what to do with my life.” Look at the sky and measure every step of your life so that it is a step there. It seems to me that it is so simple and at the same time so comprehensive.
You ask: "Is there something to be done?" Of course, it is necessary. And do what comes to hand in your circle and in your situation, and believe that this is and will be your real business, more than which is not required of you. It is a big mistake when they think that for the sake of heaven or, in a progressive way, in order to make one's contribution to the bowels of mankind, one must undertake big and high-profile deeds. Not at all. It is only necessary to do everything according to the commandments of the Lord. What exactly? Nothing special, just what is presented to everyone according to the circumstances of his life, which is required by special cases that each of us encounters. This is how. God arranges the fate of everyone, and the whole course of everyone's life is also the work of His all-good providence. Therefore, every moment and every meeting. Let's take an example: a poor man comes to you - it was God who brought him. What do you need to do? Help. God, who brought the poor to you, of course, with the desire that you act in relation to this poor man, as He pleases, is looking at you, how you will actually act. He wants you to help. Can you help? Do what is pleasing to God - and take a step towards the last goal: the inheritance of heaven. Generalize this case - it will come out: in any case and at every meeting, it is necessary to do what God wants us to do. And what He wants, we surely know from the commandments prescribed to us. Who is looking for help? Help. Offended who? Sorry. Whom did you offend? Hurry up to ask for forgiveness and make peace. Who praised? Don't be proud. Scolded? Do not be angry. Is it time for prayer? Pray. Work? Work - and so on, and so on, and so on. If, having discussed all this, you decide to act in such a way in all cases so that your deeds are pleasing to God, being done steadily according to the commandments, then all the tasks regarding your life will be solved completely and satisfactorily. The goal is a blissful life beyond the grave; means - deeds according to the commandments, the fulfillment of which is required by all occasions of life. It seems to me that everything is clear and simple here, and there is no reason for you to torment yourself with tricky tasks. Gotta get all the plans out of my head multi-useful, multi-embracing, universal activities that progressives rave about - and your life will be contemplated as enclosed in a quiet framework and without noise leading to the main goal. Remember that the Lord does not forget even a glass of cold water given to the thirsty.
You will say: “But how, the way of life still needs to be chosen and determined?” But where can we determine this? Let's start thinking - and confusion will go in the head. It is best and most reliable to accept with humility, gratitude and love the definition that God pronounces in the course of the circumstances of life. I'm taking business with you! You are now under the roof of your parents. What better to wish for? Warm, safe, comfortable. And live without flying thoughts into the distance and diligently doing everything that lies on you. “But still, think about it, you can’t stay like this forever, your own life must finally begin - special. How to be here? And why not think about it? Here is the best way for you to think about this: commit yourself into the hands of God and pray that He will arrange you in the way He finds best, so that your fate does not interfere, but helps you achieve a blessed life after the grave, without dreaming of a brilliant fate. So tuned in, wait patiently for what God will finally speak about you. He will speak by the coincidence of circumstances and the will of the parents. Having established yourself in these thoughts and calmed down in God, live without making empty plans, and do the deeds that lie with you in relation to your parents, brothers and sisters, to other relatives and to all people. But do not think that this life is empty. Everything that you do in this order will be a deed, and if you do it with the consciousness that this is how you follow the commandments and that this is how God wants, then it is a deed pleasing to God. So every little thing.
It seems that I explained everything to you. I will only add the desire that you carefully delve into what has been prescribed, solidify it and tune in like that. I prophesy to you that you will find complete peace and will no longer be embarrassed by thoughts: “My life is worthless, I am not doing anything useful,” and the like. Only the heart must still be kept on a leash, otherwise it fences a lot of nonsense. It is true that even without a heart it is bad. For where there is no heart, what kind of life is there? But still, he should not be given the will. Blindly, and without strict guidance, it will immediately fall into the ditch.
Bless you, Lord!
17. Contributions to the heavenly treasury. Godly life. Dreams of progressives about the common good of mankind and their deceit
I am very glad that you took to heart what was written in the last letter and agree to behave in this way. Help you, Lord!
God gave us this life so that we would have time to prepare for that one. This one is short, but that one has no end. But even though it is short, and in its continuation, you can prepare food for an eternity. Every good deed goes there as a small contribution; from all such deposits a common capital will be formed, the interest on which will determine the maintenance of the depositor for all eternity. Whoever sends more contributions there, the content will be richer; who is less - that and the content will be less rich. The Lord rewards everyone according to his deeds.
This is what we should now be concerned about, in order to send more deposits there. And this care is not difficult and not difficult, as the Lord Himself testifies, saying: My yoke is easy and my burden is easy to eat(Matthew 11:30). I explained this to you in relation to the thoughts that confused you, in order to dispel your grief, as if you live without use and will live your whole life without use, if you live as you live. The whole structure of Christian life is this: believe in God, worshiped in the Trinity, who saves us in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and, receiving grace-filled powers through the Divine sacraments of the Holy Church, live according to the commandments of the Gospel, inspired by the hope that God is for a little feasible work ours, for the sake of faith in the Lord Savior and obedience to Him, will not deprive us of heaven. I add this on purpose, so that you can see the spirit in which things should be done for us Christians. For some say: do-do, and others: believe-believe. It is necessary to combine both faith with deeds and deeds with faith.
But still, the main attention should be focused on the fulfillment of the commandments. We already believe - what else? Do the commandments, for faith without works is dead(James 2:17). And thanks be to the Lord that it pleased Him to determine the value of our deeds not by their breadth and greatness, but by our inner disposition when doing them, meanwhile surrounding us with a multitude of cases for doing things according to His will, so that if we pay attention to ourselves, we can do things every minute charitable. For this, there is no need to go across the sea, like the Progressives, but look around every day and hour. Whatever you see the seal of the commandment on, do it urgently in the conviction that this and no other deed is required of you at this hour by God Himself.
Take the trouble to settle even more strongly in such a thought. As soon as you are established, peace will begin to flow into your heart from the certainty that you are working for the Lord every minute. This beginning embraces everything. Even when you are ordered to darn a stocking for your younger brother and you do it for the sake of the commandment of the Lord - to obey and help, this will be counted among the sum of deeds pleasing to God. Thus, every step, every word, even a movement and a look – everything can be turned into a means of walking in the will of God and, therefore, constantly moving towards the ultimate goal.
Progressives have in mind all of humanity and at least all of their people indiscriminately. But after all, humanity or a people does not exist as one person, so that something can be done for it now. It is made up of individuals. Doing for one, we do in the general mass of mankind. If everyone, without turning his eyes to the commonality of mankind, did what was possible for him who is before his eyes, then all people in the aggregate would at every moment do what all those in need need, and, satisfying their needs, would arrange the welfare of everything. humanity, composed of sufficient and insufficient, of the weak and the strong. Otherwise, they keep the good of all mankind in their thoughts, and what is before their eyes, they pass without attention. And it turns out that they do not have the opportunity to do this, the general, and they do not do anything for the main goal of life.
In St. Petersburg, I was told such a case. One gentleman in some assembly of young guardians of the common good - this was in the midst of the Progressive delirium - was making a strong speech about love for humanity and the people. Everyone admired. But he turns back home; the man who served with him somehow took a long time to open the door - it no longer seemed to him; then he did not give up the candle soon, then something happened to the pipe, but it was a little cold in the room ... Finally, our philanthropist could not stand it and scolded his servant. That one is some kind of objection, and this one is in his chest. And here is our guy: there he was steamed out of love for humanity, but here he could not do the right thing with one person. And at that first height of the progressive delirium of the beauty, rushing into the bookbinding establishments, they often left their mothers without a piece of bread, but still dreamed that they would somehow go forward and arrange the good of mankind. The whole trouble is from too broad horizons. Better yet, humbly lowering your eyes, look under your feet and figure out which step to take where. This is the surest way.
For the second time I am telling you everything about the same thing, so that all this will be more firmly planted in your memory, and I will protect you from the bewilderment that progressist dreams bring to your soul.
18. The importance of spiritual needs in a number of other aspects of human life. One on demand. The dominance of the spirit as a natural harmony of all needs, which can give peace and tranquility. The absence of this peace in humanity. General vanity and the collapse of the spirit. The germ of this confusion is obtained with the birth
Now nothing prevents us from turning to the solution of the left question. But in order to renew it yourself, take the trouble to recall what was said.
You and I have explained that a person has three (and with intermediate five) tiers of life: spiritual, mental and bodily; that each of them gives its sum of needs, natural and peculiar to man; that these needs are not all of the same value, but some are higher, others lower, and that their commensurate satisfaction gives a person peace. Spiritual needs are above all, and when they are satisfied, then others, although they will not be satisfied, there is peace; and when they are not satisfied, then, if all others are richly satisfied, there is no rest. Why is their satisfaction called uniform on demand.
When spiritual needs are satisfied, they teach a person to put the satisfaction of other needs in harmony with them, so that neither what satisfies the soul nor what satisfies the body contradicts spiritual life, but helps it - and complete harmony is established in a person. of all the movements and manifestations of his life: the harmony of thoughts, feelings, desires, enterprises, relationships, pleasures. And lo - paradise! On the contrary, when the spirit is not satisfied and this one need is forgotten, then all other needs scatter in different directions and each demands its own, and like a bunch of them, their voices, like noise in the bazaar, deafen the poor man, and he rushes about there, then here like a madman for their satisfaction. But she never has peace, because when one is satisfied, others are not content with it and, not considering themselves to be anything lower than that which is worthy of satisfaction, insistently demand their own, like a mother, when she feeds one child, the other five scream. That is why inside such a noise, din, disorder in all directions and disorder in everything. Immediately, that seething streak, about which there was a special speech, is born, and even more disturbs and disorderes everything internal. This one is not satisfied with anything, always in a tight spot, then, tired, he stands, bulging his eyes and wondering what to start, then spinning and spinning. And this is vanity and ruin of the spirit!
This is where the question is born: how to be something? How can we make the spiritual side prevail in us and, controlling everything, bring order into our life?
I will tell you in advance that there would be no place for this question if the life that is peculiar to us developed as it should. For both bodily and spiritual needs are just as natural to us as spiritual ones, and the satisfaction of them in itself cannot bring disorder and confusion into life, as well as spiritual satisfaction. If they all developed in order and in natural mutual subordination, then human life would flow beautifully. Plant a seed, water it, keep it in proper warmth - it will give a sprout, a stem, a leaf, and, finally, a lovely color. So it would be with a man. If he reveals himself in a natural order, a wonderful person will always come out. Why do we not see ourselves or others as beautiful? Why is our life twisted?
Remember what happened to you after you plunged a little into that pool or that hectic life. After all, you had a strong turmoil inside you. Repeat this several times - and if you do not take precautions, you will be woven into the same whirlpool, and your life will go, which is vanity and ruin of the spirit. So is it possible to explain our disorderliness by the fact that there are disorderly people: we are carried away by them and assimilate their disorderliness to ourselves? You have only now begun to be influenced by this disorder, while your upbringing passed under the ordering influences of your pious family and your relatives. And others, whose family and kinship live turbulently and turbulently, learn this turmoil from infancy and grow up in it. So, maybe this is the reason why our life is distorted from the natural course and unnatural confusion enters into it?
No, this does not explain the matter, because another question remains: how did confusion enter this circle of people? Where does it come from in families and in society? On the outside, a person is what he is on the inside. Disorder entered the family and society from within the man. Without him inside, there would be no outside. Now the outer gives back to the inner what it has received from it. And again the question is: where did it come from? And I will also say: external turbulence acts inward and reproduces itself there, because its germ and predisposition to it are already inside. You were then confused and did not find peace. From what? You kept silent, but I did not tell you, because it was not the time. And now I'll tell you. In those two days, having embarked on a hectic life, you were carried away, your heart sympathized, if not with everything, then with much. From these sympathies seething and confusion arose in you. When you came to your senses, you saw the news in yourself. Conscience reported to you that this news is your business, and it is not proper, and began to execute you for this. In obedience to this voice, you then discussed everything well and correctly assessed that life. After this, if you still have to fall into this turmoil and, as I have said more than once, you keep your heart away, not giving it free rein when it starts to rush for sympathy, then you will not experience the experienced longing. But I mention this in passing. My point is about where you, who hitherto lived in other orders, got this sympathy for that disorderly one.
Kindly take it apart and you will find that you had it inside before, but it was hidden, and now it has come out. External influences do not give anything new, but only excite what is already inside. I'll give you an example. I saw lepers. Their children are born pretty and grow up quite healthy. But the time comes, leprosy also manifests itself in them, and they begin to be like their parents and like all other lepers. Where is she from? Came out from inside! And where did it come from? Received with birth.
From this it will not be surprising for you to make such an induction that if we see disorder and confusion inside ourselves - thoughts, feelings, desires, undertakings, deeds - and whirl in them, then this is because the germ of all this has been introduced into our nature and that this germ disorder, revealing itself along with the disclosure of our strengths and needs, brings confusion to them and thus makes our whole life confused and turbulent. Let me now consider where this germ comes from. I say, if you please, discuss this, because otherwise we will not be able to find a satisfactory answer to the question repeated several times already: what to do? Whoever wants to successfully heal a disease must find the cause of it. Without that, treatment cannot have a correct course and success.
So that's what we need to talk about now.
19. Original sin as a source of inner confusion and disorder. The Possibility of Healing a Man's Condition Damaged by Sin
Although I wrote to you to judge and promised myself to talk about where the germ of inner confusion and disorder comes from in us, but it’s already known, and you know where it comes from. Therefore, there is nothing to argue, but only to remember how we believe about this. We believe that such an embryo was not put into our nature by the Creator during the creation of man, but was introduced after the creation by the power of the fall of our forefathers, who, having transgressed the commandment, damaged and upset. and now it's out. External influences do not give anything new, but only excite what is already inside. I'll give you an example. I saw lepers. Their children are born pretty and grow up quite healthy. But the time comes, leprosy also manifests itself in them, and they begin to be like their parents and like all other lepers. Where is she from? Came out from inside! And where did it come from? Received with birth.
End of introductory segment.
What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it
Work: What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it
Subject: Patristic heritage by the New Beginners New time. XVI-XIX centuries Practice of spiritual life Holy Fathers on spiritual life
Shape: Letters
About the book
Perhaps the most valuable legacy of Theophan the Recluse is his letters. After all, the genre of writing itself involves personal communication, the specificity of questions. In his letters, the great spiritual mentor Theophan the Recluse enters into the problems of his interlocutor and solves precisely them, from the entire wealth of the spiritual heritage of the Church, of which he was a great connoisseur, and, of course, from his own experience.
“What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is just an example of such a theology, where “theory” immediately, before our eyes, turns into “practice”. Perhaps, “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is the most famous book of this kind by Theophan the Recluse. In fact, this is a collection of letters about the spiritual life, where theoretical questions alternate with practical advice.
The letters cited in “What is Spiritual Life and How to Attune to It” are written by Theophan the Recluse to a young girl “who does not want to get married, but has not gathered her courage to enter a monastery either.” “What is the spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is a frank and detailed description of the inner life of a person. Here we see the whole path of man to God and all the dangers encountered on it.
Saint Theophan, the Recluse Vyshensky (1815-1894), left a rich spiritual and literary heritage. A special place in the writings of Bishop Theophan is occupied by his letters to various people, often laity, seeking salvation in Christ. They are the answer to the many problems of his spiritual children, which stem from one single question: "What is the spiritual life and how to tune in to it?" This is the basic question of life at all times, and it also confronts Christians of our day.
The letters cited in the proposed edition are written by Bishop Feofan to a young girl "who does not want to get married, but has not gathered her courage to enter the monastery either." These letters are a frank and detailed description of a person's inner life. It is amazing how Saint Theophan sensitively grasps the spiritual needs of the writer, cordially and patiently explains all questions and perplexities, and gives guidance to the spiritual dispensation of life in the world. He speaks of the need for renewal and self-purification through turning away from sin, fighting passions, repentance, prayer and reunion with God for the salvation of the soul.
These written advice and instructions, imbued with fatherly love, saved many from spiritual death and revived many to a new life; even now they strengthen spiritual zeal in us, guide us on the path of truth, promote perfection in the knowledge of God and God-pleasing life, and give us hope for salvation.
o 1. An introductory reminder of the promise made to correspond about the spiritual life. Benefits expected from this
o 2. Feedback on the reason for the silence. Necessary frankness and simplicity in correspondence. The bustle of secular life
o 3. Emptiness and one-sidedness of secular life
o 4. Secular life deprives of freedom and keeps those who are devoted to it in heavy slavery. Hypocrisy and selfishness as constant qualities of secular life
o 5. Three aspects of human life. The first side: bodily life, its organs and needs; normal and excessive concern for the body
o 6. The second side of human life: the life of the soul - and its three main branches. First departure: the mental side with its views. Knowledge and science. Normal functions of reason and empty wandering of thoughts
o 7. Desirable side of spiritual life. Her departures. Correct and disordered state of desirable faculty
o 8. The side of feeling is the heart. The importance of the heart in human life. The influence of passions on the heart
o 9. The third side of human life: spiritual life. The main manifestations of spiritual life: the fear of God, conscience and thirst for God. Human Dignity
o 10. The universality of faith in the existence of God as a manifestation of spiritual life
o 11. The influence of the spirit on the human soul and the phenomena occurring from here in the field of thought, activity (will) and feeling (heart)
o 12. Conclusions from what has been said about the three aspects of human life. The possibility of transition from one state to another and the predominance of one or the other side of life. The predominance of soulfulness and carnality as a sinful state. The dominance of spiritual life as the norm of the true life of man
o 13. The true happiness of a person is life in the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication between souls and with the world of saints and angels. Light and dark state of the shell of the soul
o 14. The shell of the soul is light or dark according to the inner mood. Examples. The darkened soul is seen by demons
o 15. How the saints hear our prayers. Application about prayer
o 16. The true purpose of life. Lifestyle according to purpose
o 17. Contributions to the heavenly treasury. Godly life. Dreams of progressives about the common good of mankind and their deceit
o 18. The importance of spiritual needs in a number of other aspects of human life. One on demand. The dominance of the spirit as a natural harmony of all needs, which can give peace and tranquility. The absence of this peace in humanity. General vanity and the collapse of the spirit. The germ of this confusion is obtained with the birth
o 19. Original sin as a source of inner confusion and disorder. The Possibility of Healing a Man's Condition Damaged by Sin
o 20. Continued. Explanation of the disorder brought into the nature of man by the sin of the forefathers. Communion with God served as the source of the dominance of the spirit over the soul and body. Through the violation of the commandment, man separated from God, and lost dominion over the soul and body, and submitted to the dominion of passions. Image of a man tormented by passions after a fall
o 21. The need to be reunited with God for salvation. Man himself cannot do this. The Spirit of God does this in us for the redemption brought by the Son of God
o 22. Continuation of the redemptive restoration of fallen man. The participation of the whole Holy Trinity in our salvation. The procedure for arousing good feelings in a saved person from the Spirit of God. Participation in this business of the person himself. Zeal for salvation as the first condition for achieving it
o 23. Signs of true spiritual jealousy in contrast to spiritual jealousy
o 24. New Year wishes. The need for renewal and self-purification. This makes us spiritual jealousy
o 25. Thoughts on the Feast of the Epiphany. The Secret Action of the Grace We Receive in the Sacrament of Baptism
o 26. Continuation of the hidden action in man of the grace of baptism. Explanatory likenings of grace to leaven in dough and fire in iron. Coming to age, a person must strengthen in himself the grace of God by free will. Danger of stopping half way. Full ardent determination to serve God
o 27. Continued about zeal and determination to live by grace. Internal centering. Illumination of the shell of the soul. Different degrees of this enlightenment
o 28. Explanation of free determination to live by grace with parables and examples
o 29. The determination to live according to grace should not be limited only by desire, but should be accompanied by readiness for work and struggle, the desire to achieve the desired without fail. Having made up his mind, he must immediately begin the work and continue with patience and constancy.
o 30. Essay on the inner state enlightened by grace in the words of Macarius the Great. Ways to Arouse and Strengthen Determination for a Good Life
o 31. How to support the desire for a good life that has begun. Spiritual reading and meditation. Writing down good thoughts. How to avoid wandering thoughts when reading and praying. Constant remembrance of God and death. self-reproach
o 32. He who has decided to take the path of a good life must speak. Instructions on proper fasting. Behavior of a fasting person in a church
o 33. Continuation of fasting. Behavior of a fasting house
o 34. Continuation of fasting. Preparation for confession. Checking life
o 35. Continued. Verification of the location of the heart. Determining the main character, or spirit, of your life
o 36. Perfect preparation for the sacrament of repentance and communion. Feelings necessary for the penitent. A useful reminder of the blessed Theodora and her journey through ordeals
o 37. The awakened determination to be correct must be clearly defined as the desire to act in everything in accordance with the will of God. Peace and joy of the servants of God. A warning against incomplete determination to live according to God. Neither warm nor cold will be rejected by God
o 38. The necessary determination of the believer to consecrate himself to God is seen as a conscious renewal of the vows made for us at baptism
o 39. The correction of life does not consist in the reorganization of external orders, but in the spirit, with readiness to fight obstacles. Various ways in which the enemy tries to deflect those who are embarking on the path of true life
o 40. Fear of cooling in the future. Various causes of cooling to the spiritual life. How to behave in case of emerging cooling
o 41. Last advice before confession and communion
o 42. Congratulations and good wishes to those who repented and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Those who have entered the path of true life require unceasing remembrance of God
o 43. After repentance and communion, he who has entered the path of true life must establish peace within himself. Rules for driving away internal discord: unceasing remembrance of God, determination to act according to conscience in everything big and small, and patient expectation of success
o 44. Precautions for those who enter the true path. Jumping of life in spring. Why do many who fast do not reform at all?
o 45. The main occupation of those who have entered the true path is prayer. Instruction on Undistracted Prayer
o 46. General rules for those who stand in the way of true life
o 47. A prayer rule for those who stand in the way of a charitable life. Learning psalms. Replacing long prayers with short ones. Beads
o 48. How to achieve proper undistracted prayer. Preparing to Properly Celebrate Prayer
o 49. Everyday affairs. How to treat the affairs of life so that they do not distract, but are combined with serving God
o 50. Continued. In what ways can one arouse in oneself unceasing remembrance of God with love?
o 51. How to turn worldly affairs and things for spiritual benefit
o 52. The remembrance of God should lead to a feeling of warmth or ardent love for God
o 53. Passion as a hindrance for the spirit to ignite love for God. They must be expelled
o 54
o 55. Continuation of the fight against passions
o 56
o 57. Different degrees of development of passion: passionate thoughts, feelings, desires and actions. Fight them
o 58. Significance of prayer in the fight against passionate thoughts. Examples
o 59
o 60. What to do if passionate thoughts and desires break through in us during the struggle with passions. Purification of the heart
o 61. Observation of hearing and sight. How to destroy bad impressions seen and heard
o 62. After guidance on the mental struggle with passions, instruction is offered on the active struggle with them. The most convenient form of life for fighting passions. Conclusion of the conversation about the fight against passions
o 63. Housework. Singing and music
o 64. Loneliness. How to avoid boredom. Reading and studying the sciences
o 65
o 66. Journey to Sergius Lavra. Instruction to the pilgrims
o 67. Consolation of a pilgrim. Instructions for careful confession. Short Prayers and Unceasing Attention to God
o 68. Rumor and human speech. The need for a good adviser. Constant danger from the enemy
o 69. Longing and insurance. Innocent entertainment. Dissociation with bad people. An English apostle from the spirit-bearer sect. His mendacity
o 70. About reading spiritual and secular books
o 71. Cooling down to prayer. Careless and hasty prayer. How to avoid it. Reading prayers for memory
o 72. Vow of renunciation of the world. How to behave on the utterance of a vow before its fulfillment
o 73. Continued. Once this vow of celibacy must be kept firmly. Height of virginity
o 74. Instruction for those striving for monastic life. Different types of feat of celibate life. Patient Waiting and Home Preparation for Monastic Life
o 75. Tricks of the enemy to deflect from the world-giving life. How to reflect them
o 76. Temptations from non-believers. Refutation of their superstitious reasoning
o 77. Temptations from domestic troubles. Submission to parents as preparation for monastic obedience
o 78. Temptation from injustice and slander from strangers. Their patience. A warning to those wishing to leave their parents' home for freedom
o 79. Recent anxieties and worries. Committing one's fate into the hands of God with prayer and courage against the enemy who leads temptations
o 80. Calm after a storm of temptations erected by the enemy. Home fees. Last tip
· Notes
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II
1. An introductory reminder of the promise made to correspond about the spiritual life. Benefits expected from this
After we had agreed before your departure for Moscow to have a conversation about the things you needed in writing, it was natural for me to expect that upon your arrival at the place you would let me know about yourself and the new situation for you. I waited and waited, but for how long I have not been waiting for anything. What happened? Are you healthy? God bless you Mother of God. Or has the intention changed? Anything can happen - and it's possible. In this case, I am writing now, so that if this is the case and there is some kind of fear about me involved - something to burden not a trace or something else - you have thrown it out of your head. Writing to you, and moreover about such subjects, will not be a burden for me - on the contrary, it will be a considerable pleasure, introducing a certain variety into my usual occupations. I will say something more: that if what we have conceived does not take place, then I will feel myself the way I feel if I have suffered some kind of loss or lost something. How it is, I will not explain to you, but I repeat that this is how it will be and that this is how it should be. So it is not necessary to give you advice, but to apply a petition: write. Although you have nothing to expect from me for great wisdom, one review of everything that is worthy will bring you considerable benefit, reviving this entire area in your memory and focusing your attention on it, perhaps with enthusiasm and special energy. And what a blessing this last one is! For if we have awkwardness in life, then it almost always comes not so much from thinness of mind and thinness of heart, but from a lack of zeal and jealousy for what is worthy.
So write.
The second side of human life: the life of the soul - and its three main branches. First departure: the mental side with its views. Knowledge and science. Normal functions of reason and empty wandering of thoughts
You went inside; let's go in there again. See what a lot and variety of actions and movements there are! Now one thing, then another, now enters, now goes out, now accepted, now rejected, done and remade. For the soul is ever-moving and cannot stand on one thing. If we begin to look into the soul together, then we will not make out anything - it is necessary to distribute its actions according to the genera and then consider each genera separately. Yes, long ago they took a closer look and divided all the actions of the soul into three categories - thoughts, desires and feelings, calling each a special side of the soul - thinking, wishing and feeling. Let's take this division and start looking at each side.
side of thought. If confusion is seen within us, then it has the greatest scope in thoughts, while desires and feelings are already turbulent under the influence of thoughts. But in the range of thoughts not everything is disorderly movement; there are a number of serious occupations among them. They, in fact, constitute the real work of the life of the soul from the side of thoughts. Here are the lessons:
1. As soon as you noticed something outside through your feelings or listened to the story of others about what they noticed with their feelings, immediately everything imagination imagines and memory remembers; and nothing can enter the soul except imagination and memory. Then the subsequent mental activity is based on imagination and memory. What memory has not retained, you cannot imagine, you will not even think about it. It happens that thoughts are directly born from the soul, but they are immediately clothed in an image. So the thinking side of the soul is all there figurative.
2. But imagination and memory produce and store only material for thoughts. The very movement of thoughts comes from the soul and is conducted according to its laws. Remember how your younger brother, seeing some new thing, immediately turned to you or others with questions: “What is this? And who did it? And what is it from? - and did not calm down until they solved all these questions for him and satisfied him. The thinking of the soul begins precisely with the generation of these questions and gives rise to thoughts in response to them or accepts thoughts already prepared about this from others. Imagination and memory do not think. They are laborers, under the yoke. The faculty of the soul from which such questions arise, and by which thoughts are searched for and generated in response to them, is called reason, whose business is to reason, think and find the required solutions. Watch yourself - and you will find that nothing is done with you without deliberation and consideration. Every little thing has to be discussed. No matter how instantaneously this is done, consideration enters everywhere and goes on the questions indicated before.
3. When you think about it, there is no definite thought yet. A certain thought is established when you find a solution to any of the questions. Your mind is always rummaging, looking for what a thing is, where it comes from and what it is for, and so on. When you find such a solution yourself or, having heard it from others, agree with it, usually say: “Now I understand, there is nothing more to interpret, the matter is settled.” This decision gives you peace of mind regarding the subject that occupied you. Then your reason turns to other objects, and the thought that has been formed is handed over to the archive of the soul - memory, from where, at the request of need, it is taken as an aid to solving other problems, as a means to compose other thoughts. The totality of all the concepts that have developed in this way constitutes the image of your thoughts, which you discover in any case in your speeches. This is your area knowledge, obtained by you mental labor. The more questions you have resolved, the more certain thoughts or concepts about things; the more such concepts, the wider the circle of your knowledge. Thus, as you see, above memory and imagination you have reason, which by its mental labor gets you certain things concepts or knowledge.
We don't get a definitive answer for every question. Most of them remain unresolved. They think and think, and nothing definite comes up. Why do they say: maybe this way, but maybe that way. This gives opinions And assumptions, which in total we have no more than how many definite knowledges there are.
When someone, discussing a certain class of objects, gets himself and borrows from others so many thoughts and concepts defined about them, and manages to supplement the unresolved in them with such successful opinions and assumptions that he can consider this circle of objects to be sufficiently known and understood, then he cites everything obtained in order, lays out in connection and sequence, and gives us science about those items. Science is the crown of the mental work of the mind.
I am telling you all this in order to make it clearer to you what the natural, lawful activity of our mental power should consist of. She should laboriously discuss the still unknown in order to know that. Very few people can be scientists, not everyone can study the sciences, but to discuss the things around us in order to get certain concepts about them, everyone can and should. This is what should have been the busy thinking power of all. How much she will get is judging by her strength, but she must always be busy with the serious business of thinking over and discussing reality. Meanwhile, what do we see in our mental realm? The continuous movement of images and ideas without any definite purpose and order. Thoughts after thought rise up and then go in a row, then cross each other, then run ahead, then come back, then run away to the side, stopping at nothing. This is not reasoning, but wandering and scattering of thoughts; consequently, a state quite opposite to what our thinking power should be - its disease, so embedded in it and common to everyone that you will not find a single person who could constantly carry out a serious work of thinking without being subjected to dispersion and wandering. thoughts that tear him away from business and carry him in different directions. Often we think. What is this state? Here's what: thought descends into the archive of memory and, with the help of the imagination, sorts through all the rubbish collected there, passing from history to history according to the known laws of the chain of ideas, weaving the unprecedented, and often even the impossible, to the experienced, until it comes to its senses and returns to the surrounding reality. They say deepened. Deepened, but into the void, and not into a serious discussion of the case. This is the same as sleepy daydreaming - idle thought and idle thought. Watch yourself - and you will see that most of our time passes with us in just such empty thinking and wandering thoughts. Some day (and perhaps more such) not a single serious thought will fall into the mind. I ask you to pay attention to this and address the question: is it appropriate for a rational creature to act like this? In the meantime, I will turn to other categories of psychic activity.
Conclusions from what has been said about the three aspects of human life. The possibility of transition from one state to another and the predominance of one or the other side of life. The predominance of soulfulness and carnality as a sinful state. The dominance of spiritual life as the norm of the true life of man
Now let's settle scores with you or draw conclusions from everything that has been said. See how many sides or, better, degrees of life we have! There is a spiritual side and degree of life, there is a spiritual-spiritual one, there is actually a spiritual one, there is a mental-bodily one (it seems that I did not shade it properly - observations with imagination and memory, desires from the needs of the body and feelings of bodily states and impressions belong here), there is bodily. There are five tiers, but the person’s face is one, and this one person lives first one, then another, then a third life and, judging by the kind of life he lives, receives a special character, reflected in his views, and in his rules, and in his feelings, that is, it can be either spiritual - with spiritual views, rules and feelings, or spiritual - with spiritual concepts, rules and feelings, or carnal - with carnal thoughts, deeds and feelings. (I don’t take into account the middle states - the mental-spiritual and the mental-bodily ones, so as not to split up too much.) This does not mean that when a person is spiritual, soulfulness and corporeality no longer have a place in him, but the fact that then spirituality becomes dominant in him, subjugating and penetrating his soul and body; it is equally not that when a person is soulful, his spirituality and corporality no longer exist, but the fact that then soulfulness becomes dominant, rules everything and gives everything its tone, and covers spirituality itself with a cover of soulfulness; it is also not that when a person becomes carnal, his spirituality and soulfulness disappear, but the fact that then everything becomes embodied in him and spirituality and soulfulness become carnal, subject to the flesh and trampled under it and held in slavery to it.
Since no matter what degree a person is, other aspects of his life remain inherent in him, then at no degree is he enslaved so that he cannot even free himself from this bondage, but always has the opportunity to move from one degree to another. by weakening one side of your life and strengthening the other. Similarly, a spiritual person can fall into soulfulness and corporality, and a carnal person can rise to spirituality, when the other loves the natural and the carnal, while the other seeks the spiritual. Man is always free. Freedom is given to him along with self-consciousness and together with it constitutes the essence of the spirit and the norm of humanity. Extinguish self-consciousness and freedom - you extinguish the spirit, and a person has become not a person.
But in affirming that a man has the freedom to move up and down the degrees of his life, I do not affirm with this that it is equally easy and convenient for him to move, whether he goes from above downwards or from below upwards, or that these movements can be performed in him in the same way. quickly and often, like going from one room to another several times a day. I only wanted to say by this that a person who is self-conscious and free is the culprit of his inner state, and that if he, having fallen into a state that cannot be approved, remains in it, then he himself is to blame for this and is responsible before God and people.
Each of the degrees or manifestations of our life shown is natural in us and, therefore, cannot be disapproved of in itself. It is not natural and, consequently, in itself it is not approving that state in which thoughts wander, soar and seethe, desires are inconstant, excited by being passions - not natural to us, but foreign ones - and the feelings of the heart are agitated and turbulent because of the same passions. I deliberately emphasized these unnatural things within us, speaking of spiritual life, in order to draw your attention to them. I deliberately remember this even now, in order to also force you to better understand this matter and treat it according to its dignity. The wandering of thoughts, the inconstancy of passionate desires and the anxieties of the heart incessantly disturb us, not allowing us to do a single thing as it should, and almost always leading us astray. This disease, although universal and ubiquitous, is not natural, but acquired by us arbitrarily. The enemy knows how much she is at hand to him, and, trying to tempt someone, first of all he tries to push him into this pool - it first introduces him into the stream of thoughts, then under them he kindles passionate desires, and with these he excites the heart.
Whoever is brought to this, the temptation is ripe for him. If he does not come to his senses, he falls and, having fallen, is carried away into a whirlpool of turbulent movements of thoughts, wishes and feelings, sometimes not for long, sometimes for a long time, and often forever. That life, a part of which, remember, you experienced, all passes in this whirlpool and happens, judging by the circles, where it is busier, where it is quieter, where it is more modest, where it is wide open - in all its nakedness and shame. But besides this, rarely is anyone free from those seethings inside. No, no - and break through. From the wanderings of thoughts and ideas, I don’t know if anyone is free. So, if you please, notice this disease of ours (yes, you already noticed it in part, complaining about the uncontrollability of thoughts) - and, having noticed, take up the work of healing. Never let go of the thought that something evil is always inherent in you, which is always ready to lead you astray and direct you to the wrong.
As for spirituality and corporality, they in themselves, as already noted, are sinless, as natural to us; but a person who has been formed according to soulfulness or, even worse, according to carnality, is not without sin. He is guilty of giving dominion in himself to that which is not destined to dominate and must occupy a subordinate position. And it turns out that, although spirituality is natural, it is not natural for a person to be spiritual; in the same way, carnality is natural, but it is not natural for a person to be carnal. The error here lies in the exclusive predominance of what should be subordinated.
But when spirituality dominates in someone, then, even though this will be his exceptional character and mood, he does not sin, firstly, because spirituality is the norm of human life and that, consequently, being spiritual, he is a real person, while a natural and fleshly man is not a real man; and secondly, because, no matter how spiritual someone is, he cannot help but give due sincerity and carnality, he only keeps them not fat and in subjection to the spirit. Even if his soulfulness is not wide (in scientific knowledge, arts and other matters) and his fleshly nature is tightly constrained - he is all a real, complete person. And the sincere (many-knowing, expert, businessman), and even more so carnal - is not a real person, no matter how red he is outside. He is headless. Hence the simple man, fearing God, is higher than the multi-educated and elegant, but not having in his goals and aspirations to please God. Accordingly, judge the works of literature and art. Works in which everything is carnal are out of hand; but even those in whom spirituality dominates do not meet their purpose, although they are higher than the flesh. Such is the judgment - only about those works that are alien to spiritual elements; those who are openly hostile about everything spiritual, that is, about God and divine things, are directly the essence of enemy suggestions and should not be tolerated.
From this you see that, according to the natural purpose, a person must live in the spirit, subordinate to the spirit and penetrate everything of the soul, and even more so of the body - and after them all of his external, that is, family and social life. Se is the norm!
I do not apply the conviction to you to live in the spirit and to subordinate everything to it, believing that if you have well analyzed everything that has been said, then the decision to live in this way is already inherent in you. You have already expressed your resolute desire: to stand at the level of human life, as it is meant to be. See now what it is intended to be, and, of course, you wish to manifest it tacos. Why, you have lived hitherto in your family and in the circle of your relatives as depicted, that is, in spirit, although you passed the sciences, and you know the economy, and a master in music and singing. You are not supposed to start spirituality in yourself, but to support and preserve it, protecting yourself from the influences and attractions of the soul-carnal life, into the whirlpools of which you have begun to fall. This is what you and I agreed to talk about. And of course, you are waiting for a decision as soon as possible: so what to do?
The true happiness of man is life in the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication between souls and with the world of saints and angels. Light and dark state of the shell of the soul
I wanted to answer the question placed at the end of the last letter, but the day of your angel approached, and it occurred to me to express my good wishes to you on this occasion.
First of all, I wish you health, because it is a condition for the acquisition of all the blessings that a person considers a blessing, and enjoying them, or tasting them. What comforts are possible for a sick and relaxed person when all the senses are in an abnormal state. An exception must be made only for spiritual consolations. They are not subject to such dependence on the state of health and may be inherent in spite of bodily suffering. The martyrs, during the very torments, truly rejoiced, truly, and not with their tongues only said that they were rejoicing.
And what is there to wish for? They usually want to be happy. I wish you happiness too. But what exactly do you want? After all, no one has yet defined what happiness is or who is truly happy. I understand that happy is the one who feels happy. So this is what I wish you, wishing happiness! I wish you always feel happy. Why and how? People have so many different concepts and tastes about this that you can’t make out. I'll slowly tell you that while you are not in the spirit of living, do not expect happiness. Mental and bodily life, with a favorable course, give something like happiness, but this is a fleeting ghost of happiness, soon disappearing. In addition, with them that turbulent environment, which is formed between the soul and body and is swept up by passionate thoughts, desires and feelings, is always strong, and with it, due to the poison of passions, only intoxication is possible, forgetting suffering, as happens from opium, but not the absence of suffering and pains of the heart. The pains of the heart are an integral part of that life. The Spirit, however, hovers beyond all disturbances and carries away the one who lives in him there and, giving him a taste of his blessings, always abiding, makes him truly and lastingly happy.
What? That's the end of goodwill? No, I don't think it's enough. If our life ended with this life, then, of course, it would be enough to say: be healthy and happy. But since it does not end like this, but continues beyond the grave, and there it is only a decisive life, then, for the fullness of good wishes, I cannot but wish you that you would be worthy to be blessed there too. May you be blessed there too. I wish you this with all my heart and most of all, and pray earnestly to the Lord, may He lead you comfortably through the path of real life and after it instill in His all-blessed Kingdom.
At the same time, of course, very harsh conditions appear in your mind. There are, of course, decisive conditions, but are they severe? To this I will say for the time being in general: yes and no, judging by how someone is placed from childhood; and, judging by this, I present that they are not severe for you. You are already doing them. Just be careful and don't back down.
It also comes to my mind to send you a candy for your holiday, but I don’t know if I can make it. I'll try.
If you have not forgotten, once I started talking with you about some subtle, pre-thin element, which is thinner than light. It's called ether. And let it be: it's not about the name, but about recognizing that it exists. I admit that such a subtle element exists, everything penetrates and passes everywhere, serving as the last facet of material existence. At the same time, I believe that all blessed spirits hover in this element - angels and saints of God - themselves being clothed in some kind of clothes from the same element. From the same element is the shell of our soul (understand with this word the spirit, which is the soul of our human soul). The soul itself - the spirit, is immaterial, but its shell is made of this subtle immaterial element. Our body is rough, but that shell of the soul is the thinnest and serves as a mediator between the soul and the body. Through it the soul acts on the body and the body on the soul. But I am talking about this in passing. Keep only in the thought that the soul has the thinnest shell and that this shell is the same for our soul as it is for all spirits. From this it is not difficult for you to draw the conclusion that that universal subtlest element, from which these shells and in which all spirits soar, is also a mediator for the mutual communication of our souls and those spirits.
Now break away from this idea and turn your attention to the usual affairs between us. You now live in Moscow, you are sitting within the walls of your apartment, surrounded by buildings everywhere, and wherever you turn your eyes, you meet obstacles everywhere: many objects block the sharp-sightedness and far-sightedness of your eyes. But if you were to rise above Moscow on some kind of balloon, you would see without hindrance not only all of it, but also its surroundings. If you had climbed even higher, then you would have seen what is further around. Strengthen your eyesight and raise you even higher and higher, you can see St. Petersburg, Paris, London, etc. All this is because your eyesight has become sharper and there are no obstacles to see.
Now go back to the saints of God. That element, about which we are talking, passes everywhere and does not encounter any obstacle anywhere. A ray of the sun passes through glass, and that element passes through glass, and through walls, and through the earth, and through everything. But just as it passes through everything, so those who hover in it can pass through everything when necessary (just as the Savior went into the upper room where the apostles were by a closed door). They live in a certain place, but when they are commanded or allowed, they are immediately transferred to the right place according to that element and not only do not meet any obstacles, but do not see them. When necessary, they are transferred, and when there is no such need, staying in their place, they see in all directions what is where and what is happening where. And when they turn their eyes to the earth, that is, to us sinners, they clearly see us too ... only not this rough body of ours, which they don’t care about, but they see our very soul
Pages: 114
Formats: pdf
Year of publication: 2001
Saint Theophan, the Recluse Vyshensky, left a rich spiritual and literary heritage. A special place in the writings of Bishop Theophan is occupied by his letters to various people, often laity, seeking salvation in Christ. They are the answer to the many problems of his spiritual children, which stem from one single question: "What is the spiritual life and how to tune in to it?" This is the basic question of life at all times, and it also confronts Christians of our day. The letters cited in the proposed edition are written by Bishop Feofan to a young girl “who does not want to get married, but has not gathered her courage to enter the monastery either.” These letters are a frank and detailed description of a person's inner life. It is amazing how Saint Theophan sensitively grasps the spiritual needs of the writer, cordially and patiently explains all questions and perplexities, and gives guidance to the spiritual dispensation of life in the world.
1. An introductory reminder of the promise made to correspond about the spiritual life. Benefits expected from this
2. Feedback on the reason for the silence. Necessary frankness and simplicity in correspondence. The bustle of secular life
3. Emptiness and one-sidedness of secular life
4. Secular life deprives of freedom and keeps those who are devoted to it in heavy slavery. Hypocrisy and selfishness as constant qualities of secular life
5. Three aspects of human life. First side: bodily life, its organs and needs; normal and excessive concern for the body
6. The second side of human life: the life of the soul - and its three main branches. First departure: the mental side with its views. Knowledge and science. Normal functions of reason and empty wandering of thoughts
7. Desirable side of mental life. Her departures. Correct and disordered state of desirable faculty
8. The side of feeling is the heart. The importance of the heart in human life. The influence of passions on the heart
9. The third side of human life: spiritual life. The main manifestations of spiritual life: the fear of God, conscience and thirst for God. Human Dignity
10. The universality of faith in the existence of God as a manifestation of spiritual life
11. The influence of the spirit on the human soul and the phenomena occurring from here in the field of thought, activity (will) and feeling (heart)
12. Conclusions from what has been said about the three aspects of human life. The possibility of transition from one state to another and the predominance of one or the other side of life. The predominance of soulfulness and carnality as a sinful state. The dominance of spiritual life as the norm of the true life of man
13. The true happiness of a person is life in the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication between souls and with the world of saints and angels. Light and dark state of the shell of the soul
14. The shell of the soul is either light or dark according to the inner mood. Examples. The darkened soul is seen by demons
15. How the saints hear our prayers. Application about prayer
16. The true purpose of life. Lifestyle according to purpose
17. Contributions to the heavenly treasury. Godly life. Dreams of progressives about the common good of mankind and their deceit
18. The importance of spiritual needs in a number of other aspects of human life. One on demand. The dominance of the spirit as a natural harmony of all needs, which can give peace and tranquility. The absence of this peace in humanity. General vanity and the collapse of the spirit. The germ of this confusion is obtained with the birth
19. Original sin as a source of inner confusion and disorder. The Possibility of Healing a Man's Condition Damaged by Sin
20. Continued. Explanation of the disorder brought into the nature of man by the sin of the forefathers. Communion with God served as the source of the dominance of the spirit over the soul and body. Through the violation of the commandment, man separated from God, and lost dominion over the soul and body, and submitted to the dominion of passions. Image of a man tormented by passions after a fall
21. Necessity of reunion with God for salvation. Man himself cannot do this. The Spirit of God does this in us for the redemption brought by the Son of God
22. Continuation of the redemptive restoration of fallen man. The participation of the whole Holy Trinity in our salvation. The procedure for arousing good feelings in a saved person from the Spirit of God. Participation in this business of the person himself. Zeal for salvation as the first condition for achieving it
23. Signs of true spiritual jealousy in contrast to spiritual jealousy
24. New Year wishes. The need for renewal and self-purification. This makes us spiritual jealousy
25. Thoughts on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Secret Action of the Grace We Receive in the Sacrament of Baptism
26. Continuation of the hidden action in man of the grace of baptism. Explanatory likenings of grace to leaven in dough and fire in iron. Coming to age, a person must strengthen in himself the grace of God by free will. Danger of stopping half way. Full ardent determination to serve God
27. Continued about zeal and determination to live by grace. Internal centering. Illumination of the shell of the soul. Different degrees of this enlightenment
28. Explanation of free determination to live by grace with parables and examples
29. The determination to live according to grace should not be limited only by desire, but should be accompanied by readiness for work and struggle, the desire to achieve what is desired without fail. Having made up his mind, he must immediately begin the work and continue with patience and constancy.
30. Essay on the inner state enlightened by grace in the words of Macarius the Great. Ways to Arouse and Strengthen Determination for a Good Life
31. How to support the desire for a good life that has begun. Spiritual reading and meditation. Writing down good thoughts. How to avoid wandering thoughts when reading and praying. Constant remembrance of God and death. self-reproach
32. He who has decided to take the path of a good life must speak. Instructions on proper fasting. Behavior of a fasting person in a church
33. Continuation of fasting. Behavior of a fasting house
34. Continuation of fasting. Preparation for confession. Checking life
35. Continued. Verification of the location of the heart. Determining the main character, or spirit, of your life
36. Perfect preparation for the sacrament of repentance and communion. Feelings necessary for the penitent. A useful reminder of the blessed Theodora and her journey through ordeals
37. The awakened determination to be correct must be clearly defined as the striving to act in everything in accordance with the will of God. Peace and joy of the servants of God. A warning against incomplete determination to live according to God. Neither warm nor cold will be rejected by God
38. The necessary determination of the speaker to consecrate himself to God is seen as a conscious renewal of the vows made for us at baptism.
39. Correction of life does not consist in the reorganization of external orders, but in the spirit, with readiness to fight obstacles. Various ways in which the enemy tries to deflect those who are embarking on the path of true life
40. Fear of cooling in the future. Various causes of cooling to the spiritual life. How to behave in case of emerging cooling
41. Last advice before confession and communion
42. Congratulation and well-wishes to the repentant and partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Those who have entered the path of true life require unceasing remembrance of God
43. After repentance and communion, he who has entered the path of true life must establish peace within himself. Rules for driving away internal discord: unceasing remembrance of God, determination to act according to conscience in everything big and small, and patient expectation of success
44. Precautions for those who embark on the true path. Jumping of life in spring. Why do many who fast do not reform at all?
45. The main occupation of one who has entered the true path is prayer. Instruction on Undistracted Prayer
46. General rules for those who stand in the way of true life
47. A prayer rule for those who stand in the way of a charitable life. Learning psalms. Replacing long prayers with short ones. Beads
48. How to achieve proper undistracted prayer. Preparing to Properly Celebrate Prayer
49. Everyday affairs. How to treat the affairs of life so that they do not distract, but are combined with serving God
50. Continued. In what ways can one arouse in oneself unceasing remembrance of God with love?
51. How to use worldly affairs and things for spiritual benefit
52. The remembrance of God should lead to a feeling of warmth or ardent love for God.
53. Passion as a hindrance for the spirit to ignite love for God. They must be expelled
54. About struggle with passions
55. Continuation of the fight against passions
56. Even the slightest movements of passions must be banished... Permissible anger
57. Different degrees of development of passion: passionate thoughts, feelings, desires and actions. Fight them
58. Significance of prayer in the fight against passionate thoughts. Examples
59. Excerpt from the Monk Hesychius on the struggle with passions
60. What should we do if passionate thoughts and desires break through in us during the struggle with passions? Purification of the heart
61. Observation of hearing and sight. How to destroy bad impressions seen and heard
62. After a guide to a mental struggle with passions, an instruction is offered on an active struggle with them. The most convenient form of life for fighting passions. Conclusion of the conversation about the fight against passions
63. Housework. Singing and music
64. Loneliness. How to avoid boredom. Reading and studying the sciences
65. Extract from the Monk Pimen about a charitable life, the victory of passions and the planting of virtues
66. Journey to the Sergius Lavra. Instruction to the pilgrims
67. Consolation of a pilgrim. Instructions for careful confession. Short Prayers and Unceasing Attention to God
68. Rumor and human speech. The need for a good adviser. Constant danger from the enemy
69. Longing and insurance. Innocent entertainment. Dissociation with bad people. An English apostle from the spirit-bearer sect. His mendacity
70. About reading spiritual and secular books
71. Cooling down to prayer. Careless and hasty prayer. How to avoid it. Reading prayers for memory
72. Vow of renunciation of the world. How to behave on the utterance of a vow before its fulfillment
73. Continued. Once this vow of celibacy must be kept firmly. Height of virginity
74. Instruction for those striving for monastic life. Different types of feat of celibate life. Patient Waiting and Home Preparation for Monastic Life
75. Tricks of the enemy to deflect from the world-giving life. How to reflect them
76. Temptations from non-believers. Refutation of their superstitious reasoning
77. Temptations from domestic troubles. Submission to parents as preparation for monastic obedience
78. Temptation from injustice and slander from strangers. Their patience. A warning to those wishing to leave their parents' home for freedom
79. Recent anxieties and anxieties. Committing one's fate into the hands of God with prayer and courage against the enemy who leads temptations
80. Calm after a storm of temptations raised by the enemy. Home fees. Last tip
Saint Theophan (in the world Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov, 1815-1894), was a bishop of Tambov, then Vladimir, later left the episcopal chair and lived in the Vyshenskaya hermitage. An outstanding spiritual writer, St. Theophanes compiled interpretations of the Sunday Gospels, and works on moral theology occupy a significant place in his legacy.
Perhaps the most valuable legacy of Theophan the Recluse is his letters. After all, the genre of writing itself involves personal communication, the specificity of questions. In his letters, the great spiritual mentor Theophan the Recluse enters into the problems of his interlocutor and solves precisely them, from the entire wealth of the spiritual heritage of the Church, of which he was a great connoisseur, and, of course, from his own experience. “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is just an example of such a theology, where “theory” immediately, before our eyes, turns into “practice”. Perhaps, “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is the most famous book of this kind by Theophan the Recluse. In fact, this is a collection of letters about the spiritual life, where theoretical questions alternate with practical advice. The letters cited in “What is Spiritual Life and How to Attune to It” are written by Theophan the Recluse to a young girl “who does not want to get married, but has not gathered her courage to enter a monastery either.” “What is the spiritual life and how to tune in to it” is a frank and detailed description of the inner life of a person. Here we see the whole path of man to God and all the dangers encountered on it.
Mention in the books of A. Novykh
Rigden: Undoubtedly. What is spiritual life?
Life is a series of events, where every moment is like a link in a chain, like a frame in a film, which captures all the thoughts and deeds of a person. It happens that you watch a good movie and get positive impressions from it, since most of the frames in it are light and bright. And sometimes, you watch another movie, and it creates a depressing mood, because most of the frames in it are dark and gloomy. So it is important that your life film be light and bright, so that it contains as many good shots as possible. And each frame is a moment here and now. The quality of each frame of your life film depends solely on you, because you make your life light or dark with your thoughts and deeds. You can't erase the moment you lived, you can't cut it out, and there won't be a second take. Spiritual life is the saturation of each frame with Kindness, Love, good thoughts and deeds.
The main thing is to keep a clear focus on the Spiritual nature in life, engage in spiritual practices, expand your horizons of Knowledge, not succumb to the provocations of the Animal nature, create in yourself a feeling of true Love for God. And, of course, to do good deeds more often, to live according to Conscience. This is a daily work, a gradual victory over oneself. Your path is made up of all this, which no one will go through for you and no one will do this spiritual work for you.
St. Theophan the Recluse (in the world Georgy Vasilievich Govorov; 1815–1894) – theologian, publicist-preacher. He occupies a special place among Russian preachers and saints of the 19th century. The saint saw his service to the Church of God in the feat of spiritual and literary creativity. “Writing,” he said, “is a necessary service to the Church.” He devoted all his pastoral activity to explaining the path of a truly Christian life based on spiritual composure. Theophan the Recluse left a huge theological legacy: works on the interpretation of the word of God, translations, writings on asceticism and psychology. His works are striking in their encyclopedic breadth and diversity of theological interests. The main theme of St. Theophan's creations is salvation in Christ. This topic also became decisive in the teachings that made up the book “What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it?”.
The work belongs to the genre Religion. It was published in 2012 by Otchiy Dom. The book is part of the "Spiritual Interlocutor" series. On our website you can download the book "What is spiritual life and how to tune into it" in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format or read online. The rating of the book is 4.77 out of 5. Here, before reading, you can also refer to the reviews of readers who are already familiar with the book and find out their opinion. In the online store of our partner you can buy and read the book in paper form.