Our mind, like the stomach, on the one hand, requires its proper food, on the other hand, it is engaged in processing it, "digesting" it. The food of the mind is information about the surrounding world. The mind collects it with the help of external senses, and stores it with the help of its external or lower powers: imagination and memory. Do not be confused by such a "materialistic" comparison. Information is a purely ideal thing, like the mind, memory, and soul. It is perfect, even if it is recorded not in your head, but in a computer. It is not a property of the brain or a floppy disk, and it has only some indirect relation to nerve cells, as well as to microcircuits. A deeper activity of the mind is actually thinking or rational, comparing and ordering the contents of memory. Finally, there is the higher part of the mind, bordering on the spirit and called the mind. This is the ability to understand things not by logical operations of the intellect with memory, but intuitively, as if directly penetrating into the essence of the idea. Every discovery in science, every creative invention is the work of this higher part of the mind, which shows the ability to intuition. However, the big question is whether such revelations of reason come from God or from the evil one in each specific case. But they are almost always revelations of a lower order than spiritual revelations. On the whole, memory with imagination, reason and reason are related to each other, or distribute mental labor among themselves, just as a worker, an engineer and a scientist do respectively in one scientific and production association. Each person has his own mental abilities. Everyone is given an advantage by God either in memory, or in reason, or in reason. There are people who are not prudent, whose mind is mainly limited to memory, and their memory can be strongly developed. There are reasonable people who are inclined to analysis, comparison, and the construction of logical chains from causes to effects. There are people who have good intuition, think originally, creatively. Such are essentially all scientists who have managed to contribute to science. Often they suffer from a certain lack of memory or forgetfulness, absent-mindedness - qualities about which funny stories are composed. Man himself is not able to change the predominant development of his mental faculties: the mindful to the rational or the rational to the mindful. But it is in our will to direct the rational faculties - which God has already given - for His glory. To do this, we need Him to become the King in our heads. And this is one of the works of our volition, called the guarding of the mind. Memory and imagination must be protected from superfluous and especially sinful impressions, nourishing as much as possible with useful and good impressions. Reason should be protected from excessive trust in it, from the temptation to live according to logical schemes and one's own plans, and even more so from the temptation to measure the whole world by these schemes and plans. Finally, reason should be guarded from demonic "revelations" and from exaltation with its "insights" and "discoveries." In those not very distant times, when there was not only television, but also cinema, when information and impressions were drawn only from personal communication, St. Theophan wrote about the preservation of feelings: "Do not allow everything to be seen indiscriminately, everything to be heard, and everything to be touched. Our feelings are like windows or doors, and more like a scoop. Whoever opens the windows and lets in bad air does evil. Whoever opens the doors and allows all cattle to enter his dwelling cannot be free from reproach. But what would you say about someone who, having taken a scoop - a cup or a mug - walked through dirty and unclean puddles, scooped in them and poured it on himself? What can you think of more stupid than this? But is this not what he does who stops with curiosity before the bad and listens to unkind speech?" (What is Spiritual Life, LXI). Ah, what images for comparison our spiritual mentor would present now, when the sight of "bad and unkind speech" pours on the souls not like dirt from a mug or even from a bucket, but just like from a hose! So, the first and most important thing is to limit the flow of external information, to exclude vain and evil impressions. Our first enemy in this matter is that blue-eyed devil who stands in a place of honor in almost every house and poisons the spiritual atmosphere in the country, like a chemical plant or a forest fire. Even if the content of the television programs were quite satisfactory from a Christian point of view, it would be possible to use it only in an extremely limited way. Television discourages a person from thinking. (We will talk about its influence on feelings later.) Live communication with a person and even just reading a book is much better for transmitting and assimilating the same information than television. When talking or reading, the mind is forced to work actively on its own. When watching a program in its style and tempo, the mind submits to the conditions of the broadcaster, as if it surrenders to his will. And we already know what this will of the current broadcasters is. They lie to us all the time, present facts in a distorted or one-sided way with their interpretations and assessments. Some viewers understand this, at first they get irritated, separating information from imposed assessments and thereby wasting the power of the mind. Then many of them develop a generally television worldview. At best, even if a person does not believe TV liars at all, from the abundance of information, completely empty and worthless, moreover, remembered in visual images, his mind will become scattered and wandering. If you constantly perform only one physical exercise, for example, squats, then, of course, this will not benefit physical development. In relation to the mind, television creates a constant useless load on imagination and memory - naturally, due to rational and rational activity. The Christian soul is also harmed by any other worldly, vain information given both through newspapers and through oral conversations. Newspapers are less harmful than television, if, of course, you know how to look through them, choosing not funny, but really important. However, it is best not to read newspapers at all, even more or less decent ones, relying on the fact that important news in the church environment is spread anyway, by themselves or through Orthodox publications. Of course, we are talking only about decent press, which you will rarely see anywhere else and you need to know where to get it. Most of the printed waste paper published in the country simply cannot be picked up. Pornography, horoscopes and crossword puzzles, advertisements and programs, gossip and sensations - all this, of course, is poison for the soul. And this is especially true for advertising. It resembles the last lump of dirt that the godless world throws directly into the eyes of a person who has already turned away from television and the press. The TV can (and should) be turned off, you can not buy a newspaper, but it is now almost impossible to walk along the street of the city and not notice the advertisements. And yet we are required to sober up and not to gaze, to consciously avert our eyes from this sinful kaleidoscope. It is much easier to escape from it in the village, but how long will it last? Thus, the preservation of feelings in our days has become one of the most important ascetic deeds of an Orthodox Christian, if not to say the most important. Having blocked oneself from the flow of sinful and vain information and constantly sober in this regard, one should learn to suppress one's own dreams of the mind, the prodigal revelries of the imagination hand in hand with reason. Here is what the holy Apostle James says about this: "Now listen to you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and dwell there one year, and we will trade and make a profit,' you who do not know what will happen tomorrow: for what is your life? a vapor that appears for a short time, and then disappears. Instead of saying: "If it pleases the Lord, and we live, we will do this or that" (James 4:13-15). The Apostle is not against any plans and intentions, if they constantly have in mind the works of God's Providence and thus limit themselves. But he is against presumptuous distant plans and dreamy constructions of reason. In addition to the dreams of the mind, there are also dreams of the heart, which are not connected with concrete plans and rational constructions. We will talk about them separately. In the meantime, let us expose one popular expression: dreaming is not harmful. How harmful! It is not harmful only for those who believe that good and evil have only material manifestations. Daydreaming plunges a person into falsehood and emptiness - is this not enough? The main dreamer, who gives birth to our dreams, is Satan himself. Already in adolescence he tempts us with this soaring thoughts constantly and very successfully, even in prayer. Dreams always collapse, and the higher they soar, the more difficult it will be when they collapse. In general, we usually live in some unreal mental space. Only the saints fully understood earthly life, who acquired a constant memory of death, unceasing prayer and deep humility, considering all their good qualities to be nothing. We, however, praying to God only from time to time with a cold thought, are not in a real, but in an imaginary knowledge of life. A good illustration of how you can escape from the feeling of real life into the world of dreams is a game, especially an intellectual one, especially a gambling one, and even more so a computer game. Computer games are developing at an unprecedented pace, now they give a person the opportunity to immerse not only his mind and excitement, but all his bodily senses in the game. The deeper into the game, the farther from reality, even from the "semi-real" earthly reality. A special term has been coined: "virtual reality", that is, such a tangle of non-existent, dreamy experiences, in which the entire human body, both soul and body, is entangled. The most non-chemical drug: complete addiction, insensibility, slavery to demons. Superstition, or rather false self-justification, is heard in the words: play develops the mind. It develops dreaminess and combinations among dreams, and it does not develop the mind, but captivates and kills! In order to fight thoughts and dreams effectively, one does not need a worldly way of life - this is the business of monks. But we can learn to notice daydreaming and pull back our wild thoughts. To limit daydreaming and load your mind with something useful, the curriculum helps you to a large extent. In general, it is balanced in terms of the load on memory and rational activity. At the same time, however, reason remains practically idle and is used only in a few, although school education provides enough food for it. This is due to the fact that the present school inculcates a mechanistic, materialistic worldview. It presents God's creation in the form of a large wind-up toy, the mechanism of which is already basically clear to man, with the exception of some details that are also planned to be comprehended soon by purely rational activity. No miracles either in the past or in the future, no providential actions of the Creator are allowed. Such an approach as a whole gradually deprives a person of reason. Only by overcoming such a mechanistic view of nature, great scientists were able to make their discoveries in science. Therefore, there are almost no materialists among them. Even a computer can be endowed with reason and memory, but it will not have reason and it will not understand the laws of existence. Now it is quite in our power to give work to our mind and raise it to the Higher Mind. Only then can we consider ourselves rational beings. A person who does not believe in any expediency of the world order is not a rational person, he is a rational person at best. In order to start developing your mind, the time to study is the most appropriate. Only an independent study of apologetics is required. Let Christian apologetics go hand in hand with all the fields of knowledge that are considered in school. The compilers of school textbooks carefully "packed" the data of the natural, historical, and other humanities into their materialistic empty talk in order to expel from them all evidence about God the Creator. Apologetics unfolds this brilliant but primitive candy wrapper and shows us the world of God as it really is. There are people who are not inclined to either rational or rational activity, and therefore are not interested in any sciences at all. But they need the rudiments of knowledge of apologetics to the same extent as they have to study the sciences according to the school curriculum. Otherwise, godless theories and teachings that pass off as facts of science will stick to knowledge, and man will begin to look at nature as a well-adjusted clock. If our reader is inclined to reasoning and is not devoid of intuition, if nature is of interest to him, then scientific apologetics is simply vital for him. The human mind always instinctively strives in all its knowledge to put things in order, to bring its knowledge into a system, to find in the multitude of assimilated information certain centers of unity. Such an "instinct of reason" is nothing but the natural striving of the mind to know its Creator, although it is very darkened in our present fallen state. The craving of the mind for God in apologetics is fully realized - in relation to, of course, only all sensual, external knowledge collected by mankind. Here a wide field opens up for creative scientific thought, which has thrown off the shackles of materialistic obscurantism. At any level of scientific education, our reason is able to compare facts known to it, to which, perhaps, it is simply not customary to pay attention. This allows us to ask ourselves the question: why is nature in its multitude of phenomena so intelligently arranged, so thoughtfully, as if intentionally to maintain life and for the benefit of man? Reason, on the other hand, acquires the ability to bring this comparison of facts to the First Cause of being. Ineffable joy is then poured into the soul! The mind feels that it has not lived in vain, that among all the abundance of its knowledge, impressions and thoughts, it has finally found its own - God's! - a pearl that from the heap of sensual information he looked directly to God. This is the first, lowest stage of the knowledge of God. How good it is to get to at least her! The mind, which has done us such a really good deed even once in our lives, transmits its fruits to the heart and spirit. The heart is warmed by tenderness, and the spirit prays, moving even further to God than the mind is capable of doing so. Experience shows that the desire to know the truth about nature, about God and about oneself is most characteristic of youth. This desire serves as a kind of compensation for daydreaming. Time will pass, and even before the youthful dreams depart, the vanity of life can easily destroy the craving for truth, especially if its first impulses are not given due satisfaction. How necessary at this age are one's own discoveries in all fields of knowledge, united by a common goal - the knowledge of God! But let's be careful! At the same time, the mind should not be allowed to admire its ability and become proud of it. Away from the haughty mind with its insignificant discovery! He knew only a drop from the ocean of God's wisdom, and even that he assimilated only after understanding the discovery made by other people. Now is the time for sacred awe of the Almighty and Omniscient, but not for vain arrogance with one's miserable and feeble ability. So you should know: if you are proud of your mind, you will lose it, of which there are many examples from the life of the scientific world. Puffed up by their discoveries in science, some scientists began to deny God, and then came to the point of inability to understand the simplest and most obvious things. Speaking of scientific apologetics, it should be remembered that it is practically the same and non-confessional for the entire Christian world. Historical and philosophical apologetics already have their confessional features. This must not be forgotten, so as not to inadvertently adopt the errors of Protestants or Catholics. Therefore, the study of apologetics should be accompanied by the study of the foundations of Orthodoxy. Our knowledge, both in the scientific and in the spiritual sphere, as well as external impressions, need to be limited, especially in those places where they can have a harmful effect on the spirit or on the heart and its feelings. Such knowledge must be consciously prevented from entering one's head. These include, first of all, information from medicine and genetic engineering concerning the origin of new life. Why are they harmful? - Because they were obtained by the most cynical of the atheists, who do not want to know either God, or the soul, or even the fact that life is the deepest mystery of God, standing on the verge of the sensual and the supersensible (more in the realm of the latter than the first). Such knowledge will inevitably be one-sided, miserable, erroneous, in any case untrustworthy. Instead of enriching the mind, they bring their materialistic spirit into it, and sometimes they plant lewd dreams in the heart. And therefore information about the success of organ transplantation, about artificial organs, about cloning, about conception in vitro, etc., should cause disgust and distrust in a believer. Extremely harmful is the information on sexology, without the possession of which mankind has managed for thousands of years, reproducing quite normal offspring. And only now this knowledge has come along with the decline of morality, bringing an abundance of hereditary diseases and deformities, as well as diseases of the genital organs. Forbidden knowledge should also include parapsychology, astrology, ufology (the study of "flying saucers"), theosophy, spiritism, spiritual practice of various non-Christian religions - that is, all attempts to invade the heavenly world without cleansing the heart from passions, without proper worship of the Creator of this mental world - the One Triune God. Such spiritual experiments, as we know, end badly: insanity, suicide, unnatural fornication, drug addiction, and, of course, blasphemy and eternal destruction. One should not listen to such knowledge even for the sake of simple curiosity, for the sake of interest or a desire to refute. All such knowledge contains blasphemy, and it has a harmful effect on the spirit and mind. If only you could completely disconnect the spirit and mind from the harmful influence of occult knowledge by looking at it with your mind from the outside! But this is impossible. If you conduct an experiment, for example, with high temperatures, then you will take care in every possible way that the observed process takes place behind strong heat-resistant walls and could not harm your eyes in any way. And here you expose yourself, your head and heart to this blasphemous teaching quite openly and directly. This spiritual experiment has neither the proper purity nor perhaps the reproducibility. In the course of it, the soul can be severely damaged without noticing it. In short, all this knowledge can be introduced only indirectly (that is, to look with the naked eye). For this, there is special Orthodox literature on these topics, for example, the works of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose. And do not be embarrassed if someone says that all religions should be experienced directly on oneself and that there will be greater objectivity in this. Such objectivity would be possible for an Angel who has no hereditary sinful corruption and who is already established in goodness. A person, testing false religions for truth, cannot possess objectivity - he is damaged by sin, he already has an initial inclination to evil, to enslavement to passions. In addition, he is subject to the influence of demons - the heads of all occult knowledge. In this case, the most objective spiritual experience of all possible is his own conversion to Christ, because in this spiritual experience, in its content, nothing depends on man, and as a result of his man receives the most correct conception of himself, confirmed by spiritual and earthly experience, of himself and of his limitations and sinfulness. Having received such supersensible experiential spiritual knowledge, to recheck it with self-invented (and therefore false and biased) spiritual experiments and, without believing God, to believe in one's spiritual experiments is a grave spiritual crime. It is no accident that the Church at all times of its existence has forbidden and persecuted occult knowledge, malignant experiments of atheists on the sanctity of life, such as experiments in alchemy. Church punishments for these deeds, for this knowledge, were imposed always and everywhere, and in the Catholic world the passion for the black book went so far that the reaction to it had some excesses, known as the Inquisition and "witch hunts". In addition, one should guard one's mind from the heretical errors of so-called non-Orthodoxy: Catholicism, Protestantism, etc. Even if for a hundred clever and correct thoughts there is one false and harmful one, it can bear its bitter fruit in the mind and in the heart. It is best to become acquainted with all kinds of heterodox trends only through Orthodox sources - books on so-called comparative theology, which clearly and dispassionately show in what certain confessions are similar to Orthodoxy, and in what they are mistaken and why. But unauthorized reading of heretical literature will not lead to good. God willing, in time you will be able to practically compare the spiritual paths of Orthodoxy and non-Orthodoxy by talking to one of these "non-believers." If you begin to live by Orthodoxy, if you study it properly, you will see for yourself all its advantages in direct comparison. Such, in a brief examination, are the dangers from which one must constantly and attentively guard one's mind. Breakdowns of this mental regime will inevitably lead to the indignation of the passions, to internal ruin, if not to something worse, therefore they should be considered precisely as sins and healed by confession with the obligatory restoration of the disturbed regime of external information and internal thoughts. But let's assume that by restructuring our information field we managed to win the desired freedom for at least a small part of our mind. Let us hasten to fill this space with direct spiritual edification. Again, we use the energy of our conversion until it is wasted in vanity. Our spirit thirsts to know Divine things. Let's not let him lose this initial thirst. Two positive mental deeds can be distinguished: spiritual reading and contemplation of God. The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament must be well known. Some make it a daily rule to read one or two chapters of the Gospel and the Epistles. Others copy by hand, while others read the Scriptures in the patristic interpretation. There are also those who read the Russian text in parallel with the Slavonic. The degree of regularity of such reading is established for each person individually in consultation with the spiritual father. But the essence of the matter is not in the means, but in the result. All the words of the Scriptures should be remembered. Any episode of the Gospel or Acts should be recognized in half a phrase. It should know in which of the four Gospels each specific episode is described, and in which it is not. It is desirable to know the characteristic, frequently quoted statements of the Apostles with the accuracy of the name of the Epistle. From the Old Testament one must learn Holy History, at least in the volume of the course of the Law of God. The most important books of the Old Testament, relatively accessible to everyone (at least in general), in our opinion, are the following: Genesis, Exodus, the Books of Kings, Job, Isaiah, Daniel, the Proverbs of Solomon, and above all of these - of course, the Psalter. Such a reading of the Scriptures, such a level of knowledge of the New Testament, of course, is only the beginning. The meaning of Scripture is revealed little by little in patristic literature, and a true understanding of it comes only through the great sorrows sent by God in connection with our faith. In addition to the Scriptures, every Christian needs to master the Catechism - the basic dogmatic truths of Orthodoxy. It is necessary to know the order and significance of the liturgy and all-night vigil. And start reading ascetic literature little by little. To assimilate the entire patristic heritage is not enough for a whole lifetime, but the reading of the otechniks and lives must be constant or at least frequent. Such is our primary Christian self-education, the first grade. If we consider the inability to read and write to be something simply impossible for a modern person, then this is all the more true of spiritual literacy. Is it really a shame for a Christian person, especially a young one who has completed ten years of school, not to know the very foundations of his faith? In addition to reading, independent work of the mind on what is read is required. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). But for this learning it is also necessary to meditate on the works of God in the world, on one's own soul, on its moral state. Such meditation, interspersed with prayer, is called contemplation of God. It is clear that this is a matter of leisure or some dull, monotonous physical work, which does not require any hard effort or the slightest reflection on it. In ancient times, monks deliberately selected such handicrafts for themselves, such as weaving ropes, baskets, mats, in order to raise their minds to God during such an occupation. In the book of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain "Invisible Warfare" two ways of thinking about God are described. One of them is to remember the vivid figurative expressions of Scripture that a Christian usually hears, and to meditate on them in relation to his soul. For example, such expressions: "Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22), or: "You cannot work for God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24 and Lk. 16:13), or: "First remove the beam from your eyes" (Matt. 7:5 and Lk. 6:42), and so on. Another way is to observe the objects of life that come to hand, and to raise one's thought to some words or passages from the Scriptures where this object is mentioned. If you observe the beauty of meadows or gardens, think of paradise. If you notice a rainbow, remember that there will be no more flood, but there will be a second coming of the Lord to the Last Judgment with the human race. If you see sheep grazing, remember the Gospel parable of the good Shepherd. At the time of sowing or harvesting in your garden, remember the parables of the Sower. Looking at beautiful flowers or birds of the field, remember the harm of excessive solicitude and the goodness of the Heavenly Father, who dresses the grass of the field more beautifully than King Solomon himself. It is no accident that the Lord explained the mysteries of the Kingdom of God by comparisons from the most ordinary life of fishermen and farmers. It is good if such reflection and remembrance become habitual for you. But there is little hope for this. People withdrew into the deserts and wilderness, so that the vanity and hustle and bustle of the world would not boil their minds. But at least do not miss a single instance of solitude in nature without engaging in contemplation of God. This will require almost no effort, but there will be benefits. That's how much it takes to get your mind in order. To an unbeliever, all this will seem painful. And for a believer, all this is so simple and natural that one only needs to pay a little attention to oneself and all the work of keeping the mind will be manageable.

Heart Custody

The sensitive side of the soul, no less than the intellectual, needs education and abstinence. For the time being, we are only talking about the external functions of the mind and heart, about what connects them with the external world. Information serves as food for thought; In the same way, the heart has its own nourishment, the impressions of the soul. The mind, by its fallen nature, is drawn to information that is easy and pleasant, with which there is no need to work or exert oneself. But is it necessary to give him such indulgences, isn't it better to direct him to what is useful? The body does the same: it seeks satiety, warmth and rest. But we must force him to work and limit him in everything pleasant. Otherwise, we will not only have no intellect or health, but we will not remain. In the same way, the heart demands its characteristic light and empty impressions, and we must direct it to good and deep feelings. The mind wants to entertain itself with a crossword puzzle or a column of trifles in the newspaper, the heart wants to find a funny anecdote or a love story there. Spectacles and films are the most popular with both the heart and the mind, since the impressions from them are the most vivid and easy, simple and empty. Nowadays, in many cities and towns, gas and water supply are often turned off. People have long forgotten about hot water, and heating works in such a way that the pipes do not freeze. The last thing that will disappear from all utilities is electricity. Why is this done? - So that the doomed take the spiritual drug of television until the last moment, and taking it, they do not try to resist. Blue screens are in barracks, prisons, hospitals, schools, homes, everywhere. They are the main means of corrupting and killing the soul of the conquered people. Without them, it would be difficult to keep people in constant deception and slavery. As tobacco, vodka and hashish are for the body, so is the TV for the soul. It deceives and dumbs the mind, of which we have already spoken, but it is even more harmful to the heart, for it nourishes it with sinful, petty, bestial, and bestial impressions. He consistently inflames all the passions of the heart. Good feelings of compassion and pity, which still remain in the soul from nature, he steals from there and gives to the heroes of his films, turning them into empty dreams. On the other hand, malice, selfishness, fornication, pride and cruelty are constantly implanted, nourished and supported. The same purpose in relation to the heart is served by all the "reading" so widely published: empty and dirty newspapers and magazines, love, detective, fantastic stories and novels. The "empty romances" that St. Theophan dissuaded us from are even more harmless in this stream. However, if a person has experienced conversion to Christ, then he himself understands the harmful effect of such impressions and does not have sympathy for them. But habit and addiction are capable of overcoming in us not only indifference to sinful impressions, but even outright aversion to them. A person does not like what he reads or hears, and in his mind he understands that it is sinful, and in his heart he experiences a disgusting feeling, but he is in no hurry to tear himself away. He spits, but laughs and continues to look and listen, feeding the lust of his eyes and ears. This is where the difference and even the conflict between will and volition can be seen. The will is corrupted and against the demands of the mind and heart it is drawn to sin. An effort of volition is needed to suppress the sinful passionate attraction of the will. If the will follows the will, then the mind, the heart, and conscience will soon be silent. Consequently, it is always necessary to order oneself in time regarding any sinful impressions: it is impossible! Turn it off! Don't look! Get! Don't read it! come on! Sinful impressions are sticky, in contrast to good ones, which are easily forgotten. They even stick to the memory against your will, using your past consent to their entry into the soul. For a long time, impurity "cooks" in the heart: lewd songs and anecdotes, pictures and foul language are remembered. They torment and torment the soul that has turned to God for years. There is only one remedy: to overcome one's sinful weakness and to constantly block the entrance to the heart, at least to new sinful impressions. Just as a dog's sense of smell is dulled in a polluted, smoky room, and sharpened in the fresh air, so the feelings of the heart are refined and cultivated only in the absence of an influx of sinful impressions. Get out of the habit of watching TV and read spiritual books, or at least secular but chaste ones, for example, Russian classics (but not revolutionary ones). A Christian should naturally develop a disgust at the vulgarity and abomination with which our enslavers constantly wash Russian brains and hearts. This would be a normal defensive reaction, like our skin has to incandescent objects. Those who have such a skin reaction are weakened constantly get burns on their hands. If the soul does not have a defensive reaction to all kinds of sinful impressions, then it will be constantly poisoned by them. Then there is no need to speak of any virtue, nor of any curbing of the passions, nor of man's acquisition of his own personality. It is more or less easy to overcome addiction to impressions that are obviously sinful and empty, and this must be done as soon as possible. But even after that, the heart still has its own needs for aesthetic impressions, which cannot be instantly destroyed or made completely spiritual, especially when it comes to the monastic way of life. You have to deal with literature and art. And it should be remembered that in many works, deep, serious, psychologically subtle, there is an equally subtle nourishment of sinful passions. In addition, the harm from them may lie in the switching of the reader's attention (viewer, listener) to the earthly and spiritual, instead of the eternal and spiritual. Often the artist orients us to a person, his earthly life, as a kind of tacitly accepted highest value of existence. Such literature and art should be avoided, and those works should be sought where, on the contrary, the soul of the reader (viewer) is guided by the author towards the spiritual and eternal. Where virtue is praised not as the basis of earthly happiness and normal human coexistence, but as something more; where the fragility and vanity of earthly happiness are truthfully shown, and moreover at least a hint of the search for eternal bliss is given, it is there that useful impressions should be sought. They will also be spiritual, but only indirectly, or rather in their ultimate conclusions. Such, in fact, are all the works of Christian authors, that is, those for whom the Christian faith was the most important value in life. It is not at all necessary that their works directly reflect church life or furnishings, just as the artist working on biblical or ecclesiastical subjects is not always spiritual himself and seeks the eternal in personal communion with Christ. Here it is possible to give only some approximate list of authors who should be read, listened to and watched. It is more important to properly train your taste, tuning it to a spiritual mood. Any aesthetic impression that comes to us should be evaluated from this point of view: did it show the intrinsic value of Christian virtue, the vanity of the earthly and the eternity of the heavenly? And depending on the answer received, evaluate its merits. However, there are entire genres of art where Christian authors practically do not work, since it is difficult to truthfully express anything spiritual in them. This is primarily the art of acting: theater and cinema. It is no coincidence that acting has been considered a sin since ancient times, because the image of another person is necessarily associated with lies. This lie can very rarely be directed to something good. Therefore, the theater was born precisely in the pagan world and has always served and still serves as a haven for debauchery. Many Holy Fathers spoke out sharply against theatrical spectacles, as, for example, John Chrysostom or Theophan the Recluse. However, even in this genre there were exceptions. Can we say, for example, that the opera "A Life for the Tsar" evokes in the listener feelings that are low or simply empty? -Of course not. But still, such strong and deep things in the theater are exceptions, not the rule. A special word should be said about modern rock music. We hope that our reader no longer needs to be taken out of the disco by the hand. However, a person who has heard a lot in his time may still have a secret addiction to rock, at least to the most decent thing that is in it. (We are not talking here about the obviously poisonous, disgusting, intoxicating that is in such music. For example, the best thing that Igor Talkov had was not vulgar in any way, but on the contrary, it was deep and with Christian spiritual overtones. We talk about decent, but we advise you to avoid it. The reason for this is the same why one should not watch television, even if its programs carried a good content. Rock music, like television, is, first of all, the widest technical capabilities, the richest tools. And this is harmful to the soul, because it captivates and relaxes it, or rather, it captures it too much. It is no coincidence that the first musical instruments were invented by the descendants of Cain, very depraved people. It is no coincidence that musical instruments were never used in an Orthodox church, but live singing was used. The general rule with some reservations is still as follows: the less equipment, the more room for the spirit. Technology acts on the mental-bodily in the first place, and, of course, at the expense of the spiritual. It is inappropriate here to go into long discussions about aesthetics, after the general principle of the formation of taste has been set. As a final remark, let us repeat that all, even positive, even spiritual aesthetic impressions should be limited (and for monastics they are completely nullified, as well as for the most zealous laity during the fasts). For the most part, all these impressions are reduced to the circle of what is read and heard. This is necessary to prevent the aesthetic perception of the Christian faith itself with the oblivion of its deeper spiritual foundations. Such temptation is more characteristic of women, as creatures of more soul than spirituality. In those years, when there was no gramophone recording and all music-making was lively and natural, Saint Theophan thus advised a certain noble maiden, who possessed a musical gift and upbringing, but at the same time was drawn to an attentive spiritual life: "Little by little, select the pièses with good content and sing and play them more... Take out the works of Turchaninov (a famous church composer - S.T.) and learn from there what you like best. Learn "God Save the King", "How glorious is our Lord" and the like. If you sing with full feeling that one of this kind of pies, I assure you that you will like it more than anything else... If you play or sing anything that sinks into the soul of those who hear it, and causes them to sigh to the Lord, or to ascend to Him with praise and thanksgiving, you will do the same thing as a good preacher does in church" (What Is Spiritual Life, LXIII). And do you know "God Save the Tsar" and "How glorious" and any of these kinds of hymns? By the mercy of God, in our time there is an opportunity to listen to them and other worthy musical works. We do not mean church music proper, but secular, but good. Likewise, fiction worthy of the attention of an Orthodox Christian has now been republished and is available. And all this Orthodox spiritual heritage (although it differs from the spiritual) can benefit our soul, if it is allowed to reach it to the proper extent. Moreover, it can bring about a certain good change in it. At a young age, along with spiritual conversion (before or after it), something similar happens in the spiritual realm. Spiritual conversion ends, as we have said, with the formation of a Christian's self-consciousness in a person. In other words, the spirit of man finds its heavenly homeland, begins to understand where it comes from, what it is for. Who is his God and Savior. And in the spiritual sphere, sometimes a person acquires his national and cultural affiliation just as impetuously. Mysteriously and unknownly, but quite distinctly, irresistibly, the voice of his people, his roots, will suddenly ring in his soul. Speech, music, painting, and history - native - will suddenly tell you much more than they have said before. And you answer to yourself: yes, here it is, ours, and I am from the same land, this is the voice of my homeland, and it is dear to me. And why had I not noticed this before, and had been indifferent? Just as the dead spirit of man comes to life in the hour of conversion and reveals that he is now Christ's, so the mind, in the accumulation of various knowledge, must come to life and understand the wisdom of God that connects all this information, must realize its participation in this wisdom. And in the same way, the heart suddenly feels that it belongs to the homeland and its spiritual roots. It is as if there are three appeals: one large and important, two smaller. And thank God that all three are directed in the same direction. About Him alone, about our Creator and Saviour, the spirit, the mind, and the heart must tell us. Let it be at different times and in different words, but the content of what is said will remain the same. Christian science will tell the mind about God. And the heart will cry out about Him, having suddenly found its spiritual roots. He revealed Himself to us right at the moment of our spiritual conversion. And now all creation is loudly preaching Him to us through our knowledge of it. And it is also proclaimed to us by our native history and culture, in which we felt our true involvement only when we became Christians. By Him alone lived and to Him all Holy Russia, the whole soul of our people, turned. What does not live by Him in Russian culture breaks off, dries up and dies. Remember how the first commandment is expressed in the Gospel. It is not simply: "Thou shalt love thy God," but it is also shown how one ought to love Him: with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind (Luke 10:27). You see, in this list all three powers of the soul are named: heart (feeling), strength (will) and understanding. And separately there is also the soul, by which in this place we should understand the higher side of our soul - its spirit. The very beginnings of love are given to us in conversion. If our spirit feels the presence of God, it means that he has fallen in love, even if only a little noticeably, but it has become so warm and joyful. Our understanding has also sensed that all natural science proclaims the glory of God louder than a trumpet. Joy to the mind - this is the beginning of love for God on its part. So the heart suddenly felt itself a part of Holy Russia, warmth and joy to it - here is the beginnings of God's love already in the heart. The will is the most difficult to handle. If she learns to desire the fulfillment of God's will as her own desire, then she too has come to love God. Here is salvation! But the path to it is not easy. It is necessary to cleanse the mind of prejudices, feelings and will from passions, it is necessary to completely refine the entire sin-loving soul, so that the first premonitions of God's love received so far would make it God-loving. Did you know from your own soul what the conversation was about? Are not these words an empty sound for you: the conversion of the spirit, the mind, the heart? Of course, a person does not turn to God in an instant or by order, but believe me, it is the spiritual experience of youth that is spoken of here, although those who have received it can comprehend everything already in adulthood. If the spirit has been converted, it resolves to serve God. If the mind has turned, then we undertake the obligation to select information for it as well. If the heart has turned, it means that we must be picky in aesthetic impressions in order to be grafted into the culture and sincerity of our own, and not foreign. A flower with three wondrous buds has grown on the garbage heap of our fallen sinful soul - put the garbage away so that it does not damage the flower. Orthodoxy is a spiritual wealth. But in history it was expressed in a certain spiritual shell. Orthodox spirituality requires a corresponding soulfulness - the consciousness of belonging to the Christian people. And together spirituality and soulfulness were embodied in the material shell, which made up the Christian statehood, culture and way of life. In general, no religion can occupy only the spiritual sphere in a person, it permeates both spiritual and physical life. You can explain it a little more simply. You cannot, having been born, say, a Greek, consider yourself Orthodox if you share the teaching of the Church, but you are indifferent to your native Byzantium if its history and traditions, its churches and chants, its kings and hierarchs, its desert dwellers and martyrs are indifferent to you. The same applies to the Russian person (it does not matter - a Great Russian, a Little Russian, a White Russian). If he only shares the teaching of the Church, but does not love Holy Russia, does not feel belonging to it, is indifferent to its history, is cold to its saints, and perceives its present tragedy with his stomach, but not with his heart, then he is not yet fully Orthodox. Rather, he can be considered either a philosophizing intellectual, or a fanatical sectarian, or a narrow nationalist. Of course, we must remember that the spiritual comes first, then the spiritual. In the same way, we love our Russia because it is Christ's. If the choice arises between faith and fatherland, we do not hesitate to choose faith. We are Christ's first, and Russians second. The pagan nationalists do the same. "Rusich" they are the prehistoric Rus that worshipped the Peruns and Horses, but not Christ. They treat Christian Russia in the same way as we treat pagan Russia, only more embitteredly. It turns out that in any case, the homeland is determined by faith, and we have a different homeland with them, although we have a common territory, and common ancestors in the flesh, and the same language. It is the same in Serbia: one language, but three faiths, and therefore three homelands, three peoples: Serbs (Orthodox), Croats (Catholics), Bosnians (Mohammedans). But of all the feelings of the soul, which are inferior to the spiritual, patriotism is the highest. It must be properly and spiritually nurtured and developed, avoiding any distortions in it, of which there can be many: nationalist, Soviet, racist and others. This is a topic for a separate big conversation. Christian patriotism of the last century was solemn and joyful, but now it has become sorrowful. This is the first heartfelt feeling nurtured by familiarization with Russian Orthodox culture - bitter sorrow for the perishing homeland. Here again we come to the mysterious compatibility of the incompatible, which was discussed in the last chapter. Turning away from the world, let us grieve for the fatherland. We do not live like all our compatriots around us, but we do not exalt ourselves before them, but grieve over their pernicious condition, being almost unable to help them in any way. "My Motherland, you have gone mad" - this is how a true patriot of his country could sing, watching with horror how it "steps into hell with a wide step". In our native country, we find ourselves internal immigrants. By the word "emigrants" we mean here not those who left their homeland, but those from whom it was taken away. Such people have the best developed national consciousness, they quickly understand each other and live cohesively, amicably. They constantly carry sorrow for their lost homeland in their hearts, and nothing can console it. Without strong faith in Christ, such sorrow can cause spiritual anguish, but if it is not there at all, then it is much worse. To live in Russia now freely and calmly, without feeling or sharing its pain, is the path to complete insensibility. Wherever we settle now, Russian Orthodox people, we are all somehow not at home - our house has been blown up. And yet it is better to live in your own ashes than in someone else's house. Grief for the perishing homeland should not be anonymous or impersonal. Otherwise, it will only be cheap sentimentality and a dream of the good of humanity. This sorrow is realized in empathy with one's neighbors, first of all, with the Orthodox Russian people, co-incarnates in Christ. Weeping with those who weep appears, and occasionally, if there is a reason, joy with those who rejoice, as the Apostle commands (Romans 12:15). The development of this feeling is also helped by material help to one's neighbors, works of mercy, which, however, are only means. Every neighbor needs a sweet heart from us, and not the "Mercy" action. These are different things. It is impossible to alleviate someone else's pain except by sharing it. On the other hand, our heart is inert, slow, it warms up slowly with age, in proportion to the sorrows endured, and works of mercy, performed without exaltation, help it to thaw. The correct regime of impressions, which must not be violated, also helps the heart's education. Just as it is impossible to draw up an "instruction of reasoning" for the mind, so there is no such prescription for the heart. What we have said is only the most introductory word, which is not even paid attention to in books on asceticism. Next should be the main thing - the cleansing of the heart from passions. But the spiritual level of the disciples, from which the holy teachers of the past began to work with them, was quite different from what it is now, and then there was no need for such an introductory word, which is required today.

Keeping the Will - Obedience

A man is diligently minded of evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21) - this is how God Himself evaluates the general character of the human soul in the state of its fall. Perhaps this applies most to the will, not to the realm of thoughts or feelings, but to the realm of intentions and desires. Among our thoughts there are good ones, as well as many non-moral ones: neither good nor evil. Among our feelings, too, there are quite frequent glimpses of light against the general sinful background. But our desires themselves are almost always selfish and filthy. Everything good in the sphere of our desires does not come from ourselves, but is brought from education or from the voice of conscience. Our will itself is in a more corrupt state in comparison with the heart and mind. Our good intentions are usually tainted by concomitant evil motives: vanity, expectation of reward, self-interest, fame, the desire to hurt or shame someone, and so on. Not to mention evil intentions. Only that desire can be recognized as pure and good, the purpose of which would be to fulfill God's commandment, and nothing more. In all our lives, how many of our desires will we remember? At least one? Thus, our will requires the greatest healing, and it is cured only by reasonable obedience in the Lord. In the ascetic books, everywhere it is spoken of cutting off one's own will or self-will. But the fact is that those who succeed in obedience and then conquer all their passions are by no means weak-willed people. In our ordinary understanding, these are people of the strongest will. How to understand this verbal paradox? What do the Holy Fathers understand by cutting off one's own will? For the sake of answer, let us recall again the relation between will and will, which was discussed in the second chapter. The natural will of man resembles the will of animals in that it is a simple love of life. Without such a will, no biological life would be possible. A proper combination of organic molecules will not yet become life until there is some ideal vital force, which is expressed in the fact that this collection of molecules will want to live and will interact accordingly with the environment. In other words, until the instinct of self-preservation and procreation appears. For animals, this instinct is, in fact, their animal will. By its presence or absence, it is possible to distinguish the living from the inanimate. But just as the living is irreducible to the dead, differing from the latter by a certain ideal essence, this very instinct, so man is irreducible to a biological species, differing from animals by another ideal essence, his spirit. In the sphere of will, this difference is manifested in the fact that man has an organ of connection between the spirit and the will, which is called volition, as we have already said. We have also said that volition is perhaps the most amazing, unique and mysterious sanctuary of man, determining his personality, and his main property is freedom. The love of animals for life is not free, just as the natural will of man. A person has a free will: to act according to his conscience or against it. Even God does not interfere in our will, but it is by it that He will judge everyone. The natural sin-loving will often struggles with conscience for the possession of volition, but the latter itself chooses between these opposing parties, giving preference to one or the other. The ascetic task of cutting off one's own will consists in ensuring that volition always stands on the side of conscience, moreover, trained to distinguish between good and evil. At the same time, the natural will rises to its primordial order from its fallen state: it renounces its perversions, sinful and harmful lusts, and in its natural and ineradicable love of life yields primacy to the good will. As a result, man wants to fulfill the will of God as his own: he wants to do it by will, to which the natural will is subordinated. Thus, the natural will of the restored man does not die of itself, but is only purified and transformed precisely by the fact that almost all of its manifestations are cut off, for they are sinful in the ordinary fallen man. This means cutting off one's will. Submitting to volition, the natural love of life is reborn into love for true life, eternal, for the sake of which it is ready to sacrifice even the temporary life of the body. In this way, the constant conflict between the demands of the natural will and conscience inherent in fallen man ceases, and thus the wholeness of his nature is acquired. Finally, we must not forget that such a change of will is accomplished by its constant interaction with the grace of God, without which such a turn of will is absolutely impossible. However, grace does not act apart from or contrary to the will of man. This is a very important ascetic observation, which the Church has suffered through a great number of living examples in the struggle against heresies that rejected the role of man's volition or the role of grace. This is the will of a man restored in Christ. And if what is said in the language of the Holy Fathers is difficult to understand, the same thoughts can be conveyed briefly, for example, in the words of a military song from the time of the Crimean War of 1855: He alone is worthy of life, Who is always ready to die. And then in another verse it is sung about what the warrior sacrifices his life for: For the Tsar and for Russia, We are ready to die. This is not the fanaticism or despair of a suicide. The natural will to live does not disappear, but a person wants not just to live, but to live with dignity of life, both temporal and eternal. And only the one who is ready to die for high Christian ideals lives with dignity. We see the same state of the Christian's will in the lives of the martyrs: not contempt for life as such, not the murder of one's own love of life, but the striving for eternal life, first by faith and volition, and then by the natural will, which has risen from temporal and earthly to eternal and heavenly love of life. And here is the opposite example for understanding the difference between will and volition. A drunkard who has reached the point of complete lack of will, or a desperate person who decides to commit suicide - to what extent do they possess will and volition? After all, they also do not value life at all. But here the case is the opposite. It is not the will that follows the will according to the voice of conscience, but the will that has been subordinated to the fallen natural will in its bestial, unnatural lusts. Having received such complete power, this natural will is corrupted to the mortal limit. Weak-willed people who despise their lives, in fact, only seek to avoid everyday problems to such an extent that they play with their lives. This, of course, is a perversion, but a perversion not of anything, but of the natural love of life; This is his shifter, and not some higher motive of behavior. Thus, the essence of our fallen sinful state in relation to the will is that it is only necessary to give it space, and soon, having killed everything in the soul that can be killed, it will eventually kill itself, and everything will end in eternal death in hell. The one who cuts off his sin-loving will is sometimes compared to a wild apple tree, on which cultivated cuttings are grafted. The wild itself is not cut down, but all its branches are cut off mercilessly. And on the remaining trunk with strong juices and roots, good, fruitful branches are grafted. In the same way, the will of a Christian is not killed at its root, but is cut off in practically all its manifestations, which come from the fallen nature, and good intentions are grafted into their place by the grace of God. The one who cut off the manifestations of the sin-loving will is a strong-willed person, that is, with a strong will. And he who lives according to his lusts (according to his natural will), on the contrary, is weak-willed, or it would be better to say: unwilled, that is, with a weak will. When children's books mention the education (self-education) of a strong will, it is precisely the subordination of the natural will to the will that is meant. The natural will wants to eat the cake, and the child's will contradicts it. Will will prevail - they say that the boy's will has been strengthened. In Christian asceticism, the discussion of the will and its cutting off begins from the moment when volition has already been defined in general terms, but has not yet been tempered, not verified, and is more often conquered by the natural will than conquers it itself. Such a moment is again our conversion to Christ, the first independent, personal determination to become a Christian and to be one, no matter what it takes. As long as volition has never made such a choice, all talk about the will remains objectless. Of course, you can, if you want, train your will, subordinating it to your will, just for the sake of sport, without having in mind either Christ or eternal life: "I want to sit in the warmth, but I will force myself to dive into an ice-hole. For what? "And just like that, to temper the will." It is clear that such a plot is not for our book. Thus, the one who has turned to Christ, from this very moment, must become a novice of Christ and for the sake of His commandments, which are wholly accepted by conscience and generally accepted by will, must submit his will to them. But life is full of concrete deeds and situations, while in a fallen state we have not only a will, but also a mind, which can completely misunderstand God's commandments in relation to a given case. Therefore, in order to learn obedience to the Gospel, it is necessary to learn obedience to living people. By God's mercy and His good Providence, human society as a whole is still arranged in such a way that in itself it imposes a number of salutary restrictions on human lust, which are forcibly controlled by law. In other words, there are still lawlessness that is legally prohibited, although their circle is narrowing from year to year. When it shrinks to some last limit, the bipeds will simply begin to devour each other, and apparently this will be the end of History. The Church, beginning with the Apostles, was well aware of the importance of submitting to civil order, which limits even obvious crimes and atrocities. The ruler is God's servant, for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain: he is God's servant, an avenger for the punishment of him who does evil (Romans 13:4), teaches the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Peter also speaks of the same thing: "Be ye subject to every human authority, for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to the rulers, as sent from him to punish transgressors, and to encourage those who do good" (1 Pet. 2:13-14). It should be explained, however, that this was said even before the beginning of the first state persecution of Christians, which was officially begun only by the emperor Nero, who executed both Apostles. Until that time, Christians were persecuted mainly by the Jews, who sometimes incited the pagans to this by slander and bribery. But the Jews themselves were a well-known and well-known enemy of the Roman Empire, on which Judea was in colonial dependence. When the state itself begins to persecute the faith of Christ and to make demands on Christians contrary to conscience, then we should also remember other words of the Apostles: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). It is also necessary to pay attention to the numerous examples of martyrs who fulfilled these words in deed, who refused to offer sacrifice to idols and renounce Christ, although in all other respects they showed due obedience to civil order and authority. Thus, the first and crudest step in the limitation of self-will is the civil law. It restricts a person only in those actions that cause damage to other persons or their property, and therefore no positive morality, even non-Christian, is limited only to legal norms, but puts forward higher requirements, especially Christian morality. In addition to the state hierarchy and subordination, there is also a family hierarchy - as divinely established as the principle of state power. It is also enshrined in God's commandment about the obedience of children to their parents. Parental authority over children has the same limit as state authority over citizens. If parents (or authorities) turn Christians away from God or force them to open sin, then they should not be obeyed in this. Otherwise, family and state obedience is mandatory. In the natural course of life, it turns out that the power of parents over children weakens by itself with age; By the time of adulthood, or the beginning of the monastic path, or the creation of a family by grown-up children, it practically ceases and can remain only at the level of moral influence. But young people should not hasten this time with their disobedience. Parents do not wish their children harm and have life experience; For this reason alone, they must be obeyed. However, this instruction is easily accepted by unbelievers. And for believers, obedience to parents is sanctified by God Himself, by the example of the youth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2:51) and the multitude of saints. And if he who resists authority resists God's decree, and those who resist will themselves bring condemnation upon themselves (Romans 13:2), then how much more so applies to those who resist parental authority. False and destructive are some of the teachings of modern atheists, that parents have no power in the family and that the family should be built on the basis of a mutual agreement between children and parents. This is complete nonsense. Parents and children are not equal, the family is not a circle of interests, it is an integral organism established by God Himself. Of course, family power (and in the best case, state power) should not be understood as some kind of continuous violence or tyranny. But all the same, it is precisely power, the authority of the last word, and not a parliament of equal opinions, in which there is no end to disputes and strife. In accepting the authority of parents as such, one must also understand the rational foundations of this authority. Here, for example, is the opinion of St. Theophan on this matter in a letter to the same noble maiden: "It is the duty of parents to watch over you; They watch, I think, like the apple of their eye. If it goes against your wishes, you must submit. (In this case, we are not even talking about a reprehensible desire - p.T.) It is unfair to see in them only a desire to put your own way, but it is more natural to see here a desire to protect you and protect you from everything... With obedience, you must repay what you get in the family. Food, clothing, shelter - although not small, but not the main thing. The main thing is to protect yourself from troubles outside. Eagle wings cover you. The eagle's beak and its claws are ready to defeat anyone who tries to cause you an insult or trouble. This good is irreplaceable. As soon as the eagle covering you is gone, they will peck at you. Now no one has an attack, and then everyone will pounce... From under parental protection, you also need to go under the protection again, either within the walls of the convent, or in the community of sisters of mercy (it is said that you have decided to preserve virginity, and to the rest we will add: either married - S. T.) (What is Spiritual Life, LXXVIII). This applies not only to maidens, but also to boys, until they get on their feet and become able to build their own family. And all this was said in a situation where the temptations of the world were immeasurably less than they are now. And if you are now so bold that you are not afraid of people, you are sure that you will not be "pecked" (as St. Theophan put it) in the worldly plane, then I will be bold enough to confidently predict: your faith will be pecked, which will give a very strong crack from the very fact of disobedience to your parents, who tried to limit your self-will and protect you from temptations. However, now the parents are not the same as in the time of St. Theophanes. They are not always relatives, not always the two of them, they are not always believers, they do not always protect them from temptations, and sometimes they themselves push their children to them. But such cases are not for general consideration in the book, but for individual pastoral practice. We are talking about normal families, if not from a Christian, then at least from an everyday point of view. Such families and educators are usually those who protect children and pupils not only from gross vices and temptations, but also from the mother of all vices - idleness. In such cases, it is said that in such a family children are taken care of. Most of all family and school obediences do not have a direct moral character, that is, they are neither good nor evil. But on the other hand, they lead the pupils away from idleness and what-want-to do (the expression of the same St. Theophanes), which most of all strikes the will with weakness. This is the essence of obediences in everyday life, education, and work. Though you rightly see them of little use for the happiness of mankind, you must nevertheless diligently fulfill them for the benefit of your own will. Otherwise, you will harm your soul by your very idleness. In obediences of an immoral nature, not only children must obey their parents, who wish them every good, but slaves must also obey their masters, as the Apostle commands: "Servants, obey in all ranks the rulers, not only the good and meek, but also the obstinate" (1 Pet. 2:18). We don't seem to use the concept of slavery anymore, who can these words refer to? They relate to such mercenary labor relations when employers violate the conditions of employment and, by the threat of unemployment, turn mercenary activity into unscrupulous exploitation and sheer slavery. However, there are labor relations that are directly slavish (for example, in the army), and this word should not be feared, but this slavery should be accepted calmly in accordance with the commandments of the Apostles, remembering that it is in some way more useful for the soul than dominion. When obedience acquires a pronounced moral character, when one is commanded to do what conscience and the law of God forbid, and is not allowed to do what God has commanded, then one must remember other words of the Apostle: "You have been bought at a price; do not become slaves of men (1 Corinthians 7:23). The meaning of these words is the inadmissibility of moral enslavement to godless people, their orders and customs that contradict the Christian conscience. But the same Apostle three lines earlier does not command slaves to seek liberation from physical and labor slavery. If even slavery should be perceived by a Christian in this way, then how much more so should family obedience. It is important to accept the bonds of this obedience not as something external and burdensome, but as important and useful for oneself. Examples of civil and family obedience already show that the most important thing in them is voluntariness. Prisoners in penal servitude are also forced to obey, but they do not obey according to their conscience. And Christians must obey precisely according to their conscience, go to obedience by their good will, and not just clenching their will tightly in a fist. Servants, in all things obey your masters according to the flesh (not in all things according to the Spirit! - p. T.), not only in the eyes of serving them, as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God (Col. 3:22) - this is the kind of obedience the Lord seeks from us. If only involuntary obedience were required, there would be no need to exhort to it; only a strong club would be required, but not ascetic instruction. In fact, only voluntary obedience is valuable, as a due sacrifice to the Lord, Who Himself judges it through our conscience, and then directly. With this attitude alone, we need to approach the deepest and most subtle kind of obedience – spiritual. This obedience is a powerful and beneficial means, if only it is used correctly, carefully, and according to the will of God. But if it is used incorrectly, then the fruits from it will be no better than from arbitrariness. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the obedience of a monk and a layman. A monk takes a vow of obedience, voluntarily imposes maximum restrictions on his natural will. Such a vow can be fulfilled if it is made in the appropriate conditions of monastic life, which are not even close to the world. Firstly, a novice has no subordinate persons under him, for whom he would be responsible before God. At least, for a very long time, he himself is not required to manage anyone, neither his family nor his subordinates. Secondly, he relieves himself (or is relieved of him) the burden of making important independent decisions, after he has already made the main decision of his life - about monasticism. Thirdly, the instructor for a monk is supposed to be one for all matters, and not as in the world, where there are many superiors, and in the family there is still its own subordination. Fourthly, the relationship with the mentor is supposed to be extremely trusting, with frequent, preferably daily, confession of all thoughts, which is practically impossible for the laity. Fifthly, it is assumed that the mentor himself is experienced and spiritual, and, what is absolutely necessary, devoid of lust for power. Under such conditions, complete obedience to a mentor quickly and effectively, as both novices and mentors testify, cuts off all impulses of self-will (shears the branches of a wild apple tree), which makes it possible to defeat passions and instill virtues. All these conditions are not applicable to the laity, and therefore the role of the spiritual father for them is involuntarily limited. Complete obedience is in no way feasible here, but on the contrary, it is necessary to teach the flock to make independent decisions, which the situation will require of him at an hour when there is no opportunity to consult with anyone. The confessor retains the power to forbid sin, but this power does not extend beyond church excommunications, while those who sin desperately do not pay much attention to them. As for the rest, the confessor can only give advice, and even then only if he is asked sincerely. Thus, even if slavish obedience in morally neutral matters was based on conscience, how much more so was spiritual obedience. A spiritual father cannot make a novice out of a layman according to the monastic model, but he must give him the right spiritual guidelines. Every turn in the life of a layman tests his relationship with his spiritual father for trust and strength. A sign of good spiritual guidance will be that the voice of the flock's conscience and his will for good will be strengthened, and the demands of the passions will subside. At the same time, it will be discovered that conscience and the confessor command the same thing. If the spiritual father demands absolute submission, if he does not distinguish between the will and the will of the novice, if for him there is only his own will (faithful and indisputable) and the will of the novice (subject to being cut off), then in this case one does not need to be a clairvoyant elder in order to predict in advance the conflict between this spiritual will and the conscience of the flock. Let us emphasize: not by the will of the flock, but by his conscience. This conflict can be resolved in two ways: either by rupture, or by trampling on the conscience of the novice. Such an attitude of the confessor will not help the novice to cut off his self-will - after all, he himself must cut it off with the help of the confessor - but it will certainly shift the moral guidelines in his consciousness, calling black white and white black. It is for this purpose that such a perversion of obedience is invented, so that instead of cutting off sinful self-will, the sinful mutual will of both the elder and the novice is affirmed. God does not need living robots. He needs those who have conquered their will by their own good will, but such robots are needed in sinful deeds, since the legitimization of sin is best of all carried out under the sign of holy obedience. All this should not be surprising, for, as the Christian poet wisely remarked about such a situation: "The spiritual goes side by side with the sinful in life." How many atrocities and crimes in the history of the Church have been committed "for obedience" to persons who only outwardly belong to the flock of Christ? We will not be mistaken in saying that the absolute majority! Here, for example. The Robber Council of 449, at which the first serious manifestation of Monophysitism took place. The Monophysite monks beat to death the Constantinople bishop Saint Flavian and his supporters, inflicting wounds and mutilations on many. After that, they repeatedly killed Orthodox Christians, including priests and bishops, committed terrible violence and blasphemy in Orthodox churches, mocked the altars in them, the Holy Gifts and the holy myrrh. Can conscience resolve this for a person by itself? No, but being bound by obedience, misunderstood, he can. The essence of Monophysitism lies in its application to asceticism and lies in the non-distinction between will and volition. For these heretics there is only the substitution of one will for another. And such are the fruits of this "asceticism"! The perverted concept of obedience tore away from the Church not only the Monophysites (a schism "volume" of half the Christian world). It also gave rise to the heresy of papism, in which the numerically large part of the remaining Christianity was mired. Only blind obedience to authority, which does not exacerbate, but replaces the conscience and volition of the novice, was able to create the doctrine of the infallibility of the pope in the interrogation of doctrine. A similar attitude to obedience is also used in a number of so-called totalitarian sects, where this false teaching takes to its aid technical and chemical means (psychotropic drugs), as well as occult means (hypnosis). In the depths of the sect, zombies are quickly brought up, obedient biorobots that practically lose their human appearance. A perversion of the concept of obedience is also possible in the Orthodox Church, although not to the same extent. As early as the last century, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov said that spirit-bearing teachers were a rarity even in his time, and therefore great caution was required in spiritual obedience, so that, in the words of St. Gregory the Theologian, a wolf should not be mistaken for a shepherd. The most correct guidance turns out to be guidance, even if it is not spirit-bearing, but at least unpretentious, irreconcilable to sin, but oriented towards strengthening the listener's own good will. Thus, correct rational obedience must avoid two extremes: both disorderly self-will, and the killing of the will together with arbitrariness. How to draw this line practically, and even for the flock himself? There is no recipe for this, except for the most general one: hope in God. The Lord is our main, first and last Shepherd, Who really instructs those who sincerely strive for Him, however, allowing them to make mistakes and delusions until the time comes. We must put all our hope in Him, giving Him room to act in our fate, not driving Him away either by our own or anyone else's sinful self-will. Having expressed these warnings and understanding whom they will hurt to the point of bitterness, let us calmly and consciously apply them first of all to ourselves. They should not be seen as orders, but only as well-founded advice that requires attention, and most importantly, the test of life. One should not obey it (or any other advice in this book) if the reader's will does not accept what has been said. If there is inner sympathy and agreement with the instruction, and the natural self-will opposes it, then this is normal, and such self-will should be suppressed by oneself. If there is no sympathy or goodwill for what has been said, even in the deepest depths, then we can only apologize.

Chapter 6. Sinful passions

Turning to God and putting in order the external functions of the soul and body, our spirit gets the opportunity to examine our own soul from the inside. Such an examination is carried out, firstly, quite calmly, without a constant itchy attraction to vain deeds and thoughts, and secondly, in the light of the Word of God and the teaching of the Church, which are already accepted by our spirit as the only true point of view. Looking impartially at our soul, we are forced to recognize in it complete disorder and deep depravity. The various aspects or kinds of this depravity are called passions.

Classification of passions

Passions are the consequences of our fall. The fall consisted in the fact that man loved himself more than God. Consequently, the root of all passions, or their general content, is self-love. The Holy Fathers distinguish three main types of it: love of money, love of glory, and love of pleasure. In this division they are based on the words of the holy Apostle John the Theologian about the three temptations of the world (1 John 2:16): identifying the love of pleasure with the lust of the flesh, the love of money with the lust of the eyes, and the love of glory with the pride of life. There is another division of the passions into eight main passions (it can be considered a further division of the three named into more specific passions), and all the rest are reduced to these eight. They are: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sorrow, despondency, vanity and pride. Such a classification was proposed by ascetic spiritual scholars when observing subtle spiritual ailments in monastics who are more or less attentive to their souls and strive to cleanse it of passions. Our passions are coarser and as if complex, that is, they simultaneously contain manifestations of several main ones at once. Thus, envy can include something from the love of money, and from vanity, and from despondency, and from sorrow. The passion for clothes and jewelry stems from vanity, and from the love of money, and from a subtle passion for fornication. And such gross addictions as to TV, computer and other gambling, smoking, etc., are completely irreducible to the above-mentioned main mental ailments. The main abode of the passions is our soul, but primarily the heart and will. The natural fallen will of man is close to the animal and animal-loving, which means, in fact, captivity by the totality of all passions - self-love. The body often serves as an instrument of passions, especially in gluttony, despondency (laziness) and fornication.

A brief overview of the main passions

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov gives us an enumeration of these passions with their subdivisions and branches. It is from him that we borrow our further exposition on this subject, confining ourselves only to brief additions in parentheses. The most serious discussion of the passion of fornication will be continued separately in the next chapter. 1) Gluttony: Gluttony, drunkenness, non-observance and permission (violation) of fasts, secret eating (eating food at an unspecified time or without prayer, for monastics - in general, except for the prescribed meal), delicacy, and a violation of abstinence in general. Improper and excessive love of the flesh, its life and peace, from which self-love is composed, from which the failure to preserve faithfulness to God, the Church, virtues and people is composed. (This also includes a predilection for warmth, convenience, comfort, a soft bed and sitting, etc.) 2) Fornication Fornication, fornication, prodigal sensations and attitudes of the soul and heart. Accepting impure thoughts, conversing with them, enjoying them, giving them permission, lingering in them. Prodigal dreams and captivity. Not guarding the senses, especially the sense of touch, which is the audacity that destroys all virtues. Foul language and reading voluptuous books. Natural sins of fornication: fornication and adultery. Fornicatory sins are unnatural (sodomy, adultery, incest, all kinds of perversions, which, apparently, are completely unknown to us). 3) Love of money Love of money, in general, love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to enrich oneself. Reflection on the means of enrichment. Dreaming of wealth. Fears of old age, accidental poverty, sickness, exile. Avarice. Cupidity. Disbelief in God, lack of hope in His Providence. Addiction or morbid love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Infatuation with vain cares. Love of gifts. (Fashion.) Appropriation of someone else's. Interest (interest-bearing loans). Hardness of heart to the poor brethren and to all those in need. Theft. Robbery. 4) Anger Irascibility, acceptance of angry thoughts: dreaming of anger and revenge, indignation of the heart with rage, darkening of the mind by it. Obscene shouting, arguing, abusive, cruel and prickly words, stress, pushing, killing. Rancor, hatred, enmity, revenge, slander, condemnation, indignation and offense of one's neighbor. 5) Sorrow Grief, anguish, cutting off hope in God, doubting God's promises, unthanking God for everything that happens, faint-heartedness (cowardice), impatience, lack of self-reproach, sorrow for one's neighbor, murmuring, renunciation of the cross, attempt to descend from it. (Envy of the rich, prosperous, an attempt to keep up with them in the pursuit of worldly goods.) 6) Despondency Laziness to any good work, especially to prayer. Abandonment of the church and cell rule. Abandonment of unceasing prayer and spiritually beneficial reading. Inattention and haste in prayer. Negligence, irreverence, idleness. Excessive soothing by sleep, lying down, and all kinds of non-soothing. Moving from place to place, frequent exits from cells, walks and visits to friends (this is mainly said about monastics, and for the laity it can be said as follows: disgust from loneliness, fear of being left alone with oneself, craving for company and entertainment in it, replacing the company with television or radio listening). Idle talk, jokes, blasphemy. Abandonment of prostrations and other bodily feats. Forgetting one's sins. Forgetting the commandments of Christ. Negligence, captivity, deprivation of the fear of God. Bitterness, insensitivity, despair. 7) Vanity The search for human glory. Bragging. Desire and search for earthly and vain honors. Love of beautiful clothes, carriages, servants and cell things. Attention to the beauty of your face, the pleasantness of your voice and other qualities of the body. Disposition towards the sciences and arts perishing of this age (however, not in itself, but), the search to succeed in them in order to acquire temporary earthly glory. (The desire to know the Wisdom of God through science, to find evidence of it and to shame it, thereby godlessness and superstition, as well as the desire to express a deep and true religious feeling by means of art, are hardly subject to condemnation in themselves, although, of course, they can always be subject to the temptation of vanity.) It is shame to confess one's sins. Hiding them before people and their spiritual father. Slyness, self-justification (especially at confession). Questioning, forming one's own mind (or, in other words, one's own opinion about what is good and what is bad). Hypocrisy, lies, flattery. Man-pleasing. Envy (not of the fact that the other has more, but of the fact that he is more appreciated). Humiliation of one's neighbor. Changeability of temper (capriciousness). Indulgence (apparently, to other people's passions). Unscrupulousness. The temper and life are demonic. 8) Pride Contempt for one's neighbor. Preference for oneself to everyone. Audacity. Darkening, debilitation of mind and heart, nailing them to earthly things. Blasphemy, unbelief, falsely eminent reason. Disobedience to the Law of God and the Church. Following one's carnal will. Reading heretical, depraved and vain books. Disobedience to the authorities (meant, of course, the divinely established, and not the atheistic power). A sharp mockery. Abandonment of Christ-imitating humility and silence. Loss of simplicity. Loss of love for God and neighbor. False philosophy, heresy, godlessness, death of the soul. Using this list, you can carefully examine your soul in preparation for confession. But our task is not only to see our passions, but to learn to overcome them.

Struggle with passions

To overcome passions at their very root, you need constant attention to your soul, control not only your actions, but also your thoughts and feelings. It is necessary to constantly pay attention to oneself, that is, to look at one's soul through the eyes of the holy ascetic Fathers. Much has been written about the passions and their concrete manifestations by the Fathers, and all this should be constantly applied to one's soul. Let's not reassure ourselves beyond the sense of reality: for those who live in the world, such attention is almost unattainable. Passions continue to live in our hearts, even if they do not manifest themselves for a long time. Having chosen an opportune moment and hiding behind plausible excuses, they suddenly rise up in their souls quite strongly and almost irresistibly. The moment of the rebellion of the passions is always chosen by our invisible enemies in such a way that we pay the least attention to ourselves. Living in the world and being concerned with a whole series of thoughts and feelings, we cannot maintain a sufficient measure of sobriety. At best, we learn, according to the proverb, to wave our fists after a fight, that is, to notice the action of passion in ourselves only after we have set it in motion and sinned. Sin, as a deadly thing, always brings a sobering bitterness to the soul, which is useful if it does not reach despair. And yet you should not be discouraged. No matter how many times passions struggle with us, subsequent repentance is an important thing and not at all useless. It does not allow passion to take root in us completely. The complete instillation of passion is characterized by the fact that a person does not notice it in himself and does not recognize it. If he repents of this passion, it means that he is not hopeless yet, he can improve. Therefore, it is important for some irritation not to turn into rancor, accidental murmuring into long despondency, joyful acquisition into love of money, grief over the dexterity of a friend into envy, and so on. In other words, not a single outburst of passion should be allowed to turn into a long-term spiritual fire. All this is helped by repentance, even if it is somewhat belated. Repentance must be sincere, so that it gives rise to a determination not to succumb to temptation. Then, gradually, there will come an experience that shows where the action of passion begins and how it continues. These determinations and experiences develop our attention to ourselves. He who listens is inaccessible to the action of the enemy as long as he retains attention: he will easily notice and cut off any pretext of passion while it is still easy, while it is easy to cope with it. A good way to cultivate attention is ascetic reading. The books of the Ascetic Fathers can be reread once, and twice, and a third. A stupid book is boring from the second time, and the words of ascetics-soul-scientists will be understood more and more deeply each time, as their own spiritual understanding grows. And most importantly, as long as we have read the teaching about the passions fresh in our memory, we are more attentive. Therefore, if we do not take such a book in our hands for a year or two, then we neglect our soul and not only succumb to the sudden invasions of passions, but also truly forget to repent of them, limiting ourselves to an extremely dry enumeration of what we know about ourselves. And this is at best. The Holy Fathers say a great deal about the passions, and this is said by those who have conquered the passions, and therefore have come to know them. Our knowledge of the passions comes from the other end: we know how the passions conquer us, how they tyrannize over the soul. This is our main difference from the Fathers, and therefore we will give the floor to them, limiting ourselves only to what has been said. After all, we are only composing a preface to asceticism. Let us dwell in detail only on the ascesis of sex, since the Holy Fathers, unlike us, usually addressed themselves to monastics.

Chapter 7. Gender austerity