Yes, it seems that the most real thing that exists in this world is death. But it is in its reality that everyone does not want to believe, or rather, to measure the reality of death with the illusory nature of human existence. Ghostliness is not in the sense that this is a bluff, no, God cannot have deception, God is the Truth. The illusory nature of existence in its transience and in the attitude of man himself to it, as it turns out, all our troubles are in ourselves. Man treats this transience as eternity, rejecting the greatest reality of death. Tell someone about death, and even about the death of your interlocutor, and you will become an enemy. And what, will he live forever or me, or that? It's just that we try not to think about death, to get away from it according to the ostrich method - you hide your head in the sand and it seems that there is no danger! Look, how many saints put a coffin in their cells, why? For the remembrance of death, and this, as Holy Tradition says, is the pledge of salvation. How! What people there were, true men, sons of God, and they kept before their eyes a constant reminder of death - the grave! Both for ourselves and for us sinners, especially for people of the last time, for everything draws us to eternal life on earth, we have contrived to deceive ourselves, well, just a little more... and get the elixir of eternal youth.

Just as a donkey is tied a carrot before his eyes, so that he runs after it all the way, and does not disturb the owner with stops, so Satan thrusts a carrot into mankind of eternal, sinful life on earth. They say, that there is nothing to practice in spiritual work, prayer and fasting, and even more so, to love your neighbor, you either believe that after the grave there is only a land of cheese, in which you yourself will decay, and the coffin will turn into dust, or that there are already ways to rejuvenate, prolong life, prevent old age, in general, whatever you want. If you are too fastidious, but you want to live, we will freeze it! When we defrost, then everything will definitely be open, and you will live forever! The ravings of a madman, but they believe, the unfortunate believe. Yes, on earth you can connect with eternity and see with your own eyes the reality of real eternity, and not a satanic mirage. Apostle Paul, St. Seraphim of Sarov and how many other righteous men were vouchsafed to see the beauties of paradise! In the same way, an even greater number of prayer books were sown with the uncreated light of Tabor. Yes, the very appearance of God's people and Satan's people, isn't this a guarantee of reality?

How can one be saved in this terrible time of destruction? Now some theoreticians have begun to argue that it is impossible for a person to be saved if God wants to save him, but otherwise - no, it is impossible. And all this regardless of the work of the person himself. It turns out to be some kind of Calvinism, and the main thing is that there is no point in striving for salvation, it is impossible to be saved. Sin, my brother, as much as your soul asks - you will like it or not, it does not depend on you alone.

But no, it's just not like that at all. Yes, no one can be saved without God's help, the Savior Himself told the disciples that we need to rack our brains. But the Lord's help is applied to human zeal, to his labors and efforts. As the great St. Chrysostom said, you bring everything that is yours, and what is not enough, God will make up! And there is no zeal, so we are saved by sorrows and illnesses. And moderation, moderation in everything. Materialism, consumerism, this is the terrible devil's bridle on people. Everything is put on purchase and there is no limit to this.

I began my story with the first vision of how people fell into hell, what pulled them there. So, you can't have a car, a house, or furniture? Once, a few years ago, two Russian families who had fled from Georgia came to me with a request to pray. I was struck by their escape, its realization. It was already impossible to leave, everyone who tried to do it legally, i.e. observed all the formalities in order to be able to take out everything they had, formalized, as expected, their departure, cars, I don't know what else, were at the border and on the way to it were robbed, subjected to violence up to murder. My visitors reasoned much more wisely: "God gave, God took away, just to survive, the rest will follow." They were wearing what they were wearing - on the cars, only warm clothes in the trunk, and run. So the Lord providentially gave them housing immediately, and they were able to register the cars, so everything WORKED OUT.

Here it is, the attitude to things, one saves them, not even thinking about his safety, how they have been making money all their lives. For another, it is only a means, but not an end in itself. Therefore, such a person, with such an attitude to things, will not give much to what is called "prestige". If only I could be comfortable. This is the right approach, purely for our time. There is no need to rake in things the purpose of which is either not clear to you at all, or their use will be carried out somewhere out there, over time. You take them because everyone has them. Must not. Only what is really necessary and not the most expensive, but simple and reliable. This is especially true for clothes and winter, warm clothes. The principle is the same - goodness, natural and sufficient, warming as much as possible.

You should be very careful with electronics, with electronic devices. From imaginary friends, in an instant, they will turn into obvious ruthless enemies:

Any receiver is also a transmitter at the same time. I have often talked about this with knowledgeable people. This is especially true of television, around this "miracle" of civilization big battles are being waged. I think that the question is not only and not so much in the TV itself, but in its use.

A person of our time, on the one hand, has an overabundance of communication with people, and on the other, as surprising as it may seem, his great drawback. And this is what communication is all about, just as everything that a person of today creates, he creates in a hurry. This communication takes place either at work or on the road, when a person is not in a peaceful mood - he is either excited or tired. There is no proper environment for communication in a state of calm.

Our man has a huge amount of extra time, I do not make a reservation, exactly superfluous, because free time is superfluous. So it is in everything: in food, in clothes, in housing. Everywhere superfluous is extremely dangerous for the soul. But there is a great danger from superfluous time, for the very appearance of superfluous time testifies to the absence of spiritual life, a certain emasculation of the way of life. Look at how extra time appears. At the expense of work? No, of course, there will be no work in the last place. Of course, I don't want to talk about people who have finally fallen - alcoholics, drug addicts. This is a topic, although related to ours, but somewhat different from it.

So, work for a person of modern society is in the first place. Moreover, even believers in the spring are engaged in gardening work, regardless of Sunday, Passion or Bright Weeks, everything is one, a certain boor-likeness is manifested. So there is no extra time. Moreover, everyone groans literally from its shortage. But this free time is there and a huge amount of it, where does it come from?!

And this is the time that should be used for spiritual work, whether it be prayer, reading spiritual literature, and, in particular, for useful communication, spiritually beneficial. This time is spent on entertainment and nothing more. Satan instructed man to organize the entire structure of his life in such a way that there would be no time of calm, no time of comprehension of the past day, week, or month. Everything replaces entertainment. And in this entertainment system, the TV is given an honorable privileged place. The lion's share of free time is "eaten up" by him, this idol of modern civilization. And I would say - a terrible despot and tyrant, who has under his rule most of humanity in such slavery that the world has never seen before. For slaves feel their inferior position, because they are brought to it by force. And here slavery is voluntary, even, at first glance, sweet. And only the bitter fruits of lack of spirituality, cruelty, depravity indicate that, as in any slavery, only the master has benefit. And the horns of the owner are still peeking out from behind the screen. That is why television in this system of preparing people for the coming of the Antichrist is assigned not only the role of an absorber of free time, but its destructive role is much greater. A person watches the news, even an Orthodox one, it seems to him that this is a necessary and useful thing, in any case, not harmful. But the news itself takes up a small fraction of time, and the rest is the analysis of what is happening, that is, the vision of what is happening that should be formed among consumers of television products. The names of those who ordered the views, those who control the information presented, do not need to be named, so everything is clear. From this, from the psychotropic influence of television programs, a person destroys the ability to think about things, to perceive events meaningfully, and, finally, to form their own worldview.

We began with the defectiveness of modern communication between people. So, the roots of this inferiority lie precisely in the lack of individual thinking and comprehension of what is happening in accordance with one's own worldview. And this is by no means a justification for the searches of today's "individual", no.

I once said that my mother always had someone in the kitchen. In the evening, after the meal, a huge samovar was placed and everyone who found shelter for the night sat down to drink tea. A conversation began. How interesting it was! There was so much edifying in these stories of ordinary people. My father laughed at our love of spending the evening in the kitchen, believing that an educated person has nothing to learn from illiterate people. But after spending a couple of evenings with us, he changed his mind. People gathered: all Orthodox Christians and those who knew the world not from the reports of TV presenters. They told about those events, incidents from life, which they themselves witnessed or heard from eyewitnesses. In all this, the edifying side was sought, the consequence of what had happened, both as an action of God's Providence and as a manifestation of the free will of man. It was in these arguments that the diversity of human thought and the difference in worldviews were manifested. At that time, people were able not only to listen, but to hear, and in general they loved to listen more than to speak. Although, I repeat, each of those present had something to tell.