12. Выводы из сказанного о трех сторонах человеческой жизни. Возможность перехода из одного состояния в другое и преобладания той или другой стороны жизни. Преобладание душевности и плотяности как греховное состояние. Господство духовной жизни как норма истинной жизни человека

Let us now settle scores with you or draw conclusions from everything that has been said. You see how many sides or, better yet, degrees of life we ​​have! There is a spiritual side and degree of life, there is a spiritual-spiritual one, there is actually a mental one, there is a mental-physical one (it seems that I didn’t highlight it properly - this includes observations with imagination and memory, desires from the needs of the body and feelings of bodily states and impressions), there is a bodily one. There are five tiers, but a person’s face is one, and this one person lives first one, then another, then a third life and, judging by the kind of life he lives, receives a special character, reflected in his views, and in his rules, and in his feelings, that is, it can be either spiritual - with spiritual views, rules and feelings, or spiritual - with spiritual concepts, rules and feelings, or carnal - with carnal thoughts, deeds and feelings (I don’t take into account the middle states - mental-spiritual and mental-physical - so as not to split it too much.) This does not mean that when a person is spiritual, soulfulness and physicality no longer have a place in him - but that then spirituality becomes dominant in him, subordinating and penetrating soulfulness and physicality; It is also not that when a person is soulful, his spirituality and physicality no longer exist, but that then soulfulness is dominant, governs everything and gives everything its tone and wraps spirituality itself in the veil of soulfulness; It is also not that when a person becomes carnal, his spirituality and soulfulness disappear, but that then everything in him becomes solidified and his spirituality and soulfulness are carnal, subordinate to the flesh and trampled upon by it and kept in slavery to it. Since, no matter what degree a person is at, other aspects of his life remain inherent in him, then at no stage is he enslaved so that he cannot free himself from this bondage, but always has the opportunity to move from one degree to another, weakening one side of his life and strengthening another. Likewise, a spiritual person can fall into the soul and body, and a carnal person can rise to spirituality, when he loves the spiritual and the carnal, and the other seeks the spiritual. Man is always free. Freedom is given to him along with self-awareness and together with it constitutes the essence of the spirit and the norm of humanity. Extinguish self-awareness and freedom - you extinguish the spirit, and the person becomes not a person. But while asserting that a person has the freedom to move up and down the degrees of his life, I do not assert at the same time that it is equally easy and convenient for him to move whether he goes from top to bottom or from bottom to top, or that these movements can be performed in him as quickly and often as transitions from one room to another, which happen several times a day. By this I only wanted to say that a person who is self-aware and free is the culprit of his inner state, and that if he, having found himself in a state that cannot be approved, remains in it, then he himself is to blame for this and is responsible before God and people. Each of the demonstrated degrees, or manifestations, of our life is natural in us and, therefore, cannot be disapproved of in itself. It is not natural and, therefore, in itself not approving, that state in which thoughts wander, soar and seethe, desires are fickle, excited by passions - not natural to us, but alien ones - and the feelings of the heart are agitated and troubled because of these same passions. I deliberately highlighted these unnaturalities within us, speaking about mental life, in order to draw your attention to them. I remember this on purpose even now, in order to also force you to better understand this matter and treat it according to its dignity. The wandering of thoughts, the inconstancy of passionate desires and the anxieties of the heart constantly bother us, not allowing us to do a single thing as it should and always almost leading us astray. This disease, although universal and everywhere, is not natural, but acquired by us arbitrarily. The enemy knows how much she is at his disposal, and, trying to tempt someone, first of all tries to push him into this pool, namely: first he introduces him into a stream of thoughts, then ignites passionate desires under them, and with these excites the heart. Whoever is brought to this point, the temptation is ripe. If he doesn’t come to his senses, he falls and, having fallen, is carried away into the whirlpool of turbulent movements of thoughts, wishes and feelings, sometimes for a short time, sometimes for a long time, and often forever. That life, a part of which, remember, you have experienced, all passes in this whirlpool and, judging by the circles, it happens where it is more seething, where it is quieter, where it is more modest, where it is wide open - in all its nakedness and shame. But even beyond this, rarely is anyone free from those seethings inside. No, no - and it will break through. From wandering thoughts and ideas, I don’t know if anyone is free. So, if you please, notice this illness of ours (and you already noticed it partly, complaining about the uncontrollability of thoughts) - and, having noticed, take up the work of healing. Never let go of the idea that there is always something unkind within you that is always ready to lead you astray from what you should and direct you to what is not. As for soulfulness and physicality, they in themselves, as has already been noted, are sinless as natural to us; but a person formed according to the soul or, even worse, according to the flesh, is not sinless. He is guilty of giving dominance in himself to something that is not intended to dominate and should occupy a subordinate position. And it turns out that, although soulfulness is natural, it is unnatural for a person to be soulful; in the same way, carnality is natural, but being carnal is unnatural for a person. The error here lies in the exclusive predominance of what should be subordinate. But when spirituality dominates in someone, then, although this will be his exceptional character and mood, he does not sin, firstly, because spirituality is the norm of human life and that, therefore, being spiritual, he is a real person, while a spiritual and carnal person is not a real person; and, secondly, because, no matter how spiritual someone is, he cannot help but give due to spirituality and carnality, he only keeps them gently and in subordination to the spirit. Even if his soul is not broad (in scientific knowledge, arts and other matters) and his flesh is tightly constrained - he is still a real, complete person. But a spiritual person (knowing a lot, an artist, a businessman), and even more so a carnal one, is not a real person, no matter how red he appears on the outside. He is headless. Hence the simple man, who fears God, is superior to the multi-educated and elegant, but does not have to please God in his goals and aspirations. Judge the same about works of literature and art. Works in which everything is carnal are not good at all; but even those in whom spirituality dominates do not meet their purpose, although they are higher than those of the flesh. This is the judgment only about those works that are alien to spiritual elements; those who are directly hostile about everything spiritual, that is, about God and Divine things, are directly the essence of enemy suggestions and should not be tolerated. From this you see that by natural purpose a person must live in the spirit, subordinate to the spirit and penetrate with the spirit everything spiritual, and even more so bodily, and behind them - everything external, that is, family and social life. This is the norm! I am not trying to persuade you to live in the spirit and subordinate everything to it, believing that if you have thoroughly understood everything that has been said, then the decision to live this way is already inherent in you. You have already expressed your decisive desire to stand on the level of human life as it is intended to be. You now see what it is intended to be, and, of course, you want to show it that way. But you have lived hitherto in your family and in the circle of relatives as depicted, that is, in spirit, although you have studied science, and you know farming, and you are an expert in music and singing. You are asked not to develop spirituality in yourself, but to maintain and preserve it, protecting yourself from the influences and attractions of spiritual and carnal life, into the whirlpools of which you have begun to fall. This is what you and I agreed to talk about. And, of course, you are waiting for a decision as soon as possible: so what to do? You might be interested in: