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(See Virtues, Cross, Prayer). Human! Your entertainment, your amusements are the exposer of the torment living inside you. You are looking to drown it out with a cup of noisy fun and continuous entertainment. Unhappy! As soon as you have a moment of sobriety, you are again convinced that the torment that you tried to destroy with entertainment lives in you. Entertainment serves as food for it, a means of strengthening: having rested in the shadow of entertainment, torment awakens with new strength. She is a testimony living in man himself, testifying to him of his fall. 2. 132–133 (See Sadness, Unfeeling). Make no mistake! Do not consider human fervor to be the effect of Divine fire. Many made mistakes and fell into harmful self-delusion. From this inflamed state, countless delusions arose and filled the earth with false teachings. Behind these dark clouds the sun of truth is hidden from the world. By their fruit you will know them,” the Savior said about false teaching and false teachers. Where there is heat, there is no truth, nothing good, nothing useful can happen from there: here the blood boils, here the false mind smokes and builds castles in the air. Meekness and humility, the action of which is accompanied by some subtle coolness, but then appears in countless good fruits - a witness of genuine, true, Divine goodness. 6. 420–420 Do not rush through life and do not get excited by temporary impulses, but live moderately and constantly, making mourning, “which,” as the Great Pimen said, “does and preserves,” one might add, “and heals the stumbling blocks that occur on the path of life. 6.822 (See Jealousy, Works, Jesus Prayer Heat). For this reason, wickedness will not rise to judgment, lower than the sinner in the council of the righteous (Ps. 1:5). There is no participation for the wicked in the first resurrection (Rev. 20), which Saint John described in the Apocalypse, in the spiritual resurrection that takes place during earthly life, when the Almighty Spirit touches the soul and renews it into rebirth. The soul is resurrected, comes to life into Divine life! Her mind and heart are enlightened and become partakers of the spiritual mind. Spiritual intelligence is the feeling of the belly of the immortal, as defined by the spirit bearers. This very mind is a sign of resurrection. So, on the contrary, carnal wisdom is the invisible death of the soul. Spiritual intelligence is the work of the Holy Spirit. He sees sin, sees passions in himself and others, sees his soul and the souls of others, sees the snares of the ruler of the world, casts down every thought that is placed on the mind of Christ, reflects sin from himself, no matter in what modification it approaches: because spiritual mind is the kingdom, the light of the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart. The wicked will not rise again for spiritual reasoning! This reasoning is the advice of some righteous people, their property. 2. 11 “There is reason that precedes faith,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “and there is reason that is born from faith. The reason that precedes faith is natural reason; the mind born of faith is spiritual mind.” As long as faith operates, the spiritual mind shines in him. With the cessation of the action of faith, activity according to the teachings of the Gospel is abandoned, activity begins according to one’s own considerations and according to the suggestions of the heart: the mind descends from the heights of a spiritual state to a carnal state, the feeling of goodness leaves the heart, passions irritated by their expulsion enter into it, the world is replaced by various disturbances. He who has experienced in his soul the opposite states outlined here will experience the essential importance of the Lord’s instructions, will experience the union of faith with spiritual intelligence and mercy. The greatest things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. The union of these virtues lies in the renewal and salvation of man. 4.194 (See Reasoning, Thought, Wisdom). False reason is a way of thinking and judgments acquired by the mind after the fall of man. As a result of the fall, he has the character of self-delusion, as a result of lies and deception, he does not accept the Truth - Christ; as one who highly values ​​everything earthly, while the earth is a place of exile for the fallen, he is opposed to faith and the spiritual mind it gives birth to, which looks at everything earthly through the eye of a wanderer. The object of the falsely named mind is one thing temporary and perishable. When his subject is the eternal and spiritual, his judgments are completely unfounded and erroneous. He is deprived of enlightenment from above, explaining spiritual objects; for his own powers, without revelation, these objects are inaccessible; the extraneous light in it is the light of the dark spirits of lies. All information is delivered to him by his bodily senses, which are damaged by the fall. When what is invisible with sensory eyes is made accessible to him by some means, for example magnetism, then by this he only multiplies his delusions, strengthens his darkness and self-deception, as if he were in the realm of lies, as if he had acquired only false knowledge. His followers are in constant disagreement with each other, contradicting each other and themselves. It does not require good behavior from a person, on the contrary, it provides freedom to sin. He considers himself the ruler of the world, which is why he rejects God’s Providence, if not always in words, then always in deed itself. It contains within itself the beginning of godlessness, which constitutes the entire essence of every error, revealing itself more or less in it. Finally, he is the negative wealth of fallen spirits and those people who are in communication with fallen spirits. 2.146 (See Wisdom, Worldly Learning). The divinely inspired writer of everyday life (Prophet Moses) says: “And the Lord God planted a paradise (vertical city, garden) in Eden in the east, and brought there the man he created” (Gen. 2:8). According to this narration of the writer of everyday life, the Lord Himself announced that the Kingdom, or the land of eternal bliss, was prepared for people from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Paradise is in the east; this is its position in relation to the earth. This indication seems to be rather vague and insufficient; but it is not sufficient only for those who want to measure and explain everything solely in relation to themselves, to the range of actions of their senses and to the visible world... Paradise is in the east both as indicated by the Holy Scriptures and as indicated by the Holy Church Tradition. Saint John of Damascus says: “Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing to the Lord. to the one who ascended to heaven in the east (Ps. 67:33–34); The Scripture also says: “God planted Paradise in Eden on the east side, and brought in there man, whom he had created” (Genesis 2:8), and when a person transgressed the commandment, he expelled him, and introduced sweets directly (opposite) Paradise (Genesis 3:23–24), i.e. in the west. Therefore, wanting to return to our former fatherland and fixing our eyes on it, we worship God to the east... Ascending into heaven, the Lord ascended to the east, and to the east the apostles worshiped Him; and He will come from the east just as they saw Him ascending into heaven (Acts. 1:11), about which the Lord Himself said: “As lightning comes from the east and appears to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27). So, awaiting His coming, we bow to the east. This tradition of the apostles is unwritten: for they delivered much to us even without writing.” (An exact statement of the Orthodox Faith.) St. John of Damascus says that for the same reason, i.e. because paradise is in the east, the tabernacle of Moses had a veil and an atonement to the east; that the tribe of Judah, from whose midst our Lord was to come in the flesh and which therefore had preference over the other tribes, camped to the east during the Israelites’ journey through the desert to the promised land; in the famous Temple of Solomon, the gates of the Lord were in the east; the crucified Lord looked to the west from the east, and we, directing our gaze to Him, bow to the east. New Testament Orthodox churches are built with the altar to the east; when performing prayers outside churches, we always turn to the east; We bury our dead, turning them to face the east - straight from the sweetness of Paradise, in the hope of resurrection, in the hope of returning to paradise. The Monk Simeon of Divnogorets and some other saints of God, who were worthy of admiration to paradise, found it in the east. ...Taught by the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, we recognize paradise - this place of immaculate pleasure in which Adam was placed, in which many souls of righteous people are now placed, in which many saints of God will be placed with their bodies after the resurrection - appropriate and conformable by nature to its inhabitants. Paradise is material, but its substance is subtle, just as souls are subtle, just as Adam’s body was thin before it was clothed in leather garments, just as the resurrected bodies of the righteous will be subtle in the image of the glorified body of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Paradise,” says Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, “is a village of spiritual peace.” Paradise, according to this teacher of the Church, was sensual; Adam saw it, ate the fruits of the trees of paradise, and had spiritual fun there. The thief who confessed the Lord on the cross was elevated to this paradise, the ancient heritage and fatherland of man. Saint Macarius the Great says: “Peaceful and heavenly Jerusalem, where is Paradise.” The earth serves as some semblance of heaven. The Holy Scripture compared the most fertile valley of Sodom, before its desolation, watered by the waters of the Jordan, with God's paradise (Gen. 13:10). If, before the time of its curse, the earth was completely different from how we now see it in a state of disorder and doomed to burning, then how excellent must paradise be, far surpassing the earth in the abundance of its beauties and the abundance of its grace. This is how Saint Andrew the Fool saw heaven! He told about the river of paradise, about paradise fruits and flowers, about paradise birds and their wonderful singing, about paradise vineyards and trees; About these latter he added that they cannot be compared with any earthly thing. trees, because, he said, it was God’s hand, and not man’s, that planted them. This must be understood about all the objects that make up the refined and graceful nature of paradise. The saint of God related about himself that he walked through paradise, contemplating its beauty with amazement, and from contemplating its beauties, from the abundant influence of grace with which paradise is filled, he came into unspeakable delight, into the sweetest frenzy. Very clear condition! The beauties of the earth delight the contemplator when, with the pure eye of his mind, he begins to see in them the immense power and wisdom of the Creator - all the more so the wonderful beauties of paradise should attract a person entirely to contemplation, to the vision of God in His works, and from such a vision fill the seer with spiritual, incorruptible pleasure. All the behavior of the saints about heaven agrees with each other. 11. 36–40 Saint Macarius the Great speaks of people who have acquired heavenly wealth: “They are known by their fellow citizens, i.e. the spirits of saints and angels, and with surprise they say: our brothers who are on earth have acquired great wealth. They (these earthly brothers of the celestials), when departing from this world, having the Lord with them, go with great joy to the heavenly inhabitants; those who dwell with the Lord receive them and take them to the abodes prepared for them in advance and place precious and famous garments on them.” St. Gregory of Sinaite, referring to those who saw paradise and spoke about it, says that it is the lower heaven, that it is filled with fragrant gardens planted by God; that the trees of these gardens are constantly covered with flowers and fruits; that in the middle of paradise a river flows, watering it and dividing it into four branches. The Holy Scripture also mentions this river: “The river,” it says, “comes from Eden to water paradise: from there it is divided into four beginnings” (Gen. 2:10). The holy prophet David also remembers the water that is above the heavens (Ps. 149:4) ...The Apostle Paul was caught up into paradise, and then to the third heaven - whether in the body, or apart from the body, we do not know, he says, and he heard there ineffable verbs, which a man should not fly to speak (2 Cor. 12, 3-4). The nature of paradise, the splendor of heaven, the abundance of gracious bliss there so exceed everything graceful and pleasant on earth that the holy apostle, to depict what he saw in a sacred frenzy, used the following expressions: “Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of Man has not sighed, what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9-10). 3. 81–82 A schism is a violation of complete unity with the Holy Church, with the exact preservation, however, of the true teaching about dogmas and sacraments. Violation of unity in dogmas and sacraments is already heresy. 8.23 The great Pimen used to say: “The beginning of evil is absent-mindedness.” 6.268 A mind that has been influenced by entertainment continues to feel that influence after moving away from the entertainment for a considerable time. One must endure such a situation complacently and try to distract the mind from entertainment to the remembrance of death and the judgment of God. 6.177 (See Entertainment, Pleasure, Insensibility). Basil the Great says: “Every action must be preceded by reasoning: without reasoning, a good deed turns into evil due to timelessness and immoderation. When the time and measure of the good are determined by reasoning, then a wonderful profit occurs.” 2.259 The peace of Christ, which surpasses every mind that dwells in the saints of God, immediately denounces every approaching thought of the contrary, no matter what mask of righteousness this thought is covered (Phil. 4:7). Saint John Climacus, in his Word on spiritual reasoning about thoughts, passions and virtues, says that it comes from an immaculate conscience and purity of heart; that in the beginners, according to their success, it is the knowledge of their fall and sinfulness; that in the average (according to success) it separates true good from natural and from evil, both open and hidden in the guise of good; finally, that in the perfect it is spiritual intelligence, shining from the Holy Spirit and seeing the mode of action of evil in other people. 2.409 If there are still in our times, times of poverty, famine and spiritual darkness, monks who have partly true spiritual reasoning; then these are the very few who, having been enlightened by the intelligent Jesus Prayer, have known in detail their passions, the actions of evil spirits and, finally, the action of the Spirit of God, which begins with the pouring into the soul of the sacred world of Christ. Whoever, in the light of mental prayer, has not seen his passions, has not known the action of evil spirits and has not tasted what the world of Christ is, uniting mind, soul and body, has no concept of spiritual reasoning, although he imagines having it, deceived by vanity... With good morals, one can have reasoning or reason, both natural and active, formed by the sciences and reading, as the venerable one very thoroughly discusses this Gregory of Sinai; but this is still not spiritual reasoning! Spiritual reasoning is as distant from such reason as heaven is from earth, and superior to it, just as the light of the sun is superior to the dim light of the night celestial bodies. 6. 252–253 Saint John Climacus defines the gift of spiritual reasoning, which is sent down from God exclusively to monks who walk the path of humility and humility, as follows: “Reasoning, in a broad sense, consists and is known in the infallible comprehension of the Divine will in every time, place and matter, which is characteristic of those who are pure in heart, body and lips.” 5.86 St. Cassian the Roman tells us the following excellent teaching of St. Anthony the Great on spiritual reasoning. Once upon a time, holy elders from the surrounding deserts and monasteries gathered with this saint of God and, in a long night conversation, began to consider what virtue preserves the monk from self-delusion and the snares of the devil. Some of the elders pointed to fasting and vigil, because they refine the thought and, having acquired purity, can more conveniently approach God. Others called non-acquisitiveness and contempt of property, because in this case the thought, having broken the bonds of various earthly cares, is conveniently assimilated to God. Others gave preference to alms, based on the words of the Lord: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, and so on. (Matthew 25:34). Having listened to the opinions of everyone, the Great Anthony answered: “Everything you said is both necessary and useful for those who seek God; but it is impossible to give these virtues a decisive advantage for the reason that we see many who spent their lives in fasting and vigil, retired into the desert, maintained the strictest non-covetousness, gave away all their property to alms and came into extreme poverty because of alms, then miserably fell away from virtue, crawling into a sinful life and into apostasy from the faith. What was the cause of their mental disorder? In my opinion, nothing more than that they did not have the gift of reasoning. Reasoning teaches a person to avoid immensity in everything and to follow the royal path. It does not allow one to be robbed from the right side by immeasurable abstinence, nor from being deprived from the side by excessive indulgence of the body. It is for the soul like an eye and a lamp, according to the teaching of the Gospel, which says: “The eye is a lamp for the body: if your eye is simple, your whole body will be light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark” (Matt. 6, 22–23). This is true! Reasoning, considering all the thoughts and deeds of a person, eliminates every thought and intention that is evil, displeasing to God, and removes delusion from us... The mother and guardian of all virtues is reasoning.” The other fathers also agreed with this position and the opinion of the Great Anthony. Spiritual reasoning is acquired by reading the Holy Scriptures, mainly the New Testament, and reading the Holy Fathers, whose writings correspond to the type of life led by a Christian... It is necessary that the reading be facilitated by living: “Be creators of the word, and not just hearers, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). It is necessary that reading correspond to living, so that reading can be carried out as an activity, so that it does not arouse only fruitless daydreaming, leading to a state of excitement and self-delusion. “The lamp of my feet is Your law and the light of my paths” (Ps. 119:105), says the Holy Scripture, calling general activity feet, paths the private actions of a Christian, light spiritual reasoning. When studying the law of God, with one’s own effort to fulfill the law of God, one must ask through fervent and humble prayer for grace-filled illumination from Above. 4. 205–207 (See Demon sensory vision, Demon spiritual vision, Good, Spiritual mind). Carnal and spiritual jealousy We must be very wary of carnal jealousy, which appears pious in appearance, but in essence is reckless and harmful to the soul. Lay people and many monastics, out of ignorance, greatly praise such zeal, not realizing that its sources are conceit and pride. They call this zeal zeal for faith, for piety, for the church, for God. It consists in more or less harsh condemnation and denunciation of neighbors in their moral errors and in errors against church deanery and order. Deceived by the false concept of jealousy, unreasonable zealots think, indulging in it, to imitate the holy fathers and holy martyrs, forgetting about themselves that they, the zealots, are not saints, but sinners. If the saints denounced the sinners and the wicked, they denounced them according to the command of God, according to their duty, according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and not according to the inspiration of their passions and demons. Whoever decides to spontaneously denounce his brother or make a reprimand to him clearly reveals and proves that he considered himself more prudent and more virtuous than the one he denounced, that he acts out of passion and seduction by demonic thoughts. It is appropriate to remember the Savior’s commandment: “Why have you seen the bitch that is in your brother’s eye, but have you not sensed the beam that is in your eye? Or how do you say to your brother: leave him alone, so that I may remove the speck from your mind, and this log in your eye? O hypocrite, first remove the log from your hair; and then you will see that the speck is removed from your brother’s hair” (Matthew 7:3-5). What is a log? This is carnal wisdom, as thick as a log, taking away all ability and correctness from the visual power bestowed by the Creator on the mind and heart. A person led by carnal wisdom cannot in any way correctly judge either his own internal state or the state of his neighbors. He judges himself and others as he appears to himself and as his neighbors appear to him in appearance, according to his carnal wisdom, erroneously - and therefore the Word of God very correctly called him a hypocrite. A Christian, after healing himself with the Word of God and the Spirit of God, receives a correct view of his spiritual structure and the spiritual structure of his neighbors. Carnal wisdom, hitting a sinning neighbor with a log, always confuses him, often destroys him, never brings and cannot bring benefit, and has no effect on sin. On the contrary, spiritual wisdom acts exclusively on the spiritual illness of a neighbor, having mercy on the neighbor, healing and saving him. It is worthy of note that after acquiring spiritual intelligence, the shortcomings and errors of one’s neighbor begin to seem very unimportant, as redeemed by the Savior and conveniently healed by repentance - those same errors and shortcomings that seemed immensely great and important to the carnal mind. It is obvious that carnal wisdom, being itself a log, gave them such great importance. Carnal wisdom sees in one's neighbor such sins as are not in him at all: for this reason, those who were carried away by reckless jealousy often fell into slandering their neighbor and became a tool and playground of fallen spirits. The Monk Pimen the Great said that a certain monk, carried away by jealousy, was subjected to the following temptation: he saw another monk lying on a woman. The monk struggled for a long time with a thought that forced him to stop the sinners, and, finally, defeated, he pushed them with his foot, saying: “Stop it!” Then it turned out that they were two sheaves. If you want to be a faithful, zealous son of the Orthodox Church, then achieve this by fulfilling the Gospel Commandments regarding your neighbor. Don't dare denounce him! Don't dare teach him! Do not dare to condemn and reproach him! This is not an act of faith, but of reckless jealousy, conceit, and pride. They asked Pimen the Great: “What is faith?” The Great One answered: “Faith consists in remaining in humility and doing mercy,” i.e. humble yourself before your neighbors and forgive them all insults and insults, all their sins. Since reckless zealots cite faith as the primary reason for their zeal, let them know that true faith, and therefore true zeal, must be expressed in humility before one’s neighbors and in mercy towards them. Let us leave the judgment of men and the chastisement of men to those men who are entrusted with the responsibility of judging and governing their brethren. “He who has false zeal,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “suffers from a great illness. O man who thinks of carrying out jealousy against the illnesses of others, you have renounced the health of your soul! Work diligently for the health of your soul. If you want to heal the weak, then know that the sick need more care for them than harsh reproofs. But by not helping others, you plunge yourself into a serious and painful illness. This jealousy in people is not recognized as one of the types of wisdom, but is ranked among the ailments of the soul, it is a sign of the poverty of spiritual reason, a sign of extreme ignorance. The beginning of the wisdom of God is quietness and meekness, characteristic of a great and strong soul, a most thorough way of thinking, and bears human infirmities. “For you are strong,” says Scripture, “and bear the infirmities of the weak” (Rom. 15:1), and: “whoever sins, correct him with the spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1). The apostle counts peace and patience among the fruits of the Holy Spirit.” In another word, the Monk Isaac says: “Do not hate the sinner, because we are all sinners. If you struggle against him (the sinner) for God’s sake, then shed tears for him. Why do you hate him? Hate his sins, and pray for him, and thereby you will become like Christ, Who was not indignant at sinners, but prayed for them. Don't you see He wept for Jerusalem? And in many cases we serve as a laughing stock for the devil. Why do we hate the one who laughs at us, the devil, who laughs at us? Why do you, O man, hate the sinner? Is it because he is not as righteous as you? Where is your truth when you have no love! Why did you not weep for him, but do you persecute him? Some who think that they have a sound judgment about the deeds of sinners and (on this occasion) are angry with them, act this way out of their ignorance.” 5. 275–278 When, for your work in the garden of commandments, God grants you to feel Divine zeal in your soul, then you will clearly see that this zeal will prompt you to silence and humility before your neighbors, to love them, to have mercy on them, to condole for them, as Saint Isaac of Syria said. Divine jealousy is a fire, but not one that heats the blood! It extinguishes the heat in her and brings her into a calm state. The jealousy of carnal wisdom is always associated with heated blood, with the invasion of numerous thoughts and dreams. The consequences of blind and ignorant jealousy, if a neighbor resists it, are usually indignation at him, resentment, vindictiveness in various forms, and if he submits, vain self-satisfaction, excitement and an increase in our arrogance and conceit. 5.278 Carnal feelings flowing from carnal kinship prevent the assimilation of spiritual feelings and the very activity according to the spiritual law, which requires crucifixion for carnal wisdom. 6.734 With some dilapidation of disrepair, love for relatives cools down, and they become in the category of all people in general, in which spiritual kinship has all the power. 6.825 When people who are close to us in the flesh set out to distract us from following the will of God, we will show them holy hatred, similar to that which is shown to wolves by lambs who do not transform into wolves and do not defend themselves from wolves with their teeth. Holy hatred of one’s neighbors consists in maintaining loyalty to God, in not consenting to the vicious will of people, even if these people were closest relatives, in generous patience with the insults they inflict, in prayer for their salvation - not in slander and not in actions similar to slander, which express the hatred of the fallen nature, hatred that is contrary to God. “Do not remember,” said the Savior, “that you have come to bring peace to the earth; you have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:16). “I came,” St. John Climacus explains the quoted words of the Lord, “to separate the God-loving from the peace-loving; carnal from spiritual; those who love glory from those who are humble: God is pleased with division and separation when it is done for the sake of love for Him.” 1.90 (See Love is natural). “The part of a fool is small in his eyes,” said the great Isaac. On the contrary, in a soul that accepts with gratitude the gifts of God, the value of these gifts increases... Confused glances of murmur and discontent convey their cloudiness to that for which, in all fairness, one should thank and glorify God. 2.49 Humility, even from the midst of sorrow, finds a reason for thanksgiving to God, and pride and blood, surrounded by the obvious benefits of God, find a sufficient reason for grumbling and displeasure. 6.837 Murmuring, complaints, carnal disposition, i.e. according to the elements of the world, they only multiply sorrow and make it unbearable. Saint Isaac said that “that patient who resists the doctor during an operation only multiplies his torment,” so let us submit to God not in word alone, but in thought, heart, and deed. 6.594 You might be interested in: