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Report to the All-Diaspora Council of 1938

The consequence of the collapse of the Russian State was the emergence of Foreign Russia. More than a million Russians were forced to leave their homeland and disperse all over the face of the globe. Living in new conditions, among other peoples, many of the Russians over the past years have managed to almost forget their Fatherland, their language and their customs and merge with the mass among whom they live. The overwhelming majority, however, not only retained their nationality, but also lives in the hope of returning to their homeland after the fall of the current government. Nowadays, Russians live all over the world. There is no such corner on earth where there would not be Russian people in greater or lesser numbers. An important question is: what do Russians represent abroad in spiritual terms?

A significant part of the Russians who have gone abroad belong to that intelligent class that has recently lived on the ideas of the West. Belonging to the number of children of the Orthodox Church, confessing themselves Orthodox, the people of that circle in their worldview significantly deviated from Orthodoxy. The main sin of the people of that class was that they did not build their convictions and way of life on the teachings of the Orthodox faith, but tried to harmonize the rules and teachings of the Orthodox Church with their habits and desires. Therefore, on the one hand, they were very little interested in the essence of the Orthodox teaching, often even considering the completely dogmatic teaching of the Church to be insignificant, on the other hand, they fulfilled the requirements and rituals of the Orthodox Church, but only insofar as this did not interfere with their more European than Russian way of life. Hence the neglect of fasting, visiting temples only for a short time, and even then to satisfy more aesthetic than religious feelings, and a complete misunderstanding of religion as the main basis of a person’s spiritual life. Many, of course, were inwardly disposed differently, but not many had the fortitude and skill to bring this outwardly, in life.

In the realm of the social class, it also lived on the ideas of the West. Without giving any place to the influence of the Church in it, he sought to rebuild the entire life of Russia, especially in the field of public administration, according to Western models. Therefore, in recent times a particularly fierce struggle has been waged against state power, and the need for liberal reforms and the democratic structure of Russia has become, as it were, a new faith, not professing which meant being backward. Using the slander against the Royal Family, which was widespread throughout Russia and seized with a thirst for power, to fight the monarchy, the intelligentsia brought Imperial Russia to ruin and prepared the way for communist power. Not reconciled then with the thought of losing the long-awaited power, she declared a fight against the communists, at first, mainly because of her unwillingness to cede power to them. The struggle against the Soviet regime then swept over wide circles of the population, especially attracting young people who, in a hot impulse, sought to recreate the "United, Indivisible Russia" at the cost of their lives. Many feats were shown, capturing the valor of the Christ-loving Russian army. However, the Russian people were still unprepared for liberation, and the communists turned out to be victorious.

The intelligentsia was partly destroyed, and partly fled abroad, saving their lives. Meanwhile, the communists completely revealed their face and, in addition to the intelligentsia, many people of other strata also left Russia, partly saving their lives, and partly ideologically not wanting to serve the communists. Russian people who found themselves abroad experienced great emotional upheavals. A significant change took place in the souls of the majority, marked by a massive return of the intelligentsia to the Church. Many temples abroad are filled predominantly with it. The intelligentsia became interested in questions of spiritual life and began to take an active part in church affairs. Many circles and societies were formed that set religious and educational tasks, whose members study the Holy Scriptures, the works of the Holy Fathers and, in general, spiritual life and theological questions. Many of them took spiritual orders.

However, all those encouraging phenomena also had a negative side. Not everyone, having turned to faith, accepted it in the fullness of the Orthodox teaching. The proud mind could not accept that it had hitherto been on the wrong path. Aspirations began to harmonize Christian teaching with the former views and ideas of those who converted. Hence the emergence of a number of new religious and philosophical trends, often completely alien to church teaching. Among them, Sophianism, which is based on the recognition of the self-worth of a person and expresses the psychology of the intelligentsia, has become especially widespread.

Sophianism, as a doctrine, is known to a relatively small circle of people; very few adhere to it openly. But a significant part of the emigrant intelligentsia is spiritually akin to him, for the psychology of sophianism is the veneration of a person who is not a humble servant of God, but is himself a little god who does not have the need to be blindly obedient to the Lord God. The feeling of subtle pride associated with the belief in the possibility for a person to live by his own wisdom is very typical for many people who are cultured today, who put their conclusions above all else and do not want to be obedient to the teachings of the Church in everything, treating Her condescendingly - good. Thanks to this, the Church Abroad was shaken by a series of schisms that harm her to this day and drag even a part of the hierarchy into themselves. That consciousness of a sense of personal dignity is also manifested in public affairs, where everyone who has advanced even a little from the ranks, or who thinks that he has advanced, puts his own opinion above all else and strives to become a leader. Thanks to this, Russian society was divided into countless parties and groups, irreconcilably at odds with each other and striving to carry out their own program, sometimes representing a very developed system, and sometimes simply a call to follow this or that person.

Hoping to save and revive Russia through the implementation of their programs, public figures almost always lose sight of the fact that, in addition to human actions, the Finger of God is manifested in historical events. The Russian people as a whole committed great sins, which were the cause of real disasters, namely perjury and regicide. Public and military leaders refused obedience and loyalty to the Tsar even before His abdication, forcing the latter from the Tsar, who did not want internal bloodshed, and the people openly and noisily welcomed what was happening, nowhere loudly expressing their disagreement with him. Meanwhile, there was a violation of the oath brought to the Sovereign and His legitimate heirs, and in addition, the oaths of the ancestors fell on the head of those who committed that crime - the Zemsky Sobor of 1613, which sealed its decisions with the curse of those who violated it.

Not only physical executors are guilty of the sin of regicide, but also the whole people, who rejoiced at the occasion of the overthrow of the Tsar and allowed His humiliation: arrest and exile, leaving defenseless in the hands of criminals, which by itself predetermined the end.

Thus, the calamity that has come upon Russia is a direct consequence of grave sins, and its revival is possible only after cleansing from them. However, there is still no real repentance, the crimes committed have clearly not been condemned, and many active participants in the revolution continue to assert that it was impossible to do otherwise then.

Without expressing direct condemnation of the February Revolution, the uprising against the Anointed One, Russian people continue to participate in sin, especially when they defend the fruits of the revolution, for, according to the Apostle Paul, those who know “that those who do something are worthy of death are especially sinful; yet they not only do them, but they approve of those who do them” (Rom. 1:32). Punishing, the Lord at the same time shows the Russian people the path to salvation, making them a preacher of Orthodoxy throughout the universe. The Russian Diaspora introduced Orthodoxy to all parts of the world, for the Russian refugee masses are, to a considerable extent, unconsciously preaching Orthodoxy. Everywhere, where only Russians live, they build small, refugee, or even majestic churches, and often serve in premises adapted for this.

The majority of Russian refugees are not familiar with religious movements among their intelligentsia and feed on the spiritual reserves that they have accumulated in their homeland. Broad refugee masses attend the service, part of it, and actively participate in it, helping with their singing and reading on the kliros and serving. Near the temples, church cells were created, taking care of the maintenance and splendor of the temples, and often, in addition, doing charitable work.

Looking at the pilgrims overflowing during the holidays, one can think that the Russian people have indeed turned to the Church and repent of their sins. However, if we compare the numbers of those who visit temples with the number of Russians living in a given area, it turns out that about a tenth of the Russian population accurately visits the temple, the same number attend services on major holidays, and the rest, or very rarely, for some reason, go to church, and occasionally pray at home, or completely left the church. The latter is sometimes consciously influenced by sectarian or other anti-religious influences, and in most cases people simply do not live by spiritual demands, they become callous and coarse in soul and often reach real nihilism.

Russian people in the vast majority lead a hard life, full of hard emotional experiences and material deprivation. How inhospitably they treat us in some countries, especially in our fraternal Yugoslavia, whose government and people are doing everything possible to testify their love for Russia and alleviate the grief of the Russian exiles, but nevertheless Russians everywhere feel the bitterness of the deprivation of their homeland. The whole environment around them reminds them that they are aliens and must apply themselves to customs often alien to them, eating the crumbs that fall from the meal of those who sheltered them. Even in those countries where we are treated with complete benevolence, naturally, in the distribution of labor, the first place is given to the owners of the country, and the newcomers, in the present difficult situation of most countries, often cannot get a job. Those of them who are comparatively well-off are nevertheless forced to constantly feel their lack of rights and the absence of bodies that can protect them from injustice. Only a comparatively very small part of them completely merged with the local society, but this is often associated with complete alienation from their native people and their country.

In such a difficult condition in all respects, Russian people abroad showed exceptionally high qualities of patience, endurance and self-sacrifice. As if forgetting about the former excellent, for many, living conditions, their services to the Motherland and the countries allied with it during the Great War, about their education and everything else that could encourage them to strive for the comfort of life, the Russian people in exile took up all kinds of employment and work in order to secure the possibility of existence abroad. Former nobles and generals became simple workers, artisans and small merchants, not shunning any kind of work and remembering that no work is humiliating if it is not associated with immoral acts. In this regard, the Russian intelligentsia has shown not only the ability in all circumstances to preserve its vital energy and conquer everything that stands in the way of its existence and development, but also showed that it has high spiritual qualities - the ability to humble itself and endure. The school of refugee life has morally reborn and uplifted many. We must pay honor and respect to those who bear their cross of refuge, performing unusual hard work for them, living in conditions that they have never known or thought about before, and at the same time remain strong in spirit, preserve the nobility of soul and ardent love for their fatherland and without grumbling, repenting of past sins, enduring the test. Indeed, many of them, both men and women, are now more glorious in their dishonor than in the days of their glory, and the spiritual wealth they have now acquired is better than the material wealth left in their homeland, and their souls, like gold refined by fire, cleansed in the fire of suffering and burn like bright lamps.

But with regret it must be noted that far from all suffering had such an effect. Many turned out to be not gold or expensive metal, but cane and hay, perishing in the fire. Many were not cleansed and became white with suffering, but, unable to endure the trials, they became worse than they were. Some have become hardened and do not understand that, being punished by God, we should console ourselves, remembering that there are no children who would never suffer punishment, that God, when punishing us, looks at us as sons and daughters, who should be corrected by punishment. Forgetting their former sins, instead of repentance, they add sins to sins, arguing that it is not useful to be righteous, that God either does not look at human deeds, turning His face away from them, or even that “there is no God.” In their imaginary righteousness, believing that they suffer innocently, such people are proud of their hearts more than a magnanimous Pharisee, but often they surpass publicans in their iniquity. In their bitterness against God, they are in no way inferior to the persecutors of the faith in our Motherland, and in the way of their thoughts they are completely akin to them.

Therefore, some of their ardent opponents have already become their friends here in exile, have become their open or secret servants and are trying to seduce their brothers, while others do not see any further reason for existence at all, consciously give themselves over to vices, or finding no consolation in anything, end their lives. suicide. There are others who have not lost faith in God and the consciousness of their sinfulness. But their will is completely broken and they have become like reeds shaken by the wind. Outwardly, they are similar to the previous ones, of which we have just mentioned, but inwardly they differ from them in that they are aware of the abomination of their behavior ... However, not finding the strength to fight their weaknesses, they sink lower and lower, become slaves of intoxicating drinks or surrender drug use and become incapable of doing anything. It is regrettable to see how some once worthy and respected people descend almost to the point of speechlessness and find the whole meaning of their existence in satisfying their weaknesses, having the only occupation to find means for this purpose. Having no longer the ability to earn money themselves, they often look greedily at the hands of those passing by, and having received something, they immediately strive to satisfy their passion. Only the faith hidden in the depths of many of these fallen souls, combined with self-condemnation, gives hope that not all of them have completely perished for eternity.

Better than they outwardly, but perhaps far from better inwardly, are many who live in observance of all the rules of decency and decency, but have burned their conscience. Occupying sometimes very well-paid places, having even managed to acquire a position in the society in which they now find themselves, it is as if, together with their homeland, they have lost their inner moral law. Permeated through and through with selfishness, they are ready to do evil to anyone who stands in the way of their further success. They are deaf to the sufferings of their compatriots, trying sometimes even to seem to have nothing in common with them. Without hesitation, they intrigue against others and slander them in order to remove them from their path, and they do this precisely in relation to exiles of the Motherland like them, as the most defenseless people.

There are those who try to seem completely renounced from their former Fatherland in order to win the favor of their new fellow citizens. Usually such people with a devastated soul, inside have no restraining law, why they are capable of all sorts of crimes from which benefits can be expected if they assume that they will not be discovered.

Therefore, to our shame, in almost all countries of dispersion, many abuses and crimes were committed by people with Russian names, because of which they began to treat the Russians with less trust and for the sake of such, our name is blasphemed in the town. The decline of morals among us is especially pronounced in the field of family relations. Things are happening there that no one would have believed 25 years ago.

The shrine of marriage seemed to cease to exist, and marriage turned into an ordinary transaction. Many respectable spouses, who lived for decades in a happy, it seemed, and indestructible marriage, terminated their marriage bonds and got in touch with new ones. Some did it defeated by passion, others because of the benefits of new marriages. All sorts of reasons and grounds for the dissolution of marriages are being sought, and often, even under oath, a lie is shown.

Newly concluded marriages, both among the elderly and among the young, do not differ in any strength. Petitions for annulment of marriages a few months after their conclusion have become commonplace. The slightest misunderstanding and disagreement is now the reason for the termination of the marriage union, because the consciousness of the sinfulness of breaking the marriage has been lost. Church authority has condescended widely to the weaknesses of the present generation, greatly facilitating the conditions for the annulment of marriages. However, unbridledness seems to know no limits, bypassing even the current rules. After the dissolution of a marriage, they quickly enter into a new one, just as fragile, and then often into a third.

Not being able to satisfy all their lusts by entering into marriages and not paying attention to any church and moral laws, many go even further, not even considering it necessary to turn to the Church for the blessing of their bonds. In countries where civil laws allow the registration of marriages and do not require an obligatory church marriage, it becomes increasingly common to enter into cohabitation without a church wedding, as well as the termination of family relations through a civil divorce, even if the marriage was married in a church. At the same time, it is forgotten that the sinfulness of a deed is not diminished by the fact that it has been given a more decent name and that any cohabitation that is not sanctified by a church wedding is fornication or adultery. Many openly live lawlessly, not at all caring to cover up their obvious debauchery in any way. Some do so out of passion, others for the benefits derived from their cohabitation; suppressing any shame in themselves, they do not hesitate to appear everywhere in society with their cohabitants and concubines, whom they dare to call their spouses. It is especially regrettable that recently they have begun to look at such phenomena with indifference, without expressing any negative attitude towards such phenomena, which is why they are becoming more frequent, because there are no more barriers to restrain them. What, according to church rules, requires excommunication from communion for seven years or more, according to civil laws - a restriction in civil rights, and society has recently been stigmatized with contempt, has now become commonplace even among people who strictly attend the temple and wish to take part in church affairs. , to which, according to church rules, with such a way of life, they do not have the right. What can be said after that about those who are less influenced by the Church! How low the morality of some of our compatriots fell when some became ordinary visitors, while others became inhabitants of the dens of immorality. Indulging in worse than bestial life, they dishonor the Russian name and bring the wrath of God on the current generation.

The future generation, youth and children, is growing up watching such immoral lessons from the elders. But besides, before the entire future generation as a whole, the present generation commits a great sin, devoting too little to its education. If earlier in the Motherland a significant influence on the upbringing of children was exerted by the way of life and way of life, now, without this, children could be brought up well only with special attention to this from parents and elders. Meanwhile, we can observe the opposite: very little attention is paid to the upbringing of children, not only on the part of parents, who are often busy finding means of subsistence, but also on the part of the entire foreign Russian society as a whole. Although Russian schools have been set up in some places, which, however, do not always satisfy their purpose, the majority of Russian children abroad study in foreign schools, where they do not study either the Orthodox Law of God or the Russian language. They grow up completely alien to Russia, not knowing its real wealth. In some places there are Sunday schools or other Russian schools for the children to acquire the knowledge that they cannot receive in foreign schools, and some Russian organizations also do this to some extent. However, we have to admit with sadness that parents care little about sending their children there, and not only poor, but even more rich parents are to blame for this.

Over the past years, despite the difficult conditions for the Russians, many still managed to save up or create a significant fortune for themselves. There are among us those who were able to withdraw significant sums from Russia, or had capital abroad even before and have kept it to this day. Although among them there are many people who generously help their fellows and the all-Russian cause, but the majority are busy only with their personal affairs. Being callous to the misfortune of their compatriots, whom they look down on, they are busy increasing their wealth, and use their free time for entertainment and fun, often striking foreigners with their extravagance, refusing to believe that there may be needy Russians, if there are such rich people among them, and indignant if the Russians turn to them for help. Indeed, with greater national self-awareness and understanding of one's duty to the Motherland, much more could be created abroad. Today, however, we have only a very small part of what we could have, and even those few of our charitable and educational institutions are supported more by donations from foreigners than from Russians. As a result, most of our institutions do not have sufficient funds, and wealthy Russian people, instead of coming to their aid, prefer to use homogeneous foreign institutions, contributing their capital to them, while Russian institutions are used by those who are less well off. It is a shame for us that Russian people who have the means often bring up their children in foreign schools, which cannot give children anything for the Orthodox worldview and knowledge of the Motherland, even with the best arrangement. They do not give any help to Russian schools, and besides, they do not care to fill the gaps in the national education of their children, having the material opportunity to do so.

Many parents are completely indifferent to the future outlook of their children, and some, out of poverty, using scholarships, while others, even having significant amounts themselves, send their children to educational institutions that directly set themselves the task of raising children in a spirit contrary to Orthodoxy. Various colleges where a certain religious, but non-Orthodox education is carried out, are overflowing with Russian children sent there, either by rich parents who see only its external side in education, or by poor people who are tempted to gratuitously educate their children, and therefore provide the institution with children as it wishes.

It is difficult to say which children will be more unhappy in the future, whether they are or completely neglected children, who are also not few in Abroad. Often not knowing their father, abandoned by their mothers, they roam the big cities, begging for their own food, and then learning to get it by stealing. Gradually, they become professional criminals, and they sink morally lower and lower. Many of them will end up in prison or on the gallows. But from those unfortunates it will not so much be asked in the future life as from those who, having been brought up in excellent colleges, will become the worst enemies of Russia. One has to foresee in advance that in the future the Diaspora will provide many conscious workers against Orthodox Russia, who will strive to catholicize it or plant various sects, as well as those who, while remaining outwardly Orthodox and Russian, will secretly work against Russia. A significant part of those who are now brought up in foreign schools, especially conventions, although, of course, not all of them will turn out to be such apostates and traitors to their homeland. Not only they will be to blame for this, but even more so their parents, who did not save them from such a path and did not instill in their souls a firm devotion to Orthodoxy.

Seeking only to provide for their children in real life and therefore choosing for them a school that, as they think, will be able to give them the greatest future, such parents do not pay attention to the souls of their children and become the culprits of their future fall and betrayal of faith and Motherland. Such parents are criminals before Russia and more criminals than their children, who are often enticed into a new faith at an unconscious age, and then brought up in a spirit of hatred for Orthodoxy. Similar criminals, who also deserve deep contempt, are those who personally betray the Orthodox faith in order to secure a better position or a well-paid service. Their sin is the sin of Judas the traitor, and the position or benefits they received by betraying the Faith are Judas' pieces of silver. Let some of them not claim that they did it, convinced that Orthodoxy is not the truth, and that they will try to serve Russia by confessing their new faith. Russia was created and exalted by Orthodoxy, and only Orthodoxy will save Russia. Like those who betrayed Her in the hard times of 1612, new traitors should not be allowed to build a new Russia and even be allowed into Her borders. But what will the Diaspora, in general, give for the future, given the corruption that prevails in it? Will it not become a source of a new spiritual infection when we return to our homeland?

The state of the Russian people living abroad would be hopeless morally if, along with the sad phenomena cited above, we did not see manifestations of a high uplift of spirit and sacrifice.

Despite the difficult living conditions of exiles from their homeland in all respects, they have the means to build and decorate churches, maintain clergy, and also partially meet the needs of the poor. Along with those who harden their hearts and bring nothing for the common cause, there are those who devote a significant part of their wealth to those needs. There are still among us those who gladly donate to the Church, some - significant sums from their property, compiled with difficulty, and others - small contributions, but amounting to almost all of their wealth, like the mite of a poor widow. Sacrifice is manifested not only in material gifts, but also in tireless work for the benefit of the Church and neighbors, to whom many have devoted themselves, zealously carrying out labors in various church and charitable organizations or working independently. Burdened with already many business or connected affairs and searching for what is necessary for life, they give to those affairs, reducing for their sake the necessary rest, their free time, their energy and their strength, while showing men their inherent prudence, and wives inherent in their hearts. love.

The concerns of Russians abroad cover not only the needs of Russians abroad, but there are also brave fighters for the Motherland, who are preparing its liberation, and some of them are sent to its borders for this, going almost to certain death. Love for the motherland has inspired some people abroad to commit deeds for which they were subjected to severe trials, but which history will mark as a feat.

Much stamina and zeal have been shown in the struggle for church truth. A particularly gratifying phenomenon is represented by a part of the youth, ardently devoted to the Church and the Motherland, never before seen by her, but selflessly loved.

Such examples and others like them, together with the unceasing voice of conscience, give hope that there will still be those ten righteous people for whose sake the Lord was ready to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, and show the way to the Russian Diaspora.

It has been given to Russians abroad to shine the light of Orthodoxy throughout the universe, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, glorify our Father, who is in heaven, and thereby earn their salvation. Not fulfilling its task, even humiliating Orthodoxy with its life, our Diaspora has two paths before it: either turn to the path of repentance and, having begged God for forgiveness, being spiritually reborn, become capable of reviving our suffering Motherland, or be completely rejected by God and remain in exile, persecuted by all, until it gradually degenerates and disappears from the face of the earth.

Bishop John (Maximovich)

Bishop of Shanghai John. On the spiritual state of the Russian people in the dispersion of existence // Acts of the Second All-Diaspora Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Belgrade, 1939, pp. 147-159.

What characterizes the spiritual state? The spiritual state is characterized by the expansion of consciousness, the active involvement of the subconscious in the process of comprehending the truth, the establishment of a communicative connection between consciousness and the subconscious, and thereby a sharp expansion of the information base for understanding the problem, energy activation, switching emotions from the mode of blocking information to the mode of energy replenishment.

The spiritual state is characterized by the harmonization of the personality, the elimination of contradictions with the environment or the blocking of these contradictions, focus on the cognizable problem, on the comprehension of truth, internal balance, positive outlook on life, high concentration of aspirations, strengthening of the will and its control by the personality, "I".

The spiritual state is characterized by a transition to figurative thinking, which, in turn, contributes to the activation of information exchange with the subconscious, since the information of the personal subconscious is stored in a figurative and sensual form. Imagery helps to comprehend the situation holistically, reveal new relationships, look at old ones at a new level of integration.

Spiritual states are characterized by high productivity of imagination, which, in turn, expands the information capacity of our consciousness.

In a spiritual state, words and concepts can be translated into images and feelings, thereby contributing to the inclusion of imagination processes.

The spiritual state, as we have already noted, is at the same time a motivational state. But unlike biological motivations, this will be a spiritual motivation generated by the spiritual values of the individual. The most important among these values is faith: faith in God, faith in an idea, faith in goodness, faith in an idol, leader, hero. Another, no less significant determinant of the spiritual state and spiritual motivation is love: love for God, love for a woman, love for the Fatherland. ‹…›

Since the spiritual state contributes to the expansion of the information base, connects the information resources of the subconscious, thus the spiritual state contributes to the productivity of thinking.

The spiritual state is characterized by a feeling of inner activity, the unity of spiritual abilities and properties, feelings and emotions, the unity of mental, moral, spiritual qualities, the desire for spiritual progress. Spiritual aspirations include: intellectual, moral and religious, as well as conscientiousness. An important role in determining the spiritual state is played by a sense of moral and mental superiority, purity or a sense of guilt.

In the spiritual state - the secret of creativity. The spiritual state determines the selection of information, the nature of its processing, the establishment of relationships and the nature of generalizations. The spiritual state increases the directed insight of the individual's mind, highlights those properties of objects that will allow solving the problem, revealing the truth.

A spiritual state can arise both in cases of practical life and in scientific research, in art. The spiritual state affects the intellect. By this we understand "the ability to judge, reflect and distract, which is called in practical life prudence, common sense, tact, cunning, intelligence, insight, in art - creativity and taste, in science - the ability to discover, generalize and grasp the relationship" (Ribot T., 1884). ‹…›

The clinical state is characterized by fixation on the idea, one-sided orientation of thinking and emotional charge, narrowing of consciousness. These signs appear already in cases of "overvalued ideas" and progress in paranoid states. (para- near; noos thought, mind). The spiritual state, as it were, is opposed to the clinical state. It, as we have already noted, is characterized by the expansion of consciousness, the brightness and clarity of the reflection of reality, the integrity of this reflection, an in-depth understanding of one’s own “I”, clarity of orientation in the past, present and future, deep penetration into the situation, balance in relationships, self-confidence , breadth and insight of thinking, positive mood. ‹…›

For further consideration of spiritual abilities, let us dwell on three positions.

The first two were formulated by William James (1901):

– the worst thing a psychologist can do is to begin to interpret the nature of personal consciousnesses, depriving them of individual value. Thoughts are separated from each other by the barrier of personality;

– we do not in the least explain the nature of thought by establishing the relationship between the physical and the mental... Several generations of psychologists need to be worked through in order to establish with proper accuracy the hypothesis of the dependence of mental phenomena on bodily ones.

The third proposition is that a child, unlike an animal, is born with an incomplete formation of functional systems of psychological activity. The formation of the brain as a functional system is carried out in vivo, under the influence of the external cultural environment. And we can say that the functional systems of the brain are initially formed as cultivated.

Comparing these three provisions, we can note that human abilities are initially a property of a cultivated functional system; that they are not exhausted by the properties of the system itself; that the decisive moment in their development is their determination by individual values. It is these individual values that will determine the qualitative specificity of abilities, what a person will see and remember, what thought he will have, what will be the nature of personal consciousnesses will depend on them. Spiritual abilities are determined and regulated by spiritual values. Thus, the problem is translated into the plane of values. You can say: “But this does not solve the problem, but only transfers it to another plane. Instead of one problem, another appears. Yes it is. But, firstly, we see what spiritual abilities are, and secondly, it is easier to deal with values. We can say that if activity is determined by faith or the desire to do good, we can talk about spiritual abilities.

In the light of what has been said, spiritual abilities are determined primarily by the internal nature of mental states and the feeling of activity, which manifests itself in the desire for activity in a certain direction.

In a narrow sense, spiritual abilities are associated with the desire to redeem the inner (sinful) nature of the soul, the desire to achieve its sinless purity. In a broad sense, spiritual abilities are manifested in the creation of works of art in which the essence and purpose of a person is comprehended, his relationships in society and the family, understanding of the social and spiritual personality, one's "I" and "myself as a person". ‹…›

Spiritual abilities are the ability to understand, appreciate and portray other people in your work. Spiritual abilities are an integral manifestation of the intellect and spirituality of a person. In its highest manifestation, spiritual abilities characterize a genius ...

The most important personal quality that allows one to penetrate into the spiritual world of another person is empathy (from the Greek. empatheia- empathy). There are emotional, cognitive and predicative forms of empathy. Psychological research has shown that an individual's ability to empathize increases with the accumulation of life experience.

A person cognizes himself, his spiritual world through another person, while a spiritually rich person cognizes another better than that one knows himself. For this, it is necessary that a spiritually rich person contain not only the spiritual qualities of the cognizable, but also something more - the qualities opposite to it. ‹…›

Spirituality is manifested in the fact that reality is known not only rationally, but also emotionally, through experiences. For a spiritually rich person, everything is significant, everything finds a sensual response.

It should be noted that there are no completely soulless people and that spirituality is not directly related to abilities and intelligence. A person with average abilities can also be spiritual, and a talent can be unspiritual.

Human Spirituality in the Mirror of Psychological Knowledge and Religious Faith. V. V. Znakov

The problem of spirituality attracted the attention of many major Russian psychologists, interesting books and articles were published. However, the question of the similarities and differences between the scientific-psychological and theological approaches to the analysis of the problem of spirituality still, in essence, remains without a clear answer. The purpose of the article is to try to answer at least partially the question posed.

I believe that many difficulties in solving the problem will be eliminated if it is initially recognized that the religious and scientific directions are two fundamentally different (although inextricably linked) ways of understanding the phenomenon of spirituality. Firstly, this is manifested in the search for the main sources of the origin of the spirit: science looks for them in a person (his consciousness, contemplation, products of activity), and religion - in divine revelation. The theologian has no doubt that spirituality is from the Holy Spirit, while the atheist scientist has it from man and humanity. Secondly, the differences are visible in the unequal understanding of the category of "knowledge" in science and theology.

Scientific knowledge is characterized primarily by the fact that the subject, interacting with the object, mentally reproducing it, reflects the characteristics of the object in his psyche. In rational scientific knowledge, things, phenomena, processes are presented as they occur on their own, in their self-existence, self-perfection, interactions with other objective things, phenomena, processes. Scientific knowledge of the objective world is objective; as a result, the subject has images that are similar to the cognitive objects themselves. Scientific knowledge is always an image, a model of the knowable. For example, Ya. A. Ponomarev called knowledge such a mental model, which reflects all the events included in the course of the interaction of the subject with the object. He wrote: “In itself, the term “knowledge” is selective, characterizing only the surface of the phenomenon corresponding to it, the analysis of the essence of which, as in all similar cases, can be multifaceted. In the epistemological aspect of such an analysis, knowledge acts as a reflection, ideal, as images of the objective world in a broad sense, or as sensory images, equivalent to sensations, perceptions, ideas, or as abstract images, equivalent to concepts, judgments, conclusions, etc. In concrete -scientific, psychological aspect of knowledge act as dynamic brain models of objects and phenomena, their properties, i.e. as elements that make up the psyche (1967).

However, it should be noted that far from all scientific knowledge that the subject has mastered is directly related to his spiritual Self ...

Unlike rational scientific irrational religious knowledge is based on faith, it has two main features that W. James called "emotionality" and "intuitiveness". As F. D. Schleiermacher (1994) brilliantly and convincingly showed, religious knowledge does not claim to be knowledge in the scientific sense of the word. For theology, "knowledge" turns out to be inextricably linked with "faith" and "experience", because he is not interested in the nature of things, but only in the impact of this nature on the original character of a person's religious experience. As follows, for example, from works devoted to the analysis of the ascetic and mystical aspects of Orthodoxy, religious dogmas are descriptions of the content of the experience itself, and not theoretical truths about objects, considered outside the subject's relation to them. From the position of believers, it is absurd to apply any criteria of rationality to religious experience, because it is a spiritual process that rises above any intellectualistic criteria of objectivity and subjectivity. ‹…›

In the variety of modern approaches to the problem, at least four main directions can be distinguished.

The first direction is the search for the roots of spirituality not so much in the person himself, his personality traits and inclination to reflection, but in the products of vital activity: the objectification of the highest manifestations of the human spirit, creativity, in ancient monuments, works of science and art. The spirituality of the subject is the result of his familiarization with universal values, spiritual culture, and the spirit is, first of all, a cultural, ideological category. From this position, the spirit is an objective phenomenon that necessarily implies, potentially containing the activity of the subject. Activity is aimed at objectifying the idea, forming the meanings that determine the semantic field of culture, the spiritual experience of mankind.

In sociology, a significant contribution to this understanding of the spirit was made by M. Weber (1990). He used the concept of the "spirit of capitalism" to define a way of thinking of people, which is characterized by a systematic rational desire to obtain a legitimate and ethical profit within the framework of their profession. As you know, the most important position of Christianity is the belief of man in the salvation of the soul. In Protestant ethics, the tireless activity of the subject within the framework of his profession is considered as the best means for gaining inner confidence in salvation: it is aimed at the benefit of society, the rational transformation of the social universe and therefore is pleasing to God, increases His glory. The spirit of capitalism, its driving force, is reflected in the set of ethical norms that entrepreneurs adhere to and which are useful from the point of view of the effective increment of monetary resources. According to M. Weber, the ethical norms of the “ideal type” of a capitalist entrepreneur have nothing to do with a tendency to waste, ostentatious luxury, arrogance, and intoxication with power. The character of the capitalist entrepreneur is characterized by modesty, responsibility, a sense of well-executed duty, and honesty.

B. Franklin was one of the great people in the United States, filled with a "capitalist spirit" and preaching a utilitarian justification for ethical norms. In particular, he believed that honesty is useful, because it brings credit. It is the same with accuracy, moderation, punctuality: all these qualities are virtues precisely because they ultimately lead one way or another to profit in professional affairs. He wrote: “I finally became convinced that ... truthfulness, honesty and sincerity are of great importance for the happiness of our life; from that moment on, I decided to educate them in myself throughout my life, and I wrote this decision in my diary. Revelation as such was not decisive for me; I thought that although certain actions are not bad just because they are forbidden by the doctrine, or good because they are prescribed for them, nevertheless, taking into account all the circumstances, it is quite probable that some actions are forbidden precisely because they are inherently harmful , others are prescribed precisely because they are beneficial ”(cited in: Weber M., 1990).

Thus, an important source of the spirituality of the subject is the ethical norms that he is guided by in everyday life (including those determined not only by his idea of \u200b\u200bthe proper, moral attitude towards another person, but also by practical, utilitarian considerations). The highest examples of human culture are enshrined in ethical, aesthetic, legal and other norms. And if the subject assimilates, experiences them as internally obligatory patterns of behavior, then he joins the highest spiritual values of being. The spiritual wealth of a person increases when spiritual values enshrined in social norms become an integral part of his spiritual world, subjective reality.

Norms and patterns of behavior are fixed in linguistic meanings, the origin and structure of which have long been of interest to linguists, philosophers, culturologists, and psychologists. In Russian psychology, ideas related to the formation of meanings as the semantic basis of culture, the spiritual experience of mankind, were developed by A. N. Leontiev. In our time, a concrete scientific analysis of the results of the objectification of meanings in the public consciousness is carried out by VF Petrenko et al. (1997). On the basis of their research, it can be said that the spirituality of a person, each member of society, is generated in the process of assimilating the meanings objectified in the public consciousness, and revealing the meanings "hidden" behind the meanings. From a psychological point of view, the spiritual Self of a subject who understands the world is formed precisely in the processes of meaning formation - the generation by him of both the meaning of specific social events and situations, and the meaning of life in general. Consequently, the origins of human spirituality must be sought not in meanings, but behind them - in the deep sense of people's actions, historical events, eras, etc.

The nature of the processes of meaning formation, leading to the generation of the spiritual, largely depends on the spiritual abilities of a person. There is reason to believe that the important components of spiritual abilities are not only the orientation and value-semantic organization of the personality, but also its competence. Competence is manifested in the ability of a person to acquire new knowledge and skills, to cope with tasks that are essential either for his professional activity or for being in general. Competence reflects the general level of the intellectual, moral and aesthetic development of the individual, including the experience of generating the meanings of the cultural and historical heritage of different eras. ‹…›

The second direction of research is the study of situational and personal factors that contribute to the emergence of spiritual states in a person. The spiritual state is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the fact that a person temporarily “does not notice” the external world, does not feel his organic functions, his physicality, but focuses on understanding and experiencing spiritual values, i.e. cognitive, ethical or aesthetic aspects of human existence . Relatively speaking, spiritual states oppose the material nature of man and the world: the subject rises to the heights of spiritual existence in rare moments of intellectual insight and resolution of morally difficult ethical conflicts. At such moments, in his personal knowledge, individual experience of self-development, something more appears than a “mundane” image, a model of external events: their inner meaning arises - the psychological basis for the formation of the spiritual essence of what has become the subject of the subject’s intellectual and moral reflection.

As V. A. Ponomarenko showed, the emergence of spiritual states is facilitated by special conditions of professional activity associated with a threat to life (1997). Here, for example, is how test pilot V.E. Ovcharov answers the question of whether he believes that the Spirit supported the wings of his plane: “I think so. But not some abstract "Holy Spirit", but spirituality in the sense of high responsibility to people and society, elation of the spirit above the normative nobility in society. It follows from the self-observations of the pilots that, despite the wide range of interpretations of the concept of the spirit, they associated it with psychological protection from the state of expectation of death, latent fear, and the threat of mental exhaustion. The spiritual layer of the reflective consciousness “in the form of the joy of overcoming lofty feelings from a successfully completed flight, familiarizing with the Space as a factor in the threshold of the Spirit, apparently creates that spiritual dominant that keeps the specific protective reactions and instincts of self-preservation, premonitions, obsessive states “in the cellars” of the subconscious , superstitions, fixed phobias, etc. Therefore, if the spirit is “grounded”, then it can be represented as a mental state that forms a reserve of endurance in a dangerous profession ”(Ponomarenko V.A., 1997).

In psychology, the analysis of spiritual states is inextricably linked with the search for the roots of spirituality in the unreflected depths of the unconscious self of a person. According to V. Frankl, “human spirituality is not just unconscious, but inevitably unconscious. Indeed, the spirit turns out to be non-reflective of itself, since it is blinded by any self-observation that tries to capture it at its origin, at its source” (1990).

From Z. Freud and K. Jung to modern psychologists, the idea has passed that “mental life is mostly unconscious, it covers consciousness from all sides” (Jung K., 1991). Naturally, an important direction in the search for the roots of spirituality are attempts to analyze the interaction between the peaks of the subject's self-consciousness and the deep layers of his psyche (personal unconscious and archetypes of the collective unconscious). It is not surprising that as one of the empirical methods of comprehending spirituality, a dialogue of a person with the innermost depths of his soul is proposed, directing him to goodness, improvement and contributing to hearing the voice of eternity in earthly creatures.

Within the framework of the third direction, spirituality is considered as a principle of self-development and self-realization of a person, appeal to the highest value instances of personality construction. The development and self-realization of the spiritual Self of the subject begins when he realizes the need to determine for himself how he specifically should understand universal spiritual values - truth, goodness, beauty. The appearance in a person of at least an approximate conscious idea of the latter testifies not only to the recognition of the subjective significance of spiritual values (intellectual, ethical and aesthetic values, respectively), but also to the psychological readiness for their assimilation and formation.

The motivational basis of psychological readiness is the subject's spiritual inclinations. K. Jaspers called spiritual inclinations “the desire to comprehend a certain state of being and to dedicate oneself to this state, manifested in values – religious, aesthetic, ethical or related to the subject’s views on truth – experienced as absolute” (1997). Spiritual drives reflect a complex psychic reality, the existence of a fundamental experience, “stemming from a person's devotion to spiritual values; it is an instinctive longing for them when they are lacking, and an incomparable pleasure from its satisfaction” (ibid.).

The most important moment in the formation and development of spiritual values in the moral-reflexive consciousness of a subject who knows and understands the world is the appearance in him of a sense of “internal, personal freedom”, “freedom as a spiritual state, self-awareness of a person”. The development of spirituality as a self-realization of the individual is impossible without a sense of freedom. “Spirituality is the ability to translate the universe of external being into the inner universe of the personality on an ethical basis, the ability to create that inner world, thanks to which a person’s self-identity is realized, his freedom from rigid dependence on constantly changing situations” (Krymsky S. B., 1992) .

The spiritual state of personal freedom arises in a person when he realizes the presence of external options for choice and the formed internal readiness to make this choice. However, this is not enough: we almost never act on the basis of a mechanical enumeration of alternatives. We include them in the context of personal knowledge and meaning formation, create new semantic relationships, i.e., creatively transform and understand the situation of choice. This is the essence of personal freedom. In dialogic communication, it manifests itself in the "alternative thinking" of the interlocutors - in the realization by each of them that fundamentally different interpretations of the same statements are possible and acceptable. ‹…›

The fourth, religious direction (historically it is the first) has clearly defined boundaries: in it the spiritual acts only as a divine revelation: God is spirit. And spiritual life is life with God and in God.

A productive attempt to present the foundations of psychology as such a science of the spirit, which is aimed at finding a way out of the opposition of materialistically and idealistically oriented psychological systems, is presented in the works of S. L. Frank. In his philosophical psychology, a position surprisingly consonant with modern science is developing about the inseparable unity of the subjective and the objective, man and the world. He wrote: “When analyzing objective consciousness, we also saw that the subjective unity of our mental life is an environment in which two objective infinities meet or touch - the infinity of the cognizing mind or spirit and the infinity of objective being. This makes it possible to say in advance that the spiritual life, being the life of the “soul” in the spirit, the rooting of the subjective unity of our “I” in the depths of the supra-individual light, is at the same time the life of the soul in objective existence, some organic fusion of it with the world of objects” (1997). ).

In our time, the traditions of Christian psychology continue in the works of B. S. Bratus. In particular, he analyzes four stages of personality development and describes the highest, pro-social, humanistic stage in this way: “It can be called spiritual or eschatological. At this stage, a person begins to realize and look at himself and the other not as finite and mortal beings, but as beings of a special kind, connected, similar, correlated with the spiritual world. As beings whose life does not end with the end of earthly life. In other words, this is the level within which a person's subjective relationship with God is decided, a personal formula for connection with Him is established. If we talk about the Christian tradition, then the subject comes here to understand a person as the image and likeness of God, therefore, the other person acquires in his eyes not only a humanistic, reasonable, universal, but also a special sacred, divine value” (1994).

Despite the seemingly limited scope of this approach to the study of spirituality by religious dogmas, the ideas contained in many theological works and works on the psychology of religion provide rich food for thought not only for religious people, but also for non-believers.

Let's take, for example, the thesis coming from the teachings of Gregory Palamas that the action of grace, divine revelation is never spontaneous, "automatic". It is always carried out through synergistic interaction with the counter efforts (prayer) of the person himself, aimed at uniting with God. According to the dogmatic theory of synergism, a person himself must participate in his own salvation with good deeds and contribute to the descent of divine grace upon him. Palamas teaches that God is absolutely inaccessible, transcendent to us in its essence, but communicates to man through his actions, manifests itself in energies. The energies of God - the messages of the Holy Spirit - are addressed to the world and therefore accessible to human perception.

It is obvious that the content of this thesis clearly echoes the reflections of modern psychologists on the cognitive and contemplative activity of a person as a subject of being. In modern psychology of the subject, the problem of activity is, perhaps, the center around which there are heated debates about the specifics of subjective manifestations of personality and individuality. Reading Palamas today, a psychologist cannot but recall P. Janet's ideas about the psychological nature of action and the existence of psychic energy.

Another productive analogy is the religious doctrine of the transcendent Self, the "inner man." Like those psychologists who are searching for spirituality in the unreflexed depths of the unconscious Self, theologians emphasize the important role in the generation of spirituality of the orientation of the consciousness of the believer in the depths of his own Self, the appeal to the "inner man". Both psychologists and theologians aim to study the evolution of the inner life of man. The starting point of scientific analysis is the depths of the unconscious, in which there is still neither subject nor object, there is no distinction between Self and non-Self, but there is only a formless community of mental life. Then, through the separation of the contents of objective consciousness from the psychic life, an ascent to a higher spiritual state occurs. In it, the opposition of subject and object, I and not-I, internal and external being is already being modified. And the subject begins to realize his spiritual Self as an elevation above the opposition between the subject and the object, on the one hand, and between different subjects, on the other.

Thus, the problem of spirituality occupies a significant place both in psychology and in theology. Believers and non-believers disagree decisively on only one point - on the question of the primary source of the spiritual (God or man). In other respects, secular psychological and theological works are surprisingly similar: the main subject of attention of their authors is the features of the inner world of a person, his self-consciousness and subjective paths of ascent to the spiritual heights of being. During the two thousand years of the history of Christianity, the best minds of mankind have not been able to provide convincing evidence of either the existence of God or his absence. Some people believe in it, others don't. And although I belong to the second category, I nevertheless believe that the only constructive way to study the problem of human spirituality is not confrontation, but also mutual complementation of the results of searches and reflections of secular scientists and theologians.

The idea of free causality in personality psychology. V. A. Petrovsky

The idea of “free causality” (that is, the possibility of spontaneously starting a causal chain) is, in its historical “age”, the same age as philosophy itself, in which it defended itself with such perseverance and passion. Whether philosophers have tended to recognize freedom or declared it an illusion, whether they have postulated or deduced its existence, whether they have "felt" it as a given or seen it as an ideal, it is fair to say that the idea of "free causality" invariably fulfills itself in philosophy; the presence of this idea in the space and time of philosophical culture has long acquired - and here we will use Heidegger's term - a necessary character.

Does something real in psychology correspond to the philosophical idea of "free causality"? Is the pessimism of I. Kant, who considered the possibility of free causality unprovable (however, he accepted this possibility as a necessary condition for resolving the contradictions of pure reason) justified? Is it true that the nature of "free causality" is psychologically unknowable? In a word, is it justified to bring this idea from philosophy to psychology, and what is the meaning of such an action (and not only for psychology, but also for philosophy)?

Discussing these issues, we rely on Aristotle's doctrine of four causes, the concept of "free cause" by I. Kant, the Hegelian interpretation of causa sui, the concept of "duration" by A. Bergson, etc.; we also use psychological developments (in particular, those carried out by the author himself), which are presented here in academic and practical directions; Finally, we proceed from a certain model of the relationship between philosophical and psychological knowledge.

Let us consider in more detail the philosophical and psychological aspects of the problem, as well as the ways of their desired synthesis.

The spiritual state of the modern world

Thank you for downloading the book from the free e-library http://filosoff.org/ Happy reading! Berdyaev N.A. Spiritual state of the modern world. Everything in the modern world is under the sign of crisis, not only social and economic, but also cultural, but also spiritual crisis, everything has become problematic. This is most acutely recognized in Germany, and much is written about it. How do Christians relate to the agony of the world, how should they relate? Is it only a crisis of the non-Christian and anti-Christian world that has betrayed the Christian faith, or is it also a crisis of Christianity? And Christians share the fate of the world. They cannot pretend that in Christianity, in Christian humanity, everything is going well and that nothing that happens in the world affects it. A heavy responsibility falls on the Christian world, on the Christian movement. The world is being judged, and it is also the judgment of historical Christianity. The diseases of the modern world are connected not only with falling away from Christianity, with the cooling of the faith, but also with the chronic diseases of Christianity in its human side. Christianity is universal in its meaning, and everything is in its orbit, nothing can be completely external to it. And Christians must understand the spiritual state of the modern world from Christianity itself, determine what the crisis of the world means as an event within Christianity, within Christian universality. The world has come to a liquid state, there are no more solid bodies in it, it is going through a revolutionary era both externally and internally, an era of spiritual anarchy. Man lives in fear (Angst) more than ever, under eternal threat, hanging over the abyss (Grenzsituation Tillich). Modern European man has lost the faith with which he tried to replace the Christian faith in the last century. He no longer believes in progress, in humanism, in the salvation of science, in the salvation of democracy, he is aware of the untruth of the capitalist system and has lost faith in the utopia of a perfect social order. Modern France is corroded by cultural skepticism; in modern Germany, the crisis overturns all values. And all of Europe is shocked by the incredible events taking place in Soviet Russia, which is engulfed by a new faith, a new religion, hostile to the Christian religion. Characteristic of modern Europe is the emergence of new forms of pessimistic philosophy, in comparison with which Schopenhauer's pessimism appears comforting and innocent. Such is the philosophy of Heidegger, for which being is fallen in its essence, but has not fallen away from anyone, the world is hopelessly sinful, but there is no God, the essence of world being is care. The ruler of the thoughts of modern Central Europe is the melancholic, gloomy, tragic Kierkegaard. His doctrine of Angst has become very popular; it now expresses the state of the world, the position of man. The most interesting and significant current of theological and religious thought is Barthianism, which is embraced by an exceptional and acute sense of the sinfulness of man and the world, and which Christianity understands exclusively eschatologically. This trend is a religious reaction against the liberal-humanistic, romantic Protestantism of the last century. The same reaction against liberalism, romanticism, modernism is found in Catholicism, which they are now trying to save from modernist dangers and strengthen by returning to Thomas Aquinas. Thomism is not only the official philosophy of the Catholic Church, it has also become a cultural trend and captures the Catholic youth. But both Barthianism and Thomism humiliate a person. The inclination towards authoritarianism and the restoration of traditions is the other side of the anarchy and chaos of the world. In Western Christianity, faith in man, in his creative power, in his work in the world has weakened. In socio-political movements, the principles of violence and authority prevail, the belittling of human freedom - in communism, in fascism, in national socialism, economic and racial materialism triumphs a new victory. A person seems to be tired of spiritual freedom and is ready to give it up in the name of a force that will arrange his life internally and externally. Man is tired of himself, of man, has lost faith in man and wants to rely on the superhuman, even if this superhuman were a social collective. Many old idols have been overthrown by our time, but many new idols are being created. Man is so constituted that he can live either by faith in God, or by faith in ideals and idols. In essence, a person cannot be a consistent and definitive atheist. Falling away from faith in God, he falls into idolatry. We see idolatry and idolatry in all areas - in science, in art, in state, national, social life. Thus, for example, communism is an extreme form of social idolatry. The modern European has weakened all faith. He is freer from optimistic illusions than a man of the 19th century, and is confronted with bare, unvarnished, harsh realities. But in one respect modern man is optimistic and full of faith, he has an idol to whom everything is sacrificed. Here we come to a very important point in the spiritual state of the modern world. Modern man believes in the power of technology, machines, sometimes it seems that this is the only thing he still believes in. There are, it would seem, very serious grounds for his optimism in this regard. The dizzying successes of technology in our era are a real miracle of the sinful natural world. A person is shocked and depressed by the power of technology, which turned his whole life upside down. Man himself created it, it is the product of his genius, his mind, his ingenuity, it is the brainchild of the human spirit. Man has managed to unchain the hidden forces of nature and use them for his own purposes, to introduce the teleological principle into the action of the forces of mechanics, physico-chemistry. But the man failed to master the results of his work. Technique turned out to be stronger than the man himself, she subjugated him. Technology is the only sphere of modern man's optimistic faith, his greatest passion. But it also brings a person a lot of bitterness and disappointment, it enslaves a person, weakens his spirituality, threatens him with death. The crisis of our time is largely generated by technology, with which man is unable to cope. And this crisis is primarily spiritual. For our topic, it is important to emphasize that Christians turned out to be completely unprepared to evaluate technology and machinery, to understand its place in life. The Christian consciousness does not know how to relate to a huge world event connected with the introduction of machinery and technology into human life. The natural world, in which man used to live in the past, no longer seems to be an eternal order. A person lives in a new world, not at all in the one in which the Christian revelation took place, in which the apostles, teachers of the church, saints lived, with which the symbolism of Christianity is associated. Christianity seemed to be very connected with the land, with the patriarchal way of life. But technology tore a person from the earth, it completely destroyed the patriarchal system. Christians can live and act in this world, in which everything is constantly changing, in which nothing is stable, thanks to the usual Christian dualism. A Christian is used to living in two rhythms, the religious rhythm and the worldly rhythm. In the rhythm of the world, he participates in the technization of life, which is not religiously sanctified, but in the rhythm of the religious, in a few days and hours of his life, he leaves the world for God. But it remains unclear what religiously this newly formed world means. For a long time, technology was considered the most neutral sphere, religiously indifferent, the most remote from spiritual matters and therefore innocent. But this time has passed, although not everyone noticed it. Technology is no longer neutral. The question of technology has become for us a spiritual question, a question about the fate of man, about his relationship to God. Technique has an infinitely deeper meaning than is usually thought of. It has a cosmogonic meaning, it creates a completely new reality. It is a mistake to think that the reality generated by technology is the old reality of the physical world, the reality studied by mechanics, physics, and chemistry. This is a reality that did not exist in the history of the world before the discoveries and inventions made by man. Man managed to create a new world. The machine is not a mechanic. The human mind is present in the machine, the teleological principle operates in it. The technique creates an atmosphere saturated with energies that were previously hidden in the depths of nature. And a person is not sure that he will be able to breathe in this new atmosphere. In the past, he was used to breathing different air. It has not yet been clarified what the electric atmosphere into which he has plunged himself will bring for the human organism. Technique puts into the hands of man a terrible, unprecedented power, a power by which humanity can be exterminated. The old tools that were in the hands of man were toys. And they could still be considered neutral. But when such a terrible power is given into the hands of man, then the fate of mankind depends on the spiritual state of man. Even the destructive technique of warfare, threatening an almost cosmic catastrophe, poses the spiritual problem of technology in all its acuteness. Technology is not only the power of man over nature, but also the power of man over man, power over people's lives. Technique can be turned to serve the devil. But that is why it is not neutral. It is in our materialistic time that everything acquires a spiritual significance, everything becomes under the sign of the spirit. Technique, generated by the spirit, materializes life, but it can also contribute to the liberation of the spirit, liberation from fusion with material-organic life. It can also help inspire. Technique means the transition of all human existence from organism to organization. Man no longer lives in an organic structure. Man is accustomed to living in organic connection with the earth, plants and animals. The great cultures of the past were still surrounded by nature, they loved gardens, flowers and animals, they had not yet broken with the rhythm of nature. The feeling of the earth gave rise to telluric mysticism (Bachofen has wonderful thoughts about this). Man came out of the earth and returns to the earth. Deep religious symbolism is associated with this. Plant cults played a huge role. The organic life of man and human societies seemed to be a life similar to that of plants. Organic was the life of the family, the corporation, the state, the church. Society was like an organism. The romantics of the early 19th century attached particular importance to the organism and the organic. From them comes the idealization of everything organic and hostility to the mechanical. The organism is born, not created by man, it is a product of natural, cosmic life, in it the whole is not composed of parts, but precedes the parts and determines their life. Technique separates a person from the earth, transfers him to world spaces, gives a person a sense of the planetary nature of the earth. Technology radically changes the relationship of man to space and time. It is hostile to any organic incarnation. In the technical period of civilization, a person ceases to live among animals and plants, he plunges into a new cold-metal environment in which there is no longer animal warmth, no hot blood. The power of technology brings with it a weakening of soulfulness in human life, spiritual warmth, comfort, lyrics, sadness, always associated with the soul, and not with the spirit. Technique kills everything organic in life and puts all human existence under the sign of organization. The inevitability of the transition from an organism to an organization is one of the sources of the present crisis of the world. It's not easy to break away from the organic. The machine with cold rigidity tears the spirit away from the fusion with organic flesh, with plant and animal life. And this is primarily reflected in the weakening of the purely spiritual element in human life, in the disintegration of integral human feelings. We are entering a harsh era of spirit and technology. Soul associated with

Spiritual states are characterized by high productivity of imagination, which, in turn, expands the information capacity of our consciousness.

In a spiritual state, words and concepts can be translated into images and feelings, thereby contributing to the inclusion of imagination processes.

For further consideration of spiritual abilities, let us dwell on three positions.

The first two were formulated by William James (1901):

Comparing these three provisions, we can note that human abilities are initially a property of a cultivated functional system; that they are not exhausted by the properties of the system itself; that the decisive moment in their development is their determination by individual values. It is these individual values that will determine the qualitative specificity of abilities, what a person will see and remember, what thought he will have, what will be the nature of personal consciousnesses will depend on them. Spiritual abilities are determined and regulated by spiritual values. Thus, the problem is translated into the plane of values. You can say: “But this does not solve the problem, but only transfers it to another plane. Instead of one problem, another appears. Yes it is. But, firstly, we see what spiritual abilities are, and secondly, it is easier to understand values. We can say that if activity is determined by faith or the desire to do good, we can talk about spiritual abilities.

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There are grounds for distinguishing two main classes of individual properties: 1) age-sex and 2) individual-typical. The first of these includes age properties,

Characteristics of a person as a person
The starting point of the structural-dynamic properties of a person is his status in society (economic, political and legal, ideological, etc. positions in society),

The main characteristics of a person as a subject of activity
The initial characteristics of a person in this sphere of development are consciousness (as a reflection of objective activity) and activity (as a transformation of reality). Ka man

Pathopsychological method in the study of personality. B. V. Zeigarnik
In resolving what problems of personality psychology, pathopsychological studies can be useful? One of the most important branches of the study of personality psychology is

Social relations as a general basis for personality traits. B. F. Lomov
The category of personality is one of the basic ones in psychological science ... it is not purely psychological and is studied in various ways by many, and in fact, by all societies.

Natural prerequisites and individual psychophysiological characteristics of the personality. V. M. Rusalov
The main drawback of previous approaches in understanding the natural prerequisites of personality is, in our opinion, that as a basis for individual psychological

The theory of personality from the standpoint of categorical analysis of psychology. A. V. Petrovsky
When analyzing the categorical structure of psychological science, as follows from the above, six basic categories are distinguished, each of which characterizes one of the sides of the subject

Methodological foundations of personality theory
Thus, the initial fundamental positions for the construction of a general psychological theory of personality have been determined. Let us clarify what is meant when it is designated as "general psychological

Ontological model of personality
The principle of activity-based mediation of interindividual relations of personality and its development is a general systemic principle of constructing a general psychological theory of personality, in which

Organic and social sphere of personality. V. M. Bekhterev
‹…› The personal sphere, concentrating in itself the stock of the most important past experience for the life of the organism, forms, as it were, the main center of neuropsychic activity underlying

Human installation. objectification problem. D. N. Uznadze
... There is nothing more characteristic of a person than the fact that the reality surrounding him affects him in two ways - either directly, sending him a series of irritations that directly affect

The structure of personality. B. G. Ananiev
Consideration of the status, social functions and roles, goals of activity and value orientations of the individual makes it possible to understand both its dependence on specific social structures and

Personal orientation. subjective attitudes of the individual. B. F. Lomov
Despite the difference in interpretations of personality, in all approaches, orientation is singled out as its leading characteristic. In different concepts, this characteristic is revealed by

Subjective personality relationships
Until now, we have been talking about orientation as a system-forming property of the personality in connection with the analysis of its goals, motivational sphere and needs. But this property also has other

About the "personality" system. B. I. Dodonov
The correct definition of such a function, corresponding to the system approach, requires, first of all, considering the personality as a component of another, higher system, as a “particle” of society.

The structure of the psychological warehouse of the personality and the individual qualitative characteristics of its components
The structure of any system is inextricably linked with its functions. Since the general regulatory function of the psychological make-up of a person consists of the functions of its components, in its general structure I can also

The concept of "structure" in the doctrine of personality
The development of the concepts of structure and system and system-structural methods of cognition became in the middle of our century a common phenomenon in various sciences, and above all in philosophy.

Criteria for understanding the dynamic structure of personality
The stated concept implies a psychological structure. It has long been understood that in reality there are two kinds of structures: static and dynamic. A is accurate

Interaction of hierarchies of personality substructures and their properties
The personality substructures identified according to the described criteria and their main properties with the same hierarchy are shown in the table. Without dwelling on the particulars of this table, we will analyze the most

The semantic sphere of personality. B. S. Bratus
Personality as a specific, irreducible to other dimensions (temperament, individual properties, etc.) design is not self-sufficient, carrying the ultimate meaning in itself

Worldview and beliefs of the individual as psychological categories. G. E. Zalessky
The concept of "belief" is widely used in various fields of science, but the definitions of its content are very diverse. Most authors take the position that

‹…›What are the reasons that adversely affect the development of personality, lead to its decline, and what reasons contribute to its development? Turning to the solution of the first question, we will not

The development of the personality and worldview of the child. L. S. Vygotsky
An attempt at a synthetic grasp of cultural development must proceed from two basic propositions. The first is that, in terms of its content, this process of development can be

The concept of personality in the aspects of norm and pathology. V. N. Myasishchev
Of the numerous, including not yet fully resolved, issues of personality development, we will focus on one, important from both a philosophical and concrete scientific point of view, problems

Social situation and driving forces of child development. L. I. Bozhovich
The idea of personality as an integral structure requires a preliminary hypothesis about what constitutes the core of this structure. Based on theoretical analysis, we

Personality formation. A. N. Leontiev
The situation of the development of the human individual reveals its features already at the very first stages. The main one is the mediated nature of the child's connections with the outside world.

Genetic and structural relationships in personality development. B. G. Ananiev
The theory and method of development in modern psychology are one of the latest confirmations of materialistic dialectics. Genetic approaches are fully established in the comparative,

Psychological components and criteria for the formation of a mature personality. P. M. Jacobson
Personal maturity of a person is a socio-historical phenomenon, since the concept of maturity in different social conditions has different content. Each historical

Problems of the ethical development of the child. S. G. Jacobson
Systematic research into the ethical development of children begins in the mid-1920s. A significant milestone in the development of this area is the allocation of p

Constancy and variability of personality. I. S. Kon
The dynamics of the constancy and variability of the personality and its properties is one of the oldest philosophical and psychological problems. Its consideration in the plane of modern psychological science

Psychology of formation and development of personality. L. I. Antsiferova
Personal development is primarily its social development. Social development leads to mental development. But this latter has the strongest influence on the social

Personal development in early childhood. N. N. Avdeeva, M. G. Elagina, S. Yu. Meshcheryakova
Usually, the formation of personality is attributed to the later periods of a person's life - youth, adulthood, sometimes to preschool age. However, personality is not just found on the definition

Driving forces and conditions for the development of personality. A. G. Asmolov
Given by A. N. Leontiev (1983) characterization of the subject of personality psychology is an example of the abstraction, deploying which you can create a specific picture of the systemic problem.

The problem of the subject in psychological science. A. V. Brushlinsky
In the very nature of the baby - already in the prenatal period of its development - there are internal conditions, initial foundations and the simplest manifestations of sociality: he is born not as an animal, but as an animal.

Personal development and its life path. N. A. Loginova
Human life, on the one hand, is a biological phenomenon, and on the other, a socio-historical fact. Socio-historical, human-specific quality of the individual

The psychological age of the individual. A. A. Kronik, E. I. Golovakha
The concept of "age" is very multifaceted. In modern scientific literature, at least four of its subspecies are distinguished: chronological (passport), biological (functional),

Life perspective and value orientations of the individual. E. I. Golovakha
In the case when the subject of research is the future of a person on the scale of his life path, i.e., a long-term picture of life in the future, we are talking about life goals and plans.

Life path as a subject of interdisciplinary research. I. S. Kon
From whatever position we describe human development, this description tacitly assumes three autonomous frames of reference. The first system, individual development, describes

The decline in creative productivity in different professional groups depending on the level of creative achievements, in percent
In our study, two samples were selected: "A" - the most famous

Self-actualization and self-transcendence of personality. A. A. Rean
The need for self-development is a fundamental property of a mature personality. The idea of self-development and self-realization is central or at least extremely significant for many people.

The problem of personal organization of life time
Studies of the problem of time in psychology have been carried out in a number of directions, which in fact have little connection with each other. ‹…› Directions for the study of time can be

Life path time and personality development
Theories of development that have developed in world psychology can be divided for the purposes of scientific research into the following specific areas: 1. Age theories of development, including

Personal development in the context of a life situation. E. Yu. Korzhova
The problem of the relationship between personality and situation has been considered in psychology since the 1960s. and presented as a question of the predominant determination of human behavior by personal or

Personality and conditions of its development and health. V. M. Bekhterev
If we, using the definition of personality we have made, turn to clarifying its role in social life, then we will have to admit that personality is the basis on which

Real forms of social behavior. L. S. Vygotsky
In real life, people maintain their existence by adapting nature to their needs in the process of labor. Human production is characterized by a collective character

Social situations of personality development and its status. B. G. Ananiev
Personality is a social individual, object and subject of the historical process. Therefore, in the characteristics of the individual, the social essence of a person is most fully revealed, which determines

Formulation of the problem
The desire of an individual to identify himself with a particular community arises when the traditional way of life is destroyed, where the need for self-determination in the system of social relationships

Theoretical approaches to the study of identifications
One could try to build some kind of universal concept of the mechanism of social identification and the formation of solidarities. However, this path is hardly justified. The abundance of theories

The specificity of the socio-psychological approach to understanding the personality. A. A. Bodalev
Let's try to answer ourselves, who is right in the dispute that has arisen about how to understand a person's personality and what are the main determinants that determine its formation and development?

Characteristics of socio-psychological personality types
... While delving further and deeper into the problem of the socio-psychological typology of personality, it is also important to keep in mind that although the structure of the relations expressing its social essence

Social identity: temporal and environmental components. G. M. Andreeva
Awareness of the time of one's existence is an important addition to the awareness of one's own identity. In this case, we are talking about identifying oneself not only with a certain group, but

The need to "be a person". A. V. Petrovsky
Imprinting, continuing himself in other members of society, a person strengthens his existence. Providing through active participation in the activities of their "otherness" in other people

Personal mentality
The concept of "mentality" is used to identify special phenomena in the sphere of consciousness, which in a given social environment characterize its differences from other communities. If "subtract

Socialization of the individual. A. A. Rean
Man is a social being. From the first days of his existence, he is surrounded by his own kind, included in all sorts of social interactions. The first experience of social communication

The riddle of the human "I". I. S. Kon
The problem of "self" is one of the aspects of the question of the essence of man. But it covers, in fact, many issues, implying the generic specificity of man, his difference from animals;

Meaning of life
So, we have considered the second level of the personality structure - the value-semantic dimension of its existence, its inner world. Sources and carriers of meaningful meaning for a person

Freedom, responsibility and spirituality
A lot has been written about freedom and responsibility in the psychological literature, but mostly either in a journalistic vein, or with scientistic skepticism, debunking them "scientifically".

I am the last authority in personality. D. A. Leontiev
I am a form of a person's experience of his personality, a form in which a person reveals himself. I has several facets, each of which was at one time a subject of interest

The reality of the subjective spirit. V. I. Slobodchikov
With all the numerous historical attempts to create an integral system of rational knowledge about the spirit - something like a "psychology of the spirit" - to date, pneumology as a scientific discipline

Spirituality and soulfulness
In the philosophical and psychological literature, the spiritual beginning of a person, as a rule, is associated with the social and creative and creative nature of his life, including

Subject. Personality. Individuality
The self (subjectivity) of a person thus always stands on the threshold between psychic and spiritual being, there is a place where spiritual (significant in itself being) penetrates into the soul.

Subjective reality
Traditional psychology just studied this empirical manifestation of the personality in the behavior and actions of a person, alienating his spiritual principle into the sphere of culture and universal human

Subjective Spirit: Disclosure and Embodiment
At the first stage of the development of subjectivity (from birth to the first year) - the stage of revival - a practical attitude towards one's own life activity exists in a specific form.

Foundations of moral life and activity. N. Ya. Grotto
All the foundations of moral behavior assumed by religion, philosophy and positive science: love for God and neighbor, faith in truth and perfection, hope for eternal bliss and with

Introduction
Does life have a meaning at all, and if so, what exactly? What is the sense of life? Or is life simply nonsense, a meaningless, worthless process of natural birth, flowering,

Making sense of life
The search for the meaning of life is, therefore, the actual “understanding” of life, the disclosure and introduction into it of a meaning that not only could not be found outside our spiritual reality.

The meaning of life: the problem of relative emancipation from the "external" and "internal". V. E. Chudnovsky
In the real life of Soviet society, the problem of the meaning of life was solved simply and unambiguously. It boiled down to an ideological postulate: "contribute to building a brighter future - to

Spiritual abilities. V. D. Shadrikov
As a rule, spirituality is associated with the spiritual essence of a person, with the spiritual principle, which is the “spirit”, “soul”. In this case, spiritual abilities mean

Human spirituality in the mirror of psychological knowledge and religious faith. V. V. Znakov
The problem of spirituality attracted the attention of many major Russian psychologists, interesting books and articles were published. However, the question of similarities and differences in scientific and psychological

The idea of free causality in personality psychology. V. A. Petrovsky
The idea of “free causality” (i.e., the possibility of spontaneously starting a causal chain) is, in its historical “age”, the same age as philosophy itself, in which it

Thesaurus
According to Aristotle, “cause is 1) the content of a thing from which it arises; for example, copper is the cause of the statue, and silver is the cause of the cup, and also their families are the causes; 2)

immanent self
It corresponds to causa sui in the meaning of "material cause". “Elusive”, according to the general opinion, the matter of the Self is, as it were, woven from instant states of the Self, constantly renewing itself in time.

Ideal Me
It corresponds to causa sui in the meaning of "formal reason". The ideal self forms a person's ideas about himself. Representing himself in one way or another, a person constructs

Transcendental Self
It corresponds to causa sui in the meaning of "effective cause". This is our thinking – outside of being found and timeless – I. Being outside means that something is located (being

Transfinite Self
It corresponds to causa sui in the meaning of "target cause" - such is the experience of the infinity of one's existence in the world. Based on the ideas of G. Kantor, transfiniteness in general

Causasui in design
Putting forward the position that the Immanent Self, the Ideal Self, the Transcendental Self and the Transfinite Self are the psychological "roots" of the solution of the philosophical equation about causa sui, we from the very

Personality as a developing integrity
Now we can once again return to the question of what constitutes the psychological content of goal-setting, freedom, integrity, development - as attributive characteristics of a person.

In modern academic psychology, mental states are classified according to the characteristics that are most significant for the chosen subject of consideration - for example, positive and negative states are distinguished. They are also divided on the basis of the determining role of one of the spheres of the psyche in a holistic picture of the state: emotional, motivational, volitional, cognitive. Sometimes, for systematization, the mental phenomenon that dominates the structure of the state is singled out - these are states of tension, fatigue, euphoria, contemplation, insight, frustration, anxiety, etc. In addition, according to a long historical tradition, states are often divided according to the level of their activation (additional: Kulikov 1997, p.20). At the same time, unfortunately, very little attention is paid to religious mental states. However, Christianity itself is able to cope with the analysis and description of those spiritual states that occur in a person along the entire path of his spiritual development: from the state of sin, through the state of purification and repentance, to the highest mystical and spiritual states.

The importance of internal, mental states in Christianity, of course, primarily refers to the Christian asceticism: "A psychological analysis of internal states in the process of salvation for Asceticism is directly necessary in essence" (Christian: Theodore (Pozdeevsky). 1991, p.48). As they wrote St. fathers: "According to the state of your soul, find out who approached you - ours, or from adversaries. If your soul remains serene, unshakable, not neglecting heavenly contemplations ... good, open the doors of your heart to him, receive him and shine with him may he nourish you even more for a greater love of God and divine things.If, however, his proximity confuses your soul, fills it with a crowd of thoughts, turns your eyes to flesh and blood, to worldly connections and addictions... alas! Drive this away" (Christian: Theodore the Studite. 1901, p. 341).

No less important is the correct work with mental states when prayer, which itself is understood in Scripture and in the tradition of the church in a general sense as a well-known religious and moral mental state (Christian: Zarin. 1996, p. 447-448). The measurement of the completed path to God during prayer is "various prayerful states, into which the person praying correctly and constantly gradually enters" (Christian: Ignatius (Brianchaninov), vol. 1. 1993, p. 138).

The same applies to such special states as, for example, the state of the prophetic inspiration. And here it is important to emphasize that these states, despite all their unusualness, do not represent anything unnatural either from the point of view of common sense or from a scientific point of view, that is, psychopathology (Vladimirsky. 1902, No. 13, p. 62 ). That is, the prophets were not just passive conductors-mediums of transcendental energies. In communion with God, they had to be conscious, personally and morally active, and not unconsciously passive (ibid.). The Hebrew word for "prophet", nabi, itself comes from the verb naba, meaning to produce, pronounce (words), proclaim, teach. Then nabi actually means "taught" (from God) (ibid., p. 76).

Any worship and knowledge of God involves an appeal to one’s spiritual depths: “the knowledge of God is the vision of the life of God in oneself; from the disposition of one’s own soul, the righteous one learns what the Divine life consists of and what is its essence ...” (Sergius (Stragorodsky), 1991, p. 96).

Since all people are very different, they differ from each other in the range of mental states available or preferred by them. Often these states form a closed chain of states that follow each other almost automatically, reflexively. So a person spins like a squirrel in a wheel, or like a broken record - in the same place. This state of affairs leads to the fact that not only science and art, but, as a rule, religion is outside the attention of a person. At the same time, of course, it is necessary to work on the ability to experience new states of consciousness (additional: Askoldov. 1900, p.233-234). It is precisely to achieve fundamentally new states that Christianity is directed: “Christianity, accepting and introducing natural man into its realm, does not deny any of the evidence of his spiritual experience, does not destroy and does not condemn to inactivity any of his spiritual forces; but opens the way for the soul to independent development and higher perfection to become like God and communion with the world of pure spirits in eternal life, introduces it into new states and degrees of life, into new sensations ... "(Christian: Ambrose (Klyucharev). Vol. 2. 1902, p.214).

To achieve more intense states, it is necessary to shake off the stupor of everyday fuss. In the biblical and patristic tradition, this is spoken of in terms of sleep and awakening: it is necessary to wake up to spiritual life from a half-asleep everyday existence, which seems to us to be awake only because of ignorance of higher states.

At the same time, in order not to absolutize one's personal, subjective experiences, centuries-old patristic experience is extremely important. "Are ocean waves comparable to a piece of colored paper? But here's the thing. The map is indeed a piece of colored paper, but you must understand two things. First, it is based on discoveries made by hundreds and thousands of people who sailed the real Atlantic ocean, that is, as if absorbing a rich experience, no less real than that experienced by a man standing on the shore.With one exception.This man saw the ocean only in one, accessible to him. The map concentrated in all the experiences put together. Secondly, if you want to go somewhere, you need a map. While you are content with walking along the coast, soaking up the majestic spectacle is much more pleasant than looking at the map. But if you wish to go to America, it will be incomparably more useful to you than your walks. Theology is like a map ... Doctrines are not God. They are like a map. But this map is made on the basis of the experience of hundreds of people who whether in real contact with God. In comparison with this, any experiences or feelings that may have visited you or me are very primitive and vague "(Christian: Lewis. T. 1. 1998, p. 140).

TYPES OF MIND STATES

A variety of spiritual and mental states differ from each other in terms of intensity, coordination and harmony, while forming a kind of ladder going from top to bottom. It consists of three main groups of states: natural (natural) states, supernatural - spiritually blessed states, unnatural - sinful states. "The natural state of the soul is the knowledge of God's creatures, sensual and mental. The supernatural state is the arousal to the contemplation of the essential Divinity. The unnatural state is the movement of the soul in those who are restless with passions ..." (Christian: Isaac the Syrian. 1993, p. 19). We will talk about the latter further, but here we will briefly dwell on the former.

NATURAL STATES

To natural, that is, natural, states can be attributed: wakefulness, sleep without dreams, sleep with dreams.

wakefulness is the most familiar state for us, it has an average degree of intensity, coordination and harmony. It includes many different feelings and moods of a non-religious nature that we experience every day in ordinary life.

With a decrease in the level of wakefulness, a person falls asleep, while he can be in two states: dreamless sleep - when he is as relaxed and immobilized as possible, and sleep with dreams, or the so-called paradoxical sleep - when, with general relaxation of the body, increased brain activity is observed (if a person wakes up at this very moment, then he will say that he had a dream and he will be able to remember and tell it).

From a Christian point of view wakefulness is evaluated much more positively than sleep, and attitudes towards sleep as such, Christianity is based on the restrictive principle: “Who cares about the true life and sober thought, he stays awake as long as possible and indulges in sleep only to the extent necessary for bodily health; but for such a sleep, time is required a little, if correctly accustom yourself to it "(Christian: Clement of Alexandria. Teacher. 1996, p. 180).

Sleep is an inactive part of human life, and therefore moderation and caution are needed in relation to it: "The satiety of sleep excites passions in the body; and moderate vigilance protects the heart" (Christ: Isaiah Abba. 1883, p. 94); “A lot of sleep makes the thought hard, but a good vigil refines it. A lot of sleep leads to temptations, but the awake [monk] will avoid them” (Christian: Evagrius Pontius, 1994, p. 132); "A vigilant monk refines his mind for soul-beneficial contemplations, and sleeping too much makes the mind whiter" (Christ: Theodore Bishop of Edessa. One hundred soul-beneficial chapters. 1900, p. 326). Therefore, St. Fathers write: "Let us wake up from sleep, while we are still in this body, let us breathe for ourselves, and we will mourn ourselves with all our heart day and night..." (Christ: Anthony the Great, 1998, p. 85). This patristic approach is based on the gospel tradition, which calls: "Let us not sleep, like others, but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thess. 5, 6).

In non-Christian circles, more and more people have recently turned to the analysis dreams(psychoanalysis, analytical psychology, ontopsychology, etc.), in the hope of finding some patterns in the human psyche (and its deep unconscious layers). At the same time, none of the representatives of these teachings knows that Christianity had done this work long before them. Many prominent ascetics and ascetics checked and compared their experience in relation to dreams, coming to a common opinion about the importance of this work: "A thorough one can guess the movements and dispositions of the soul from dreams, and accordingly direct care for the arrangement of his spiritual state" (Nikita Stifat 1900, p.129). He: "From what appears during sleep, there is another dream, another vision, another revelation. - Dreams are such dreams that do not stand unchanged in the imagination of the mind, but by which objects are mixed, some displace others, or change into others ; they are of no use, and their very dreaming disappears along with awakening ... Visions are such dreams that at all times remain unchanged, are not transformed from one to another and are so imprinted in the mind that they remain unforgettable for many years: they show the reality of future things, they bring benefit to the soul, bringing it to tenderness... Revelations are those that exist above any feeling of contemplation of the purest and most enlightened soul, representing some wondrous divine deeds and understandings, the secret knowledge of God's secret mysteries, the realization of the most important things for us... "(ibid., p.129-130).

The nature of dreams largely depends on what a person was striving for in the waking state: “What the soul is busy with and what it talks about in reality, it dreams or philosophizes about it in a dream: or after spending the whole day worrying about human affairs, it fusses about them she, even in dreams, or having learned all the time in things divine and heavenly, enters into their vision even during sleep and manages to see visions, according to the Prophet: young men will see your visions(Joel in Acts 2:17). And he is not seduced by false dreams, but dreams of the true and is taught by revelations "(Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Vol. 2. 1993, p. 566). At the same time, the following observation is interesting: "When the intellectual part of the soul is puffed up in vanity and pride, then in a dream one dreams of soaring into the air on wings, or sitting on high chairs of judges and rulers of the people, solemn exits and meetings, etc. "(ibid.).

According to dreams, one can judge the spiritual health of the soul: "When the soul begins to feel healthy (from sin - Z. Yu.), then it will begin to have pure and serene dreams" (Christ: Maxim the Confessor. 1900, p. 175).

Dreams themselves, in their content, can be not only positive, but also negative, and St. the fathers, through spiritual experience, determined the main signs of both the first and the second: “Dreams that appear to the soul through the love of God are undeceptive indicators of the health of the soul. They do not change from one image to another, do not inspire fear, do not excite laughter or sudden sadness, but they come to the soul with all quietness, and fill it with spiritual joy, which is why the soul, even after the awakening of the body, with all its lust, seeks this joy experienced in a dream. .. At the same time, they talk a lot and promise great things, and they frighten even more with threats, often taking on the appearance of warriors; sometimes they sing to the soul and something flattering with a noisy cry "(Christ.: Diadokh. 1900, p. 26-27) . He insists that one should not believe in dreams at all: “We have outlined how to distinguish between good and bad dreams, based on what we ourselves heard from experienced elders. not to believe any sleepy dream, for most of the dreams are nothing but idols of thoughts, a game of the imagination, or else, as I have already said, demonic insults and amusements over us" (ibid., p. 27). Modern Christian authors also write: “Dreams that excite despondency and despair are from the enemy. Dreams from God touch the heart, humble, strengthen hope in the Savior who came to earth and bore the Cross for the salvation of the perishing, and not the righteous who consider themselves ( falsely) worthy of the kingdom of God" (Christian: Nikon (Vorobiev). 1997, p. 390-391).

In dreams, when the criticality of perception is lowered, demonic attachments often appear, which, however, are not terrible for an experienced ascetic: “The mind, when it is clean, soon recognizes them, and sometimes awakens the body with mental tension, and sometimes it more willingly remains in the same position, rejoicing that I was able to recognize their cunning and in the same dream rebuking them ... "(Christ.: Diadokh. 1900, p. 27).

Often St. the fathers called for caution in relation to dreams. Barsanuphius the Great (VI century): "when you see in a dream the image of the cross, know that this dream is true and from God; but try to get an interpretation of its meaning from the Saints and do not believe your thought" (Christian: Barsanuphius the Great, John. 1995 , p.279). He was asked: "If the same dream appears to someone three times, then it must also be recognized as true: is it so ...?" once he appeared to someone falsely, he can do this three times or more" (ibid., p. 279-280).

Moreover, in the patristic tradition in relation to dreams, they adhere to a protective-negative trend:

- "The believer in dreams is like one who is chasing his shadow and wants to grab it. When we begin to believe the demons in dreams, they will scoff at us even during wakefulness. The believer in dreams is completely unskillful, and the one who does not believe them is a wise man" (Christ.: Isaiah Abba, 1996, p.216);

- "The demons of vanity are prophets in dreams; being crafty, they conclude about the future from circumstances and announce it to us, so that, after the fulfillment of these visions, we would be surprised and, as if already close to the gift of insight, ascended in thought. Whoever believes the demon, for those he is often a prophet, and whoever despises him, before those always turns out to be a liar. Like a spirit, he sees what happens in the air and, noticing, for example, that someone is dying, he predicts this to the gullible through a dream "(Christ.: John of the Ladder 2001, pp. 31-32); "Demons are repeatedly transformed into angels of light and into the image of martyrs and present to us in a dream as if we are coming to them; and when we wake up, they fill us with joy and exaltation ... Whoever believes in dreams is not at all skillful; and whoever does not have he has no faith, he is wise" (ibid., p. 32).

Russian saints and pastors also write about this. Bishop Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) wrote in a special chapter on dreams: "Demons use dreams to disturb and damage the souls of human beings" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), vol. 5. 1993, p. 346). Archim. John (Krestyankin): "We believe all kinds of dreams, interpreting them, guessing from them, being seduced by dreams, we begin to see some more" prophetic " dreams and through this we reach the clouding of the mind and illness ... Repent to the Lord!" (Christian: John (Krestyankin). 1997, p.18-19). And further: "Be afraid to believe in dreams, so as not to fall into delusion - a terrible spiritual disease!" (ibid., p.19).

From this point of view, in Orthodoxy, any "guidelines" on divination by dreams, or the "Orthodox Encyclopedia of Dreams" are completely inappropriate and impossible - although there already exists a book with just that name (M .: Transport, 1996). This book has nothing to do with Orthodoxy, as well as with Christianity in general. When she went from hand to hand in samizdat, she was called "Russian Dream Book", which is not much better, but at least does not discredit the Orthodox Church.

And, conversely, an absolutely uncritical attitude to dreams was the dominant one in pre-Christian religions. According to modern scientific research, in these so-called archaic beliefs, it was dream experiences that were the main source of magical and religious powers (additional: Eliade. 1998, p. 254).

What is the biblical point of view on dreams from their natural and spiritual and moral sides? The biblical writers were aware of the possibility of natural causes of dreams. The Ecclesiastes described them this way: "dreams come with many worries" (Ecclesiastes 5:2); "In the multitude of dreams, as in the multitude of words, there is much vanity; but you fear God" (Ecclesiastes 5:6).

Both prophetic and prophetic dreams are described in the Bible. In a dream, Patriarch Jacob had a prophetic vision (Gen. 28:12), the voice of an angel of God (Gen. 31:11), and the voice of God himself (Gen. 46:3). The Lord appeared to King Solomon in a dream at night (1 Kings 3:5). Patriarch Joseph saw several prophetic dreams (Genesis 37:5, 9).

Prophetic dreams, without understanding them, were sent to both the Egyptian pharaoh (Gen. 41:2-7) and King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2:19). The first of them was interpreted by Joseph, and the second by Daniel.

In the "night vision" the meaning of sleep and the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar were revealed to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 2, 19). All the pagan sages together could not do this, declaring that "there is no man on earth who could open this matter to the king, and therefore not a single king, great and powerful, demanded such a thing from any occultist, fortuneteller and Chaldea" (Dan .2, 10). To shame this pagan wisdom, God revealed this secret to Daniel. The king was so amazed at the fidelity of what he heard that "fell on his face and bowed down to Daniel, and ordered that gifts and fragrant incense be brought to him" (Dan. 2:46). But the main thing is that Nebuchadnezzar recognized the greatness of God: "And the king said to Daniel: truly your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, who reveals secrets, when you could open this secret!" (Dan. 2:47).

It is interesting that in the Bible special dreams are correlated by God with the elders: "And it shall come to pass after that, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your elders will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions" (Joel .2, 28); "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall be enlightened by dreams" (Acts 2:17).

Sometimes two places from the prophet Job are cited as biblical places relating to prophetic dreams: "God speaks ... in a dream, in a night vision" (Job. 33, 14-15); “In the midst of reflections on night visions, when sleep falls on people, horror and trembling seized me and shook all my bones. And the spirit passed over me; my hair stood on end” (Job. 4, 13-15). But it is not so. The word that is translated in Russian as a dream was designated in Hebrew as hmdrt, "tardem". This is not just a dream, and not even a prophetic dream, it is some inner self-deepening of a person, which occurs with God's help, and which outwardly looks like a dream, because a person disconnects from the outside world and does not react to anything.

Since dreams are not only natural, or from God, but also seductive, from dark forces, in the Bible, as well as in the patristic tradition, there are repeated warnings against uncritical perception of dreams (and those people who try to use dreams for their own purposes):

- "do not listen ... to your fortune-tellers, and your dreamers, and your wizards, and your astrologers" (Jer. 27, 9);

- "prophetists see false things and tell false dreams; they console with emptiness" (Zech. 10:2);

- "Behold, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the Lord, who tell them and lead My people astray with their deceptions and deceit" (Jer. 23, 32);

- "For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets who are among you deceive you, and your fortune-tellers; and do not listen to your dreams that you dream" (Jer. 29, 8);

“If a prophet or a dreamer arises among you and presents you with a sign or a miracle, and the sign or miracle that he spoke to you about comes true, and says, moreover, “Let us go after other gods, which you do not know, and we will serve them ", then listen not to the words of this prophet, or this dreamer; for by this the Lord your God tempts you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 13, 1-3).

BLESSED STATES

Christianity never stopped only at the states of sinful gracelessness, it paid no less attention to the states spiritually blessed. At the same time, they are vital for the spiritual development of every Christian: “Just as another feels in himself the actions of malice in passions, such as: irritability, lust, envy, burdensomeness, crafty thoughts and other inconsistencies: so should a person feel grace and Divine power in virtues, namely: in love, in indulgence, in goodness, in joy, in lightness, in Divine joy..." (Christ: Macarius of Egypt, 1998, p. 184). These are the spiritual experiences that come with God's help: "Knowledge of God, in order to meet its concept, must be an experience in oneself of the presence of God, which allows a person to directly feel the divine life and, thus, lead to an experimental comprehension of the Divine Being" (Sergius ( Stragorodsky), 1991, p.95). And although spiritual gifts are felt spiritually, they can be fully felt: "Let us pray that we too may receive the grace of the Holy Spirit in every assurance and feeling..." (Christ: Mark the Ascetic, 1911, p. 154).

These inner sensations, from the Christian point of view, are extremely important because of the source that causes them, for, according to the gospel word, the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:21). Thus, "the Kingdom of Heaven is the dispassion of the soul, combined with the true knowledge of beings" (Christian: Evagrius Pontus, 1994, p. 96). In other words: “The kingdom of God and the Father, by its power, is in all believers; but by its action it is revealed only in those who, by good will, having completely put aside the natural life in soul and body, lead only a spiritual life, and can say about themselves: I live not to anyone, but Christ lives in me(Gal. 2, 20)" (Christian: Maxim the Confessor. 1835, part 2, p. 18). Or, as St. Theophan the Recluse wrote about the kingdom of God: "From a psychic point of view, the following should be said about the kingdom of God: the kingdom of God is born in us when the mind is combined with the heart, having itself merged with the memory of God" (Christian: Theophan the Recluse. 1996, p. 58). This psychological-internal aspect of the kingdom of God has always been important in Christianity: "The essence of the Kingdom of God , as a special internal state of a person, more specifically, as a person's perception of "deification" or "communion with God", is quite definitely indicated almost identically by all St. fathers" (Christian: Theodore (Pozdeevsky). 1991, p. 125). Or: "Eternal life, in which we Christians see our highest good, is a holy life, God-like, there is a life in communion with God. Reasoning essentially, this life is mainly the unknown condition soul, - or, (better to say), the source, the starting point of this or that character of this life, lies in this or that character of this life, lies in this or that state of mind of a person "(Sergius (Stragorodsky). 1999, No. 2, p.163).

And what is especially important, the kingdom of God is not just a reward, a reward for a virtuous life, "it is a state that is a natural consequence, the result of the mood of a person's soul" (Shavelsky, 1996, p. 55). Here is how it is described: “A person can create an exalted, spirit-bearing and God-bearing mood in his soul, but he can also create a God-fighting, demonic mood. soul, he joins either the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of demons. A person with a heavenly mood already on earth becomes a member of the heavenly kingdom and is able to experience the joys of a heavenly state; a person with a demonic, God-opposing mood of his soul belongs to the kingdom of this world "(ibid., p. .55-56).

This is of particular importance internal work: "Because, therefore, the whole thing is in the internal man, then the transition of a person from one kingdom to another is carried out not externally, but internally" (ibid., p. 56). This is important not only for the laity, but, to an even greater extent, for pastors: “If a call to pastoral ministry is necessary for a person who decides to accept the priesthood, then an appropriate pastoral mood is necessary for the successful completion of this ministry” (ibid., p. 99). The latter is defined as follows: “By mood we mean such a feature of the soul that leaves its mark, gives a certain tone and direction to all thoughts, movements of the soul and actions of a given person” (ibid.).

It is in the soul of the ascetic that the ladder to heaven is located: “Strive to enter your inner cage, and you will see the heavenly cage; because both are one and the same, and when you enter one, you see both. The ladder of this kingdom is inside you, hidden in your soul Immerse yourself in yourself from sin, and there you will find ascents, along which you will be able to ascend "(Christ: Isaac the Syrian. 1993, p. 10).

These are not some subjective-psychological, but spiritual-objective states: "Spiritual sensations are immaterial, formless, cannot be interpreted, clearly conveyed by a human material word, and at the same time, they are tangible, strong, overcome all other sensations, make their inactive, as if not existing" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). V. 7. 1993, p. 88). The same applies to special mystical states: “mystical contemplations are not experiences of some subjective mental states of joy, peace, peace, but revelations of another world, real contact with this, although spiritual, but really existing world” (Christian: Kontsevich 1990, pp. 28-29). From a Christian point of view, internal mental states are important insofar as an extra-psychic reality, God, manifests itself through them and stands behind them. Or in the words of a famous pre-revolutionary psychologist: "Religion is based on the idea of an omnipotent personal force, or an omnipotent Personality, causing a special kind of unrest in a person - feelings and actions" (additional: Snegirev. 1893, p. 599).

Spiritual states also have their own external signs: “A common sign of spiritual states is deep humility and humility, combined with preference for all neighbors, with disposition, evangelical love for all neighbors, with a desire for the unknown, to move away from the world. “Opinion” is not enough here. places: because humility consists in the renunciation of all one's own virtues ... " (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). T. 2. 1993, p. 250-251). Here is how the eminent Christian ascetic, St. Theodore the Studite, humbly wrote about himself: “But I myself, my beloved children, have nothing and deserve all contempt: I have neither the Spirit, nor light, nor ascent, no progress, no striving, no flow, I am all abandoned, passionate, gloomy, deprived of the ability to contemplate, not arranged, not strengthened, not mature and not approved for salvation "(Christian: Theodore the Studite. T. 2. 1908, p.81).

The most important signs of spiritual states are internal silence and dispassion: "Just as the agitated sea, when oil is poured on it, usually subsides, because the fatness of the oil overcomes the power of the uplifting wave of the storm: so our soul, anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, is filled with sweetness with silence ... then, to its joy, all excitement in it is stopped yielding to the goodness of the Spirit that overshadows her, and to the dispassion that is generated by it. Why, no matter what shocks the demons try to produce in the soul at that time, it remains worldly in itself and full of all joy "(Christian: Diadokh. 1900, p. 25-26) . At the same time, dispassion is different mental and bodily: "One is the dispassion of the soul, another is the dispassion of the body. The dispassion of the soul sanctifies the body as well; but the dispassion of the body, alone in itself, cannot fully benefit the one who acquired it" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian, vol. 2. 1993, p.398).

The Christian ascetic is in a state of special joy: "This joy was born in him not from human glory, not from much wealth, not from bodily health, not from people's praises, or from anything else that exists under heaven, but was prepared by the bitter illness of his soul and the meeting of the action of the Holy Spirit of God, which exists above the heavens" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Vol. 2. 1993, p. 176). And further: “No one can harm him, no one can prevent him from getting drunk enough from the source of salvation. a small bird, held in his hands, will not dare, with all his army, and with all his strength, approach him and touch even the heel of his foot, and not only boldly look at him "(ibid., p. 177-178). But even when grace is physically imperceptible, it is no less effective. Abba Barsanuphius was asked: "When I pray or practice psalmody and do not feel the power of the spoken words ... then what good is this (prayer) for me?" He answered this: “Although you don’t feel (the power of what you pronounce), the demons feel it, hear it and tremble. into softness" (Christian: Barsanuphius the Great, John. 1995, p. 440-441).

Special inner experiences are not an end in themselves (besides, they can be false), so a person should strive not for them, but for God himself. Many Christian authors warned against inappropriate and unauthorized striving for special states: “It has already become a common disease in our time: now people, due to the voluptuousness that has taken root in them, the tendency to seek comfort and pleasantness always and in everything, the very spiritual life is already understood as a means of speedy receiving such inner "bliss", sweet peace, euphoria" (Lazar archim. 1997, p.5-6).

St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov): "The desire and aspiration of the heart to enjoy the sensations of the holy, spiritual, Divine, when it is not yet at all capable of such pleasures, are filled ... with pride and recklessness ... the heart, intensifying to taste the Divine sweetness and other Divine sensations, and not finding them in himself, he composes them from himself, flatters himself with them, deceives, deceives, destroys himself, entering the realm of lies ... "(Christian: Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Vol. 2. 1993, p. 243). A similar thing can happen during prayer: “The one who prays, seeking to reveal the sensations of a new person in his heart, and having no opportunity to do so, replaces them with sensations of his own composition, fake ones, to which the action of fallen spirits will not be slow to join” (ibid., p. 246 ).

A safer and more correct way is to focus on those spiritual states and experiences that are associated with worship and church sacraments. These states gradually, but correctly and steadily rebuild a person in a different way (Christian: Serapion (Warriors) Hierom. 1913, p. 15). They contribute to a deep inner change in a person: “You come to a cell, sit down on a bench and cannot decide to go to bed in any way: echoes of divine melodies tremble in your ears with an unceasing chorus. And the more often you absorb this heavenly harmony, the more your consciousness is filled with new elements; the entire content of the psychic world is processed: other thoughts, other feelings, other desires ... a genuine re-education, a rebirth of a person begins, new his birth; the “second Adam” is being created” (ibid., pp. 17-18). The gradual internal purification of a person leads him (with God’s help) to holiness: "If you ask about the essence of eternal life from the side of the spiritual state of a person living it, then its essence, the source of eternal bliss inherent in it, will lie in holiness. Therefore, a person will be infinitely blissful because he (man) will be holy and in communion with the all-holy God" (Sergiy (Stragorodsky). 1991, p. 101). Since the heart requires purification first of all, subsequently many spiritual states are associated primarily with the purified heart: "Spiritual feelings are those changes in the heart that occur from the impact or contemplation of objects from the spiritual world. Their totality can be called religious feelings" (Christian: Theophan the Recluse, 1890. p.305).

But, as deep as the human heart is, the inner spiritual state of a person is also hidden: “The personal inner life of an ascetic remains closed to people. It is always closed. Only the wisdom of spiritual experience is open to people, but not the mysterious experiences of the soul. The door to this cell is always tightly locked as the Lord requires" (Christian: Basil ep. 1996, p. 70). And further: “Keeping the secrets of the inner life also has an educational value. In this way, a person’s religious feeling and his love for God become more concentrated and ardent ... As St. Synclitikia said, “if the door is often opened in the bathhouse, then all the steam will soon be released.” Similarly, the soul, too open to prying eyes, soon loses its focus; the feeling available to many is easily scattered, the spiritual power is wasted and disappears uselessly" (ibid., p. 71). In this, two points are important. “Firstly, it is necessary to remember all the time that the concealment of the inner life is aimed at the benefit of the soul, protecting it from love of glory, vanity, from foreign impurities in the feeling of love for God, from dispersion of spiritual strength, etc. Therefore, where these there are no dangers, secrecy is not needed there. Therefore, it goes without saying that in relations, for example, with a clergyman or spiritual leader, secrecy is out of the question. Here it is not only not justified by anything, but is directly harmful" (ibid., pp.71-72). Secondly, the fear of revealing the secret of one's life should not stop a person from doing good deeds. Sometimes, for example, in front of people's eyes they do not want to do alms and leave the poor without help under the pretext that they want to avoid the glory and praise of people. Of course, this is completely wrong (ibid., p. 72).

And now let's move on to the analysis of individual blessed states. Waking is not the most highly active, holistic and harmonious state of the human soul. With increasing activation, moving up the ladder of spiritual and mental states, one can single out such states as attention (sobriety), repentance, humility, dispassion. This is followed by a state of communion with God, which is practically indescribable in ordinary secular language (but the Holy Fathers left some of the most important thoughts about this). The mysterious and highest rung of the ladder of spiritual and psychic states is the state of acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Let us briefly speak about each of the listed states, adhering to the patristic texts as far as possible.

ATTENTION

State attention lies in internal and external composure and concentration. It is very important for Christian work: “The soul of all exercises about the Lord is attention. Without attention, all these exercises are fruitless, dead. He who wants to be saved must arrange himself in such a way that he can maintain attention to himself not only in solitude, but even in the very distraction, into which he is sometimes drawn against his will by circumstances" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), vol. 2. 1993, p. 296); "He who strives inwardly, every minute must have the following four things: humility, extreme attention, contradiction (to thoughts) and prayer" (Christ: Hesychius, 1827, p. 139). Without attention, there is no concentrated inner life, no self-knowledge and repentance, no spiritual, "non-soaring" prayer. Constant attention gradually turns into sobriety- a state of uninterrupted spiritual attention, through which one can, despite the hustle and bustle of the outside world, hear God's voice.

REPENTANCE

Further up the ladder of spiritual and mental states is such an important state as repentance. Repentance, due to its special importance, is sometimes called the second baptism: "As grace for grace, people were given repentance after Baptism, because repentance is the second rebirth from God" (Christian: Isaac the Syrian. 1993, p. 397); "repentance is the second bath of the heart after baptism" (John of Kronstadt, 1900, p.103-104). Unlike the feeling of repentance, which is a momentary feeling of repentance for any act, the state of repentance is not some short-term act and lasts much longer. This state is actually achieved when a person comes to a sense of repentance so often and for a long time that separate bright emotional outbursts merge into one fiery, unceasing state.

In repentance, we are used to seeing more of its emotional sides, which is also important, but not enough. Since "repentance is the knowledge of one's sins" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian, 1993, vol. 2, p. 174), significant cognitive elements are also present in it. Repentance, "metanoia" is not only an emotional experience, but also a change of mind, in which a person realizes his sins, purifies his thoughts, comes to Christian beliefs and worldview. It is repentance that makes possible the spiritual development of a person, "improvement of oneself" (Christian: Isaac the Syrian, 1993, p. 205). Precleansing by repentance is necessary in order "for the good will of God to follow us" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), vol. 2. 1993, p. 74).

Through repentance, a person comes to himself: “We are almost always outside of ourselves, and not in ourselves, because we are all engaged in almost external affairs and things, passing our inner world by our attention. The rite of repentance or the day of repentance gives us an occasion and a reason, an urge to go deep inside oneself and test, check one’s inner content, one’s thoughts, desires, intentions, one’s faith, one’s deeds, deeds, one’s attitudes towards God and people” (Christ: John of Kronstadt, 2001, p. 93).

Repentance is a very difficult matter, and for the grace-filled help in it, Christianity has a separate church sacrament - the sacrament of repentance. Reborn in the sacrament of baptism, the Christian, although he has ceased to be a child of God's wrath, does not cease to be the son of Adam, the heir to the damaged nature of the latter. To combat innate sinfulness, the machinations of the spirits of darkness, a means is needed that would cleanse the sinner from sins and reunite with Him again through them. For this, the Lord established in His Church for the healing of sinners, but sincerely penitents, a special visible sacred rite. This is the sacrament of repentance (μετανοια, poenitentia) (Christian: Malinovsky, 1909, p. 230). The significance of repentance is difficult to exaggerate, it is important for everyone and always: “Repentance is always appropriate for all sinners and the righteous who wish to improve salvation. And there is no limit to perfection, because perfection even of the most perfect is truly endless. Therefore, repentance until death is not determined by time nor deeds" (Christian: Isaac the Syrian. 1993, p. 366).

HUMILITY

Humility is the main criterion by which the positive spiritual and moral essence of a person is recognized (Christ: Mikhail (Trukhanov), 1997, p. 160). Humility is not always, perhaps, noticeable externally, but internally it is simply irreplaceable: "What salt is for any food, humility is for all virtue; it can crush the fortress of many sins" (Christian: Isaac the Syrian. 1993, p. 199).

Humility is the most basic attribute of the New Man: "Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart..." (Matthew 11:29). Without humility, "the fulfillment of all even the commandments not only does not bring a person closer to God, but even makes him an enemy of God, because if there is no humility, then there will certainly be pride" (Christ: Nikon (Vorobiev), 1988, p. 9) .

"Humility is always beautiful, It frees people from all painful worries. Its fruits are abundant, desirable. From it is born simple-heartedness, by which Noah pleased God and received salvation ..." (St. James 1827, p. 264); "The humble are the sons of the Most High and the brothers of Christ" (ibid., p. 270).

Humility is the main condition for the salvation of man: "Many received salvation without divination and illumination, without signs and wonders; but without humility no one will enter the heavenly chamber" (Christ: John of the Ladder. 2001, p. 177). And therefore, a Christian should create in himself such a humble mood, in which the publican's prayer would always be possible and natural for him: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13).

Humility is the basis for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit: “Truly, there is only one seal of Christ – the radiance of the Holy Spirit, although there are many types of His influences and many signs of His power. Simeon the New Theologian, vol. 1. 1993, p.36). According to Isaac the Syrian, humility is likeness to God through imitation of Christ (Christian: Hilarion (Alfeev), 1998, p. 117).

For the humility of the soul, the humility of the body is also useful - through fasting and bodily labor: "A different disposition of the soul in a healthy person, and another in a sick person, another in a hungry person, and another in a person who is satisfied. Also, again, a different disposition of the soul in a person riding a horse, another in a sitting on the throne, and another for the one sitting on the ground, another for the one who wears beautiful clothes, and another for the one who wears thin. And since labor humbles the body, and when the body is humbled, the soul is humbled with it "(Christian: Dorotheus Abba. 1995 , pp.57-58).

DISPASSION

State dispassion St. fathers rate very highly:

- "To be a monk is not to be outside people and the world, but to, having renounced oneself, be outside the desires of the flesh and go into the desert of passions (i.e., dispassion)" (Christian: Nikita Stifat. Active chapters first centurion, 1900, p.102);

– “He who has not become passionless does not even know what passionlessness is, and does not believe that there is anyone like this on earth” (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Creations. Vol. 2. p. 524).

The term "dispassion" (απαθεια) originates in ancient Greek philosophy, where it meant indifference, insensibility, as opposed to "suffering", "passion". In Stoicism, this term reflected the ideal of impassivity, peace, detachment, lack of emotions, which was considered the qualities of a real "sage" (Christian: Hilarion (Alfeev). 1998, p. 404). But such dispassion differs significantly from the dispassion in the patristic teaching. The first is closer to what is called apathy in ordinary modern language, that is, some detached state, usually associated with lack of will and laziness. According to the famous Russian theologian Archim. Cyprian (Kern): "All generations of Orthodox ascetic mystics were called to dispassion. But this mysticism teaches about dispassion not as some kind of nirvana, but, on the contrary, as an exalted work of the spirit" (Part 1: Cyprian (Kern). 1996 , p.51). Some traces of ancient Greek influence in this matter can be found in Origen and Evagrius. They portrayed the renunciation of "passions" as a negative achievement: the ascetic in his work had to strive for complete, total emptiness of the soul or body, for getting rid of any sensations, so that the mind could realize its divine nature and restore its essential unity with God through knowledge. Such a concept logically followed from Origen's anthropology, according to which any connection of the mind not only with the body, but also with the soul is a consequence of the fall (Christian: Meyendorff. Byzantine theology. 2001, p. 130). Ultimately, in Evagrius, renunciation of passions turns out to be renunciation also of virtues, and active love is absorbed by knowledge (ibid.).

According to the patristic view, Christian dispassion is quite different:

- "Dispassion is the immobility of the soul for evil, but it is impossible to improve it without the grace of Christ" (Christian: Thalassius Abba. 1900, p. 292); "Dispassion is a peaceful state of the soul, in which it is not moved to evil" (Christian: Maxim the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900, p. 167);

– “Dispassion does not consist in not feeling passions, but in not accepting them into oneself” (Christian: Isaac the Syrian, 1993, p. 210);

- "Dispassion is not that not to be wrestled from demons, for in such a case it would be appropriate for us, according to the Apostle, get out of the world(1 Cor. 5, 10); but that when they fight us, to remain unbattled" (Christ.: Diadokh. 1900, p. 71);

- "True passionless is called and is the one who made his body incorruptible, raised his mind above all creatures, nevertheless subdued his feelings to the mind, and presented his soul to the face of the Lord ..." (Christ: John of the Ladder. 2001, p. 243) ; "dispassion is the resurrection of the soul before the resurrection of the body ... it is the perfect knowledge of God, which we can have after the angels" (ibid.).

Dispassion has its own types and stages: “The first dispassion is the perfect abstinence from evil deeds, visible in the new beginnings; the second is the complete rejection of thoughts about the mental formation of evil, which happens in those who tread the path of virtue with reason; the third is the perfect immobility of passionate desire, which takes place in those who ascend from visible things to mental contemplation; the fourth dispassion is a perfect purification from the most simple and bare dream, which is formed in those who, through knowledge and contemplation, have made their mind a pure and clear mirror of God "(Christian: Maximus the Confessor Speculative and active chapters, 1900, pp. 277-278).

Moreover, from a Christian point of view, the soul in its depths is impassive: “The soul is impassive by nature. Those who adhere to external wisdom do not accept this, but like them, their followers. : Isaak Sirin, 1993, p.18).

According to Macarius of Egypt, the suffering of the soul occurred not because a person has the ability to desire, to feel, that is, to live a sensual life, but because he began to seek satisfaction for himself outside the source of true life (Christian: Shushaniya Onufry hierod. 1914, p.89). Therefore, "dispassion is not the destruction of the emotional manifestations of a person's life, but their liberation from languishing in the transient stream of worldly life. Having found true food in Christ, the sensual side of the soul reaches an extraordinary intensity and richness of content" (ibid., p. 89).

And according to Gregory Palamas, "the impassive do not mortify the passionate power of the soul, but it is alive in them and acts for good" (Christian: Gregory Palamas, 1995, p. 183). "We are commanded to 'crucify the flesh with passions and lusts' (Gal. 5:24) not so that we would deal with ourselves, killing all the actions of the body and all the strength of the soul, but so that we refrain from dirty desires and actions, turn away forever from them they became, according to Daniel, "men of spiritual desires" (Dan 9:23; 10:11; 19)" (ibid.).

Thus, dispassion is not the mortification of either lustful (desire) or irritable (anger) forces, but their grace-filled transformation (Christ: Hierofei (Vlachos), 1999, p.125-126). As Maximus the Confessor wrote: “Pasions are also good in the hands of zealots for a good and saving life, when, wisely tearing them away from the carnal, we use them to acquire the heavenly; namely: when we make lust a swift movement of the spiritual desire for Divine blessings; voluptuousness - life-giving joy under the influence of admiration of the mind with Divine gifts; fear - cautionary diligence about how not to be subjected to future torment for sins; sadness - repentance aimed at correcting real evil "(Christian: Maximus the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900, p. 258).

And some St. The Fathers speak of curbing the passionate movements of the soul and healing it:

- "Curb the irritable part of the soul with love, fade the desirable part with abstinence, cover with reasonable prayer ..." (Christ: Kallistos and Ignatius Xanthopoulos. 1900, p. 396);

- "Almsgiving heals the irritable part of the soul; fasting dries up lust; prayer cleanses the mind and prepares it for the contemplation of things" (Christ: Maximus the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900, p.173-174).

Dispassion is not only the beheading of individual passions, but also the general healing of the soul. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is directly related to mental health: "The liberation of the soul from thoughts, passions, the tyranny of death contributes to the balance of a person, both psychological and social" (Christ: Hierofei (Vlachos) 1999, p. 123).

COMMUNICATION WITH GOD

God wants mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6). theology, knowledge of God or communion with God follows from the commandment to love God: “Our first basic duty towards God is love for Him. It goes without saying that this love also requires us to know the One Whom we must love in this way. Man will not and he cannot love someone whom he does not know. Thus, love for God leads us to the duty of knowing God" (Christ: Filaret Abbot, 1990, p. 78). God-knowledge is directly connected with God-thinking: “God-thinking is such a spiritual disposition when a person deliberately introduces into his consciousness and maintains in it the idea of God, of His highest properties, of the work of our salvation, of our eternal future, etc. Such God-thinking was loved by our Christian ascetics, but, unfortunately, it is completely unfamiliar to many and many of us" (ibid., p. 79).

Jesus Christ, in his High Priestly Prayer, speaks of the knowledge of God: “Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son, and Your Son will glorify You, because You have given Him power over all flesh, that He will give eternal life to everything that You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:1-3). From these words of the Savior it follows that the knowledge of God is not only necessary, useful, important, but it is vital, and its relevance immeasurably exceeds the relevance of the knowledge of any created objects, for the knowledge of God not only determines the gift to us of eternal life, carried out through Jesus Christ, sent The God of the mediator between God and man, it itself is eternal life, otherwise it is salvation, that is, the realization of a goal that cannot be more desirable and excellent for a person on a personal level (Christ: Mikhail (Mudyugin), 1995, p. 85).

There are three types of communion with God: “one is mental, occurring during the period of conversion, and the other two are real, but one of them is hidden, invisible to others and unknown to oneself, the other is obvious to oneself and to others” (Christ. Theophan the Recluse, 1908, p.177). All spiritual life consists in the transition from the mental communion with God to the real, living, perceptible, manifest (ibid., p. 178).

The knowledge of God is directly related to revelation for man knows God in the same way and to the extent that God himself reveals himself to man. Revelation is understood as "everything in which the existence and action of God is manifested within the limits of human perception" (Christian: Mikhail (Mudyugin), 1995, p. 146). At the same time, the revelation of God infinitely exceeds what is available to us, people. Consequently, God's revelation is given in such a way that we can assimilate it: "both qualitatively and quantitatively, the ratio of the content of the volume and form of Revelation to absolute truth is determined by the data of the perceiving subject (understanding the latter as humanity), as well as by objective, i.e. providential purposes, for the realization of which Revelation is taught" (ibid., p. 148). Despite human limitations, it is man who was created to perceive God's revelation: "Revelation would be fruitless if man did not have the ability to perceive and assimilate it. This ability was given to him during creation as the most important, most essential feature of Godlikeness. From the very beginning of his existence, man communicates with God, perceives His will, i.e. is in the process of knowing God, from which the conclusion follows not only about the presence of Revelation, but also about the presence of a person's ability to perceive this Revelation and even respond to it - and participation in a dialogue with God (Gen. 2:16-17; 3:9-19), and conscious fulfillment (or violation) of the commandments of God contained in Revelation (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-13)" (ibid., p. 150).

God knows what a person needs, and therefore God's revelation has everything sufficient and has nothing superfluous: "The only goal of Revelation in all its modes is our salvation, which determines the scope of Revelation. Revelation is given to people not to satisfy curiosity or curiosity, not for any temporary worldly purposes, but only for salvation, understood in the highest Christian sense of the word, that is, for eternal salvation, the improvement of eternal life in God and with God "(Christ: Mikhail (Mudyugin). 1995, p.93); “It must be added that the volume of Revelation, while not exceeding the soteriologically conditioned maximum, at the same time provides the soteriologically necessary minimum. In other words, we have been given in Revelation all the volume of knowledge of God necessary for our salvation, and therefore, reflecting on the possibilities of salvation provided to us, we can say in the words of the psalmist: "The Lord is my Shepherd; I will not need anything" (Ps 23:1)” (ibid., p. 93/

Revelation is addressed to all aspects of the human soul: thinking, emotions, will. Only with such a complex experience of Revelation in all its forms and forms, with such a total approach to it, which is a synthesis of rational thinking, emotional upsurge and will directed at the fulfillment of God (Matt. 6, 10), the knowledge of God turns out to be fruitful and saving not only for this person, but also for those around him (neighbors in the broad sense of the word), for whom he becomes a conductor of Revelation, a conductor of the joyful news of Christ, the Savior of the sinful world (ibid., p. 143). Revelation in all its forms is undoubtedly "grace," that is, a good gift from God (ibid., p. 147).

Quite often, critics of Christianity want to present it as a religion of complete prohibitions, fear, etc. This, of course, is completely wrong, for such critics overlooked the joyful side of Christianity, which is especially manifested in the state of communion with God: “How much rest on a dear and soft bed surpasses lying on any hard and uneven board: the joy and joy that the soul draws in communion and conversation with God is just as much greater than any fun and enjoyment of real life "(Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. T. 2. 1993, p. 65) .

God gives this to man grace. Simeon the New Theologian wrote in detail about the sensation, knowledge and recognition of grace:

- the soul "must know the grace and the influence of the Deity reigning in it: for where the king is present, there must be obvious signs of his presence" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian, vol. 1. 1993, p. 366); and further: "God's signs, which the soul ruled by God must have, are: meekness, uprightness, truth, humility, goodness, truth, and all reverence, and also - kindness, philanthropy, compassion, love that is not hypocritical, long-suffering, constancy, complacency "(ibid.);

- "There is only one assurance of the effectiveness of salvation, - this is the spiritual feeling of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, bestowed from God for the sake of faith to the spiritual power of the mind" (ibid., p. 465).

- "Those who experienced the received grace, those are the friends of Christ, to whom the mysteries are true, and who lead their lives in the spirit of Christ. Those who have not received such grace at all, that is, not baptized, and who received it, but did not know her, such are the enemies of God" (ibid., p. 466);

- "But the grace of God comes to a person, although he is unclean and filthy, but he has a truly grateful heart; and there is true gratitude, in order to recognize with the heart that grace is grace" (ibid., p. 169);

- "Whoever has not been able to receive the grace of Christ and recognize it as intellectually inherent in his soul, he in vain bears the name of a Christian; he is the same with the unbelievers. He may think that he has escaped from all evil and goes through all virtue; but in truth, a liar is also a pretender" (ibid., p. 171);

- "in vain is he called a Christian who does not have the grace of Christ in himself tangibly, that is, in such a way that he knows by experience that he has such grace in himself" (ibid., p. 204);

“Over whom God has not reigned and who does not experience with an intelligent feeling of his soul that God is doing His will in him through Jesus Christ, he labors in vain ... If his mental soul has not yet received an intelligent feeling, through which he would understand what has come the kingdom of God is in him, then he should not flatter himself with the hope of salvation" (ibid., p. 250);

- "Whoever is enriched with a heavenly treasure - I mean, by the coming and dwelling in him of Christ, Who said: I and the Father will come and make an abode with him (John 14, 23), he knows with the knowledge of the soul (experientially, consciousness, feeling) what received joy, how much and what a treasure he has in the royal treasuries of his heart" (ibid., vol. 2, 1993, p. 554);

- "Just as a bloodless house, left like this due to the carelessness of the builder, is not only worthless for anything, but still serves as a laughingstock to the builder; so he who laid the foundation by the fulfillment of the commandments and erected the walls of high virtues, if he does not receive the grace of the Holy Spirit with the vision and feeling of that sincere, imperfect is and is an object of regret for the perfect "(ibid., p. 537).

The grace of the Holy Spirit brings with it and blessed states: "a rational soul, over which God reigns, must by experience know the grace of the Godhead that reigns in it, and by deed show the fruits of the All-Holy Spirit, that is, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and so on" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian T. 1. 1993, p. 251).

Here are some thoughts on some blessed states - comfort, love, peace, tranquility:

- "The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter - from the fact that He pours heavenly consolation, peace, surpassing all mind, into the soul of a person who knows his errors, his sins" (John of Kronstadt. 1900, p. 27);

– about the grace of the Holy Spirit: “When this happens, then the Christian realizes himself in an extraordinary state, expressed by a quiet, deep, sweet joy, sometimes ascending to the leaping of the spirit. but look for this intoxication, calling it the fulfillment of the Spirit. Thus, the command to be filled with the Spirit is nothing but a command to behave in such a way or to use such actions on your part that would promote or give opportunity and space to the Holy Spirit - to manifest itself tangibly: having a tactile effect on the heart" (Christian: Theophan the Recluse. 1882, p. 365);

- "There is peace of the body, as we see, there is peace of the soul. The body rests when it rests along the way, or through labors: this is how the soul rests when it rests in a pure and immaculate conscience, and is not embarrassed by anything from it. peace of mind!" (Christian: Tikhon Zadonsky. T. 11. 1837, p. 141); and according to the biblical word: "Only in God does my soul rest" (Ps. 61:2); it is no coincidence that the Athos prayer tradition is called hesychasm, from the Greek word " hesychia" denoting peace, silence, silence;

- "During a spiritual, Divine action, the blood falls silent and there is" great silence ". That holy peace, which is not in our fallen nature, but is bestowed and is bestowed by the Lord, peace that surpasses all mind, descends into the soul" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov v. 7, 1993, p. 110).

- "The divine fire is pure, subtle, bright, - tells the mind the truth, and the heart wonderful calmness, wonderful coldness to everything earthly, an abundance of meekness, humility, goodness" (Christian: Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). T. 4. 1993, p. 506).

Closely connected with communion with God is such a form of God's relationship with man as divine dwelling: "Divine indwelling is the perfect form of communion with God, when the Holy Spirit is completely entrusted to a person and dwells in him" (Christian: Gury ierom. 1908, p. 7).

Christ himself speaks of God-indwelling: "Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me, he will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself" (John 14:21); "Whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23). The Apostle Paul writes about it to the Corinthians: "You are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people" (2 Corinthians 6:16).

St. fathers:

- "God dwells in the body of man, and the Lord has with Himself a beautiful abode - man! Just as God created heaven and earth for man to inhabit: so He created the body and soul of man in His dwelling, in order to dwell and rest in his body, as in a house His own, having a beautiful bride, a beloved soul, created in His image "(Christ.: Macarius of Egypt. 1998, p. 312);

- "Do you see the insignificance of real life? Do you see how fickle and fleeting human life is? - There is one good part, one good life and insatiable grace - to acquire God through the observance of His commandments" (Christian: Theodore the Studite. 1901, p. 30 ); at the same time, Theodore the Studite speaks of "the indwelling of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (ibid., p. 163);

- "When God dwells in ... a person, he teaches him everything - both regarding the present and regarding the future, not in word, but in deed and experience, practically. He removes the veil from the eyes of his soul and show him what He Himself wants, and what useful for him; but about the rest he inspires him not to investigate, not to question and not to be curious "(Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Vol. 2. 1993, p. 134).

CONTRACTION ST. SPIRIT

The most frequently mentioned and detailed form of divine dwelling in patristic writings is acquisition of the Holy Spirit:

- "Truly, there is only one seal of Christ - the radiance of the Holy Spirit, although there are many types of His influences and many signs of His power" (Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Vol. 1, 1993, p. 36);

- "The mind of the temperate is the Temple of the Holy Spirit; and the mind of the glutton is the dwelling place of the ravens" (Christian: Thalassius Abba. 1900, p. 306);

– “It is impossible to receive the All-Holy Spirit otherwise, unless one, having abstained from everything that exists in this age, devotes himself to the search for the love of Christ, so that the mind, freed from all worries about material things, would strive towards this only one goal, and thus, be worthy of to be in one Spirit with Christ..." (Christian: Macarius of Egypt, 1998, p. 434);

- "Some of the brethren think that they cannot have the gifts of the Holy Spirit: for, due to negligence about the fulfillment of the commandments, they do not know that he who has true faith in Christ has all the gifts of God in himself in short. But because we, due to our idleness, are far away we stand aside from active love for Him, which would show us the Divine treasures in us, then we justly consider ourselves strangers to the gifts of God "(Christian: Maximus the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900, p. 223);

- "Pray to God Himself, that He would send you the Holy Spirit the Comforter, and He, having come, will teach you everything and reveal all the mysteries to you. Seek him for yourself as a guide; He will not allow delusion, or scattering in the heart, will not allow negligence and despondency , or drowsiness in thought; enlighten the eyes, strengthen the heart, exalt the mind "(Christ.: Barsanuphius the Great, John. 1995, p. 96);

- "When the soul calms down from the constant harassment of passionate thoughts and the painful burning of the flesh fades, then know that the influx of the Holy Spirit has come upon us, announcing the abandonment of former sins and the granting of dispassion to us" (Christian: Nikita Stifat. 1900, p.97).

- "The betrothal of the Holy Spirit is inexplicable even for the one who has acquired it, since it is comprehended incomprehensibly, holds on uncontrollably, is seen invisibly; lives, speaks and moves the one who acquired it: it flies away from the mystery in which it remains sealed, and is again found there unexpectedly, which forms the conviction that, just as it does not make its visit confirmed once and for all, so its departure is irrevocable, after which it would not return. , and when he has it, he is in such a disposition, as if he did not have it "(Christian: Simeon the New Theologian. Creations. T. 2. 1993, p. 536).

In addition, St. The Fathers describe various ways or forms of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person:

- Barsanuphius the Great was asked: "Can anyone say that the Holy Spirit lives in a sinner? And if he says that he does not have it in himself, then how, my Father, are sinners preserved?" He answered: “The saints are honored to have the Holy Spirit in themselves and become his temple... Sinners are strangers to this... They are preserved by His grace. , John. 1995, p. 280);

- according to the opinion of Maximus the Confessor, the Holy Spirit dwells in everyone, although in different ways: He definitely is under the law, as an indicator of the transgression of the commandments and an illuminator of the promise predicted regarding Christ. In all those who exist according to Christ, except for what has been said, and as a son-bearer, or producer of adoption "(Christian: Maximus the Confessor. Four hundred chapters on love. 1900 , p.260); but, at the same time, "as the giver of wisdom, in none of the said persons, He is simply and unconditionally, but only in those who, understanding the matter, have made themselves worthy of His Divine indwelling by their God-like life" (ibid.);

- and according to Basil the Great: "The Holy Spirit dwells in everyone, but reveals His own power in those who are pure from passions, and not in those whose dominating soul is overshadowed by sinful impurities" (Christian: Basil the Great. 2002, p. 5-6).

Macarius of Egypt explains the possibility of the presence of the Holy Spirit even in a sinner as follows: "The sun is a body and a creature, but, sanctifying stinking places where there is mud and sewage, it does not endure in the least, or is not defiled: how much more is the Spirit pure and Holy, abiding in soul, which is still under the influence of the evil one, does not borrow anything from him, for the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not embrace it(John 1, 5)" (Christian: Macarius of Egypt. 1998, p. 141).

Analyzing the grace-filled states in their integrity and interconnectedness, the following pattern can be distinguished: as we move from sobriety and repentance to communion with God and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, there is an increase in the degree of intensity and coordination, integrity and harmony of these states. In addition, in this case, there is a decrease in the actual mental component in the states and an increase in the spiritual one. So, it is difficult to judge higher states from the point of view of lower states - this is the reason for the "ineffability", the inexpressibility of the spiritual experience of a Christian ascetic.

SIN STATES

There are not only positive spiritual and mental states, but also negative, sinful ones: "And the kingdom of the devil, into which a person passed through sin, is ... also a phenomenon of the inner life of a person, a special state of his soul and his entire spiritual and bodily nature" ( Christ: Feodor (Pozdeevsky), 1991, p.125). As the famous English theologian Clive Lewis wrote about this: “If Christianity is not mistaken, “hell” is an absolutely correct term, conveying the state into which envy and bad character will lead me over millions of years” (Christian: Lewis, vol. 1. 1998, p. 80).

Sinful states carry a negative, dark spirituality, or rather, pseudo- and anti-spirituality (for true spirituality is the grace of the Holy Spirit). These states lead a person to spiritual death, which can be not only later, but even earlier than physical death.

The beginning of this downward path is attachments. Sleep and dreams are, although underestimated in terms of the degree of activity, but natural (natural) states of a person. Adjuncts come from the influence of fallen angels. But the very state of attachments is not sinful for a person if it is short-lived and superficial (which happens when a person stands guard over his soul and sweeps away attachments). In the opposite case, the development of appendices occurs, which has several successive stages: combination- sticking of the soul to the object of passion (fettering attention to the object), composition- when an obscene desire was aroused in the soul and the soul agreed to it, and finally, captivity and passion- when the soul is taken captive and, like a bound slave, is led to the accomplishment of a deed (Christian: Philotheus of Sinai, 1900, p. 417).

John of the Ladder wrote the same thing († 563): "there is another attachment, another combination, another composition, another captivity, another struggle, and another, the so-called passion in the soul" (Christian: John Climacus 2001, p.133).

A natural result of the development of attachments are passions- of various kinds and types, and the development of passions leads to charms, which we will discuss in more detail separately.

The further stay of a person in delusion leads to obsession(possession), when a person himself cannot control even his own body, which falls under the power of a fallen spirit (demon). But by the grace of God, the state of obsession is reversible if even the slightest faith in God remains in the depths of the person’s soul, and if relatives, acquaintances, priests and other Christians sincerely pray for him. In addition, the Orthodox Church has a special prayer and rite for exorcism. The final and irreversible state and the result of man's complete rejection of God is spiritual death, which can be during the earthly life of a person, when his body is still alive.

All these negative spiritual and mental states are steps of a kind of ladder leading to the depths of hell, just as spiritually positive states are steps on a ladder leading to heaven (see below for a generalized table of these states).

LADDER OF SPIRITUAL AND MENTAL STATES

As a result of the analysis of various types of spiritual-psychic states - natural, blessed and sinful - we came to the conclusion that these states are arranged in the form of a certain ladder. In the middle of it are the natural states, above are the blessed ones, and below are the sinful ones. At the same time, the higher the state is located on this ladder, the more integral and harmonious it is, and vice versa, the lower it is, the more fragmented and destructive it is. In principle, there are two possible ways to move up this ladder: up or down. The upward path leads through sobriety, repentance and humility to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, while the downward path leads through the acceptance of prejudices, combination and agreement with them leads to passions, delusion and spiritual death. For, according to the biblical word: "The way of the life of the wise is upward, in order to turn away from hell below" (Proverbs 15:24). These are the two paths - "the path of life and the path of death", which God offered people through the Old Testament prophets (Jer. 21, 8).

TABLE OF SPIRITUAL AND MENTAL STATES

	integrity + harmony
spiritual (Blessed) states	– acquisition of the Holy Spirit - communion with God - dispassion - humility - repentance (metanoia) - attention (sobriety)
natural and non-sinful states	- wakefulness - sleep with dreams - dreamless sleep - adjective
anti-spiritual (sinful) states	- combination - composition - captivity - passion - charm - obsession - spiritual death
	fragmentation + destructiveness

And in conclusion of the analysis of spiritual and mental states, it is necessary to say about the desire of some scientists to study them by psychological or psychophysiological methods. Here, it seems to us, special care is needed, because these states are spiritually-psychic, i.e. having in the first place spiritual character, and only then - psychological and psychophysiological. This spiritual component is not within the scope of science, it is a matter of religion. But if science tries to do this, then the consequences of this can be very deplorable (and there are already examples of this). In this case, both the profanation of science itself and the misunderstanding of spiritual reality occur (up to the most anecdotal cases, such as measuring the weight of an immaterial, god-like soul). Christian ascetics warn against such an excessively zealous (“not according to reason”) striving: “He who investigates the depth of faith is overwhelmed by waves of thoughts; and he who contemplates it in a simple-hearted disposition enjoys sweet inner silence” (Christ: Diadokh. 1900, p. 18).