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Stichera of the Annunciation Holy Mother of God belongs to the genus of laudatory hymns, doxology. Temple poetry was created in order to glorify, "praise" - and in the form of praise to state the most important dogmatics. Priest Feodor LUDOGOVSKY and poet Olga SEDAKOVA comment

"Annunciation", mosaics on two pillars of St. Sophia of Kyiv, c. 1040

Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos,
Great Vespers, 1st stichera on "Lord I have called":
Eternal Council
revealing to you, Otrokovitsa,
Gabriel appears,
You kiss and prophesy:
rejoice, unsown earth;
rejoice, unburned bush;
rejoice, incomprehensible depth;
Rejoice, bridge, lead to Heaven,
and the ladder is high,
south of Jacob sight;
rejoice, divine stamina of manna;
rejoice, resolution of the oath;
Rejoice, Adam's call:
the Lord is with you.

Greek text:
Βουλὴν προαιώνιον,
ἀποκαλύπτων σοι Κόρη,
Γαβριὴλ ἐφέστηκε,
σὲ κατασπαζόμενος,
καὶ φθεγγόμενος·
Χαῖρε γῆ ἄσπορε,
χαῖρε βάτε ἄφλεκτε,
χαῖρε βάθος δυσθεώρητον,
χαῖρε ἡ γέφυρα,
πρὸς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἡ μετάγουσα,
καὶ κλῖμαξ ἡ μετάρσιος,
ἣν ὁ Ἰακὼβ ἐθεάσατο·
χαῖρε θεία στάμνε τοῦ Μάννα,
χαῖρε λύσις τῆς ἀρᾶς,
χαῖρε Ἀδάμ ἡ ἀνάκλησις,
μετὰ σοῦ ὁ Κύριος.

Translation by hierome. Ambrose (Timrota):
Eternal Council revealing to You, Otrokovitsa,
Gabriel stood before You, saluting You and saying:
“Rejoice, unsown land;
Rejoice, unburned bush of thorns;
rejoice, depth impenetrable to the eye;
hail bridge to heaven
and the high ladder that Jacob saw;

rejoice, deliverance from the curse;
Rejoice, call of Adam to salvation,
the Lord is with you!”

Priest Theodore LUDOGOVSKY: Good news in the center of Lent
- Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, unlike a good half of the others Mother of God holidays(The Nativity of the Virgin, the Entry into the Temple, the Assumption, and, moreover, the Intercession), is based on the gospel narrative (Luke 1:26-38). Chronologically (although not liturgically) two more holidays are connected with the Annunciation: the Nativity of Christ (in nine months) and the Presentation of the Lord (it is in forty days). On the other hand, in terms of its content, another holiday is close to the Annunciation: the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, or Saturday Akathist (this year it will be April 20). On this day, the Great Akathist is read, the first stanzas of which are dedicated to the event of the Annunciation; moreover: the first kontakion (“To the Chosen Voivode…”) and the first ikos of the Akathist are part of the Annunciation service.

The Annunciation almost always falls on Great Lent, but on different days. Last year, the Annunciation coincided with Lazarus Saturday, six years ago - with Great Saturday, in two years it will fall on Maundy Tuesday. This year, we celebrate the Annunciation in the very middle of Lent - on the Week of the Adoration of the Cross.

Olga SEDAKOVA: “In Orthodox tradition"to know" and "to praise" are one"

The idea is eternal
revealing to You, young Virgin,
Gabriel appeared,
hugging you and saying:

"Rejoice, unsown land;
Rejoice, bush burning and unburned;
rejoice, depth impenetrable to sight;
hail bridge leading to heaven,
and the ladder in the air, which Jacob saw;
rejoice, divine vessel with manna;

Rejoice, our deliverance from the curse;
rejoice, return of Adam,

The Lord is with you!"

SUB SPECIE POETICAE

This stichera belongs to the genus of laudatory hymns, doxology. Liturgical poetry reveals itself in all its beauty, figurative and rhetorical, precisely when it "praises". Temple poetry was created in order to glorify, "praise" - and in the form of praise to state the most important dogmatic provisions. The source of this "knowing praise", "theology as glorification" lies in the Psalms and in general in biblical poetry. The most important theological truths - such as "the Lord is good and merciful, long-suffering and many-merciful" - a person learned not from systematic textbooks and treatises on theology, but from inspired, sonorous and richly decorated verses. This energy of Old Testament praise operates in Orthodox liturgical poetry: dogma unfolds before us in the form of a solemn "curl (or weaving) of words" (of which we have already spoken), in the form of singing, not a treatise. Thus, the position that the Incarnation of the Word is a revelation of the “eternal council” of God, the original plan that God had “before the ages”, before the creation of the world, we learn from the hymns of the Nativity of Christ and the Annunciation. These chants also tell us that Old Testament prophecies and prototypes from the books of Genesis and Exodus are being fulfilled in the Mother of God (Jacob's ladder, along which angels ascended and descended, the appearance of God in a burning bush to Moses, the crossing of the Red Sea, the Moses Tabernacle with a vessel of manna) - in other words, that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. The figurative "shadows" of events (as hymns speak of prototypes) become reality. The glorification and contemplation of the truth in the hymn coincide (and this applies to the most important truths of the Dispensation and to sacred history). This is a very important point, and it is worth remembering it when thinking about the peculiarities of the Orthodox tradition, where “to know” and “to glorify” are one in the intention. Latin hymnography in this respect is very different from Greek and, accordingly, Slavic. It responds to events, supplementing them with semantic and psychological details, but usually does not include direct dogmatic contemplation.

Another important property of liturgical poetry is that, describing and naming, it insistently speaks of the indescribability, inexpressibility of what it wants to say: after all, it speaks of a mysterious reality, of a miracle before which reason (reason, in any case) must stop. . Our stichera speaks of things incomprehensible to the mind: that the Virgin becomes the Mother while remaining the Virgin; about the fact that what was conceived before any time happens in time; about the fact that between the incorporeal world and the material world (“heaven and earth”) a ladder is being established and a bridge is being laid. The fact that liturgical hymns want to express the inexpressible is the reason for many features of their poetics. For example, the preference for negative - apophatic - characteristics is positive ("inexplicable and incomprehensible", "incomprehensible", "indescribable" - incomprehensible). Or a paradoxical combination of words and qualities that negate each other, oxymorons like “black whiteness” (“brideless bride”). And, finally, the interweaving of many very different images, such an abundance that the mind cannot cope with. The unsown land, the unburned bush, the impenetrable depth of the sea, the stairs, the bridge, the vessel filled with manna… How can all this be combined into one image? Can it be seen together in the imagination?

The imagery of liturgical chants differs decisively from the new poetry. She has a different task: intellectual, not pictorial. She is not going to surprise us with unexpected clarity, as the poet of the New Age often does, that is, to compare things by their visual similarity. As, for example, a wonderful visual convergence in the verses of Alexei Parshchikov:
The sea is a dumping ground for bicycle handlebars.

Brilliance, curves, dynamism... But liturgical poetry of this kind of rapprochement is useless: "bicycle handlebars" add nothing to the symbolism of the sea, they do not interpret it. But the “burning bush” next to the “incomprehensible depth” makes it possible to understand something. This poetry does not work with things, but with meanings, and symbolic meanings, and with symbols in the design that are well known. These "disembodied things" are seen with the "eyes of the mind" or the "eyes of the heart". All the above-mentioned “things” (an unsown field - and the image of Christ associated with it, “bread from heaven”, “new manna”, the depth of the sea, a ladder, etc.) are connected not by the fact that they are similar to each other, but by the fact , each of them is some wonderful, mysterious phenomenon. At the top (“edge”, in Slavic) of all miracles is the Annunciation, the news that “God was a man.”

Praise is spoken word. It sounds not in the third, but in the second person. These verses do not give "definitions" of the Mother of God, such as: "She is the land unsown." All likenings are directed Κεχαιρετομενη to Her, and each is preceded by the greeting "Rejoice!" This is common for Greek greeting (like our “Hello!” or Latin “Ave!”, “Salut!” - “Be healthy!” or “Shalom!” - “Peace be with you!” in Hebrew). Undoubtedly, in the Slavic perception, its direct meaning is more strongly experienced - a wish for joy, and not a simple greeting at a meeting. In our stichera there are eight such greetings - "hairetisms", as they are usually called. Six of them are symbolic images (earth, bush, etc.), moreover, they are compared in pairs: a burning bush is the depth of the sea, a bridge is a ladder. The last two are direct theological statements about the end of the curse that has weighed on the human race since the fall, and about the salvation of Adam, his rescue from mortality.

All these eight verses are inserted inside one phrase, which the Archangel Gabriel utters in the gospel narrative: “Rejoice ... the Lord is with you” (Luke 1, 28). It can be said that all this intricately woven imagery replaces one missing word - “Blessed”, Κεχαιρετομενη (in other chants this word is rendered as “Rejoiced”, literally: having heard a greeting).

Very similar to our stichera, but an extensive and complexly organized "greeting to the Mother of God" we meet in the Akathist "Choose Governor".

The world did not arise by chance, but in accordance with the Divine plan. And logic forces us to admit that this plan is eternal, since the idea of ​​the creation of the world could not arise suddenly in God.

Eternal Council of the Holy Trinity- beginningless, timeless (occurring before the age, before the time - "before" the age, "before" the time) God's plan for the world He created.

The pre-eternal council of the Holy Trinity is called pre-eternal, since it is carried out outside the time inherent in our created world. The eternal council of the Holy Trinity is carried out in Divine eternity, preceding the existence of all created things and events. At the eternal council of the Holy Trinity, the Divine conception of each creature that is to receive life from God is determined. The eternal council is called council, for all Persons participate in it. Holy Trinity.

The eternal advice is special advice. The Persons of the Holy Trinity participating in it exist inseparably and possess a single Divine will. The ideas and plans of the eternal council are the ideas and plans of a single omnipotent Being, which are always fulfilled and put into practice. Therefore, the word "advice" in this case closer to the concept of volitional predecision, will, understood as a thought, plan or idea, which will certainly and immutably come true.

According to St. John of Damascus, God "contemplated everything before his being, but each thing receives its being at a certain time, according to His eternal willing thought, which is predestination, and image, and plan." Divine thoughts, plans and images are God's "eternal and unchanging council", in which "everything is inscribed, predetermined by God and unswervingly accomplished, before his being." Divine advice is immutable, eternal and immutable, for God Himself is eternal and immutable. At the eternal Divine Council of the Holy Trinity, a decision was made on the creation of man, which is reflected in the words of Scripture: “Let us make man in Our image and after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). At the eternal Divine Council of the Holy Trinity, a decision was made on the Incarnation of the Son of God and the salvation of mankind.

The pre-eternal advice on the salvation of the human race is the idea of ​​the Incarnation as the union of the Divine and human nature in the God-man Jesus Christ, of the salvation and redemption of the human race through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. This plan is the most important part of God's general plan for the entire created world.

The divine plan for the salvation of the human race is an eternal plan, like all the plans of God. Foreseeing the fall of man before the creation of the world, God determined the salvation of mankind in eternity.

The First Person of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, acted as the Planner of this decision.

The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, for the sake of the salvation of mankind, expressed his consent to the Incarnation, which is reflected in the words of Scripture: “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings, but prepared a body for Me. Burnt offerings and sin offerings are not pleasing to You. Then I said, Behold, I am coming, as it is written of Me at the beginning of the book” (Heb. 10:7-10), and also in the words “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perished, but had eternal life” (John 3:16).

The Third Person of the Holy Trinity The Holy Spirit prepared Himself to be sent down by the Father in the name of the Son, in order to spiritually transform believers into the Son of God by His grace-filled action, to assimilate to them the fruits of His sacrifice, to communicate to them priceless gift knowledge of God, to make them "partakers of God's nature" (2 Pet. 1:4).

Question 24. Where did evil come from in the created world? What is evil?

From the Book of Genesis (ch. 1) it is known that all creation is very good. This is a transtemporal characteristic of the whole creation: the creation came out of the hands of God, and therefore it is good. In this case, the question arises: where does evil come from in the world?

Evil first appeared in the world of angels, long before the creation of man.

The problem of evil itself can be seriously posed and solved only in the context of the Christian worldview. From point of view Christian doctrine Evil cannot have a place among created beings. According to St. fathers, evil spirits were also created good. Rev. John of Damascus teaches that the devil "was not created evil by nature, but was good and created for good and did not receive in himself from the Creator even a trace of evil." holy Cyril of Jerusalem also says that he was "created good."

However, the spiritual experience of mankind, especially the Christian experience, unequivocally testifies that evil is not just some shortcoming, imperfection of nature. Evil has its own activity.

The answer to the question about the nature of evil is given by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Lord's Prayer ("Our Father") ends with the petition "deliver us from the evil one." The Evil One is not something, some entity, but someone, some personality. Therefore, from a Christian point of view, evil is not nature, but a state of nature, or rather, the state of the will of a rational being, falsely directed towards God. V. N. Lossky gives the following definition of evil: “Evil is the state in which the nature of personal beings who have turned away from God resides.”

On the basis of Holy Scripture, it is possible to give the following definition of evil spirits, or fallen angels: they are personal, i.e., free-reasoning, incorporeal beings who fell away from God of their own free will, became evil and formed a special world hostile to God and goodness, but dependent from God.

The Scriptures leave us no doubt that evil spirits do exist. These are not just images in which impersonal evil is personified. Chapter 3 of Genesis tells of the temptation of the first parents; in the Book of Leviticus (ch. 16) it is said (according to the reading of the Masoretic text) that the evil spirit Azazel; in Deut. 32 pagan sacrifices are spoken of as offerings to demons. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself in His teachings speaks of demons as real beings, casts them out and commands them.

The world, which was formed by the spirits that fell away from God, is not chaotic, it has a clear organization. Holy Scripture speaks of the world of evil spirits as a kingdom (see Matt. 12:26). The sole head of this kingdom is a certain spirit, which in Holy Scripture has several names: Satan (see: Matt. 12) (Heb. šāv6; āv0; - resisting), the devil (Greek διάβολος, - slanderer), Beelzebub (historically Baal-zebub - the name of one of the Canaanite deities, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 1:2). It is also called the ancient serpent (Rev. 12:9), the dragon (Rev. 12:3–4). The Lord Jesus Christ calls him the prince of this world (John 12:31). This name indicates that our fallen world, due to the sinful captivity of people, is largely in the power of this spirit. Ap. For the same reason, Paul calls him the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). The extreme hostility of the world of fallen spirits and its head towards God is expressed in the words of Christ, Who directly calls the head of this kingdom an enemy (Matthew 13:24-25).

Among the disembodied spirits, one stood out with holiness and spiritual greatness - Dennitsa, or Lucifer (which means Light-bearer). In his closeness to God, he surpassed all other angels.

You remember that angelic nature, like human nature, needs constant improvement and affirmation of itself in goodness. Angels, like people, have the only source of their holiness and spiritual strength in God. And the angel, just like each of us, has free will, which is capable of not only following the will of God, but also deviating from it.

Now tell me, in what case do people become far from each other, even though they lived in the same apartment? - When they lose mutual love. So the one who loses love for God becomes far from Him. This is the greatest fall.

Dennitsa, supreme angel, admired his creaturely, angelic beauty. He rejected the love of God and desired to take the place of God himself.

This is called pride, or self-love (selfishness). The essence of such a sin is a selfish turn of attention to oneself. Fallen Angel showed such interest in himself that his own "I" became for him at the center of the universe. Dennitsa became an idol for himself, and considered everything else as a means to his glorification.

Evil does not have an independent existence, its own nature. This is the voluntary desire of rational beings to live without God. Evil appeared as a conscious deviation from good, resistance to it. It is a protest against God and all that is of God. Therefore, evil is a deviation from being to non-being, from life to death.

Evil is rooted in misunderstood freedom and misdirected will. It seeks independence in everything, isolation from the Creator, and therefore in itself is a completely imaginary value, in reality equal to round zero.

This is a state of rebellion and rebellion. And as a force directed against the Creator, it is always destructive.

The very essence of evil is in the constant distortion, damage to what exists. Those who do evil cause harm and great suffering, first of all to themselves, because they go against their own nature, created in the image of God.

Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani

The truth has been placed in the center of your heart, it has been entrusted to you by God to keep. It becomes manifest through genuine repentance and real effort. Her beauty illuminates the surface [of the heart] when you remember God and surrender to zekru. In the first stages you pronounce the name of God with your tongue; then, when the heart comes to life, you pronounce it inwardly, with your heart.

The Sufis speak of spiritual transformation as a "child" because it is a child that is born in the heart; there it feeds and grows.

The heart, like a mother, gives birth, nourishes and nurtures its child. Just as children are taught worldly sciences, so the child of the heart is taught hidden wisdom.

Like an ordinary child, not yet corrupted by worldly sins, a child of the heart is pure, free from negligence, selfishness and doubt.

Childlike purity often manifests itself as physical beauty. In dreams, the purity of the child of the heart manifests itself in the form of angels. We hope to get to Paradise as a reward for good deeds, but the gifts of Paradise come to us from the hands of a child of the heart.

There are different levels of remembrance, and each level has different forms. Sometimes it is an utterance, sometimes it is an inner soundless sensation emanating from the center of the heart. First, one should proclaim in words what is commemorated. Then, stage by stage, remembrance penetrates the whole being - it descends into the heart and ascends into the soul; then it reaches the region of the secret, then the hidden, and after that the most secret. How deeply remembrance penetrates, what level it reaches, depends solely on how much Allah, in His generosity, directs it.

Genuine ecstasy is the union of light with light, when the human soul meets the Divine Light.

And then the wanderer returns home, to his native home... which is the world of closeness to Allah, where the home of the inner wanderer is located, and there he returns. That is all that can be explained, as far as the tongue can pronounce it and the mind can understand it. Above this, there is no longer any news, because above is the unperceivable, unimaginable, indescribable.

Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. It is necessary to cleanse it from the dust that has settled on it, for its purpose is to reflect the light of the Divine mysteries. When the light of Allah, Who is the light of the heavens and the earth, begins to pour into the region of your heart, the lamp of the heart is lit. Heart lamp in glass; the glass is like a pearl star... Then the lightning of Divine revelation strikes at the heart. Lightning is erupted by thunderclouds of meaning (Divine Archetypes), it is ignited from a blessed tree - an olive tree, neither eastern nor western. She throws a flame on the tree of revelation (or revelation) so refined that it is ready to ignite, even though the fire does not touch it. After that, the lamp of wisdom kindles itself. How can it not be kindled when the light of God's mysteries shines upon it?

It is not the stars that are guiding, but the Divine light... If only the lamp of the Divine mysteries is lit in your innermost consciousness, the rest will come, either immediately or little by little... The dark skies of the unconscious will be illuminated due to the presence of the Divine, peace and beauty full moon rising from the horizon, shining light on light.

She ascends into the heavens until she begins to shine in the splendor of the middle of heaven, dispelling the darkness of neglect ...

The night of your unconsciousness will then see the brightness of the day... Then you will see how the sun of sacred knowledge rises above the horizon of the Divine Mind. It is your own sun, for you are one of those whom Allah guides... At last the knot will be untied... the veils are lifted and the shell is broken, revealing the subtle behind the gross; truth will reveal its face.

It all begins when the mirror of your heart is cleansed. The light of the Divine mysteries will fall on him, if you thirst for it and call on Him, with Him, with Him.

One morning, Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani continued to sleep, although it was already time morning prayers. A cat came up to him and began to push him until he woke up. Noticing that the time was getting late, Abd al-Qadir quickly prayed. Through his spiritual insight, he realized that the cat was actually the devil. This puzzled the great saint, and he asked: "I see that you are the devil, so why did you wake me up to pray?"

The cat replied: “Since you recognized me, I will answer. I knew that if you missed the obligatory prayer, you would offer one hundred extra prayers as a recompense. That's why I woke you up - so that you could reap the fruits of just one prayer."

Abu Bakr Shibli

One of the features of the “friend of God” [saint] is that he does not know fear, for fear is a premonition of something undesirable or the expectation of a future loss. The saint cares only about this moment. He has no future to fear.

You are a Sufi if your heart is as soft and warm as wool.

Dervishes are a brotherhood of wanderers who watch over the world and look after it.

Sufism is not learned by listening to sermons, in some cases it is taught by examples and instructions that are inaccessible to ordinary organs of perception.

Two dervishes met during the Hajj (ritual pilgrimage to Mecca). "Do you know why we are here?" one of them asked. “Because of our negligence,” the other replied, and wept.

The Sufi bows down to no one but God.

Nafs is like a burning brand, both in its beauty and hidden destructive potential: the glow attracts, but the brand burns.

When a nafs is punished, he is diligent in repentance and prays for forgiveness; when he is comfortable, he indulges his passions and rejects God.

He who does not know and does not know that he does not know is a fool,

Stay away from him.

He who does not know, but knows that he does not know - a child,

Teach him.

The one who knows, but does not know that he knows - sleeping,

Wake him up.

He who knows and knows what he knows is a wise man,

Follow him.

Grace is given equally to everyone, but everyone perceives it according to their abilities.

The Sufi makes three journeys:

journey from God

journey to God

journey in God.

The Master has neither face nor name.

Make your sheikh qibla.

Purity of heart is the focus of the will on a single object.

The inner reality of love is that you give your all to the One until there is nothing left of you for yourself.

True knowledge is that which is revealed in the heart.

The self will not go away with the help of delights and caresses,

She must be driven with grief and drowned in tears.

Only by dying in humility will you gain eternal life.

If you are executed through humility,

There is no more death for you

For you are already dead.

Speak to each according to his understanding.

Whatever the Sufi gains, he gains through service.

Always try to make a bad impression on unwanted people.

Knowledge gives nothing to a man until he gives everything to knowledge.

A master is one who can teach without it being wholly called teaching;

A student is one who is able to learn without becoming obsessed with learning.

Nobody will reach Absolute Truth before a thousand honest people call him unfaithful.

I will either die on the threshold of the Beloved, or I will reach the goal.

Not everyone who chased the gazelle caught it, yet the one who caught it had to chase it!

The saints are forbidden the affairs of the world, the secrets of Heaven are forbidden to the laity, and the Sufis do not care about both worlds.

The eyes that look at God are also the eyes with which He looks at the world.

To know God is to love Him.

May God free my being

From everything but His presence.

I offer you the only thing I have:

My ability to be filled with You.

At the palace feast, everyone sat according to his rank, waiting for the appearance of the king. A modestly dressed man entered the hall and sat down in the most honorable place. The vizier demanded that he introduce himself.

Are you the king's adviser?

No, my rank is higher.

“Maybe you are a vizier?”

No, I have a higher position.

Are you a king in disguise?

- No, my rank is higher than this.

“Then you must be God yourself,” the vizier said sarcastically.

No, my rank is higher.

- Above God - no one! cried the vizier. The stranger calmly replied:

“Now you recognize me. I am that "nobody".

Khoja Nasreddin addressed the crowd with the words: “People, do you want knowledge without overcoming difficulties, truth without error, achievement without effort, advancement without sacrifice?”

Everyone shouted: “We want, we want!”

“Wonderful,” said Nasreddin. “I want too, and if I ever find out how to do it, I will gladly share it with you.”

Abu Said ibn Abi-l-Khair

Sacrifice yourself, otherwise don't waste your time on empty talk about Sufism.

To be a Sufi means to give up all anxiety, and there is no worse anxiety than ourselves. When you are busy with yourself, you are separated from God. The path to God consists of one step: the step away from yourself.

The Sufi is pleased with everything God does, so that God is pleased with everything the Sufi does.

Call me, and if there is even a hellish flame between us,

My love will make the path through the fire easy.

Love came and filled my veins and flesh.

She freed me from the "I" and filled me with the Friend.

Here is the mine of happiness, the mine of blessing.

Our qibla is the vision of the Friend, and for the rest, the qibla is the Kaaba.

I asked for medicine for a hidden disease.

The doctor said: "For everything, shut up, except for a friend."

"What food?" - I asked. "Blood of the heart," was the answer.

"What should I quit?" “This and that light.”

Watch the night: in the night for secrets, lovers are all together

Around the house, where their friend is, rushing like a swarm of shadows.

All doors in those hours are locked,

Only one other door is open for guests.

My sins are in number - like raindrops,

And I was ashamed of my sinful life.

You do your thing, and we do ours.

If love for the world (material or spiritual) lives in the heart, there is no place for divine Unity. Such hearts are incapable of distinguishing gain from loss. There is room in the heart for only one kind of love - either for the world or for God. Two loves are not capable of entering the arena of the heart together.

I will be your guest, my friend,

But I will come secretly.

Free your house from others,

I want to be alone with you.

The face of the Beloved is revealed to the angels for a moment, -

Eternal paradise froze in amazement.

But it will merge with mouth into mouth

Only a madman, burned in languor.

Only beginners think about the mysteries of the Path. This type of thinking is a tool of the self that hinders the seeker in his spiritual quest. Remember that God is not attained by reflection, because the mind is unable to know the Creator.

Everyone is a servant of what his thoughts are occupied with. If your thoughts are directed to the search for the causes and mysteries of God, then you will follow the requirements of the inquisitive self, and not the commands of God.

The student asked the master about javanmardi - spiritual prowess, or chivalry. Abu Said replied that this can only be explained to those who know himma - spiritual aspiration. But not for those who are blinded by the desires of the "I".

He then continued: “Spiritual prowess, chivalry, courage, tact and refinement grow in the garden of divine attraction. In the garden of human effort, only nightly vigils, ceaseless prayers and long fasts grow. Divine attraction sweeps away all obstacles that cannot be overcome with the help of one's own efforts.

Someone asked the master for advice on how to deal with people. He replied: "Be sincere towards God and accept people as they are."

All Sufi masters agree that impeccable prowess (muruwat) means tolerating the misdeeds of others and reacting to them as if nothing had happened. It is impossible to achieve high spirituality without developing two qualities in oneself. The first is to drop expectations and the desire to receive help and support from others. The second is the ability to forgive unseemly acts and mistakes of people.

Sufism consists in protecting the heart from anything but Him. But there is nothing but Him.

Sufism is the ability of the heart to listen directly to God.

Sufism is to look in one direction and see the One.

Sufism is the will of God uniting with His creation when the creation ceases to exist.

When Abu Said was asked what Sufism was, he replied: “Whatever is on your mind, forget it. Whatever you have in your hand, give it away. Whatever your fate, stand before it!”

Seven hundred masters talked about the Way, saying the same thing each in his own way. The essence remains unchanged: Sufism is getting rid of attachment to the worldly. Attention, absorbed in the claims of the ego, turns away from God.

Once at a meeting the master said, “For a long time I have been looking for the Truth. Sometimes I found it, sometimes I didn't. Now I'm looking for my "I" - and I can not find it. "I" became Him. However, everything is He.”

Four thousand years before the creation of these bodies, God created souls and kept them near Him, radiating light on them. He knew how much light each soul received, and bestowed mercy on each in accordance with the degree of enlightenment. The souls were immersed in the light until they were nourished by it. Those who live in joy and harmony with each other in this world must have been intimate in that place. Here they love one another and are called friends of God, and they are brothers, loving friend friend for God's sake. These souls recognize one another by smell, like horses.

If you long to draw near to God, you should seek Him in the hearts of people.

Take one step

And behold! here is the path.

There are as many ways to God as there are created beings. But the shortest and most correct Way is to serve others, not to bother anyone and make people happy.

The perfect mystic is not one who dwells in ecstatic contemplation of the Unity, nor is he a pious hermit who avoids contact with the human race.

A truly holy person is among people, eats with them and sleeps among them, buys and sells in the bazaar, marries and enters into contact with society, but at the same time does not forget God for a moment.

When you think you have found Him, in that very moment you have lost Him.

And when you think you've lost Him, then you find Him.

It is easier to lift a mountain than to get rid of the "I".

Khoja Abdul-Karim said: “Once a dervish asked me to write down stories about the miraculous abilities of my sheikh. Soon I received word that the Sheikh wanted to see me. When I entered his room, Abu Said asked me what I was doing. I answered him. He then advised me not to be a storyteller, but to try to get to the point where others would start telling stories about me.”

The dervish was sweeping the yard. Abu Sa'id noticed him and said: "Be like a ball of dust that rolls ahead of a broom, and not like a stone left behind."

Be like dust, it has no will of its own, and it follows where the broom (spiritual mentor) drives it, and do not be like a stone: it insists on its own and opposes the mentor's instructions.

A spiritual mentor to his community is what a prophet is to his people.

Spiritual need is a living and radiant flame that God places in the chest of his servant to burn his self (nafs). And when it burns out, this fire is transformed into the fire of "love yearning" (shauk), which never dies out, neither in this world nor in the next.

It is necessary to have a "spiritual need", for there is no shorter way to God for the seeker. If she touches a hard stone, a spring will gush out of it. For the Sufis, spiritual need is the foundation of the foundations; it's an outpouring God's grace on them.

Remembrance is the forgetfulness of everything but Him.

Once, in the middle of a conversation, Abu Said said: “The jewels are scattered all over the khanaka (Sufi abode). Why don't you collect them?

The crowd began to look around, but found nothing. "We don't see any jewels," they said.

“Service, service. "That's what I mean!"

O Sovereign Lord!

I don't want myself.

Release me from my self.

Hell is where "you" are, and heaven is where "you" are not.

An hour of thinking about your own non-existence is better than a year of worship with the thought of your existence.

First of all, action and knowledge are required so that you realize that you know nothing and that you are nobody. Achieving this awareness is not easy. It does not arise from teachings and instructions, you cannot sew it on with a needle and you cannot tie it with a thread. This is a gift of God and the question is who He gives it and who gives the opportunity to experience it.

One day a man asked a sheikh how he could reach God. “There are as many ways to the Lord,” answered the Sheikh, “as there are created beings in the world. But the shortest and easiest is to serve people, not offend them and bring them joy.

Even Sufism is idolatry, for Sufism consists in the rejection of everything that is not God. But there is nothing "other" in relation to God.

Under this mantle there is nothing but God.

The Prophet said that ikhlas is a divine secret (sirr) in the human soul. This mystery is the subject of God's immediate pure contemplation. Through the contemplation of this object, God gives life and animates it. Whoever proclaims the divine Unity must do so through the sirr.

Therefore, sincerity is a mystery whose essence is the grace of God (latifah). This mystery arises from the bounty and mercy of God and is not the result of the actions and efforts of man.

God sends need, thirst and sorrow into the heart of man. Then He contemplates the state of the heart and in His generosity and mercy places spiritual matter (latifah) in it. This matter is called the secret of God (sirr Allah), and it is the same as sincerity (ikhlas). It is eternal, for it was created by God's act, who thought it. It comes from the being of God, and humanity has no right to it. It is kept in the heart like a loan from God. The one who keeps it is alive (hayy), and the one who loses it is an animal (hayavan), and these two are not alike

Abu Said was asked: "What is the spiritual master who has comprehended the Truth, and what is the sincere disciple?"

The sheikh replied: “A spiritual mentor who has comprehended the Truth has at least ten properties that prove his authenticity:

First, he must achieve himself in order to have a disciple.

Secondly, he needs to tread the mystical path in order to be able to lead others along it.

Thirdly, he needs to acquire refinement and knowledge in order to impart knowledge to others.

Fourthly, he must be generous and not consider himself an important person, so that he is able to sacrifice his wealth for the sake of a student.

Fifthly, he must not be concerned with the wealth of the disciple, so as not to be tempted to use it for his own purposes.

Sixth, in cases where he can teach a lesson by hint, he will not speak directly about the subject.

Seventh, whenever it is possible to teach through kindness, he will not resort to harshness and cruelty.

Eighth, what he requires, he first did himself.

Ninth, from what he forbids his disciples, he himself abstains.

Tenthly, he will not leave a disciple for the sake of the worldly, for he took a disciple for himself for the sake of God.

If the spiritual master is like this and is adorned with these qualities, the disciple will surely be sincere and succeed in his journey, for the disciple acquires the qualities of his spiritual master.”

As for the sincere student, the Shaykh said: “At least ten qualities that I list here must be present in a sincere student if he wants to be worthy of discipleship:

First, he must be intelligent enough to understand the instructions of the spiritual mentor.

Secondly, he must obey and carry out the orders of the spiritual mentor.

Thirdly, he must keep his ears open to hear what the teacher says.

Fourthly, he must have an enlightened heart in order to see the greatness of a spiritual mentor.

Fifthly, he must be truthful, so that whatever he tells is true.

Sixthly, he must keep his word, so that whatever he promises, he fulfills.

Seventh, he must be generous, so that whatever he owns, he is able to give away.

Eighth, he must be careful to keep the secrets entrusted to him.

Ninth, he must be receptive to advice, so that he accepts the censure of the mentor.

Tenth, he must possess chivalrous qualities in order to sacrifice his own life on the mystical path.

Possessing such qualities, it will be easier for the student to complete his journey, and he will quickly reach the goal set before him by the spiritual mentor.

In the end, the mystic comes to the conclusion that the Reality is identical to him, while he himself does not exist ... The only thing that is known about the mystic is that he connects opposites, because for him everything is Reality. So Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz was once asked how he knows Allah. He answered: “Through the fact that He unites opposites,” for he was a witness to this connection in himself.

The master was asked what spiritual chivalry is.

The Prophet Muhammad defined it like this: “Do for others what you would like them to do for you,” the master said. - The essence of etiquette is not at all in condemning or evaluating others. Anyone who claims to be chivalrous and does not show it in his actions may very soon lose face.

My body ran out of tears, my eyes became weeping, -

in Your love life is incorporeal.

What I was has disappeared without a trace -

this is what Your love does.

If I disappeared into the Beloved,

Who is to be called lover?

A Message came from a Friend - to do everything as it should.

This is Sharia.

To cherish Love in the heart and clear the way for Him -

This is tarikat.

Why are you dissatisfied with what the Friend does?

Both pain and joy are all from His Love.

If the Beloved humiliates you,

there is no shame in that.

When you are embraced by Love again,

then the pain of shame goes away.

A hundred good deeds cannot be forgotten

one bad deed.

If you think of thorns, you cannot smell the fragrance of a rose.

When the Beloved is angry, beg for her forgiveness

After all, a new day will not bring us a new Love.

What would be a better ending than this?

A friend goes to visit a friend

Lover - to meet with the Beloved.

Everything else is pain and sadness, only this is joyful.

Everything else is useless speech, only this is an act.

The disciple asked Abu Sa'id, "Where shall we look for Him?"

Abu Said replied: “Where did you look that you did not find Him?”

The Bedouin was asked:

“Do you acknowledge the existence of the Lord?” He replied:

“How can I not recognize the One who sent me hunger, doomed me to nakedness and begging, and forced me to wander from country to country?

While he was saying this, he was overcome with ecstasy.

The monotheism professed by the Sufis consists in the following: separate the created from the uncreated; leave native land; renounce all attachments; move away from what you know and from what you do not know. And then Reality arises in the place of all this.

Abu Said addressed the audience: "Today I will talk to you about astrology." Everyone was waiting with great interest to see what he would say.

The Shaykh said: “O people, this year will happen what God wants, just like last year what God wanted happened.”

One hundred spiritual masters spoke about Sufism. The first said the same as the last. The ways of expression are different, but the meaning is the same: "Sufism is the rejection of any pretense."

And there is no greater pretense than your self. The very moment you begin to take care of yourself, you move away from Him.

Once in Nishapur, Abu Said came to participate in the funeral ceremony. The organizers of the ceremony, in accordance with custom, wanted to announce the arrival of the Sheikh and list his titles. But when they saw Abu Said, they hesitated and asked his disciples: “What title should be called a sheikh?”

The sheikh noticed a hitch and said: "Announce that no one has come, the son of no one."

In the state of union one sees that everything is He, everything is through Him, and everything belongs to Him. What he knew by hearsay, he comprehends through intuition as he contemplates God's deeds. And then he fully admits that he has no right to say "I" or "mine."

One day Abu Muhammad went to a public bath to visit his friend Sheikh Abu Said. Finding him, Abu Muhammad asked:

- Do you like this bath?

- Of course.

- With what?

“Because you honored her with your presence.”

“I'm afraid that's not enough reason.

“Would you be so kind as to point me to the real reason?”

- This place is good because a person here needs only a jug of water for rinsing and a towel to dry off. And these items do not belong to him, but to the attendant.

Khoja Sabuni studied with our master when he studied theology in Merv. This was many years before Abu Said reached a high spiritual level.

Once Khoja Sabuni said: “O master, we are school friends and it happened that we helped each other do our homework. We studied the same books. Why did the Lord Almighty give you only a high destiny?”

Our master said: “Do you remember the day when the teacher told us to memorize the saying of the Prophet: “To surrender yourself to the will of God means not only to be happy and content with what you have, but also not to think about what you do not have.” We both recorded it. What did you do when you got home?"

I repeated it until I remembered it, and then I turned to other lessons.

Well, I didn't do it. When I came home, I allowed everything that interfered with my studies to happen, and removed regret from my heart about it. Whatever happened, I accepted it with joy, opening my heart to the light of the coming. This is the way to reach Truth.

Azid ad-din bin Muhammad Nasafi

First purification, and then enlightenment; first division, then merger. A person who does not die in one will not be born in another. If you want rest, die in work; if you want God, die in yourself. If you cannot die in your work, do not seek rest; if you cannot die in yourself, do not seek God, for [both] will not come true.

It is necessary that the goal of the wanderer on the path of asceticism and asceticism should not be the search for God, for He is present in everything and there is no need to seek Him, the existence of everything is from Him, the eternity of everything is in Him and the return of everything is to Him, moreover, everything itself - it's him. You should also know something else: the goal of the Path is not to strive for purity and good character, and not to strive for knowledge and cognition, and not to strive for the manifestation of light, and not to strive for the discovery of secrets. Everyone belongs to one of the human levels, and when a traveler ascends a certain level, the thing that is characteristic of that level will itself appear, whether he wants it or not.

To one who has reached a certain degree, that which is not characteristic of that degree cannot appear. A dervish, a man, has degrees, just as a tree has degrees, and it is known what will appear at every degree of the tree. Therefore, it is the business of the gardener to keep the earth soft and in proper condition, to clean it of thorns and litter, to supply water in time, to protect the tree so that it does not harm it, so that all the degrees of the tree come true, and each of them appears in time.

The work of the traveler is the same: it is necessary that asceticism and asceticism be in order for all properties to manifest in a person. Regardless of the traveler's desire, purity, good character, knowledge and knowledge, comprehension of secrets, the manifestation of light will appear to him, each in its own time, so that the traveler will never hear or notice this. Anyone who does this will understand these words.

Dervish, all grades of the tree are in his seed, and they will be nurtured and nurtured by a clever gardener until they are fully manifested. In the same way, purity, good disposition, knowledge, knowledge, comprehension of secrets and the manifestation of light - all of them are in the essence of man. From association with the knower, they are brought up and nurtured until they appear in full. Dervish, initial and final knowledge is hidden in you, everything you are looking for, look within yourself, why are you looking outside? The knowledge that reaches your heart through your ears is the same as the water you take from someone else's well and poured into your own, dried up one. But the water won't stay. In addition to the fact that it will not linger, it will soon rot, and heavy and unbearable ailments will be born from it into the world. Dervish, this illness will turn into pride and increase the love for rank. Make sure that there is water in your well and, no matter how much you take it and give it to others, it would not become less, but, on the contrary, more; so that it does not become offensive, but, on the contrary, no matter how much it stands, it would become cleaner and treat serious illnesses. Dervish, whatever the person may be, there is still a well of water inside him, but it is implicit. The well should be cleaned and the water made clear.

After you have learned the meaning of [the word] world, know now that you are called a small man and a small world, but the whole world is called a great man and a great world. Dervish, you are a small world, the whole world is a great world, you are a list and a sign of both worlds, and both worlds are great, and you are a small world. Everything that exists in the great world exists in the small world. Dervish! Know yourself, comprehend your obvious and hidden, in order to know the beginning and end of the great world, in order to comprehend the obvious and hidden of the great world. Apart from this path, there is no other path. The dervish who seeks to know things as they are, let him know himself as he is.

Know that the soul after separation from the body, if it has gained perfection, returning, reaches the intellects and souls of the upper world, since the perfection of the human soul is connected with the intellects and souls of the upper world, for all the souls and intellects of the upper world have knowledge and purity and constantly acquire knowledge and gain light. Therefore, the task of man is in the constant mastery of knowledge and the acquisition of light and in the acquisition of knowledge and purity.<...>And every capable person can, by austerity and zeal, by mastering knowledge and acquiring light, bring his soul to a state that would correspond to the soul of the heaven of heaven, then, after separation from the body, his soul will return to the soul of the heaven of heaven.<...>He who has not mastered knowledge and purity will not reach the upper world.

Knowing the past, know now that<...>the inner being is light, and this light that is, the soul of the world, the world is full of this light, and this light is limitless and endless, the sea is endless and boundless. Life, knowledge, will and power of things are from this light; the nature, property and action of things - from this light; vision, hearing, speech, the ability to take and the ability to go are from this light. But there is no other than this light, for everything itself is this light. ...This light is in love with its manifestations. For this light sees its beauty in these manifestations, contemplates its attributes and its names; that is why it is said: first know yourself, that you may know your Lord.<...>Dervish! One should reach this light, one should see this light, one should look at the world from this light in order to get rid of polytheism.<...>Dervish, as soon as the traveler reaches this light, signs are given to him. The first sign is that [the traveler] ceases to see himself, for as long as he sees himself, the plurality of creation is preserved, as long as he sees the multitude, he is a polytheist. When the traveler disappears, then polytheism will disappear, penetration, union, separation and merging will disappear.<... >When the traveler burns in this light, all this will disappear and there will be only God, and only ...

Every drawing that exists on the board of being

There is an image of the One who created this drawing.

When the eternal sea raises a new wave

It is believed that this is a wave, in reality it is the sea.

Time and place have a great reality and a strong influence in everything, and especially in what concerns a person.

A bird that does not know about clean water keeps its beak in salt water all its life; if they put clean water in front of her, then she will also drink the water that she drank.

On your head is a whole basket full of bread,

You are looking for a piece of bread, knocking on every door.

On your own you are nothing, even a fool:

Go knock on the door of your heart - why knock on every door.

Abstinence is only in constancy, for it will decide the matter, and without constancy, no matter will be accomplished.

The food and the journey of the traveler must have a purpose.

God is very and extremely close, but people are extremely far from Him, because they do not know the degree of God's closeness. God has closeness to all kinds of being. He has the same proximity both to the highest celestial sphere, and to the lowest. As long as the traveler does not inquire about this closeness, does not know God, the mind, feelings are not able to know this closeness.

He who knows it is the light of God. The one who reaches God's light will know this closeness.

The vast majority of humanity does not know what it is in its interest to know. They dislike things that will eventually benefit them.

Once the fish gathered and said that we had already heard so many stories about water, that our whole life depends on water, and we still have not seen water. Some of the fish said that supposedly a wise fish lives in some river, which saw the water and knew it, and we should go to that fish so that it will show us the water. They traveled for a long time and finally reached that river and found that fish and said that their life and existence depended on it. But they had not yet seen the water and came to her so that she would show them the water, and the wise fish answered: “O you who spent your life in search of the disclosure of the innermost, your beloved is near you, and you yearn for her. O thou who was by the river but died of thirst. Being in the treasure, but dying of poverty.

The journey in God is such a process where the walking continues until the Gnostic is satisfied that being is one and it is the being of God, except for God's being, there is no other being. After the completion of the walk, the traveler should strive so hard to know and see all the substances of bodies and the philosophy of things as they are. Some say that it is impossible for mankind to know all this, because human life short, but Divine wisdom is immense. And some say: individual people have the opportunity to know this in the same way that people differ in the degree of ability and some of them have stable abilities.

Obstacles on the Path are: love of property, love of wives, adherence to religious tradition and transgressions. The principles of the Path of knowledge of God are: good word, good deed, benevolence and gnosis.

Know that the Path, from the point of view of the mystics, means: to go from slander to blessing, from evil deed to virtue, from bad disposition to benevolence, and from one's own being to the Being of the Most High God.

Man is a microcosm and a source, a beginning, and everything else is a macrocosm.

The acquisition of divine science is impossible otherwise than through the direct radiance of divine rays.

Baha ad-Din Muhammad Naqshbandi

Never give in to the urge to teach, no matter how strong it may be. The instruction to teach does not feel like an impulse.

There is fellowship with the wise and teaching from him in the right way, which leads to the development of man. There is also imitation, which is destructive. What completely confuses us in this matter is that the feeling that accompanies false discipleship and ordinary fellowship, and their outward manifestation in courtesy and seeming humility, is so capable of making us imagine that we are religious or consecrated people, that one might say, that it is caused by what is called the entry of a diabolical, deceitful force, convincing the majority of eminent men of unshakable spiritual reputation, and their followers even through the generations, that they are dealing with spirituality.

You cannot cast out doubt. Doubt goes away when doubt and belief go, as you study them. If you leave the Way, it is because you hoped to receive conviction from it. You are looking for conviction, not self-knowledge. Understanding and knowledge in the realm of Truth are quite different from what they are in the social realm. Whatever you understand in the ordinary way about the Way is not an understanding of the Way, but only an outward assumption about the Way common among unconscious imitators.

When a person is busy with his own business, he does not always explain his behavior to random passers-by, no matter how great their interest, in their own opinion, may be in this business. When an action takes place, the main thing is that it develops correctly. In this case, external evaluation is of secondary importance.

A sign of cleansing the depths of the heart of a servant of God from everything except God is that he can interpret the mistakes of believers as good deeds.

Exercises in recalling the events of the present and the recent past are designed to develop in us the ability to recall the memory of an even more distant past, to remember what is suspended or temporarily left, and to which, unknown to us, our heart longs.

People who are called scientists are only substitutes for scientists. There are few real scientists, but there are a great many who imitate them. As a result, it was they who began to be called scientists. In countries where there are no horses, donkeys are called horses.

A person who needs information always thinks that he needs wisdom. Even if he really is a man of information, he will consider that he needs wisdom. If a man is a man of wisdom, only then does he become free from the need for information.

If you love your God, then know that your heart is the mirror of His face. When you look into your heart, you certainly see His face. Your king is in the palace of your body, and do not be surprised if you see the throne of God in a particle of your heart.

The job of a teacher is to teach. In order to teach, he must take into account all the attachments and prejudices of his students. For example, he must speak the language of Bukhara with the Bukharians and the language of Baghdad with the Baghdadians.

It must be realized that people must be improved inwardly, and not simply restrained by custom from showing their rudeness and destructiveness and encouraged for not showing them.

Everyone who is in the world loves the good; if you love the evil ones, then you have conquered yourself.

A sign of cleansing the depths of the heart of a servant of God from everything except God is that he can interpret the mistakes of believers as good deeds.

Solitude in society, wandering in the homeland, outwardly with people, inwardly with God.

God is silence and is most easily reached by silence.

There is food that is different from the usual. I'm talking about the food of impressions, continuously penetrating into the consciousness of a person from many areas of his environment. Only a select few know what these impressions are and can control them. The meaning of this is one of the Sufi mysteries. The master prepares the food which is the "special" food available to the seeker and this contributes to his development. This does not fit into the framework of conventional ideas. Each of those present here has seen miracles, but what is important in this case is their function. Miracles can be performed in order to prepare for a person a certain part of the highest form of nutrition, they can affect the mind and even the body in a special way. When this happens, the experiences of miracles will affect the mind in the right way. If a miracle affects only the imagination, which is typical for rude people, it can cause an uncritical attitude, or emotional excitement, or a desire to see new miracles, or a desire to understand them, or a one-sided attachment and even fear of a person who is considered a miracle worker. Miracles have a certain function, and they perform this function, whether a person understands them or not. Miracles also have a true (objective) function, so they cause confusion in some people, skepticism in others, fear in others, delight in others, and so on. The function of a miracle is to evoke reactions and provide nutrition of a special kind, which will vary depending on the particular person who is affected by this miracle. In all cases, miracles are at the same time tools for influencing and evaluating the people they affect. When the ingredients are known, there can be no doubt as to what the mixture is.

Bah ad-Din Naqshbandi was asked: - Where does your brotherhood extend? “No one from the brotherhood went anywhere,” he said, “for the brotherhood to spread somewhere.

From rags and staff how can sincerity be born?

From the rosary, except hypocrisy, what will be born in Truth?

Don't talk: "Oh, where is the source of our sacred community."

No one will be reborn from being in the community!

The different norms of behavior among the wise should be seen as the result of differences in individuality, and not of quality.

Never allow yourself to evaluate each thing in a way that is not related to the same time. One must match the other.

Our path to Him [God] is mutual fellowship, but not hermitage, in hermitage - glory, and in glory - death. Good deeds are found only in the gathering of people, while the society of people consists in mutual fellowship, based on the condition not to do to each other what is forbidden.

Be prepared to realize that all the beliefs that were conditioned by the environment around you were something insignificant, even if they were once very useful to you. They can become useless and actually turn out to be traps.

Giving up something just because others misuse it can be the height of stupidity. Sufi Truth cannot be reduced to rules and regulations, formulas and rituals, but it is partly present in all these things.

If you seek with your eyes, then He will be hidden. And if you seek secretly, then He will be revealed. And if you seek together, then, since He has no like, He is outside of them (mystery and certainty).

If he knows what he is teaching, he will clothe his method of teaching in an appropriate outward form, like the building of a physical building for a school. This takes into account the nature and characteristics of students and their potential.

The heart is for the beloved, the hand is for the cause.

Hamadani

Mighty love is so powerful that when it penetrates the soul, it brings the beloved to the beloved... Love is fire, and the lover is a butterfly. The fire of love gives her strength and feeds her ... In this passionate desire, she throws herself into the flame of a candle, which is the beloved, and together with it begins to burn until everything turns into a candle and fire, and neither butterfly nor love remains.

For seekers, all paths leading to God are permissible. Love brings a person to God. So love in this sense is the only way union with God.

God does not look at your appearance and image, not at your actions, he looks at your hearts. Oh friend, the heart is God's vantage point.

The highest experience or knowledge will become available to a man or woman in exact accordance with what this person is worth, with his abilities and how much he deserves it. Therefore, if a donkey sees a watermelon, then it eats its tops, the ants will eat what they can grab; a person will consume the whole without knowing what he has consumed.

While in a foreign land, I once heard a man ask another how he acquired knowledge. This is the answer he received: “I looked for him and found him far, far away, where the hunter's arrows do not reach; it cannot be obtained by divination, nor seen in a dream, nor caught with a bridle, nor inherited from the forefathers, nor borrowed from generous people. I acquired it - wandering along dusty paths, stumbling over stones, avoiding irritation and taking risks, spending long sleepless nights - through love of travel, through much thought and application of thought. I found that it is good only for cultivation - and only for cultivation in the soul, it is like a beast that is hunted, but rarely one manages to catch it - it can only be caught in the chest; it is like a bird that can be lured into the snare of words and entangled in the web of memory. I placed it in the soul and tied it to the eye. I spent my livelihood on him and kept him in my heart. I tested its accuracy through research and went from thinking to the confidence of deep understanding and from deep understanding to writing, relying on the support of Divine success.”

Spirit and love mingled, and... as the spirit approached love in its qualities, love mingled with it out of surprise.

By virtue of this merger, an alliance arose between them. I don't know whether love has become a quality and spirit an essence, or love has become an essence and spirit a quality. One of the two appeared.

If in being there is something endowed with being, then it is necessary and is eternal being, for being is divided into that which has arisen in time and into eternal being, that is, into that being which has a beginning and that which has no beginning.

If you say that God is wise and omnipotent, and if you are unable to decide anything wisely, then why do you attribute these qualities to God?

Those who look at existing things with the eyes of the mind and in a certain order, consider that some of them are closer to God compared to others ... They see a certain beginning of these beings and consider everything that appears to be plural and having a certain hierarchy. But they involuntarily explain in bare words the process of emergence from the one, and those who look from the point of view of comprehension see that in general there is no certain order (hierarchy) for living beings, and do not consider that some beings precede others, and are convinced that the essence God without differences exists in all living beings, in much the same way as scientists think about his unity with the first being.

All beings in the world were themselves eternal. They got their existence as a result of the radiance of His ray, His power, His will. The being of God is a substance, and light is an external manifestation.

However, in truth and without a doubt, nothing endowed with existence can be the cause and source of the appearance of another being, except as God. The essence of causality is to create a form of being and non-being. Therefore, the existence of a cause is a necessary prerequisite for the appearance of an effect, since non-existence cannot be the cause of existence.

Just as fire has no other quality than to burn, so man has no other quality than freedom of choice; consequently, since he is capable of choice, a person performs various actions: if he wants, he can not move, if he wants, he can move; wants to move left - moves to the left, wants to turn right - moves to the right. If he wants, he moves straight. If he wants, he can submit to his freedom, if not, then no.

The first group of mankind unites those who have human form, but does not carry the content of a person ... Only ignorance is inherent in them. The second group has not only the appearance and shape of a person, but also really human essence... The third group are those who have comprehended the true essence of religion. These are the active defenders of the Almighty.

The soul from the divine world was transferred to the form so that it would revive you.

The soul does not belong to the created world, but comes from the creator's world, it is endowed with immortality and eternity.

Perceive the possession of the soul by the body in the same way as my possession of this pen. If I want, I will move it, if not, then it will be at rest. Let her presence be regarded as life, and her departure as death. And let her return after death be considered a resurrection.

Hear and learn about the relationship of the soul to the body - whether it is inside or outside it. Alas, the spirit is both outside the world and in it ... The spirit is not in the world and is not outside the world, just like the soul is not in the world and does not exist separately from it. The spirit is not connected with the body and does not exist separately from it. God is also not directly connected with the world, but not separated from it either.

In our time, there are three opinions regarding the concept of reality and truth of the soul and body. First, man consists of a form, that is, a body, since God created man from seed and clay. This is what ordinary people think. The second group of people are scientists who, relying on the words of the Koran, “created all people in one form, and gave the best form and shape to the soul”, the word “man” understands both body and soul as a single whole. The third group is special, they see the essence of a person in the soul and believe that he (the person) consists of the soul. The body, they say, is the carrier of the soul. They do not consider the form (body) to be the essence of man... The body is, as it were, a riding animal, and the soul is a rider. It cannot be that a mount is essentially the same as a rider. If someone is sitting on a horse, then he and the horse are different creatures.

The blind believes that the cage itself is a bird, and the sighted believes that the cage was created for a bird.

In addition to the foundations and elements of this world, there are other foundations and elements of another world ... The elements of the real world, as it were, are the basis of the other world.

As soon as a person reaches non-existence, he will be drunk with the wine of knowledge, and drunk, he will reach his limit.

The relation of reason to inner insight is like the relation of a ray of the sun to the sun itself, and the impotence of the mind in realizing divine knowledge is like the impotence of the imagination in realizing the categories.

Obviously, the mind is powerless to recognize many sensible things in order to reach the essence. Whoever wants to see the degree of limitation of his mind, let him look into the mirror, which will best of all show him the inconsistency of his claims to comprehend divine truths. I do not deny that the mind is created in order to know the necessary natural phenomena, but I do not like that its necessary capabilities are forcibly expanded beyond the boundaries of the natural.

The heart represents a very subtle essence and refers to the upper world, and the body, its receptacle, is in the earthly world. There is no closeness or correlation between them.

Only that person can follow the path of love who renounces himself, from this world and makes himself a victim of this love.

Everyone who loves God must involuntarily love His messenger. Love your theologian, love your life. For the sake of worshiping God, he must love bread and water, which are His being, love women so that the development of offspring does not stop, love gold and silver in order to be a protector, know the price of bread and water. As a necessity, to love heat and cold, snow and rain, to love heaven and earth, because if there were no heaven and earth, then wheat would not grow on bare stone, and also to love the tiller.

The heart of the seeker is also his comforter, and his love, and the place where his secrets are kept. Everyone who honors the heart will achieve his goals; he who errs or loses the right path for the heart will go so far (and so lost) that he will never be able to find himself again.

It is a pity that religious and secular studies do not allow eternal love became travel luggage on the road, not an empty form.

Intuitive knowledge is connected with the education of the will.

In the world do not coexist forever

Narcissus and rose, knowledge and gold:

A wise man is usually a poor man -

The rich man has little knowledge.

In the Eastern Christian theological and liturgical tradition, it is asserted that the creation of man is preceded by the "Eternal Council" about the creation of man and his future fate, about what God's response will be to man's possible deviation from the will of God. Rev. John of Damascus calls it "the eternal and always unchangeable Council" of God (Words against those who condemn holy icons. 1. 10).

On the sixth day, God creates man, but he creates differently than everything else. The creation of man precedes the Eternal Council of God: if in order to create new types of life (plants, fish, birds, animals), God, commanding the elements, earth and water, produces one or another type (Genesis 1.11, 20, 24), then during creation of a person, He, as it were, consults with Himself: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.(Gen 1:26).

Commenting on the biblical account of the creation of man, the Fathers of the Church draw attention to the fact that "when the foundation was laid ... for the world ... creation was accomplished as if hastily ... by a collectively pronounced command." But the creation of man “is preceded by advice, and the Artist, according to the outline of the word, prefigures the future creation, and what it should be like and what kind of prototype to wear likeness; and for what it will be, and what it will produce after creation, and over what it will rule - all this is provided by the Word, so that a person would take on a dignity that is higher than his being, acquire power over creatures before he himself came into being. Only the Creator of everything proceeds to the creation of man with discretion, in order to prepare the substance for its composition, and to liken its image in beauty to the prototype, and determine the purpose of its existence, and create a nature corresponding to it ( Gregory of Nyssa, St. About the constitution of man. 3).

In a mysterious phrase where God, referring to Himself, uses the verb in the plural - Let's create(Gen 1:26), the holy fathers of the Church saw an indication of the meeting of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Rev. Maximus the Confessor speaks of the “Great Council of God and the Father” as “surrounded by silence and an unknown mystery of dispensation. The Only Begotten Son revealed and fulfilled it through the incarnation, becoming the Herald of the Great and Eternal Council of God the Father” (Chapters on theology and economy of the incarnation of the Son of God. 2. 23).

One of the stichera of the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos begins with the words: “Opening the Council of the Eternal to You, Otrokovitsa, Gabriel appeared ...”. The message that the Mother of God received from the angel was the result of the Divine decision made at the Pre-eternal Council of the Holy Trinity - the decision that for the salvation and deification of man, God would become incarnate and Himself become a man.

A person is created free, and his freedom is so unlimited that he, if he wants, can separate himself from God and oppose his desire to live as he wants, to oppose the will of God and the Providence of God. The Eternal Council means the consent of all the Persons of the Holy Trinity to take responsibility for the fate of man.

According to Tertullian, when creating human flesh, God created it not only for man, but also for his own Son, meaning His future incarnation (On the Resurrection of the Flesh. 6). “For He would not really have the flesh and blood, through which He redeemed us, if He had not reunited in Himself the ancient creation of Adam” (Against Heresies. V 1.2), says Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon. According to St. Anastasius of Sinai, “the combination of soul and body in us is [created] in the likeness of the incarnation of the Word” (Three Words on the constitution of man in the image and likeness of God. Word 1. 1). The Son of God, having become incarnate, that is, having united in Himself the divine nature and the human, deified the latter, thus creating the possibility for the realization of that special goal for the sake of which man, this exceptional creation, received existence. “God adorned our nature to such an extent,” says St. Gregory Palamas, “as if it were His future clothes ... in which He was to put on ...” (Conversation 26).

2. Man is the crown of creation. The royal status of man in the world

Man was created last on the sixth, concluding day of creation; he was created last in order to enter the universe as a ruler (cf. Gen 1:26).

Man is the highest creation of God. According to St. Irenaeus of Lyons, "the glory of God is a living person" (Against heresies. IV 20.7).

Visible world formed before man and for man. These were the sky, earth, sea, sun, moon, stars, animals, plants. From the very beginning of his existence, man was destined to become a king: God places him on earth as an overseer over a visible creature, initiated into the mysteries of this creature and responsible for it, as a king over what is on earth, answerable to the kingdom that is above, says the saint Gregory the Theologian (Word 38).

Having created man, God gives him the right to give names: He brings all animals and birds to man in order to see how he will call them, and that such should be their name. And the man gave names to all cattle and birds and to all beasts (Genesis 2:19-20). Having given man the right to give names to creatures, God placed man over them, made him their master. The right to give names, moreover, indicates a person's ability to see through the essence of things, thereby becoming like God and participating in Divine creativity. According to Basil of Seleucia, giving a person the right to give names to animals, God, as it were, says to Adam: “Be the creator of names, since you cannot be the creator of the creatures themselves ... We share with you the glory of creative wisdom ... Give names to those who I gave life" ( Vasily Selevkiysky. Word 2. About Adam).

The first man was created to "cultivate the land" (cf. Gen 2:5). This can also be seen as an indication of the call of man to creativity in the image of the Creator.

By nature, man is a unique being among other creatures, he combines the corporeal and spiritual. St. John of Damascus speaks about it this way: “God created a spiritual essence, i.e. angels and all heavenly orders, for angels, without any doubt, have a spiritual and incorporeal nature ... In addition, God also created a sensual essence, i.e. heaven the earth and what is between them. Further in your discussion Reverend John conveys the words of St. Gregory the Theologian: “But there has not yet been a mixture of mind and feeling, a combination of opposites - this experience of the highest Wisdom, this generosity in relation to both natures ... Having desired to show this, the Artistic Word creates a living being, in which both are brought into unity and another, that is, invisible and visible nature ”(John of Damascus, St. Exact presentation Orthodox faith. II 12(56); Gregory the Theologian, St. Word 38).

Man, the microcosm, that is, the “small world,” as it is called in the Christian tradition, became such a unity, for it bears the image of the whole great world.

Man, as the image of God, is placed as an intermediary between God and all His creation. From the very beginning of his existence, man is destined to become king over the visible creature, he is initiated into the mysteries of this creature and is responsible for it before " heavenly kingdom”, says St. Gregory the Theologian.

The royal dignity of man determines the enormous measure of man's responsibility for the world that God has entrusted to him.

God created the world harmonious and beautiful. At the same time, a person has the power to influence the fate of the world, so the realization of a good creative plan for the world depends not only on God, but also on people, including their moral perfection.

M hello to you, dear visitors of the Orthodox island "Family and Faith"!

D about the creation of man, the Pre-Eternal Council of the Holy Trinity took place, at which it was decided by God whether or not to be mankind.

"AT The Law of God says that the creation of man was preceded by the council of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. - writes Archpriest Oleg Stenyaev. - It is said: “And God said, Let us make man in Our image [and] in Our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26). The Holy Fathers teach that this meeting of the Persons of the Holy Trinity took into account everything that could happen to humanity.

Since God is not limited in time and in Him there is no past and future, but only the present, He knows everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be. The future and the past (in our understanding) for the Creator are always the present.

So, before the creation of mankind, everything that could subsequently happen to people was taken into account.

The very word "council" or "meeting" can only conditionally be used in relation to the Persons of the Holy Trinity, here it is more appropriate to use the word "will". For the word of God - it has creative power; and when the Lord says “let it be,” then everything comes true at once.

The Council of the Persons of the Holy Trinity took into account, when creating a person endowed with free will, that other free beings - angels - misused this gift, and a third of them fell away from God.

Mankind was created, according to the teachings of the Fathers, to make up for the number of fallen angels. And what happened to their third should not have happened again. But God's foresight showed what was to happen to the whole human race; and then the divine will was manifested that if people incorrectly use the gift of free will, then the Son of God (the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity) will accomplish the work of the Redemption of the human race.

The main means in the cause of our redemption was to be the incarnation of the Son of God, who, according to Divinity, must be consubstantial with God the Father, and according to His Humanity, consubstantial with all mankind. The Son of God in Himself had to heal the damaged nature of the human race. What happened in the appearance of the Son of God into this world “for us for the sake of man, and for ours for the sake of salvation” and what was especially revealed in the sufferings of the Son of God on the Calvary Cross.

More righteous Job exclaimed about the judgments of God: “For He is not a man like me, so that I can answer Him and go with Him to judgment! There is no mediator between us who would put his hand on both of us. (Job 9:32-33). Such a mediator, about whom Job the Long-suffering called, turned out to be our Lord Jesus Christ, about whom it is said: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).

According to Divinity, having entered this world, according to Humanity, having left it, the Son of God performed the service of reconciliation between God the Father and fallen humanity. By His Blood, He not only atoned for our sins and crimes, but also healed us from sinful death.

His blood has great strength burn sin, not only as an accomplished fact of our life, but also as an inclination to sin, as the law of sin operating in us.

In this sense, the salvation of man is a Eucharistic act. To be saved in Orthodoxy means precisely to be transubstantiated. To which the Son of God calls us with the words: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live by the Father, so he who eats me will live by me.” (John 6:54-57).

In the Rule of Thanksgiving according to St. In communion we find these words: “... go into my heart, into all the compositions, into the womb, into the heart. The thorns of all my sins fell. Purify the soul, sanctify the thoughts. Approve the compositions with the bones together. Enlighten the feelings of a simple five ".

In other words, salvation accomplished by the power of the redeeming Blood of the Son of God is the total healing of our nature. That is why in the Orthodox understanding, in contrast to the Protestant belief, the term "justification" is identical to the term "sanctification".

It is said: “Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4).

Renewed life is a changed nature, a different, new being. All this is accomplished only in Christ and with Christ.

For Catholics, with their "legal" theory, the Atonement is a ransom that was paid to God by God Himself; it turns out that God the Son paid the price of Blood to God the Father. This theory does not withstand biblical criticism. For Protestants, the Atonement is an amnesty that changes little in the very soul of man; he remains the same sinner, but God forgives him. This approach also does not stand up to biblical criticism. We, the Orthodox, do not need a ransom, not an amnesty, but healing.

The Greek word itself, translated by us as “salvation”, at its root contains a word that means healthy in translation from Greek. Therefore, it means recovery, healing from damage, a deadly disease, a chronic illness. Christ, by His incarnation and subsequent suffering on the Cross, heals us from the leprosy of sin, heals us, that is, informs us of a new healthy way of life. This essential difference in the Orthodox understanding of the term "salvation" must be paid attention to.

It is said about the Mystery of the Incarnation: “revealing to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He had previously placed in Him, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, in order that all things heavenly and earthly be united under the head of Christ” (Eph. 1:9-10).

"First laid in Him" - and means that before the creation of man in the Son of God, it was God's good pleasure to make Him the Redeemer of the whole human race.

Therefore, the very preparation of the faithful for salvation took place before the foundation of the world. It is said: “... He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, predestinating us to adopt us as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:4-5).

The fact that the Son of God was to become a Blood Sacrifice for the sin of mankind was also decided at the Pre-Eternal Council of the Persons of the Trinity, before the creation of the world. It is said that we are saved: “... the precious blood of Christ, as a spotless and pure Lamb, destined even before the foundation of the world, but appearing in end times…» (1 Peter 1:19-20).

The entire Holy Trinity participates in the work of our Dispensation (Salvation):

God the Father deigned to save people through His Only Begotten Son. It is said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

The Son of God deigned to fulfill this Will of His Father. It is said: “The works that the Father gave Me to do, these very works that I do, testify of Me that the Father has sent Me.” (John 5:36).

The Holy Spirit deigned to appropriate to the redeemed sinners the gift of new Life in Christ and with Christ. It is said: “God from the beginning, through the sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth, chose you to salvation” (2 Thess. 2:13).

Also at the Pre-Eternal Council of the Holy Trinity, it was decided that the Son of God would make the final redemption of mankind by ascending into the heavenly sanctuary of the Kingdom of unspeakable light. It is said: “But Christ, the High Priest of the good things to come, having come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of such a dispensation, and not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, once entered the sanctuary and obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11-12); and further: “For Christ entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, in the image of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before God for us.” (Heb. 9:24).

So, we see that the plan of our salvation was adopted at the Pre-eternal Council of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, even before the creation of the world. And it is carried out with the participation of the goodwill of all the Persons of the Holy Trinity, such goodwill is called the Divine Dispensation, the beginning of which was laid even before the existence of this world.