Life is a school, and the grave is the diploma of graduation

Photo: myslo

A revered elder was once visited by a learned theologian who asked, “Do you feel the presence of God within yourself?” The elder replied, “What does presence mean? If there is presence, then there must also be absence. Can you point to a place where God is absent? To feel God means to dwell beyond the concepts of presence and absence, beyond ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ Divine awareness does not speak – it simply is.”

As a person is, so is the world they see. It cannot be otherwise. A spiritual person, deified in God, sees Him everywhere and in everything. A sinner, on the other hand, sees evil everywhere – except within themselves. A spiritual person can only love; a sinner can only cling. Those who believe in themselves pave their road to hell. Those who believe in God walk the path of salvation.

Everything that happens to us in this earthly life is foreseen by God’s providence. The only thing not predetermined is our attitude toward what happens. A dispassionate mind is always at peace; it does not dwell on the body that may be killing it but lives in God, who saves it.

Someone asked an elder, “Father, what can you say about the arts? Don’t music, poetry, and science make a person akin to angels?” The elder replied: “Angels are full of grace, chastity, compassion, love, humility, gentleness, meekness, peace, and solitude, drawing human hearts toward repentance and salvation. Such, too, is a person who is like them. But there are also demons – clever in their schemes, skilled at leading people astray, adept at arguing persuasively for falsehoods, manipulating thoughts, attachments, and inclinations toward secular arts and sciences, leading souls to ruin. And such is the person who resembles them.”

To be saved means to surrender oneself entirely into God’s hands and dwell in the stillness of the heart.

The presence of God is always in the depths of your heart, untouched by the noise of worldly turmoil. But as long as our mind floats like a cork on the surface of life, our soul is tossed by waves of sorrow and grief.

No amount of thinking can bring one into the depths of the heart. The path lies only through stillness and prayer. Without grace, the heart is like a ruined wasteland. The world will always remain unknowable, for God has given man his spirit to know, and in that spirit – His Light.

Thoughts, like worms, crawl in the soil, while the limitless spirit soars above the heavens. If you wish to rise above the earth, remember that you carry heaven within your chest. The poor in spirit are those who have no desires. It is better to do nothing than to act in irritation. Life is a school, and the grave is the diploma of graduation.

Many live as though they are lying in graves – they neither hear life nor heed its guidance. Someone once asked an elder, “If a dead person were to rise, how would they live?” The elder replied, “They would live so cautiously that even the stones beneath their feet would not have reason to complain.”

Whatever we gain or lose in this life, the result is always zero. When you open your clenched fist, all you see in your palm are wrinkles. The elder said, “Pray with your heart, listen with your heart, live with your heart, and be saved in your heart through the light of Christ.”

The elder also said, “A dog once found a bone and sought a secluded spot where it could enjoy its find without fear of others stealing it. Passing a pond, it saw its reflection and mistook it for another dog. Barking at the ‘intruder,’ it dropped the bone, which sank into the water. This is what judgment resembles, my dear ones.”

The spirit is immovable; volatile are only our thoughts. Only those who entrust themselves to God are truly free.

People with earthly souls seek not faith but religion. Faith in God frees the soul from slavery to the world, while religion binds it to the world “in the name of God.” A grain of wheat near the millstone’s axis remains whole. Those who stay close to God will inevitably be saved. In salvation, nothing changes; you simply see everything as it truly is. Let the world go its way, and you go yours. If we become entangled in the world and its happenings, we will never find salvation.

Give your life to God and let Him do with it as He wills. When circumstances weigh you down, change your mind – your attitude – and it will lighten the load.

A humble person has a heart softer than water and more yielding than air. What causes you to suffer? Imagination! Your mind makes you angry, lustful, envious. Detach yourself from it through repentant prayer, and remain in the silence of the heart. The elder said, “God is silence, and so is He conceived in silence.”

Even though the world is illuminated by the sun, it is darkness because a black veil lies over your heart. If you gain grace, be like rain for the thirsty. If you find humility, be like the earth for the weary. If you acquire compassion, be like a cloud for the tired. The mind deceives us. The most important will fade away; the most precious will become worthless; the most necessary will seem senseless. Nothing in this world can make your spirit suffer. Knowing this frees you from worldly dependence and fear of death.

Every illness is God’s blessing, drawing you into the spiritual heart, into your immortal spirit. He who fights temptations only strengthens them, but he who enters his spiritual heart is freed from them.

The elder said, “The best prayer is to be vigilant before God. If His name is not in your breath, you have been breathing in vain all these years.”

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