Escape from the mental prison of earthly vanity

Ascension of the Lord. Photo: UOJ

​The Ascension is not the final act of the Savior’s earthly life, nor a chronological point in the calendar of eternity. It is the only essential act that the soul must accomplish while it is still bound by the bonds of the flesh. We are called to overcome the laws of earthly gravity.

​The illusion of earthly gravity

Every Liturgy is not merely a ritual but an invisible ascent. When from the depths of the altar comes the call "Let us lift up our hearts," this is not a request but a reminder of our true nature. We are strangers who have spent the night in someone else's house. If this world, full of corruption and wars, were our true home, God would not take us from it. But Christ clearly outlined the boundaries of being: His Kingdom has nothing in common with the logic of this world.

​True life is not in battles for earthly thrones, but in participation with Him who abides beyond time.

The most radical and creative act we can perform for our salvation and for the benefit of others is to leave this world, transcending its boundaries with our spirit. To rise above its vanity not by retreating into geographical isolation, but by turning one’s own heart into an impregnable cell.

​The world is a mirror of our inner landscape. It begins not beyond the threshold of our house, but in the confined space of our mind. Wherever we flee – to mountains or forests – we take this world with us, locked in our skull. Our mind is a despotic director. It decides what we see: an enemy or a brother, hell or the threshold of paradise. We are surrounded by people who are merely echoes of our own thoughts.

​If the mind is poisoned by the venom of malice, reality around us thickens into a ring of equally wounded souls. But if the mind begins to live in the space of love, then everything around us is transformed. Holiness is the highest sobriety of the heart, contemplating the light of Christ through the veil of human cruelty. Happiness on earth is found only by those who have realized that it is not here. It lies in the rejection of the suffocating pronouns "I," "me," and "mine."

​The trap of the false Savior

Humanity awaits a "good king," just law, or the end of wars, hoping that external well-being will heal inner emptiness. But even those who have reached the heights of earthly power and comfort find there only golden dust and bitter disappointment. We are the smiths of our happiness, but the anvil is found in the depths of penitential prayer. It is not the quantity of pages read or hundreds of prostrations. It is the silence of the spirit, peace, meekness, and that piercing simplicity with which a person looks at the world, when his life becomes a continuous dialogue with God.

​To be wise means to live carefully, not allowing the world to cast a noose of vanity upon your soul or force you into a deal with your conscience.

​The Ascension is the attainment of freedom from everything temporal. Often our mind whispers to us that the striving for inner retreat is selfishness. "How can you pray when the world suffers?" it asks. But this is a trap. You cannot save a drowning person if you yourself cannot swim. An immature soul rushing to "save the world" is like an autumn fly – it instantly becomes entangled in the sticky web of others' passions and thoughts. For a blade of grass to give shade to a traveler, it must first become a mighty tree. For words to heal, they must be born not in the head but in a heart that has passed through the furnace of experience.

​The weapon of inner silence

The main gift we can bring to humanity is our own purification. "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will find the path to salvation." This is love that does not merely sympathize but transforms reality.

​The path to heaven lies through complete separation from one's own "ego" – this diminished and distorted copy of our personality. Through repentance we begin to see how cunningly our “I” tries to drag us back into the bondage of earthly desires. But within this struggle, a new life is born. It is quiet, filled with compassion and the wisdom nurtured by Christ Himself. Then the soul, freed from the weights of selfishness, begins to sound like a psalm: “Continue Your mercy to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.” This is our Ascension.

​True movement upward begins at the moment when a person stops seeking support in the quicksand of visible well-being.

We commonly measure life by horizontal achievements, forgetting that the spirit breathes in the vertical dimension. Each of our breaths is a potential bridge between the created world and the Ineffable Light. Yet this bridge is built not of external deeds, but of the willingness to die to one’s claims, to the thirst for recognition, and to the fear of tomorrow.

​Freedom from others' thoughts

The world will continue its furious race, demanding our participation in endless disputes and divisions. But the true feat lies in remaining at the epicenter of the storm while preserving the breath of eternity. This state is like transparent glass: it allows the sun's rays to pass through without retaining them. So too the purified soul becomes a conductor of Divine will, not distorting it with the shadows of its own "I want." We are called not merely to contemplate heaven, but to allow heaven to grow through us, transforming the crude matter of everyday life into the fine fabric of prayerful presence.

​The completion of the journey lies in a radical change of the vector of attention: from external decorations to the secret center. True liberation comes when the personality stops feeding its phantom fears and ambitions, recognizing their illusory nature before the face of Infinity.

​The Ascension is not movement in space, but a qualitative change of consciousness.

To ascend means to become a living witness of Truth, which is not proven by arguments but conveyed through one's own silence. To ascend means to attain an unbreakable unity with the Source of life, in which temporal hardships lose their power over us, giving way to the fullness of Divine presence.

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