The law of human nature is to seek the truth, to become a true (reasonable) person. More about the search for Truth

This essay, rather even notes on the topic, a sketch, was written several years ago. I wanted to fix for myself a certain stage of comprehension, so that later, over time, I would return to the topic and write something more complete in form. But twice in one water, as they say, you will not enter - the sketch remained unfinished. But since it contains a lot of useful information, I decided in due time to publish it ...

I. Truth is not WHAT, but WHO

Preliminary theses:

P Ontius Pilate was mistaken when he asked the Savior standing before Him: what is truth? Truth is not WHAT, Truth is WHO. Moreover, the Truth is associated with the one who comprehends, and the one who comprehends, in turn, is invariably associated with the Truth, otherwise comprehension is simply impossible ...

The Christian God is personal: He is Truth and Personality at the same time. God is not a faceless Something or Nothing, for even his creation - man - is a person.

What is truth can only be known by SOMEONE, and he must comprehend not only something, but also SOMEONE. Truth - is not something external to the individual, but above all - its internal content.

But then what is Personality? The theological axiom is as follows: man is nature, and the individual owns nature. This means that the personality has its transcendental property. It can (and even must) go beyond its limits, beyond its natural boundaries. A person is able to outgrow himself, as a given, in order to realize his predestination ...

The Supreme Person is God. He became a Man in order to realize the highest Personality in Himself as a man, for the perfection of a personality is God-likeness.

Personality develops by self-giving, as opposed to sinfulness, which develops by self-affirmation. God humbled Himself to the point of likeness to creation and offered Himself as a sacrifice, gave Himself and distributes Himself to this day in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, celebrated during the Divine Liturgy.

Liturgy is a common cause , the common cause of the people, as a single person - humanity (in the face of the society of the faithful, i.e. the Church), and the common cause of the Church with God (arranged and led by God) to save man, to restore his lost likeness to God.

Comprehension of the truth is always a revelation: the Truth itself reveals itself to whom it wants and to the extent it wants. Perhaps that is why true comprehension is necessarily associated with some deep shock. So, from shock to shock, we move most often to the One Who is really the Truth.

I remember that I was deeply shocked by the realization of the spiritual and historical fact that Christ ascended to God the Father in a body that retained the traces of the suffering he experienced. He ascended in a body similar to ours, though transfigured by the Resurrection. This is necessary: the eternal God sat at the right hand of His Father in a human body, in the form of a human, with traces of the torment suffered for our sins. And this is the eternal God!

There were other upheavals as well. For example, once I read the following from Abbess of the Ust-Medveditsky Monastery Arsenia: “Do not grieve that you do not see anything good in yourself, do not even look for good in yourself. Human goodness is an abomination before the Lord. Rejoice in your weakness, your powerlessness. The true good is the Lord, He is the mind, He is the strength. Of course, I agreed with the abbess in everything, except for the words about human goodness. Well, why is good, - I thought, - albeit imperfect, should be considered an abomination?! I could not find any support for understanding these words of the abbess.

Only a good habit saved me in cases where I disagree with something, if I can’t accept something, just stop and wait; not to reject the incomprehensible, but to seek, as it were, while waiting. It used to take whole years until I grew to understand this or that moment in the teaching of the Church or its saints ascetics. That's what happened this time as well. To understand what Mother Arsenia said, her own spiritual experience was not enough. Only with time did I understand that the words of the Savior that His strength is found in weakness, as well as the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov that good not done for the sake of Christ does not bring salvation, eloquently testify to the rightness of the abbess. And the essence of her words, perhaps, is this.

By itself, a person does not have true, pure motives for doing good. All the reasons that awaken in him the desire to do good deeds are overshadowed by the sin of pride, vanity, self-love, conceit and other filth. Walking the path of asceticism, a person gradually renounces these impure motives, step by step sheds one of them, then another. And, in the end, he comes to such a state when he does not see in himself a single true movement towards good. Throwing off a bad cover, a person remains naked and poor. And then, when the illusions of one’s own goodness and, in general, human kindness are dispelled, when one’s own weakness and insignificance are fully realized, only then can a person truly hunger for the Lord, then only the power of the Lord is acquired, provided that the ascetic really longs to serve the Good, if he is really turned to the Lord with his whole being.

Man was created as a god-like being. His goal, vocation, predestination is in this likeness, in the striving for more and more likeness to his Lord and God. The Lord, that is, the Lord, for a person voluntarily chooses (should choose) Him as his Lord, decides to serve Him as the highest Truth, the highest Good, the highest Virtue - that is, God. Etymologically, the word "God" is related to the word "wealth".

Closing his attention, his striving on something lower, less than God, a person betrays himself, robs himself, because he renounces true wealth, renounces the most beautiful thing that can happen to him and to him. That is why, above all else, we must seek the Kingdom of Heaven, which is hidden in the personality of each of us. A person without God, outside of God, not for God is a pseudo-personality, an illusion. The true personality calls us to the Divine and to deification. You just need to hear its voice in yourself and understand correctly, rejecting selfhood (belief in one's self-sufficiency and life born from this conviction) as a sinful (deceitful, untrue) state. It is necessary to correctly understand WHAT I am, WHO I am, why and for what, and having understood, it is important stand in truth do not renounce it and thus remain true to your true destiny.

II. Human

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God…”
(Gospel of John, translated from Greek)

I remember one of the Lubensky artists, namely Sasha Litvinov, once said: the main thing is that a person be interested in at least something, so that he aspires to something, otherwise he remains completely empty, colorless, uninteresting. I think the artist spoke based on personal experience of communication and, probably, he did not even suspect how close his words were to theological truth, how much they corresponded to the deep essence of man, created in the image and likeness of God.

The WORD that was with God, and which was God, and by which everything began to be, that began to be (John 1; 1–4) ORIGINALLY EXISTS IN STRIVING, but not just towards something, but towards God (see Greek . text). Precisely in aspiration! And, most importantly, TO GOD. Such is the nature of man, created from the dust of the earth in the image and likeness of God, and hence the Son of God, called the Word.

Christ is the eternal Son of God the Father, and each of us is His living icon, distorted in the fall, unfortunately, but still an icon. We received real confirmation of this when Christ, incarnated from the Blessed Virgin Mary, became "like one of us."

People have been asking questions about good and evil for a long time, but they cannot find true guidelines, true criteria, because they forget about the Archetype, they forget about Christ. But there is no other way to really know the essence of man. And without knowing this essence, it is impossible to judge what is a true good for a person and what is destructive for him. For good should be called conformity to a calling, purpose, or rather, conformity to God's plan for a person created by Him.

What is this intention? Who is a person in this world? What is the meaning of his life? What is its purpose? These crucial questions can only be answered by looking to Christ.

I don’t remember which of the theologians I came across with a stunning thought: one cannot be a man, one can only become one. To some it will seem rhetorical and only, just as it did to me at the time. Only having lived with her in my heart for several years, I fully realized that the true man - a man in the full sense of the word - was only our Savior Jesus Christ. And we are all subhuman. That is, the more we approach Christ with our lives, feelings, thoughts, the more we approach what a person is called to be.

“John Chrysostom says: If you want to know what a person is, do not look towards the royal thrones or the chambers of the nobles - raise your eyes to the Throne of God and see the right hand of God and the Father - Man in the full sense. But when we see Him, we see what we are called to be… this is our calling, this is the will of God for us” (Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh);
“The removal of the soul from God is death for it” (Simeon the New Theologian);
“A person is his faith” (I. V. Kirievsky);
“Man is nothing but the living totality of what he lives by and what he realizes, and moreover, precisely because he loves it and believes in it” (I. A. Ilyin);
Simplicity and integrity of a person are conditioned by the life not of the mind, but of the heart;
“Man is more than a microcosm, he is a microtheos” (archim. Sofroniy Sakharov);
“Love makes me a god, and You, Lord, a Man” (St. Nicholas of Serbia);
“Man is a hungry, hungry being, but he hungers for God. Behind our whole life as hunger, desire, striving - stands God; every desire, in the final analysis, is a desire to possess Him” (Prot. Alexander Schmemann);
“Man is what he eats” (Feuerbach);
“Scientists call man the Latin term homo faber - “blacksmith”, indicating his ability to cultivate the world. Others also call him homo sapiens, that is, a rational being, indicating his ability to think. But first of all, even before these two definitions, a person must be called homo adorens, that is, a person who blesses, thanks and rejoices. By nature and vocation, a person’s place in the world and in nature is, as it were, the place of a priest, he stands in the center of the world and, with his knowledge of the Creator God and the God of Love, unites the whole world in himself ”(Prot. Alexander Schmemann);
“A modern highly developed person, it turns out, is already a completely new creature, not at all a species of homo sapiens - a reasonable person, but a homo cyberneticus, an informed person, in which the mind is replaced by information” (G. Emelianenko);
“Those who have taken off the image of God from themselves, a person will inevitably take off - already takes off - from himself the human image and will be jealous of the animal image” (I. S. Aksakov);
“People fell into self-lust, preferring their own contemplation to the Divine” (St. Athanasius the Great);
“Man has ceased to be in the image and likeness of God, as he was created in the beginning, but began to be in the image and likeness of the devil, from whom all evil comes” (St. Simeon the New Theologian);
The main suffering of a person who has left God is self-love (Archbishop John Shakhovskoy);
“The human race is a category of fallen beings. Earth is the threshold of hell. The Savior made it the threshold of Paradise” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov);
“The secret of every personality is the secret of how, with what depth a person seeks love and loves” (Arch. Vasily Zenkovsky);
“The likeness of Christ is constituted by truth, meekness, righteousness, and together with them humility and philanthropy” (St. Simeon the New Theologian);
“A person who has condemnation in his heart will never receive the Holy Spirit in his heart. He who condemns cannot be humble in any way, and without humility there is no salvation” (Elder Zachariah);
“From the desire to please man, a person comes to vanity, but when it multiplies, pride comes” (St. Barsanuphius the Great);
“Man is the one who knows himself” (Pimen the Great);
Every man is a lie (Ps. 115);
“If you pray, if you love, if you suffer, then you are a person” (A.F. Losev);
“The secret of human existence is not only to live, but in what to live for” (F. M. Dostoevsky);
“In love for a person lies the basis of knowledge of a person. And in hatred for a person is the reason for the ignorance of a person (St. Justin Popovich).
"I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am a god!" (G. R. Derzhavin)
“Man is not the answer.
Man is the question. (P. Tillich)

Man is a jester dancing over an abyss. (Honoré de Balzac. Shagreen leather).

Man is a wingless, bipedal creature with flat nails; the only being receptive to knowledge based on reasoning (Plato).

I even think that the best definition of a person is a creature on two legs and ungrateful (F. M. Dostoevsky. The Underground Man).

(Those who wish can add to the list of quotes)

Deep, unconditional, that is, true love for a person is possible only as love for the image and likeness of God, hidden in each of us. Thus, the knowledge of man is inevitably connected with the knowledge of God, and vice versa. In other words: without God, we cannot truly know a person (another or ourselves).

Man, created by God, is actually a noun, not an adjective at all - he is valuable in itself even for the Creator. We are increasingly referring to each other as adjectives. We attach a person to his social role, position, to his material possessions, prosperity. For us, a person is valuable only for his application, that is, for what you can take from him and apply to yourself, use for selfish purposes. We forget about the inherent value of the human person and treat each other, at best, functionally.

But the image of God - a hidden personality - languishes in the cage of everyday life. He longs for high aspirations and real communication: sincere, open, aimed at creation and virtue. The image of God longs to realize in his life the god-like love to which he, in fact, is called.

Translated from Greek, the word "Liturgy" - "common cause", "people's cause"
The word "sin" in translation means "miss", "missing the target."

"The Truth of Man"

Essay (may not be)

“What is the truth of man?
The truth is not on the surface. If on this soil, and not on any other, orange trees put down strong roots and bear generous fruits. therefore, for orange trees, this soil is the truth. If it is precisely this religion, this measure of things, this form of activity, and no other, that gives a person a feeling of spiritual fullness, a power that he did not suspect in himself, then it is precisely this measure of things, this culture, this form of activity that is the truth. human"
(Antoine De Saint-Exupery "The Planet of the People")

Many years ago, or rather in 1980, in the city of Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur, in a second-hand bookstore, I accidentally came across a collection of works by the French writer Antoine Exupery. Before that, I had already read his “The Little Prince”, this wise fairy tale for children and adults, and remained subdued by the simplicity of the presentation of thoughts and the indescribable lightness of his pen. But after somehow I did not meet his books.

And in that small collection there was almost everything that he managed to create, to create during his such a short, but such a capacious and meaningful life. They say that you can live a hundred years in which there is not even a year of life, but you can live a year that will contain even a hundred years. The last one is about him.

His stories about people, discussions about humanity, about good and evil, about faith, love and morality, about dignity and elementary decency and, most importantly, about human relations, became priceless for me in small works. Maybe that's why this book lay like a balm on my heart, because there, in his short works, my thoughts and convictions, already confirmed more than once by life, were very simply and clearly expressed.

This book, in a fabulously illustrated hard color cover in the form of an open wing of a falling bird against a blue sky, has since become my kind of life talisman. Many times, over the years, I returned to it again and again, returned to Exupery, plunging into his bright world of searching for truth, searching for the destiny of man on this planet. And these immersions each time nourished my spiritual strength.

Later, while gaining a lot of practical life experience while working at a factory, on a geological exploration expedition, in education, studying the works of great philosophers, listening to lectures by famous scientists at Leningrad and Moscow Universities, making a large number of trips in the mountains, I more and more often found confirmation of the themes. simple truths, to which this writer came close in his works and which helped and help me to live ... .

Most recently, I returned to my favorite collection again. And, like a miracle, like a revelation, this man revealed himself to me from one more, perhaps, his main side. This is compassion! Compassion, a red thread and undying pain that permeates all his retreats. Compassion for all people on earth. And pain for the fate of mankind.

He was a pilot during the laying of the first air mail routes over South America and Africa. He died many times, but contrary to all logic, he survived and again rose into the sky. He saw our planet peaceful and saw it wounded when fascism tried to enslave humanity. As a military pilot, he gave all his strength and ... life to the fight against this plague of the 20th century. He did not return then, in the forty-third, from a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean Sea, as a testament, leaving to mankind his short and so capacious “Letter to a Hostage”.

And now let Antoine speak and, perhaps, in our difficult time, he will help one of the people to understand themselves, to correctly place life values, to choose their own path ...

“... Why argue about ideologies? Any of them can be supported by evidence, and they all contradict each other, and from these disputes you only lose all hope of saving people. But people around us, everywhere and everywhere, strive for the same thing.
We want freedom. The one who works with a pick wants to have a meaning in every blow of the pick. When a convict works with a pick, each blow humiliates the convict, but if the pick is in the hands of a prospector, each blow elevates the prospector. Hard labor is not where they work with a pickaxe. It's terrible not because it's hard work. Penal servitude where the blows of a pick are meaningless, where labor does not unite a person with people...
And we want to escape from hard labor ... ".

“…You can’t make old friends hastily. There is no treasure more precious than so many common memories, so many hardships experienced together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, emotional outbursts. Such friendship is the fruit of many years. When planting an oak tree, it is ridiculous to dream that you will soon find shelter in its shade…”.

“... There is nothing in the world more precious than the bonds connecting man to man.
Working only for the sake of material goods, we are building a prison for ourselves. And we lock ourselves in loneliness, and all our riches are dust and ashes. They are powerless to deliver to us what is worth living for…”

“...Yes, of course, a person is full of contradictions. A certain piece of bread is given to another, so that nothing prevents him from creating, and he falls into a dream; the conqueror, having won the victory, becomes cowardly, turns the generous wealth into a miser. What is the use of political teachings that promise the flowering of man, if we do not know what kind of person they will raise? Whom will their triumph give birth to? We are not cattle to be fed. And when one poor Pascal appears, it is incomparably more important than the birth of a dozen prosperous nonentities.
We do not know how to foresee the main thing. Who among us has not been burned the hottest by unexpected joy in the midst of adversity? You cannot forget her, you yearn for her so much that you are ready to regret misfortunes, if that hot, unexpected joy came with them. It happened to all of us, having met comrades, with rapture to recall the most difficult trials that we lived together.
What do we know? Only that in some unknown conditions all the forces of the soul awaken...”

“... To understand a person, his needs and aspirations, to comprehend his very essence, you do not need to oppose your obvious truths to each other. Yes you are right. You are always right. Logically, anything can be proven. Even the one who takes it into his head to blame the hunchbacks for all the misfortunes of mankind is right. It is enough to declare war on the humpbacks - and we will immediately inflame with hatred for them. We will begin to take cruel revenge on the hunchbacks for all their crimes. And among the hunchbacks, of course, there are also criminals.
In order to understand what the essence of a person is, one must at least for a moment forget about disagreements, because every theory and every faith establishes a whole Koran of unshakable truths, and they give rise to fanaticism. You can divide people into right and left, into hunchbacked and not hunchbacked, into fascists and democrats - and you cannot refute any such division. But truth, as you know, is what makes the world simpler, not what makes it chaotic. Truth is a language that helps to comprehend the universal. Newton did not at all “discover” the law, which remained a mystery for a long time—only puzzles solve this way, but what Newton did was creativity. He created a language that tells us both about the fall of an apple on the lawn and about the rising of the sun. Truth is not what is provable, truth is simplicity”...

“... We are all at the same time, carried away by the same planet, we are the crew of one ship ...
In order to free us, we only need to help us see the goal to which we will go side by side, held together by bonds of brotherhood - but then why not look for a goal that will unite everyone? The doctor, examining the patient, does not listen to the groans: it is important for the doctor to heal the person. The doctor serves the laws of the universal. They are also served by the physicist, who deduces the divine equations, in which the essence of the atom and the stellar nebula is determined at once. They are served by a simple shepherd. It is worth the one who modestly guards a dozen sheep under the starry sky to comprehend his work, and now he is no longer just a servant. He is sentry. And each sentry is responsible for the fate of the empire. Do you think that the shepherd does not seek to comprehend himself and his place in life? ..”.

“... When we comprehend our role on earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy. Only then will we be able to live and die in peace, for what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death.”

“…If you want to build a ship, you don’t need to call people to plan everything, divide the work, get tools and cut down trees. It is necessary to infect them with the desire for an endless sea.
Then they will build the ship themselves…”

(Antoine Exupery, "The Planet of the People").

Reviews

I inherited another collection of Exupery of 1964, only with the author's drawings for The Little Prince. I wanted to write an essay, but there is not enough time. In addition to stories, my collection contains correspondence with my mother. She raised the children alone and lived entirely for the sake of the children. In the first letters, Exupery constantly asks his mother for money. Later sends money to mother with great gratitude. There is so much tenderness, warmth, great love between them. This is the meaning of the entire work of the writer. But as usual, he fell in love with the wrong woman, with whom, in the end, he practically did not live together. If you have time, read. Your review is wonderful, concise and inspiring.
Sincerely, Olga

Ordinary human life is an infinite number of unsolved problems in a short period of time. The eternal questions of human existence, the infinite meaning of all ongoing events, the order of things and numerous manifestations of life. Created reality, what is it really? The one that is realized by the mind or hidden from our imagination? The concept of time and space. An endless stream of thoughts, forms and . What is all this? Huge human effort to find our place and the meaning of life, and who actually shows our path. Where is the beginning from which we all turned out to be wanderers in the infinity of the surrounding space?

Truth and , health and disease, sorrow and joy. What is all this and how to finally get rid of suffering? We will try to find answers to most of life's questions. And first, let's try to understand the wording of the truth.

People often do not want to see reality or the truth, so to speak. because they don't really understand the meaning of the word. It is a blurry, inaccessible, unnecessary thing for them, because there are more important things, - it is customary to say most often. Why is it necessary to approach the truth at all, and what is it? To begin with, you can find a fairly simple answer. Truth is an absolutely even mirror for displaying a person and the life path itself. Many people who have not come to terms with the state of a slave in a world of created illusion are in constant search of the so-called . That mirror that will show who they really are. If a person sees himself as who he really is, then he begins to get rid of his own false actions, the flattery of others, false recognition, unnecessary acquaintances, stupid work and other illusory world.

Who benefits from the created surrounding illusion? Who directs the process of degeneration to turn a person into something unconscious, a being not belonging to himself? To begin with, we will answer only the first question. Illusion is necessary in order to take away from a person the time given to him for the formation of his personality. Take away from reality, give false ideas and goals. It's like having an abortion. Then we are underdeveloped and structures interested in our energy. Who, having a more perfect knowledge of life, use us to their advantage, like a battery for their watch. And the cheaper the person, the better for his buyer. Unfortunately, most of the world was originally built on the system of domination of one over the other. Our ultimate goal is freedom. Let it not be one hundred percent, but who once escaped from the bondage of illusory reality, he would never wish to return back. It's like seeing the sea, a large puddle near the house will already seem like a place for frogs to develop. But, while we have not seen the sea wave, we sit like that, clapping our hands on the dirty pond, hoping to make it at least a lake.

In a normal conscious world, people are constantly forced to engage in their own development in order to stop the process of self-destruction or destruction from outside. , self-developing people no longer interfere with others, understanding the price of enlightenment itself. They try to help others who want to get closer to their present, and thus begin to see their own truth. That is the principle of knowing oneself in the surrounding reality. They look at their crooked legs and no longer deny it, and once the problem is recognized, it is not difficult to take the second step - to start leveling. Let visibility at first not completely, because at each segment of life there is a different size of the mirror. According to the law of nature, there is no emptiness in the world, if you do not take the good, then you must take the bad. That's why if you do not develop yourself, then you begin to degrade and interfere with others. One has to interfere with the "calmly going to knowledge." The very concept of development is not reading smart books with memorizing formulas, it is creating the real self in our present, who we really are.

How exactly should one strive for the divine ideal? The methods of this pursuit are written in the bible, interpreted in philosophical teachings, and confirmed by the fact that we again and again turn to the eternal book for help.

No one doubts that the source of wisdom, the right spiritual experience, is written in the Holy Scriptures. But the question arises: did the Bible develop synchronously with the development of mankind, or, as theologians convince, does it remain an eternally unshakable constant of truth, which is usually idolized and taken for granted as it was once created by a higher mind? The question "What is Truth?" casts doubt on the unshakable answer, which is obviously laid down in the Bible, but which also obviously does not make sense, because in order to comprehend it, you need to have certain vital reasons and motives, that is, to be in the freedom of life.

The achievement of true happiness, the fullness of the spirit is not limited only by the acceptance of truth as the mystery and grace of religious existence, but is accomplished in the full disclosure of life as one of the divine possibilities to find it. Life, in turn, is not limited to the Church's comprehension of the truth. The fullness of comprehension of the mystery of life, of course, occurs through the church - the place of spiritual maturation. The church is a symbol of the spiritual path. But we often forget again and again that the church is a derivative of faith creation, but not a material preexistence, a haven in which the truth is “stamped” regardless of the person.

The need to seek God has always existed. Man in antiquity simply could not explain the manifestation of the higher forces of nature and therefore reduced uncontrolled spirituality to heavenly energy, that is, to God. Over time, the idea of God became more human, more focused on human freedom, potential and spiritual source. And the church became the image of this source.

This is the merit of Jesus Christ. Christianity launched the process of humanization and spiritual and moral transformation of man. All this happened to the accompaniment of conciliar thinking. Cathedral thinking is a given of our time, which implies the preservation and implementation of the spiritual experience of man. But sometimes theological thinking is simply not able to organically, with all its essence, penetrate into the nature of human quests, to convince an ordinary person that it is necessary to observe the biblical commandments.

This is due to excessively abstract thinking only about the revelations of the Lord. Theologians are turning into orthodox in the most terrible sense of the word, for such orthodox, alas, ignore the multiplicity and diversity of the world, accepting only a single divine manifestation in man. Thus, they become incomprehensible to people and, in principle, cannot help them. The search for truth is the main symptom of the transformation and change of the Bible. The Bible is a symbol of the discovery of Truth, otherwise it simply would not exist.

Man is a universal, eternally detached being, which leaves behind the freedom of the known world. But he doesn't stop there. Its revealing essence is based on the belief in the knowledge of the freedom of the still unknown world. It is this unknown world hidden from us that is the mystery of being, which is identical to our inner spiritual ever-opening being, identical to our own freedom and, to some extent, identical to the search for God.

Man, knowing the nature of the world, thereby knows himself. A person, knowing God, thereby knows his ability to know him better, that is, he discovers for himself the realm of a free spirit, touches true freedom. Without such conditions, methods of life and direction of the spirit, it is impossible to strive for the true word, for the true life, for the true God. Everything is one in the universe. And God wants to know us no more than we know him. And if the people of the church think that God knows us, then this is a lie and deceit, for their knowledge of God's knowledge of us is ignorance and church heresy, which inspires a person to find the easiest way to become a believer.

Faith is dynamic: it acts together with our efforts, transforms in sync with our freedom, always wins under the condition of devotion to ourselves and our spiritual ideals. Without this existential experience, the experience of spiritual freedom, the commandments and laws that we understand so well would not have appeared. How can we not understand them if they were created under the burden of life's suffering and spiritual struggle, under the symbol of the search for Truth? But the "commandments of God" are only relatively effective, for they were written and understood by man.

It would be naive to think that suddenly, once, a long time ago, they emerged from the void, like something that had flown in from above, independently of us. Moral principles are the experience of human freedom, not divine, not foreign, not alien, but human. And they were created by us for ourselves, for people, and will continue to be created for people, but with the condition of preserving and respecting the experience of human experience.

Is there any respect in our world? Does it exist where the defenders of God are indifferent to the seekers of God? Does it exist where religious fanatics are deaf to the touching poem of a little girl? Does it exist where the defenders of the state are indifferent to the oppositionists? Does it exist where the living essence of a person is thrown into the background of "religious progress", into a place where those very commandments barely noticeably sparkle. Is it there?

God will not die if you boldly allow yourself to better understand, to feel Him in yourself. God will not die if you move away from him in order to get closer to yourself. God will not die if you say: "Biblical commandments are the duty of man to man for the glory of man." God will not die if a person creates with his faith, with his heart the freedom of a new understanding of the world's commandments for the glory of mankind. And it is precisely for this that God loves him... God will not die, for he does not know death.

"What is the truth of man?"

In the 30s. de Saint-Exupery and his mechanic Prevost are involved in two serious plane crashes. The first time this happens at the very end of 1935 in the Libyan desert, when their Simun crashes into the slope of a sandy plateau in the midst of impenetrable night at a speed of two hundred kilometers per hour. Fortunately, on a tangent ... On the fourth day, they, wandering through the desert and dying of thirst, were saved by the Bedouins.

The second time, in 1938, their plane crashed in Guatemala, the pilot and mechanic were hospitalized in a serious condition. Here, de Saint-Exupery has the opportunity to collect his individual notes into one book. This is how the already quoted “Planet of People” was written, which was first published in 1939 in the USA under the title “Wind, Sand and Stars”. writer exupery pilot truth

Unlike previous books by de Saint-Exupery, it does not have a plot, we have before us - the author's reflection on the life and destiny of man.

The author suggests looking for the answer to the question about the meaning of human existence in one's heart: an overwhelming feeling of the fullness of life will be a reliable indicator. Existentialist philosophers called this state "a breakthrough into existence", Fromm - "being" (the opposite of "possession").

We breathe deeply only when we are connected with our brothers and we have a common goal ... - Otherwise, in our age - the age of comfort - why is it so gratifying for us to share the last sip of water in the desert? Isn't this a small thing compared to the prophecies of sociologists? And to us, who have the good fortune to rescue comrades in the sands of the Sahara, any other joy seems simply pathetic.

Speaking of comradeship and having been in the war, de Saint-Exupery cannot ignore the topic of front-line brotherhood. But on the contrary, they are also people, they also have a comradeship in arms, they also fight for their ideals ... At the front near Madrid, de Saint-Exupery becomes a witness to such a dialogue across the line of trenches. "Amigo! shouts the Republican soldier, “What ideals are you fighting for?” - For Spain! - they answer from the other side, - and you? - "For bread for my brothers!" - after which the enemies wish each other good night.

In Planet of the Humans, he writes:

So why be surprised then? Who in Barcelona, in the basement of the anarchists, having met with this readiness to sacrifice oneself, to rescue a comrade, with this harsh justice, once felt how someone completely new, unfamiliar awakens in him, for that from now on there is only one truth - the truth of the anarchists. And whoever once happened to stand on watch in a Spanish monastery, guarding frightened kneeling nuns, will die for the Church.

Saint-Exupéry comes to the conclusion that war is only a surrogate for true existence. Unable to overcome the gray routine in any other way, people in the war acquire a semblance of a full-blooded life.

The world has become a desert, and we all yearn to find comrades in it; in order to taste bread among comrades, we accept war. But in order to gain this warmth, in order to strive shoulder to shoulder towards the same goal, there is absolutely no need to fight. We are deceived. War and hatred add nothing to the joy of the general rapid movement.

Why should we hate each other? We are all one, carried away by the same planet, we are the crew of one ship. It is good when something new, more perfect is born in a dispute between different civilizations, but it is monstrous when they devour each other.

The last phrase shows that the idea of a "one ship crew" does not apply to staunch supporters of ideologies like Nazism - who hate everyone who is different from them. Later, this idea will be developed in the “Letter to the Hostage” with the key phrase: “Respect for the person! .. Here it is, the touchstone!”

So, people need a goal that unites everyone, the author of Planet of Humans believes.

To free us, we only need to help us see the goal to which we will go side by side, united by the bonds of brotherhood - but then why not look for a goal that will unite everyone?

In the unfinished "Citadel" de Saint-Exupery puts the same thought into the mouth of the mythical ruler of the kingdom:

Make them build a tower and they will feel like brothers. But if you want them to hate each other, throw them a poppy seed A completely different, in a certain sense, opposite to de Saint-Exupéry author, Alexander Lazarevich, in 2004 came up with the idea of uniting humanity around a common project of preparing an expedition to Mars. The implementation of this project will help people feel connected to a common goal and involved in something epochal. The medical and technical solutions created during the implementation of the project will also find application on Earth, just as it was with the technologies developed during the implementation of the Apollo program. And, finally, working for space will save engineers from having to work for war. For more details, see A. Lazarevich's website: http://www.webcenter.ru/~lazarevicha/letters/Mars.htm

It should only be added that the acceptance and implementation of such a goal by mankind requires serious social changes.

The true existence of man... But what is truth? It is not proved by a complex chain of inferences, says the author of the "Planet of People", the truth is what makes the world clearer.

Truth is a language that helps to comprehend the universal. Newton did not at all "discover" the law, which remained a mystery for a long time - only puzzles solve this way, and what Newton did was creativity. He created a language that tells us both about the fall of an apple on the lawn and about the rising of the sun. Truth is not what is provable, truth is simplicity.

Truth is specific:

What do we know? Only that in some unknown conditions all the forces of the soul awaken? What is the truth of man?

The truth is not on the surface. If on this soil, and not on any other, orange trees put down strong roots and bear generous fruits, then for orange trees this soil is the truth.If a it is this religion, this culture, this measure of things, this form of activity, and not any other, that gives a person a feeling of spiritual fullness, a power that he did not even suspect in himself, which means that it is this measure of things, this culture, this form of activity. and there is the truth of man(emphasis mine. - A.K.).

What about common sense? His job is to explain life, let it get out as you like.

In order to unite different truths, one must rise above the plane in which they all form a mosaic picture, and close them with the "key of the vault." Let us recall how skillfully de Saint-Exupery united political debaters with a common code. Conservative Jean Mermoz was also his friend. Seeing the degradation of French aviation during the Great Depression and the persecution of the technical director of Aeropostal, Mermoz joined the right-wing organization Croix le Fey (Battle Crosses). , and left-wing radical (but anti-Stalinist) Leon Werth.

This concept - the key of the vault, which transforms fragmentation into integrity - is often found in the spiritual testament of de Saint-Exupery. Olga Eremina's poem "Sprout" (included in the cycle "Citadel Gates" See http://zhurnal.lib.ru/e/eremina_o/vrata.shtml) ends with the following lines:

Tonight the magnolia stars are huge

Like a wonderful gift - take it and pick it.

You will stretch out to me a diverse fragmentation -

I will give you back the integrity of our love.

The transformation of fragmentation into integrity under the general vault of the temple is, of course, not a good wish in the style of “guys, let's live together!” and not mechanical mixing. The protagonist of The Citadel says:

To reconcile means to be satisfied with a warm drink, where icy orangeade is mixed with boiling coffee. I want to preserve the special flavor of each. For the desires of everyone are worthy, the truths are true. I have to create such a picture of the world where everyone will find a place. For the common measure of truth for both the blacksmith and the carpenter is the ship.

In 1955, Erich Fromm's book "Healthy Society" was published, in which he scientifically raises the question of the disease of modern civilization - and, as a result, of the "pathology of normality" - outlining ways for a radical improvement of society. On the last pages of The Planet of Humans, de Saint-Exupery speaks of the same language of artistic images. In a carriage with Polish workers expelled from France, he saw a sleeping baby, somehow perched between his parents, who had forgotten their heavy sleep.

I looked at the smooth forehead, at the plump tender lips and thought: here is the face of a musician, here is little Mozart, he is all - a promise! He is just like a little prince from a fairy tale, he would grow up, warmed by vigilant reasonable care, and he would justify the wildest hopes! When in the garden, after a long search, a new rose is finally brought out, all the gardeners are excited. The rose is separated from others, she is vigilantly cared for, cared for and cherished. But people grow up without a gardener. Little Mozart, like everyone else, will fall under the same monstrous pressure. And he will begin to enjoy the vile music of base taverns. Mozart is doomed.

This is a clear illustration of Fromm's book on the pathology of the "norm" of the modern world.

…It's not compassion that torments me. It's not about shedding tears over a never-healing sore. Those who are struck by it do not feel it. The ulcer struck not an individual, it corrodes humanity (highlighted by me. - A.K.). And I do not believe in pity. The care of the gardener torments me. It is not the sight of poverty that torments me - in the end, people get used to poverty, as they get used to idleness ... What torments me cannot be cured with free soup for the poor. Painfully not the ugliness of this shapeless, crumpled human clay. But in each of these people, perhaps, Mozart is killed.

The Spirit alone, touching the clay, creates a Man out of it.

The most difficult, but the most necessary task is to go through numerous traps, like on a razor's edge, to create channels in society for the Spirit to penetrate into the "clay".