The art of living by the soul

I have often spoken and written about the need to strive to live «as I want.» However, this phrase undoubtedly requires decryption and addition. «To live as I want» means to live as the soul dictates.

Our soul came from God. But in our soul, in our subconscious, there are animal instincts and there is the Divine, and a person can either orient towards their animalistic beginning (and gradually degrade) or towards their Divine aspirations (and become more noble).

«I live as I want»; «I live as my soul desires»; «I live as God commands» — these are three levels of a person's lifestyle. The phrase «You need to live by the principle 'I want» implies the highest level. «To live as I want» means: to live as my higher self wants, that is, to live as God commands.

Our soul came from God, and the soul is feelings. In fact, we think with feelings. When the soul is primary for a person, when the subconscious leads, then a person, subconsciously feeling God, His will, intuitively chooses the correct decision. But the fact is that a person does not always manage to maintain a constant aspiration towards God.

When a person sins, their subconscious system of goals is distorted, and then the desire to live by the soul can lead them in a completely different direction. Then our mind and our consciousness, which essentially is the younger sister of our feelings, help us return.

Our mind is connected with experience, knowledge, moral landmarks, that is, with a value system that exists at the level of consciousness—thus, our mind helps us understand the Divine.

The Bhagavad Gita says that the mind is our friend, but if the mind takes the leading place, it becomes our enemy.

When I say «you need to live as you want,» it means that feelings should be trusted more than consciousness, that the soul is wiser than the mind and one should follow the call of the soul, not the logic of consciousness.

When Abraham heard the voice of God, he severed all usual ties and went to the unknown. His soul, connected with God, hearing the call of the Almighty, ordered him to leave everything, to renounce everything, and to go to unexplored places. The logic of consciousness was completely destroyed.

The phrase «You need to live as you want» implies that primarily the soul should guide us, and our mind, our consciousness, our spirit should help the soul attain the Divine.

A person should live as the commandments require, which help to preserve love in the soul. Firstly, one should orient towards the highest feeling of love — to live as «love wants.»

Now regarding your specific question.

People are accustomed to thinking in a pagan coordinate system. Namely: either I drop everything and become a hermit, that is, do what I wanted, or I realize that this would be merciless towards my family, and I stay with the family, suffering and struggling.

A person with pagan thinking sees only two exits: either leave the family for personal happiness or suppress their own song and stay with the family. But, in reality, there is a third way out of the situation. If a person wants to leave the family and become a hermit, it means that they have an excessive attachment to the family.

But one can stay with the family without suppressing oneself, while overcoming their attachment. That is, one can be in the family and not be in the family at the same time. One can be a hermit within their own family.

If a man is excessively attached to his family, he feels it. It means he was jealous, hated women who humiliated his feelings, were unfaithful, or did not want to live when they parted with him.

Excessive attachment to the family can be a consequence of sexual incontinence, when a person cannot restrain their sexual needs and does not know how to transform them into higher feelings.

When a person overeats, it increases their attachment to life and dependence on it. The same dependence appears when a person is sexually unrestrained.

If a person loves to drink and eat, their dependency on life increases, and subconsciously, sexual attachment will also intensify. If such a person goes to a monastery, to some extent, of course, it will help their soul. But this can be said to be the easiest way. A more difficult path is repentance, reconsidering one's life, periodic fasting, abstinence, and solitude, a proper lifestyle. This is forgiveness, this is the ability to maintain love, despite any losses and problems.

This is a gradual change in one's character, in order not to allow more mistakes and not to enhance attachment to this world. One needs to learn to communicate properly with their wife and children, so that conflict contributes to development, rather than leading to degradation.

This is an interesting and complex path that allows preserving human relationships, human warmth, and gives the opportunity to care for children, for the wife, and to have human happiness.

The soul, unlike the spirit and body, has a dual, dialectical nature. One part of it is Divine, eternal, and turned towards God, and the other part is turned towards this world.

Christ said: «Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.»

«To give to God» means that one needs to go to a monastery; «to give to Caesar» means that one needs to preserve the family.

Christ did not oppose Divine logic and human logic. Recognizing that these two logics contradict each other, he managed to unite them—he said that we are all God's children.

When we have love in our soul, when we understand that we are one with God, then we can combine two opposite logics. This is what development is. It is advisable to understand that believing in your feelings, living «as I want, as my soul desires,» is the ability to combine opposites.

S. N. Lazarev, «40 Questions About the Soul, Fate, and Health. Part 1»