«Everything real is rational, and everything rational is real», declared Hegel. In other words, in every event that occurs, there is a higher rationality, a higher meaning not always understood by humans. If an event has happened, it is inevitable. Our outrage and non-acceptance of what is happening stem from ignorance of the laws governing people and society.

I recall a recent conversation with an acquaintance of mine.

-Do you know what readers think of your books? - he said. - When it comes to individual health issues and problems, you are balanced, kind, and wise. But as soon as the topic shifts to Russia's problems, all your charm disappears—anger, panic, condemnation...

I smiled and shrugged in response.

-Readers are absolutely right. For over thirty years, I have been trying to understand what illness and a person's fate are and to grasp the regularities of what happens. The behavior of Russian officials did not conform to any regularities. Logic and common sense didn't work either. Then I tried to break away from narrow schemes and familiar stereotypes, and the indignation began to fade.

What is offense, dissatisfaction, and outrage, really? It's essentially a primitive attempt to control the situation. A weak person takes offense, a strong one acts. In essence, offense is an attempt to control and educate another person.

If I have even a small amount of experience in upbringing, I won't take offense, and after an unpleasant situation, I won't harbor bitterness but will increase the number of educational means and methods. Any painful situation that used to be torment for me and caused bouts of despair now turns into an interesting problem with a variety of solutions. What was once perceived as offense inflicted by another person now becomes the joy of creativity—because through upbringing, we create a new personality. Offense is a conflict, but when we've developed a habit of viewing conflict as an opportunity for educating another person, instead of hatred and condemnation, we start to experience the happiness of creativity.

-However, it's not always that simple, - I continued. - Sometimes the pain inflicted by a close person is so strong that we feel overcoming it is impossible. There are no upbringing models for such cases, and we try to control and educate, but we can't find the right approach, method, or technique. At that moment, we may experience despair, which can turn into condemnation or despondency. After all, any offense is a subconscious desire to kill another person, and later, oneself.

In reality, there is a graceful and simple way out. The cause of aggressiveness lies in the desire to control another person or situation. The leader is aggressive, the follower is calm. In the moment of the strongest offense, if we suddenly remember that a close person is an instrument in the hands of God, we immediately feel lighter. If we understand that through emotional pain and offense, we are detached from attachments from above, we become calmer. If we realize that any humiliation of the soul, spirit, and body is aimed at purification and the revelation of Divine love, we experience a sense of happiness and harmony. The clearer we see Divine will in everything, the less dangerous our own will becomes. Then, alongside educating others, we will engage in self-education. The presence of the Divine in everything helps us in self-education, the meaning of which is to change in a way that there is more love in the soul.

Many people, after reading my books, began to pray like this: «Lord, take away all my offenses, both obvious and hidden». At a superficial level, such a prayer still works. But if you think deeply, the essence of offense is the inability to educate another person, the unwillingness to see the Divine will in everything that happens. It turns out that a person does not want to educate themselves or others, behaves accordingly, and at the same time, when turning to God, asks to eliminate the consequences of their behavior. People use images and concepts without thinking about their meaning. Therefore, while surface changes may occur, the character and destiny do not actually change, and severe illnesses persist.

My interlocutor was listening attentively. I continued:

-The lawlessness of the 90s has been replaced by the lawlessness of officials. In the past, it used to outrage me, generate fear, panic, and condemnation. Each of us could be killed, arrested, subjected to humiliation, knowing that the law would not protect us, and justice would not be served. But now, let's think about why this is happening. Law and justice can only exist where there is morality. It can be primitive, it can be pagan, it can reach the level of monotheism. But state order arises from order within the soul. If those in power violate Divine laws in the form of commandments and morality, such authority should not be obeyed. Otherwise, it will destroy both the people and the state, and ultimately itself.

The guarantee of morality could have been the people, it could have been public opinion. But everyone was disoriented. The leaders of society enthusiastically shouted about the decayed socialist system and the onset of democracy. Just as the Bolsheviks once renounced the decaying tsarist regime and bourgeois morality. Now the bright future has been replaced by the idea of a prosperous present. But it turns out that the concept of democratic freedoms is impossible without guarantees of morality. For democracy to exist, there must be equality before the law and unconditional submission to these laws.

In the West, religion ceased to be a guarantee of morality. This role was attempted to be taken over by public opinion, democratic organizations, and the press. However, secular authority can only guarantee external decency - morality and ethics that align with administrative and criminal law but nothing more. There is a concept called the mentality of society. Sometimes, in a society, it is unacceptable to lie and steal; it is believed that a disgraced official should resign, and the government should work for the good of the state and the people. All of this exists at the level of customs. But if there is no guarantee of morality, the mentality of society can change for the worse, which is happening in the world today.

If the state becomes moral, it will be unprofitable to steal and betray its own people. But we still need to reach that point.

Currently, Russia lacks an ideology that would unite morality and a system of strategic goals. Monotheism cannot exist without strict adherence to moral laws, and these, in turn, must be protected by a system of administrative and criminal laws.

In the Old Testament, by the way, there is a clear connection between the main concepts. Faith in God leads to love and compassion for one's fellow human beings. Love and compassion give rise to morality, morality prescribes rules for the interaction and behavior of people. Administrative laws are established. Morality dictates how to behave in economic activities, in trade, during war. Morality determines what can and cannot be done concerning one's neighbor and oneself.

In essence, the Bible directly and unequivocally states: «If politics, economics, culture, and religion in a state do not contribute to the fulfillment and understanding of Divine laws, such a state is doomed». If morality is lost in the state, its economy and politics begin to deform, degenerate, and perish. After the appearance of the Torah, several millennia passed. States emerged, developed, perished, and each time it happened according to the scenario described in the Bible.

The current tragedy of Russia is that in the 90s, liberals tried to convince society that financial well-being is much more important than morality. They called licentiousness freedom, theft - democracy, and the decay of their own culture - a transition to Western values. The current tragedy of Russia is that for 70 years, communists convinced the people that a happy and prosperous future is more important than faith, love, and morality. The problem of Russia is that several centuries ago, secular power suppressed and subjugated spiritual power. The problem is that the Orthodox Church in Russia has entered a crisis state: due to people's lack of understanding of the essence of religion, rituals and ceremonies were gradually replaced by a sincere aspiration to God and the observance of commandments, and later, such human values as power and wealth became more significant than love and detachment.

The current problem in Russia is probably that people who profess Orthodoxy did not fully realize what Jesus Christ said. One-sided, incomplete perception of truths received through Him gradually led to the destruction of monotheism and the strengthening of pagan tendencies. And for a pagan, power is always paramount, followed by spirit, or rather, priests.

I distract myself from memories of that conversation, and before my mental gaze appears the facade of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Above the majestic columns, on the side portal, there are gilded letters: «By the strength of your joy, the king is exalted». Everyone who came across this inscription must have noted in their subconscious that the king is the embodiment of strength, and this strength is guaranteed by God. It's not love or morality that exalts the king, but strength. A clear pagan formula. In fact, this inscription should have been followed by another statement: «By the strength of your joy, the king will be destroyed». One opposite always turns into another: worship of strength turns it into weakness, and worship of life leads to death. Money, essentially, is a symbol of life, power, and strength. Worshiping it initially destroys love and morality, as it happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, and then leads to physical decay.

The soul decays first, but people are accustomed to fearing and worrying only for their bodies. This is usually a belated attempt at salvation. In the Old Testament, it is said that wisdom is born when the fear of God appears: «The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom». Before, I perceived this as the emotion of fear towards a specific person. It turns out, something completely different is meant here. The fear of God is the fear of destruction and the loss of one's own soul. It is the fear of losing love, without which the soul cannot exist. It is the earliest reaction to the inevitable destruction that will occur after love is annihilated. The fear of losing the soul, of losing love and morality, ultimately saves consciousness and the body along with the future.

In the modern world, there are predictable processes of decay and revival. The main thing is to always see the Divine will in any situation, to feel the higher order of what is happening. We need to fight with problems and overcome them. We need to educate both people and the surrounding world. But at the same time, we must not forget that the goal of any education is love, and in order to educate others, one must feel this love themselves. And to do this, one must eliminate any aggression that hinders love, feel the secondary nature of one's own will, and also the boundless mercy of the will of the Most High.

In order to receive something, you need to reach out and take it. To receive love from God, you need to reach out to Him and turn away from human values. In critical moments, one should forget about human logic and live only on the level of Divine logic. Only then will the transformation of the human «self» be complete. Only then can any information be fully assimilated.

I remember a recent German seminar where I talked about the concepts of the soul and the spirit, their relationship, and the reasons for the tendency to prioritize the spirit over the soul.

Why does this tendency exist? Firstly, because there are three levels of the spirit. The first level is what is called the «Holy Spirit». In addition, in Judaism, the Divine energy that came into this world and began to create the universe is called the spirit. And the third level is our consciousness, spiritual life, our spirit.

There is the consciousness of a cell, the consciousness of an organ, and the consciousness of an organism. There is the Divine spirit, the universal spirit, and the human spirit. These concepts are denoted by one word but qualitatively differ from each other.

The universe is arranged according to the principle of a matryoshka doll. The Holy Spirit is the Divine energy that is love, that is feeling, consciousness, and substance all at once. This is the soul and consciousness of the universe, the soul and consciousness of all living things in the universe, the soul and consciousness of humanity, a people, a family, an individual.

Christ said, «God is spirit». This means that the Almighty is beyond this world, that is, He is not an idol to pray to. At the same time, Christ said, «Blessed are the poor in spirit», which means happy is the one who does not have the spirit. What does this mean? Christ probably meant that the spirit is our spirituality, consciousness, and future. This is evidenced by His words, «Do not worry about tomorrow», which means we should not focus on the spirit. After all, our spirituality is primarily related to predicting the future. The higher a person's spirituality, the more they can predict, plan, and dream.

When a person thinks on the level of individual opposites, they automatically subconsciously associate consciousness, and the future, and begin to worship the future. And disaster follows. This tendency existed in Israel 2000 years ago, and it was against this that Christ rebelled.

Secondly, the desire to prioritize the spirit over the soul is related to another important point. There are concepts: consciousness, subconsciousness, or the unconscious, and superconsciousness. Initially, the unconscious-subconscious was perceived as something primitive, animalistic, imperfect, like our passions buried deep within. After some time, what was considered the subconscious was called superconsciousness because it turned out that information about the future and all the highest aspects of human personality are concealed there, in the same subconscious.

So, what is the subconscious really? Is it animalistic or superhuman? It's all of the above. The thing is, the subconscious is multi-layered, and so is our soul. The soul is our feelings.

We have animal feelings and we have Divine feelings; we are in the middle.

At first, people believed that the soul was something higher. Then, people realized that animalistic feelings come from the soul, and they began to consciously control themselves, follow commandments, and manage their behavior. People started reasoning like this: since I consciously tell myself, «Refrain from this, refrain from that...», it means that I, through consciousness, restrain my desires and manage my soul. Therefore, consciousness is primary, and thus, the spirit is more important than the soul. Those who are guided only by the soul often make mistakes. But a person for whom the spirit is important, who is oriented toward knowledge, commandments, and religion, manages their soul and ultimately becomes a harmonious person. That's one perspective.

Everything falls into place if we understand the following. The spirit is above the animal layer of the soul, and above the spirit, there is another layer of Divine soul. There are layers in the soul that are below the spirit and layers that are above the spirit.

When a person can think dialectically, they understand that a soulful person can lean towards the animal or lean towards the Divine; it's all part of the soul. It's impossible to define the soul with one word because the soul consists of opposites.

If a person believes that they should completely control themselves through consciousness, then they start to control not only their animal nature but also the Divine. After that, consciousness takes center stage, the soul begins to harden, energy decreases, and the person gradually fades away.

We must understand that our consciousness, through knowledge of commandments and religion, helps us educate our soul. However, the higher layers of our soul, which are connected with love, are much more significant, on a larger scale than the spirit, and it is love that educates our consciousness.

Lost in thought, I look at the sheet of paper in front of me. One reader helped me with information about the soul and its development. It turns out that in Judaism, the soul is believed to have five levels.

The first level is called «Nefesh» - the «lowest, animal soul».

The second level is «Ruach» - the «spirit».

The third level is «Neshama» - the «soul».

The fourth level is «Chaya» - the «living».

The fifth level is «Yechida» - the «unified».

So, the first level of the soul is animalistic, connected to the body. The second level of the soul is connected to consciousness - the spirit, the third level is related to higher feelings. The fourth level is called the «living soul», it goes beyond individuality, encompasses all living beings, and love is continuously present in it. The soul of the fifth level - the «unified soul» - is eternal and inseparably connected with the Creator, hence it's called the "unified soul." In the "unified soul," the entire universe, its mortal and immortal components, are contained.

«Perhaps, that's it», I think. Maybe my perception will change later. As soon as we perceive something as an absolute truth, our quest for knowledge stops, energy is hindered, and along with it, love.

In that case, what is the truth? It's a continuous striving for Divine love and its constant growth. It's the readiness to look at the world anew every day. Possessing the truth makes a person happy. Continuous striving for the truth makes a person happy all the time.