Incredible facts
Our soul is the energy that creates everything that exists in the Universe. If you break us down to our energetic state, we can say that we are all connected and all one.
We are here because we have a purpose, a reason and a motivation for existing.
Many sages say that the Earth is just a playground where we come to learn things and live life in material form.
We indulge our physical and material pleasures, learn what it means to love, hate and experience other feelings.
Three Soul Powers
In the structure of the soul of St. The fathers distinguish three forces (abilities) - rational, irritable and concupiscible (mind, feelings and will).
The rational power of the soul (γνωστικον, rationale) is also called verbal, mental and cognitive. It is recognized as the dominant part of the soul. In its intact state, the rational force “reasons soundly and correctly distinguishes good from evil, and shows definitely and authoritatively to the desirable force which things it should be inclined to desire, which to love, and which to avert; the irritable force stands between the two of them, like a submissive slave, ready to diligently serve their desires” (St. Simeon the New Theologian).
The irritable power of the soul (παρασηλοτικον, irascile) is its feeling, emotional power. St. Basil the Great calls it the spiritual nerve, which imparts energy to the soul for striving in virtues. This part of the soul of St. Fathers attributes anger and a violent beginning. However, in this case, anger and rage do not mean passions, but jealousy (zeal, energy), which in its original state was zeal for good, and after the fall should be used as a courageous rejection of evil. “It is up to the irritable part of the soul to be angry with the devil,” say St. Fathers. The irritable force of the soul is also called the heart.
The appetitive part of the soul (επιθυμητικον, concupiscentiale) is also called desirable (desirable) or active. It allows the soul to strive for something or turn away from something. The concupiscible part of the soul includes the will, which tends to act.
“Train the irritable part of the soul with love, wither the desirable part with abstinence, inspire the rational part with prayer...” / Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopouls/.
All the powers of the soul are aspects of its single life. They are inseparable from each other and constantly interact. They achieve greatest unity when they submit to the spirit, focusing on contemplation and knowledge of God. In this knowledge, according to the word of St. Simeon the New Theologian, not a trace remains of their separation, they remain in unity like the unity of the Holy Trinity.
The struggle and unity of opposites
Every role has its antipode, as well as its pair, so to speak, and only the role of the Teacher “does not cast shadows,” since they are neutral. Thus, the Servant and the Priest form a wonderful tandem. After all, their roles are somewhat similar. Kings and Warriors get along well with each other, as do Masters and Sages.
When souls find each other, certain relationships are built between them. These relationships can be called codependent.
Someone in tandem will always be the first violin. So, for example, the King will always set the pace for his Warrior. The Priest will always inspire his Servant, who will follow him to the ends of the earth.
Human soul and body
The human soul is connected to the body. This connection is an unmerged connection. As a result of this connection, there are two natures in man - mental and physical, which, according to the word of St. Simeon the New Theologian, dissolved unmerged. From two natures, God formed one human being, in which “neither the body is transformed into the soul, nor the soul changes into flesh” (St. Simeon the New Theologian). Despite all this, such a union is unfused, but it is not indivisible and inseparable, since the human body acquired mortality and separation from the soul as a result of sin.
What is the basis of the Orthodox teaching about the two-part nature of man (soul and body)?
The Orthodox teaching about the two-part nature of man is based on direct evidence from Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition.
The account of the creation of man clearly states that Adam's body was created from the dust of the ground, and the soul was breathed into him by God (Gen. 2:7). In this context, the words of Ecclesiastes should also be understood, pointing to death as the separation of the soul from the body: “And the dust will return to the earth, as it was; and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).
In general, Holy Scripture repeatedly indicates that every person consists of a soul and a body, for example: “Therefore glorify God both in your body and in your soul, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20); “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
The fact that the soul is not a product of the vital activity of the body (the central nervous system) is clearly communicated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, from which it convincingly follows that after separation from the body (that is, after the physical death of a person), the soul continues to live, and, moreover, to live conscious life. Thus, the soul of a rich man, while in hell, recognizes the souls of Abraham and Lazarus (the latter are in a special area - Abraham’s bosom) (Luke 16:23), carries on a conversation with the soul of Abraham (Luke 16:24-26), feels torment and experiences a conscious desire to alleviate his torment (Luke 16:24), strives to show concern for his brothers living earthly life (Luke 16:27-31).
Associated with the belief in the afterlife of souls is the practice of prayerful remembrance of the departed, as well as the practice of prayerful communication between believers and saints who have died in the Lord. Thus, the denial of the substantial soul in man is the grossest opposition against Orthodoxy, against the Church.
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When a person has a soul
The soul does not have a pre-eternal incarnation. It originates at the moment of conception of the child, grows and develops along with his growing body.
After the birth of a baby, his soul gets acquainted with the world, grows, develops, learns to create and... destroy.
And then the soul makes a choice: to strive for the light, for God - or not. And he follows it for the rest of his life. After the death of the physical body, the soul does not pass on to another, but appears at the Judgment of God, where it receives reward and punishment according to its deeds.
After all of the above, the soul is sent to Heaven or Hell for the rest of the history of this world.
Soul concept
The soul is a certain special force present in a person, which constitutes the highest part of him; it revives a person, gives him the ability to think, sympathize, and feel. The words “soul” and “breathe” have a common origin. The soul is created by the breath of God, and it has indestructibility. It cannot be said that it is immortal, because only God is immortal by nature, but our soul is indestructible - in the sense that it does not lose its consciousness, does not disappear after death. However, it has its own “death” - this is the ignorance of God. And for that matter, she may die. That is why the Scripture says: “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:20).
The soul is a living essence, simple and incorporeal, by its nature invisible to bodily eyes, rational and thinking. Having no form, using an endowed organ - the body, providing it with life and growth, feeling and generating power. Having a mind, but not different from herself, but as the purest part of her - for as the eye is in the body, so is the mind in the soul. She is autocratic and capable of willing and acting, changeable, i.e. voluntarily changing because it was created. Having received all this by nature from the grace of the One who created her, from whom she received her being.
Some sectarians, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists, reject the immortality of the soul, considering it simply a part of the body. And at the same time they falsely refer to the Bible, to the text of Ecclesiastes, which poses the question of whether the human soul is similar to the soul of animals: “Because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of animals is one fate: as they die, so these die, and one everyone has breath, and man has no advantage over cattle, because everything is vanity!” (Eccl. 3:19). Then Ecclesiastes himself answers this question, which the sectarians neglect, he says: “And the dust will return to the earth, as it was; and the spirit returned to God, who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7). And here we understand that the soul is indestructible, but it can also die.
Soul in Arab-Muslim thought
D. (Arabic - nafs), also meaning “self”, “I”, was often identified with spirit (rukh). According to the Koran (15:29, 38:72) and the Sunnah, God, having created the first man - Adam, breathed D. into him; Adam's descendants receive it in the womb through a special angel. Separated from the body after death, D. will be reunited with it on the Day of Judgment. For rationalists. theology (kalama) is characterized by the idea of \u200b\u200bD. as something occurring in the body and, therefore, mortal; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350) in his “Book of the Soul” (“Kitab ar-rukh”) cited 116 proofs of the material nature of death. The doctrine of immateriality, substantiality and immortality of death was defended primarily by Aristotelian philosophers (falsafa), whose views were far from mainstream Muslims. theology of ideas; Immortality was understood in different ways. If Ibn Sina considered any kind of death to be immortal, then al-Farabi considered only “enlightened” souls who realized their potential mind, and Ibn Rushd asserted only the immortality of a single mind, common to all people. From the point of view of philosophers and many others. representatives of Sufism (Ibn al-Arabi and his school), the Day of Judgment for each person occurs immediately after his death, and resurrection means the return of only D. (but not the body) to the divine world; An idea of world life, akin to Neoplatonism, also developed. The highest part of human life was called “spirit” by the Sufis. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls found supporters among some sects, especially the Shiites.
About occult technologies related to the control of the human body
If we turn to the patristic heritage, we will see that there are usually three main forces in the soul: mind, will and feelings, which manifest themselves in different abilities - thinking, desire and concupiscence. But at the same time, we must understand that the soul also has other powers. All of them are divided into reasonable and unreasonable. The irrational principle of the soul consists of two parts: one is disobediently reasonable (does not obey reason), the other is obediently reasonable (obeys reason). The highest forces of the soul include the mind, will and feelings, and the unreasonable forces include the vital forces: the force of the heartbeat, seminal, growth (which forms the body), etc. The action of the soul's power animates the body. God deliberately made sure that the vital forces were not subject to the mind, so that the human mind would not be distracted by controlling the heartbeat, breathing, etc. There are various technologies related to the control of the human body that try to influence this life force. What yogis do intensely: they try to control the heartbeat, change breathing, control the internal processes of digestion and are terribly proud of it. In fact, there is absolutely nothing to be proud of here: God deliberately freed us from this task, and it is stupid to do this.
Imagine that, in addition to your regular work, you will be forced to do the work of the housing office: organize garbage collection, cover the roof, control the supply of gas, electricity, etc. Now many people are delighted with all sorts of occult, esoteric arts; they are proud that, to some extent, they have mastered the regulation of this vital force of the soul, which is beyond the control of reason. In fact, they are proud of the fact that they exchanged their job as a university teacher for a job as a sewer operator. This is due to the stupid idea that the mind can handle the body better than the irrational part of the soul. I will answer that in fact it will do worse. It has long been known: any attempts to rationally build life lead to very irrational consequences. If we try to use the power of our mind to properly control our body, the result will be complete stupidity.
Why did Anthony the Great say that a monk must take a blessing even for the number of drops of water he drinks? In order to free the monk's mind as much as possible from the worries of life. The task of obedience is the exact opposite of yoga. If a yogi or occultist tries to control his body with the help of his mind, then an Orthodox monk completely frees his mind from caring about the body in order to switch it entirely to God.
priest Daniil Sysoev
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About the soul of the God-man Jesus Christ
By human nature, Christ had body and soul. Since the human and Divine natures are united in the Person (Personality) of the Son of God, it can be argued that the soul of Christ is the soul of the incarnate Son of God.
“Christ, in order to bring us to God, once suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unjust, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, by which He went and preached to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19).
From the Easter Hours: “In the tomb carnally, in hell with the soul like God, in paradise with the thief, and on the Throne you were, Christ, with the Father and the Spirit, fulfilling everything, indescribable.”
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