Life and death is the most important issue. In vain we did not try to think and remember death.

Death is the end of life. But death is also the beginning of something...

Why a person died now, and not a year earlier or later. Are accidents, mistakes possible?

Is it natural to fear death?

We will try to answer these questions in this section.

Archpriest Igor Gagarin.

The Apostle Paul says that death is a victory over the last enemy, because in this life a person constantly meets with enemies. This is not about people, but about life circumstances that are hostile to a person. These are accidents, and diseases, meanness, betrayal - we meet with such "enemies" throughout our lives. And a person can overcome them all. He can overcome sickness, he can overcome loss, he can overcome betrayal. But the last enemy that no one could defeat is death. And it is our main holiday - Easter, the resurrection of Christ - this is a victory over the last enemy.

What is death? Few of us seriously think about the nature of this phenomenon. Most often, we superstitiously avoid not only conversations, but also thoughts about death, because this topic seems to us very bleak and terrible. After all, every child knows from an early age: “Life is good, but death .... death - I don't know what, but definitely something bad. It's so bad that it's better not to even think about it. We grow up, learn, gain knowledge and experience in various fields, but our judgments about death remain at the same level - the level small child who is afraid of the dark.

Khasminsky Mikhail Igorevich, crisis psychologist.

His companions always follow the grief that has befallen. These satellites knock on us, do not let us go and do not give us peace. Day and night they take away our strength, occupy our thoughts, distract us, demanding answers... Who are these companions? These eternal questions “Why live?”, “How to be and where to go?”, “What is the meaning of life?”

Hegumen Vladimir (Maslov), Khasminsky Mikhail Igorevich, crisis psychologist.

People who have lost loved ones often ask the question: “Why do people die unjustly? Is there any justice at all? Is God just? We see a contrast - children die, but a rich old criminal lives. A woman with many children dies, whose children are doomed to an orphanage life, and drunkards are not going to die. Consciousness forms the conclusion that good people die, and the bad ones live. How many times have you heard: “If there is a God, then how does He allow injustice in the world?!”

Khasminsky Mikhail Igorevich, crisis psychologist.

Probably, there is no person in the world who would not survive the loss. And almost always, people mourning their loved ones have questions: “Why did this happen to me?”, “For what?”

Leo Tolstoy, writer.

Why do I need this pain? Why is suffering necessary at all? Why do some people die earlier and others later? The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is trying to answer these questions.

Deacon Andrei Kuraev, professor of theology, publicist.

What do people take out of the cemetery? What could the departed himself gain in the experience of his dying? Will a person be able to see the meaning in the last event of his earthly life - in death? Or is death “not for the future”? If a person crosses the border of time in irritation and anger, in an attempt to settle scores with Fate, then such a face will be imprinted in Eternity ... That is why it is scary that, according to Merab Mamardashvili, “millions of people not only died, but died not of their own death, i.e. one from which no meaning for life can be extracted and nothing can be learned. After all, what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death...

Callistus, Metropolitan of Diokleia (Ware Timothy).

The existence of a person can be compared to a book. Most people look at their earthly life as the "basic text", the main story, and the future life - if they really believe in the future life - as an "appendix", and nothing more. The true Christian attitude is quite different. Our present life is in fact nothing more than a preface, an introduction, because it is the future life that is " main story". The moment of death is not the end of the book, but the beginning of the first chapter.

Priest Alexy Darashevich.

The conversation of Fr. Alexy Darashevich, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Polenov, with listeners of the Radonezh radio station took place in August 2006, a week after two of his children died in a car accident, and two more were in intensive care.

Osipov Alexei Ilyich, professor of theology.

Objectively, there is a law, the violation of which entails corresponding disasters, suffering or death. Moreover, if in the physical, material, rough world, the causes and effects are obvious: a person drinks and the result is some diseases, a person injects drugs - and the result is other diseases, etc., then when we move on to the spiritual world, such a direct dependence not directly traceable. But if we were more careful about our spiritual world, to our thoughts, feelings, moods, experiences, it would not even occur to us: “Why are you, Lord, punishing me?”

Leo Tolstoy, writer.

Why are we afraid of death? According to Leo Tolstoy, the fear of death is born as a result of a misunderstanding of life. “Understand what your Self represents, and you will see that death is the door to eternal life,” says the great Russian writer.

Archpriest Mikhail Shpolyansky.

The meaning of life is a question how vague, just as acutely urgent for every person, for every soul. Who are we, why are we here, where are we going and what should this path be like, why are we dying? In the final completeness, only everyone can answer this question for himself - in his heart. But there are also general laws rooted in being itself, the objectivity of which cannot be canceled by our subjectivity.

Archpriest Valentin Ulyakhin.

In its spiritual essence, in its depth and significance, in its consequences, death is undoubtedly a sacrament. A person prepares for it all his life, from the cradle, going through the difficult way of the cross, to whom how much is measured by God. When we bury a person, serve a memorial service or litia, we bury the body, not the soul. The soul is immortal!

Strizhov Nikolay.

Man's desire for God is a natural process. Like a turtle hatched from an egg, under the influence of unknown forces, strive for water, so a person, having been born, begins his journey to God. There are no people who do not seek God. It does not matter whether a person does it consciously or not, this desire is inherent in each of us from birth. This can be confirmed by the fact that when asking any person and yourself, including about their attitude to Faith and to God, you will receive a well-reasoned, thoughtful answer about why a person believes in God or does not accept Him. This suggests that each person, to one degree or another, thought about it and came to certain conclusions ...

Bishop Hermogenes (Dobronravin).

There is no joy without sorrow, there is no happiness without trouble. And this is because the earth is not hell, where only cries of despair and gnashing of teeth are heard, but not paradise, where only faces of joy and bliss are heard. What is our life on earth?

Unknown author.

Many people try to brush off death. They don't like to think about her. Because the thought of death gives rise to fear and many other questions that are either difficult or impossible to answer. But most people, even unbelievers, understand that life on earth does not end with death. And that is what creates fear. Most of life is lived, and often not in the best way. How can a person get rid of this horror, is there any remedy for curing the animal fear of death? What is the Church's teaching on this very important issue?

Archpriest Viktor Kulygin.

In our fallen world, joy and sorrow, creation and destruction, life and death, Good and Evil are mixed. The best minds of mankind have always puzzled over this, trying to comprehend the secret of meaning. human life in this world. Not ultimate goal on earth, in this life. No matter how attractive she was, she was always covered with corruption and limbs, the fear of death. But God is immortal and the soul is eternal. Faced with the mystery of death, it is from God that we seek protection and mercy.

No matter how and in the name of what we live, each and every one in due time will reach that “moment between the past and the future”, which, contrary to the popular song, is usually called death. This event consists in the separation of soul and body. At the same time, the body expects decay, which is quite obvious, and the soul - a certain “ afterlife". At this moment, the limit of experimental scientific knowledge comes and the area of ​​​​the mysterious, the field of religion, opens up. The process in which we all find ourselves and which we call “life”, despite the impressive successes of science, remains inaccessible to “objective” knowledge, since its beginning and end are hidden in the unknown, unattainable for scientific methodology. And only religion, as a connection between the heavenly and the earthly, can offer a complete picture here.

Absolutely everyone is afraid of death, even the most courageous and desperate. But why can't we live forever? Why are children dying, absolutely healthy youth? Here are some of the main reasons why people die.

From old age. Yes, this is the simplest and most understandable reason. Old age comes for everyone at different ages: someone is given to live up to 100 years, and someone only up to 60. Much in this case depends on the way of life of a person, on the “wear and tear” of his body and heart. From diseases. The most common among the population different ages diseases that lead to death: cancer, diabetes, chronic diseases lungs and of cardio-vascular system. No less terrible are diseases of the circulatory system, the presence of blood clots, hepatitis B, C, cirrhosis and others. Compared to them, even AIDS is not so dangerous, although it should not be written off. From the wrong way of life. Drug overdose, excessive alcohol consumption, or low-quality alcohol can be causes early death. And thanks to promiscuous sex life, frequent stay in basements you can earn a whole bunch of diseases, which together will lead to death. From chronic fatigue, accompanied by a weakening of the body's defenses. Lack of sleep, heavy consumption of coffee or energy drinks, combined with an unhealthy diet (low in nutrients), serious physical activity create tremendous stress for the body, weaken its immune system, give a huge load on the heart. As a result, a person can die even from seemingly insignificant causes precisely because of a weakened organism that cannot resist. Because of earth path person is finished. This is how they look at death religious people. They believe that a person will die only when he has fulfilled his destiny. From accidents. These include accidents on the road, and the fall of aircraft, the flooding of ships, accidents on railway tracks. The cause of the accident can even be an ordinary icicle that falls on the head from the fifth floor. From the syndrome of sudden and unexplained death. This happens when an absolutely healthy person suddenly dies in his sleep. Even doctors cannot explain the cause of death. This is more of a religious explanation. Suicide. In what way a person will do this, it is up to him to decide. In any case, those closest to him will hurt the most. In addition, suicides are forbidden to be buried in a common cemetery and buried, since the church does not accept such an act, regardless of the reasons that could provoke it.

The rector of the church of St. Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, p. Lions of the Rostov District of the Yaroslavl Diocese Priest Alexander Shantaev.

Hello! Explain to me: why do people die?
After all, we love them, share with them all the joys and sorrows, we need them. Why did my father, who experienced many hardships in his life, die at the age of 50, while others live at random - they harass the family, and don’t let strangers live, but live long life? Why is it so unfair? I have only one mother left, and just from the mere thought that I can lose her, I start to roar, tears roll involuntarily. What's the matter? Why does it hurt so much?
Sincerely, Lily.

Dear Lily!
Your letter contains two different questions. The first: "why do people die?" is of a general and comprehensive nature, and suggests an equally generalized doctrinal answer. The second question is more specific: "why do those who are dear to us die, while others - less worthy, in our opinion - live a long life?"
So: why do people die? All people, as we know, descended from the common forefather Adam, and the answer to the question of death must be sought in the very origins of human existence, more precisely, in the event of the fall into sin. Saint's teaching Orthodox Church, contained in Holy Scripture, Tradition and the works of the holy fathers, definitely states: "God did not create death" (Wisdom 1, 13). Greek theologian Metropolitan Hierofei (Vlachos) writes: “The sin that caused death was the fall of Adam in the paradise of sweetness. God, having given a man the commandment not to eat from the forbidden fruit, at the same time informed him: him, you shall die the death" (Genesis 2:17). And indeed, after the commission of this sin, death entered human nature; first, spiritual death, which consists in excommunication human soul from God, and then bodily death - the separation of the soul from the body.
Adam fell away from God Who is Life; he died first of all spiritually, and the spiritual reality of death was inevitably followed in its time by the physiological one. According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, we inherit the consequences of his sin, which is mortality, physical and biological temporality in this world. As one of the great teachers of the Church, St. John of Damascus, notes, God created man in His own image - reasonable and free: "He created him into incorruption, ... elevated him to incorruption. After we darkened and distorted traits of the image of God in us, then we, having become evil, lost communion with God, ... found ourselves outside of life, fell under the corruption of death.
It can be said that people die, because through the crime of Adam, death came into the world, which became fallen and temporary. But it would be wrong to dwell only on this conclusion, since death is not absolute. Death is not a value that opposes us, and even more so God. How ugly Adam's sin is, just as detrimental is its consequence - death, perishability, which is a "non-essence", which is a manifestation of evil, but a manifestation that has its limits and its finiteness. For death, too, there is death - and this is our Lord Jesus Christ, Who "treads down death by death," as we sing in the Paschal celebration. Christ's death, according to the deepest saying of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, is "life-giving". "Death! where is your sting?" - exclaims the Apostle Paul (I Cor. 15, 55). Having torn out the sting of sin by his death on the cross, Christ destroyed death as a spiritual reality, as the separation of man from God, which is separation from Life. For this Redeeming gift, this Sacrifice for us, the Incarnation of Christ, and His Crucifixion, and His Resurrection took place. For this, taking holy baptism We die with Christ and are resurrected in Him.
And still physically (bodily) dying as long as the history of the world lasts until the Second Coming, in the spiritual reality we do not and cannot have death as the end of everything.
And your father, dear Lilia, did not die, did not end, did not disappear and did not cease to be. He can die for you if you yourself believe in death, if the manifestation of death is greater for you than the manifestation of Christ in your heart. But even if faith leaves you from the grief of loss, the life of the unique personality of your father did not stop for a moment, only its form changed temporarily. And your communication with a loved one after his death should not stop, only the place of our communication, as Bishop Callistus of Diokleia writes, is “not a living room, but a church during the celebration of the Eucharist. The only legal basis for this communication is prayer, primarily in the liturgical sense. We we pray for them (the dead - Father A.Sh.) and at the same time we are sure that they also pray for us; in such mutual intercession we are united - beyond the borders of death, in an unshakable and inseparable union.
Let's move on to the second question contained in your letter. It feels not only the suffering of loss, but also the pain of selfish resentment. Resentment, perhaps, covers grief, and therefore you are unfair in your reproaches. Let's remember the parable of poor Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 16:19-31). There was a wretched man Lazarus, infinitely emaciated, infinitely emaciated, sick, lying in weakness at the gates of a rich man, and even "the dogs, coming, licked his scabs." He would like to feed on the crumbs from the rich man's table, but there were none. Having experienced many sufferings and having lived, presumably, not too long a century, Lazarus died and was carried by the Angels to the bosom of Abraham - the place of the settlement of the righteous. The rich man also died, and ended up in a place of torment - in hell. You can read further for yourself, but I would like to recall the interpretation of this parable by St. John Chrysostom, the meaning of which I convey from memory and in my own words. Some people live their lives full of deprivation and sorrow in this age so as not to lose the hope and opportunity for true happiness and fullness in Eternity. Others, while quite possibly evil, depraved and cruel, meanwhile live in clover, in luxury and abundance, even as if mocking the poverty and suffering of those around them. Foreseeing their future, but not daring to violate their will, the Lord gives them the possibility of satisfaction in this world. And in the next century, says the Saint, when they find themselves in the place prepared for them for their sins, they will not have the right to reproach God and accuse Him of injustice, because they received the measure of their happiness in full.
And one more fundamental point, rather moral, - a Christian should not pass judgment on other people and weigh on his biased scales the measure of the meaning and necessity of someone else's life. In assessing, from our point of view, the meaninglessness of someone's life lies the strongest distortion of Christ's gospel principle. There is an undoubted evil in such a view, which requires repentance.

Priest Alexander Shantaev

In the photo: the icon of the Resurrection of Christ

At all times, people were interested in: why does a person die? In fact, this is quite an interesting question, for the answer to which we can consider several theories that can shed light on this situation. There are many different opinions on this topic, but in order to understand what death is and why a person is subject to it, it is necessary to solve the mystery of old age. On the this moment a large number of scientists are struggling to solve this problem, completely different theories are put forward, each of which, one way or another, has the right to life. But, unfortunately, none of these theories has been proven at the moment, and this is unlikely to happen in the near future.

Theories related to aging

As for opinions on the question “Why does a person die?”, then they are all as diverse as they are similar. What these theories have in common is that natural death always comes with old age. A certain circle of scientists is of the opinion that old age as such begins at the moment of the emergence of life. In other words, as soon as a person is born, the invisible clock starts its reverse movement, and when the dial is zeroed, the person’s stay in this world will also stop.

There is an opinion that until a person has reached maturity, all processes in the body proceed in an active stage, and after this moment they begin to fade away, along with this, the number of active cells decreases, which is why the aging process occurs.

As for immunologists and part of gerontologists who tried to find an answer to the question “Why does a person die?”, From their point of view, with age, autoimmune phenomena intensify in a person against the background of a decrease in cell response, which, in essence, leads to that the body's immune system begins to "attack" its own cells.

Geneticists, of course, say that the whole problem lies in the genes, while doctors say that the death of a person is inevitable due to defects in the body that accumulate throughout life in a person.

Law of nature

Thanks to scientists from the United States who conducted research on this issue, it became known that people die while they are in the "kingdom of Morpheus", mainly due to respiratory arrest. This happens mainly in older people due to the loss of cells that control the breathing process, sending signals to the body to produce lung contractions. In principle, such a problem can occur in a lot of people, its name is obstructive sleep apnea, and this problem is the main one. But there can be no such cause of death as obstructive sleep apnea. This is due to the fact that a person experiencing oxygen starvation (insufficiency) wakes up. And the cause of death is central sleep apnea. It should be noted that a person can even wake up, but still die due to lack of oxygen, which will be the result of a stroke or cardiac arrest. But, as mentioned earlier, this disease affects mainly older people. But there are those who die before they reach old age. Therefore, a quite reasonable question arises: why do people die young?

Death of the young

It's worth starting with what recent times approximately 16 million girls in age category from 15 to 19 years old become parturient. At the same time, the risks of infant death are much higher than those of girls who crossed the 19-year barrier. These problems are caused by both physiological and psychological factors.

Not the last reason is malnutrition, and this is due to both obesity and problems associated with anorexia.

Smoking. Drugs. Alcohol

Concerning bad habits, such as the abuse of alcohol, nicotine, and even more so drugs, this problem affects more and more young segments of the population every year, who not only put their future children at risk, but also themselves.

Still, the most common cause of death among the young population is unintentional injuries. The reason for this can also be alcohol and drugs, not counting the youthful maximalism, which cannot be discounted. Therefore, until the moment when adolescents have reached the age of majority, all responsibility for the moral and psychological education lies entirely with the parents.

What does a person feel at the moment of death?

In fact, the question of how a person feels after death has worried all of humanity throughout its existence, but only recently it has begun to be said with certainty that all people at the moment of death experience definitely the same feelings. This became known thanks to people who survived clinical death. Most of them claimed that even while lying on the operating table, being in an immobilized state, they continued to hear, and sometimes even see everything that was happening around. This is possible due to the fact that the brain dies in the very last turn, and this happens mainly due to lack of oxygen. Of course, there are also stories about the tunnel, at the end of which there is a bright light, but this particular information is actually not reliable.

Finally

Having delved into the problem and understood it, we can confidently answer the question: why does a person die? Quite often people ask themselves similar questions, but you should not devote your whole life to the problem of death, because it is so short that there is no time to spend it on learning about those problems for which humanity is not yet ready.

It seems to us that a person dies when he does not need it, but this cannot be. A man dies only because in this world the good of his true life can no longer increase, and not because his lungs hurt, or he has cancer, or he was shot at or a bomb was thrown at him. If we live, then this is not at all because we protect ourselves, but because the work of life is being accomplished in us, subordinating all these conditions to itself. The work of life is coming to an end, and nothing can stop the unceasing destruction of human animal life - this death is taking place, and one of the closest, always surrounding a person, causes of carnal death seems to us to be the exclusive cause of it.

Our visible life appears to me as a segment of a cone, the top and bottom of which are hidden from my mental gaze. The narrowest part of the cone is my relation to the world with which I am first conscious of myself; the broadest part is that highest attitude towards life to which I have now reached. The beginning of this cone - its top - is hidden from me in time by my birth, the continuation of the cone is hidden from me by the future, equally unknown both in my carnal existence and in my carnal death. I do not see either the top of the cone or its base, but from that part of it in which my visible, memorable life passes, I undoubtedly recognize its properties. At first it seems to me that this segment of the cone is my whole life, but as my true life moves, on the one hand, I see that what constitutes the basis of my life is behind it, beyond it: as I live, I more vividly and more clearly I feel my connection with the past invisible to me; on the other hand, I see how this same foundation rests on a future that is invisible to me, I feel my connection with the future more clearly and more vividly, and I conclude that the life I see, my earthly life, is only a small part of my whole life at both ends. her - before birth and after death - undoubtedly existing, but hidden from my present knowledge. And therefore, the cessation of the visibility of life after carnal death, just as its invisibility before birth, does not deprive me of the undoubted knowledge of its existence before birth and after death. I enter into life with certain ready-made properties of love for the world outside of me; my carnal existence - short or long - passes in the increase of this love that I brought into life, and therefore I undoubtedly conclude that I lived before my birth and will live, as after that moment of the present, in which I, reasoning, am now, so after every other moment of time before or after my carnal death. Looking beyond myself at the carnal beginnings and ends of the existence of other people (even beings in general), I see that one life seems to be longer, the other shorter; one first manifests itself and continues to be visible to me longer, the other manifests itself later and very soon again hides from me, but in all I see the manifestation of the same law of all true life - an increase in love, as it were, an expansion of the rays of life.

Sooner or later, a veil descends, hiding from me the temporal course of people's lives, the life of all people is still the same one life and everything, just like any life, has neither beginning nor end. And the fact that a person has lived longer or less in the conditions of this existence that I see cannot represent any difference in his true life. The fact that one person took longer to pass through the field of vision that was open to me, or that another quickly passed through it, cannot in any way make me attribute more real life to the first and less to the second. I undoubtedly know that if I saw a person passing by my window, whether soon or slowly - all the same, I undoubtedly know that this person was before the time when I saw him, and will continue to be and having disappeared from my eyes .

But why do some pass quickly and others slowly? Why does an old man, withered, ossified morally, unable, in our opinion, to fulfill the law of life - an increase in love - live, but a child, a young man, a girl, a person in all the power of spiritual work, dies - leaves the conditions of this carnal life, in which, in our opinion, he was just beginning to establish in himself the right attitude towards life?

The deaths of Pascal and Gogol are also understandable; but - Chenier, Lermontov and a thousand other people with what we think has just begun inner work, which is so good, it seems to us, could be completed here?

But it only seems to us. None of us knows anything about the foundations of life that others have introduced into the world, and about the movement of life that has taken place in it, about those obstacles to the movement of life that exist in this being, and, most importantly, about those other conditions of life. possible, but invisible to us, into which, in another existence, the life of this person can be placed.

It seems to us, looking at the work of a blacksmith, that the horseshoe is completely ready - it only takes a couple of hits - and he breaks it and throws it into the fire, knowing that it is not boiled.

Whether or not the work of true life is done in man, we cannot know. We only know this about ourselves. It seems to us that a person dies when he does not need it, but this cannot be. A person dies only when it is necessary for his good, just as a person grows, matures only when he needs it for his good.

And in fact, if by life we ​​mean life, and not its likeness, if true life is the basis of everything, then the basis cannot depend on what it produces: a cause cannot come from an effect, the course of true life cannot be disturbed by change. manifestations of it. The started and unfinished movement of a person's life in this world cannot stop because he gets an abscess, or a bacterium flies in, or he is shot from a pistol.

A man dies only because in this world the good of his true life can no longer increase, and not because his lungs hurt, or he has cancer, or he was shot at or a bomb was thrown at him. It usually seems to us that it is natural to live a carnal life, and it is unnatural to die from fire, water, cold, lightning, disease, a gun, a bomb; - but it is worth thinking seriously, looking from the outside at the life of people, in order to see that on the contrary: it is completely unnatural for a person to live a carnal life amid these disastrous conditions, among all the countless bacteria that are widespread and for the most part deadly. It is natural for him to die. And therefore, in the midst of these disastrous conditions, the life of the flesh is, on the contrary, something most unnatural in the material sense. If we live, then this is not at all because we protect ourselves, but because the work of life is being accomplished in us, subordinating all these conditions to itself. We are alive not because we protect ourselves, but because we do the business of life. The work of life is coming to an end, and nothing can stop the unceasing destruction of human animal life - this death is taking place, and one of the closest, always surrounding a person, causes of carnal death seems to us to be the exclusive cause of it.

Our true life exists, we know it alone, from it alone we know animal life, and therefore, if its likeness is already subject to immutable laws, then how can it - that which produces this likeness - not be subject to laws?

But we are embarrassed by the fact that we do not see the causes and effects of our true life in the same way that we see the causes and effects in external phenomena: we do not know why one enters into life with such properties of his self, and the other with others, why the life of one ends, and the other continues? We ask ourselves: what were the reasons before my existence that I was born what I am. And what will happen after my death from the fact that I will live one way or another? And we regret that we do not receive answers to these questions.

But to regret that I cannot now know what exactly was before my life and what will happen after my death is the same as to regret that I cannot see what is beyond my sight. For if I saw what is beyond my sight, I would not see what is within it. And for me, for the good of my animal, I most need to see what is around me.

For it is the same with reason, through which I know. If I could see what is outside my mind, I would not see what is within it. And for the good of my true life, what I need most of all is to know what I must subordinate here and now my animal personality in order to achieve the good of life. And reason reveals this to me, reveals to me in this life that single path on which I do not see the cessation of my good.

He undoubtedly shows that this life did not begin with birth, but has always been and is always - shows that the good of this life grows, increases here, reaching those limits that can no longer contain it, and only then leaves all conditions, which delay its increase by passing into another existence. Reason puts a person on that the only way life, which, like a cone-shaped expanding tunnel, among the walls enclosing it on all sides, reveals to him in the distance the undoubted infinity of life and its good.

Why is suffering necessary?

If a person could not be afraid of death and not think about it, suffering alone, terrible, aimless, unjustified and never reversible suffering to which he is subjected, would be enough to destroy any rational meaning attributed to life.

I am engaged in a good deed, undoubtedly useful for others, and suddenly an illness seizes me, interrupts my work and torments me, and torments me without any sense or sense. The screw in the rails has corroded, and it is necessary that on the very day when it jumps out, in this train, in this carriage, a kind woman-mother rides, and it is necessary that her children be crushed before her eyes. It is precisely the place on which Lisbon or Verny stands that collapses from an earthquake, and they burrow alive into the ground and die in terrible suffering - innocent people. What does it make sense? Why, why these and thousands of other senseless, terrible accidents, suffering that afflict people?

Reasonable explanations do not explain anything. The rational explanations of all such phenomena always bypass the very essence of the question and only more convincingly show its unsolvability. I got sick because such and such microbes flew there; or children being crushed by a train before their mother's eyes, because dampness has such an effect on iron; or Faithful failed because there are such and such geological laws. But the question is, why exactly such and such people were subjected to such and such terrible suffering, and how can I get rid of these accidents of suffering?

There is no answer to this. Reasoning, on the contrary, clearly shows me that there is not and cannot be any law according to which one person is subjected, and another is not subjected to these accidents, that there are an innumerable number of such accidents, and that because, whatever I do, my life every second subject to all the innumerable contingencies of the most terrible suffering.

After all, if people drew only those conclusions that inevitably follow from their world outlook, people who understand their life as a personal existence would not remain alive for a minute. After all, not a single worker would live with a master who, when hiring a worker, would reprimand himself for the right, whenever he pleases, to fry this worker alive on a slow fire, or to skin this worker alive, or to pull out the veins, and in general to do all those horrors that he, in front of the eyes of the hired person, without any explanation or reason, does on his employees. If people really fully understood life as they say they understand it, not a single fear of all those painful and inexplicable sufferings that he sees around him and to which he can fall at any second, would not remain alive in the world .

And people, despite the fact that everyone knows different easy ways to kill themselves, to leave this life filled with such cruel and senseless suffering, people live; complain, cry for suffering and continue to live.

It is impossible to say that this happens because there are more pleasures in this life than sufferings, because, firstly, not only simple reasoning, but a philosophical study of life clearly shows that all earthly life is a series of sufferings, far from being redeemed by pleasures. ; secondly, we all know, both from ourselves and from others, that people in such situations, which represent nothing but a series of increasing sufferings without the possibility of relief until death, nevertheless do not kill themselves and hold on to life.

There is only one explanation for this strange contradiction: people all know in the depths of their souls that all kinds of suffering are always necessary, necessary for the good of their lives, and only therefore continue to live, foreseeing them or being subjected to them. They are indignant against suffering because, with a false view of life, which requires the good only for their own personality, the violation of this good, which does not lead to an obvious good, must appear as something incomprehensible and therefore outrageous.

And people are horrified by suffering, surprised by it, as something completely unexpected and incomprehensible. Meanwhile, every person is raised by sufferings, his whole life is a series of sufferings that he experiences and imposes on other beings, and it seemed it was time for him to get used to sufferings, not to be horrified by them and not to ask himself why and for what sufferings? Every person, if he only thinks, will see that all his pleasures are bought by the sufferings of other beings, that all his sufferings are necessary for his own pleasure, that without suffering there is no pleasure, that suffering and pleasure are two opposite states, caused by one another and necessary for one another. So what do the questions mean: why, for what suffering? - which a reasonable person asks himself? Why does a person who knows that suffering is connected with pleasure ask himself: why? why suffering, and does not ask himself: - why? what pleasure?

The whole life of an animal, and of man as an animal, is an uninterrupted chain of suffering. All activity of the animal and of man as an animal is caused only by suffering. Suffering is a painful sensation that causes activity that eliminates this painful sensation and causes a state of pleasure. And the life of an animal, and of man as an animal, not only is not disturbed by suffering, but is accomplished only through suffering. Suffering, therefore, is what moves life, and therefore is what it should be; so what does a person ask when he asks why and for what suffering?

The animal does not ask for it.

When a perch torments a roach due to hunger, a spider torments a fly, a wolf a sheep, they know that they are doing what should be, and the same thing is being done that should be; and therefore, when the perch, and the spider, and the wolf fall under the same torment from their strongest, they, running away, fighting back, escaping, know that they are doing everything that should be, and therefore there cannot be the slightest doubt about them, that with them the same thing happens that should be. But a man who is concerned only with healing his legs when they have been torn off on the battlefield, on which he has torn off the legs of others, or who is only concerned with the best way his time in a solitary blue prison, after he himself directly or indirectly put people there, or a person who only cares about fighting off and running away from the wolves tearing him apart, after he himself slaughtered thousands of living creatures and ate;- a person cannot find that all this that happens to him is the very thing that should be. He cannot accept what happens to him as it should be, because, subjected to this suffering, he did not do all that he should have done. If he does not do all that he should have done, it seems to him that something happens to him that should not happen.

But what, besides running away and fighting off wolves, should a person who is torn apart by them do? - What is proper for a person to do as a rational being: to recognize the sin that caused suffering, to repent of it and to know the truth.

The animal suffers only in the present, and therefore the activity caused by the suffering of the animal, directed at itself in the present, fully satisfies it. Man suffers not only in the present, but also in the past and in the future, and therefore the activity caused by the suffering of man, if it is directed only at the present of animal man, cannot satisfy him. Only activity directed at both the cause and the consequences of suffering, both the past and the future, satisfies the suffering person.

Animal is locked up and ripping out of its cage, or has a broken leg and is licking sore spot, or is devoured by another and repelled by it. The law of his life is violated from the outside, and it directs its activities to restore it, and what should be done is done. But a person - myself or someone close to me - is in prison; either I myself or someone close to me lost a leg in battle, or I am tormented by wolves: activities aimed at escaping from prison, curing my leg, fighting off wolves will not satisfy me, because imprisonment, leg pain and torment by wolves are only a tiny part of my suffering. I see the causes of my suffering in the past, in my and other people's delusions, and if my activity is not directed at the cause of suffering - delusion, and I do not try to free myself from it, I do not do what should be, and therefore suffering and it seems to me that which should not be, and it not only in reality, but also in the imagination, grows to terrible dimensions, excluding the possibility of life.

The cause of suffering for an animal is a violation of the law of animal life, this violation is manifested by the consciousness of pain, and the activity caused by the violation of the law is aimed at eliminating pain; for the rational consciousness the cause of suffering is the violation of the law of life of the rational consciousness; this violation is manifested by the consciousness of delusion, sin, and the activity caused by the violation of the law is aimed at eliminating delusion-sin. And just as the suffering of an animal evokes activity aimed at pain, and this activity frees suffering from its torment, so the suffering of a rational being evokes activity aimed at delusion, and this activity liberates suffering from its torment.
Questions: why? and for what? - arising in the soul of a person during the experience or imagination of suffering, show only that the person did not recognize the activity that should be caused in him by suffering and which frees suffering from its torment. And indeed, for a person who recognizes his life in animal existence, there cannot be this activity that liberates suffering, and the less the more he understands his life.

When a person who recognizes personal existence as life finds the causes of his personal suffering in his personal delusion, he understands that he fell ill because he ate something harmful, or that he was nailed because he himself went to fight, or that he is hungry and naked because that he did not want to work, he learns that he suffers for having done what he should not, and for not doing this in the future and, directing his activity towards the destruction of delusion, does not resent suffering and easily and often joyfully carries it. But when such a person suffers suffering that goes beyond the connection between suffering and delusion that he can see, as when he suffers from causes that were always outside his personal activity, or when the consequences of his suffering cannot be of any use to him or anyone else. personality - it seems to him that something that should not be comprehends him, and he asks himself: why? for what? and, not finding an object on which he could direct his activity, he revolts against suffering, and his suffering becomes a terrible torment. The majority of human sufferings are always just such, the causes or consequences of which - sometimes both - are hidden from him in space and time: hereditary diseases, accidents, crop failures, crashes, fires, earthquakes, etc., ending in death .

Explanations that this is necessary in order to teach a lesson to future people how not to indulge in those passions that are reflected in diseases on offspring, or that it is necessary to better arrange trains or handle fire more carefully - all these explanations do not give me no answer. I cannot recognize the significance of my life in illustrating other people's oversights; my life is my life, with my striving for the good, and not an illustration for other lives. And these explanations are suitable only for conversations and do not alleviate the horror of the senselessness of the suffering that threatens me, which excludes the possibility of life.

But even if it were possible to somehow understand that, by making other people suffer with my delusions, I carry the delusions of others with my sufferings; if it can be understood, also very remotely, that any suffering is an indication of a delusion that must be corrected by people in this life, there remains a huge series of sufferings that can no longer be explained by anything. A man in the forest alone is torn apart by wolves, a man drowned, froze or burned out, or simply fell ill and died alone, and no one will ever know how he suffered, and thousands of similar cases. Who will benefit from this in any way?

For a person who understands his life as an animal existence, there is and cannot be any explanation, because for such a person the connection between suffering and delusion is only in the phenomena visible to him, and this connection in the sufferings before death is already completely lost from his mental gaze.

There are two choices for a person: either, not recognizing the connection between the sufferings experienced and his life, continue to bear most of his sufferings as tortures that have no meaning, or admit that my delusions and actions committed as a result of them are my sins, which whatever they were, the cause of my sufferings, whatever they were, and that my sufferings are deliverance and redemption from the sins of mine and other people of any kind.

Only these two attitudes towards suffering are possible: one, that suffering is something that should not be, because I do not see its external meaning, and the other, that it is the very thing that should be, because I know it. internal value for my true life. The first follows from the recognition as a good of the good of my separate personal life. The other follows from the recognition that the good of my whole life, past and future, is inextricably linked with the good of other people and beings. At first glance, suffering has no explanation and does not cause any other activity, except for the ever-growing and in no way resolvable despair and bitterness; in the second case, suffering causes the very activity that constitutes the movement of true life - the consciousness of sin, liberation from delusions and submission to the law of reason.

If not the mind of a person, then the torment of suffering willy-nilly compel him to admit that his life does not fit in his personality, that his personality is only a visible part of his whole life, that the external connection of cause and effect, visible to him from his personality, does not coincides with that inner connection of cause and effect, which is always known to man from his rational consciousness.

The connection between delusion and suffering, visible to the animal only in spatial and temporal conditions, is always clear to man outside of these conditions in his consciousness. Suffering, whatever it may be, a person always recognizes as a consequence of his sin, whatever it may be, and repentance for his sin, as deliverance from suffering and the achievement of good.

After all, the whole life of a person from the first days of childhood consists only in this: in consciousness through the suffering of sin and in freeing oneself from delusions. I know that I came into this life with a certain knowledge of the truth, and that the more delusions I had, the more my and other people's sufferings, the more I freed myself from delusions, the less my and other people's sufferings, and the more I achieved good. And therefore I know that the greater the knowledge of the truth that I carry away from this world and that my, even the last, near-death suffering gives me, the greater the good I achieve.

The torments of suffering are experienced only by those who, having separated themselves from the life of the world, not seeing those of their sins with which they brought suffering into the world, consider themselves innocent and therefore resent the suffering that they bear for the sins of the world.

And the amazing thing is that the very thing that is clear to the mind, mentally - that very thing is confirmed in the one true activity of life, in love. Reason says that a person who recognizes the connection of his sins and sufferings with the sin and sufferings of the world is freed from the torment of suffering; love actually proves it.

Half of the life of every person passes in suffering, which he not only does not recognize as painful and does not notice, but considers it his good only because they rush as the consequences of delusions and a means of alleviating the suffering of loved ones. So the less love, the more more people subject to the torment of suffering, the more love, the less the torment of suffering; life, on the other hand, is fully rational, all activity of which is manifested only in love, excludes the possibility of any suffering. The torment of suffering is only the pain that people experience when they try to break that chain of love for ancestors, descendants, contemporaries, which connects human life with the life of the world.

"Why do I need this pain?"

“But it still hurts, it hurts physically. Why this pain? people ask. “And then that we not only need it, but that we couldn’t live without it not hurting us,” the one who did what hurts us and hurt as little as possible would answer us , and the benefit from this "pain" was made as great as possible. After all, who does not know that the very first sensation of pain by us is the first and main means of preserving our body and continuing our animal life, that if this were not the case, then we would all burn as children for fun and cut our whole body. Bodily pain protects the animal personality. And as long as pain serves as a guardian of the personality, as it happens in a child, this pain cannot be that terrifying torment that we know pain in those times when we are in full strength rational consciousness and resist pain, recognizing it as something that should not be. Pain in an animal and in a child is a very definite and small magnitude, never reaching the excruciating pain that it reaches in a being endowed with rational consciousness. In a child we see that he cries from a flea bite sometimes as pitifully as from pain that destroys internal organs. And the pain of an unreasonable being does not leave any traces in the memory. Let each one try to remember his childhood sufferings of pain, and he will see that he not only has no recollection of them, but that he is not even able to restore them in his imagination. Our impression at the sight of the suffering of children and animals is more ours than their suffering. The outward expression of the sufferings of unreasoning beings is immeasurably greater than the suffering itself, and therefore arouses our compassion to an immeasurably greater degree, as can be seen in diseases of the brain, fevers, typhus, and all kinds of agony.

In those times when the rational consciousness has not yet woken up and pain serves only as a protection for the personality, it is not painful; at the same time, when there is a possibility of rational consciousness in man, it is a means of subordinating the animal personality to reason, and as this consciousness awakens, it becomes less and less painful.

In essence, only being in the full possession of rational consciousness, we can talk about suffering, because only from this state does life begin and those states of it that we call suffering. In the same state, the sensation of pain can be stretched to the greatest and narrowed to the most insignificant sizes. In fact, who does not know, without studying physiology, that sensitivity has limits, that when pain intensifies to a certain limit, sensitivity either stops - fainting, dullness, fever, or death occurs. An increase in pain, therefore, is a very precisely defined quantity, which cannot go beyond its limits. The sensation of pain can increase from our attitude towards it to infinity, and in the same way can decrease to an infinitesimal.

We all know how a person, submitting to pain, recognizing pain as what it should be, can reduce it to insensitivity, to even experiencing joy in enduring it. Not to mention the martyrs who sang at the stake - simple people only out of a desire to show their courage they endure without screaming and twitching operations that are considered the most painful. There is a limit to the increase in pain, but there is no limit to the decrease in its sensation.

The agony of pain is truly terrible for people who have laid down their lives in a carnal existence. Yes, how can they not be terrible when that power of the mind, given to a person to destroy the excruciating suffering, aimed only at increasing it?

As Plato has a myth that God first determined the life span of 70 years for people, but then, seeing that people were worse off from this, he changed it to what it is now, i.e. made it so that people do not know the hour of their death, - the myth that people were first created without feeling pain, but that what is now done for their benefit would so accurately define the rationality of what is.

If the gods created people without feeling pain, very soon people would start asking for it; women without birth pains would give birth to children in such conditions under which rare ones would remain alive, children and youth would spoil all their bodies, and adult people would never know either the delusions of other people who lived and now live, and, most importantly, their own delusions - they would not know what they need to do in this life, they would not have a reasonable goal of activity, they could never come to terms with the thought of impending carnal death, and they would not have love.

For a person who understands life as the subordination of his personality to the law of reason, pain is not only not evil, but is a necessary condition for both his animal and rational life. If there were no pain, the animal personality would have no indication of deviations from its law; if the rational consciousness did not experience suffering, man would not know the truth, would not know his own law.

But you say, they will say to this, about your personal suffering, but how can you deny the suffering of others? The sight of these sufferings is the most excruciating suffering, people will not quite sincerely say. The suffering of others? But the suffering of others - what you call suffering - has not stopped and does not stop. The whole world of people and animals is suffering and has not ceased to suffer. Did we just find out about this today? Wounds, mutilations, hunger, cold, illnesses, all sorts of accidents and, most importantly, childbirth, without which none of us was born, - after all, all this the necessary conditions existence. After all, this is the very thing, the reduction of which, the help of which leaves the content of the rational life of people - the very thing to which the true activity of life is directed. Understanding the sufferings of individuals and the causes of human delusions and activities to reduce them, after all, is the whole business of human life. After all, then I and a person are a person, so that I understand the suffering of other personalities, and then I am a rational consciousness, so that in the suffering of each individual person I see the common cause of suffering - delusion, and could destroy it in myself and others. How can the material of his work be suffering for the worker? It doesn't matter how a plowman would say that the unplowed land is his suffering. Unplowed land can be suffering only for those who would like to see arable land plowed, but do not consider it their life's work to plow it.

Activity aimed at direct loving service to those who suffer and at the destruction of the common causes of suffering - delusions, is the only joyful work that a person has to do and gives him that inalienable good in which his life consists.

There is only one suffering for a person, and it is precisely this suffering that makes a person, willy-nilly, give himself up to that life in which there is only one good for him.

This suffering is the awareness of the contradiction between the sinfulness of oneself and the whole world and not only the possibility, but the obligation to realize not by anyone, but by myself, all the truth in my life and the whole world. This suffering cannot be quenched either by participating in the sin of the world and not seeing one’s own sin, or even less by ceasing to believe not only in the possibility, but in the obligation of not someone else, but mine, to realize all the truth in my life. and the life of the world. - The first only increases my suffering, the second deprives me of the power of life. This suffering is quenched only by the consciousness and activity of true life, which destroy the disproportion of personal life with the goal conscious of by man. Willy-nilly, a person must recognize that his life is not limited to his personality from birth to death, and that the goal that he is aware of is an achievable goal, and that in striving for it - in the awareness of his greater and greater sinfulness and in the greater and greater fulfillment of all truth in his life and in the life of the world is and has been and always will be the work of his life, inseparable from the life of the whole world. If not rational consciousness, then suffering, arising from delusion about the meaning of one's life, willy-nilly drives a person onto the only true path of life, on which there are no obstacles, no evil, but there is one, inviolable by anything, that has never begun and cannot end, an ever-increasing good.