Every creature that exists desires happiness and well-being (the best for themselves)! Happiness (synonym: bliss, beatitude) is the fullness of pleasure, peace, joy, and absolute freedom! You may ask: what about those who commit suicide, the devil, and angels who have fallen from God, and all who do objective evil to themselves?! Yes, when we said “all,” “every” (every creature that has a will: animals, plants – all living things) – we included all the desperate, the suicidal, and those who do evil (to themselves and others). Those who kill themselves want happiness. True, they objectively do worse for themselves, but subjectively they think it is a way out of their situation. Those who curse God, hate all that is good, think that by doing so, they are improving themselves, transitioning from a “worse” state to a “better” one, moving toward happiness (which they have imagined for themselves). That is, every action, every act of will that free creatures perform is in the name of (for the sake of approaching, achieving) happiness. Those who desire objective evil – because they “desire” – want something better, happiness for themselves. Those who wish not to be, to kill themselves (as the Holy Fathers say, the devils and all who resemble them are in a state of self-destruction), thus say that it would be “better not to be” (i.e., when they no longer exist), better than now, when they exist! A murderer, by killing, thinks it will be better for them after the murder; a thief steals because he thinks that by possessing what he has stolen, he will be happier; an adulterer, fornicator, deceiver… absolutely all, by pursuing their lustful desires, by doing real evil to themselves, think that these actions bring them closer to bliss, to the fullness of being…
When Adam sinned – he desired happiness for himself, thought that through those sinful actions he would achieve happiness – to be like God! The devil, likewise when he sinned – desired happiness (to be God)! And so on in history – everyone desires happiness, everyone wants to be blissful, gods, but not all, far from all find that narrow Path and the Gates that lead to Life.
So, everyone desires happiness, but why then are there so few who are happy?! In Part I, we talked about wisdom as the knowledge of the goal (happiness) of life and the best way to achieve it! One of the components, characteristics of happiness is absolute freedom. Freedom is when nothing outside me exists, i.e., there are no facts, objects, with which I must reckon (because if such exist, I am obliged to consider them when realizing myself in life. For example, the sun – whether I want it to be or not, it exists and in the summer in the Sahara it bakes well, so I must take this fact into account to be healthy, without which happiness is impossible). God (and all creation) is a fact, a given. Freedom is only possible when I “include” God (and the universe) in my life, when He and all reality are in me (when I become an hypostasis of the Church)! Happiness also implies health, integrity, catholicity – living integrally the fullness of reality, embracing it with love. Happiness (including freedom and catholicity) is possible – this is witnessed by the Church of Christ for two thousand years. Happiness in the symbolic language of the Church is denoted by the term Kingdom of God (Heavenly), Eternal Life, about which the Church testifies that it has already come (it is among us and in us). In the language of the Church, “to be happy” is to become a personality (the image of God in each of us must acquire the likeness of God), to be a god by grace (to be deified), to be one with the Trinity, to be a hypostasis of the Church… Thus, God is happiness for every creature, and whoever does not move toward God misses out on their happiness!
In this part, we will talk about the revelation of the hypostatic principle (beginning), we will try to point out the paths on which the formation of a person as a hypostasis of the Church occurs. We’ll discuss: what facilitates entry into the Kingdom of God, and what does not; in what state must a person be to accept the Kingdom of God as a gift, as grace? (We agreed in Part I that we do not give answers, because an answer is direct knowledge, and we help each other ask questions, make the obvious unobvious, and encourage living in the Holy Spirit, transitioning from trust to faith, from knowing “about something” to knowing this “something” we hear about in the Gospel).
P.S. Therefore, happiness (we are talking about the fullness, the maximum) is only possible in religion – the connection with God (if, of course, He exists!?). Orthodoxy (now we are talking about theology as an expression of experience) – is the most correct, the most accurate, the most complete image, an indication of Reality. Orthodox theology – expression of catholic, Theanthropic (Ecclesiastical) knowledge of Reality. The Orthodox Church – is the fullness of knowledge of Theanthropic (= Happiness), and the most accurate, the most correct indication (= theology) of the Path by which the created being achieves the fullness of knowledge of Theanthropic Reality! As soon as I said that only the Orthodox Church knows most fully and knows the Path most correctly – you were irritated and offended, and you concluded: “arrogant (proud), pompous, self-assured snob”… But, I will disappoint (bring you to your senses, if it is still possible) you: Your emotions are an incorrect (fanatical or irresponsible) reaction to reality! I’ll explain what I mean: I, for example, respect a Catholic who is convinced (sincerely, to the extent of his awareness and spiritual experience and of course openness towards truth; we’re not talking about deceitful people – no one respects them, except those like them), that Catholicism is the most correct image of God and reality and the most perfect way to achieve the Good (Happiness). Because if a person, for example, considers himself a Catholic and at the same time does not recognize that Catholicism is the fullest worldview and the most correct life practice and is convinced that the Catholic church does not provide means for achieving happiness, but believes that the fullness is in another denomination (Orthodoxy or some Protestant stream) or in another religion (Old Testament Judaism, Islam, Hinduism), or in some philosophical system and practice (Buddhism, Kabbalah (fantasies based on Old Testament Judaism), vegetarianism, etc.), then why isn’t she where the truth, the fullness is?! I respect an atheist who is convinced (at a certain stage of his development or indifference; we are talking about sincerity, not deceit; although sincere atheists do not exist! Militant atheism is always a cover for one’s passions, because by its very nature it is absolutely unfounded!), that atheism is the ultimate truth about reality. And where there is deceit and self-deception: I believe in something (better and more precisely to say: trust someone or something), not because I am convinced of the truthfulness of the doctrine, but because it is beneficial to me (e.g., a presidential candidate – Orthodox, because the elections are coming up – you have to play the role of an Orthodox zealot… (e.g., in Ukraine from 2011-2014 the president was Orthodox in form, because it was necessary to behave that way in front of the camera, in public, but a Satanist in spirit – “by their fruits you shall know them”)), – there’s nothing to talk about! And there is another deception or self-deception (repeated by those who call themselves Christians), when they say that all religions, philosophies are equal and equally true – these are different paths to the same goal or different trails leading to the top of the mountain (the image is appealing, but it has nothing to do with the truth!). When the Lord conversed with the Samaritan woman about religions, He noted that the Samaritan view of reality was self-deception (“you do not know what you worship”), and about the Judaism of the patriarchs and prophets said: “we know what we worship: salvation is from the Jews.” The Lord (although he abolished, annulled both the first and the second, and all other pagan religions – of which Christianity (Orthodoxy) is the culmination – worship of God in Spirit and Truth) did not say that all religions are equally true, but “Christians” (fortunately, not all Christians – “Christians”) say that the Lord was mistaken. (Although this (that all religions are equally valuable and that they indicate the same reality in different ways) is a primitive assertion, I will give examples: Christianity and Buddhism – it’s the same as religion and atheism; in Christianity the goal (purpose) is a Personal God, absolute self-awareness, affirmation in communication with God of one’s unique “I”, while Buddhism-atheism is the absolute opposite – the goal: to dissolve, to self-abolish in nirvana; or take Christianity and Judaic philosophical currents (currents, which derive their fantasies from the Bible (Old Testament Books)), which are not related to the Old Testament religion: for Christians Jesus Christ is the savior and the Ideal of man, the norm to which all must resemble, while for “Judaism” Jesus is a false messiah, a blasphemer, and a criminal… So, the conclusions from the two examples are obvious, but for those who want to see…).