So, the essence of spiritual life is faith in God’s Providence, discernment with counsel. We have spoken a little about God’s Providence (God’s Love) (see also in Parts I, II, III), and we will further learn to discern and seek counsel, to discern spirits, and to know the Orthodox faith—without all this, the Eucharist, Thanksgiving, Good-giving, Good-doing, Good deeds-service are unthinkable! There is no virtue without discernment, no good deed without discernment! We will speak about discernment and humility, without which no good deed can be, and true thanksgiving, good-giving can only be done with Good, Righteous deeds!
P.S. They ask me, reproaching: “Why so many different thoughts-counsel with the same essence, why do you tread on the same spot, endlessly talking about the same thing?! Tell us something new!” You hold in your hands a “pharmacy,” not your own, i.e., a first-aid kit assembled by you for yourself! If you do not find anything useful here—what you are looking for—do not get irritated (you took this book-pharmacy into your hands and started reading it yourself?! No one forced you to do this!), but set this book aside and peacefully continue looking for what you need. I will also note that our “pharmacy” is a village pharmacy in the wilderness, where the bus comes once a week, the youth have all moved to the city… and only the elderly poor pensioners are left, who are also “packed”—today-tomorrow they will set off to the Heavenly City… Now you understand what kind of assortment of medicines is in our poor pharmacy (that’s why you can’t find what you are looking for—you need to go to a city pharmacy-supermarket…): some cheap painkillers, sedatives-reassuring, some bandages, plasters, something for constipation-blockages (to get things moving)… At least something is there—in such poverty and abandonment to fend for oneself (“Every man for himself!” “Save yourself!”)—and for this, Glory to God! First aid can be provided (to anyone who has felt sin (mortality, passion), the meaninglessness, emptiness of egoism-pride, life without God, the torments of the hell-pit of self-pride, to give hope for Salvation-Healing, preliminarily pulling out of the suffering-attack of the darkness of despair-hopelessness. Not the healthy-happy need a Savior-Healer, but the severely ill, those who have realized that they cannot cope with the hellish pains-torments themselves, they need not just a doctor-comforter, psychotherapist, sexopathologist… but a Savior (Surgeon-Transplantologist) from hell-sin-egoism (the torments of which have manifested themselves with sinful, passionate symptoms) and from death, those who need urgent medical help—surgery, transplantation of all organs, the whole being from the Healthy Donor Jesus Christ, replacing their “body” with the Body of Christ), and then—to the Hospital, to the Stationary, to the Church-Eucharist (where Salvation-Healing takes place, this saving surgery-transplantation of the whole being and the process of mastering-assimilating the New Being: sinners give themselves and everything they have, and each other to Christ God, and in return receive the New Body—the Body of Christ, Resurrected, full of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit)…
So, this book (like the previous ones—Parts I, II, III) is a pharmacy, not a specific set of medicines for a specific person, and in it, like in any pharmacy, there are many different medicines-thoughts (or a few—the most necessary to provide first aid). But why so many medicines-thoughts of the same essence?! If you expressed a “strong,” universal thought-counsel in the previous paragraph, why say it more simply in the next, not so “strongly,” or vice versa… and there are dozens of such paragraphs with the same essence-content-counsel in the book?! Because not everyone can immediately grasp the full measure (for example, it is enough to say: “God the Father Almighty is Love!” And nothing more needs to be said—from this everything follows: “Give thanks for everything!” “Always rejoice!” “All reality is God’s Gift to me!” “The essence of my life is the Eucharist: to Love God and the image of God (every created free being)!”…). For someone, one thought (“God is Love!”) is enough to build their entire life on this mystery, this thought-revelation, turning it into a Eucharist to God the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. But another person cannot grasp this Thought-truth-call, cannot contain it—for them, this (“God is Love!”) means nothing (unfortunately, the majority of people are like this). Therefore, in our book-pharmacy, there are different doses of thoughts-truth, the concentration of the active substance-truth (just as in the analogy of a meal—at the table different dishes: solid food, liquid dishes, porridge with milk, milk, milk diluted with water, etc., that is, for stomachs and tummies of different capacities to digest-assimilate food—see Part III; so do not complain to the host about wastefulness (“what you cooked—I do not eat such, and this I do not eat, and I am allergic to this?!.”—this is not for you, for you is this dish), but look for your dish, the one that suits you, or ask the host to prepare a certain dish or medicine separately for you (in the context of this analogy with a pharmacy); do not forget: you were invited to the feast of love not only you, and the host knows the tastes of his guests!)—for different minds different appropriate thoughts-counsels-commandments! So, there are different doses and concentrations of truth so that everyone can take something useful for salvation. Not everyone has the strength to bear the same thoughts, just as the same medicines for the same illness—for one patient they are for healing, and for another—for worsening health; therefore, the elders (spiritual doctors-assistants of the Healer) advise one thing to one person, and another to another for the same passion (for example, a battle with lust can be from gluttony, and from condemnation… to the one who has a battle with lust from lustfulness, the fathers prescribe fasting, and to the one from condemnation—they advise not to judge, to humble before the one they condemned, etc.; if to the one who has a battle with lust from condemnation to prescribe fasting—then even if they fast to death from hunger, any feats of mortifying the flesh they undertake, even to death