I will tell you a parable that the elder told the grandmothers, telling them about the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God. The elder often takes material for a parable (analogy, similarity, comparison) from what is at hand. (He learns from his Teacher – the Lord Jesus Christ, who told simple people about the Kingdom of God in parables (images-analogies, comparing situations of the Kingdom of God and earthly reality), the content of which was obvious and understandable to the listeners (sower, seed, fishing, flock of sheep, debtors, etc.), that is, for them these were everyday things – what they encountered at every step (so that it would be easier for them to understand the principles, to think about the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God analogously (kataphatically-apophatically, worthy of God) – see Part III, pp. 483-484). In particular, he explained the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God to the grandmothers using the example of solving a mathematical equation… You ask, how can mathematics be a teaching material for the village servants (after all, preaching should be in the language of the addressee – so that everyone understands what is being said, and not just demonstrate how smart (foolish) I am). Our elder, to convert the grandmothers of the village to a Healthy (Saving) way of life, opened a mathematics club (courses) at the pharmacy (pagans at churches, to attract more clients-buyers (regular (parishioners) or passersby), open free courses (e.g., English, programming…) in disciplines that are in demand in society). Why mathematics and not English? Our grandmothers don’t need English – they are all already packed, any day now Father will call them Home, so they are all getting ready for the journey, not to forget something being taken by surprise… But they need mathematics – primarily for mental gymnastics (because the stagnation or “dregs” in their brains are catastrophic), and it will come in handy in the store, to quickly calculate change… So the elder decided to hit two birds with one stone: teach the grandmothers mathematics (even show its beauty; and to teach earthly mathematics, to explain to them Heavenly mathematics) and for them to visit the pharmacy more often, giving some profit…
(Dzyunyo always grumbles dissatisfied under his breath during mathematics classes: you, old bearded grandpa, better open courses on litreball (because the villagers don’t know how to drink and eat properly…; they have no idea that Men (Christians: saints, disciples of Christ) drink two quarts of Spiritus Sanctus every morning (their morning starts at midnight) and work like oxen all day (24 hours), while our guys take two shots and there’s no one to work… And he also mocks the old man for trying to turn “dumb chickens” (as he calls our talkative hens) into “eagles” who will soar high in the heavens and see everything from the perspective (perspective) of Heaven?! The elder sees potential, essence in everyone, and lazy Dzyunyo (who is no better than “dumb chickens”, but on the contrary…) judges by the flesh, by clothes, by external, perishable, temporary formalities! Therefore, having God’s faith, the elder works tirelessly, believing that in due time not only from “dumb chickens”, but even from Dzyunyo himself there will be People (deified – filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ)!).
Once, giving the grandmothers (there were a few grandfathers present too) a homework assignment to solve a simple (oral) equation, the elder said (to motivate them to work, to do their homework) that whoever solves this equation will understand the action of the Spiritual laws of the Kingdom of God in this world and will be able to easily, jokingly solve life’s problems-equations-problems (like moving mountains) that arise on the way to Happiness-Bliss. And the equation to be solved jokingly (orally) was as follows:
(where fifty radicals “√” mean the fiftieth radical).
Since those lazybones did not want to think at all, and no one intended to do the homework (they just wanted to spread gossip around the village), the elder had to chew everything like in kindergarten and show everything (literally) on fingers…
To solve this equation jokingly (orally) you need to understand and be able to use two techniques (principles): elementary transformation of mathematical expressions (in particular, the replacement of some expressions with those identical to them) and understanding the properties (mathematical, non-contradictory) of infinity, the “nature” of this (abstract, but helping to solve real problems!) infinity, and of course, be able to solve elementary equations. Therefore, first of all, the elder explained the principle of transforming mathematical expressions to the grandmothers.
Let’s say
then the expression:
can be written, replacing “5” everywhere with
(since they are identical, i.e.
in this form:
That is, these expressions are identical:
You look at these mathematical formulas (expressions) for now as pictures and learn to find similarities: found the number “5” and replaced it with