Sins before God - meditation and yoga, various spiritual practices and astral projection [Archive]

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Russian Bear

27th September 2025, 11:22

Orthodoxy! Spiritual questions and answers, stories, testimonies, discussions
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130443-Orthodoxy--Spiritual-questions-and-answers-stories-testimonies-discussions&p=1686842&viewfull=1#post1686842

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“The call of Christ is still coming to us; let’s start listening to him.” These words of Father Seraphim (Rose) - ascetic, theologian, preacher - could not be more relevant today. His books helped to hear this call. Written in the 1970s and 1980s for his contemporaries who were lost in the intellectual wilderness, his works are perhaps even more relevant today, because today’s “intellectuals” wander through much more dangerous deserts of spiritual death.

I answer from the position of an Orthodox Christian

The Orthodox Church and Yoga
Yoga as a system of exercises (physical and psychological) has existed for over 1,000 years. It is a branch of Buddhism and aims to attract new adherents to this religion. The Orthodox Church has a strictly negative attitude toward this practice. Although some perceive this practice solely as a system of exercises, it cannot be separated from its psychological aspects.

The Church's Attitude to Yoga
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, commenting on yoga, confirmed that Orthodox believers should refrain from such practices and instead engage in other sports that lack psychological connotations. He clarified that the practice is pagan, and even simply performing exercises can open the door to the spiritual world, which can have an extremely negative impact on a Christian.

Important! Any contact with pagan practices leads to an imbalance in the spiritual life of a Christian and can have negative consequences. The Orthodox Church holds the opinion that such Eastern practices lead Christians into serious error. Sooner or later, someone practicing yoga will become interested in the psychological exercises, particularly meditation, that it offers. And from there, it will be difficult to leave.

Why Orthodox Christians should not practice yoga
An Orthodox Christian should not engage in this practice for the following reasons: yoga is part of a religious doctrine that is categorically opposed to Christianity;
it lacks God, no desire to know Him, no awareness of one's sinful nature;
yoga does not imply repentance or contrition for one's actions;
it is a selfish practice of self-knowledge without knowledge of God, and this is categorically at odds with Christian principles.
Regular practice and meditation—all this leads a person to turn away from God and increasingly toward their own selfish nature. They fall into various delusions and lose the ability to distinguish between good and evil, which ultimately leads to a serious spiritual decline. No one can guarantee whether a person will be able to return to the true path after this decline.

Advice! To avoid such problems, it's best to refrain from such sports, especially since there are a huge variety of physical activities without any spiritual connotations.

Should a Christian practice yoga?

Response from the priesthood
As mentioned above, Patriarch Kirill spoke clearly about Eastern practices and noted that Orthodox believers should not engage in such things for their own benefit. However, he noted that, in general, he has an extremely positive attitude toward any form of sport.

The spiritual life of an Orthodox Christian:
Sports should be aimed at improving our physical body and not affecting the spiritual essence, while yoga works in a different direction—engaging the body in order to affect the soul. Yoga's physical exercises are excellent; they develop endurance and flexibility, but its psychological techniques can destroy a person's spiritual world, their essence, and their cultural identity.

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) wrote an entire book on yoga, explaining the destructive effects of this Eastern practice and listing reasons why Orthodox Christians should avoid it. His opinion is especially important for Orthodox Christians, as he himself previously practiced yoga and knows the entire system from the inside. In the book, he provides historical background, the development of this meditative practice, and examines its roots in Buddhism.

Seraphim states that the spread of yoga on the American continent led to the emergence of numerous pagan cults. In particular, the hippie movement relies heavily on inner self-knowledge, meditation, and the energy of light. The hieromonk notes the detrimental influence of the Eastern system of exercises on a person's spiritual life and their gradual alienation from God, ultimately leading to complete renunciation.

Archbishop Anastasios of Albania also wrote an article of the same name, in which he outlined his position on yoga. He states that these exercises have a short-term positive effect on people, similar to any other sport.

Yoga is an integral part of Hinduism and the initial stage of overall spiritual ascent. Its goal is not simply good physical condition, but complete immersion in the original pagan Hindu beliefs.

And Orthodox religious scholar Mikhail Plotnikov, who also spent many years studying Hinduism and Buddhism in India, says in an interview that "yoga was originally a practice of Hindu monks, which helps them renounce evil desires, then natural human desires (the desire for a family, wealth, health), and finally all desires."

First, a person must gain complete control over their body, then over their psychological body, which is achieved through meditation. After numerous trance sessions, the light of their own divinity should enter their mind.

Through meditation, a person releases spiritual entities (demons) into their body. These entities can grant them various abilities, but at the same time completely remove them from salvation and the true God.

Important! Yoga is not just a harmless, interesting physical exercise. It is the beginning of a serious pagan religion that will sooner or later capture a person's mind if they don't turn away from it in time.
In the modern world, there are so many opportunities that finding alternative sports activities won't be difficult at all.

‼️⚡‼️⚡‼️⚡On Meditation. Seraphim Rose
Father Seraphim Rose viewed meditation (especially in its Eastern and occult forms) as a dangerous spiritual practice, leading to delusion (spiritual self-deception) and separating one from true Christian asceticism. Here are the key ideas from his works:
✨ **Meditation or Christian Prayer**
- Meditation (in Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age) aims to "empty the mind" or "merge with the cosmos," which opens the soul to demonic influences.
- Orthodox prayer (especially the Jesus Prayer) is communion with the Personal God, requiring humility, repentance, and grace.
"Meditation is a path to nowhere, prayer is a path to God." "The first makes a person an 'empty vessel,' the second fills him with the light of Christ" ("Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future").
⚡ **The Occult Roots of Meditation**
In the books "The Soul After Death" and "Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future," he emphasizes:
- Meditation techniques (trance, visualization, mantra repetition) are occultism in disguise, even if they are presented as "neutral" or "scientific."
- They originate from pagan cults and open the door to demonic influences (see examples of "enlightened" gurus going mad).
"What are called 'altered states of consciousness' are often possession... A Christian must flee from this."
⚠️ **The Danger of "Christian Meditation"**
- Criticizes Western movements that mix meditation with prayer (for example, Catholic Zen monks). - Even if meditation is used for "reflecting on the Bible," it remains self-hypnosis, not an encounter with God.
"The Holy Fathers teach sobriety, not immersion in imaginary 'spiritual worlds'" ("Man Against God").
☦️ **Alternative: Orthodox sobriety**
Instead of meditation, Father Seraphim suggests:
- The Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me") - it purifies the mind, not dissolves it.
- Reading the Holy Fathers (especially the "Philokalia") - teaches one to discern spirits.
- The sacraments of the Church (confession, communion) - provide true transformation of the soul.
"Demons can give false 'peace' and 'light' in meditation, but only Christ gives true peace to the soul."
📖 **Quotes from the works of Father Seraphim Rose**
💭 **On the nature of meditation**
"Meditation is nothing more than an ancient occult method disguised in modern psychological terminology... It opens the door to demonic influences, even though it appears 'safe'."
("Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future," Chapter 5)
"The emptiness sought in meditation is not holiness, but spiritual death. A Christian is called to fill his mind with Christ, not empty it"
(Letter to a Spiritual Child, 1979)
🔥 **The Danger of Eastern Practices**
"Yoga, transcendental meditation, Zen—they all lead to the same thing: the loss of personality and submission to dark forces... Even if a person feels 'peace,' it may be a demonic world"
("The Soul After Death," Ch. 4)
"'Enlightenment' in meditation is often just a cover for demonic delusion. The Holy Fathers knew: demons can appear in the form of light to deceive the ascetic"*
*("Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future")
⛔ **Criticism of "Christian Meditation"**
"When Catholic monks teach 'Christian meditation' with the repetition of a single word (as in mantras), they confuse Christ with Buddha... This is a betrayal of true prayer"
("Nihilism," notes)
"Meditation on the 'image of Christ' in the imagination is a dangerous game. The real Christ comes through humility and repentance, not through visualization"
(Letter, 1976)
🙌 **The Alternative: Sobriety and Prayer**
"The Jesus Prayer is the true 'purification of the mind.'" It does not empty the soul, but fills it with the name of Christ"
("The Soul After Death")
"The Holy Fathers teach: demons flee from repentance, but they love meditation, for there the soul is defenseless"
("Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future")
🔮 **Prophecy about the Future**
"The time will come when meditation will be taught in schools as the 'science of the soul.' But it will be the science of demonic delusion"
(From a conversation with students, 1980)
💡 **Important clarification**
Father Seraphim distinguishes:
🔹 Meditation (occult/Eastern) – he completely rejects
🔹 Reflection on God (according to the Holy Fathers) – he allows with spiritual guidance
✝️ **Conclusion**
For Father Seraphim, meditation is a spiritual drug, replacing God's grace with psychological effects. His position is based on the patristic teaching:
- "Not every spirit is from God" (1 John 4:1).
- "The devil sometimes comes in the form of an angel of light"* (St. John Climacus).
My dears, be vigilant, study Orthodoxy and the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and guard your souls for God.

To better understand this topic, it is important to read the books mentioned in this article written by Seraphim Rose. The article is written very concisely. It doesn't reveal the full depth of the dangers and problems, but merely warns of them and provides resources for further analysis. Those who seek the truth will find it.

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What is the ancient Christian understanding of today's UFO sightings? What is behind the Charismatic Movement? What phenomena are assaulting Christianity in our modern world? How can Christians avoid being caught up in the Apostasy?

ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE examines in eight chapters these and similar questions facing Christians in the contemporary world. The religious phenomena of today are symptoms of a "new religious consciousness" that is preparing the world religion of the future. Phenomena such as Yoga, Zen, Tantra, Transcendental Meditation, Maharaj-ji, Hare Krishna, UFOs, the Charismatic Movement and Jonestown are presented in contrast to the Orthodox Patristic standard of spiritual life, without the understanding of which, in the coming time of antichrist, it will scarcely be possible for Christians to be saved.

This work is a concise and unequivocal Orthodox statement on contemporary trends; its urgent message rings loud and clear. Viewed from a foundation based in Patristic teachings, the spiritual movements of the day are clearly various spiritual deceptions that have existed since the beginning of the Church, rather than the achievements of a new religious consciousness. Addressing soberly and directly the trends of pseudo-spirituality which loom enticingly today, ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE provides a beacon of discernment in these times of widespread spiritual deception. The book examines a broad spectrum of issues facing modern Christians--each from the perspective of the early Church Fathers. As the "New Age" is becoming a household concept and is moving into wider acceptance by mainstream society, the "new religious consciousness" can be seen progressing precisely along the lines described by the late Fr. Seraphim”

21) ⭐️⭐️⭐️☦☦☦✅(Orthodoxy, Prophecies, Apocalypse) Part 2, Russian angel. UFOs are demons (fallen angels). And now in detail about this.

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129520-Part-2-Russian-angel.-UFOs-are-demons--fallen-angels-.-And-now-in-detail-about-this.&p=1663986&viewfull=1#post1663986

No one flies to us from other planets, reptilians and UFOs are demons whose father is satan.

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)
Orthodoxy and the religion of the Future
https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Serafim_Rouz/orthodoxy-and-the-religion-of-the-future/

Read these important articles first:
1) https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130440-Sins-before-God-meditation-and-yoga-various-spiritual-practices-and-astral-projection&p=1686852&viewfull=1#post1686852 (Post 5)
2) https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130440-Sins-before-God-meditation-and-yoga-various-spiritual-practices-and-astral-projection&p=1686859&viewfull=1#post1686859 (Post 6)

Russian Bear

27th September 2025, 11:45

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) on yoga

Eastern meditation is increasingly attacking Christians, which is understandably causing concern among clergy. Yes, a person can practice yoga by controlling their breathing and adopting certain postures to achieve bodily health and beauty. But even without realizing it, he thus prepares himself for certain spiritual views and experiences. Yogis believe that "The art of yoga consists in immersing oneself in complete silence, discarding all thoughts and illusions, rejecting and forgetting everything except one truth: the true essence of man is divine."; She is God, and you can only keep quiet about the rest."

Yes, these ideas are pagan, not Christian, but yoga techniques are increasingly being used for "Christian" meditation. The goal is to relax, to relax, to increase your receptivity to spiritual ideas and impressions. According to followers of yoga, exercises "fill with a sense of general well-being", give a "feeling of peace", well-being, euphoria and bliss. Orthodox yoga connoisseurs believe that the state of "full health" bestowed by it first allows them to do more on a human level, and only then on a Christian – spiritual level. The contentment that supposedly fills the body and soul disposes to a spiritual life.

Many people also notice a beneficial effect on their character. For example, there was a man who was short-tempered and irritable, but after starting to practice yoga, he noticed that he had become more gentle and understanding. Events from the outside and inner experiences ceased to have their power over him. The personality itself is changing – it strengthens, opens up, leading to euphoria and complete satisfaction. All this is called preparation for the "spiritual" life, which does not take long to wait. As a person becomes more calm, he notices that his prayer is becoming more attentive. It seems to a person that he is becoming susceptible to "impulses and impulses from heaven."

This reveals the personal relationship between God and the soul that accompany the whole path of mystical life. The soul soars, prayer becomes "sweet", capturing the whole person, and now he is ready to tremble at the "touch of the Holy Spirit", to experience what the Lord deems worthy for him. This is considered one of the highest forms of "Christian contemplation" aimed at "the flow of the grace of Christ." A person feels a great hunger and thirst for righteousness, he strives with every fiber of his soul to become a Christian in the full sense of the word.

But anyone familiar with the nature of charm and spiritual delusion understands that such a "Christian yogi" has lost his way spiritually, sliding towards pagan religious experiences, or towards sectarian "Christian" experiences. There is the same desire for "holy and divine feelings," the same openness and desire to be "admired" by a certain spirit. People mistake self-intoxication for grace. His mystical revelations are nothing more than a pseudo-spiritual state characteristic of all those who are spiritually lost. Fantasizing about various Christian topics, such a person does not even suspect that he has fallen into the trap of demons waiting for such "contemplatives."

Their visions of the Mother of God and the Angels of Light are their own religious fantasies, creations of the heart and spirit, which are completely unprepared for the spiritual warfare and temptations of dark spirits. It is frightening that such "meditations" are practiced today in some Catholic monasteries and convents. If we turn to the "Philokalia" and compare the truths set forth in it with what is preached by the "Christian" If there is no yoga, then one can only see once again what a gap lies between these amateurs and adherents of true Orthodoxy. It is enough to give an example of a real "heart prayer", which in the Orthodox traditions is available only to a few, and even then after many years of ascetic warfare and the school of humility of a truly God-bearing elder, whereas for a yoga guru it is just a trick of pronouncing syllables in unison with the heartbeat.

Athos elders on yoga
The Athos elders identify 9 differences between Jesus prayer and meditation and the Indian type of yoga.:

Prayer expresses faith in God as an Omnipresent Creator, as a Father who cares about the salvation of his creation. Salvation cannot be accomplished "in oneself" and "through oneself," as the yogis claim. It takes place in God, and that is why we ask Him in prayer, "Have mercy on me."

The prayer of Orthodox Christians is not addressed to a faceless God. This is not some kind of "absolute nothing" at all. This is a very specific God–Man, Jesus Christ. Christians love their own They honor God and his commandments, and strive to put them into practice, fulfilling the Lord's main command: "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Whoever performs them unites with the Holy Trinity.

Prayer itself humbles human pride, which abounds in the teachings of yogis. It is through intelligent, unceasing prayer that Orthodox Christians attain a blissful state of humility. When a person who prays says, "Have mercy on me," he realizes the full extent of his fall, the sinfulness of his nature, and considers himself inferior to every creature. It is simply impossible to pray with pride, and having it is insane.

Salvation is not an abstract concept. This is a very concrete union with the Tri-Hypostatic By God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. But this unity does not mean the oppression of one's own human personality. It persists in each of us.

By struggling with their sins and passions, Christians gain the opportunity to discern temptations, see and understand the seduction of diabolical forces. Recognizing the spirit of flattery, they can easily separate good from evil, understand where the Spirit of Christ is at work, and where the dark forces that disguise themselves as Angels of Light are.

By praying, turning to God for help, Christians receive it, freeing themselves from the destructive influence of passions. At the same time, this mortification of passions and the achievement of dispassion is always dynamic, it is a continuous process. It is a process of transformation, because in the "passionless passion" to love There is no way to save God. Christians strive to achieve holiness by freeing themselves from the disfigured state that Satan creates. This personal struggle is carried out by the grace of Christ, which ensures salvation.

The purpose of prayer is not to bring the mind to absolute nothingness. On the contrary, a Christian has a very specific task – to turn the mind into the heart and acquire the grace of God in the soul, so that from there it spreads throughout the body. The Lord said that "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). The Church teaches that the body is not evil. The evil is the carnal mind, so you need to fight not with the body as such, but with your desire to please and serve it. It is unacceptable to fall into a state in which the desire to live disappears. Christians practice prayer because they want to live and be with God forever.

Christianity is alien to an indifferent attitude towards the outside world. Yogis give up everything in order to remain calm and serene, while Christians pray for everyone, for the whole world. We cannot save ourselves by ourselves. We do this all together and unite with Christ together.
Christians do not emphasize a certain body position, they do not attach importance to psychotechnical methods. Yes, some of them help you focus, but if you want, you can enter into communion with God anywhere, at any time and in any state of body and soul.

Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) on yoga
Father Sophrony founded St. John the Baptist Monastery in Essex County, Great Britain. His life was very hard. He had spent many years in such poverty that even an ordinary tin can was a real wealth for him. His path to God was very tortuous and thorny, although everything started out more than well. The boy had a very devout nanny who took care of his Christian upbringing, took him to church, and talked about God. Even as a child, he prayed for 45 minutes, but in his youth he began to search. He perceived the gospel as a kind of psychologism, the commandment of love seemed too specific, mundane, and he wanted to achieve the eternal absolute.

At this stage, he became interested in Indian teachings for the sake of this very Super-personal Absolute. The young man began to look for something more than Christ, he meditated in the desire to achieve absolute Being, and then it seemed to him that he was putting off the visible and invisible, sensual and mental. Going into the darkness of ignorance, the young man experienced a certain peace and enjoyed this state. In an effort to achieve a transcendent Being, he imagined his mind as light, while simultaneously looking for ways to express in a painting the beauty that is characteristic of every natural phenomenon.

He would later call this period of inspiration "suicide in the metaphysical sense." The Lord Himself helped him out of this false position, extending his hand at the very last moment. Archimandrite Sophrony considers this a miracle of mercy, which he has neglected for so long. He suddenly realized with obvious clarity that his artificial immersion in the abstract intellectual sphere would not help him to know the First Beginning of all beginnings. He suddenly realized that love is the absolute being he was looking for, and Christ is the Divine Absolute That surpasses everything on earth.

He realized that his ascetic pursuits did not give any real unity with Existence, and mystical experiences had a negative connotation. He remembered how he prayed to the Immortal Heavenly Father as a child, and how the Person and Eternity were easily combined in that childish faith. His Eastern experience was rather intellectual, detached from the heart, and gradually he became more and more convinced that he was moving away from true real Existence into oblivion. The reason for this, he saw, was that he was following the delusion of the circles in which he moved. There it was customary to confuse the concept of a person with the concept of an individual, whereas philosophically they have diametrically opposite meanings.
Having found Christ again, Father Sophrony looked at his Eastern experience with different eyes, to which he devoted 8 long years. He took it as the most terrible crime before The God his soul had known since early childhood. Father Sophrony considers mixing the Jesus prayer with yoga, Buddhism, transcendental meditation, etc. to be the most unacceptable. Christianity is based on the revelation of a personal God: I Am, whereas all other paths lead a person towards the abstract transpersonal Absolute, into the realm of impersonal asceticism. Yes, by distracting the mind from all kinds of images, meditation can create a sense of peace, but it will never involve real face-to-face prayer, standing in front of By God.

As a result of such experiments, the perception of the Living disappears. God, and man as a person simply disappears. A gap is created between what really exists and the abstract contemplation of the human mind. As a result, the integrity of a person is stratified, and personality is destroyed. Father Sophrony sees the difference between Orthodoxy and Eastern teachings in that it requires strong faith and long-suffering, while spiritual gifts and contemplation of the Absolute God in Hinduism can be acquired in a short time. Those who draw a parallel between Jesus prayer and yoga or transcendental meditation are mistaken, and it is very dangerous.

Prayer is not at all a simple and "technical" means of connecting with God. Those who artificially connect with the Source of everything are mistaken, and they return to the nameless transpersonal Absolute, dissolving their individuality, their personality in the ocean of the super-intelligent. Ascetic "feats" of this kind allowed some to rise to a metalogical contemplation of existence, experience a kind of mystical awe, transcend time and space, discover the freedom of the spirit and contemplate intelligent beauty, but what did it really give them?

Having seen the divine principle in human nature, such people have achieved self-worship, unaware that this is the beginning of the fall. The vision of a certain "absoluteness" in oneself is nothing more than a reflection of God's Absoluteness in someone who is created in his image and likeness. Father Sophrony is sure that the True, Living, Existing There is no God in all this. This is only the natural genius of the human spirit in its sublimated aspirations for the Absolute. Everything he contemplates on this path is based on self-contemplation, not God-contemplation. All this is created beauty, not Primordial Existence. There is no salvation for man here.

Russian Bear

27th September 2025, 14:21

https://sun9-30.userapi.com/s/v1/ig1/3jmLGJGWkFFx_uXKNlsp2sHAYd-zDz57jJ9JAOJ01KJt-MPGAsi6jjJT2BVcpe3-IUUYvuRc.jpg?quality=96&as=32x48,48x73,72x109,108x163,160x242,240x363,300x454&from=bu&cs=300x0

I couldn't find a real story in internet that actually happened, so I'll recount it from memory.

There was a monk in Tibet who was mastering the spiritual and physical practices of Buddhism, including meditation and the like...

Basically, he rose early, adhered to strict rules of a healthy lifestyle, and believed he had control over his spirit and body, and he succeeded. But one day, he decided to continue his spiritual quest, believing he hadn't reached the limit of his development and was seeking knowledge for self-improvement. That's how he stumbled upon the Orthodox faith, and it intrigued him. He began to study extensively and eventually converted to Orthodoxy. After that, his whole life turned into hell. He lost control of his soul and body. He retreated into the world and sins began to overwhelm his soul. After all this, he had a question: When I was a monk in Tibet, I was strong in spirit and controlled my passions, but when I became an Orthodox Christian, I lost peace and self-control. Why? He approached an Orthodox priest, a great ascetic and blessed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and asked this question.

The holy, grace-filled elder answered him: "When you were engaged in spiritual, physical pagan practices (meditation, energy, yoga, Buddhist practices), you were in the religion of the devil, and the demons didn't touch you or fight against you, since you were theirs. But after you converted to Orthodoxy, you embarked on the true path of the Lord's teachings and became an enemy to the demons; you turned against them. Now they will torment you for the rest of your days. To take possession of your soul and drag your soul to the underworld in hell. To resist evil spirits, you must maintain churches, pray, fast, attend church sacraments regularly, and God's grace will give you the strength to resist the dark forces and overcome them." Thus, the former Tebet monk understood the true nature of the spiritual war and what had been happening all this time.

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☦ On Ascetic Exercises in Hinduism (St. Paisios the Athonite)

What the Elder says in this chapter applies not only to Hinduism, but also to religious movements of the New Age in general that utilize yoga and meditation techniques.

— Geronda (Geronda means elder in Greek), do Hindus achieve a certain self-control because they are aided by the intense ascetic exercises they practice in yoga?

— They engage in all these exercises, but what do they ultimately achieve? Orthodox abstinence and spiritual asceticism in general always have in mind the highest spiritual goal—the sanctification of the soul. But the satanic worldly asceticism of those we are speaking of is performed so that the body becomes flexible, so that they can wiggle their arms and legs like a paper Karagioz [1], so that certain foolish people admire these "ascetics," and so that derisive demons laugh at them. Those who practice this type of Eastern asceticism begin stretching their legs from childhood, placing one leg over one shoulder, the other over the other, and, sitting in this position, pray. They develop calluses on their hands from long hours of pounding a sack of gravel with their fists, and can then break stones, boards, and the like.

But the sensations and experiences reported by followers of Eastern religions can be explained. For example, when they touch the tip of their nose with their tongue, or, conversely, draw it inward and touch the tip of their tongue to their throat, they feel a certain irritation, experience a sweet tingling sensation, and say, "We have drunk nectar [the drink of the gods]." Then these "ascetics" press their fingers on the nerves near their ears and begin to hear a humming sound: "Oooh-ooh-ooh..." Music! Or they press their fingers on their eyes, and stars begin to flicker before their eyes!

And sometimes they stare wide-eyed at the sun, then close their eyes and see light! "Look," they say, "we've achieved what we wanted. We've seen the uncreated light!" And then the devil says to them, "Ah, so you want light? Well, I'll give it to you." The devil inflames their imagination, and subsequently they see "light" without pressing their fingers on their eyes or looking at the sun. The devil often tries to deceive us [Orthodox monks] by showing us some kind of light or something similar. We don't ask him for it, we even turn our backs on it, but he still tries to deceive us! What can we say then if the person provokes the devil himself! After all, just give the devil a reason!

— Geronda, so the devil shows them various images?

"Yes, it inflames and sharpens their imagination to a high degree and then plunges them into delusion.

And some of our compatriots go to Indian teachers. The Indians teach them to speak in their language all sorts of blasphemous things about Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos, and the Saints. Some of them know it's blasphemy, others don't. And thus, these people become possessed. Then they begin to utter "unspeakable words." They reach a frenzy, a state of insanity, and people, seeing them, think they are in a spiritual state! But this state is demonic.

1) Karagioz is the protagonist of Greek folk shadow theater, a jester. — Translator's note.

Ernie Nemeth

27th September 2025, 15:21

Russian Bear

27th September 2025, 16:40

Quite controversial take on one of the best excercise methods ever developed.

Heard it before from my own family. And the church.

In comparison, yoga brings immediate benefits and, unlike almost any other exercise discipline, leaves you invigorated and full of energy. 20 minutes of yoga is equivalent to an hour of weight lifting in terms of expended energy. Also, the assanas or poses can be used to target any area of the body or mind - unlike any other form of exercise.

There is the problem of truth. Yoga opens up the mind to truth. Immersed in the fringes of truth, Christianity, or any formal religion, becomes...quaint...at best.

But you wanted this response, so there you go.
Thanks

Yoga is a spiritually dangerous practice. I think if yoga were simply a system of gymnastics, there would be nothing to discuss. Of course, different systems are possible, different technologies for maintaining one's body are possible. There is nothing sinful or bad in this. But, unfortunately, yoga is not simply gymnastics. The word yoga translates as "connection," or there is a complete Latin equivalent—the word "religion." It is a connection. The question is, "Who and with whom?" What is the purpose of yoga?

Of course, yoga is not simply a system of gymnastics; it is a philosophy, or, we might say, a religious philosophy. Why is it so conditional? Because yoga does not recognize the existence of God the Creator as a norm, with whom it communicates. However, this is a connection with the Spiritual World; yogis commit an act of idolatry, which is a gross violation of the second commandment: "Thou shalt not make for yourself any graven image, neither bow down to it, nor serve it." And thus we see that yoga actually leads to contact with dark spiritual forces (*** - read below).

As Holy Scripture says, "All the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord created the heavens." Indeed, the beings encountered by yogis at high levels are demons. But demons exist even earlier; they are at the very beginning of human actions. It's no coincidence that many people who practice yoga later become patients in psychiatric clinics. This is no coincidence, because evil spirits destroy the personality.

Even more so, the goal of yoga is the destruction of the human personality as an ideal. This is certainly something unacceptable for a person. One cannot sacrifice one's personality for the sake of one's health.

When we speak of yoga, these are sins against the first and second commandments, they are a sin against the very Creator of the Universe.
And therefore, inevitably, a person who experiences false philosophy inevitably begins to disintegrate; anyone who distances themselves from God perishes. This is precisely the main problem with yoga. You see, you can have a perfectly healthy body, but you will still die, and after death you will have to give an account to God for why you broke His commandments, why you worshiped an idol instead of God, why you communicated with demons.
You can be perfectly healthy, harmoniously developed, but to go to hell for apostasy—that's truly terrifying.

Is it worth buying 10-20 years of health at such a price? What is the purpose of yoga? Name it, the purpose of yoga. Every action must have some ultimate goal, you see? Of course, both Hindu and Buddhist yoga are aimed at destroying the personality, destroying consciousness.

There are two types of yoga. Hindu yoga - then Moksha. Buddhist yoga - then Nirvana.

Moksha is a state of liberation. Liberation, in particular, from suffering and disease. Back discomfort. Only through the destruction of one's own personality and merging with the absolute. The best way to cure a headache is the guillotine. It's long been known. After that, your head definitely doesn't hurt.

Well, yoga is incompatible with Christianity—incompatible, incompatible in ideas.
Christianity demands a strengthening of the personality, yoga demands a weakening of the personality. Christianity demands a personal encounter with God, yoga doesn't presuppose this, Christianity forbids idolatry, yoga practices it, and yoga has given rise to many sects.

Christianity believes that humans are called not to sever their connection with creation in order to commune with the Spirit, but rather to be a connecting link between God and creation. However, humans cannot achieve godlikeness on their own, through their own strength, despite any ascetic endeavor. Salvation is possible only through the grace of God, who desires salvation for everyone, and of humans who have rejected the path of sin and serve God.

Yoga, in turn, proceeds from the principle that humans are capable of achieving unity with the Absolute on their own, through their own efforts, and through their own efforts alone. This fundamentally contradicts the Christian idea of salvation by grace, salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, yoga contains no commandment of humility (This is the foundation of the Christian world).

From a yogic perspective, pride is seen as a path to achieving the goals of practice. Pride can serve as motivation for "spiritual ascent." As one advances along the spiritual path, pride can be the "driver of progress" (one believes one can achieve everything on one's own, not relying on God's mercy, and that one achieves enlightenment by placing oneself above others, having been deceived by the devil).

Yes, perhaps it's worth answering, of course. The thing is, I said right away that physical exercise itself is not bad, the problem lies elsewhere.
The problem is that hatha yoga is simply cheese in a mousetrap, used to catch the soul. A person begins with physical exercise, and then they become involved in philosophy itself. That's the insidious thing, really. Not just in specific exercises, including physical therapy, but in sports, the Church has always permitted personal participation in sports, but it has always been against professional sports, because it destroys the soul with vanity. Moreover, professionals destroy their own bodies to the point of fanaticism; we know all too well how many sick people we have after the Olympic Games. (We need to have common sense. For example, athletes reach the point of fanaticism and start injecting themselves with various probiotics, antibiotics, and building muscle to be strong. Do you understand what I mean?) The Church has always believed that a person, especially in the city, should engage in physical exercise, all kinds of sports, so long as their soul is not corrupted by vanity, and most importantly, that they do not, under the guise of sport, fall into contact with the dark, satanic forces. A person can first come into some kind of contact with Satan with the help of some seemingly harmless things, and then he will simply be caught like a fish on a hook, and that’s it, and then he will be pulled somewhere else.

By the way, what do you mean by Christians? I don't recognize any Protestants, Baptists, or сatholics. If you call them Christians, then that's a completely different spiritual path that has nothing in common with Orthodoxy. For me, the true Christian path is the Orthodox faith. You should look into this. You should read the books of Seraphim Rose. He's an American, by the way, and every Orthodox Russian knows him. For us, he's one of our own in spirit.

I'd love to tell you more about Orthodoxy. But if you prefer to stick to your own philosophical views, I've taken that into account.

***Some yoga styles have practices associated with the worship of deities. For example, classical Indian schools of yoga use mantras, the text of which signifies worship and gratitude to a particular "deity."

Yoga also includes sequences of movements that are considered acts of worship, such as the "sun salutation" (surya namaskar in Sanskrit) and the "moon salutation" (chandra namaskar). In the classical form, these sequences are performed several times, with a mantra chanted after each series, praising the aforementioned entities.

So what we have:
Chanting mantras. The text of some of these signifies worship and gratitude to a particular "deity."

Sequences of movements. For example, the "sun salutation" (surya namaskar in Sanskrit) and the "moon salutation" (chandra namaskar). In the classical form, these sequences are performed several times, with a mantra recited after each series, praising specific entities.

Use of figurines and paintings. Images of "members" of the Indian pantheon may be included in the classes.

Musical accompaniment. This may include praise to Indian deities in Sanskrit.

Russian Bear

27th September 2025, 18:07

About yoga and other Eastern practices

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In search of health, well-being in life, or even the development of secret abilities, many of our contemporaries pay attention to all kinds of oriental practices, especially yoga.

Yoga is advertised as a technique that will help prevent diseases, heal from already earned illnesses, even those that are difficult to treat, teach self-control, influence others, and also give an influx of vitality.

Most people are attracted to yoga by what they consider to be its external healing side – therapeutic poses, cold baths, cleansing enemas, special breathing techniques, and so on. The goal is to improve the functioning of internal organs and systems – digestion, potency, blood pressure, memory and other organs. The layman believes that one can ignore the worldview of yoga and at the same time recognize it as a unique system of physical and mental development. Modern yoga uses traditional Hindu gymnastics – hatha yoga, similar to the gymnastics of the Chinese and ancient Persians. There are also such trends as Raja yoga, mantra yoga, which are joined by "transcendental meditation", mystical Taoism, methods of Tibetan Buddhism, breathing techniques, and more.

What does this wisdom of sunny India mean?
Yoga is an integral part of the philosophical and religious teachings of ancient and medieval India. It is a system of exercises, methods and techniques, the purpose of which is not only to control the mental and physiological processes of the body, but also to ascend to a special spiritual state. Initially, yoga, with its system of psychophysical exercises, aimed to develop independence in the soul in relation to the body, so that after a person's death the soul would avoid reincarnation and dissolve into the primary faceless spiritual substance.

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Physical exercises developed in yoga are essentially religious rituals that open a person up to the Hindu "spirituality." Yoga exercises in their direct use are associated with occult meditations, and various yoga poses identify a person with animals or even objects (for example, the "cobra pose", "cow's head", "dog face down" and others). As a rule, special body movements, fixed postures, holding one's breath, chanting mantras, and visualization are used – a way of working with the imagination in which, closing one's eyes, one mentally draws an image in the dark and over time one sees the imaginary very vividly and clearly. Some poses excite the sexual centers, according to yoga teachers, this is necessary to take advantage of sexual energy, transform it and distribute it throughout the body for healing and vigor.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands that religious faith, morality, and external rituals and practices are deeply interconnected, so you cannot use any practice on its own without experiencing the influence of the spiritual essence that this practice expresses. Even external movements can contain a certain formula-a sign that informs the soul of the mood corresponding to the Indian religion. Indian-occult or Eastern systems offer their own psychotechnical techniques aimed at "expanding consciousness," "supersensible perception," and "opening up inner spaces." The true goal of all types of yoga is to reveal the hidden "divinity" in oneself, to merge with the primordial reality and thus reveal supernatural spiritual forces in oneself. Here is how the famous yoga apologist, who formally belonged to the Catholic Benedictine order, Frenchman Jean-Marie Deschanel, frankly admits in his book "Christian Yoga": "The goals of Indian yoga are spiritual. It can be equated to betrayal to forget this and preserve only the physical side of this spiritual teaching, when people see in it only a means to achieve bodily health and beauty. <...> The art of yoga consists in immersing oneself in complete silence, discarding all thoughts and illusions from oneself; rejecting and forgetting everything except one truth: the true essence of man is divine; she is God, the rest can only be dreamed of."1.
In Hinduism, many were attracted by the idea that man is divine in himself, that he has all the perfections that can be revealed using special techniques, and therefore, the difficult path to God through overcoming his passions, which Christianity offers, is not at all necessary. You just need to reveal your hidden divinity. It is interesting to note that one of the common mantra expressions in India is "so-ham, so-ham", that is, "I am Him, I am Him". As you know, the feeling of self–importance, self-sufficiency, combined with a feeling of euphoria - self-enjoyment, in Christian asceticism is called charm, that is, seduction, self-deception. Man thinks of himself as divine, but in reality he remains without God, but the dark forces flatter his pride by imitating divine perfections. This is a repetition of the ancient temptation to become "like the gods" (Gen. 3:5), to gain divine knowledge and powers, which an invisible seducer constantly whispers to man.

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Here is a real-life example that reflects the true background of Oriental practices. There is a woman in Sergiev Posad district who, having been baptized into Orthodoxy, became interested in Buddhism at some point. Moreover, she did not think at all that this somehow contradicted the Christian faith. Simply, having no experience of church life, and only occasionally turning to the prayer book, she did not feel a spiritual substitution. She was attracted by the moral truths of Buddhism – forgiveness, selflessness, rejection of any wishes, and liked their meditative practice, which seemed to bring long-awaited peace to the troubled soul.

The woman became more and more interested in Eastern spirituality, and, as it seemed to her at the time, had already achieved considerable success. One day, in a dream, she saw two venerable Buddhist mentors, mahatmas, who addressed her with these words: "You've already achieved a lot. But in order to achieve full perfection, you have only one thing left to do– to renounce Christ." In amazement, the woman asked: "But why is this necessary, because I believed that Christianity does not contradict Buddhism?" She, like many of our contemporaries, believed that different religions were different, but equal paths to God, while she revered Christ in her heart.

The woman intuitively felt that there was something wrong, alien and bad in this requirement. The night guests replied: "It's necessary to achieve full perfection." Probably, having become interested in Buddhism, she did not delve deeply into its philosophy, where the key place is occupied by renunciation of all desires and attachments, hence, attachment to Christ. "No," she said, "I can't renounce." "Oh," the visitors suddenly reacted, "then we'll torture you." At that moment, both assumed the eerie image of demons, and began throwing burning coals at the woman's head.

Of course, you can write off such a vision as just a nightmare. But the tortures themselves were perceived so vividly that the sufferer began to scream. Her own mother, hearing her daughter's screams, and seeing that something was wrong with her - some kind of terrible attack, and her daughter could not wake up – called an ambulance. The doctors tried unsuccessfully to give the patient an injection – the muscles were so tense that the needle could not penetrate inside. Through her sleepy tortures, the woman remembered a simple Christian prayer: "Lord, have mercy!" and the demons and their torments instantly disappeared. When she woke up, after drinking holy water, she realized that she needed to go to the temple for spiritual help. The priest, having delved into the woman's condition, recommended that she confess and receive communion weekly.

Gradually, her spiritual state improved, but one feature appeared after that night's event – from time to time the woman saw demons. One day she met a friend of hers, who began enthusiastically telling her that she was interested in Buddhism and that it was all interesting and healthy. The woman, who was wise from bitter experience, immediately wanted to warn her against such a hobby, but she was just about to open her mouth when she saw two cunning demons on the shoulders of the interlocutor, who deftly covered her ears and, grinning, as if they were saying: "Let's see what you can do." The woman realized that everything she was going to say would not reach her soul.

Indeed, people often get so carried away with oriental practices that no arguments are perceived by them, and only stuffed cones force them to reconsider their lives.
Unfortunately, many people nowadays believe that the teachings of Buddhism on a number of issues coincide with the Christian, for example, in overcoming passions, eradicating sinful desires, perfection, love for others and sacrifice. However, external similarities often hide the abyss into which anyone who wants to connect the incongruous in one leap falls and breaks. I would like to cite the reflections of Prince N. S. Trubetskoy, a researcher of the religions of India, on the external similarities and deep inner differences that are observed between Buddhism and Christianity: "The path to achieving nirvana was indicated by the Buddha in two ways. On the one hand, the psychophysical exercises of self-immersion, concentrated meditation, breath-holding, etc., are almost identical in techniques to the yoga system. But on the other hand, self–sacrifice and love for everything that exists. However, this second path is like a part of the first, a special psychophysical exercise. Love, mercy, compassion – all these are not feelings for a Buddhist, because feelings should not remain in his soul, but only the result, the consequence of the complete loss of a sense of his individuality and his personal desires: in such a mental state, it is worthless for a person to sacrifice himself for his neighbor, because, having no desire of his own, he Naturally, he easily fulfills the wishes of others. It is recommended that you suppress your will so much that you act solely according to the will of another person in the form of an exercise. Forgiveness is seen as a means of destroying feelings: indifference finds its end when a person treats an enemy in exactly the same way as a friend, when he is indifferent to joy and pain, to honor and dishonor."2. In other words, such a person is like a robot that has neither personality nor feelings, and therefore dispassionately executes any program inherent in it. Contrary to this, in Christianity, sacrifice, forgiveness, and love are based not on the suppression of desires in oneself, not on the destruction of a personal principle, but on the purity of a heart that has acquired God's grace. A soul that has found freedom from sin in God is happy to help others, she forgives and sacrifices because she loves – this is her innermost happiness.

Returning to yoga, we note that breathing exercises and body postures prepare a person for certain spiritual experiences. Let us repeat that the true purpose of yoga is religious and ascetic. The yogis themselves believe that at the highest stages of this ascetic practice, when all mental processes stop and a person reaches samadhi, that is, a state of concentration without content, the seeds of karma are "burned out" in him, and this frees him from a new rebirth, allows him to free himself from the body forever and cease to exist as a person. Here we see a cardinal divergence from Christianity, in which the personality is not destroyed, but transformed and reaches its highest self-expression in communion with God.

According to Christian teaching, in a soul united with God, the gifts given to a particular person are revealed. And even in the next age, after the universal resurrection, when "God will be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), the personality will not be destroyed, because, as the Scripture says, we will see God "face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12), that is, communion with God. – this is always a deeply personal communication, which is not depersonalized in the general conciliar prayer. This experience is more or less accessible to every Christian here and now. And in this personal encounter with God as Life, Love, and Joy, our own lives become more authentic, internally saturated, inspired, and vibrant.

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Meditation plays an essential role in yoga. Meditation (from Latin. meditatio is the inner concentration of the mind on a certain idea. The meditator mentally detaches himself from all external objects, striving for a certain mental state.
If prayer is an appeal to God, then meditation is a conversation with oneself, in fact, self–hypnosis. It is assumed that meditation awakens deep forces dormant in the depths of the meditator's soul, and such a person becomes capable, for example, of clairvoyance. If in Christianity there is a wise act and prayer of Jesus, in which a Christian turns with all his being to God and His mercy, then in occultism and Eastern practices, through meditation, a person searches for a secret passage leading to spiritual perfection. In Hindu meditation, a person strives for identity with the absolute and, reaching a trance, comes to the feeling that he is one with the deity, or rather, that the primordial divinity is revealed in himself.

Meditation, as an experience of non-Christian religious and mystical practice, naturally entails spiritual states outside of Christ and without communion of His grace. Sooner or later, it may seem to such a person that he himself becomes a conductor of higher revelations, carrying a special mission on earth. I recall the example of the Indian poet and mystic, one of the founders of Bengali Krishnaism, Chondidasha (XIV–XV centuries), who from a young age was ordained a priest of the goddess Durga. Being a representative of the highest caste of brahmins, Chondidash fell in love with a woman of the lowest caste, a simple laundress Rami. For a brahmin, the preservation of caste purity is a sacred duty. Chondidash sought a solution to his personal problem in meditation and an inner appeal to the goddess Durga. In this activity, he began to contemplate his beloved, and in such meditations, Chondidash gained confidence that he himself was a manifestation of the spirit of Krishna, and Rami was the embodiment of Krishna's beloved cowherd Radha. Chondidash himself believed that the goddess Durga had revealed this secret to him. This is how occult spiritual practice culminates in occult revelations.
Do yoga and meditation practices have any effect on people? Representatives of these practices often testify that yoga balances internal forces and calms the nervous system. But as a result, a person's soul stops hurting. He does not feel any contradictions in his soul, and does not feel the need to confess his sins. Thus, the tranquility achieved through yoga and meditation deprives a person of the opportunity to repent of his sins and free himself from them. A person has achieved spiritual comfort, but in the depths of his soul there are still unconfessed sins that he does not remember. In fact, mental instability in our real life can be an indicator that suggests that we should hurry to the temple for the Sacraments, repent before God, correct ourselves, and yoga with meditative practice deprive the soul of this indicator.

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As for the seemingly obvious physical benefits of yoga, this is a common misconception. The benefits of the simplest yoga exercises are no more observed than from all other physical education complexes. Yoga, if practiced seriously, is harmful to health, and the idea that Indian yogis live a long time and do not suffer from serious illnesses is deeply incorrect. In the 1980s, universal medical examinations were conducted in India, which showed that yogis live on average even less than an ordinary Indian and suffer from many diseases. For example, the upper respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract, because every day they clean the nasopharynx with tourniquets and make enemas for themselves, and over time the mucous membrane in the nasal cavity and intestines collapses; dislocations of joints, arthritis and arthrosis due to frequent exposure to unnatural poses; cataracts of the eyes, because they often focus on The sun. There were many people suffering from chronic venereal diseases.

Since yoga focuses on rebuilding the body and its rhythms, this can disrupt biological processes in such a way that the psychosomatic disorder becomes irreversible, and no doctor will be able to understand what happened to the person.

In conclusion, it should be said that in all mystical-occult systems, practices and meditations, one can find any kind of reflections, thoughts, ideas, except for one thing – there is no repentance in them. Christianity testifies that as the soul approaches God, a person sees his imperfection and lack of self-sufficiency more and more clearly. Therefore, the experience of approaching God confirms humility, repentance and love in a Christian. Thanks to this, the pure, sincere joy of union with the Lord, Who sees, hears and loves you, is possible. The Eastern mystical experience rejects the personal God, and therefore strives to overcome the personality of man in samadha or nirvana, gives the experience of dissolving his individuality in the ocean of the impersonal. Having not met a personal God, a person in Eastern mysticism naturally tends to personal death.

Source: https://pravoslavie.ru/67749.html

Casey Claar

27th September 2025, 22:57

Wow.

I am sort of speechless. But I will say this:

The word YOGA means to "yoke", to UNITE.

The union is (by way of experience ) of The Supreme Self with the personal self. It is a system that is suggesting from the beginning that there is no fundamental separation between The Supreme and personal self. It encourages one to glean and experience this by way of meditation--a purity and stillness of mind that allows one the direct experience of fundamental reality. I say this as someone with extensive experience in meditation, not someone who is outside of it looking onward with fear. Someone who has experienced, through a pure-and-still-mind, seeing through layers of the illusion that a great many never will (due to fear). There is only ONE CONSCIOUSNESS, we are all within it, IT is what is being all of us ... everyone and every thing. As the Vedantan's say "One without a second". A fascinating concise little stanza with the potential to be life altering. It has been for me.

When most people in the West think of yoga they are thinking in terms of Raja ( or Hatha ) Yoga.

This system has 8 limbs:

Yama (right/beneficial action/behavior)
Niyama (unbeneficial action/behavior)
Asana (right posture)
Pranayama (command of the breath and energy system)
Pratyahara (a consciousness state fairly equivalent with peace)
Dharana (contemplation)
Dyana (meditation. stillness)
Samadhi (liberation)

Yes, when one begins to wake they become "brighter". Yes, this does make this one more visible and in a sense, sometimes more feared. Yes, there are those who do attack what they fear. Yes, sometimes the attacks are with honey rather than fists. Yes, the awakening one has to navigate this successfully to get beyond where it occurs. Yes, those who are not yet ready, should begin where they are before venturing further.

I have endeavored to be succinct. I hope someone finds it helpful.

Casey

arjunaloka_official

27th September 2025, 23:37

Bill Ryan

28th September 2025, 00:45

lunaflare

28th September 2025, 03:36

Casey Claar

28th September 2025, 05:16

Sadly,

All too often in our world there is a movement, and even rush, toward misunderstanding, rather than a genuine inclination toward true understanding.

Judgment, bias and fear stand stand in the way of the latter, and, of course, therefore, any real growth toward equanimity and union.

Russian Bear

28th September 2025, 07:11

Nice posts, Russian Bear. I'm no expert on Hinduism or yoga. Nevertheless, I have a few spontaneous questions:

Yoga (...) lacks God, lacks a desire to know him

Is that true? As you write, the yogi in Hinduism strives for moksha. Moksha is union with the divine—so can we really say they don't want to know God? In Hinduism, the divine concept has several (probably hundreds, if not more) aspects. One approach is the concept of the Trimurti: There is Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector), and Shiva (the Destroyer)—these are personal aspects of the divine that emanate from Brahman, the ultimately ineffable source of the divine, which is described as "neti, neti" (not this, not that). That doesn't sound too implausible, because attempting to describe God as a human seems rather ambitious, doesn't it?

The Russian Bear answers:

All religions do not lead to one God. There is only one path that leads to God: Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6

Yoga invites you to know false gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
Psalm 96:5

Here's what I think: Yoga leads you into various sins: 1) it simply makes you an idolater 2) it makes a person into the likeness of God (Buddha) This is already the fall of satan himself, that man thinks that he can do something on his own, and generally become like God.

No awareness of one's own sinfulness;
Yoga means neither repentance nor remorse for one's own actions;

Hinduism uses the concept of karma, which, simply put, means "input = output". Therefore, those who have "bad" karma are reborn. From this perspective, aren't Hindus very aware of their sinfulness? Shouldn't they strive for (karmic) balance? Isn't this balance exactly what Jesus recommends – see Matthew 7:12:
"Therefore, whatever you want others to do to you, do also to them. This is what the Law and the Prophets consist of."

Isn't this approach essentially called Karma Yoga in Hinduism? Doesn't this approach require a very precise ability to distinguish between good and evil?
Other approaches include Hatha Yoga (the "athletic" approach) or Jnana Yoga (which focuses more on learning, contemplation, reasoning, and meditation), and there are many more.

The Russian Bear answers:
There is no repentance for sins in yoga. Some schools of yoga speak of repentance, but their concept is far removed from the Christian understanding of this concept.

Yoga practices asceticism with the goal of subordinating one's physical nature to oneself, to one's "I," rather than to God.

The doctrine of karma and the concept of repentance have different roots and are not consistent in yoga and Orthodox Christianity.

Karma is a concept rooted in Eastern religions and philosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Broadly speaking, karma is the law of cause and effect, which states that every action, thought, and intention of a person influences their future.

In yoga, the concept of karma is linked to the idea that whatever a person does will have consequences for them—either good or bad. If a person is destined for another incarnation, the "quality" of that incarnation will depend on how they lived their previous life.

In Orthodoxy, the concept of karma in its classical Eastern meaning is not recognized. In Christianity, the soul lives only once, after which it goes to Judgment and is destined for heaven or hell. God's grace is more important than "merit." Salvation is possible through repentance, faith, and God's mercy, and not merely through the accumulation of good deeds. But even without good deeds, hope alone won't save you—it's a double-edged sword. Trust in mercy and good deeds play an important role. However, we should attribute good deeds not to ourselves but to God. For without God, we are nothing!

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
James 2:26

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8,9)

The words of Christ: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Thus, the doctrine of karma and the concept of repentance have different approaches and foundations, and they cannot be combined within a single context, as they correspond to different religious and philosophical systems.

I'd also like to add something about karma:

In Orthodoxy, there's a "law of the boomerang," established by God: a person receives back what they do. If a person does something good, it can come back to them double or triple, and if something bad happens, that too can come back.

Some Bible quotes that may be related to this principle:
"For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7).
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you mete, it will be measured to you again" (Matthew 7:2).
"I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:5-6).

Orthodoxy lacks the concept of automatic retribution that occurs independently of God. Divine Providence operates in the world, and it is God, as a reasonable, good, and just Judge, who knows exactly how and to whom to repay a person's deeds. He can also cancel retribution if a person repents.

“I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22)

Or cancel the retribution of a sinner, since he will still go to hell for his sins and he will not repent. He may die within a year.

If a person has not received retribution for his sins on earth, he will receive it in the afterlife.

Deuteronomy 30:19 also says: "I call heaven and earth to testify against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live."

Sin is a curse and death for the soul; repentance is life and salvation for the soul.

Every person will receive their own reward for their labors. The more sinful a person is in hell, the greater the torment they experience. The more righteous and virtuous a person is, the more joyful he will be in Heaven. Each person will receive their own reward according to their deeds.

Through meditation, one releases spiritual entities (demons) from one's body. These entities can grant one various abilities, but at the same time, they can completely distance one from salvation and the true God.

Meditation (in Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age) aims to empty the mind or merge with the cosmos, thereby opening the soul to demonic influences.

Does "cleansing the mind" really aim to invite demons, or is it not rather the exact opposite: the elimination of demons that are already attached to us and constantly speaking to us? Isn't it more about silencing these demonic voices (which Gnostics call archontic and some Native Americans call "wetiko") in order to gain clarity about the true Divine by cleansing the vessel of possession? Don't get me wrong—I think prayer is an effective way to get closer to God. I just wonder if it's the only way.

I agree that one must be very careful with channeling and do NOT recommend it. However, channeling is not the same as meditation—in channeling, you actively seek connection with spiritual entities.

The Russian Bear answers:
In Orthodoxy, meditation (It is correct to say prayer, since meditation and prayer are completely different words and the concepts embedded in them) is associated with spiritual concentration, centered on the living God—Christ.

In yoga, meditation is associated with purifying the consciousness and detaching oneself from the world outside of communion with God. This leads you to false sources where the true God is absent. And where God and grace are absent, demonic entities take over, helping you achieve your goal. And these entities are the cause of negative, irreversible processes.

They promise freedom to such, but they themselves are slaves to destruction, for everyone becomes a slave to the one who conquers them.
2 Peter 2:19

Prayer is the fruit of a personal relationship between a person and God. He who does not believe in God as a Person cannot pray.

Every person must know himself, that he is nothing. Almighty God Himself cannot save someone who does not know themselves, even though He desires to save them.

Man by himself is incapable of anything without God.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
Matthew 6:27

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better off than they?
Commentary on Matthew 6:26

So, thinking that a person can become like God through spiritual practices is a lie. Buddha, who is worshiped and believed to have achieved greatness and become like God, is also a lie. A demon possessed his soul, and through this, he deceived many people. That is the essence of his self-knowledge.

"The art of yoga consists in immersing yourself in complete silence, discarding all thoughts and illusions, and rejecting and forgetting everything except one truth: the true nature of man is divine."

I agree that the Christian perspective that salvation is possible (only) through the grace of the Lord is probably more realistic, given the multiple temptations of duality. In this sense, Hinduism seems a bit cold because it places all the responsibility for achieving the balance required for moksha, salvation, on one's own shoulders.

Still, I would argue that in Hinduism, one must overcome one's passions. Isn't it actually a side effect of achieving spiritual balance (in Hinduism) that one gains control over the so-called siddhis, one of which is "anūrmimattvam"—unbothered by hunger, thirst, and other bodily desires?

Another side effect of this is "tiikālajñatvam": the knowledge of past, present, and future—which you describe as clairvoyance. Didn't Christian prophets (who are holy, which basically means their spiritual balance is above average) also have this ability?

Finally, I personally wouldn't overestimate the Mahavakyas (the four great sayings). You're right, one of them is "Aham Brahmasmi." And indeed, this means "I am Brahman," and you're right that this might be a bit misleading, as one might think he or she is actually identical with the Lord. My interpretation is that this rather reflects the idea that one is "a part" of the Divine. However, I am not entirely sure whether the Bible would stand up to such a test - would it not be possible to also find misleading passages in the Bible?

Peace be with you, Russian Bear!

The Russian Bear answers:
Orthodoxy teaches that a person cannot conquer passions without God, because passions are the result of demonic influence that penetrates the human soul and destroys it.

According to this teaching, each passion is shaped by a specific demon, and dependence on this demon makes a person captive to the corresponding vice. The struggle with passions must be rational, as a person is struggling with a force that is in many ways superior to them.

Furthermore, victory over passions is only possible under certain conditions: a person must recognize their own weakness, repent, humble themselves, and turn to God for forgiveness.

It is also believed that it often happens that, by abandoning one passion, a person becomes consumed by another, and one passion drives out the other.

Thus, according to Orthodox teaching, victory over passions is possible only with God's help and under certain spiritual conditions.

Some prophets are from the devil, and some are from God. How can we understand what spirit a prophet is? There are Edgar Cayce, Baba Vanga, Wolf Messing, and others... But how can we understand who is from God? The Bible gives us the answers:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God.
Commentary on 1 John 4:15

By their fruits you will know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
Commentary on Matthew 7:16

Also, all biblical prophecies have either been fulfilled or will be fulfilled in the future. Everything the prophets foretold from God is coming to pass.

For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.
Amos 3:7

Our Orthodox prophets emerged from the Orthodox Church and preached about Jesus Christ, repentance for sins, and salvation—what the Church and God teach us.

Prophecies are given so that people do not lose and repent before difficult times and death does not take them by surprise, so that they are vigilant, so that they are strengthened in trials, so that people believe in God.

Everything in the Bible is true; no one has rewritten it or changed it many times. God ensured that it reached us in its current form for our salvation. This is a separate topic; anyone interested can explore it further if time permits.

Thank you for your comment, it helped me understand your thinking better.

I'm not a priest either, just an ordinary Orthodox Christian. I'm answering to the best of my knowledge; priests do this, they graduate from theological seminaries... So my answer may be rather weak and may not answer all of your questions. Please keep this in mind. And I was pleased to respond to your comment. God bless you!

And don't forget that satan himself takes the form of a bright angel and the appearance of light:

And no wonder: for Satan himself takes the form of an angel of light,
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:14

Russian Bear

28th September 2025, 07:46

Wow.Wow indeed. :)

We have over 100,000 Avalon threads on literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of different issues, and quite a large number of those are about what could loosely be regarded as esoteric topics — ranging from Judaism, to reincarnation, to ET experiences, to Christianity, to near-death experiences, to astral travel, to Biblical history, to scientology, to remote viewing, to telepathy, to breatharianism, to spiritual healing, to dream interpretation, to astrology, to Buddhism, to appearances of the Virgin Mary, to apparent personal glimpses of future events... and that's just the start. (Yes, meditation and yoga too. :))

There are some of those topics about which I have relatively little knowledge, and others about which I feel I know quite a bit. (Many other members might describe themselves in much the same way.) My own position is that discussion on all these topics is valuable, contributing to our extremely extensive library from which we can all learn if we wish.

In all those discussions on esoterica that members have had over the years, I'm not aware right now of anyone who's disrespectfully and dogmatically flatly dismissed anyone else's views, experiences, practices, or profound beliefs. We're a pretty tolerant community in that way.

There are disagreements sometimes, for sure, on politics, geopolitics, culture, and some aspects of history. But regarding religion, profound personal experiences, and discussion of others' personal experiences, I think it's safe to say that we just usually listen carefully with interest and respect.

So this thread isn't a very good example of the values which I feel the Avalon community embodies pretty well. I, for one, would never dismiss or disrespect Orthodox Christianity. I doubt that any other members would either, whatever their personal experiences or beliefs. Maybe you could return that respect and tolerance by being a little less dogmatic and intolerant yourself.

:flower:

Look, I said right away that I'm answering from the perspective of an Orthodox Christian. Russia is, at its core, an Orthodox state. We're a vast country with a vast and diverse population. People of various views—Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants—but the Orthodox are the most prominent, historically speaking.

I respect everyone and their views. By the way, where do you see me offending anyone? I merely expressed the essence of an Orthodox Christian's view of spiritual matters, and every Orthodox Christian will tell you the same. We simply cannot do otherwise. For example, if someone has cancer, I won't lie to them and say they're healthy. The person thinks that everything is fine with him. Otherwise, I'll simply lie to them, and they'll die. I'll be responsible for their death and an accomplice in this deception. I must tell them the truth, even if they're offended. I must tell them they're sick and need to take these pills, and then they'll help them... Yes, for an Orthodox Christian, only Orthodoxy offers salvation, and it is the true path. All others lead to destruction. The Church is a ship. Jesus Christ is its captain. I am telling you this again from the Church's perspective. Everyone makes a choice in this life. I do not condemn those who make a different choice. But for me, it will not be salvific; I can only pray for such a person.

To better understand the Orthodox, you need to learn more about this.

For example, we cannot pray together with Catholics or Protestants; they are heretics to us. Because they distort God's true teaching, and we view the same things differently. We can't sing the same song with them, because we sing different songs. Orthodox Christians can only pray with Orthodox Christians. If I pray with a Catholic, I commit the sin of ecumenism.

We pray for them and thereby show them love; we wish for their souls to be saved. We are also obligated to treat them with love, as we would any neighbor. This doesn't mean they are bad people. It means that their choice is not salutary for us and to them. After all, God has nothing to do with lies.

"It is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18).

"The Lord hates lying lips" (Proverbs 12:22).

"A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not escape" (Proverbs 19:5).

"And no defilement, nor anyone who practices abomination or lies, will enter it (the Kingdom of Heaven)" (Revelation 21:27).

"No lie is of the truth" (1 John 2:21).

"All unrighteousness is sin" (John 5:17).

Why Orthodoxy is the true faith. Alexey Osipov: https://orthochristian.com/7174.html

I shared the official Orthodox sources that the Church teaches us. We also submit to the Church and don't have our own opinions (We have the opinion of the Bible and the Church, the Holy Fathers). We have the Bible, the Holy Fathers, and a personal spiritual father. Believe me, this thread has its uses for making people think.

I didn't say anything bad about anyone or insult their philosophy or faith. I called a spade a spade. And by the way, many may disagree with me here, and I will take that into account. God gave each person freedom of choice, for which each person will later answer before God, and for every word they say.

And of course, it's no secret that everything you listed above is a sin for the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Christians (all these spiritual practices and so on, occultism...)

But I don't force or coerce anyone, nor do I forbid them from making any choices. We simply communicate to think. I respect everyone here, but being afraid to express your thoughts openly and politely and to say that I disagree with them isn't an insult. There are different views on the same things. I simply encourage you to think and thus arrive at the truth. Let everyone think for themselves. Ultimately, "A drowning man must save himself."

When I served in the army with Muslims, everyone understood and adhered to their own views. Yes, there were religious discussions. But everyone truly held their own opinions. Everyone understood perfectly well how each other thought. And we communicated amicably, knowing that we believe in different Gods.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6

I served in the same unit with Chechens and Yakuts. Yakuts are generally Buddhists. I also interact with a wide variety of people and know what I'm talking about. I've even had dealings with witches. They recounted the pernicious consequences of the occult demonic world, which had drained them of all their strength and nearly led to their deaths. They even showed off their altars. I know what forces control what. The Bible is a sieve that filters out all untruth.

It's a matter of views, personal choice. But there is only one truth. To find it, you must seek Bon with all your heart. Read the history of the church, explore the origins of everything. And then God will lead you to Himself. And ultimately, you will become an Orthodox Christian based on historical, archaeological, and spiritual (mystical) facts. I repeat: ultimately, it is you who decides what choice to make.

I'll also add that religion is like politics. Every religion disagrees with something.

The first revolutionary in the Kingdom of Heaven was satan, and he created a new party and wanted to create a new government. Now there are two parties. But there is only one path to salvation, no matter how many parties are created.

For us, the topic of salvation is a very important topic; we are ready to die for our Orthodox faith! When the Russian Empire existed, the main slogan was: For the Faith! Tsar and Fatherland! Faith always comes first. And when this question arises, it's about the salvation and life of the soul. Nothing is more important. There can be no tolerance here. You must be honest and speak your mind directly, not hypocritical or deceitful. By the way, do you have any Orthodox churches in your city? You can come to the service and simply stand, listen to the liturgy and prayers; it's not prohibited. If you want.

mh6gDeuuuss

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2c/54/2b/2c542b7315675d58d03fe71fc8122acf.jpg

Comrade! The war is waged not only on the Earthly front, but also on the Spiritual!

I know many stories of demons appearing to people and tormenting them. I'd tell you more about my life and these stories, but I don't think I have the time yet...

Russian Bear

28th September 2025, 08:11

Thanks for the posts.
There are so many things in this world that create separation. This is the "right" way. It feels limiting. There can be many ways, surely...

I can respect the teachings of Orthodox Christianity--cultivating a connection to God without a human intermediary; Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

I came to Yoga later in my life due to health reasons. It has helped me become more flexible; physically and mentally. It has helped with dizziness and vertigo. I like the softly lit class and the way my brain fires up doing different sequences. I like that no class is the "same". I appreciate the people who smile hello each morning, and there is no need to talk. I feel prayerful. I feel connected.

What I am thinking right now, as I tap these keys, is that at the end of this life (in our bodies) we all take the final resting pose; corpse pose; savasana.

God told John the Baptist to baptize. Who baptizes a man? He's also a man. You are already being baptized through an intermediary; that's how God arranged it.
John the Baptist also performed repentance and says: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Commentary on Matthew 3:2

And they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Matthew 3:6

You would be independent if you baptized yourself, performed all the sacraments yourself, and you wouldn't need a church; you're on your own.
You wouldn't need people to perform the sacraments.
God established priesthood, this was already in the Old Testament, He established these sacraments, nothing has changed. God did not destroy the Old Testament, He only made it perfect.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Matthew 5:17

There is a church history that is impossible to go against; you alone will not be saved.

The Holy Fathers strove to acquire the gifts of the Holy Spirit (to fill their souls with the grace of the Holy Spirit), that is, to receive Divine grace, preserve it, and save it from toxic impurities, false teachings, and sinful defilement.

At the same time, the Holy Fathers warned that seeking "high" spiritual states through prayer, or special sensations, is not only unhelpful but also dangerous. Acquiring the Spirit requires, above all, deep humility and an awareness of one's own weakness without Christ.

Some Holy Fathers, such as St. Ephraim the Syrian, believed that grace is poured out equally upon each person and upon the entire created world. Blessed Cyprian of Carthage said: "The generously poured out grace of the Spirit is not constrained by any boundaries; it flows unceasingly, enriching beyond measure."

A person consists of three things: 1) the Body (the material shell is like a house for the soul), 2) the Soul (your individual spiritual shell that lives in the body), and 3) a spirit dwells in the soul—this can be either an evil spirit or the Holy Spirit of the Lord. You are only a recipient. The more evil a person is, the more evil spirit they possess, and the more they have displaced God from their soul.

Verses 28-29: And when He had arrived on the other side of the river, into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one dared pass that way. And behold, they cried out, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, thou Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"
Commentary on Matthew 8:28

And if the evil spirit is cast out of the soul through repentance, this is what will happen:

Verses 43-45 When an unclean spirit is gone out from a man, he passes through a dry place, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, "I will return to my house from whence I departed." And when he comes, he finds himself empty, dirty, and garbled. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last things of that man will be worse than the first. So will it be also to this evil generation.
Commentary on Matthew 12:43

This is what happens in the spiritual world, I once saw this cartoon, but it's true
EL4CrvG4heo

In Orthodoxy, even a great sinner who spent 30 years as a prostitute can become a great ascetic and saint, and great holy grace from the Lord will dwell in her heart. This story really happened, and even the rock where she lived remains in the same place:
BBXvDuNElB8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Egypt

Rejoice always in the Lord; and again I say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4

Ernie Nemeth

28th September 2025, 15:25

God is. That is all that can be said about the Creator of Worlds.
Reality is with God, not with God's creations.

No invention, idea, or human context can ever supercede that fact.

We live a lie, and we die for it too.
We are death; we must die to live.

This world, this universe, this reality is not the kingdom of God.
In fact, where we are does not exist.
The dead do not live, and do not experience reality.

The dead sleep. In their stupor they dream. What can the dead dream but fantasy?

Where your circles end, God's begin.

Beyond your fantasy is where God resides.

The body of Christ is a singular concept.
We are all a part of the One Host.
Together we are One.

Which means our fantasy of a life lived singular and alone is the lie.
We are dead to our own reality.

There is not many, there is only The One.
The Christ.

What we "see" is merely perception - vision based on belief.
When our vision is corrected we no longer "perceive", we actually see for the first time.

When we see through the eyes of Christ we see only God.

I perceive that we all have a long way to go yet...all of us.

Matthew

28th September 2025, 19:29

Russian Bear

28th September 2025, 20:08

You chose the right verse. Luke 12:51-53 Jesus said: "Do you think I came to bring peace to the earth? No, I'm telling you, but separation."

The Lord even says such words

"I have not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I have come to divide a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law" (Mt 10:34-36)

By the way, I published an article about fortune-telling that you mentioned.
96) Tarot card reading is a sin before God
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130443-Orthodoxy--Spiritual-questions-and-answers-stories-testimonies-discussions&p=1686969&viewfull=1#post1686969

I think there will be people on this forum who will say that Christianity as a whole is not tolerant of people. It's crazy already.

In general, it's nice to know that at least some Christians are here.

Yes, there are good people on the forum, but I don't think they understand us.

Matthew 3:12 - King James Version (KJV)
<12> Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

shaberon

28th September 2025, 21:02

arjunaloka_official

28th September 2025, 22:32

Thanks for your answers, Russian Bear!

Let me comment:

"For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7)

Isn't that a very karmic statement?

Also, all biblical prophecies have either been fulfilled or will be fulfilled in the future. Everything the prophets foretold from God is coming to pass.

Are there any exceptions? Jonah is sent by God to predict Nineveh, but God ultimately solves the city because its citizens regret. Isn't the prophet wrong?

Another question: Would you consider it accidental that there is a similarity in the words in Hinduism and Christianity? Some examples:

Hinduism:
- Krishna
- Atman (Sanskrit, meaning: soul/self/essence) and Jiva (Sanskrit, meaning: life), represented by two birds sitting in a tree
- Brahma and his wife, Sarasvati

Christianity:
- Christ
- Adam and Eve, eating from a tree
- Abraham and his wife, Sarah

Would you rule out that there was a connection from Hinduism to Judaism to Christianity, in which the human understanding of the Lord has developed?

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 09:12

Thanks for your answers, Russian Bear!

Let me comment:

"For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7)

Isn't that a very karmic statement?

The Russian Bear answers:
NO. Spiritual laws were created by God; they can be called by various names, but if you compare karma and divine punishment, they work differently. The truth is, as I already said, God controls punishments. A person can commit evil and mistakes, but if a person repents of their sins before God and asks for forgiveness, the Lord will have mercy on them and will not punish them for their sins. People have noticed this mechanism—that evil and good return—and have distorted the term "divine punishment" or "blessing" on karma, even introducing their own distorted ideas.
God said in the Bible that such laws exist and how they work.

Also, all biblical prophecies have either been fulfilled or will be fulfilled in the future. Everything the prophets foretold from God is coming to pass.

Are there any exceptions? Jonah is sent by God to predict Nineveh, but God ultimately solves the city because its citizens regret. Isn't the prophet wrong?

The Russian Bear answers:
NO. No, the prophet Jonah was not wrong, for God truly sent him with a prophecy of Nineveh's doom if its inhabitants did not repent.

However, the Ninevites' repentance was so strong and sincere that God regretted the disaster He had promised to bring upon them and pardoned them.

Jonah, however, was grieved that divine judgment had not been carried out on the city and mourned this before the Lord. He probably thought he would now be considered a false prophet.

The story of the prophet Jonah demonstrates God's mercy and His desire for the salvation of all people.

Do you know why God doesn't reveal the year or date of the Apocalypse? No one knows, not even the angels, but only the Heavenly Father! Because the end of the world depends on the repentance of people from their hearts. Evil increasingly subjugates people's hearts, so when evil gains the upper hand, it will create favorable conditions for the rise of the Antichrist—which is already happening. People are drifting further and further away from the Lord. But the gospel will still be preached throughout the world by Orthodox Russia. There are predictions to this effect from Greek, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox elders.

There will be wars and a third world war.

Another question: Would you consider it accidental that there is a similarity in the words in Hinduism and Christianity? Some examples:

Hinduism:
- Krishna
- Atman (Sanskrit, meaning: soul/self/essence) and Jiva (Sanskrit, meaning: life), represented by two birds sitting in a tree
- Brahma and his wife, Sarasvati

Christianity:
- Christ
- Adam and Eve, eating from a tree
- Abraham and his wife, Sarah

Would you rule out that there was a connection from Hinduism to Judaism to Christianity, in which the human understanding of the Lord has developed?

The Russian Bear answers:
NO. Buddhism was greatly influenced by the preaching of Christianity in the East at the very dawn of the Christian era. In the 19th century, Buddhism was viewed as a preparatory stage for conversion to Orthodoxy.

The devil can't invent anything of his own; he only takes something from God and distorts it, like a spider, to destroy more souls and deceive. He takes Truth and lies and mixes them into one. And people, seeing part of the truth, also believe the lies.

Thank you for your comment. I'm not a priest, but I'll do my best to answer all your questions.

Losus4

29th September 2025, 10:08

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 10:34

My objection is that as Buddhists, we enjoy a favorable relationship with the Tsars from the 1700s.

If we were seen as demons, that could not have happened.

Russian social unity was created by Mongolia and contains the Buddhist republic Buryatia.

Moreover, Orthodoxy is not a centralizing force like the Pope. It can't issue some decree that is auto-applied in every diocese.

Therefor, if there is a minority extremist trend that is obsessed with a Big Devil, it can't exactly stop that either. So, yes, it has had bands of witch hunters and the like, but it cannot become a crusade.

Since there is no way the Temple of Jerusalem was responding to "yoga", nothing about that can be canonical. So it must have been invented by someone at a later time. In this case, much later.

The canonical argument of it is that everyone else who has dipped their fingers in the same scriptures, the Pope and the Protestants, are people who just make their own opinions about the Bible and promote a false representation, which is the Anti-Christ. The primary mission of it is to bring in those seekers who are attracted by these "opinions" to come to their true home. I will freely assist in this, although I refuse to join it.

It's a kind of handshake that says I consider it none of my business what kind of liturgy and service they want to do in private in their free time. I respect that. I just do things differently. It just doesn't consist in scolding them and dwelling upon a sad fate or something like that. The challenge to an Orthodox is you must understand God's love applies equally to every being, and it is not your place to harp on their judgment or state of being, but to offer the source of salvation.

Similarly, I have a lot of stuff that I cannot say represents Buddhism, which I have to specify as a certain trend or teaching within that broader umbrella. I would suggest that the topics posted here be re-packaged as a properly-named philosophy with a definite origin, rather than something canonical.

The Russian Bear answers:

You say:

My objection is that as Buddhists, we enjoy a favorable relationship with the Tsars from the 1700s.

If we were seen as demons, that could not have happened.
And no wonder: for satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light,
2 Corinthians 11:14

The baptism of Rus into the Orthodox faith is the basis of the spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples

Orthodoxy united the Russian princes in several ways:
Creation of a single faith. The common Orthodox faith, which taught love for one's neighbor, became a unifying factor, capable of uniting princes and isolated principalities into a single state.

Strengthening international authority. Thanks to Christianization, Rus' ceased to be considered a barbaric and savage country, and the country's international prestige began to grow.

Development of dynastic, trade, economic, and cultural ties. Rus' entered the circle of Christian states, which opened up broad diplomatic and trade opportunities.

Changing social norms. Christianity brought a new moral model to the country: ideas of mercy, protection of the weak, and the unity of the people before God, which gradually changed social norms.

Support for unification policies. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Russian Orthodox Church played an important role in uniting the Russian lands around Moscow, supporting the unification policies of the Muscovite rulers and helping them overcome feudal turmoil.

The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Unification of Rus'
The Emergence of Outstanding Church Figures, Beacons of Morality and Patriotism in Rus'
The Russian Orthodox Church played a major role in the unification of Russian lands around Moscow and in Rus''s struggle against foreign invaders during this period. This was evident in the fact that church leaders—metropolitans and leaders of major monasteries—provided powerful moral support to the Moscow princes, spared no expense in organizing the Russian army, and inspired Russian princes, military commanders, and ordinary soldiers to defend their native lands.

Acting as Peacemakers. Metropolitans often acted as peacemakers in princely feuds, calling for truces and unification (If it weren't for the Orthodox faith, the Russians of the Tsar would never have united and would have killed each other in wars without uniting the country. We would also have been destroyed by other countries if the Orthodox faith hadn't protected us. Jesus Christ created Russia).

The Russian state united peoples with different faiths, including pagans and Christians.

The state sought to convert peoples who retained pagan beliefs to Christianity. This was done non-violently. Benefits and privileges were introduced for those who voluntarily converted to Orthodoxy. The peoples of Siberia were primarily converted to Christianity: the Mordvins, Chuvash, Khanty, Mansi, and others.

A policy of religious tolerance was pursued for the peoples annexed to Russia who professed Islam. These were primarily the peoples of the Volga region, which was sometimes unstable. Muslims were allowed to build mosques in their communities.

At the same time, the dissemination of any religion other than Orthodoxy was prohibited. Every subject of the Russian Empire had to belong to one religion or another; non-religious affiliation was not tolerated.

Thus, already in the early stages of the existence of Russian civilization, its characteristic feature became multi-confessionalism, the coexistence of various religions.

Nothing has changed for us Russians since then. We have our own opinions. But at the same time, we don't infringe on anyone's rights. We respect everyone. But we will always speak our minds directly, without any tolerance. And we will do so without offending or hurting anyone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that there should be no countries "more equal" than all others in the world. "The world must be multipolar, and this means that all participants in international relations must have equal rights," the head of state said.

Russia proposes creating a single and indivisible security structure in Eurasia, not only for NATO and its allies, but for all countries on the continent — Sergey Lavrov

Let me tell you a little Russian history:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/13/b2/80/13b280787381d375ffcf7f68553bd027.jpg
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_652502c638bb2b7277dfdb4b_652502de80930e53198327a9/scale_1200

The role of the Venerable Orthodox Saint Sergius of Radonezh in the unification of the Russian lands in the 14th century

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b8/23/17/b823173094bfd8ea524b9f218842b2dc.jpg
Sergei of Radonezh, Saint of All Russia
https://pravoslavie.ru/49093.html

The weakening of Rus' and the emergence of civil strife among the appanage princes began as early as the 11th century, when the great princes of Kyiv divided their possessions among their sons. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, our homeland experienced not only civil wars but also invasions by external Western enemies, as well as enslavement by the Golden Horde.

The weakening of Rus' was also facilitated by the position of the princes, many of whom even profited from it. The princes denounced each other to the Horde and used Mongol power to wage war against each other. Rus' lost a leader it could look up to and follow. The Russian Orthodox Church assumed this leadership. Metropolitans and governors of major monasteries provided spiritual support to the Moscow princes and spared no expense in organizing the Russian army. The clergy inspired Russian princes, military commanders, and ordinary soldiers to defend their native lands.

The person who had the greatest influence on Russian life in the 14th century was St. Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392). He was the first abbot in Rus' to organize a monastery on a new, communal basis: unlike the previous cell-based monasteries, all monks now lived in a single, communal household and had no personal property. Sergius called upon them to live in brotherhood, love, and service to one another. Through the example of his monastery, the saint showed the entire homeland how to live as a Christian. All of Rus' knew Sergius' name, and his voice was heeded by both the Grand Duke and every peasant. According to one contemporary, St. Sergius could influence even the most hardened and bitter hearts with his "quiet and gentle words," and he often reconciled feuding princes, persuading them to submit to the Grand Prince of Moscow.

Here are a few examples. In 1358, St. Sergius traveled to his hometown of Rostov to persuade Prince Constantine of Rostov never to oppose Moscow or support its enemies. Soon, Constantine handed Rostov over to his nephew Andrei, who became a loyal ally of Moscow, and he himself retired to Ustyug.

In 1364, the peacemaker set out again, to Nizhny Novgorod. The saint attempted to persuade Prince Boris, who had seized Nizhny Novgorod by force, to return this patrimony to his elder brother, Dmitry of Moscow, to whom it rightfully belonged. But Boris replied that he had received the charter for Nizhny Novgorod from the Khan himself, and that he, not the Moscow prince, was now the master of Rus'. Dmitry was forced to send an army and humble Boris's pride. Another enemy of Moscow, Prince Oleg of Ryazan, was about to march against Prince Dmitry of Moscow when he learned that the elder Sergius, whom he respected, had blessed the Moscow army to fight the Horde. And when the saint arrived in Ryazan, having marched hundreds of miles, the formidable Oleg could not resist the elder's gentle words and concluded peace with Dmitry.

Throughout his life, Saint Sergius performed many heroic deeds for the Fatherland. Historian V.O. Klyuchevsky calls him "a gracious educator of the Russian national spirit," for through his life he showed the Russian people that not all goodness within them had yet faded and died out. "He opened their eyes and helped them look into their own inner world."

In 1374, Sergius baptized Yuri, the son of Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow, during a large congress of Russian princes, which decided to join forces against the Golden Horde ruler Mamai.

Before the Battle of Kulikovo, Sergius blessed Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich and the Orthodox army going to fight the Horde.

V.O. Klyuchevsky, in his essay "The Significance of St. Sergius for the Russian People and State," showed that Sergius contributed to the end of princely feuds and the unification of the lands around Moscow.

Battle of Kulikovo
St. Sergius of Radonezh blessed two monks—Alexander Peresvet and Andrei Oslyabya—to participate in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. This event is associated with the spiritual authority of Sergius, who blessed Prince Dmitry Ivanovich for the battle and predicted victory.

Saint Sergius
blessed the prince for the battle and predicted "terrible bloodshed, but victory."

https://rusbereza.ru/sites/default/files/2017/image/fotoalbom/podberezoviki/month10/user54/prp2.jpg

He sent two monks to the battlefield, telling them: "Peace be with you, my brothers, fight steadfastly for the faith of Christ and for all Orthodox Christianity."

During the battle, the abbot prayed for the soldiers in his monastery with his disciples.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z4ImOIfRNQ4/maxresdefault.jpg
https://artnow.ru/img/1366000/1366801.jpg
Monks
Peresvet began the battle with a duel with the Mongol hero Chelubey. Peresvet removed his armor and remained in his monastic schema—so that if his enemy's spear struck him, it would not knock him from his horse, giving him the chance to strike himself. Ultimately, Chelubey was killed immediately by a monk, and Peresvet, mortally wounded, rode back to the line and died alongside his comrades.

Chelubey was considered a strong and experienced warrior in Mamai's temnik army. He was undefeated and had defeated his opponents in spear duels over 300 times.

Chelubey was a Tibetan monk who practiced the ancient martial art of Mag-Tszal and achieved the status of "Immortal." He mastered the combat magic of Bon-po, which granted him incredible abilities, strength, and invulnerability in combat.

Descriptions of the Battle of Kulikovo speak of Chelubey's enormous stature and strength. He possessed sufficient height, weight, and strength to wield a spear as a pitchfork.

However, Chelubey was not technically immortal: he died from a mortal wound received in a duel with Peresvet.
Every Russian knows this Hitory:
1CFMDwNDa3I
The story is like in the Old Testament: David and Goliath, with the difference being that David survived.

Oslyabya also took part in the battle.

The Tale of the Battle with Mamai states that Sergius gave the monks an incorruptible weapon instead of perishable ones—the Cross of Christ, sewn onto their schemas, and commanded them to wear it instead of their gilded helmets.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GnXTJTTLBVs/maxresdefault.jpg

Some say Sergius immediately performed the vows over Peresvet and tonsured Oslyabya into the Great Schema, while others say that both were already schema monks by that time, and the abbot merely pointed out the need to rely more on the cross than on armor.

The victory over Chelubey demoralized the entire enemy army; the Russian army won the victory. But it was the Orthodox monks and the Holy Fathers of the Church who rallied and strengthened the princes and the Russian army and led them into battle. The enemy was also assisted by foreign mercenaries. Thus, the enemy had a greater advantage, including superior numbers of soldiers.

Poland took Moscow

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/56/b0/4e56b02b7bef1e7676bfbd895eaec89f.jpg

Also read my article about how Poland took Moscow and nearly destroyed us as a state, and again, the Orthodox faith united all of Holy Rus' and the Russian people. We were outnumbered, but we won. No one spared their lives for the Orthodox faith and their homeland, standing to the death!

74) 😡Why does Poland dislike Russia? The history of Poland and Russia
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130186-Why-does-Poland-dislike-Russia&p=1680620&viewfull=1#post1680620

https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/1710127/pub_6364d15636dfe327d4fe7f19_6364d7f8489c58539c42cd9a/scale_1200
https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=f33850840f3910d698b7fb18f9ab4664_l-4397235-images-thumbs&n=13

Another example: Alexander Nevsky refused to accept aid from Pope Innocent IV against the Tatars in exchange for recognition of the papal primacy (the Church Union).

Although we were on the brink of annihilation, we refused aid. It is better for us to die than to betray our true Orthodox and holy faith given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alexander Nevsky replied to the Pope: "We understand everything, but we will not accept your teachings!"
We were outnumbered, and the enemies were in the majority, but thanks to the Lord, we won again!

And there are countless examples of how the Orthodox faith saved us!

Are you prepared to die for your faith and not betray it?

Or do you want to say that you know the history of my Motherland better than me, based on European sources?

THE BAPTISM OF RUSSIA. Episodes 1 -- 4. English Subtitles. Russian History.

58YXMW5sP5s

The film tells in detail what events accompanied the decision of Prince Vladimir, shows the history of this man, which has become the history of an entire nation. The most important task for us was to create a cognitive, educational, spectacular picture for a wide audience, reliably conveying historical reality

Type: historical reenactment
Genre: docudrama
Number of episodes: 4
Year of production: 2017
Directed by: Dmitry Ushakov
Written by: Maksim Bespalyi, Marina Bandilenko, Maksim Kalsin
Production designer: Maksim Bespalyi
Director of photography: Aleksandr Byrkov

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 11:19

Yoga at its core is a science more than religion, and you could easily seperate the Indian/Hindu cultural baggage from it and not only preserve it, but improve upon it.

The divine doesn't care what label we give it. The ecstasy of St. Teresa of Ávila, the 15th-century Catholic nun, sounds no different from the yogic samadhi or Buddhist nirvana, which themselves sound no different from a DMT trip.

The path to liberation is the same regardless of what cultural baggage we dress it up in. Some religions however carry more baggage than others, which only serve to muddy the truth. A good rule of thumb is that the less a particular belief system is wound up in 'baggage' then the more practical and accessable it will be. Robert Bruce's energy work system is a great example:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Energy-Work-Secrets-Healing-Spiritual/dp/157174665X

He basically offers a streamlined energy work system akin to Chi Kung or Pranayama, albeit stripped of the cultural baggage.

The Orthodox Church recognizes neither Catholics nor its saints after the Great Schism of 1054, including Teresa's mystical experience and its interpretations. For Orthodox Christians, Catholics are heretics. You can open any Orthodox source and read why the Russian Orthodox Church has maintained this position from 1054 to the present. Or at least start reading my article https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1664881&viewfull=1#post1664881 Here I mentioned history - the division of Christianity and how Catholics and Orthodox appeared.

Again, I speak from the perspective of the Orthodox Church. So please do not accuse me of intolerance towards Catholics.

Furthermore, the Orthodox Church's position on meditation and other occult practices is considered demonic and sinful by Christians. I described this above.

To further explore this topic, I recommend reading the books of the Orthodox Church Fathers whom I also mentioned in the article, for example, Seraphim Rose, who, by the way, is a true American of his country and a Russian in spirit.

If you disagree with the above, that is your personal, free choice, which I respect. Each person is responsible for the salvation of their soul before God.

And as user Matthew said, https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130440-Sins-before-God-meditation-and-yoga-various-spiritual-practices-and-astral-projection&p=1687002&viewfull=1#post1687002 is an anti-Christian forum, so I don't expect a different reaction here. Which is a shame.

As I said before, I like the community on this forum. You don't choose your comrades; you are my comrades from abroad. I am grateful to the administration for allowing me freedom of speech on this forum so I can share my history, culture, and thoughts with you. I also read political news on this forum and the opinions of other users and try to comment, participating in their discussions. I am not insulted or harassed with Russophobic comments here. There are some here, but they don't openly insult me. I respect even those who harbor Russophobic feelings toward me, and I understand the context in which they live.

My letter went off-topic, but I wanted to speak out so that I could be better understood.

arjunaloka_official

29th September 2025, 13:53

Another question: Would you consider it accidental that there is a similarity in the words in Hinduism and Christianity? Some examples:

Hinduism:
- Krishna
- Atman (Sanskrit, meaning: soul/self/essence) and Jiva (Sanskrit, meaning: life), represented by two birds sitting in a tree
- Brahma and his wife, Sarasvati

Christianity:
- Christ
- Adam and Eve, eating from a tree
- Abraham and his wife, Sarah

Would you rule out that there was a connection from Hinduism to Judaism to Christianity, in which the human understanding of the Lord has developed?

The Russian Bear answers:
NO. Buddhism was greatly influenced by the preaching of Christianity in the East at the very dawn of the Christian era. In the 19th century, Buddhism was viewed as a preparatory stage for conversion to Orthodoxy.

The devil can't invent anything of his own; he only takes something from God and distorts it, like a spider, to destroy more souls and deceive. He takes Truth and lies and mixes them into one. And people, seeing part of the truth, also believe the lies.

Hello, okay, but didn't the Christian era begin in the year 0? Buddha, however, lived around 500 BC – so isn't it the other way around, with Buddhism influencing Christianity? Krishna, Brahma/Sarasvati, Atman/Jiva aren't Buddhist terms either, but rather come from Hinduism, even though Hinduism is even older than Buddhism, around 1000-2000 BC? How could Christianity have influenced Hinduism?

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 14:43

I'm in the wrong thread; I have a lot of tabs open on my computer. But since I published this post, I'll link to my article.

Perhaps no document in the history of human civilization has posed such a threat of enslaving, in this case electronic, dependence on the state and supranational corporations as the biometric passports and other chip-based media now being introduced.

The most hidden aspect of the issue is the process of capturing biometric data, which will be done using specialized equipment. A standard photograph is no longer suitable for such documents.

Passport lobbyists claim that next-generation American equipment has already been delivered to many countries. Experts fear that laser marking of the forehead, invisible to the human eye, will be carried out under the guise of 3D facial scanning. That this marking method has already been tested can be verified on the official website of US patented inventions.

After applying the barcode, a person is recognized by the computer as a commodity, as easily as a pack of margarine. An extremely expensive project that places the people of all countries in the position of yet another European national guinea pig, controlled from outside using specialized Western super-equipment.

The raw data comes from satellites. And each person can be tracked in real time.

11) ✅📰Apocalypse, The Seal of the Antichrist, 666, Documents, сhips and barcode

https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=4a157ad16c8aec4d15a3aae954077850d8cca31f-8341813-images-thumbs&n=13

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129516-Apocalypse-The-Seal-of-the-Antichrist-666-Documents---hips-and-barcode&p=1663919&viewfull=1#post1663919

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/EPassport_logo.svg

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 14:56

Sirus

29th September 2025, 21:30

Has the Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ told you this about yoga, or have you just adopted someone else's opinion?

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 22:00

Has the Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ told you this about yoga, or have you just adopted someone else's opinion?

Yoga is a conditional religious philosophy that officially does not recognize the existence of God; it suggests a connection with dark spirits. Practicing yoga is a sin related to the first and second commandments, that is, a sin against the Lord God (being like God, like Buddha, is a Stanian sin).

"I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:2-3) is the first commandment of Christianity.

The essence of this commandment is the recognition of one God, who must be worshiped. It points one to God as the Source of all blessings and the guide of all actions.

By following this commandment, one must strive to know God and direct one's actions toward the glory of His name.

"You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them" (Exodus 20:4-6) is the second commandment of Christianity.

The meaning of this commandment is the prohibition against creating idols, whether physical or imaginary, serving them, bowing down to them, or paying any kind of honor to them.

This commandment was given at a time when idolatry was a widespread human affliction: people deified various elements of nature, heavenly bodies, and images of people.

For modern people, the literal worship of idols may be difficult to understand, but the spirit of the commandment forbids bowing down to anything other than the one God.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
Matthew 6:27

The other pagan gods are demons.
For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
Commentary on Psalm 96:5

I advise you to read all the dialogues in this article from beginning to end.

My opinion is based on Holy Scripture, but for a proper understanding of biblical texts, there are interpretations of the Holy Fathers of the Church, which we take into account, and therefore we have no disagreements. We have the works of the Holy Fathers and their Lives to which we refer, and Jesus Christ taught us all of this.

Everything comes from the Bible; as you can see, each person understands the verses of the Bible in their own way. We Orthodox rely on the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and therefore we understand the Bible as the Lord teaches us, and we have no disagreements on this matter. Protestants are confused in their understanding; theirs is a human interpretation, and it is erroneous. Catholics also distort the dogmas of faith; they have always fallen into sin. If you read the history of the Church, you will see that they are only interested in power, starting with the Crusades and indulgences.

For us Orthodox, the foundation is the Bible and the traditions of the Holy Fathers, their teachings, which all come down to a single source.
The Bible is the source of this existence.
The Holy Fathers are a program that helps people correctly understand the Bible. All of this is one Church. So, you understand who the Holy Fathers were—they were not just people. They had special gifts from God, which they received through their righteousness and holy lives of service to God and helping people.. The grace of the Holy Spirit worked through them.

Take a Greek Orthodox Christian, a Russian, or a Serb—they all understand the Bible the same way. We simply open the commentaries of the Church Fathers. All of them, regardless of the century or country they lived in, say the same thing, as do the prophets. And there is no disagreement on this.
We humans can make mistakes, for we are frail creatures and prone to sin. But God never makes mistakes and will always give us the strength to overcome sin.

Yes, my opinion is based on the Bible and the teachings of the Orthodox Church.
Thank you for your comment.

Jaak

29th September 2025, 22:17

Russian Bear

29th September 2025, 22:21

What are your thoughts and opinions about celebrating christmas ?
Seems to me it has been a pagan holiday before christianity even came to be .
Is it ok from orthodox perspective ? Santa Claus or ¨Ded Moroz¨ , how christian are those figures for orthodox ?
Is there anything in the orthodox bible that mentions winter solstice/christmas and how people should conduct themselves during it ?

You've asked some very interesting questions, and I'll be sure to answer them. It's nighttime in Russia now, so I need to go to bed. Good night. I'll get back to your questions when I have time.

Casey Claar

29th September 2025, 23:00

Raskolnikov

30th September 2025, 02:11

You’ve opened a whole can of worms here Russian Bear. Your topic states to be “Sins before God” but all I keep hearing is Orthodox Christianity contains the only truth and everything else is a lie. That’s a bold supposition my friend. How long have you been Orthodox Christian? Have you always thought this way or is it a recent acquisition? Are you proclaiming that people from any faith other than Orthodox Christianity are going to hell and cannot be helped (saved)? What are your views on the Nag Hammadi texts and Dead Sea scrolls, are they forgeries because the church doesn’t approve? What were Jesus’ own words as to why he came here? Was it to be worshipped? In short, was he born God or did he have to achieve this union through his own efforts? Some say he practiced in the east to master himself before returning to the west to share the good news, the Old Testament's over and God is love and found within. Do you folks in Russia have an accounting of his missing years, if so, could you please share as I’ve always been curious why so much of his life has been left out of the canonical scriptures. Is it possible that the books selected for modern Christianity (there are approximately 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide) and those specifically rejected in Nicea were selected for a purpose? It blows my mind that Jesus himself warned his followers not to worship him, a form of idolatry mind you, and yet the mass of Christianity continues to do so. And do you really think the sacrifices, incest, and murder could ever be ordered by the true God, the Source from which we all originate? And what of reincarnation? Your faith doesn’t view it kindly I’m assuming. So what of the countless children who have proven reincarnation to be true? Scientifically proven. I can’t be bothered looking them all up right now but will if you need me to. That is a glaring omission and oversight in your chosen faith.

Please keep in mind, I respect your views and your right to express and share your chosen faith, but the major shortcoming of Orthodox Christianity is the complete intolerance of all other faiths and the inability to extend that same respect.

Irminsül

30th September 2025, 04:17

Casey Claar

30th September 2025, 05:17

Thank you, Russian Bear, for this thread. In it you’re touching on a very delicate subject, one that I have weighed internally more than once. I’ll now speak from my own experience.

I have heard more than once that yoga is associated with Lemuria, with a past stage of humanity that still circulates here and now. We carry in our baggage many harmful things in the sense of spiritual practices. The period of Atlantis also gave us room to continue developing evil in different ways.

As strange as it may sound, I have heard several cases of people who, through practicing Reiki, ended up suffering demonic attacks or even possession. With yoga it MAY be more subtle.

Let’s begin by analyzing the basic principles of yoga. Yoga means union. But with what? The ultimate goal of yoga is for the serpent coiled at the base of the coccyx to uncoil toward the Sahasrara chakra and thus reach Samadhi. From the outset, that already sounds strange and dark.

And if we look at the practice of yoga, it is rather somewhat selfish. It’s about focusing on the self, on my own self-liberation; it doesn’t place emphasis on others. In Christianity, the focus is on the other.

Now I’ll go on to share my experiences with yoga. For an entire year I was preparing to become a monk at the ashram in Encinitas, California, at the Self-Realization Fellowship center founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. At that time, as a requirement, I had to meditate every day. And so I did. I practiced during the day, because they say it’s the best time to do it. Precisely at night the energies of darkness—beings from the lower astral and other entities—come out to do their work.

Even so, let me tell you the following: during that year (and it was the only period in my life when something like this happened) I dreamed many times—about ten, more or less—that the devil came near me. There was nothing in particular about it. I was simply asleep and would encounter this being in my dreams. It was horrifying, not because of his form—which was generally that of a man with black hair—but because I knew it was him, and it produced in me a dreadful terror that ended with me waking up screaming.

Once again, I repeat, never in my life has this happened again in my present existence. I never meditated again. What I have done and continue to do for some years now is a kind of meditation/prayer that is very different. I pray to God for more than half an hour, repeating a phrase with devotion. And in this way, I have never had horrible dreams or anything like that. Since I’ve been doing what I’m describing, I constantly feel an energy at my crown chakra.

With all this that I’m sharing, I don’t want to, nor am I in a position to, assert that yoga is satanic or anti-Christian. But it seems to me that this might be the case…

56181

56182

56183

Dear Irminsul,

Thank you for speaking from your direct experience. :heart:

It is late, I wish there were time as I sit here now to give what you've said the attention it deserves. I do understand -(all but your closing sentiment -and in a way even this).

There is a yoga for every disposition.

The four main paths of Yoga are:
(these break down further but these are the main branches) >>

Raja Yoga
Jnana Yoga
Bhakti Yoga
Karma Yoga

The vast majority of people on our planet at present are what yoga itself would call karma yogis. An example most of us would know of a karma yogi is Mother Theresa, it is the path of good works, selfless service. Jnana and Bhakti yoga are contrasts of one another, Jnana being more centric within the mind, and Bhakti the heart; Love and Wisdom. Raja yoga is the eight-fold path I laid out in my first post here in this thread, it is essentially synonymous with meditation -which, again, is the stilling of the mind, the focusing of attention, the entering of a deeper order of reality (ie: consciousness, self, "you" ).

There truly is only being here and this is the Supreme Being <--all else is a FRACTAL of This. The One is what/who is being everyone and everything; It plays all roles.

In order to enter a true state of meditation (which as you've stated in not for everyone - not everyone is yet ready) you have to move through what it is you confronted on your way in. I will tell you genuinely, it is none other than yourself. There is NO OTHER between you and the Supreme. But there are a great many incorrect thoughts, judgements, tendencies and behaviors. What is illuminated on our way in toward Stillness, in toward a pure state of attention is ourself. This is what most are not yet ready to confront. And, I would be in absolute agreement with you, in that if a person is not yet ready to face themself, to let what has been pushed down into the shadows rise into the light (where completion with this can begin) -without casting it first out onto an other ( a devil, a demon, etc ) who it is now their lot to fight -- then meditation is not the correct practice.

Russian Bear

30th September 2025, 08:11

Has the Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ told you this about yoga, or have you just adopted someone else's opinion?

Yoga is a conditional religious philosophy that officially does not recognize the existence of God; it suggests a connection with dark spirits. Practicing yoga is a sin related to the first and second commandments, that is, a sin against the Lord God (being like God, like Buddha, is a Stanian sin).

This is just simply not true.

Yoga is a word that describes a fundamental, pre-existing and unbreakable Oneness/Union between the Supreme and personal.
It is also a practice by which a person may come to experience this for themselves.

Yoga. -translation -Oneness/Union. (true)
Yoga is. -translation -Oneness/Union is. (true)
Yoga is conditional. -translation -Oneness/Union is conditional. (false)
Yoga is a conditional religious philosophy. -translation -Oneness/Union is a conditional religious philosophy. (false)
Yoga does not recognize the existence of God. -translation -Oneness/Union does not recognize the existence of God. (false)

Within the very word YOGA is the presence of the Supreme and the suggestion for the personal expression of this (ie: you, me, etc) to "yoke" ourself with This.

Yoga is not Hinduism -it is not any religion.

It is more accurately what I have stated.

Yoga doesn't contain Jesus Christ, the true God, or divine salvation. All the unities and unions you mentioned are demonic in nature. I'll be frank. Because words can be interpreted in different ways. I'm not a priest and didn't graduate from a theological seminary, so my answer may be incomplete. I'm communicating through a translator, and I don't speak English. Besides, priests explain things better than I do. And I'm an ordinary peasant.

But I didn't lie to you.

I'll put it differently then.

"If something decreases somewhere, it means that something has increased somewhere else"—that's the law of conservation of matter, formulated by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov on July 16, 1748, in a letter to the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

This law implies the transfer of energy—not only mechanical movement, but also thermal movement.

- "Not every spirit is from God" (1 John 4:1).

So, if God's grace is absent somewhere, that space is occupied by a demonic force. And also, if a person displaces God's grace from their soul and makes room for it, that space is occupied by an evil, demonic nature.

If you pick up Seraphim Rose's book and read it, you'll understand everything better.

Seraphim Rose was so ardent in his search for truth that to master Chinese philosophy, he easily learned even ancient Chinese, among many other languages he knew. When he studied something, he studied it 150%; it wasn't enough for him to be delententiously reading and commenting on it. He believed that if you want to become a Buddhist and study Buddhism, it's not enough to study some sources about it in English; you need the original source, which is ancient Chinese. And he read the original sources on Buddhism in ancient Chinese. I say this as an example. That's how he approached everything.

Since you're interested in the East, you need to become familiar with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a Russian friend once told him, and he brought him to an Orthodox Church in San Francisco, where it was a revelation for Rose, and he converted to Orthodoxy. So, Seraphim Rose came from a Protestant background, studied Catholicism and other religions, as well as Eastern practices, Buddhism, and practiced yoga and other practices... And he found the truth he sought with all his heart. He is an example of how to seek God. I recommend reading his works.

His life is told in the film I posted at the beginning of this article with English subtitles.

He is your compatriot, he is also an American.

Russian Bear

30th September 2025, 15:18

What are your thoughts and opinions about celebrating christmas ?

https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=84e70d8a1607464a3b9ee4e50cf7b4bb_l-7843541-images-thumbs&n=13

Christmas is one of the most important and revered holidays in the Orthodox tradition. It is dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

For Orthodox Christians, Christmas symbolizes the incarnation of God, who came into the world as the Infant Jesus Christ, bringing the light of truth and hope for salvation.

This holiday embodies the infinite love and mercy of the Almighty for humanity and marks the beginning of a new era of grace and reconciliation. Everyone, regardless of their situation and sins, can find the path to God through repentance and love.

Christmas is a time of spiritual preparation, so believers prepare for the holiday with 40 days of strict fasting and prayer, cleansing their souls and hearts. Meat, dairy products, and seafood (fish, squid, etc.) are prohibited. Only vegetables and fruits, cereals, and bread are allowed.

In Russia, Christmas is celebrated on January 7, following the Julian calendar.

The Nativity of Christ is celebrated on December 25, as established in ancient times. However, the Church observes the Julian calendar, adhering to a tradition dating back to the Savior's coming to earth and the beginning of Christianity. Secular life follows the Gregorian calendar, so December 25 falls on January 7.

Seems to me it has been a pagan holiday before christianity even came to be .
Is it ok from orthodox perspective ?

No, although it's true that pagans celebrated December 25th long before Christians. This is the day of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, and winter, terrifying for ancient people who lived off the land and in hunger, begins to recede.

Christians began celebrating Christmas on this day for a different reason. Biblical prophecy speaks of the Lord Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness: "But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2). Therefore, it's natural to celebrate Christmas on the day of the winter solstice.

So it was simply a coincidence. But it's also symbolic: a false pagan holiday was replaced by Christians with a true holiday, which takes on meaning.

Santa Claus or ¨Ded Moroz¨ , how christian are those figures for orthodox ?

https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/get-entity_search/2448268/1048145142/S600xU_2x
Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
(https://pravoslavie.ru/169970.html)
Santa Claus has Christian origins; his image is based on a real person, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (an icon of this saint is found in every church in Russia), who lived in the 4th century. This saint was renowned for his kindness and help to those in need, often leaving gifts secretly. The distortion of the real saint into Santa Claus was deliberately done to avoid any hint of Christianity, creating a secular character. The result is a semblance of Ded Moroz (Father Frost) in Russia. Incidentally, I've always wondered how the enemy disguised himself. If you rearrange the letters in Santa Claus, you get this: santa = satan

Ded Moroz, unlike Santa Claus, is not associated with Christianity; he is a fairytale character from ancient Russian folk tales, created for entertainment.

At the same time, the Church does not prohibit the images of Santa Claus and Ded Moroz, as long as they don't obscure the essence of Christmas.

I'll share with you a joke from the Russians, it's called Santa Claus in Russia, it was funny, I watched it with my comrades and we laughed:
9GBCVTXQk-g
The Russian government congratulated all Russians on the New Year! The point of this video is that we don't need anything Western or American. We have everything of our own, including culture and traditions. And did you notice that Santa Claus has NATO and American missiles on the back?

Is there anything in the orthodox bible that mentions winter solstice/christmas and how people should conduct themselves during it ?

No, Christmas is not a pagan holiday; it is a purely Christian holiday in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ. I already answered that above.

First, all Orthodox Christians attend services on Saturday evenings and the Liturgy on Sunday mornings. Every week, we must confess our sins before God and partake of the real body and blood of God.

We pray every day; we even have prayer books. We fast every week according to the Orthodox calendar. The service, taking Saturday and Sunday together, lasts 5-6 hours. If you don't have time, you must attend services on Sunday. Missing services without a valid excuse is considered a sin of laziness.

On Christmas, as on other major holidays, you attend services all night in church and celebrate the Nativity by praising the Lord and praying for your living and deceased family and friends.

And before that, you fast for 40 days of strict fasting, preparing spiritually for the holiday.

Comrade Raskolnikov (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130440-Sins-before-God-meditation-and-yoga-various-spiritual-practices-and-astral-projection&p=1687145&viewfull=1#post1687145), your questions are being processed. You've asked me so many that I need time to prepare them. I'm working on it when I have time, so I'll definitely write to you once I've answered all your questions.

One time, no one wants to talk to me. The next, they ask me so many questions that they overwhelm me. It's funny.

arjunaloka_official

30th September 2025, 17:39

Russian Bear

30th September 2025, 18:10

Hello, okay, but didn't the Christian era begin in the year 0? Buddha, however, lived around 500 BC – so isn't it the other way around, with Buddhism influencing Christianity? Krishna, Brahma/Sarasvati, Atman/Jiva aren't Buddhist terms either, but rather come from Hinduism, even though Hinduism is even older than Buddhism, around 1000-2000 BC? How could Christianity have influenced Hinduism?

Let me clarify my answer. Christianity is based not only on the New Testament but also on the Old Testament, which begins with the creation of the world. Of course, both the Old and New Testaments have had a huge influence on the world.

Orthodox Christianity is founded on the Old and New Testaments. Look at all our churches, priests and monks, sacred vestments, liturgies, sacraments, icons—all of this is fundamentally built on the Old Testament.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Commentary on Matthew 5:17

Well, the Old Testament describes the creation of the world, but when was it written? Most scholars seem to date it around 1500 BC, which seems similar to early Hindu texts like the Rigveda. Interestingly, both contain a very similar flood myth (in the Bible the hero´s name is Noah), however a similar flood myth is also part of the epic of Gilgamesh and the epic of Atra-Hasis, which both seem to be a bit older (2100-1800 BC) than the Old Testament and Hindu texts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

So do we really now if the Old Testament is the oldest one?

A more conservative take would be to regard the different religions as different sides of the same one pyramid or mountain, i.e. different aspects of the one Divine mystery, which happens to be hard to describe, and where each religion or perspective has its strengths and weaknesses?

Everything described in the Old Testament is based on real events.

Other peoples simply witnessed this history and preserved the global description of these events, introducing their own distortions and understandings, calling them by their own names.

What is the Bible? It is a tradition passed down from generation to generation. This is why the first humans (Adam and Eve) lived for 1,000 years, because God ensured that the tradition was preserved from the original sources, so to speak.

The words from Genesis 6:3 read: "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is but flesh: his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.'" After this, people could no longer live to be 1,000 years old. If you've read the Old Testament, it indicates how long people lived (for example, after the Flood, Noah lived another 350 years and died at the age of 950 (Genesis 9:29)).

Of course, all pagan peoples observed these phenomena. After all, all descended from Adam and Eve, only they deviated from God's true ways. From the moment Cain killed Abel.

And when the Great Flood destroyed these peoples, their library remained. Their books and scrolls serve as a monument. Some other pagan peoples found them, and it influenced them too. They discovered history before the Great Flood. Then, they continued their observations based on them. Everything fell into place when the Bible appeared. (They (Pagans) continued the story based on the historical pagan scrolls they found)

According to the Greek translation, divided into the III-II centuries before the Birth of Christ by 70 Jewish "interpreters" (it is also the basis of the Slavic Bible), the time of the birth of the forefather falls on 1662, therefore, the global catastrophe falls on 2262.

But the tradition itself, passed down from generation to generation, was later compiled into a book by God's holy people under the influence of God's spirit. They wrote the book in its pure and true form. That is, they wrote it later (meaning the people of God were the guardians of the tradition and the original source, whose prophets later compiled the entire story into a book). Other peoples merely confirm the reality of the biblical events as eyewitnesses.

Only the pagans recorded it in their own way, since they were far from the truth and the true God. They described it with their own distorted understanding, according to their culture and their language.

The Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, was presumably written between the 15th and 4th centuries BCE.
The oldest books of the Old Testament, such as the Book of Job and the Psalms, were written around 1500–1200 BCE.

To help you understand, the Orthodox Church uses a different chronology based on the Bible and the Holy Tradition that supplements it.

Church tradition holds that approximately 7,500 years have passed since the creation of the world. This age is based on biblical chronology, beginning with Adam.
Today, September 30, 2025, according to the Orthodox Church calendar, is the year 7534 from the creation of the world.

That's why scientists are still finding dinosaur bones, and even bones containing dinosaur flesh. If 1,000,000 years had passed, their bones would have long since turned to dust.

The methods used to determine the age of a rock or artifact are incorrect.
It is believed that the results of radiocarbon dating are not infallible. The dating method has errors that depend on various factors. Therefore, the earth is not 1,000,000 years old.

Also, many pagan religions simply borrowed heavily from the Old Testament and the New Testament later. There's another point.

Of course, in this comment I was responding to you from the church's perspective, and some of my comments were based on my personal analysis. I'm not a priest. It's just that a priest would have given a better and more accurate answer than I did.

IoTkguzRaCU
The Bible is confirmed by historical facts
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1664906&viewfull=1#post1664906

The Lord always protected His chosen people from pagans, even performing internal purges so that they would not perish from the plague called sin. From this pure source, the Messiah—Christ—was later born.

Bill Ryan

30th September 2025, 18:13

arjunaloka_official

30th September 2025, 19:11

Russian Bear

30th September 2025, 19:58

Russian Bear, your faith is strong, which I like! I think it is a good thing to follow Christ. I am not so sure about some institutions though.

What´s your take on the concept of transubstantiation?

Concepts of transubstantiation differ in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. These terms refer to the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ during the sacrament of the Eucharist, but they have different meanings.

In Orthodox theology, the term "transubstantiation" has a different meaning. It neither describes nor explains, but merely points to the mystery of the Eucharist, the initial and final state of the holy offering.

Some concepts of transubstantiation in Orthodoxy:
St. Gennadius Scholarius, Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote that transubstantiation is the greatest miracle, during which one essence is instantly transformed into another while its properties remain unchanged. Moreover, transubstantiation occurs not physically, but mysteriously.

Holy Fathers, such as Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, and Ambrose of Milan, believed that after the consecration, there is no longer bread and wine, but only the body and blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine.

St. John of Damascus asserted that the bread and wine, having become one with the Divinity of Christ, become His flesh.

I don't know how the translator translated it.

The meaning is that the bread and wine prepared in the chalice on the altar during the Liturgy are transformed into the true body of the Lord and His blood. In short, we drink the true divine and human body of Christ and drink His true blood in the true sense. This is just not revealed to us physically, for we are unworthy (although physically it is the true blood and body of the Lord).

The Lord tests our faith in this way. Although Orthodox history knows the stories of saints to whom God revealed the communion of the body and blood, they saw the blood and true body of the Lord. It's terrifying to witness (some cried, others were stunned, unable to come to their senses; the great ascetics accepted it all calmly). And when they tasted it, like a fiery flame that scorches everything, this was given to the saints' disciples.The saints told them not to tell anyone about this until their death. Only after their death could this mystery be revealed. They probably said this so that no one would tell them what great saints they were, that God had revealed this to them. All saints hated flattery and considered themselves the most terrible sinners before God, unworthy of anything. This is a great mystery.

Also, the bread and wine must be consecrated; they already bear the grace of the Lord. But then they will be transformed, both spiritually and materially, into the true body and flesh of the Lord. Only this is miraculously hidden from us. God looks at our faith and heart.

It happens that a person, through spiritual and mystical means, comes to know God through their senses and becomes convinced of His reality (after all, it is through the spiritual senses that a person communicates with God). For such a person, even a convincing historical and archaeological argument will no longer be necessary. For example, a long time ago, when I was feeling down, I'd go to church and just sit alone, looking at the icons and images. I felt like this place was somehow unusual, otherworldly, and so familiar and peaceful, instilling hope. My soul understood that this was a sacred place. Demons find it hard to be in such places. They dislike incense, prayers, church candles, and so on.

https://sun9-35.userapi.com/s/v1/if2/KZq-u_CyRxVlmcJBl64dzW9GWZCon9JLe5_NoiyOPhFV6twT5pKv8XOcJhhKUppFeAa0mV-s0V-WxdaNeywDwt1y.jpg?quality=95&as=32x23,48x35,72x52,108x79,160x116,240x174,360x262,480x349,540x393,630x458&from=bu&cs=630x0

The priest's answer:
What is transubstantiation (change) of the Holy Gifts?

- This is a Sacrament – the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The word "sacrament" comes from the word "mystery." And we will never fully comprehend this greatest mystery of the change of bread, wine, and water into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is a miracle of God. It is the saving mystery of God's economy and providence for man.

In Orthodox theology, Saint Gennadius Scholarius, Patriarch of Constantinople, studied the question of the union of the Divine and the material in the Sacrament of the Eucharist in great detail. He wrote that transubstantiation is the greatest miracle, during which one essence is instantly transformed into another while its properties remain unchanged. And that transubstantiation occurs not physically, but mysteriously.

At the level of canonical statutory decisions, the Orthodox Church is guided in this matter by a document entitled "The Epistle of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith (1723)."

Among other things, it contains the following lines: “We believe that in this sacred rite our Lord Jesus Christ is present, not symbolically, not figuratively (τυπικός, εἰκονικός), not by an abundance of grace, as in the other sacraments, not by inspiration alone, as some Fathers said about baptism, and not through the penetration of bread (κατ´ Ἐναρτισμόν – per impanationem), so that the Divinity of the Word enters into the bread offered for the Eucharist, essentially (ὑποστατικός), as the followers of Luther rather clumsily and unworthily explain; But truly and truly, after the consecration of the bread and wine, the bread is changed, transubstantiated, transformed, and transformed into the very true body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem of the Ever-Virgin, baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, resurrected, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, and is to appear on the clouds of heaven; and the wine is changed and transubstantiated into the very true blood of the Lord, which during His suffering on the cross was shed for the life of the world. We further believe that after the consecration of the bread and wine, what remains is no longer the bread and wine themselves, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine."

Let us pay attention, dear brothers and sisters, to the last lines of the document, which have become part of virtually all Orthodox catechisms: "We further believe that after the consecration of the bread and wine, what remains is no longer the bread and wine themselves, but the very body and blood of the Lord under the form and image of bread and wine." This is the Orthodox canonical understanding of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, or the transubstantiation (change) of the Holy Gifts.

Orthodoxy has avoided Catholic materialism, in whose dogma matter physically becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, and at the same time the Protestant approach, which is quite multifaceted, but whose core idea still postulates that Christ is not present in the Eucharist, and that the bloodless sacrifice is merely a symbol, an image, a remembrance of the Savior's redemptive work.

Orthodoxy, as always, has lightly and airily walked the path of the golden mean. The Lord is present in the Eucharist. Really. Essentially. Forever. And the rest is unknown to us. The rest is a mystery...

What a beautiful word "mystery" is. How much air there is in it. How many infinite worlds and mysteries are hidden beneath its veil. And humanity immediately becomes a child, just beginning a beautiful, blissful, joyful, and endless journey to its God. To its Father...

Priest Andrei Chizhenko

I hope the translator translated everything correctly; sometimes they translate poorly and change words. So that's how it is.

I wrote an article about the sacrament and the church in detail:
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1664881&viewfull=1#post1664881

I also want to say that faith is a gift from God; some have it, others don't.

But faith without works is dead. So it happens that a person has faith, but at the same time, they are a spiritual corpse, their soul far from God.
A person may try to be a believer but not religious.
In any case, a person without God is nothing and no one. Relying on oneself is foolish.

I edit my message even after it's published, finding translation errors so you can read it. After you've read my message, it may change slightly over time. I'm currently reading the text myself, along with the Russian translation that I've already published in English, to make sure my text is correct, even though I've already proofread it and errors still pop up.

Irminsül

1st October 2025, 01:00

Here I transcribe the response of a friend who is very skilled in the knowledge of yoga:

Yoga is universal. It is present in all human cultures. There are basically four types of yoga named and explained in the Bhagavad Gita: Karma Yoga, Jñana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga.

Yoga means union—the union of the individual soul, the human monads or jivas, with the universal soul, which is God. It is not Satan—it is God. Yoga teaches that the divine has three inseparable aspects inherent to itself: Brahman, Paramatman, and Bhagavān.

Brahman is the divine, universal, omnipresent force, impersonal in nature. For example, when someone says, “For me, God is energy,” that universal force, the Holy Spirit, is Brahman.
Paramatma is the focused aspect of the Absolute in the deepest interior of every being, not only human but also in every creature: a beetle, an ant, a butterfly, an elephant, a whale, even in a plant or a cedar tree. In the human being, it resides in the heart, the Anahata chakra.
Bhagavān is the personal, non-dual aspect of the Absolute, what some religious traditions call the personal God. For instance, Christians follow this personal aspect of the Absolute.

These three aspects are mentioned in the scripture Shrimad Bhagavatam, considered the essence of Vedic knowledge, a complement to the Mahabharata, often called the fifth Veda of the Aryan humanity. We are in the Aryan cycle, and the Aryans too have their yoga. So, to connect with the Absolute, with the divine, we have the yogas. There is nothing satanic about that.

I have practiced some forms of yoga and finally chose Bhakti Yoga, the simplest yet also the deepest. Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of devotion to God, cultivating love for God. This spiritual feeling must be awakened consciously because it is not natural to us. Normally, we are indifferent to God. Bhakti Yoga takes the relationship with God (sambandha) as a science to be cultivated. That is why some religious lines speak of Krishna consciousness—the devotees of Krishna.

Raja Yoga works with the fifth principle, the mind (manas). It is a more mental yoga, while Bhakti is more emotional. Raja Yoga uses techniques for integrating consciousness, which is normally scattered in many directions. The Raja yogi concentrates the rays of the mind, turning them inward, calming the vrittis—the modifications of the mind—using yogic tools like pranayama, visualization of mandalas or yantras, and mantras.

Jñana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge, very analytical. A prime example is Sri Ramana Maharshi, the great knower of the Self. Another was Krishnamurti.

Karma Yoga is the yoga of action—doing works for the benefit of others and offering the results to the Divine. It is service dedicated to creation, offered back to God.

These are the main yogas: Karma, Bhakti, Raja, and Jñana. Hatha Yoga is considered a subdivision of Raja, focused mainly on posture (asana).

So why call yoga satanic? Let us look at its ethical values—there is nothing satanic in them. Ultimately, it depends on what one means by “God” or “Satan.” The Abrahamic traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—often take an exclusivist stance. Yet esoteric Christianity, for example, is very close to the spirit of dharmic traditions.

There are even Puranic verses mentioning Jesus as the Messiah (Isra Masihá). These allow us to recognize a Vedic Christology. Jesus of Nazareth essentially taught Bhakti Yoga—devotion to God, concentration on the sun (Surya Mandala), and the chanting of the Holy Name (Japa Yoga). In this sense, Jesus is seen in the Vedic scriptures as a teacher of dharma (dharmacharya), one who preached even to the mlechhas (enemies of Aryan culture).

So, these four yogas—Karma, Bhakti, Raja, and Jñana—are paths of light, not darkness. Of course, yoga is vast, and there are traditions like Tantra that are more complex. But yoga as a whole is a discipline of self-transformation, a process that yields results over time.

56193

Casey Claar

1st October 2025, 03:42

Has the Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ told you this about yoga, or have you just adopted someone else's opinion?

Yoga is a conditional religious philosophy that officially does not recognize the existence of God; it suggests a connection with dark spirits. Practicing yoga is a sin related to the first and second commandments, that is, a sin against the Lord God (being like God, like Buddha, is a Stanian sin).

This is just simply not true.

Yoga is a word that describes a fundamental, pre-existing and unbreakable Oneness/Union between the Supreme and personal.
It is also a practice by which a person may come to experience this for themselves.

Yoga. -translation -Oneness/Union. (true)
Yoga is. -translation -Oneness/Union is. (true)
Yoga is conditional. -translation -Oneness/Union is conditional. (false)
Yoga is a conditional religious philosophy. -translation -Oneness/Union is a conditional religious philosophy. (false)
Yoga does not recognize the existence of God. -translation -Oneness/Union does not recognize the existence of God. (false)

Within the very word YOGA is the presence of the Supreme and the suggestion for the personal expression of this (ie: you, me, etc) to "yoke" ourself with This.

Yoga is not Hinduism -it is not any religion.

It is more accurately what I have stated.

Yoga doesn't contain Jesus Christ, the true God, or divine salvation. All the unities and unions you mentioned are demonic in nature. I'll be frank. Because words can be interpreted in different ways. I'm not a priest and didn't graduate from a theological seminary, so my answer may be incomplete. I'm communicating through a translator, and I don't speak English. Besides, priests explain things better than I do. And I'm an ordinary peasant.

But I didn't lie to you.

I'll put it differently then.

"If something decreases somewhere, it means that something has increased somewhere else"—that's the law of conservation of matter, formulated by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov on July 16, 1748, in a letter to the mathematician Leonhard Euler.

This law implies the transfer of energy—not only mechanical movement, but also thermal movement.

- "Not every spirit is from God" (1 John 4:1).

So, if God's grace is absent somewhere, that space is occupied by a demonic force. And also, if a person displaces God's grace from their soul and makes room for it, that space is occupied by an evil, demonic nature.

Thank you for your reply, Russian Bear, and for making a new attempt to explain.

Yoga, however, excludes no-one and no thing.

Once again, at its basis Yoga is a STATEMENT declaring a fundamental and unbreakable (already and always existent) Unity/Oneness between the Invisible and visible, ie: the Supreme and the Supreme in direct expression. The Supreme IS ALL THERE IS of what we tend to like to think of as "ourself". There is no-one and no thing outside of the Supreme, we all live, breathe and find our being within This. -- This is the statement of Yoga. Once more, it is also a practice by which those who have wandered into separation and become lost, may again experience this directly for themselves. This said,

Relative to your next sentence in bold,

"Not every spirit is from God"

Here you have entered the Lila, the play - DUALITY - separation <-- this is not fundamental but the experience of it is very real.

Souls get lost here. Yes. - from the beginning it is in its entirety a DISTORTION of what is fundamental to it.

All war begins here. War that can never been won, just perpetuated seemingly unendingly. See our world, and its history for case in point.

The only way to succeed is to step out of the duality altogether.

So many will not. They are entrenched. They do not hear those who come to help. Often these ones are in fact killed by them.

I find it interesting, that once a duality system is entered, the only way out is through. So, to your point, (polarity - light-and-dark - "not every being here is from God"), yes each of us who enters the duality is cast to one or the other of these roles. I would only add, and suggest, however, that it is our DUTY in either sense to perform this service to the absolute best of our ability. Without this there is not the torque, and no-one ever achieves the spin required for lift. This is another subject in itself. But it is central, and fundamental to the game of (opposing) forces.

xeon

1st October 2025, 08:59

I'm with Russian Bear on this one.

This is an anti-Christian forum but not intentionally or maliciously. Hey, I love you guys and this beautiful forum means a lot to me I treasure you all, but I've long believed that the unseen world is more real than the 'real world' and fallen angels come as beings of love, light, and knowledge to seduce us then throw us away like spent candy wrappers.

Jesus came to divide us not unite us:

Luke 12, KJV: (emphasis mine)
I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

If you find my opinion powerfully obnoxious then that's on you. I'm entitled to my own opinion. How does my opinion here really effect you? Don't be mad with me for what I think. I'd still fight hard to defend you, your right to your opinion, and treat you like my family given the chance. God gave us free will that is His choice. It means for example I respect your right to abortion but shudder at the thought.

The Bible is super clear about spiritual practices. It warns very strongly against occult and divination. And on the other hand we are invited to talk DIRECTLY to God Almighty on a very personal level, not even via a priest or whatnot but yourself directly with Him. The God of the universe wants to be our close personal friend. It's so awesome. Occult practices mean not going directly to God, when you do occult stuff it's going via familiar spirits.

Occult, divination, sacrifice and general witchcraft are the natural language of this world, which is run by what the Bible calls 'the prince of this world'. Although the prince of this world, and his crew, hate us because of our disobedience and rebellion against God. But then God offers us redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. This undermines the fallen angels and their lofty pride, and this redemption is not offered to them, they're just plain going to Hell. God gave us superpowers in Jesus Christs name to combat these demons. Talk about turning the tables.

Anyway, probably not what you want to read from me but this feels like the time and the place. I seriously love you guys.

Amen brother. The precedent on division was the Tower of Babel under King Nimrod, which is being being rebuilt today in earnest. What all of us would call the "New World Order". :fire:

Disclaimer - From the Christian perspective. God destroyed the Tower of Babel (One World Government) and separated mankind into Nations, because this is the temporary Divine plan all along. The ultimate plan is for Jesus to reign over the world as King when He returns. One world under Jesus.

The Devil also has a similar plan, albeit under the Antichrist or the Beast. With the rollout of Digital ID, AI, CBDCs and Transhumanism across ALL the nations, this is taking shape right before our eyes. My theory is the Devil will provoke a WW3, and with one stroke under the guise of "Peace and Safety", bring on this One World Government. The United Nations is now all for "Peace and Safety". Problem, Reaction, Solution.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:3

This is why you're experiencing mass immigration in UK, because the Illuminati is flooding the UK with foreigners in line with their goal of One World Government. Spiritually dark forces are at war with Nationalism and trying to do away with it. I believe you're not allowed to preach Christianity on the streets in UK now. But if you're a Muslim preacher, it is fine. :ROFL:

Coincidentally (or maybe not) - Zionism is Jewish Nationalism. The Jewish concept of "God" is very much joined at the hip with their Nation. The Jews rejected Jesus because Jesus did not seem to be the person to free their Nation from the Romans and lead them to glory.

Matthew

1st October 2025, 10:29

...

Coincidentally (or maybe not) - Zionism is Jewish Nationalism. The Jewish concept of "God" is very much joined at the hip with their Nation. The Jews rejected Jesus because Jesus did not seem to be the person to free their Nation from the Romans and lead them to glory.

Yet God is faithful to Israel despite this, just as He is faithful to us when we screw up; we are able to repent in the future and God is there. Just going to say this: God is the ultimate Jewish Nationalist.

Russian Bear

1st October 2025, 12:27

Well, the Old Testament describes the creation of the world, but when was it written? Most scholars seem to date it around 1500 BC, which seems similar to early Hindu texts like the Rigveda. Interestingly, both contain a very similar flood myth (in the Bible the hero´s name is Noah), however a similar flood myth is also part of the epic of Gilgamesh and the epic of Atra-Hasis, which both seem to be a bit older (2100-1800 BC) than the Old Testament and Hindu texts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

For reference, here's the Avalon thread about this: :thumbsup:

An Ark pre-dating the story of Noah (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?67770-An-Ark-pre-dating-the-story-of-Noah&highlight=noah)

I answered the question at this link.

Regarding the ark, I can say that scientists are talking about a find on Mount Ararat in Turkey. Noah's Ark fully corresponds to the description in the Bible! The archaeological evidence has been confirmed. Of course, I haven't seen this video, but it seems to be about it. I've watched similar films. There are many documentaries and articles, photographs, books, I've watched them all. And they even found the anchor. And many other facts... : https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?130440-Sins-before-God-meditation-and-yoga-various-spiritual-practices-and-astral-projection&p=1687232&viewfull=1#post1687232

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6c/ce/71/6cce71aa4dbc441d174fba69121df525.jpg
Ark Anchor

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/163mvtJzcnQ/maxresdefault.jpg
Noah's Ark

In 1955, French industrialist and researcher Fernand Navarre visited Mount Ararat and brought back the remains of a board, broken off, according to him, from the ark. The piece was analyzed using the radioactive method. Studies have shown that the tree is about 5,000 years old. The analyses were carried out in two laboratories: in Cairo and in Madrid. Today, September 30, 2025, marks the 7534th anniversary of the creation of the world according to the Orthodox Church calendar (To understand what I'm saying, click on the link above that I indicated). According to the chronology of the chronology, everything fits.

The methods used to determine the age of a rock or artifact are incorrect.
It is believed that the results of radiocarbon dating are not infallible. The dating method has errors that depend on various factors. Therefore, the earth is not 1,000,000 years old.

Surprisingly, after this discovery, the Turkish authorities banned archaeological excavations and research there. And they put the military there, cordoning off the perimeter. I have heard such information. A coincidence? I don't think so. There are forces that are trying to hide the truth in every possible way.

Although if you read the Internet, there are different opinions on this subject, but the sources that I read were convincing to me.

At first, documentaries in Russia talked about this. Then I read a book by a scientist who was personally engaged in research. Unfortunately, I don't have this book anymore... I would tell you the name...

The global flood.

The Bible says that after the Flood, Noah's Ark stopped "on the mountains." Of Ararat" (Gen. 8:4). This means that the search area for traces of the ark would have to include, in addition to Mount Ararat itself, part of the Armenian Highlands around it. However, contrary to the instructions of the Bible, many times people tried to find some remains of the ark only on Mount Ararat. Their search was unsuccessful.   When in 1959 A Turkish pilot took a picture of a strange object resembling an ark on the top of a mountain located 20 miles from Mount Ararat (in Turkey), many expeditions wanted to explore the mountain. However, not everyone was able to get through the difficult bureaucratic barriers of the Turkish government. Those who discovered the object photographed by the Turkish pilot considered it a bizarre natural formation. At that time, the ark was hidden by lava after the eruption of a nearby volcano and only its upper surface part was visible.

https://static1-repo.aif.ru/1/f8/851805/5a3b8de06a9dd02c88aeddf515555bd2.jpg

The first picture of the Ark.   In 1977. Ron and his sons visited Turkey for the first time and saw the object of interest with their own eyes. It turned out that the shape and size of the object corresponded to the shape and size of the biblical ark, and Ron had no doubt that it was Noah's Ark, but a lot of money was needed for detailed research of the object, which was not available at that time.

In 1978, an earthquake occurred in this area of Turkey, as a result of which the soil surrounding the ark settled, opening the sides of the ark, and a deep crack appeared on the ark itself, from the stern to the bow. The latter circumstance later allowed Ron to take samples of materials for research from the depths of the ark.

https://iasbh.tmgrup.com.tr/7c1e01/0/0/0/0/0/0?u=http://i.sabah.com.tr/sb/fotohaber/dunya/kutsal_kayiplar/the__real_noahs_ark_lo.jpg

The photo shows the Real Noah's Ark.   At first, it was noted that the edges of the object are rock deposits with a symmetrically bumpy surface resembling the shape of logs.

https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=916e481fb4e133cacfcd3dcedb44891f-5356399-images-thumbs&n=13

Geophysical studies have shown that this is not a homogeneous natural material, but the work of human hands. Then, with the help of a molecular generator, it was found out that it was a petrified wooden product.   It should be noted that the vegetation in this area is very sparse and it is rare to find a frail tree.   The metal detector made it possible to detect many iron fasteners at a symmetrical distance from each other, (pictured)

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/00/67/f1/0067f1738f2c94b81a602fd0abeacf94.jpg
https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=088921f4ea74fa73cc0a48b31debed83893ca406-9678500-images-thumbs&n=13

which obviously fixed the tree as follows: (in Fig.)

https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=97f1f1fcc6dc1e37ef1693e35fd6206e89f694de-5484813-images-thumbs&n=13

Radar scanning allowed us to determine the internal structure of the ark.Photo.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ee/0c/cd/ee0ccdde5389e7175570973871676493.jpg
As you can see, it's really a little round.

In 1985, a six-inch (~15 cm) well was drilled deep into the ark, through which rock samples were taken. A thorough examination of the breed showed that the samples contain various fibers. The fiber study was conducted by a fiber expert at the Main National Criminal Laboratory of the United States. The study of their structure has shown that the fibers have all the special characteristics of the hair of the mammalian feline family. One hair belonged to an animal that did not exist in our time: it was bright red in color. The other type of fiber was of plant origin. And finally, one of the fibers taken from the rock did not have the characteristics of either plant or animal fibers. Experts have agreed that it is artificial!

Not far from the location of the ark, huge stones with a round hole in their upper part were found. The hole was made so that a rope knot could be placed and held in it. There is no doubt that these were ark anchors (previously, ships had several floating anchors on both sides of the ship for balance).   Photo: The stone anchor found by Ron.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c5/02/b7/c502b7302af8ce37d6d5a77d0597b885.jpg

There are 8 crosses on the stones.: in the middle there is a large cross symbolizing Noah, below there are 3 smaller crosses - sons, and 4 small crosses - women. By the way, not far from the ark there is a village named "Village of Eight", clearly named after Noah's family - its first eight settlers.   The Turks declared these places a national park. They built a research and tourism center near the ark so close that you can look at the ark through the window - in the photo

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bc/cb/61/bccb61f298158ff0a65ed2f7936aa148.jpg

In the photo on the right: February 1987 - Press conference. Sevket Ikinsi from the Government (Agri-Ararat) And Ron Wyatt. Official registration of the Noah's Ark discovery.

https://zhurnal.lib.ru/img/b/boll_i_n/sestouydoc/sestouydoc-28.jpg

God helped Ron find the ark in our time, so that we would not doubt that the Flood was real, and it was in God's power to bring another catastrophe upon the unrighteous.

Do you want me to tell you about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Russian Bear

1st October 2025, 16:32

You’ve opened a whole can of worms here Russian Bear. Your topic states to be “Sins before God” but all I keep hearing is Orthodox Christianity contains the only truth and everything else is a lie. That’s a bold supposition my friend.

That's what the Bible says.

Jesus said to him: I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

The Gospel of John 14:6
Hence we know that all religions except Christianity are not salutary. God also spoke:
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5

But Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you." John 6:53

To understand what he was talking about, read the sacraments of the church. Every Orthodox Christian should participate in these sacraments every week: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1664881&viewfull=1#post1664881

He who rejects Me and does not accept My words has a judge for himself: the word that I have spoken, it will judge him at the last day. John 12:48

There are other verses, but I think this is enough to understand that Christianity is the only salvation. And not in Islam, Judaism and other pagan religions.
And here is another question, where is the true tree with the roots of the true Christian teaching of the Lord among many other paths?

To do this, you need to know the history of the church. I have a channel in Discord dedicated to Russian culture. I have met many people who came to Orthodoxy on their own. A friend from Canada told me that he is a former Protestant, and he studied church history for several years, which eventually led him to the Orthodox Church, and he had the same experience with a Catholic.…

For interest, I asked a former Protestant what literature he had read on the history of the church to find, he said the first books were these:

"The Orthodox Church" by Timothy (Metropolitan Kallistos)
Should also read the Ante Nicene fathers. Especially St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin Martyr, The Didache, St. Polycarp, and St. Clement. As well as the Ecumenical councils Including Constantinople 4 879-880 (Reinstallment of St. Photios) if possible

The date for constantinople 4 is important as there is a 4th Constantinople council from 869 which affirms the fillioque (followed by Roman Catholics) but the 879 council which is Orthodox overturns that council affirming the Orthodox teaching against the fillioque.

Posted it for reference

How long have you been Orthodox Christian? Have you always thought this way or is it a recent acquisition?

When I was born, I was baptized after a while because I am Russian. All my ancestors were Orthodox, from the moment how Rus' was baptized in Orthodox Christianity (The year 988 is the traditional date of the baptism of Rus). In the Russian Empire, my ancestors served the Tsar and were White Guards, in Soviet times they were Red Army soldiers, but they were always Orthodox. Under Soviet rule, the time was difficult and difficult, atheistic, churches were destroyed, priests and monks were shot. People were not preached to, and it was somehow unacceptable to speak openly about God, but Russians were secretly baptized anyway. The Soviet era influenced Russians. That's why I haven't been taught God's laws since I was a child. I went to church with my parents on holidays. This is a problem for many Russians. All of them are baptized into God, believe in God, consider themselves Orthodox and call themselves that, but they do not go to church or rarely go. With this, the Soviet government has greatly harmed us from the spiritual side. Of course, a lot of Russians regularly attend churches. But there are also many who only call themselves Orthodox, but do not live by the commandments and do not go to church. So I didn't think much about God.

But then, one of my school friends introduced me to Protestants, I began to ask questions about my Orthodox faith, to search for the truth, but it was quite easy to understand the history of Protestantism and that this is not a saving path. I won't give many arguments, I'll say it briefly.

The Lord said: Matthew 16:18 - King James Version (KJV)
<18> And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 28:20 - King James Version (KJV)
<20> Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Protestantism appeared in 1517, founded by the Catholic monk Martin Luther. Where was their church before that? The historical connection of the church is being severed. And the Lord said that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. The history of the church from beginning to end can only be traced back to the Orthodox and Catholics. But even here, historical fruits reveal where the true church is and where the false one is. So I was once again convinced of the truth of the Orthodox Church. I said that very briefly. But everything was much more interesting. Both the mystical path and the contact with the demonic phenomenon, if I tell you, you probably just won't believe me. I didn't have to prove anything anymore. Maybe I'll tell you next time.

https://assets.sutori.com/user-uploads/image/ba22e5b5-f807-4862-b4d2-9535d5cf7bfe/9e06a5d74a55e4f1aaa0f52dec1de4a3.png
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=55448&d=1752854354&thumb=1
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1677293&viewfull=1#post1677293

Are you proclaiming that people from any faith other than Orthodox Christianity are going to hell and cannot be helped (saved)?

Yes, the Bible says that such people will go to hell. Then there will be the End of the World, and then the Terrible Judgment of God, and all souls will come out of hell, and the Lord will judge everyone according to their deeds, and everyone will receive reward and punishment according to their fruits and how they sought the Lord. (What will be the second and last judgment is a mystery, but it will be terrible for sure) The first trial of the soul is when a person dies, and the second after the apocalypse and the Antichrist will be (the end of the World).

It's not for me to judge who God has mercy on and who doesn't. Who will be saved and who will not. But I will say for sure that some souls who are in hell can be pardoned. For example, we Orthodox Christians, and especially monks, pray for non-Believers, Muslims, and Catholics.… We pray for the living as well as for the departed. Begging and asking the Lord to have mercy and save their souls. Orthodox monks are generally obligated to pray for the entire world and all of humanity. Monasticism is an angelic rank.

Therefore I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will be done for you.
Mark 11:24

Confess your faults to one another and pray for one another to be healed: the intense prayer of the righteous can do much.
James 5:16

The final judgment and fate of sinners who are not in hell. There was only the first trial. Love never ceases, prayer is a manifestation of love for one's neighbor.

I also recommend reading this article: Orthodox teaching on the soul after death:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129536-Orthodox-teaching-on-the-soul-after-death&p=1664206&viewfull=1#post1664206

The custom of praying for the dead also existed in the Old Testament Church, as evidenced by the Holy Scriptures. During the liberation war, in the days of the pious Jewish leader Judah Maccabee, when they were collecting the bodies of the dead soldiers, they found pagan talismans under their clothes. And it became clear to everyone why they had fallen. So, everyone glorified the righteous Judge of the Lord, who reveals hidden things, and turned to prayer, asking that the sin they had committed might be completely blotted out (2 Mac. 12: 40–42). But Judas himself, having collected up to two thousand drachmas of silver, sent to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, and acted very well and piously, thinking of resurrection; for if he had not hoped that those who fell in battle would rise again, it would have been unnecessary and in vain to pray for the dead. But he thought that those who died in piety would receive an excellent reward–what a holy and pious thought! Therefore, he offered a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin (2 Mac. 12: 43–45).

The warm prayers of the Church help to ensure that the good beginnings, the seeds of a new life with which our neighbors departed, if these seeds did not have time to unfold sufficiently here on earth, develop under the influence of prayers and the grace of God, as a good seed develops in the earth under the influence of solar heat and moisture. But nothing can revive rotten seeds that have lost the beginning of plant life.

The most terrible thing for a person is to die without repentance and communion of the body of the Lord with sins and without God. And the most valuable thing on earth for a person is time for repentance and good deeds. After death, it's too late to change anything. If there are people on Earth who will pray for this person, this soul will receive relief in hell and, in the end, it will be possible to beg. This is a very complex spiritual science, and demonic attacks occur on witches, fortune tellers, and suicides. This is a separate topic.

Saint Paisios of Svyatogorets said about prayer for the dead: "Those condemned in hell – those who have a little piety – feel their guilt, repent and suffer for their sins. They cry out for help and receive substantial help from the prayers of the faithful. That is, God is now giving these condemned people a favorable opportunity to receive help until the Second Coming comes.

In the earthly life, a friend of the king can intercede with him to help some convict. Similarly, if a person is a “friend” of God, then he can intercede with his prayer before God and intercede for the condemned deceased to be transferred from one “dungeon” to another – to a better one, from one “cell” to another, more convenient one. He can even arrange for them to be transferred from a “cell” to some kind of “room” or “apartment.”

God wants to help the deceased because He is hurt for them, but He does not do this because He has the nobility. He doesn't want to give the devil the right to say, “How are You saving this sinner, because he didn't work at all?”However, by praying for the deceased, we give God the 'right' to intervene. I must also say that it is more “touching” God is led by our prayers for the dead rather than for the living.

What are your views on the Nag Hammadi texts and Dead Sea scrolls, are they forgeries because the church doesn’t approve?

1) The Nag Hammadi Scrolls

The Gnostic gospels were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt (near Cairo) in 1945 and translated into English in 1977. Against the background of the canonical gospels, the Gnostic gospels have serious shortcomings. The confirmed date of creation of the canonical gospels is no later than 60-100 years, and the Gnostic gospels appeared almost a century later. According to O. C. Edwards, "as historical reconstructions, they can in no way even be compared in terms of their reliability."

In general it is heretical texts.

The Gospels of Nag Hammadi
Some radical critics of the New Testament claim that the Gnostic gospels are equivalent to the New Testament, but they do not confirm the resurrection of Christ. The representatives of the Jesus Seminar include the Gospel of Thomas in their otherwise ruthlessly stripped-down Bible. Both points of view pose a serious threat to the historical Christian Faith.

The Gnostic gospels were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt (near Cairo) in 1945 and translated into English in 1977. The Gospel of Thomas (140-170) contains 114 hidden sayings of Jesus.

The authenticity of the Gnostic Gospels. The best way to assess the reliability of these "gospels" is to compare them with the New Testament gospels, which the same critics are very pessimistic about. Against the background of the canonical gospels, the Gnostic ones stand out with serious shortcomings.

Late creation date. The confirmed date of creation of the canonical gospels is no later than 60-100 years.. And the Gnostic gospels appeared almost a century later. According to O. Ch.According to Edwards, "as historical reconstructions, they can in no way even be compared in terms of their reliability" (Edwards, 27).

Historical value. The earliest Christians carefully preserved information about the words and deeds of Jesus. The scribes of the gospels were close to the eyewitnesses and adhered to the facts (cf. Luke 1:1-4). There is evidence that the evangelicals were honest historians. Further, their gospels present, in fact, the same image of Jesus.

The New Testament canon. Contrary to the claims of some critics, the New Testament canon, which contains the gospels and most of the Pauline epistles, was formed by the end of the first century. The only controversial book, Antelegomena, has no apologetic significance for arguing about the reliability of historical materials pointing to the divinity of Christ.

The New Testament itself notes the existence of a number of books already in the first century.

Peter says that he has the Pauline epistles (2 Peter 3:15-16), and equates them to the Old Testament "Writings." Paul was familiar with the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10:7) and quotes it in 1 Timothy 5:18.

Outside of the New Testament, the existence of the New Testament canon is confirmed by the existing canonical lists (see Geisler and Nix, 294). Indeed, all the gospels and the main epistles of Paul are present in such lists.
Even the heretical Marcion canon (c. 140) recognizes the Gospel of Luke and the ten epistles of Paul.

Confirmation from the Church fathers. The Church Fathers in the second century copied a commonly used set of biblical books. It included six critically important books confirming the historical authenticity of the coming of Christ and His Resurrection, namely the Gospels, the Book of Acts and 1 Corinthians. Clement of Rome quoted the Gospels in 95 (Corinthians, 13, 42, 46). Ignatius (c. 110-115) quoted Luke 24:39 (Smyrnaeans 3). Polycarp (c. 115) quoted all the Synoptic gospels (Philippians 2, 7). In the Didache (the beginning of the second century), the Synoptic gospels are quoted (Didache, 1, 3, 8, 9,15-16). The Epistle of Barnabas (c. 135) quotes Matthew 22:14. Papias (Oracles, c. 125-140) speaks of Matthew, Mark (based on Peter's stories), and John (the last of them), who wrote the gospels. He points out three times that Mark did not make a single mistake. The fathers of the early Church valued the gospels and Paul's epistles on a par with the divinely inspired Old Testament (cf. Clement's Corinthians [47]; Ephesians [10], Ignatius's Polycarp [1,5], and Polycarp's Philippians [1,3-4,6,12]).

The Church Fathers certified the correctness of the canonical gospels already at the beginning of the second century. This was long before the Gnostic gospels appeared at the end of the second century.

Gnostic materials about the Resurrection. There is no real evidence that the so-called Q (Quelle, "source") document, which many critics believe, ever existed. This is a purely hypothetical reconstruction, so all claims that it says nothing about the Resurrection remain meaningless.

But the "Gospel of Thomas" exists, although it dates back to the end of the second century. However, contrary to the critics who have become adherents of this work, it recognizes the resurrection of Christ. In fact, the One to whom the sayings from it are attributed is the living Christ, the Christ after the crucifixion ("The Gospel of Thomas" 34:25-27; 45:1-16). It is true that it does not focus on the resurrection of Christ, but this is to be expected, because it is primarily a "collection of sayings" and not a historical narrative. Moreover, the Gnostics' theological prejudice against matter should have led them rather to silence the bodily resurrection.
Early Christian articles of faith. Since critics recognize the authenticity of 1 Corinthians 15, which dates from about 55-56 A.D., it is impossible to deny the historical authenticity of the Resurrection. At that time, it was only twenty-two or twenty-three years after Jesus' death (1 Corinthians 15:6). Moreover, in 1 Corinthians 15:1, it is possible that the creed confessing the death and resurrection of Christ is implied, which, in this case, appeared even earlier. Even with minimal assumptions that this creed was ten or twenty years old, it turns out that it was formed ten or twenty years after the events themselves. Not many ancient events had such direct, modern confirmation of them.

Conclusion. The testimony in favor of the authenticity of the Gnostic gospels is even incomparable with the testimony in favor of the New Testament. The New Testament is a work created in the first century. "The Gospel of Thomas" is written in the middle of the second table. The New Testament is supported by evidence from many categories, including internal references in its text itself, canonical lists, thousands of quotations in the writings of the Church fathers, and proven early dating of the gospels.

The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls do not refute the Gospel and have not shaken Christianity. Moreover, from the point of view of science, the Gospel has gained additional weight due to the research of the scrolls.

The imaginary Secrets of Qumran
The Archaeological War

In the spring of 1947, two boys from the Taamire nomadic tribe were herding goats. And quite by chance, in search of an escaped goat, they discovered a cave. Hoping to find the treasure, they climbed inside – and were very disappointed. Instead of gold and precious stones, there were clay vessels with leather scrolls wrapped in linen cloth. An attempt to cut the leather into straps failed – the material was too old and dilapidated. Then, on the advice of their tribesmen, they sold leather scrolls with incomprehensible inscriptions to a Jerusalem antiquarian.…
This is the official version of the discovery of the Qumran scrolls. However, it is possible that the Bedouins specifically combed the caves in search of treasures. In any case, when the opportunity arose to trade the finds, they did not fail to take advantage of it. In 1952, an international scientific expedition went to the Judean Desert in search of new scrolls. And here, a real archaeological war broke out between scientists and local tribes. The nomads tried to get hold of the manuscripts first, then sell them to archaeologists. Often they were lucky, and the scientists had to buy back the scrolls. At the same time, valuable information was lost – in which caves and how the manuscripts were found, how they were located, etc. Therefore, the archaeologists, in turn, sought to reach the vaults before the Bedouins did.
The "cold" archaeological war, thank God, did not turn into a "hot" one, but nevertheless bore its sad fruits. Many legends about the Qumran finds are connected precisely with the fact that scientists did not have the opportunity to do their work calmly, and the first found and published manuscripts, as it turned out later, were not directly related to the main part of what was stored in caves on the shores of the Dead Sea. The work of archaeologists and the painstaking desk work of scientists on deciphering and translating manuscripts stretched over four decades. Meanwhile, the sensationalist audience was discussing the "Qumran mysteries," which were supposed to blow up our entire understanding of the era of Jesus Christ and refute the Gospel.

One of the anti-evangelical theses says that many of the things that the Gospel tells us were invented by the Christianized Greeks, but they could not exist in the ancient Jewish environment. In fact, the Greeks were accused of either inventing or editing the Gospel. For example, the expression "Son of God" is often found there. It was said that this expression in relation to Christ did not originate in the Jewish environment at all, but in the Hellenized Christian communities of Asia Minor, that this was a purely pagan motif inspired by Greek mythology about the supernatural birth of various heroes. Meanwhile, there is such an expression in the Qumran manuscripts, and it refers specifically to the coming Messiah.

How the myth was born
Strangely enough, the main "culprit" of the appearance of misconceptions was ... the priest. He was a prominent Catholic Biblical scholar, the head of the archaeological expedition, Father Roland de Vaux. He suggested that the ruins of Qumran were a monastery belonging to the ancient Jewish sect of the Essenes. Four of the seven scrolls that were first found and immediately published spoke about the structure and life of this sect.

Remains of fortifications have been found in Qumran, and there are many manuscripts in caves nearby. Trying to determine what exactly he was digging up, Abbot Roland de Vaux thought in terms of a Catholic monastery. It is known that medieval Catholic (as well as Orthodox) monasteries were not only centers of spiritual life, but also military fortresses and educational centers where books were stored and copied. In any monastery, the central place was occupied by a library and a scriptorium (a room for copying books). As it seemed to the expedition leader, he found all this among the ruins of Qumran. In addition, the way of life of the Essene community, described in the published manuscripts, was very similar to the monastic way of life.

By itself, the hypothesis of Father Roland de Vaux is quite acceptable. However, there were ridiculous rumors surrounding the work of scientists who deciphered the manuscripts – the same type as newspaper "sensations" about how Christ was "actually" born, or that "science has proved" that Christ visited the Himalayas... in short, something that has nothing to do with real science.

In the first published manuscripts, a certain "Teacher of Righteousness" was repeatedly mentioned. As a result, a scheme emerged: monastery + Essenes+The teacher of righteousness. This gave rise to speculation about a certain "Essene Christ," whose stories, they say, inspired the authors of the Gospel, telling about Jesus. This myth existed for decades and collapsed only after the publication of all the scrolls in 1991 and the revision of the conclusions made by the archaeological expeditions of 1951-1956.

Of the 900 texts found near Qumran, only 11 were in complete scrolls, and all the others had to be reconstructed from about 25,000 fragmentary fragments, many of which were no larger than a postage stamp. The restoration of the texts was completed only by the early 60s. It was only in the 90s of the last century that it became possible to systematize the Qumran scrolls.

All of them date from the 3rd century BC to the beginning of the 1st century AD and are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, a small number in ancient Greek. Only a third of them were written by members of various Jewish sects: Essenes, Sadducees, Zealots, etc. About a third are Biblical scrolls, which contain excerpts of all the books of the Old Testament, with the exception of the book of Esther. Their text as a whole does not differ from the currently standard Masoretic, but still has a number of interesting discrepancies. About a quarter are non–biblical, non-sectarian texts. They are particularly interesting because they allow us to analyze the religious beliefs of the Jews of Palestine during the Second Temple period (538 BC – 70 AD). The rest of the texts are too poorly preserved and impossible to identify.
It has been established that most (perhaps all) of the scrolls were written outside of Qumran.

What have you dug up…
What does modern science say about Qumran? Firstly, the "monastic" hypothesis of Father R. de Vaux is questioned. The archaeologists came to the conclusion that the "monastery" was most likely a well-fortified country estate of some noble Jew. Agriculture and handicrafts were practiced there. Many luxury items and money were found on the territory of Qumran. This is absolutely impossible for the settlement of the Essenes, who were a mendicant sect and shunned any connection with the world of material goods.

Secondly, Roland de Vaux's beautiful theory about the Qumran scriptorium, where books were copied, could not stand criticism. Only one inkwell was found in the ruins, while an examination of the handwriting showed that the texts were written by more than five hundred different people! Not even the largest medieval monastery could boast of such a large number of scribes.

Today, it is obvious that the Qumran manuscripts are not the result of the activities of monastic scribes, but a library. More precisely, the library collections were most likely brought here from Jerusalem shortly before the beginning of the siege of the city by the Romans in 68 A.D. They were taken to various places in Judea and placed in jars for safekeeping, so that they could be returned and used again. It is even possible that the Jews evacuated the library, which was located directly in the Jerusalem Temple, and what was found in Qumran is a small part of it.
The Essenes were finally "evicted" from Qumran after the publication of all the manuscripts in 1991-92, when, following the hypothesis of the monastery scriptorium, the myth that the library belongs to the Essene community collapsed. About 900 texts were found in Qumran. All of them date from the 3rd century B.C. – the beginning of the 1st century A.D. Of these, only a few dozen turned out to be "Essene". In modern terms, the four sectarian scrolls that were published first and misled everyone turned out to be part of the "special storage" of a large library. Basically, the Dead Sea Scrolls are well–known biblical texts in which almost all the books of the Old Testament, as well as non-biblical non-sectarian manuscripts, are represented in fragments.

The Essenes were a religious sect that originated in Judea in the second half of the second century BC and existed until the first century AD. According to ancient authors (Philo of Alexandria, Pliny the Elder, Josephus, St. Hippolytus of Rome), the Essenes lived throughout Palestine, including in cities, in rather isolated communities which are characterized by common property, collective labor and everyday life. They condemned wars, slavery and trade, rejected blood sacrifices, and had a special ritual of ritual ablutions. Some Essenes led a celibate lifestyle.
The Essenes have long been considered the forerunners of Christians. However, the similarity is purely external. Their religious beliefs and spiritual practices have little in common with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

What you read
After the publication of the entire Qumran corpus of manuscripts, the answer to the question became obvious: do they refute the gospel story? To the great regret of fans of sensationalism: no. Moreover, the Qumran scrolls fully confirm it. The "Teacher of Righteousness" turned out to be a character characteristic only of sectarian scrolls, while non-sectarian manuscripts are filled with prophecies about the coming Messiah, who was eagerly awaited and about whom the Jews of that era wrote. The last texts found at Qumran were created shortly before the birth of Jesus Christ, so they accurately reflect the mood of that era. The Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah's birthday, but we knew about it before Qumran.
However, the Dead Sea manuscripts very clearly show why, having waited for Christ, the Jews rejected Him. The manuscripts "The Messianic Collection" and "The Messiah of Heaven and Earth" were found among the scrolls of Qumran. This is a collection of biblical prophecies and non–biblical texts that show exactly which Messiah the Jews were waiting for. And here, again, Qumran did not provide anything new. The Messiah from the non–biblical texts of Qumran is a political and military leader who will miraculously defeat all the enemies and enslavers of Israel and put the Jews at the head of the nations of the world.

Interestingly, among the manuscripts there is also the biblical book of the prophet Isaiah, who is called the Old Testament evangelist. It is precisely in Isaiah that the prophecies are contained that the Messiah, being God, will become a man, born seedlessly from a virgin, that He will take upon himself the sins of the world and voluntarily accept death for people. These prophecies are constantly referred to by the authors of the Gospel. But the idea of the suffering of the Messiah was not popular among Jews. There is no description of the Savior's suffering for the sins of His people in any of the non–biblical Qumran manuscripts, only descriptions of His power, glory, and might.

The evangelical Christ, Who came to free people from the bondage of sin, Who said, "My kingdom is not of this world," did not at all correspond to the ideal of the Messiah who was expected in Judea at the turn of the epoch. In this sense, Qumran does not add anything new to the conflict between Jesus and the religious teachers of Israel, about which the Gospel speaks and which eventually ended with Golgotha.…

This is the result of almost fifty years of research on the Dead Sea manuscripts. They did not refute the gospel or shake Christianity. Moreover, from the point of view of science, the Gospel has gained additional weight, it has been verified once again, this time by Qumran. And let some people with esoteric romanticism continue to talk about sensational finds at Qumran, allegedly revealing secret knowledge or hidden truth, but from the point of view of modern science, all these statements are nothing more than obsolete gossip that arose in the 60s of the last century. And there is no need to drag them into the new century.

The term "sect" was coined by Josephus in the 1st century A.D. to describe the religious life of Palestine at that time and is more consistent with the modern concept of "religious movement." In the modern world, a sect is thought of as something not only separate from the general trend, but also opposed to it (for example, the "White Brotherhood" in relation to the Orthodox or Catholic Church, etc.). In Palestine at the time of Christ, there was no single general trend, but there were a number of religious movements, not only comparable to each other in terms of the number of members, but also mutually influencing each other.

What were Jesus’ own words as to why he came here?

In Orthodoxy, Christ is the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity. This is God the Son, consubstantial with God the Father, from whom He is born "before all ages," that is, before the beginning of all time. Orthodox Christians believe that for the salvation of the human race, God the Son was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, becoming a Man named Jesus. He was the very Messiah (Christ) spoken of by the prophets of the Old Testament.

The Gospel of John the Theologian says: "... God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (3:16). This not only explains why the Savior comes, but also shows Divine permission.
By combining two natures in Christ, the Divine and the human, the Lord has given man the greatest honor. Man receives salvation through deification from the Deity by grace through the Holy Spirit.
God sent Christ to earth to correct the consequences of the fall, to heal human nature, which had become susceptible to death.
Jesus came to earth to save mankind from sin and restore the relationship between God and people. His sacrifice on the cross is considered a ransom for sins, which allows believers to receive forgiveness and eternal life. But only for those who voluntarily come to Him and accept His sacrifice.

Was it to be worshipped?

Since in the Lord Jesus Christ the two natures are hypostatically united inseparably, the consequence of such unity is the inseparable worship of Jesus Christ both as God and as man. When God the Word became incarnate, he accepted human nature into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis for all eternity, and it became the human nature of God the Word, and therefore we owe him our worship. Both before the incarnation and after the incarnation, God the Word is inseparably one and the same, hence worship is appropriate to Him as always the same God and Lord. The Savior demands such worship of Himself, both as a God and as a human being, saying: "Yes, everyone honors the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (John 5:23). The God-bearing apostle, speaking inspiringly about the saving incarnation and incarnation of God the Word and His death on the cross, as natural and logical proclaims the one and indivisible worship of Jesus Christ both as God and as man, preaching the gospel: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Phil. 2:10). To Him, as God and as man, everything in all three worlds is subdued (1 Corinthians15:27), and as such, all of God's angels worship Him (Hebrews 1:6). Forever hypostatically united with the flesh, the Lord Jesus ascended with it to heaven, and as such He is worthy to be worshipped by every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Revelation 5:11-13).

This divine truth of the Holy Scriptures about the undivided worship of the Lord Jesus Christ is strongly attested by Sacred Tradition through the sacred words of the holy Fathers of the Church. Thus, St. Athanasius writes: "The created body of the Lord must be given appropriate worship, for it has become the body of the uncreated Word, and worship is offered to the One Whose body it has become. Thus, worship is given to him–worship befitting a Deity, for the Word is God, and the body is His own body. The Gospel says that the myrrh-bearing wives "came and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him," which means: they took hold of His feet and worshiped God; the feet had bones and flesh to touch, but they were God's, and the wives worshiped God."
"When we worship the body of the Lord, we bow not to a creature," proclaims the holy Father of Orthodoxy, "but to the Lord of creation, the incarnate God, the Word. For although the flesh itself is a part of the creatures, nevertheless it has become the body of God. And we worship such a body not as a body proper, but without separating it from the Word; and we do not remove It from the flesh, desiring to worship the Word, but knowing that "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14), we recognize Him as God in the flesh. Therefore, who is so mad that he can say to the Lord, "Step away from the body so that I may worship You?". The flesh did not bring dishonor to the Word, but, on the contrary, it itself was glorified by the Word. Just as the Son of God, being "in the image of God," having assumed the "image of a slave," did not diminish His Divinity. On the contrary, He became the Deliverer of all flesh and every creature."
"Those who do not want to worship the Word made flesh turn out to be ungrateful for His incarnation... Those who separate the Word from the flesh do not recognize that the deliverance from sin and the destruction of death have been accomplished. Where will these atheists find the flesh that the Lord has perceived cut off and isolated, so that they may dare to say: we do not worship the Lord with the flesh, but separate the flesh and serve only the Lord. Blessed Stephen saw the Lord in heaven, "standing at the right hand" of God (Acts 7:55). The angels announced to the disciples: "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going up into heaven" (Acts 1:11). And the Lord Himself, addressing the Father, said: "Father! those whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am" (John 17:24). And in general, the flesh is inseparable from the Word, so it is necessary that heretics reject error and worship the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and those who do not worship and serve the Word that appeared in the flesh should be cast out and considered not Christians, but pagans and Jews." "When we worship the Lord in the flesh, we bow not to the creature, but to the Creator, clothed in a created body." "Therefore, he who does not honor the temple does not honor the Lord in the temple, and he who renounces the Word from the body rejects the grace taught to us in It."

In short, was he born God or did he have to achieve this union through his own efforts?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There has always been a Lord. What is God? This is the holy Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, they are inseparable from each other.

THE SUN AS THE HOLY TRINITY

How is the Holy Trinity explained?

Once the pagan sages asked St. Constantine the Philosopher:

– How do you Christians divide the One God into three Gods?

"Don't talk nonsense," replied the sage. - The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three Gods, but three persons of one Deity. Look at the sun, it has three features: a circle, radiance and warmth, and compare this with the Holy Trinity. The solar circle is the Likeness of God the Father, for just as the circle has neither beginning nor end, so God is beginningless and infinite; and just as radiance and warmth emanate from the solar circle, so the Son is born from God the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds. The radiance is the likeness of God, the Son, who was born of the Father and enlightened the whole world with the Gospel. And warmth is the likeness of the Holy Spirit, Who eternally emanates from the Father. So, consider the sun and you will know the Holy Trinity. The sun consists of three components, but is it divided into three suns?
Similarly, the Holy Trinity, although it has three persons, is not divided into three Gods.

There has always been a God, but the Son told the Father that he wanted to save humanity, and it pleased the Father.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The Gospel of John 3:16
And he was born on earth, the portal of which was the Holy Mother of God.

John 8:58 - King James Version (KJV)
<58> Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Luke 10:18 - King James Version (KJV)
<18> And he said unto them, I beheld satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Isaiah 9:6 - King James Version (KJV)
<6> For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53:5 - King James Version (KJV)
<5> But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Daniel 7:13-14 - King James Version (KJV)
<13> I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. <14> And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

John 20:28-29 - King James Version (KJV)
<28> And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. <29> Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Revelation 1:17-18 - King James Version (KJV)
<17> And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: <18> I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Jesus Christ has always been and sat on the throne with his father, but was born on earth from the Mother of God. Her womb was a portal to Earth. And thus Christ assumed the nature of man. God can do anything, he is omnipotent. But he is also constant and merciful.

Some say he practiced in the east to master himself before returning to the west to share the good news, the Old Testament's over and God is love and found within. Do you folks in Russia have an accounting of his missing years, if so, could you please share as I’ve always been curious why so much of his life has been left out of the canonical scriptures.

It is not true. Because God said: the words from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verse 17: "Do not think that I have come to break the law or the prophets: I have not come to break, but to fulfill." The Orthodox Church is based on the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament only made the old Testament perfect. Thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the covenant promised by God was completed – God is love (now the covenant has become perfect). Through the death of Christ, all the promises have become perfect facts.

The New Testament surpasses the Old, but at the same time the Old Testament has not been forgotten and continues to matter, since the Holy Scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, are inseparable for the church.

India???
During his earthly life, Jesus Christ did not study in India and was not even there.
According to the Holy Scriptures, Christ spent his childhood and youth in Nazareth. Jesus' life up to the age of 30 was modest and quiet, without any teaching.
The version that Jesus Christ was educated in India is based on the apocrypha "The Tibetan Gospel", published by Nikolai Notovich. However, this text is not recognized by scholars as authentic and is not considered as evidence of the authentic life of Christ.

Of course, there are apocrypha that I read that talked about his life, it was interesting to read. But it would be wrong to rely on them as the primary source, since they cannot be confirmed. There are Apocrypha that really develop and confirm the Bible as a supplement, but again it is impossible to confirm or refute. But there are some apocrypha that are heretical and false.

Is it possible that the books selected for modern Christianity (there are approximately 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide) and those specifically rejected in Nicea were selected for a purpose?

God has made sure that the truth reaches humanity in its purest form. If you read the history of the church, the holy fathers at the Ecumenical Councils decided the dogmas of faith and rejected all heresy. Even amazing miracles have appeared that are hard to believe.

As an example, watch the movie:
rQqI8jwsy_s
A huge number of additions to the Bible are kept by the Vatican, they hide them from humanity. With their crusades, they looted a lot of places with valuable artifacts. They keep them accessible only to the highest Vatican priests, and this is unfair to humanity.

It blows my mind that Jesus himself warned his followers not to worship him, a form of idolatry mind you, and yet the mass of Christianity continues to do so.

I answered this question for you above. He didn't say that, give me some Bible verses so I can explain it to you.

And do you really think the sacrifices, incest, and murder could ever be ordered by the true God, the Source from which we all originate?

People often betrayed God with their sins, for which they received punishment. Even when the commandments on the tablet were already written, they still committed crimes. God cleansed and protected his holy chosen people so that they would not stain their family and soul with sins. Jesus Christ was supposed to be born of a pure ancestral branch. Therefore, committing sins among God's chosen people would turn them into pagans. God also killed other pagan nations with his holy chosen people in order to keep them from danger. For example, even the wisest Solomon went into the sins of idolatry because of the beautiful pagan girls. All this was spiritually dangerous and corrupted the people of God.

There were also other spiritual laws before the Babel Wall, and human DNA changed after that moment (this is my guess). Because the lives of Old Testament people and New Testament people are completely different times. At some stage, the Lord changed the human program and his DNA. People used to speak the same language. And now we're so different. Russians, Americans, British, Germans, and others are such unique peoples and their way of thinking... It's amazing.
Also, killing Animals was an offering to God as a prototype of the future Sacrifice of Christ, there are spiritual laws that it was important to observe. The cross is the altar, Jesus Christ is the sacrifice.
Another moment when Jesus Christ was crucified, he was from the Heart of the earth for 3 days, it is underground that hell is located, it is closed from us mortals. Jesus Christ defeated the devil and took away the keys of hell from him. There was also a sermon in hell. And all the sinners who were in the dungeons of hell, all the bars were opened and the souls who accepted the gospel were all saved.
From the Gospel of Matthew (12:40): "For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights."
I read interesting apocrypha about how the gates of hell were destroyed, and how demons fled and hell shook with fear and souls rejoiced, it was incredibly interesting ...
and alive; and was dead, and lo, alive forever and ever, amen; and have the keys of hell and death.Revelation John 1:18

You're touching on a huge amount of information. I want to tell you everything in detail. But it will take a long time. I can recommend books to you, for example.

And what of reincarnation? Your faith doesn’t view it kindly I’m assuming. So what of the countless children who have proven reincarnation to be true? Scientifically proven. I can’t be bothered looking them all up right now but will if you need me to. That is a glaring omission and oversight in your chosen faith.

You shouldn't bother with all these searches. I've seen these movies. But understand that it is the demons who speak through these people, deceiving them and all those who hear their testimonies.

I also saw a lot of testimonies from people who had experienced clinical death, who were on the verge of death and life from different countries, and they all told the same story in the same way. As they came out of the body, they saw my body, then a bright light, a tunnel. Hell and the kingdom of heaven.
There are many quotes in the Bible on this topic that demons possess people and you can not believe possessed people. I advise such people to go to church to pray, and then the demonic charm will leave them. It's like spiritualism in the occult, when the dead appear to the living, when the living evoke them. But these demons are having fun deceiving people, don't believe them.
Yes, the church denies reincarnation.

What do the Church think about reincarnation?
The idea of reincarnation, or, in other words, reincarnation, originated quite a long time ago. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls after the death of the physical body into other material forms is present not only in Hinduism and Buddhism, but also in one form or another in primitive African, Australian and other religious cults. However, it was in India that the ideas of reincarnation found their fullest embodiment and were placed in close connection with the very essence of local religious systems. And here one of the main and fundamental differences between Hinduism and Buddhism from Christianity is the perception of personality. This also implies that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is alien to religions that believe in reincarnation.

Of course, Hinduism and Buddhism are also different from each other, but when it comes to reincarnation, they have a lot in common. In general, the purpose of human life on earth is to merge after death with the Absolute, the Atman, the beginningless being, of which we are all embodiments. But for this it is necessary to come to the appropriate state of perfection, to gain freedom from desires and from the world, to become neutral, empty. In such a purified state, there is no place for personality, it's just that the Absolute regains itself, lost for a while in a series of tedious reincarnations as a result of the law of karma — retribution, when the part of the Absolute enclosed in the body is condemned to new suffering by virtue of the evil committed until it comes to the realization of the "true" mode of being.
In such a belief system, a person's personality is completely eliminated. It has no value because it does not exist as such. She is only a part of something larger, which disappears at the highest point of perfection, merging with the whole and restoring the original unity.

On the contrary, in Christianity, a person created in the image and likeness of God has unconditional value and infinite potential for perfection. At the same time, a person's personality is not limited to the soul or the body. If in the doctrine of reincarnation the body is nothing more than a mortal shell, then in Christianity it is an integral part of our individuality. The Church teaches that God creates the human soul together with his body, which is as unique as the soul. The totality of these unique gifts of God makes up a person's personality, which distinguishes him from all other people. At the same time, in the Christian worldview, God's deeply personal attitude towards each of us is very important. As the Psalmist says, my bones were not hidden from You when I was created in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the womb. Thine eyes have seen my embryo; in Thy book are written all the days appointed for me, when none of them yet existed. (Ps 138:15,16).

Yes, in death the soul separates from the body, but in Christianity death is rather an unnatural phenomenon, resulting from the fall. This is a catastrophe, the disintegration of a single being into its component parts, each of which is not fully human. That is why the doctrine of the universal resurrection is one of the key ones in Christianity. Christians believe that in the resurrection of the dead, God will restore everyone to their original fullness and wholeness, restoring us to our own bodies, only transformed and capable of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. For reincarnation, the idea of a universal resurrection is completely alien. If the body is just a shell, given as a punishment and hindering the path to perfection, then what is the point of his resurrection?

Please keep in mind, I respect your views and your right to express and share your chosen faith, but the major shortcoming of Orthodox Christianity is the complete intolerance of all other faiths and the inability to extend that same respect.

It's all right, comrade, the Bible openly says that it is intolerant of other pagan faiths.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" — the words of Jesus Christ, which are given in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, verse 6.
Do not worship them or serve them (idols that are other gods or spirits) I am the Lord your God, a jealous God who punishes children for the iniquity of their fathers, even to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, Exodus 20:5

Luke 12:51-53 Jesus said: "Do you think I came to bring peace to the earth? No, I'm telling you, but separation."

"I have not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I have come to divide a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law" (Mt 10:34-36)

His shovel is in his hand, and He will purify his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, and burn the straw with an unquenchable fire. The Gospel of Matthew 3:12
I call heaven and earth to witness before you today: I have offered you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, Deuteronomy 30:19
There are just a lot of such quotes, I have quoted the smallest part. The Bible and Christianity are intolerant of other religions. It divides people.

And all nations will be gathered before him; and he will separate the one from the other, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; Matthew 25:32

I also respect the choice that you have made or will make, because the Lord has given you freedom of will and action. After all, every person will answer for himself in court before God.

Everything has been translated from Russian into English by Russian Bear. I cannot guarantee the quality of the translation. I'm also not a priest who graduated from a seminary and knows everything, so my answers are at the level of an ordinary Orthodox Christian layperson. If my answers are incomplete or unclear anywhere, please forgive me. The article may be edited over time.

Raskolnikov

1st October 2025, 18:07

Russian Bear

1st October 2025, 18:20

Thank you Russian Bear for your erudite and voluminous response, a real saga for the ages. I will take some time to ponder your words and will get back to you when I feel so inspired. I sincerely appreciate the time and energy you put into it. Time will tell, eh comrade, for the dark and the light in this world is becoming very apparent today...

I'm surprised you foreign comrades can understand me through a translator who can't be perfect.
If you have any questions, I'll be happy to analyze them and try to answer them to the best of my ability and time. The questions you asked were truly interesting.

arjunaloka_official

2nd October 2025, 23:15

Russian Bear

3rd October 2025, 13:04

Russian Bear, I have a few more questions:

1.
Do you believe hell is eternal? If so, how can one deserve an infinite punishment in a finite period of time—would you call that loving/forgiving, or at least balanced?

2.
I agree that humans can be possessed by demons.

Be that as it may, we observe the linearity of existence in the sense of "grandfather – father – child". That wouldn't be considered demonic, would it? Then why should the linearity of personal existence, i.e., reincarnation, be demonic? Also, would a truly loving father give you just one chance to pass a test, i.e., one life?

3.
Is the Bible 100% God's Word? If so, do the Ten Commandments consist largely of negatives, e.g., "Thou shalt not kill"? If so, can the human mind process negatives? If I tell you NOT to think about a pink elephant, you actually can't NOT think about that elephant, can you? Isn´t "kill, steal, lie" what goes to your subconsciousness, if one uses negations? Would a loving and forgiving Father chose negations, if your brain cannot digest them, even though he knows exactly how your brain works? Even if your brain could digest negations, why would He focus on the negative instead of the positive, like "honour life", "honour truth", etc.?

4.
In this "reality," do you observe that life nourishes life? Don't humans eat animals and animals eat plants, and plants minerals? Would you describe this as a divine concept based on love and forgiveness - to have to destroy to avoid your own destruction?

May the Lord protect you!

Your questions are also interesting and important; they cover a great deal of information, just like Raskolnikov's. I think I should take a break for now. I'll answer you when I have time; I've saved your questions on my computer.

I am currently writing articles for a Russian-speaking audience on a Russian website, and I will also translate them into English and share them with you. I am preparing an article about nephilim and giants; they are mentioned in the Bible, and this is very interesting material.

As I said, I will answer your questions, but I cannot say for sure when I will answer you. I blogged quite actively because I was on sick leave. I don't have much time right now.

I also published a new article, if you are interested in this topic, you can pay attention to it.
(UFO demons) ACCORDING TO THE SCENARIO OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129499-Washington-Carousel--UFO--IMPORTANT-TRUTH---&p=1687554&viewfull=1#post1687554

As Raskolnikov said, I'm really opening Pandora's box. If I answer your questions briefly, it will not reveal the full depth of the essence of the questions. I will have to touch on a whole range of spiritual topics. I didn't think it would be that easy. I have to write all this. But that's a good thing. And it’s good that there are questions.

If you can't wait to hear the answers to your questions right now, you can find Orthodox articles on the Internet and read the teachings of the Orthodox Church on these topics. Or wait for my reply.

It would be great to talk to you on the microphone, but I don't speak English. But in any case, the answer will be better if I write them down.

Raskolnikov

6th October 2025, 17:25

Take all the time you need responding Russian Bear, I can see you're staying busy. Just wanted to get my response to your last post on the record...

Thank you again Russian Bear for the thorough response, seriously above and beyond, so beyond I sometimes wonder if those I’m conversing with on this forum are still human or have merged with the AI construct, pesky little pin pricks. I’m definitely with you on one thing, comrade, this world is being run by outright evil forces, unseen forces, but I do not agree with you that anything that does not conform to, and remain within the bounds of, Orthodox Christianity becomes automatically evil or sinful by default.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the protagonist of the New Testament was about works, about action and doing, that He came here to show the Way (there’s that nod to the East again) through the actions we take, through our own beliefs and the reactions we make. “If you believe it, then it is so.” (Paraphrase, may not be exact.) He couldn’t heal anyone unless they first believed it was possible, unless they believed and opened the door to allow the healing to take place. We are all connected within the body of God. He came to show us the Way through his own actions, he walked the path and so must we, form the union with God, wake from the dead and begin living again, that was the ultimate lesson he came to teach. I have trouble believing in vicarious atonement (then again we’re talking about beliefs, lol, so maybe one could believe it into existence for themselves), but if Jesus taught us anything it’s that a life lived in service and reverence for God and all living things is the Way. I have difficulty that one can just say, “Yep, I’m on that team now,” and be instantly “saved.” From the view of reincarnation, we have all the time in the world in this grand game called Life. I read somewhere that death is not the opposite life, that life has no opposite, that death is the opposite of birth, and the cycle continues. It makes sense to me that we’d have an endless variety of chances to progress as we gradually gain wisdom through much trial and error. It’s the devolving side of that equation that gives me pause, but that’s being orchestrated by the puppet masters who remain out of view, the ones who put the screens before, the scales over, our eyes.

I attempted to read the entire Bible in my early twenties, in a back and forth tutorial pairing of Old and New Testament verses to slowly and evenly work my way through both. I made it through about two thirds and became so disgusted by the Old Testament that I had to put it down, I couldn’t go on. I simply couldn’t believe a just God could order such nonsense. “That’s not God,” I thought, “that’s something else entirely.” Villagers forced to sacrifice their best animals to appease a jealous and wrathful God, in the Temple no less, forced to give their most valuable possessions, villagers who could barely make ends meet (sound familiar?), to the priests in order to remain in good graces? Who are these priests and how did they come to wield such power and authority? I know, some call it devotion. I call it coercion. And the stories of ordering incest and murder. To say He did it to keep a favored race from falling into sin is a stretch to say the least and could never come from a God of love. A little g god, a god of hate perhaps, a “jealous god,” but not the true Source of all that is. Of course incest and murder falls right in line with the little g god that’s still running this world today from he/her/they/them’s more secretive location. Maybe the (g)od of the Old Testament still demands these sacrifices, hmmmm, the money changers love war, for profit yes, but could there be something more? And maybe the incest these so called elites still practice today is the continuation of that same favoured race, to keep the bloodlines pure, we’ve all seen the photos of these inbred royals. By the way, did Jesus ever mention a favoured race? I enjoyed the New Testament much more than the Old but that was some time ago so maybe you could help me.

First off, let me apologize up front to you for not responding in the same excellently and extensively footnoted fashion that you’ve been producing to this point RB, and through a translator no less. It really is impressive. I honestly didn’t know what to make of you at first. AI? Or one of those God loving, God fearing Russians that I fell in love with when reading such sublime works of literature from your beautiful country. Absolutely nothing finer. Works with real heart and soul. I remember one of my teachers in college attempting to explain the differences in the world’s most prominent literature. He said, “English literature comes from the mind, German literature comes from the heart, but the Russian, the Russian comes from the soul,” and I thought that was pretty spot on being an English major while also a real fan of Goethe’s works. I remember that same teacher recounting that when Goethe died at the ripe old age of 82, his jealous contemporaries breathed a big sigh of relief saying, “Oh, thank God that’s finally over.” Ha! Selfish pricks, it was all vanity for them, and that’s why their names are forgotten to history while Goethe’s lives on. We need more brilliant minds in this world. And you Russians had, and still have, quite a few. So please forgive the leniency in my approach. Sometimes I feel inspired to write and just let er rip. And please understand that I’m not so much questioning your faith as much as approaching the subject of our discussion with both serious questions as well as some slightly out there hypotheses based on my more unorthodox library. Just trying to get to the heart of the matter and sometimes the details (devil’s in the details) get in the way, if you know what I mean.

I’ve read and reread your take on the Gospel of Thomas:

But the "Gospel of Thomas" exists, although it dates back to the end of the second century. However, contrary to the critics who have become adherents of this work, it recognizes the resurrection of Christ. In fact, the One to whom the sayings from it are attributed is the living Christ, the Christ after the crucifixion ("The Gospel of Thomas" 34:25-27; 45:1-16). It is true that it does not focus on the resurrection of Christ, but this is to be expected, because it is primarily a "collection of sayings" and not a historical narrative. Moreover, the Gnostics' theological prejudice against matter should have led them rather to silence the bodily resurrection.
Early Christian articles of faith. Since critics recognize the authenticity of 1 Corinthians 15, which dates from about 55-56 A.D., it is impossible to deny the historical authenticity of the Resurrection. At that time, it was only twenty-two or twenty-three years after Jesus' death (1 Corinthians 15:6). Moreover, in 1 Corinthians 15:1, it is possible that the creed confessing the death and resurrection of Christ is implied, which, in this case, appeared even earlier. Even with minimal assumptions that this creed was ten or twenty years old, it turns out that it was formed ten or twenty years after the events themselves. Not many ancient events had such direct, modern confirmation of them.

Conclusion. The testimony in favor of the authenticity of the Gnostic gospels is even incomparable with the testimony in favor of the New Testament. The New Testament is a work created in the first century. "The Gospel of Thomas" is written in the middle of the second table. The New Testament is supported by evidence from many categories, including internal references in its text itself, canonical lists, thousands of quotations in the writings of the Church fathers, and proven early dating of the gospels.

and get a mixed review, at once siding with it’s authenticity yet still not giving it the credence and authority of the New Testament because of the stronger corroborating evidence of the later.

The Gospel of Thomas, in my opinion, offers a revealing portrait of this great being, of the height of his attainment and the message he set out to share knowing full well the masses of humanity would shun him in exactly the same manner as anyone attempting to speak the truth today is shunned, not only with scorn but with violence. And the question of the church still bothers me. Did Jesus preach from a church or ask his disciples and followers to build churches from which to preach? No, he went to the masses wherever they were gathered and talked of all manner of things, demonstrating with metaphysical and metaphorical perfection that that which was taking place in the natural world around them perfectly illustrated the reasons for and the causes behind the ailment or problem afflicting them. The Gospel of Thomas displays this mastery beautifully:

1)And he said: Whoever find the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die.

2)Jesus said: The seeker should not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astounded. The he will reign over everything.

3a) Jesus said: If your leaders say to you “Look! The Kingdom is in the sky!” then the birds will be there before you are. If they say that the Kingdom is in the sea, then the fish will be there before you are. Rather, the Kingdom is within you and it is outside of you.

3b) When you understand yourselves you will be understood. And you will realize that you are the Sons of the living Father. If you do not know yourselves, then you exist in poverty and you are that poverty.

17)Jesus said: I will give you that which eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, hands did not touch, and minds have not conceived.

39a) Jesus said: The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys to knowledge and have hidden them. They did not go in, and they did not permit those desiring to go in to enter.

57)Jesus said: The Kingdom of the Father is like a man with good seed. His enemy came at night and scattered the seed of weeds in with the good seed. The man did not let them pull out the weeds but said, “Don’t do it. You might pull out the grain along with the weeds.” During the harvest the weeds will be obvious, and then they can be removed and burned.

70)Jesus said: When you give rise to that which is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not give rise to it, what you do not have will destroy you.

108)Jesus said: He who drinks from my mouth will become like I am, and I will become he. And the hidden things will be revealed to him.

Those last two speak volumes on many levels but quite clearly allude to one fact - the Kingdom is found within and we must give rise to it. And this quite smoothly takes us back to the original premise of yoga and meditation as a form of conjuring evil spirits and being ultimately sinful in the eyes of God. So I must ask: If God and the Kingdom are to be found within, why would placing all ones focus and energy there, within, and genuinely searching for the hidden key to the Kingdom and earnestly striving to connect with God be sinful in the eyes of God? Didn’t Jesus himself often go off by himself to commune with God? I’m guessing he sat in nature and remained very quiet, opening himself up to hear what many have called the “still small voice.” Call it demons if you like, but that kinda neuters God to say that He couldn’t speak to you as well, eh comrade? He talked to a few in the Old Testament if I remember right.

In 62a, from my point of view at least, Jesus alludes to what took place in the missing years when he says, “I tell my mysteries to people worthy of my mysteries,” and ends many other sayings with those fateful words, “For those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” This alludes to both the ancient mystery school’s strict code of 1) only teaching those who are ready to receive such teachings, 2) only admitting those who’ve acquired a certain level of spiritual attainment, and 3) the three levels of interpretation embedded within such teachings, both his own and those found throughout the Bible.

Origen, though posthumously condemned by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553A.D., names the three levels of interpretation as 1) the “bodily” or “somatic” sense, 2) the “soulish” or “psychic” sense and, 3) the “spiritual” sense:

“The individual ought, then, to portray the ideas of holy Scripture in a threefold manner upon his own soul; in order that the simple man may be edified by the ‘flesh,’ as it were, of the Scripture. For so we name the obvious sense. While he who has ascended a certain way may be edified by the ‘soul,’ as it were. The perfect man, again, […] may receive edification from the spiritual law […]. For as man consists of body, and soul, and spirit, so in the same way does Scripture […].”

So when Jesus says, “For those who have ears to hear, let them hear,” he’s alluding to the ultimate truth to be found for those who are ready, while he’s planting seeds in the fertile soil of those seeking answers and ready to learn, those just beginning the awakening process, for future growth. In other words, some take the Bible and Jesus’ words literally, then there’s a deeper metaphysical interpretation, and ultimately, for those with ears to hear, there’s the truth.

The last thing that strikes me is your glossing over and dismissing the reincarnation kids by claiming demon possession. An easy out, but not everything can be so summarily dismissed. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…” I believe there are demons and unseen spiritual influences of both the light and the dark persuasion but I didn’t sense any such spirits in those kids. Those were memories, not spirits, or more accurately, their spirits recalling memories from a recently lived life, so recent they were able to find the house they lived in a country or town they’d never been in the current incarnation and then name all the inhabitants along with all their idiosyncrasies. But hey, who knows, maybe our present day demons are possessed with a macabre sense of irony and the absurd.

Russian Bear

6th October 2025, 18:49

You urgently need to study the Orthodox faith. When you ask a question, write the word Orthodoxy next to it, so you will open an Orthodox website and read how the Orthodox Church explains this or that question.
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He predicted the conflicts that have been and will be about Russia. A lot has already come true. I wrote about this in the prophecies section. 29) ☦☦☦✅(Orthodox) Default Orthodox Prophecy of a Greek Orthodox Monk about the future of Russia and Europe
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129509--Orthodox--Prophecy-of-a-Greek-Orthodox-Monk-about-the-future-of-Russia-and-Europe&p=1663756&viewfull=1#post1663756

The Russians made this film to tell people about the Greek saint, to understand who the saints are, and what it means to fulfill the teachings of Jesus Christ. It was also shown in Greece (this is just a small example).

Hebrews 13:7 - King James Version (KJV)
<7> Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Russian Orthodox Church made an expedition to Greece to make a film about the holy Greek elder Paisios of Svyatogorets, who is very much loved and revered by Russians in Russia. For the Greeks, he is a beloved saint, as in Russia St. Seraphim of Sarov or Sergius of Radonezh. I also advise you to read his books.

books by Paisii Svyatogorets
VOLUME I. WITH PAIN AND LOVE ABOUT MODERN MAN
VOLUME II. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
VOLUME III. THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE
VOLUME IV. FAMILY LIFE
VOLUME V. PASSIONS AND VIRTUES

These are not all books. I have published only a part of the books. Due to the lack of information, a person has doubts and uncertainty about various issues. You should overcome this barrier. And start studying something that you would never pay attention to.

This film will also show you an example of who Orthodox saints are and what it means to live according to the gospel.

Matthew

6th October 2025, 19:35

I'll answer too: Jesus is God because God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one thing. There aren't two or three Gods with a capital G there's one. Therefore God the Son, Jesus Christ, is God Almighty.*1

Fallen angels who loath us actually run this world. The Old Testament defines God's high standard but we are tormented by it. God is merciful unlike the fallen angels who use it to bully us.

These fallen angels come down from Heaven and take our women sheesh. History has a way of repeating.

Just see how fallen angels or supernatural horrors react to the name of Jesus Christ. If you're covered by the blood of Jesus they hate the mercy of it, - it spoils their gleeful condemnation. And even people who don't accept Jesus' sacrifice as the price of their sin can still use His name to expel supernatural horrors*2

*1

Romans 8:29 says: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren".

*2
Emphasis mine:

True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
God will keep His promise whether we accept His gift of salvation or not. Hint even non-believers can expel demons with the name of Jesus Christ

The Gospel of Thomas, the foundation of Christianity in India, is a beautiful book but it's not the word of God like the King James version. Surely the KJV is too modern to hold divine water?

Well, I believe it is with no proof, but it's worth noting there are patterns of 7's with word counts that are impossible. I bet this word-count pattern doesn't exist in any other book. It doesn't exist in other versions of the Bible this guy looked at:

nLO6BQY_lj0

This isn't like the flawed bible code or anything like that, it's simple word counts. It's literally impossible. The crazy thing is: this pattern of word counts, relating to number 7, goes across ALL EDITIONS OF THE KJV, through all its revisions. It is impossible, utterly impossible... no way should this pattern be happening, it's divine... my mind is blown.

As you all know I could rant about this forever. I forgot what my point was. Oh I remember now: Jesus is God and the Gospel of Thomas while beautifully quoting Jesus is not the Word of God in the same way that the KJV is.

Since God now dwells within us we're invited to talk to him directly especially in solitude. He has been known to talk back as a loving father does with his children. Faith at least the size of a mustard seed helps.

GOD BLESS YOU ABUNDANTLY!!! <3 <3 <3

Raskolnikov

7th October 2025, 16:45

Russian Bear

7th October 2025, 19:54

So what I'm hearing is,

You urgently need to study the Orthodox faith.

I desperately need to be saved,

The Gospel of Thomas, the foundation of Christianity in India, is a beautiful book but it's not the word of God like the King James version. Surely the KJV is too modern to hold divine water? ...Jesus is God and the Gospel of Thomas while beautifully quoting Jesus is not the Word of God in the same way that the KJV is.

and I should listen to authority. You may very well be right, Russian Bear, and I appreciate you keeping an open mind for our discussion. But Matthew, you know I can't do that. I no longer have any respect for the authorities in this place, nothing but deceivers and dividers, at least at the top, and a King is most definitely at the top. And it's your own verse, Matthew 19:24,

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Though I find the fact that it's patterns of 7's and not 6's a refreshing change from all the 6's found in today's advertisements and patent numbers, the key to the Digital ID and money system that's still rapidly barreling down the tracks for instance: W02020060606 - Cryptocurrenty System Using Body Activity Data.

https://irp.cdn-website.com/540907fb/files/uploaded/Bill%20Gates%20Injectable%20Biochip%20Document%20PDF.pdf

There's something oddly hypnotic in those mirrored numbers joining in two zeros at the center. They love their numbers, spells, and symbolism.

And now I must apologize because I'm no longer talking about yoga.

God bless you all!

I want to tell you about the Russian soul; the Russian soul is contained in the Orthodox faith. Dostoevsky also possessed an Orthodox spirit; all his books are imbued with this spirit. Russia has also given the world more saints than any other country. Therefore, you can acquire the Russian spirit, like the American Seraphim Rose. Seraphim Rose is an American, but for every Russian, he is a brother and a Russian (he is greatly loved and respected in Russia). If you are Orthodox and follow the truth, you have already acquired the Russian soul and are my brother in Christ. This is precisely why Russia is a spiritual country, and the Russian spirit is present here. We are a people who have accepted the true teachings of Christ and defend our faith. Regardless of your nationality, our common spirit unites us. If you are not against us, then you can be one of us.

Matthew

7th October 2025, 23:37

...But Matthew, you know I can't do that. I no longer have any respect for the authorities in this place, nothing but deceivers and dividers, at least at the top, and a King is most definitely at the top. And it's your own verse, Matthew 19:24,
....
And now I must apologize because I'm no longer talking about yoga.

God bless you all!

Thank you! And thanks for engaging my rant. I can go a bit wild in the eyes sometimes. I actually feel like I agree with you, but from my point of view I associate 'authorities' with the spiritual rulers of this world who are fallen angels. Things that happen here in this plane of existence don't happen in Heaven, the authority and condemnation we think of ...well... I don't believe are God. Bible says there's no fear in love. Jesus is pure powerful love causing a compulsion in us that changes us, rather than fear of condemnation. Oh dear, I'm doing it again. Yes.. yoga... yoga yoga yoga. Let me say something on topic.

Here are two videos about yoga from a Christian perspective. One is very long and the other under ten mins.

I believe both would be considered fundamentalist Christian, although I argue this is basic Christianity but pew-warmers might find it hard work; in my limited Christian experience there's a split between Christians who follow the routine and ritual, and those that believe in the supernatural.

This forum is full of, typically but not always, non-Christian people who believe in the supernatural. Then there are those that don't believe in God or the supernatural. It's like a box split into quadrants, or a Venn diagram.

Here are Christians talking about yoga:

Under ten mins:
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Almost two hours:
iumAG43azVw

Here's a flippant Venn diagram:
https://i.redd.it/h3m68wgjmvh11.jpg

PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!

The Russian brotherly bond: I can believe it Russian Bear. I believe us in the west can learn a lot from the Russian attitude to comradery (the non-communist variety) and group identity.

Raskolnikov

8th October 2025, 02:33

...But Matthew, you know I can't do that. I no longer have any respect for the authorities in this place, nothing but deceivers and dividers, at least at the top, and a King is most definitely at the top. And it's your own verse, Matthew 19:24,
....
And now I must apologize because I'm no longer talking about yoga.

God bless you all!

Thank you! And thanks for engaging my rant. I can go a bit wild in the eyes sometimes. I actually feel like I agree with you, but from my point of view I associate 'authorities' with the spiritual rulers of this world who are fallen angels. Things that happen here in this plane of existence don't happen in Heaven, the authority and condemnation we think of ...well... I don't believe are God. Bible says there's no fear in love. Jesus is pure powerful love causing a compulsion in us that changes us, rather than fear of condemnation. Oh dear, I'm doing it again. Yes.. yoga... yoga yoga yoga. Let me say something on topic.

I completely agree with this sentence Matthew. And through the three levels of interpretation, it can be viewed from different levels. I believe the rulers of this world are more spiritual as well, I really wasn't trying to equate the top level of interference as the royal crown of England. It's a spiritual battle and a king will be used as a player upon the chessboard. But what moved me to write was the fallen angels. Cut me some slack here but if we are essentially spirit, in that all is energy and derived from God, and then there was that whole business with the Fall, has anyone else ever had the sinking feeling that maybe we are those fallen angels, in other words, we existed in spirit in the garden and then maybe ate some seductive fruit and have been trying to recover ever since.

And yet, to clarify, some fallen angels continued down the dark road and some didn't seeing the error of their ways. It feels like we're here to be confronted by The Choice - Good or Evil (as Nietzsche takes another shot), why else would we be here in the midst of the battle between Good and Evil? Love or hate. God Bless and may you live in interesting times...

Matthew

8th October 2025, 07:50

I do not personally believe we are those fallen angels.

"may you live in interesting times..." is a Chinese insult, but sadly we do live in interesting times :ROFL:

Nietzsche was into Dionysus; I'm not convinced he was non-religious.

Russian Bear

8th October 2025, 16:10

Comrade Matthew! I want to add one more point. An interesting fact is that occult teachings distinguish three main planes of existence: physical, astral, and mental-spiritual. In Agni Yoga, for example, these are: the dense world, the subtle world, and the fiery world. Incidentally, according to the teachings of Agni Yoga, the spiritual foundation of the universe, thanks to which progress along the path of perfection occurs, is a certain "Hierarchy of Light, Brotherhood, High Spirits united in labor for the Common Good." Hidden behind these lofty names are none other than fallen angels, who taught humanity the impious and soul-destroying "perfection" and the path of "progress"—in evil...

Comrade Raskolnikov! As St. John of Damascus wrote, "the soul is a living, simple and incorporeal entity, by its nature invisible to the physical eyes, immortal, endowed with intelligence." There is no definite answer to the question of where it comes from. At different times, learned theologians tried to make sense of it, argued with each other, but did not come to a consensus. One thing is indisputable: the soul, like all created creatures, arises with the participation of the creative force of the Creator of the visible and invisible worlds.

The Holy Fathers saw God's involvement in the origin of the soul in different ways. Some authoritative theologians, including Clement of Alexandria and John Chrysostom, believed that God directly creates every soul, while other prominent thinkers and saints of the Church — Macarius the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa believed that just as a child's body occurs as a result of the connection of parental cells, so does his soul from the souls of parents with minimal involvement of the Creator. These fathers based their hypothesis on the thesis that when Adam was created, God created all mankind in his person according to the word of the Holy Scriptures: from one blood He produced the entire human race (Acts 17:26). Thus, they argued, God creates souls not directly, each time creating a new essence, but indirectly — through the souls of parents who, in union with each other, fulfill the commandment given to Adam and Eve in paradise: be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen 1:28). This theory of the creation of the soul explains why all people bear the consequences of the fall of their ancestors. If God had directly created every soul out of nothing, like the soul of the first man, then it would not have had the gravity of original sin in it.

Raskolnikov

9th October 2025, 17:23

I want to tell you about the Russian soul; the Russian soul is contained in the Orthodox faith. Dostoevsky also possessed an Orthodox spirit; all his books are imbued with this spirit. Russia has also given the world more saints than any other country. Therefore, you can acquire the Russian spirit, like the American Seraphim Rose. Seraphim Rose is an American, but for every Russian, he is a brother and a Russian (he is greatly loved and respected in Russia). If you are Orthodox and follow the truth, you have already acquired the Russian soul and are my brother in Christ. This is precisely why Russia is a spiritual country, and the Russian spirit is present here. We are a people who have accepted the true teachings of Christ and defend our faith. Regardless of your nationality, our common spirit unites us. If you are not against us, then you can be one of us.

Now that reminded me of those quality Russian novels my friend. I believe we are all brothers in Christ once the scales fall from our eyes. I'm sure you're still working on it but hoping to hear your response to a_o's excellent questions.

Russian Bear, I have a few more questions:

1.
Do you believe hell is eternal? If so, how can one deserve an infinite punishment in a finite period of time—would you call that loving/forgiving, or at least balanced?

2.
I agree that humans can be possessed by demons.

Be that as it may, we observe the linearity of existence in the sense of "grandfather – father – child". That wouldn't be considered demonic, would it? Then why should the linearity of personal existence, i.e., reincarnation, be demonic? Also, would a truly loving father give you just one chance to pass a test, i.e., one life?

3.
Is the Bible 100% God's Word? If so, do the Ten Commandments consist largely of negatives, e.g., "Thou shalt not kill"? If so, can the human mind process negatives? If I tell you NOT to think about a pink elephant, you actually can't NOT think about that elephant, can you? Isn´t "kill, steal, lie" what goes to your subconsciousness, if one uses negations? Would a loving and forgiving Father chose negations, if your brain cannot digest them, even though he knows exactly how your brain works? Even if your brain could digest negations, why would He focus on the negative instead of the positive, like "honour life", "honour truth", etc.?

4.
In this "reality," do you observe that life nourishes life? Don't humans eat animals and animals eat plants, and plants minerals? Would you describe this as a divine concept based on love and forgiveness - to have to destroy to avoid your own destruction?

May the Lord protect you!

Russian Bear

9th October 2025, 17:30

Now that reminded me of those quality Russian novels my friend. I believe we are all brothers in Christ once the scales fall from our eyes. I'm sure you're still working on it but hoping to hear your response to a_o's excellent questions.

56216

Understood

Russian Bear

19th October 2025, 09:54

https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/4387477/pub_640a34ba659b4335eec21182_640a46dc508a173b5b887d82/scale_1200

Russian Bear, I have a few more questions:
1.
Do you believe hell is eternal? If so, how can one deserve an infinite punishment in a finite period of time—would you call that loving/forgiving, or at least balanced?

God created the laws of the universe, both spiritual and physical. And on Earth, they work like clockwork.
The Lord gave people the commandments of love, so they would love one another. Deviating from these commandments violates these laws, and a person commits sin. Thus, by sinning, a person harms themselves, both spiritually and physically, and this can also cause pain to others around them. Thus, a person creates the kingdom of Hell or the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and in their soul. A person can live in both Hell and Heaven on Earth. This is a state of mind.

2 Peter 2:19 - King James Version (KJV)
<19> While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

When a person commits a crime under demonic influence and their own will, they go against God, themselves, and humanity. And thus, the Grace of the Holy Spirit departs from a person.
When a person commits evil: murder, violence, torturing children… then the blood and tears of these people cry out to God for help, justice, protection, and retribution for murder or violence. No matter what happens, a person is obligated to forgive the offender, and in doing so, they submit the judgment to the Lord. The Lord is long-suffering and will await the repentance of a sinner who has deeply hurt someone (for example, killed someone's daughter). And if they do not repent for their sins, they will go to hell for eternal torment.

It is also important to understand that there are sins that lead to death, and sins that do not lead to death. There are sins that cry out to God. For example, murder, fornication, perversion, occultism and magic, witchcraft, suicide... And if a person dies with such sins without repentance (the sacrament of Confession) and does not enter into the New Covenant through the holy sacraments of the Church and the Eucharist (the blood and body of the Lord), they will instantly go to hell... without even undergoing the Aerial Toll-Houses: (I also recommend reading this article: Orthodox teaching on the soul after death (the Aerial Toll-Houses):https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129536-Orthodox-teaching-on-the-soul-after-death&p=1664206&viewfull=1#post1664206). There are sins that do not lead to death, for example, a person, out of ignorance, accidentally said a bad word once and he sinned by this, committed a sin, this is a minor sin, if such a person dies instantly, this sin can be covered by good deeds. (Of course, if a person kills someone and says, "I didn't know," ignorance of the law does not exempt them from responsibility, either in the spiritual world or in the earthly realm.
But if a person constantly speaks bad words, these sins accumulate and turn into an obsessive addiction, like a snowball accumulating and turning into a mortal sin. This is a demonic addiction to sin. A person is enslaved by the demon of foul language.
But we must also understand that any sin is spiritual death or, depending on its severity, leads to it. Even a sin that does not lead to death is spiritually dangerous; by committing any sin, a person loses grace. For example, smoking one cigarette is not a mortal sin, but if a person is addicted to this sin and smokes without being able to overcome this addiction, it is a mortal sin. Any addiction and sin can only be overcome with God's help. Man is weak in himself, and his willpower can falter. It is the Lord who provides the guarantee of perfection and protection. It is important to cleanse the soul for grace through confession, and through Communion we enter into the New. We make the covenant and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is also spiritual food for the soul every day, just as we feed our bodies so that we have the strength to work and live, so that we can protect ourselves. Otherwise, the body will lose strength from hunger and may even die.

What does the Church say about this?

What is sin to death and not to death?

The Savior said: "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven to men; if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come" (Matthew 12:31, 32) That is, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that there are such sins that directly lead the soul to eternal destruction – to hell. And it is often synonymous with the word "death", not in a specific physiological sense, but in a spiritual sense. If a person commits a mortal sin and does not bear the fruits of repentance, then he kills, deadens his own soul. She goes to hell after death, where she indulges in eternal torment.
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian also tells us about the sins of mortals and non-mortals: "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, then let him pray, and God will give him life, that is, sinning a sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death: I am not saying that he should pray. Every unrighteousness is a sin, but there is a sin that does not lead to death" (1 John 5:16,17).
What is sin?
This is a violation of the Divine law by an intelligent creature, spirits (Satan and demons), as well as by man.
There are also detailed definitions:
1. a thought, thought, desire, decision, attraction, action or inaction contrary to the Divine moral law, God's commandments, commands, religious and ceremonial norms;
2. original sin: the corruption of human nature, both in soul and body, morally manifested in the fact that all descendants of sinful ancestors (with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ) are born with a tendency to evil, amenable to the influence of fallen spirits on them.
It is noteworthy that in Greek, the word "sin" is "missing the target, a miss." Based on this concept, St. Maximus the Confessor defines sin in this way: "Sin, identified with evil, is the unreasonable movement of the natural forces of a creature, based on an erroneous judgment, towards something other than a goal." St. Isaac the Syrian says the same thing only in different words: "Sin is the fall of a creature from the mundane world," i.e., movement beyond the goal.
Professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky defines sin very precisely, vividly and convincingly in his book "Orthodox Theology": "... evil has its origin in the sin of one angel. And this position of Lucifer exposes to us the root of all sin – pride, which is rebellion against God. The one who was first called to deification by grace wanted to be god by himself. The root of sin is a thirst for self–worship, a hatred of grace. Remaining independent of God in his very being, for his being was created by God, the rebellious spirit begins to hate existence, he is seized by a violent passion for destruction, a thirst for some unthinkable non-existence. But only the earthly world remains open to him, and therefore he tries to destroy the Divine plan in it and, because it is impossible to destroy creation, at least to distort it. The drama that began in heaven continues on earth, because the angels who remained faithful invincibly close heaven to the fallen angels."
The Devil tempts the first people with his "you will be like gods." Their fall is being committed. What are its consequences? Vladimir Lossky discusses this: "The spirit had to live by God, the soul by the spirit, and the body by the soul. But the spirit begins to parasitize the soul, feeding on non-Divine values, similar to the autonomous kindness and beauty that the serpent revealed to the woman when he drew her attention to the tree. The soul, in turn, becomes a parasite of the body – passions rise. And finally, the body becomes a parasite of the earthly universe, kills to feed, and so finds death."
Based on these quotes, it seems to me that the definition of sin is clear.
What is sin to death and not to death?
What is most valuable to God here is the quality by which sin was committed by demons and humans. Free will, which is the expression of a being's personality. When creating Angels and humans, the Lord endowed them with free will, the will to turn to good or evil. And it is the human will directed towards Him that is most valuable to the Lord. This is repeatedly stated in the Holy Scriptures. For example, "Son, give me your heart" (Proverbs 23:26).
And it is the direction of a person's will that is the criterion by which sin is determined to die or not.
An example from the Holy Scriptures.
The devil and the demons finally fell away from God after the war in Heaven. Their correction is impossible. They are condemned to hell. Why? Because no one seduced them. Lucifer and the demons hated the Lord of their own free will and were overcome with pride. Of their own free will, they began to do evil.
People were seduced. Yes, they also sinned. But the holy forefathers Adam and Eve realized their sin. They lamented him. The theology of the hymnography of the beginning of Great Lent can generally be titled as "The Lament of Adam, and with him of all mankind, at the closed gates of Paradise."
Mortal sin is when a person consciously goes into rebellion against God, hating the Creator with all his soul and heart.
Let us recall the Gospel verses quoted at the beginning of the article (Matthew 12:31, 32). Why is blasphemy against the Son of Man forgiven? Because Christ came in human flesh. Yes, it was possible, according to the Jewish or pagan tradition, to doubt that He was the Son of God. That's how a man is brought up. Suffice it to say here about the holy first-born Apostle Paul. But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is God. And the man knows it. And if he blasphemes Him, he does it consciously in a God-defying manner.
Therefore, the list of deadly sins includes schism, heresy, witchcraft, fortune-telling, apostasy, sodomy, robbery, murder, adultery, cruel, inhuman insult, sacrilege, suicide, and so on. Because a person goes to all this consciously and often precisely with a God-fighting purpose.
And there are sins that a person does as if by accident, as the holy first-born Apostle Paul wrote.: "I don't do the good that I want, but the evil that I don't want, I do. But if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom. 7:19, 20). For example, the neighbors were condemning someone, and I came up and unwittingly became involved in the condemnation. But if non-mortal sins become an ingrained habit, a passion, when a person, knowing that it is bad, does not fight them, but, on the contrary, becomes their final slave (which is called "plopped into the mud with his head and found pleasure in it"), then sin does not become mortal to death. because he consumed the human soul. And this is also akin to God-fighting.
What to do, how to get rid of sin?
Let us turn to the remarkable words of the ascetics of piety of recent times.
St. Paisios of Svyatogorets said that three things are enough for a modern person to be saved. The first of them is to teach people the truths of the faith of Christ, and especially relatives and children. The second is to live the life of the Church, to participate in divine services and the Sacraments of the church. The third is repentance.
Father Paisii once uttered a wonderful phrase that if he could, he would confess every day.
Let us hurry, brothers and sisters, to the saving surgical table of the confessional lectern. Without false shame, without hiding sins, but with the fear of God and contrition for sins. We will try to improve ourselves with God's help, weeding your garden of hearts from sinful weeds. And this is an important work both during the Christmas Fast and right up to the grave. This is the life-saving battle that we need to fight.
St. Basil the Great said that the end of all sin is death, and the end of fulfilling God's commandment is eternal life. That's what we're going to do.
Mortal sin is an attempt by a person to overthrow God from his heart altar. Virtue is also the beginning of eternal life – when a person places the icon of the Lord on the throne of his spiritual temple, when God becomes the center of his life, the center of his life's aspirations, the desired goal of his path. This is the beginning of our salvation, healing from sin and eternal bliss!
https://pravoslavie.ru/117790.html

Hell is eternal, but not for everyone; there are legal nuances. Originally, Hell was created only for demons. Demons are unforgivable because no one tempted them; they chose war against God consciously and voluntarily. They were consistent in goodness, but chose evil when they listened to the devil. Angels witnessed everything from the beginning; they knew and saw the true God, yet despite this, they betrayed the true God. Apparently, they wanted something more—perhaps the devil promised them something, or perhaps the angels wanted more power and glory. One-third of angels betrayed God and became demons; God's grace abandoned them.

People voluntarily turn away from God and serve demons. But they have a chance to change.
People began to kill, rape, and steal. And thus, according to spiritual laws, such people who live in sin fulfill Satan's will, and thus they become accomplices to evil. Sinners cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Imagine a mother with an only minor daughter who was raped, brutally abused, and then murdered by criminals! The mother died of such grief; she suffered a heart attack. Wouldn't society wish death on such murderers? But God will wait for these sinners to repent of their sins; He does not wish death on them. God loves people (sinners), but He does not love their sins. If a sinner does not repent of their sins, they receive what they deserve, and that is fair. But if people are found who will pray for the souls of such sinners, God can pardon them through the prayers of the righteous. The more serious the sins, the harder it is to pray for forgiveness.

What does the church say about this?

With God, all are alive. Our faith and our spiritual life are strengthened by the living awareness, the feeling that our departed continue to live after death, only in a different form, and are not deprived of spiritual closeness with those remaining on earth. Therefore, the Church Militant's prayerful connection with them never ceases.

While a person is alive, they are capable of repentance and good deeds. After death, this ability disappears, and all that remains is hope in the prayers of the living, in their good deeds in memory of the deceased. Saint Paisios the Athonite said: "Just as, when visiting prisoners, we bring them refreshments and the like, thereby alleviating their suffering, so too do we alleviate the suffering of the departed with the prayers and alms we offer for the repose of their souls."

We ease the suffering of the departed with prayers and alms, which we offer for the repose of their souls.
After the death of the body, the soul stands on the threshold of either eternal bliss or eternal torment. This depends on how life was lived on earth. But our prayers for the deceased are also of great importance. Church history has preserved many examples of sinners' posthumous fates being eased through the prayers of the living, even to the point of complete justification.

* * *

The custom of praying for the dead also existed in the Old Testament Church, as evidenced by Holy Scripture. During the war of liberation in the days of the pious Jewish leader Judas Maccabee, when the bodies of fallen soldiers were collected, pagan talismans were found under their clothes. And it became clear to everyone why they had fallen. So, everyone glorified the righteous Judge, the Lord, who reveals hidden things, and turned to prayer, asking that the sin they had committed might be completely blotted out (2 Macc. 12:40-42). Judas himself, having collected two thousand drachmas of silver, sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering. He acted very well and piously, considering the resurrection. For if he had not hoped that those who had fallen in battle would rise again, it would have been superfluous and futile to pray for the dead. But he considered that an excellent reward was prepared for those who had died in piety—what a holy and pious thought! Therefore, he offered a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead, that they might be freed from sin (2 Macc. 12:43-45).

The Church's fervent prayers ensure that the good beginnings, the seeds of new life with which our loved ones departed, if these seeds did not have time to blossom sufficiently here on earth, develop under the influence of prayer and God's mercy, just as good seed develops in the earth under the influence of the sun's warmth and moisture. But nothing can revive rotten seeds that have lost the beginning of plant life.

If our departed loved ones reach the Kingdom of Heaven, they respond with answering prayer for us.

* * *

The life of Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, contains the following incident[1].

A document was submitted to the Metropolitan for signature, suspending the priesthood of a certain priest who abused wine. For some reason, Metropolitan Philaret hesitated to sign the document. That night, he dreamed that strange, ragged, and miserable people surrounded him and pleaded for the guilty priest, calling him their benefactor.

This dream recurred three times. The next morning, the Metropolitan summoned the culprit, questioned him about his life, and asked for whom he was praying.

"There is nothing worthy in me, Vladyka," the priest answered humbly. "The only thing that rests on my heart is a prayer for all those who have died accidentally, drowned, died without burial, and are without family. When I serve, I try to pray fervently for such people."

"Well, thank them," Metropolitan Philaret said to the offender, and, tearing up the paper banning the offending priest from serving, he dismissed him only with an exhortation to abandon his weakness.
Saint Paisios the Athonite spoke of prayer for the departed [2]: "Those condemned in hell—those with a modicum of piety—feel guilty, repent, and suffer for their sins. They cry out for help and receive substantial assistance from the prayers of believers. That is, God is now giving these condemned people a favorable opportunity to receive help until the Second Coming."

In life, an earthly friend of the king can intercede with him to help a certain condemned person. Similarly, if a person is a "friend" of God, then he can intercede with God through his prayer and obtain a transfer for the condemned dead from one "prison" to another—to a better one, from one "cell" to another, more comfortable one. He can even obtain a transfer from a "cell" to some "room" or "apartment."

God wants to help the departed because He grieves for them, but He doesn't do so because He is noble. He doesn't want to give the devil the right to say, "How can You save this sinner, since he didn't work at all?" However, by praying for the departed, we give God the "right" to intervene. It must also be said that our prayers for the departed bring greater "tenderness" to God than for the living.

Elder Paisios the Athonite: "Requiem services and funeral services are the best advocate for the souls of the departed."
Requiem services and funeral services are the best advocate for the souls of the departed. Funeral services possess such power that they can even lead a soul out of hell."

"I know cases," the elder continued, "that testify to the benefit the departed receive from the prayers of spiritual people." A man came to me in the kaliva and said weepingly, "Geronda, I stopped praying for a deceased friend, and he appeared to me in a dream. 'You,' he said, 'haven't helped me for twenty days. You've forgotten me, and I'm suffering.' And indeed, I forgot about him exactly twenty days ago, overwhelmed by my many worries, and in those days I haven't even prayed for myself."

* * *

"If you pray for the deceased," Elder Paisios said, "then pray for the other deceased along with him. Why should a train travel such a long distance with only one passenger? It could take others. Do you know how many deceased need prayer? The unfortunate ones ask for help, and they have no one to pray for them!"

When you pray for a relative, pray also for others—those you don't know and have never seen: they ask for our prayers.
It is precisely to these departed, who no longer have relatives or friends on earth to pray for them, that the Church dedicates two special memorial days—two ecumenical Saturdays: Meatfare Saturday and Pentecost, when we, the living, are invited to offer memorial prayers, first and foremost, for all the departed. The Church thus reminds us that, in addition to our beloved relatives and friends, we have many more brothers in Christ whom we must love even if we have never seen them, and for whom, even without knowing their names, we must pray.[3] "If the abyss in which the souls of the departed were to open before us now, we could see a touching picture of their silent prayer to the living members of Christ's Church—a plea that we help them with our prayers," said Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov).

"The time will come when we will see them. How joyful it will be to hear from them a word of gratitude for our prayer! They will say, 'You remembered me, you did not forget me, and you helped me in my time of need. I thank you.' And conversely, how bitter it will be to hear the reproach of one who did not pray for the dead: 'You did not remember me, you did not pray for me, you did not help me in my hour of need—I reproach you.'"

Pray for the dead, so that they, too, when they attain a blessed life, will pray for you.

https://monastery.ru/bog-i-chelovek/pochemu-my-molimsya-za-usopshikh/

After the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world, it will no longer be possible to pray for souls from hell. Hell, with its demons and the devil, will go to fiery Gehenna. This is the second and most terrible death, from which there is no escape; it is an endless state of soul in fire and torment. Some sinners in hell will be justified but will be deprived of many blessings. Each will receive a reward according to their spiritual development and the filling of themselves with Grace. The majority of sinners whose sins are grave will not find salvation and will go to fiery Gehenna. Everything is decided on Earth. God has given each person a conscience. And He will judge each person fairly, taking into account all the living conditions in which they found themselves.

In short, no one knows what the final judgment will be, but it will be truly terrifying, as many souls will go to hell for eternity. I have a book in Russian in which there is a tradition of a saint's vision about what the final judgment will be like, as revealed to him by God. It is truly terrifying. For example, it describes how children killed by their parents in the womb (via abortion) will emerge from hell on the Day of Judgment and will judge their mothers and fathers for killing them in the womb and depriving them of the life they had first given them, for depriving them of the grace of sanctification in God, and for depriving them of holy baptism and the holy sacraments. The children will condemn their parents to eternal hell. Abortion is a terrible sin; it is better to give birth to a child, baptize it, and then slaughter it than to have an abortion. In the first case, the soul of such a child will go to heaven, and the sin of the parent who killed the child will drag it to hell. But in the second case, the child is killed without receiving the sacrament of baptism, and the child's soul goes to hell until the Last Judgment. In this case, both go to hell. But if the murderer offers full repentance to God for the sin of murder (abortion), then God takes the child's soul from hell to the Kingdom of Heaven, and the mother who offered repentance to the Lord no longer has any sin on her soul. There are spiritual laws, understand. Jesus answered: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."
John 3:5
Under the Old Testament, all souls, including the righteous, went to hell. There was a special place in hell for the righteous called "Abram's Bosom." There, souls were not tormented but remained in peace, like in a waiting room. But after Christ's crucifixion, the Lord's soul remained in hell for three days in the heart of the earth, where he defeated Satan. The prisons were opened, a sermon was preached to all the souls tormented in hell, and those who accepted the sermon were saved, and hell was emptied. "Abram's Bosom" was destroyed. Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Let me tell you a parable:

A Parable of St. Paisios the Athonite.
Do Not Tempt God's Fate.

A certain ascetic, seeing the injustice existing in the world, prayed to God, asking Him to reveal to him the reason why pious and righteous people fall into misfortune and suffer unjustly, while the unrighteous and sinful become rich and live peacefully. As the ascetic prayed for revelation of this mystery, he heard a voice say, "Do not test what your mind and the power of your knowledge cannot comprehend. But since you have asked to know, descend into the world and sit in one place, and pay attention to what you see, and from this experience you will understand a small part of God's judgments." Hearing this, the elder descended into the world and came to a meadow through which a road passed.
Nearby there was a spring and an old tree, in the hollow of which the elder hid well. Soon a rich man rode up on a horse. He stopped at a spring to drink water and rest. When he'd finished, he took a purse containing a hundred ducats from his pocket and began counting them. Having finished counting, he was about to put them back, but he didn't notice, and the purse fell into the grass.
Soon another passerby came to the spring, found the purse containing the ducats, took it, and ran across the fields.
A short time passed, and another passerby appeared. Tired, he stopped at the spring, filled it with water, took some bread from his kerchief, and began to eat.
While the poor man was eating, a rich horseman appeared and, his face twisted with anger, attacked him. The poor man, unaware of the ducats, swore he had never seen such a thing. But the man, in his strong state, began to whip and beat him until he killed him. After searching all the poor man's clothes, he found nothing and left, distraught.
The old man saw everything from the hollow tree and was amazed. He regretted and wept over the unjust murder, praying to the Lord and saying:

"Lord, what does this Thy will mean? Tell me, I beg Thee, how can Thy goodness tolerate injustice?" One lost ducats, another found them, and yet another was unjustly killed.

While the elder prayed tearfully, an Angel of the Lord descended and said to him:
"Do not grieve, elder, and do not think out of vexation that this happened against God's will. But of all that happens, some are by allowance, some for punishment (education), and still others by the will of the household."

So listen. The one who lost the ducats is a neighbor of the one who found them. The latter had a garden worth a hundred ducats. The rich man, being greedy, forced him to give him the garden for fifty ducats. The poor man, not knowing what to do, asked God for vengeance. Therefore, God arranged for him to be doubly rewarded.
Another poor man, weary, having found nothing and unjustly killed, once committed murder himself. However, he sincerely repented and spent the rest of his life in a Christian and God-pleasing manner. He continually asked God to forgive him for the murder, saying, "My God, grant me the same death that I committed!" Of course, the Lord forgave him from the moment he showed repentance. Thus, hearing him, He allowed him to die violently—as he had asked—and took him to Himself, even bestowing upon him a shining crown for his love of piety!
Finally, another, a covetous man who had lost his ducats and committed murder, was being punished for his greed and love of money. God allowed him to fall into the sin of murder so that his soul would be overcome and come to repentance. For this reason, he now leaves the world and becomes a monk.

So, where, in what instance, do you see God being unjust, or cruel, or merciless? Therefore do not tempt the judgments of God any more, for He does them justly. Know also that much else happens in the world by God's will, for reasons people do not understand.

JUSTICE CONSISTS NOT IN GIVING EQUALITY TO EVERYONE, BUT IN RENDERING TO EACH THEIR DUE.

St. Basil the Great

Conclusion:

Hell is torment from the influence of God's love.

For example, Saint Isaac the Syrian wrote: "Hell is the scourge of divine love." According to him, God's love extends to all people, but acts in two ways: it torments sinners and brings joy to the righteous.

2.
I agree that humans can be possessed by demons.

Be that as it may, we observe the linearity of existence in the sense of "grandfather – father – child". That wouldn't be considered demonic, would it? Then why should the linearity of personal existence, i.e., reincarnation, be demonic? Also, would a truly loving father give you just one chance to pass a test, i.e., one life?

God has an individual approach to each person. He sends trials for a reason, but because He knows what is beneficial for the salvation of the soul. God chooses the cross for each person: for some it's illness, for others ruin, for others slander, for others poverty, for others a difficult life. (Some are tested for sins, others for virtue; God's ways are inscrutable.)

On the other hand, God always offers a chance for a new life, no matter how many mistakes a person makes or strays from the righteous path. God forgives a person's actions and gives them the opportunity to improve, repent, bring their actions and thoughts into proper order, and live with a clear conscience and thoughts in accordance with God's rules.
I published a short post:
The question of why God did not punish Satan remains one of the most intriguing in religious thought. The answer lies in the context of biblical events, from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Job. The Garden of Eden: A Challenge to God In Genesis 3:1-6, Satan challenges God's authority, arguing that man can be happy without God. This idea challenges the very essence of divine governance and calls into question humanity's faithfulness. Satan and Job: A Test of Faith In the Book of Job (chapters 1 and 2), Satan challenges again, arguing that man serves God only for profit. This situation becomes a crucial test for Job, who demonstrates his devotion even in suffering. Why doesn't God intervene? God could immediately remove Satan, but that would be ineffective. Like a teacher who gives a disobedient student a chance to prove his point, God gives humanity a chance to understand the true nature of evil. Human history shows that attempts to live without God's guidance lead to destruction and suffering. A Future Without Evil. Despite Satan's temporary reign (1 John 5:19), the Bible promises that evil will soon be eradicated. Daniel 2:44 speaks of the coming of the Kingdom of God, which will replace corrupt human governments. Revelation 21:4 foretells the end of suffering and the restoration of God's original purpose. Thus, the history of the struggle between good and evil is not yet over. We are simply entering a new phase where truth and justice will triumph. God also examines human choices and hearts for good deeds, as well as for their devotion and love for God. So that everyone receives what they deserve, in accordance with their work.

Earthly life is but a shadow of the joy that awaits each person in the Kingdom of Heaven with the Lord. If, of course, a person accepts the Lord.
You asked, why did God allow people to live only once on earth? 1. So that people would understand what good and evil are and make a choice. And there would be no more revolution in the kingdom of heaven. So that people would understand that evil brings suffering, and good brings joy. And the angelic world bears witness to this: those angels who stood firm in the truth also saw that the devil tried to deceive them with promises of a better life.
2. So that each soul would test its capabilities, and each soul would choose its own measure of happiness. Roughly speaking, the rank a person will receive in the spiritual world depends on the individual and how they live on Earth. For example, one person will experience happiness and joy equal to that of a small bush, while another will experience that of a huge, multi-story tree. This is fair. Because one person labored spiritually for God, while the other labored not and lived in sin, but at the end of their lives, they repented and accepted God. Each receives according to their labors. "On some features and details of the structure of the Kingdom of Heaven in eternal life"
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129834-Russian-articles-by-Russian-Bear&p=1687331&viewfull=1#post1687331
Those who pray for the departed will save many souls and receive a reward unlike any other. (One should not pray for suicides, sorcerers, or witches, as they directly serve the underworld, and suicides voluntarily rejected the gift of life and did not turn to God for help). Although there are prayers for suicides and sorcerers, only saints can perform them. Did you know that praying for someone is like shedding blood? Demons attack you because you pray, and you'll have health problems or problems in life. I know someone who prayed for a sorcerer and developed health problems. And if you pray for fornicators, the demon of fornication will attack you, and you could fall into sin. To pray, you must be spiritually prepared, you must regularly confess and receive communion in church, pray and fast, and not sin, living righteously.

People who pray for the departed will save many souls and receive a reward that no one else will have, except him. It is clear that those who did not pray on earth and if they enter the kingdom of heaven will not receive such a reward. Understand that everyone will receive according to the measure of their labors on earth.

You decide on earth what position and rank you will occupy in heaven. Monks receive the highest reward.

And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

Matthew 19:29

But it is not given to everyone to become a monk.

Matthew 19:12 - King James Version (KJV)
<12> For there are some eunuchs, who were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, who were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

3.God replenishes the empty spaces of the holy abodes of fallen angels with the souls of people. That's why demons envy humans because people receive the joy they lost.

3.
Is the Bible 100% God's Word? If so, do the Ten Commandments consist largely of negatives, e.g., "Thou shalt not kill"? If so, can the human mind process negatives? If I tell you NOT to think about a pink elephant, you actually can't NOT think about that elephant, can you? Isn´t "kill, steal, lie" what goes to your subconsciousness, if one uses negations? Would a loving and forgiving Father chose negations, if your brain cannot digest them, even though he knows exactly how your brain works? Even if your brain could digest negations, why would He focus on the negative instead of the positive, like "honour life", "honour truth", etc.?

The Bible was written by people, and it does not correspond to the idea of God's word as something perfectly formed and delivered from heaven without human intervention. God inspires the human authors of sacred texts in a special way and guides the entire process of their formation in such a way as to communicate to His people—and all subsequent generations—the truths necessary for our salvation.

That is, God wrote the Bible through His saints, to whom He gave the Grace of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God wrote the Bible through people and ensured that it reached humanity in its purest form. This is despite the fact that the Vatican has appropriated many additions.

Regarding denials
I think this way, a person immediately understands what's good and what's bad. For example, if instead of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," it were simply "love and preserve life," it could be interpreted in various ways. But when it says "Thou shalt not kill," nothing can be added or subtracted. Everything is stated completely and clearly. For example, "Don't take a book"—it's all clear; how else could it be said? A person only has two answers: Yes or No; everything else is from the devil.

Regarding thoughts, demons pollute a person's cerebral ether.
When a person lives in God, they fill themselves with the Holy God. The sacraments, fasting, and prayer fill the soul with God, and you begin to think differently. When a person knows God, they know the taste of honey. If someone has never tasted honey and I try to tell them what honey tastes like, they still won't understand. The saints are an example of this; they are a different world; they think of nothing but God. Life in God gives joy and all the beauty in the world. Hope, salvation, love, the salvation of neighbors and family. Removal from evil and lies.

4.
In this "reality," do you observe that life nourishes life? Don't humans eat animals and animals eat plants, and plants minerals? Would you describe this as a divine concept based on love and forgiveness - to have to destroy to avoid your own destruction?

May the Lord protect you!

Eating animals is not considered a sin in Orthodoxy.

Man was originally created by God as vegetarians. But after the Fall, when human nature changed, God allowed the consumption of animals. This is stated in the Book of Genesis: "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; just as the green herb I have given you all things" (Genesis 9:2-3).

However, there are some restrictions: for example, the prohibition on drinking blood and the prohibition on eating certain types of animals (pork, carnivores and rodents, reptiles, and others).

Orthodox Christianity has many calendar fasts, some lasting more than 40 days. We are forbidden to eat meat, milk, or even fish. We eat vegetables, fruits, and cereals. Try observing the Orthodox calendar. And you will understand that a person can be tempted to eat meat. In Orthodoxy, there are monks who never eat animal meat, but they also renounce the world. People are weak by nature, and not everyone is gifted with this. Sin has corrupted humanity. People have become more about surviving than living. Previously, God planted paradise plants that nourished people by providing them with their fruits. After sin, nature and animals rebelled against humanity. Man is forced to work the land by the sweat of his brow. I don't think man could survive long without meat, especially during crop failures. Meat provides many nutrients.

To help you understand, animals don't go to hell; their souls are born from the Earth. God created this mechanism. Animal souls automatically go to heavenly abodes; there's a philosophical theory behind this.

God created everything harmoniously on earth, but sin destroyed and distorted everything. Now we have what we have, and God maintains balance and harmony on Earth. But this world is not perfect and is tainted by sin. That's why, when the number of righteous souls approaches the end of the fallen angels, the time will approach the end of time. Everything also depends on human repentance. The more humanity becomes corrupted and unwilling to improve its lives, the more the Earth is consumed by evil, the closer the end of the Earth comes. This world will be destroyed, and God will renew the entire earth and recreate a new Paradise, ideal as it was conceived from the very beginning.

I translated the texts from Russian into English, so there may be inaccuracies and errors. Please take this into account, as I am Russian and do not know English. Information for those who did not know. Also, I am not a priest, I am an Orthodox layman and my answers are not comparable to the answers of a priest.

I also recommend reading this article: (Orthodoxy) Salvation of the soul. The meaning of life https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129572--Orthodoxy--Salvation-of-the-soul.-The-meaning-of-life.&p=1664881#post1664881

(Miracle) Holy Fire in the Holy Sepulcher on Orthodox Easter
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?129537--Miracle--Holy-Fire-in-the-Holy-Sepulcher-on-Orthodox-Easter&p=1664208#post1664208